Meet as Sidestep Be friendly and agree their method
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It also requires you to crash as the puppet right?
Doesn’t require it, just have precog of 30 or more
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Wait, Danny has a crush on Ortega? I’ve played their poly route before but I don’t recall reading that 
(woes of skimming). Do you mind telling where was it mentioned?
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In Danny’s apartment, after they talk, Ortega says they’ll back off. There’s a choice to skim Danny’s mind to see what he thinks about it all . Found it by code diving, so I’m gonna share it below. It’s if you aren’t cool with just being friends with Ortega, despite the thing with Herald.
#Why would he think that? I go deeper.
This is an intrusion, not just picking up surface thoughts. This is digging deep into Daniel's mind, like sticking your hand in an oven and hoping you don't touch metal.
You don't have to dig deep, thankfully. Staring at the sun for too long never ends well.
Daniel thinks Ortega is attractive. That's not hard to pick up on, hovering just below the surface. The reason why he never did anything about it goes deeper.
*if ortega_gender = "man"
It's not just that it was a crush on a man.
He was worried about whether his feelings would be returned. About not measuring up. About being the new guy on the team, and fuck, Daniel remembers all the mistakes he made when he first joined the Rangers. No open blame, but he picked it up all the same. Not good enough. Not you. He remembers how Ortega talked about you.
*if ortega_pastflirting
Still heartbroken.
It fits together like pieces of a puzzle, Ortega, Argent, people he could have seen himself with but where he messed up, shut down what might have been, and moved on. Never putting any blame on the other party, just on himself. Growing. Learning. Getting to know himself and what he liked.
*page_break
No wonder Daniel didn't back down when you turned prickly, no wonder he didn't panic when he started to realize that this was more than just another crush and something deeper, more real. That he was in love with you.
You retreat before you're burned. You got close there; there are still too many emotions in your heart to handle. How does he do it? Surfacing is rough, but you hide it behind a cough and a shake of your head.
"I don't know how to deal with this. It's complicated," you admit, looking between Daniel and Ortega. "And it's getting more so." They have no idea. They really don't.
"You're telling me." Ortega's laugh is sharp, almost nervous. "It's been a weird evening."
"It has," Daniel agrees, but there's a hint of relief that things are calming down.
"We can't be friends." You harden your voice into a knife because Ortega trying to be the bigger man won't end well. "You know that's not what we are, right?"
"I don't know if there's anything else we can be, though?" Ortega stands up, too much nervous energy to remain seated.
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Every one has a crush on Ortega xD He is avaible in EVERY poli route 
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I actually didn’t reveal it in Mortum’s lab, nor did I reveal that I’m a regene to get the ‘oh no’ ending; I think it might just be tied to your Mortum friendship level, and whether you’ve chosen to be honest with them despite the secrecy and masks; I never once lied to Mortum about anything that wasn’t my true identity; (i.e. told truth about what I was going to do at the gala when took Mortum along as a friend, didn’t act fake or try to manipulate them, etc.) but then again I won’t fully know until I poke the code for that chapter, which I will eventually, considering what I’ve been working on in my spare time… 
As for RO tierlist… ahhhhhhh
Summary
Steel has to be number one for me. It kills me slightly that he’s genderlocked so I can’t romance him on all of my main 3 steps, but I love him even though I can only romance as my NB step since I don’t play mascs/cismale unless I’m really tempted. His romance is so… unproblematic, aside from the whole hero/villain thing, but it def feels like the most transparent relationship available considering everything.
Ortega is probably my second favorite, because it’s so complicated. The history with step, his reactions if_told_horrible, his own goals that conflict with step but the deep need to be there for someone who, romance aside, he certianly considered a friend no matter what. That’s what makes the guilty ending hit so hard if he considers you a monster, and it’s what makes the guilty but innocent ending hit so hard whne he rescues you. He’s turning his back on everything he believes you should have not done because in the end, he cares. Ortega is growing, which makes me love this romance so much. He’s trying not to be as nosy. He’s not letting himself make the same mistakes in the past where he wasn’t there for you at your lowest point. He’ll never stop caring, but damn it all if he isn’t trying to do things right by step nowadays.
For me, the next is Mortum. Personally, I’m not as attracted to Mortum as I am Argent and I’d put them on a similar attraction to that I have for Herald where their charm is more in their charisma than their personality (at least so far, I hear Herald may have some major character developments in the wind) but Mortum is both one of the least problematic yet most problematic at the same time. I could write several paragraphs on Mortum’s romance but I’ll short it down; we can’t trust Mortum at the end of the day, no matter how much I truly want to after discovering their deep love and the lengths they’d go to for the protagonist if we come clean in a completely believable way, because their past is so convoluted and mysterious, particularly with telepaths. But something also tells me that, as much as we as steps seem to need Mortum both literally and emotionally at times, certain endings have led me to believe that Mortum may need us just as bad; now more than ever, both emotionally and as an ally, and I love that we can be both to them where all other RO’s require deceit or setting aside opposition.
For me, Argent and Herald’s romances are tied. They’re both great in their own way, but severely lacking in the moment for me to feel anything particularly strongly about them. Where Ortega can often feel like too much history, Herald often feels like too little, and the romance too manipulative, especially if you broke his knee at the gala. I feel like, again, this may change in the future, but for now, being hot and literally vulnerable (telepathically and emotionally) is not enough for me to feel like this is something I would want my step to pursue until the end, not until given more time and tempering. And Argent? Hot stabby sharklady can bite my lip any time of day, and her date scene absolutely melted my heart, and she’s relatively unproblematic considering you can spill your guts to her and she handles it rather well, but there’s such a tentative line between when/if/how you may have to cross each other despite how comfy yet terrified she can make you feel that’s just chef’s kiss but it’s also what keeps me from ranking her higher, at least for now-- like touching a stove, or whatever analogy our steps like to use that involves a stove but i gotta shut up now this post is way longer than it should be lol.
edit* hid details to spare people the scrolling trouble with my RO rant lmao
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I wonder if now that the puppet/mc’s body are acting on their own for whatever reason(I think and hope they are Heartbreak) if we will be able to romance them in the future instead of, or in spite of whatever bad reaction/feelings mc might have, specially if you are in a relationship at the moment either as mc or puppet and ends up evolving in a poly relationship with whomever you are involved at the moment.
Just imagine all the possible angst that would be available to us if it happened, it would be glorious(it also might give mc a way to finally heal eventually… or break them entirely).
I’m confused, do you mean continuing romances with an identity reveal or romancing the person who literally snatched one of your bodies? Because if the latter, why would you want to? Heartbreak doesn’t read as a particularly reasonable romance option. 
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The second, and I imagine it wouldn’t be to strange for the mc to do that(eventually), specially seeing the current romance options, even more if Argent is your romance interest, who at the beginning didn’t seem like a reasonable romance option to me either and right now is my favourite one, though to be fair, depending on your choices none of them are reasonable, just imagine romancing Herald after you traumatize him or Ortega after doing the epilepsy thing.
I’m just thinking that if they end up being Heartbreak, then mc could help them heal and they us in return, it can also go very badly for everyone of course and make things worse than they were before.
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It’s a little different between someone who is naturally abrasive versus someone who is either literally in your body, or in the body of someone you lived as for several years. I definitely wouldn’t pursue that romance route. That would definitely require a kind of step that I am not interested in playing. xD
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Fair, I don’t think it would be all that popular as a main route, though I personally would love to have the option and see what could happen while playing in a secondary route since my current main one is focused in Argent.
Thank you! I take it this is when you’re relationship with Ortega is either complicated or open attraction? This is what I get for always going for the secret crush route (it just gives the accidental love confession at the end so much extra flavor). Looks like another playthrough is in order 
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Crash as the puppet and jump back to Sidestep’s body. (The puppet comfort value must be low) Sidestep can go visit the hospital after the crash. Meet Ortega and tell them you want to show something and show the tattoos at Ortega’s apartment.
MC doesn’t want to rescue the puppet. They want the puppet to stay in the hospital.
If you want to rescue the puppet, get Mortum’s help. You must have told Mortum the truth about the puppet and MC after the auction. Mortum will call you to help rescue the puppet after you have jumped to Sidestep’s body after the crash.
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Taking into account some of the phrases step uses to describe heaetbreak when trying to defend themselves from them, its possible the answer is kinship
Most likely a tool to use later. Do u remember what kind of monster they are. The chaos they caused is the stuff from nightmares that even steel refuses to talk about
What do you guys think about what Herald says in his romance route regarding Ortega’s motivations for his grudge against HG?
I played their poly for the first yesterday and, since the game tells you explicitly he’s very good at reading people, when he mentioned that maybe he’s on a crusade because of you rather than simple revenge for hood made go and I oop (can you tell I really like chargestep.)
Also, since Anathema has been mentioned, what’s everyone’s theory about what’s going on with them? I can’t bring myself to believe they’re merely a ghost born out of trauma, especially since you can interact with them twice as of now + there’s some descriptions that bugged me (although I would need to check again to make sure I wasn’t astroprojecting.)
Maybe it’s really trauma, maybe something happened to them as well/step unknowingly did something during the whole HB fiasco, or maybe it’s already been cleared up somewhere in the thread and I missed it orz.
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Maybe Ortega thinks that if he would destroyed HG’s empire and put them behind bars, MC would finally be free. They would no longer have to hide from their “older sibling”.
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Ortega is nosy -fanatic friend .for me It is only their own selfish.I think they obsessed with HG because They just feel guilty about Hoot’s dead and failed to protect friend in HB and just try to make up to their friends.but they don’t aware thier action will put their friend in danger .
Well, that’s for sure. Step themselves are shocked upon learning Ortega’s tinfoil hat theory, particularly the “Ortega protected me” option lays down how Ortega could have easily used you to get to HG and yet chose to protect you instead, which was good whump to read.
I know I’m biased, since I love Ortega, but I can’t see that as being a lie to deceive you.
There’s so much feeling in their scenes when it comes to the big oh no, so the possibility of there being more to it than simple revenge for a mentor has me looking politely.
Like I agree that Ortega’s noisy, it’s pretty much canon lol, but I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing. The intention is good, the execution… Well, it’s complicated.
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