VN Ren'Py Where the Heart Is [S1 v2024-09-06 BETA] [CheekyGimp]

[Mormont]

Am I the only one who’s not a fan of Elaine? I don’t understand why everyone seems to be so smitten with her. I’m not buying this whole wicked stepmother with a heart of gold persona.

Also, this whole I was only nasty to you growing up because your father made me, is not a valid excuse. Especially considering that her first actions after the fathers death was to throw you out your house and threaten to destroy all your stuff (which was only saved due to Bellas intervention).

Personally, I find the timing of her change of heart right after the term of the father’s will are released to be suspicious. I suspect that the niceness is an act in order to fulfill the terms of her inheritance after which she’ll go back to torturing kittens.

In these games I always go for the love route, but in this case the thought of being nice to her makes me cringe.

She is a damn good actress then she does actually tell the MC that she wanted to treat him like her own but the father put his foot down on that I wouldn't blame her for the way she acted the father was the controlling type and she only stayed in line to keep some stability in her life. As I've said before she is attracted to the MC because he reminds her so much of the father and our MC seems like a much better person. I don't actually understand the hate of Elaine it's not as if we actually have seen her being a bitch or anything. But hey more hot milf for the rest of us

 

[thedude]

I think it makes perfect sense. Like I said before I don't for one second believe that the will states that she has to be nice to the MC, rather that she needs to manipulate the MC. After all it's hard to manipulate someone who doesn't like you.

Nah, it doesn't make any sense. But whatever gets me more sexy moments with Elaine.

 

[dkatryl]

On the one hand, i can see why people are suspicious about Elaine's seeming heel-face turn, however, the thing that makes me pause and think it might not be a total act is just how much of a dick the dad was and his conditions. In particular, based on MC's condition, i suspect all 3 received custom conditions that the dad didn't think they would do, or at least without feeling like they whored out their dignity for the money.

His conditions to MC is to cut all ties with Monica and the girls. If Elaine remained an uber cunt towards MC, that would have made it harder for MC to cut ties with Monica,etc because they were the only caring 'family' he had left.

With Elaine, instead, putting on the contrition act, even if it was fake, that would make it easier for MC to cut ties if he felt maybe he could reconnect with Elaine and get some of that missing family bonding he never got.

And i dont see the dad as the sort that would come up with bullshit conditions, then try to engineer a way to make it easier for MC.

In fact, i would expect each of the conditions would be mutually exclusive with the others, ideally so that the only way for one to fulfill theirs would come at the expense of the other 2 failing theirs.

So, yeah, not sure. Elaine could be on the level. Or could be running a long con, but if so, it wouldnt work against MC's condition.

 

[arms99]

I don't actually understand the hate of Elaine it's not as if we actually have seen her being a bitch or anything. But hey more hot milf for the rest of us

I disagree with that, the game starts with her being a unforgivable bitch. In the wake of your father's death she kicks you out of your home without a care that you don't really have anywhere else to go (lucky for you Monica steps in). The first communication you have with her is a msg:
"please don't think you can come back if you are having trouble finding somewhere.
I want to be very clear. This is no longer your home and you are not welcome here.
Please let me know your new address ASAP and I'll ship the rest of your stuff. I don't want it in my house.
if I don't hear from you in three days, I'll assume you don't want it and it will go in the trash"
Also the first time you meet Bella is when she brings you your stuff after she had notice that Elaine had put it in the trash before you had a chance to pick it up.

You can have her, she's all yours

 

[Mormont]

I disagree with that, the game starts with her being a unforgivable bitch. In the wake of your father's death she kicks you out of your home without a care that you don't really have anywhere else to go (lucky for you Monica steps in). The first communication you have with her is a msg:
"please don't think you can come back if you are having trouble finding somewhere.
I want to be very clear. This is no longer your home and you are not welcome here.
Please let me know your new address ASAP and I'll ship the rest of your stuff. I don't want it in my house.
if I don't hear from you in three days, I'll assume you don't want it and it will go in the trash"
Also the first time you meet Bella is when she brings you your stuff after she had notice that Elaine had put it in the trash before you had a chance to pick it up.

You can have her, she's all yours

I'd say that was all down to the grieving process people react differently when they are grieving and she was in such a routine of being tough on the MC she probably forgot to shut it off and her first instinct was to lash out but now she has had time to grieve she has seen the errors of her ways and wants to make it back up to the MC.

 

[arms99]

I'd say that was all down to the grieving process people react differently when they are grieving and she was in such a routine of being tough on the MC she probably forgot to shut it off and her first instinct was to lash out but now she has had time to grieve she has seen the errors of her ways and wants to make it back up to the MC.

We all have our different ways of seeing things. For me personally the fact that the father was behind her horrible treatment of the MC doesn't exonerated her and the grief doesn't excuse her actions. The way she can make it back up to my MC is by loosing his number, but don't worry I'll make sure to give her your MCs number.

 

[Rodzaju]

I'm not 100% convinced, but I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt & the opportunity to make it up to me...

 

[Regardie]

I disagree with that, the game starts with her being a unforgivable bitch. In the wake of your father's death she kicks you out of your home without a care that you don't really have anywhere else to go (lucky for you Monica steps in). The first communication you have with her is a msg:
"please don't think you can come back if you are having trouble finding somewhere.
I want to be very clear. This is no longer your home and you are not welcome here.
Please let me know your new address ASAP and I'll ship the rest of your stuff. I don't want it in my house.
if I don't hear from you in three days, I'll assume you don't want it and it will go in the trash"
Also the first time you meet Bella is when she brings you your stuff after she had notice that Elaine had put it in the trash before you had a chance to pick it up.

You can have her, she's all yours

How do you know that Elaine wrote that email? It could have been Bella that sent it from her sister's computer and account, and then she shows up like a hero talking about how she saved all the MC's stuff. I don't recall a direct conversation between the MC and Elaine about that first message.

I will say again, Bella, short for Isabella, sometimes shortened to Izzy, not a far leap from there to Dizzy. Think about it and what the dad said about Elaine being pissed if she knew about the other gold digger.

Both of the others could have produce a grandchild for the dad to keep his line going and then they get to manage the kids money until legal maturity.

 

[McWoodz]

How do you know that Elaine wrote that email? It could have been Bella that sent it from her sister's computer and account, and then she shows up like a hero talking about how she saved all the MC's stuff. I don't recall a direct conversation between the MC and Elaine about that first message.

I will say again, Bella, short for Isabella, sometimes shortened to Izzy, not a far leap from there to Dizzy. Think about it and what the dad said about Elaine being pissed if she knew about the other gold digger.

Not a bad shout on Dizzy Izzy but I'm pretty sure Elaine'd be pissed whoever it was. Just the fact she was being cheated on.
As for the email it was a text message and she called the MC herself to ask if he had got the text and told him "I have all your shit packed up. I don't want it in my house anymore... So are you going to collect your shit or do I need to throw it out?" so yeah no debate over whether it was her that was being a cunt.

 

[arms99]

How do you know that Elaine wrote that email? It could have been Bella that sent it from her sister's computer and account, and then she shows up like a hero talking about how she saved all the MC's stuff. I don't recall a direct conversation between the MC and Elaine about that first message.

There is a direct conversation between the MC and Elaine about that first message. Episode 4 she calls his phone and says pretty much the same thing, giving him til "Thursday" to pick his stuff before she throws it. It's available in the scene gallery mod.

 

[Mormont]

How do you know that Elaine wrote that email?

I still believe there is more to this subject than meets the eye we are all thinking one thing but I still think there will be a few twists and turns here and there especially with this 3rd woman.

 

[LeopoldWilliamReynolds]

I'd say that was all down to the grieving process people react differently when they are grieving and she was in such a routine of being tough on the MC she probably forgot to shut it off and her first instinct was to lash out but now she has had time to grieve she has seen the errors of her ways and wants to make it back up to the MC.

I don't buy it, she said she always wanted to be kind to him but had to keep up the facade. I think it's more likely she'd lapse in her ability to maintain that deception if she was truly kindhearted and fundamentally disagreed with treating him that way. We know that MC's dad is a royal asshat and gave her some fucked up condition to follow. I don't think we know enough to properly guess as what it is but I'm sure that's the cause of her sudden change of heart.

 

[arms99]

I still believe there is more to this subject than meets the eye we are all thinking one thing but I still think there will be a few twists and turns here and there especially with this 3rd woman.

My conspiracy theory is that the MC is at the center of all 3 tasks. I think the only thing the father cares about is his legacy and by that I mean he wants to turn the MC into another him, hateful, cynical, ruthless. The father is pretty much offering him 30 pieces of silver in order to turn his back on the only people who he cares about and who care about him. So I figure that the other 2 terms in the will are designed to get 2 accomplices (albeit not exactly willing) in destroying any humanity the MC may have. I predict that any ending where the MC takes the money will be a very bad ending, irrespective of who he ends up with.

 

[Oriandu]

My theory is that the will said she gets jack shit and she's just trying to keep a comfortable life style by getting that stepson dick. It's a simple theory, but it checks out.

 

[Ghostboy031]

My theory is that the will said she gets jack shit and she's just trying to keep a comfortable life style by getting that stepson dick. It's a simple theory, but it checks out.

I actually hope that this is it as it will solidify more of a harem ending

 

[arms99]

I actually hope that this is it as it will solidify more of a harem ending

I'm not so sure this game will get a harem ending, at least not a full harem. Maybe some mini harems like Katie and her 2 friends. The girls have such strong/unique personalities that a harem would be completely out of character for them.

 

[Amnios]

I think this game should also have an option to play as female, because of the character's point-of-view you can easily swap the main character's body with a woman and very little value would be lost. Look at how Bad Memories handle it.

Are you joking? Taking Bad Memories as an example the script is obviously written from a male persepective, so when you play it as a female the inner voice just sounds wrong, it doesn't work.

If you want to have male/female MCs you need two different scripts.

 

[goobdoob]

Are you joking? Taking Bad Memories as an example the script is obviously written from a male persepective, so when you play it as a female the inner voice just sounds wrong, it doesn't work.

If you want to have male/female MCs you need two different scripts.

 

[Mormont]

We know that MC's dad is a royal asshat and gave her some fucked up condition to follow. I don't think we know enough to properly guess as what it is but I'm sure that's the cause of her sudden change of heart.

So what are we saying here the father's condition is for Elaine to be nice to the MC all of a sudden after telling her to treat him poorly throughout his life. Why can't this change of heart be because she has realised how wrong she was to treat the MC without having all these ulterior motives, or she wants him back in her life because of how much he reminds her of the father or she is at that age where the lure of a younger guy is tempting her.

 

[Amnios]

So what are we saying here the father's condition is for Elaine to be nice to the MC all of a sudden after telling her to treat him poorly throughout his life. Why can't this change of heart be because she has realised how wrong she was to treat the MC without having all these ulterior motives, or she wants him back in her life because of how much he reminds her of the father or she is at that age where the lure of a younger guy is tempting her.

I think the will condition for her was to either turn the relationship around with the MC, or to have the MC sleep with her (we know how controlling the father was).

If it's the latter I'm screwed