Aila's Ramblings - 6/13/22 - Welcome Back!

📣UPDATES: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday @ 10:00PM (22:00 hours) PDT!

Just a reminder that I did switch over to MWF updates, as I wanted to keep my weekends free due to lingering paranoia that the scheduled update will not go up at the right time.  If I'm not at home, I can't do much about it.  Every time I have any confidence, the time or date somehow get changed, and I don't find out for some time, and want to crawl into a hole.

Anyway, thank you all for your patience these last two weeks.  I had a relaxing birthday and much more cake that I really should've had.  It was a nice break from writing.  Perhaps too nice because I actually forgot my break was ending.  

As a result, I did end up writing from last Wednesday to Saturday, but I was much more refreshed and the story was flowing easier.  I also had fun writing some more side stories.  

📚 Side Stories! 📚

So far, I've posted two of the small handful I wanted to write this summer in "Tales of an NPC", which are pretty much life stories (condensed into 20+ pages) of various NPC that are mentioned in the background of the main story.  

Not only were many of you guys interested, but I think they help in world building and help explore the culture of the dating-sim-game-world.  All we usually see are the lives of the wealthy and noble elite in the story and not the lives of the average folks.  

Writing these, there are some details I need to go back and tweak in the main story to connect them all better. As I write and the story grows, more and more things come to light.  I'm able solidify aspects better.  Such is the process.

TAG: Tales of an NPC

📗 Completed: 

• Sir Ivan Dobchek, First Tier Imperial Knight, Escort Knight to the First Prince of Soleil - His youth, his journey into knighthood, how he feels being an escort knight to the prince that everyone overlooked. 
• Landon Voss, Madam Voss’ Eldest Son - The struggle of the brickmaker lady's eldest son as he tries to help his widowed mother from childhood to (spoiler) migrating from Chetterswickshire.

📙 In-Progress (to some degree):

• Daniel Lefevre - The guy who always ranks at #2 behind Ilyana at Lycee (focus on school dynamics/observations for non-nobles)
• Cpt. Elsa Astrid Roth - von Schwert military captain on the front lines at the border. (answers the question of the General Marquis' heir)
• Mathilda Moore - Instructor Ignatius' Ex-Girlfriend (focus on middle-class Horizon dating and social goals)
• Alexander Hamilton de Guevera I - Tori's cat. (crack chapter for shits and giggles)

📘 Would Like To Write (these people don't have names yet):

• Guard to the Archbishop of Karap - what's it like to have to escort around a crystal fanatic?  Also, the guards are all technically non-practicing priests.  
• A granny refugee who came fled from the border and now lives in Viclya.  I kind of want to look into her life at the border village, what happened, the fleeing inland, and struggle of resettlement.
• One of the guild members who works at the delta.  Just sort of look into the life of what is essentially a migrant worker in Soleil.  

I think that should be enough for the summer; I would like to at least get four more stories done, but let's not jinx myself as I am prone to doing.

I also wrote down summaries to several plot bunnies and yearn to write them, but I know if I do, I will not focus on this, so I am desperately restraining myself.  

I hope you all had a great break (from me) and are enjoying yourselves staying healthy and doing your best.  

💕 Take care and, as always, thank you for your time and patience!
- Ai