Why, hello there! I’m Strawbarely There and I’ll be guesting here to join Marvelle in doing Let’s Plays of Shall We Date?: The Niflheim+.
Marvelle did a wonderful job going over the Prologue already, so I’m not gonna rehash all that. I’m just gonna dive right in with my impressions of all the options.
Orlando: Flaming douche. Dresses like he fell into a circus’s Goodwill donation bin.
J.J.: Oddball/shy is my preferred type, but I have a feeling his route might be boring. Also, I can see his ribcage and I don’t think eating a little more will fix it.
Phillipe: Walking ball of purple prose, dresses like he fell into the bin Orlando put his Goodwill donation clothes into. 
Pass.
Jean: The reform-the-playboy trope is my absolute least favorite. At least he’s funny. I still kinda want to take him and Orlando by the back of their heads and smash their skulls together.
Pale Ghost: He seems like a bit of a sad sack, but I would be too if I was invisible and stuck with an outfit that left my head really warm and my nips perpetually freezing.
Victor: You just met me and you announce you’re desperate for a wife? I guess Dr. Frankenstein forgot to add some chill.
Skeletiano: 
If Petit wasn’t already doing this I’d be all over this route, because the idea of dating a sassy skeleton is ridiculous and I love it. She’s got this, though, so pass.
Leo: King of a blazing land? I try not to sweat unless I’m running. Pass.
So, I guess I’m going with Pale Ghost solely because I can’t predict what his route will be and don’t overtly hate him. His name is Transparent Tom until I’m told otherwise.
I named MC Winnifred Undead, because I’m classy.
CHAPTER 1
Skeletiano is getting MC started on her bridal training, which is apparently pretty taxing. Skeletiano seems fun and like a great teacher, whereas Orlando mostly just pops in to be a dick and call MC lazy. 
Skeletiano brings MC tea and cute shaped cookies as a brief reprieve from studying, and admits to having impulse purchased bat-shaped cookie cutters despite not actually needing food. I am filled with bitterness for not choosing his route already. We can still cookie cutter shop as besties, right?
MC spots Transparent Tom smiling at her across the courtyard as she sips her tea. Despite Orlando and Skeletiano’s insistence that they can’t see him, she walks over to ask why he’s creepin’. TT’s mumbling to himself about how none of them can see him, even when MC repeatedly tries to talk to him. Finally she gets frustrated and tries to touch him, which doesn’t work (she goes right through him). He just keeps whining about how invisible he is she finally just gets fed up and yells at him. I feel for you, girl. 
TT briefly wonders if he heard something before wandering off. As he walks he continues reiterating that he’s, like, so very invisible.
MC follows him to keep watching the pity party, I guess, and I get the choice to give him some cookies or just ponder how awkward everything is. Believe me, it is definitely awkward, but I am a German grandmother inside and will never pass up giving people cookies. MC tries to hand him the cookies only to have them go right through him. Oh, God, he can’t even eat cookies?! I take it all back. No wonder he’s sadder than Trent Reznor on a rainy day.
TT continues talking to himself and mentions that he swiped a cookie AND drew mustaches on the guards without anyone noticing. 
Okay, that’s cute. MC impulsively jams a cookie in his mouth, and it actually works! He spends a moment chewing and acting way too surprised before accepting that MC sees him. He seems really thrilled and informs her that his name is Nick. No more “Transparent Tom” for me. Unfortunately their interaction is interrupted by Orlando, misuser of Manic Panic and ruiner of all good things. Nick manages to hastily ask MC to meet him again, and they agree to go on a picnic somewhere called Bone Mountain the next day. I dunno about you, but if some strange dude asked to take me to Bone Mountain I’d have… reservations. Whatever, he better bring snacks.
Cut to the next day. MC baked her own scones for the picnic, because she’s MAH GIRL. When she reaches Bone Mountain, Nick is hanging out on a swingset. With no visible snacks. 
The first thing he does is point out how desolate and far away from everything this location is, which is definitely not a creepy way to begin this meeting at all. 
He asks MC if she got yelled at because of him and looks super sad sack-y when she admits she did. She tries to change the subject with scones, and he responds by wondering why she’d make scones for someone like him. She insists she just wanted to do something nice for him, and he calls her a liar. Oh, he’s gonna be like that.
Listen up, buddy, we all have our insecurities… but you just got fresh scones! I notice you asked to have a picnic and yet failed to bring food, so I’d shut up and eat the damn things. The things that are the only things. Because someone invited someone else to a picnic and then BROUGHT NO SNACKS!
He explains that he’s literally never gotten a gift before and is just sort of at a loss for the etiquette, and MC accepts this as a sort-of apology. She also asks why he chose to meet at night, and he explains he enjoys the darkness. I swear I hear The Smiths playing faintly every time this dude talks. MC tells him he’s a strange dude, and when he asks why she’s at a loss because there are too many reasons. 
Amen, girl. She tries to ask why the cookies went through him sometimes and didn’t other times, and he basically doesn’t know how it works himself. MC theorizes it might have worked because he was surprised, and that it may be related to emotions. They talk about his whole invisibility dilemma for a while, until his stomach growls and interrupts them. He then explains that he basically lives off of scavenged food, so MC decides to offer her cooking services from now on.
We get to choose what variety of foods (bulky or dainty) we think he’d like, and I chose dainty because I like the word “dainty.” MC muses he seems waifish and would therefore like dainty food, but I would posit that he’s waifish because he lives on actual garbage. Nick takes MC’s hand and she’s all, “Oh, wow! We can touch now!”
END OF CHAPTER 1.
I’ll be back to hang out with mister sadness toga once my tickets replenish.
