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[rosesrotofficial]

seraphim slum is a reverse hanahaki story.

what i love about Seraphim Slum is how it's a reverse hanahaki story. throughout the game you're seeing Ezekiel hack up flowers, you think it's cause of one of her girls. Macy, Salxire, Oriel, Ezekiel's love is unrequited and desperate and obsessive.

But Then. you realise. no, the plants aren't killing Ezekiel. they're growing out of her. her skin's dirt and sow to a garden. the plants aren't eating Ezekiel alive, they ARE her. tumbling out of her body and crawling out. they're inside of her, not to taunt her cause of a lack of love. but because, wrapped around her ribcage and heart-bones, that's how the plants show their love.

Seraphim Slum isn't an unrequited love story, it's a requited romance between Ezekiel, also known as Lucifer, and Her Eden

[rosesrotofficial]

a siren's prom night. watching the boys (2024). angelwood studios (youtube / insta).

[rosesrotofficial]

my boyfriend thinks it's cute to bury girls on a sunday.

My boyfriend is an asshole. He thinks it's cute to bury girls on a Sunday.

He thinks skipping Church is holy, thinks sins are counted in the fifth digits. I told him off for that melodramatic angst; he didn't give a shit.

My boyfriend thinks Angelwood burials are fated. 

"Romance ain't dead, lover-girl. Jus' buried."

My boyfriend thinks I'm meant to die on a Sunday. 

"I'd rather be a god than die in a hole with you."

He thinks this is some grand joke. 

"Immortal, Ther, really? The Ridge Grave Girls aren't that worthy."

My boyfriend is an asshole. My boyfriend is the one and only Ronin Beaufort. He looks at me with a shit-eating grin as he lowers me into my grave. It's usual, it's fine, I'm terrified, what am I saying?

There is nothing normal about this.

But it's necessary— part of the process, see. Girls die quietly in Ridge Grave. Right now, I'm a girl: I'm to die soon. 

He's trying to help me.

My boyfriend buries me. He knows how to do it safely: he buried himself, once a time ago, because they said he was a girl and he was the farthest thing from.

"Close your eyes," he tells me and kisses me on the cheek. "I'll grab you once 's all done. Promise it goes by fast. Jus' dream of me."

I roll my eyes. I close my eyes. The lid on my coffin thunks.

And I die.

When I wake again, it's to the clunk of shovels, and the scratch of dirt dragged from the wooden lid. The lid jags open, and I wince to the shaft of sunlight that cuts down on my face. And my boyfriend's shit-eating grin.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, lover."

He hauls me out of my grave, and I'm not her, anymore. I'm the farthest thing from. Romance isn't dead, but she is dead, buried in soft earth, with a dead name and a dead bygone. My boyfriend kisses me. I laugh again.

My boyfriend buries girls on Sundays. He kisses the not-girls better on a Monday. 

I hate that I love him.

A companion piece to "The Ridge Grave Girls" short film — out on Youtube now!

[rosesrotofficial]

meet the writer: rosesrot.

hi, i’m rose rao. 

i write because there isn’t nearly enough fucked-up queer stuff in the world. don’t get me wrong, i love the sweet sapphics as much as the next person; but us of that kind is the only kind of us acceptable to the mainstream. where’s our chaos, our complexities, where’s our destruction? where is it, on our own terms?

because of that, i attempt to explore modern identity, queerness, and relationships through the latent abjection that is inherent within oneself: touching on the haphazard, taboo, and less-than-desired spaces that we take up. my stories intend to be a reclamatory celebration—and catharsis—of the darker human aspects we prefer not to think about.

that is to say: i write about girls, sapphics, friendships and destructions; i thrive with fucked-up queer stuff; glorious girls and fallen girls, walking-dead girls and manic-made girls; i'm in love with the deranged and the apotheotic.  

are you?

(projects below.)

▼ story #1: CUCKOOSONG, a book trilogy about a pair of thrill-killing sapphics who escape from their lifetime of captivity, believing they can make the world theirs through death; but the scientist that made them the way they are will stop at nothing to hunt them down. an exploration of trauma, identity, worldmaking, and destructive love.

inspirations: killing eve; ariel; mad girl's love song; death tractates; american psycho; the erl-king (angela carter); gods and mortals and girls

(image by @wide-awake-and-dead-xx)

△ story #2: ENTER SERAPHIM and IN THE HALLS OF HALLOW, a collaborative book duology with @wide-awake-and-dead-xx about a band of societal outcasts who find each other through the murder hotel they run to. an exploration of connections, relationships, and found family. 

inspirations: stephen king; chuck palahniuk; h.h. holmes and his murder hotel; american horror story

(art by @nitunioart)

▼ game #1: MORTAL COIL, a visual novel about a VR death game reality TV show where if you die in game, you die in real life. a deconstruction of youtuber, streaming, and vtuber culture.

inspirations: social media; youtube; twitch; vtubers; hunger games; danganronpa; squid game; mafia (the party game); town of salem; hong kong

(art by miencha and graphic by James Molloy)

△ game #2: SERAPHIM SLUM, a spooktober visual novel about a girl who moves to the slums and meets three girls that intrigue her. a deconstruction of what it means to be the devil.

inspirations: the devil we know; kakegurui; paradise lost; richard iii; dr faustus; the kowloon walled city

△ game #3: TBN, a visual novel about a Prom Queen who must discover the identity of her killer to break free from the repetitive cycle of reliving her death on Prom Night. a dark coming-of-age deconstruction of gender and girlhood.

inspirations: heathers; happy death day; carrie; insatiable; drop dead gorgeous; dare me; candyman

(image credit: @tsamporadhoe; image above only used as aesthetic representation; i have no claim to the characters portrayed.)

△ screenplay #1: REQUIEM OF THEIR BODIES, a film about a misanthropic queen bee who must team up with her ex-girlfriend’s trans brother to secure the votes for Prom victory, but his eerie terms threaten to confront her repressed dysphoria and her dark secrets.

inspirations: see above! this screenplay is a darker alternate universe of the visual novel.

thank you for reading. i hope you enjoy what i write and find a kind of catharsis in it too.

~ Rose.

▼ my carrd

△ play MORTAL COIL's demo

▼ play SERAPHIM SLUM

△ join my server!

[rosesrotofficial]

All you do is whine

untrue i also suffer, rot, wail, wallow, haunt, mourn and rage

[rosesrotofficial]

you see her approaching you from a considerable distance. wyd

[rosesrotofficial]

Baby's first devlog!

We're so excited to talk about the game post-release's plans, and where you can go from here to truly enjoy the full Spooktober Visual Novel Jam experience — check out the post up ↑ here!

[rosesrotofficial]

she's here! i'm eternally proud of my team and so grateful for all of us who made this visual novel come together c:

i hope you all enjoy ezekiel's journey!

And we're live!

You heard it right: Seraphim Slum is live and ready to play (for free!) over at our page on itch.io. Major thanks and hugs to each and every one of our team who worked to create the perfect experience following Ezekiel's adventure.

Not only that...

We created Seraphim Slum to take part in the Spooktober 5th Annual Visual Novel Jam. If you would like to support us, playtime, reviews and ratings would be brilliant. We can't wait to hear what you think!

If you're new:

Seraphim Slum is a sapphic horror visual novel, providing a liminal space to explore breaking free of long-sworn oaths and oppression. We have a website, a press kit, and a slew of socials over here. Come say hi!

[rosesrotofficial]

Did you miss us? We're coming up to the end of the week, now, and we'd love to introduce our final character of Seraphim Slum.

👼 Meet Oriel, a knight who has fallen far...

Just in case you're out of the loop, we are taking part in the #SpooktoberVNJam and we've shared a character a day for the week. We're so excited for you guys to get to know these characters on a deeper level, and for our game to be experience by you all!

[rosesrotofficial]

Choose carefully now. You wouldn't want to waste your free choice would you~?

[rosesrotofficial]

It's day 27, and with three days until judging begins, I'm extremely excited to introduce Salxire to you guys!

Just in case you're out of the loop, we are taking part in the #SpooktoberVNJam and we're sharing a character a day for the rest of the week!

👼 (Don't tell anyone, but Salxire's my favourite!)

[rosesrotofficial]

look at her! she's beautiful <3

It's day 26 and we're so excited to see some support for Ezekiel yesterday, so of course we're keeping the ball rolling!

If you don't know, we are taking part in the #SpooktoberVNJam and we're sharing a character a day for the rest of the week.

👼 This is our shining Macy, and her story is my favourite so far...! Who's she trying to get a message to? Or from...?

[rosesrotofficial]

For day 25 of the #SpooktoberVNJam, we're sharing a character a day for the rest of the week. Are you excited to meet them? (Like I am! 👼)

Introducing: Ezekiel. Our main lead, with compelling reasons to infiltrating the slum...

[rosesrotofficial]

In the lead up to release of our visual novel, and Day 25 of the #SpooktoberVNJam, I'd love to share with you guys the compelling cast of characters from our upcoming visual novel, Seraphim Slum! 👼 

Keep your eyes on our socials as we share our character cards each day! You might see something in a couple of hours...

[rosesrotofficial]

info leak (art by @cybervoidgirl on Twitter)

[rosesrotofficial]

👼 Seraphim Slum is a yuri-focused, horror visual novel revolving around fallen angels and love conquering self.

👼 This is a project made from a team of twenty, for the Spooktober 2023 5th Annual Visual Novel Jam!

For extensive updates, you're in the right place! To keep up with us in different facets, come check out our socials over here! You can find our website and our press kit there, too.

Enjoy your stay!

[rosesrotofficial]

Somehow our little spooky competition turned into a monster in its own right, something people have been making plans over for months.

You know who you are.

When we first started the Spooktober VN Jam 5 years ago, it was little more than a handful of entries I played by myself. The next year was too many entries for one person to read in a month. Last year in 2022, there were over 150 visual novels, with as many shortlisted submissions as we had total submissions in the first year, and over 20 of which had voice acting.

The scariest thing about Spooktober isn't even the freaking entries. It's the sheer volume of fanatics waiting to get started.

But!... I'm not judging this year and I enjoy torturing other people, so feel free to join the competition this year and help me bully Ari.