#choices distant shores

[princepotatosack]

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

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

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

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

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

ALPHA

Channing Luna

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

Channing Liu

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

BABY BUMP

Clint Kao

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

DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS

Charles Quiñones / Charlotte Quiñones

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

Charles Kim / Charlotte Kim

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

DISTANT SHORES

Edward Mao

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

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

Edward Montoya

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

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

THE DUCHESS AFFAIR

Nathaniel Pandit / Natalie Pandit

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

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

FIRST COMES LOVE

Blake Mai

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

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Blaine Juárez

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

GUARDED

Ash Harada

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

Part 2

Part 3

#playchoices #choices alpha #alpha choices #channing lowe #choices baby bump #baby bump choices #clint covington #choices dirty little secrets #dirty little secrets choices #charles king #charlotte king #distant shores #choices distant shores #distant shores choices #edward mortemer #the duchess affair #the duchess affair choices #nat pippin #first comes love #first comes love choices #blake marshall #choices foreign affairs #foreign affairs choices #blaine hayes #choices guarded #guarded choices #ash harada

[thedistantshoresproject]

If DS is a “fan favorite”, why won’t PB listen to the fans and make a sequel?

#thedistantshoresproject #choices distant shores

[raleigh-edward]

When Distant Shores MC disappeared, Edward lost his mind searching the seven seas endlessly, Charlie never fell in love again and Oliver never married, all of them having tragic ends in MC's absence

Blades LIs kind of just got on with their lives yk? But it also makes more sense? They had known each other for a very short while and a common cause had held their group together. Mal was the worst so far 😞

I hope this was done on purpose and has an impact on the future plot.

#playchoices #choices #choices bolas #pb choices #choices stories you play #blades of light and shadow #blades of light and shadow 2 #distant shores #choices distant shores

[storyofmychoices]

SpreadJoy #788: spreading positivity with quotes and @playchoices characters.

Quote in edit by Unknown

#choices #choices game #playchoices #spreadjoy #choices spreadjoy #edward mortemer #distant shores #choices distant shores

[ratanslily]

Charlotte Smith🏴‍☠️💜

ps: i tried😭

#playchoices #charlie smith #t edit tag #choices edits #distant shores #choices ds #choices distant shores

[hotchocolatelovesyou]

worth it.

#choices: stories you play #pb choices #playchoices #choices distant shores #distant shores #ds choices

[playchoicesconfessions]

Sent by @korgbelmont

'Huge shoutout to everyone working on the @itlivesproject, @thedistantshoresproject & @nightboundthesecond for all the work they're doing!'

POSTS/CONFESSIONS DO NOT REFLECT MOD'S PERSONAL OPINIONS!

#itlivesproject #thedistantshoresproject #nightboundthesecond #it lives in the woods #it lives beneath #distant shores #nightbound #choices it lives in the woods #choices it lives beneath #choices distant shores #choices nightbound #choices #playchoices #choices stories you play #confessions #mod kamie

[hydn-jpg]

edward... my beloved

gave him a bit of chest hair bc you're telling me he's a pirate from the 18th century and doesn't have chest hair??? yeah no lmao

#i realise i draw mostly immortal desires fanart #which isn't a bad thing i think #but i wanna draw more of other characters too!! #if you wanna see a character in my style just lmk!! #leave a comment or send an ask or smth #i'll try to get to them :) #side note asian edward has the coolest fuckin hair #we will return to your semi-regularly scheduled immortal desires fanart in a few days #maybe even tomorrow #who knows 👀 #playchoices #choices ds #choices distant shores #distant shores #choices fanart #edward mortemer #fanart #my art #hydn.jpg

[liittleemiixeer]

i just got into distant shores and bro ... it's not disappointing so far im actually loving it AND ON TOP OF ALL THAT I CANT CHOOSE WHICH LI TO ROMANCE I LOVE THEM ALL

#playchoices #choices stories you play #choices #pixelberry #pixelberry studios #distant shores #choices distant shores

[farizrz]

Peyton and Edward watching One Piece LA and Edward too enjoyed watching it🤩

#playchoices #choices stories you play #choicesgame #choices game #choicesstoriesyouplay #play choices #distant shores #choices distant shores #choices dirty little secrets #edward mortemer #Spotify

[0tome0bsessed]

hello and welcome back to me hating pb studios

I've been replaying a bunch of choices books while i wait for more Crime of Passion, and let me just say

I WILL NEVER FORGIVE THEM FOR CANCELLING THE BEST GODDAMN BOOKS. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO GIVE SURRENDER A SEQUEL BUT NOT DISTANT SHORES? THEY ALL DESERVED BETTER

not to mention how much i hate their attempt at gaining readers through poorly written, basically abusive sex scenes. buts that's a rant for another time

#fuck you pixelberry #everyone deserved so much better #choices: stories you play #choices #choices trm #the royal masquerade #choices distant shores #distant shores #choices most wanted #choices te #the elementalists #choices surrender #choices stories we play #otome game #pixelberry

[thedistantshoresproject]

We want to take a moment to congratulate our amazing artist @oh-so-youre-a-nerd for gaining recognition from PB! Thia is an absolute joy to work with and they deserve all of the best!

#thedistantshoresproject #wordsfromthecaptain #choices distant shores

[raleigh-edward]

I am once again missing my pirate captain

#edward come back #my pirate captain edward beloved #edward mortemer #captain edward #distant shores #choices distant shores #playchoices #it's been years #ive grown up so much #but somehow i'm still stuck there

[fourfreckledstars]

always loved male outfits with their chest out

#choices app #playchoices #choices game #the cursed heart #distant shores #choices distant shores #choices the cursed heart #best clothes pb can offer #they should add more clothes like this

[storyofmychoices]

SpreadJoy #512: spreading positivity with quotes and @playchoices characters.

Quote in edit by Heather Stillufsen

#ginny distant shores #ginny choices #ginny #ginny ds #distant shores #choices distant shores #choices #playchoices #choices game #spreadjoy #choices spreadjoy #spreadjoy request

[choices-binglebonkus]

We have a distant shores sequel project 🤩

Thank you, others who like DS will love this :)

#signal boost #distant shores #choices ds #ds #choices distant shores #playchoices fandom #choices stories you play