The zombie author.

I'm usually a strong proponent of the idea that the author is dead, and the only thing that matters is the public perception of a work. It doesn't matter what the author meant if the public doesn't pick it up, and if the public picks something up the author never thought of, that's part of the magic of creating too. 

I've mentioned before that a kind of strange feeling comes over me once I've released a chapter, and when I play through that content again, it doesn't feel like it's something I made anymore, but something that came from somewhere else. It's the weirdest feeling, really. I wonder if it's my mind passing whatever ownership there was off to some imaginary dead author so I can remain in the land of the living. :D

But some points keep coming up with regard to chapter 7, and I figured I might make a post to address those, in spite of what I said above. 

What I'm hoping this does, is give some insight into the thought processes that go into writing a chapter and figuring out what makes sense and what doesn't, and why sometimes something that seems like like the obvious ways to go may not be a viable option. 

Note, you are absolutely free to shoot this zombie author between the eyes and interpret the goings on in the game as you experienced it, and feel the way you feel about it. The work is what it is, and my intentions with it are entirely inconsequential.

Of course, tons of spoilers ahead, so skip this post if you haven't finished the latest chapter yet.

Still here? Alright, let's do this.

The pacing in chapter 7 is all off compared to the chapters that came before! It was slow burn, now developments are going at breakneck speed.

Is it though? Was it all slow burn, and is there a jarring shift in gears?

At the end of chapter 6, Macy's obviously had her home run, but Denise is definitely on 3rd base, and arguably racing past it and well on her way to the home plate with the MC, having done almost everything but actually have sex (in this context defined as being penetrated by a penis). I mean, at this point she's even had opportunity to taste the MC twice, and they definitely touched private bits together.
And that's disregarding altogether what's she's been getting up to with Macy. 

Really, the only thing holding her back with the MC is the notion that Macy should be first by rights, and that final hurdle is bested by the end of chapter 6. 

So from that, one could argue that spinning down into a slow burn at this point, and  protracting proceedings is changing the pacing compared to the chapters before, not the other way around. 

And from a different perspective, you could argue that once you've had a taste of someone's bodily fluids, falling back to just secret groping and massages is a significant step back, and makes little sense.

But, slow burn and protracting proceedings is fun in it's own way, the anticipation of a new lover's arrival and all that. Damn your logic and damn continuity, Naughty, it's the rule of cool. 

And that's actually a totally valid argument. If its fun do it, and find a way to fit it in. Other problems that way lie though, mainly (there's that word again), pacing. 

So this is the main question: what would be going on while we're edging our way along that delicious slow burn, to keep things interesting? 

There's the side girls? You used them for that before.

But the thing is, the office's closed for now, isn't it? Macy's staked her claim at the end of chapter 6, snarling even at Denise to keep her distance. Who knows if and when any of that will be resolved? Slowly, if the slow burners have their way. Regardless, any saucy developments at the office involving the MC would amount to cheating at this point. So, we can't use them to balance out the slow moments. 

Edit: note this does not mean there will be no more office girls content, but certain matters need to be resolved first.

But those moments are optional, I hear you say (well, maybe not you, but someone). No one is forced to cheat. 

True, but by creating those optional moments, I would be forcing anyone invested in Macy and Denise (and I bet that's most of you) to skip that content. I know for a fact a lot of people will not cheat on them, so a lot of people will skip it. 

So if I went there, not only would I be creating a lot of content that will be skipped by many people, I've also sabotaged the office story lines for people who did enjoy that content and are also invested in Macy and Denise, including whatever office content is coming in future chapters. And as those players opt out, that still leaves pacing as a problem for them, so they get the worst of both worlds. It's a non-solution, so it's out the door.

Meanwhile, back home, Macy, now unleashed, would obviously work through her backlog of dirty fantasies with a vengeance, having her way with the MC every chance she gets. Which raises some questions:

Would Denise just take note of that, and go back to slow burning her way through more shower sessions and furtive gropes on the couch? 

Would that make for good pacing? 

Would Macy allow it to continue, given her claims on the MC? 

Would Denise willingly cheat on Macy by going behind her back to get around that? Would the MC agree?

Up until now, there hasn't been any actually cheating in Light of my Life (with the exception of Sara who is in an unhappy relationship with some unseen partner who she is not intimate with anymore at this point in time), and this would definitely upset players who don't truck with that. Intimacy between Macy and Denise during this time could also easily stray into this territory, adding a whole other can of worms. 

Would having lots of gratuitous sex scenes with Macy, just to fill out pacing while adding very little to her progress, be a good investment of months and months of development time those lewd scenes would take to produce?

Lots of probably nots, I'm sure you'll agree. But in that light, continuing on with slow burning seems dead in the water, now that we've thought about it. 

At this point in the story, only two things seem likely, given the characters (and the constraints from pacing and production perspectives). 

1. Denise bows out, and lets Macy have her claim. 

She watches them from the side, listening at them go at it all night in the bedroom while she tries to fall asleep on the couch. Perhaps at some point, Macy notices and feels sorry, and finally pulls her into the relationship. That's a pity fuck, a hand-me-down, and that diminishes Denise instead of lifting her up. It's an awful choice in hindsight.

2. Denise competes with Macy, and claims her place in the relationship. 

It's in fact what she does, and in the end, she claims her place in the relationship with the cooperation of Macy. 

Of all the solutions, that's the solution that feels the most like Light of my Life, does the characters justice, and is in line with the pacing. But it does require Denise to transform, to grow and become an equal to her lovers. 

The ceremony at the end of the chapter was weird. It was out of place. It was too soon. 

Since I figured some people would hate the idea of any kind of matrimonial ceremony out of principle, I did make it optional, but that doesn't mean it didn't stir up some controversy. 

The ceremony is weird. 

Yeah. Yeah, it really is. 

(special thanks to CommanderCipher for creating this and many other very funny images on Discord).

Unless you skipped the office content, that shouldn't really come as a surprise for anything the Coven's involved with. If you did skip their content, you might be miffed that it bled over into the Macy and Denise storyline, that was until now mostly isolated from the Coven, and surprised by the tone, and that's understandable. 

But the truth is, there's only so much I can do to make things optional and isolated for those that prefer to skip content. The game is really made with the idea that pursuing all options gives you the best experience, and if you opt out of some, that's fine, but the experience will be lessened at some points. This is one of those points, if you don't like the Coven. 

The ceremony was out of place. 

Not for Denise, I would argue. Her prime motivation is ensuring she doesn't lose any of the people she loves, and that they all stay together. In that sense, it is a direct fulfillment of one of her deepest held desires.

This is the moment she's been working towards, even if she didn't realize it at first, and ensuring Macy and the MC end up together was just a step in getting there. It's the thing that lets her put her worries to rest, and allows her to complete the transformation she goes through in this chapter.

But a throuple will never be conventionally accepted, so having a ceremony is silly.

True enough. And of course things get progressively worse when some player mods in even more exotic relationships for the main characters, but that's entirely out of my hands and self inflicted.
But it's not about conventional acceptance. As Macy states herself, they're not looking for that because they don't need that (and in a sense, already have it, as no one questions them living together). This moment is for themselves, first and foremost. 

But it's too soon. This is end-game material.

Hmm, one could question here if we haven't already arrived at that stage, or are at least quite close to it. But let's leave that for now and look at timing. 

Would it have been better later on? 

I would say not. At this point, it is a Big Moment that is part of the transformation Denise goes through. It lays her worries to rest, it frees her from her fears, and it allows her to take her place besides Macy and the MC as their equal.

If we postpone this moment to later, all that is gone, and all you have is a couple of people formally saying what they've already been practicing for a while. Meaningful and important as that might be to them, there's hardly the same drama to the moment.

Where are the office girls? Brooke and the Coven?

We've already gone over that, but for completeness sake, let's restate it.

If you're invested in Macy and Denise, saucy developments between the office girls and the MC is cheating, and unacceptable to a significant portion of players. 

Having that content, even as optional, amounts to sabotaging content that those players may have enjoyed, and ruining it for any future chapters. It would be a poor investment of development resources for that reason.

Edit: note this does not mean there will be no more office girls content, but certain matters need to be resolved first.

-----------------------------

Alright, that's it. I hope I was able to explain why certain things happened the way they did and why I didn't pursue the alternatives. And please do remember, this is just my point of view, I do feel that a work should stand on its own and no author should provide guidelines on the interpretation of their work, and if you find any or all things I say here unsatisfactory, that's fine.