Of Love and Nighttime Walks

[Applegate]

... continuing the spree of low-quality, low-content VNs. This will be the third installment in the "Of Love and..." series, continuing to be a simple outlet for inspiration and to give birth to it through writing.

I'd be lying if I said I am equally happy with this one as I am with the last two: I actually rewrote this one again from scratch after I'd finished it, and converted it to VN format after first writing it in novel format. It's probably showing.

Nonetheless, I am happy to release this to the world as well, despite how niche the audience for this seems to be, haha!

This story is a direct continuation of "... and Watching Films", where Dewi and the protagonist discuss Grease, and then go on to talk about ultimately meaningless things. Continuing the same trend, after all. I've had to resist the urge to throw something magically amazing in it just to see if it'd be more interesting to others, but I guess I should be happy with the audience I have, rather than write for people who wouldn't give me the time of day anyway!

This is slightly longer than the other two, coming in at nearly 1,800 words. It's still rather short, of course.

All materials are in the public domain, attributed at the end of the story.


Of Love and Nighttime Walks v1.0-all platforms

[Celestine]

Cool you did another one, definitely downloading

[Wright1000]

This one was better than the last two.
I think there were some spelling mistakes, but I am sure you did it on purpose, didn't you?
Will there be another one?

[Applegate]

Any spelling mistakes are a clever use of the vernacular to display my writing prowess. But no, I made no intentional mistakes beyond "intenses", which the main character already questions as a good use of the verb; it tries to show the MC isn't as well-versed in English as most people would be, given that the story is set in a country where English classes aren't always top-of-the-line.

Any others you've seen, feel free to point out; unless you're going to point out the differences between American and British spelling. I've had so many people tell me I'm spelling things wrong when it's simply British and not American, it's maddening!

Whether I write another one depends on mood, of course. Each installment is the result of boredom, and hearing just the right tune at just the right moment to make me write an opening that evolves into something more.

[lordcloudx]

Niche audience reporting in. (with a new avatar with a hat to boot) I'm enjoying these little releases of yours.

For this particular piece, I like how you brought back the mild sexual tension between our protagonist and his girl friend that was present in the first installment. Competent writing and interesting as well as natural dialogue between Dewi and Mr. protagonist as usual. I really like the sorta laid-back atmosphere of these short VNs of yours that are quite reminiscent of spending some time with a good friend of the opposite sex, but who is also not quite your lover, although it doesn't seem unlikely at some point.

Dewi strikes me as just the type of girl that I'd be attracted to. Whimsical, doesn't care much for public reaction, or anyone else's, but also quite witty and with some kind of mysterious allure that's hard to really put into words. Also, she doesn't really seem to be as cruel as the protagonist would have you believe. (which seems like part of the plan as far as your writing goes.) If she was really that cruel, she'd probably have done something more humiliating to him than a few harsh jabs here and there.

In any case, good job again. I was going to complain about the lack of any real opening or closure in this particular installment, but I changed my mind and decided that it actually works well for this one.

A few typos I caught. Feel free to ignore them if these are also intentional, but I doubt it:

-Dewi marches on quietly, maneuvring
breath taking = should be "breathtaking" when used in that context.

Edit: I also have to commend you on the seamless usage of cultural references, which I'm sure you understand that not everyone will be able to get. (I didn't) It didn't detract in any way from the experience nor did these references take center-stage at any point of the story. This is something that quite a few writers really need to learn.

[Applegate]

Favourite audience member. I've noticed that Blowing Bubbles actually had twice as many downloads as Watching Films, and Watching Films has twice as many as Nighttime Walks. That being the case, I estimate I'll get around half as many for the fourth part. Good odds for any writer.

I actually considered adding a Notes section to explain the cultural references, but then wondered, "How many people will really care for them?" To be honest, I didn't much stop to think whether the references would be lost on people and a great value in the tale would be lost, although at first I had thrown in two more that I was sure no one'd quite be able to understand - originally the protagonist and Dewi'd take an angkot back. An angkot is a sort of bus service, I suppose. Vans that drive around a specific circuit and charge nominal fees to bring you between stops, except their stop is "anywhere we pass through".

They're super convenient, but also usually very cramped. I decided to leave it out, eventually, and settled for a walk. The second thing is... not precisely a 'cultural' thing: I'd wager it's probably something local, but Dewi'd joke about "the man in the fields". In folklore, those'd be demons, but the explanation added little to the story, so instead she jokes about the protagonist's height.

I'm glad you're continuing to enjoy the series! I actually went back to Watching Films and add a few lines to hopefully better bring closure, but I'll be unlikely to release them until I decide to do a 'series' release, which is likely "click which episode you'd like to read"... but I begin to ramble, haha.

I'll correct those two errors: I'd never known breathtaking was written as one word, but now I do.

[Wright1000]

You didn't answer my question.

Will there be another one?

[clannadman]

You didn't answer my question.

Will there be another one?

Actually, they did.

Whether I write another one depends on mood, of course. Each installment is the result of boredom, and hearing just the right tune at just the right moment to make me write an opening that evolves into something more.

[Omnificent]

I concur that this is the best one in the series. The interplay between Dewi and our protagonist becomes more natural with each installment, the pacing was better, and it's nice to actually see background both for the setting and the protagonist.

Also cliffhanger ending fffffffff

[Applegate]

I concur that this is the best one in the series. The interplay between Dewi and our protagonist becomes more natural with each installment, the pacing was better, and it's nice to actually see background both for the setting and the protagonist.

Also cliffhanger ending fffffffff

Haha, is it that much of a cliffhanger?

Thank you for your comments. I'm happy that you enjoy the series so far; I agree that the interplay between them is better than when I initially started out. I'm getting the hang of the characters, and on looking back, when I finish the next part ─ which I'll call the finale to the series ─ I'll likely go back and revise the previous ones before joining them together in a "complete" Visual Novel.

I'm glad you enjoy it; knowing there's at least some people who read this makes it all worth it in the end.

[Celestine]

I downloaded all 3 does that make me the odd one out.

I liked it but it didn't feel like an ending. By the way I loved the line from the last one
Dewi says "

punch the repear in the face"

that was funny!

The area place of the story doesn't seem familiar to me. Where are they exactly?

[Applegate]

The area place of the story doesn't seem familiar to me. Where are they exactly?

The pictures are all taken from Indonesian areas. I can't say where each picture is from exactly, but I know the alleyway is from Jakarta, and I took the picture for Ibu Indri's in Perumahan Bukit Lawang; the rest were all taken from Flickr, so it's difficult to say where they originate from.

[Funnyguts]

I downloaded this game a month ago, and I just realized that I never actually played it! I just finished, it was a fun little story. It's always neat to see something set in a place that isn't America, or an American otaku's concept of Japan.