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What got you to make Return to zemia

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Interesting question! I had been toying with the idea of creating an IF game for a while, but I held off while I was living in Russia. Then the summer before I started grad school, I moved back home with my family and had a ton of time on my hands. The actual idea for Zemia came from my brother, though it was nothing like what it has become. I asked him what I should write about, and he said alien abduction. Originally the MC was a regular old human, nothing special about them, just in the wrong place at the wrong time! Over the period of about a month I came up with the final story line, characters, and basic world building and wrote chapter 1 and the first part of chapter 2. It was a really productive period!

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Okay, poor Viv, he sounds less like a prince and more like a prisoner here. Did his family let him do anything at all? :worried:
I mean even the mc’s brothers, while princes, seem like they had a reasonable life at least with some, or in Yegor’s case a lot of freedom, relatively speaking.

I do wonder about our Yefim’s college experience, since my mc is very seriously considering getting himself a new, Seyvian degree (most likely in history to help him understand the alien world better). Did our brother attend incognito or openly while studying for his legal degree?

As for the cars and driving them, you know my mc can’t wait to get his hands on one of those, sweet, sweet hovercars since he first saw them in one of Yusra’s vids back on the ship most likely. So he’d definitely want to get his license asap and all the better if he could persuade Sammy and Arvin to teach him. :grin:

I do want to add to that question and ask what sort of drivers our late brothers used to be. Yegor was probably quite skilled, but did Yefim drive at all, or was he more like poor Viv due to being the crown prince?

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V isn’t a prisoner, but they have led a very sheltered life. They have never needed to drive, and it’s never really occurred to them that they should. V is a pretty nervous person, which is why they would drive like a granny–out of nerves. If they wanted to, they could learn to drive, and their staff would fall over themselves to fulfill V’s desire.

Yefim attended openly, though with heavy amounts of security

Yegor was indeed quite skilled. Yefim was capable of driving, though he rarely did. He considered it a waste of time, he could be doing other things in the car if someone else was behind the wheel

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What will it take to get Arvin and Sammy to teach my poor mc. :wink:

So, unless we are forced to become Emperor early it would be possible for my mc to attend too in the future, even if it must be with the normal security detail, to get that Seyvian history degree (and broaden his social circle outside of the palace, which is the other thing universities are potentially useful for. :thinking:

I imagine that in some alternate history cool hovercars and driving, racing and tinkering with them is a hobby my mc would have shared with Yegor and Yegor would probably have insisted on being the one to teach my mc how to drive. :sweat_smile:

Funny how my mc seems to unintentionally has shared interests with both of his brothers as he values (formal) education too (and wouldn’t have become an educator if he didn’t even if he did fall short of his dream of teaching highschool seniors or college freshmen) but he also loves technology in general and probably cars in particular and probably had a fair amount of aftermarket or custom parts on his old Earth car and he did used to compete in the robot building contest with his adoptive father back on Earth in the prologue and they probably had one or more old cars they tinkered with together too.

Or I suppose they can hook the mc up with an instructor who is serious, boring and eminently qualified, aka one of the premier driving instructors in Seyvia.
Still it would be a big priority for my mc to learn how to drive himself again, as he does already miss having his own car and hasn’t been in this situation of transportational dependency for nearly a decade now.

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I doubt Arvin would have the patience to teach the MC how to drive. Hard to say for Samir since he’s not particularly into it. Even tho he sometimes drives for fun, it’s not often, and I’m not sure he’d feel like the proper person to teach the MC. If anyone, Yusra would be the most likely candidate

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The media angle could end up being super cool, which is why Carina’s my favorite NPC by far at this point.

Carina has a lot of potential being so public, and if the MC is also extremely public that allows them to be a lot harder to keep quiet/disappear if they work against the ruler. I love intrigue in games and this one looks like it’s ripe for a lot of it. It’s interesting that the MC gets so much freedom – I look forward to seeing how this one shakes up!

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I decided to write an Arvin short if you want to check it out

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I am a simple woman, someone mentions Arvin and I appear to give my love! :heart:

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Hope you enjoyed :blush:

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I loved it!! And I got a nice kick in the heart for a moment there towards the end -because of course out of everything MC was thinking, the “wrong” thing would come out, and by the gods do I relate to that-
Ah, Arvin what champ he can be when he’s not being a hardass

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It’s good of course, but my particular flavour will probably remain Sammy and male mc. :wink:

Edit, I saw the monopoly game ask on Tumblr, and now I’ve got to know with the advanced alien VR tech what sort of video games are actually popular on Zemia and how much and what sort of a video gamer is everybody, if indeed they are one at all?

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Tech may be different, but I don’t see there being much difference in terms of popular genres.

  • A - appreciates VR simulation as a training tool, would not play for fun
  • C - not interested at all
  • H - probably likes video games the most, prefers “casual” games like animal crossing
  • J - also not interested
  • K - could probably be convinced to play a multiplayer game (think Mario Kart, not BF)
  • L - might play with her siblings when she goes home
  • S - also not interested
  • V - also not interested
  • Y - appreciates the tech more than the medium, probably enjoys modding games more than playing them

Also! We just reached 200 likes yay :heart_eyes::grin::sob:

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Those boys have wonderful enough lives they’re that not interested in escapism at all? :astonished:

As for my mc he would obviously like Earth video games for the escapism value of at least briefly returning to a culture where he would not feel like the alien. :sweat_smile:
But since he hasn’t got any of those he’d probably prefer educational games and simulations as he has a lot of “catching up” to do. Would be terribly embarrassed about the staff or any of the others, except maybe Yusra whose help he’d probably need to obtain them without requesting them from the normal staff, finding out he has them though. :thinking: :sweat_smile: I mean a grown man (and a handsome one at that) learning the alphabet and spelling as well as basic geography from a cutesy animated pink elephant-esque, yeah. :sweat_smile:

Fitness is a health and body image thing, for my mc at least and while it can be fun it’s not his primary means of escapism.
So what are some of Sammy’s hobbies anyway?

So for what nefarious purposes will Sammy and male Viv (is there even a difference in goals/motivations between the various gender iterations of Viv?) try to use our poor mc. :worried: :sweat_smile:

So J. probably already knows by now that my mc is trying to set up and maintain communications with the current prime minister behind the Emperor’s back and trying to obtain educational materials and videogames from Yusra. :worried:

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There are other ways to escape! Every character has their own hobbies.

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Don’t know how or why I haven’t checked this one out, but it’s pretty interesting.

Which is why as soon as my mc came to the conclusion that his chances of escape are currently non-existent he began to worm his way into the hearts of those he could manipulate while keeping himself closed off. Like when we train with L.

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Welcome aboard! Thank you for taking the time to read my work and comment :slight_smile:

Samir’s main hobby is something I hope to include in the game because it presents rather a perfect opportunity for a romantic moment with the MC! The bad news is that means I won’t answer your question haha

Who’s to say they are included in the 6/10 characters who are trying to manipulate the MC? :zipper_mouth_face: And if they are, I still don’t want to reveal what they want from the MC. The only thing I am willing to say is that there are no differences between the F/M/NB Vs. Apart from a few changes in appearance, they are exactly the same character.

As for what J does and does not know right now–it’s safe to assume he probably knows a lot.

One note, I don’t receive a notification when you modify your posts to include additional commentary and/or questions unless you include a new quotation from me (directly from the forum, quoting my tumblr passage did not notify me) or perhaps tag me. The only reason I saw your new comments is because Bahamuht commented, and I looked at the thread again! So if you want me to notice something new, make sure you do something that will send me a notification!

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Depending on what exactly they’re gonna put in the press release there are also advantages to our current situation, at least for my mc, though at the moment they’re minor and not enough to outweigh the cons, but not having to teach little brats anymore, his new clothes/wardrobe (possibly) and the fact that he’s apparently (sort of) dating a boy who would have been way out of his league back on Earth.

Since as you put it, escape is impossible, my mc is most immediately focused on mastering the language and learning to read and write again (as he will never completely trust the implant, plus it’s embarrassing as heck for a supposed prince to not be able to communicate) . After that comes a more general education although right after language acquisition for my mc would probably be learning how to drive again, as not being able to drive himself really does make him feel trapped and helpless, even if there’s nowhere he could go even if he could. Still being able to drive again would relax him, mentally and physically so it is a fairly high priority for my mc, right after language and very basic cultural stuff. :sweat_smile:

After that comes long(er) term planning but that would depend on so many variables and that’s out of my mc’s grasp for now. Though I do have some vague ideas for that, my mc himself doesn’t…yet.

Addendum:
Since the author put so many character themed songs up on the tumblr. This one succinctly sort of summarises my mc’s many confusing feelings after the kidnap and about his new life and it’s even in his fave style: classic rock! :grinning:

Yeah, but no offense to mr. Trump a proper prince probably needs an academic level of language and communication skills, not an elementary school one. :unamused:

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Well we can start that pretty quickly while on the ship by talking with Hasan.

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Ooh, I saw the smut prompts, can I perchance request a number 46 with male mc and Sammy?

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