#also i HATE video lessons on top of actual lessons. i didn't mind them when my [] teacher used them as a recap of what he had explained in

[mirmidones]

i really am too slow and too sleepy for this shit (life)

[mind-reader1]

Queen of Hearts (Ch.9)

Drake x MC (Emma Barnes)

TRR AU: What would happen if Emma loved Drake but had to marry Liam?

Catch up here

Warnings: None. Pure Fluff 

Note: If you’d like to be added to the tag list let me know! Also I love talking with you guys about the chapters and story to please don’t be afraid to tell me what you thought! :) 

Word Count:  2735

Summary: The first stop on the engagement tour is Fydelia, Madeline’s home! Will she be able to recruit her as a press secretary and Madeleine’s family’s support? Emma and Drake find a moment to themselves and she tries her best to teach him the waltz.

Chapter 9: I don’t Dance (Lee Brice)

I’ll never settle down, That’s what I always thought Yeah, I was that kind of man, Just ask anyone

I don’t dance, but here I am Spinning you around and around in circles It ain’t my style, but I don’t care I’d do anything with you anywhere Yes, you got me in the palm of your hand girl 'Cause, I don’t dance

Love’s never come my way, I’ve never been this far 'Cause you took these two left feet And waltzed away with my heart

Once he cleared the hall she went back into her room and started packing, it was the first day of the unity tour. She had just finished packing when there was a knock on the door.

“Maxwe- Bertrand?” She was surprised to see the elder Beaumont at her door. Now she was really glad that she had made Drake leave.

“I'm glad to see you're already packed and ready. Today is a very important day, it's the first stop on the unity tour.”

“Where are we going exactly?”

“Fydelia.” Emma laughed and looked at Bertrand whose expression didn't change.

“Good one, where are we really going?”

“We're going to Fydelia. It's an important stop, even more important since it's the first. It shows that you, Madeleine and Liam can put aside your differences and get along, and we're going to be recruiting Madeleine as your new press secretary.” Emma felt like she had walked into a nightmare.

Later that day in the boutique with Bertrand and Maxwell, Emma still hadn't wrapped her head around the idea.

“Of all the press secretaries in Europe, why does it have to be Madeleine?” Emma was getting desperate, she was willing to beg and grovel if it meant she didn't have to recruit Madeleine, her least favorite person in Cordonia.

“As you know Justin isn't an option because he was injured and is still in the hospital, he recommended Madeleine though. He was impressed by the way she handled the press during her brief engagement to Liam.”

“You have to admit she did manage to spin everything in a favorable manner.” Emma shot Maxwell a look, he was not helping her case. Maxwell being Maxwell however, took it in stride, he'd rather have Emma be upset with him for a few minutes than have Bertrand lecturing him about the impending doom of House Beaumont.

“If I must. I suppose it will be good to have her evil, snake charming powers working for me rather than against me.”

“Yes! The unlikely hero-villain team up against a greater threat.” Maxwell grinned.

“Exactly. She still holds much influence at court and is frankly far greater an asset than enemy.” Emma really couldn't argue with that, even if she tried it would be futile, Bertrand had made up his mind.

“This is all assuming we can convince her to help me. We never exactly had a close relationship, especially after everything that happened.”

“Precisely why you will need every advantage you can get, and why we are here.”

“A dress with the color of Madeleine and Adelaide's house. A dress as green as her envy towards you and as black as her shriveled heart.” With a flourish Maxwell pulled a dress off the rack. Emma grabbed the dress and slipped into the changing room. It was a club style dress, tight fighting so it hugged her curves but a halter, so it wouldn't slip while she was dancing. It appeared to be black with a patterned green lace over it, some of which extended past the end, just long enough to be classy. It was beautiful, as always.

“Don't forget this isn't only about Madeleine, you also must convince Adelaide to attend the wedding.” Emma brushed off Bertrand's concern.

“Adelaide won't take any convincing, if there's a party she's there.”

“Yes, but you will also need the support of Adelaide's husband, Madeleine's father which will be far more difficult.” Emma raised her eyebrows in surprise.

“Adelaide is married?”

“Duke Godfrey doesn't reside in Cordonia. He spends most of his time in England at his duchy.”

“The rumors at court are that Adelaide and Godfrey don't exactly get along.” Maxwell whispered as if someone may overhear.

“Which means his attendance at your wedding will be so important and hold a lot of sway, further into this tour.”

“So, do the impossible. Sounds like a normal day at this point.”

That evening Emma approached Madeleine's estate with her friends, but she hung back as they gushed over it, not feeling in much of a party mood.

“What's on your mind Barnes?” Drake fell into step beside her.

“What do you know about Godfrey and his relationship with Adelaide?” Drake sighed.

“Not much. Married for political reasons, as far as nobles go, he's as uptight and pretentious as they come. All he cares about is titles. My least favorite kind of noble.”

“Well I guess I have my work cut out for me then.”

“If anyone can do it Barnes, it's you.” Emma reached over and squeezed his hand, releasing it before they entered the ballroom which was…surprisingly empty.

“Wow, this place is like a ghost town.”

“Father mentioned that there would be a lot turn out. Fear is still high along the nobles after the attack on the palace and more recently the video.”

“They're afraid to be seen supporting the monarchy.” Drake scowled. He hated the idea that his best friend and love of his life had to put their lives in danger while the other nobles hid like the cowards he always thought they were. Scanning the room, Emma saw Adelaide speaking with Constantine and Regina, and a man with white hair, a permanent scowl on his face who she assumed was Godfrey as he took a seat right next to Adelaide.

“You'll win then over though, you always do. It's like magic!” Maxwell inserted himself into the conversation.

“It'll be easier to talk to them alone though.” Emma noticed Madeleine on the other side of the room, clearly not interested in the party. She approached Madeleine who properly greeted her for the sake of tradition.

“You've been greeted, could you leave me alone now, for once?”

“Actually, I needed to speak to you about something, an opportunity for you.”

“I'm sure it's of no interest to me.” Madeleine tried to leave.

“I want you to be my press secretary on this upcoming tour.” Madeleine stopped and turned, a satisfied smirk on her face.

“I knew it. You've come crawling back to me, begging for help because you've dug yourself too deep into a hole. Good luck getting yourself out. I'll be sitting at the top watching.” Madeleine hissed, and this time didn't stop as she walked away from her. Emma explained what happened to her friends and they decided to take a break. While they were getting some food, Drake accidentally bumped into Neville. Emma couldn't help but roll her eyes as she approached, he was amongst her least favorite people. He droned on and on while still managing to find a way to insult them all. Drake stepped in to defend Emma, some part of her loved that Drake would defend her even if publicly she was with Liam, but another part wanted to be able to elevate Drakes status so people like Neville would leave him alone. When Neville had the audacity to compare Drake to a dog she could see him losing it, Emma almost lost control of her own temper, it took all of her will power not to.

“He's not worth it Drake.” She whispered in his ear. As much as he hated Neville, he couldn't make things more difficult for her or his best friend and so he backed off, Emma was right. Drake had a feeling that Neville would get what was coming to him, even if that day wasn't today.

“We still need his support though. We need all the nobles we can get.” Hana said. The idea that Drake would have to watch Emma get married to Liam, knowing Neville would be in the crowd to mock him made his anger spike again. He needed a moment to himself and so he made a beeline for outside, hoping he wouldn't be followed. He turned when he heard soft footsteps, relieved to see it was only Emma.

“I'm sorry, I just needed some fresh air. I couldn't let my anger get the best of me. He was right, if I do something rash it only hurts you and Liam.” Emma gave him a sympathetic smile.

“For the record, I want to punch him too.” Drake chuckled.

“I don't suppose there's a metaphorical way I could punch him.”

“Maybe if you knew what fork was for what purpose.” Drake smirked.

“Guy like him, he'd know all that stuff. I did have one idea though.” Emma raised her eyebrows at him.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, something you could help me with.”

“What would that be?”

“Don't make me say it Barnes. You know what I'm talking about.” Emma really had no idea though, she shrugged.

“Dancing. Maybe you could teach me some fancy court dances.” Emma grinned.

“The Drake Walker is asking for dancing lessons?”

“I know. Can you help me or not Barnes?” Emma smiled and grabbed Drake's hands.

“Let's start.” He led her to a secluded part of the gardens under an arch filled with twinkling lights.

“Why dancing?” Drake sighed.

“We'll be going to a lot of balls, dancing is usually involved.”

“Neville got to you. Fuck what he thinks Drake.”

“It's not just Neville. I want to do this for you! For Liam! You guys need all the support you can get, and I can't be just the commoner friend who sticks around, I need to show them that I'm an asset.”

“Drake you don't need to change. You don't need to earn their respect to be helpful. I could never ask you to change for me.” He lifted her chin gently.

“I want to Barnes.”

“I love you Drake. Despite what anyone else thinks.” Drake kissed her gently and smiled.

“Okay, where do we start?”

“What do you know?”

“You know me Barnes, I don't dance. I know the starting position and that's it.”

“Let's start there then!” Drake gently placed his hand on her waist and grabbed her other hand with his, holding it out. She put her hand on his shoulder and slowly began gliding him through box steps, as she sped up, he struggled to keep up with her. His footwork became sloppy, almost stomping on her toes. Drake sighed in frustration, breaking hold.

“This is hard. You always make it look so effortless.” He ran a hand through his hair.

“That's because I'm not stomping like I'm part of some military marching band, you need to glide. Your movements need to flow together rather than stiff, and individual.” Drake just stared at her like she was speaking another language.

“Imagine you're dancing on glasses of whiskey, every time you stomp you break a glass.” Drake gasped.

“That's a tragedy Barnes.”

“Then I guess you better learn to glide.” It only took Drake a few more steps to finally learn to glide.

“Am I good? A perfect dancer now?” Emma smiled and shook her head.

“You still need to correct your frame, you have to hold it at all times.” Emma waited for Drake to find the correct frame.

“When you hold your frame, it helps your partner react to your movements accordingly.”

“Like this?” Emma pretended to be checking over Drake's frame and snuck in for a kiss. Drake immediately broke hold, falling into the kiss before pulling away.

“That's not the next move.” Emma giggled.

“You don't know that. You said yourself you don't know anything about dancing.”

“I've been around court for years Barnes, nobles don't go around kissing each other. That was a cheap move.” She winked.

“You loved it though. Anyways, my point was that you need to be able to focus through distractions. Your partner is trusting you to lead them through the dance, especially this next step.” Emma demonstrated and explained the next step before Drake took his place with her. Drake glided forward, and Emma took a step back, spinning under Drake's arm.

“What's the last step?” Emma grinned and jumped into Drake's arms, catching him off guard. She wrapped her arms around his neck and enjoyed the quiet moment together.

“As much I love this, what's the real move?”

“A simple spin.” Drake began twirling and Emma giggled until he lost his balance and they tumbled into the bushes.

“Aah!” Drake hissed and grabbed his shoulder. Emma rolled off him and looked at him, worried.

“Drake I'm sorry! Are you okay?” He nodded and let out a deep breath.

“I'm fine.” He pulled Emma back on top of him who wasn't convinced.

“Your shoulder, Drake.” He silenced her by kissing her. Her protests immediately stopped as his tongue slipped into her mouth.

“Drake? Emma!” Maxwell's voice forced them apart just as Drake's hand began wandering up her dress.

“We've been gone too long.” She whispered. Drake sighed and helped her up.

“Right here Maxwell.” They brushed each other off and stepped out from the gardens.

“What were you doing out here?” He looked them up and down.

“I was teaching Drake to dance.” Maxwell clearly didn't buy it.

“She was Maxwell.” Everyone dropped the subject.

“Thanks Barnes. I never wanted to learn because I didn't want court to change me. You've done it all though, you're going to be queen, but you're still the New York waitress that I fell in love with. If you can do it, then so can I. For Liam, for Cordonia, for you.” He gave her a meaningful look and she returned it, walking back inside to the ball behind Maxwell.

“Lady Emma!”

“Bertrand!” She mocked his rushed tone and waited for him to explain.

“I've been looking everywhere for you. Adelaide and Godfrey are alone, you should talk to them now.” Emma made her way over to Adelaide and tried to recruit her with no luck, she also had no luck with Godfrey, but she was able to figure out why everyone was so tense. It was something at least, she needed to talk to Madeleine again though, Bertrand would be furious if she didn't recruit her.

“Any luck?” Hana asked. Emma shook her head.

“I need to talk to Madeleine again, I know what's bothering them all.”

“I think that's going to have to wait.” Emma followed Maxwell's gaze to where Neville was asking Madeleine to dance. Emma's lips curled into a smile, Liam was nowhere to been seen.

“Let's show them how it's done Drake.” He looked at her wide-eyed and shook his head. “You want to give him the courtly middle finger, this is how you do it. You've got this.” Emma grabbed his hand and dragged him on to the dance floor. Drake took one look at Neville and his demeanor changed, he deftly began guiding Emma through the steps. She looked over her shoulder and saw him scowling at them, Emma turned back to Drake and grinned.

“We're definitely getting to him.”

“Guess he can't handle a little competition.” Neville grew increasingly showy, twirling Madeleine and gliding her across the dance floor, his scowl never leaving them.

“I think he's going to do something big. Can you do a lift?” Emma looked at Drake and was genuinely concerned, she wasn't going to ask him to do something that would hurt him. He nodded and met her gaze, he could do it. As the music crested, Drake lifted Emma by her waist and spun her as she threw her arms back, he gently set her down as the music stopped.

“That was amazing Drake!” Emma wrapped her arms around him and laughed as their friends rushed over.

“I guess she really was teaching you to dance. Stop holding out on me Drake!”

“Where'd you learn to do that Drake?” Hana joined them as Neville stormed over. Again, he tried to pick a fight with Drake and the others.

“Just because you did one waltz doesn't mean you belong here with us.”

“Why are you so threatened by Drake? It it because you know that no matter what you do in your sniveling life you'll never be as good as the commoner who took a bullet for the future queen.” Emma got in Neville's face and he took a step back sneering.

“That's the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard.”

“Really? Then why are you running with your tail tucked between your legs?” Neville huffed and walked off, at a loss of words.

“Thanks Barnes.” Before Emma could say anymore, she heard a commotion and turned to see what it was. Madeleine and her parents had begun arguing in raised voices.

Tag List:  @notoriouscs @sleepwalkingelite @brightpinkpeppercorn @ooo-barff-ooo @princesstopgun @choicesyouplayandmore @leelee10898@roonarific @indigo39 @skyila @speedyoperarascalparty @andy-loves-corgis @furiousherringoperatortoad @blackwidow2721 @drakewalkerfics@findingdrake @sue9659 @smritysriv

[animalloverdev]

Would you guys have any tips for aspiring indie visual novel developers working in very small teams like yours? Stuff that you didn't think would matter or things you didn't think would happen, but once they did, you thought 'oh man, I wish I had thought about this before/somebody had told me about this!' In case there aren't any: what do you guys think are the most difficult parts, and what are the best parts, of working in a small team?

I was originally going to go off in this one by saying that we’re definitely not successful enough to be giving out tips. But Animal Lover was well rated and we *did* actually release it. So screw it. I’ll pass this one to Maia for artist tips after I ramble on for a little bit.

Universal Tips:90% of the people who email you after you release a game on Steam are blowing smoke up your ass. Proceed with caution.

Making video games is hard. Even games with minimal gameplay like these. You’re not taking the easy route by doing a visual novel, you’re just taking a route that a small team can actually manage to make.

Small Team Tips:If you’re not paying them (whether at all or for a non-livable wage), be patient with them. This means planning out how long it will take, getting a rough estimate of how long the project SHOULD take, and then multiplying it by four.

Wear multiple hats. This is non-negotiable. There’s no room in game development for ‘idea guys’. Prepare to code, prepare to do SOME visual development, some sound design, some UI design, some writing, some whatever. If you have just barely enough money to make an indie visual novel instead of a full-fledged AAA release, then you don’t have enough money to make everyone else make your dreams come true.

Writing Tips:Write a book first.

No, seriously, write a book first. Maybe write a few.

Writing a visual novel was like writing a book, which I’ve done, but then when the book is done, you need to edit it, which is par for the course... but then with Animal Lover, no matter how done the script was, there was something to do, always. Like always. Always. If you’re not prepared to write a novel by itself, you’re certainly not prepared to write a novel that you have to code and potentially add branching paths for.

Visual novels are writing heavy, and even though writing standards are certainly not sky-high right now, you want to have good writing, because if you want to differentiate yourself from the pack even a little, you don’t want people saying “Yeah, the writing was okay” when 80% of your game is writing. This also means that visual-novel writing tips hew pretty close to regular writing tips. On that note:

Characters are key. I am a dude who loves a complex plot, but complex plots in mediums where you can’t rely on environmental storytelling and visual inference (it’s hard to implement in visual novels, though we tried with Kyle’s hair in the canon ending and with the different markings each character has based on their animals), complex plots mean lots of explanation. Which we didn’t even totally avoid in Animal Lover. Any more complex and it would have gotten boring.Thusly; focus on characters. Visual novel players (dating sim or otherwise) are there to interact with characters.

Learn to write in-code. It’ll save you time.

The only thing maybe more important than character in visual novels is pacing. In a dialogue-heavy medium, it is easy to forget how much time it’s been since the last big event happened. Keep an eye on where you’re spending the most time, what you’re interacting with at any given time and whether or not you enjoy reading it.

Comedy has value. Animal Lover is not the steamiest otome game out there, and steaminess is the general consensus for what games have the most value. Yet, somehow, people are drawn to Animal Lover. Comedy endears readers to characters, makes them remember their time spent fondly and actively engages readers. If you can make it funny, do make it funny. Animal Lover gets dark, but the moments spent laughing before that happened gave it value and made the dark stuff heavier.

Producer/Director Tips:Explore your engines. We did our game in Ren’Py, which worked and we managed, but we spent our time wondering if it would have been easier or more flexible in Game Maker or TyrannoBuilder. It’s not that we regret it, we just didn’t know.

Be as unique as you are. This is seriously only going to do good for your game. When I think that maybe Animal Lover isn’t selling as well as it ought to, I remember the other visual novels that have come out I haven’t even heard of because the art was standard or the writing was ‘meh’ and didn’t really capture anyone’s attention. As an indie, it’s just a good business move.

Dream big; settle for less. Not less as in lesser, but I had a few big studio songs and some really huge ideas to include in the game. Those big ideas led me to the small ones we found (like putting Bottom Over Top in the BIG SCENE or to having the multiple-faces thing for the characters) and they made the game better.

Maia’s Tips:

First off I disagree with Wil’s point about “writing a book first”. Plenty of people have made and posted vn’s on newgrounds and deviantart without having written an entire book before. Just understand that it takes more than just writing a story. A lot more.

Art wise, the biggest lesson I had to learn was that some of the super cool game stuff just wasn’t feasible for one artist. (I wanted a majority of the game to look more like first person illustrations with unique moving parts and body language. You can see why I didn’t do that).   The Second biggest lesson I learned was hire more artists. Or work with a buddy, I know people like to make these for fun. Video games require art in places you may not even have considered before. There’s characters and all they entail, including unique items (extra outfits, one-time items or expressions, backgrounds, every part of the UI and menus, any little details you want to add like the button changing color when you hover/click/idle etc. It goes on. 

Edits can really pile up, so it’s good to tackle a single aspect at a time. All the bases first then all the clothing, all the buttons on menu A, B then C. You get the point. It can waste time if you have to keep going back to fix or adjust something because a color didn’t match up, or you approached it differently than the 4 others you spent good time planning and executing (looking at you Miguel. Fuck your blinking I hate you.)

Art takes time and preparation. I used to work pretty quickly, but mostly that’s because I didn’t used to as much consideration into my drawings. But you also have to balance Quality and Speed so you can do good work while making deadlines.

Preparing for a game is incredibly important. Your first designs should not be your final designs. While it won’t always be the case, you need to keep in mind that the more you draw a character, the more small changes will occur causing your design to evolve and become inconsistent. Creating reference sheets and mock ups for each character, item/accessory, or icons is a very good way to keep tabs on consistency.

THe last thing I can think of for now is that it’s really *really* good to look up lega information, even if this isn’t a project you’re aiming to sell. I’ve found it extremely helpful to learn about contract creation, copyright information, business building etc etc. 

Oh, and you’re second question

Working in a team for me was pretty difficult and a lot of fun at the same time. I had a blast chiming in to tell my thoughts or ideas on whatever dialogue  we were discussing, or making design changes to something more interesting from the request of Travis or Wil. On the other hand, there’s a lot I wanted to do that I either had to defend or change at their behest. They also had to do this! And it was a big learning experience to have to compromise and discuss with these guys. It feels good to have gone through all this, because the game turned out really great, and I’ve never been prouder of something I’ve created.  It was tough at times, but the experience and growth I gained was genuinely worth it.

10/10 would do again.