VN Ren'Py Our Red String [Ch.13.2 Beta] [Eva Kiss]

[Gicoo]

You just described an f95zoner.

Closest is probably Stan and then Perry. They prioritize porn and don't want to go out.
Robert goes out, travels on vacation, has a stable job, has a circle of friends, dresses and does a bit of sports.

 

[Xupuzulla]

You just described an f95zoner.

Is this why hes not popular?

 

[Meles]

I did have that idea, that Seymour might be her father. But it doesn't seem likely to me. He'd have to be pretty nuts, to be putting his own daughter through this twisted sex game that he's playing with Lena. And could you really see a guy like Seymour with Lena's mom? Her and her Mom, don't appear to be very alike, so what would be the attraction for Seymour?

Mistakes of the past, perhaps? We don't know how they were when they were young.

Seymour is clearly the Big Bad of the story, but who can be the Big Good?

Emma is likely the most opposed character to Seymour and his plans, but she has neither pull or strategy for anything other than guerilla-esque protests.

Mayor Vermeer has both, but we don't see what is his long-term plans for the election campaign, and if we can influence the elections.

Perry doesn't do much, but if we take a 1940s fedora from Stan and put it on Perry, he will solve every problem and swoon every girl within an hour.

 

[Zara Scarlet]

Hi!
I have more time in the evening, so I have to make do with a short answer now. First. Seymour could be her Dad and not knowing it at least in the beginning. If Seymour is her Dad and he already knows it, it could be a nod to GGGB, where there is a Father-Daughter path quite well hidden.
As for Seymour being bad, look at what I said. I mentioned the a..hole scale, where Seymour is definitely not the worst, that are others. He can be a bad guy, but he must not be one! Seymour behaves work-related like many successful people. He is not even the baddest I had the misfortune to see in real life. That is not nice, quite the contrary, but unfortunately life.

It's highly unlikely, he wouldn't know, since he knows so much about her, he even knows how much money she has in her bank account. He tells her that, during their initial dinner date. It's obvious he's been checking up on her background, and by then, he probably knows exactly who her mother is.

Who exactly do you think is worse than him then? Axel cheated on her and has a foul temper, Robert may have manipulated her a bit, to get her into bed. But this is hardly comparable, with blackmail, attempted blackmail, multiple frauds, election tampering and god knows what else that we don't know about yet. You need to elaborate who and what is worse than that? Because I just don't see it myself.

 

[Zara Scarlet]

Mistakes of the past, perhaps? We don't know how they were when they were young.

Seymour is clearly the Big Bad of the story, but who can be the Big Good?

Emma is likely the most opposed character to Seymour and his plans, but she has neither pull or strategy for anything other than guerilla-esque protests.

Mayor Vermeer has both, but we don't see what is his long-term plans for the election campaign, and if we can influence the elections.

Perry doesn't do much, but if we take a 1940s fedora from Stan and put it on Perry, he will solve every problem and swoon every girl within an hour.

The obvious way to bring him down, will be someone getting evidence, that he's tampering with the Mayor's election. The most likely person to do that, will be Lena herself, because Seymour has already kind of admitted it to her, when they bumped into the candidate he's supporting. Whether Lena will do that ultimately, depends on how you play her with Seymour. I suppose Ian might be another possibility, if he gets closer to Seymour by winning the Literary competition, or rising higher at the publishing company. Ian's moral compass, is potentially higher than Lena's, and he may feel compelled to reveal any evidence of illegality on the part of Seymour, particularly if he has a high relationship with Emma.

All they'd need to do, was show any evidence to Mayor Vermeer, and no doubt he would do the rest

 

[Meles]

The obvious way to bring him down, will be someone getting evidence, that he's tampering with the Mayor's election. The most likely person to do that, will be Lena herself, because Seymour has already kind of admitted it to her, when they bumped into the candidate he's supporting. Whether Lena will do that ultimately, depends on how you play her with Seymour. I suppose Ian might be another possibility, if he gets closer to Seymour by winning the Literary competition, or rising higher at the publishing company. Ian's moral compass, is potentially higher than Lena's, and he may feel compelled to reveal any evidence of illegality on the part of Seymour, particularly if he has a high relationship with Emma.

All they'd need to do, was show any evidence to Mayor Vermeer, and no doubt he would do the rest

Would what he is doing count as tampering? I don't remember the details from his meeting with the candidate, but funding/donating to the campaign isn't likely illegal, as well as using his media resources.

I can imagine Seymour using Perry to somehow disparage the Mayor, in addition.

Ian is too detached from Seymour at this moment (unless he goes as protege in the future) to catch blackmail, but Lena can plan a double-agent and get documents/tape the room/etc to get serious ammunition. However, illegal evidence is not viable in court, and Vermeer is by-the-book type.

Also, regarding Seymour drying their sources of income, both have options. Billy strikes me as a cryptobro, who made good money out of Bitcoin and now spending it on what strikes him fancy. While the game clearly doubts his plan (I'm getting Entertainment 720 vibes), he might have enough dough to make a decent portfolio for Lena. Also, there are hooks about the music tournament.

Ian has Victor White, who is starting his internet publication. If it kicks off, it can help with self-publishing his book and give Ian a decent job.

The idea of the old money (Addingworth and Seymour) unable to influence the Internet (OnlyFans, digital publishing, crypto millionaires) kinda works there - for how wealthy and influential they are, they are competing with literally the whole planet.

 

[Socrambus]

Would what he is doing count as tampering? I don't remember the details from his meeting with the candidate, but funding/donating to the campaign isn't likely illegal, as well as using his media resources.

I can imagine Seymour using Perry to somehow disparage the Mayor, in addition.

Ian is too detached from Seymour at this moment (unless he goes as protege in the future) to catch blackmail, but Lena can plan a double-agent and get documents/tape the room/etc to get serious ammunition. However, illegal evidence is not viable in court, and Vermeer is by-the-book type.

Also, regarding Seymour drying their sources of income, both have options. Billy strikes me as a cryptobro, who made good money out of Bitcoin and now spending it on what strikes him fancy. While the game clearly doubts his plan (I'm getting Entertainment 720 vibes), he might have enough dough to make a decent portfolio for Lena. Also, there are hooks about the music tournament.

Ian has Victor White, who is starting his internet publication. If it kicks off, it can help with self-publishing his book and give Ian a decent job.

The idea of the old money (Addingworth and Seymour) unable to influence the Internet (OnlyFans, digital publishing, crypto millionaires) kinda works there - for how wealthy and influential they are, they are competing with literally the whole planet.

I was going to ask the same about the tampering, maybe I missed something but I assumed that the opposition candidate went to Seymour to ask for his support. And that support would mean money (donations) and Seymour's media support. That's business as usual, not election tampering.

Regarding using Perry to attack his father, you don't have to see it as a legal thing. It doesn't matter if "evidence" is usable on court, they only have to publicly smear Perry's father image. Doing it so close to the election would be effective, a trial would come way later than the elections and would be irrelevant to the election result.

I can see a plot where Seymour tries to use Ian and/or Lena to get some embarrasing evidence of Perry's "perversions" and "leak" it to his media. Bad economy plus a moral attack on the mayor by proxy though his son, the election would be an easy win. The opposite path would be Lena obtaining evidence on Seymour's sins and his connection to the opposition candidate and using social and independent media to put it out.

 

[Gicoo]

The idea of the old money (Addingworth and Seymour) unable to influence the Internet (OnlyFans, digital publishing, crypto millionaires) kinda works there - for how wealthy and influential they are, they are competing with literally the whole planet.

Seymour threatening to shut down Lena's stalkfap account was the worst, illogical, unbelievable threat ever. Sounds like someone who has no idea of the digital age and how it works there. Oldtimers that intrude a world they know nothing about vs digital natives like Billy, the later who would whip the floor with Seymour. Regardless if Seymour is an economic high society veteran and Billy a simpleminded idiot. RL example, some twitter highups delete Trumps tweets. At best Seymours PR can try to cancel Lena, but she can easily perform anonymously or limitless other various online ways to still get cash. Deleting her profile is a threat worth shit.

 

[Zara Scarlet]

Would what he is doing count as tampering? I don't remember the details from his meeting with the candidate, but funding/donating to the campaign isn't likely illegal, as well as using his media resources.

I can imagine Seymour using Perry to somehow disparage the Mayor, in addition.

Ian is too detached from Seymour at this moment (unless he goes as protege in the future) to catch blackmail, but Lena can plan a double-agent and get documents/tape the room/etc to get serious ammunition. However, illegal evidence is not viable in court, and Vermeer is by-the-book type.

Also, regarding Seymour drying their sources of income, both have options. Billy strikes me as a cryptobro, who made good money out of Bitcoin and now spending it on what strikes him fancy. While the game clearly doubts his plan (I'm getting Entertainment 720 vibes), he might have enough dough to make a decent portfolio for Lena. Also, there are hooks about the music tournament.

Ian has Victor White, who is starting his internet publication. If it kicks off, it can help with self-publishing his book and give Ian a decent job.

The idea of the old money (Addingworth and Seymour) unable to influence the Internet (OnlyFans, digital publishing, crypto millionaires) kinda works there - for how wealthy and influential they are, they are competing with literally the whole planet.

He's already told Lena, that he's going to fix the Literary competition so Ian wins. He said Ian will win, if she took the deal with him. The only way he could know that, was if he was bribing the judges. He also suggests that he can make it, so Ian has no chance of winning. So if he's prepared to commit fraud, to fix a Literary competition, the implication is clear that he'll probably do the same thing to fix the city election, because as he states clearly to Lena, he expects to do very well from overthrowing Mayor Vemeer's administration.

He also says he doesn't want to get into politics himself, and would rather be the guy behind the scenes pulling the strings. It's clear Peter Prestley is just going to be his Puppet, who will do only what Seymour tells him to. Seymour is all about control. He wants to control Lena, he wants to control Ian, and most important of all, he wants to control Baluart. A man like that, will do anything to get his way, and we already know that, because of the way he acts towards Lena if she turns down his offer to become her patron.

I think you overestimate the so called freedom of the internet. It's very very easy for the rich and powerful to manipulate the internet, and mold people's opinions. Some people are very gullible and if you bombard them with enough propaganda on the internet, they will start to believe it, because it's on the internet and that means it must be true, right?

I'm not saying there are no options for Ian or Lena, because there definitely are. But only if they follow the path of rejecting Seymour. If Lena doesn't reject him, she never finds out about those options, and Ian never considers rejecting him. Ian doesn't really want to believe that Seymour is bad, because that undermines what he believes is his best route to success. So he's trying really hard to disregard what Emma is saying, even though his gut is telling him, there's something a bit fishy about Seymour. Yes, Victor White might help Ian in the future, but if he doesn't write the review for 'The Fall of Delbaith', and let's Holly do it instead, well he never gets the opportunity at all. So they still both have to follow particular paths, to get these options

As for viable evidence, that isn't really relevant, because Baluart isn't a real place, and is set in a fictional country. And therefore it isn't possible to say what is viable, and what isn't. In any case, all they'd have to do was show him that the evidence existed, and then he could arrange for the police to either raid his premises or put him under surveillance.
And even if they subsequently got no legally permissable evidence, the mere fact that the police were investigating him, would likely thwart his machinations for the election.

 

[Socrambus]

He's already told Lena, that he's going to fix the Literary competition so Ian wins. He said Ian will win, if she took the deal with him. The only way he could know that, was if he was bribing the judges. He also suggests that he can make it, so Ian has no chance of winning. So if he's prepared to commit fraud, to fix a Literary competition, the implication is clear that he'll probably do the same thing to fix the city election, because as he states clearly to Lena, he expects to do very well from overthrowing Mayor Vemeer's administration.

Fixing your own literary competiton it's pretty easy, specially when you are one of the judges and another one is your employee. Fixing an election is quite more difficult, if not outright impossible. It's not that Seymour wouldn't do it for moral reasons.

 

[Meles]

Seymour threatening to shut down Lena's stalkfap account was the worst, illogical, unbelievable threat ever. Sounds like someone who has no idea of the digital age and how it works there. Oldtimers that intrude a world they know nothing about vs digital natives like Billy, the later who would whip the floor with Seymour. Regardless if Seymour is an economic high society veteran and Billy a simpleminded idiot. RL example, some twitter highups delete Trumps tweets. At best Seymours PR can try to cancel Lena, but she can easily perform anonymously or limitless other various online ways to still get cash. Deleting her profile is a threat worth shit.

I think it's believable, for Seymour. He is a man who still thinks of digital in the same vein as physical - you need right connections, put some effort, and everything can be done. But yeah, it's a worthless threat.

Hack Stalkfap? Not really possible - Seymour isn't deep in tech for that, and I believe security for such media is more than high.

Connect with SF owners to take it down? Possible, but unlikely. They might take a bribe, but this won't be good for their business to be caught, and they don't really have any interest unless it's a *massive* bribe - Seymour is of zero interest for them.

Buy it? Not only it's a waste of money, but ownership of adult social media is a heavy hit on his public reputation.

Just leak the photos? Oh no, a well-known nude model who poses for exhibitions and advertises her OnlyFans has her onlyfans leaked. That's literally not the news, and has around zero impact on her prospects outside of some modelling agencies, and even then, they would most likely just act to delete it.

Put her to court for breaching the contract? Possible, but it's more of a hit for Seymour's reputation, and maximum damage is a couple of months' rent.

For SFW social media to delete someone's account, you need either their personal interest (like Trump), interest from the government (and Seymour is playing in the kiddies pool of city elections), or, the best case, having a policy of autotakedowns for copyright infringement, which can be reversed.

But SF is NSFW media. Pornhub dukes it out with European Union and USA state governments, they won't cave to some moderately filthy rich guy. You need CP concerns for a takedown, or, again, a massive bribe, and even that is unlikely.

Cancel? Again, she is a public nude model who advertises her SF in her Insta - nothing sexual outside of illegal is a threat to her reputation. Lena also doesn't have a job worth the effort - she works in a cafe, and owners are treating her practically like her daughter. Destroying the cafe is possible and Seymour is petty enough to do that. But so what? She can apply to any other waitress job. She can skip town in the worst case, and do modelling there - he isn't able to stalk every modelling agency, and out of town, his influence is much less.

In the town, Seymour is a big fish, but the world is an ocean, and he is insignificant in comparison. What he can do? He can try to punish Ian and Van Dykes. He can go all in for an election to use administrative resource later (again, skipping town). The worst would probably leaking evidence of her cheating, but that ship has sailed in C12.


So, in the end, you can't stop the signal.

(Also, I still root for Stan's fedora/Perry route)

 

[lucadiadis]

You just described an f95zoner.

"Stop including me, Dude".

 

[Meles]

He's already told Lena, that he's going to fix the Literary competition so Ian wins. He said Ian will win, if she took the deal with him. The only way he could know that, was if he was bribing the judges. He also suggests that he can make it, so Ian has no chance of winning. So if he's prepared to commit fraud, to fix a Literary competition, the implication is clear that he'll probably do the same thing to fix the city election, because as he states clearly to Lena, he expects to do very well from overthrowing Mayor Vemeer's administration.

The difference is night and day. The competition is done by himself, with him in the judges, on his home turf, using very subjective criteria for choosing the winner - it's nearly impossible to prove fraud unless Ian sends a blank manuscript.\

He has no way to "fix" the election. Something like that, just to begin with requires access to administrative resource, and that's only Vermeer has. Rigging ballot boxes, sending "election carousels", etc - that's simply not viable even for someone organizing the vote (unless you are in an authoritarian country), much less for a challenger. Any attempt would be caught and lead to a sea of troubles.

As for the Internet, sure, manipulating it is not impossible. Just not on the Seymours level of influence. He's not the government, likely not a digital media mogul (Possibly, he has fingers in the print press), and at the very best, around a billion in net worth.

 

[lucadiadis]

I think it's believable, for Seymour. He is a man who still thinks of digital in the same vein as physical - you need right connections, put some effort, and everything can be done. But yeah, it's a worthless threat.

Hack Stalkfap? Not really possible - Seymour isn't deep in tech for that, and I believe security for such media is more than high.

Connect with SF owners to take it down? Possible, but unlikely. They might take a bribe, but this won't be good for their business to be caught, and they don't really have any interest unless it's a *massive* bribe - Seymour is of zero interest for them.

Buy it? Not only it's a waste of money, but ownership of adult social media is a heavy hit on his public reputation.

Just leak the photos? Oh no, a well-known nude model who poses for exhibitions and advertises her OnlyFans has her onlyfans leaked. That's literally not the news, and has around zero impact on her prospects outside of some modelling agencies, and even then, they would most likely just act to delete it.

Put her to court for breaching the contract? Possible, but it's more of a hit for Seymour's reputation, and maximum damage is a couple of months' rent.

For SFW social media to delete someone's account, you need either their personal interest (like Trump), interest from the government (and Seymour is playing in the kiddies pool of city elections), or, the best case, having a policy of autotakedowns for copyright infringement, which can be reversed.

But SF is NSFW media. Pornhub dukes it out with European Union and USA state governments, they won't cave to some moderately filthy rich guy. You need CP concerns for a takedown, or, again, a massive bribe, and even that is unlikely.

Cancel? Again, she is a public nude model who advertises her SF in her Insta - nothing sexual outside of illegal is a threat to her reputation. Lena also doesn't have a job worth the effort - she works in a cafe, and owners are treating her practically like her daughter. Destroying the cafe is possible and Seymour is petty enough to do that. But so what? She can apply to any other waitress job. She can skip town in the worst case, and do modelling there - he isn't able to stalk every modelling agency, and out of town, his influence is much less.

In the town, Seymour is a big fish, but the world is an ocean, and he is insignificant in comparison. What he can do? He can try to punish Ian and Van Dykes. He can go all in for an election to use administrative resource later (again, skipping town). The worst would probably leaking evidence of her cheating, but that ship has sailed in C12.


So, in the end, you can't stop the signal.

(Also, I still root for Stan's fedora/Perry route)

The last sentence spoiled it all.

 

[Meles]

The last sentence spoiled it all.

He's got an iron will, nerves of steel, and several other metal-themed attributes.

 

[Gicoo]

Forget how many judges there are. But the votes could be influenced, just how you can influence numerous other outcomes in the game, like book score, Jeremies chances with Ivy etc.

One or several judges may be on Seymours side, so if Lena and Ian antagonize or befriend him, they vote accordingly, regardless of the quality of the book.

Victor is very like uncorrupt and votes the best book, so the actual book quality is relevant. Maybe he favors Ian in case of a tie. More likely if Ian read Hollys book, less likely if he discouraged Holly.

Minerva could make the vote entirely personal: If Ian is on bad terms with her, she doesn't vote him out of spite. If he was polite, meek and always apologized, she may give him a chance. And if he fucks her, she votes for him unless maybe if he specificies that he doesn't want help.

 

[jimul18]

Does anybody have the newest version? The OP is still the one from May 5th.

 

[Haberdashery Haven]

Love this game, done a variety of different playthroughs over the past few days...

One question, which I've tried to find an answer to but haven't been successful: I've seen 2 different versions of Holly during the beach scene near the end of the latest update - one where she's texting on her phone at the beach (Ian dating Lena in this playthrough) and one where she's reading a book in the same spot (Ian dating Holly in this playthrough). My question is, is there any way of getting the version of Holly who is texting, while she is also dating Ian?

 

[Gicoo]

Does anybody have the newest version? The OP is still the one from May 5th.

That version (chapter 12.2 full) should already be the newest release, unless I overlooked something.

Love this game, done a variety of different playthroughs over the past few days...

One question, which I've tried to find an answer to but haven't been successful: I've seen 2 different versions of Holly during the beach scene near the end of the latest update - one where she's texting on her phone at the beach (Ian dating Lena in this playthrough) and one where she's reading a book in the same spot (Ian dating Holly in this playthrough). My question is, is there any way of getting the version of Holly who is texting, while she is also dating Ian?

Probably not because she is likely texting someone she is dating. Which isn't the case if she is dating Ian.

 

[jimul18]

That version (chapter 12.2 full) should already be the newest release, unless I overlooked something.

Maybe I am missing something but the Lena x Ian scenes for chapter 12 are not yet in the gallery.