#as a younger sibling she’s categorically obligated to abuse that power

[playerkingsley]

one of the funniest things about fearne leaving the eyes of charming for gwendolyn is that she’s just going to show up trailing her father with a random pair of glasses, and everyone’s natural assumption would be she’s simply trying to imitate him—meanwhile she’s casting charm person three times a day with impunity

[tumblunni]

NOW FOR THOUGHTS AND THINGS

* I don’t think the entire zodiac would work out well, so is there any other sort of thematic personality quiz or superstition that has closer to four or five options? Or I mean would people not mind if I said 'here is zodiac kingdom, but we’re only gonna romance four or five of them’? I mean just rationally it would take way too long to make a game with twelve love interests that each have a plotline in the real world and the magical world. Oh! Maybe it could be like.. aren’t there those ways to categorize zodiacs?? Like... uhh.. ‘muteable and immuteable signs’? or Something? or maybe just group it by seasons? Maybe its something like the seasons are all continents in the mirror world, so this game could just take place on one of them. And it leaves it very open for fanworks, yknow!

* Also, hmm, western or eastern zodiac? I mean it’d be easier to assign traditional fantasy races to animal signs, probably, but I don’t know many games that’ve used the western signs as a theme. But then again I really wanna do a kingdom of bunny people! Ehh maybe I could make that Libra cos that;s my sign. Or hmm excuses excuses well bunnies have good balance XD

* Possibly that star mermaid design I made up could work here? Tho I also like the idea of using it in one of my other plots.

* Maybe the ability to remember both worlds is an inherited trait of the royal family, and the whole reason they’re given the role of royal family in the first place. Like, they act as oracles and tell people about their real world selves, and try and predict conflicts in the fantasy kingdom based on stuff that’s happening in real life. So your country could be suffering from a lack of power after their last queen lost her ability to travel between worlds, and they’ve only been able to keep the economy steady because of her cool clockwork robot inventions. So there’s extra pressure on you being a great princess now that you’ve awakened to your power!

* Not sure whether I should keep that idea from my dream of the protagonist having multiple appearance options that give her different elemental boosts. Cos I mean you’d assume that each standard fantasy kingdom place embodies a different element, right? So would that mean you’d be princess of a different kingdom each time? Cos that’d be even harder to write all the dialogue for than writing 24 love interests... or is it gonna be like there’s four neighbouring kingdoms for the standard four elements and then all your selectable options are a bunch of more unusual elements that’d become the fifth one? like you decide if this world has element of steel or element of thunder or element of cake... OR maybe just the kingdoms aren’t limited to one element, and everyone just has their own individual element tied to personality instead of nation. That;d be cool cos there could be more variety in the npcs! Like fire and ice and water bunny folks!

* Though it could actually be really interesting if the protagonist country could change. Like maybe depending on what you pick, one of the love interests would be your sibling instead? O_O Could be cool to have a secret platonic sibs route for everyone!

* One simple idea for the prince/princess dynamic: everyone says get married to this dude, you end up smooching his sister instead, everyone shrugs and the two kingdoms get united anyway. Woo!

* Other possibly more conflict-y ideas tho: Love interest gal isn’t a princess, but just the butler or bodyguard that came to escort the prince. Love interest is a lower class commoner who just works in the prince’s kitchen, you fall in love over mutual love of fancy cakes~ Love interest is a robin hood esque adventurer who rescues the prince from bandits, now you have to compete against princey cos he fell in love with her too!

* Actually, could be interesting to think about the prince’s role in each of these routes, cos it’d get boring quick if he was always like a Gaston guy who wants you to marry him and gets villain-y if you refuse. Maybe for the butler lady, the prince is like her childhood friend who super supports her dating you? And he’s totally ace as hell and pretty much dies of happiness when you say you don’t want to marry him. Damn social obligations, amirite? It could be funny if he looks like your cliche stoic asshole smug guy for like.. a total of five seconds, before he realizes you’re not interested in him. “Oh phew, its exhausting to keep that up! And for some reason people STILL want to date me!” And I dunno, maybe for cake lady, the prince is her friend and he’s like a nerdy studyman who wants to revamp the political structure of his country and close the gap between the upper and lower class. So he actually DOES want to marry you, even though he’s equally uninterested. He’s struggling with kind of anti hero status here, cos he feels like he has to follow his parents’s dumb rules in order to ascend to the throne, before he can actually change things. And its like ‘but do the ends justify the means?’ when the means are pressuring someone into a loveless marriage and the both of you being unhappy forever. Though this kinda makes him a bigger focus of the route than cake lady, I don’t have any plot for her yet and I’m not sure what would thematically interlink with this plot and give her a starring role...

* Oh, and maybe there’s two princes that actually have a crush on each other, and you can help them get together?

* And then i had an idea maybe for the bunny people kingdom, where the batchelorette there has a bratty little brother who’s always getting in the way of the romance. And he’s the prince, but it’s like Blatantly Clear To Everyone that there’s been a mix up, you arrive there for your arranged marriage and the guy is like.. eight. No. Non. Nein. Nicht. Nope. But then he’s like Sibling Tsundere, and he’s only being bratty to you cos he can tell you have a crush on his sister and he wants to test if you’re trustworthy. And he can be a cute lil sweetheart once you win him over, and he helps convince the Council Of Vague Ominous Advisor Dudes to let the two of you hook up as super double bunny queens of joy and wonder~!

* Oh and i actually had an idea of how this one could tie in with the real world! Cos maybe the princess is a shy girl in the same class as you in school, who takes care of the class pet bunny. And Because Why Not, maybe she has the same backstory as me and she ran away from abusive parents and is spending the last year or so of high school living alone and struggling to make ends meet. And that bunny is the closest thing she has left to a family, and she’s really depressed about how she’s been the lil guy’s best friend for all these years and now she’ll never see him again once her last year is over. And like.. already she’s not able to see him as much, since he’s meant to be a pet for the younger kids and she’s only allowed to keep looking after him cos she’s in the biology club. But now cos her life situation is so awkward she’s super exhausted juggling schoolwork and jobs to make ends meet, and she might not be able to stay in the club too. Plus the rabbit’s getting kinda old now, and he’s been really sick, and it’s just REALLY SCARY for her... So then you end up finding out that she doesn’t actually have a brother, and her brother in the other world is actually that pet rabbit, because he loved her just that much! And you can tell her this and she’ll have a good old happy cry, cos she was always worried that maybe the rabbit didn’t need her after all, and wouldn’t miss her when she’s gone, cos he’s always been a tsundere little prankster in both worlds. Though that just makes the whole thing even sadder cos now we know BOTH of them are gonna be hella depressed when this school year ends... And then maybe in her ending the two of you move in together after you start going out, and things are a little easier with two of you working, and with her getting some support from your family and stuff. And maybe the teachers decide to retire the class bunny cos he’s getting so old, and they take him to a pet adoption shelter but make sure to mention the nice girl who took such great care of him and give her a great reccommendation if she wants to adopt him! And like if you got high enough stats and stuff you get the double good ending where the two of you are able to succeed enough at your jobs that you can afford to keep a pet. Or I dunno, maybe through Power Of Love Magic or something he could get the power to turn into a human in the real world too? Either way the whole family can be together ^_^