Snippet Saturday

Snippet Saturday

from Kingdom of Bumalia

"...you and I share a different relationship. You have given me a job that… I want to fulfill as best as I can; however, that entails working closely with you and being sure anything you do doesn’t affect what I have to do.” She paused. “Think of it this way, it’s true people my age don’t view you as a major authority, we see you as someone we can relate to and with that comes a level of dismissal.”

Leigh looked off. “So my words will never hold against you? That seems to be true for everyone around me; if not this, then it’s my age and if not my age, it’s my standing.”

Cassie’s shoulders slumped. “I don’t want to be rude, but can I say something?”

“Go ahead.”

“You keep up such a bright smile, but have feelings like this. I think it’s completely fine that you’re sometimes upset or hurt by the words of others. I feel you should embrace those feelings and grow from them, because that hurt you’re feeling is a part of who you are.”

He looked back at her. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve heard tales of you being bested in battle or screamed at for an inability to work and yet in those moments your smile never wavered. This shows those problems don’t phase you, but these do. Working to remedy these problems should be at the forefront. Above all else, you should think, how am I going to make myself feel better?”

Leigh’s eyes watched her face intently, so much so that Cassie had to avoid his gaze. She reached to adjust her book below her and when she looked back up Leigh was sitting upright again.

“How do you have such wise words?”

“Because I have lived my life instilled with fear from an early age. My nature dictates I am very fearful of anything that comes my way and instead of allowing it to control me, I found a way to cope with it. Writing, reading, drawing and painting; anything expressive has helped me to mitigate my feelings and develop a fondness for what I do now.”

Leigh then looked to the top of her head. “I always forget what you are because you hide your bunny ears. However, maybe that bias should be avoided and I should learn this look of yours.”

Snippet Saturday [2]

From: The Moon, Wolf, and Rabbit

It didn’t seem as if time was even moving inside of the Tsumi’s study, Cassie—after finding nothing of note in the room—asked him something.

“How long have we been in here?”

“Probably a few hours by now. I’m sure it’s nighttime.”

Cassie sighed. “Then I guess I need to head home. I don’t want my parents worrying something happened.” Cassie paused. “Speaking of that, what about you? Didn’t you have work today?”

“I did, but I actually quit.”

“What? Why?”

“Would you really want some deity checking out a book for you?”

“I would assume I wouldn’t know.”

Tsumi chuckled. “I’m kidding. I really quit because there’s no need for me to work a job anymore.”

“What about food or money? How are you gonna do anything anymore?”

He smiled. “I know you have to get home, but mind if I show you one last thing?”

She shrugged. “I guess, what is it?”

“The answer to your question.”

He took her hand and even though Cassie wasn’t sure why he kept doing that, she made no effort to tell him to stop. She was guided to the strange door she noticed when they arrived. Thinking it was decorative, she ignored it; but Tsumi brought her to the door and opened it.

If Cassie could explain what she expected to see, it wouldn’t have been anything like the sight before her. Not even in the shows she indulged herself in had a location quite like this one. It was an ambient room with soft lighting from a moon lamp hanging from the ceiling. The roof of the large room had other astrological figures; the one she recognized was the Libra symbol.

As they went further into the room, what appeared to be star dust filtered through the air. In the large room there was a couch with a big table right in front of it, along with a few items scattered on the table the room appeared immensely cozy. Above them was a short staircase that seemed to lead to a nook Cassie couldn’t see all the way inside.

Her amazement got the better of her and she once more took in the room, losing herself in its appearance. Tsumi watched her like he did before finding her interest entertaining to watch.

“This place is apparently where I lived at one point. I believe you and the mysterious boy we have yet to meet may also have something like this.”

Cassie scoffed. “Like a family home or something?” She mumbled to herself. “I can’t believe that. Why wouldn’t my family know about it?”

“Like I said, we’re not actually blood related to our past selves. As far as I found, my past self didn’t have children.”

“Then maybe someone in my past did. It just doesn’t make much sense that we’re related to our past selves, but we’re actually them. Almost like some kind of broken reincarnation.”

“Or a rewrite?”

She looked at Tsumi’s, taking in his point. “Yeah, that is the only way this would make sense.”

“If that is the case, then it makes sense why my past self felt I was different. That things would turn out differently.”

Cassie crossed her arms. “I still can’t get over this. It’ll never make much sense that any of this is real.” Cassie looked around. “But I guess it is.”

Tsumi chuckled at her and stepped closer to her. “You know how I like to view it? I like to say this was inevitable, but we were blissfully unaware of it. However, the world knew we had something to do with one another and stuck us together somehow.”

“Sounds like some kind of video game.”

“I know. Hard to believe that stuff could be based in some kind of reality.” Tsumi promptly moved on. “But, I’ll take you home now.”

“Oh, if you quit your job, did you move out of your place?”

“Yes, I did. Again, I had no need for it. Especially when I have this place.”

Cassie looked off. “Then how are we supposed to meet?”

He looked at her and grew a look of fondness. “Don’t worry about that. I can find you anywhere you are in the world and if you ever want to find me, it’s as simple as just calling me.”

They stared at each other, and Cassie still couldn’t adjust to the way Tsumi was now. His behavior was something vastly off from his normal and while she wouldn’t say she hated it; she didn’t really know how to respond to this version of himself. She wanted to say something, but she kept it to herself—like always—and instead just nodded to him.

“Alright, that’s simple enough.”

“Right, then let’s get you home.”

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So... I did it!

Here's some proof of concepts for some of the mini-games 👏👏

A lot of them were either too similar to games that are already out, so there wasn't a reason to make a concept; or the idea is a little to grandiose that there's no way I can get it down with my art skill presently 😅

Either way, I'm really happy about how these turned out!

So let me explain them all in a bit more detail!

Ankara

His minigame is suppose to be a management sim where the main objective is matching the traits of his next client to whoever shows up in front of you. In this example, I used an idol who's likely just debuted and is extremely popular already. The traits for Ankara's next client are exactly that, so he'd get a pass!

On the webpage, I compared this game to things such as Papers, Please.

Just to keep in tune with his actual business, I feel most of the clients would end up being famous singers, actors/actresses, and other media personalities 📺

Akuma

Akuma is my little devil and in his mini-game it's meant to be a series of a dungeon crawler where each level has a different objective.

For ex. The 1st level would be a simple maze where you collect fire to increase the little "energy 🔥" meter there.

The 2nd level would be using the fire in easy battles.

The 3rd would be some mixture of the two

And the 4th would be a final boss fight using all that you learned in the levels before!

I also thought about adding skins and such and it'd be fun to have them in each of the levels locked behind challenges and other collectables.

Akihiko

Besides him being one of the baby bois of the series, I really didn't know what to do with him until I thought of this!

It's a little hard to explain since I don't normally play games like this, but it's essentially a search for various artifacts.

The best I could compare it too is The Grand Underground from Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.

Though, as you can see, my note about him giving you little facts is something I'd love to do. I always love learning about useless facts from games so why not have this be the section where it happens!

Brayleigh

He's my rocker boy and the reference for this pose is actually this image because Seonghwa living his dream as a rockstar is just hsiweofndkssbfjrr for my heart.

Also, what I mean by "diff appearances" is the fact that I'm so bad of an artist that Leigh never looks the same when I draw him... Ever. His hair is always different each time, so I just made that apart of his personality.

He's the type to always have his hair dyed a bubblegum pink and have it cut short one time, then up in a ponytail the next. It'd be nice to see him dressed differently to match the theme of whatever song is being played as well.

Oh, yeah, the game. It's a simple rhythm game that's based off of one of my favorite childhood video games SpongeBob Squarepants: Lights, Camera, Pants.

In the story, Leigh can play almost every instrument and writes his own music, so each level would be you "learning" how to play a different instrument. Starting with the easiest (and his favorite) the acoustic guitar!

Koto

Koto is another baby boi and he actually writes fiction stories based on non-fiction stories he hears from others.

So, I wanted to be sure that part of his writing process was in the mini-game, to essentially show people how it feels when you're drafting a story (fun fact! For anyone who's curious, Koto is both a planner and pantser).

So, the idea of the game is a little unrefined, but the jist is Koto is tasked with getting the non-fiction items he needs to build his story. His adventures may take him to a hospital, a car garage, a school, and even a giant hotel.

In these locations, the player aids Koto in finding whatever items he needs to make his story. Once he's obtained them, it's up to the player to arrange the story properly so Koto can have his final product!

I think next time I'll talk about extra things I wanted to add like collectables, extra stories, decorative items, different outfits, character customization, and events for the bois!

But, until then. Thanks for reading~

🍂

Here again after my usual hiatus this time though it was because of real world shit, aka setting appointments to get my teeth removed yay but I wanted to post something.

So, just today (or yesterday it's 2am for me) I finished a page on my website about an idea I got about a game idea. This is pretty common for me, but I wanted to share it here in case anyone was interested :D

Anyways, here's a little preview and you can read the full thing here if you want.

I was also considering making proofs of concepts about some of the mini-games I talked about and other collectables, but who know if I'll get around to that with all the other ideas I have in my head.

Either way, that's the post~

🍂

So, this is a dead story I wanna write, but don't know what else to do with it.

The door at the stage opened and out came the princess. Everyone in the room was captured by her beauty, none said anything as she walked out.

Her hair, done up in long twists, fell effortlessly behind her. Her skin glowed in the dim light that surrounded the stage. She stood at the center and it almost seemed as if Brown’s eyes met her, but she knew that couldn’t have been the case. The princess removed her veil and her features popped even more as her face remained relaxed.

Then, the music began.

Everyone watched as her arm went up and the cloth there moved with her. Her eyes closed and she began to move with the music, the cloth chased behind her creating a sight none of them could ever forget.

Brown watched everything that moved, her hair, the cloth, but most importantly, she focused on her face. Seeing how relaxed she looked and how effortlessly the movements were caused Brown’s heart to swell. The others in the room began to disappear as all she could see was her… The princess.

The routine went on and everyone watched as the princess performed the moves with a smoothness akin to a waterfall. They all knew when it was going to be over as the music climaxed suddenly stopped, as did she. Everyone waited while the princess remained standing there, once she caught her breath and stood up and addressed everyone.

“I welcome you all, servants of the kingdom and residents in my home, to a new generation of prosperity!”

Everyone clapped and cheered at her words and the princess finally let out a smile. Brown couldn’t help but feel her face grow red and she began to move closer to the door where the princess was to leave. The noise in the room was loud, but Brown was too focused to let it distract her.

The princess left the stage and was being escorted out when Brown kneeled in front of her, seeing this, the princess stopped and looked at her.

Her guard put himself between them.

“Princess, we must leave,” he said.

“I know,” she said to her right hand, “but what is this Sage warrior doing?” Brown looked up once she said that.

“I can’t request a private moment with you, but I don’t need it.” Brown’s face lit up as she spoke. “I wanted to personally ask you to anoint me as your other right hand.”

Everyone in the room stopped their excitement and watched the scene play out.

“How brazen!” Her right hand spoke. “What makes you think you’re good enough to protect her?”

“I’ll do anything to prove it… if it means I get to fight for her side, then I'll freeze Hell!” The princess watched this and then she began to step forward.

“Princess…” The right hand let her walk, Brown then stood up to meet the Princess at eye level.

“You’ve already declared your life for the kingdom, you wish to pledge whatever is left to me?”

Brown nodded. “I’ve never wanted anything but to be sure you live as the most righteous princess and soon to be queen! It would be more than an honor to see that.”

The princess stared at her, and the silence overtook the room as everyone anticipated her response to Brown’s declaration...

Yes, this is a "history will say they were good friends" type of story

Hours and hours into the night

“Did I really have to come out with you just to do this?”

Ami, sitting in the driver’s seat of the car, let out a chuckle at his associate as she sat in the passenger’s seat with her body curled up with something on her phone.

“Of course you did. Aren’t you the one who’s always telling us about getting witnesses?”

Cassie let out a small laugh. “To what? A crime you guys are committing? That’s an issue since I won’t lie about whatever I saw here.”

“You also won’t snitch, but that’s not what I was talking about. We’re not committing a crime, someone’s trying to frame my guys—as usual—and I told them lay low for a while. So, they’re helping out one of the churches with a food drive.”

Cassie then took her eyes off her phone for the first time since the car parked and looked out the tinted windows just to see that exact sight.

Several boys around her age were helping to carry boxes or set out food and other items while a small line of people started at the tables.

“What kind of food do they have at these things anyways?” Cassie asked.

“Easy to transport stuff. So bread, soup they can just take from cans donated, and other easily heated foods. One time, I decided to donate something so they could have a hot breakfast.”

“Oh, what was it?”

“Toaster strudels.”

Cassie touched her stomach. “Man that sounds good right now.”

“Have you eaten?”

“No, it’s still school hours and I haven’t gone home yet for lunch.”

“Well, I could have something delivered to us.”

“Nah, you don’t have to do that…” She paused. “Well, if you do, then at least let me pay for it.”

Ami chuckled. “I’m supposed to be getting you something for helping me out.”

“And you should know I don’t like owing people.”

“Why is that? You like to help people, but you don’t want to owe them anything?”

“Yeah. I mean, I don’t hold stuff like this over people’s heads. Like we’ll go home and weeks from now I won’t even care that you’re making me be out here. On the other hand, I’ve dealt with too many people who use their help as a means to get a favor out of me.” She shook her head. “Since I was a little kid, I had to deal with that, so I learned early not to put up with it.”

“You always sound like you’ve lived a hundred lives.”

“Feels like that sometimes.” She let out a sigh before finally returning her attention to her phone.

“Well, what do you want to eat then?”

She hummed and for a moment, Ami assumed she hadn’t heard him. He looked over and saw her intently focused on her phone. He was about to speak up when she finally spoke again.

“You think you could find a good sandwich place? I’m really craving one for some reason.”

“Oh, for sure. So, can I guess no vegetables?”

“Unless they have cherry peppers. Otherwise, no vegetables.”

“So specific. As long as I’ve known you, I’ve learned there are some people in this world who care for nothing at all and some who care about every little thing.”

“Me being the latter?”

“You know it.”

“I think that’s a good thing. Being picky shows you know what you want. Anything else and you’re indecisive and vague.”

“I feel you there, I guess people just mainly see it as being stuck up.” Ami paused. “Speaking of that, has anyone ever thought you were stuck up?”

“Dude, who are you even talking to? Yes.”

“Okay, okay. I just figured with how shy you were originally that people just figured you to be that, not stuck up.”

“Can I ask why you thought I was shy? I mean, when we first met, you ran up on me asking about some guy I hadn’t seen in a while.”

Ami chuckled. “Well, I didn’t really think you were shy, it was everyone else who made it seem that way. Some of my girls knew about you and they told me you were pretty quiet and didn’t talk in class. I assumed you were shy then.”

“What girls? I don’t remember anyone always being in my classes.”

“That’s because they were really never there. The girls in question were friends and would alternate who’s in class and who wasn’t, but they both barely showed up to school.”

“Oh, that makes sense then. Well, I guess that is how a lot of people saw me. Everyone except Bushi for some reason.”

“How’d he see you?”

“Like normal, if anything he never even noticed I didn’t talk to anyone.”

“Maybe it’s because he’s blinded by-”

“By nothing.” She shook her head. “I think that’s why me and him get along so well. He doesn’t really see me as anything but his friend and I don’t see him as anything but that as well.”

“Friends with-”

“Will you shut up already?”

Ami laughed while finally placing the order and handing the phone over to Cassie for her to put in the payment option. She huffed while doing so, but quickly typed everything in before returning the phone to him and getting back on her own phone.

“Okay, I have to ask this. What are you doing on your phone? You’ve been on it since I picked you up.”

Cassie grinned. “Distracted are we? Simple man distracted by phone.” Cassie giggled.

“More like you’re so intense it’s hard not to look at whatever you’re making that face over.”

“Well… if you must know-” she leaned over presenting her screen to him, “-I’m playing a game. It’s a farm sim and right now, I’m working every day to get everything in the game. The hundred percent is a draining task I have yet to complete.”

“Ah, I’ve seen this game before. Is it really fun?”

She nodded and leaned back in her seat. “Fun for both the casual cozy player and also for the completionist min-maxer like me.”

“Min-max being?”

“Essentially someone who wants to play in the most efficient way possible.”

“That doesn’t sound like you though.”

“I know, I don’t really min-max because I often do things that I like and that are less efficient.”

“And you still complete the game that way?”

“Yeah, it’s actually really cool that I don’t have to follow guides or anything to play at a high level. I just have to find what I like and what works and go with that until I get to the end,” she said with a big smile.

“Man, you’re about to get me into another game.”

With a teasing smile, Cassie said, “maybe you should.”

“Come on, you already got me into that JRPG—which by the way my best girl is still better than your best boy—and actually took days out of my life.”

“Good, you’re living the life of a true gamer.” She paused. “And by the way, my best boy is the most superior character in the whole game by the way.”

Ami leaned back in his seat and shook his head. “Okay, you know what, I’ll try it out for a few days. If I get caught up for hours, I’m calling it that.”

“But this game’s totally casual, you can stop playing for days or even weeks and you’ll come back still able to play. I mean, the game’s core audience are casual gamers anyways, you know, people who are normal and don’t spend seven hours searching for a rare drop.”

The first real pause in the conversation came now and Ami thought on it for a bit longer. Eventually—and like Cassie assumed he would—he caved in and took out his phone.

“You can play it on mobile?”

“Yep.”

He sighed. “Fine, I’ll give it a shot, but you’re helping me learn all the good stuff.”

“Of course, I don’t want you to make some of the mistakes I did.”

“You? Making mistakes? I can’t believe I heard that out of your mouth.”

“I admit when I make mistakes, I just don’t make mistakes that really matter.”

Ami chuckled at her prideful comment and once the game was downloaded, he started to play it on his own for a second before Cassie leaned over to see his screen and their endless conversation went on through the afternoon.