Ren'Py Lessons in Love [v0.52.0] [Selebus]

[DeSkel15]

I have some more thoughts on upcoming Yasu content. This started with something I saw on my new playthrough, which inspired me to look back at Yasu's Chapter 4 appearances.


In her first real appearance, Yasu seems to predict that something tragic will happen to Sensei "at the end of the world" that will cause him to "tumble further and further from everything". To me, this sounds like she's predicting the death of Maya Prime, though maybe I'm forgetting an earlier event that could also be described in this way.

Spoiler: The Girl in the Black Dress

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Yasu says she will be there to help Sensei when he starts spiraling. She also says that he will "reach for salvation", which is interesting because it could mean he initiates the interaction (because he's looking for any way to bring Maya back?), but it could also just be her eternal optimism of converting everyone to her church.

In any case, while we don't know exactly how much Yasu knows about the tragic event, it's possible that she is aware that Maya was reset (I don't think we've seen her interact with New Maya at all so far, which could help confirm/deny this). It makes me wonder if she will tell Sensei he can talk to Maya Prime in the same way that Sana can talk to her brother. She also might claim that HOPE can bring Maya back, which would tie back to "The Letter T" where AmIOkay is crucified and the audio spells out "againshelives" and says "the answer you seek is hope" (though later on "againshelives" seems to refer to Sekai).


If it is the case that Yasu wanted to "save" Sensei after Maya's death, it was confusing to me that she hasn't done anything yet. I looked back through Yasu's Chapter 4 appearances and there is more going on there than I realized.

First, when Sensei is still in a catatonic state, Yasu says that a glimpse of the future tells her that she shouldn't try to interfere at this point. She learns this by listening to insects, which suggests it comes from HOPE despite his apparent absence, though I think cicadas have also been connected to the World Itself before. She especially emphasizes that if Touka gets involved, it will break Sensei and cause some ambiguous bad things to happen to Touka herself.

Spoiler: Visibly Impatient

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Later we see her talking to the "Emissary of Pegasus". I argued in an earlier post that this is SekaiDolia (Sekai and Pareidolia working together or Pareidolia pretending to be Sekai) trying to mislead her for their own ends, and I still think that's the case. At this point, she seems to be impatient with still not doing anything to help Sensei.

Spoiler: Miserably Ever After

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

After Yasu brings up Sensei, the Emissary apparently refers to a sacrifice. In my previous post, I thought this was suggesting that a sacrifice is necessary to fix Sensei. Another possibility is that the Emissary is referring to Sensei himself as the sacrifice; maybe he was a necessary sacrifice to bring the spring. The idea of Sensei as sacrifice has been hinted at before; Yasu likes to refer to him as a lamb, and Sensei caused a glitch by talking about lamb sacrifice.

Spoiler: Black Sandy Beaches

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Finally, the last time we saw Yasu (I don't think she's showed up since) in the dorm wars, she received some sort of divine message. The message seems to warn against "the ones you keep inside", with reference to Pareidolia (spiderwebs) and Sekai (a ghost, a moon). She finishes by saying that she needs to warn Sensei and save him.

Spoiler: Priestess of Fallen Snow

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Interestingly, there are some indications that the message comes from Wires:

• The title of the event (and Molly) refers to Yasu as "Priestess of Fallen Snow", connecting her to winter. I don't think this name has been used elsewhere.
• HOPE has been MIA for awhile, whereas Wires just recently returned in "TH15 15NT M3". The eyes and the voice also don't match how HOPE has talked through Yasu before.
• The message ends with some hex lines, including a Romeo and Juliet quote with the line "pay no worship to the garish sun". Sounds like a rejection of the light/HOPE.
• The hex message has some language (e.g. "cursed be the gentiles") that is reminiscent of the Quran stuff from "TH15 15NT M3" when Wires probably possesses Tsuneyo.

I'm interested to see where this goes. It's still possible that Yasu will continue to be led astray by SekaiDolia, but now I'm leaning toward her fighting back against them instead, with the help of Wires or whoever sent the "Priestess of Fallen Snow" message. Given the message's content and Yasu's immediate resolve to warn/save Sensei, it makes me think that she is worried about SekaiDolia's influence over him. So maybe she's bringing the other SekaiDolia-affiliated characters to the church to warn/save them as well.

Hm, Yasu seemingly suggested she knew Maya Prime's time was running out and could potentially prolong it in Chapter 3's 'The Legacy of Thaum Pt. IV' Main Event:

Spoiler

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

The Shapeshifter and Sekai also seemed aware that Maya was screwed, and may have tried to warn Sensei. Somewhat seems like it may have been a "landmark".

Supposedly this has all happened before, and HOPE believes that by the next Summer, Sensei will be more on it's side:

Spoiler

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

So, Yasu may have known about Maya, but not be intended to help Sensei until next Summer. Current Sensei isn't favored by her god, and I kind of doubt Yasu is as well. She did fail after all.

Also, something I don't think I've mentioned: It's nice to see that Yasu, like actually Yasu, is showing to care about Sensei beyond her god.

Basically everything she's doing in Spring is more on her own accord. Albeit, it does seem that since she's been cut off from her god:

Spoiler

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

The World Itself may be advising her... since insects, wind, speaking backwards, and shadow communication seems to be it's thing:

Spoiler

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Insects and bugs seemingly being things Sekai/World liked, and considering HOPE/Yasu's god can just talk to Yasu, I don't think it'd need to communicate through bugs even if it is "the sound of the cicadas".

I do wonder if perhaps HOPE won't come around again until the "Purity Routes" and perhaps those may it's tests. HOPE seems interested in breaking the cycle, unlike the rest, so it may be responsible for the "True End" through those "Purity Routes".

I'm not sure if you realized there is a black yasu and a white yasu

The deities all have a favorite color, HOPE's favorite color is white and that's when Yasu is under their full control. WIRES favorite color is black (just like MINE!)

Now, I wouldn't say that WIRES can control her, who is to say different deities can't have the same favorite color? It's just something we can't know yet.

The deities not knowing the future is completely normal, the only way Yasu could've known about the future is if a sightseer, someone from the future, or if The Creator told her. (or if any of the previous either gave her this gift, or if she was born from them)

You should probably normalize the fact that the seasonal deities are not all knowing and all powerful, they are just Users trying to take over the world.

If I was a deity, I would probably try to gather as much information about the others I could and try to predict their future movements

Black Yasu is actually Summer Yasu. White Yasu is Winter Yasu.

Those fav colors may be switched. Black Rabbits also seem to be working for HOPE, albeit White Angels work for it as well. It's not exactly clear why.

Hi, I got a question: who narrates this monologue?
This is from the last Dorm Wars, the event is "Irregular Heartbeat".

Spoiler: Full monologue

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

I really like this monologue and it's accompanied by the only Good Kid song that I actually really liked ("Pox"). But what confused me is that I'm not sure who's the narrator.
The most obvious suspect is Maya Prime, but if we assume she's dead or her existence is on pause in some way, how does this work? A few options:
1) Is this Sensei imagining what Maya Prime would say to him? But the wording of some phrases feels different from how Sensei imagines dead people (well, Sekai). I haven't done research on this, but I've always felt that usually when Sekai appears before Sensei, all her dialogue is very Sensei-centric, like she's usually talking about "her little Akira" and only references herself as "I'm dead, duh". It seems very logical and in line with how a character is expected to think of dead people - as a prysm through which they look at themselves (regardless of whether Sekai as an entity is actually dead).
In contrast, lines like "I wonder if you'd still call me special" sound really personal, like a real human talking about themselves, not a projection. Still, I might be wrong about Sekai, but another problem I see with this being current Maya Prime is the "if you could see me now" part. See her where? Isn't Sensei fully convinced that she's no more? Or is there a part of him that's still in denial?
2) Another option is still Maya Prime, but from the past. This monologue reads like a letter or a diary entry. It just sounds to me like something actual Maya would write and not what Sensei would imagine. But at what point in the past would she write this? And she writes about Sensei's "unfortunate home now" - if it really was something from the past, then this line would be an unnecessary complication of the writing, because then "now" is referencing a point in the past. Probably too convoluted to be true.
3) Could this be New Maya? But what does "if you could see me now" mean? And the lines about how this city is not grouned in reality hint at the narrator knowing about the paranormal stuff, which New Maya seems to be oblivius to.
4) The last version is a stretch, but it really amused me how neatly it ties into most of the monologue. Forget about Maya and imagine that this is Sensei addressing Sekai. "Being special", "the first one I loved", "you felt like an earthquake" (hints at age difference). Especially "if you could see me now" reads like something an alive person would say referring to a dead one. But then again, "I hope you're having fun" doesn't really work, because Sensei seems to be insisting that Sekai is dead.

To sum up, I'm confused. I'm sure there's a lot I've missed (e.g. "Your lifejacket" sounds vaguely familiar), so please share your thoughts

It's likely The Shapeshifter/Himawari.

She's referred to her name as a "Kick to the shin" and mentioned Sensei isn't supposed to be able to remember her:

Spoiler

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

I don't see who else it could really be, tbh.

 

[Moonflare]

I'm leaning toward it being Himawari in this event, the language sounds more like a child than a lover to me: being called special, lying on his chest and feeling an earthquake, "little trickster", "kick to the shin", having a fortunate home together. She says that he was the first one she loved (rather than was in love with) which can easily be a child's love for a parent. Also "turning around and purging me from your memory" is what literally happens every time Sensei meets Himawari in the game.

That's a fair point. But how is it relevant for Himawari to narrate his first night with New Maya? Was she on the lookout for him to break?

Because if Maya Prime is a narrator, it would make a lot of sense for it to be her instead.

Which also brings us to a second question: who is the narrator during the disengage sequence of the auto-pilot (we already touched upon this, but I don't remember what we concluded). And is it the same one from here?

Spoiler: Miserably ever after and Where the trees live

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Because it does mention a "we", same as when "they" send Nao-chan to help Akira. There are multiple people, obviously all of these could be Himawari (the disengage even has a special option for her), but they can also be different narrators.

Edit: I mean that Himawari, even if she's the narrator for both of those, she's not a sole agent anymore.

 

[Moonflare]

Forgot to post this yesterday. I hadn't even realized New Maya went off on Noriko just like Prime did. New Maya must not have remembered Noriko being around.

Spoiler: When the Sun Sleeps

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

I remember New Maya asking Akira about why Noriko was even there, but I completely missed this. Damn. Noriko must have been like "what the actual fuck I thought we were past that". Thanks for pointing that one out. It also makes you wonder about how factory resets even work, cause New Maya definitely remembers some of the stuff that happened, why was only Noriko blocked out?

I get the impression New Maya thinks Akira is faithful to her, but she must remember the events like dormwars and such, right? Wow, when is her next event? I'm super curious now.

 

[Fire Lord Zuko]

Spoiler: Ami is so cute

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

That's it. That's the post.

 

[Yarazin]

I get the impression New Maya thinks Akira is faithful to her, but she must remember the events like dormwars and such, right? Wow, when is her next event? I'm super curious now.

I got that impression as well.

About Noriko telling this to Niki. I wonder if Maya and Niki ever have an encounter, would Niki say something to defend Noriko. If so, I wonder if that could cause Maya to lose it and start spouting truths. Probably not, she keeps it all in. But what could cause her to crack in that regard, anything?

 

[LessonsInDissonance]

Black Yasu is actually Summer Yasu. White Yasu is Winter Yasu.

Those fav colors may be switched. Black Rabbits also seem to be working for HOPE, albeit White Angels work for it as well. It's not exactly clear why.

//////////////////////WRONG

BLACK IS THE COLOR OF WINTER
WHITE IS THE COLOR OF SUMMER

THIS IS A FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH

IF THIS IS CHANGED THEN SOMEONE IS MEDDLING

THERE IS SOME TRICKERY HAPPENING WHICH I DONT UNDERSTAND

 

[Moonflare]

//////////////////////WRONG

BLACK IS THE COLOR OF WINTER
WHITE IS THE COLOR OF SUMMER

THIS IS A FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH

IF THIS IS CHANGED THEN SOMEONE IS MEDDLING

THERE IS SOME TRICKERY HAPPENING WHICH I DONT UNDERSTAND

Spoiler: where the trees live

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Make of that what you will.

 

[Pedro4545454]

when is her next event? I'm super curious now.

I hate this irony, Maya's next event will be on Halloween.

Spoiler: .

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

 

[DeSkel15]

Spoiler: where the trees live

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Make of that what you will.

I really like that line far more than I probably should. Like literally top 10 Kaori lines for me.

 

[aramaug]

That's a fair point. But how is it relevant for Himawari to narrate his first night with New Maya? Was she on the lookout for him to break?

Because if Maya Prime is a narrator, it would make a lot of sense for it to be her instead.

Which also brings us to a second question: who is the narrator during the disengage sequence of the auto-pilot (we already touched upon this, but I don't remember what we concluded). And is it the same one from here?

Spoiler: Miserably ever after and Where the trees live

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Because it does mention a "we", same as when "they" send Nao-chan to help Akira. There are multiple people, obviously all of these could be Himawari, but they can also be different narrators.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the narrators, but I currently think that the Italian italic narrator is usually Himawari, and the "primary narrator" who usually talks without italics (and is the narrator in this event) is someone else, with my best guess being some version of Maya.

In regards to the the "we" that sent Nao, I don't think there's a reason to assume that they are all narrators. I will continue to put forward my probably stupid idea that it's the "halves" of USER4.

I got that impression as well.

About Noriko telling this to Niki. I wonder if Maya and Niki ever have an encounter, would Niki say something to defend Noriko. If so, I wonder if that could cause Maya to lose it and start spouting truths. Probably not, she keeps it all in. But what could cause her to crack in that regard, anything?

Maya Prime kept it all in, but New Maya seems a lot more emotionally volatile. She abruptly leaves and slams the door when the Nakayams show up at Sensei's house, she hits her desk when Ami talks about girls wanting to fuck Sensei, and of course she loses her shit at Sensei for not fucking her.

Edit: Does this look like the face of an emotionally stable person?

Spoiler

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

 

[Pedro4545454]

I'm curious to see how broken Akira will be when Halloween and the reset arrive. The roof was the place where Maya Prime "died" and Halloween was the day she "died" so there's a good chance Akira is very broken in these specific moments.And I'm also curious how Ayane will react when Halloween arrives since she knows that was the day Maya Prime "died"

 

[Moonflare]

I got that impression as well.

About Noriko telling this to Niki. I wonder if Maya and Niki ever have an encounter, would Niki say something to defend Noriko. If so, I wonder if that could cause Maya to lose it and start spouting truths. Probably not, she keeps it all in. But what could cause her to crack in that regard, anything?

I think New Maya is a very fragile cat. Our Maya had the certainty of being with Akira over thousands of years. They had something which not one of these girls could ever possibly have (from her perspective), and that fueled her strength. She really had no competitors, including the memories of Sekai. If not for the world fucking them over, she might even have made him an honest man during the cycles.

New Maya though is a girl that bet her entire life on a broken adult male, like literally abandoned everything she ever was and put all cards into this. Think about it for a moment, we know how Niki loves Akira. But has Niki abandoned her entire life, cut ties with everything, and moved in with Akira while at the same time having to maintain that relationship a secret from everyone? Only Maya did this, and she did this while being a kid. If Akira ever dumped Maya she'd have her entire world erased, that's how fragile of an existence New Maya has.

So I think that New Maya is terrified of Niki, and with good reason - cause New Maya doesn't have the backing or memories of being his chosen guide, actually she never went against Niki, at most she went against Noriko. And she has no reason to believe she'd win against Niki either (you can see how logical it would be for him to trade her over for Niki in their conversation - from her perspective - and how close to breaking that makes her go).

So I think anything could make this New Maya crack. Will Akira cheating on her with half the class do it? I think it will to a certain point, remember that in her entire life with him he was completely faithful to her (or so we've been led to believe) - unfortunately for her, she's worse than Niki in this regard. She can't do anything to force his hand, and she is no one outside of their relationship. It really is a desperate situation to be in. I've mentioned this before, but from the moment Akira entered a romance with Wizard Maya, he not only stopped being solely a victim, but he became responsible for her for as long as she wants him to (we just never felt that weight because Maya Prime was in control, yet this one isn't and is about to be crushed).

Dark times ahead for the little stray.

 

[Moonflare]

I'm curious to see how broken Akira will be when Halloween and the reset arrive. The roof was the place where Maya Prime "died" and Halloween was the day she "died" so there's a good chance Akira is very broken in these specific moments.And I'm also curious how Ayane will react when Halloween arrives since she knows that was the day Maya Prime "died"

On the flipside, I'm very curious about their next visit to Sekai's grave now that Sekai is even more around than some of the characters.

Spoiler: some Io event

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

I wonder if one of them will ask about going to the grave, and the other will go like "we already have Sekai at home".

 

[Yarazin]

Your totally right but she seems to stick to Deny, Deny, Deny with Ami. So with how unhinged she is, will she tell people the truth. One of you have said before you theorize she maybe did or said something that could out them in the past. I think she is capable of underhanded stuff but I'm not sure she can admit the truth to others.

 

[Comiies]

Spoiler: Spoiler

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

 

[LessonsInDissonance]

Spoiler: where the trees live

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Make of that what you will.

except this is not a personal pizza

Winter = GOOD
Summer = BAD

 

[Comiies]

Spoiler: Sekai stuff

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

 

[Yarazin]

Who do you think is the most likely side girl to make it to the roof at some point?

I feel like Wakana has the best chance.

Edit: I suppose Kaori did make it there already didn't she, but you know what I mean.

 

[Pedro4545454]

Who do you think is the most likely side girl to make it to the roof at some point?

I feel like Wakana has the best chance.

I vote for Sara since she is connected to the gods too

 

[Fire Lord Zuko]

Who do you think is the most likely side girl to make it to the roof at some point?

I feel like Wakana has the best chance.

Edit: I suppose Kaori did make it there already didn't she. But you know what I mean.

Kaori due to Sekai’s influence or Nao-chan due to her anomaly status and just the way certain rules don’t apply to her.