(WIP) Drink Your Villain Juice! (Superpowers, Horror | 425k) Updated 23rd February 2026

[jjc73]

Yay! That, is.

Idk how to feel about that yet.

[izzily]

RE Self-care: it’s going to have an effect on a couple things! I could maybe have implemented a couple of them a bit sooner but at minimum it’s going to increment suspicion from some parties if you’re still a hot mess.

@GenericUsername

Re-Edit: I read the code wrong- The entire issue I was having is because helping Ghoul via the ‘power interaction option’ is somehow extremely exhausting when I thought it wouldn’t be since you don’t really do anything yourself. It sets the variable to 5 which was the entire reason I kept getting blocked as poutcome has to be below 3.

This is an oversight! Good catch, I’ll get that fixed.

@eTootsi

Oh, thank you! This should be interesting!

Oh. Catalyst, please don’t do what I think you’re about to do.

Edit: OH. Oh. Oh… yeah, this makes everything all the more complicated

He has had a difficult time. but he also makes that everyone else’s problem, especially Dime.

@RandomString

This might be just me since it’s been a while since I’ve fully read the early parts of the game and there might be a story/character reason for it but why does standing up to Catalyst when you’re feeding The Project only check for guts and not hand to hand fighting as well?

I noticed when you choose the simple “just kick their ass” options against both Ranger and Cannibal the game checks for both guts and hand to hand so I was wondering why this was an expection.

For Cannibal and Ranger, they’re scenarios where good technique can substitute for raw strength. Ranger is, bluntly, not that good of a fighter, while Cannibal is overly reliant on their augments and gets caught out by Dime going toe-to-toe.

In the case of Catalyst, he’s trained in the same stuff as Dime, so hand to hand kind of neutralises, especially since his power relies entirely on effective striking. The text in question is guts-only because it’s him being taken off guard by Dime being that strong. Plus, it’s not exactly a check, just different flavour (though I know one is more satisfying than the other). Mostly, I don’t want any of the fighting styles to overlap entirely with any of the skills. There’s a few instances peppered throughout where a fighting style can ring in, though.

[reyn.ag]

Just finished the WIP today, It’s definitely one of the best stories I’ve read so far. Great character heavy and backstory heavy writing. Emotionally engaging and interesting.

The action scenes were nice although the romance was a bit lacking. The themes of losing one’s loved ones was definitely resonating. The story was very unique and engaging although pacing was a bit slow but it was never boring.

[izzilyssecretary]

romance is not fully implemented yet (most ros actually have kinda nothing right now, which teddie is getting smoething soon actually…) so if it feels lacking, its because it is since it kinda not the main focus of the story, in a sense!

thanks for the feedback! if you have any examples of game sections being slow, feel free to share

[reyn.ag]

Thanks for the response, yeah this WIP despite its very goofy name is a very dark and mature story, top 3 on my WIP list so far for sure. Keep up the good work, Im a huge fan already.

But yes the story has a very strong MC backstory related past, great writing main character wise but romance wise its kind of lacking. The romance interests are not really unique and they aren’t integrated into the story well, I didn’t know much about them and their presence isnt that important story or character wise. Also it feels like some characters behave very similarly, quirky, snarky and quippy. Wyrd, Ghoul and CG kinda feels the same to me. Meanwhile Beth, Teddy and Kay are more distinct and unique.

Also I definitely feel the game is a bit slow because there’s no main motivation for the story, like the back story is great but what’s the main emphasis on the story?

Is the MC doing this for the juice and without it they will die painfully? or is the MC searching for something? revenge? What is the main motivator? Story and character based motivators would make the story better. I think maybe thats one of the reasons it feels slow sometimes to me.

There’s also a lack of conflict story wise between characters despite the opportunities to do so. So the MC works for one group and is undercover inside another group and while undercover the MC fights the heroes once in a while. So there’s a total of 3 sides but not that many conflict. I don’t remember MC fighting Phalanx for example before the big reveal

I think the lack of meaningful character with the team and enemies makes it feel a bit slow at times, the action scenes were nice but it was mostly fighting a team I don’t know much about and I have no personal connection off.

For a bonus point it would be nice if there were gender selectable romance options for all of the characters.

But yeah thats my thoughts on it, all in all I enjoyed the story and hope for more conflict, drama thriller elements with superhero action and romance. Keep up the good work.

[Velocity_Raptor]

@izzily

RE Self-care: it’s going to have an effect on a couple things! I could maybe have implemented a couple of them a bit sooner but at minimum it’s going to increment suspicion from some parties if you’re still a hot mess.

Hey now, being a hot mess is a personal choice! That’s my Dime’s aesthetic, don’t judge

More seriously though – I’m strongly hoping for a route where a particular part of your past can get ferreted out based on your choices (Kay and a not-so-innocent comment about labs springs to mind…) …and ignoring self-care is my way of hinting that my Dime expects to either melt into that puddle of goo or go down swinging; which does not necessarily mean that they have any interest in betraying anyone who doesn’t richly deserve it.

While I’m talking suspicion mechanics, I’m also really hoping for a ‘reliable’ metric: yes, you may be suspicious – or just keeping things close to the chest, or asking a lot of questions because you are a villain with trust issues, which… probably doesn’t translate to ‘suspicious’ so much as ‘potentially concerning’ for Mal & Dion – but if you’ve historically had your team’s back, one would think that should factor into the calculation.

Maybe they’ll test your loyalty to figure out which side of the scale you balance on if you’re being too much of an enigma, who knows. (The author. The author knows.)

[Nm6k]

@Velocity_Raptor

I’m also really hoping for a ‘reliable’ metric

I think the relationship stat will server as that looking at the code when later chapter suspicion checks happens

[Velocity_Raptor]

@reyn.ag

Also it feels like some characters behave very similarly, quirky, snarky and quippy. Wyrd, Ghoul and CG kinda feels the same to me. Meanwhile Beth, Teddy and Kay are more distinct and unique.

Also I definitely feel the game is a bit slow because there’s no main motivation for the story, like the back story is great but what’s the main emphasis on the story?

Is the MC doing this for the juice and without it they will die painfully? or is the MC searching for something? revenge? What is the main motivator? Story and character based motivators would make the story better. I think maybe thats one of the reasons it feels slow sometimes to me.

1. I have also most definitely noticed the sameness of characters and their style of interaction. The ‘snippy banter’ seems to be the go-to standard characterization, which leads to a lack of uniqueness/differentiation among characters, and can often feel like conversing with several of them is just more of the same one person.

2. This is where the author is giving leeway to choose your own motivation: do you want revenge against the Coven? Do you want a cure? Do you just want to escape? Do you love your new powers? Do you love them enough you don’t care what you have to do in order to hang onto them? Do you love them so much you don’t care what you turn into if you indulge in them? There’s various choices that come up where you can set Dime’s attitude/perception toward certain things/people/situations, which influence the narrative delivered (if the game isn’t letting you play toward your motivations, definitely put that in feedback) – I expect we’ll be given a branch at some upcoming point which sets our direction more firmly. So far, this has been playing out fairly organically with ‘do you lie to the Coven / pass information on/to people you maybe shouldn’t / squabble with your handler/etc.’ and is doing a bit of tracking on that in the background.

Overall, I’ve found this one of the better IFs for being reactive towards your choices (so long as those choices are provided), and Izzily’s been pretty good about being receptive to feedback so if you’re finding yourself adrift without an option to choose a specific motivation, you could maybe drop a line about a part of the story where you’d really like to have one?

[Velocity_Raptor]

@Nm6k

I think the relationship stat will server as that looking at the code when later chapter suspicion checks happens

Ah, see no, I don’t like that – I’m apparently a strange specimen of creature in that I believe you don’t have to like someone to treat them right, and you don’t have to have a snuggly relationship in order to work together. A lot of IFs do work this way; I just don’t find it satisfactory.

It feels pretty cheap when a character goes ‘no, I don’t trust you and won’t work with you – because of that one time you said (honestly) I look fat in my outfit’

[izzilyssecretary]

interactive fiction means we are limited in how qe can create a verisimilitude of real life relationship. We can achieve a partial one without putting too many hours into it - which in interactive fiction it’s kinda a game of how many hours do you want to put into a project to complete it.

A complete verisimilitude where characters are able to is a large amount of data to react in nuance ways. For example: “you said Im fat but later you said I lost weight so now I’m confused” is a lot of work (you can see some of it in DYVJ with the humour choice , hehe). It probably takes hours to set and correctly code one of these choices.

In regards to trust (and doubt) meters, DYVJ has both with CG, Dion, etc; but they can’t really emulate the nuance of realness because this is largely a 1.5 person project lawl

Anyways thank for the comments! Will look over for things we can put into the stories (like characters feeling same-y ) so if you have examples of it feel free to share!

[Nm6k]

@Velocity_Raptor

I’m also really hoping for a ‘reliable’ metric: yes, you may be suspicious

Actually looking at the code again CG has a trust stat separate from her relationship stat but just her so far, the others just have a suspicion stat

[Velocity_Raptor]

Yeah, that’s more of what I was getting at. Some of the things that tick the suspicion meter up are also not so much ‘you’re a suspicious person’ as they are ‘oh no, you’re observant and that makes my own job harder’ rather than you actually doing anything that would reasonably give you away.

[Velocity_Raptor]

@izzilyssecretary

A complete verisimilitude where characters are able to is a large amount of data to react in nuance ways. For example: “you said Im fat but later you said I lost weight so now I’m confused” is a lot of work (you can see some of it in DYVJ with the humour choice , hehe). It probably takes hours to set and correctly code one of these choices.

Oh no, certainly wasn’t complaining – I definitely wouldn’t be here participating if I didn’t see promise in the project, and I love how DYVJ makes good use of variables; it’s probably the best I’ve encountered. Rest assured, I am well aware of how much work is evidenced here and am duly impressed.

Your problem is that you’ve spoiled me – I see a doubt tracker and I’m instantly like ‘okay, but what about all the times I’ve gone above and beyond for you (even at great risk to Dime’s health and continued existence) regardless of whether I shared my personal secrets – to which you would certainly not be entitled if I was on the level – does that not earn any consideration?’

The relationship status I perceive more as ‘how well do you get along’, a sort of temperature gauge for how interactions might go – all you need do is imagine those couples who are constantly squabbling yet continue to stick together. Clearly, there’s something there, even if their personalities seem to get on each others’ nerves.

Not that people don’t screw others over simply because ‘I don’t like you;’ but as far as mechanics go, in a game that’s building pretty heavily on them to determine how it plays out (being less than transparent with Hypothesis, for example), it would be dissatisfying to claim that what blows your cover is some petty personality clash.

[izzilyssecretary]

Mhmhmhm, this feels like this is grounded in an assumption on how things will work versus how things are working right now, which goes back to the limited ability to portray relationships within coding.

Which by the way we didn’t take if as like as negative critique, I think it’s an important one, it is just not what is happening right now or later.

In regards to trust and other similar meters, it is not there because if it was, people get more upset about it being visible. And it’s not spoiling anything in relationship to what you brought up because of paragraph 1. Again like you are not being like rude or bad, but it’s not lined up with what is happening, so like it’s fine

Edit: got the hidden meters backward hehe, edited for clarity

[izzily]

Patreon Update

Chapter 11, part two, is now up on patreon! It will be available publically two weeks from now. I couldn’t squeeze the Teddie relationship stuff into this in a satisfactory way, so the next update will be similar to the CG one on the Coven chapter. However, as mentioned, I’m going to be working on something a little different for the month of December, so don’t expect to see that just yet. It’s going to be more involved than CG’s scene, for sure.

• Plus 32k words from the rest of the chapter, putting the total at a beefy 62k (second longest in the story!) and the overall at 418k. Hot damn.

• Two branches, depending on how well the rest of the fight went. Fight Rocket on her home turf, or try and chase her down.

• Numerous choices for taking her on.

• The first instances where you can reach the health limit and go down!

• Getting out of dodge, getting dragged out of dodge, or waking up out of dodge!

• A nice (or less nice) chat with Teddie. Digest the ramifications of your actions.

• Bond with him. You know you want to.

[eTootsi]

Hmm, I wonder if in the ROs list in the first post, should it read as “Phalanx, AKA Beth” (with Beth blurred for spoilers, I forgot how to do it ) instead of how it is now. I feel like if someone really wanted to avoid the spoiler then Beth’s name would be more of a giveaway than her hero name. Granted they probably wouldn’t click the first spoiler tag in the first place but I feel like switching the names around and blurring Beth would be like extra insurance, does that make sense?

Edit: lol this was pretty nitpicky, feel free to dismiss it

[izzily]

Public Update

Out now on COGDemos!

[RandomString]

In the first set of choices when you start to fight Rocket after Mal gets impaled by the knife I chose the enhanced juice option and Rocket got knocked out, after I selected the choice to not continue hitting her and Dion’s comment about force, I got sent to a page where she was still councious and the fight went on as if it never happened. Looking at the code the game sent me to the second part of the fight after the enhanced juice scene.

[izzily]

Thanks for the heads up! I will get that fixed.

Edit: Fixed! Yeah, I forgot to do the *gotos there, so it was just dropping back into the second part of the fight instead of the aftermath, haha.

[Carson_Lindsey]

The popsicle event doesn’t seem to trigger.