The Augusta relationship is why I play this. Getting to reconcile with Titus and raising Augusta together makes me so happy it’s crazy. One quick question from my latest playthrough- in previous playthroughs, when I picked exactly similar choices with her and Titus, when I told her to go with Titus in the 3rd chapter she refused and said she wanted to go with me. This no longer happens- was there a modifier changed? I’m glad she’s getting along with him more but I will admit I love the conversation where she asks why I didn’t marry Julia.
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Yup, pretty much. The distress I had when she asked if Julia actually loved her. Ouch, kid. Ouch. Way to attack the feels.
I was so incredibly proud of her for standing up to her mother and being the only one to speak up for what was right (I stayed quiet in the first interaction, and then spoke up after Augusta did).
NEVER!!! 
I came for the Imperial bureaucracy simulator, and I stayed for the parental simulator. Well, I’m staying for BOTH of them, the way that being both the sole voice of good governance and making efforts to be a parent to Augusta interact is immensely satisfying. It’s also very satisfying when – depending on route – Augusta grows into her own and does the right thing. Just… lots of proud parental tears.
I am definitely glad for her outsized role in the plot. She’s such an interesting character in this situation – both having ruling responsibilities as such a young age, a potentially split household, and having “parents” with the personalities that they do. I do definitely need to check out the other versions, though it will be potentially very sad.
Also yes – I hear you on writing child characters. One of my biggest pieces of extended writing (though I’ve not gone back to it in years) was also about a child monarch and it is difficult to write! Kids are hard enough to grasp normally, but also writing them in very grown-up situations of politics and potentially war… is a lot. But you’re nailing it so far, literally no notes. Just a lot of feels 
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I checked and one of the variables was mistyped. I’ll upload a fix.
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It can get even funnier:
the monkey’s paw curls
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Oh, I totally make sure she sits in the big girl chair every time. But I also consider that part of the good parenting. She needs to do this on her own – I’ll help, but it’s gotta be her seated on the throne.
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God, that destroyed me. I legitimately didn’t know the answer to that, and the poor kid was crushed.
Titus may be a dick, but at least he is making an attempt to connect with his daughter. Julia barely acknowledges her existence except when to tell her what she’s doing wrong.
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To be fair, Julia is very pleased with little tyrant Augusta and doesn’t hesitate to let her know it, too. :v
The part that made me laugh out loud was the reaction a kinder Prefect can get there to their attempt at reason:
*choice
#"Your Highnesses, I don't believe this course of action to be right. There are better ways we can stop the Witch King's invasion." I try to appeal to their better natures.
*set imperial_favor -20
*set augusta_rel -20
*goto tyrant_notright
Like, ouch. You poor fool. Though that’s one way to bring them together, i guess. /s
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Fun Fact (that I don’t believe anyone has mentioned so I’ll point it out): That permutation and tyrant path is the first time Julia addresses her daughter by her name in the entire story.
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Damn, that’s depressing. She’s becoming the very thing she rose up against, and wants her daughter to be the same.
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It’s probably not quite the same – Julia believed the former Empress and her children to be unsuited on the grounds of not having proper judgment/interest in doing what’s best for the Empire, and putting their self-interests above all else. A difference between employing harsh measures to keep things together vs employing them for nothing but personal entertainment (and profit)
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Awesome. Thank you so much, and again, this is thr best cyoa thing I’ve ever played. I absolutely love it. Bureaucrat dad simulator rules. Great work.
This can change depending on your relationship with your daughter (and it can also change whether you raised her or not)
That is both incredibly sad and incredibly infuriating. Wow.
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But not unexpected sadly… Julia tends to see anyone not willing to be mass murdering tyrants as weak fools from what I can tell i.e Titus and empathic and dutiful version of Augusta.
Was there a wholesome scene there? I don’t recall Julia doing anything of note.
The desolation the old matriarchy brought to these people, as far as they will be informed.
We don’t need to convince the entire people, just a few key leaders to hold them together long enough to be reorganized.
And we be offering them more fertile land and riches in compensation, as well as promise of rebuilding their homeland afterwards (a scholar MC might even sell the infernal as a method of rejuvenating the land).
And we of course have to break their resolve first through the vanguard raid, than set aflame the most staunch resistance while herding the less cooperative towards a killzone near our border, there we will present them the supposed back door in their moment of despair and present them a savior they will be indebted to.
What sort of “my dog ate my homework” pathetic excuse is that? It wouldn’t be any “old matriarchy” but the very Empire and its rulers telling those people “come serve us and die for us because we’ve just burnt your land to the ground and you can now submit or die”.
That old matriarchy, its rulers, the power structure and people responsible for the burning isn’t going anywhere, unless you’re operating under some sort of delusion that you’ll stage a coup afterwards and present yourself as new, merciful government, when up to this very moment you’ve spent more than decade as the prefect for that very “old government”? I hope not, because this would be straying into pure power fantasy fanfiction.
And no one would buy such spin anyway. People who were invaded and got their lands ruined don’t let go of their grudges towards the invader simply because the head of invading state has changed. Especially not in as little as few weeks or months.
Oh yes, that’s exactly the kind of behavior that makes people you forcefully press into service think they owe you something. Other than a knife they’ll gleefully stab in your back to pay you at first opportunity.
I’m not missing this supposed point, i just call it a delusion with no basis in reality. Your MC is in no way conceivably at odds with imperial establishment, your idea of “saving” is anything but, and you are overlooking that any personal loyalty wouldn’t stop those people from inflicting their vengeance on those they feel zero loyalty and full scorn towards, i.e. the imperial establishment along with the rest of the country.
I believe that’s a reference to the scene where Julia confides in a Prefect that romances her that this war might kill her.
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You seem to be missing the point, their loyalty as a result will not be towards Julia (who conceivably would not have long to live anyway) or the Empire, but to the savior figure itself, someone who can conceivably be at odds with the imperial establishment, but powerful enough to have their own say within it.
Plus if we are white enough, a paragon Augusta might just end up having a power base of her own to work with through this plan.
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As a Julia simp I was disappointed that our ice empress/girl boss only opens up to you more if you play a schemer who Kills Titus and doesn’t love her. Quite sad for both Julia and the reader.
I alternatively played a dutiful mc who was the most devoted with the motive of love even personally killed every possible branch of the old line, Titus and both sisters to later barely get the equivalent of a casual good job honey now you can be consort after 14 years.
I guess the point of this comment if there is one, is about how such devotion and loyalty seems unrewarded or not as gratifying, in comparison to the kind of intimacy or vulnerability displayed with a power hungry schemer mc.
All that said I love the new chapter and the wip.