I hope you don't take this the wrong way, because I really do like the work! But I saw some asks relating to letting you set deeper boundaries with Brenda in your re-writes and I was wondering/hoping if you could do the same with Barlow? As a female, it was deeply unsettling the idea that someone who I had fallen out with could just show up at my house in the middle of the night, barge in and talk to me about a job I technically already had - then do the same thing a few nights later - and then ambush me at my house *again* with his mother. Even when I blocked the romance, or told Barlow to go away - they just get pushy and ignore you. A house should be a safe space - and with the vandalizing, it's already not. And then throw a child you're meant to be protecting into the mix - even when I switch the gender of Barlow to a woman, it's an uneasy feeling. I'd love an option to tell them to stop or call ahead or refuse to let them in and they just stay on the step. It's okay if you don't want to or that kind of boundary pushing is just very in character for them - I can speed read those scenes, honestly - just thought I'd see. But your work is lovely, (loved the midnight saga) and I'm looking forward to the finished product!
Hello, thank you for your ask.
The issue is Barlow, contrary to Brenda is a major character in the story. MC's friendship with Barlow is woven into all aspects of the game, whether you romance them or not. They grew up together, and Barlow's parents even are people MC used to count on.
The narrative is written as if MC knows those people and they are not complete strangers to MC.
The rewrite includes scenes with MC and Barlow when they were kids, or mentions scenes where Barlow's parent took care of MC. So eventually MC is going to need to interact with those people.
The choices to keep Barlow outside are there, and I think I even added one to keep Cherry outside too. Those choices are in the current public demo.
If reading about this character is triggering, please, it's best to protect your peace and avoid distress.
