VN Ren'Py Being a DIK [v0.11.1] [DrPinkCake]

[Warscared]

I strongly suspect that we will get to see the MC.

Before high school:
Neil had a legal battle at one point. Maybe we'll learn more about that as well.

High School:
We know how Zoey and the MC met. But what we don't know is how the parents' lawsuit was averted by the bully the MC beat up. The charges were averted, so no lawsuit. We will also certainly learn how Zoey and the MC became closer. Why did Zoey go to San Diego before, or how could Zoey go to San Diego before? Simple. Zoey is 1 year older than the MC. Josy lived with her father during her senior year of high school. This is where the events overlap. The MC is still in high school when Zoey goes to San Diego. Now Josy comes to the same high school, but never meets Zoey. The breakup between the MC and Zoey was not long ago and the MC was also not sure if it was love or not. The MC doesn't want to jump right into the next relationship. Josy is in a relationship with Maya and we know that Josy is faithful in a relationship but that she doesn't talk about that relationship. Josy and the MC probably run into each other all the time at school, but don't notice each other. That only happens when they both work at the store.

But what does this have to do with Zoey now? Zoey is a year older than the MC. What if Zoey just wanted to take a year off and then go to college with the MC? Then Zoey meets Josy's mom in San Diego as she's getting a tattoo. They talk at length and find things in common, like Josy goes to the same high school as Zoey. Now Zoey meets another man and falls in love with him. Contact between Zoey and the MC breaks off. But Zoey's new relationship does not last. Suddenly she sees a video of Tremolo on the Internet, as he gives a concert with Jill. Old memories are awakened and Zoey goes off to college.

In my opinion, Interlude will answer some questions.

How did Tommy end up at B&R? (This question is not really important).
Josy was not accepted to B&R in the beginning. And why? She's actually the perfect college girl.
Surprisingly, she does get accepted to B&R. But why? Was she on the phone with her mother? Is Josy's mother and/or Zoey the connection to the rich and powerful in the BaDIK world?

DPC himself has written that he is also doing the interlude to clarify some issues and not just for technical reasons. It is also to answer some questions to better understand EP9.

Josy spent her highschool years at the B&R city since she went to school with Maya and Derek!

The question is where did Tommy went to school? he should know the MC if he lived with his mother! same city and shit!
but then again depends on the school, i still meet people today that went to school with me including on the same year and i do not recall them... ok only guys i can not remember!

As for how Tommy got into College? We see him with Rusty so Rusty moved a few strings to have his best friend with him!

but the other strong possibility is that Tommy is actually older and from the same time as Jill Sage and Tybalt and he met Rusty when Rusty was assigned his dorm room? Perhaps tommy lost a year or 2 and is actually 4-5 years older then Josy? but that would mean that he stroke out a really quick friendship with Rusty right away and Rusty although not the most secure of dudes would put up a wall to a friendship with a smoking bad ass Tommy if it did not came from before!

Maybe summer camp? Rusty probably went to private college !

Zoey being 1 year older does make sense!
Tommy being 2 years older then what we presume also since it would explain why he does not recognize the MC even tough they come from the same city!

Yeah I'm actually a little nervous because I don't want to waste hours trying to get whatever Rio screenies I can. I'm going to have to do a run where I'm not a client of hers and a run where I am just to get whatever I can.

At least Jill's run is pretty straight-forward, do this and this and that happens. We'll see how long I can go with this. Taking a big step outta my comfort zone.

there is a red button with an X on your top right corner, if it starts being too much you can click it!
i know i did it 2 times already playing a few games with surprise unnatural NTR (i mean if the MC can not see it, how come we are forced to watch it?)!
and ofc dozens of times at surprise incest traps... not my thing, do not force feed me landlady bullshit!
Nothing against the kink, unless you remove my agency on the matter to tell my sister to buy a freaking dildo and stop sleep raping me with her mouth!

You're just forgetting something again.

Those who wait outside can also go into the room later.
Those who wait outside can also meet other people (Jade) and together they can then go into the room.
Those who wait outside can also see who comes running out of the room.
Those waiting outside can also be invited in by the people who are already in the room.

Shall I continue?

those that wait outside can also watch a Tybalt meltdown as he goes hysterical and demands that the MC leaves his house and calls security and the cops on the MC if the MC as traumatized him enough! or Tybalt tries to murder the MC in a rage attack using the excuse of trespassing hurting Josy in the process?

i propose an iron spike like the ones we use for fireplaces as the weapon of the attack giving Josy a sexy facial warscar, i´m getting hard already!

 

[PashafromRussia]

Some adults are childish a lot of the time.

It could go the other way; Jade might be a lot more accepting of the MC scrapping their trysts if she thinks that it's Sage, her own daughter, who he's getting serious with; she might appreciate knowing that her daughter's bf is refusing to cheat. But if it suits DPC to create yet more drama, then Jade lashes out at MC by wrecking the dreams of one of his friends.

There are so many variables in play here - did MC ever fuck Jade in the first place, has Burke got a sex tape, is MC dating Sage, is MC dating Maya ... that the story could go in almost any direction. How many different futures is DPC going to write in, depending on which of those variables has what status? I have no clue.

This leads me to think that half of the variables will be ignored. DPC has done this before. Whether MC beat Tybalt, whether he meets Maya or not, whether he uses the services of the restaurant, all this will be omitted. I'm sure DPC will focus on the romance with Jade and the sex video, and the rest will play a secondary role. At the very least, he will devote a couple of lines to this. That's exactly why I'm not too worried about Sage's way. It will be the decisions made in episode 9 that will affect, but not the past ones. Otherwise, the code in episode 9 will become chaos.

 

[shazba]

Last time I wrote about the Interlude my post got deleted for being off topic...

Anyway, I don't know why you guys are making such a big negative deal about the Interlude.

DPC said it outright, he wanted to provide a bit of backstory (just like the prologues for many of the previous episodes), but this one warranted a long enough prologue to make it standalone. He also made that comment in the context of the story being about halfway.

This is not the new normal, it's just a novelty (his exact words were "a special part of the game").

Personally I reckon he would have done better to not even have announced it, and then released it midway through the development of the next episode. Like something to break the drought. Everyone would have played it and would be looking forward to more Zoey, instead he announced it way early and now we've all gotta wait while watching the less optimistic of us wailing about how they don't want Zoey.

And in the same vein, back on the topic of how long it will take DPC to finish the game, and how it's gonna take years: Most decent games take years to make, it's just you don't end up playing them piecemeal throughout the development.

If this game takes 8 years to make and we get to play a piece of it each year, that's fine (better than having to wait 8 years before we even get to play 1 minute of it).

Too many people act like 8 years (or 4 or 10 or whatever) is such a long time. Like they'll be dead before then (Mark Takagi, I'm sure you'll live to see the end ). It's no time at all. Game of Thrones aired for 9 years, and that's been over for almost 3 years already.

This game will be over in no time, and you'll all be complaining about how long his next game is taking.

 

[Deleted member 4298851]

there is a red button with an X on your top right corner, if it starts being too much you can click it!
i know i did it 2 times already playing a few games with surprise unnatural NTR (i mean if the MC can not see it, how come we are forced to watch it?)!

Yeah I've dropped a few games where I was shocked to see stuff like that where I didn't expect it to be. Anyways, I'm going quiet about this whole thing. If I do it, I do. If not, oh well, but if I do, I guess I'll report my "findings".

 

[ename144]

I think that's part of DPC's problem. I've heard vague mentions in the forum that there's dialogue from Maya where she apologizes for the 100% thing. I've never seen it because I don't play the M/J path anymore. If there is such dialogue then DPC has put it in the wrong place. Any efforts to make amends should have gone to an MC that was rejected by M/J, not to the ones on her path. Sometimes I think DPC doesn't realize that he's got a game here with multiple paths.

I don't think Maya's ever really apologized for that. She touches on the subject in the ruined library in Episode 4. It's an informal apology, but it falls well short of the mark if she then turns around and rejects the MC for nebulous DIK reasons.


If you visit Maya in Episode 7, she'll also admit she should have listened to the MC about Quinn. This can happen even if she rejected the MC, but only if you explained how Quinn was Pure Evil!, and only if you visit Maya after the freeroam. And it's still only an implied apology if we want to get technical.


I can't think of anything else that might qualify. I am curious if that might change next season, though. It seems clear Season 3 is going to be about testing and rethinking relationships, so it might make sense for the MC and Maya to revisit why it didn't work out if one of them rejected the other. It's a longshot, but I think it's possible. And it would certainly be a nice idea.

Yes, get her at the Ep7 party. Toward the end of the episode she will text you asking for help where she thinks someone is following her.

EP8 is interesting on the Rio path as if you help her with the stalker problem at the dorm party her attitude does appear to change toward you (it is nice in a way and a victory for Rio fans).

Also at the end of Ep8 if everything else happens, she rearranges the furniture in your room as a bit of a tease (like a little kid would do when they like someone).... it is sweet in a way but what I think is also important is Heather says, "Be nice to her".
To me, that is pretty big. Rio has either already told Heather about MC or Heather has really good intuition that Rio likes MC.

Make my "Interlude" a full up Rio/MC episode With good writing, Rio could be girlfriend material.

I agree Riona's potential relationship with the MC does seem to be evolving, but IMHO Heather's "Be nice" comment was more mundane. I think she just wants the MC not to tease her too much over her OCD-like tendencies.

I doubt Riona has discussed the MC as a romantic partner with Heather. Rio generally keeps her thoughts very closely guarded, and there's no indication Heather is any sort of confidante.

I don't understand him. He always complains that the long development process increases his stress. And instead of making the episodes shorter, but richer, he makes a side story the size of the first episode. While from the outside it looks like he's tired of the game, he wants to take a break by focusing on the side story about Zoey.

P.S. If he really decides on a mini-episode+ episode strategy, he will never finish the game. It's impossible.
He needs at least 8 years to close all this.

That's why I'm waiting for his questions and answers and I'm afraid that he has changed his mind about the number of episodes in the direction of increasing them.

The aftermath of Episode 8 was the first time DPC has given a realistic estimation of the total number of episodes; I don't think he's changed his mind in the last two months. And I doubt he plans to makes Interludes a regular thing, though that might change if it's wildly popular.

Really, I think it just comes down to DPC being a perfectionist. He gets ideas and he just can't help but develop them, even if he could have achieved 80% of the same effect with 20% of the effort. The Interlude probably started as big flashback to set up Zoey's story, but he had so many ideas and was so eager for the players to love her that it blew up into a mini-episode. Now it will threaten to blow up into a semi-episode, or even a slightly-undersize-episode if he's not careful.

He could really use a good editor he can trust to avoid his tunnel vision and keep him on track. Sadly, DPC is also a bit of a control freak and has enough money to do whatever he wants. So we're stuck with him falling down one rabbit hole after another. We just have to hope for the best.

 

[Unpaleutable]

Since ep 8 basicly forces you to choose a LI, it's not really necessary to do a run for each...
I think effectively you should be able to see pretty much everything in just 3 runs ; the chick and neutral runs should get you Maya, Josy, Bella and Jill.... Dik path should get you pretty much the rest.... (Zoey not known yet though)

Maybe after ep 8 you'll end up with 5 or 6 saves if you choose to have 1 for Jill, 2 Bella, 3 Maya and Josy, 4 Sage, 5 Zoey, 6 everything that moves...

Personally I just concluded a DIK run (Major DIK run) and had the options of Bella, Sage, Others.
Will pick up my Neutral/Chick run to have Jill, MJ and probably others as well saved.
Hoping on an actual Rio option cause the girl ROCKS!

 

[felicemastronzo]

Some adults are childish a lot of the time.

It could go the other way; Jade might be a lot more accepting of the MC scrapping their trysts if she thinks that it's Sage, her own daughter, who he's getting serious with; she might appreciate knowing that her daughter's bf is refusing to cheat. But if it suits DPC to create yet more drama, then Jade lashes out at MC by wrecking the dreams of one of his friends.

There are so many variables in play here - did MC ever fuck Jade in the first place, has Burke got a sex tape, is MC dating Sage, is MC dating Maya ... that the story could go in almost any direction. How many different futures is DPC going to write in, depending on which of those variables has what status? I have no clue.

from a game point of view it is very unlikely that MC's actions can decide Maya's fate in the middle of the game. but more importantly carrying on from here to the end of the game the double possibility of Maya being helped or not would be incredibly wasteful for DPC

so the most probable outcome is that it ends with nothing happening, rarely at the beginning of the chapter something important happens.

while from a narrative point of view Jade is a gender studies teacher who is supposed to harm a girl who precisely because of her sexuality has been mistreated and blackmailed by her father, i.e. she's supposed to do the worst possible from an ideological point of view. and all this simply because a student decided that it wasn't appropriate to continue having sex with a married teacher.

For God's sake, it's not impossible, but it would make Jade the worst villain of BADIK so far.

Imho the whole "Maya loan-debate" is one of the most (if not the most) out of proportion discussed trivialities in this thread...
Call it artistic freedom and accept the fact it's her motivation to want to join the HOT's, her reason to do things she otherwise would not have done and her story is integral to the main story.... Her relation with Josy is also influenced by these events and no matter if you're on her path or not she is a friend and you're even part of helping Maya in her "quest for tuition".
Judging BaDik as if it was a legal documentary seems just plain nitpicking to me....

the fault of this is entirely DPC's, who kept on talking about this loan making it less and less credible. if the author keeps on talking about it adding details it's normal that even here they talk about it, almost in every chapter there was an addition on the matter.

if DPC had simply once told us that Maya's father controlled the money of her college enrollment nobody would have asked too many questions, instead DPC had to create the hyper drama of Maya being condemned to bankruptcy for life if she didn't obey her father...

That meeting is going to make for some great drama!

then statistically the most likely outcome of leaving MC and Josy waiting outside is that they end up having sex in the bathroom...

 

[Lostanddamned]

from a game point of view it is very unlikely that MC's actions can decide Maya's fate in the middle of the game. but more importantly carrying on from here to the end of the game the double possibility of Maya being helped or not would be incredibly wasteful for DPC

so the most probable outcome is that it ends with nothing happening, rarely at the beginning of the chapter something important happens.

while from a narrative point of view Jade is a gender studies teacher who is supposed to harm a girl who precisely because of her sexuality has been mistreated and blackmailed by her father, i.e. she's supposed to do the worst possible from an ideological point of view. and all this simply because a student decided that it wasn't appropriate to continue having sex with a married teacher.

For God's sake, it's not impossible, but it would make Jade the worst villain of BADIK so far.


the fault of this is entirely DPC's, who kept on talking about this loan making it less and less credible. if the author keeps on talking about it adding details it's normal that even here they talk about it, almost in every chapter there was an addition on the matter.

if DPC had simply once told us that Maya's father controlled the money of her college enrollment nobody would have asked too many questions, instead DPC had to create the hyper drama of Maya being condemned to bankruptcy for life if she didn't obey her father...




then statistically the most likely outcome of leaving MC and Josy waiting outside is that they end up having sex in the bathroom...

This is DPC we are talking about. He won't hesitate to write a questionable story just for the sake of creating drama. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Jade tries to do screw up things if you rejected her. That is so in DPC's style that he wouldn't miss up that opportunity.

I mean he wrote the whole loan thing in such a way that everyone involved in it is either retarded or have no idea how banks work. That the whole thing is taking like 9 episodes to get resolved is another thing. It went on for way too long and people are already tired of either seeing tuition or loan mentioned in the game.

Same with the Jill's blackmail storyline. Another senseless, retarded thing written just for the sake of drama and the postponing of content.

He may not realize it, but letting storylines play out for too long or recycling the same storylines over and over again are not really the signs of a good writer.

 

[felicemastronzo]

If this game takes 8 years to make and we get to play a piece of it each year, that's fine (better than having to wait 8 years before we even get to play 1 minute of it).

Too many people act like 8 years (or 4 or 10 or whatever) is such a long time. Like they'll be dead before then (Mark Takagi, I'm sure you'll live to see the end ). It's no time at all. Game of Thrones aired for 9 years, and that's been over for almost 3 years already.

This game will be over in no time, and you'll all be complaining about how long his next game is taking.

but also 16 or 32 years, like one render a week
the longer the better....

as a gamer there is not a single reason to wish that you have to wait longer (as if six months per chapter were not enough...), but maybe it's me who's strange...

 

[felicemastronzo]

This is DPC we are talking about. He won't hesitate to write a questionable story just for the sake of creating drama. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Jade tries to do screw up things if you rejected her. That is so in DPC's style that he wouldn't miss up that opportunity.

I mean he wrote the whole loan thing in such a way that everyone involved in it is either retarded. That the whole thing is taking like 9 episodes to get resolved is another thing. It went on for way too long and people are already tired of either seeing tuition or loan mentioned in the game.

Same with the Jill's blackmail storyline. Another senseless, retarded thing written just for the sake of drama and the postponing of content.

He may not realize it, but letting storylines play out for too long or recycling the same storylines over and over again are not really the signs of a good writer.

since he's DPC it's impossible for him to write two stories: one in which Jade opposes and one in which she doesn't. the question is not how much sense it makes (there should be limits anyway...) but that there can't be two fates for Maya in the middle of the story

more impossible than seeing Magnar having sex with a LI of some game ever existed.

 

[Lostanddamned]

since he's DPC it's impossible for him to write two stories: one in which Jade opposes and one in which she doesn't. the question is not how much sense it makes (there should be limits anyway...) but that there can't be two fates for Maya in the middle of the story

more impossible than seeing Magnar having sex with a LI of some game ever existed.

He openly bragged about how many branches or decisions his game had. Now if none of your previous decisions or branches you chose matter at this point, it's going to come back and bite him in the ass.

Especially if he makes it that Jade is mad at you no matter what you did at that point. Besides that is going to be so OOC of Jade that it's a whole another matter to discuss.

Or if Burke suddenly becomes an asshole to the MC, even though in the last 8 episodes he has never been anything but friendly and very diplomatic with him.

P.S: I'm still waiting for that Magnar and Jeane scene, in which he nuts inside her.

 

[shazba]

but also 16 or 32 years, like one render a week
the longer the better....

as a gamer there is not a single reason to wish that you have to wait longer (as if six months per chapter were not enough...), but maybe it's me who's strange...

But that's a little disingenuous, you know DPC is churning out renders faster than any other game here.

Pretty much most other games here are taking about the same time between updates, some a bit longer, and some bit shorter. But they all deliver less than this game, most definitely.

The time between DPC's episodes is justified, more so than any other game. We're lucky it's coming out as fast as it is for what's actually delivered.

 

[felicemastronzo]

But that's a little disingenuous, you know DPC is churning out renders faster than any other game here.

Pretty much most other games here are taking about the same time between updates, some a bit longer, and some bit shorter. But they all deliver less than this game, most definitely.

So why the fuck do people keep complaining about how long this game is taking?

You're the one who said 8 years or 4 years is the same thing...

not me, so if you are the one who is ungenerous with DPC which should double the implementation time

 

[shazba]

You're the one who said 8 years or 4 years is the same thing...

not me, so if you are the one who is ungenerous with DPC which should double the implementation time

4 years is how long it should take if he does 2 episodes a year (the current rate), and 8 years is based on people crying that we'll only see one episode a year.

I'm suggesting it'll take as long as it takes.

You're talking about one render a week; it has nothing to do with what was being discussed.

 

[felicemastronzo]

4 years is how long it should take if he does 2 episodes a year (the current rate), and 8 years is based on people crying that we'll only see one episode a year.

I'm suggesting it'll take as long as it takes.

You're talking about one render a week; it has nothing to do with what was being discussed.

that was clearly a provocation, as yours

if 4 more years doesn't make a difference why should it make 8?

 

[felicemastronzo]

He openly bragged about how many branches or decisions his game had. Now if none of your previous decisions or branches you chose matter at this point, it's going to come back and bite him in the ass.

Especially if he makes it that Jade is mad at you no matter what you did at that point. Besides that is going to be so OOC of Jade that it's a whole another matter to discuss.

Or if Burke suddenly becomes an asshole to the MC, even though in the last 8 episodes he has never been anything but friendly and very diplomatic with him.

P.S: I'm still waiting for that Magnar and Jeane scene, in which he nuts inside her.

but the ramifications have already been there, it's full of events that you only witness under certain conditions and choices. but the story has always remained granitically one.

why should it change now?

DPC also put the mega-decision in the last chapter that unifies the different runs even more, there will be no more runs where you court more than one LI.
the context story will always be the same, it could be that after the meeting Maya or Sage will dump MC, but it is not possible that Maya will solve or not her problem because of MC's escapades

p.s. sit comfortably that the wait will be very long, the sun will go out first

 

[Kellermann]

Last time I wrote about the Interlude my post got deleted for being off topic...

Anyway, I don't know why you guys are making such a big negative deal about the Interlude.

DPC said it outright, he wanted to provide a bit of backstory (just like the prologues for many of the previous episodes), but this one warranted a long enough prologue to make it standalone. He also made that comment in the context of the story being about halfway.

This is not the new normal, it's just a novelty (his exact words were "a special part of the game").

Personally I reckon he would have done better to not even have announced it, and then released it midway through the development of the next episode. Like something to break the drought. Everyone would have played it and would be looking forward to more Zoey, instead he announced it way early and now we've all gotta wait while watching the less optimistic of us wailing about how they don't want Zoey.

And in the same vein, back on the topic of how long it will take DPC to finish the game, and how it's gonna take years: Most decent games take years to make, it's just you don't end up playing them piecemeal throughout the development.

If this game takes 8 years to make and we get to play a piece of it each year, that's fine (better than having to wait 8 years before we even get to play 1 minute of it).

Too many people act like 8 years (or 4 or 10 or whatever) is such a long time. Like they'll be dead before then (Mark Takagi, I'm sure you'll live to see the end ). It's no time at all. Game of Thrones aired for 9 years, and that's been over for almost 3 years already.

This game will be over in no time, and you'll all be complaining about how long his next game is taking.

Because it is distracting from the main story and the characters we are invested in and instead focusing on unknown characters that I don't give a toss about. the Interlude has already likely pushed the release date of ep. 9 to late 2022. That's why. Please don't tell me you're back on your "I don't care if it takes 12 months between episodes, I'm willing to wait! uWu!" theme. You had some sensible post nut clarity right after ep. 8 but it sounds like you're back to your old ways.

You like Zoey, I'm happy for you, good on you. I don't and as a result this entire enterprise is a waste of time, especially if it won't have MC as...well, the MC. Playing as fem protag Zoey while she sucks and fucks her way through san Diego? No thank you. I've dealt with Neil and Lynette backstory and that was bad enough, but forcing this insufferable blue-haired woman's backstory on me is irritating. Waiting to announce the Interlude wouldn't have helped either. My reaction still would be...this is what we get for holding up production on ep. 9? The only reason DPC is bringing Zoey back into this is so he can thrust yet another temptation obstacle at the player after (forcing) choosing a permanent breeding partner. Because he knows that after 8 episodes the average player has locked in to their waifu.

 

[hakuna-matata]

then statistically the most likely outcome of leaving MC and Josy waiting outside is that they end up having sex in the bathroom...

I can picture that too.

 

[PashafromRussia]

but the ramifications have already been there, it's full of events that you only witness under certain conditions and choices. but the story has always remained granitically one.

why should it change now?

DPC also put the mega-decision in the last chapter that unifies the different runs even more, there will be no more runs where you court more than one LI.
the context story will always be the same, it could be that after the meeting Maya or Sage will dump MC, but it is not possible that Maya will solve or not her problem because of MC's escapades

p.s. sit comfortably that the wait will be very long, the sun will go out first

This is extremely impractical. He may well recreate a situation in which Jade is angry at you regardless of whether you fucked her or not. MС could humiliate Tybalt, beat him up, and Jade as his mother can be angry. Only the context can change. If he really implements all the variables of the outcome of the meeting with Burke, the development of one episode will definitely take a year.

 

[Lostanddamned]

but the ramifications have already been there, it's full of events that you only witness under certain conditions and choices. but the story has always remained granitically one.

why should it change now?

DPC also put the mega-decision in the last chapter that unifies the different runs even more, there will be no more runs where you court more than one LI.
the context story will always be the same, it could be that after the meeting Maya or Sage will dump MC, but it is not possible that Maya will solve or not her problem because of MC's escapades

p.s. sit comfortably that the wait will be very long, the sun will go out first

This is extremely impractical. He may well recreate a situation in which Jade is angry at you regardless of whether you fucked her or not. MС could humiliate Tybalt, beat him up, and Jade as his mother can be angry. Only the context can change. If he really implements all the variables of the outcome of the meeting with Burke, the development of one episode will definitely take a year.

Unless he does something that fits all the routes - like, MC's phone rings and he goes out to talk, or something very serious comes up involving the DIK's or he figures out an outcome that fits all the routes, I think DPC's in trouble.

Like there's no way out of this, unless he changes character personalities that are already defined in the middle of the story or figuress out resolving this retarded storyline in the simplest possible way, without delving into the details because the more he does that the more he screws up.

I've already said it, if he doesn't want to be tangled up, his best option is either Stephen explaining to Maya how loans really work or Stephen deciding to financially help because this is Sage asking him for help personally and he can be like "We'll take care of it". If he want to add drama, he can have Stephen take shots at Jade and Maya for not taking the Finance classes, going to the Gender Studies instead. Although that wouldn't be typical of Stephen, who even though has been painted in a villainous light, has never been anything but friendly and diplomatic with other characters.