stillthewc

[stillthewc]

Introducing...the Hundred Line Hundred-Day Anniversary Drabblefest!

(if you have better name ideas message me)

This event will celebrate one hundred days since the game's release (timed from the official release date, April 24th) with drabbles! You can write about anything you'd like, but closer to the date, a short list of possible prompts will be posted. You are not obligated to follow those prompts.

More information and rules under the cut:

The official date of the event is August 2nd. You can post at any time, from any timezone, as long as it's that date somewhere.

Drabbles must be a multiple of 100 words. 100 words exactly is preferable, but double and triple drabbles will also be accepted, with a maximum wordcount of 500. Keep it short!

NSFW content is not permitted for the sake of this event.

Please tag this blog in all submissions!

On spoiler handling & general tagging: I will be tagging spoilers by route on this blog, and by the in-game route/chapter numbers (i.e. "00 spoilers" for Second Scenario, so on so forth). Works will additionally be sorted by characters (and ships, if present).

I am one person ( @alto-tenure ) running this solo. I've beaten every ending.

An AO3 collection will be made for the event closer to the day.

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My friend made a joke so I made it into a comic lol

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The Hundred Line: Eva Route

aka Eva Deserved Better: The Route

Can we say wasted potential? This route is so much wasted potential!

The Good

WE FINALLY GET TO MEET THE REAL EVA! And she's fantastic! She really is as kind and compassionate as she appears, but also very sharp and thoughtful, and loves her daughter above all else (*anvil of foreshadowing*)

While it was rushed overall, the romance wasn't as terrible as I feared

Even though Shouma dies in this route, he lives on in spirit!

The beginning was actually pretty solid overall. Eva losing it and accidentally killing Shouma and committing a huge taboo by absorbing him, his defensive power finally undoing her brainwashing, Takumi & Eva building a rapport through daily conversations, and the decision to let Eva go and the consequences

Getting to learn more about Futuran society was also great! Deeply curious about those Boxes of Blessings & Calamity that Eva mentioned considering those are two route names...

Eito & Nozomi's roles in this route were short and simple, but I love them!

Hiruko secretly believing in Takumi and convincing Sirei not to detonate him was also great. Even though Hiruko was also the main reason things fell apart in this route. Girl, the time looping has really destroyed your ability to make sensible choices...

The Not-So-Good

I have a really hard time believing everyone would turn against Eva & Takumi that easily and that thoroughly...

The Bad

What the actual fuck was the pregnancy ending.

The WASTED POTENTIAL

WHERE DO I START HERE????

Like I said, the beginning of the route was really solid but it completely fell apart once we reached the Rebellion camp. For one - there's a Rebellion camp! And it's led by Eva's daughter!! We proceed to learn nothing interesting about them.

Remember how Eva's daughter is her reason to live and what enables her to undo her brainwashing? Sure would be nice to have some mother/daughter focus in this route! Kamyuhn's entire role in this route is to cheerfully ship her mother & Takumi, never mind that Takumi is still the enemy even if he saved Eva (reminder: he was also complicit in brainwashing her, something the Rebellion should have been aware of if they were watching LDA's battles). There is so much interesting drama here! Eva being the sister of the local dictator and one of her commanders, and her prepubescent adopted daughter being the leader of the rebellion against said local dictator! The discomfort that comes with inviting one of the invaders into your own camp. The discomfort of your own daughter, a child, being in charge of the rebellion. Eva's entire backstory is so interesting and we see NONE OF IT here!

Even if Dulcinea Effect or Stockholm Syndrome is in play, Eva falls for Takumi way too easily. To the point where he feels more important to her than her daughter.

Oh I'm sorry Game. You think I'm going to accept an ending where Eva & Takumi are happily together expecting a child, and on the run from Overlord V'ehxness while Kamyuhn is completely MIA and possibly dead in a throwaway line??

The other ending is marginally better except it's the (alleged) payoff to the conflict between Eva & V'ehxness that is never properly set up.

Also let's kill Eva because Sure. That's definitely a fulfilling ending for the poor girl and going to be conducive to Futuran/Human peace talks. Not like she has a young daughter with an entire rebellion on her shoulders waiting for her mom's return or anything.

The final V'ehxness battle could have totally been playable.

I'm adding this route to her Loser V'ehxness list because there was absolutely no reason she should have lost that fight. Eva with her 1 SDU member absorption and power of love for Takumi is somehow stronger than V'ehxness vs the entire SDU in the route where she's powerful enough to destroy the TRC? The Coming-Of-Age route earned it's cheesy Power of Friendship cryptoglobin powerup. This route did not.

Considering how powerful his cryptoglobin allegedly was, I feel like Shouma's ghost needed to haunt the narrative more.

This route really just needed so much more overall. Way too many days were skipped and interesting relationship dynamics not explored.

Frankly, the Rebellion should have taken Takumi prisoner and allowed us a role reversal between Takumi & Eva. V'ehxness also should have attacked the camp and let Takumi & Eva actually fight her there - let Takumi prove he's willing to fight for the rebels against the Supreme Commander and earn their trust rather than just cheerfully accept him because the boss' mom (also the dictator's sister) likes him.

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Wdym I've made character sprites but barely use them for shitposting purposes? Time to fix that!

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there is only one number who has ever ate another. there is only one number who has ever died. which one feels worse

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"tumblr humor is only funny to tumblr users" NOT true. those bitches on pinterest love us.

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i've been on tumblr since 2009 and we do the "this website is getting shut down" panic every few years like clockwork but no matter how much anyone plugs their bluesky (and i like bluesky! i have one!) there is simply no socmed platform that replicates tumblr in the way that i enjoy using it. nowhere else can i trade 10k word posts back and forth between strangers who are just as obsessed with something as me. they'll have to carry me off this platform feet first.

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PARTICIPANT 10 - THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE

Name: "Chex" (REAL NAME UNKNOWN) Gender: nonbinary Age: 19 Occupation: influencer/livestreamer ~~ Chex is another interesting case in that they...How do I put this...Don't have a face. Well- they DO have a face. Every human being does. But interestingly in the modern day, there has emerged a trend of humans enjoying content creators and influencers who deliberately hide their face from the public eye. And Chex just so happens to be one of those influencers, performing livestreams while wearing a gaudy LCD screen mask. They pride themself on their...silliness, so to say. Always cracking jokes and speaking in odd slang, and every so often asking an invisible "chat" if they're "seeing this". Whatever that means. Let's see how long it takes before everyone else is annoyed of them. ~~ "UGHHHHH. I HATE THIS ONE ALREADY. Can they learn to SHUT THE UP!!?!? And stop saying you've been 'unalived', that stopped being funny years ago!" "...Right. But that's finally all ten, no?" "Oh yeahhhh, so it is!"

And with that, all ten of the participants have been introduced!!!

I plan to make an artpiece introducing the two hosts after I've finished updating my AF page ^^

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[stillthewc]

Yes there's a typo in the first option but I am not redoing the whole thing

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higanbana (hanakotoba): passion / independence / resignation

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TELL ME SOMETHING I DON'T KNOW

The motive begins with a whimper rather than a bang, although thanks to one person's influence, it begins fracturing the class anyways.

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??? / STILL HAVEN'T FOUND WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR / TO THE FIVE OF US

The class searches for a way to revive their dead classmates, and their hopes lead to yet another motive being dropped in their laps.

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100 Endings obtained.

I. Am. FREEEEEEEEEEE

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The Hundred Line: Cult of Takumi

In the penultimate(ish) route of Hundred Line, I finally achieve the goal I set when I started this game.

I have obtained The Eito CG!

The Interesting

I have heard whispers of this route a lot, mainly avoiding details to avoid spoilers, but my general impression was that this route was universally hated (fandom heresy according to TV Tropes) so I assumed it was going to be another writing/pacing mess a la Comedy or Eva routes or include a bunch of rage inducing plot and characterization a la Mystery or Killing Game but... it's really not? This route is disturbing and unhinged but it is FUN!

I mean look! It's got Eito in it! :D And he loves us and wants to be friends with us again, and it's genuine and not just a plot to sabotage us and destroy humanity this time! (I mean it still might be, and he's certainly not complaining if that happens, but at the end of the route I genuinely had no idea if he was being Literally Nice and manipulating the cult for his own agendas, or if he really was just all in on Takumi and this is how he is. And I like that a lot!) For the first part of the route I was ready to strangle Takumi for trusting Sirei, but then Eito showed up and usurped Sirei to become an even more unhinged shoulder devil and I couldn't even be mad at that point. Somehow Takumi trusting Eito in this route is still less egregious than in CoA, and I honestly love how, no matter which route we are on and what version of Eito we are dealing with, Takumi is somehow always inclined to trust him. The fondness and pining for Route 0 Eito is real... I get it though. I miss him too and part of the fun of him in this route is how it feels like he's back to being Route 0 Eito but the manipulation and sabotage is on full display to the player. It's an Eito we'd see on a second playthrough of Route 0 fully aware of his motives and deconstructing his every word.

The entire premise of this Route is a riot. Takemaru dies and takes the 'Don't Do Drugs' PSA with him, so Yugamu decides that Takumi should do drugs! And what unfolds is your typical sitcom plot of everyone suddenly falling in love with the protagonist in increasingly over the top ways, only it keeps going, we make a religion out of it, and every CG amps up the fanservice and the horror factor.

This route is uncomfortable in the best of ways. Everyone except Takumi & Nozomi have been stripped of their agency (and even Takumi's agency is some parts is debatable), Sirei and Eito actively encourage this, Takumi and Nozomi are increasingly isolated in opposite ways, and most terrifying of all we get to see Takumi go from appropriately disturbed, to accepting it, to internally justifying it, to actively enjoying it. There's no G'ie or Sirei brainwashing to mitigate it this time. This is our protagonist becoming the worst version of himself as himself.

The fanservice CGs. I don't care for fanservice like this and in any other route I'd just be disgusted, but I like the fanservice is used here because the context behind every CG is worse than the last and none of these rewards are enjoyable to sit through. The escalating ways in which the SDU "willingly" degrade themselves (especially the girls. I have seen the uncensored Eva CG and I wish I hadn't.), while Takumi is never given a choice in accepting these, yet never really putting his foot down either

Actually I lied, Shouma's reward is more cute than horror. Take out the brainwashing and I can fully see this kind of bonding event happening in other routes. Eito apparently building a fully operational sauna in a few days is also hilarious.

Also I think there's a lot to be said about how Nozomi's CG is the least ecchi and exaggerated and out of context looking very pretty and romantic. And in context being the absolute pit of despair.

Takumi's pheromones affecting V'ehxness is funny enough but playing this route immediately after V'ehxness Route makes it hilarious. And somehow her death here is actually kind of touching. I can't believe she's made into a regular Commander Kill though! And my Takumi is maxed out so of course I'm not giving her to him T_T

I let Eito absorb her. It felt right.

Though I think a plot mandated Takumi kill would have made more sense storywise considering what ending we up on. On the other hand, getting this conclusion without V'ehxy's influence is even more fun.

I like both endings of this route. They both feel like the natural conclusion of this type of story. Either Takumi fully embraces his worshiped idol status and becomes a tyrant, or he realizes this is really fucked up actually and tries to end things, only for it to be too late and Takumi's idol status overriding any personhood he had left. That final scene is uncomfortable and incredible.

Either way, Nozomi never had a chance.

I was kind of frustrated by how long it took Nozomi to finally say something, but I also do get it. She was very rightfully terrified and understood that if she spoke up and it didn't go well, she would not survive the encounter. I kept waiting to see how she would die because it was obviously coming, but the route did still manage to surprise me when it finally happened. I just also wish she had tried a little earlier before things escalated to the point they did. Such as when Sirei first suggested the reward system, and Takumi was very obviously not into it.

Nigou was also cute in this route. The poor junior Egg just wants everyone to get along and fight for humanity! ;w;

I am delighted to see that Living Idol fics are thriving on AO3, but what I really want is the Fanfic Writer's version of this route in all of its beautiful dead dove all content warnings apply glory. I don't want to read it, I just want it to exist!

Seriously this Route is a walking Kink Meme prompt list

The Hmmmm

I think this route more than any others should be locked behind 2nd Scenario. Other routes hint at it or reveal things in a context where it can't be take at face value, but this route flat out states two of the biggest reveals in the plot. And those reveals were some of my favorite moments in that route! There was a lot of buildup, you had to make very cruel choices, but the payoff was some of the most emotional scenes in the game, and the best story-gameplay-integration battles. To just have them stated directly to the protagonist and player... Takumi many not have time to dwell on it, but the player does! It's so unearned here! T_T

While I did enjoy the route a lot, I did also feel like it was context switching a lot and not really giving its ideas time to organically fall apart? Like Sirei introducing the reward system! His half-assed version of it was just asking for distrust and conflict to the point where I was was going 'Sirei you are the simulated will of humanity! How can you think this is a good idea!' and then realizing how cults work and deciding, no this is actually very human of him. Good work. But we never really got to see it backfire because Eito came back almost immediately and changed the reward system into a daily thing which really felt like it was going to take a turn into making Takumi into the cult's increasingly dehumanized sex slave, while Eito becomes the real leader and makes it more structured and dangerous. And while we do get that in Living Idol, it's still not quite what I had in mind because it's not really the Reward System itself backfiring if that makes sense? Like the way the Reward System was set up felt like it was going to be one of the main sources of conflict, or something where Takumi realizes he no longer has control of the Cult but not because he makes the decision to end things.

Related to that, while it is kind of the point, I also do feel like everyone aside from Eito, and maybe Yugamu is just kind of a monolith. This kind of obsessive, destructive "love" feels like it should manifest in different ways but everyone is always happily in agreement. I guess potential cult schisms would have been too much for the route to explore but I think it would have been interesting

I'm a little mixed on Takumi here though. I'm all for a protagonist journey to villain story, but I also feel like Takumi accepted things a little too fast at every turn? His descent into acceptance and tyranny just felt kind of unsatisfying to me.

I don't think this route should had as many Free Times as it did, if any at all. Unless you want to be hilarious with it and make all gifts give max affinity but not allow bonding events, having Free Times just kind of undercuts the isolation Takumi is supposed to be experiencing. It also made this route's early pacing kind of slow. Things weren't really interesting until Eito returned.

WE WERE SO MEAN TO FB IN THIS ROUTE MY GOD! T_T

Everyone has a line and that one's mine!

I'm also still confused if FB was affected by the pheromones or not because while he never outwardly showed it, his dialogue/sprites felt kind of ooc if he wasn't. This is the guy who usually encourages us to make Good Choices, but here it sounded like he was encouraging Takumi to make full use of his new importance, and being kind of disappointed that he wasn't wielding it properly. That said I did like the idea itself of someone (though maybe not FB if he wasn't brainwashed) encouraging Takumi to embrace cult leadership as a contrast to Eito/Sirei making him a reward. I think Takumi not putting his foot down when he probably could have is one of the few things I liked about Takumi in this route because to actively step in and tell the SDU not to do something because he won't like it, is to also manipulate them and to acknowledge that he does have full control over their thoughts and actions. And interestingly it's after he fights with FB, Takumi becomes more assertive and assured of his position. So it almost feels like FB should have been another voice of reason discouraging Takumi from abusing his power or at least encouraging him to step in because things are getting out of control and he was genuinely upset and worried and not... whatever those weirdly cheerful sprites were suggesting

Also I am still confused! What is the second censored Switch CG? Is it the Eito one or the Yugamu one? I assumed it was the Eito one but if it was that, the is the most half-assed censorship I've ever seen, while the Yugamu one has the same white sections as Eva's CG but I've never seen anyone talk about it?