Lovers: Boarding School

_tea

Types of scenes according to how easy they are to write:

Comedic scenes > Romantic scenes > Horror scenes > Informational scenes > Sex scenes > Emotional scenes (the hardest)

I won't say more other than it is THICC AF (6000+ WORDS GODDAMMIT) and it is MESSY AF because it's unedited. It's embarrassingly rough but I've made you guys wait TOO LONG so here it is!

WARNING: (I need to stop with these) SOME HOT TEA AND SOME HOT...SOMETHING WILL SPILLED HERE. LOTS OF STUFF. TOO MUCH STUFF. I'LL GIVE OUT ADVIL AND PAINKILLERS AFTER THE CHAPTER IF YOU NEED THEM.

Enjoy!

IMG VR romance game simulations are operated by two principles: (1) behavioural responses and (2) systemic lexical sets.

Verbal cues are co-dependent on appointed lexical sets (e.g. vocabulary) for progression through a game. If the game's program can identify a certain number—or in games with more complex algorithms, patterns of speech—the game will act on and respond accordingly to the words or patterns of speech provided by the user within a scenario. Phrases that one could surmise from romantic scenarios such as, "He is so arrogant!", "You are the only one for me.", or "His ass is as sumptuous as a fully ripened peach." are key signifiers that could potentially activate and set course to a change in "scene".

Behavioural responses are secondary to lexical sets, but are just as significant. Acting virginal, naïve, righteous, brave—these behaviours that are often encouraged and work in conjunction with verbal cues act to progress a user through a scene.

However, if verbal cues and behavioral responses deviate too much from the conditional algorithms (e.g. the script), scenes would repeat themselves into a hole until the protagonist/user is able to provide the minimum threshold of response required to evoke progression.

Sure, acting bizarre and saying bizarre things to see how the game environment would react would be amusing, but even IMG VR romance games need to establish some brand of "reality" to maintain the potential chaos that comes with freer interaction.

Games like these are programmed to "program" users into responding in a certain fashion--to parrot phrases and mime actions to satisfy established checkpoints to fit the intended "story" of the game.

In other words, to get anywhere in these games acting fake was essential.

Violet had never dabbled in OOC (out of character) behaviours, nor had she tried to broach existential discussions with characters since she knew from experience that such things were counterproductive dead ends that lead to scenes annoyingly repeating themselves like it was Groundhog's Day. Plus, it would kind of awkward telling a love interest she was romancing that they were fictitious piles of pixels designed to love, adore, and worship her notwithstanding their personal beliefs, motivations, or sexual preferences.

Things can't get too meta.

And it wasn't until the appearance of that thing during that hair-raising episode inside Gabriel's car that she discovered that things could not be meta for a reason; there were dire consequences for activating lexical sets specifically related to being conscious of being inside a game.

So that means that talking about Lovers: Boarding School and that thing are off limits, Violet thought deeply as she strode across a hallway after an uneventful Physics class. She had tried bringing up the subject to Mr. Reinhart through "coded" text once she'd returned to the game:

Me:

"I had a nightmare the other night. did you?"

but all she got in response was: