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just9art · 2 months ago

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Exploring the Demo Characters of Touhou Kinjoukyou ~ Fossilized Wonders

With the arrival of a new mainline Touhou demo, I finally want to take a swing at writing up my own examination and explanation of the cast of Fossilized Wonders so far, alongside my own thoughts on the characters and some speculation as to where the incident is going to go. As an enthusiast of both mythology and paleontology the title definitely intrigued me, to the point I made my own prediction for a possible character, but Fossilized Wonders still managed to surprise. Obviously, spoilers ahead.

Also, thanks to @Yamayuandadu for her help with this post. Ubame Chirizuka

Ubame is fairly straightforward, she’s described as a yamanba, a mountain-dwelling hag that is already represented in the series with Nemuno Sakata. However, her surname, Chirizuka (塵塚), also suggests inspiration from the Chirizuka-Kaiō (塵塚怪王; “Strange King of the Dust Heap”), a yōkai depicted by the famous Edo period artist Toriyama Sekien in the Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro (百器徒然袋). Although images of a creature similar to the Chirizuka-Kaiō are found in Muromachi period night parade scrolls (百鬼夜行絵巻, Hyakki Yagyō Emaki), the name and description of the yōkai provided in the Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro were seemingly created by Sekien.

Toriyama Sekien’s depiction of the Chirizuka-Kaiō from the Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro.

According to Sekien, the Chirizuka-Kaiō is chief of the yamanba, an apparent allusion to the noh play Yamanba, though the Chirizuka-Kaiō has also been associated with Tsukumogami due to its illustration in the Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro, which depicts it releasing a horde of Tsukumogami, alongside the fact that the work is otherwise filled with illustrations of Tsukumogami. Ubame herself is noted to be the king of the yamanba, much like the Chirizuka-Kaiō, and even has a crown to boot. Moreover, her spell cards also make reference to the karabitsu (唐櫃), a kind of six-legged Chinese chest, which the Chirizuka-Kaiō is notably depicted prying open.

As an aside, her given name Ubame is likely taken from the Ubame oak (姥目樫, ubamegashi), in much the same way that the name Nemuno is likely taken from the Persian silk tree (合歓木, nemunoki), which is a fun way to link the two yamanba characters together. Chimi Houjuu

Chimi is certainly one of the stranger characters visually, however her basis is evident from her name, as chimi can also refer to malevolent mountain-dwelling spirits (魑魅, also known as chimei in China). The chimei (alongside the mōryō/wangliang) is typically characterized as a troublesome spirit/monster that dwells in the wilderness, namely mountains and rivers. Just as Chimi’s bio says, the chimei and wangliang are indeed very ancient too. Notably appearing in Chinese texts such as the Zhuozuan (左傳), written in the 4th century BCE, as demons that attack people in rivers, lakes mountains and forests. Additionally, the mei (魅) recorded in the Shanhai-jing (山海經), which likely dates to the Han dynasty, has been identified by most commentaries on the text as identical with the chimei. Here the chimei is again associated with the wangliang, as a dangerous creature that lurks in mountains and waters, and is said to attack unwary travelers.

The wangliang specifically was also believed to dwell in tombs, where it was thought to devour corpses. Because of this, the wangliang was the subject of particular exorcism rites, with the Zhouli (周禮), written in the 2nd century BCE, noting how the wangliang was driven away by Fangxiangshi exorcists. Here it is said that, during royal funerals, a Fangxiangshi would strike the four corners of the funeral chamber with a lance, to drive away corpse-eating fangliang (方良, another name for the wangliang). Chimi’s bio additionally states that she is a creature known for its long ears, alongside her hair being suggestive of ears, which would appear to be a trait taken from the mōryō/wangliang. The Huainanzi (淮南子) for instance, states that the wangliang has “long ears and beautiful hair”, and the Wakan Sansaizui (和漢三才図会) also depicts a mōryō with long rabbit-like ears.

A depiction of a mōryō/wangliang from the Wakan Sansaizui.

Collectively Chimimōryō/Chimeiwangliang (魑魅魍魎) is occasionally used to refer to hordes of monsters, or otherwise nondescript collectives of spirits/demons. In one version of Gozu Tennō’s origin for instance, he is said to have become a leader of demons, Chimimōryō (魑魅魍魎), where he is otherwise stated to preside over the many gods of pestilence. Chimi herself appears to simultaneously represent both a chimei and wangliang, given she takes the long ears of the latter, and presumably the wangliang’s association with tombs, given her presence in an incident which revolves around a pyramid. Though I can’t help but wonder if we’ll also get a wangliang character in the full release, to complete the duo. One aspect does strike me as particularly unusual about Chimi however, that being her surname Houjuu (封獣), which she shares with Nue Houjuu (封獣ぬえ). I'm unfamiliar with any connection between the nue and the chimei, though I suspect it may be something which will be expanded on by ZUN himself. Nareko Michigami

Despite the stereotypical Egyptian theming to her design, Nareko is actually noted as being a dōsojin (道祖神; “roadside deity”), which are Japanese folk deities enshrined by the side of the road and serve to avert disease and misfortune. The name Michigami (道神; “god of the road”) pretty directly draws from the kanji in dōsojin, though using the kun’yomi reading of the characters. Nareko’s stated ability to “block roads” is also a fairly direct representation of the dōsojin’s power, as they are believed to block off roads from evil influences, earning them the alternative name sae-no-kami (障の神; “god of obstruction”, not to be confused with shōgejin (障礙神) which refers to obstructive Buddhist deities like Matarajin). A typical example of a dōsojin is the ever-present Jizō statue, which is represented in Touhou by the character Narumi Yatadera. However another common form of dōsojin are statues featuring a man and woman, typically embracing or holding hands. Occasionally the pair in question are specific deities such as Sarutahiko and Ame-no-Uzume, which were often regarded as a married couple in popular perception. The crest adorning Nareko’s tiara also appears to depict an embracing pair of figures, demonstrating her connection to the Japanese dōsojin, despite her otherwise Egyptian design.

A dōsojin statue from Azumino in Nagano, depicting a male and female couple.

The iconography of these statues could also be particularly explicit, with the depicted figures sometimes being shown kissing or even copulating. Furthermore, the dōsojin itself could often take the form of a phallic stone. The exact reason for this sexual symbolism is unclear, though it evidently appears to have been a powerful apotropaic image. In any case, the cult worship of such stones can be traced back to the paleolithic/neolithic, and it was only much later that the iconography of the dōsojin became anthropomorphized. It is also worth pointing out that, although Nareko’s design suggests an Egyptian theme, the riddle-telling sphinx she references in her dialogue is specifically Greek in origin, not Egyptian. In the myth of Oedipus, the sphinx is portrayed as a feline being with the head and breasts of a woman and feathered wings. While not divine herself, the sphinx was placed near Thebes by Hera for reasons unknown, and menaced anyone passing by with a riddle she learned from the Muses (interestingly, while Greek authors present the content of the riddle itself consistently, there was no agreement over whether it was supposed to be poetry or prose).

A depiction of Oedipus pondering the the sphinx's riddle, 5th century BCE. The popular image of sphinx today is based on a type of statue commonly manufactured in ancient Egypt, which is more correctly referred to as an “androsphinx” - literally “male sphinx”. This term was coined in antiquity by the Greeks, though. The term Egyptians used to refer to this type of statue has yet to be identified, if it existed in the first place. In Egyptian art, this sphinx was typically the representation of the pharaoh or his wife. For example, the Great Sphinx of Giza is a representation of Chefren. Additionally, in the Hellenistic period the god Tithoes came to be depicted as a sphinx. A similar being with a ram’s head instead of a human’s was one of the representations of the god Amun. While it is sometimes referred to as a “criosphinx” today, Egyptologists sometimes question the validity of calling it a sphinx at all.

Speculation on the Full Release

It seems that many have taken Nareko’s design as a sign that the incident will feature more explicit Egyptian mythology, and while I’m not opposed to the idea in principle, I can’t help but be skeptical. ZUN tends to leave the direction of an incident very unclear with the demo, and I feel that Nareko would be a little too on-the-nose there. Instead I would argue that Nareko’s design is a bit of a red-herring, and is only themed that way to match her role in guarding a pyramid, after all, there is no reason that the pyramid needs to be Egyptian. Rather, I suspect that the pyramid, and indeed the incident more broadly, will be tied to Mount Minakami (皆神山; “Mountain of Every God”) of the Nagano prefecture, which serves as the location of Gensokyo. Due to the mountain’s unique shape, it has been presented in fringe theories as a prehistoric man-made mound, said to be “the world’s largest pyramid”. There is even a local “Pyramid Festival” (ピラミッド祭り) held on the 5th of May (the same date the Demo was released on) celebrating this idea. To be clear this is almost certainly complete pseudoarcheology, of a similar vein to the Bosnian pyramid claims, however it is still fair game for Touhou.

Mount Minakami.

Outside of pseudoarcheology, Mount Minakami also has its fair share of shrines to draw from. The Iwato Shrine (岩戸神社) in particular, built around a small cave entrance about halfway up the mountain, is believed to be the remains of the stone entrance (天岩戸, Ama-no-Iwato) that was hurled from Takamagahara by Tajikarao once Amaterasu was lured out of hiding. This same cave is also held to be the entrance of the supposed pyramid, allowing for an easy association to be made between the two. To be fair, I also doubt that ZUN would feature a deity as high profile as Amaterasu, even in such a milestone game, but there’s clearly a throughline to link classical Japanese mythology with a fun fringe theory. While also a bit of a reach, the notion of a prehistoric pyramid would also explain why ZUN decided to feature a figure of the “Heart-Shaped Dogū” (ハート形土偶) with his picture of the demo, perhaps hinting that the incident will feature Jōmon artifacts and aesthetics, alongside advanced technology, akin to what WBaWC did with Kofun burial mounds.

“Heart-Shaped Dogū” (ハート形土偶).

Other than this, my first impression with the name alone was that we were going to get a character based around prehistoric life, hence my own prediction. And while I wouldn’t rule out the possibility completely, it certainly doesn’t seem like the incident is going that way directly. There is also a rather unexpected reference made to the figure of Prester John in the stage 3 theme, Prester John being a legendary Nestorian patriarch and king who ruled over a lost Christian nation in Central Asia, and was said to have lived in a palace built from gold and precious gems. Now an incident themed around Nestorian Christianity would certainly shake things up (Nestorianism being an eastern branch of Christianity that was even able to spread into China by 635), but given that this is just a stage theme, and nothing else in the game really hints towards Nestorianism, I'm highly skeptical that this has any deeper meaning to it, and it would be a strange way to reveal the direction of the incident.

Thoughts on the Characters

I’ll admit I’m fairly mixed on the characters of Fossilized Wonders. They’re pretty fun conceptually, but their designs aren’t really to my taste, and don’t have the same immediate appeal that the cast of WBaWC had for me. Ubame’s design feels a little incomplete, especially in comparison to Nemuno, and could’ve really done with including the karabitsu chest that the Sekien illustration has. Chimi’s design is deliberately abstract and nature-themed, but doesn’t feel like it works in ZUN’s style. Should be a fun design to draw though. And while I think Nareko is a really funny character, and her design is easily my favorite out of the three, she also feels very… disorganized? Trying to mesh the concept of a dōsojin with the rather surface level Egyptian aesthetic just causes both to come across as half-baked, and I would prefer her design to have darker skin if the latter was more emphasized.

Additionally, I really wish there was a bit more to chew on with regards to the characters inspirations. They all seem to be pretty generic representatives of their given species (excluding Nareko’s quirks), rather than being something more specific, as with characters like Eternity Larva, Eika and Kutaka. Hopefully the full release will be able to pick up the slack there, but it does still leave something to be desired. Generally I’m more fond of characters with a laser-focused inspiration, rather than those who try to represent an entire category of creature/deity, and some of the recent additions like Chimata especially suffer in that respect for me.

That being said, I’m still very optimistic about Fossilized Wonders, even assuming I’m correct about Mount Minakami, I’m still likely going to be surprised with what Zun ends up doing. And I can very easily see myself warming to the new characters over time.

#touhou #touhou project #touhou 20 #fossilized wonders #ubame chirizuka #chimi houjuu #nareko michigami #mythology #japanese mythology #japanese folklore #japanese yokai

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vendetta-if · 11 months ago

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Early Access Update is now Live! 🎉

Hey guys! I'm so sorry for the inactivity. A lot has been going on in my personal life. First, a close relative of mine passed away not too long ago and I decided to take a little break to mourn and process. And then, once I started working on the update again, I found out that I had to overhaul the coding for the Hangout system despite my best to try salvage it. So, yeah, suffice to say it's been pretty stressful couple of months.

I'm so happy and relieved to be able to finally start sharing the update I've been working on. This update is a big one, bringing 27K new words into the demo, bringing the overall word count to 384K words!

Some new stuff to expect from the update (without spoilers 🤭):

Some changes and options additions in Ash's Hangout.

A whole new section and new scenes added at the end of Ash's Hangout.

A (promised) brunch with Rin 😉

The early access to the update is now available in my Patreon and Ko-Fi. There are other goodies also coming to my Patreon and Ko-Fi in the next few days in addition to all the stuff that has been posted in previous months. So, if you're interested or simply want to support my work, please, do check the pages out 🥰

As always, for those waiting for the public update, it'll be released on August 20 😊 So, mark your calendar 😁

Also, I'll start answering asks again tomorrow (since it's already 4 AM where I am at the time of writing this post 😅).

#early access #demo update #chapter update #if: vendetta #vendetta if #if vendetta #if game #if wip #dashingdon #choicescript #choice of games #interactive fiction wip #cyoa #cyoa games #interactive story #interactive games #interactive fiction #interactive fiction update

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rtawastronomy · 5 days ago

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ToxicHero period comfort!

Hi again! I am literally TERRIFIED posting this lmao. I’ve always been extremely critical of my own writing, and now is no different. I feel like no matter what my writing won’t be up to par. I just hope my little drabble meets your standards and satisfies anyone who happens to come across this! Enjoy :)

Ao3 Link

Fic info: 2.2k words, Potential Demo 4 Spoilers, cussing, period comfort because I started my period and I fucking hate everything, player/reader is implied female because they start their period and i mentioned having a uterus twice but other than that I kept it androgynous, established relationship, fluff, I probably really sucked at this, we chillin with griefer in his crib (so original I know..)

You and Griefer had been officially dating for about a week and a half now, after he finally got the nerve to ask you out. You had no idea that your feelings had been reciprocated at the time, since you figured he still hated you after the whole tussle with the venomshank.

Regardless, though, you were happy. You’d never admit it to his face, but he was pretty attractive - and you really enjoyed getting to know him during the festival that Mayor Thaniyel had set up in honor of his son being cured.

At the time, Griefer had offered to let you hang out with him at his crib, and.. well, who were you to refuse? So you took him up on his offer recently.

You had a good amount of tix, and with all the fights you’d been through recently, you had more than enough to afford a small break and cover a hotel. And honestly? You were feeling a bit worse for wear. You deserved it, after everything that had happened.

Turns out, though, that the “worse for wear” feeling was really just your body trying to warn you of what was to come. You spent yesterday chilling with Griefer on his couch, playing games and chatting, and really enjoying yourself.

You woke up today, ready to do the same thing when you felt a dull pain in your gut, followed by a strange sense of dread. Now that you think about it, how long has it been since you were sent into the past? Three weeks? Maybe four?

And then it hit you. This would be your first period since the convention, and you were completely unprepared.

Quickly, you hurried to the bathroom. As you pulled down your pants to check, you saw a huge red stain had already spread across the fabric. Yep. You had already bled through your underwear and ruined your pants.

Tears welled up in your eyes as you wrapped toilet paper into a makeshift tampon - those were your favorite pair of sleep pants.

You rubbed at your eyes, trying to dry up your tears. Everything was going to be okay! Crying over a pair of pants was ridiculous, you said to yourself.

You walked out the door, shoddily dressed, jacket wrapped around your waist just in case as you went out to go and get supplies. You already knew this was going to be rough because you didn’t have your pain medication - naproxen and birth control that your physician had prescribed specifically for your cycles.

The dull throbbing intensified as you dragged yourself to the nearest convenience store, churning in your gut until it became a constant, sharp ache ringing across your bloated belly. A few tears pricked at your eyes but you quickly and frustratedly wiped them away. You couldn’t be caught crying in public over period pain, that would be way too embarrassing.

The convenience store had ibuprofen, which would only take a little bit of the edge off, but you bought it anyways. Unfortunately for you, they didn’t have any pads, or tampons for that matter. So you were forced to ask the clerk if he knew any place that sold them, and he got this poorly-masked disgusted look on his face before politely telling you that he didn’t. Bitch.

So then you went on a whim and searched around town, finally finding some after three stores and an hour of searching. At this point, the muggy rainforest heat was making you sweat your ass off, hair and clothes sticking uncomfortably to your skin.

The more the day dragged on, the more you wanted to scream at everyone. Finally reaching your inn room, the first thing you did was have a good cry before hopping into the shower, shedding your sweat-soaked clothes. You washed yourself up before quickly throwing on another outfit, sticking a pad on your underwear, and going out the door with your bottle of ibuprofen tucked safely in your pocket.

While on the way to Griefer’s crib, you cried once more in frustration - every minor convenience that occurred to you today, combined with the fact that you just happened to cross paths with a tree golem and were forced to fight it, piled on top of each other and made you so unbelievably and irrationally angry that you literally had to put yourself in a five minute time-out.

To put it simply, today was going just swimmingly.

Finally reaching the top, you knocked on the entrance to let Griefer know you had arrived. You saw the pause menu open on his game as he turned around. “Finally. What took so long?” He asked with a slightly annoyed tone to his voice, which only served to reignite that itch to punch a hole through the nearest wall, even though, reasonably speaking, he was just being himself and you should pay it no mind.

“Sorry.” You said softly as you approached. “I just had a rough start to my day.” You really hoped he didn’t notice your slightly puffy eyes as you took your place on the couch next to him.

You saw that he stared at you a bit longer than usual. He had this sort of unreadable expression on his face - not his usual smirk or glare, but something a little softer. What was up with that? You decided to just chalk it up to paranoia and hormones as you sat and watched him play.

You had declined his invitation to join the game, mostly because you didn’t feel like it, but also because you feel like you’d spike his controller if you got mad enough - which would probably happen, considering your emotional volatility at the moment - and spiking people’s controllers wasn’t nice.

The time you’d spent with Griefer was pleasant so far, laughing at his mistakes between casual conversation, talking about the game in general, and Griefer getting mad because you laughed at him. And even though your cramps were slowly getting worse, you were actually enjoying yourself and almost forgot about your little predicament. All it took was an adjustment of the way you sat so that you slumped backwards, and placing your arms between your knees and stomach so that they pressed in on your uterus, and all your problems were solved.

It was then, in the downtime of conversation between you and Griefer, that your body decided to throw you a curveball. A sharp, stabbing sensation, right in your nether regions. You jolted, breathing in a bit loudly from your nose as you all but scrambled to adjust your position so that you wouldn’t feel like there was a knife between your legs.

Griefer turned to look at you with this skeptical expression, and it took everything in you to not go skydiving out the window as you saw the pause menu open out of your peripheral vision.

“Okay dude, something is obviously wrong.” He asked, deadpanning at you. You opened your mouth to deny it, but he cut you off and folded his arms. “You think you can pull a fast one on me, but you’re not slick. I can see the way you wince and flinch when you think I’m not looking.”

You felt embarrassment and shame wash over you, even as you were trying to come up with a plausible explanation. He raised an eyebrow, waiting for an answer. “I-” you forced out, already feeling the tears pooling in your eyes. “It’s nothing important.” You stated, feeling your throat tighten. Really? That was the best thing you could come up with?”

“Don’t give me that bullshit.” He said sternly. “You’re obviously in pain. Spit it out.”

“I’m.. um.. I started my cycle today. That’s why.” You said softly.

“You started your what?”

“My period.” You said, looking away as a fat tear rolled down your cheek, hoping he didn’t see you crying like a loser.

“Oh.” He said. The awkwardness was palpable.

Great, now you’ve ruined everything.

You just stared at Griefer’s paused game, acting like you weren’t crying at all. Anything so you wouldn’t have to meet his eyes.

“Is that why you had a bad morning?” He asked, his voice softer, having lost its edge.

“Not the only reason.”

“Want to talk about it?” He offered.

Your face crumpled at his small gesture of kindness, more tears streaming down your face. “..Yeah.” You said, trying not to let your voice waver.

“It’s just.. a lot of little things.” You started with a sniffle as you brought up your sleeve to dry your eyes. “Like, I didn’t know I was going to start, so I bled through overnight and woke up to find my favorite sleep pants ruined,” you started, your voice cracking dangerously.

“And then I realized I didn’t have any of my period products, so I had to go out and get some, and then this stupid store clerk looked so grossed out when I asked if he knew a place that sold pads, and I don’t have my medicine, and it’s really hot outside, so I had to go back to my hotel room to change a third time,” you were stopped by a hiccup, unable to control your crying at this point.

“I’ve been trudging through this stupid heat for at least an hour today while my gut feels like it’s been sliced open and my uterus tries to kill me and I swear I almost passed out at one point,”

You quickly paused to catch your breath, sniffling again. “-and to make matters worse I had to fight a damn tree golem on my way up, and I can’t stop crying over stupid shit like this.”

Griefer was silent for a moment. It was really unsettling, honestly, considering how much he spoke.

“Anything I can do to help?” He asked after a moment.

“Could you just let me cuddle up to you while you play your game?” You asked timidly. You didn’t really know why you craved physical affection, especially at a time like this.

Griefer was silent for what felt like forever, before looking away and patting the spot next to him. “..Fine. Cmere.”

You had learned by now that when he refused to look, he was probably flustered. And you had also learned not to point it out, lest you make him shut down.

You scooted over to sit next to him, leaning into his shoulder as he played. “..thanks.” You said. “For this. And thanks for not being completely grossed out.”

“I'm not some punk ass bitch like that cashier.” He said, returning to his usually cocky and abrasive self.

The next few minutes were spent happily watching Griefer play his game, and even though he was getting ridiculously mad over some tryhard, you still felt happy simply being able to cuddle up to him and bask in his body heat.

“You wanna watch some tv?” He asked suddenly. You looked up in surprise at the sudden question. “Sure, I don’t mind, but why?”

“I dunno. I just don’t feel like getting angry over a game right now.”

You shrugged. While it was completely plausible, you felt like he had an ulterior motive.

After agreeing on a show and settling in with some snacks, you took your places back on the couch. As the intro started, you felt an arm snaking around your waist, and as you looked up, Griefer was trying his damndest to keep a poker face while staring straight ahead at the screen

You couldn’t help but giggle. His attention snapped to you.

“If you want to hug me, just say that.” You said with a smile.

He stared at you for a moment. Then, before you react, he leaned down and pressed a quick peck to your lips.

Taking advantage of your shock, he wrapped his arm all the way around your waist, pulling you into him so that your head rested on his chest, his hand placed over your lower stomach and pressing in. Immediately, you melted into him.

Griefer scoffed. “Don’t get any ideas, idiot. I saw you pressing into your stomach earlier and figured it would help.”

“It does.” You said. His hand was surprisingly warm, like the rest of his body, a nice little bonus.

“..I also heard this would help.” Griefer said, pulling out a chocolate bar. Immediately, your eyes lit up, gingery taking the candy from him.

“You’re the best, you know that?” You asked.

“Duh.” He said with his stupid, signature grin. Before he could continue, you looked up and gave him a kiss on the lips, too.

Now, it was Griefer’s turn to be stunned.

“I love you. I’m very lucky to have someone that cares.” You said, smiling as you laid your head back onto his chest turned back to the tv, unwrapping the chocolate bar.

You took a big bite, just in time to feel Griefer’s other hand reach up to pet the top of your head. “…I love you too.” He said quietly, likely embarrassed to admit it.

“What? I didn’t quite hear you.” You said with a teasing lilt to your voice, despite your mouth being filled with chocolate.

“Just shut the fuck up and watch the damn tv.” He said, which only served to make you laugh.

You could definitely get used to this.

#roblox #roblox griefer #griefer my beloved #i love griefer #griefer x reader #griefer x player #griefer blocktales #block tales griefer #toxichero

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elleandstufff · 5 months ago

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Let's Play a Game -`✮´- Part 1

Young and in the club scene due to the family business, you meet an up-and-coming rapper who calls himself Thanos. As the two of you become deeply embedded in the dark world of fame, money, and drugs, you begin to wonder if you can make it out alive. Pre-games, during the games, and post-games Thanos/Choi Su-bong x fem!reader

Series Note: This story contains explicit descriptions of substance abuse (party drugs and alcohol) by both Thanos/Su-bong and reader. This story is emotional!!! Like seriously, they are going through it! I wanted to experiment with what Thanos was like before the drugs/fame. This series is going to be a long one so buckle up!

Chapter Warnings: Small age gap (6 years), mostly fluff, club setting, moderate alcohol consumption, sweet but persistent!Thanos, brief discussion of anxiety and depression, grinding/dancing, pet names (my princess, good girl, baby, etc), dialogue spoken in English is written in bold italics, 3k words

ˑ . 𖥔 . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ˑ . 𖥔 . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ˑ . 𖥔 . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ˑ . 𖥔 . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ˑ . 𖥔 . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ˑ . 𖥔 . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ˑ . 𖥔 . ݁₊

The club always looks weird with the lights on, but you’re used to it. Most days you come here before open to do inventory, mingle with that night’s entertainers, or supervise in general. You like the atmosphere of the club–lights on or off–and you feel that helping out is the least you can do to thank your father for allowing you to live a lavish party lifestyle. As far as you know, you’re the only person in all of Seoul that owns the title of only daughter of Korea’s biggest club mogul.

“Hi, Princess!” Your father descends the nearest staircase and meets you by the bar. “Do you think you can hold things down tonight?”

“Of course, Appa, but what’s wrong?” Despite still being young, you had managed the club many times before when your father was unable to.

“Baek-hyeon is not feeling well. I am going to head to the Incheon club to manage it tonight. You know I much prefer trusting myself or one of my children to be in charge.”

You bid him safe travels and sent a get well soon text to your eldest brother before getting to work. You had planned on partying the night away, not managing a 5,000 square feet nightclub, but trying to make your father proud is one of the only things you have left. After checking in with all the bartenders, security, and main entertainers, you finally allow yourself to sit down for a quick drink.

You sit at the empty bar and sip on your drink until you feel a presence sit in the seat beside you. There are two dozen open seats, yet the man chooses to sit directly next to you. As he orders his drink you try to subtly inspect him. He’s here before opening so you assume he is a stage crew member for one of the performers. He has typical dark hair and dark eyes, but there’s something that stands out about him. Maybe it’s how soft his hair looks or that sparkle in his eye-

“Man, this place is nice!” The man swivels the seat to face you, a bright smile on his face. “I’m so lucky to get this gig.”

You look at him oddly. He’s a performer? You already knew all the main performers as they had been playing here for years.

He sees your confusion and speaks up again. “I’m Choi Su-bong, but everybody is soon going to know me as Thanos. I’m an up-and-coming rapper. I sent an audio demo into this place not expecting anything, but I guess the owner was so impressed by my talents that he gave me a fifteen minute spot at opening time. Those fifteen minutes are going to make Thanos a star.”

His smile is so infectious that you can’t help but smile back. This was the guy whose audio had blown you away. You introduce yourself using only your first name. You like to coax people into realizing that you are the owner's daughter without outright telling them.

“You know, the owner doesn’t review and select performers. His daughter does.”

“Could you pass along my thanks to her?”

“Why not thank her yourself?” You ask, gesturing to yourself with a bemused expression.

Su-bong’s eyes widen. He gives you a once over, but he doesn’t change his tone or straighten himself up like everyone else does when they find out who your father is. For once, it seems that someone sees you for you, rather than as your father’s daughter.

“Well, in that case…” Su-bong drops to his knees and takes hold of your left hand. He peppers several kisses across your skin while he professes his gratitude. “Thank you, my dear, for giving Thanos a chance.”

You have to look away to hide your blush and smile. “I’m not calling you Thanos, though.”

He gets back to his feet and throws you a wink. “You can call me whatever you want as long as you call me.”

The bartender finally hands over his drink. It’s one of the bar’s specialty drinks–one of the most complex and priciest items on the menu. But you can’t blame him; getting the fanciest drink the only time you’ll visit somewhere is a smart choice.

He reaches to hand his card to the bartender, but you quickly force him to lower his hand. “On the house,” you tell the bartender, who nods and walks away.

“Thank you again, my princess.” He takes a big sip from the straw, then leans forward and offers you the straw. Neither of you breaking intense eye contact, you take the straw between your lips and suck down a mouthful of the liquid. It burns as it glides down your throat and into your chest. The Social has always been well known for its strong drinks.

“You should get ready,” you tell him as you turn away. “We open soon.”

You can still feel his eyes on you as you walk away.

ˑ . 𖥔 . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ˑ . 𖥔 . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ˑ . 𖥔 . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ˑ . 𖥔 . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ˑ . 𖥔 . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ˑ . 𖥔 . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ˑ . 𖥔 . ݁₊

Thanos the Great–as he calls himself–exits the stage after his fifteen minutes. Shortly after opening, the place is not nearly as packed as it will be in a couple of hours. Most of the people that are here at this time are more concerned with getting plastered than listening to some underground rapper, but a decent crowd did gather. The crowd that was present was very lively and seemed to enjoy the short performance.

Su-bong makes his way toward you, and you turn in the opposite direction. You had already been distracted enough tonight, and you need to focus. He manages to jump directly in your path.

“Do you usually watch performances from the front row?” He asks, a giant grin on his face.

“Yes,” you lie. You usually focus on something else or watch from toward the back. You tried to convince yourself that your interest in his performance was because he was a new entertainer, but really you just wanted to see more of him. Something about him is eating you alive–his deep voice, his talent, his smile–but you could never let him know that.

“I think that’s a lie,” he says, hastily walking to keep up with you. “I think you like Thanos the Great-”

“I told you I wasn’t going to call you that.” You stop to pick up a few menus left abandoned at a table.

“And I told you I don’t care what you call me.”

One of the menus slips from your hands and falls to the ground. You both drop to the ground to pick it up, and his large hands end up over yours. You pull away quickly, turning on your heel to drop the menus off at the bar.

“I got seven new followers from my performance. You could follow me, too.”

“Maybe later,” you say. Your mind is distracted right now as you stand on your tiptoes to try and monitor the crowd as the space fills up more. “Sorry, I just have to work right now. This is a very busy time.”

“I’ll just wait until you aren’t busy then.” With a shit-eating grin he plops himself down on one of the black leather couches in the corner.

“I’m not coming back,” you say, unsure if you are trying to convince him or yourself.

“Yes, you will, good girl.”

You roll your eyes and walk away from him. You’ve played these games before. Every other week some guy shows up and tries to woo you for free drinks or guaranteed admittance to the club. You know that in an hour he’ll give up on you and have some other girl on his lap.

Nearly two hours later you finally decide to take a break. Your feet are killing you and the black go-go boots you decided to wear tonight feel as if they weigh twenty pounds. You know this Su-bong guy isn’t waiting for you anymore, but for some reason you decide to stop at the bar and get a drink for yourself and a drink for him just in case. It would be rude to show up empty handed. Worst case scenario, you can end up giving a free drink to some unsuspecting patron.

The club is at full capacity now, making your visibility extremely low. As you squeeze past numerous dancing bodies, you find yourself shocked to see Su-bong sitting in the same spot scrolling on his phone. Nearby, several groups angrily eye him, annoyed that he is taking up an entire table for just himself.

As you approach, he notices you and slams his phone down. “I knew you’d be back, good girl!”

“You seriously waited two hours on me?” You slide into the both, leaving about a foot of space between you two.

“I said I would, didn’t I?” He slides himself closer to you, knocking your knees together.

“What have you been doing this whole time?”

He shrugs and drinks from the new drink you brought him. “Waiting on you, thinking about you, scrolling on my phone, telling people this table is taken… What about you? What did you do?”

“I made sure everything is going okay all over the club. It’s very tiring. My feet are killing me.”

He surprises you by pulling your legs out from underneath the table and draping them across his lap. His hands firmly grasp your calves, keeping them in place and subtly massaging them.

“What the fuck you are you doing?”

He looks innocently at you with his big brown eyes. “Letting you stretch your legs, of course.”

You relax into the couch. Stretching your legs does help, and his fingers are working magic on your calves. “Okay, but remember I’m on a break. I can’t sit here with you all night.”

“Of course, busy girl.”

For a few minutes you relax your anxious mind, listening to the loud bass beats reverberating throughout the club. You even let your eyes close for a minute, only to open them and find Su-bong’s eyes mere inches away from yours. You nearly jump backward, but he still has a grip on your legs.

“Are you sleepy?”

“No.” You sip from your drink. “Just anxious.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, I just am.”

“And you’re sad, too?”

“And why do you say that?” What is this guy’s deal?

“Real eyes, realize,” he quotes the cheesy American saying to you.

“Are you saying you’re sad too?”

“Yellow is such a unique color,” he states, completely ignoring your question to instead take your hands in his again. He admires your yellow painted nails.

“Yellow is my mom’s favorite color.” Yellow was your mom’s favorite color–you should say–but you don’t bother to correct yourself. You don’t find yourself pulling your hands away, either. Instead, your finger absentmindedly traces his line tattoo from his middle finger until it becomes hidden underneath his jacket sleeve. You suddenly realize what you’re doing and stop, shaking your head as Su-bong smiles.

“You like my tattoos, baby? I got them when I got done with my military service a couple months ago.”

“They’re nice line work,” you lie. He doesn't need to know that his choice of tattoos were an amazing addition to his already insanely hot hands, nor does he need to know that you secretly wish you could see what other tattoos are lurking under his jacket. What the hell are you thinking? You need to finish your drink and get back to work.

“Do you have any tattoos?”

“No, my dad would kill me.”

“Do you usually work every night for your father?” he asks at the mention of your dad.

“No, I usually party every night,” you say, then backtrack when you realize how spoiled you sound. “I mean, I always try to help out as much as I can.”

“So you’re a spoiled girl?”

“Yes.” You can’t lie to yourself. “I’m the only girl in my family with my father and four older brothers. I was a bit of an accident.”

“I bet they are protective of you,” he says with a smirk, knowing fully well that the current positioning of you two would anger your father and brothers. With your legs still splayed across his lap, his fingers inch upward, until they rest lazily on your lower thigh.

“When they pay attention to me, yes.” You regret the words the second they leave your mouth.

“Who wouldn’t want to pay attention to you, pretty girl?”

“My father is just busy, and my brothers are so much older that they have their own lives. This was nice, but I should get going…”

You attempt to reclaim your legs and scoot yourself out of the booth, but Su-bong’s arm blocks you from exiting. “Dance with me,” he says, somewhere between a question and a demand.

You worriedly glance around the packed club. You hardly ever take up dance offers from guys, partially because of your father’s disapproval and partially because you don’t trust the guys who come through here. “I don’t really dance with guys. Everyone would stare.”

He scoots himself closer to you so that you’re both sitting at the edge of the booth. “Good, let them stare.”

You look at his pleading, big brown eyes and instantly know that you have to accept. “Fine. One dance.”

His huge grin calms your nerves slightly, so you take his outstretched hand. He leads you to the closest dance floor and the two of you find a spot near the wall. You can barely move your body before the people around you start staring at the uncommon sight. You start to get cold feet, but Su-bong pulls you close to him. “Don’t focus on them, focus on me.”

Shakily, you began to dance with him. Within minutes, your nerves calm, and you feel like you and him are the only ones here tonight. Once the song finishes you tell yourself just one more. Then two songs, turns to three, and three to four. Before long, your night turns into a sweaty blur of his hands on your waist, your back against his torso, your ass against his crotch, his face buried in the crook of your neck.

“Miss? Miss Social?!”

Someone yelling the nickname you got when you started coming to the club three years ago snaps you back to reality. Your eyes snap open and you try to distance yourself, but Su-bong’s grip on your waist stays firm so your back remains pressed against him.

The person in front of you is one of the security guards. You panic, unsure of what is going on and how long you’ve been distracted.

“We have a couple of tourists that were being disruptive at the bar. I tried to explain that they need to leave tonight, but they’re not in trouble. They can’t understand me.”

“O-of course,” you say. “Take me to them.”

The guard leads you through the club and up the stairs to a waiting area. Halfway up the stairs you notice that Su-bong is following closely behind you, but you don’t have the energy to say anything to him. Before you talk to the first tourist, you turn to Su-bong. “Hey, sometimes these things take a while… You don’t have to wait for me.”

You take the first tourist into a room and explain to him the situation in English. You spoke English the most fluently out of any of the staff members, so you had been translating for tourists since your dad started letting you come here at sixteen. Luckily, this guy isn’t too combative, but he is pretty drunk. After a while, you finally get through to him that he’s not in trouble but he has to leave for the night.

Out in the hallway, you realize that you need to pee really bad after the few drinks you had tonight. “I need the bathroom, I’ll be back for the other one in a minute.”

You rush to the bathroom and rush back only to find the other tourist gone and a smiling Su-bong in his place.

“Where the hell did he go?”

“I let him know the deal. He left.”

“You speak English?”

“Yeah, baby,” he says proudly. “My dad made me start learning when I was little. He wanted me to be a fancy business man, but then- but then that didn’t happen.”

Clearly something happened either between him and his father or to Su-bong himself, but you don’t pry. Instead, you shrug. “Fancy business men are not that fun–like my dad–they just work all the time.”

He gives you a little smile, but this one seems sad.

“It’s almost close…” You are bummed that the night has to end, but you have a feeling that you will be seeing him again.

“I need your phone number, Princess.” He puts his phone in the palm of your hand, softly patting your skin.

You type your name into the contact information but leave the phone number blank. If this guy is serious about you, he’ll be able to wait for you. “You can get the rest of it next time.”

“So hard to get, I love it!”

His goofy grin is the last thing you see as you disappear into the dwindling crowd.

Part 2 Masterlist

#pls don't let this flop #squid game #thanos #thanos x reader #choi su bong x reader #thanos squid game #squid game season 2 #squid game x reader #player 230 #choi su bong #player 230 x reader

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xxgoldie · 6 months ago

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went to karaoke and someone sang crush by david archuleta so now im thinking abt lighter romance enthusiast lorenz also listening to the most pining songs just the sappiest playlist known to man

as usual, i am Obsessed with lighter being down bad. he's such a fucking dork, i need him. have been listening to a variety of love song playlists for the last few days as i write this and its not helped the brainrot. cw: none, pure fluff, gn!reader wc: 444 (or 618 with the bonus)

when he's out and about, he tends to listen to metal and rock, the same kind of stuff that's in his demo trailer. it gets him in the right headspace for his champion duties. when he's alone, though? his headphones are playing exclusively sappy glitter-gel-pen love songs. he would rather die than let anyone know, he has an image to upkeep - wouldn't even put it past him to have a second spotify account, bc u know the girls will bug him to see his wrapped every year.

within the love song genre, his favourite songs are ones that remind him of you.

his listening history is an amalgamation of different musical styles, but what he really pays attention to is the lyrics; if there's a song that really captures the way he feels about you, or one where the singer describes their lover and they're similar to you, he can't help but put it on repeat. he also loves duets - just like with romance movies, he loves imagining its the two of you in that situation. when he's deep in crush territory, he'll even make a playlist of those songs (it's long - can't help that every other song reminds him of you).

when you're finally together, he's more open about his love of love songs. it may take a bit into your relationship, during some late-night conversation about your respective silly behaviours when you were pining over each other, for him to show you the playlist, titled with just your initial and a heart emoji. but even before that, if you happen to play any of the songs he secretly listens to, you might catch him singing along under his breath (lowkey this post every five seconds). you might chalk it up to him picking up the words of songs the girls listen to, but that's because you don't catch the way he looks at you with the lyrics on his lips.

there are other times where he'll slide up behind you in your kitchen, arms around your waist and head propped on your shoulder, the domesticity and the fact you're wearing his tshirt getting to him. he's not much of a singer, but he'll hum one of those songs in that moment (his voice has a lovely smooth n deep timbre, so his humming sounds Heavenly in your ear). he might get a little embarrassed if you recognise the song and start humming along with him, or god forbid singing, but he'll still sway the both of you along to the music. he's not much of a dancer either, but he can figure out a midnight slow dance in the kitchen for you.

bonus!! a few songs i think he'd listen to, tho kinda influenced by my own music taste (+ spotify links): kiss her you fool - kids that fly (he has it on loop when he's psyching himself up to ask you out) meteor shower - cavetown davy crochet - the backseat lovers (perhaps i'm biased on this one bc i crochet) stitch me up - set it off can't help falling in love - elvis presley cloud 9 - beach bunny ("even when we fade eventually to nothing / you will always be my favourite form of loving" really hits with his whole 'dying for love' thing) love grows (where my rosemary goes) - edison lighthouse paper rings - taylor swift jackie and wilson - hozier (there's a lot of hozier in his playlists, but he really likes the thought of a family with you, even if that's only a couple lines of the song) valentine - atlas sweet tooth - cavetown ("guess i must be satisfactory / you said you love me exactly the way i am" takes him Out i can just feel it) would you be so kind - dodie

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bonefall · 10 months ago

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BONES WHERE ARE YOU

I'm here I'm okay! Sorry I went radio silent for like two months LMAO I've been a busy boygirl.

I have been doing A LOT of things. The embarrassing truth is that I noticed I was going a while without posting, figured I'd stay quiet a little longer so I'd have fun stuff to share to "make up" for the fact I was quiet, but then things got delayed and I felt guilty I had nothing to show for being gone so long, and before I knew it it was like 2 months. Girl help

I've always got a ridiculous amount of irons in the fire, but mainly 3 big things have been keeping me quiet;

Thing 1 is, unfortunatly, a super secret, non-WC related game project. You have NO idea how badly I want to blabber about this, but my team asked me not to :///

It's so fucking cool and I've been working so hard on it. I have been able to research so many cool environments and cultures. OHH my god, did you have any idea that Iran has cloud forests?? Or that you can trace Mayan trade routes based on the color of obsidian you find in archeological sites??? I want to spill beans so bad.

Hopefully we'll make more progress on this project in a few months and then I can share details, but at the moment I'm honor-bound to silence OTL

THING 2 I've been doing is graduating college and finding a good job, which naturally is time consuming. I finally did though, so hopefully I'll have some cash to burn soon on commissions and such. I actually have a couple Clan Culture posts essentially completed as drafts, but I want them illustrated before releasing them.

Aaaand THING 3 is that I started playing the demo for an Indie game called Critter Cove. I apologize that this reason's kind of mundane, but it is only a demo for what the devs call "the first 2 hours of the game" and I've already got 40 hours logged.

It's a good game, man. I'm obsessed with the character creator. It's got fat bodies, squid-faced options, hyena ears, lots of tails, even TVhead options, everything. The devs are also super responsive on the Discord. I have made so many fun designs lmaooo.

It releases into Early Access on the 10th and you save your progress into the main game. It's like Animal Crossing meets Windwaker. Can't recommend it enough if you're into these sorts of games.

TL;DR I've been up to non-WC things.

Doesn't mean I'm gone though! I'll be back soon. As soon as I have some time, I'm going to catch up on the Ivypool's Heart stuff so I can formulate an opinion about it.

#Life update #Bone babble #Sorry to everyone who got worried about me #I'm fine! I'm just all over the place #My ass will get in situations inconceivable to the average man

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absolutelynotsanebaby · 10 months ago

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So I sat down the other day and went through the crane wives albums and some other songs to assign to Ninjago characters and I've finally sat down and decided to write the post out. The content are going to be under cut because this post will certainly be too long. I'm going to go album by album here starting with Coyote Stories and ending Here I Am: From The Listening Room.

(any and all "(X)" are simply links to the songs <3)

okay, here we go!

Coyote Stories

Keep You Safe: in some ways, I like to interpret part of this song as relating to Nya's perfectionism, especially within Possession. The bridge especially and lines "What if the steps I take turn out to be mistakes? How can someone like me learn to say "come what may"?" (X)

Allies or Enemies: this is Jay and Cole to me from Rebooted to ToE. Specifically, from Cole's perspective. The song has a lot of regret and bitterness in it that I just think fits so well. The first verse and second verse ("you owe me ears from dropping eaves"), and the bridge are all so clear to me. The bridge, "what happens now? do we have another go (oh) do we bow out and take our separate roads, I'll admit I've had my doubts (oh) but I want to be let in not out (oh) I want to be let in now out", reads to me like Cole's sudden giving in and desperation in their match in ToE. (X)

Hard Sell: this one's a little loser but it reminds me of Lloyd struggles to keep himself strong and straight with everything that gets thrown at him, all the stress. To be The Green Ninja (X).

Little Soldiers: Young Garmadon and Wu, I think. It's their doomed brotherhood, the way they loved each other clearly as impulsive youth ("on the broken backs of all the words we spared, like little soldiers in the trenches, it was a march we made through ruin and despair but we held hands all the while") but ultimately Wu couldn't keep his brother. The bridge reminds me of the war. (X)

Metaphor: Harumi, obviously. There's really no debate, it's her fake mask as the Jade Princess, it's her relationship to Lloyd even. "I've gotten good at leaning on metaphors, I've gotten good at leaning on someone else's page, I cut my teeth on second hand sentiments, you can't trust a single thing I say" -> princess era. It's a sweetly bitter song, chalk full of implications of trauma. The line "but I always dig up bones in your sympathy, I can't trust a single thing you say" is relevant to her relationship with Lloyd, I feel. (X)

Of Everlong: This is a lovely and very soulful song, short and sweet. It's reminiscent of Pixane, to me, specifically from Pixal's perspective. There's a certain connectiveness in being in someone's head. "and if my lover will not hear it take my voice and take my spirit leave weakened and dig my hole only my lover not I can keep my soul" vs "I do not know if there is anything after this life for beings such as you or I, but if there is, I will find you there. Goodbye my Zane." (X)

New Discovery: Fairly simple and not to deep, but this is a Misako song. Adventurer and explorer, and all (X).

The Moon Will Sing: I want to preface two things, A) this interpretation is very much looser and a little less connected t the full original meaning of the song and a little more based in reworking it to fit the characters and B) Wu haters will be stabbed by my mighty and large sword. This is Morro and Wu, on a level. "I shine only with the light you gave me", the light here i the green ninja prophecy,something Morro latched onto to prove his wroth, who is, who is to Wu. The entire song as an air of bitter grief I think fit's Morro and Wu's story. Morro could've grown up and been something more than a half baked angry ghost chasing a dream from 40 years ago, but he wasn't, "I could've been anyone, anyone." (X) (X) (<- an extra link to the demo of the song!! I find it rather lovely)

(Extra note on The Moon Will Sing, I could also see this being a song about Zane/The Ice Emperor and Vex.)

Rockslide: this is about to be very unsurprising, I associate this with Cole! There's obviously the title but generally I think the energy of the song is very Cole-like, in the fun sense. There's also the lines about feeling the "quakin honey I feel it deep" which is rather self explanatory. (X)

The Hand That Feeds: I'm shaky on this one simply because I don't remember or know her character very well, but Akita. Has a lot of mention of wolves and is a very angry song against systemic oppression (though, in the song it's anti-capitalism lol). (X)

Sleeping Giants: another Cole song, mostly based on the presence of mountains, and the 'calling' aspect of the song. I also tend to associate songs with strong drums like in this with Cole (like Drumming Song by Florence and the machine) (X).

Never Love An Anchor: I've seen this song go around actually, mostly with Misako. Which, I agree with! However, I consider it a dual song with her and Garmadon. Specifically, their season one selves. It's Misako leaving Lloyd at that boarding school, it's Garmadon being so absent even though he so clearly loves his son (and despite his evilness, he doesn't seem to wish Lloyd to follow in his footsteps). The first verse really resonates with me as being Misako, clumsy hands and trying her best, and all. The last verse however, is Garmadon ("I am selfish I am broken I am cruel") and so is the line "With this heart of mine that's guilty not remorseful." If you haven't heard this song, I truly, truly recommend it, it's gut wrenching imo. (X)

Okay! We've reached the end of Coyote Stories. That's 11/12 songs out of the albums, the best ratio we have on this listing I believe. Moving onto Foxlore now!

Foxlore:

Nothing At All: when I was looking at this song, trying to decide who to apply it to, I ended up getting kind of emotional. It's Zane, post Ice Emperor specifically. In his self-dehumanization. I'm just going to list out the lyrics that made me incredibly sad lol. "Happy is the man who wants for nothing happy is the lair happiness itself is desire", "heart broken men long to feel nothing to free themselves from strife handle pain, pain doesn't define a man it sure lends an hand getting measured in the sweeter parts of life". (X)

Down The River: Lloyd, post Garmadon revival and Crystallized. All his bitter feeling towards his father, and the angry abandonment issues. The first verse ("I've been wishig that you'd prove me wrong, that you'd come clean and rue the damage done, restore my faith in you, but you've got no reaosn to") and fifth ("Now, tell me, when you start again where will you house your skeletons? Or will they stay behind? Your settlement in kind?") especially. (X)

Can't Go Back: Zane, post Ice Emperor, again. It's that guilt man, I don't really have more to explain but know it makes me Sad. (X)

Turn Out The Lights: Jay, this is mostly about an anxiety head-canon lol, considering the song is about a racing mind. (X)

Ribs: this song is so Nya it hurts. It pretty strongly connects to her arc over the seasons about self independence, identity, and misogyny. It's her finding her place as who she is, and taking back things as her own ("It is mine, it is mine). Verse three I like to connect to her element being of Wojira's and how that is so symbolic of her place in the team (and why she reflect Morro so well in a lot of ways but I won't get into that), "time has changed the metaphor, now, dust is not the orgin of bone, little girl don't let them sell you any armor all your ribs are still your own". There's also the main chorus, which, god I got sad when I looked at it from the angle of Seabound. "The dark doesn't frighten me I chose to close my eyes, it is mine, it is mine, the night doesn't frighten me I chose to let it thrive, it is mine, it is mine." (X)

Not The Ghost: perhaps a little literal but, Cole in his Day Of The Departed era. Though, it connects to his feelings at the time more than his literal ghost-hood. It pretty strongly captures the depression, low self esteem, and growing urgency (around the Latter half of the song). You could also read some of the lyrics as paralleling the events of DOTD itself. (X)

And that's it for Foxlore, that is...6/10 I think, so not the worst either. Fun fact, this next section is my favorite album as a whole :)!

The Fool In Her Wedding Gown:

Icarus: now who else would this be about if not the doomed siblings of the series? Of course it's Wu and Garmadon. I think of this pretty strongly as paralleling their 'adventures' as young children, and then the war. "Oh my brother, oh my brother, oh my brother, who have you become in the wake of all that's happened here", yeah. The entire energy of the song has that weird sad, yet hopeful regret Wu seems to carry around with him in regards to Garmadon, it's a very loving song. (X)

Fangs: Nya, the entire song carries the desperate anger she has, the longing for independence and strength. It's bitter too, in a way that reminds me of her from Rebooted to Skybound. "I am not your highness, a damsel left helpless by fright, I am a lioness, fierce as I walk through the night", "a man will never know his bride"...and well, she was a bride once, wasn't she? (X)

That's it for TFIHWG actually, I know, sad sad ratio but I am also not suprised because a lot of the songs on this album are rather specific.

Safe Ship, Harbored:

New Colors: this one is really simple, Lloyd, and only because it reminds me about how consistently stressed he is lol. (X)

The Crooked, The Cradle: This is a Morro song, to me. The idea of were you doomed from the start (the cradle), or was this purely because of the choices you made? The line "can anyone hear me? The crooked are smiling, they know me the best" strongly reminds me of him and the Preeminent. (X)

(Additionally, this came to me as i was writing this section but I could also see this song being Garmadon coded.)

Caleb Trask: Oni Lloyd! The entire song is about the concept of having 'bad in your blood' and how you simply have to embrace it. That you cannot let it chain you, that love will bring you back. Reminds me of him. (X)

I Ain't Done: if you look at this from a purely conceptual level and energy wise, this song is very Morro. It's got his vengeful, jealous and vicious return from the dead to wreck havoc vibes lol, the lyrics in a literaly sense, however, do not fit. (X)

We're nearing the end now! kind of! 4/12 ratio.

Here I Am: Live From The Listening Room:

High Horse: Jaya, actually. From Rebooted to Skybound, from Nya's pov. Mostly, I connect it to that weird, unhealthy desperation Jay had for Nya and Nya's desire to be free of it, her own self. "You're a sweet heart, you're a curse, you're a passing grade on a low, low bar, you've got your eyes open, I know your worth, but I've got so many things in my hungry, hungry heart", sums it up pretty well. (X)

Here I Am: This one's Cole, but it's a bit of a mixture on why. First up, it's again DOTD era Cole with all his being forgotten angst and anxiety. Secondly, and maybe more painfully, it really reminds me of his and Lou's relationship early on. Neglected child core, and all that ("I promised myself I'd learn to be the one who leaves, with no more roots to tie me down, it's just a different kind of lonely"). The last verse is strongly reminiscent of his pure stubbornness, too. (X)

Queen Of Nothing: Solidly Harumi, a lot on vibes and mood. It's got a dark, sort of unsatisfied sound to it. The chorus screams her , "Isn't this what you wanted? Time sure feels like it's running out, just finish what you started, queen of nothing wearing such a heavy crown." (X)

Sowing Seeds: this one's a bit more general, it reminds me of Possession, the season. It's also a very moody song, having a tired, haunted sort of energy. It also fits nicely into the theme of consequences in Possession. The first verse ("still as a lake long after the wind is gone, in the face of a thief mashing ground to mud, still as a street long after the work is done, as he gnashes his teeth, as he cuts it up, cuts it up") heavily reminds me of Morro. (X)

Hollow Moon: fairly simple, Hollow Moon reminds me of Cole's fear on DOTD. It's got that spooky and paranoid sort of energy. (X)

The Wolf: this both a Harumi and Morro, bearing that bitter, self destructive energy. (X)

Now, that concludes all the albums thus far, and I know I sad we'd leave off on HIA:LFTLR, however, I am a lair. There's a couple songs that aren't on albums that's be a shame not to mention.

Margaret: this is Misako, in her loss of her husband, and her trails to find a way to fix things. "She's breaking her knuckles on truths that keep her awake, and she's tired but her jaw is set, she won't lose any more of the heart she still has left, so she says a prayer pulls the covers near and waits, Margaret won't sleep tonight." Lovely song. (X)

Scars: this is a newly released song! I believe it connects back to Never Love An Anchor, and as such, it fits Lloyd very well. Specifically in relation to Garmadon, post revival. It so so fits all that anger in him at his dad ("cause I was born with a whole in my heart, yeah, we were fucked from the start, tell me it's inevitable I'd end up with scars from falling down, down, we were always meant to fall apart"). (X) (X) (<- the second is a live audio recording that is personally my favorite!)

Okay, no we're done! Anyways, if you read all the way down here I hope any of this made sense. This is a little bit of a love letter to The Crane Wives and Ninjago, I spent hours doing this lol. If you haven't heard any or some of these songs, please do listen to them!! Every song mentioned should have an accompanying link. Anyways, time to end this stupidly long post, please share if you have any thoughts or connect songs differently!!!!!!!!

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asaka-lucy-dr-rc · 3 months ago

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Thank you to everyone who has already sent me their congratulations! I forgot to mention the date in my previous post, so I'd like to mention it again here: there will be a THLLDA demo & completion event on April 13th, and I've won a place there in a lottery, so I'll be going. (I've been wondering how to translate the name of this event, so I've been using different notations each time, and I'm sorry about that! The official notation is “プレミアム試遊会&完成発表会”.)

The following special guests will be on stage at the completion event:

Taihi Kimura (Voice actor of Takumi Sumino)

Nene (Professional cosplayer who showcased an amazing Darumi cosplay at AnimeJapan 2025)

Kazutaka Kodaka (Writer and director of The Hundred Line)

Kanata Hongo (Special ambassador for The Hundred Line)

Kanata Hongo appeared in the special program at the Tokyo Game Show 2024, so those who watched the video should know:

I'm excited to see Kodaka, but I'm also really happy to see Hongo on stage. I saw him play Makoto Naegi in Danganronpa THE STAGE in 2014, and I even bought a photo set of him when I went to see the show, which I still have! 😆:

The following is a photo of him from the brochure (which I also bought at the time), but don’t you think his face in the TGS video looks exactly the same?:

He has a very cute face, but even back then, he was already 24 years old. He looks like a teenage boy! Incidentally, the TGS video was made 10 years later, so he was 34 at the time.

I’ve heard that some photos from the final event will be released in the media, so I think you’ll all be able to get a sense of the atmosphere from them. But if I can, I’d like to draw some doodles about the event. (It took me a long time to write the report on the Rain Code fan meeting, so I’m not confident I’ll be able to publish it soon. 😅 I’d appreciate it if you could wait patiently!)

#呟き #the hundred line #last defense academy #thllda #kanata hongo

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beastygames · 3 months ago

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New Public Update At 70k+ words

Hello Everyone!

This has been a long time coming, but the new public update is finally here!

This is a huge update, adding over 70k+ words, with tons of new choices that i hope you would enjoy exploring. Next up would be the Spider path, and im really excited to start implementing it.

As always, I’m open to feedback and truly appreciate any thoughts you might have. Your input is one of the best ways for me to improve the game and push it toward its fullest potential, so please do not hesitate to share.

Also if you’d like to support my work, feel free to check out my Patreon, where I regularly post progress updates, polls, and new content—sometimes upwards of 20k+ words ahead of public releases, and more.

Finally please enjoy the update, and thank you all for your amazing support!

The new update -->>>Demo

#what if #interactive fiction #choicescript #if wip

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crescencestudio · 6 months ago

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2024 Recap & 2025 GOALS

I'M BAAAAACCKKKKKK

Well, well, well.... Look who it IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hello my friends.

It is I!!!

To say it's been a while since we've really talked would be an understatement. This bitch rly went fckn off the radar that second half of 2024. But I'm happy to say I am making my debut once again and I am back on the scene!!!

I hope the start of 2025 has been going well for you all <3 I'm happy and excited to say that after a grueling 2024 and relaxing holidays, I'm finally back and ready to get to WORK on Alaris! I thought a nice way to get back into things would be a big 'ol yappy post in true Crescence fashion so that you all know exactly where I, and Alaris, are at as we enter the new year :')

I'm excited to say that while I don't have a set date yet...

Alaris WILL be releasing this year even if it kills me.

Just as my big year goal in 2024 was to graduate and I used every ounce of inner strength to make that happen, finishing and releasing Alaris is my big goal this year. I've kept you all waiting long enough, and I'm confident that Alaris is at a point that we'll be able to do a release this year. Of course, if this changes, you all will be the first to know. But I'm very hopeful that we can make a 2025 release happen ^^

That being said, I think it might be nice to do a 2024 recap so we can see just how far the project has come, even if I was shoved off the face of the earth in the later months of 2024 \o/

Last year, we actually finished ALL the writing for every route except for Aisa's! Meaning we reached 300k words of writing for the game and only have 50k words left YEEAAAAAA. And all routes are written up except for one! This was a huge milestone for me since I still remember when I finished the first 50k for the game with Kayn's route all the way back in the beginning. And we're finally nearing the end.

I've always considered writing the hardest part of game development so to have finally reached a point where almost all of the writing is finished was a huge achievement for me last year.

We also made HUGE progress on the art front last year ^^ Not only did we finish all of the backgrounds for the full game, we also got a new GUI, updated sprites and CGs, and a new promo piece in anticipation for the release of the new demo.

We also made progress on CGs for the full game, which I will not be showing because spoilers and those are special nuggets Patreon and Kickstarter backers get access to hehe. But we made about 16 finished CGs last year, getting us to a total of 22 CGs and about halfway through our CG count!!

Last but definitely not least, we actually had a good amount of releases last year (considering I got fckn bodied in the second half of the year) ^^

a moment for Van

In 2024, believe it or not, I actually released the extended version of Intertwine! It featured new music, slightly more polished programming, and almost double the writing :') And with this release, we saw Intertwine get a lot more love throughout the year and actually reached 200k plays and 1k ratings (crazy numbers I never thought I'd see in all my days). So thank you all for continuing to love my fated child <3

a moment for my whore child

We also released the enhanced demo for Alaris last year, featuring a polished script (with some revised dates), partial voice acting, custom OST, new GUI, new BGs, updated sprites and CGs, and much more! This was an exciting milestone for me since it felt like we finally were approaching a release that reflected what the full game would feel like, and I couldn't have been happier with the release :') It meant so much to me that old and new players enjoyed it as much as they did and really gave me the motivation endorphins to keep chipping away towards full release

HE.

And then, perhaps the most exciting of all, Alaris entered its BETA ROUTE ERAAAAAA!!!! We kicked it off with Kayn in honor of hot girl summer, but made our way through half of the LIs with Kayn, Fenir, and Druk each getting their own moment to shine \o/ The reception to these routes was super motivating since players finally got to experience content I'd been working on and keeping to myself for almost a year, and I've been so happy seeing people fall in love with the LIs in in different ways :')

Usually I do a little recap with fanart I make of games I played throughout the year as well, but this year I wanted to do something different and dedicate this little section to YOU ALL!!

In 2024, the Alaris community was blessed with fanart, memes, character questions, and more :') For some reason, 2024 was the year a lot of you decided to really show your love for the game, and it's one of the biggest things that's maintained my sanity, and the reason I love working on the game. While I can't show all the fanart everyone made, I wanted to take a second to show some love

credits to: @/egginthepit, @/nanapop, @/stimulatory, and @/dreamtydraw for cracked fanart

I know I dropped the ball near the end of 2024, but I hope you all know how much seeing fanart and people engaging with Alaris means to me. Every time I see a new piece or a new character ask in the inbox, it genuinely makes my day. I hope this year I can be better at recognizing and fostering the love in the community for all of our LIs, and I can't wait for another year with you all!

credits to: lily of @/lavendeerstudios, bestie maguna, @/starlitplum, and @/fignia-kakay-to

Here's to a new year that is hopefully filled with more excitement for Alaris, progress, and an eventual release (eek!!!!). Thank you all for sticking with me for another year!

#alaris #devlog

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makerofmadness · 6 months ago

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ok so: Beast-Ancients Swap AU but actually the Beasts messed up the timeline and made it one

(I will explain I swear-) The following sprite edits and designs were a collaborative effort of me and @driftwoodmfb

(Lily's design and edit is not finished yet, and Ssalt isn't getting one until that character is released-)

general shoutouts to Driftwood for collaborating with me on this in a lot of aspects btw she's the mvp of this whole project

I am Very bad at concise descriptions but basically: "5v5 climactic final showdown occurs but the bad guys win and then the group consensus on what to all do together to compromise thanks to slightly different priorities is 'Hey we all really hate the ancients now so let's just like. Screw them over' so they basically used their combined virtues' powers or something (look all of this I came up with just to justify the AU's actual concept) to like reset and alter the timeline to swap their places with the ancients basically. and then they kinda accidentally get redemption arc'd in the process. Meanwhile the og ancients... are not happy"

I'm def gonna post more about these guys in the future (and also I like. Encourage people to send asks because I need enrichment dndndnmd! I have a ton of stuff sitting around about them and I love talking about them- so. Here's my attempt at an overview (I. Suck at being concise this took all day to not make way too long dndndndm):

Shadow Milk Cookie - Calls himself the Dark Moon Magician. He's quite braggadocious and more than a little mischievous, quite the show-off too, but he has a good heart down there (nowadays). Though he has often had to be badgered by the Light of Truth into actually telling the truth on things...

Eternal Sugar Cookie - You'll meet them someday. Just not now.

Mystic Flour Cookie - Her face and voice do not do much to express how much she despises the Cookie she used to be, and the Cookie she still sees whenever she looks in the mirror. She is the most eager to come clean to her Cookies, but something is holding her back... she decides to save it for when she has finally repented enough by her standards, to earn her position as queen. It's never enough.

Burning Spice Cookie - For the kingdom he rules, you may (or may not) be surprised seeing how little he cares for material riches. To him, lived experiences are the most precious things- hence why he's always looking for a good fight. Or to just have fun with those close to him- which is not many as he has had a history of issues- after all, transient things fall to time, but the impressions they leave can last up to forever...

Silent Salt Cookie - The fallen hero. It wasn't supposed to happen again. They all knew it could happen, they agreed to prevent it. Why did they make the same mistake...?

Pure Vanilla Cookie - The embodiment of the most common lie. He can string Cookies up to make them move and speak against their wills. He does this to himself often, when he grows tired. He is very ashamed of what he has become, but no matter, he will be fine once he regains the light of Truth, and exposes the truth of this world to all Cookiekind...

Hollyberry Cookie - Berry juice is a comfort to her, such is why she had wished so badly to drown her mind and all her pain in it. She is... frankly, harmless the way she is now. She doesn't have the power, pride or energy to fight. Her heart is just as full of love as it's always been, even if her mind's gone fluffy as frosting. So much that even being in a permanent stupor won't stop her from missing her family, still...

Dark Cacao Cookie - As he describes himself fully, an empty vessel without a will of his own, whose only goal is to carry out the will of fate. He will play his part in this story, for he knows there is no other way. After all, they'd tried to resist already, and it was all in vain. He is cold, empty, such was his resolve: to be unburdened by feeling, so that he would feel no pain...

Golden Cheese Cookie - Calls herself the Demonic Goddess. When she gets upset, she tends to fly into fits of destruction- which she has become very, very good at causing. She laughs it off, she laughs a lot in general, but she really does not like what she's become. However, she is still the same greedy Cookie as she always was, and still wants nothing more than to annihilate the ones who had displaced her and her friends and take back what is rightfully hers...

White Lily Cookie - Founder of the Lily Kingdom. She is a stern, serious figure who tries to keep everything under her control. She quickly silences those who tell her what she does not wish to hear untrue, unkind, or unnecessary things. She does not get very openly emotional often, and tends to address everyone with the same attitude even if it's her friends. (They can generally tell when she means well). She plans to silence all lies from Cookies' mouths, especially regarding who the "Heroes" and "Beasts" are...

(i. Never mentioned the name of the AU itself the whole time in this post did I? Ok uh that's Immemorial Interchange btw if I ever say that or II then I'm talking about this thing for future reference XD)

Edit: I have a tag on my blog for the au and I just kinda post whatever I feel like. Hope y'all can enjoy this I'm probably gonna be dumping a lot of stuff I've held on to. And I would love it if people send asks X3

#cookie run #cookie run au #crk au #cookie run kingdom #shadow milk cookie #pure vanilla cookie #eternal sugar cookie #hollyberry cookie #mystic flour cookie #dark cacao cookie #burning spice cookie #golden cheese cookie #silent salt cookie #white lily cookie #I see there's a tag for “beast ancients au” but it appears that's mostly for a specific au by someone #I think I see some other people use it so idk but I don't wanna risk uh. Infringing /silly so I won't use it X3 #Immemorial Interchange AU #<- hey. Hey driftwood look I did it I posted it it's live it's Born at last X3

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steamberrystudio · 6 months ago

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2024 wrap-up and 2025 plans

It's been a really weird year for me and the last few months have been particularly challenging - so much so that I can't really remember much of the start of the year. There's been a lot that has happened and yet it feels like almost nothing has happened.

With a personal move in the works at the moment, and lots of lists and packing and cleaning, the last couple of weeks have felt like a blur of limbo as well.

But rather than just complaining let's jump into the wrap up and plans for 2025.

2024 Progress Wrap up

When looking back over a year of visual novel development, it can be really easy to forget progress and victories because it all smears together into an indistinct timeline.

You know stuff happened but you lose sight of the details of that stuff.

Even while writing this last night, I forgot that A Faerie's Tale was something completed and released this year. I remembered it just now while doing a final proofread of this post.

Development is such a long and repetitive process that you forget all the individual steps it took to get where you are. When I look back over 2024, I admit I feel like I somehow didn't do that much...that time slipped away while I did very little actual work.

And of course, that isn't true. (Or is it?? Self-doubt assures me that I didn't do anything noteworthy this year.)

When Stars Collide

At the start of 2024, When Stars Collide sat at 485,000 words. I was finishing up editing Asher's route but had portions of the other routes to draft. The UI was still the old design, most of the backgrounds were incomplete and none of the additional features like the flowcharts and affinity meters were set up.

I wanted to release an updated demo and the more new people told me they were playing the demo, the more I died inside because it was not at all reflective of the project any more. But I was missing critical backgrounds that I actually got only a few weeks before Episode 1 went to beta.

The point is that back at the start of 2024 the game was still very unfinished but I had big plans. My goal was originally to start releasing episodes in June of 2024 but editing and coding just took so much longer than expected that it just wasn't possible.

From a writing perspective, I learned that drafting and editing a game in this overlapping route style was hard. It was just genuinely so much more difficult than the separate route structure I'm used to. It really requires different processes and styles of planning than what I've done in the past. The burden of meticulously matching a timeline of events across 6 routes simultaneously is really tricky with the way I write and form the choices in my games.

You kind of have to either never refer back to anything that happens within a choice scenario or you have to remember and track a lot of variables and conversations and events. Additionally, writing one plot line from multiple relationship perspectives is actually quite tricky. Things have to align in very specific ways but you also kind of want to make sure that each play through is interesting. You don't want the conversations within the LI-specific content to be identical but they have to be similar enough you can manage the difference with a few key variables.

I honestly found it a really exhausting way to write. There's so much less complexity and so much more freedom when you are writing separate routes. And for that reason, the writing took a lot longer than I am used to.

One day I want to write up all my thoughts on route structure in visual novels but I haven't had time yet.

Ultimately I drafted about 172,000 words this year. The total word count of the game before I coded it was around 657,000 words - plus an additional 8-10k or so of bonus content. Of course, that shrinks when I code it but that was the total uncoded word count. So that is quite a jump from the 485,000 words I started with this year.

I always say that working on VNs really skews your view of what "a lot" of words is. To me, as weird as it is to say, 180k doesn't feel like that much writing, which is silly because it's like writing two YA novels.

But between the end of the Kickstarter for Gilded Shadows and the end of that year, I think I wrote about 250,000 words. That's 70,000 more words but in less time. I think it just shows how much more difficult writing WSC has been due to the structure of the routes.

I remember having a conversation with someone once where she told me that writing a game like Gilded Shadows is *definitely* harder and more work than writing a game like When Stars Collide. GS has multiple plots and a lot more words. In WSC, the routes share a plot, they share scenes and content, there's only one plot line and there are far fewer words.

I think it really underestimates the simplicity buff and the freedom buff that you get from having a single separate route in its own space time where you don't have to care as heavily about continuity across routes or a shared timeline of events or all of this other stuff that was such a burden to me when writing overlapping routes.

I maintain that I'm really glad I wrote When Stars Collide the way I did. I learned so much about game structure and choices and all this mechanical stuff about how visual novels work that I'd never really had to think about for. It was really, really enlightening.

But I will never do this game structure again. Lemme just say that.

Drafting aside, I had to also edit all that writing which was its own special layer of hell.

And then the art. The art has been enjoyable. I really love this game's aesthetic and the character designs. And the characters. I really enjoy them all so much. They are the most adorable crew of nerdy gremlins out there.

But the art has had is own challenges. I've done about 20 CGs for the game so far and a lot of them are easy enough but the colour slider MC is definitely a bit of a challenge for the CGs. With GS where I recoloured by hand, there were times that I had to slightly tweak Morgan's default colours to look good in CGs. For instance, one of her skin tones looked quite odd next to Magnus, who is very pink. And I had to just slightly tweak that skin tone in his CGs so they looked okay together side by side. It was easy to test that sort of thing before the CG even got into the game.

But I colour Wil in greyscale and I don't see them in colour until I test. And each colour available on the slider is represented by a number. And there are essentially 100 of them. So testing all of those isn't really viable. I do test multiple skin tones from my saves. But in some ways it's more cumbersome to make sure all of that looks good.

Wil also has 8 hairstyles…in two colours (which are recoloured manually because a couple of the hairstyles just don't really looks as good recoloured automatically (it's my art, not the dynamic colour slider tool).

It's a lot of work. Hair 5 usually puts my hand out of commission for the rest of the day (so I save it for last. Ha ha). I don't regret it and again, it's something I wanted to to do as an experiment. I knew that 5 hairstyles was probably manageable and 8 was definitely pushing and I was right so no hard lessons really learned there. It's sometimes valuable experience to push yourself right to that line and really see where the division between "feasible" and "too much" really is. Because then it's no longer hypothetical. You know where the line is.

A lot of how WSC is set up was me testing if the line was where I thought it was.

Beyond the art, I also got all the other new features set up and experimented with a few things I hadn't been planning on. Many of those features had the core elements set up and coded by wonderful programmer friends and colleagues (Feniks and Windchimes and Jeneara) but I still had to implement all those things in the code to make them function as part of the game.

Which, for things like the flowcharts - is time consuming. Flowcharts are like that.

The flowcharts in WSC use a different method than the ones in GS. It's a brand new tool and I'm still learning how to use it but there are also some kinks that rear their heads (not those kind, you guys! The annoying kind that break the game!)

I think the feature most people are most excited about would be the save screen. It's quite popular. Ha ha.

With all of that stuff done, I was able to finally….*finally* release the official version of Episode 1 to Patreon and on Itch.

And I released Episode 2 (minus two CGs that have been delayed by an abrupt move to a new place and me just not having time to draw right now) to Patrons in early access. (and the Itch version should go out mid-January. I hope).

So the point is…that is actually a fair amount of work that has taken place this year. And a lot of challenges that have been met and overcome.

A Faerie's Tale

Another thing I did this year was finish and release A Faerie's Tale as part of Amare Fest and with a team of friends to help out.

AFT is a concept I've had since about 2020 (prior to WSC actually). It was based on a dream I had as was always meant to be a cute little side project. But it kind of fell by the wayside in favour of my larger projects.

Being able to get it released was definitely fun. Jen and I definitely want to go back to it and release Lachan's route though - it was something we didn't have time for previously and it would be nice to get it truly complete.

Thornewood

And while I haven't specifically mentioned it anywhere outside of my server and Patreon...

The truth is...

I've secretly been planning my next project. But not really all that secretly since I have mentioned it a few times.

I've been torn, for a while, on two projects I'd like to tackle. One is called The Crown Wheel and the other is called (tentatively) Thornewood. I still go back and forth over which one I really want to do next.

Crown Wheel is the one I *really* want to get out there. It's another story that's close to my heart with some ancient characters of mine that I really love and would love to throw out there for other people to enjoy. But…

Thornewood is a bit more solid a project when it comes to planning and plot. Crown Wheel is a little more nebulous in terms of where the story would go. I'm getting side tracked…I'll get into this more in my 2025 plans.

I have not been working on any other project regularly or in any truly significant way. I've really been working on outlines and character profiles more than anything and I typically do it late at night when I can't sleep but can't draw any more because I'm resting for the day and while I just don't want to be working on WSC because I worked on it all day.

I think I have about 13000 words of outline. I did a rough summary of each route and have been trying to expand those and detail them out a little bit more. So technically that is work I've done this year too.

2024 still somehow feels like a weird year for development. I can't articulate why but it definitely was an odd year for sure.

So What are my 2025 Plans?

That's really the big question at this point. What is in store for Steamberry Studio?

First and foremost, the plan is to get When Stars Collide fully released. This isn't as straightforward as it seems though. With the writing complete, I'm focused on the coding and art, but...

Coding expressions is currently a bit tedious because there have been a ton of group scenes in this game so far. This is because it is somewhat of a 'closed set' so when you are not 1x1 with a love interest…you tend to be with a group. This will diminish in upcoming chapters as the plot kicks off more and you also get longer scenes with the love interests. But unfortunately it does come back in the last few chapters.

But for now I'm looking forward to heading into parts of the game that are more 1x1 or at least smaller groups at a time.

Additionally the CG situation has been somewhat up in the air for me. I was originally planning to do CGs in every chapter but I wasn't sure if that would a) be sustainable for me and b) make sense.

I suspected that there would be chapters coming up where there just weren't necessarily any good CG moments. So the "CGs in every chapter" thing was always going to be a bit squishy.

I know, for instance, that chapter 6 probably won't have any because there aren't any good moments for it to be honest?

Anyway. I am thinking that I may take a less formulaic approach to CGs and focus on making sure there are CGs in every episode if not every chapter. Maybe chapters 5, 8, 10...and then...Idk. One or two of the ending chapters.

Even if it's just four of the remaining chapters, that's still 24 more illustrations for the game. Which I feel like is a very reasonable amount considering there are already about 20.

Another thing I'm really going back and forth on is the nature of episodes moving forward.

Do I want to continue with 2 chapters per episode or do I want to drop to 1 chapter per episode? I battle myself on this all the time. It's such a hard call for me.

One challenge with moving into single chapter episodes is that I just feel the episodes would be less satisfying with only one chapter. Realistically the chapters aren't that small - even the short ones are more than 30,000 words each. That's...half a YA novel.

But, again, *realistically* when we reduce that to a play time, it's not that much.

People consume unvoiced visual novels at a rate of about 250 words per minute. That means 15,000 words per hour.

So 30k is just two hours of content. When you start dividing this up between "main plot" and "LI route content", you start whittling away at how much content *per character* there is. If there are 20,000 words of "LI content" - yeah, that's more than half the chapter. But that gets divided by 6 characters. And that means 13 minutes of playable content *including all the choices* for each character which isn't a lot. And most people are not going to play through every choice option.

Which means people could be getting through the unique content for their favourite character in less than 10 minutes.

By combining chapters, that means we get episodes that are 70,000 words or 90,000 words. It boosts the amount of content per character by a significant amount and that is really what I'm looking at when I consider episode layout.

I try to think about what is going to make for the most satisfying episode for players. The drawback of 2 chapters per episode is that it's…a lot. It's a lot of expressions. It's a lot of flowchart work.

It just takes more time.

Regardless of whether it's just 1 chapter at a time or whether it's 2 chapters at a time, I really want to move forward with steady releases and get the game fully released to players in 2025. That is obviously my primary focus going forward.

The story is finished. It's burning a hole in my laptop. (Not really). But I want to get it released.

Having the story already written but delivering it in smaller bites to players is doing a lot to save my drawing hand from inevitable doom but it's so hard for me mentally. I know the things coming up in future episodes and I'm so keen to release it and see reactions and talk to people about it. And it's just so difficult to not be able to do that as fast as I want.

I'm trying to be patient and I hope all of you are willing to be patient with me.

In other work…

I will likely continue to plan out my next game on the side, though I don't intend to start working on it or writing it until WSC completes. It's too hard to manage two projects like that - at least for me - most of the time.

When it comes to Thornewood (the most likely contender for 'next project'), it is a 'dark fantasy' in that the setting is gritty and grimy fantasy with an underlying darkness in the world. It's not really a dark romance though.

I always view dark fantasy as including settings where the darkness comes from outside the main character interactions. The setting is dark and the stories have danger and darkness....

But dark romance is when the relationships themselves are also dark. And I feel like I don't really write dark romance. I don't write perfect relationships either but I wouldn't describe them as 'dark' by any stretch.

Either way I'm looking forward to working on something more overtly fantasy again.

I've been dabbling in science fiction for a long time now (since 2019 - that's when I started Gilded Shadows!!) and I've been wanting to move back into fantasy settings for a while now.

Even just working on the profiles and outlines and world building for fantasy projects, it feels like the Fae and the magic are calling me back home. So I'm really eager to wrap up WSC and bury myself in a more fantasy themed setting again.

But I have a long journey to get to that point.

There's a lot to do in 2025 and I still have a lot of stories to tell.

I hope you will all be here with me for the journey.

#whenstarscollide #game development #indie otome game #amare game

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melodic-haze · 1 year ago

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Probably a strange ask, but pajama party sleepover with Topaz where the reader gets them matching Dino onesies?

☆ — DEMO TRACK: Topaz x Reader, Yae Miko x Reader

☆ — TYPE: SFW

☆ — NOTES: Using this ask to gauge if I can get a handle on Topaz's personality, cuz I didn't acc originally have her in the list I write for lol. I hope yall don't mind that I combined this into one post :33 anyway IT'S NOT WEIRD AT ALL❗️❗️❗️❗️ DUDE I'd wanna get matching onesies w the girlies :((((((( they're cute as hell and comfy

TOPAZ

"Babe?"

"Yeah?"

"You're taking quite a bit in there. Everything alright or..?"

"Yeah, everything's fine! I'm done, actually!"

"Come out, then! I feel like I've been waiting for you for ages! Right, Numby?"

You hear a muffled squeak from the other side of the door and you couldn't help but giggle both at Topaz's dramaticism and the little surprise that you have for her. Without a delay, you placed your hand on the doorknob, "You ready to see this?"

"Sweetie, I don't know what I'm seeing. But of course I'm ready to see you, no matter what!"

You rolled your eyes at the light flirt before turning the doorknob, stepping out of the bedroom and finally showing your girlfriend the long-awaited surprise.

You see her unfiltered joy before you hear it; she practically jumps up with a pleasantly shocked look on her face, one that easily morphs into a smile as she stumbles over to you to hug you with a squeal. Numby had followed close behind, rubbing its snout on your legs happily and running around.

"OHMYGOODNESS?? You look absolutely adorable!! You're one of those dinosaurs that some of the worlds have! This is the surprise you were talking about?"

You shook her head, "This is part of it. The real surprise is in the bedroom. I think you'll like it—both of you."

She narrowed her eyes at you before the dawning realisation came in the form of her flabberghasted look, "There's NO way."

"See for yourself."

Topaz swivels her head at Numby, who does the same thing in turn, before they both practically dash over to the bedroom. Unsurprisingly, you hear a squeal of utter happiness—your girlfriend always had an affinity towards cute critters, or cute things in general, so such a reaction was definitely no surprise.

And when she comes back out again, the pet warp trotter in tow, you can't help but relate to her unfiltered love for them.

"You got us matching onesies."

You nodded with a grin, "I did. Do you like it?"

"How is that even a question?" She practically skips over to you before putting her arms around your neck, "I LOVE it!! It's basically a guarantee that you look cute, but don't I look cute? Doesn't Numby look cute?? They look like a tiny little dinosaur, I think I could cry..."

A laugh bubbled up from your chest at your girlfriend's enthusiasm as you wrapped your hands around her waist, "I thought you might like something like this—you've been working hard, so I thought I'd get you something."

Her excitement dies down just a touch, though the affection in her eyes was plain to see, "Babe.. you didn't have to do that! I love the work."

"I know you do! I just wanted to get you a little extra for when I finally get you to settle down with manual labour for a night in."

"I'd say it's more than worth it." She pulled back with a flourish, picking Numby up to show off their gifts, "Cute and comfortable? I don't think anything could beat this."

"I dunno..." You shrugged lightly, "You haven't seen what else I have planned for this sleepover."

"Then I personally grant you the opportunity to change my mind."

She smiles so very brightly at you, and it's as if everything else has been washed away.

YAE MIKO

"You're awfully secretive with this little 'surprise' of yours, aren't you?"

"I think not being secretive defeats the entire purpose of a surprise."

"While you may be correct," she crosses her arms with a small smirk, "the blindfold is a touch overkill, don't you think? You wouldn't dare to stage a kidnapping on poor me, would you?"

"And risk the Shogun's wrath?" You scoffed out a laugh, "I don't think so. Plus it's to make sure you aren't peeking!"

"Did you not go into your room to change?"

"Yeah, but-- wait how did you know I was changing?"

You could practically hear her eyeroll, "I have ears, darling; ones that can hear far more than the normal human auditory system."

"Yeah, yeah, you can hear more than the usual person, I think I get it... Anyway, I'm coming out now, so you can take your blindfold off if you want."

"I still don't see the reason why--"

"Miko, babe, do you want to see me or not?"

"Fine, alright, seeing as how you want me silent, I shall cease my jabs at you.. for now."

Now you were the one to roll your eyes as you opened the door and walked over to your fox-like lover, clothes in hand. And as you did so, she removed the piece of cloth wrapped around her head before opening her eyes.

Instead of her usual vigilance, she actually takes a little time to stare at you.. and the folded gift in your hands. Amethyst eyes narrowed at the latter specifically before they darted over to you and your getup.

Then, a smirk made its way over to her lips as if it were another typical moment of her teasiny you, though you don't miss the way her pupils expand and her eyes glimmer in warm affection, "My, my... If you wanted to be my cute little bunny so bad, I'm sure we could arrange something."

You felt a blush overtake your cheeks, though you shook your head in an attempt to settle yourself, "Nevermind that, why don't you focus more on what I'm holding for you?"

To her credit, she does. But then she looks at you with a raised brow, "Are these.. matching onesies?"

"Yeah. Why," you feel something inside you twist the slightest bit, "you don't like it?"

"Mmm... We shall see."

Her expression is sly, though she doesn't give her feelings away as she takes the gift and heads for the bedroom to change. You knew Miko loved to be a cryptic woman, but it was a little frustrating when it came to the smaller things—did she like it? Hate it? Is she just.. humouring you so that you feel bad? Or maybe she's making fun of you by doing so...

"Dear?"

You are snapped out of your thoughts by the sound of Miko's voice, albeit a touch muffled due to the walls between you, "Y-Yes? Sorry, did you need something?"

"No, not necessarily. You were rather quiet while waiting for me."

"What, did you want me to bang on the door desperately?"

"I do have a penchant for the dramatics." You rolled your eyes as you heard her laugh, though she continues not long after, "I'm done. Be grateful that I hadn't asked you to wear a blindfold."

"Uh huh, I'm very grateful. Now come out, I wanna see you!"

"Patience, bunny. I'll be out in a second."

The door opens, and she steps out wearing matching onesie given to her. Though you notice that she has yet to put the hood on her head.. and the slight tint of pink that dusted her cheeks as she looked at you head-on. Was she actually embarrassed?

She huffed lightly, a slight smile on her lips, "Putting a fox in a bunny onesie seems akin to having a wolf in sheep's clothing, don't you think?"

You shrugged, "No matter what, you look cute either way."

"Was that your main goal? To have me look simply adorable for you to gawk at? Is my beautiful humanoid form not enough for you?"

While her tone was mostly teasing, there was a touch of.. something else—a tone someone asks when they are lost. Perhaps it was the loss of her intimidating air; she did love to make others squirm, but in a getup like this? How could she ever achieve that?

You shake your head, "I found these while I was out for a little shopping trip and thought that these would make you both cute and beautiful. Why, you don't like it?"

Her eyes softened, "Of course I like it, my darling.. though next time, how about we buy fox onesies together instead? Cute aesthetics are more suited towards.. hmm.. that Yashiro Commission girl, for starters."

A laugh bubbled up from within you, "Haha, alright, alright. But you're still my cute little kitsune."

"Little? Oh, that's highly debatable. Now, is this all we're going to be doing, staring at each other and how well we match, or are we doing anything else for tonight?"

"I've actually got a few options for you." You held out your hand to her, "If you'll follow me..."

Her hand takes yours, and you move on to proceed your comfortable night with the beautiful fox envoy, completely forgetting the rest of the world.

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