The Shinsengumi At The Spine Of The World: Hakuoki X Icewind Dale 2

“A demon?”
“He doesn’t look like a demon.”
“Yeah. He doesn’t look like anything anyone would want to sleep with.”
“Can we please save this for when I’m not talking to him?”
“Sorry.”



“Since when are we cooperating with the demons?”
“Since we have common goals.”



“Like killing other demons. Okay, I can get behind that.”





“Can we please stop talking about food...?”
“Do you have any more spider, Tails? I’m starved.”
“...need to sit down...”



“Let’s go. Try not to kill anything on the way.”

I haven’t killed anything but spiders since we got in here. I’ve snuck around with Tails, discovered secret passwords, negotiated with demons, and now we’re trying to bargain safe passage.

I guess I do have a few other skills, eh?

Besides harassing Tails, that is.

I disagree. That was definitely the funniest thing you can do with a goblin, but maybe not if you're Okita. I'm kind of curious, though, is orcs with weird eating habits some kind of fantasy trope? It came up on the Puzzle Quest LP, too...

And that's it, I am looking up what a bugbear is right this damned minute. I've been wondering for seven years and never bothered checking.

EDIT: Ninja'ed by another update. Best kind of ninjaing.

It must be. It popped up in Dragon Quest VIII as well, though those were kind of ogres as well as orcs.

IWD2 is a meatgrinder, to be sure, but I'm charmed by the writing. It's still quite funny in places. I wish I knew if my Diplomacy score played a part in getting all those options with Goblin Scum.

Given the style of it, I wouldn't be surprised. I ran Arcanum a lot of times wondering why a particular diaologue stopped showing up, and it turned out it was contingent on the character's Intelligence stat at a certain point prior to the conversation. The lack of voiced dialogue opened for a lot of branches back then for the smallest variation. You'd even get different dialogue depending on what you were wearing (or weren't, as case might be). It's the thing I miss most in the modern RPG genre. There's never any excitement in the likes of 'I wonder, if I walk into Tarant naked, will all the guards attack me?' these days...

And I love that! I just wish it told me why I was getting those options. I think Torment did -- "(Dex 13) You notice she's trying to pick your pocket..."

Yeah, some of them are downright impossible without a guide. I know part of my problem back then was I didn't fully understand English, but it felt like the games sometimes just expected you to know what to do without much prompt of anything, or worse, you knew where to go, but weren't told how to... pass the bandit camp or whatever.

But the complexity of the reactions really helped making them replayable, too. It was fun to try a well-known conversation with the added twist you were now a woman, or wearing a nicer suit, or were smarter, or dumber, or a different race. Not that the games had no problems, but that aspect of them was insanely neat and sorely missed.

Agreed. The gameplay gets kind of tedious, but the dead cat quest is probably my favorite RPG quest ever. I also love how much thought went into some of the item descriptions.

I have plans for those item descriptions.

Yeah, still me.



“Orcs! Lots of orcs! Lots of large and angry orcs!”
“You know the drill by now. Move.”

We do know the drill. In most of these encounters, we just start cutting those guys until they’re not moving anymore. Hijikata sticks to the outside, using that Scorcher and Burning Hands to catch as many orcs as possible. Nagakura and I just charge in, trusting our wits and reflexes to keep us alive against the hordes. Nagakura saves his wrath for the big guys -- apparently without a steady supply of sake, he can’t keep it flowing all day. Saito follows us up with an eye toward protecting Hijikata should the orcs take offense at being set on fire. Tails moves in to support us, using his small stature and keen eye to taken out knees. Sano’s the wild card -- usually he’s in here fighting with us, using that spear to great effect, but sometimes he’s hanging back calling on his faith in fast women to keep us all alive, strengthen us with his stories of the red light district back in Kyoto, whatever. I don’t actually know how his magic works. I’m just assuming.

This is no different. That shaman uses a spell that Sano uses, Hold Person, which is really good at making Saito freeze in his tracks and look around instead of fighting. It’s starting to be a problem, really -- Saito gets picked apart too easily in these fights. We’ll need to find a way to counter that and keep his sword arm loose.



This at least comes with a nice prize. For some reason, wearing this ring makes me hit people better.

I should get Hakuchi one of these. Seems appropriate, coming from me.

Something occurs to me.

“Hey, guys. We got through that entire goblin camp without killing anyone.”
“I know. Pretty impressive.”
“Yeah, proves we can do this with some stealth. Now, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m a little tired of being stealthy, and all that right there felt damn good.”
“Should we leave the entire goblin camp untouched behind us? They could flank us when we’re fighting the leaders later.”



“We can’t have the goblin hordes descend on the Ten Towns when we’re busy.”



“Honestly, we’re doing them a favor. The next group to fight them might not be so efficient.”



“I mean, if we--”
“That one’s running away!”



“Oh no you don’t!”
“--let any lunatic with a weapon in here, things could have gone very poorly for them.”
“Camp is clear. Good idea, Okita. I feel better. Let’s find those decanter goblins or whatever they were.”

Skills for kills, agent. Skills for kills.

Because that’s what happens at Level 6! Chasing down the fleeing sacks of XP nets us another character level, which will do much to get us through this next spot of killing MORE sacks of XP.

Hijikata continues down the path of the Sorcerer, picking up more points in Concentration and the Combat Casting feat (+4 to Concentration checks made to cast a spell while being injured). Getting hit when casting has a chance to make the spell fizzle and die. It gets used up, and nothing happens. Hijikata is built around killing lots of weak enemies all at once. I’d rather him not get turned into a pincushion.



It also comes with a third-level spell! For a moment, I consider the staple of Dungeons & Dragons, the Fireball spell. Lots of damage to everything in a group. Unfortunately, that group tends to include my own guys, and I’ve got Burning Hands and the Scorcher to deal with AOE stuff. So instead we go with the single-target Flame Arrow spell, letting Hijikata also work on taking down the big boss-type guys we come across.

Saito’s continued path in Fighter gets him more Intimidate skill points (haven’t used that yet, unfortunately) and a new feat.



Now he does an extra 2 points of damage for every hit with a greatsword, meaning I’ve basically made him into Cloud Strife. If Saito cross-dresses at ANY POINT I am turning this game off.

Okita the Slayer-I-mean-Ranger is up next. Staying put in Ranger, and dropping his few skill points into Hide and Move Silently, to let him continue scouting with Tails in emergencies. His feat?



Every time Okita kills a guy, he gets a free shot at any enemies nearby. He tends to wade in and fight people, and I’m thinking I’m going to let him pick off minor enemies around big guys and then turn that into bonus damage on the big guys. That’s the theory, at least. The reality is probably me shouting at the screen “WHY WON’T YOU DRINK ALL THE POTIONS AT ONCE YOU’RE GOING TO DIE!”

That’s been happening, is what I’m saying.



Tails is now a 2nd-level wizard to go along with his four levels of rogue. He drops points into Concentration, same as Hijikata, and his feat goes into Dodge, which gives him a flat +1 to Armor Class, making him harder to hit and more likely to be drafted early for dodgeball.



Harada his Cleric 6, which comes with more skill points into Knowledge Arcana (great for identifying this magical gear we keep finding) and his feat also goes into Combat Casting, because the only thing worse than losing a damage-dealing spell from being hit is losing a healing spell by being hit to cure the damage dealt by the earlier hit.



Nagakura hits Fighter 2, and gets TWO feats to spend, thanks to hitting sixth-level (1) and Fighter 2 (1). With two feats, I look up and down his list, and settle on a fun one -- Great Cleave. It works like Cleave with Okita, only there’s no limit to the times Nagakura can use it in a round -- if he’s surrounded by eight guys, he can kill the first, use it on the second, kill him, get another free shot, use it on the third, kill him, get another free shot... takes some luck, yeah, but it can be AMAZING if it all goes right.

Basically, he can do this:

I fully believe Nagakura can berserk himself right off the map.

Yeah. Still me.



Yeah. Still orcs.

Plenty of orcs.



“What the hell is THAT?”
“An otyugh. They basically eat garbage. This thing is why this place doesn’t smell any worse than it does.”
“So we should kill it?”
“Seems to be how we handle things in Icewind Dale, Nagakura. Sano, you think you can reach that through the bars with your spear?”
“I think so. Why?”
“No chance in hell I’m actually touching it.”
“But we have to kill it.”
“Oh yeah.”
“Hurry up and decide, we lost Tails.”
“He all right?”
“Yes. He’s... distracted.”



“They have a farm!”

He’s right. There’s an idyllic little piece of peaceful farmland, deep behind enemy lines and buried within a goblin warren. Cows eating out of troughs, chickens pecking at the ground, two old dogs looking at us lazily. One’s gotten up and is licking Tails’s hand.

“We have to let them out! They’re just going to be eaten!”
“Tails, they were just going to be eaten anyway. They’re farm animals. It’s what they’re for.”
“But they shouldn’t be eaten at all! They’re imprisoned! We have to help!”
“Just do it. No reason not to.”
“Those orcs might disagree.”



“Their objection has been taken under consideration.”
“Be free, animals!”



“This adventure has had a lot more fuzzy animals than I expected.”
“Still got two instant puppies!”
“Why are you saving them?”
“Well, one of ‘em’s gonna live forever with me back home when we’re done. The second one is for an emergency, like if we’re outnumbered by orcish necromancer fury vampire demons, or if someone needs to give a puppy a belly rub to cheer up.”

“All right, let’s go get ready for the Betrayal of Kruntur.”
“Let’s keep those silent thoughts silent, please.”

Kruntur’s a goblin, just like the rest. He’s red, which isn’t like the rest. That might mean he’s angry and he’s powering up for some huge attack, or I might be overthinking this. I’ve just gotten used to green enemies, I can’t handle a bunch of new weirdness.

Hijikata starts talking to Kruntur, trying to smooth over the death of a family member, and--



Of course.

If we get the bracers back, we can get the message. Because you know what I love right now? Backtracking through this smelly goblin hole. Without fighting anything.



“Fuck if I’m going back for nothing.”



“I can think of a real easy solution, Hijikata...”
“No. We are taking the bracers back to Kruntur and then we are taking his message back to Yquog and then we are leaving.”
“Demons are not known for being trustworthy. We should be on guard for a double-cross.”
“Please let them try. Please.”



“Completely aboveboard. And we won’t even have to fight them at all.”
“Goddamnit!”

I don’t know what I’m happier to see; the sun beating down on us from the open sky above, or furious giants holding spears and shields running for us. Too much time underground hurts my eyes, makes it too bright. Might make it dangerous fighting.

I’ve forgotten more about fighting than these giants will ever know.

They won’t live to see the sun set.



All muscle, no speed. Duck inside swing, reach is a disadvantage. Thighs unarmored, lots of blood. Easy to cut down. Archers on the wings, Horror takes care of them. Hijikata snipes another, Nagakura splits a third.



Patrol groups spots us, shoots our frail guys. Hijikata pushes through anyway, flames leaping from his hands and burning two archers alive. Wave of goblins in. Advantage Nagakura, high ground. High ground is the corpse of a giant. Make your own terrain.



Something explodes in light and sound behind me, and my world goes completely silent, save a faint ringing. I can’t hear. Open my mouth to signal Nagakura, tell him I’m deaf. He doesn’t notice. I’m mute.

Orc shaman.

Some kind of spell.

I can still see and smell.



Fire blooms like a field of flowers, Hijikata baking another set of archers, their silent screams lost in the flickering flames. Tails clutches a hand to his red-soaked side, his dagger flashing in his off hand, parrying the blades of a goblin until Nagakura slams his hammer down into the goblin’s shoulder with enough force to crack bones, from the look on Tails’s face. Saito’s arm is covered in blood, but most if it smells vile and filthy; not his. Not all of it.



Blue and purple lights dance like a festival parade, and Sano drives his spear through the throat of a sorcerer, his screams erupting into my ears as my hearing returns. Rare gasp from Saito, must have had the same thing.

Metal on metal, steel through flesh. More fighting.



Ice troll, every hit needles in my arm, cold piercing through to my heart. Vision wavering, too close this time. Potion burning in my hand, blue at the edge of my fingers. Choke it down, throat burning, pain blasting my vision into oranges and yellows.

Oranges and yellows hang on for a second after the pain subsides. Ice troll’s dead, Flame Arrow dissipating in its back.



Roar and a smell of wet dog. Warg riders charging. Two knives in the side of the rider’s neck, Tails at my side. Pivot as he comes in low, short blade in my offhand, in and out of the heart before he’s past. Dead before he hits the ground.

“You look rough, man.”

Nagakura’s left eye is shot, blood streaking his face, winter cloak ripped to shreds, revealing wounds still bleeding as the frost starts to close them up. The hell do I look like?

“I lost count at--”
“Thirty-seven.”
“Fourteen.”
“Twelve.”
“Sixteen.”
“Forty-one.”
“Damn. Close. I'll catch up yet.”

Fortress itself is left. Can’t be anyone left in there. Can’t be anyone left alive anywhere up here. We’ve killed everything in the entire world by now, I’m sure.

For some reason Tails' facial expression along with his line to the fleeing livestock is still funny to me looking at it the third time. Oh Tails...

...wow. That last update is a hell of a thing, Matt.

Hakuchi resembles that remark.

This thread makes me so goddamn happy every time it updates. Also, non-violent conflict in a video game? Damn, son.

Matt hates it when I read over his shoulder when he's writing. HOWEVER, as I have just discovered, if I put my glasses on I can read it from the across the room. SHHH DON'T TELL HIM.

The plan has some tiny flaw, but I can't put my finger on it...

While this is, as always, a fantastic and fun read, I have to say, as someone familiar with 3.X D&D, seeing Reach described as a disadvantage is the funniest thing posted so far today. ;)

Once you get INSIDE reach, though, guy with reach is in trouble. I don't think that's shown here. Long weapons, like spears, can safely attack through a space held by an ally, which would be awesome if everyone in Infinity Engine games didn't turn into Starcraft Goliaths and Dragoons every time they had to go up a ramp.

If this game did have attacks of opportunity and five-foot steps and spiked chains with reach, well, I wouldn't be playing it. That stuff is crazy.

But that only happens with artificial reach, granted by spears and the like. An ogre can smash you as readily five feet away as he can at ten.

And that's before you get into the hilariously broken stuff and feat combos you can come up with, like the half-ogre monk I once rolled with 3.0 Combat Reflexes and Large and In Charge.

The Infinity Engine being not quite fully realized 3.0 seems to save you a lot of trouble, but some of the stuff it does is just weird.

Perhaps the ogre was not readily trained in elbow drops, and as such was an a disadvantage when a smaller enemy closed in, as seen with any given Big Show vs. Rey Mysterio match.

Not sick of me yet, I hope.



I am real sick of these things, though. Bugbears, orcs, trolls, whatever. Is it possible to get sick of killing? Man, I hope not.

Clean cuts, blood doesn’t land on me. Not feeling real great. Not sure how many potions we have left. Hopefully this place will wrap up quickly. Let’s just--



Some random old orc has wandered in here. This is hardly sporting. Maybe we can just pop a hip or something and toss him in the corner, let someone else take care of him.



“Had him in my sights, how did I miss?!”
“He’s incredibly fast.”
“Think I cracked a rib!”
“Who IS this guy?”



“He’s powering up!”
“Don’t let him drink anything else! We can’t handle it!”
“Can’t... too fast.”
“You’re lucky I got this third eye you son of a bitch! Get back here!”
“Shinpachi, you don’t actually... never mind.”



“Good... heavens... how...”
“Just go! Kill everything! Before any other senior citizens show up! I’ll fight ten thousand demons, just no more of those!”

“Wait.”



“The leaders.”



“Sherincal’s the demon asshole, and Guthma’s the orc asshole. Got it.”
“What do you think they’re after? It sounded like they were fighting each other!”
“We could turn them against each other, divide and conquer. Split the enemy forces into two, weaker groups.”
“We don’t know much about demons. ...Not these demons, at least.”
“Guys, I can handle shogunate and imperial stuff, but I’m not really down with demon and, uh, non-demon tribunals or whatever.”
“We’ll have to tread carefully.”

I’ve had enough.

“What the fuck does this have to do with getting Kondou back?”

No one speaks for a minute. Sano looks at the ground. Tails looks guilty. Nagakura’s got that same angry look on his face that he has had every time this comes up. Saito’s a wall, as always.

Hijikata looks like he’s crossing off the first dozen things he wants to say to me. Takes him a while, but he settles on one.

“Burn the fortress to the ground and kill everyone in it. We can’t waste time here.”

Now that’s more like it.

Guthma’s holding some kind of war council.

He actually looks surprised to see us.



What did you think I’d say?



Guthma’s a strong guy. Big, powerful, broad, built like an ox. Reminds me a lot of Nagakura, actually, with how he fights -- big overhead swings, maximum damage on every thrust. Unfortunately, Nagakura’s got something Guthma doesn’t, and that’s grace. Nagakura fights like a painter, strong strokes and little wasted motion. Guthma’s overcorrecting and overextending himself on every swing. Makes it easy to pick him apart.



This spell thing of Hijikata’s, too, is a big help. This big rainbow ball thing slams into Guthma like a cannonball, knocking him dumb for a few seconds. Tails is an expert at taking those advantages, and every stab he takes on a helpless fighter is a perfect hit.

I’m not fighting him, though. That’s why I can actually think about things. I’ve got another target. Five targets. Some goblin in a dress is harassing Saito from afar. Slide over the table, draw both swords, thin blade in my offhand, perfect for lunges, straight in and out of the lungs. Cut off their air, cut off their words, cut off their spells. Have to find which is the real goblin.



Setting me on fire was the worst decision you ever made, goblin.

Now I’ve got a trail to follow, right back to the real you.



Spin through the flames, look back, Nagakura drops Guthma. Technique beats strength every time.

It’s what Kondou taught us.

Even here, he’s with us.

Not much drama in the rest of the fortress, now that Guthma’s dead.



Despite being a little short for an orc, Tails finds Braston in a cell and springs him. Braston’s a pretty good scout, from what we can tell. He doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know, but he had to kill a lot fewer orcs to find it out.



Yeah, yeah, we’ll escort him back. Hakuchi’ll get mad at me if we just toss him out there with a cloak and a potion and tell him to get home.

Trip back goes smoothly, since we killed every living creature within a day’s travel.

So why do I smell blood?

...fresh blood?

Tails shouts something as I take off running, but I don’t hear him. Hakuchi and Ennelia should be safe. We killed all the orcs. Ennelia can fight. Hakuchi can fight. Hakuchi can hold a sword. Hakuchi can hold the right end of a sword. … no, Hakuchi can fight. She shouldn’t have had to. What if the warg riders showed up, what if we missed a patrol, what if another group came up through the pass, what if... what if...



...what if everything is perfectly fine?

Why is there an elk crammed behind those rocks?



Who put an elk there?



Hakuchi falls into step alongside me in the back of the group. She’s walking a little slow, and keeping one arm close to her side, but she’s got this contented, dreamy look on her face that normally I only see after--

--no, I’d know if she did that. And this is more like the feeling I get after I--

...yeah, there’s a bloody cleaning rag in the corner of the pouch here. I guess we can add Hakuchi to the kill tally now. Heh. She’ll probably pass Sano by the next full moon at this rate.

Funny, I thought I had two Giant Strength potions still in here.

Eh, whatever. Wife’s under my arm, couple hundred fewer orcs in the world, and we’re another step closer to Kondou. I’ll trade a potion for that.

Have I mentioned how much I love hearing about the stats and where you're putting skill points into and stuff like that lately? Because I do, oh I do I do I do dearly cherish knowing these bits so much, you can hardly fathom the depth of my love. I mean, I reeeaaallly will not likely play this game so hearing about the more technical bits are sprinklings on an already beauteous dessert and tis very quite fulfilling to such a horribly sweet seeker that I am.

Also going to need to brush my teeth because OKIIIIIIIIIIITA x HAKUUUUUUUUUCHIIIII pairing and you shipping them and just- Yeah. *coughs*

You ain't seen nothin' yet. ;)

PS: I might not actually know what I'm talking about. We have to play more first.

Matt x Okita all the way.

The above is an accurate representation of me and my flails whenever I read the updates on this thread: words cannot describe how happy it makes me~ :'>

I mean, the feels, man. THE FEELS~ The fighting, everyone's interactions, the awesome writing that both of you do... And don't even get me started on Hakuchi and Okita! *´ω｀* They're just too adorable; I have to fight to contain all my squees! X3

I HAVE FINALLY CAUGHT BACK UP WITH THIS THREAD
ALL OF MY LIKES
ALL OF THEM

I have to say, bumming around Targos flat-out sucks. I wish we didn’t have to keep coming back here to cash in. We’ll lose momentum like this. Judging from Souji’s little outburst earlier, he feels the same way--but let’s not get into how I feel about agreeing with that guy on anything.

Yeah, so what if I’m in a lousy mood? I’m bored. You’d be crabby too, if you had to waste time in this bar instead of getting anything done.

At least this town has a bar.

Hakuchi walks in, and I feel my spine stiffen a little. Tried to chalk it up to my bad mood, but... well my mood’s not helping, but I know that’s not it. Well, whatever... it’s not like she’s going to hang out in this dank place; she’ll just collect Souji and vanish with him for awhile. As usual.

Except she’s heading for me. And she looks nervous.

“Nagakura? Um... remember when you were saying that you didn’t think you’d make a good teacher?”

“Yeah?”

She fiddles with the hilt of her sword, flicking it back and forth in the scabbard. “Would you like to practice?”

Hang on, she can’t mean... “On you?” That gets a nod. “You want me to train you?”

Another nod--this one’s more determined. I think she actually means it.

“I’m not a complete beginner, but it’s been a long time since I’ve done any kind of routine training. I could use a teacher.”

Yeah, but do I want a student? I don’t know for sure what I’m gonna do when we get done up here. I’m not gonna be teaching girls, anyway--I don’t know what kind of help Hakuchi thinks she’ll be giving me. I don’t need her pity, anyway.

Man, that’s not fair of me. I need to quit thinking like that.

Still, if she wants to learn, I don’t think I’m her best option. I nod over at Souji, who’s watching this whole thing with interest. He doesn’t looks surprised, though. “Shouldn’t he do it, then?”

Hakuchi smiles, but shakes her head. “I need someone who’s not going to be biased. Souji’ll be too nice to me.”

I really hope I imagined that smirk.

She keeps talking: “I want to be trained the same way as any other student. I don’t want anyone going easy on me because I’m a girl or anything like that. You’ll be able to teach me the same way you would anyone else.” That old friendly, kinda sheepish smile. “Please?”

I stare into my beer while I think of how to answer. I don’t know... feels like she’s been rubbing me the wrong way since we got here, but I also think that might be a me problem. I’ve been trying to ignore it, but... well, who knows. Maybe if I hang out with her a little more, it’ll get better. To be honest, I have missed this kid just as much as any of the guys. Well, most of them.

“All right, Hakuchi. You got yourself a teacher.” I drain my beer and stand up. “Shall we get started?”

She raises her eyebrows. “Right now?”

“Sure. I didn’t have any other plans besides sit on my ass in here, and your husband makes a lousy drinking buddy.”

That gets a laugh out of both of them, and believe it or not, I can feel my mood improving. And I’m glad for it--I don’t like being annoyed at my friends, especially when I’m not entirely sure why.

So... I’m gonna train a girl. And a demon, I guess--I’ve never been able to really wrap my brain around that. Hakuchi just seems so normal. Nothing weird or super-powered about her. Of course, if she wants me to treat her like any other recruit, it’s probably best that I’ve never thought of her as different.

Souji hops out of his seat and starts to follow us out of the bar. “This I gotta see.”

“Oh no you don’t.” Hakuchi clearly had other ideas. “You’re not going to watch us train just so you can laugh at me.”

That’s a great injured-innocence look from Souji. I should learn that one. “When do I ever laugh at you?”

And an equally great “not buying it” look from her. “Really?”

“Ok, fine, but how often do you laugh at me?”

“...All right, fair enough. Come on.”

Those two have a bond that don’t make no sense.

Asksldkblarglsdkflvmsl; I can't even. /crying ;~;

It's just awesome, and cute, and-and— /flails
I can't.


Ilu guys; seriously, ilu. ;ω;

Rapunzel, your Shouji/Hakuchi relationship is friggen adorable.

(Is it that healthy/sane a relationship in the VN?)

I don't know that I'd say it is, but I would say that it's a natural extension of the relationship as it's shown in the VN - where the two characters could be reasonably expected to end up, given time together that's not occupied by fits of bloodlust and constant looming threats of impending horrible death.

It's a bit more messed-up in the VN, because Okita is a messed-up guy, but Hakuchi is a positive and healing influence on him.

What Joie said. :) I think it's as sane a relationship as one could expect in the circumstances, and it continues to improve as time passes. Picking up a peaceful year later as we have, I think Souji would naturally be a calmer person. Maturing does that to you. :) It's also fun to think that Hakuchi has picked up some flirtatiousness from him.

This is brilliant! I read your other lps and this caught my eye. I really like this game. Never thought to role play something like this. Might be a fun thing to do.