#beau ideals

[beauideals]

Chapter 1 is now available for download on itch.io

This update contains:

Approximately 40k words spread over 4 scenes and many, many branches

25+ unique sprites for three new characters

5 new backgrounds

6 illustrations

Music & sound effects, with an original piece produced by Stephen Poon

Click here for a link

As previously mentioned, there is currently an unfinished branch that prematurely ends the chapter. This branch will be patched in at the end of the year, along with other improvements to the UI, menus, music, and more. Additionally, we suggest playing through the prologue as several fixes were made that may interfere with the new content.

Thank you for your support!

Or not! That's fine too!

[bebsibby]

I present to you, Dunk-dyne

[destielgaysex]

having fun :]

[raymurata]

for oak: lovers, tower, moon reversed. for tarlyn: hierophant, hermit reversed

The Lovers: Which of your character’s relationships has been the most positive? (Romantic or otherwise)

Their family of course, and the Moonlighters and Gal.

Since you're the one asking I'm going to talk just about Espen (and that alone is a text wall): It satisfies something in me that I gave you one character to be unquestionably the child figure to Espen's mom complex. And that character isn't Oak -- It's Tarlyn. It was easy for Oak to look at Ahlysaaria and think "she's a shit mom" bc they had Nayi'rah to compare her to. Oak does appreciate motherly figures fussing over them, but they don't need a mom ideal to replace Nayi'rah -- no one could even.

But Tarlyn did need a mother figure to replace Ahlysaaria. It was very satisfying to me that beside Tarlynoak on this journey walked a woman who was a wizard, a drow, a "noble" (adjacent, but still. And Fyrna also counts for this, even through Espen's tales only). A woman had to navigate den politics and who also cared for reputation, all of which paralleled her to Ahlysaaria and made Oak wince and fear for Shanfel every time Espen talked about "reputation" in the first weeks. But Espen (and Fyrna) still raised their child with love and freedom. They were good mothers, and their position and power and culture didn't affect that. Tarlyn wishes they'd met Espen (and Fyrna) in the past, but they're glad they met her now because they still need a powerful spellcaster noble mother figure to navigate den politics with. They're still a really young little guy who's better at making things than handling nobility.

But yeah. Tarlynoak really loves and admires Espen so much. They are still anti-monarchy, but she's helped them have more hope in the dynasty as a whole, and her actions and her stories about Fyrna have made them believe that it is possible to be both a noble and noble in intent, which is what they want to be now.

The Tower: When has your character lost an ideal or relationship?

Oak has lost friendships. I haven't written fic for this yet but I 100% picture a deep and extremely meaningful friendship early on in their life that ended in miscommunication and eventual estrangement. I picture them crying so much over it, weeks on end of sadness. I also picture another couple of great friendships that they really tried to keep alive when they went to Rosohna, but the distance and the ways in which they changed just made those connections weaker, even if they still loved those people and still remembers them fondly. I know that Oak lost relatives both to divorce (the beloved wife of their uncle left him) and death (a grandparent) and all of those losses hurt, but they taught them how to deal with grief and abandonment, to understand that sometimes people leave, and sometimes the Gods take them. And they learned it hurts because that relationship mattered, like they told Moxie. Better to love and risk suffering the grief than to not love at all -- the latter isn't really living in their opinion.

The Moon in Reverse: When does your character mistrust their feelings or intuition?

Oak is insecure and they can easily mistrust their feelings and intuition if they can't find rational evidence to support their inklings. There are many things they're not knowledgeable about and they struggle to trust their instincts when doing something they're bad at. Or when they're before a challenge with high stakes. Or when they're around people who are much more socio-economically or politically or even magically powerful than them.

The Hierophant: Who has served as a mentor to your character?

Ahlysaaria :( I've written five fics to depict how she raised him rigorously (but luxuriously), taught him magic spartanly, and exerted excessive control over his every decision and expression of self. That is by far the most relevant mentor he had in life and the reason why he ended up as he did, but... She wasn't the only one.

There was also Professor Waccoh. When Tarlyn was studying in the Conservatory, he loved her classes. You might think it's because she's a weapons designer and he was interested in that, but it's the other way around. She was kooky and unafraid of people's opinions of her, and she was a powerful wizard woman (remember this boy has mommy issues), so, of course, he imprinted on her and dedicated himself like a maniac not only to excel in her class but to impress her personally.

A funny thing is that canonically Professor Waccoh absolutely hates the Icozrin, so I picture that it was common for her to insult Bodo and even Ahlysaaria to Tarlyn's face, and somehow imply that he was not entirely like the rest of them. That confused him because very few people dared to be so blunt with him, and it invited him to question his family too. Just a little bit. Unfortunately, he still tried to pretend he didn't really care about her and that he just liked her subject, and boasted that he'd help his family never need to hire her again by making better designs than hers.

The Hermit in Reverse: When has your character felt the most alone?

Tarlyn felt really alone his entire life. When he was amongst noble friends who (as far as he interpreted it) only wanted him for the magic he could perform for them and the things he could sponsor with his wealth, he felt alone. When he sat at the dinner table with Ahlysaaria and Ymril, decades of tension between them, he felt alone. When he lay under whatever guy wanted him just not to feel alone, he felt alone. He was struggling with a lot of mental illnesses.

I guess I'll turn this question around a bit and tell you that he felt the least alone when he could just spend some idle time solving pointless riddles and crosswords with a friend who liked kissing him and enjoyed the riddles about as much as he did.

And when the Luxon gave him a glimpse of what it meant to feel one with everything.

[utilitycaster]

One of several things I left out of that long Imogen and Laudna post, tbh, because it was long enough already, is that since the characters, will continue to do things (or, through inaction, still cause things to happen) that cause problems, if you take all the lesser flaws off the table like Imogen being somewhat selfish or insensitive or having a skewed idea of hypocrisy? If you always rule out explanations reliant on fallibility or stupidity? You really only leave the door open for interpretations of outright deliberate malice.

[laurasbailey]

i wrote this in the tags of another post like yesterday but the beau, yasha, fjord, jester connection really was the heart of c2 for me. the dynamics between them are really what made me enjoy it week to week. idk just seeing that video made me miss them!!!!

[dent-de-leon]

aHH WAIT DID ORYM HAVE THE STONE TO CONTACT CALEB?? CAN WE GET A CHECK IN ON THE NEIN??

[beauzos]

been thinking about Mimi Augustus today and damn. Vincent really fumbled a bad bitch to chase a manic pixie dream boy that can't hold a job down longer than a few months. and also kills people

[theheadlessgroom]

https://www.tumblr.com/beatingheart-bride/719251327573786624/beatingheart-bride-theheadlessgroom

@beatingheart-bride

It always surprised Wilhelm to hear that little reminder, that affirmation, that he did not deserve to be shunned or treated as harshly as he was: Although he was a proud man-proud of his heritage, proud of his family, proud of where he came from-and was never afraid to say so, a man could only take so much abuse before he started to believe it himself. He tried not to let it get under his skin, of course, reminding himself that they were just narrow-minded people who didn’t know him the way people like his wife and son did, but still...

...it still managed to burrow under his skin like a damned tick. It burrowed, it planted itself in him, slowly poisoned him-it made him stop, second-guess himself, even when he knew he shouldn’t. It was frustrating, exhausting, and demoralizing, but still, he hung in there. Call it stubbornness (the hallmark of a good Pace), call it optimism, a sort of Pollyanna-ish outlook on things, but he reminded himself that the harsh words, the rude stares, the little whispers...they meant nothing. He let them roll off his back, and instead chose to believe in the little reminders: From June, from Randall...

…and now, from Emily.

“Thank you, lass,” he smiled softly at that: Neither do you, he wanted to say, but for now, he settled on gratitude for the kind words of this sweet siren, sitting in his bathtub.

[stardustedknuckles]

God sometimes I think I should engage more with fandom instead of insulating so that it's just me and the few people I trust not to drive me crazy, and then I rewatch a tense moment in campaign 2 and I feel myself getting stressed not from the actual events but from the way everyone lost their goddamn minds and/or were horrible about who should've done what. And I'm like oh, that's right. I'm good where I am. Maximum quality content from me necessitates not actually seeing what anyone else has to say because nothing tanks my enjoyment and will to participate faster than people arguing and being shitty about something that brings me joy.

[oakendesk]

Mystic Magazine Jan 1931

Al Wilson

movie poster - Little Caesar - Jan 1931

artist unknown

movie poster - Beau Ideal - Jan 1931

artist unknown

[beauideals]

Hello!

It's been a while, far longer than we intended. We wanted to provide an update since we've been radio silent for the past few months.

For those looking for a TLDR: we're fussy perfectionists that are terrible at estimating time.

The Delay

Between the art and the writing, the writing is what feel behind the most. Our intention was to put out the final portion of Chapter 1 early in 2023 but, depending on your definition of early, this has not come to pass. Excuses can be made, but they're far less interesting than the content promised. As of tonight, the draft of the update sits at around 10k words. Mouse hopes to bring that word count to ~12k by the end. There will only be one additional background added to the update, as well as a smattering of small CGs.

Future Chapters

Chapter 2 has not entered the drafting process as of yet. Not officially. Completion of the second draft typically kicks off Ram's work on sprites, backgrounds, and CGs. We've decided not to make any predictions as to when this will be ready for release since we've proved that we're not great at this whole forecasting thing. Anyways, that's it! We're Sorry!

[xylophonetangerine]

The second definition is insane.

[monstercollection]

Me: I’m tired of British history shows/documentaries. I should branch out.

Me seeing PBS has a new Lucy Worsley series: fuck

[nellasbookplanet]

I've been thinking about Mollymauk, as I'm periodically wont to do, and the fandom discussion about him as a moral compass. Because the interesting thing here is, Molly wasn’t a very moral character. He was an unrepentant scammer. He had no respect for interpersonal boundaries and would deliberately push and break them. Generally, he was an asshole. As far as actually having a strong moral stance I would say Fjord was the standout of early m9, and to some extent Beau.

But here’s the thing: almost all of early m9 thought of themselves as horrible people. Fjord had been bullied so bad growing up that he still dealt with self-hate from it, and now suffered from survivor's guilt to boot. Caleb had killed his own parents. Beau, while she hated her dad, also had internalized self-hate and on some level thought she’d been such a shitty daughter she deserved his treatment. Nott was stuck in a body she considered monstrous. Yasha had survivor's guilt and knew she’d done bad things in her blank spots. Even when they did good, they didn’t think of themselves as good. Most of them were suspicious and asocial and faced the world with the same kind of distrust they expected to be (and were experienced in being) met with. (Jester was an exception, an agent of neither good nor bad but of amoral chaos)

But Molly was different. He was outspoken about loving life and people. He wanted to spread joy, even to people he didnt know or had even met: he slipped coin into people's pockets, hid a silver in a tree just so some stranger would one day be happy to find it. He openly cared for the party early on; was one of the first to step in and help Caleb when he went catatonic in battle. Above all, Molly had rules: where everyone else would agonize over what was the right or wrong or smart thing to do, Molly loudly proclaimed we don't leave people behind, and we leave every place better than we found it.

But the thing about Molly’s rules was, they were largely a cover. While the rest of the m9 thought they were bad even as they did good, Molly thought of himself as good even as he did bad. He scammed people, but made it a good and memorable experience, therefore thinking he gave more than he took. He charmed Nott and Fjord without consent, and when confronted would claim it was to help them. Out of the group, Beau saw through this, not because she was a better person but because she was a cynic. She saw that he caused harm, just as she did, and was personally affronted that he still thought of himself as good and tried to leave people happy, whereas she deliberately left every place worse than she found it.

I see Molly as a moral compass of the group not because he was actually any more moral than them, but because they made him their template. He was joy and brightness and he died trying to save them because it was the right thing to do, and they all chose to honor him by emulating his rules more than Molly himself ever did, because to them it was more than just a cover, backed up by genuine moral thought and discussion rather than small gestures. He taught them that it was possible to be kind of a shit person and still be good, to still love yourself and others. The idealized Molly they created never existed, and finally died for good when they resurrected him in the end and were met with a stranger, who they welcomed with the same love and care they would've expected Molly to show them.

[simply-ivanka]

The beau ideal of a modern Presidential candidate