lacewing-if

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In case you guys wonder what I’ve been doing lately…

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Saw someone say AI is fine to use in IF writing to churn out content faster.

Brother, ew.

Went on to say that authors would appreciate it that it could make their work easier. As an author do I complain about coding? Yes. Do I complain about branching? Yes. Do I complain about having write even 5 pages a day? Yes. Did I ever think about using AI in my writing? Fuck no.

Not only is it a thief and bad for the environment but it is also has effects on the brain and your skills. Like there are stats on this.

I feel a great sense of pride and accomplishment when I finish writing an episode/chapter. I would not feel relief if I gave that to ChatGPT, I would feel like a fraud

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Readers be like: I cant wait to see what's next!

Me, who has never planned a fucking thing in my life: Me neither!

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LACEY, MAKE KAEDAN AN RO AND MY LIFE SHALL BE YOURSS

Don’t worry! Kaedan/Kaela is already a RO. No need to give up your life lol 😂

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Jade: Your favorite relationship between two characters

Hmm… I guess it would have to be between STABH!MC and an upcoming RO in chapter 6 (yup, there’s another one). They have this very intense relationship where they really, really hate each other but they are also incredibly obsessed with one another. It’s kind of a funny dynamic, really, cuz even though these two are like enemies, they are pretty similar to each other, kind of like the same person but with different skin 😂 Their relationship is basically the enemies to lovers of my dream, but I’ll have to see how it turns out when I actually write it 😂 As for things that’s already been written, though, my favorite relationship is probably between My Glasses!MC and Thanh. Two people arguing with each other like bratty little babies (I mean, they technically are just high school children). Did I mention how much I love rivals/enemies to lovers? 😁

Recently I’ve reread STABH and I also quite like the relationship between STABH!MC and her best/only friend/cousin Cindy. I feel like I’ve pretty much captured the insecurities and nuances within the relationship, so I’m pretty proud about that.

Thanks for asking! 💕

You can find other gemstone asks here.

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I need Kaedan as an RO, nvm, as the love of my life

And the love of your life you shall have ✨ Kaedan/Kaela is actually a RO already! It’s definitely confusing since there isn’t an option to choose their gender, but that’s because they are set to be the same gender as Charlie. The fact that I haven’t included them in the RO list doesn’t help, either 😂 It does surprise me how Kae is so loved, though. I thought they wouldn’t make that much of an impression with the little time they had, but it seems that I was wrong 😂

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Bug here, after kicking Bobby and MC grabbing Ashton and running out, the game ends

Hi, a few people have actually reported to me about a similar bug but in a different part of the game. I’m still not sure what it is, though, because I wasn’t able to replicate the bug when doing a test run (I played on my phone). If anyone knows what’s going on, it would be very appreciated 🙏

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Hi! In the STABH's demo there is a bug

After MC kicks Bobby when he tries to punch her (after she puts Bobby in his place with words), the games acts like Ashton threw Bobby through the cafeteria defending MC instead of MC kicking Bobby and defending herself

Hi, I just fixed that. Thanks for telling me! <3

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so i assume based on your usage of "female socialization" and such, she's locked "cis female"? if it's the "socialization" that matters, why can't MC be afab but recently come out as nonbinary or transmasc or intersex? if there is little room allowed for variation, why *did* you decide to not keep it a novel?

I think I’ve said a lot more things than female socialization, haven’t I? And furthermore, do you wish to have a cisgender woman - who doesn’t personally experience nor fully understand the nuances of nonbinary, transmasc, or intersex identities - write about a nonbinary, transmasc, or intersex person? STABH isn't like My Glasses, where it's kind of like a fantasy land where gender identity doesn't exactly matter. When a lot of MC's identity is so centered around being a woman, I cannot just nilly willy write in a nonbinary, transmasc, or intersex MC just for the sake of diversity or "variation". It feels disingenuous, and I think nonbinary, transmasc, and intersex people deserve better than that.

And as for why making STABH a game? ...Because a game doesn't need variation? Call me crazy but there is literally a type of game called Kinetic Novel where there is no gameplay, no game option. If you search up games on IFComp or somewhere else, I assure you there will be an IF variation of this. After all, games, films, or novels are just different medium of storytelling. I made the creative decision to turn this story into a game because I find this a very immersive and intimate medium, and readers can really immerse into the thoughts and feelings of the main character. When I first looked at STABH as a game, it felt like everything just clicked.

And that is not to mention the age old question when there are multiple love interests in a story: who to choose out of these hotties? That's also why I made it into a game.

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Hello darling!

I just had a quick question. The answer may already be here and I missed it, but I figured I would ask.

Is STABH only a harem IF? Or are there individual only routes? I had read a little bit and I understand that MC has a set personality and such. I got to the part where Charlie pulls MC up and no matter what she reacts in an, "I'm attracted to this person," way.

I want to also include that I have nothing against harem routes or polygamy, but I like the option to go individual as well. I usually prefer those, but that's just my preference.

Thank you in advance ❤️

Hi there! 💕 You can definitely go individual in STABH, it’s just that all characters will love MC no matter what (it’s a reverse harem after all), and the MC will canonically have a crush on certain people for plot reasons. But MC’s crush is only in the beginning, and you can definitely veto it later on.

Thanks for asking! ❤️

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from the gem ask prompt: emerald and carnelian!

Hi, thanks for asking! 💕 There’s no specifying whether you want to ask about STABH or My Glasses so I hope you don’t mind me answering both 😁

Emerald: Which of your characters is hardest to write?

Charlie and Jaime, and Minh at first. So basically, like, 60% of the major characters I’ve churned out so far 😂

I’ve always planned for Minh to be a class clown, but the problem is I don’t know how the heck a class clown acts like, so it was one hell of a struggle writing them. Thankfully they still turned out fine, but honestly I think it’s more out of luck than anything. Until now, I still can’t quite figure out their character. (Isn’t it lucky that My Glasses is such a short game? 😂)

Charlie and Jaime kind of die a painful death in my hands 😂 The problem is that I envision them to be those two-faced, bitch-in-a-sheep’s-clothing love interests in shoujo manga, but since both stories are written in MC’s perspective, you can only see the sheep clothing. And I suck at writing sheep’s clothing (I can only write a bitch 😭).

Carnelian: Does the story have a lesson to learn? What is it?

My motto for writing in general is to never include any moral lessons at all, because I am really not the one to teach anyone anything 😂 I just want to write something for my past (and present) self and for people who are like me, that’s all. I guess if there has to be any lessons, it’d probably be “be a dumbass, it makes more drama” or “do it for the plot” (jk jk 😂)

You can find other gemstone asks here.

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Hello Lacey. I saw you reblogging the gemstone ask and I've been dying to ask you the tiger eye's one since My Glasses is one of my favorite ifs as an anime lover ^-^

Tiger's Eye: What are the tropes of your main cast?

Hehe thanks for asking! 💖 It's always a pleasure to see fellow anime lovers. When I wrote My Glasses, I definitely got a lot of influences from anime. It's my entire childhood, after all 😂 So yeah, there's a lot of anime tropes I used for the characters. I just don't know exactly what their names are 😂

Minh - Yeah... I'm not really sure what their trope is 😂 When I first came up with Minh, I was envisioning this popular ✨ social butterfly ✨, a ✨ smooth talker ✨, a ✨flirt ✨ And when I got to actual writing, they became this little pathetique moew moew (borrowed from one of Itch commentors) who has no game whatsoever. I guess the closest to them would be one of those clownish best friend from shounen series, kinda like the white haired guy from Beelzebub (I haven't read much of Beelzebub so don't @ me on this 😂 My friend who have told me she saw the point, though. "A comic relief who's also living their life pathetically, yeah, I see it", she said 😂)

Jaime - You know those guys in shoujo manga who's like one huge bitch in a sheep clothing? The nice, genteel guy who has like a Dark Side™ in him? Yeah, that's Jaime. Also teenage mafia boss, high school soap opera antagonist, the popular, the jock.

Thanh - Tsundere. Yeah, this one's quick. Also gloomy otaku. Also chuunibyou.

You can find other Gemstone themed asks here.

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Gemstone themed Writeblr asks

Amethyst: Who is the Comfort Character™ of your wip

Jade: Your favorite relationship between two characters

Rose Quartz: Were any characters cut from the wip?

Amber: Something you learned from writing your wip

Sapphire: The most upbeat dialog or overall scene in your wip

Emerald: Which of your characters is hardest to write?

Opal: What motivates your protagonist to complete their goal?

Lapis: What makes your antagonist ‘the bad guy’

Topaz: What is the main conflict of your wip?

Malachite: What do the characters have to lose?

Carnelian: Does the story have a lesson to learn? What is it?

Pyrite: Could the antagonist and protagonist ever be friends?

Ruby: Is there any symbolism used in your wip?

Tiger's Eye: What are the tropes of your main cast?

Peridot: What is your protagonist’s greatest strength / weakness

Jasper: What is your antagonist’s greatest strength / weakness

Labradorite: What made you fall in love with your wip? What motivates you to write it?

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hello gorgeous, i tried playing STABH but it gives me an error message as soon as i click on RUN GAME: "couldn't load scene 'chap6' The file doesn't exist.", after that the game doesn't start at all, maybe you should look into it when you have time, take care ^^

Hi babe, I just fixed it! Thanks for telling me ❤️

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I AM DEAD your post appeared on my tumblr and i looked at your content and when i saw harem i was like: yessss finally my boy harem and i played and i love the game. Having supernatural li's i am just infantuated with your game <3 thanks for your work it means a lot to me.

Omg thank you for your kind words! 💖💞✨ I swear reverse harem is such a great genre, I just have to write it. Your boy harem is going to keep expanding, so stay tuned!

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is there a particular reason the MC is genderlocked "female"?

Hi, thanks for asking! I’ve actually been waiting for a question like this (more reason to blab lol).

STABH was originally a novel that I wrote for funsies to deal with my perfectionism. When I turned it into a game, I did think about making it gender selectable, but it really wouldn’t work. The MC is very set in terms of personality, mannerism, relationships with other people, etc… Everything about her is very female-coded. A person with a gender study would explain it better than me, but her dynamic with the world around her would be very different if she were another gender.

A specific case would be MC and Allison’s rivalry. Their dynamic is very deeply rooted in female socialization. It wouldn’t work if MC were, say, a guy. If I were to make MC gender selectable, I would have to make Allison’s gender changeable, too. Not only that, I would have to change Allison’s whole characterization, tailoring to each gender, and that just takes too much brain power for something supposed to be fun and casual for me.

Finally, and this is something more personal to me, I write MC with a very specific image in mind: an angry, bitter girl failure, a friendless idiot, a girl who is not “nice”. I do this because I am not a big fan of how women are usually portrayed in fictions. Either they have to be a virtuous saintess, or they have to live up to the image of a “strong” commercial girlboss, or worse, both. In whichever cases, they always have to prove their worth to the world in order to justify their existence, and I’m just not a fan of it. This is really a case of “I don’t see it so I write it”.

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Gender locked protag? NoOoOoOoOoOo…🧎‍♂️….

………..

…………..

*reads anyway*

(This is a joke obviously, I know it’s your story and your creative decision!)

Lol I get what you mean. I always self insert in games, so I usually just play ones where MC can be the same gender as me. That being said, thank you for still giving this story a chance 🫶💕