Behind the scenes writing: Episode 4 (2/4) (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 will come along in other behind the scenes writing posts leading up to the release.

Episode 4: The strange life and times at the academy.

Read the first part over here if you haven't already.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/behind-scenes-4-48978011

Continuing with Zoey, we find out that she had a custom pair of panties made and she's excited to try them on. The only issue is that she's in a bit of a messy situation currently, trying to reason with her and lead her to the nurse's office.

This of course ends up becoming a moment where Nathan decides to split off and begs you to take care of Zoey, you being the good buddy you are, you decide to help him out with this favor and take her to get her diaper changed.

While sitting outside the office in order to avoid the nurse since the last awkward run in with her recently. It isn't very long with your own thoughts before a familiar pink haired girl comes walking out of the nurse's office and a moment of non verbal clarity hits the two.

Rachel takes off in a rush, as you chase after her, trying to get her to stop and listen as you only want to put a end to the mystery behind things with her and give her note book back.

This results in a silly little chase taking place through the academy before being able to corner her finally. Once cornered and the two of you are able to catch your breath, there's some questions that begin popping up.

Like why is he chasing after her? Why is it that she dresses up like a pink dog at night? Why was all of this such a big deal than what it should've been?

In the end, it leads to Brandon mentioning about her notebook and wishing to return it to her. Which is something she's been missing for quite a while now and really wants it back, but knowing this, he decides to make a deal with her.

He'll go get her notebook from his sister who has been holding onto it for safe keeping, but in return... Rachel needs to explain herself clearly since last time, class ended abruptly, leaving him, along with Erika and Miki with more questions.

It's at this point where Rachel feels nervous, but really wants her notebook back and Brandon even begins to feel bad about trying to force her by holding her personal belongings over her head for answers, as he was about to cave in and just mention to forget it and give her notebook back.

She bravely tells him awkwardly why she dresses up like that and why it has to be night time...

~Writer notes~

-This has been one of those loose ends that I've had planned since ep 2 to wrap up for a while now. Which I'm sure when Rachel didn't show up in ep 3 with no mentions about her notebook or any other investigating taking place, many of you might've been wondering when or if we'd see a conclusion to Rachel's little mystery.

-The writing for these major events seem to be pretty much around the same length at about 3000 word count give or take, which is pretty good and with how ep 4 is laid out. I don't think the events will feel dull or boring at times if there were some moments previously in episodes that were meh or felt like they drag on a bit.

-This scene with Rachel wasn't originally around before, but that doesn't mean a certain scene with her outside behind some bushes isn't happening. :P Mainly I wanted to expand on Rachel's character a bit in a way that felt like it continued from where things left off previously with her and wrap up some loose ends or questions one might have outside of her just being quiet or shy, etc.

-One thing that I think has been an issue before in the past with Rachel is that she's supposed to be deadly shy, which I tried to focus a bit too much on before in the past and the idea was that in time she'd warm up little by little, feeling like progress was being made with bringing her out of her shell.

This I think might've had the other effect, where it feels like it takes way too long for her to warm up a bit and add that with her normal "Oh uhm... Uh, w-well... M-Maybe?" Sort of dialogue that often popped up, it might've made her a bit more annoying for some. I think I've managed to keep her feeling like herself, but not having to remind people of her speech patterns along the way and still show her progress as it moves forward.

-I've been doing quite a bit of research on shy characters in order to make sure Rachel's progress from her intro to where we are now feels right. Her intro I believe is alright as her first interaction with Brandon, she peeks her head out of her shell for a little bit when talking about some common ground topics, but before we're able to see more of that, she retreats.

So with this new scene here, naturally she'll be nervous and shaken up a bit due to the events taking place, but we should get a bit of a view into seeing these two characters having a stronger connection in a few ways that helps her and motives her to try her best with improving her social skills with him.

-With this, it wraps up nearly half of ep 4, but in our next part of behind the scenes writing for episode 4. We'll not only see the 3rd major event that takes place, but some minor stuff before and after it too. This episode has been very fun to write for, mainly because I like seeing some conclusions or expanding of characters like this.

If you haven't read our news post posted a week or so ago, part of what has halted or delayed progress this time around was due to our tax filing situation, which has been a total nightmare to get the right answers and tackle things with it. Even with this in mind, ep 4 is targeted and looks very solid for releasing mid April since we're about roughly 75-80% done with writing. (Thanks for being understanding, we hope to make up for our delays recently with some new exciting content/features coming to MA to make up for it.)