#sui's stuff

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Amnesia: Memories- Kent Route, Day 11

Oh boy, we get to work for three days.  Orion is considerate enough to check in with us to make sure we’re ready for the day.  That was sweet.  I think we’re ready!  We haven’t forgotten everything we’ve learned, have we?  

That sounds fun!  Most of our colleagues aren’t totally awful.  In fact, they all seem pretty cool!  It could be lots of fun!  

Oh, oh, fireworks?  Sweet!  This is the literal first time we have heard about the fireworks show, so, uh.  I dunno.  Are we going with Kent?  Kent hasn’t said anything.  Maybe we aren’t going?  That would suck.  We would miss out on hanging out with Kent and on fireworks.  

But then again, Kent was a massive dick yesterday.  Maybe we should boycott him out of protest.  But for the sake of my own personal enjoyment of the game for now, I’m going to ignore the fact that Kent lost his temper and hurt us.  

Oh.  Oops.  We were supposed to know that.  Did Kent forget or is he expecting us to remember without him mentioning it? What if Mine hadn’t said anything at all?  Kent would have been hurt.  

Mine suggested that we all go as a coworkers, but the manager had other plans and couldn’t come, so that outing won’t be happening tomorrow night.  That’s too bad.  Mine sweetly tells us to go and have a good time at the fireworks.  We will do our best, Mine!  

Oh.  Well.  I guess Mine didn’t actually mean that in a friendly way.  Clearly I am good at reading social cues.  I guess it makes sense for her to be jealous when we have a date and she doesn’t and she really wants to have one.  Orion’s brief moment of sympathy for Mine lasted about a second before he says that we need to be worrying about ourselves.  He says we need to find out what our plans were for the fireworks show tomorrow.  That makes sense.  You know what else would make sense?  For us to just ask Kent.  

Oh, or we could use the resources we have on hand!  That works, too! Clever thinking, Orion.  So we have a date with Kent tomorrow at the fireworks show and we’re meeting at the train station.  Orion comments that Kent never even mentioned it.  He’s pretty busy, Orion.  Maybe we should remind him? Oh goodie!  Orion agrees with me! 

And off to work we go.  We have a great day, which is a great feeling.  But then, our manager gets our attention.  Just like me in real life, Orion assumes that we are in so much trouble. But thankfully, this is not the case.  And yet, the manager looks pretty angry with us.  Talk about stressful!

It’s our friendly neighborhood boyfriend!  He compliments us on our work ethic.

Wow, who asked you? I certainly didn’t ask.  Wow, you really can’t give a girl a compliment without making it a backhanded insult, can you? .... And Orion agrees with him, what a pair of assholes.  This is your fault, Orion, I don’t even want to hear it.  

Maybe I’m the one looking to start a fight now.  Anyway, Orion comments on our our old emotions for Kent are coming back.  That’s great news!  And Kent tells us, albeit in a more reserved manner, that our uniform makes us look hot!  Yuss!

Dude, Kent, you are hopeless.  HOPELESS. But at least you are listening to decent dating advice.  Kent reassures us that he wasn’t lying about our appearance and such.  That’s good to know.  Orion politely gets out of our way.  

Kent!  You are SO forgiven, come here, you precious adorable dork of an asshole that I love.  And he’s brought us a present!  Not just any present...  A HALF-MONTH ANNIVERSARY PRESENT!  This dude is so adorable and dumb and precious and i need twenty.  

And then we get our first (and only) option for the day!  Our options are “Thank you...” and “It is a surprise...” and I went with the second one because the walkthroughs on the internet tell me that that’s how to get the best ending.  Kent is glad that we were surprised and that we like the gift.  Kent also expresses that he worries about not meeting our expectations.  He reassures us that he will do anything he can to meet our expectations next and I just can’t with this guy, okay? 

He concludes with a statement that he just wants us to be happy and my heart is just.  Melting.  Kent also promises to walk us home after work.  Awesome!  Waka the manager reminds us that there is a refrigerator in the back for us to store our cake in and also silently approves of our .... work performance?  Because we got a gift from a customer.  Mine is jealous.  

Orion reflects on our dating experience and waxes poetic about stuff I really do not care about.  Blah blah blah, same phone carrier for less charges while flirting blah blah blaaah.  And that boring note is the one we end our 11th day on.  

[visualnoveldiscourse]

Amnesia: Kent’s Route, Day 9

Kent invites us into his home for our date!  And then he strikes up conversation- I think we might be getting through to him.  He continues and tells us how he thinks we should talk more.  Great!  He says we should tell him if we have any issues with his behavior.  I sure will, Kento-san.

Let’s take advantage of his willingness to talk and learn more about our boyfriend.  I started with “What are you always working on?”  

We learn a little more about his potential trip to study abroad if his thesis and presentation are well-received.  The high stakes associated with his presentation on the twenty-fifth bring a little more context to his abrasiveness.  Kent is really excited about the offer to study abroad.  This is a very big opportunity for him.  

Kent, for the first time, expresses an interest in going steady for the long-term.  I’d be lying if I didn’t say that that made me happy. Orion flails about how unexpected it is for Kent to be thinking of anything major like marriage when we have had such a rocky relationship.  

When asking Kent about if he’s super busy right now, he tells us that he’s pretty busy and that it would be like this until his presentation and then he’d be packing up to leave to study abroad.  Kent laments how little time we have to spend together as a result.

What a sweetheart.  You can work on your stuff as much as you want.  I’d be perfectly fine with reading next to you.  Or helping with your stuff!  

Well, it was nice while it lasted.  We are a distraction to our bookish love interest. But at least he has enough feelings for us that we take up his attention?  But we’re making him fall further and further behind in his preparations.  That’s not good!  

 Also, what the fuck is happening with his hand here.  Surely it hasn’t been this large in previous shots.  Or- apparently it has been, but wow at the size of his hands.  

We get to ask Kent if he’s calling us because he feels obligated or we can tell him that he doesn’t have to invite us over.  I chose to ask if he felt obligated.  

He clearly didn’t expect that response.  I think he can tell that he was being hurtful and that his words were enough to make us doubt his emotional attachment to us.  

I think he might have missed the point here, but yes, as a matter of fact, I would be suspicious of you and your intentions.  But I trust literally no one.  

“If I said I actually wanted to hold your hand right now, you’d stop coming over, right?  Would you go home immediately?”  

Dude, Kent, chill.  It’s just holding hands, it’s not like we’re having sex and making a million babies.  We’re dating and holding hands is, like, part of the event description.  

But he was worried that we would run away from him, so he made up an excuse to get us to come over.  I’m glad that he comes clean here to let us know how much he enjoys our company.

 This must be some sort of cultural thing.  Hand holding isn’t taboo here in the United States, after all.  

Sorry, I couldn’t focus over my doki doki.    But in all seriousness, it’s another point in his favor for him to do everything he can to help us feel safe around him.  And I choose my words carefully here: there is a very real and large difference between helping us feel safe and trying to make us feel safe.  More on that in later routes.  

He continues to tell us that he’s happy for us to be here, even though we are a distraction.  In a long, roundabout way, he did answer our original question: “Are you calling me out of obligation?”  The answer is clearly no.  He genuinely wants us around.  But personally, I would find it distressing that I was hindering him in his life goals just by being there.  My initial response would be to give him some space to do his work and visit later, but I know from experience playing the game that this will not give me the good ending for Kent and I’ve played this route multiple times and I still haven’t gotten the good ending, so let’s just tuck those inhibitions aside for now.  

Naturally, Orion flails about how unexpected Kent’s admissions are and frankly, I’m over it, Orion.  Just lemme flirt with my boyfriend without your bewildered flailing.  Although, I suppose that the argument could be made that he is feeling and expressing our bewilderment, since he somehow rearranged our brain.  

From here, we get another choice:  Work on the math workbook that Kent made for us or reread the manual for work again.  Math lovers, rejoice!  We get to actually solve the math problems! Or just guess at random if you don’t like math.  You have a 25% chance of guessing the right numbers.  Go go, Gadget Math Problems!  (I am lowkey disappointed that it’s only ten questions.  I love math.)

Getting all of the questions correct will earn us a genuine compliment from Kent after he checks our work.  But alas, he must now return to doing his science math. Orion complains about the math problems being too hard and suggests that we should read one of Kent’s books for awhile.  

We have such a good time at Kent’s house that we lose track of time and it’s dark outside.  Kent wishes us a good night and tells us to be careful.  Orion and I agree with him that we need to be careful out walking the streets alone at night.

Progress!

No memories, who dis?  This stranger knows us by name and proceeds to tell us how important it is to not walk around alone at night.  While I appreciate his concern, he’s pretty intense about it.

 And this is concerning.  Worry meter has gone from about a 3 from being approached by some random dude to a solid 5.  Orion, finally, asks all the important questions like “what does he mean by that??”

 Mm, yeah.  A little bit.  

Wow, look at that expression!  Worry meter is now at 9.  Apparently this scary man knows Kent as well as us.

  Worry meter: 12/10.  Run away!  Oh.  Instead we stay and talk to the scary man.  Okay.  Cool.  Whatever.  

Do we regret our life choices yet?  I’m regretting my life choices.  Mainly the one that involved not running for my life before it got to this.  

And then….  

Wow, somehow him trying to stop being scary makes him scarier.  Worry meter up. The stranger gives us a final warning before peacing out.  So, naturally, we run away home, ending our ninth day.  

[visualnoveldiscourse]

No post today from me, Sui.  Also, we are bumping down the posting frequency to roughly twice a week, once a week for both mods.  Happy gaming!