Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, and got some nice stuff from Santa (and his helpers).
I fully planned to put out a little micro-update for Christmas, and then I got sick with something that put me on the couch for a week in a NyQuil-fueld stupor. Booo.. But, since I already wrote it, I'm going to tweak it, and put it out for New Years. Cool? Cool!
Real world: author spent a lot of time on many other things in the update, maybe decided he just didn't feel like making an nth route for people not into Mason. Alternatively, maybe he wanted to keep options open to players who might not want to miss out on scenes. Both understandable. And tbh, you can come up with an infinite number of personal preferences "why didn't author do this", but well, a line has to be drawn somewhere, right?
This is a
big part of it. I'll be honest: as the updates have grown, my attention to detail for these little possibilities has diminished. I
have tried to be mindful of it -- if you're just friends with Mason/treating him like a guy, and haven't had sex with him, you get a special dialogue option in the dressing room scene when he comes out in underwear. This is meant to hint towards Guy taking more of a 'big brother' role towards Mason.
Also, a
llllot of people reacted to Mason's first scene with, "Well, I
like Mason, but I don't want to take advantage of him in this moment, so I won't get a BJ here, but I'd like the option later." So, those follow-up options exist for those people. I think Phil also explained Mason's character motivations pretty well. Being neurodivergent/disabled he's not always great at reading social cues. But, he's also preemptively trying to use sex as a way of avoiding trouble/aggression. So, when Guy wakes up panicked and breathless, Mason jumps to, "Okay, I can just suck his dick and calm him down." Depending on the relationship, that can be Mason genuinely just trying to do something nice for the guy who's been so nice to him, or just trying to de-escalate the tension he feels.
But, in the interest of pleasing everyone, I'll add a little dialogue there where the player can tell Mason to stop asking, locking him into the friend route. I'll also add a flag so that, if you do scold Mason in the dressing room scene, he won't ask you about sex anymore.
I think someone else up-thread had mentioned that the update was full of Mason sex/seemed to want the player to fuck Mason at every opportunity. To the point where it seemed a little much. That was intentional, for the arc of Guy and Mason's relationship. Let me explain: Mason's relationship with Guy is actually informed by own relationship with a younger non-binary partner I had. Said person was
always up for sex at the beginning of the relationship, and into basically whatever kink I wanted to explore. To the point where I could just shove them to their knees, pull my dick out, and get a blowjob whenever I felt like it. Slap them around? Great! Choke them, spit on them, leash and collar them -- whatever! They were into it, I was into it, and all was well.
But, something interesting happened as we grew into an actual couple: they started drawing boundaries that weren't previously there. They didn't want me to essentially treat them like a free-use meat puppet, but like an actual romantic partner. That fundamentally changed the nature of our relationship, where I had to start acting like an actual
boyfriend, as opposed to a guy who fucked them.
So, I wanted to build the beginning of Guy and Mason's relationship in a similar way, and watch it develop. Right now, Romance Path Guy can basically do whatever he wants to Mason, and Mason enjoys it. What happens if that changes? What if Guy visits Mason at Barron Books, and tries to drag him into the bathroom to fuck him, only to receive a firm, "No, I'm working and don't want to get fired!"
Is Guy still interested in a version of Mason who doesn't just do whatever he says, whenever he says it? Can they actually build a healthy relationship where they're more-or-less equals? Let's find ouuuut!
