straightforwardly | 0065 | in which two Shall We Date? games make me respectively frustrated/gleeful and suspicious

► An update on the transcribing process for the Lovesickness Event in Shall We Date? The Nilfheim:

J.J.: 100%
Orlando: 100%, as of last night
Jean: Currently stuck at the third Grace Point Checkpoint. I think I can probably get past this one (as of right now, I only need 1370 more grace points to pass it), but I highly doubt that I'll be able to pass the final checkpoint, since there are only seven hours left in the event. I can probably finish up the missing text from the diverging choices, but I don't think I'll be able to get the text for the Normal Ending. =/

► Now on to more positive things! Despite my above complaints, this transcribing project has actually yielded quite a bit of fruit for me in various ways. I ended up reading the text much more closely than I usually do and that, combined with the fact that I actually reread the side-stories instead of fast-forwarding through them the second time around, meant that I found myself picking up on quite a few small things that I hadn't noticed before ~~and that I also promptly found myself saddled with more fic bunnies, whoops.~~

There's also a few details about the world of Nilfheim itself that I hadn't known before this event, some of which I missed during my first time through the event. The fact that people cannot become physically ill in Nilfheim— which actually makes quite a bit of sense, considering that they're all already dead— was the obvious one I carried away from my first playthrough, but there were some other details that I missed. The largest one that comes to mind is the fact that Nilfheim doesn't have a sun. In hindsight, this... probably should have been obvious, since every scene I have ever seen looks like it takes place at night / under moonlight, but somehow I'd completely missed that. ~~And now the whole thing about Isabella being the "sun" of Nilfheim makes much more sense oh God I am an idiot for just realizing this now.~~

I'm not sure if the existence of another realm— Muspelheim— and its ruler, King Leo, was something that was revealed in Jean's Main Route, since I haven't played that one yet, but that was also new information for me. I really want to know more about it now, since I didn't realize that there were any other realms other than Nilfheim.

Finally, transcribing this event really hammered in how ridiculous the writing for this game could be. I mean, I always realized that it wasn't exactly great literature, but typing up some of these lines was definitely cause for amusement.

For example, here are some that I typed up semi-recently. (Unfortunately, though, I can't find the one that made me resolved to write about this.)

From Jean's Premium Ending:

It was like the fires of love were burning me from the inside.

From Orlando's Normal Ending:

And with that he pressed a fleeting kiss to my cheek that was no more than a wee peck.

But it was this line (which is also from Jean's Premium Ending) made me move straight from amusement to head-desking:

After that we romped in the bed until I felt like I might well melt into oblivion.

...I think they speak for themselves.

► Speaking of the Shall We Date? series... While The Nilfheim is the one which I'm the most fannish about, I do play some of the other games in the series. I bring this up because I've been playing through Elias' route— my first route— in Shall We Date? Wizardess. I'm on Chapter 10, and the conversation between Liz and Professor Merkulova in that chapter fired up quite a few dormant thoughts/suspicions that I'd been having, which I really needed to share with someone.

In short: I really, really do not trust Professor Merkulova.

I never really did, though I told myself that I was being cynical / too suspicious. He just seemed too nice and took too much interest in Liz's welfare— and yes, I'm aware that "really nice and helpful" is a weird reason to have alarm bells ringing in one's head, but the fact remains. Plus, he told her how to sneak around in the school at night. I know he said that he did it so that, if she forgot a textbook or something, she could retrieve it without being caught, but really? What professor would do that? He has to have an ulterior motive.

But, let's face it, these games are fairly straightforward with their "good guy / bad guy" characters. Just look at Shall We Date? My Fairy Tales. So I thought, okay, I'll keep an eye out on him, but it'll probably turn out to be nothing.

But then. BUT THEN.

Basically, Liz witnessed Professor Schuyler (a dark-haired, rather nasty professor) and a mysterious woman she's met before go into the East Forest, which no one is supposed to go into. She also mentions the fact that she can hear this special song coming from within the forest, which no one else seems to be able to hear. When she's telling this to Elias the next day, Professor Merkulova overhears the conversation, and takes Liz aside to talk to her privately. He tells her:

There is something really important/powerful/special hidden within this tower that's in the middle of the forest. (I would be more specific, but I can't remember what it is right now.)
The magic in the East Forest is designed to make people lose their way when they go inside.
However! If you follow that song— that song which only Liz (and another character who's not important for this theory of mine) can hear, you can find your way to that tower, since that's where it's emanating from.
This is important because Professor Merkulova "suspects" Professor Schuyler of wanting to steal that thing that's in the tower, and use it for his own selfish/disastrous ends.
Therefore, he wants Liz to guide him to the tower the next night so they can stop Professor Schuyler.
Finally, when Liz suggests that they just go to the Headmaster about all this, he tells her that it won't work because the Headmaster deeply trusts Professor Schuyler and wouldn't believe it.

Please tell me that I am not the only one seeing the Harry Potter parallels?

What I think is this: Professor Merkulova (who is totally the Quirrell in this situation) wants whatever's in the tower, and ascribed his own motives to Professor Schuyler (aka, Snape), so he's manipulating Liz to take him there. The fact that this story is set at a wizarding boarding school makes me all the more convinced that I'm right.

Of course, it's always possible that 1) the game is really not going to be that complex or 2) that it expects you to suspect that and will make it turn out differently, but for now, I definitely think that that's what's going to happen.