Looking forward to the new update! There’s a thing that I’ve been suspecting for a while that I think is going to be revealed in the update, supposing that Button gets to have that talk with K and isn’t jailed right away.
Namely that I’m 90% sure K isn’t a ment at all. I feel like there’s a lot of “K is a ment” evidence that can be explained away, like K greeting Button at the door because Antigone and Cassandra were barking like mad for a while, and them stopping you from messing with the car radio being explained with the fact that they love their car (a lot). Also, K being super frantic and wanting to talk to you only if you told Glitch what being a Pollard Zero is is kind of incriminating.
Update Length: 183k words, includes all of Chapter 6
New Playthrough Length: 48k (over 10k more per playthrough)
It’s official: K’s romance is now only pursuable if you turn back for the dogs in Chapter 1. It wasn’t how I intended to implement it, but I’m finding that the best laid plans in interactive fiction often need to be reworked. The Patreon vote on the matter currently stands at 227 to 4, yay to neigh, so I feel a lot less guilty about changing it (if the vote had swung the opposite direction, I was prepared to go with my initial plans).
This does functionally make K a “secret” RO, but since there’s four other main routes (noh comment on any potential sixth), I feel like it’s not too restrictive to give K additional conditions.
I do apologize for anyone who wanted to pursue K without the dogs, but the overall dramatic arc of meeting K early is simply too good. I’d rather dedicate more time to Button’s feelings about K’s morning deception than I would writing Button to have a crush which I just can’t seem to make feel realistic, given how little screen time K has had thus far for anyone who didn’t meet them in Chapter 1.
I can talk more about the rational for this choice after Chapter 6 goes public on Sunday, since . . . well, let’s just leave it at “I can say more after everyone’s read Chapter 6.”
The final clinching factor was my realization that Button banging on K’s door as a self-appointed defender of fluff was the moment where K opens up to the possibility of falling in love with Button. I don’t know how to realistically duplicate a similar moment later on (without artificially derailing the narrative) and still remain true to K’s character.
Rosy’s romance is somewhat ‘conditional’ in its own right, so K not being the superficial type to just go along with lines like, “I saw you across the room, and thought you looked amazing. Would you be willing to have a coffee date with me?” is perfectly acceptable, tbf. No, it’s not a jab at Glitch; they are the type to know what they want the moment they see it. Maybe that seems a little unreliable, and I can see the gray hairs on Mrs Parker’s head all the way from the west coast because of this, but this doesn’t have to be a negative personality trait.
K could probably let themself be picked up in this fashion normally, but in the scope of the likely narrative, Button would have to have hit a ‘first impression home run’ to get K’s sincere attention as more than just a friend in the short term before a more romantic change has a chance to take place. This does have some pretty realistic weight behind it, so the guard dog gate works just fine.
I love your work so much.
I kind of feeling connected to the mc.
Even a demo makes me so emotional, like I experience this in real life.
I wish I could have a brother too.
At least mc still has a caring brother; I have nobody.
It’s 10AM PST (where I currently am, in Seattle), which officially makes this the earliest I’ve ever posted a demo! (I’m guessing most people who read this post live in my future, however, since Pacific is the latest timezone.)
Anyway, all of Chapter 6 is now live! It adds around 10k words per playthrough
The Chapter 7 Mini-Update for Patrons will go live on Patreon in a few hours. I’m currently editing a new part for it that I rewrote last night about spoilers in order to make sure that spoilers-spoilers-spoilers are more customizable and reactive when it comes to Button’s reactions about ***** mega spoilers* .
So if you told Glitch in Chapter 5 that you were a Zero and confessed to liking K, based on the revelation this chapter about K being a Non-Ment, that’s what they must have rushed to try and tell you at the end of Chapter 5, which is sweet as hell and makes me love them even more. Also a whole undercover mission with K, can’t wait!
Also, a pretty big reveal(several, actually) in this chapter so everyone please remember to blur your spoilers! (Everyone’s done it so far, I just wanted to take extra precautions.)
