#baby bump choices

[princepotatosack]

What If Choices' Race-customizable LIs Had Surnames Reflective Of Their Ethnicity?: An Experiment Just For FUn (Part 1/3)

As we're probably all aware, Choices has been going ham on their formula of "one LI whose appearance is choosable" for the past few years (ever since they started drawing criticism for narratively favoring white male LIs, i.e., when the Ramsey bubble finally burst; draw your own conclusions), and these LIs almost always have canon names or default names associated with white Anglo Americans. This is one of several reasons these LIs are described by players as "white-coded", or written as if they are white men with any changes reduced to a one-line afterthought, which kind of nullifies the point of romancing an LI of color.

Getaway Girls impressed me with branching that gave two of the six Jordan appearance options (the ones described in the asset files as "Indian") the surname Paudwal, as opposed to the other options that had the surname Parker. And then they NEVER DID IT AGAIN (ingnoring Kiss of Death cause it was a weird case I don't know how to categorize)!!

So here's me assigning surnames to race-custom LIs of other books because it's fun for me:

DISCLAIMER: The Choices single LI formula has for the most part consisted of a white LI, a Black LI, and one or occasionally two other option(s) of varying races. Framing it as white, Black, and "wildcard" raises a lot of questions about racial dynamics and percieved binaries in the United States which are NOT the point of this post but I didn't want to not address it. Also have to address that I will not be assigning new surnames to the Black LI options since most of them are American and a lot of Black Americans have Anglo surnames due to the community's history with enslavement and enslavers, and Choices has simply not given us enough lore to determine if each of the custom race LI Black options are African (or another background) and which languages are a part of their heritages. Would really appreciate if they started writing more African LIs though. Also, similar reasoning applies to face options described as "Native American" in the files re: American colonization.

ALPHA

Channing Luna

These face options are described in the files as "Hispanic". Luna was a Spanish-language surname sound match for Lowe, and plus it also means "moon"!! Yippee werewolf theme!!!!!

Channing Liu

These face options are described in the files as "Asian". The Chinese surname Liu was just the closest sound match to "Lowe" tbh.

BABY BUMP

Clint Kao

This face option is described in the asset files as "Asian". He reminds me a little of the Taiwanese actor Godfrey Gao (rip) so in my head he's Taiwanese like meeee!!! Which sucks cause I didn't like this LI that much lmao. Anyway Kao is the Taiwanese spelling of the surname that is Anglicized as Gao in Chinese Pinyin so I gave it to him cause he reminds me of Godfrey Gao (rip). Not a spelling match but then again there aren't any Chinese surnames that start with the same letter and sound as Covington (e.g., Chang and Cai both start with the letter C but start with the sounds "ch" and "ts" respectively.).

DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS

Charles Quiñones / Charlotte Quiñones

These face options are described in the asset files as "Hispanic". Went with sound matches since there aren't many (any?) Spanish-language surnames that start with K like King.

Charles Kim / Charlotte Kim

These face options are described in the asset files as "Asian". I thought Kim was a pretty good sound and spelling match for King. But it did make me realize that although Kim is the most common surname in Korea by a lot, a Choices Wiki search revealed to me that there's only one character in the entire Choicesverse with that surname and it's the FBI guy from Veil of Secrets?

DISTANT SHORES

Edward Mao

This face option is described in the asset files as "Asian". I originally chose the Japanese surname Morishima because it was an initial spelling match, multisyllabic, and had the ending "ma/mer" sound, but I wanted to honor the great Ming Dynasty Chinese tradition of piracy and its far-reaching legacy. So I went with the Chinese Mao.

Also I know he's canonically from like England which would explain why he's an 18th-century Asian man with an English first name but just for fun if he was from China I think he would be called Mao Aiwei. Or Morishima Eiji if he was from Japan.

Edward Montoya

This face option is described in the asset files as "Hispanic". Montoya was a relatively close Spanish-language sound match.

And if he had a Spanish first name too he would be Eduardo Montoya ovb.

THE DUCHESS AFFAIR

Nathaniel Pandit / Natalie Pandit

These face options are described in the asset files as "Indian". Not a lot of sound matches for Pippin but the Sanskrit surname Pandit has the intial "P" and the ending "i" sound, plus it means "scholar" and fun fact, this word is also the origin of the English term "pundit".

Also since in my research I learned that the vast majority of Indian immigrants to England in this time period adopted English language aliases for use in English society, I came up with some potential real names for these face options: Nathuram for Nathaniel and Nalini for Natalie.

FIRST COMES LOVE

Blake Mai

These face options are described in the asset files as "Asian". I decided on Mai since it could be Vietnamese or broadly Sinophone.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Blaine Juárez

These face options are described in the asset files as "Hispanic". Not any Spanish-language surnames that start with the letters "Ha" as far as I know so I went with a sound match.

GUARDED

Ash Harada

These face options are described in the asset files as "Asian". The Japanese surname Harada is a sound and spelling match and also one of the most common surnames in Japan! EASAYY!!! Though headcanoning them as Japanese brings the total number of Choicesverse Japanese-Americans Named Ash to three. Laugh out loud.......

Part 2

Part 3

[marvelnaturalock]

Yes. Just yes. Chefs kiss. There is no way this scene can be improved.

Val is SUCH a tsundere. Like literally. You can’t change my mind. JUST LOOK AT HER.

[liaromancewriter]

Baby Bump 2 has some of the prettiest maternity outfits in Choices.

[peonyblossom]

y'all i just got the cutest Choices sticker on Etsy !! it's from DutDesigns shop and i love it so much !!!

I'd been wanting it for a bit, and I finally had to get a new computer so it's a blank slate for new stickers hehe (and yes I got a sparkly pink case). It also came with a free little PB sticker (I only ordered the romance books sticker, but there's a couple others too)!! It's so cute I'm so obsessed

[chris-powell]

Why on earth are my babies wearing onesies at my WEDDING. They could’ve at least given me plain outfits for them as the free option so the flower girl and ring bearer aren’t in their pajamas good god 😭

[simpfornegan]

i am a child of divorce.

[apostatefeverdream]

not to solavellan on main but as much as i love a solasmance lavellan that pines and mourns and grieves and yearns and all that deliciously angsty jazz straight away after trespasser, there’s something so excellent about a lavellan that tries to move on as a vehicle for said angst.

like, give me a lavellan that chalks it all up to experience. so what if he disappeared? so what if he left them? they saved the literal fucking world, there has to be some joy in that and they’re determined to find it! give me a lavellan who drinks and dances with their people, who spends time in val royeaux and kirkwall and anywhere else their loved ones might be in the years before trespasser. who politicks, and goes to galas and balls and thoroughly throws themselves into the inquisition. two years of very hard work to process what happened to them, to build up the inquisition, and to move on from him. two years to prepare for the exalted council everyone knows is happening at some point. a lavellan who makes bald jokes and maybe has a few one-night stands! a lavellan who doesn’t dodge the Solas Question, who might not be the happiest, sure, but the breach is closed and life’s getting easier day by day! and then trespasser happens and they hear ‘solas, agent of fen’harel’ and they’re mad, sure, but not as murderous as they could be. a lavellan who’s motivated more by closure’s sake than anything else. healed enough to try and save solas from the viddasala! two years of work! two years of moving on!

and then give me a lavellan that stumbles out of that eluvian, clutching at where their arm used to be, with all that hard work undone in a matter of minutes. who storms into the exalted council and makes a grand, sweeping, and very angry statement. who wakes from their first dream of solas in years and weeps and weeps and weeps. a rush of all the old feelings and the new. the gut punch of seeing solas again – realising they’re still in love with him, the kiss, the i will never forget you – and the betrayal and the lies and the ancient fucking god tearing down the veil thing. a poor sweet lavellan who thought the feelings were gone, but they were just buried, dormant, sleeping. a lavellan who didn’t move on! a lavellan who simply forgot! (and then deals with that for ten godforsaken years)

[mejomonster]

something i needed to hear when i was younger, and depending on the pockets of the internet and the kinds of real life people you're around some people probably still need to hear it. ultimately, using a label is for you. you don't have to know for sure if you're a lesbian, or bisexual, or pansexual, or asexual, or something else. you're allowed to just say you're whatever label is helpful for you at the time to explain to people so they're understanding, or help yourself find community with people who can connect with you about shared experiences. some people use queer because it's an umbrella term and they don't need to explain the specific nuances of which labels apply to them, and they can use the broad queer label to just find other people with roughly similar experiences. some people use gay as an umbrella term for similar reasons. some people use ace and asexual as umbrella terms because they're demisexual or demiromantic and trying to find anyone who's going to somewhat relate to what they're going through.

maybe you have NO IDEA what label fits you! you're still figuring yourself out. you're allowed to try to connect to various communities to see where you relate, what shared experience or aid you find. (and this applies broader too: labels like your favorite fashion, the music you like, the hobbies you have, sometimes you like something no one in 100 miles specifically made a group for but your hobby might fall under a bigger umbrella you CAN relate to - like liking X specific board game might find ppl who relate at a bigger tabletop game convention, or a person into costumes could go to a Anime/Video Game Convention and relate at least a bit with cosplayers). you're allowed to CHANGE. First, just to change as you grow. You will be a different person over time in some ways, that's just how life works. You're allowed to change the way you label yourself. Second, you're allowed to not be sure the labels you use for yourself fits, to try out ones until you see which fits (as in - which labels help you connect to people who understand what you feel/like/are), and allowed to change labels if they stop fitting.

and finally: you are allowed to NOT tell people your label. If you label yourself, it is to make your own life easier - to help others like you find you, to help find people like you, to build community. strangers who may hurt you have NO right to your label. you don't have to tell them shit. you are allowed to lie. You're allowed to not tell your parent your sexuality, if you're afraid they'll throw you out of the house or harm you. You're allowed to not tell your work your sexuality. You're allowed to not tell strangers, in person or online, whenever you feel you do not want to share how you identify. (And again this can apply to more than sexuality: if you're goth and in a school with uniforms scared people will bully you if you bring up you're goth, you're allowed to not tell them - although sometimes teenagers find joy in declaring who they are including around people who would not respect it, so if you want to declare proudly what you like or who you are then go for it. You're allowed to not mention to your boss that you're trying for a kid, maybe you're worried they'd discriminate if they knew that, or pass you over for promotion, or would treat you different, or you just don't want to discuss your personal life at work. Maybe you're into kink and you just don't want to mention that to work friends, because you dislike discussing sex related things with work friends, and maybe you only want to tell them if they become a friend that goes to bars with you. Maybe you love drawing furry art, or getting furry art commissioned, and you love discussing it at conventions where you can meet other furries and tell artists how talented they are and buy some of their art, but you don't want to mention that to grandma and explain what furry is. You're ALLOWED to decide if and when you share a label you relate with. You are still a good person if you refuse to come out to your school as gay, or if you don't mention online that you're trans, or if you don't want to discuss trying for kids at work. My point is just: labels are for YOU to feel safer, to find connection with others who may relate to the label. They aren't necessarily things you have to be honest about, and perfectly sure about, to be moral. You're allowed to lie and omit to protect your safety. You're allowed to change your mind, or be unsure which label fits best.

[korgbelmont]

Edit of Clint Covington as Black Lightning

[cadybear420]

Cadybear's Reviews- Baby Bump

Welcome to the twenty-first official Cadybear's Reviews! Today I'll be talking about Baby Bump, which I have ranked on the "Gold Tier" at 8 stars out of a possible 10.

WHY DO PEOPLE HATE THIS SERIES!? WHY!? It’s FINE! 

Okay, I can maybe see why people may not like it because, let’s be real, accidental pregnancy is a very overdone trope. And apparently there were a lot of parts that were originally problematic when the story was released and had to be re-written, but I wasn’t around for that and I know next to nothing about the original lines, so I can’t say much about them. But even now, how does it get ranked as being among the worst so often? Even if you think it’s bad, it’s really not that bad. 

Like… I found it decent? I don’t think it’s nearly as bad as a lot of people have said it is. And I’m saying this as a GNC cis woman who experiences major genital dysphoria and absolutely REVILES the idea of becoming pregnant. Like, I would rather die than ever experience being pregnant. And yet I still quite enjoyed this story. 

I guess it kind of helps that the book is very clearly a pregnancy book from the beginning, so I kind of went in knowing what to expect and thus not self-inserting as the MC at all. Unlike something like TRH, which is a continuation that suddenly introduces a “MC gets pregnant” plot to a non-pregnancy series… but that’s a subject for a different day. 

I’ll be honest though, this story has a pretty awful start. In the flashback in B1 Ch1 where MC meets Mr. Covington, they try waaaayyyyy too hard to make the player swoon at the idea of having his babies. Like, did the guy they wanted to be MC’s baby daddy HAVE to be a celebrity company salesman, who is also the keynote speaker at MC’s graduation? 

And don’t even get me started on the Clint fangirls, who feel like they were written by someone who’s only ever been surrounded by the “Facebook Mom” stereotype and has never met (and probably never will meet) a real horny woman in their entire life. 

Literally, the scene is just all like “OMG LOOK!!! BIG FAMOUS CELEBRITY SALESMAN!!! OMG HE HAS *GASP* ABS!!! OH WOW, A MALE LI IN CHOICES WITH ABS AND BIG MUSCLES! THAT’S SO UNIQUE AND SPECIAL AND TOTALLY NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE!!! OMG ALL THE OTHER WOMEN ARE CHANTING OVER HIS ABS AND WANT TO HAVE HIS BABIES TOO!!! DON’T *YOU* WANT TO HAVE HIS BABIES TOO!?!?!?! AREN’T YOU SOOOOOO LUCKY THAT YOU’RE GOING TO BE HAVING HIS BABIES?!?!?!?!?!?!?”. Like, how much intelligence do you think your wlm audience has PB? Really trying to pander to the “Facebook Karen Mom” stereotype here, huh? 

With that in mind, I guess I can understand why people may have gotten a bad impression of the book at first, because the story for how MC got pregnant in the first place (and her conflict with Cassandra in Book 1) feels straight out of one of those weird Instagram and Facebook ads. 

But besides that, it was an okay series! I found it mostly cute and wholesome. Literally everything else was fine! There were even a few moments in Book 2 that made me cry, like when MC can record a sweet message for the babies with a plush bunny she can get from the Baby Baskets. 

Besides maybe Book 1 Dr. Mariana Castillo who is just way too unserious (at least she gets better in Book 2), I honestly really liked the main cast. Even though MC is technically an outsider to the town, she still gets to be very driven and gets shit done rather than being the typical doe-eyed newbie who needs to be shown the ropes. Clint is a sweetheart and does get to be more than just “har dee har muscular celebrity salesman who knocks you up aren’t you soooo lucky” that they wanted him to be in the first chapter. Mayor Dixon is a nice mix of goofy and tsundere, and the female version Myra contributed to my bi awakening. Luisa is just a queen all around. MC’s sister… initially she could sometimes be a bit of a stereotypical “OMG girly girl talk best friend to talk exclusively about LI and diamond outfits” but she does become more than that too, and I really like her subplot with Bao. Speaking of, Bao is just the most absolute precious ever (and shame on PB for making him the sister’s LI and not one for MC /jk). 

The antagonist characters were… kind of a mixed bag, I will admit. They were memorable, but also kind of stupid. Like I said before, Cassandra’s storyline in Book 1 just felt petty and cheap, plus I’m tired of straw loser villain female antagonists who exist solely to compete with the MC over the LI. It never got too overbearing, but it was still stupid. Book 2 Cassandra is great though. 

Then there’s Craig, who wants to destroy everything MC and friends accomplish and take over Gracetown because… potatoes. I guess he’s alright as he is actually a threat in Book 2, but the townspeople can be pretty damn meek to him which is a little weird. But he was still a strong antagonist in that book. Book 1 Craig feels a lot more like he just exists to be an annoyance for the sake of being an annoyance, though. 

Jebediah is a lot more compelling as an antagonist character, and I did expect the Covington family conflict to be incredibly boring but it turned out otherwise. He’s a jerk at first, but it’s nice to see how he does genuinely try to change throughout the storyline of Book 2. 

Also, props to this for being one of only three Choices series ever (the others being OG HSS and ILITW) where the collectible system has some items that aren’t diamond-walled. The baby blanket collectibles are really cute, and it’s really refreshing to have a collectible system that isn’t “the first one is free and then the rest you have to pay for”. Like HSS, there are even some pieces that are determinant on your success in certain events. Why can’t more series do their collectibles like this??? (Oh right, because it requires actual effort). 

Would I say it’s a good or accurate portrayal of pregnancy? IDK, I’m not an expert. But it’s fine if you just want a lighthearted pregnancy story to chill out to. 

[playchoicesconfessions]

Sent by anonymous

‘I'm okay with GOC LIs but I would prefer if PB did them like how they did Avery and Raleigh from PT as well as Dixon from BaBu and Jualia(n) from SB where the race is canonically set. A book with multiple LIs like that is something I would be ok with.’

POST/CONFESSIONS DO NOT REFLECT THE MOD’S PERSONAL OPINIONS!

[princepotatosack]

here is my character sheet for my baby bump mc!!

notes below :-)

can't explain it but this mc gives me EXTREMELY target supermarket vibes. don't ask

female mayor dixon ough.hhh........ a shame that sprite was wasted on whatever the hell was going on in this book

yeah i don't paritcularly like the name myra for a hot young girlboss it just doesnt fit. and the name heather is very flannel shirt with jeans vibes to me

did i give her practically nonexistent dad the name "leslie" after leslie cheung, the only other chinese man named leslie that i am aware of?? i dont remember. i just make decisions and then delete all evidence of the process of thinking from my brain. girls its bad in here im gonna be real with you.

also no reasoning recovered for the names of the babies. i guess i just like alliteration. Amie and Anna are allerative also :-) so i guess theres precedent in this family

also fuck clint. actually i take that back he didnt really have any discernable personality traits for me to either like or dislike he doesnt deserve this im sorry clint.

[marvelnaturalock]

It’s been like 5 minutes since VALAX baby and I got chained together and sweetheart is already whipped.

[liaromancewriter]

I haven’t read Baby Bump for so long. Time for Alana Cassidy to romance my Sweet Southern Gentleman 😍

Yep. A night that neither of them will forget. 🤭

[synergysilhouette]

29 Choices series I could've done without

Because Tumblr only allows 30 pictures. If you have any questions about my choices, feel free to ask! I was gonna put down explanations for each one, but it was a lot of work. It pretty much boils down to being boring plot and genderlocked, frustrating for another reason (ie set decisions/personality regardless of choices) or just boring plot in general. Going in alphabetical order.

[choices-binglebonkus]

Idk what PB’s plans are for The Billionaire’s Baby but I swear to fucking god if we get a repeat of BaBu and I have to read the words “mustard mess” one more goddamn fucking time I will Cask of Amontillado myself and never come out again