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ramble rewrite of some ocs i posted about back in june 2023. names have changed, with a whole lotta updated lore. i've given up attempting to write their bios in google docs so, !!! here it is!

There's a cut at the end of the lore rundown to try and keep things clean with scrolling. From top to bottom the order is; Lore Rundown, Characters, Prelude stuff

I don't have any official plans to write these characters' story out so for now they'll remain in ramble hell.

Warnings for; Implied Smut, misgendering and deadnaming the trans character (deadname is censored), internalized transphobia, violence

An extremely rough Lore Rundown

Lore is still a major work in progress and may change as I add onto things.

Fantasy World with a magic system only available to the mythical creatures. Zero ideas for the magic system but it exists!

Fae-Likes; Called Like for short (pl: Likes). Similar to the fae of ███. While their true forms hold no physical form, they radiate a kind of intoxicating beauty that no man can resist. Likes often appear in the form of human women and have no ability to change this. (Basically an all female-species, in order to reproduce they lure in men and use all their blood to conceive)

Likes have the ability to manipulate the magic of the world. There are Like for each of the elements. Likes are unable to use magic while in their human form. Very few of them exist in the world, being punished and killed by the Empire. They often hide away in far corners of the world.

The Corruption; A curse of unknown origins. Believed to be anti-magic in origin, the Corruption has killed many of the Fae and the Likes. The Corruption can appear in many forms, one form is known to prey upon mortals.

The Corruption is not the same curse plaguing the 'Howling'

The Path; Mortal minds cannot understand the existence of the 'Path'. Why it exists and why the Likes follow it is unknown. Whatever the case is, a chosen Like must follow the path, and never stray from it. It is the chosen's destiny.

'Tt-Aeuonn' to the chosen who stray, wait for them.

The Characters!

There's three main characters that my brain focuses on; Sage, his eldest sister Melisande and their mortal childhood friend, Aldrich.

They're the only ones with bios.

Sage and Melisande are Fae-likes, specifically ones found in the 'Howling.' The 'Howling' is a magical forest that goes up and over a mountain range. It gets its name from the fact that when it gets windy (and when it does, its WINDY) it sounds like howling.

The Howling is cursed, the exact origin of the curse in unknown but it is not the Corruption. In order to stop the curse from plaguing and eating away at the forest, a certain Like (often the same chosen to follow the Path) takes on the curse. Allowing it to consume her body instead. The chosen Like is forbidden from telling others of the curse and letting them lay eyes upon this. This rule doesn't seem to apply to mortals however.

Faraway from humanity, how does a mortal child appear here? Not even the child can answer that

Melisande 'Ylva'

First born to the Fae-Like 'Iva'. As a child, she was a free-spirit. Iva, oh her sweet mother, how she worried about her. Melisande's only desire was the venture past the forest's line, see the people that Iva and her aunt 'Pilha' warned her about.

She always stayed by her mother's side, she resisted her desire for freedom. Iva hoped that her becoming an older sister would fix that desire, that want. ███'s arrival seemed to have done that. Little did Iva know how more adventurous her daughter became after the arrival of her little sibling.

Appearance notes (too lazy to write actual descriptions)

Golden eyes, round and bright

Pale blonde hair, often kept in a braid despite her preference to wear it naturally.

Sun-kissed skin, covered in freckles.

Hidden from view, she has large, deep scratch marks across her abdomen.

A strongly built body, she takes pride in her muscles

Personality notes:

Care-free and adventurous

Often looks (and acts) like she's always in her head. But is extremely observant towards people

Can make people trust her, really easily

Stubborn and impulsive, she's protective over her little brother.

May be a little overbearing at times but she means well.

Punch first, think later

Misc:

The oldest out of the three

Roughly the same height as Aldrich, swears she's taller then him

Impromptu weapons are her favourite weapons. If she can swing or throw it, its a weapon.

While unable to use magic, Melisande's wounds seem to heal faster then most, never scaring. The scratch marks on her abdomen are her only scars.

Often called Mel for short

███ | Sage 'Ylva'

Second born to the Fae-Like 'Iva'. From the moment Iva held ███ in her arms, she knew ███ was the chosen. That this child was fated to carry the family curse and to follow the Path. She strictly raised ███ to be the perfect Like, to be the one to follow the Path. One night, ███ came up to her, to ask for one thing.

To be a man.

"...I will give you this one thing, but promise me. Promise me that you'll abandon this want as soon as you follow the Path."

"I promise."

Appearance Notes:

Deep forest green eyes, always tired and stressed

Dark nutty-red-brown hair, tied up in a low ponytail. Usually has some hair in his face.

Sun-kissed skin similar to his sister, also covered in freckles

No visible scarring minus the curse slowly plaguing his body.

(Still unsure of how to describe the curse's physical appearance so just use your imagination) The curse currently covers one-half of Sage's body. Not extreme enough for anyone to notice and can easily be covered by clothing. The most noticeable place is on Sage's left hand. Thankfully the curse seems to stray from his face, for now.

A lithe body, visibly slimmer then his sister

Personality Notes:

A lost soul, a follower, a liar

Quiet and observant to nature, won't say much

Not much of a people person, prefers to communicate with animals. They seem to understand him more.

If it means protecting his sister, Sage will lie and continue to lie. Even if it means his sister will get hurt in the process. Aldrich seems to always catch onto his lies though. (He likes it as much as he hates it)

Years of repressing his emotions and feelings have lead him to apathy, and a short fuse.

Misc:

The second oldest out of the trio, Melisande is 5 years older then him

The shortest, the other two are roughly a head taller then him

Overall is the weakest in terms of both strength and health, the curse isn't helping

If he were able to use magic without destroying his human form, he would

Despite being unable to use magic, Sage has an innate connection with the Path, long before Iva's death.

Sage doesn't have the skill to put up a fight, though he is practiced in smacking people with his stick.

Knowledgeable in herbs and medicine

Aldrich | Alberich von de Morgenstern

Pilha sensed a disturbance in the forest one night. She didn't know how to describe it but she knew exactly what it was. A mortal, but something was wrong. This mortal... it was awfully, small. Similar in size to her sister's daughters, Pilha thinks. Not like she's seen those brats in years.

She asked the mortal questions, quickly learning that this child has no memory of how it got here or where its from. Thankfully though, it remembered its name.

Alberich.

She took the small child with her, it would do great under her sister's care.

Appearance Notes:

Deep red eyes, always watching

Dark brown hair, often appears as black until the sun hits it. Cut short but long enough to be tied up in a low ponytail.

Dark skin, darker then the siblings.

A small faded scar on his eyebrow, from an unfortunate encounter with a rock. Hidden from view his body is covered in various scars, similar to Melisande, he has large, deep scratch marks but along his back.

Lean but built with muscle, not as visibly strong as Melisande but larger then Sage.

Personality Notes:

Unintentionally the leader of the group

Observation skills are 50/50 people and nature. He trusts the siblings intuition more then his own. (He can read the siblings like a book though)

A planner but will throw those plans away if possible

Caring but sometimes to a point of not telling others the truth, will lie to keep the ones he loves safe.

Misc:

The youngest out of the trio, he's most likely a few months younger than Sage

He and Melisande are roughly the same height, Aldrich thinks their the same height

Is an excellent marksman, he's been practicing it since a young age. This skill later applies to the world's more advanced weapons

Aldrich is also skilled in the sword

Growing up, Iva and Pilha have always commented (indirectly or directly) about how unusual his eye colour is. While eyes of unnatural colours do exist, they've never seen a colour this deep.

Prelude

A better explanation of the trio's backstories, why Aldrich has two names, who Iva & Pilha were, more lore shit and overall events of their childhood before the main story starts. This is where the real ramble starts, in no particular order.

Iva & Pilha

Close in age, Iva and Pilha were considered twins by their mother. Beyond that, the only thing they ever had in common were their golden eyes. The two sisters were never close, not like they ever yearned for it. From the day they were born, their fates were decided for them and their eldest sister.

The eldest, who's name now lost, was to walk the Path, Iva was destined for something else. Pilha never knew what it was but from watching the forest and her sister, she had a feeling.

Pilha waited for the day her mother decided her fate.

That day never came.

Perhaps that's why she always wandered the forest alone, watching it bloom as Iva became weaker and weaker. Why Iva? Pilha was stronger, more attuned with the Howling. Pilha was the better choice.

Pilha was always the better choice. She'd never stray.

Many years, decades, passed. Their mother passed and the eldest sister never returned home. Words were never spoken but they knew what happened. Tt-Aeuonn found her.

Pilha wandered the forest again, thoughts of the eldest straying plagued her mind. Did mother know she'd stray? Is that why she chose Iva? She didn't see Iva for a long time after that.

The day she saw Iva again, her sister was covered in blood. A dried corpse of a mortal laid beside her. Pilha's golden eyes rested on the small bundled her sister held. She suddenly understood everything. Why their mother never chose her.

She ran. Ran through the forest and out. She ran for a year until she found herself in the forest again. That cycled continued every time she saw that child, her niece.

On the 5th year, she felt the disturbance before she smelt the blood. A dark feeling was brewing within her as she wandered closer and closer, the smell becoming stronger. Before she saw Iva, her eyes landed on the pale blonde of her niece. Melisande seemed scared, confused.

Pilha told her to leave, go to the nearby stream. She'll find her later. Melisande seemed scared but Pilha made a promise to her, a pinky promise. The act of making a mortal promise seemed to have distracted the girl.

As the girl left, Pilha wandered closer and closer. Then she saw it.

Death and destruction.

And a smiling Iva, holding a tiny ███.

---

Hello yes, we love hereditary mommy issues. The Fae-Likes of the Howling are wonderful creatures, so far from humanity yet so close. I'd love to actually make a map of the world and decide how far the Howling IS actually from humanity but I'm lazy. Also if we use fae logic then the forest is both at the end of the world and right next to humanity. Time runs differently yet also the same.

Pilha my horrible auntie who'd rather run and distract Melisande from everything and Iva my horrible mother who's actions I don't need to explain!

Before Melisande's birth, Pilha has wandered out of the forest and ventured into humanity. Her longest time away from the Howling was probably about 5-10 years. She understands humans yet being in-human, she also doesn't.

Melisande is essentially her, but a Fae-Like who understands humans while also being in-human. She has a human heart. She both loves and hates her niece.

Melisande grows up to look a lot like Pilha as well, which doesn't help at all!!!!

Despite the family curse having the rule of "Telling others and letting them see it", it doesn't stop Fae-Like from figuring out that something is going on. There's no consequences to telling another Like about the curse, because you physically can't. You can only the future holder of the curse.

I haven't exactly figured out the consequence of another Fae-Like actually seeing the curse on the body. It probably has something to do with Tt-Aeuonn?

---

Sooo.... What IS Tt-Aeuonn? Is it a fae? A place?

The answer is yes, its everything. I jokingly refer to it as fae hell. You can assume that Likes straying from the Path is basically sinning. Its some unknowing entity that watches over the Fae-Likes. A God? Maybe. My main intent for Tt-Aeuonn is to just be unknown, noone knows what it is, not even the Likes who fear it.

Similar to the Path, what it means and why certain Likes must follow it is unknown.

Perhaps if i ever sit down and turn this into a proper story (doubt), I'll have actual answers. (esp since we have a human insert)

Aldrich or Alberich?

A simple answer for this, his name was Alberich but the siblings (mainly Melisande) kept saying it as Aldrich.

So it just... stuck, and he forgot about his original name.

Both names are correct, but I often just call him Aldrich cause that's the name he uses for most of his life.

Though Alberich, specifically 'Alberich von de Morgenstern' is extremely important to his backstory, as its a major plot point. and a point of conflict.

---

The siblings, after they leave the Howling end up giving themselves the family name of 'Ylva' if the situation calls for it, which is rare. Most people on the outskirts and outside of the Empire don't bother to give themselves family names.

Often its just titles such as "Otto the Farmer" etc etc.

Aldrich never gives himself a family name, he can't explain it but, he feels as if he already has one. But its always on the tip of his tongue.

He gets this feeling a lot, not just with his family name but with everything. Place names, mannerisms, human feelings. It confuses him, he shouldn't know any of these things.

Sometimes he swears he can even read and write.

No child who grew up in a forest, magical or not, should know these things.

Who is he? Who is he? Who is he? Who is he? WHO IS HE?

The closer the trio gets to larger towns and cities, the more people seem to stare at him. They know something he doesn't.

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CHAPTER 4 IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR BAND TIER

457K + 166K —> ✮ 623,016K WORDS ✮

Fan Tier Release: July 4th

Public Release: July 18th

It's here! (Do you like the new cover??) After nine months, the chapter has finally come. This one took me a long time. I outlined and re-outlined and outline some more. There's something Sisyphean about writing an IF and there were long stretches where it felt like the end was never coming. This was definitely a set-up chapter aka it sets up a lot for chapter 5 and beyond when it comes to the routes and upcoming dramaaaa so I'm excited to see everyone's theories and thoughts on all of the breadcrumbs I drop in this one. I'm really thankful that I worked on Chapter 5 alongside of Chapter 4 because that means Chapter 5 won't take so long to come out! I'm excited for that yippeee! One thing to note: I usually leave the lyric options to the end but I couldn't come up with them this chapter. At all. Like for over a month I just couldn't. I am cashing in my "this is a wip" card and forcing a type-in. (It'll be fixed in chapter 5).

A change to note: Attached/Detached are no longer change options but they are now variables and in the stat page. As well as being negative/positive. It didn't make much sense to have the second one because jaded/ambitious does that job and I wanted the attached/detached markers to fluctuate for future story reasons.

There are new stats:

Castmate/Competitor ✮

Approachable/Aloof ✮

Leader/Member ✮

Camaraderie ✮

Born Star ✮

I wanted to focus on the celebrity/famous/botb/band part of it because those stats feel meaningful and important compared to generic personality stats. Some have been taken out but not completely. They are still being measured in the background for flavor text. Stats like Loved and Born Star don't change as often as they are dependent on the changes of invisible stats. They will make more sense in the future chapters !

PLAY HERE

If there are any errors (especially with the jumping to chapter page because its my first time doing that and there are a lot of choices) please let me know!

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They make me SICK

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How to use Em Dash (—) and Semi Colon ( ; )

Since the ai accusations are still being thrown around, here's how i personally like to use these GASP ai telltales. 🦄✨

Em Dashes (—)

To emphasize a shift / action / thought.

They're accusing us—actually accusing us—of using AI.

To add drama.

They dismissed our skills as AI—didn't even think twice, the dimwits—and believed they were onto something.

To insert a sudden thought. Surely they wouldn't do that to us—would they?

To interrupt someone's speech. "Hey, please don't say that. I honed my craft through years of blood and tears—" "Shut up, prompter."

To interrupt someone's thoughts / insert a sudden event.

We're going to get those kudos. We're going to get those reblogs—

A chronically online Steve commented, “it sounds like ai, idk.”

Semi Colons ( ; )

To join two closely related independent sentences / connect ideas.

Not only ChatGPT is capable of correct punctuation; who do you think it learned from in the first place?

Ultimate pro tip: use them whenever the fuck you want. You don't owe anyone your creative process. 🌈

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yeah im “transitioning” *dissolves into tiny pieces as i click to the next slide*

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i come bearing luck in hopes of receiving adolescent ratiorine child with middle aged ratiorine (they are sublime)

my sweeties... with a smaller sweetie they care about very much......🥺

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Hello! Your IF story inspired me to start my own IF game

Im thinking of using twine

And I would like to ask you if you had any tips or advice

Thank you!

Also side note I’m really excited and very interested in how this story is going to play out I already love the cast and can’t wait to see the rest!

OOoo thank you so much! I'm very flattered the game inspired you!

Twine has many different story formats, each with their own pros and cons. I personally use Sugarcube (I think next to Harlow, it is the most popular) so all my tips will be for Twine Sugarcube:

Basic tips:

Bookmark the Sugarcube V2 Document. This is your bible. It will have everything you need to use Twine. It's a daunting read, but I use it to troubleshoot when I forget how Macros work. I always have tab open for it.

Download a Twine Template. If you are brand new to Twine and making IFs, I heavily suggest downloading a template or two. Most of them come with tutorials and examples on how they work. Sometimes they even provide more helpful resources on Twine. I use Vahnya's Template II that I modified myself afterwards.

Study from pre-exisiting Twine IFs. Might be controversial, but I personally believe that diving in and seeing how other authors code and structure their stories helps a lot. Eventually you'll figure out a system and structure that works for you. It might not work for all games, but most Twine games can be downloaded and opened up in the twine editior. If you're worried about spoilers or upsetting people, feel free to download my game and see whats inside. I make multiple copies of the game, so any build I have out in the public is not the original build and therefore have no spoilers. I know it will look insane when you open it, but there's a method to the madness.

Writing and Planning:

Making an IF is no joke! Plan your story out, know your big variables, your branching routes and at least some part of your ending!! Try to stay as organized as possible. These projects and can will spiral out of control if you're not careful. I suggest having a giant excel sheet with tabs for important variables, chapter/scene breakdowns, wordcount and characters ect. Updating it will be a pain (that I am guilty of not doing) but will make developing easier. Even if you don't make a big project, its still good practise to do it.

#Stylesheet:

All the code in here relates to how the game looks. You can fiddle in there to configure the game to look how you want it to look. If you even want to see what element is tied to what ID code, the best thing to do is playtest the game (build >> play) and then leftclick and select "inspect element" you browser will open up the developer window and you see what elements are tied to what and even play around with the contents to test out CSS elements you like.

This website is a great resource on using CSS and other coding language. I personally used it many time to modify my game.

Helpful resources and Macros:

Chapel has made a LOT of custom macros that you can add to your game. You can find the list here.

But the most important one is the Pronoun Template. It might be confusing at first but one you understand how it work, its a great tool to have. You can even add gendered titles so that they work with the pronoun template.

Idrellegame is a great resource on coding in Twine. You can find the list here. It helped me out when starting out.

Exporting to Itch:

I never see people talk about Butler when it comes to uploading If games onto itch.io, so i'm doing it now.

What is Butler? Its a command-line tool that Itch made to upload your game onto Itch.io quickly and reliably.

The documentation is here. And I suggest coping and pasting the export codes onto a doc so you can use them for every update afterwards.

Here is a youtube tutorial you can follow along as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JCJa5iWREM

I personally have the Butler on the Itchio.app so that's its always up to date.

Thats all I can offer off the top of my head, if you or anyone wants some help on something specifically, feel free to DM me or drop another ask in the inbox. Always happy to help. Working in twine is very overwhelming for newcomers.

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If you've never seen anyone else say it allow me to enlighten you

Your story outline can be out of context and stupid. My current story outlines have each chapter numbered with bullet points like "mc1's dad is a dick" "mc1 and mc2 are acting out bc trauma" "ohhh shit they dancing like strippers" "acting out p3" "they get it on" "Everyone finds out about the murder dad" "Everyone hates mc3" "mc4 drops out of college" etc etc

The outline and first drafts are meant to be the stupidest version. If you can't think of a name for someone or something write something out of place like ELEPHANT and come back to it later.

Go forth and be stupid and write shit

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ig we doing furries now?

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ig we doing furries now?

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New pfp

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i miss my twink </3

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i do infact, draw and do commissions (they are closed atm)