#mmmmkay

Hello my darling 💜

From a (shockingly) gen fic where Hermione sorts out some stuff with her parents:

Mr. Granger usually had some sort of trivia tidbit for whatever selection he decided on. He would admonish the rise of tapes, a firm believer in the soulful quality of a scratchy record. When he ran out of things to say, he’d grab Hermione or her mum, whoever’s hands were free, and would dance with them. It didn’t matter what the song was, he’d spin them around the kitchen and into the dining room. When it was her turn Hermione would cling to him, shrieks of laughter mingling with the music.

Her dad’s favorite band was The Who, and his favorite song was Blue Red and Grey. No matter where they were in preparing dinner, when the song came on he would lift Hermione and dance with her. As Pete Townsend warbled, I like every second, so long as you are on my mind

Every moment has its special charm

It's all right when you're around, rain or shine Hermione’s dad would tap the end of her nose and then kiss her mum’s head.

Hello, my friend

I am sorry this took so long to answer, but I basically decided I wanted to use this ask to kind of let loose about The Arcana. (my hyperfixation has also weaned just a tad, but I do not think it will be gone for long & I am still actively playing the game, if just not playing nearly every hour of every day anymore)

SO THE ARCANA is a sort of dating-sim/visual novel mobile game that you can play for FREE, though, as is the case with many mobile games, there are in-game purchases you can make, though you do not have to to get the full base game, it’s really just coins for extra content (which doesn’t affect the story) or keys to play more chapters sooner. There are also in-game ways to get coins, though you aren’t guaranteed to get very many very quickly, and the game regularly has weekends where you get infinite keys.

The Arcana begins with the prologue (after you input your name & pronouns, which you can change whenever) where you find out that you are a magician, specifically you are the assistant to Asra the magician. You also own a magic shop! Which is apparently yours/the MC's and not Asra's! Which I definitely knew and didn't learn from a tumblr post about it! I don't want to spoil the whole prologue, but you basically get called to the palace and hired to use your magical skills to solve a mystery. At various point during the prologue you meet (sort of?) each of the possible Love Interests (including my boy, Julian, who you meet after he breaks into your shop, so...yeah). After the prologue sets up the story and the main characters, that's when the real story begins. Oh, also, the world & story are heavily influenced by the Tarot!

This is where I think The Arcana leans more into the visual novel side of things, rather than the dating sim, because after the prologue, you choose which LI’s route you want to play. And which one you pick massively impacts the story you will be playing. I’ve only played three of them so far, but one of the major plot points in one of them was solved in the first chapter of the other two and the story was completely different. Which, is so fascinating to me, since you have six (really, twelve, but I’ll get to that later) different stories that all begin from the same prologue. And! As far as I can tell, the MC’s (your “character”) history is also the same across all of the stories. It’s like six different people were given the same prompt with the prologue, were told which LI to make it about, and what the MC’s history was and then were able to just kind of do whatever, which is really cool. Basically, once you play through one of the LI’s route, if you’re interested, keep playing the other ones, because they’re all different and you won’t be playing the same story over and over.

SO THE LOVE INTERESTS!

There are six LI’s to choose from, and honestly, they’re all great!

There’s Nadia, who is the Countess of Vesuvia, which is where the story begins. She’s the one who contacts you in the prologue to help solve the mystery.

There’s Asra, of course, who is the magician that you are apprenticed to.

There’s my favorite boy, Julian, who is a doctor and is involved with the mystery you’re asked to solve (I’m trying really hard not to spoil things, so I’m being very vague, sorry lol)

I obviously didn’t play when the game first began, but I believe these were the original three LI’s that were released. Their routes have more chapters than the other three, so they’ll take longer, but the other three are absolutely worth it all and wonderful as well!

There’s Muriel, who lives in the woods and wants literally nothing to do with anybody else at all (I’m love him too)

There’s Portia, who works at the palace and is Nadia’s favorite maid. 

And, finally, there’s Lucio, the former Count of Vesuvia, who may or may not be possibly a little bit dead/presumed dead at the beginning of the story.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, “But Mo??? You said they’re are technically 12 stories???” YES SO, you know how in a dating sim, your choice affect the story and who you end up with??? WELL, in The Arcana, they don’t affect who you end up with (that’s all in the route you pick), but your choices do determine if you get that character’s Upright or Reversed ending. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a case of happy vs. sad ending, or even a end up with the LI vs. not ending up with the LI, but it more has to do with how the story at large is affected. Thus far, I’ve gotten the Upright ending on three routes, and the Reversed ending for one of those as well, so I can really only compare the endings for one of the storylines, but, from what I can tell, that’s how it seems, that it has more to do with the story at large, rather than the relationship aspect, or even, like, happy vs. sad or good vs. bad, if that makes sense. So, basically, there are six routes, one for each LI, and each route has two possible ending, depending on the choices you make throughout the story.

You guys give me a joke/pun/whatever you want and vote for which au I should draw tonight. Bonus points for if your joke is related to the au you're advocating.