Heartache 101 ~Sour into Sweet~

author=Marrend
Maybe Frans's not "eating" homework at all? Maybe she's trying, in her own particular way, to call attention to her plight?

There's got to be a better way to do that than fucking with the grades of school kids.

Perhaps I'm over-analyzing again, but I'm now thinking about how the missing homework is never found. If Fran's purpose was to merely get attention, would they not show up somewhere eventually? If they don't show up, what did happen to them?

I dunno. For whatever reason, I guess I was attempting to move away from the theory of Fran eating at homework, but I guess it's not happening.

I seem to be at a really good stopping point with the production of Fran. The playtesting checked out well enough, though, I am a little worried about the sequence where Masako tries to explain about Fran, and her appetite. One may obtain the latest version of Fran here.

In any event, I'm definitely taking a break from Fran's development for a while, as December is always a rather... interesting month.

author=Nekochi
Dozen, do you have a copy of Ryoko's sprites that I can have? I'd like to add them to the event that she shows up in on Junko's route. Her profile might be helpful too (or at least the ID you are using for her), so that there's not duplication of Ryoko, but it's not necessary.

As it is natural. The link is included in the priv message I sent you. The profile is not completely ready yet and could be faulty, for which I apologize.
A little background: I gave Ryoko a few positive qualities so someone might actually like her, and more depth to her vileness, since in all honesty I flat-out refuse to publish an archetypical mancrazy alpha bitch. (I'm elitist like that, bite me).
In her (very, very corrupted) core, she's devilishly evil(emphasis on devilishly, she plays by rules), bigoted in every possible nonracial way, has a massive(if justified) ego and loves to mess with with other people, especially if they 'deserve' it by being different. So far, so bad.
Her redeeming side would include her temperance, chastity (in the seven-virtues sense of the words; her sucking up to Masashi is both a part of an elaborate trick and an opporturnity to flip Junko off), some love fantasies sticking around from her childhood, and treating the player like a human...ish being, if he's to her liking.
Most importantly, when their relationship starts to bloom, she will be given a lesson, by herself, on how not quite superior she is, where we will make use of the embarrassed tachie that Nyoho was kind to share with us. I have quite enough memories and frustration to channel onto those parts, they should end up good enough>:)

author=Nekochi
Is there some sort of workaround I can use so that she won't get introduced twice, but we'll still be able to see events in both the routes?

There is!:) It's quite simple really, and only have to be done once per intro minus one. You can check the Built-in files to see how it works.

author=Nekochi
but I don't really know exactly what you're planning, so if you could let me know so we could figure something out, that'd be great.

Sticking to the original theme, I had and will have the player meet Ryoko when she's torturing her mentally challenged classmates(That would be Jun, Keika and Kyouki) and similar setups, to keep the experience "authentic"(by which I mean to extablish at start just how much of a dickcheese she is, of course). One such event is halfway ready, you can have it if you want.

author=Nekochi
Actually, I was hoping you'd give her some redeeming traits, since there has to be some reason that Junko saw her as a friend (her best friend, even) in the first place. (Besides, one dimensional characters are boring.)

I'm glad we found common ground:)

author=Nekochi
I'm interested to see what you mean by this. Does this mean you aren't going to have her like Masashi at all?

Yes. She is not interested in Masashi; he's an asset, a mean to start rumors, which she can make a wide variety of uses of. Also, while my version Ryoko is not particularly intelligent(Kyouki is smarter than her, for one), she has a quite a lot of know-how and wisdom to realize Masashi's true nature. She just as disgusted by him as Junko is, if not more.

author=Nekochi
I'm also interested in why she wanted to flip Junko off.

A more fitting phrasing of the query would be 'Why wouldn't she want to flip her off?'. Like I said, Ryoko likes messing with people. She takes joy in the suffering of others, there's no better way to put it. She might not do it if she had a reason to hold back, but Junko is not her friend anymore. With that, the jealusy, the rumors spreading around which Jun didn't deny, and how weird she started to act, Ryoko considers her a valid target.

author=Nekochi
(and why she chose to use Masashi, of all people, to do so, since Junko can't stand him.)

An interesting question. Why, did it not work? I'd say it did like a charm;) Ryoko knows Jun. She knew she'd be hurt by her former friend stabbing her in the back, which she did by siding with whom they both consider a horrible person instead of her. With that, Ryoko has shown she holds the womanizer, selfish Masashi in higher exteem than her top dog-turned rebel weirdo "friend", which is exacty why Junko was hurt, I take it.

author=Nekochi
I don't think mentally challenged is the correct term to use and it sounds a little insensitive to use it like that, truthfully. You might say different or weird or troublesome instead?

And here you go, breaking your own aesop... Dissapointing. Nekochi, while I don't hold the right to refer to my kin as I feel like it, don't you think I might have a better idea what 'different' people consider offensive and what not? But since you could use a real expanation, there you have one!
In my earlier years especially, but also these days on the occasion, I'm escorted to places I'm going to show up at a regular basis by a friend or a family member who tell those in charge of my condition. For a long time - totally disregarding what I asked them to do, by the way - they too avoided 'insensitive terms' in order to 'protect my feelings'. Nevermind I know exactly what they mean by what they dressed up to make it resemble a compliment, or that I'm reminded of my condition in every wake moment anyway no matter what. What they didn't realize on their own was that, if you downplay a madman's condition, others will think he's less of a madman.
By beating around the bush(which you dislike yourself, if I recall Junko's route correctly and I may dare to assume the same of you) and referring to me as 'troubled', 'different', 'special' and a lot of other words that make me vomit by now, instead of just flat out telling them 'he's hyperactive and histrionic', 'mentally challenged' or just plainly 'insane', people thought of me as an eccentric loner or a sensitive artist at worst, not the primodial chaos shaped into human form that Cluster B Personality Disorders produce. And that of course ended with me being thrown out or rejected in short notice every single time. You try hearing 'get out of here, you retard', 'go hole up in a crazy ward, fuckwad' 'look at the weirdo, he's so funny' and other real, meant insults every day of your life because of those who were supposed to help you, and we'll see what you consider insensitive. All of this can be avoided by people paying more attention to usor being told to leave in peace before it happens, not by defending our mental well-being from nonexistent blows.
After a long struggle I managed to blew their little bubble of conformity by making them realize a word does not become bad by having a use as a derogatory term - That makes as much sense if black people called each other nigger or something and some idiots thought they have self-hatred issues. We're all mature enough here to not hurt each other with swear words, we can all look up the definition of 'mentally challenged' if we want to, I very well know it fits all three of those girls and consider it degrading to my intelligence when you suggest otherwise. I'm sorry, but their hardships and suffering won't get any better if bury your head in the sand and act like it's not as bad as it looks. Keika's not sane, Kyouki's definitely not sane, and without the player's help, Junko is on the way of permanently becoming the worst of them with the stress she's under before psychs could cry 'Remote Schizoid P.D.' in unison. And they need actual help, not baby cuddle and ignorance.

EDIT:

author=Nekochi
In any case, I'd love to look at the event, if it's okay with you.

Of course. Sorry, I was preoccupied with rambling. I'm sending it soon.

I'm skimming through the LP and finding tidbits of useful feedback throughout :)

Hm, okay, these three lines I would personally change:


Other than that, maybe just a little more punctuation in the longer lines :)