@GentlemanPenguin - I do love Dr. Mortum, but there is a different dynamic there, a slower burn. After all, you have history and secrets with Ortega, while you are starting pretty much from scratch with Mortum. My goal is to make them both equally valid/different/surprising paths.
@Mim - I am aware that the non-binary route needs work, a lot of the language flows less fluently there and I might have to write separate scenes just to make it flow better. Being genderqueer myself, I want it to be good, but it requires a bit more care than I have time for in this beta creation.
@Quaintrelle - Depending on choices, it is revealed that Ortega was a bit of a player back in the day, always having new buy/girlfriends for the papers to write about. SO yeah, Ortega is a 0 to 60 kinda person. A relationship/flirting is a lot more flighty than friendship for them, which means that the whole situation with the MC is so hard for them to handle. Thereâs a lot of baggage there to unpack.
@KuraiHeka - Yep, this sounds exactly what I was going for. Nothing in this story will be easy, and it is up to you all to try to handle this mess. So glad it is coming across.
@KP_Paul - The truth wonât be pleasant regardless who finds out what is going on, the question is how long the MC can manage juggling all these separate lives and not slip upâŚ
@Asura - Hehehe there will be some complaints to Dr. Mortum there I am sure⌠hope youâve kept your warranty.
@squarelyblue & @Edgewen - I do have a hidden stat âortegaâs suspicionsâ so⌠well⌠depends on how well you manage to fool them! It will be very interesting to see how long people manage to keep it upâŚ
So on the topic of Mortumâs romance:
Is there an option to chose a romance with him mainly for the purpose of maintaining a friendly relationship with a talented scientist, while still not bearing any ill will toward him? My male mc doesnât have a particular attraction to him, but doesnât mind using his female puppet that way for the strategic advantage
âIâm not your enemy, ma cherie,â he smiles a little as he looks into your eyes. âQuite the opposite in fact.â
My doc is a woman. And she has superpowers right right right?
Thatâs exactly what he says if you wait for him to kiss you and then ask him whatâs wrong
But it only talks about the gender you pick (I picked female) and he is a ladies man, but he still flirts with a male puppet. Idk it just makes me a bit uncomfortable because you specify that he was a âladies manâ and not a âanything that moves manâ like a certain Captain Jack
I knew it! Iâve been trying to act opposite when Iâm the puppet. Iâm betting that there will be a hesitation in their fight that will up that counter.
Well when I talked to Ortega about how she felt about the real me when I was in my doll, she mentioned that back in the day she wasnât out and was expected to date guys for the papers and thatâs why we were a no go, I hate when the closet kills romance
Hmmmm. Suddenly rethinking my honesty policy with Ortega :))) (I just want everything to work out for my MC â like sheâs an anti-villain who wonât kill unless necessary, like âshe who fights monstersâ kind of trope â and honestly hope it works out between her and Ortega)
âŚ
That might change depending on who other love interests might come up lmao
SoâŚif there is Ortega suspicionâŚthen there must be other character suspicion like Argent and Herald maybeâŚdoes this suspicion status start from the beginning?
I will do my best hiding under their radarâŚ
secret guilty admissionThis is one of only a few CS games I keep playing multiple times. Itâs one of my favorite. I think I noticed some updates in the early game? Some spiffing-up-editing? I might be wrong- but it seems like the writing has improved (somehow) even more from the last time I read through it. Though it could be that this time I played as âmyselfâ. I mean, heck, who knows, I might have turned out that way if I had telepathic powers, too. And yeah, yeah, I know youâre totally going to pull off a conscience transfer into the main puppet if a dramatic MC death happens. Because that would be the most awesome writing I can think of. XD Gwuhr, itâs strangely fun to romance up both Ortega and Dr. Mortum as the puppet⌠but then real MC me gets jealous of puppet MC me over Ortega. XD Being paranoid-level-careful is a wondeful (complicated) feeling; itâs beautifully written. I really -donât- want Ortega to ever learn the truth. Nor Dr. Mortum, though for entirely different reasons. Goodness gracious, whatever immoral part resides in me does have a heyday with this story, thatâs for sure. Including romping around in a puppet body that compensates for my own MC insecurities and paranoia. Someday, there will only be Supervillain me, and puppet me! A complete escape to a new life!⌠Mwhahahahaha. XD
It seems like thereâs just so many benefits to playing a puppet opposite your gender
Less likely to be caught, access to areas and scenarios your own gender canât, wider variety of skills available to you. Why would anyone choose to have a puppet as the same gender given all the strategic advantages?
Ya, but it can seen in a wider sense as well. I find the fun in video games (for me at least) comes from being able to pretend that Iâm a different person. Iâm not an old white male, but Last of Us is one of my favourite games. Iâm not a gay Qunari but Dorian is one of my favourite romances. Iâm not a young black girl but Clementine is one of my favourite characters.
I should probably choose to be a tall puppet then⌠Being a shortie is no good in a fight, no matter what those dwarves would have you think.
I get back from being away from the forum for a bit and whatâs the first update I see but my favorite exhero . Now that I think about it I think the last major update happened while I was away. @malinryden You know if this trend continues I might just delete this account to force you to finish it all. jk
So while I was playing I had a new thought about what might be really going on. Those who want to follow me down the rabbit hole just click the spoiler.
So itâs been pretty well established that we have a history with the Division and spent time at a place called the Farm in the past. We also know that the Division makes (supposedly) nonhuman blue skinned supers like they used against the Psychopather. Iâm sure Iâm not the only one whoâs suspected that we were also experimented on, but since we clearly arenât robot smurfs we must be different. Then today I thought âwhat if weâre not different?â If they had grown a mind controlled psychic in the Farm, what would happen if that psychic tried to mind control a person, either under orders or not? Would that free them from whatever control the Division had on their previous body? Perhaps even locking them out of it since we know we canât read those soldiers? What if the body we think of as the mc is actually just another puppet? I think we might be a bit trapped in it since we loose our abilities in our other puppet. It would also explain some of our body issues if this wasnât our original body. Even more so if we really werenât human to start with.
Yeah that is what my mind does when I play this game.
Ooh, good to see Iâm not the only one thinking along those lines. Lots of potentially major spoilers ahoy!
I canât find any mentions of it now, but Iâve been under the impression that the MC canât read the minds of Re-Genes. And, given itâs pretty obvious that the MC was created by someone and grew up in a lab setting, maybe they were a failed/twisted Re-Gene? It would certainly explain their attempts to capture the MC, and definitely would explain the MCâs roundabout explanations when it comes to the Enhanced. Add in the mentions of the military using Enhanced people for a long time, the MCâs hatred of the government (I believe one of the motivations which was removed a few updates ago mentioned the entire government being corrupt? That was my favourite one for a reason), and Iâm certainly of the mind that the MC is government created and that the government wants the MC back.
My main theory is that the MC was created to be a weapon for the government, and managed to escape for a few years before the government planned the Heartbreak fiasco (cue my thoughts about the people MC suspects and doesnât suspect, plus their relationships with the government - is it just me who thinks that Steele being the traitor would be incredibly foolish in this scenario?).
I hadnât considered that the MCâs current main body is a puppet, though. I can see how it would work, given the MC says that part of them died during the Heartbreak fiasco, but Iâd previously assumed that theyâd either managed to accidentially telepathically kill people after they fell out of the apartments, or that whatever happened at the top of those stairs heavily messed with their mind. Or both. It would certainly mess with the MC, being stuck in someone elseâs body - that being said, I assumed the appearance problems were related to spending roughly eight years locked up in some hole, or just to do with the MCâs massive guilt complex. With the powers, though, the one possible solution I could see is that maybe their powers work only in their current âhostâ body? So if the MCâs current main body died, then they jump over to the current puppet body, their powers would work? Iâm not sure, this isnât an aspect I had considered before.
Either way, itâs good to know Iâm not the only one whose mind goes down this rabbit hole every time I play the game. I mean, honestly, the writing is so good itâs hard not to.
For my MC? Wish fulfillment mainly. As the puppet she can escape from her own life to a better one. People treat Yasmin differently, like they never treated her. It gives her a chance to experience things sheâs wanted to, but never could. Even Ortega treats her differently in a way she never even knew that she wanted. An opposite-gender puppet might have a lot of practical benefits, but the way Iâm playing my MC, letting feelings trump reason isnât exactly an uncommon occurrence.
LOVED THIS UPDATE SO MUCH! AND THAT CLIFFHANGER! I hate you so much for it! (thatâs a compliment in my head). Beating the shit out of Herald felt so fucking good. I donât even know why. Canât wait to do the same to Ortega, and hopefully, finish the job this time around. She is screwing with my MCâs mind, he was all-in for revenge and then she comes around and makes him hesitant! Iâm sorry but she is gotta go. Also, there are going to be interactions with Locus, right? Iâm rather intrigued by her.
Just to assure everyone, I am having a blast reading your comments and theories, but no way am I getting into possible spoiler land
However, just to assure people, what gender/height/race you choose for your puppet will have nothing to do with Ortegaâs suspicions (or your fighting capabilities). You are a completely different person after all, and I am sure that bodysnatching is not on his horizon (yet)âŚ
[spoiler]That is an interesting theory. I hadnât considered the possibility that the MC is a re-gene. If that is the case, then I do not belive we âreally werenât human to start withâ, but rather that all the re-genes are actually fully sentient (if lab-grown) human beings, just brainwashed and controlled. The MC did muse on the unlikeliness of the AI story, perhaps they have first-hand experience?
My primary objection to the theory is that we donât look like a re-gene, and we are only able to use our powers in our own body. I suppose the idea that âprimary host body statusâ could be transferred upon death could explain that, but that sounds like just speculation without anything really building up under it to me.
I think an alternate possibility is that, rather than a propper re-gene, our MC was some kind of unique experiment. Perhaps our telepathic powers was meant as a more efficient way to control and coordinate re-genes. Since we canât actually control them, itâs possible the experiment was a failure, or perhaps we erected the barriers preventing us ourselves, as a (subconscious?) coping mechanism.
[/spoiler]
As for the MCâs body image issues, I think thatâs just an extension of their general self-loathing and desire to distance themselves from their old identity. When they look in the mirror, they see Sidestep looking back. Not to mention that theyâre getting older and actually have let their body deteriorate a bit, which probably doesnât help. I donât think there is necessarily anything more to that.
@KuraiHeka
Another thing about the possibility of the MC being a re-gene is what the MC say about the re-gene sentry ''You donât want to hurt him, after all if things were different you could be in his shoes. ââ.