Good Girls go to Heaven, Bad Girls go everywhere

(If you get the reference, you have great taste.)

Sorry it's been a week since my last check-in, but the good news is that it's been slightly less mad today and I've managed to make some progress. There's so many new renders in this release, that every time I think I'm nearing the end, I realise there's still this or that scene to finish.  Nonetheless, with life starting to return to some vague semblance of normality, I'm hitting the rendering hard, in the hope that I can have something ready to beta test in the next couple of weeks.

So in the meantime, let's talk bad girls!  No one's really sure where the name or the idea came from, but the bad girls have been a thing at Saint Alancia's for as long as anyone can remember. Miss Paris attended the school about a decade ago and they were around in her time, and probably for many, many years before that.

It makes sense that in a school as rough as Saint Alancia's the girls would seek protection from one another, and so cliques form and dissolve, alliances shift and the relative power of each group rises and falls. The two most enduring groups are the bad girls and the popular girls. The bad girls however are the more visible, thanks to their signature red ribbons, which they all wear with pride, despite the fact that it immediately identifies them to the teachers and prefects.

The reason for this is because the ribbons mean something to them. They have to be earned, and any prospect hoping to join this clique must first perform an act of great cruelty. (This is why simply stealing Jess's ribbon if you beat her in the orchard doesn't make you a bad girl.) She can choose what the act will be, and joins by the popular assent of the other bad girls.

The ribbons were chosen as they are the most outlandish attire permitted by the school's strict uniform policy. Hair accessories are allowed as long as they are for the purpose of securing the girl's hair, and so many bad girls work their ribbons into their hairstyle. Some, like Jess, don't bother.

Technically, the group does not have a leadership structure, and no bad girl outranks any other, however, as Malia explains during the first part of Poppy's story, the reality is that the strongest and smartest lead. In the first year group, this is the devious (and quite dangerous in her own right,) Jessica, while in the wider school, Poppy claims the title.

In this story, we will learn a lot more about the bad girls, including their relationship with the teachers (and speculation as to why they are tolerated by them) and how each of them earned their ribbons. Plus, as we already know, we'll have the opportunity to earn ours, and join this chaotic and dangerous group.

All of the pictures from today have also been previews, presented without context, but I have one more very exciting one to show you...

Yep. You can finally sleep with Poppy. I hope that'll make the added wait of the last couple of months worth it!

Trinian