Part 65: Intermission 2: Status Update & Bachelorette Voting 1
Update 31: Status Update & Bachelorette Vote 1
Music: Title ThemeTime for a status update on how Bush is doing so far.
First up, Relationships!
I really need to work on gifting the non-bachelorette townsfolk. Oh well, I've still got plenty of time to do that.
Here's the rankings for the gals from highest LP to lowest, favoring FP in ties:
Melody: 8.5 Friendship, 7 Love
Iris: 7 Friendship, 5.8 Love
Selphy: 6 Friendship, 5.8 Love
Mist: 6 Friendship, 5 Love
Rosetta: 6 Friendship, 4.8 Love
Tabatha: 3.6 Friendship, 3.8 Love
Cinnamon: 5.8 Friendship, 3.3 Love
Uzuki: 6 Friendship, 3.1 Love
Eunice: 5 Friendship, 3.1 Love
Anette: 4.7 Friendship, 3.1 Love
Lara: 5.8 Friendship, 2.6 Love
Bianca: 1 Friendship, 1.3 Love
Bianca's placement is to be expected, and Lara's so low because our LP with her was hurt a lot stopping that hurricane. Iris and Melody show just how much of an advantage the favored gifts are, as Selphy is our highest without favorite gifts at hand and a lot of that LP is from book bonuses.
Cinnamon's bonus from seeing constellations really isn't much, seriously. Eunice has nearly as much as her, and we didn't even have proper gifts for her for like two weeks.
The rest of the townsfolk are as follows, in the order listed by the game:
Turner: 2.6 Friendship
Rita: 2.1 Friendship
Erik: 1.8 Friendship
Kanno: 3.1 Friendship
Candy: 2.1 Friendship
Stella: 3.5 Friendship
Ganesha: 2.1 Friendship
Marco: 1.1 Friendship
Danny: 2.4 Friendship
Lute: 2.9 Friendship
Kross: 3.9 Friendship
Nolan: 3.4 Friendship
Kross being so high up isn't a surprise, I've been trying to be his friend since the beginning. I've got the most reliable gifts for Nolan, so that's not unexpected either.
Marco's so low because of me not finding this fabled curry powder, or him half the time.
I'll work on increasing all of their FP eventually, when the gals max out, they might not have too much new dialogue.
(You may notice that the scrollbar isn't all the way at the bottom, and that is indeed because there are more characters to meet! Somehow. None of them are marriage candidates, so I'm free to do the bachelorette vote.)
Next up is our book collection. We're almost halfway to filling up all of it!
I'm pretty sure there isn't as many books as there are slots though.
Next we've got Bush's profits. He's raked in a grand total of 277,169g over the course of these 44 days, and his biggest profit is Tomatoes and their juice by far, with them accounting for more than a third of his total profits.
Corn is just behind, and Strawberries still holding onto 4th place.
When it comes to the Barn, Only Grant, Gobbs, and Pony are at 2 Friendship. All the others are still at one.
I love how I went out of my way to keep room for an Elefun, but I've pretty much neglected use them up to this point. Oh, well. They were a saving grace on my original run, but Pony's been such a loyal friend I haven't needed anything else.
She's also level 38, 5 higher than Bush!
Speaking of Bush's level, here's his current stats, with that glorious 99 cooking available on the side. One day, Bush's Baked...Goods will be a reality.
Surprisingly, his Weaponry skill lags behind at 21 compared to his 30 Magic. Our farming skills are tied, at 37, except for Hammering which is 10 levels behind.
Fishing, Forging, and Crafts all hover around the 20's, and the ever-so not-great Lab skill remains at 7.
Bush is level 33, with 219 Max HP, with all base stats at 34 except for INT which is still ahead thanks to that snake oil from long ago.
We've got almost 40,000g in pocket and about 60 pieces of wood in the shed.
What we don't have is an idea of which girls to court specifically, and that's where you finally come in, good readers.
-----------------------------------
BACHELORETTE VOTING ROUND
50% ELIMINATION EXTRAVAGANZA
-----------------------------------
Music: The Sweetest TimeWelcome all, to the votes you've probably been waiting for!
This is the Bachelorette Tournament, Round 1, where we narrow down the list of girls that Bush throws gifts at so that he can stop spending the first 9 hours of his day only wandering around town.
We'll be eliminating 6 out of the 12 available options present (somehow I kept miscounting before and thinking it was 11), but those unlucky 6 won't be cut from the LP entirely. It just means that if I decide to take a day out to go do combat or story things, then I'll accept missing them. Oh, and also I won't throw everything to the wind to make their favorite gifts, if they're particularly difficult (looking at you, Mist, Cinnamon, and Uzuki).
The lucky 6 will see me working on making their favorite gift, no matter how difficult it may be.
If a favorite of your doesn't make it in, don't fear, for a redemption round will be held at a later date for a chance to usurp one (or possibly even two!) of the six positions. The true final vote for who Bush will marry will be held once the final 6 are pretty much done with their storylines.
The following is a brief overview of each lovely lass, an overly dramatic title, and some possible reasons one might have to vote for one over another, as well as their official art.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Mist, the Arcane Maiden of Roots-
Birthday: Autumn 1 (it's very auspicious)
Constellation: Turnip
Favorite Gift: Emery Flower
VA: Xanthe Huynh
Mist is the somewhat unusual girl that is the whole reason why we're here. She gave Bush her breakfast on one really bad morning when he had all his memories taken from him and he's been endlessly grateful to her since. At some indistinct point, she up and left the original town of Kardia because voices she heard in her sleep guided her to Trampoli. Since arriving, all she's really done is hang out at Bush's farm, have weird dreams, and adopt an explosive duck.
The Turnip Mafia isn't real, just so you know. It's entirely my weird running joke for her, if me photoshopping the end of that one update didn't make it apparent.
This is the second time she's stuck Bush with a rundown farm
Reasons to vote for:
- Story relevant?
- You too, eat nothing but turnips.
- You like random non-sequitirs and an odd outlook on life.
- She said she can't imagine getting married and you want to prove her wrong.
-
Reasons to not vote for:
- She's at least made out to be kind of an obvious pick.
- You do not like the turnip.
- She hasn't really done all that much yet, even 5 LP in.
- She seems to enjoy the bachelorette life, why ruin that?
-
-Eunice, the Flower of Snowstyle-
Birthday: 17th Fall
Constellation: Broom
Favorite Gift: Mont Blanc
VA: Minx Lee (Uncredited?)
The second girl we met coming to Trampoli, and the first of the new bachelorettes. Eunice is just generally nice and overall lacks a particular quirk compared to the others around. She's been pretty alone her whole life until now, and doesn't have much to do outside of housekeeping. Her character development will slowly start to focus on her body image, something we've seen glimpses of. She works from 6 to 12 every day, and sometimes it seems like she's the only one who does anything at the local inn.
Eunice has had what seems to be somewhat a rather troubled home life, is Bush looking to turn that around... or is he just a friend?
Reasons to maybe vote for:
- She's very chill and very normal.
- She may have more friends these days, but nobody particularly close.
- She and Bush could swap cooking tips.
- You want more helpful housekeeping tips.
- You want to see what was so controversial about her character arc.
Reasons to maybe not vote for:
- Turner and Rita will be our in-laws.
- She's not nearly as quirky or interesting as the others.
- You think housekeeping is boring and Bush is already a master chef.
- I can't really think of much else, uh, maybe you don't like green hair?
-Rosetta, the Courageous Eye of Gold-
Birthday: Autumn 21
Constellation: Serpent
Favorite Gift: Cherry Pie
VA: Julie Ann Taylor
Our second returning bachelorette, Rosetta is highly skilled in the ways of making money and is very independent (a result of being frustrated with her meek father). She originally came to Trampoli to act as a buyer for the new farmer she heard about, only to find it was us again. She eventually moved into the town as she ran away from home, started up a general store, and put her competitor out of business all in the span of about 30 days. She and Mist are childhood friends, but she seems to think they have a rivalry for some reason and even she can't explain why.
Bush may be a very good source of income for her as her most reliable wholesaler, but is there a chance he's looking to end up as more than that...?
Reasons to maybe vote for:
- She's been doing our shipping from day one for two farms now.
- She's very good at business and makes big money.
- Already kinda likes Bush and generally pleasant to talk to.
- Confident and doesn't back down in the slightest.
Reasons to maybe not vote for:
- Capitalism
- She's doing fine on her own, really.
- She buys stuff from us for about 1/5th of market value, seriously.
- Almost a bit too perfect in some ways.
-Anette, the Everswift Bearer of Scripts-
Birthday: Winter 04
Constellation: Buffamoo
Favorite Gift: Pumpkin Tart
VA: Shelby Lindley
Running fast enough to make dust clouds and send up sparks when she stops, Anette delivers mail to Trampoli on her route. The first time we met her, she gave us a welcoming letter as well as nagging us for not filing a change of residence to the post office, wherever it is. We usually only get to see her in the mornings, where Bush asks for his mail before she's even reached the mailbox, and then throws a cave strawberry at her as she runs off into the distance. Why she can't see poor Kross is a mystery for the ages, and Danny is supposedly our rival for her.
She worries about her height, as well as her handwriting, and monsters seem to chase her on the regular... but will Bush chase after her heart?
Reasons to maybe vote for:
- You want to see her around town more often.
- You want to follow her around the mail route more often.
- Generally fun to talk to, is the best part of the mornings.
- You want to help her work on her handwriting and maybe that monster problem too.
Reasons to maybe not vote for:
- We have monsters on our farm, maybe it's not the best combination.
- She won't move in for quite some time.
- 2 fast 4 us
- You like another girl's hat more.
-Lara, the Physician of St. Poli-
Birthday: Winter 1
Constellation: Cross
Favorite Gift: Chocolate Cake
VA: Karen Strassman
The ever kind Nurse/Nun (Nurnse?), Lara's also a returning character from Kardia. Originally meant to come here to deliver some correspondence between Father Wesley, her father, and Sister Stella, she found us collapsed yet again and chose to stay to watch over us. Bush never seems to be nearly as thankful to her for how many times she's dragged his unconscious body from the fields, compared to how he is for Mist. She hates seeing us get knocked out, an unfortunate requirement of warping the weather. She's part of the Trampoli Morning Study Group, being tutored by Cinnamon in the ways of even more medicine. Supposedly, Erik is our rival for her.
Lara's taken her vows, but is there something between Bush and her that could end with her changing that?
Reasons to maybe vote for:
- Bush is evidently a danger to himself, someone has to watch him.
- Generally nice to talk to and will always save us when downed, somehow.
- Maybe we'll learn what the local religion is even about?
- You too value medicine and health.
Reasons to maybe not vote for:
- She's already a nun and you don't want have to revoke her vows.
- She worries about Bush too much, he's fine.
- Medicine is pretty bad in this game.
- She hasn't had too much in the way of development, her LP moves very slowly being a nun and all.
Birthday: Fall 3
Constellation: Crown
Favorite Gift: Sandwich
Voice Actor: Wendee Lee
Found in front of our house passed out in some strange cycle of Bush and people falling unconscious in front of farmhouses, Selphy lives for books. Forgetting to eat days on end for the pursuit of knowledge and romance novels with little sense of responsibility- this is her life. She's very cheerful no matter the situation, although she doesn't tend to look at other people's perspectives very often. She's most definitely not from some very high-class background and definitely not a runaway, although story-wise, we haven't yet seen what her deal really is. Her presence is mostly why Lara is still in town, given her general disregard for health over literature.
Could Bush ever become that romance story protagonist she's looking for, or will books be the only thing in her heart?
Reasons to maybe vote for:
- Bush is already one of her sole sources of food, through both gifts and patronage.
- Familiar with the concept of passing out, similar to Bush.
- Very stylish and regularly very fun to talk to.
- Probably from some high class family???
- Now an established writer.
Reasons to maybe not vote for:
- She doesn't value our farming very much and our house would be a mess.
- Bush is too busy getting beat up and overworked on his own time.
- We're running out of books to read to impress her with.
- Who knows when her rich family is going to show up and cause all sorts of drama?
- You like another girl's hat better.
-Bathhouse Melody, the Whimsical Seeker of Soothing Waters-
Birthday: Spring 11
Constellation: Hat
Favorite Gift: Relax Tea
VA: G.K. Bowes
The ever cheerful girl in search of delivering the perfect bathing experience while also wanting to be a wizard, is the returning bachelorette, Melody. We met her again part way through Whale Island's cave, where she recruited our help to unleash a new hot spring of questionable physics that she instantly had built. Melody lives for the concept of bathing, despite hating it when she was younger. She's part of the morning study group with Cinnamon and Lara learning magic, and in her off time, seems to be very adept at handling monsters. She was rather difficult to charm back in Kardia, but she's far more easily interested in Bush this time around.
Melody most favorite thing in the world is bathing, that's common knowledge, but is Bush looking to usurp that position... is it even possible?
Reasons to maybe vote for:
- Bush is a regular customer of her incredibly generously priced bathhouse.
- Often very fun to talk to, with a lot of that usual Rune Factory quirkiness.
- She's a good friend who keeps in touch with folk back from Kardia.
- Getting married to her probably means more than a few globetrotting searches for bathhouses.
- She's also tamed monsters before!
Reasons to maybe not vote for:
- You think saunas are better than baths.
- You think Bush is more of a guy to settle down rather than travel a lot.
- She's always been around, and opening up only at 3:00 is annoying.
- You are annoyed by her constant application of the quaver as punctuation ♪
- You think one of the other girls has a better hat.
-Cinnamon, the Lone Astrologian of Scales-
Birthday: Spring 26
Constellation: Fish
Favorite Gift: Magic Crystal (a 5% drop that seems more like a 1%)
VA: Cristina Valenzuela
The incredibly uninterested wizard girl who can't cast magic and just fishes instead, Cinnamon arrived a few days after her grandfather Kanno did. Since then, she's mostly instructed us on astronomy, fished a lot, and kept to herself. She's the head of the Book/Cinnamon's Magic & Medicine Club, formed after a lot of insistence by Melody. Kanno's told us a little bit of her magic prodigy past, but it's slow going as is her LP. It's a rare sight to get any emotion out of her, or to find her not sleepy. Oh, and we first met her when she landed on us while flying through the sky with her younger sister.
Will Bush be the one to break through that silent exterior and win her heart, or is he just another fish in the sea?
Reasons to maybe vote for:
- You love ellipsis, and think they're very good punctuation to have everywhere...
- You want to see her have any sort of emotion.
- We might learn what's up with her past.
- She's already taught Bush a lot of stuff.
- Master of making fish prints and constellations.
Reasons to maybe not vote for:
- You... hate... ellipsis...
- too much fish, just too much fish
- Kanno is already bossy enough, being his grandson-in-law won't help.
- Her arrival also brought the Runey system.
- You like another girl's hat more.
-Uzuki, the Guarded Maiden of the East-
Birthday: Summer 15th
Constellation: Hairpin
Favorite Gift: Golden Hairpin
VA: Also Karen Strassman? (Uncredited?)
Accompanied by Overprotective Cicada Dad Guardian Tsubute, Uzuki is from the foreign land of Not-Japan in search of Brother. We met her early in Spring where she ran into a door, and then conscripted our help before running off before telling us what for. Ever since, she's been the local inn's only patron and spends from 6:00 AM to noon swinging her naginata around. She likes to learn about different cultures it seems, but lacks courage and struggles to meet the genteel expectations set by the tiny cicada man that follows her around. We've not seen much of Brother or where her story has to go, but it'll be a while.
Is it possible for Bush to ever win her heart and the approval of Cicada Dad, or shall he be threatened with arrows forever?
Reasons to maybe vote for:
- Only girl with a weapon and vaguely trained in combat.
- You like hearing about Not-Japan and enjoy sashimi.
- You too, want to find Brother.
- You can respect a 6 hour daily training session.
- Bush could also start up a 6 hour training session of his own?
Reasons to maybe not vote for:
- She won't ever join us in combat, this isn't RF3 and later.
- Tsubute will not like us for a long time, I imagine.
- Her dialogue can be a bit predictable at times.
- She's dissed our combat skills before, and we might still be sore about that.
- You think one of the other girls has a better hat.
-Iris Blanche, the Sky-Island Enigma-
Birthday: Winter 23
Constellation: Whale
Favorite Gift: Tomato Juice
VA: Michelle Ruff
Up on Whale Island is a tower, and in that tower lives a girl named Iris who isn't very good at art, but she really does try. She has pointy ears, heterochromia, only goes outside at night, gets sleepy in the day, instinctively hates garlic, and sucked the blood off our wounded arm- what I'm saying is that she's a bit of an odd one. Given that Bush is the only human contact she has outside of Gelwein, some well-dressed guy who said nothing to us as he opened the gate to plot progression, it's rather understandable.
She also rather loves flowers, but has since failed to notice that we replaced the moondrops outside her door with the similar tomato plants- but will Bush try to get her to notice him?
Reasons to maybe vote for:
-
- Possibly story relevant? She, uh, licked us? Maybe just to learn what her deal is?
- You too like flowers and drawing.
- You think she pulls off the toeless boot look better than Mist does.
- She owns flying whale island property- it'd honestly be a neat place to live and won't be crushed under said island.
Reasons to maybe not vote for:
- We regularly eat a garlic based dish
- You think heterochromia is overdone.
- You're still annoyed about having to wait for 2 weeks to progress on Whale Island and also about waiting until 6:00 PM to even talk to her.
- You just don't get her accidental postmodern abstract surrealist vision.
- You don't like heights, so a flying island is like a nightmare.
-Bianca de Sainte-Coquille, the Enwreathed In Riches-
Birthday: Summer 8
Constellation: Elephant
Favorite Gift: Talking to Bush
VA: Jessica Straus (Uncredited?)
The rich, snobby, and spoiled single daughter of Jasper de Sainte-Coquille, she had a Summer home built in Trampoli to escape the Kardia heat. Unfortunately, it's just as hot here and as equally as boring to her, but on the other hand it does have Bush, one of the few things she regards as interesting in the world. She's evidently never been good at making friends, as Tabatha is really her only friend, and even then they're a bit distant thanks to work. She would leave after the end of summer, but we gave her the tiny pink elephant that had started squatting in our barn, so now she's staying. She's quite the latecomer, but the last update gave a very good look of how she is.
Bianca might find Bush to be rather interesting, but does Bush think the same about her... or was the scavenger hunt for naught?
Reasons to maybe vote for:
- You want to see me play this game for a long time, as she would be delivering new dialogue long into the second year.
- Endlessly wealthy.
- Jasper will be our father-in-law and we get a fancy last name.
- Likes Bush for who he is, not the gifts he gives, maybe.
- A fellow monster tamer?
Reasons to not vote for:
- You don't want me playing this game long into the second and third years to show off content.
- Slow LP gain means she doesn't always have new and interesting things to say.
- You can't stand the rich snob angle, and we make enough money on our own.
- de Sainte-Coquille family reunions could be too wild for poor Bush.
-Tabatha, the Handmaiden of Verdant Wilds-
Last but not least is Bianca's maid, and pretty much only friend, Tabatha. She's from the distant Elven lands and lives a chill life of cleaning mansions and admiring monsters. While extremely polite and professional, she carries herself with a strangely casual air. She's the first elf of the series, although it doesn't play a very large role in her current life it seems. What is that elven land like, and why exactly did she become maid for such a spoiled girl?
She's rather keen on trying to get Bush to be friends with Bianca, as she always has been, but is Bush more after her heart instead?
Reasons to maybe vote for her:
- You want to know what her past is and why exactly she's a maid for Bianca.
- Bush like monsters and she also likes monsters.
- She's the only elf we can marry, and she might tell us about what the Elven Lands are like.
- Incredibly efficient at housekeeping, and also provides general cooking and cleaning tips.
- You too, like
Reasons to maybe not vote for her:
- She's pushing us to go for Bianca instead.
- You think she's already competing for the same thing as Eunice.
- You liked the country accent she had before.
- You're tired of maid outfits, even if this one is rather sensible.
- She's perhaps too polite and professional.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can find the voting form right here- it's fully anonymous so nobody will know what you voted for: https://forms.gle/61pzBdXYEmPc4KwM8
The original plan was to a tournament bracket sort of thing, but that's possibly unfair compared to just doing this.
You can feel free to post about who you voted for, talk about the girls, or who you want to win, that's perfectly fine. Just know that only votes submitted to the form will count. If you want them to count, send them there.
VOTING WILL BE CLOSED ON MARCH 19th, 12:00 PM EST
You have two weeks! Don't miss out!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music: To YouBACHELORETTE VOTE 1: FINAL RESULT
Some more votes did come in, but there wasn't enough swing in them to change the top 6, but a little shifting did happen in the lower ranks.
FINALISTS: Selphy, Anette, Rosetta, Cinnamon, Iris, Melody
NON-FINALISTS: Tabatha, Bianca, Uzuki, Eunice, Lara, Mist
Tabatha and Bianca ended up pulling more votes and remain ahead of the others 4, and Eunice received a decent bit of last minute support in the end, pulling her way out of last place.
Mist remains in last, the root racket connections just not being deep enough to get any more. She did say she couldn't see herself getting married after all, maybe she intended for this result?
So what does this mean for the LP?
The non-finalists won't be cut out of the updates for good, I'll still talk to them when we've got lazy days, but I won't throw everything out the window to manage gifts for them and I'll leave them out if Bush has some important progress to make. As a good long while passes and the current six reach close to marriage range, we'll have a little vote before that for a chance to usurp a position or two in the final 6 to make sure the choice is everyone's favorites.
Iris being a finalist means I'll still need to work my schedule around getting to the island between 6 to 11:59 PM, and Cinnamon means I'm going to have to start grinding Ignis for those magic crystals (I'd have to do it for staves anyway, but I'm going to need to do a lot of it now because her LP growth is miniscule otherwise.) I'll also want to start growing Pumpkins for Anette effective immediately. Selphy and Rosetta's gifts will not be difficult as we've already got the skill and materials for those, we just need the oven this weekend.
I'll hopefully have the next update out this Friday, although this week might end up being a bit too busy for me so I can't entirely guarantee it. We'll see what happens!