Checking In 0.18.2, Round 2

Hey y'all, just giving a progress report on the pending update. There will be minor spoilers ahead, but I need to provide proof I am actually doing stuff after how much of a fiasco the last update was. I don't know if this check-in format will stay consistent or even a consistent feature, but like I said, you all deserve some accountability. I can't repeat those 7 months now that I need to truly earn my paycheck.

Like I mentioned, this update is a lighter one that covers more of the mom route stuff, focusing on a mall trip for essentials (a bra that fits, some basic clothes before more shopping next week, a new phone for Z) and Z's dad coming home and seeing what has happened to his son (if that label still even applies).

I'm intending this route to be built with the backbone of events based on if Zach realized they weren't who they thought they were after talking to their mom with variants coming from that skeleton, but given what I've seen, most of you are in for that choice anyways.

As an example, Samantha asks her daughter/"daughter"/son how she/"she"/he is doing, and when Zoey responds with "I feel like I'm doing something I shouldn't be," her mom provides some encouragement.

But just because her mom is encouraging doesn't mean that Samantha stops being a liar who won't throw her daughter under the bus when it's convenient (like explaining why Zoey doesn't know her cup size).

Nor does it mean Samantha will stop trying to instruct her daughter in ways that look down on her.

Nor even that she won't try to be pushy not just with her daughter's name, but with the spelling as well (this is after meeting a store employee named Zoe as part of a Sustainer request from a girl of the same name; I gotta work in another Sustainer request of Z and their mom visiting what is basically a Build-A-Bear Workshop and making a stuffed axolotl together, which seems a bit much for this Day 2 mall trip with their relationship being so rocky but I plan to use it as a way to show Samantha as being manipulative by using something Z's grandpa did for Z on their birthdays (giving stuffed animal presents) to garner more affection and to "celebrate" another birthday for Z).

(As a fun fact, this is the first official map of AKR I have made, showing it with Alaska, a bit of Yukon, the coast of British Columbia, Washington state, and Oregon.)

This is all to show that the drama of this route with these stats and choices is that Zoey embracing her femininity won't magically fix her life. Her mom is still going to be a bitchy control freak who tries to live through her while simultaneously looking down on her, she's still going to lack confidence in herself compared to her mom, and she's still going to feel lost in the world and not sure if she needs to rebuild herself or discover her truer self; similarly, the route with other stats and choices provide a similar theme of mother-"daughter"/son drama.

Work is proceeding smoothly. I finished those sprite edits and I got about 15 minutes of reading done over about a week (which given the branching and my slower pace of VN development compared to plaintext writing or others is pretty respectable), but I don't think I'll be able to pull those hyper-productive 17-hour days anymore now that I live on my own and have to rely on myself for everything. Time will tell, but for now, I'm gonna stop yapping about working and get back to working.

Until next time!