Ren'Py Power Vacuum [Ch. 12 Official] [What? Why? Games]

[MAGO-DAG]

Any Estimate on the release date of new Chapter ?

The last update was somewhere in January, judging by how each chapter is getting bigger and better quality, I would say early 2025 between January or February

 

[sstrangemd]

Honestly I'd like to see an evidence-based comparison of who is "morally worse" between Sterling and Drew. I think people might be surprised due to their bias for the main character.

Yeah I went back through and replayed trying to get a different perspective since I felt like I was a crazy person, definitely biased towards Sterling. It's still kinda hard to compare the two, I've been playing since chapter two or three and Drew's relatively recent. I'm a vanilla player too and Drew shows up waaay less than I remembered. She's introduced with the fake-out, you do her 'prevention' events, do the intervention thing with Payton/Tefnut, she bangs that Eileen girl and says like three lines to the grandma/aunt and that's about it.

 

[Grey Wolf 73]

Yeah...definitely biased towards Sterling...

You DO realize he(Sterling) is the damn MC, right?
Sorry to NOT 'subvert your expectations' this time...

 

[sstrangemd]

You DO realize he(Sterling) is the damn MC, right?
Sorry to NOT 'subvert your expectations' this time...

I've played the game and surprisingly I can read, so I know that Sterling is the main character. I don't know what the point of this comment was? I was just continuing a conversation I was a part of...

 

[SuddenReal]

Honestly I'd like to see an evidence-based comparison of who is "morally worse" between Sterling and Drew.

Well, I can only think of one instance where Sterling gave into his base instincts when he fucked the doctor, but otherwise, all the women he fucked, it was either as an expression of love or because someone he cares for asked him. Drew, on the other hand, went seducing entire households with her father with the purpose of turning them into prostitutes. The only mission she took on in the name of love is where she returned home to seduce her own family.

 

[Jerk-man]

Honestly I'd like to see an evidence-based comparison of who is "morally worse" between Sterling and Drew. I think people might be surprised due to their bias for the main character.

Um, quite a strange comparison. let's remember that every sex involving Sterling occurs due to the forced desire of a woman, like Brenna, like Cat, we remember how Sterling tried to avoid such situations, the result of which was that sexual desire took over and could no longer be controlled.

Drew has hidden power and this is manipulation, after she returned, she was polite with all the girls (in fact, such politeness any of us in Sterling’s place would have thought “there’s something wrong here”) Drew knows how to win someone attention with his charm, what will happen after this? it’s only a matter of time, I’m almost sure of the differences from Sterling, Drew, after this completed charm, will fuck them all day.

Sterling, being so confident and a bit of a goofball, doesn’t always try to have sex when all the women in the house are hungry for dick, he likes to have sex, but even he understands that there are limits and I have noticed this in some cases. I remember when I was playing a long time ago and how Cat wanted to be fucked by her brother no matter what, and Sterling always refused, and now I wondered if Drew would have lived there at that time and saw Cat who thirsts for her brother, I’m sure Drew wouldn’t have needed a day to take control of Cat.

Therefore, friend, these moral comparisons don’t say anything special, it’s just that Sterling still doesn’t fully understand why he became like this(it feels like, throughout history, our Mc was replaced, and they are trying to turn him into some kind of evil sexist, but literally 3-4 updates ago he was literally different), and Drew? well, Drew has always had a hidden personality, we praise her early, I like her too, but we’ll wait for now, I’m sure we’ll get more answers in the finale.

This is a comedic and at the same time strange game, so there are no moral normal characters, which is why we enjoy game

 

[Fayn Arawn]

Well, I can only think of one instance where Sterling gave into his base instincts when he fucked the doctor, but otherwise, all the women he fucked, it was either as an expression of love or because someone he cares for asked him. Drew, on the other hand, went seducing entire households with her father with the purpose of turning them into prostitutes. The only mission she took on in the name of love is where she returned home to seduce her own family.

Um, quite a strange comparison. let's remember that every sex involving Sterling occurs due to the forced desire of a woman, like Brenna, like Cat, we remember how Sterling tried to avoid such situations, the result of which was that sexual desire took over and could no longer be controlled.

Drew has hidden power and this is manipulation, after she returned, she was polite with all the girls (in fact, such politeness any of us in Sterling’s place would have thought “there’s something wrong here”) Drew knows how to win someone attention with his charm, what will happen after this? it’s only a matter of time, I’m almost sure of the differences from Sterling, Drew, after this completed charm, will fuck them all day.

Sterling, being so confident and a bit of a goofball, doesn’t always try to have sex when all the women in the house are hungry for dick, he likes to have sex, but even he understands that there are limits and I have noticed this in some cases. I remember when I was playing a long time ago and how Cat wanted to be fucked by her brother no matter what, and Sterling always refused, and now I wondered if Drew would have lived there at that time and saw Cat who thirsts for her brother, I’m sure Drew wouldn’t have needed a day to take control of Cat.

Therefore, friend, these moral comparisons don’t say anything special, it’s just that Sterling still doesn’t fully understand why he became like this(it feels like, throughout history, our Mc was replaced, and they are trying to turn him into some kind of evil sexist, but literally 3-4 updates ago he was literally different), and Drew? well, Drew has always had a hidden personality, we praise her early, I like her too, but we’ll wait for now, I’m sure we’ll get more answers in the finale.

This is a comedic and at the same time strange game, so there are no moral normal characters, which is why we enjoy game

It's important to note that much of what we've been told about Drew's past comes from two (unreliable) sources: David's journal and Hunter. What I'm trying to shine a light on here is the reason Sterling is highly suspicious of Drew is because he thinks Drew is just like Hunter, but that fear is based mainly on Hunter's statements. In my opinion, Drew is very much a victim of Hunter, having been groomed since childhood to seduce women, all while actually believing Hunter was benevolent.

Replay the conversation from chapter 12 between Drew and Lucia in the shed (while Hunter is accusing Sterling), Drew seems to honestly think that Hunter has been a net positive for the families he's "taken care of", and that Hunter's methods are justified because of what Drew thinks Sterling has done to Hunter. Drew then equates Hunter's plan (as she understands it) with Sterling's actions, which I take to mean: fuck your family and earn money letting the internet watch. And Drew is not wrong, this is exactly what Sterling has done with Brenna, Eva* (*not family), Catherine, and soon with Ophelia (based on chapter 13 teasers). The point is, these women were willing participants with Sterling in essentially prostituting themselves, and we don't condemn him. But we seem to condemn Drew for similar actions without reviewing the facts.

In chapter 12, under the effects of "truth gas", Hunter confesses feeling guilty about the first household he seduced after leaving with Drew. A key detail is that Hunter says he did the seducing, he doesn't mention Drew. He describes it as almost accidental, but then admits that he took a predatory approach to subsequent households, and then pimped them out. That's when Drew came in, to help "manage" after Hunter left. But the way Hunter describes it (under truth gas), it sounds like the women were willing/eager participants because of how much money they were making. There's plenty of room to debate the ethics of prostitution, but again I have to point out: Sterling has been helping Brenna (and others) do something very similar (albeit on camera only, and not physically with strangers).

Speaking of seducing households, that's exactly what Sterling has done with Kumiko's family. Sure, Caspian encouraged it, but it's possible there were men in the households Hunter conquered who were also open to the idea. And if they weren't, I'm willing to bet Hunter didn't tell Drew the entire truth about how he overcame their resistance.

The main thing I think Drew actually is guilty of is adultery with David, although we know very little about how it happened because we've only learned about it from a few emails. I speculate that David was bisexual (or maybe even gay?), and that Ophelia might have even suspected this. At some point David and Ophelia may have started to drift apart, which I can sympathize with. This doesn't excuse Drew swooping in to cuck Ophelia, but David was an adult and situations like that are messy but not uncommon.

And speaking of adultery, Sterling has fucked two married women: Rachita (the nurse) and Kumiko. And this is merely speculative, but I'm sure he'll fuck more married women if they offer.

In summary, I'm not necessarily trying to say that "Drew is actually good" or that "Sterling is actually bad", but rather that when viewed objectively, there are many parallels between them, and most of what we think we know about Drew is unreliable at best.

 

[uscmiller22]

It's important to note that much of what we've been told about Drew's past comes from two (unreliable) sources: David's journal and Hunter. What I'm trying to shine a light on here is the reason Sterling is highly suspicious of Drew is because he thinks Drew is just like Hunter, but that fear is based mainly on Hunter's statements. In my opinion, Drew is very much a victim of Hunter, having been groomed since childhood to seduce women, all while actually believing Hunter was benevolent.

Replay the conversation from chapter 12 between Drew and Lucia in the shed (while Hunter is accusing Sterling), Drew seems to honestly think that Hunter has been a net positive for the families he's "taken care of", and that Hunter's methods are justified because of what Drew thinks Sterling has done to Hunter. Drew then equates Hunter's plan (as she understands it) with Sterling's actions, which I take to mean: fuck your family and earn money letting the internet watch. And Drew is not wrong, this is exactly what Sterling has done with Brenna, Eva* (*not family), Catherine, and soon with Ophelia (based on chapter 13 teasers). The point is, these women were willing participants with Sterling in essentially prostituting themselves, and we don't condemn him. But we seem to condemn Drew for similar actions without reviewing the facts.

In chapter 12, under the effects of "truth gas", Hunter confesses feeling guilty about the first household he seduced after leaving with Drew. A key detail is that Hunter says he did the seducing, he doesn't mention Drew. He describes it as almost accidental, but then admits that he took a predatory approach to subsequent households, and then pimped them out. That's when Drew came in, to help "manage" after Hunter left. But the way Hunter describes it (under truth gas), it sounds like the women were willing/eager participants because of how much money they were making. There's plenty of room to debate the ethics of prostitution, but again I have to point out: Sterling has been helping Brenna (and others) do something very similar (albeit on camera only, and not physically with strangers).

Speaking of seducing households, that's exactly what Sterling has done with Kumiko's family. Sure, Caspian encouraged it, but it's possible there were men in the households Hunter conquered who were also open to the idea. And if they weren't, I'm willing to bet Hunter didn't tell Drew the entire truth about how he overcame their resistance.

The main thing I think Drew actually is guilty of is adultery with David, although we know very little about how it happened because we've only learned about it from a few emails. I speculate that David was bisexual (or maybe even gay?), and that Ophelia might have even suspected this. At some point David and Ophelia may have started to drift apart, which I can sympathize with. This doesn't excuse Drew swooping in to cuck Ophelia, but David was an adult and situations like that are messy but not uncommon.

And speaking of adultery, Sterling has fucked two married women: Rachita (the nurse) and Kumiko. And this is merely speculative, but I'm sure he'll fuck more married women if they offer.

In summary, I'm not necessarily trying to say that "Drew is actually good" or that "Sterling is actually bad", but rather that when viewed objectively, there are many parallels between them, and most of what we think we know about Drew is unreliable at best.

I don't understand how you can try to make this argument and ignore all of the bad ending scenes with Drew. Yes, they aren't canon but they are canon of the character showing us how events would happen without our intervention. The same way we know how awful Hunter can be because of those possible outcomes. We are shown that Drew will 100% drug women to fuck them if given the chance. Drew also rapes Tiff under the pretext that their someone else. Nothing changed Drew's character in those scenes, we've been shown that is who they are when given the opportunity. Drew is without a doubt a bad person.

 

[tramtoriana2]

So wait NTR teasers come up when release is near? I hope we will get update this summer

 

[Fayn Arawn]

I don't understand how you can try to make this argument and ignore all of the bad ending scenes with Drew. Yes, they aren't canon but they are canon of the character showing us how events would happen without our intervention. The same way we know how awful Hunter can be because of those possible outcomes. We are shown that Drew will 100% drug women to fuck them if given the chance. Drew also rapes Tiff under the pretext that their someone else. Nothing changed Drew's character in those scenes, we've been shown that is who they are when given the opportunity. Drew is without a doubt a bad person.

You make fair points. In the simplest terms, Drew raped Tiff in one bad ending, and drugged Brenna in another. I'm tempted to argue that Drew's actions were based partly on obvious interest from Tiff and Brenna, and they were very much into it once Drew got going, but I'm not in the mood for a "consent is consent" debate, so, you're right.

On the other hand, as you point out, those scenes aren't canon, just as the scene where Sterling shoots Hunter in the head isn't canon. Regardless if Hunter "was asking for it" (pun intended!), I don't think it's fair to treat Sterling like a murderer in the canon timeline, if you see what I'm saying.

Drew may be sexual competition to Sterling, but that doesn't make her a villain. Sterling is very much a sexual opportunist, who has told a lie here and there to create some of those opportunities. I think Drew is very similar. So far, we haven't seen her do anything terrible in canon, and even the non-canon stuff is kinda borderline (in my opinion).

 

[MAGO-DAG]

Shit, all this discussion and confrontation between Sterling and Drew made me wonder if for some reason while Drew is fucking Eileen, she calling Sterling, he will have a choice to join or not, and suddenly they have a threesome lol... that would be a cliffhanger

and all fans will stop arguing in their own way

 

[Fayn Arawn]

Shit, all this discussion and confrontation between Sterling and Drew made me wonder if for some reason while Drew is fucking Eileen, she calling Sterling, he will have a choice to join or not, and suddenly they have a threesome lol... that would be a cliffhanger

and all fans will stop arguing in their own way

Funny you should mention it, because "Sterling X Eileen" was the winner of the Last Chance poll in May. I wonder if Drew will be aware (or involved)? I'm very curious to see how it will play out, especially after what Brenna did to Eileen (who may have deserved it).

 

[MAGO-DAG]

Drew may be sexual competition to Sterling, but that doesn't make her a villain. Sterling is very much a sexual opportunist, who has told a lie here and there to create some of those opportunities. I think Drew is very similar. So far, we haven't seen her do anything terrible in canon, and even the non-canon stuff is kinda borderline (in my opinion).

I would say both are similar, like the uncle (or aunt), like the nephew, they have a kind of sexual desire without these debaucheries like Hunter, and both desire girls in their own way...

no matter how stupid it may sound, both even have sexual attractiveness, Sterling, even without those muscles, was very good at winning over the attractiveness of girls, especially we see that even Tiff was a little interested in him, and Drew has complete experience with such things. so for me both are somewhat similar who have taboo feelings

 

[MAGO-DAG]

Funny you should mention it, because "Sterling X Eileen" was the winner of the Last Chance poll in May. I wonder if Drew will be aware (or involved)? I'm very curious to see how it will play out, especially after what Brenna did to Eileen (who may have deserved it).

Considering that Eileen is partly a supporting character, I wouldn't mind if we were given canon like with the dog? Initially, Sterling fucks Eileen, Drew goes there (of course there must be some choice), and sees what is happening there, and then Mc will have a choice to let Drew join or not? I'm sure the scene would have been hot, where Eileen sucks Drew while Sterling pounds her and more

 

[NachoAndCheez]

It's important to note that much of what we've been told about Drew's past comes from two (unreliable) sources: David's journal and Hunter. What I'm trying to shine a light on here is the reason Sterling is highly suspicious of Drew is because he thinks Drew is just like Hunter, but that fear is based mainly on Hunter's statements. In my opinion, Drew is very much a victim of Hunter, having been groomed since childhood to seduce women, all while actually believing Hunter was benevolent.

Replay the conversation from chapter 12 between Drew and Lucia in the shed (while Hunter is accusing Sterling), Drew seems to honestly think that Hunter has been a net positive for the families he's "taken care of", and that Hunter's methods are justified because of what Drew thinks Sterling has done to Hunter. Drew then equates Hunter's plan (as she understands it) with Sterling's actions, which I take to mean: fuck your family and earn money letting the internet watch. And Drew is not wrong, this is exactly what Sterling has done with Brenna, Eva* (*not family), Catherine, and soon with Ophelia (based on chapter 13 teasers). The point is, these women were willing participants with Sterling in essentially prostituting themselves, and we don't condemn him. But we seem to condemn Drew for similar actions without reviewing the facts.

In chapter 12, under the effects of "truth gas", Hunter confesses feeling guilty about the first household he seduced after leaving with Drew. A key detail is that Hunter says he did the seducing, he doesn't mention Drew. He describes it as almost accidental, but then admits that he took a predatory approach to subsequent households, and then pimped them out. That's when Drew came in, to help "manage" after Hunter left. But the way Hunter describes it (under truth gas), it sounds like the women were willing/eager participants because of how much money they were making. There's plenty of room to debate the ethics of prostitution, but again I have to point out: Sterling has been helping Brenna (and others) do something very similar (albeit on camera only, and not physically with strangers).

Speaking of seducing households, that's exactly what Sterling has done with Kumiko's family. Sure, Caspian encouraged it, but it's possible there were men in the households Hunter conquered who were also open to the idea. And if they weren't, I'm willing to bet Hunter didn't tell Drew the entire truth about how he overcame their resistance.

The main thing I think Drew actually is guilty of is adultery with David, although we know very little about how it happened because we've only learned about it from a few emails. I speculate that David was bisexual (or maybe even gay?), and that Ophelia might have even suspected this. At some point David and Ophelia may have started to drift apart, which I can sympathize with. This doesn't excuse Drew swooping in to cuck Ophelia, but David was an adult and situations like that are messy but not uncommon.

And speaking of adultery, Sterling has fucked two married women: Rachita (the nurse) and Kumiko. And this is merely speculative, but I'm sure he'll fuck more married women if they offer.

In summary, I'm not necessarily trying to say that "Drew is actually good" or that "Sterling is actually bad", but rather that when viewed objectively, there are many parallels between them, and most of what we think we know about Drew is unreliable at best.

Why does everyone like to forget that Sterling is drugged off his rocker too, "He's a total oportunist, he fucked that married nurse" because of the gas, the same gas that made Kumiko analy probe Ophelia (While she was telling her to stop) in a weird power move and at the end Kumiko said "I realised I was doing something wrong immediately... but I couldn't stop", that was (I believe) her first exposure to the gas, imagine how fucked up are the people in the house considering that they are constantly exposed to it.

The scene with the clerk girl happened after Hunter told Drew that he was going to increase the amount of drugs used on the family, and Brenna was actually commenting on how much more horny Sterling was acting, that was on chapter eleven, who knows how many drugs are in his system by the twelveth and he still resisted what happened in Kumiko's house to some degree until Caspian brived him. And all things considered the only one that appeared to have some resistance to the drugs was Ophelia and I'm pretty sure that resisting it was causing her literal pain.

Sterling was the guy that didn't even enter a room without permission and got angry when Cath started discovering masturbation and used him as a toy, I don't know how much his change now is the drugs and how much is that he just got a taste for it but drugs did a LOT of the heavy lifting at the start, that was the point of the drugs in fact, to have the family start a sexual relationship, WITHOUT Sterling being a dick about it.

Sterling is as much a victim here, I don't think Drew needed actual drugs to start cooperating, though, the end game does appear to be Sterling becoming like Hunter but I don't know, there was that what if where Sterling actually accepted becoming Hunter's apprentice and the Dev said something akin to "If Sterling became Hunter, he would be way kinder and gentler" so there I shrugged.

 

[Fayn Arawn]

Why does everyone like to forget that Sterling is drugged off his rocker too, "He's a total oportunist, he fucked that married nurse" because of the gas, the same gas that made Kumiko analy probe Ophelia (While she was telling her to stop) in a weird power move and at the end Kumiko said "I realised I was doing something wrong immediately... but I couldn't stop", that was (I believe) her first exposure to the gas, imagine how fucked up are the people in the house considering that they are constantly exposed to it.

The scene with the clerk girl happened after Hunter told Drew that he was going to increase the amount of drugs used on the family, and Brenna was actually commenting on how much more horny Sterling was acting, that was on chapter eleven, who knows how many drugs are in his system by the twelveth and he still resisted what happened in Kumiko's house to some degree until Caspian brived him. And all things considered the only one that appeared to have some resistance to the drugs was Ophelia and I'm pretty sure that resisting it was causing her literal pain.

Sterling was the guy that didn't even enter a room without permission and got angry when Cath started discovering masturbation and used him as a toy, I don't know how much his change now is the drugs and how much is that he just got a taste for it but drugs did a LOT of the heavy lifting at the start, that was the point of the drugs in fact, to have the family start a sexual relationship, WITHOUT Sterling being a dick about it.

Sterling is as much a victim here, I don't think Drew needed actual drugs to start cooperating, though, the end game does appear to be Sterling becoming like Hunter but I don't know, there was that what if where Sterling actually accepted becoming Hunter's apprentice and the Dev said something akin to "If Sterling became Hunter, he would be way kinder and gentler" so there I shrugged.

Even if I was too hard on Sterling, consider this: we can sympathize with Sterling and forgive him, because we know what's going on. But imagine an outsider's perspective: Sterling might seem like a monster. That's the very dilemma with Drew: we don't know exactly what she's done, or how much she's been manipulated/controlled by Hunter. My hypothesis is that Drew has been, at a minimum, brainwashed and lied to by Hunter since childhood. Even in the present, Drew is being affected by the same chemicals as the rest of the house.

Again, I'm not trying to indict Sterling here. I just think we haven't seen the whole picture yet regarding Drew, and she might be redeemed by the end of the story. Or I could be completely wrong, we'll see!

 

[NachoAndCheez]

Even if I was too hard on Sterling, consider this: we can sympathize with Sterling and forgive him, because we know what's going on. But imagine an outsider's perspective: Sterling might seem like a monster. That's the very dilemma with Drew: we don't know exactly what she's done, or how much she's been manipulated/controlled by Hunter. My hypothesis is that Drew has been, at a minimum, brainwashed and lied to by Hunter since childhood. Even in the present, Drew is being affected by the same chemicals as the rest of the house.

Again, I'm not trying to indict Sterling here. I just think we haven't seen the whole picture yet regarding Drew, and she might be redeemed by the end of the story. Or I could be completely wrong, we'll see!

The chemicals that Hunter told Drew about and then made a plan on the spot not to take them, I've seen people being extremely soft on Drew, me included, and sincerelly I feel that is iffy by now. Now people defendind Drew just try to forget everything that's been said and done while absolutely blowing Sterling's actions out of proportion.

 

[ReiCaixa]

I would say early 2025 between January or February

That's a lot of time.
Wish they'd release something in the middle, like a Halloween or Xmas What If.

 

[MAGO-DAG]

That's a lot of time.
Wish they'd release something in the middle, like a Halloween or Xmas What If.

It is not necessary. The main goal is to finish the "Main story". whatever happens next

 

[ReiCaixa]

It is not necessary. The main goal is to finish the "Main story". whatever happens next

Not necessary but still my wish.