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Eternal Flame alternate tree sequence

Added 2021-07-19 16:35:17 +0000 UTC

Like the Model Girlfriend alternate ending posted to patrons some time ago, we wanted to share some directions Eternal Flame might have gone — but didn’t!

These pages were to start after Lucy first hugs Mike and reassures him.

I really wanted them to be under the tree AT LEAST ONCE in this chapter and for Lucy’s selflessness to be really sad, to the point she teases the situation. Gallows humour of the heart.

.. But I just couldn’t get over the fact there’s a freaken blizzard going on, and everything is cold and snowy so lying under the tree for a good amount of time would probably kill you, right??? Out of frostbite??

I initially tried to fix this with Lucy asking Mike if he had a good nap and him saying they would probably die if they actually napped under the tree, as a way to.. have exposition trying to explain the ridiculous situation away? It still felt too ridiculous, however, so I scrapped this concept and tried to come up with another..

.. Which is where the thumbnails come in! I thought to try a different angle and instead of romantically sitting under the tree, Lucy tells Mike to kick it!!! To vent his frustrations! And so Mike does kick the tree, and rants about how Sandy’s wronged him, and Lucy is very encouraging, but also feels very sad for him.

This reminded me too much of ToraDora, though, and I also wanted Mike to at least acknowledge Lucy’s done stuff like kicked the tree out of frustration for him in secret??? Lucy just casually mentions she kicks the tree to vent, and I thought instead of Mike robotically following her instruction, he would hone in on “wait, you kick the tree because of my actions?"

And that’s when I thumbnailed what ended up being the final direction to this sequence in Eternal Flame!