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Masterpost

Realised I should probably make a new one of these...

Hi! I'm Morella, and I write steamy Visual Novels with a big helping of mystery and a sprinkling of horror.

Here's some of my work:

Love Me Dead

A zombie-themed dating sim

Holmes - Science of Seduction

A modern-day retelling of Sherlock Holmes

If you're here for my The Arcana fanfic, you can find the masterpost here.

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You can’t tell me this wasn’t the hottest shit ever for Watson

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meet cute: it's raining and I see your battered bleeding body lying in the mud and I kick it slightly to see if you're dead

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You said you're creating more then ever, can I ask what it is you're creating?

Focusing on two main projects atm, and very excited about them because they are the most successful projects we have ever worked on. So much credit goes to the amazing art and character design by ValerieOS. Love Me Dead - A steamy zombie romance where you, a newly turned undead, enroll in a shady experiment to try and regain your humanity. You will get to romance fellow zombie Sid, possibly mad scientist Vincent, and mortician Danny.

Holmes: The Science of Seduction - You're London's most wanted... in more ways than one. When you, a true crime podcaster, are accused of killing Charles Baskerville III, you'll need to do whatever it takes to find allies and prove your innocence.

@morellanimmermehr look at our babies...

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Are you no longer friends with mother of cups and is that why you stopped writing prequel?

I want to clear this up: @motherofqups and I are still very much friends, she is a huge part of my offline life and I hope she always will be. The truth is, the project ended for two main reasons:

Medical issues (which aren’t mine to share).

Mine and @morellanimmermehr 's decision to stop creating Arcana content for the time being.

This wasn’t an easy choice, I’ve been part of the Arcana community for over five years, and for a long time it’s been a home to me. I’ve met some of the most important people I know through it, including @motherofqups. But after announcing Prequel, the negativity reached a point where it was seriously affecting my mental health. I had to step back for my well-being. I think it’s great how much creativity fandoms can inspire, but they can also take a toll on creators, especially when things get toxic. Please remember that creators are people with private lives, and a lot of the time, speculation about their personal lives isn’t accurate or helpful. Before we stepped back, some had speculated on our work-life balance based on how often we released new content. Now that we've had some distance, We can say we're writing and creating more than ever (our own stories and our own characters) and we are so much happier. Writing recharges us; what was draining us wasn’t the work, but the anxiety and stress we were dealing with. I hope this clears things up and maybe helps people think about how we interact with creators and each other in fandom spaces. Thanks to everyone who’s been kind and supportive, it really means a lot.

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Writer: There Was Only One Bed…

Smut fans: *gasp!!!!!*

Writer: So They Spooned All Night And The Brooding One Allowed Themselves To Feel Vulnerable For The First Time In Years And The Chirpy One Got Some Quality Snuggles

Fluff fans: *GASP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

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I am surprised your new game is not Arcana why did you decide that? Isn’t easier to write for a game people love?

Writing an original game is maybe the best creative experience I've ever had! And we quickly realized that making an original was a better fit for us than keep writing fanfic.

We wanted to make an original game for a very long time, and we had all the usual concerns: what if nobody likes our character? What if nobody cares about our story? What if nobody reads it?

But as it turned out, people did like our characters and did care about our story and did read it.

I'm glad I didn't stay in my comfort zone, because honestly my "comfort zone" got me to normalize things that were not good for my mental health. I got so used to it I started thinking it was just the price of making content.

One of my favorite things so far building an audience for my original game has been that my readers don't assume I take myself seriously, and I don't feel pressured to take myself seriously either. I can have so much fun with what I write and push a lot of boundaries.

It's also been extremely validating to see a new original IP match in one month the same success it had taken me two years to reach with fan fiction. It did a lot for my impostor syndrome.

So if you're a creative and are anxious about leaving your comfort zone, I think it's always worth at least trying. You might realize your comfort zone wasn't really comfortable to begin with. Enjoy a little sketch of my baby Vincent by our amazing artist ValerieOS

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Would You Romance A Zombie?

Sid is one of your potential love interests in She's All Dead, a zombie-themed dating sim on the Dorian app.

You can play it here.

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@asrabounding and I have been up to no good again 👀

You're a newly turned zombie. When you join a shady experiment meant to restore your humanity, you have to donate your body (and your heart) to three love interests. Don't worry, it's for science!

Play It Here!

Horror romance dating sim

Choose your main character's gender

🔞 Steamy content 🔞

Writing: @morellanimmermehr & @asrabounding

Art: ValerieOS

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My cartoon for this week’s @guardian books

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Good luck, Julian!

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The Arcana Prequel - Your Questions Answered

Thanks to everyone who has sent us questions over the last few days! If there's anything else you'd like to know, my askbox is open.

Will the Prequel have an upright and reversed ending?

Yes! You’ll be following Asra during his time at the palace as he tries to revive the Apprentice. To succeed, he will need to win the trust of Nadia, Lucio, Valerius and Muriel. Whether he manages that and how far he is willing to go for his goal is up to you.

On a scale of 0 to 10, how angsty will this be?

We’re aiming to emulate the way the original game balances out the serious, gut-wrenching moments with more light-hearted ones. That said, grief, loss and unhealthy coping mechanisms will all feature heavily, so we’re going to say… 9.5?

How often does the story update, and how many episodes will there be in total?

We currently release a new episode every Tuesday, but we’re planning to eventually move to two episodes per week once some of our other ongoing commitments have wrapped up. As for the total number of episodes… we’re not sure yet, but definitely 20+.

Why did you decide to write this together?

@asrabounding (Azi) and I have been toying with the idea of making an Arcana Prequel on Dorian for over a year, but we realized pretty quickly that bringing it to life the way we were envisioning it would require more than two people. Azi and @motherofqups (MOC) first connected via the fandom all the way back in 2019, and we’ve all ended up bonding over our shared love of the Arcana, many congruent headcanons, and an admiration for each other's work. So this collaboration was a natural fit.

How much Asra x Julian is in this?

Their situationship will be one of the ongoing plotlines in this story. The choices you make will influence how it plays out and, to an extent, how much of it you see. Relationship points with Julian will not affect whether you get the upright or reversed ending, but can unlock additional paths.

You all have written Asra and Julian a lot, but which of the other characters are your favorites to write and why?

All three of us genuinely enjoy writing all of the M6 (and many of the supporting characters), but if you’re making us choose…

MOC: Lucio. His voice is so unique and he’s always flowed easily for me, but he still surprises me, even after all this time. There are so many knots to unravel and layers to unpack with him. He’s delicious to tease but he bites back, too, so he’s fun to play with whether I’m writing an angsty scene or a more playful scene. 

Azi: Muriel and Lucio. I have made myself laugh while writing them more than once, and their voices tend to flow naturally for me. I never have to wonder “what would Lucio say?”

Morella: Nadia. I love her sense of humor, and how absolutely savage she can be when she’s irritated with someone. I also really enjoy contrasting the way she can take control of a situation and command the room with the vulnerability that she only shows to a select few people.

Are the courtiers going to make appearances?

Yes. Valerius plays a major role as one of the characters that Asra will need to get onto his side to complete the ritual. The other courtiers will make appearances as well, though their roles will be smaller (similar to the original game).

I’m confused, is this meant to be canon?

No. Our aim is to stay faithful to the spirit and lore of the original game, but ours is just one of many ways to tell this particular story.

Why is the Prequel getting promoted by Dorian?

Dorian has criteria for which games get promoted. These include how many people play, how much money they spend, and whether the creators update the game consistently over a period of time. Over the past two years, Azi and I have built a track record of meeting these criteria for every game we release, so our stories now often get picked up for promotion early on (as do those of many other established creators on Dorian). The logic behind that is pretty obvious if you’ve ever been a fanfic reader deciding whether to take a chance on an incomplete longfic on AO3 - if you recognise the author and know they’ve finished their fics in the past, you’re probably more likely to trust that they’ll continue this one, too.

How much influence does Dorian have over the games you make?

The ideas that go into the stories are all ours, and Dorian doesn't tell us what to write. They do give us advice on what they think is more likely to succeed. It's our decision to take it or leave it. Sometimes we take it, sometimes we leave it.

Dorian doesn't set a release schedule for us, but they do offer more opportunities for promotion to creators who stick to a consistent schedule.

How much money do you make writing on Dorian?

Azi and I have both been writing on Dorian for going on two years now, and our earnings have steadily grown over that time. As part of that process, we’ve also gotten a lot more intentional about our release schedule. This has brought us to a point where our games make between $5K and $6K each month.

How much time does a project like this take?

These days, the hours Azi and I put into making games are equivalent to a part time job. We have tried different things and tested out what we could and could not handle on top of our other work and family commitments, and we have found our sweet spot. Luckily we are fully in control of our schedule and we make it work for us.

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Ask us anything! Questions will be answered on Dorian, Tumblr and Instagram. Join us live on stream this Tuesday 4 PM ET for a chat with @asrabounding, @motherofqups and me.

Join the stream here

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Asra launching himself within barely A DAY into at the very least, making out heavily with Ilya, flirting severely with him, slipping into this sexual role so, so quickly

He is rebounding so hard after coming home to his lover, his friend dead, and is throwing himself into whatever arms don't spark terror from their very touch

Ilya, the same, that same rebounding impulse, that same desperation to cope

And both of them unknowingly grieving the same person

It's ghastly sad

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I'm gonna spam y'all with screenshots of Muriel's route bc why not ( ﾟ⁠ヮﾟ⁠)

Wanna talk about how Asra and Julian got close again after 3 year gap, becoming something more than just friend. It's so cute :') Especially how Asra calls Julian hy his birth name, it sounds tender.

Here's some moments I got, thought there's more throughout the story, like when they and MC with Muriel had a sleepover in Mazelinka's house, Asra and Julian went to sleep together in the hole 👀

1) This one happened in a paid scene, Asra showed us some kind of hot springs and left with those words :D

(The rest is under the cut)

2) This one happened before Julian's drinking competition on Vesuvian Games

3) And this one was in Upright ending, a paid choice to visit Asra's shop after arrival to Vesuvia. MC asked Asra how they've been. Turns out Julian lives in the shop as well!

The whole scene was so adorable, bc Muriel got souvenirs from South and Julian assumed that he got one only for Asra (bc he's not silly and understands that Muriel isn't fond of him). But he surprised him by bringing two adorable figures :') Julian's reaction is so adorable, I can't– Want to hug them all, such pookies

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 Ilya

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