Good morning! Afternoon! Midnight!

It's been a bit since I've posted anything, whether it be regarding Blue Moon Lament itself or any of my other projects. So! I thought I'd create a little devlog of sorts discussing such things since I don't know any better way to do so since I don't think I can pin a community post to my itch.io dashboard or anything like that ^^;;;

I've been really busy with life (and had to deal with the stress and worry that comes with irl things~) but I've recently been trying to put more time and effort into my own original works and I wanted to give a bit of an update since ive been pretty quiet overall about OC things~ Also this post took me like 3 weeks to create bc of not having enough time & wanting to add some funny art pieces to it SO!

Re: Blue Moon Lament. I would LOVE to redo the art for this project as personally i think it looks outdated and cringe and could use some serious revamping since my art style has improved by A LOT since I made this. However, since I can't seem to find my original files for BML, at the moment I have no way to go about doing that so the cringy art stays lol.

To make up for that, here's a funny little doodle of the rainbow boi Vidal which probs provides quite a contrast to my old art ^^

New art of Blue Moon Lament's protagonist. I haven't drawn this guy in a while but he's neat!

You’ll notice quite quickly in my works I love iridescent things and thus giving this guy a faint sheen of rainbow colors on his wings/outfit/hair makes me unbelievably happy <3

In regards to other news, I DO still have other projects I'm working on. Of these projects, two are major and two are minor. My two major projects - nicknamed "Divinity" and "Hologram" for now - are my main focus. My minor projects are my "fuck around and find out" projects (that is: I try not to make them stories that require a lot of time investment and can just be posted whenever I want unlike my major projects, which I "quality control" more). 

All of these projects are planned to be a hybrid combo between a visual novel / interactive fic as I want to focus more on the narrative aspect (and the option for interacting with the narrative) over following a traditional VN format (if only because I'm better at writing than art imo and want to use art as a supplement to my works rather than the main attraction ^^). 

Of the two types of VN/interactive fic projects I have, here's more about them and my current progress on them:

Major Projects:

My Divinity project is about monsters and humans coexisting and how, inevitably, that coexistences leads to horrific and rather tragic situations.

This story is heavily (and i do mean heavily) inspired by the same anime that one of my minor projects is descended from and if you enjoy this story (or that one), you'll probably like the other one as well as they're both cut from the same premise and therefore share similarities. 

Currently, Divinity is at 28k words. This is across two routes, both with their prologues complete and their respective Chapter One viewpoints at least 70% of the way written. Hologram is at 90k words, with 50k of that being dedicated to the prologue across 3 POVs, and 40k scattered across Chapter One/Chapter Two depending on which route you're looking at.

At the moment, I'm currently thinking of releasing Divinity once I'm at least 3 chapters into each route. And, from there, I hope to release the story in batches of chapters between both (or either!) of the two routes the story consists of as I go.

Divinity concept art for a Chapter One scene! Ft. a Really Unimportant But Kind Of Intimidating Lizard Creature.

Hologram is a different take on what I call the "monster pal genre". It has a unique look at what it means to have monster partners, and perhaps is the first take of its kind on the genre (to my vast knowledge of monster pal anime/manga/and video games). It's a story where the monster pals (ironically) take a back seat, but I assure you that they very much exist and that the story does revolve around them even if you might not think Hologram a monster pal story at first. 

For this story in particular, my plans at the moment are to get up to the end of the first arc and then release all the chapters of that arc month by month (with the potential to "stagger" chapters so some routes are ahead of others to play into the idea of asymmetric information I'm so big about). This will probably happen when I reach the 250k+ mark for the story, based on current progress. 

Some art of my favorite Hologram OC, Yuki! I can't speak much on him or his place in the plot, but I adore him dearly!!! He's very baby to me and I can't wait to explore his character in the main narrative <3

At the moment, I have no ETA for either of these stories. I would like to say that I could release at least Hologram's prologue now (bc it's almost finished as is), but at the moment I'm not sure that's the best idea considering I'm not sure how long it will take me to get from where I am now (Chapter One/Chapter Two) to where I want to end the first part of Hologram's Story (which could be anywhere between Chapter Eight to Chapter Ten).

TLDR:

At 90k words with Hologram and 28k words with Divinity so far. No ETA for either of them, but I suspect I'll be able to post Hologram once im in the ballpark of 250k+ words for its first arc and Divinity once i finish the first set of chapters for both routes. 

Minor Projects:

I currently have a few minor projects in mind to write for. These are projects that I'm hoping to post as I go. They're side projects I'm hoping to work on whenever my major projects don't look interesting to me to work on (and to help keep the creative spark alive~). So far, I have two of these projects I'm thinking of entertaining/I'm currently working on:

1. 

A "fanfic" VN studying the world(s) of one of my favorite anime in a serious light, analyzing the realism of this world's existence from a political, sociological, and economical set of lenses in order to try and cater to an audience who may have already outgrown it (like me!!).

The basic goal of this project is to create a work that can be enjoyed by anyone. You don't need to have seen the "toy-shilling" anime it's based on to enjoy it. It is it's own standalone work that brings you along for the journey instead of assuming you already know all about it. And in this regard, I would hope that even people who have no interest in the anime itself can appreciate the story I'm hoping to tell through this "fanfic" of sorts.

To put more simply: I LOVE this anime and have always wanted an excuse to explore its world (because, gosh, if there's any world I want to live in, this world is it, apocalyptic doomsday hell and manipulative cults aside). My hope is to therefore reimagine what I find so special about this world (from its mysterious phenomena to its heart-warming cast to the wonder of a world built on the foundation of illogical power dynamics) and write it from my own point of view, adding my own spin on the anime and its world by injecting nuance and depth into things I wish it had talked about in seasons 1/2/3/the last season but didn't :<

At the moment, the idea behind this work would be to "rewrite" the anime with the major plot points of the 1st/2nd/3rd/and last seasons of the anime being interwoven into one coherent narrative, if only because it's easy to work with since I already know how to manipulate the story to still stay true to its core themes and character arcs while also propping up characters that I think deserved more than they got in the show ("Kitten Shirt" and the two funny cult gals among them).

The basic summary for this work is that I'm taking a lot of things I liked about it - particularly, the part about kids needing to have a voice in modern issues because wow is that still applicable even in today's society - and create something that pays deeply respectful homage to the original work while also acknowledging that the OG work definitely was meant to take place in a more serious world but was held back by being a kid's anime first (and gosh do I have so much to say on this anime because wow for being as zany as it is it still resonates with me ten years later and it's a waste to let these characters and their stories be forgotten OTL).

I’d also ideally like to create a world-building art book/PDF regarding my interpretation of this world (or maybe even a VN version if I feel up to it ahaha) that would likely spoil my interpretation of the anime's story but would also serve as a pretty hefty look as to how I world-build things for my own works!

Essentially at the very least I’d like to create an encyclopedia/field guide as a tribute to this anime and how I see it’s world(s) but I would also very much LOVE to write a giant love letter of a VN/interactive fic hybrid to attribute it. And while I’ve started on both, I’ve gotta admit I’m really addicted to the world-building aspect and would love nothing more than to create a whole world-building doc on this world ahaha~

Characters from the anime in question (albeit a bit stylized to fit my artstyle)! If you know who they are or like these two in particular, we are automatically friends :Dc

Especially since I still adore these two to this day, with one still having the best corruption arc I’ve seen written and the other being the start of my severe fondness towards nuanced asshole characters with hearts of gold~

a stylized sketch of the protag + his funny little monster friend (w/ a look at the OG design)!!! His color palette is a bit eye-burn-y but man does it make my color-obsessed brain go brrrrrr.

For my AU rewrite, I’ll probably use this design. And also tweak his personality a bit because he doesn’t quite fit into the overall theme of the anime (imo) and I wanna see if I can fix that!

2.

This story is still being tinkered with as I go, but I want to write a (semi-complex) narrative about a MC who keeps seeing strange apocalyptic visions and who is drawn to a strange woman she's totally not pining for she doesn't recognize but believes has the answers she's searching for. 

Of course, there's a lot more to the story than just that (*looks at my bare minimum world-building doc of 20 pages and sighs*). This story is still very much in development, and as I go I hope to find my groove for it because I've rewritten the beginning of this story about 7 times already and am beginning to reconsider how I introduce my protagonist as, currently, it's VERY OBVIOUS I don't understand her character and that's something I need to work on if I want to create a compelling narrative surrounding her and the mysteries of her apocalyptic visions ;)

I don't have anything to really show for this project as most of it is stuck in spoiler hell or in WIP art hell. So I'll just say for now this is probably the least furthest along of all 4 projects and leave it at that for now :Dc

About These Projects:

All four of these projects revolve around the same thing (despite appearances so far, lol). They're stories about humans interacting with monsters (and I do mean monsters) and how this kind of relationship impacts their pasts and futures. My goal in creating these projects is to create more of the exact kind of story I keep hoping I'll find one day: that is, a more mature take on the "monster pal" genre (think: Yu-gi-oh, Pokemon, Dinosaur King, etc.) wherein the plot is deeply complex and the characters even more so to a loveable degree.

There are shows that have come close to this (see: above this section). But even still I find myself craving for a story where kids (or adults!) who have access to monster companions are thrown headfirst into intricately woven plots of mystery and enigma while maintaining queerplatonic relationships that are tampered with by the results of a serious tone and mature conversations. Which. As you can guess from that description alone. Is an awfully niche thing to find and, frankly, I'm not even sure this type of story exists in the way I'm longing for. 

So! To rectify that! I've created these stories obviously as a means to fill the void that I'm still very patiently waiting to be filled by someone else someday else! Plus, my need to create the exact kind of story I want to see in the world is honestly one of the things that keeps me going. Because if I can't find the food I wanna eat, I need to create it myself, right? 

Also, since I don't think I've said it anywhere (and probably have just thought it implied fghjfghjgf) but I should probably mention that these projects will all be free to play! The fanfic one obviously was going to be free regardless (because hippity hoppity it's NOT my property) but my personal OC projects will be free as well! Maybe far in the future that will change one day, but for the moment this is my plan for my projects once I'm capable of publishing them :Dc

Bonus Stuff:

I wanted to show some stuff pertaining to each of my projects ahead of time. It's not much, but I hope it'll give a bit of insight into my progress on my own stuff since I'm focusing a lot more on creating something I can finally get out there and post :Dc

To start off, here's a look at a snippet of a scene from my fanfic + some art I made for it!

From the darkness of the city, a golden wyrm rises. 

Its snake-like body slithers upwards, slipping through a sea of ink, before it nestles itself under a blanket of clouds, faint moonlight illuminating over a metallic body of tin-gold appearance. 

Two wings beat. Red light glitters from a jeweled eye placed on the center of the dragon’s head. Its mandibles shake, clattering against its mouth as its bladed arms twitch with anticipation.

The nothingness of the night swallows this being, its form imperceptible to all but the ones who know about its existence.

The beast waits. And waits. And waits. 

What it is waiting for is known only to itself. And yet, the city slumbering underneath it seems to care little for its hovering presence.

But then there’s a change. It’s subtle. And barely even noticeable.

The dragon’s eye loses its glow.

And then, a beam of light erupts from its opened mouth.

Searing gold light cuts through the night sky, slicing through its fabric of nothingness to cleave through the city below. 

Buildings topple. Fire burns.

There’s screams that reach the dragon’s ears. It revels in the chaos, head lifting in a sneer of glee.

The beast rises. And then it falls, plunging into a dance against a current of wind as it curls and spirals, the red light of its eye returning as its form is finally revealed to the city down beneath.

It's not much so far! But it's just a little look at the tone/atmosphere I definitely want this VN fanfic to aim for. My take on this anime is much darker but considering the anime itself has gotten rather dark before (and is confirmed to be fucked-up in short stories), I want to see if I can follow up on a lot of the unsaid implications in this 'verse while still keeping true to its heart-warming nature!

Also, as a bonus for this scene in particular, here's some artwork I made for it!:

 Image 1 = Mock-up of why I call my projects a VN/interactive fic hybrid! I still wanna have sprites and stuff on screen but like I said I want my art to be supplementary to my stories instead of its main attraction!

Image 2=A look at the wyrm without the fake textbox! It's not as cool-looking as its canon design but at least I can hope I still did its creepiness justice!

Here's also a snippet from my Divinity project + (semi-blurry bc i cropped it from a bigger artpiece) drawing that goes with it!:

A charcoal drawing of what appears to be a monster from another world sits atop a backdrop of orange. Dark brown lines contrast with leaking ichor of gold, claws raised to the viewer as if to threaten their livelihood.

Kaiya thinks a piece such as this is enigmatic to behold. The beast is bleeding ropes of yellow luminance, golden froth decorating its mouth. Madness seems to frame its features, but there is a tantalizing mix of sadness and beauty in such a view.

She cannot relate to the viciousness which reeks from this painting. Yet, she feels drawn to it anyways, captivated by an apparition who snarls at her with an anger she cannot dare to match.

This is optional dialogue (/favor text) the player can encounter if they choose so while in Kaiya's point of view. I'm a BIG fan of giving deeper insight into a character by showing how they react to different things in their universe and this is just one example of a moment where I give you a deeper insight into Kaiya's character if you care to look for it!

I won't spoil the deeper meaning of this snippet (and feel free to interpret it as you like!) but Kaiya is a really intricate character I've spent a lot of time designing and I hope that others will deeply enjoy following her story and coming to an understanding with the unsaid sentiments lingering in these three short paragraphs ^^

For a look at Hologram, here's a piece of writing I rather like but which won't spoil anything about the story ahead of time. It might not seem like much, but it's a good insight into the tone and style writing I adore while writing Hologram's story:

It’s a revelation that plunges River into the depths of yearning, desire unfurling from him like the wings of a bird as he waits ceaselessly for class to end.

…But, soon enough, he finds himself in an agonizing wait. He’s managed to make it to the end of his second to last class. Now, he’s counting down the minutes in his last one, watching as the clock placed above his teacher’s head teases him with a gentle tick-tick that only he can hear.

He feels like scratching his nails into the wood below. Feels like digging his heels through the tiles beneath. 

His peers talk to him. But, their meaningless chatter means nothing to him. So he smiles and nods and laughs and pretends as always that he is one of them, that he is merely a kid trapped in the tedium of school rather than someone who desires to be freed from the chains he’s leashed on his own neck.

Tick. Tick.

That clock is not moving fast enough.

Tick. Tick.

River giggles at a joke he didn’t hear.

Tick. Tick.

His teacher resumes teaching, passing out last minute assignments that, upon completion, allow for an early release.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

River focuses on questions he cannot read, writing answers that are meant to be satisfactory enough so he can score points for participation.

Tick. Tock.

River finishes. Walks up to the front and places his paper in its designated place.

Tick.

He leaves his last class behind.

(It’s time to return to the school rooftop.)

The unfortunate thing about using quotes in Itch.io's quote format is that you can't see where the italics start and where they end in this piece (the onomatopoeia parts are all in italics, for reference, while everything else isn't). But! I hope this gives you more of a taste  as to how I write my characters during the much slower moments of a story as well as how I'm again threading nuance into my characters as they "speak" through the narrative itself.

Art-wise, I have a bit of a collection I wanted to try and show. None of this is spoiler stuff, but I'm hoping to show a bit more insight into my stories and their worlds through the art pieces I am able to share at this moment!

An old Hologram art piece that I made for myself to be self-indulgent~. Their names are Lucas (left) and Yuki (right) and they are my favorites of Hologram's cast. Not only that, but they have one of my favorite dynamics in the story as well! You might even say I ship them for it, though I can't give a say as to whether it's canon or not despite the cuteness between them here~

A look at two of my Hologram boys totally not suffering from a case of Gay AF tension~

One thing you'll find out very quickly in my works is that I HIGHLY cherish having as much chemistry as possible between each and every one of my characters. I'm a big fan of queerplatonic relationships (whether they be romantically-inclined, familial-inclined, or platonically-inclined) and this tends to result in me accidentally creating a lot of shippable dynamics in my works. This funnily enough means I keep tricking myself into shipping characters I know aren't canon in my own works just simply because I enjoy the chemistry between them :Dc

A blinking animation for one of my Hologram protagonists - River - that I really have no use for at the moment. But! I like the look of it so it gets to be included in this little display showcase as an example of tiny animations I'm totally capable of doing if I wanted to lol~

Old artwork of one of my favorite gals in Hologram. She probably badly needs a redesign, but I totally adore this gal! She's an example of an archetype you'll see me get away with in all my works ever (aka: competent af OP lady characters with their own interests at heart) but I hope to make her a compelling character to watch and get to know as soon as she appears in the story ^^

Some monsters I sketched out for the fanfic I mentioned up above (and are, very technically, the same creature, actually). They're a funny little thing that I totally haven't written nightmare fuel flavor text for. And to prove that to you, here's the descriptions for them:

Rightmost image: "This scarecrow's head is so empty it experiences no thoughts. How it is able to move is a mystery to many, and how it is able to talk is a mystery few dare to pursue."
Leftmost image: "It has finally obtained a brain. But now it knows too much and has forever been traumatized by the knowledge it’s gained, desperate to return to its mindless state."

A (cropped) version of a test I was doing with sprites I came up with for Divinity. The leftmost sprite is of Kaiya, 1/2 of Divinity's protags, and the rightmost is a random-ass character I designed out of nowhere. 

The atmospheric vibe this piece gives out really makes me happy! And if it were not for the fact I cannot for the life of me draw background art consistently good, I would TOTALLY lean towards doing a more traditional VN format for all my stories ^^;;;

A full look at some concept art for Divinity that I showed earlier in this post. Like I said before, this lizard is not really important to the story and honestly has no place in it. But this particular scene has stuck out in my mind, so I wanted to try drawing it and seeing if I could capture the details that my aphantasia-ass brain can't quite see on paper. 

Another monster concept art for my fanfic VN. It's following a certain "theme" I intend for a certain character (and is thus a wholly original monster attributed to a canon character) but I think if you know the anime you can kind of guess based on the name + some of the thematic aspects I put in here what canon character this dragon belongs to.

Also, as you can see, I VERY MUCH adore creating unique-ish monster designs and this WILL continue to be a pattern in any work I create. Designs like this (simple yet thematic) are SO my jam and alongside more creepy designs I have a whole backlog of monster designs I'm waiting to show off one day :Dc

If you're interested in my projects, feel free to ask more about them or follow this account for more progress on them! At the very least, I want to release something from my fanfic VN as soon as I can (because it is, quite honestly, the fastest of my projects to create as I'm working with an already established story) but I've also contemplated creating a separate "game" page where I can post more devlogs, progress updates, and art to without necessarily bogging down any of my current or future games with unrelated content the way I am right now ^^;;;

Feel free to let me know if something like that would be looked forward to too! I really like hearing feedback on things like this (especially since I don't think community posts or the like exist on Itch.io yet?) so if there's any interest I'd like to know \^^/