Visual Novel / Melody

Shawty is a Melody in my head.

Melody is an episodic adult visual novel. It was developed by Mr. Dots Games, along with a team.

The story starts with the main character (MC for short) getting kicked out of his house by his fiancée, Bethany. While crashing at the house of his friend, Tim, he has a chance meeting with a woman, Amy. After chatting with MC, Amy wants to hire him to tutor her 19-year-old niece, Melody, in music. MC isn’t initially keen on her offer, but he accepts after he learns that Bethany plans to seize all their shared assets with the help of a lawyer.

MC moves into an apartment that Amy sets up for him, and starts tutoring Melody. He quickly learns that his student’s previous life experiences have left her with deep emotional scars that continue to plague her personal life, and that he’ll have to teach her about much more than music. He rises to the occasion, becoming her trusted friend and confidant.

However, MC does teach Melody a great deal about music as well, from learning the basics of playing a variety of instruments, to selecting the ones she likes to play, to overcoming her fear of performing in public. This last one proves most important: Hank Sharp, a local record executive, watches one of her early performances, and is impressed enough that he soon offers her a record deal at his label.

But as Melody’s career starts to take off, she and MC develop feelings for each other, and the two of them need to reconcile their romantic relationship with their teacher/student, and later professional, one.

Not that Melody is the only woman that MC can pursue now that he’s single again: He can also date Amy, who is a classy lady looking for a good man, Isabella, his old high school crush whom he’s just run into again, his shy next-door neighbor Becca, Melody’s flirtatious and fun-loving best friend Sophia, and Xianne, a waitress and a schoolmate of Melody’s and Sophia’s who befriends MC and Melody.

However, whichever one (or more) he chooses, MC must deal with some lingering loose ends that eventually show themselves. Bethany eventually wants MC back, and Steve, Melody’s ex-boyfriend, wants revenge on her for humiliating him. Plus, things could blow up in MC’s face if he doesn’t tread carefully with his romantic decisions, especially if he dates multiple women at once. Can MC turn Melody into the next big music superstar while building a fulfilling life for himself?

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This game provides examples of:

#-A

• #1 Dime: Melody’s acoustic guitar, given to her by her late mother. At the start of the story, it is in the possession of her ex-boyfriend, Steve, who refuses to return it. Later, Steve works with Bethany to steal the guitar when Melody is giving a concert. If MC mishandles the situation, and Steve destroys the instrument, it will be a bad ending. However, if he succeeds in diffusing the situation, he will use it to gain greater control over Melody’s career.
• '60s Hair: Faithfully replicated by Melody and Sophia when they go to a music-themed party dressed as hippies.
• Accidental Hand-Hold: MC and Melody in the movie theater. If you choose the option to reach for the popcorn, this is the result.
• Accidental Pervert:
  • Several times, with MC seeing Melody’s naughty bits when she’s changing, or when her towel slips.
  • MC finds himself up against Becca’s ass (on her romantic path only) after running into her at the library and asking her to get a book for him.
• The Ace: MC can play a wide variety of musical instruments, he’s socially adept, and he’s good with the ladies.
• Act of True Love: MC offers to resign as Melody’s manager for the sake of saving Melody’s prize guitar from destruction. If the player is on Melody's romantic path, it is taken as such a selfless act that it can even evince remorse from Bethany.
• Actually a Good Idea: When Arnold confides his struggles in trying to parent Melody and dealing with the death of his wife to Lucy (Xianne), Xianne tells him to simply be more open with her about what he’s feeling. Arnold tries it, and ends up repairing his relationship with Melody.
• Addressing the Player: In MC’s daydream, when the bartender asks his name and sets the stage for the start of the game.
• Age-Gap Romance: MC with most of the girls. Becca is in her early twenties, Melody and Sophia are both 19, and Xianne is about 18 or 19. MC, meanwhile, is in his mid- to late thirties. Sophia actually discusses this with Melody, saying that older men are better because of their greater life experience.
• Ahem: MC, to get Melody to introduce Sophia to him.
• The Alleged Expert: Invoked by Melody when MC starts tutoring him - at least, until he starts mentioning the big-name musicians he's played with.
• All Women Are Lustful: Every female character who gets more than a couple of scenes is shown to have a strong sex drive.
• Ambiguously Brown: Isabella’s name and appearance suggest Hispanic heritage, but her brother, Tim, looks strictly Caucasian.
• AM/FM Characterization: Melody states at one point that she likes older music, as well as listening to music on vinyl records. And she is attracted to MC, an older man.
• And Your Reward Is Parenthood: Inverted with the Family Ending. An accidental pregnancy due to careless choices all but ends Melody’s music career, destroying the chances of the Perfect Ending, even if you do everything else right.
• Anxiety Dreams: MC’s dream of an aroused Isabella/Becca/Melody/Amy (the player can choose which), enters this territory when the chosen girl leads MC into the shower, where he finds Bethany. Sure enough, Bethany eventually tracks him down at his new residence.
• Apologizes a Lot: Becca has a tendency to apologize out of remorse whenever she says anything too blunt.
• The Apprentice: Melody. MC teaches her much more about music than how to play instruments; in fact, the later lessons are about learning how to play in public than anything else.
• Art Evolution: The characters appear more realistic in the later chapters than in the earlier ones, especially Amy and Sophia.
• Artistic License – Education:
  • It is implied that Melody and Sophia have only one professor who teaches all of their music classes for the entire time they are at college. In reality, they would have many classes taught by several different professors.
  • In reality, the girls wouldn’t just be able to sign up for a dorm at the beginning of the school year. The dorms are typically booked well in advance.
• Artists Are Attractive: During his time touring, fan girls have often thrown themselves at MC. Nothing much seems to have changed, as MC seems to attract any woman who crosses his path, many of whom are much younger than himself.
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Xianne. Her name is Filipino, but she’s clearly supposed to be Japanese.
• Asshole Victim: On Melody’s romantic path, Steve, after mistreating Melody during and after their relationship, gets tied to a lamppost in his underwear with a message written across his chest in lipstick.
• At the Opera Tonight: Well, a rock opera counts. MC takes Melody to one of these, and the two have some quality bonding time.
• Audience Participation Song: In-universe. When the power gets cuts while Melody is performing at a concert, Melody uses one of these to buy time before the power is restored.

B

• Bad Date: MC helping Becca paint her room can become this. Becca reveals that she’s ready for sex, but wants to know if MC has a condom. He doesn’t, but if he insists that it’s fine anyway, it leads to Becca getting so offended that she doesn’t want to see MC again.
• Bastard Angst: Averted with Melody. Her parents were never married, and she never knew her father, but she’s not troubled in the least by this (unlike other things in her past).
• Bathtub Scene: Melody gets a bathtub scene. She’s masturbating while thinking about MC.
• Beautiful All Along: Becca wears dowdy, conservative clothes when she is introduced, and she puts herself in the “not pretty” category. However, when she is wearing an evening gown, or even a t-shirt and jeans, she clearly looks quite nice.
• Beautiful Dreamer: When Melody is staying at MC’s place because Arnold has kicked her out, Melody falls asleep on the couch at the end of the night. MC admires her for a little bit before tucking her in... and going to bed himself.
• Beautiful Singing Voice: MC’s reaction to hearing Melody song for the first time. Justified in that Melody has loved music all her life.
• Bespectacled Cutie: Becca.
• Beta Couple: Sophia and Xianne.
• Big Brother Instinct: Tim was very protective of Isabella in high school, especially whenever a boy would hit on her.
• The Big Damn Kiss: The kiss at the music-themed party. By this time, MC and Melody are finally acknowledging their feelings for one another, and MC has just chased Steve away when he’d been harassing Melody. In the moment that comes up for the kiss, the game itself lampshades what’s about to happen:

Text box: Kiss her, you fool!!!

• Bilingual Bonus: Possibly unintentional. MC and Melody play “Fussball,” a table game named after a real-world one based on soccer. “Fussball” means “soccer” in German.
• Bilingual Dialogue: At the massage parlor, MC greets the owner in Japanese.
• Birds of a Feather: MC and Melody are both musicians, as is Sophia.
• Birthday Episode: Amy’s birthday dinner. The dinner and the buildup to it hold the keys to Amy’s romantic path.
• Birthday Party Goes Wrong: Can be downplayed at Amy’s birthday dinner. If Arnold is disinvited (due to MC telling Amy that Arnold knowingly left a sick Melody home alone), Melody’s presence will prevent Amy from getting the goodnight kiss she wants from MC. Also, MC choosing to kiss Amy on the cheek instead of the lips will get the same result.
• Bitch Alert: Bethany is introduced while screaming at MC for no apparent reason, and then kicking him out of the house.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Good and Family Endings. MC and Melody are in a happy relationship, but Melody has missed her chance to become a big music star.
• Bland-Name Product: Arnold orders a Heinakan at Amy’s birthday dinner.
  • Also, there’s the option of MC and Melody giving Amy a Koko Shanel perfume for her birthday.
  • MC and Melody play Fussball at Melody’s favorite hangout from her childhood.
• Blindfolded Trip: MC does this to Melody a couple of times to surprise her.
• Blind Without 'Em: Averted with Becca. Since she’s nearsighted, she doesn’t usually wear glasses at home.
• Book Ends: In the Good and Family Endings, MC is actually about to open for the same band that he’d fantasized about opening for at the beginning of the story. This time, instead of having a spiteful fiancée snap him back to reality, he is there in real life, calling home to the love of his life.
• Boyfriend Bluff: On their first outing together, while MC is getting drinks, Melody gets hit on by a boy she doesn’t like. There’s an option to have MC intimidate him into leaving, not outright saying that he’s Melody’s boyfriend, but the boy assumes he is.
• Bribing Your Way to Victory: Paying $10 rather than $5 per month on Patreon for the game gets you access to the walkthrough, which takes you through all the right decisions, and the endings which result from them.
• Broken Bird: Deconstructed with Melody. With the death of her mother. the subsequent withdrawal of her stepfather, and a bad relationship with her college boyfriend, Melody developed a cold, hard exterior, and insisted that she could take care of herself. It takes intervention from both Amy and MC to bring a healthy perspective back to her life.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: MC and Becca.
• The Bus Came Back: Isabella in the High School Sweetheart Ending. In this scenario, MC is with Isabella, who hasn’t been in the story since Week 5.
• But I Read a Book About It: Averted with MC. Every musical instrument he teaches Melody how to play (not just the “cool” ones that get played in rock bands), he has at least some experience playing himself.
• But Not Too Evil: On Melody’s romantic path, Steve and Bethany, the vengeful exes who plot to destroy Melody and MC, get redemption scenes late in the story.
• But Thou Must!: Amy inviting MC into her hotel room for the second time. The choices are “Yes,” “Yes,” and “Yes.”

C

• Cake Toppers: At MC’s and Melody’s wedding in the Perfect Ending.
• Calling Out for Not Calling: Bethany, when she tracks down MC at his new home. Downplayed, as she’s not making a fuss, but trying the persuade MC to come back to her.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Averted. Before moving out of Arnold’s house, Melody reconciles with her stepfather, and he offers to help her with whatever she needs.
• Calling Your Bathroom Breaks: Used many times as, for all things, a plot device. Many plot points happen when a major character is either in the bathroom or on the way to the bathroom.
• Calling Your Orgasms: Used by just about every character when they’re about to climax.
• Camp Straight: Steve dresses flamboyantly, but he’s so straight, he would check out other girls on dates with Melody when they were together. Plus, he knows how to mess up electrical work in an almost professional way.
• Canon Foreigner: Koko, the famous singer from Dating My Daughter, reappears here as a rising star. The Perfect Ending stems from Melody being able to tour with Koko.
  • Georgina, also from Dating My Daughter, appears as a fashion show model in the Cool Aunt Ending.
• Can't Believe I Said That: MC after complimenting Melody’s name.
• Caper Rationalization: Melody breaks into Steve’s dorm room and messes up all his social media accounts, and MC distracts Steve long enough for her to escape. Subverted, as Melody is stealing back her own guitar, not taking something that doesn’t belong to her.
• Captain Obvious: MC when he makes his expository summaries of every single chapter.
• Cell Phones Are Useless: Several times, Becca visits MC at his home just to ask him something rather than call or text him.
  • Also, when Becca actually does call MC (to warn him that Bethany is looking for him), his cell phone is dead.
• Character Narrator: MC.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Xianne. She’s introduced as a waitress in a karaoke bar, and reappears working at a jazz club and a massage parlor after losing her job there (thanks to some ill-considered choices by Melody). She eventually gets into a relationship with Sophia.
• Chewbacca Defense: MC, when he’s distracting Steve so Melody can slip out of his dorm room window. He makes up a story that his daughter must be in Steve’s room, and when Steve says he must have the wrong room, MC yelled for his “daughter.” This one gets bonus points for MC describing his “daughter” as a particularly crass college boy would describe a girl.
• Chick Lit: Used in-universe. Becca is a big fan of romance novels.
• Chick Magnet: MC, obviously.
  • Also discussed with Tim. MC says that when the two of them were in school, Tim would actually be the one who got more attention from girls.
• Childhood Friend Romance: MC and Isabella. They liked each other since high school, but never dated due to their respect for Tim. Now that they’re both single again, there’s a path to them finally getting together in the High School Sweetheart Ending.
• Chilly Reception: Melody doesn’t want a new tutor when MC shows up to tutor her, and MC has to earn her respect. Justified, as Melody didn’t click with any of her previous tutors.
• Choice-and-Consequence System: With dating the girls other than Melody. Also, with avoiding the four bad endings worked into the game.
• Classical Music Is Cool: Played surprisingly straight. MC is shown playing a classical cello piece for Melody after teaching her how to play.
• Class Trip: The MC’s outings with Melody during her lessons are technically this.
• Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: Mostly played straight. Becca breaks up with MC if he’s seeing Melody and/or Amy by a certain point in the game, MC can’t be seeing both Melody and Amy before a point around the same time without falling into a bad ending, and Sophia and Xianne never do anything more than fool around with MC (and maybe Melody too). The aversion is Isabella, who has the last priority of all the romantic interests who get their own endings. Even if MC technically stays in a relationship with her, she’s pushed to the side with no explanation.
  • Continued in another visual novel by the same creator, Sunshine Love which features Sophia and Xianne getting married to each other a few years down the line.
• Clean, Pretty Childbirth: On the path to the Family Ending, Melody gives birth to a clean-looking baby.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Bethany turns out to be this in the end. She tracks him down at his new home, and resorts to threatening to sabotage Melody’s career in order to coerce MC to come back to her.
• Closed Door Rapport: Melody’s conversation with Arnold when she tells him that she’s sick. She’s really not feeling well, but Arnold decides to put going to work on time ahead of getting Melody some medicine to ease her pain.
• Closer to Earth: Xianne is this to Arnold, giving him advice on how to improve his relationship with Melody. It works like a charm.
• Closest Thing We Got: Amy to MC on asking him to tutor Melody. He isn’t initially keen on tutoring a music student, but after he takes the job, he teaches Melody a great deal, not just about music, but about life in general.
  • Inverted later on when Melody is giving her first official concert in a bar. When Hank Sharp wants to see Melody’s manager, MC steps forward as says that he is, even though he has no experience managing a musical act.
  • Also inverted when Steve and Bethany plan their theft of Melody’s guitar. Steve volunteers to cut the power to Melody’s instruments and sound equipment despite not being an electrician.
• Closet Key: Sophia gave Melody her first sexual experience, and the two of them can have more fun together during the game, which can lead to eventual threesomes with MC. This can also be subverted if the player has Melody reject Sophia’s advances.
• Clothing Reflects Personality: Most of MC’s potential love interests:
  • Deconstructed with Melody. She states that she likes casual clothing, and that she dislikes wearing dresses or anything else that smacks of formality. Later on, she warms up to the idea of dressing up for certain occasions. This change tracks her character development from a rebellious and irresponsible teenager to a mature professional musician.
  • Isabella frequently wears her work uniform, underscoring her structuring of her life around her job.
  • Becca is wearing conservative clothing the first couple of times she crosses paths with MC, representing her shy exterior. After she gets to know MC a little bit better, she wears clothing that showcases her attractiveness, symbolizing her hidden sexuality.
  • Amy likes to wear formal dresses. She is polite, caring, and very feminine.
• College Radio: Surprisingly averted. Even as Melody’s star rises, she never once makes an appearance on her college radio station.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The name bar for each character has a different color.
• Come Alone: An unusual example. Steve and Bethany, without revealing their identities, tell MC and Melody to meet them at night to retrieve Melody’s stolen guitar. They threaten to destroy it unless MC stops managing Melody’s career and leaves town with Bethany.
• Commitment Issues: Becca lampshades this for MC, and MC admits on multiple occasions that his failed relationship with Bethany was partly due to a fear of commitment.
• Compromising Call: On Isabella’s romantic path, this is how Bethany manages to track MC down after he’s skipped town. She pays Tim a visit, and finds a postcard from Isabella addressed to MC on the coffee table.
• Concept Art Gallery: Every major release version of the game was released alongside a “lewd gallery,” or a collection of special renders of a selected love interest, and made available to patrons who paid at least $15 per month. At first, the girl featured in the gallery was selected by a vote of the patrons, but as some girls consistently received more votes than others did, the developers started restricting the options for who was eligible to be featured, and they chose the girl without a vote at least once.
• Concert Climax: Naturally. The last chapter of the game encompasses a concert which (if you’ve made all the right choices) is the launch pad that propels Melody to superstardom.
• The Confidant:
  • MC serves this purpose for Arnold at Amy’s birthday dinner, hearing him out about his personal history and advising him to make the changes he wants to make in his life.
  • Xianne fills this role in a conversation with Arnold, hearing him out about his relationship with his stepdaughter (whom she only finds out late is Melody), and telling him to be more emotionally open with her.
  • Invoked by Sophia after she finds out how Melody stole back her guitar and messed around with Steve’s social media pages. She reminds Melody that she can trust her with these things, and expresses a wish that Melody told her about what she did before.
• The Conscience: MC fills this role for Melody, giving her moral life lessons as well as music lessons.
• Constructed World: Played with. We do not know which country the story is set in (or even if it exists in real life), but there are references to real people, events, and places throughout the story.
• Consummate Liar: Bethany. She almost manages to convince MC that the best thing her him is to get back together with her, and she manages to trick Hank into giving her two backstage passes to Melody’s concert.
• Conveniently Coherent Thoughts: All characters think in complete sentences all the time. Especially prominent with MC, who has expository monologues in his head every week.
• Cool of Rule: When MC and Melody sing in the karaoke bar together, Melody challenges MC to sing a fairly old song without the lyrics being shown. If MC succeeds, the player wins points.
• Cool Teacher: MC to Melody, and optionally, to Sophia as well. He goes on outings with them (including parties), and he builds rapport during his lessons. Plus, he met a lot of famous musicians.
• Cool Uncle: Amy is a rare example of a cool aunt in fiction. She acts as a parental figure and confidant for Melody. Plus, she’s only 11 years older than her niece is. Lampshaded in that the ending where MC and Amy end up together is called the “Cool Aunt Ending.”
• Coordinated Clothes: Melody’s and Sophia’s clothes for the party that they invite MC to. Justified in that it is a themed party, and that Melody and Sophia choose their costumes together.
• Cope by Creating: Melody writes songs and plays them on her guitar to console herself whenever she misses her deceased mother.
  • Possibly true with MC as well. He is shown to have written songs that are relevant to situations that he faced in life.
• Cope by Pretending: Melody has a version of this. She puts on a hard exterior to telegraph that she can take care of herself. In truth, though, she’s a teenager who’s had more than her share of hard situations, and she desperately needs a mentor or authority figure to steer her in the right direction.
• Cosmetic Award: Most of the relationship levels (represented by piano keys that change color from off-white to pink in the game display as they are achieved) are this. While they are supposed to (as per their in-game descriptions) give MC the opportunity to perform certain sexual acts with or on Melody, they don’t actually perform this function in practice. The main aversion is the second level (“best friends”), which actually does give MC the opportunity to kiss Melody at one point in the game.
• Cosplay: MC dresses up as Elvis Presley for a music-themed party.
• Countrystan: Donutistan is an obvious stand-in for America.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Steve, with his insinuations that Melody should get back together with him, has shades of this.
• Cringe Comedy: The series of accidental double entendres at Amy’s birthday dinner. If Arnold is there, he storms off to the bar in a huff.
• Crush the Keepsake: What happens if MC mishandles the confrontation with Steve and Bethany over Melody’s guitar that she got from her mother. Make the wrong choice, and Steve does what he’s threatening to do all along, and smashes the guitar to bits (bad ending).
• Cry into Chest: Melody when she arrives at MC’s apartment after Arnold kicks her out.
• Cute Bookworm: Becca.
• Cutting Back to Reality: Happens at the very beginning of the story. The opening scene features MC waiting to play in a concert and having a conversation with a bartender. Then, the story cuts to MC at home with Bethany, revealing that he is just daydreaming. Bethany is so angry that she kicks MC out of the house and breaks up with him.

• Cutting Off the Branches: Appearances by the characters from this game in other games by the same creator establish the "Rock Star" ending (Melody and the protagonist are together and Melody becomes a big star) as canon and further that Sophia and Xianne hooked up.

D

• Damage-Proof Vehicle: Averted with Arnold’s car. When Melody “borrows” the car without Arnold’s knowledge or permission and drag-races a couple of guys, the bumper gets dented, leading to Arnold kicking Melody out of the house.
• Dancing Is Serious Business: On Becca’s romantic path, MC takes Becca on a date to an Italian restaurant that (a pizza parlor, not a really nice place), Becca and MC are having serious rapport-building talk, and MC invites Becca to dance to a song that just came on.
• Dangerous Drowsiness: Averted with Becca. When she shows MC around town, Becca is visibly tired. It’s not from any illness at all, but from being kept up at night by an annoying dripping faucet. If MC offers to fix it for her, this kicks off her romantic path.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Melody lost her mother to cancer as a teenager, and her stepfather, distraught over losing his wife, became more distant from her. It’s left to MC, as a newcomer in Melody’s life, to help her pick up the pieces.
• Dark Secret: Amy was in an abusive relationship around the time of her sister’s death. Neither Melody nor Arnold knows.
• Dateless Grave: Melody’s mother’s grave has no dates on it.

• Dead Sparks: MC and Bethany were on the rocks for a long time before their breakup at the beginning of the story. Bethany would go out of her way to schedule her business trips for whenever MC was home, and even when the two of them were together, they wouldn’t talk except to fight, and they would never have sex.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: Melody’s mother, Melissa, gave her daughter her first guitar (still one of her most prized possessions), and Melody says that her fondest memories were of her mother. Melody also gets her love of music from her mother. Contrast with Melody’s father; he left Melody and Melissa when she was born, she never knew him, and she doesn’t give a rat’s ass about him.
  • Deconstructed with MC. He never appreciated his father while he was alive, but he realizes how grateful he is for his father now that he has passed away.
• Declaration of Personal Independence: Zigzagged with Melody. While staying with MC, she makes a stop at her house, and finds a note from Arnold telling her that he wants her to: a) move out right away; and b) pay for the damage she caused to his car. When Melody stops by to make things right with him, Arnold tells her that he doesn’t expect either of those things from her. However, Melody insists that she wants to do both, because she wants to start taking responsibility for her own life, decisions, and mistakes.
• Deep Sleep: Just after MC gets his new king-sized bed, he spends a night with Isabella (if he’s of her romantic path). Isabella, who has to go to work early, leaves while MC is still asleep; he’s tired from both the poor sleep on his previous bed and rolling around in the sheets the night before.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Melody, after breaking up with Steve, tends to reject any guy who shows interest in her. However, MC’s patience, steadiness, and quiet confidence eventually get through to her.
  • Becca has a similar, albeit less developed, story. After she’d lost her best friend after starting to date him and then breaking up, she became withdrawn, eschewing friendly and romantic relationships alike. MC manages to get through to her on her romantic path; even if it doesn’t work out, she regains confidence in herself.
• Destructive Romance: MC’s relationship with Bethany. Indeed, MC’s confidence in standing up for himself seems to be completely destroyed.
• Deus ex Machina: Bethany’s Heel-Face Turn after showing every characteristic of a sociopath.
• Deuteragonist: Melody. The story is about her career just as much, if not more than, MC’s attempts to get back on his feet.
• Dialogue Tree: These determine the outcomes of the romantic paths of the girls other than Melody. For Melody herself, they can be used to gain points.
• Did I Mention It's Christmas?: Melody wears a Christmas-themed costume for a romp with MC. This is the only mention of Christmas in the entire work. This is understandable, as the story takes place during the summer, which is par for the course in the lead developer’s native Australia, but confusing for the majority of readers who live in the Northern Hemisphere.
• Did Not Get the Girl: Can happen if MC stays off the romantic paths of all the girls.
• Didn't See That Coming: Several examples:
  • Amy, when she tries to seduce MC over her birthday dinner (if Arnold ends up not coming). MC has to drop off Melody at her home and Amy at her hotel room, and the route that makes the most sense is the one on which MC drops Amy off first. With Melody there, Amy won’t try to get MC to kiss her.
  • Isabella also has one of these moments, and right near the beginning of the story (that is, on her romantic path). Isabella and MC agree to a one-night stand with no feelings of weirdness or attachment, but Isabella admits that she can’t stop thinking about that night afterward.
  • Part of Becca’s backstory that underpins her behavior involves her getting into a relationship with her best friend. The relationship didn’t work out, and she lost the friendship.
• Didn't Think This Through: Can lead to a bad ending. On Amy’s romantic path, Amy wants to have a dinner with MC and Melody to reveal her relationship with MC to her niece. However, if MC is also in a relationship with Melody at the time, neither woman will appreciate what he’s done.
  • A different one can lead to another bad ending near the end of the story. When MC goes up to his room, a little sick from drinking absinthe, Jade comes upstairs to check on him. While the two of them are alone together, Jade admits that she’s always had a crush on MC, and starts coming on to him. If it gets as far as the two of them having sex, Melody will catch them in the act.
  • Melody also has a couple of these moments:
    • Stealing some entrees when at the karaoke bar. She and MC were told that they couldn’t order food in the singing booths, so she steals food from the kitchen. To her horror, it ends up getting Xianne, who was their waitress for the night, fired from her job there.
    • Drag racing with Arnold’s “borrowed” car. Besides getting chased by the police, she dents the rear bumper. Arnold sees the car, and angrily kicks her out of the house.
• Did You Actually Believe...?: Spoken word-for-word by Melody in one of MC’s sexual dreams. After offering him sex, she asks if he really thought she’d jump into bed with him the first time they spent the night together in MC’s apartment.
• Differing Priorities Breakup: Discussed with the movie MC watches in the theater with Melody. As Melody realizes, the main characters’ dream lifestyles just wouldn’t mesh together well.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: This can bring MC’s relationship with Becca crashing down. When MC helps Becca paint her apartment, the mood for sex hits, but they don’t have a condom ready. MC can then choose to say that they could just have unprotected sex. He then goes down a path with leads Becca to kick him out, not wanting to see MC again.
• Dinner and a Show: Amy’s birthday dinner if Arnold is present. Amy invites MC, Melody, and Arnold to celebrate with her, and the two women make some unintentional double entendres while looking over the menu. It makes Arnold so uncomfortable that he storms off to the bar. Subverted when MC manages to get Arnold to come back, and the actual dinner is pleasant and peaceful.
• Dirty Old Man: Subverted with Arnold. He goes to a strip club to unwind, but he doesn’t actually proposition any of the girls there as far as can be seen. In fact, Xianne comes extremely close to propositioning him.
• Disappeared Dad: Melody’s father left her as a baby, and Melody doesn’t seem to have any sort of feelings about him, positive or negative.
• Disappointed in You: When Melody makes a poor choice, there is sometimes an option to react with either anger or disappointment. The latter is generally more impactful.
• Disco Dan: Averted with MC. He goes out of his way to learn Melody’s taste in music.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Downplayed on Becca’s romantic path when MC is fixing her sink and gets a view of her panties. He gets distracted from what he’s doing, but there are no bad consequences. Becca isn’t even that upset if he looks long enough that she catches him.
  • Discussed by Melody. According to her, when she and Steve were together, Steve would check out other girls while on dates with her.
• Divorce Assets Conflict: With MC and Bethany, even though they were engaged, not married. Bethany wants to take all of their shared assets, and she has lawyers on the case helping her. She agrees to let MC have the one of their two cars, but not the “better” one, which he has in his possession at the time. This drives MC to leave town to take the job tutoring Melody.
• Do-It-Yourself Plumbing Project: Becca’s romantic path begins with MC offering to fix her sink. It does actually go well.
• Don't Wake the Sleeper: Invoked by MC and Isabella if they decide to sleep together in Tim’s house. Since Tim had quite a bit to drink at dinner, they think they’re in the clear, even though they make a lot of noise.
  • Subverted in the High School Sweetheart Ending, in which MC and Isabella actually end up together. When the two of them tell Tim about their relationship, Tim reveals that he did hear them after all, and he was pissed off about it, but in the end, he would give them his blessing, because in the end, he wants his sister to be happy.
• Double Entendre: Used liberally throughout the story, with varying reactions.
• Downer Beginning: The story starts with MC’s breakup with Bethany. He has to sell a bunch of stuff and leave town just to get away from her.
• Downfall by Sex: Can lead to either of two bad endings:
  • When Amy wants to reveal her relationship to MC to Melody, it will all blow up in MC’s face if he’s dating Melody as well.
  • Jade visits MC in his hotel room while at a concert with Melody, and starts coming on to him. If they end up having sex, Melody catches them in the act.
• Down to the Last Play: The Fussball match between MC and Melody. If MC wins, he gets a special, sexy surprise from Melody. If he loses, he has to prank-call Steve.
• Do You Want to Copulate?: Isabella is sexually forward with MC, suggesting a one-night stand to cure the breakup pains for them both.
  • Sophia likes to show off her body, and even skinny dips once in a large group (as no cell phones are allowed at that gathering). She also doesn’t have hangups about casual sex, even with her best friend, and she’s never been in an exclusive relationship.
  • Xianne is also sexually open, not needing a relationship to fool around. Justified, as she has worked in a massage parlor, giving happy endings to guests.
• Drama Bomb: Bethany’s appearance at MC’s new home. Just when MC has finished his tutoring gig with Melody, and their life courses together seem sure, Bethany shows up at his apartment unannounced, knocks on MC’s door, and knocks on Becca’s instead when she realizes that MC isn’t home. Then, she comes back the next evening after Melody has just left, and when Melody returns to retrieve her cell phone, Bethany introduces herself as MC’s fiancée. This makes both Melody and Becca (on her romantic path) think twice about whether they want MC in their lives.
• Dreadful Musician: Invoked by Melody regarding the opening act for her favorite band. According to her, this act is going nowhere.
• Dream Tells You to Wake Up: In one of MC’s dreams about Melody, Melody tells him that it’s time to wake up.
• Dripping Disturbance: A leaky faucet keeps Becca up at night, and her landlord is dragging his feet about fixing it. If MC decides to step in, he will get the option to date Becca.
• Duet Bonding: At Amy’s birthday dinner, MC notices a piano in the corner of the restaurant. He asks Melody to play a duet with him to show Amy (and Arnold, if he’s there) what she’s been learning. Melody is very nervous, but performs well after MC reassures her.
  • If MC is giving lessons to Sophia, he gets a more private duet with her. He improvises on the piano, and has her join in.
  • Also if MC is giving lessons to Sophia, MC makes their last lesson of the summer a joint lesson, in which the two girls play a duet.
• Dumb Blonde: Averted with Sophia. She’s shown to be a good book learner.

E-F

• Early-Bird Cameo: Sophia is seen talking on the phone and video chatting with Melody in Week 1, but MC doesn’t meet her until Week 4.
  • Xianne appears as a karaoke bar waitress in Chapter 3, and subsequently befriends Melody after running into her in various locations and situations.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The first time Arnold’s work is mentioned, Melody says that he is an engineer who works at a power plant. However, in all later mentions of his job, he works in construction.
• Easter Egg:
  • In the Perfect Ending, Melody’s award ceremony takes place in Seaside (a town introduced in Dating My Daughter).
  • In the Cool Aunt Ending, one of the models in Amy’s fashion show is Georgina from Dating My Daughter.
  • The character asset for Rachel, also from Dating My Daughter, appears in a bar where Melody is giving a concert.
• Elephant in the Living Room: Defied in pretty much every case. All of the characters are surprisingly willing to bring up their interpersonal issues to each other... that is, assuming that they’re not completely forgotten.
• Embarrassing Pyjamas: Well, an embarrassing nightgown, in any case. Melody wears a white nightgown when she first sleeps over MC’s place, and MC asks if she knows what the color white symbolizes. She does know, and she suddenly becomes afraid that MC knows that she’s still a virgin.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Becca. She ended up becoming almost more popular than Melody with the game’s players.
• Epic Fail: This situation can come up with one of Melody’s guitar lessons. In the second week, MC gives Melody an instrumental piece to play, and the player can select the difficulty. If he picks a “hard” piece, Melody will completely bomb at playing it. Keep in mind that Melody has been playing guitar since childhood.
• Episodic Game: The game is divided into chapters, each comprising a week of game time.
• Erotic Dream: MC has several dreams in which Melody acts sexually coy with him.
  • Actually, for the first one of these, the player can choose Melody, Isabella, Becca, or Amy as the subject of the dream. It's also a subversion, with the chosen girl leading MC to the shower for sex, only for MC to find Bethany in his shower instead.
• Establishing Character Moment: Several:
  • The scene where Amy buys the guitar for Melody from MC. It sets her up as devoted to the people whom she cares about, especially Melody. Plus, she’s a work-oriented woman who’s in town on business.
  • Becca’s breakfast with MC. She’s lacking in confidence but craving some social interaction, and more competent than she thinks.
  • Sophia’s video chat with Melody. She likes to have fun, and she encourages the same behavior in other people. And even though she ribs others, she doesn’t make cruel jokes at their expense.
• Ethical Slut: Xianne works in a strip club and helps multiple characters explore their sexualities. She also respects the boundaries of established relationships, and stops fooling around with MC if he and Melody are dating.
  • Subverted with Sophia. She likes attention and the occasional fling, gave Melody her first sexual experience, and arranges for MC and Melody to get back together after Melody isn’t sure she wants to move forward with him. However, she also offers to be MC’s side piece after he is already in a relationship with Melody.
• Event Flag: Used to decide which ending triggers.
• Face on the Cover: In-universe with Melody’s music. The title character, as a rising star in the music industry, has her fave on the cover of her debut album.
• Fair-Weather Mentor: It is possible that Melody’s previous tutors were this kind of teacher.
• Fake First Kiss: Depending on player choices, can be played straight, averted, or subverted in MC’s relationships with Becca, Amy, Sophia, and Xianne.
• Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: Subverted with MC’s tutoring job. MC isn’t keen on the job when it’s first offered to him, and takes it mainly to get away from Bethany, but he makes enough money to get by, and enjoys the town where the job is, and the people in it.
• Familiar Soundtrack, Foreign Lyrics: A version of this is implied when MC and Melody go to the karaoke bar. There’s a minigame at this outing when MC has to sing a song (the real song being by the Arctic Monkeys) with all the correct lyrics, simulated by three multiple choices during the song. However, the correct lyrics in the game are not the same as the actual real-world lyrics of the song.
• Family Honor: Xianne is so shaken up that she inadvertently broke policy at her aunt’s massage parlor by giving MC a happy ending during his massage that she tracks him down to apologize to him personally. In her mind, even though she wasn’t aware of the mistake she was making, she disgraced her family by making it.
• Fanservice: When each of the potential love interests (besides Xianne) gets a full-body closeup on her introduction.
• Fashion-Shop Fashion Show: MC and Melody do this while shopping for clothes for Melody’s school year. Melody surprises MC by picking out dressier, more mature clothes than she’s used to wearing.
  • There’s also a version of this when Melody is picking her outfit for her photo shoot. She models the outfits for MC, who helps her choose.
• Fashion Show: Amy is away for a week because her one of her dresses is featured in one of these. In the Cool Aunt Ending, we get to see Amy’s work displayed properly in a fashion show, modeled by Georgina from Dating My Daughter.
• Fate Drives Us Together: Invoked in the beginning, when MC, narrating, says that his tortured relationship with Bethany led to his meeting his dream girl.
• Favors for the Sexy: A music store employee offers to help her get various instruments, and tries to inform her about guitars (stuff she already knows anyway), when he’s hitting on Melody.
• Featureless Protagonist: MC’s full face is never shown.
• Feminine Women Can Cook: Subverted with Becca. When she cooks a meal for MC to thank him for fixing her faucet, MC notes that the meat must be overcooked.
• Fiction 500: MC and Melody in the Perfect Ending. They have an enormous house and a huge sum of money from touring and album sales.
• Fictional Counterpart: The Music Rocks Cafe is an obvious one for the Hard Rock Cafe.
• Fictional Currency: Not named, but a shot of bills with Beethoven’s face on them are present when Amy buys the guitar from MC.
• Fiction Business Savvy: Amy does very well for herself (and Melissa did too during her life) running a business refurbishing dresses. Huh?
• Fiery Redhead: Melody is stubborn and strong-willed, and doesn’t take crap from anyone.
  • Averted with Becca. She’s as pleasant as can be.
• The Final Temptation: With the end of the story in sight and Melody poised to launch a successful career, a slightly drunk Jade visits a slightly sick MC in his hotel room. She confesses that she always had a crush on him, and starts coming onto him. If it progresses to sex, Melody will catch the two of them in the act when she comes up to check on MC. This leads to the final bad ending of the story.
• The First Cut Is the Deepest: Discussed. Since his breakup with Bethany is so recent, several characters ask MC if he still has feelings for her.
• First Day from Hell: Downplayed with the start of MC’s job as Melody’s tutor. MC needs to contend with Melody’s attitude and her general reluctance to be studying during the summer as well as actually conveying what he knows. Still, Melody grits her teeth and sits through her first lesson to humor Amy, who is paying for the lessons.
• First Girl Wins: In the High School Sweetheart Ending, Isabella, whose romantic path is the first to be initiated, becomes MC’s girlfriend... long after the two of them first developed secret crushes on each other.
• First Love: MC is Isabella are this for each other.
  • Becca had one of these that colors her perceptions of both relationships and friendships.
• First-Person Perspective: MC tells the story.
• First-World Problems: Melody’s friend, Daphne, cancelling on her when they’re supposed to see a concert together. Melody invites MC instead to avoid going to the concert alone.
• Fisticuff-Provoking Comment: Discussed with Tim. In high school, he reportedly punched a guy in the face for asking his sister to prom. Tim doesn’t remember this incident.
• Florence Nightingale Effect: Melody cancels one of her lessons because she is sick. Since Arnold is at work and Amy is on vacation, MC stops by her house to look after her, making her some food and singing her some songs. When Melody falls asleep, he has the choice of wrapping her up in a blanket on the couch or carrying her to bed before he leaves.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Possibly. Isabella does have a “real job” while Tim doesn’t...but it is notable that Tim owns a house, and Isabella is a guest there.
• Footsie Under the Table: Several times between MC and Melody on Melody’s romantic path.
• Forced into Their Sunday Best: At the beginning of the story, Melody hates, hates, hates dressing up and balks whenever she has to wear something more formal than a t-shirt and jeans. She even has to borrow all such clothing from her mother’s closet, as she doesn’t have any of her own.
• Foregone Conclusion: Subverted. The opening text makes it seem like MC is destined to end up with Melody, but reading over the actual text, it can apply to any of four love interests in the game. And there are also bad endings in which MC doesn’t end up with anyone.
• Foreign Fanservice: MC’s first sexual scene with Xianne takes place in a Japanese-style massage parlor, and this opens up the option to have Xianne give MC the same kinds of massages (plus some extras) at his home.
• Formerly Friendly Family: Melissa’s death took a heavy toll on her immediate family, with Melody acting out in different ways and Arnold sinking into near-depression. They also grow apart until some intervention from the outside causes them to reconcile.
• For Want Of A Nail: MC choosing to tell Melody innocuously to “just do your best” leads to a failed concert due to Steve’s sabotage, then to Melody not standing up for Bethany when she comes to pick up MC, to a bad ending.
• Four-Girl Ensemble: Can apply to all of the girls that MC can end up with (Sophia and Xianne don’t count): Becca is the sweet girl, Melody is the snarky girl, Isabella is the sexy girl, and Amy is the mature girl.
• Fratbro: Steve. He can’t even remember if he did in fact sleep with MC’s (made up) daughter.
• Free-Range Pets: Becca’s cat, Benatar, once climbs into MC’s apartment.
• Friends Are Chosen, Family Aren't: Deconstructed with Melody, who has a strained relationship with her stepfather due to their shared angst over the death of Melody’s mother, but a positive one with her aunt. She isn’t really seen as having any conflicts with her friends, but her tutors are a different story. The takeaway is that Melody has positive relationships with people who value her as a person, and give her the best relationship experience.
• Friendship as Courtship: Used in general for MC’s relationships with Melody, Becca, Amy, Sophia, and Xianne. Lampshaded with the relationship “levels” with Melody; “Friends” and “Best Friends” come before the romantic levels.
• Fury-Fueled Foolishness: Steve knows that Melody stole her guitar back from him and made embarrassing posts on his social media, but he can’t prove it. Instead, he does things like cause disturbances at Melody’s concerts (which gets very predictable reactions from security), and on Melody’s romantic path, he actually slaps his ally, Bethany, when she relents on giving her back the guitar if the player makes just the right decision.

G-H

• Gag Penis: One that’s actually shown on screen. Near the beginning of the story, MC gets an email ad for penis enlargement pills complete with an explicit “after” picture. Hilarity Ensues based on MC’s shock.
• Game Over: The bad endings in general end much sooner than the good ones. Finding one of these treats you to a picture of Melody flipping you the bird.
• Gay Paree: In the Cool Aunt Ending, Amy’s fashion show takes place here. And of course you can see the Eiffel Tower from their hotel room.
• Gentle Touch vs. Firm Hand: Shown with how Melody is tutored. MC lets Melody set the direction of her lessons in large part, especially with letting her choose which instruments to play. Her previous tutors decided everything about her tutoring sessions. It’s easy to see which side the developers take: MC turns Melody into a musical sensation, while her previous tutors barely taught her anything.
  • Also discussed in the way that Melody is parented in her late teens. Arnold is said to be very strict with her (though the players don’t see much of this for themselves), and kicks her out of the house for using his car without permission and damaging the bumper. Amy, on the other hand, always extends a hand to Melody in case she needs it, and offers her help and confidence at all times. Since Arnold relents, and it turns out to be the best thing ever for his relationship with Melody, it’s clear that the developers favor gentle in this case too.
• Geographic Flexibility: The story takes place in a small town that is close to the coast and an airport, and that has: a college, a bar where bands get noticed, a karaoke bar, an opera house, multiple fancy restaurants, a Japanese massage parlor, a museum for memorabilia of famous musical acts, and a record label. Right.
• Get Out!: Becca’s reaction to MC proposing unprotected sex to her. It’s clear that she’s no longer interested in a relationship with him.
  • Also, Amy’s reaction to learning that MC has been involved with her and Melody at the same time. She also calls him a pervert.
• Ghibli Hills: On Becca’s romantic path, MC and Becca can go on a hiking date outside the town. Where they go, there isn’t even a path.
• The Ghost: Dante, a guy whom Sophia dates briefly, is mentioned but never seen on-screen.
• Giftedly Bad: The opening act for The Squeaky Wheel. MC and Melody can agree that this band is going nowhere.
• Girl Next Door: Lampshaded: the Girl Next Door Ending pairs MC with Becca.
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: If MC, Melody, and Sophia are all dating each other, MC can walk in on the two girls fooling around. This trope can be played straight (if MC admits to himself and to the girls that he was turned on) or defied (if MC pretends he didn't see anything).
• Girls Like Musicians: Naturally. Bethany is mentioned to be the one groupie that MC fell in love with, and he turned down sex from lots of others while in his relationship with her.
  • Melody can be seen as a deconstruction. She falls for MC - a good musician - but angrily rejects a bad musician who opened for her favorite band.
• Girly Girl: Amy is very feminine, with a business refurbishing dresses, a love for dressing up, good manners, and wanting a man to take care of her.
  • Subverted with Sophia. While she likes clothes, makeup, and chick flicks, she also advises Melody to take the distinctly un-feminine act of fighting for her man.
• Give Away the Bride: In the Perfect Ending, Arnold walks Melody down the aisle. He is not her actual father, and the two of them previously had a strained relationship. This shows just how solid their reconciliation is.
• Golden Ending: The aptly named Perfect Ending. Melody is a big star, she lives in her dream house, and she gets married to MC.
• Gone Horribly Right: Melody’s theft of food so she and MC could eat at the karaoke bar. She doesn’t get caught stealing the food, MC doesn’t suspect that she did anything wrong, and she stops MC from saying anything that could blow her cover. However, she suspects (rightly) that Xianne got fired because of what she did. Subverted in that Xianne has a better-paying job the next time that MC and Melody run into her.
• Good Is Not Soft: Demonstrated in interactions with MC with other characters involving Melody. In general, the best decision when Melody gets unwanted attention is for MC to get in the other guy’s face, if not hit him. Also, it’s generally better to choose telling Melody a hard truth than a white lie.
• Gotta Have It, Gonna Steal It: When MC and Melody go to a karaoke bar, they find out that they can’t be served food in a booth due to the risk of damage to the equipment. A hungry Melody steals food from the kitchen, making up an excuse to MC about why she had it. It ends up getting Xianne, who was their waitress, fired.
• Groupie: Discussed at almost any point when MC talks about his former life as a session musician. He would find fangirls everywhere. That’s where MC met Bethany; she was the groupie with whom he fell in love.
• Guide Dang It!: With several in-game decisions (even the pivotal ones for Melody’s career), there is no way to tell, or even infer, which decision is correct before making it, at least without reading the walkthrough.
• Hair-Contrast Duo: The redheaded Melody is defiant and impulsive, while the blonde Sophia is sociable but level-headed.
• Hands-On Approach: Whenever MC is showing Melody the correct posture or hand position for playing an instrument, he has the option of physically correcting her in addition to verbally doing so. This is always the better option, netting a point for each instance.
• Hands Play In Theater: MC and Melody go to see a music-themed movie at one point. Since MC and Melody kissed in the heat of the moment less than a week before, but decided that it was nothing more than friendly, they are both shy about making any moves, but there is a possibility that they accidentally hold hands when they reach for the popcorn at the same time.
  • On Becca’s romantic path, MC later takes Becca to another movie at the same theater. Since they have already fooled around and come close to having sex, they are both quite comfortable with holding hands and kissing in their seats.
  • Interestingly, this trope is defied earlier in the story when MC and Melody see a rock opera together. MC has a chance to put her hand on Melody’s arm, and the player has a choice for whether to do it or not. However, it’s a false choice, as MC doesn’t go through with it in either case, not wanting to be a creep.
• Happy-Ending Massage: Xianne offers MC one of these when she takes care of him at the massage parlor, citing a policy. As it turns out, the policy was rescinded during Xianne’s hiatus from the parlor, and she just hadn’t been briefed on the change. However, when Xianne apologizes for her “mistake,” she offers MC private massages that go far beyond handjobs for happy endings.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Downplayed with Sophia. She is shown to party a lot, but the effects of her heavy drinking are never shown, and only mentioned once (she vomits and passes out at the music-themed party).
• Harmful to Minors: Averted with Xianne. She has worked in her aunt’s massage parlor, and dutifully followed the policy of offering each male customer a happy ending. If you do the math, it is implied that she started before her eighteenth birthday. However, she’s clearly no worse off for it, having a healthier attitude toward sex than most other characters do.
• Hate Sink: Bethany. She made MC’s life hell for ten years before kicking him out of the house, and then wants to use her lawyers to take everything the two of them acquired together. She then got another guy (whom she may have been sleeping with on the side even before breaking up with MC), and then, when she decides she wants MC back after all, she puts on a reasonable front before reverting to her contemptuous self. Then, if MC won’t come back with her, she lies and steals in the hopes of strong-arming MC into submission.
  • Steve also qualifies. The first time we hear about him, we hear that he broke up with Melody while in possession of her prize guitar, and is refusing to return it to her. We go on to see him taunt Melody over the theft, threaten to sexually assault her, try to sabotage her concerts, and steals the guitar (there’s even an ending where he destroys it). Plus, according to Melody, he used to check out other girls on dates with her.
• Hates Wearing Dresses: Melody is like this at the beginning of the story, but warms up to dressing up as it goes on.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: The in-game mechanism to name MC.
• High Hopes, Zero Talent: Inverted with MC. He does not initially want to tutor Melody, but he ends up teaching her very effectively.
• History with Celebrity: MC played with a number of celebrity musicians as a session musician. This is what piques Melody’s interest in his lessons, and eventually, with him.
• Hollywood Economics: The fancy perfume that Melody wants to give Amy for her birthday. She and MC can give it as a joint gift... if MC took Amy up on her offer to pay him extra for the threefold increase in his workload. It’s a stretch that a college student who doesn’t work and a music tutor who teaches three classes a week can afford a perfume whose real-life counterpart costs about US $150 for a 3.4-ounce bottle.
• Hollywood Thin: Sophia is extraordinarily petite.
• Hollywood Web Cam: Pretty much every webcam scene in the story features the 3D models on a 2D screen.
• Honest Corporate Executive: Hank Sharp readily admits letting Bethany and Steve backstage by accident when MC calls him out on it.
• Honorary True Companion: Xianne, who, though she’s not part of Melody’s band, comes along as a masseuse.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Xianne, who gives sexual massages and works in a strip club (though not as a stripper), is one of the most compassionate characters in the story, and tries to do her best (morally and otherwise) is everything she does.
• Hopeless with Tech: Averted with MC. While he’s much older than some of the other characters and has a less recent taste in music (including sound quality), he isn’t at all bad with computers.
• Hostage for MacGuffin: Inverted when Bethany and Steve steal Melody’s guitar. Bethany’s plan is to threaten to destroy the guitar unless MC comes back to her. She only gives the instrument back after MC hands in his resignation as Melody’s manager to Hank Sharp (that is, unless the player is on Melody’s romantic path).
• Hot Librarian: Becca.
• Hot Pursuit: Downplayed during Melody’s drag race (using Arnold’s car) with a couple of guys. Melody and Sophia end up getting chased by the cops, but the police apparently end up following the guys instead, so Melody gets off the hook. Apparently, the police never ran the plate for Arnold’s car.
• Hot Teacher: MC to Melody (and Sophia, if the player so chooses).
• House Rules: Discussed when a bunch of people at the college party play Suck ‘n’ Blow. MC mentions that while he played the same game when he was in college, the rules are slightly different from the ones he played with.
• Human Ladder: MC gives Becca a boost when she’s assisting him at the library, and he asks for a book on the top shelf.

I-L

• I Am Not Pretty: Becca claims that guys would want girls who are prettier than she is. Becca is attractive, and when she dresses in less dowdy clothes, it shows better.
• I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: Bethany gives Steve a blowjob in return for helping her bust up MC’s and Melody’s relationship.
• I Have No Idea What I'm Doing: Zigzagged with MC with his lessons with Melody. He clearly plans out his lessons and general curriculum, but his lack of experience is one thing that trips him up.
  • Also shows up when MC recasts himself as Melody’s manager. Even though he has no experience in this role, he wants to be the one booking the shows and choosing Melody’s band mates. However, his search for band members goes so badly that he is about to swallow his pride and ask Hank for help before he gets a lucky break.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: Implied. Steve corners Melody on her way to the bathroom at the college party. It’s not clear what he intends for her, but one can assume that it is in the territory of sexual assault.
• Illness Blanket: When MC is caring for a sick Melody at her house, she eventually falls asleep. There’s an option to wrap her up in a blanket.
• I Miss Mom: As a major plot point, Melody misses her deceased mother more than anything, and when (and if) MC asks, she says that all her happy memories have been of her mother.
• Improbable Food Budget: MC can pay for a couple outings with Melody per week, plus less frequent dates with Isabella, Becca, and Amy as well. Some of these outings are to very expensive places, and MC often orders expensive items like steaks for dinner. Lampshaded late in the game by Melody, and explained away by MC as having made a lucky investment years ago so he's flush with cash.
• Improbably Cool Car: Arnold’s car. How can he afford it on a construction worker’s pay? Then again, it is his most prized possession.
• Inciting Incident: MC’s breakup with Bethany. Bethany then rubs it in by bringing in her lawyers in an attempt to take everything she and MC own for herself.
• Incompatible Orientation: Is a possibility between Melody and Sophia. If Melody fools around with Sophia a couple of times but then rejects her, she’ll say that she’s not really into girls.
• Inconsistent Coloring: Bethany’s hair appears darker in later episodes, when she tracks MC down an tries to get him to come back, than in the introduction, when she is kicking MC out of the house.
• In Defence Of Storytelling: Discussed with MC and Melody. Melody likes older music (from MC’s age set) because the artist(s) used to arrange album tracks in order to tell a story. Newer artists don’t do this.
• Indifferent Beauty: Melody is used to guys hitting on her, even when she has no interest in them. She’s very good at telling them off if they get too pervy.
• Informed Attribute: Amy describes Arnold as being strict, but we only see him as being strict when Melody does something truly serious: taking his car without his permission and damaging it.
• Informed Small Town: The town where Melody lives seems more like a city: a good number of apartments, lots of things to do, and not everybody seems to know everyone else.
• Inheritance Backlash: Averted with Melody’s inheritance from Melissa. Even though Melody is on rocky terms with Arnold after Melissa’s death, Melody’s inheritance doesn’t cause any tension - partially because Melody herself is unaware of just how much she inherited from her mother.
• Insecure Love Interest: MC and Melody are this way toward each other.
  • Becca takes this up to eleven with how much she talks down to herself.
• Instant Book Deal: Or record deal, anyway. Within a couple of weeks of meeting Hank Sharp, Melody is lined up to record an album.
• Instant Seduction: Averted. It takes MC a little while for any of the girls to cozy up to him. The one exception is Isabella, who already had a crush on him for years.
• Intelligence Equals Isolation: The very intelligent Becca is almost entirely socially isolated.
• Internal Reveal: Leads to a bad ending if Melody and Amy find out that you’ve been dating both of them.
• Intimate Telecommunications: On Amy’s path, MC and Amy have cybersex over video chat.
  • Also happens unintentionally between MC and Melody. Melody is unaware that her panties are showing during a video call with MC, and MC can score points by bringing this to her attention.
• Introverted Cat Person: Becca, who is socially isolated, owns a cat.
• In-Universe Factoid Failure: Possible with every question in the quizzes that MC gives Melody. They are all multiple choice, giving the player the ability for an incorrect guess every time.
• Invisible Parents: We know that Sophia lives with her parents, but they are never shown.
• Istanbul (Not Constantinople): Most times when a real city or country name is referenced, a substitute name is used (e.g. Romeo for Rome, Donutistan for the United States). The most notable aversions are on Melody’s quizzes: real place names are used exclusively.
• It Doesn't Mean Anything: What MC and Melody decide after their heat-of-the-moment kiss. However, they are both obviously in denial.
• Jack of All Trades: MC is a skilled musician, a competent handyman, a good teacher, a good cook, socially adept, and even a decent manager.... What can’t he do?
• Japanese Politeness: Xianne, upon learning of her mistake in offering MC a handjob, shows up at his home to apologize in person. In fact, she is never rude to anyone.
  • Averted with the owner of the karaoke bar, who is blunt about not letting MC and Melody bring food into the booths.
• Jazz: Several scenes happen around a jazz bar. Ironically, if Melody has a career success here, her musical career suffers in the long term.
• Jerkass Has a Point: When Bethany first tries to convince MC to come back home to her, one of her points is that he can’t continue affording his lifestyle now that the summer in over, and Melody won’t need his services anymore. MC has to admit that she’s right.
• Jerkass Realization: If MC goes to lunch with Melody in the second week, he has the option of calling her out on the way she behaves toward Amy. Melody admits that he’s right.
• Just Friends: MC and Jade... that is, if there’s any chance of a good ending with Melody. They both liked each other (and Jade still likes MC), but they can never be in a relationship.
  • Of course, MC can steer clear from the romantic path of any girl in the story.
• Karaoke Box: The karaoke bar scene between MC and Melody. They take a bet on whether MC could sing a song that he hasn’t heard in a while while getting all the lyrics right.
• Karma Meter: Downplayed. Certain choices can net the player Melody points, even if there’s no reason to suspect that Melody would ever be aware enough of them to actually think more favorably of MC because of them. However, in the end, the points only decide whether the player reaches the Perfect Ending or the Good Ending.
• Karmic STD: Discussed. When Melody messes with Steve’s social media accounts, one of her (false) posts involves Steve claiming that he got chlamydia from his best friend’s girlfriend.
• Key Under the Doormat: When Tim lets MC stay at his house after Bethany kicks him out, he leaves a key in the mailbox. He further instructs MC to leave the key there if he ever decides to go out.
• Kimono Fanservice: In-universe. The massage parlor owned by Xianne’s aunt has the girls dress up in kimonos to work.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Becca, full stop.
• Kinky Spanking: Isabella proves up for this as he relationship with MC progresses.
• Kissing Under the Influence: Melody’s “evening kiss” that she she gives MC as a “reward” (provided that the player previously made certain choices) takes place after MC and Melody share a bottle of wine over dinner.
  • Also, on Becca’s romantic path, Becca invites MC to dinner at her apartment, and MC brings a bottle of wine. If MC answers Becca’s questions in certain ways, she will kiss him goodbye for the night.
  • MC’s first kiss with Amy (at least if Melody isn’t there) happens outside her hotel room, after they both drank at her birthday dinner.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: MC often has to judge how far to push a joke so as to appear fun but not pervy, or when to stop checking out a hot girl.
• Lame Pun Reaction: Melody has a strong interest in music, which naturally attracts a lot of lame puns. Since Melody hears these all the time, especially from guys who give her unwanted attention, you can imagine how she reacts.
• Less Embarrassing Term: Averted. When she starts her tutoring sessions under MC, Melody calls him a “stand-in,” meaning that he wasn’t talented enough to be a more regular performer. MC ignores it rather than trying to correct her.
• Let's Wait a While: Melody is shy about jumping into bed with MC, not least because she is still a virgin.
  • Becca also wants to wait for the right time before going all the way with MC, because in her experience, sex has been the beginning of the end for a treasured friendship.
  • MC wants to hold off having sex with Amy, because he doesn’t want to screw up things for Melody.
  • MC and Isabella provide an interesting aversion. When Bethany breaks up with MC, he and Isabella admit that they’ve been crushing on each other since they were teenagers. However, instead of waiting for the “right” time, they agree to a one-night stand, after which they promise that they won’t act weirdly toward each other.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Subverted if MC and Isabella have a one-night stand in Tim's house. They both agree that they’ll have one night together and move on from it, but Isabella can’t, and she asks MC for more. And if MC and Isabella become an official couple and ask for Tim's blessing for their relationship, Tim will reveal that he heard the whole thing anyway.
  • Melody and Sophia previously agreed to have sex once and then leave anything sexual alone, but Sophia brings it up again, which can lead to the two of them experimenting further.
• Like a Duck Takes to Water: MC has no tutoring experience before teaching Melody, but he is able to teach her a great deal.
  • Downplayed with MC’s management of Melody’s career. MC does do much better than his lack of experience would suggest, but he gets some lucky breaks as well.
• Like Father, Like Son: Melody’s love of music comes from her mother, who gave her all her happiest memories.
• Likes Older Men: Discussed between Melody and Sophia when MC starts tutoring Melody. Sophia claims that Melody should see if she likes him, because experience makes older men better than their own age-mates.

• Lingerie Scene: Both Melody and Sophia have these before their naughty bits are shown.
• Literally Loving Thy Neighbor: MC does exactly this on Becca’s romantic path (the two of them live next door to each other).
• Locked Out of the Loop: If MC and Isabella have a one-night stand, they keep it a secret from Tim for obvious reasons. However, in Isabella’s epilogue, Tim reveals that he actually heard the whole thing, drunk though he was.
• Loners Are Freaks: Averted with Becca. She is definitely a loner, not having had any close friends or romantic partners for years, but she’s very conventional and well-adjusted with all things considered.
• Long-Distance Relationship: On Isabella’s romantic path, MC can choose this arrangement when Isabella confesses that she can’t stop thinking about their one-night stand. At the beginning, this is justified, as Isabella’s job as a flight attendant means that she can occasionally spend the night with MC despite the distance. However, within a few weeks, Isabella starts training to fly internationally, meaning that she and MC will have to stay apart for a long time. Staying with her notwithstanding is the only way to end up with Isabella at the end of the story.
• The Lost Lenore: Melissa is this from Arnold’s perspective. Much of his emotional distance from Melody is due to depression, since he never got over his wife’s passing.
• Lounge Lizard: When MC and Melody go to see Melody’s favorite band, this seems to be the future of the opening act. The two of them agree that this band is going nowhere.
• Lover, Not a Fighter: Downplayed, if not subverted. MC doesn’t look to start fights with people, but he can indeed get in guys’ faces if they give Melody too much unwanted attention.
• Lover's Ledge: A modern version. Melody has to sneak MC out of her bedroom window so Arnold won’t know that he slept over.

M-N

• Maiden Aunt: Averted with Amy. While she is an important mother figure for Melody, she is decidedly not old; she celebrates her 31st birthday during the course of the story.
• The Makeover: Although she was never remotely ugly, Melody gets a makeover to cement her rockstar image when she signs a contract with Sharp Records.
• Making Love in All the Wrong Places: MC and Melody visit a music museum, and see a piano in the middle of a auditorium-like room. They get ready to have sex before they are chased out by security. Lampshaded later by Melody, who says she's glad in hindsight that first time having sex wasn't in a public place, on top of a piano.
• Making Room for Baby: Downplayed in the Family Ending. MC and Melody do indeed buy a house to accommodate their new baby, but they buy the exact same house in the Good Ending (in which Melody and MC do not have a child).
• Malicious Misnaming: In one of their meetings, Bethany calls Melody “Harmony.”

• Malt Shop: MC once takes Melody on a date to a 1950s-style diner.
• Manipulative Bastard: Bethany, in the true sociopathic style, can charm and deceive lots of people in order to get her way.
• Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration: Melody is often seen masturbating in the early chapters to deal with her frustration.
• Meaningful Name: Possibly unintentional, but “Sophia” means “wisdom” in Greek, and Sophia is one person who keeps Melody grounded throughout the story.
• Medium Awareness: Possibly unintentional. In both the Good Ending and the Family Ending, Hank Sharp eventually terminates Melody’s contract with Sharp Records due to a lack of continued interest in her work. Melody then asks MC if things would have been different if they’d both made different decisions. This is absolutely true in the story, but in reality, a lot more is up to chance.
• Medium Two-Shot: Done on rare occasions when MC is talking to two characters while standing up (usually Melody and Amy or Melody and Sophia).
• Meekness is Weakness: Possible in MC’s past. In high school, Tim would usually get the girl while MC would defer out of respect. MC eventually fell into a relationship with the insufferable Bethany. To be fair, though, Tim is divorced, and we know nothing about his ex-wife’s character.
• Meet Cute: Possible in Melody’s first lesson with MC. MC can make lame compliments about Melody’s name, offer her his half-eaten fast food leftovers as a mid-lesson snack, or both.
• Memento MacGuffin: Melody’s acoustic guitar, a gift from her mother prior to her death from cancer.
  • In a more negative example, his house keeps Arnold trapped in memories of his late wife that drag him down.
• Men Can't Keep House: During the summer, MC’s new apartment gets messy. Despite his easy work schedule, he can’t seem to find the time or energy to clean up.

• Mercy Rewarded: A non-lethal example. When MC tells Amy about the time he cared for Melody when she was sick, it’s better not to tell Amy the full extent of Arnold’s negligence in the matter. If MC tells all, Amy will disinvite Arnold from her birthday dinner, which eventually impedes MC from getting onto Amy’s romantic path.
  • Also, in general, it’s good to be honest with Melody when she screws up, but not to be harsh.
• Milholland Relationship Moment: Downplayed with Melody stealing food at the karaoke bar, and thus getting Xianne fired. Melody isn’t wracked by grief, but she knows, especially with some prodding by MC, that what she did was wrong. The next time she runs into Xianne, Xianne is working a couple of other jobs, so things didn’t turn out badly for Xianne in the end. She asks MC, who is with her at the time, if she should confess her role in Xianne’s firing, but MC advises her against it exactly because Xianne was able to bounce back so quickly.
• Mistaken for Romance: Subverted in a number of situations in which MC hangs out with Melody before they start dating. Several people mistake them for a couple; they aren’t yet, but they are interested in becoming one.
• Modesty Towel: Subverted with Melody on a couple of occasions when Melody is staying at MC’s apartment. Melody walks in front of MC wearing a towel, but it doesn’t sufficiently cover her chest. Sometimes, MC can get points by bringing this to Melody’s attention, and at other times, it’s better just to keep quiet.
• More Friends, More Benefits: Inverted. The player can obtain Melody points at certain times if MC is only in a relationship with Melody. Also, dating Melody and Amy simultaneously leads to a bad ending if the player lets it go on long enough.
• Morning Sickness: The introduction to the narration of Melody’s pregnancy in the Family Ending.
• Most Writers Are Adults: Lampshaded by MC twice. Melody and Becca are both around 20 years old, and have had only a single relationship apiece (and not a very long one at that), yet MC notes how mature they are with romance compared to himself, an experienced man in his late thirties.
• Motherhood Is Superior: Melody never knew her father, but she sorely misses her mother, who gave her the best memories of her life.
• Motive Rant: Bethany and Steve both have mental ones to set them up for their theft of Melody’s guitar.
• Mourning an Object: If Steve smashes Melody’s guitar because MC mishandles the situation with him and Bethany, Melody will be so distraught that she will give up on everything music-related, leading directly to a bad ending.
• Movie-Theater Episode: Two examples:
  • MC takes Melody to a music-themed movie (that is, if he declines a lunch date with Amy). This includes them furthering their relationship while mimicking a romantic couple.
  • On Becca’s romantic path, MC also takes Becca to a movie date... at the same theater. If he previously took Melody, the man at the ticket counter will recognize him.
• Mr. Fixit: Lampshaded by Becca if MC offers to fix her faucet. She even calls MC “my personal Mr. Fixit.”
• Multiple Endings: There are a total of six good endings: three with Melody (the Perfect Ending, which shows MC and Melody rich, famous, and married, the Good Ending, where they do alright for themselves but don’t make it big, and the Family Ending, which is just like the Good Ending, except that they have a baby), the High School Sweetheart Ending with Isabella, the Girl Next Door Ending with Becca, and the Cool Aunt Ending with Amy. Additionally, there are four bad endings throughout the story, in which MC screws up big in some aspect of one or more of his relationships.
• Musical Theme Naming: Melody, of course.
  • Hank Sharp is another music-related example.
  • Becca's cat, Benatar, is named after rocker Pat Benatar.
• Music Is Politics: A lot more than her talent goes into Melody’s success: getting noticed by the right people at the right time, image, social dynamics with her band and manager, and avoiding a pregnancy (or some medical condition) that could keep her from touring.
• My Girl Is Not a Slut: Melody is a virgin when she meets MC, despite having been in a previous relationship with a party boy.
  • Becca is not a virgin, but she is nevertheless very shy, especially about getting into sexual relationships.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Melody, after she realizes that her food theft at the karaoke bar probably led to Xianne getting fired.
  • Hank also has one of these moments after he realizes that he was tricked into giving Bethany access to one of Melody’s concerts.
• My Greatest Failure: Subverted with MC. He considers his relationship with Bethany as his greatest failure; however, Bethany’s own sociopathic tendencies also were a huge factor in the failure of that relationship.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Whether he ends up with Melody, Isabella, Becca, or Amy, MC, who has had commitment issues in the past and has recently had a very long relationship that ended in failure, sees his new relationship as a way to learn from the struggles of his past.
• My Secret Pregnancy: Averted in the Family Ending. Melody has no choice but to tell Hank about her pregnancy, and it prevents her from going on tour to promote her debut album. Her contract with Sharp Records is ultimately canceled.
• Myspeld Rökband: Averted all the way. Melody goes by her own name in her professional music career, and none of the band names have misspelled words. Even the fictional counterpart of Eminem is named “Smarties.”
• Naïve Everygirl: Subverted with Becca. While Becca is a romantic who is insecure about her own attractiveness, she is not naive about relationships, and enjoys reading the most explicit romance novels.
• Named After Somebody Famous: A meta example. Melody, the title character, attains some level of fame in-universe in all of the good endings.
• Narrative Backpedaling: Introduced retroactively after the first bad ending. After Melody quits, leaving MC to go back with Bethany, a note appears in the game, saying that that’s not what really happened. Then, the game cuts to the scene directly after the “correct” scene, in which Melody rips into Bethany for her abusiveness and kisses MC right in front of her.
• Nature Abhors a Virgin: Melody is self-conscious about her virginity, and much of the tension around the middle of the story (on her romantic path) centers around the timing of her losing it to MC.
• Nature Lover: Downplayed with Becca. While she likes hiking, she seems to be comfortable spending most of her time indoors.
• Nepotism: Inverted with MC becoming Melody’s manager. The manager-client relationship comes first, and the romantic relationship comes afterward.
• Nerd Glasses: Liam wears these. He’s also a socially awkward third wheel for Jade and Dash at his introduction, and it is unclear how much of his awkwardness is intentional.
• Never Heard That One Before: Melody is tired of guys giving lame compliments on her name and its musical affiliation. Significantly, MC is one of the few people whom she comes to tolerate making them.
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Possible with MC’s dad. MC mentions that he never had the best relationship with his dad, but he came to appreciate him more after he died.
• New Baby Episode: Melody’s pregnancy and the birth of her baby (in the leadup to the Family Ending). It grows her family but damages her music career.
• New Content Countdown Clock: Made by the creators themselves on the scheduled release date of each new update.
• New Job as the Plot Demands: Xianne has a couple of waitressing jobs over the course of the series, not to mention jobs in a strip club and her aunt’s massage parlor. At the end, it’s possible (depending on the romantic paths taken) for Melody to hire her as a masseuse for MC, Sophia, and herself.
• New Year Has Come: Averted. Even though the story references both Christmastime and a Valentines Day knockoff, New Year’s Day is not mentioned once.
• Nice Guys Finish Last: During the course of the story, Sophia briefly dates a guy, Dante. He is generally nice, not pushing things sexually or pressuring Sophia in any way. Sophia eventually friendzones him.
  • Averted with MC. He’s a decent enough guy (though not a stereotypical nice guy), and can get a great deal of success depending on player choices.
• Night Swim Equals Death: Averted. MC and Melody go swimming in their hotel pool after one of Melody’s concerts, and they have some sexy fun there. Not only do they not die, they don’t get caught either.
• Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: MC has a trick up his sleeve to get Melody to take a picture of herself wearing a dress, and then sending it to Amy: teasing her that she’s too scared to do it.
• Nocturnal Crime: The two thefts in the story (of a plate of food and Melody’s guitar) happen during the night hours. Melody also breaks into Steve’s dorm room at night, and Steve attempts to sexually assault Melody at night as well.
• No Doubt the Years Have Changed Me: MC doesn’t initially recognize Isabella when he runs into her due to the length of time during which they haven’t seen each other.
• No Flow in CGI: Amazingly averted with all the animated scenes. The developers did a really good job of making the girls’ hair flow during sex scenes.
• Non-Action Big Bad: Bethany, although belligerent, never gets physically violent. In fact, the one time there’s violence around her, she’s the one who gets hit, and MC and Melody ask if she’s okay when the smoke clears.
• No Periods, Period: A particularly glaring example. Melody is never shown to menstruate, even though her cycle comes into play via her pregnancy (which is caused by MC not pulling out at a critical point).
• Not Staying for Breakfast: Isabella gets up early after a night with MC before he wakes up. Twice. However, it’s not because of her personal feelings; she just has to go to work early.
• Not What I Signed on For: Averted with Melody’s tutoring lessons. After the success of the first week, Amy enlists MC to check up on Melody periodically like Amy herself would do, and he agrees. Sure enough, in the second week, MC has to care for a sick Melody.
• Not What It Looks Like: MC’s response if Melody catches him sleeping with Jade. It doesn’t work.
• Not with Them for the Money: MC with Amy, especially in the Cool Aunt Ending. When MC meets her, Amy is already a successful businesswoman, and she eventually becomes a wealthy fashion designer. MC, however, likes/loves Amy for her.

O-R

• The Obstructive Love Interest: Xianne. MC can pursue a romantic/sexual relationship with Xianne, but there is no ending with her.
  • Zigzagged with Sophia. She can prevent the Perfect Ending by getting involved with MC, but she also unlocks the possibility of a three-way relationship between MC, Melody, and herself.
  • Jade is the logical extreme. She basically exists to torpedo MC’s relationship with Melody when it seems to be a slam dunk.
• Office Romance: On Melody’s romantic path, MC and Melody become this when they sign a contract with Sharp Records. They don’t let Hank in on it due to potential complications, but Hank knows anyway that they’re a couple.
• Off the Wagon: Dash’s relapse into drug use is what breaks up their band, freeing Jade and Liam to play in Melody’s band.
• Oh, Crap!: MC’s reaction when Bethany shows up at the door of his new apartment.
  • Hank’s reaction when he realizes that Bethany tricked him into giving her backstage access to one of Melody’s concerts also qualifies.
  • Melody when she breaks into Steve’s room to steal her guitar back. She knows Steve went to a party, but she didn’t expect him to be back so early. MC has to distract Steve so she can escape.
  • Generally, any response from MC that leads to a bad ending falls under this heading.
• Older Than They Look: A common complaint about the story is that Melody and Sophia arguably look underage.
  • Discussed with Amy when MC first meets her. When Amy mentions that her 31st birthday is coming up, MC replies that she doesn’t look that old.
• The One Guy: Liam is the only guy in Melody’s band.
• One-Neighbor Neighborhood: MC lives in an apartment building surrounded by apartment buildings, but the only one of his neighbors who is ever seen is Becca.
• One of the Kids: Subverted with MC, who often hangs out with much younger people (Melody, Becca, Sophia, and Xianne come to mind), and once goes to a college party while in his thirties. While he is able to act as spontaneously as any of them (and more than any save Melody), he never loses his greater maturity.
• Only One Female Mold: Averted. The developers intentionally gave all the girls different body types and attributes.
• On One Condition: Bethany offers Melody her guitar back on the condition that MC agrees to come back home to her. As insurance, she insists that MC submit a resignation in writing to Hank before she returns the instrument.
• On the Rebound: The story takes place right after MC’s breakup with Bethany. Because of this MC is hesitant, if not outright insecure, in his relationships with any of the girls.
  • If MC opts for relationships with Melody and/or Isabella, he would also be a rebound for them (they both had breakups right before the beginning of the story). Isabella lampshades this at the beginning of her romantic path, and opts for a one-night stand... which turns into something more if MC wants it.
• Opening Monologue: The story begins with one in which MC explains that everything happens for a reason, and that a misfortune ended up leading him to true love.
• Opportunistic Bastard: There’s no indication that Bethany plans very far ahead to force MC to come back. She’s mostly just doing whatever she can think of.
• Optional Sexual Encounter: The vast majority of them, actually.
• Our Lawyers Advised This Trope: The story contains a disclaimer that basically states that the story doesn’t violate any laws or Patreon guidelines. Since the creators had gotten burned for violating Patreon’s guidelines once before, you can imagine how fastidiously they kept to this.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: The whole story can be seen as a deconstruction for the music industry. MC, Tim, Liam, Dash, and Jade are all good musicians, but none of them have achieved superstardom due to the fiercely competitive nature of the business. Short of the Perfect Ending, this becomes Melody’s fate as well. She achieves a measure of success, but not enough to become a household name.
• Parental Abandonment: Melody never knew her father, because he left her mother before she was born.
• Parental Neglect: Arnold leaves Melody to look after herself when she’s still sick after a night of violent sickness. If Amy finds out the true extent of this, she gets so angry that she disinvites Arnold from her birthday dinner.
• Parental Substitute: Amy has been Melody’s primary mother figure since the death of Melody’s biological mother.
• Parents Are Wrong: Arnold eventually admits that he wasn’t the most supportive stepfather to Melody, and says that although the two of them do need to live apart, she is always welcome to ask him for help if she needs it.
• Passive Rescue: When Melody breaks into Steve’s dorm room to steal back her guitar, MC distracts him long enough for her to escape.
• Past Experience Nightmare: Melody sometimes has nightmares about losing her mother.
• Pastimes Prove Personality: Becca likes to read romance novels. She is also sexually frustrated because she has repressed her own sex drive.
  • Amy likes high fashion and fancy dinners, and she is classy and feminine.
  • Sophia likes to party, and to attend some rather daring parties at that, and she is noncommittal about romantic relationships.
  • Steve also likes to party, and he has been cavalier about the relationships he has had (especially with Melody).
• Patient Childhood Love Interest: Isabella had a crush on MC when they were younger, and she finally tries to jump his bones when they both have breakups around the same time.
• Pen-Pushing President: Averted with Hank Sharp, president of Sharp Records. Hank personally identifies talent for his company, and makes a point of attending his musicians’ shows when he can.
• Performance Artist: Averted with pretty much all the musicians in the story. Melody in particular has to be convinced to start performing in public.
• Playable Epilogue: Downplayed. The Girl Next Door Ending and the Cool Aunt Ending both have these, but they’re limited to choosing a bonus sex scene out of two.
• Playboy Bunny: Sophia tries on this kind of outfit in a video call with Melody, as she is planning to wear it to a party later.

Melody: Try not to go after more than one “carrot” at a time.

• Please Subscribe to Our Channel: Or their Patreon page, at least. For every version released before the completion of the story, gameplay ended with a message to check out the developers’ Patreon page.
• Plot Archaeology: The High School Sweetheart Ending. After not seeing Isabella since Week 5, MC is with her in Week 11.
• Plot Coupon That Does Something: Inverted with the guitar that Amy buys for Melody. MC sells it to kick off the plot, and Melody uses it for her first couple of lessons.
• Plot-Induced Illness: Melody gets sick right after Amy tells MC to check in on Melody as she would do from time.
  • Becca’s absence throughout much of Week 7 is explained away by her being sick in bed.
• Plot Tumor: Exaggerated with Melody’s career after her tutoring sessions are over. The developers originally wanted to limit number of updates to half a dozen (coinciding with the duration of Melody’s summer in game time), but they realized that it only would make sense to continue to give Melody a believable entry into the music industry, doubling the length of the story.
  • A lesser example is with Xianne’s character. Xianne was only meant to appear at the karaoke bar originally, but she was given a larger role in the game, being a love interest of MC and Sophia.
• Police Are Useless: Campus security sees Melody climbing out of Steve’s dorm room (presumably with her guitar in hand), and they don’t do anything to stop her.
  • When the cops find Melody drag-racing another driver, she manages to lose them - and judging by the fact that they never pay a visit to either her or Arnold, they never managed to get her license plate number.
• Pop Quiz: Several, usually with MC and Melody playing sexy games with each other, or with MC giving Melody a music quiz.
• Porn with Plot: Many people who subscribed for the sexual content in the game ended up falling in love with the story and characters.
• Positive Friend Influence: MC teaches Melody about the consequences of her actions (for herself and others), and of the importance of taking responsibility for one’s mistakes.
  • Sophia also helps to keep Melody grounded whenever she starts to go off the rails.
• Post-Kiss Catatonia: MC, after Xianne gives him a good-bye kiss on the lips after a massage session.

MC: [thinking] What the....

• P.O.V. Boy, Poster Girl: MC’s face is never seen, while Melody is the title character with her face on the title screen.
• Prank Call: If MC loses a Fussball game with Melody, he has to give one of these to Steve while doing exactly what she tells him to do.
• Precision F-Strike: Done by Melody to Bethany when the latter tries to coerce MC into returning.
  Melody: "MC likes me because I'm innocent, pure, and fun! SO FUCK OFF!"
• Pretty Freeloaders: Subverted with Melody when she crashes at MC’s apartment. While the stay ramps up the sexual tension between the two, Melody only stays at his place for one night before going to Sophia’s place.
  • However, it can be played straight when Melody gets to Sophia’s house. At one point, Sophia starts coming on to Melody, and the player will have a choice of whether to stop it or let it go on.
• Private Tutor: The first half of the story revolves around Melody’s lessons with MC. Optionally, he can tutor Sophia as well.
• Promoted to Love Interest: Xianne was originally intended to a one-shot character. However, due to player requests, she made more appearances, getting a romantic path of her own.
• Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Bethany, full stop.
• Public Exposure: In one scene, Melody takes her top off while MC drives.
• Pursue the Dream Job: Subverted. Melody aspires to be a famous musician - which many people would consider a dream job - but MC has to convince her to take up and career in music, and also to perform in public.
• Put on a Bus: This happens to Isabella eventually on her romantic path. In the fifth week, Isabella tells MC that she’ll be training to be an attendant for international flights. Even if MC doesn’t break things off with her, she’s never seen again in the game proper.
• Queer Romance: Downplayed. Sophia and Xianne end up as a couple, but not much attention is paid to their relationship.
• Ready for Lovemaking: Melody, Isabella, Amy, and Xianne all have these moments.
  • Bethany exploits this trope in order to cement her alliance with Steve.
• Real Men Cook: MC knows is way around the kitchen. This is most on display when he takes Melody in for the night after Arnold kicks her out. He cooks a special meal that Melody doubts that he was planning to make before.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Hank Sharp. He admits his own mistake in giving Bethany access to Melody’s instruments, and gives MC more control over her career to avoid repeating this mistake. Plus, if Melody gets pregnant, he doesn’t immediately terminate her contract, even though he would be within his legal rights to do so.
• Record Producer: Hank Sharp, of course. He discovers Melody, and turns her over to his able team. Interestingly, he’s a lot more pleasant than any of the producer archetypes, but he is okay with making tough decisions.
• Recovered Addict: Dash. Since getting clean, he is able to be a productive member of his band, and to maintain a relationship with Jade.
• Redheads Are Uncool: Subverted with Becca, who only thinks she’s uncool. She’s actually beloved not only by MC but by the fans, who picked her hair color (among other physical features) via poll.
• Red Herring Twist: Occurs several times in a meta way. The developers rewrote the walkthrough several times during development to omit references to difficulties later on in the story due to one choice or another. Said difficulties were never written into subsequent chapters, necessitating their removal from the walkthrough.
• Relationship Upgrade: After Melody moves in with MC, Melody’s relationship status on the information screen changes from “Single” to “In a relationship.”
• Relationship Values: Melody points. There are 377 available, and any player who collects at least 375 will get the Perfect Ending.
• Reluctant Fanservice Girl: When Melody and Sophia go to the pool together, Melody is shy about wearing her scanty bikini.
• Removing the Rival: Upon realizing that MC and Melody are in a romantic relationship, Bethany tries to force them apart by stealing Melody’s prize guitar and refusing to give it back unless MC resigns as her manager. Played straight if MC mishandles the situation, causing Steve to smash the guitar; otherwise subverted when Bethany has a change of heart, gives the guitar back, and wishes MC and Melody luck together.

• Romance Ensues: At the start of the story, MC is looking for a fresh start, and Melody is his reluctant student. Sophia playfully ribs Melody about the situation, Melody starts moaning MC’s name while masturbating, and MC starts having erotic dreams about Melody. Then, they start spending time alone outside their lessons, especially after Arnold kicks Melody out of the house. The player can either play this trope straight (by having MC accept Melody’s advances when she tells him how she feels) or subvert it (by having MC reject her).
• Romantic Candlelit Dinner: On Melody’s romantic path, Melody serves one of these for MC and herself on the roof of her apartment building.
• Royalties Heir: Downplayed with Melody. Amy and Arnold (separately) reveal that Melody is entitled to a certain percentage of Melissa’s and Amy’s business, money from Melissa’s estate, and a share of proceeds from selling the house when Arnold does this. While this doesn’t make Melody rich, it allows her and MC to put up a down payment for a house even if Melody’s career doesn’t take off.
• Rule of Two: Bethany and Steve team up to break up the dream team of MC and Melody.

S

• Sadistic Choice: Presented by Bethany and Steve to MC and Melody. Either MC resigns as Melody’s manager and leaves town with Bethany, or Steve smashes the guitar which is a keepsake from Melody’s late mother.
• Safety in Indifference: Becca responded to the pain of her breakup with her former best friend-turned-boyfriend that she shunned social interactions with anyone outside her family.
• Scales: These are part of MC’s first lesson with Melody. This doesn’t go over well with her, probably because all of her previous tutors have had her practice scales, which she finds boring and unnecessary, as well.
• School Is for Losers: Downplayed. Melody and Sophia are college students who fully intend to complete their education, and MC is college-educated. While all of them value education, Melody does leave school to further her music career if she gets a big break.
• School of No Studying: Even before they leave college, Melody and Sophia never seem to study once the new school year starts, and Steve has the time to sit in back of one of Melody’s lectures to spy on her. Also, Becca and especially Xianne almost seem more focused on work than on school.
• Screens Are Cameras: In just about about every video chat scene, both participants are making perfect eye contact.
• Second-Act Breakup: When Bethany pays MC a visit and introduces herself to Melody as “MC’s fiancée” (not his ex), Melody stops talking to MC for a few days, fearing that there might still be something there between MC and Bethany. It’s only an intervention from Sophia, who secretly arranges for MC and Melody to meet, who salvages their relationship.
• Secondary Character Title: Melody is the deuteragonist of the story.
• Second Love: Melody is this to MC, who meets her after coming out of a long relationship with Bethany.
  • Also, MC could be this for Melody, who only had one boyfriend before.
  • MC is also this for Becca on her romantic path, since she also had only a single boyfriend before.
• Secret-Keeper: On her romantic path, Isabella is the only person from MC’s old social circle who knows where he’s gone.
  • Amy, on her romantic path, tells MC the full story of a previous abusive relationship, the details of which she’s kept hidden from Melissa, Arnold, and Melody.
  • Invoked by Sophia when she figures out that Melody stole back her guitar. Sophia assures Melody that of course she would keep the secret; she only wonders why Melody didn’t let her in on it in the first place.
• Secret Relationship: If MC and Melody get into a relationship, they keep it a secret from Amy for a few weeks. They also keep it from Hank until Melody gets a strong start to her concert tour.
  • Likewise, if MC and Amy form a relationship, they will initially keep it a secret from Melody - but for a much shorter time.
  • Subverted if MC and Isabella get into relationship, and make it all the way to the High School Sweetheart Ending. The two of them don’t tell Tim about their relationship, but he knows anyway, because he heard them making love in MC’s room.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: When MC and Melody finally tell Hank about their relationship, Hank tells them that he already knows, because several musicians and their respective managers have tried concealing their romantic involvements from him before.
  • Tim knows about MC’s and Isabella’s relationship as soon as he hears them having sex in his house. However, it isn’t until the High School Sweetheart Ending that he lets on that he knows.
• Self-Care Epiphany: Implied with MC. He cancels his Friday lesson with Melody in Week 5, saying that he needs to do something, and doesn’t want to be bothered with people asking for his help. We find out in the next chapter where he was: getting a massage.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: This seems to have been the dynamic of MC’s and Tim’s friendship (MC being the sensitive guy, and Tim the manly man).
• Serenade Your Lover: MC plays a song for Melody while she’s sick. It helps her drift off to sleep.
• Series Fauxnale: Week 7 was supposed to be the final week of the story. However, as the story grew, it became the halfway point instead. However, some of the early elements for this planned finale were kept.
• Serious Business: Downplayed, but Melody mentions learning how to modify social media passwords in a college computer class. Why on earth would a Gen-Z college student need a computer class to teach her how to use a social media website?
• Set Behind the Scenes: Naturally, given that the deuteragonist is a musician who goes professional, and that the protagonist is her manager.
• Sex as Rite-of-Passage: A female example with Melody. On her romantic path, her (hetero)sexual initiation marks her progress toward adulthood in other areas of her life as well.
• Sex at Work: MC and Melody (on her romantic path) do this once when they have sex on top of a studio sound board at Sharp Records.
  • Amy (on her romantic path) seduces MC in the the back of her dress shop.
  • Sophia pays Xianne a visit at the club where she works, and the two of them have some fun in one of the private rooms.
• Sex Changes Everything: Zigzagged with MC and Isabella if he accepts her initial advances. Since both of them went through through recent breakups, they agree to a one-night stand to keep things casual. However, Isabella wants more once she’s had the first taste, and she says so. If the player chooses, MC can start dating Isabella at that point.
  • Exaggerated with Becca, who briefly dated her best friend years before. They broke up soon after doing the deed, leaving Becca so distraught that she didn’t dare get close to anyone outside her family for a long time.
  • Discussed between MC and Amy if she tries to seduce him after her birthday dinner. MC, who has the more level head, tells her that they should hold off on sex so Melody’s lessons wouldn’t be jeopardized if something were to happen between Amy and himself.
• Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll: Happens mostly offscreen, but Dash is an example of this. In particular, drugs are his undoing, as a relapse causes his band to break up and his girlfriend to leave him.
• Sex for Product: One of the prerequisites to get on Amy’s romantic path right after her birthday dinner is to buy her an expensive perfume as a present. Justified, because it is in Amy’s favorite line of perfumes.
  • Also implied at the beginning of the story, when MC gets an email ad for penis enlargement pills.
• Sex for Solace: MC and Isabella can have sex to get over their respective breakups. Lampshaded by Isabella when she says that neither of them is “in the best place right now.”
  • Melody, right after her breakup with Steve (and he kept her prized guitar), had sex with Sophia.
• Sex God: Despite their very different sexual styles, all the girls who sleep with MC note how good he is in bed. Melody actually squirts when he takes her virginity.
• Sex Is Good: Every sexual encounter that MC has is a positive and pleasurable experience for all parties involved. Also, the ones between the girls are the same.
• Sexy Mentor: MC is this from Melody’s point of view.
• Sexy Shirt Switch: Subverted. When Melody stays at MC’s apartment and forgot to pack sleepwear, she’ll wear a shirt of MC’s. This is before they consummate their relationship, though.
• Sexy Stewardess: Isabella, definitely. On her romantic path, she and MC incorporate her profession into one of their roleplay sessions.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Sophia generally dresses to get male (and female) attention, and is downright excited if MC checks out her ass during one of their tutoring sessions.
  • Xianne is similarly unashamed with her (partially or fully) undressed body. She wants to eventually start dancing at the strip club where she tends the bar. Apparently, giving erotic massages at her aunt’s parlor made her open about her body.
• Shipper on Deck: Zigzagged with Sophia. She goes back and forth between trying to get MC and Melody to get (and stay) together and trying to seduce one or both of them.
• Shower of Love: Subverted. Although MC and Melody shower and bathe together a few times, they never go all the way in the shower.
• Shower Scene: Apart from her shower scenes with MC, Melody also has a couple of solo shower scenes.
• The Show Must Go On: In-universe. Even after the power cuts out at Melody’s concert (thanks to Steve, with Bethany’s help), Melody still has to put on an enjoyable performance, especially because it’s her first concert of this magnitude. She manages to hold her own with an audience participation song until the problem is fixed.
• Shrinking Violet: Becca. She doesn’t like interacting with strangers, and believes that she’s not a pretty girl.
• Sick and Wrong: If MC gets caught dating both Melody and Amy, Amy yells at him for being a “pervert” and tells him not to come near either of them again.
  • Bethany has this reaction if Melody kisses MC while standing up for him.
• Sick Episode: MC having to take care of a sick Melody.
  • Downplayed when Becca has the flu. Instead of having MC take care of her, she barely appears in the story at all for a week.
• Signature Instrument: Melody’s acoustic guitar that she got from her mother. Even though she struggles in early lessons with her new guitar (the one Amy bought from MC to give to her), she can effortlessly play her keepsake guitar.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: As the story progresses, Melody will wear formal clothes more often and less reluctantly.
• Silent Whisper: If MC has to leave town with Bethany to get Melody’s guitar returned, he whispers something in Melody’s ear before he departs. In the Girl Next Door Ending and the Cool Aunt Ending, we eventually hear what MC told Melody, but in the High School Sweetheart Ending, we do not.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Amy is an extremely feminine woman who wants a man to look after her, but she is a businesswoman who negotiates for what she believes she is worth.
• Singer-Songwriter: The ultimate objective is for Melody to achieve success as this.
• Single-Issue Psychology: All of Melody’s psychological issues are attributed to her history of loss, and of being mistreated and abandoned.
  • Becca’s painful shyness is traced back entirely to her one past failed romantic relationship.
  • Implied with Xianne as well. Her politeness and discomfort with her own mistakes are both hinted to come from cultural expectations.
• Single Parents Are Undesirable: Probably averted with Melissa. Her daughter, Melody, to whom she gave birth around age 15, did not stop her from attracting and marrying Arnold.
• Single Serving Friend: Melody’s friend Daphne only properly appears in one scene, and is pretty much an unseen wallflower the entire time.
  • MC’s friend Dash appears once; he and his girlfriend, Jade, appear with their bandmate, Liam. Dash’s drug use soon takes out the band and the relationship all at once, and while Jade and Liam return to play in Melody’s band, Dash does not make another appearance.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Pretty much every girl with whom MC can eventually end up (Melody, Isabella, Becca, and Amy). However, their thought processes are very different: Melody wants someone who will stay with and take care of her after other important people in her life have abandoned, neglected, or mistreated her; Isabella wants to get back on her feet after a bad relationship; Becca wants a relationship that can restore her confidence after her last one fell apart out of the blue; and Amy wants a guy who will take care of her after her last boyfriend abused her.
• Skewed Priorities: Bethany all but abandons her job for weeks while trying to strong-arm MC into coming back for her.
• Skinny Dipping: The usually sensible Sophia goes to a social gathering in which a group of people are doing this. She agrees because everybody has to drop their phones somewhere to be admitted.
  • After Melody gives a concert, she and MC go swimming in the nude in the hotel pool.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: The very intelligent Becca wears spectacles.
• Smells Sexy: Melody wants MC to help her pick out a perfume for Amy’s birthday gift. MC can tell immediately why the higher-priced one is more expensive; he thinks to himself that if Melody was his girlfriend, he’d start giving her hickeys after smelling it on her neck.
• Smooth-Talking Talent Agent: Averted, and quite understandably so. MC, as Melody’s manager, has an interest in her that goes well beyond money.
• Snarky Villain, Earnest Hero: MC is pretty much devoid of snark. Bethany can suppress her snark to win someone over, but it comes back before long.
• The Sociopath: Bethany shows every clinical characteristic, but it’s ultimately subverted when she makes her Heel-Face Turn.
• So Happy Together: Jade and Dash seem to have a strong relationship when MC and Melody run into them. Little do they know that their relationship will come crashing down in just a couple of weeks....
• Songs of Solace: In-universe. Melody plays these whenever she’s feeling bad, particularly about losing her mother.
• Sorry to Interrupt: If Melody and Sophia keep having sex, eventually MC will walk in on them. He’ll quietly get out, but if MC is getting some on the side with Sophia as well, he’ll have an opportunity for a three-way relationship with the two girls. If he doesn’t pursue a three-way, or if he’s not been doing anything with Sophia, MC and Melody will go back to having an exclusive relationship.
• Sorting Algorithm of Face-Heel Turning: Bethany, having behaved sociopathically up to this point, finally accepts the romantic relationship between MC and Melody. She has a favorable demographic (a beautiful young woman) for seeing the light, but her individual character makes it seem forced.
• So Unfunny, It's Funny: Melody soon learns to laugh at MC’s corny sense of humor. Unusually for her, she even tolerates it when those jokes are about her name.
• Soup Is Medicine: When Becca has the flu, her parents come over and make her soup.
• Standard Snippet: ”Here Comes the Bride” plays during the wedding scene in the Perfect Ending.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Discussed. At one point, MC has the option of taking Melody to see a music-themed movie. When they speculate afterwards on whether the main couple will stay together after the story ends, Melody is convinced that they won’t.
• Stargazing Scene: After the dinner celebrating the end of Melody’s lessons with MC, the two of them have the option to go stargazing together.
• Starving Artist: Averted. All the professional musicians in the story are able to make decent (if not luxurious) livings with their music.
• Staying with Friends: After Arnold kicks her out of the house for damaging his car, Melody crashes at MC’s apartment for a night, and then stays at Sophia’s house for a couple of weeks. She can’t help being bored after a while.
• STD Immunity: Downplayed. Even though mostly the characters don’t use protection, most of them have little to no sexual experience (at least not recently). And Becca at least insists that MC wear a condom for their first time together, though they don’t use any protection after that.
• Step Up to the Microphone: Melody lets Sophia sing a song at one of her concerts.
• Stock Animal Behavior: Benatar, Becca’s cat, climbs through MC’s window and into his apartment in one scene.
• Stranger Safety: Amy arranges for her petite 19-year-old niece to learn music one-on-one from a much larger male stranger whom she met the previous week. In his apartment.
  • Becca allows MC inside her apartment to fix her faucet on the third meeting, a week after they first meet.
• Street Musician: To introduce Melody to the idea of performing music, MC has her play her guitar in the park. People actually start giving her money when they see her play.
• Suburbia: At the beginning of the story, MC, Bethany, and Tim appear to live in the suburbs of a major city.
  • In both the Good Ending and the Family Ending, this is where MC and Melody eventually settle down. They have their little detached house with a manicured lawn for themselves and maybe a little one.
• Surprise Pregnancy: Depending on player choice, Melody can fall pregnant by the end of the story, preventing her from going on tour and kneecapping her musical career.
• Swiss-Cheese Security: Two fake crew members who nobody else saw before go backstage at Melody’s concert, cut the power to her performance, and walk off with one of her instruments.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Near the end of the story, Steve explains to Melody that his father is dying of cancer. Since Melody already lost her mother to cancer, she sympathizes with Steve, and observes that his acting out actually mirrored her own in many ways.

T

• Tabloid Melodrama: Averted with Melody. Even as her star rises, there’s no indication of what the tabloids are saying, or even that they’re saying anything at all, about Melody’s life.
• Take Back Your Gift: At the beginning of the story, when Bethany breaks up with MC, she disdainfully tells him to take along a guitar he gave her as a gift a few years back. Indeed, she never played it, meaning that it’s essentially brand new. He sells it to Amy, who wants to give it to Melody, thus kicking off the plot.
• Taking It Well: In the High School Sweetheart Ending, MC and Isabella finally tell Tim that they’re in a relationship. Tim doesn’t react angrily, as they expect, but blesses their relationship.
• Talking to the Dead: Late in the story, Melody visits her mother’s grave to tell her about the good things that have recently started happening in her life.
• Talk Show: Melody is interviewed on a radio talk show and her music comes to be better known.
• Taste the Rainbow: The developers included sex scenes to appeal to a wide range of sexual appetites in lots and lots of different scenes.
• Teacher/Parent Romance: Played with, especially in the Cool Aunt Ending. MC (Melody’s tutor) can start a relationship with Amy (Melody’s aunt, her primary mother figure since the death of Melissa). The two of them end up together in the Cool Aunt Ending. Also, if MC and Melody end up as a couple instead, Melody will admit that she was initially suspicious of MC because she thought he was just trying to get into Amy’s pants.
• Teacher/Student Romance: MC and Melody, of course.
  • Also, MC and Sophia, if MC decides to both teach and date her.
• Technical Virgin: Melody is this until her first time with MC. She had one (or more, depending on player choice) lesbian experience with Sophia beforehand, but the game gives her the “virgin” label until she goes all the way with MC.
• Teen Idol: Implied with Melody. Although none of her fans is ever shown, they can be surmised to be in their teens. And Melody herself is 19.
  • Koko is a more established, albeit still rising, teen idol.
• Teen Pop: Discussed. MC, near the beginning, wants to get a sense of the (mainly newer) music that Melody listens to.
• Teen Pregnancy: Downplayed with Melody in the Family Ending. At 19, Melody is still a teen, but legally an adult, enjoys a reasonably profitable career, and has a man who stands by her.
  • Implied with Melissa. Doing the math between Melody’s and Amy’s respective ages and the age gap between Amy and Melissa, Melissa had to have been around 15 when she gave birth to Melody. And Melody never knew her biological father.
• Teens Love Shopping: Both Melody and Sophia have fun trying on and buying new outfits, and the two of them go on a recreational shopping trip at one point during the story.

• That Didn't Happen: Played with regarding MC’s and Melody’s first kiss in the heat of a relieved moment. They both avoid talking about it for the better part of a week, and when they do, they agree that it was just a “friendly kiss.”
• Their First Time: Takes on a different flavor with each of the various girls that MC is involved with:
  • Melody: The two of them get off to several false starts due to Melody’s virginity being on her mind, or just being in public when the “right moment” comes. However, it eventually hits when they’re in the bedroom together.
  • Isabella (her path only): Isabella starts coming on to MC as soon as they see each other, but they can’t do anything yet due to Tim being there. At night, after Tim is drunk and (supposedly) asleep, they pick up where they left off.
  • Becca (her path only): Becca holds off with MC, not wanting to appear easy. She reaches the point where she wants it, but stops MC because he doesn’t have a condom on hand. Soon after, MC gets a condom, and they go all the way.
  • Amy (her path only): Amy tries to seduce MC in her hotel room, but MC resists for Melody’s sake. However, when she invites him in for the second time less than a week later, they fool around, but Amy passes out from alcohol before they consummate their relationship. Soon after, however, they have sex.
  • Sophia (her path only): MC and Sophia know pretty early that they’ll be having sex, and they do on their first meeting alone after Sophia offers him a “discreet” relationship.
• Themed Party: Melody and Sophia invite MC to a party for which each guest has to dress up as their favorite musical era.
• There Are No Therapists: Becca is studying psychology... so why didn’t she see a psychologist herself to deal with her crippling shyness?
• Third Wheel: When Jade, Liam, and Dash are introduced, Liam is hanging out with the couples Jade and Dash. Liam doesn’t mind, probably because he spends a lot of his time making intentionally awkward jokes.
• Thoroughly Mistaken Identity: Invoked by Steve when MC knocks on his door to aid in Melody’s escape, posing as a father claiming that Steve slept with his daughter.
• A Threesome Is Hot: MC can have these with Melody and Sophia if he’s dating both of them at a critical point in the game. Additionally, if he’s previously been involved with Xianne, she can also join in for one scene.
• Thrill Seeker: Melody does some risky activities (e.g. drag racing) for the fun of it.
• Through His Stomach: Melody cooks MC a candlelit dinner, and serves it on the rooftop.
• Token Minority: Xianne (East Asian).
• Too Desperate to Be Picky: MC doesn’t initially want to take a job tutoring a college student, but the location does give him some things to be happy about - and he really wants to get away from Bethany.
• The Topic of Cancer: MC and Melody both lost their mothers to cancer, and Steve is about to lose his father to cancer.
• Tragic Keepsake: Melody’s guitar, given to her by her mother before her untimely death, is her favorite musical instrument and most prized possession.
  • Melody starts to wear her mother’s old clothes as well, as she doesn’t really have formal wear of her own, and Melissa had a large collection of such clothing.
  • Eventually invoked by Arnold. For him, the house itself is a keepsake for his late wife. However, it makes him almost too sad to function at home, so he eventually sells it.
• Tropical Epilogue: The High School Sweetheart Ending starts this way, with MC and Isabella relaxing on the beach.
• Troubled Teen: Deconstructed with Melody. She lost her mother to cancer early in her teens, and Arnold withdrew emotionally due to his own grief. Meanwhile, Amy had limited availability at the time, because unbeknownst to her, she was dealing with escaping an abusive relationship. Then, in college, possibly her first “real” relationship with Steve was toxic, and ended with him stealing a treasured keepsake from her deceased mother. She needed a combination of things to pull out of it: a mentor in MC who tells her the truth, though gently, and guides her through her life’s issues, close friends in Sophia and Xianne, and renewed and improved support from Amy and Arnold.
• Turning Into Your Parent: Melody learns to appreciate dressing up, like her mother did. Since she doesn’t really have any dressy clothes of her own, Melody even borrows her mother’s own clothes to wear when the occasion demands it.
• Two-Person Pool Party: MC and Melody go skinny dipping late at night in their hotel pool after Melody plays a concert. Things heat up really fast.
• Two Roads Before You: Whether to get into/stay in a relationship with any of the girls, but most of all whether or not to pursue a relationship with Melody.
• Two-Timing with the Bestie: Sophia offers MC a relationship on the side if he’s been tutoring her and has formed a romantic relationship with the title character. If MC accepts, and Melody and Sophia have also been fooling around, it can lead to threesomes.

U-Z

• Uncovering Relationship Status: If MC goes to breakfast with Becca in Week 2, he tells her at one point, “Your boyfriend is lucky.” Becca answers that she doesn’t have one.
• Undisclosed Funds: The expensive perfume for Amy isn’t given a price.
• Unexpected Virgin: Amazingly, a female example. Melody is a girl with a wild streak who previously had a relationship with a guy who, to put it lightly, likes sex a lot. And yet she’s never had sex at age 19.
• Uninvited to the Party: If Amy finds out exactly how Arnold didn’t adequately care for Melody while she was sick, she will disinvite him from her birthday dinner.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: None of the major characters seem to wear the same outfit twice.
• Vague Age: Becca’s precise age is unknown, but judging by the fact that she’s a student who’s soon to graduate college, she’s somewhere in her early twenties.
  • Xianne’s precise age is also unknown, but it can be inferred from the point she’s at in her education that she’s 18 or 19.
• Valentine's Day Episode: Can be experienced with Melody, Becca, or Amy depending on player choice. However, it’s called “Romance Day” instead, possibly because in game time, it’s closer to Christmas than Valentine’s Day would be.
• Vanity Is Feminine: Downplayed. Becca and Amy both like dressing up (and Melissa liked to as well), and Melody eventually learns to appreciate it. However, one person who is instrumental in helping Melody to appreciate dressing up in more formal and feminine clothes is MC, who, despite being a self-proclaimed t-shirt-and-shorts kind of guy, tells Melody that some occasions and settings warrant looking more presentable.
• Video Game Caring Potential: All of the girls are written so that the player cares about them. According to a number of them, it worked.
• Video Game Perversity Potential: Not so much, but it’s there. The player can choose MC’s name, with no limits on what in can be.
• Villain Team-Up: While Bethany is in a bar plotting her next move to get MC back, she meets Steve. In talking to him, they discover that their exes (MC and Melody) are in a relationship together (professional and possibly romantic). Together, they plot to bring their exes down.
• Virgin in a White Dress: Lampshded when Melody wears a white nightgown while crashing at MC’s place. MC asks her if she knows what the color white stands for, and Melody freaks out, because she does know, and she thinks MC can tell that she’s still a virgin.
• Visible Silence: Used mainly when a character is having an orgasm, but occasionally used in other contexts as well.
• The Voice: We hear Arnold (or rather, we see that he’s speaking) before he’s shown.

• Voice Actors: Used to provide a listening tool during Melody’s musical numbers.
• Vulgar Humor: Possible when MC and Melody go grocery shopping together. But MC loses points if he gets too vulgar.
• Waistcoat of Style: Hank Sharp wears one of these.
• Waiting for a Break: Averted. Melody doesn’t take a food service job while working toward her big break, as she’s discovered right after she starts performing her music publicly.
• Wakeup Makeup: Melody has perfect eyeshadow on after taking a shower.
• Walkthrough: The developers created an official one, available to all patrons who contribute at least $10 per month, which they wrote with the first version of the game and updated for every subsequent update.
• Watch the Paint Job: Melody has a habit of taking Arnold’s car out for rides without his knowledge or consent. Once, she drag races in the car, denting the rear bumper, and Arnold catches her before she can do anything about it. He’s so angry that he kicks her out of the house.
• Wealthy Ever After: Happens to MC and Melody in the Perfect Ending. The two of them come to live in a mansion such as only the wealthiest musicians can afford.
• Wedding Finale: The Perfect Ending finishes with MC’s and Melody’s wedding.
• What Are Records?: Averted. Melody loves old music, but neither she nor MC has anything on vinyl.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The Perfect Ending manages to tie in all the major characters.
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Some parts of the setting look American, while others look European. However, since Christmas (presumably) takes place in the summer, the story must be set in Australia (the home of Mr. Dots) or New Zealand.
• Wine Is Classy: The girls with the biggest tastes in wine are Isabella, Becca, and Amy, who are the most cultured and sophisticated. Melody drinks more wine as she matures throughout the story.
• Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: When Bethany and Steve start arguing, MC needs to hold his tongue instead of intervening. If he keeps his mouth shut, he’ll be able to diffuse the situation successfully in just a little bit, but if he doesn’t, Steve will smash Melody’s prize guitar, leading to a bad ending.
• World Tour: Melody, her band (including Sophia), MC, and Xianne go on one of these in the Perfect Ending.
• Would Hit a Girl: When the two of them start fighting, Steve slaps Bethany in the face when she wants to call off their extortion scheme and give Melody her guitar back.
• Wrong Assumption: Melody avoids seeing or talking to MC for a few days after she sees Bethany in MC’s apartment, thinking that there’s still something going on between the two exes. Bethany does everything to further this assumption, referring to herself as MC’s fiancée rather than his ex. It’s only an intervention from Sophia that keeps MC and Melody from drifting entirely apart.
• Wrong-Name Outburst: Sort of, because it happens during masturbation, not sex. Melody blurts out MC’s name while using her vibrator, and is then too shocked with herself to continue.
• You Get What You Pay For: When picking a perfume to give to Amy for her birthday, MC takes note of how much better the more expensive perfume smells.
• Your Door Was Open: On one occasion, MC leaves his apartment door unlocked just before he’s about to give Melody a lesson. He’s surprised to see Melody in his living room already, and Melody replies that the door was open.

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