Behind the scenes writing: Episode 3 (3/4) (Patreon)

(Warning! This post may contain major spoilers for the story! Read further at your own risk.)

This is only 1/4th of the total episode! The rest so far can be seen below!

>>here<< (1/4)
>>here<< (2/4)

Episode 3: Awakening.

Moving on from where we left off, Brandon and his sister had just escaped the grasps of Heather within the student council room, off to try putting it behind them for now as they eat together.

We then cut to later as Brandon is rushing to class, having a hard time finding it. This is because the same issue Miki seemed to have with schedule problems has affected a few other students throughout the school too now.

Brandon does find a teacher who asks if he needs any help, which she lets him know that he's found his class and that it's with her. It's sewing class, so with a little back and forth between them. He learns that the young woman he's speaking with is Karissa Eskin, otherwise known as Ms. Eskin.

He's taken back that this is the same person Joey has been going on about, as he can now see why. Since she's young and really cute looking (no sprite visual, sorry). After a bit of chatting, the bell soon rings and they head into the class.

Right away he notices the sewing machines laid out on the desks, other students are glaring at him and once things settle down. Karissa goes over what they'll be doing today, which is continuing from last time on their animal related outfits and so they do their diaper check quick before everyone begins to move around with their partners.

A gentle voice speaks up behind Brandon, startling him as he was focused on other stuff and it turns out to be a pretty short girl, who has beautiful majestic blue eyes that go very well with her silky blonde hair. He notices she's a bit lacking, but after his misunderstanding with Miki, he figures anyone attending at this point is of course of age.

The girl speaks up confirming if he's Brandon and that Ms. Eskin has paired her up with him for today. After confirming and taking in more details of her, as she sits and joins him. She asks how he'd like to begin and he can notice she's part of the student council by her armband...

He's worried from his previous run in, he seems to be stuck with not being able to say anything. She then brings up if he's related to Erika and it leads to him finally being able to speak freely again.

The two begin to go back and forth talking his sister, the student council and leading to who she really is and why she was paired up with Brandon today. During the course of these events, he learns that his worry about her being anything like Heather disappears, but a new discovery is made when she reveals that she's actually, Juliet Margetta Hillingham XII.

A princess attending the academy, which after a bit of wondering why she'd want Brandon as a friend and other stuff, Karissa walks by and wonders if they've been talking this whole time. Which leads Juliet to be worried about not having started on her outfit and so they move onto getting her outfit finished.

Some time passes and her outfit is finished, Brandon notices other students seem to be trying their outfit on and having some fun goofing off and suggests maybe she should change into her outfit as well.

While she's gone changing into her outfit, Karissa walks by again and mentions she's grading outfits. She wonders where Juliet ran off to, then goes on to ask if Brandon at least had fun in her class today regardless of it being sewing, which he feels like it wasn't bad. While in the middle of Karissa mentioning something, something catches her attention.

It's Juliet heading back over to them in her cat girl outfit (cat ears/tail and a dress). After a bit of back and forth, Karissa thinks it'd be a cute idea if they took some pictures with her outfit on, like a little photoshoot of sorts and give Brandon something to do since he didn't really sew.

Something catches Karissa's attention to take care of, leaving the two and we soon have a cg scene of Juliet striking a cute pose as Brandon is snapping pictures with his phone. This goes on for a bit and time passes as well, when Juliet mentions the quality of the images aren't to her liking.

Finally he manages to get at least one image that is up to par for her and she's returned from changing back into her school uniform, as they notice they don't have much time before class ends soon. She thanks him and confirms that they're friends, as they exchange phone numbers after an awkward exchange.

Just like that, she needs to head off and it's assumed they'd hang out sometime in the near future, still surprised a princess is attending here as he heads out of the classroom...

~Writer notes~

-This Juliet intro/scene came out to around 4000 word count, making it a little bit longer than it's original. The following scenes that take place after this are on the shorter side, but it'll be interesting.

-Compared to Juliet's original script, there's still a good amount of stuff that's the same to a degree, while trying to keep it fresh. If I had to compare intros for characters seen so far. Erika is more along the lines that Brandon already has a past with her, just lightly filling in some details about her so the player knows as we see more unfold. Miki being Erika's friend, it made sense to have her intro play into having Erika around at first and with ep 2. We saw Miki hang out with Brandon on her own for a bit.

Then for Rachel's intro we're in class and of course there's the connection to ep 1's ending. But I think her intro felt fitting and played off of her being shy really well within a class setting, plus having no ties to previous characters. Then Nova we can assume she at least knows who Miki is, but maybe she isn't really more than mutual friends in the sense of sharing classes sometimes. But Nova's intro plays off of her events around her to show what kind of person she is.

Now recently, we've seen a new kind of intro with Heather, leaving us with questions about her as it doesn't seem like a real intro on our first run in with her. We get the idea that she must be a bully and president of the student council, but we don't really know much more. (this is intended :P ) Juliet I'd like to compare to Rachel in terms of intro styles, both take place in class. But we're dealing with some context that instead of the girl being shy or afraid, it's almost the reverse at first where Brandon is frozen a bit in speaking with her until things warm up and they ended up chatting and losing track their focus (Juliet's outfit). 

-When writing this scene, it was a bit hard in the sense that I wanted to do a couple things to make sure the pacing and context of said pacing felt fitting, not so awkward or too long with something. The one thing I do wish I could've done, is add her original choices that expanded a little on her hobbies, her take on diapers and if she has a boyfriend. But it'd make the already long scene even longer, Nova had a long set of scene stuff but hers were split up to keep it fresh and not too long on one set scene of sorts in comparison. (We'll see the topics of these choices show up again soon)

-With Juliet, many might know her for using certain fancy words like "mayhaps" as a example instead of "maybe". I wanted to lightly move away from this, where she can still make use of fancy words at times that might confuse other characters. But my goal is to make use of Juliet's sheltered life more directly, there's a good use of this by the end with the two exchanging phone numbers to give an idea of how privileged and pampered her life might've been before the academy, trying to adjust.

-Overall, after this point in ep 3. It brings the episode to around 9000 word count and the total is expected around 15,000-16,000 tops, which is a tiny bit smaller than ep 1-2 but only by 1000-2000 words. If it isn't clear what the focus of ep 3 is in comparison to previous episodes, it's related to some mystery of the academy from subtle things to bigger things. But also the student council as a focus, or rather two girls from the student council.