Crème de la Crème Discussion and Romance Guide (Spoilers Within)

Choice of Games games
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As for my character and her future plans, be it with Prince Rosario, Gonzalez, or alone, it usually varies between Gessner University and the internship with Jerome Clay in his art gallery. Either one reflects well on her family, and she has the course and exam grades and network for both, so she is not sure which one to pick.

Even when engaged to Prince Rosario, though, well, my character figures that while virtue and popularity have been restored to her parents, there is still the need to replenish the family coffers, and she should not and cannot wait upon Prince Rosario’s intercession to achieve that end for her. Therefore, as much as she loves learning and wants to continue learning, she feels that it is more urgent to enter a career of the sort that Jerome Clay has regarding his art gallery, the better for making important political connections and hopefully making a high income to restore the family wealth, along with its reputation and social circles. It is a difficult and close choice, but my character would probably choose the Jerome Clay internship more often than Gessner University.

Besides, given that my character, strangely enough, so often joins the clique of the Children of Hecate, she might as well put those connections to good use in gaining the internship with Jerome Clay. I suppose it is because my character loves learning so much that she also has a surprising fascination about learning more regarding the occult, along with a love for art and the connections such can have with the occult . Given that she is accommodating, she is willing to go along with Delacroix’s idiosyncrasies for the sake of learning more about the occult, and with her temperament, she is willing to acknowledge the possibility of the occult and supernatural. It is why she regrettably does not join the Birchmeier Society more often.

As to the internship with Beatrix Wahner, well, that option is one that my character absolutely refuses to even consider. For one thing, Gonzalez usually ends up applying for and gaining that particular internship, and my character does not want to take that opportunity and joy from Gonzalez. For another matter, my character has no interest in such an archaeology internship in the first place, considering that it would involve digging and other heavy manual labor under the hot sun. Given that my character is weak in Spirit and Flair, well, she has had quite enough of tedious menial labor and tasks that would require considerable physical exertion like the internship with Beatrix Wahner.

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888

A bit of a random question, perhaps, but are any of the romance interests teetotallers? I know that Delacroix is not, and Blaise has no chance to reveal whether she is or is not (at least, as far as I interpreted her scenes).

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Rosario has “a wineglass” at one point, and I don’t think I mention what’s in it. Blaise, Freddie and Karson never drink alcohol onscreen (I think in my head Freddie doesn’t at all), but there isn’t a specific discussion about it.

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@HarrisPS: I rejoice at all who abstain, so your words make me even more interested in Freddie.

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I doubt Max is one. Hartmann and Freddie I feel are definitely teetotalers.

Gonzalez, I’m not sure. Could go either way. One one had, they play lacrosse, and I feel they’d want to stay sharp for that, but maybe they’re a social drinker.

Blaise, I wouldn’t doubt if they do drink. Karson I feel is a teetotaler.

Auguste probably not, Florin, definitely not one. And Rosario I feel go go either way.

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There is a scene in which Gonzalez is drunk, if I recall correctly - fitting in with many sterotypes that I am aware of about hard-partying athletes.

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Hartmann does get drunk after the fire scene, which takes down a lot of her inhibitions.

It makes for… interesting situations, assuming you’re romancing her.

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Hartmann, Max and Gonzalez drink heavily onscreen in some branches. Auguste and Florin have maybe a glass in front of you if you order wine at a restaurant; Delacroix has one implied moment where they drank some wine earlier.

It’s something I didn’t think about much when writing, other than giving the player the option to be teetotal and showing that alcohol in moderation is considered quite normal in the setting for people of the age in question. I think if I were writing it again, I’d have more dialogue about it.

As a note, I was very careful about making sure the MC doesn’t do kissing or anything more physical with anyone who’s intoxicated or even the MC’s intoxicated - hence being able with other characters to do some romantic stuff during the scene @Jjcb mentions, but not with Hartmann.

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I imagined drinking even moderately would not be something Hartmann does often (maybe that scene after the fire even being her first experience with it), hence why not being able to tell when she should stop.
Anyway I appreciated that we could choose not to drink alcohol at all during the whole game. I really don’t like when a game assumes that just bc MC goes on a social event they would also drink some kind of alcohol.

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It also seemed to me like Rosario likely had alcohol, as in very expensive wine, if you get to his engagement proposal with the wining and dining. :wink:
That said he seems like a moderate/social drinker overall to me if only because he knows he’s always in the spotlights and may not want the scandal of doing something stupid while drunk.

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@HarrisPS I wonder if there is something like a canon gender for each RO which you imagined them with first before making them all gender flippable?

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I remember someone else asking this, and interestingly no there wasn’t! I always think of them as variable.

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@HarrisPS who is Revekah Vasile and what she did? What is her political leanings?

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Fruit for a sequel, I hope.

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You know, that’s an interesting question and it’s not one I have a set in stone answer for. She was definitely imprisoned for political agitation, perhaps violent protest. I think her politics are probably in the realm of socialist anarchy - I kept it deliberately vague, though, to reflect the mostly very sheltered nature of Gallatin’s political education.

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What kind of degree a student can get at Reisingerv and Gessner? And how long does the course last?

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If you write a sequel in which her ideals are more elaborated, then I hope that you will avoid the cliche of Anarchism = bomb-throwing and chaos. Anarchism can be critiqued on many grounds, but it is a sophisticated system of thought.

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It is fascinating how the player can influence and alter the other characters’ future plans.

Gonzalez can go to Reisinger to play lacrosse or become an archaeology intern for Beatrix Wahner. My character influenced him to apply for the internship, and given how adventurous Gonzalez is, I think he will be happy either way. To be honest, my character did express concerns about Gonzalez playing lacrosse professionally, given the risk of burnout. Playing lacrosse and loving it as a hobby is one matter, but playing it professionally for a living is another one entirely, with the risk that one may eventually forget why they loved it in the first place.

As to Hartmann, my character actually influenced him in the opposite direction. Hartmann could become a teacher at Gallatin, but my character saw that he had such promise and potential to continue a higher education at Gessner University, even when his parents did not believe in his ability to be accepted. She gave him a nudge, just enough encouragement for Hartmann to apply for Gessner and was happy when he was accepted. She does worry about Hartmann’s stress, caused in no small part by the pressure from his parents, and she hopes this development will be the start of easing Hartmann’s life. Freddie will be there, so it would help, and depending on the playthrough, my character will be at Gessner as well, so Hartmann would have people in whom he can confide.

Well, even my character could not help all the others, and so it was for Delacroix and Max. Inevitably, my character finds them in a sort of limbo, not really sure what they will do in the future, but they at least have one another, so my character wishes them well and hopes they can find their way, even if she is not exactly the closest of friends with them.

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Is there a way to fire lady renaldt I can never get her fired

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A Bachelor’s course would be 3 years unless you had a year studying in another country. Gessner is the equivalent of Cambridge or Oxford, whereas Reisinger is more modern, equivalent of a red brick university, and so a fair amount of the Gallatin/Archambault crowd would look down on it. At both you could study natural science, Classics, history, economics, philosophy, politics, theology, law etc. Traditionally “respectable” subjects, basically.

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