#Slice-of-Life

[vanillayoteart]

Not A Morning Person

Something for Koda from my weekly streams! "I am not a morning person. Need my go juice before I can face the day.."

[manonamora-if]

Les lettes du Docteur Jeangille

also known as Doctor's Jeangille's Letter.

Forced to settle in the small and quiet village of Meaux, the life of Doctor Jeangille falls into turmoils. In the epistolary exchanges with Olympia, the lover, this recluse person comes to life, entangled in peculiar and mysterious events…

Doctor Jeangille's Letters is an epistolary interactive fiction game, following a period of the life of the eponymous doctor. Click on the different interactive elements to influence the story, and maybe change everything...

This game was first created in French for the Concours de Fiction Interactive Francophone, before being translated into English for the SpringThing.

Features:

15k+ words

4 endings

Many many available fonts

Mobile Accessible

Content Warnings:

Allusion to, Depiction of, or Mention of: disappearances, particularly of a child - death and corpses, particularly of a child - illnesses, mental and physical - abuses, aggression, violence - homophobia, sexism - alcohol.

PLAY THE GAME | RATE ON ITCH | REVIEW ON IFBD | 

[lifewithdedee]

Drop Everything

She's thrilled that I'm working from home again, but there are a few… caveats.

[coffeeandjournaling]

Waffles for Esther

A solo journaling game by Pandion Games

Materials

game manual

a journal or other recording method

standard deck of cards, minus jokers

a set of polyhedral dice (or digital ones)

a coin

Premise

As the waitress of a small-town diner, your mission is to make every customer who sits down for a drink and a meal as happy as can be while trying to balance familiarity and professionalism juuust right. Among the regulars is Esther, who always comes in at the same time each day to order the same items from the menu: a coffee (one sugar and a splash of milk), the diner’s signature waffles (with two sliced strawberries and apple jam syrup on the side) and some hashbrowns (with extra ketchup). However, as you turn to deliver Esther’s waffles, she has gone missing – and as the pinnacle of customer service, you cannot have that! Embark on a mission to solve the mystery of Esther’s disappearance and ensure that she gets her waffles, preferably in one piece.

Mechanics

Waffles for Esther is based on a set of randomized prompts working together to help tell you a story, aided by a simple but effective skill check system.

You begin by setting up the game, giving your character a name and a bit of a background. It is also recommended that you create a personal connection to the town by drawing a map of the provided locations (or make up your own to change it up). Each round begins with you choosing a location to investigate and rolling on a random complication you encounter there.  A skill check (Waitress and Detective, respectively a d12 and d10 at the beginning) determines your success – will you find a clue or will your inquiries into the mystery result in hilarious chaos? Clues are provided as a list of random items you draw from a standard deck of cards. The more clues you can gather during your hijinks, the better your chances of getting the conclusion right and solving the mystery, as the number of clues raises the value of the die you can roll in a final check at the end of your game.

While succeeding might seem easy at first, every time you fail a skill check reduces the value of the skill die you used – and you can only replenish your skills once! So, make sure to roll well…it’s for Esther, after all.

Thoughts and Examples from my Playthrough

What makes this premise work so well is the figure of Esther, our mystery woman, an almost blank canvas except for her meticulous order, and the backdrop of a small town – the perfect recipe for a cozy mystery adventure! Combined with some hilarious, charming and outrageous prompts, a set of clues that fit well together no matter their combination and a skill check system that had me on (a comfortable) edge at all times, this is an enjoyable ride for a night in or a few relaxing minutes each day. Clearly, some inspiration has been taken from your well-known mystery shows and books, think Nancy Drew and Miss Marple, with an emphasis on a light-hearted tone. I appreciate that safety advice has been added nevertheless – it’s good to remind players that they’re in charge of their game, even if it veers off into an unintended direction.

I’m honestly a little awkward still in roping prompts together, but should they not add up in the end, you are free to leave out clues you cannot link to the mystery (albeit you’ll miss out on raising the die value further for your final check). Even so, some of my fails were much funnier than my successes – a game that makes failing something you almost look forward to truly celebrates hijinks the right way. Some of my favourite results were:

being run over by the ancient mailman and taking an unintended bath in the town lake,

almost hitting the president of the book club over the head and promptly being excluded from the same,

vomiting into an urn at the funeral home…one that was already filled with some poor man’s ashes, and

ending up in a LARP, where my arrival prompted the story to turn into a time travel adventure.

The hints and hijinks system is, in my opinion, what makes this unique and entertaining. It’s not often that games find a way to utilize failed rolls in a way that makes sense for the premise of the game and gives the player more than a “whelp, that was nothing” to work with.

Although my Esther was a courageous woman who fought for the town’s well-being, your Esther might be a more nefarious one – who can say? The game leaves ample room for interpretation, handing you the tools to tell your own story without dumping all the hard work of finding ideas on you. Of course, the usual challenges of journaling games are present: ultimately, it depends on you how much fun you’ll have with the narrative. If you’re like me and have trouble coming up with connections, there’s always the option to play with someone else and bounce ideas off each other. Another fun variety might be to replace the default locations with some from your own town or simply make them more outrageous (an abandoned theme park, perhaps, or an animal shelter, a gay bar…).

Let’s not forget to mention the delicious little graphics included in the manual as well as the simple but effective layout. Can we appreciate the colour choices made? Everything serves the retro small-town vibe and I’m here for it. The versatility of the system has already spawned a game jam, which is always a good sign for if a system works or not. I think Pandion Games managed to make both a perfectly executed journaling game as well as an incredibly useful SRD and I hope to see and play more games in the same vein as Waffles for Esther for some time to come!

This might be your cup of coffee if...

you like to read and/or watch cozy mysteries.

you are not afraid of being proven wrong – and can revel in the funny consequences!

you long for something more casual and light-hearted to brighten up your day.

you appreciate a game with lower stakes, where you won’t have to save the world for once (but…you could, if you wanted to).

you want something with almost zero prep- and maximum hijinks-time.

You can get Pandion Game’s Waffles for Esther HERE on itch.io! Make sure to check out The Jester King’s Dance as well, a darker game based on the same mechanics, and the still running game jam to create your own contribution in the same vein!

[timetwistedtale]

A peek into Advanced Arithmancy. Hermione and Tom are in the Advanced DADA class. They fight. As usual, they seem to have a different definition of ‘friendly fight’ and ‘nothing too dangerous’. Tom channels his adrenaline rush into something else.

---

Links: ffnet | Ao3 | Wattpad

[wordtowords]

Losing on "Jeopardy"?

jeopardy - noun - exposure to or imminence of loss or injury

Looking to find a basic definition, I googled "jeopardy," and guess what I came up with? The television game show, of course! Jeopardy has been on the box for forty seasons, boasting over nine thousand shows. Which says a lot. It says that enough people out there in TV Land (network TV Land) are interested in seeing just how much they learned in all of their years of schooling. Ergo, for decades, they have played along with the three contestants chosen from a deep pool of erudite individuals. But as we all know, when it comes to Hollywood, nothing is as it seems to be, especially in a town that invents fantasies and perpetuates them.

Today, my daughter and I drove onto the Sony Pictures' lot in Culver City (definitely one of my favorite L.A. sub-cities) unprepared for what the morning and a portion of the afternoon would bring us as members of Jeopardy's studio audience. Personally, I thought the experience would be more like being in the house at Jimmy Fallon's show where one observed an even taping and only had to applaud when the flashing light labeled APPLAUSE warranted it. It was more of a live broadcast. Being in the stands at Jeopardy was quite different, like being an extra on a movie set sans the omnipresent catered cuisine and eventual paycheck. We volunteers had to do a lot of cueing up and waiting in corralled herds (common on movie sets), listen to and follow through with multiple directives, and maintain patience while the production crew corrected misspellings on the board and overdubbed some of Ken Jennings's and the contestants' words. We, about a hundred naive tourists, were put in jeopardy as human flaws were being perfected in real time. Of course, no one in the audience realized that the studio system was taking advantage of them since both the parking and ticket to the show were free and so few things in life are free. On the other hand, as P.T. Barnum once said, "There's a sucker born every minute." And Hollywood makes no exceptions. 

On the totally positive side, while we were lined up single file outside against the wall of the soundstage, polished Ryan Seacrest, Dick Clark's successor and new host of Wheel of Fortune, drove up in his new muted-gray Austin Martin (yes, I know how much they cost), parked parallel to our firing line, stepped out three feet in front of me and gave me, my daughter and a few other stunned onlookers one beaming Hollywood smile. He was, to be honest, a sparkler, perhaps better looking in real life than on TV. Being able to drool over him for a New York minute was worth the complimentary ticket to Jeopardy and what it yielded.

Needless to say, as many of you bonafide fans already know, the contestants don't lose even if they lose. The second and third place gamers walk away with 2K and 1K even if they wind up with nothing earned. One could say that the audience is at a loss, but it really depends on how you look at it. We did walk away with a thorough knowledge of the recording process and the recognition that it isn't easy. 

My recommendation? Even if you are a huge fan, don't buy a plane ticket to L.A. just to see a taping. Watch the show at home where you can call out the answers–whether they be right or wrong–and throw popcorn at the tube if you feel the answer to the inevitable question was too vague or misleading. We in the audience didn't have those luxuries. I actually missed them. One thing is for certain. If you at home continue watching the show, you'll never be in jeopardy of losing it. 

[ablueorangeintheocean]

The Agony and The Ecstasy by Bob Carlos Clarke 1994

[riewritten]

i thought abt sharing this to my art blog bc... art... but then this is something i'm writing for school rn so i'm sharing it here instead ( ´ ◡ ` )

the story prompt i did last 2021 was pitched to one of my writing classes (TV script making). last sunday, a groupmate was thinking about making a character sketch (like the document) but i thought about making a literal sketch 😭

chau asked if i plan to turn this into a comic (@frenchdyer ily i wouldn't even share this here if not for your words of encouragement ILY). i need to ask permission from my groupmates first but if they ever agree, i think i'll work on this one! aAaHhHHHhHHh

for the context of character sketch, BLUE indicates the past whereas PINK indicates the present design.

her design was heavily inspired by csm's asa mitaka bc they share the same attitude and (a bit of) upbringing!

so the working premise of this story is that our main character, LISA (20), takes a tired nap at the nearby convenience store after catering to her sister's funeral. however, when she opens her eyes again, she finds herself in a timeline five years before her sister, KRISTA, died! as her uncanny encounter ensues, she targets one goal: seek revenge for the people who had bullied her, which, she believes, were the primary reason why her sister ended up dying.

moving on to the next character, we have MAXON (20)!

indeed, he is basically erwin smith with black hair. i mean, maxon is an intelligent boy (student council, too!) so i thought, why not integrate the commander in his physique? tho ofc, he is far from erwin's personality. we made him a very flawed human being.

he is a former co-worker of LISA's sister, KRISTA, at the minimart 5 years ago. he also used to be LISA's classmate.

during funeral, MAXON tries to initiate a conversation with LISA only to no avail because our protagonist isn't in the mood to talk. funny enough, he was also at the convenience store LISA took a nap in. MAXON closed his eyes & heaved a sigh due to forlorn, but then finds himself in the same disposition as LISA when he opens his eyes again—in his 15 y/o body five years ago, at the classroom, and KRISTA is still alive.

to make things more fun, MAXON and LISA will not have a clue about their disposition (like, LISA would assume that the MAXON she talks to is none but a measly kid and vice-versa).

as MAXON's regret lurks around his mind, he sets two goals: to change the way he acted with LISA's bullying incident at school and help the two sisters the best way he can. WHY THE REGRET, THOUGH? because in the original timeline, MAXON was as a mere bystander. even when LISA's disposition worsened that came to a point of dropping out of school and having KRISTA work more to support her therapy, MAXON did nothing.

the last main character would be KRISTA, whom funeral was depicted in episode 1.

no particular inspiration for her charac design but now that i look at it, she resembles the OC i made in dusk in the brightest, which, apparently, loves her younger sibling to her very core too.

LISA and MAXON blame themselves for her death bc of its probable cause: heart failure due extreme stress and exhaustion. that, and KRISTA refused to have her heart conditon treated properly bc financial constraints and her priority over LISA’s disposition). to put it simply, she will be the center of MAXON and LISA’s motivations as they go back in time to change things.

here's the catch: it is ambiguous if they really did travel time or it was none but collective fragments of their imagination to cope with the grief.

for now, our group are onto making the manuscript. i'll ask them if it would be possible for me to turn this into a comic afterward lol.

[vawilcox]

This is introducing a story concept I have from what started as an inside joke with my best friend and all of her husbandos.

My life as an only child in the reverse harem.

Hi. My name is Benji, and I am the adopted son of a beautiful mommy who has some pretty crazy powers and weird hobbies. I am 7 years old. She can teleport between different realities. That's how I met her, I was a beggar orphan in a place she calls naruto world. She took me in when I was starving and alone and also introduced me to my first daddy. His name is Itachi but I call him Ninja daddy.

Ever since we came home, she will leave from time to time and comes back some time later, always bringing a new daddy to the mansion. They are all fun and kinda weird. But ninja daddy always treats me the bestest.

My first daddy: Ninja daddy (itachi=naruto)

My second: hot cold daddy (shoto=mha)

My third: Hak daddy (Hak=yotd)

My fourth: tentidaddy (Tamaki=mha)

My fifth: Kiri daddy (Kirishima=mha)

The list keeps growing but they all spoil me. Though sometimes they get cranky at mommy, they always take my side on things so I love them all so much. 🥹

This is my slice of life story as a child living in a reverse harem.

[manonamora-if-reviews]

Esther's by Brad and Alleson Buchanan

============= Links

Play the game See other reviews of the game See the source code of the game

============= Synopsis

At Esther's cafe your adorable host Served cheese to the mice when they wanted toast! That won't bother Harold's robust appetite, But Janie insists that the order's not right.

============= Other Info

Esther's is a short Twine (Snowman) interactive game, submitted to the 2022 Edition of the IFComp. It ranked 17th overall. AFAIK this is also the first piece of IF from both these authors.

Status: Completed Genre: Slice of Life, Children's Book

CW: none listed. Note: Rodents

============= Playthrough

First Played: 3-Oct-2022* Last Played: 22-May-2023 Playtime: around 5min Rating: 5 /5 Thoughts: A delightful brunch, even if cut short.

*I had reviewed the game during the IFComp in the Author's section (which was hidden to the public). I forgot to keep track of the notes I gave though... You can find the OG review under the cut.

============= Review

The game follows a couple of rodent having brunch at the eponymous Esther's, a fake restaurant manned by Ester, a little girl, as they try their best to communicate with the girl about their meal wish: mimosa and avocado toast.

Spoilers ahead. It is recommended to play the game first. The review is based on my understanding/reading of the story.

Harrold and Jaime, a cute mice couple have a weekly tradition: going to Esther's on Saturdays to have brunch, ordering avocado toast and mimosa. However, Jaime is tired of Esther messing their order every time, only serving cheese for the two mice. Today's about to change.

Through a series of choices, forming a puzzle to circumvent the communication issues between the mice and Esther. The girl not speaking squeak, the mice have to find other ways to get what they ordered.

While this might sound like a hassle, there is no way to fail the game, since the choices railroad you into getting that mimosa and that avocado toast (and the pudding for dessert!). As an adult playing this, it might not feel as entertaining to get pushed down a path, but the target audience seems to be for young children. This is also made extra obvious with the large BACK option on the left corner of the page, that one can undo actions at will.

With that in mind, the game is a delight! It is simple enough, with a distinctive tone, an illusion of agency for the player, wonderful illustrations one could find in Potter's or Dahl's books, and a tight little bow wrapping the story at the end.

Further than the gorgeous illustration, the formatting of the game is very reminiscing of children's literature, with the type-print font and the page-like formatting, the characters' names coloured according to their design, the little avocado indicating a potential action. It is a well-thought out and executed short game.

There is an extra at the end of the game, with snippets of behind-the-scenes, with the constructions of the paths to the different illustration drafts. It truly is the cherry on top of a well constructed and delicious cake.

The only downside of this game is its shortness. 5 min gives just a taste of how lovely the characters are, but leave you wanting more. You know those two mice would get into more shenanigans, and you really want to read more of it when the game ends...

This is worthy of a Sequel, at least, or a collection of mini adventures (if the authors ever decide to do so...)

=======================

OG Review during the IFComp (where I over use the word delight)

Lil’ avocado :avocado: and an adorable kid. I know there are fluffy and cute IF games on the internet, but they seem to be hard to find. A lot of what I come across is very serious and dark. Esther’s is a delightful short piece where you try to help a couple of mouse have a nice brunch for once. It has a cute little puzzle, that ,while simple to solve, leaves you delightfully fulfilled by the end. Yes this game is very delightful and I will definitely overuse this word. The illustrations are very reminiscing of children’s book (the game is noted as being children’s litt), like the ones in Potter’s or Roald Dahl’s books. It fits the theme and tone so delightfully. Even the formatting of the text remind me of books I had when I was really small. My only complain is that the piece is too short. The story is compact and to the point. But I would love to go on more shenanigans with Harold and Janie. Is there a series of adventures with these two? I would play the heck out of 5min stories with those two. Overall, the game gave me warm feelings in my heart and leaving me wanting more.

Note: as a participant of the IFComp, I was sent a sheet of stickers with those illustrations too :P

Also found out I'm even on one of the author's website in the review list page, lol.

2022-10-03 Manonamora. I would play the heck out of 5min stories with those two.

[earnestlyeccentric]

Bookshops & Bonedust (Legends and Lattes #0)

Author: Travis Baldree Rating: 3/5 Before Viv opened her own cafe, she worked as a mercenary. Wounded while on a job to hunt down the necromancer Varine the Pale, she’s left to recover in Murk, a sleepy town. A bookshop on the verge of collapse gets her attention. Spoilers ahead. Continue reading Untitled

[maiji]

[image: Black and white brush-style illustration of a centaur who looks like a Buddhist monk sweeping a cobblestone path and looking over his shoulder. He smiles at a small hamster-like creature behind him who is also dragging along a tiny broom and making neat piles of pebbles or dust. At the top of the illustration is a floating leaf with holes forming the script-like words "1 small quiet somewhere".]

This is a new creative project that's been wandering around in my head and sketchbook/ideas documents for a while, and I think I'm finally ready to start sharing it, little by little.

1 small quiet somewhere is not really a conventional narrative. It's more the kind of thing I find I'm most comfortable with: making lots of random little pieces that, over time, stitch together into a kind of bigger picture. If you enjoy slow-paced cozy slice-of-life and slightly abstract conceptual things, this might be up your alley. I'm thinking of it as building a little meditation/contemplation retreat for myself in my mind. But also on the internet, haha. Treat it as something you could dip into and out of with a nice cup of tea.

You can visit 1 small quiet somewhere at smallquiet.humangray.com.

[bciamhere]

Been alone for quite a while, haven't I? by lumoon33

༻ BKTD ༶ 10k ༶ pg ༺

“I am genuinely concerned about you, dumbass,” it takes Bakugou by surprise, the sudden change of mood, Todoroki's arm falling defeated by his side, the sincerity and vulnerability in his eyes, all of it wrapped up in a kind of hurt that makes Bakugou's insides itch with something really similar to guilt. He kind of wants to blow himself up. “It's got nothing to do with pity, I'm not that shallow.”

[explorermoo]

[C] Cozy Gaming... in SPACE

Commission for Bezier (feat. their bf Vinta c: )! They're playing Super Paper Mario owo

Posted using PostyBirb

[crappy-cat-the-tabby-cat]

Why I love a whisper of the heart

Today I watched this movie, and this was my first Ghibli movie ever. It took me a while to even get here or choose which Ghibli film to start out with. This film is about a teenage girl who has literally no idea what she wants to do in life, a sentiment which I and countless other teenagers feel. Throughout this movie, the girl, Shizuku, gradually becomes more sure of herself and what she wants to do in life, a sentiment which I and countless other teenagers don’t really feel, but hey that’s what adolescence is for.

This movie doesn’t really have a plot, it’s just a peak in the life of Shizuku, a slice of her life, if you will. It goes through her everyday life and a little more added on top. Her everyday life typically consists of going to school, chatting with her best friend, and reading and reading, much to her relatively uncaring family’s dismay.

This movie is really relatable to me, and not just in the typical way. Bocchi the Rock!, another show which I really enjoy, is relatable too, but moreso in the sense of the main character going through scenarios I typically go through and as I watch it I think “haha relatable”.

Whisper, however, is relatable in a different arguably better way. This movie understands what it’s like to grow up and wonder what you’re going to do with your life. This movie understands what it’s like to have a lot of self-doubts, and constantly and unfairly comparing yourself to people who are better than you at wildly different things. This movie understands what it’s like to have a huge passion for doing something but you’re not that good at it. 

The point is, this movie isn’t just relatable, it completely gets an artist/writer/creator and their struggle with their creations.

I only watched this movie today but I am in love with it for the reasons listed above. I’m an aspiring “artist”, if you could even call my work that. I love to draw, but there are so, so many difficulties that come with this. Proportions, hands, realistic humans, so many things aren’t so easy to draw. I constantly (and unfairly!) compare my own artwork to those who had years more experience than a newbie like me. I criticize myself, I judge myself so much that sometimes I consider dropping the hobby altogether. Shizuku is just like me in that sense. She rewrites the lyrics to Country Roads all the time as a hobby but she gets a lot of anxiety about it not being good enough. At some point she comes across Seiji, someone who she shares a lot in common with, they both have similar taste in books and they’re both passionate about something yet get anxiety and self-doubts over those things. They support each other, complimenting each other’s work and generally being nice. I don’t have a friend who supports me and I support like that, yet this was really heartwarming. 

I also shouldn’t neglect Seiji’s grandfather, who’s a relatively minor character but he gives one of the most important and personally touching speeches of the movie. I can’t easily find it online but the jist is, a geode looks really ugly and is practically a rock on the outside. But on the inside, you can find little emerald shards that are worth a lot of money. Sure, you might be compelled to just take out the crystal vein on the outside of the geode and sell that, but it’s only surface level and you can dig deeper and find better, more worthwhile emerald shards. An artist should never judge themselves purely based on surface level skill, nor use the surface level skill and treat it like it’s the best they can do. An artist should look inside themselves, find and see their potential and work on that.

TL;DR, this movie is excellent and I think you should watch it, especially if you’re an up and coming creator with a lot of self doubts. I only touched on the basic message, the movie has a great soundtrack (take me home, concrete roads) and beautiful animation despite being a lot more grounded in reality compared to other Ghibli films.

TL;DR TL;DR, WATCH THIS MOVIE I BEG YOU

[timetwistedtale]

Ceres Victorinus (OC) // Sixth Year Gryffindor // Keeper Of The Peace

[Sixth-year Gryffindor prefect and transfer from France who is the prefect partner to Philippe Bernadotte. A half-English, half-French witch whose mother was a muggleborn witch, her family is one of those that are old (notice the old Roman name) but has always been content with where they are. As they are not avid social climbers, they’ve never cared much for the opinions of the Ton (hence why they’re rather relaxed on marrying ‘out’ to muggleborns and the like). It may have something to do with how they’re a traditionally more martial family. Her ancestors were in the wizarding army when the French wizards still had an army, and then since the Aurors were established, they entered the Auror force. It's probably why she and Pip already knew each other even before Beauxbatons—their families moved in more or less the same, less-rarefied circles. ]

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Credits to the beautiful Layla McPearleaf