Blog down. Is it being redone, or has something more happened? 
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Yes, theyāre modifying the blog and the reacts page.
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@AdmiralLynx89 Yeah, donāt panic, Iām addressing some coding issues in the theme and reacts page system which complicate the upload process. I also changed the name of my tumblr profile to reflect my author name rather than the name of the novel, so that has disrupted links. Iām just going through and changing the hyperlinks in the individual posts now. After today the original reacts page should still work fine if you follow the post links rather than the buttons on the sub-site, but for now you can use the link below:
@bluesparkle Thank you so much for jumping in with an explanation for others. Very much appreciated!
EDIT: All links in the Posts should now be working, let me know if you find exceptions.
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Great WIP. Canāt wait for an update
So, this is kinda weird and out of the blue. In past saves I was able to name my character āLouisā, but now I canāt because thatās the name of an LI. I understand itās a measure to keep the story from becoming confusing, and I actually approve of it, but Iām doing a playthrough with all female ROs, so thereās no āLouisā but āLeilaā. Itās probably too much to ask and Iāll understand if you ingore this comment, but could you make it so I can name my character Louis if the RO is a female? Sorry to bother you with this weird request
Edit: Nevermind, Iāll stick to āLouizā. Ignore this comment
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No worries! Iāve played around in the reacts scenarios, and read what you had to say about building it in the first placeāitās sincerely an impressive piece of work, so if it needs downtime for maintaining, there are no issues with that. 
One thing I wanted to ask about the āthree coresā for the romance play styles is whether or not the āhesitantā style can accomplish the feel of a more āshyā approach to romance? I have to ask because itās not disloyalty per se if a shy individual hasnāt got the words (or capacity for them) to boldly declare their intentions, which is what the first core path seems to be based solely on the descriptor words you chose. There are other nuances to think about later down the line (Mās possible negative influence on the MCās romantic experiences, to express my train of thought), but theyāre not of pressing relevance quite yet, and probably not for a while unless something critical happens to shift things into higher gear.
The main MC Iāll be using is fiercely loyal, justā¦ a panicking disaster when it comes to flirting. Add in heāll cut ties with anyone who dares suggest he get rid of the child, and that makes for some strong inclination for flight in the āfight or flightā instincts. So itās a really good thing no one in Aldmirham is about to chase them off for staying together. 
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Right, I suppose I didnāt really explain the new system too well on the public platforms, and I can see how my wording is liable to lead to some confusion.
Basically, the new system works like this:
There are three core ways to approach romantic relationships within the game, but within those routes there are nuances that allow the player to tailor events.
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Direct/Loyal: The Main Character flirts with only one of the romance options. They can experience these flirt scenes in one of four different styles; warm (cosy romance more akin to friends falling in love), confident (the main character is openly flirtatious and extrovert in their actions), playful (jokes, hijinks, and a few romantic misunderstandingsā¦), and shy (a few stutters here, a few furious blushes there, and a general sense of hopelessly infatuated but painfully unable to get the right words out to express it). On this route the romantic interest will feel more assured of the main characterās affections, and will be more secure in their own pursuit of the main character.
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Hesitant: The Main Character does not flirt with anyone right away, unsure about who they feel the strongest for, so holds back from pursuing anyone initially. They can choose at any time to start a flirtation with one of the romantic interests, and this will start them off on either an Early, Mid, or Late Stage Settle path towards the Direct/Loyal Route. If they get to the lock in point and still havenāt made any moves towards anyone, they can finish off the story on the platonic routes instead.
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Destructive: The Main Character is either openly hostile to other characters, flirts openly with more than one character and either refuses to settle with one or constantly contradicts themselves when discussing the matter with the other characters. This will begin an invisible count, once that count gets to a certain number (it varies dependent on the character, but everyone does get at least one point of āgraceā or warning for the player) that route is permanently locked off for that play through. As I said on Tumblr the other day, these people have their limits, you push them away (or into uncomfortable situations), they will push back.
There is a similar system on the Platonic side of things as well. You can be hostile (to a certain extent) and the characters will respond to this.
So in a straight forwards answer to your question, your MC can by all means be a panicking disaster, the shy option is there for you to use to your heartās content. And you donāt need to actively pursue the flirtations all the time, Iām not penalising characters if they ātake a chapter offā the steamy stuff. But if you want a romantic ending, flirt with one option, donāt be hostile to them in otherwise platonic situations (this doesnāt mean you have to make your character agree with them all the time), and flirt at least twice before the mid way lock in. I hope that made things a little clearer for you.
And everybody loves (or at least tolerates) the child, so no worries there.
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I wasnāt the one asking, but Iām always up for panicking disasters 
That being said, I really like the system you go for!
Wanted to ask about it: on the Hesitant path, do the characters assume the MC may be hesitating between more than one of them, or depending on the situation, they may rather have an approach of āare they interested in me or not?ā (so instead of being ādo they like me or do they like X?ā) - does that make sense?
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Interesting question. In essence none of the romantic interests will assume that the MC likes them in the romantic sense unless they are given direct evidence that this could be a possibility. So, unless the Main Character flirts with them at some point during the narrative, be that with the confidence of a Casanova or crumbling into a flustered puddle as soon as they enter a room, they will not look at them in a romantic light. The only two exceptions to this rule are in terms of the person who accompanies the Main Character into the storeroom, they have a slight infatuation with the Main Character, but unless this is reciprocated in the first chapter theyāll let this go without drama, and K.
K is always the exception.
K will beā¦ how to phrase itā¦ a little more ādirectā about the possibility of romance, but even they will back off as soon as it becomes clear the Main Character isnāt responding favourably.
The cast will only assume the Main Character is torn between romantic interests if the Main Character flirts with multiple romantic interests.
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what if the main character only flirts between two characters? As in for me I cannot for the life of me decide between K and Louis and thatās it. Litterally. So to get a feel for them for me personally I have to flirt (flirt being a relative term but shy disaster is a more apt) with both until I eventually decide. Itās usually me getting a feel for a character and how they react romantically and eventually Iāll have MC start to not feel things for other character when I decide. (Or at least pretend thatās what happened) itās normally how I do things. The question is how will this impact things and when would be the cut off point where I screwed myself?
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Ooof! You really did pick an interesting mash up thereā¦
As the systems currently stand you have one FREE choice, in which you can pick whoever you like with 0 to little consequence in the later chapters. After that choice the characters will start calling you out on your actions. My recommendation would be to play two different characters if you want to play through to a happy ending, you knowā¦ without the inevitable drama of dating someone whose older and very protective brother is right on hand 95% of the timeā¦ if drama is your thing though, by all means role play the torn character caught between the two.
There is plenty of Forecasting before you get locked out of any routes, so itās unlikely to really sneak up on you. If you were to play the destructive style between L and K I reckon youāll likely get your first point of no return about mid-way through chapter 3 depending on how you approached certain situations.
Minor to Medium Spoilers Below
The reason I remarked on that pairing in particular is that of all the cast L and Kās routes are the least flexible. L largely thanks to Lars and his legitimate overprotectiveness. Kā¦ Well Kās reasons really need to stay a mystery for now, but yeah, they have less flexibility in the flirting with multiple characters behaviour.
Hope that helps explain things!
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welp, Iām all for the drama. Itās not like my MC goes through trying to hurt them either. Heās just very torn. ANd itās not like heās gonna out right flirt with them either. SO itās not like heās doing it on purpose. Poor MC though. Heāll be getting a lot of abuse and really not meaning to hurt anyone. Does not help that my MC isnāt the greatest when it comes toā¦ certain things. Like blaming and hating himself like heāll probably be prone to do for liking both characters at the moment. Woo!
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maybe ill hold off from flirting with everyone and just settle with romancing them all separately, i dont think i can handle the consequences lmao. i will admit that the āquestionā they will ask you when you wake up absolutely threw me off for the first few playthroughs i did. i kept asking myself if they actually did kiss the mc at that time and convincing myself that no itās just a weird question to throw you off or sumthin.
i will say that i absolutely adore every ro and will be romancing them all. its very uncommon i just find a wip where every ro doesnt piss me off lmao. maybe its because i just hate ros that are mean to the mc at the start/when they first meet so seeing everyone be so fuckin nice to the mc makes my heart melt. i wont pick favorites but P definitely would be the first ro i would want to romance. something about how i imagine the mc and Pās relationship looks soā¦domestic?
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Thatās a bit strong. None of the characters will actively go out of their way to level any sort of verbal abuse against the Main Character if they are genuinely hesitant, and actively discuss their issues. Some of the cast are exceptionally sympathetic:
Extract from Chapter 2 after telling A that you aren't sure about your feelings for L
āIām not sure yet.ā I say hesitantly, keeping my gaze on the table as I try to sort through my feelings. āI havenāt, you know, decided how I really feel about @{lg him|her} yet.ā
āTake your time.ā ${an} says, voice reassuring and calm. āWhatever you decide, Iām always here if you want to talk things through with someone. Though I think itās best to warn you, Lars may differ with that opinion if you play around with his @{lg brotherās|little sisterās} feelings.ā
Reassuring, and mildly terrifying, all at the same time.
Now if you were to approach the same conversation in a hostile manner, even if it were with A who is definitely the most empathetic member of the ensemble, youād come out with an entirely different vibe. Saying that, even the most sincere indecision and apologies will only get you so far with the characters, and eventually people will start losing patience with the Main Character, but you will get plenty of warning.
You can (in universe) blame Erda for that little curve ball. Had to ask them something that would unsteady them after all. Sheās a wiley one, make no mistake.
Lovely to hear all the ROs have already wormed their way into your affections. Iām biased of course, but Iām exceptionally fond of them all, each for their own unique reasons. Iāve been working through their character arcs in recent days, refining points, integrating technical systems, reworking the pacing of intimacy build up, etc. And I swear, every single one of them have got me pretty teary eyed at one point or another. The amount of times Iāve scribbled (to myself) āYou cruel, cruel sadist you!ā across the screen is truly frightening.
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sorry, I wasnāt trying to insinuate anything or say that the characters were bad. I wasnāt trying to come on strong or that I disliked it if that was the case too. Like I said Iām all for the drama. Sorry it came across all wrongā¦
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Thatās perfectly alright, Iām just a little worried folks are going to get the impression that the game will be overly harsh with the romance system, an impression I definitely want to avoid. So I tend to jump in with explanations at the drop of a hat 
Iām surprised sometimes that I donāt start rolling out detailed charts and flow diagrams to explain my convoluted reasoning and calculations some daysā¦
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oh no I totally get it, Iām the same way with my books. ANd I def get the whole Lars is overprotective and stuff all brothers are the same way. But will he be less harsh with a shy MC? Who isnāt exactly flirting, mostly just reacting? Because if not then you might wanna have it that he is because itās a lot different if youāre actively flirting with the person trying to date them and stuff rather than mostly just reacting. Do you get what I mean? Sorry if this comes a across harshre than intended tooā¦ Iām mostly just curious and trying to help and yeahā¦ Iām really sorry.
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With Lars in particular itās probably easiest to go into a little bit of detail into his particular reactions in Chapter 2.
So mark this as your BEWARE SPOILERS BELOW moment
If the Main Character took L into the storeroom in the prologue, and in the course of chapter 1 actively ignored Lās attempts at flirtation, then turns around in chapter 2 and tries to initiate a flirtation scene with L, Lars will have strong words for the Main Character. His interaction with the Main Character is blunt, forward, and very much a big warning flag for āDonāt mess with my little brother|sisterā.
If the Main Character through ahem various means implies a torn affection between L and say another character (which can be done in chapter 2 without actively flirting), but accepted and reacted favourably to L in chapter 1 anyway, Lars will let sleeping dogs lie at least for now. Heās overprotective, but he isnāt tyrannical about it. He gets that the Main Character likely needs a bit of breathing room to make up their mind.
Lars is harsh but mostly fair. In the first scenario the player is really zig-zagging, in the second theyāre more confused. Does that make sense?
There isnāt really passive reaction after chapter 1, the Main Character will be actively entering situations with either romantic or platonic affection in mind when ever there are bonding moments with the cast. This is why the initial grace period runs dry as quickly as it does.
My Patrons have had access to this for a little while now, but I think it makes sense to put it up here as well for clarities sake. This is the active flowchart for the new romance system:
(for a readable resolution right click the image and select open in a new tab)
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That talk makes me wonder - we know the characters are generally supportive and understanding, as long as the MC doesnāt go overboardā¦
But if the MC is very shy, yet clearly attracted to one specific RO (P in my case, if that helps in answering)ā¦ How supportive and most of all encouraging will the other ROs be? I donāt mean to imply they may be jealous cause there would be no reasons, but as friends. Would they try and give the MC a little push to be more confident and start a relationship, would they simply be there to listen but avoid āpushingā them one way or anotherā¦? Iām just curious about the general reaction of the non-romanced ROs to a very shy MC whoās clearly in love with one person.
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If the Main Character flirts with (in this scenario) P alone, even if that is with the shy subtype, it will still count as flirting with them and will gradually over the chapters draw them into a relationship with their chosen paramour. The other characters are sure to lend some moral support at times, especially A and Lars. In this particular scenario, expect some light to medium teasing from L and some mild exasperation from K (probably accompanied by a sighed āWould you two just kiss and get on with it alreadyā).
The romance will maintain a shy āflavouringā, reflecting the Main Characterās personality and approach as much as the romantic interestās. The same as a confident flirtation type will lean more towards an extroverted romance. All flirtation subtypes lead to eventual relationships, so long as the Main Character does not end up on the platonic or destructive routes.
But yes, from a community support standpoint, the cast would likely go through a variation of gentle encouragement, to squeeing, to āGET ON WITH IT!ā
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with the desctructive route we can eventually get off it right?
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