Scapegoated (WIP) - '70s Hollywood, Music '&' Murder [128K words]

Sorry, I received 5 bug reports in close succession and corrected them because they were big ones following a Chapter 1 update earlier today. Apologies! I will not be touching it for the foreseeable future if I can help it :sob:

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Thanks for telling me. I’m glad it was just rapid-fire updates and not any technical issue.

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I love this IF so much, and finally getting around to commenting :sparkling_heart: I really enjoy your writing style, and each update leaves me hanging, excited for the next one. I (probably) understand why Leon is not a RO (since his meditation sesh) buuuuut aaahh :broken_heart: He’s my favourite mess.
That is not a criticism at all though to genderlocking the MC and making Leon’s relationship with them platonic as the other RO’s are also fascinating to me and I can’t wait to figure out their stories. I am also really enjoying the friendship between Shi, Leon and the MC. I like all the RO’s so far, and am stuck on who to choose, and it makes me very nervous about seeing the ā€œAliveā€ section on the stat page for characters :face_with_peeking_eye: For me personally, mortal IF characters are like the fictional equivalent of my plants in IRL - If there’s a chance they gonna die, I’m gonna be too dumb to keep them alive :sob:.
On a lighter note, I also like the fact that I can pick my clothing style for my MC but then she shows up in different outfits, because rather than choosing what my outfit at the start (or throughout the game), I get a nice surprise each time!
Not that I’m an expert on that era but to me the name drops and descriptions are amazing, I really feel like I’m there in that time and place!
I have, and will be eagerly following this one along.

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I’m glad you’re enjoying! This story has been such a joy to write–so I’m hoping you love Chapter 2 even more once it comes :slight_smile:

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I meant to comment when the story first dropped, but I didn’t get the chance—and by the time I came back, I realized I’d missed a whole major update! Jumping back in just reminded me how much I’ve missed playing a genderlocked female MC IFs—especially one this fleshed out.

I must confess, at first I didn’t realize that some of the names mentioned were actual artists. I assumed they were just fictional characters—until I encountered a reference to The Beatles, the choice of having composed a song about George Harrison (or was it John Lennon ?). That was my ā€œwait a minuteā€¦ā€ moment, and now I find myself running each character’s name through the search bar just to discover who they are. As someone who’s not familiar with 60s America or its music scene (that’s more my parents’ generation), some things definitely flew over my head.

I like how you incorporated the MC—a fictional character—( along with the band and your original characters ), as an already established, recognized artist, in a real word setting among actual people who acknowledge her popularity ( rather than constantly having to introduce herself ), with some falling under her charm and others befriending her, and none of it feels forced. It genuinely feels like I’m playing an RPG with an insert your original character and having the chance to interact with famous musicians. I won’t lie, it brought back memories of a Hannah Montana game I used to play as a kid.

As someone who enjoys interactive fiction primarily for the character interactions, this one truly delivers. The abundance of dialogue options and the freedom to shape the MC’s personality are such a treat. As much as I like ROs flustering the MC, I also really appreciate how the MC can tease the guys and actually make them flustered. I didn’t realize how much I’d enjoy making men blush. Besides, It was nice to have the option to define what lovemaking means for the MC.

Penn is just… adorable. A total cutie — even though I wasn’t really a fan at first during the interview. Maybe I just didn’t get the joke ? I also like how MC got all business like and was the one leading the interview instead of the recruiter and him just going along with it ( aaah, I can’t wait for the filmmaking scenes! I had her prep and read the script every chance i got ).
The whole
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calling a cab, driving you home, bringing water, escorting you out, holding doors for you, (I also like the fact that she is taller than him). Meanwhile, a certain someone is straight-up the catalyst for the disbanding, the reason you end up the scapegoat, and he has the nerve to leave without so much as a goodbye or an apology.

By the way—since the saves aren’t working anymore, I ended up combing through the code to find that one scene, these may not be the exact words but it went something like this, where the MC says,

ā€œI’m not asking you to marry me,ā€

and Vince responds with something like,

ā€œEven if you did, it’s already consummated.ā€

I know I didn’t imagine that scene, but I can’t find it anywhere. Was it removed? I also noticed that the hand-tending scene got revamped. It originally felt a bit rushed, like we skipped over a lot of important conversation about everything that happened while we were apart, so I really liked the new additions I found in the code.

I think I’ll hold off on playing for now until the save/reset situation gets resolved. I’ve lost count of how many save files have gone up in smoke. Some were random, sure—but others were like bookmarks I used to return to a passage I found funny or a choice I would like to go back to try.

Here have a glimpse




Now, Leon… Leon is delightfully eccentric, weird, and still a total cultured king. He owned that interview.

ā€œFine, then, the implication here is that you’re all uninvolved. Am I right in making that presumption?ā€ Bobby asks.

You don’t even have to jump in—Leon beats you to it.
ā€œI’m flattered, but you’re a married man and I would prefer to respect that.ā€

Bobby pushes his tongue against the inside of his cheek (*) tongue-in-cheek-gif. ā€œFunny guy.ā€ He glances at you. ā€œHe’s a catch. I can’t see why you’re not all over him—truly.ā€

The usual brief laughter fills the air, and Bobby continues once it settles.

I’m asking myself the same question, Bobby.

If Leon were romanceable, he might just outrank Vince (sorry Vince, but your bad boy image is hanging by a thread). Honestly, he might even challenge Pen for the top spot—if he spent a little more time running on the ground instead of floating in the clouds, long enough to actually process his own emotions — or notice someone else’s — to actually feel things, not just vibe through them.

What really stands out to me is how alive all the characters feel. Their mannerisms, facial expressions (*) , how they sit or move, what they’re doing with their hands ( like Pen fidgeting with his bag’s straps )—those details really make the scenes vivid. It’s like you can actually see them. And the attention to what they’re wearing each time helps build that mental image even more. On that note—thank you for not making us manually choose our outfits every time ! I really appreciate how the wardrobe just follows the style we picked.

There are probably a ton of things—moments, feelings, little details that deserve to be highlighted— I’m forgetting to mention or I just can’t seem to articulate.

Well, i can’t wait to find out why the killer is sending photos of his victims, and why he chose to send them to these specific persons.

Overall, Scapegoated really feels like such a labor of love. Thank you for spoiling us.

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Wow, that ā€œglimpseā€ threw me for a loop. The ā€œWTF is happeningā€ and the ā€œVince is a sissyā€ made me audibly laugh, so thank you!

I’m glad you’re so invested in my IF and my characters! There are so many nuggets in this IF that pay homage to real people and just real things that happened in the '60s and '70s (some more apparent than others), so I’m glad you’re looking into things and not letting them go over your head.

I adore Leon too, but I do think platonicism is grossly underrated!

The save options keep altering because I keep fixing any bugs and errors that have been appearing for readers (reported to me via Tumblr). The biggest ā€œfixā€ so far is the rewrite of the scene with Vince in the restaurant kitchen in Chapter 1. I received some feedback that shared your sentiment, so I just scratched it and rewrote it entirely; there are certain things I do want to change still, but I plan to do a proper edit of my demo closer to when I complete Chapter 2 (which I still have yet to start–I’m still developing my early days plan into a cohesive, detailed and bullet-pointed outline). That rewrite made me realised I haven’t actually edited any of my writing yet–it’s all in a state of first draft, which is mortifying.

But in general, I can only say thank you again; I truly am at a loss for words. Scapegoated is my baby and it’s lived in my head for so long as the loose threads of a story I’ve always wanted to write eventually, so it’s been really satisfying to do SOMETHING with it.

I adore you tenfold!

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Usually I’m a silent reader but this IF got me hooked so fast and I binge-read it in one go cause it’s just so good. I love the setting, the characters, the MC - and it’s all so immersive.

Thank you for writing this, I’m so excited for future chapters and I wish you all the best!

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Thank you! I’m so glad you enjoyed :blossom: Appreciate you

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I’m really enjoying the chemistry between the MC and all the ROs! Each character feels unique and well-developed. Penn’s adorableness is definitely hard to resist, but I also have a soft spot for Leon’s quirky charm. The dynamics among them make the story so engaging!

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That was two things I was really nervous about, how different each individual character is and how engaging my writing style is, so it’s truly a relief to hear. Thank you so much! :yellow_heart:

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soo i’ve been so obsessed with my mc that i decided to make her and penn in the sims 3 to play dollies with them. just in case the mc is doomed or something i have an alternate universe where she lives forever, remains beautiful and beloved, and has a bunch of pretty babies with her man and lives happily ever after :sparkling_heart::sparkling_heart::sparkling_heart: (the ā€œstatus: aliveā€ under all the descriptions scares me :sparkling_heart:) and then i decided to make everybody else too so my girlie could have her bffs, but i got bored of fighting for my life with create-a-sim for the guys after doing shiloh, leon, and vince because it was Grim. i swear i’ve downloaded all of the good custom content for men and it’s still, like, not even that great. but i thought i’d share anyhowww

the simsss


here’s my queen dominique <3


penn, my goat, my beloved, whomst i would kill and die for.

and then there’s the boys…




i tried to go off pictures on the pinterest boards for penn, vince, leon, and shiloh, and i think i did pretty good for it being impossible to make male sims that look good most of the time…but shiloh…sliders don’t exist to make him look how i wanted… but we cope…

nothing TOO crazy has happened with them, which is Mildly surprising because of the mods i have installed. the only news worth passing on from the alternate universe is vince? became a vampire groupie? leon has gotten robbed multiple times, and shiloh had a baby with one of the townies. all in all they’re doing great lmfao. hoping ummm that the love and light will reach them in the actual game as well :smiley:

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alternate universe vince, shiloh and leon don’t feel that alternate to me… those are things that would actually happen in the scapegoated universe at this point haha, AND I LOVEEE this!! thank you, this is so flattering and so fun! i love dominique! she’s beautiful, friend! i love everything about this… thank you thank you thank you

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