#thank u Hayley for helping w this and listening to me scream

[brianna-lei]

Butterfly Soup asks #13

More ask replies, including how Akarsha ended up being friends w/ Diya+Noelle! I was actually going to show this in the game, but it was cut because the Akarsha+Noelle classroom scene was funnier in my head than it was in visual novel format. 

Diya/Akarsha’s parents know each other because they live in the same neighborhood and decided, “our daughters are the same age! Perfect, they can walk to school together!!” without any regard for whether Diya and Akarsha would want this.

It was really awkward at first. Diya was mortified that her parents arranged for to to walk with this random outgoing girl (the fact that they were in the same grade made it even scarier because if Diya somehow messed up, and Akarsha could tell their classmates), and Akarsha definitely would not have pursued a friendship with this super quiet nervous girl 

Because they have to interact so often, over time they got used to each other and eventually do grow to care about each other. This is a CLASSIC type of friendship for me as someone who often carpooled w/ parents’ friends’ kids  

Since Noelle is Diya’s best friend and had classes together with them, Akarsha naturally saw her a lot. When they first met, Noelle’s personality led Akarsha to accuse her of being a robot (as Diya mentioned in-game)  

Noelle is a teacher’s pet who always raises her hand to answer questions, wrecks the curve every exam, etc. so she draws attention to herself without trying to. Akarsha decided to prank her by writing “boob” on a Post-It note every day and putting it somewhere Noelle would find it. Each time Noelle found one, she’d react the exact same way -- she’d hiss “..What?!” to herself under her breath, fold the Post-It note diagonally twice into a small triangle, and throw it away. After doing this every day for a few weeks Akarsha went the extra mile and put the Post-It inside the book Noelle would be reading for the day (she had to pay attention to the order the books were passed out in and count the number of desks to Noelle’s seat). Noelle was asked to read a passage aloud, flipped her book open, and saw it. This time she stared at it for a solid 5 seconds. Suddenly, she SHOUTED. She stood, held the Post-it up, and screamed "WHO IS DOING THIS????!!!" This was in the middle of class. Everyone was taken aback. The teacher asked Noelle to sit down and as she did, seething, she announced: 

“I KNOW YOU’RE WATCHING THIS, YOU IMMATURE CRETIN. I WILL FIND YOU, AND I WILL DESTROY YOU.“ That was the moment Akarsha decided to be friends with her 

It’s never explained in-game. She gets a lot of minor injuries from picking fights w/ people and generally making bad decisions

Interesting question! *throws a smoke bomb at her feet and disappears in a cloud of smoke*

Funny that you should ask! *throws a second smoke bomb at her feet and vanishes again*

Akarsha listens to a really wide range of music, so she’d likely have a few songs by them. Her iPod on shuffle is a rollercoaster like: YMCA -> No Widows by The Antlers -> anime opening -> anaconda by nicki minaj, etc.

Some songs I associate with her:

Daylight by Matt & Kim 

Gravel to Tempo by Hayley Kiyoko -- I love the music video, a few of the moments are so her (and Hayley is bi too!) 

Ok by Madeon

Die Right Now by Knower

Bad Girls by MIA

Don’t Stop (Fatrat remix) by Foster the People

You can support me by donating money through the Download now button on the game page! It’ll take you to a page where you can download the game and/or Bonus artbook if you want (it won’t automatically download anything!).

Other than donating, you can also support me by encouraging others to play my game!! Especially if you know any Youtubers who would like it! Because I don’t have much marketing power, I’ve literally gotten this far through word-of-mouth and I suspect lots of people who would enjoy the game still haven’t heard of it  Oh also, please show fanartists/editors/fic writers your love! This isn’t really supporting me as directly but will make me happy, haha

Min’s High Voltage jacket and black/grey hoodie from the future are both made up :(

The hoodie she wears as a smol child is based off this shirt, I added yellow to it...but yeah none of her jackets/hoodies really exist;;  

Ooh I’m glad you liked the Tamil! Akarsha’s known she was bi for about a year. Spending so much time on the internet definitely helped her become aware that early

The story takes place in the fall of 9th grade for Diya/Akarsha/Min/Noelle, so they’re 14 (Noelle is close to turning 15). Smol

I’m glad you feel that way--I really appreciate messages like this, thank you! 

Thanks!!! ;u;