Your best excuse to live a lie

[lucetimods]

Kath here, trying on the mod hat for the first time! It's that time of year again, Luceti! (Wait, what do you mean that was last week? Shush!) The highly anticipated Valentines Event is here, and it’s going down from Monday, February 24th through Saturday, March 1st!


Some of you might be familiar with the Harvest Moon franchise of games. You know, the ones where you're plopped down on a farm that you've got to take care of and you can kindle a romance with one of the oh so available bachelors or bachelorettes in town. And your mom wonders why you can't just take care of your chores around the house, since you seem to be having so much fun watering pretend crops and milking pretend cows. And you're just like, "Mom, please."

But it's the all important romance aspect that we're concerned with right now, so let's go back to that.

Heart Meters

Each prospective bachelor/bachelorette is shown with a heart meter, which changes colors as your relationship progresses. As you have probably guessed, the residents of Luceti will have the chance to be eligible bachelors and bachelorettes for the duration of the event! Characters will be able to see the heart meters by checking the journals. A colored heart will appear next to each resident's name in the journal listing, or underneath their picture while interacting via journal. As your character interacts with others, their heart meters will shift through a spectrum of Valentines colors:

• Grey to indicate neutrality or someone you simply don't know
• White to indicate friendship
• Purple to indicate a crush
• Pink to indicate blossoming romance
• Red to indicate ~true love~ or passionate romance

Feel free to start the event with heart meter at a level that deviates from the actual relationship between your character and another, or you can play with unrequited feelings. For example:

• Two characters who barely know each other can suddenly find themselves at the Purple level, crushing hard on each other.
• Players with two characters who are in an established relationship might wish to undo the relationship by setting their characters at the White level.
• Maybe your character is a creeper who harbors INTENSE FEELINGS OF LOVE (Red level) for someone, but that someone barely knows who your character is!

It's all up to you! It should also be noted that you may have your character attain Purple, Pink, or even Red level with more than one other character, if that's what you're into. Just make sure that everyone you're plotting with is on board first!

Heart Events and Giving Gifts

At each level of the heart meter (except for Grey), a special heart event takes place to further develop the relationship. This could be anything from a revelation of shared interests to a deep conversation about your characters' dark, troubled pasts to a fun day out together. Things to remember:

• These heart events are intended to showcase each stage of the relationship, so you may want to have a general idea of what each heart event will entail beforehand.
• Of course, you are not required to play out each level during the event! Maybe your character and his/her love interest move from Purple to Pink and then happily stay there. Therefore, at the absolute most you would plan a Purple heart event and a Pink heart event. This is whatever you want to do.

Now you may be wondering, ”How do I raise the heart meter?” Because simple interaction, while a good foundation for a relationship, won't be enough! No, it's all in the gift-giving. Each prospective bachelor and bachelorette in town has a brief list of liked presents and disliked presents; naturally, giving a liked present will raise their affection level little by little, while giving a disliked present might lower it. In the game series, these presents traditionally include flowers, produce, eggs, milk, cooked dishes and baked goods, and random crap you find on the ground in the woods. But feel free to expand your horizons!

One last important item to mention is the Blue Feather, which is the traditional mode of marriage proposal in the Harvest Moon games. When characters' heart meters reach the Red level, one half of the pair may choose to pop the question to the other. In order to discourage the plucking of filial feathers (ouch!), Blue Feathers will be available in the item shop throughout the duration of the event. Don’t get cold feet now!

Opting Out

Some of you may be thinking that you don’t want to force your character into love shenanigans - maybe your character is in an established relationship and you don’t want to mess everything up with drama, or maybe you simply want to give your character a break for once. That is perfectly okay! You have a few opt-out choices to fall back on.

The first option is your basic “sitting this one out”, in which your character is left unaffected and most likely confused/bewildered by everyone around them. (“Why are you handing me a lasagna all moony-eyed like that? Why this? Stop it.”)

Your second option, if you want to have a little fun without all that love business, is to set your character up as an NPC...or more appropriately, an NDC (non-dateable character). These characters do not have a heart meter to fill, but they provide useful services to the townspeople. Perhaps your character gets the sudden urge to take over the flower shop or the library, or maybe they’re suddenly the go-to pastor for ministering wedding ceremonies. You don’t have to stick with roles present in the Harvest Moon games. Feel free to make your character a love guru, spouting (perhaps unsolicited) advice to lovestruck villagers, or have your character play the traditional matchmaker, making sure the stars and planets are aligned correctly for prospective couples.

But wait, there’s more!

Love by the Lake

Following the tradition of the past few years of going out with a bang (hah), on the morning of Saturday, March 1st characters will receive an invitation in their journals to a festival at the Southern Lake. For the special occasion, teleporters will temporarily be set up to transport everyone from the village to the lake quickly and efficiently.

When they arrive in the afternoon, characters will find the area around the lake unseasonably warm (think light jacket weather) and dotted with festival stalls that provide everything from food and drinks to souvenirs to blankets to spread out on the ground and nestle in with a loved one. Important features:

• The food spread includes anything you could conceivably find at a festival (whether an American state fair, an Oktoberfest celebration, a Japanese shrine festival, etc.), an array of beers and wines, and several chocolate fountains accompanied by platters of fruit to dip into the chocolatey decadence.
• Available souvenirs include pinwheels, balloons, paper fans, silly masks, flowers, and plushies - take something home to commemorate a fun day spent with your sweetheart! Even if your character ends up wanting to burn it later.
• A few stages will be set up around the lake, featuring the musical stylings of Malnosso droids that have been programmed to play instruments. Unfortunately, lacking voices, the droids can't sing along to their stiff instrumental covers of George Michael and Frank Sinatra...but your character can feel free to jump in and provide the lyrics, if he/she really wants to make a fool of him/herself.
• While the droids are busy providing the entertainment, the festival area will be fully serviced by helpful little fellows called Harvest Sprites.

Those of you who have been around the block a few times are probably wondering by now, "So which food should my character be avoiding?" Because everyone knows it wouldn't be a Very Luceti Valentines Day without some sort of seemingly innocuous shift-spiked treat lying around. While the weather is warmer than expected, there's still a bit of a chill in the air, and the longer your characters stay outside enjoying the festival...they may find themselves wanting to warm up with a cup of hot chocolate, which will lead to some stirring temporary side effects:

• Plain hot chocolate: Friendship! Inspires you to latch onto the nearest person and become the closest of friends. If you're already friends, you may find yourself wanting to be extra warm and open with them, sharing all kinds of feelings and secrets.
• Salted caramel hot chocolate: Shall we say...saltiness? You feel the sudden urge to hit on everyone who crosses your path. Maybe you're a smooth operator...or maybe nothing but bad lines spill out every time you open your mouth.
• Peppermint hot chocolate: Love! Sweet and warm and tingly. You start to feel a mighty need for snuggles and smooches and blurted confessions.
• Aztec hot chocolate: Lust! With the added zest of red cayenne pepper, this drink will do more than just warm you up - you'll be feeling hot and bothered. Quick, find somewhere private! For the love of Bil, just pulling the blanket over yourselves where you are doesn't count!

Once the sun has gone down, the festival will wrap up with a fireworks display shot over the lake, and then everyone is to retire to one of the many charmingly rustic cabins spread through the nearby woods, farther back from the shore than the festival area. Each cabin contains a single room (plus a bathroom, before anyone asks) that is simply but warmly decorated, including a cozy queen-sized bed waiting to be snuggled in (among other, more zealous pursuits, of course) and a conveniently stocked nightstand providing condoms, lube, and anything your characters may want in order to spice up the night a little (or a lot).

Finally, nothing lasts forever, and when the clock strikes midnight, everything reverts to normal...however, when morning rolls around, your character will wake up in exactly the same place they fell asleep the night before. Which means characters who chose to stay in the cabins might be in store for an awkward morning with their V-Day partners. Don't be hasty and go running out in your underwear, though - once the cabin is vacated, it fades out of existence! The memories will always live on, though, whether anyone wants them to or not!

One last thing to keep in mind! Characters will not realize that their behavior is the result of a shift. The Malnosso have done their best to make sure of that, in order to encourage full participation...of course, some characters may have slipped through the cracks and might wonder why nobody seems to realize what's happening. (The exception to this will be the hot chocolate side effects, whose artificiality characters can become aware of once the effects have worn off.)

If you have any questions, please ask in the thread below. Other than that, go wild and use this post to plot like bunnies!