#it was supposed to be a vn sprite

[dianadeadwing]

Continuing to work on anime girl Tina Ruth Belcher in procreate.

[ID:

Messy digital full color portrait sketch of Tina from Bob’s Burgers in an anime inspired style. It is unfinished with soft overlapping pastel colored lines made with a round brush on a blue gray background.

/end ID]

[odysseys-blood]

its sad how many games would be fine as stand alone vns but bc everyone wants to make a quick buck theyre gachas solely for that stupid ass reason

[ebi-hime]

My short, sweet BL VN, My Confounding Cat is Criminally Cute*, has been released on Steam here and Itchio here! Yay \o/ Criminal Cat is a linear visual novel without any choices or branches. It follows a grumpy wizard, Aster, who lives a reclusive life deep in the woods and runs an apothecary to get by. Aster is taciturn by nature, and he swears he isn’t lonely! He’s perfectly fine keeping to himself, thank you very much…

Until a black cat tumbles down his chimney one day, and throws his whole life into disarray!

After taking the black cat in, Aster soon discovers this clumsy kitten is no ordinary feline. He is, in actuality, a young man called Blaise, who has been cursed by a witch to assume the form of a cat during the day – but why? What did Blaise do to get cursed, and can Aster help him?

It’s a huge pain, but Aster will (reluctantly) do his best. He’ll never be able to get rid of Blaise if he can’t, and all Aster really wants is a quiet life. It’s not like he’s going to fall for his catboy companion or anything, right?

…Right?

Criminal Cat is a pretty sweet story, and it doesn’t contain any explicit content. The steamiest thing you’ll find here are a handful of kiss scenes (well, how else are you supposed to break a curse?!) The adorable art is by Ekkoberry, who handled the character sprites, CGs, and the UI! I usually work with multiple artists per project, so having one person manage all of the art-related tasks was a pretty new experience for me. I’m really happy with how this VN turned out: I think it looks very cute and cohesive! I hope you enjoy it if you do check it out! I put a lot of love into this story, and I hope it shows! - ebi x * And I apologise for the very extra light novel tier title haha, I thought it fit since the story takes place in a fantasy world!!! It's all a bit of fun, I promise!!!

[tehawesomestkitteh]

another wip from backlog finished

was supposed to be sprites for a short VN fangame/story. ultimately scrapped cuz alr busy with a different one

[perfectlovevn]

If no one could give you the love you craved...

Then you would create someone who could.

Wouldn't that be fun?

Game is now complete. Have fun.

You were always obsessed with a specific love... not one advertised in romance novels or movies, but a love that consumes and corrupts... One of obsession and possession. No matter what you did, you could never find that love...

So you decided... why not make this perfect love instead?

A game that was suppose to be made for the Yandere Jam 2023, but I didn't have enough time to finish, so now I'm going to try to finish it by the end of the summer at latest.

Game will include:

Nameable MC (Default Name, Eris) who is incredibly manipulative

Choose your own Nickname

Too many references to yandere vns (in terms of names and nickname combos)

Milo, the to-be yandere that changes appearance, personality and dialogue based on decisions.

Everything in greyscale so I don't die of coloring

Three Choices

Eight Different Endings + A Secret Ending

Maybe Extras if I can figure out how to code it in which will include some basic side stories

Future Progress:

Extra Scenes Writing: 90%

Extra Scenes Sprites: 30%

Extra Scenes Coding: 30%

Extra Scenes Music: 0%

Milo Didn't Like that: 0%

Game Warnings:

Includes:

Bullying

Manipulation (on both Milo and Eris's part)

Blackmail

Violence/Blood

Stalking

Drugging (creation of and using of)

Possessive/ Obsessiveness

Yandere Behavior (And a yandere of course)

A Cruel MC

and others that will be added to the list afterwards

I'll try to give progress updates at least once a week so people know that I'm working on it. We'll see how it goes.

Feel free to send asks!

I'll figure out tags as we go as well. Have fun!

Tags:

#characterprofile

#about PreMilo

#about ManipulationMilo

#about ViolenceMilo

#about eris

#milo asks

#perfectlove dev logs

#Milo fanart

#C4 Draws

[aeroplanestouchthesky]

Besides red text, another neat thing about Umineko as a VN is that it's quite clear that Clair's design supposed to be proto-Beatrice from the get-go since she uses the same sprite poses. Even without the voice acting clearly being done by the same person, the visuals alone form the connection immediately .

This feature doesn't necessarily work in all media. Her manga version, for example, can seem like we're seeing an entirely other young woman. Since the manga allows for unique pose depiction in every frame, there are no "Beato poses" to relate a _purposefully_ disguised character to another.

And so the "limitations" of the VN become a strength no other format can wield in the same way

[crowroboros]

Anymore chase insight?

I'm going to do the same thing I did with Carl part 2 where I just throw out random thoughts.

I wonder how his arachnophobia came to be, if there was any inciting incident at all. I suppose it could just be a natural fear he has, though he lives in Echo so I wonder if there was anything paranormal at play to spark that. Perhaps he saw 88883 or something. That's very unlikely though and definitely isn't the original intention behind it. Again it is probably just some random phobia he developed. I also wonder just how intense his arachnophobia is in terms of any spider imagery. In person it is obvious very very intense, but I don't have it or any fear that is adjacent to it so I can't comment on how it works when seeing a picture or anything like that; could he play Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess? Is Gohma too much or is it fair game cause she's fictional? If the 3D model makes her too spider-like then is Gohma in LoZ1 or in Link's Awakening any better cause it's just sprite work?

Maybe I'm a boring, rock-like personality having, "never-speaks-at-a-party" wallflower, "just-kind-of-there", not very interesting person but I never really saw Chase's blandness as inherently being a bad thing. I never really understood why in-universe people got on his ass about being "uninteresting". I also just don't agree with the sentiment of him being boring, but again maybe I just fit the criteria.

If I remember right, I think Chase's family has been living in Echo for a fucking while so I wonder if any of his ancestors will appear in TSR. I'm not caught up on that VN so maybe they already have and I'm unaware, but I haven't been seeing any posts about it so I assume they haven't.

It's 100% because he's an anthropomorphic otter and it would probably look much worse on a human but I don't think Chase's attempt at a goatee is that bad looking. Dare I say he actually rocks it pretty well.

Chase was actually how I discovered Echo VN and FVNs as a whole. You know those memes where someone sneaks Goku into an image where he isn't meant to be? I saw one of those but with Chase and I was so confused and intrigued that I worked tirelessly to find out what this fucking otter was.

[thelikesoffinn]

Heeeey as with visual novels you play, have you tried 'Dave the Villainess'? It looks great but I don't want zo spend money on something that's not good 🤧

Hello there!

I assume you mean 'Save the Villainess' - part of me really hopes you're actually talking about a VN with dude called Dave who is a villainess, that sounds amazing - and in that case: You don't have to spend money just yet! It's just a demo as of right now and it's free, so nothing is stopping you!

Apart from that: Yes, I've tried it annnnd...I didn't like it. At all.

Positives first - Art is nice enough, music is lovely and general concept is great. In fact, both art and concept are what drew me to this one in the first place, because it's basically a playable isekai manhwa and I love those!

BUT...it's just bad.

The Dialogue is...woof. I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt because I really really like the concept but - respectfully - blegh. I've played the entire Demo twice - benefit of the doubt, as I said - but just...no. Especially certain parts (Two words: Cushions. Wainscoting.) just felt so...forced and out of place.

That is also the reason why the MC doesn't fit her description. Like lady you're supposed to be intelligent and witty stop talking about the fucking cushions and get your head in the game alright? Please? 😭

Also - and I feel really bad for saying this - but the animation is just...just stop. Please. It's messy and makes the whole game seem so shoddy, even though it really isn't. Sure, I didn't like the dialogue, but that doesn't mean the game is bad. I just didn't like it. The animation however, makes it look cheap and try-hard at the same time, which is such a shame. (It doesn't run well either. It's really laggy and I assume the animation has something to do with it.)

But let's be more specific on the animation, because that's what bothered me the most:

Everything in the background moves. (WHY is the curtain rattling? And if it has to be rattling, why is it so out of sync with the rest of the scene?) It's so...overdone and really doesn't need to be. Usually it's best if you choose a few focus points that DO move and the rest remains still because it's just too much otherwise. It makes things seem really unstable and erratic.

Then the sprites - they blink, "breathe", their hair shakes, their jewellery shimmies...once again, all out of sink. (Not even earrings are sinked up. The MC's left earring will randomly jump and then the right jumps just the same but a few seconds later. And brooches and necklaces just shake like they're about to explode for no reason at all.)

Their expressions are a mess, too. Not as in "oh the art is bad", the art is great, but they all seem to have... twitchy faces. Not only do they blink and occasionally change expressions, no, their expressions flit between *current emotion* and *default* for some reason? And their eyebrows are being worked hard, because they keep frowning for a milisecond before returning to their current expression.

There's so much zooming and panning too, which is fine on occasion but get's so bothersome after a while. Like stoooopppp zooming in for every second line, I don't need a close up of the MC's face for no reason at all right now!

Nothing seems really fluid either. Maybe that's the style they picked, maybe it has to to with the intense lag of the game - I don't know. But it's awkward.

Now, it IS just a demo. A lot can and will change. And I usually wouldn't be one to say anything bad about a demo exactly because of that. BUT - it's their kickstarter demo. This is the demo they want to raise money with and, much as it pains me to say, it's not a good look.

As always, that is my opinion and yours might be entirely different. So I'd suggest you go check it out for yourself - it's free and who knows, maybe you'll see something in it that I don't!

[ggren-mainz]

Umineko - question arcs playthrough -> ep 1 - 1

All parts and episodes

Inspired by some other people I saw do a playthrough of higurashi, I will now do my own but of umineko! The people (nobody) have asked and I will demand!

Context: I just finished higurashi, loved it, and I'm now playing umineko. The only spoiler I know is the femdom Beatrice x sissy beta Battler CG.

Had to go on a YouTube playthrough cause i didn't screenshot everything I wanna talk about :/. Anyways I'm playing with the 07th mod (booing sounds) because I refuse to play with any sprites other than the ryukishii ones, and I like NDV mode better. Sad cause umineko project looks good but oh well.

When playing higurashi I didn't use the voice acting cause I had already played 2 games when I found out about the mod and I read way faster than they talk, and also it annoyed me idk why, but for umineko I started knowing I'll use it. I actually play with steam link many times and the sound isn't broadcasted quite often so I just open a YouTube playthrough of it in the bg for the voices + music lmao.

Anyways the voice acting on Beatrice is actually so good, amazing intro.

Saw this amazing phrase only to be later betrayed with

This. Horrible how am I supposed to play a games with adults??? I only play my vns when they're all under the age of consent!

This is so funny cause in English it just reads like it's mocking you. But yeah objectively I knew Rudolf was a weird name for the Japanese but damn it did not hit me till they said it and it sounded like the most out of place thing ever.

Helll yeaaa, the sigma thinking. This is a future president thinking, keep it going Battler!

Yep this is deeefiiiniittlyyy not a sign and foreshadowing at all. Nope, nothing bad is gonna happen!

Also I'm really curious about this part. Feel like its gonna be important soon. Oh well this is all for now, will update later ;P

next part

[northern-passage]

Hello! I have a few questions as someone who takes great inspiration from brilliant works of interaction fiction and similar methods of storytelling. I hope you don’t mind me asking!

1. If there something that draws you to the current format of interactive fiction storytelling rather than something such as a visual novel? Do you enjoy it more, is it less costly, easier for you, etc…?

2. What are some of the most prevalent difficulties in writing within the medium?

3. What do you wish you knew before you began writing interactive fiction?

Keep up the incredible work, I always love seeing what you post and create <3

ohhh these are fun questions :-) thank you!

question 1: i actually tried to do a visual novel first! but it is a LOT of work. i managed to do some sprites and a few backgrounds before i gave up. if i was to try and do it again i'd have to pay another artist to join me which just isn't feasible for me right now. i suppose the things i like about IF could be applied to VNs too, but i like what interactive fiction adds to whatever narrative you're trying to tell. the medium itself is a part of the story, if that makes sense. it can't exist without the main character who can't exist without a player to guide them. i like giving the player choices & i like taking them away. i like how vast the genre is, and i like seeing how other people use the mechanics and code to pull off some really interesting & unique stories.

question 2: hmmm i think what gets hard for me is just fatigue... when you write big branching narratives, you have to write a lot of tedious shit, hahaha. like currently with blood choke i've been working on the same conversation for about 3 weeks. there are dozens of variations of it, depending on who the mc is, what choices they've made, and how the other character feels about them, and whether or not the mc went with her or went with someone else means the conversation has to be shuffled around elsewhere in the chapter, and it's all extremely extremely tedious. it feels like you're writing so much, but it's literally just one conversation, one scene in the entire chapter. but you have to write it about 20 times. so it's easy in IF to run out of steam very quickly. i definitely think that's what happened with me with tnp, i hit a huge block after writing all of the combat variations in ch2, i was just so exhausted & knowing that i would have to write even more complex scenes at the end of the chapter accounting for all of it was very demoralizing. BUT i feel like my long break has helped quite a bit and i am excited to get back into tnp next month 😈

question 3: this one is tough... i'm not really sure, to be honest. i've been here for a while now and i feel pretty comfortable for the most part. i was a reader & a lurker before i started writing so i got to see a lot of the way other readers treat writers before i became one, which was helpful for me. i think if i could go back i'd tell myself that this was going to be a way bigger project than i anticipated. and also tell myself that this is my hobby and i should be having fun, not stressing or worrying about making money or pleasing other people. of course i want people to like my work and i appreciate their support, but that shouldn’t be the only reason why i'm writing… i’m writing because i want to.

[hummingbird-games]

Dev Diaries

November 2, 2024

Let this be the last time I write this update so I can friggin POST IT!! 🤣

Since we last chat, a few things have happened, so here's a recap:

You can preview Langston and Ryan's game 2 routes!!! (Happy Anniversary to my first game child)

HSD artist is wrapping up on the requested sprites for the next update. That goes live.... Sunday February 2, 2025!

I finished the first draft of Ryan's route. Yeah. Wild. The hardest part of writing (for him) is over. Also I like opening up the document and staring at it to make sure it's real and not just a figment of my imagination. Langston bby we're coming for you next!!

We're on Bluesky?! Yeah lol I meant to say something sooner. I have no idea how I'll treat that platform yet, but we're there!

Loved VN

Now setting aside the bullet points for a moment, we'll touched briefly on the #LovedVN project. There's been a sliiiiiight delay art wise on that front, and honestly, it's anyone's guess if it'll come out this year--I opened the project file a few days ago, and marveled at how much is still not done. That's on me and my bony shoulders. Like I haven't even commissioned the key art yet! 😔

Future Projects

There's an idea I'm holding close to my chest only because it's still more abstract than concrete, and I won't be working on it until Loved is finished and playable. There is also a different project that almost saw the light of day, and I wanna talk about it.

The Josei After Dark game jam came and went and I seriously entertained submitting something. The Afro Jam also came and went, and this was supposed to be a two-for one idea...I recruited my sibling for the character sprite. I sat down and made 4 music tracks because I knew there was a specific sound I wanted, and I did not have specific sound money. I had a placeholder UI with the intention of either recruiting someone after the jams or finally rolling up my sleeves and adding bare bones UI design to my developer toolbox.

Well. We didn't make either deadline LOL! I decided to shelve it. But tbh, I had too much fun writing this script to keep it out of sight.

placeholder bg + placeholder UI teehee

Not so secret thing about me, stories typically come to me when I can't find it in the media I consume. And because HBG projects are free to play for the foreseen future, I'm the prominent player I'm trying to impress, so I make games for me and then hope other people like them too.

This project is called Oh, Boy. It's another bite size game with seven endings!! I had to make a guide for because as I was playtesting I was getting confused and missing my own endings! Anyhoo, I have plans for this one, so more details to come in a future dev diaries or a regular post!

And that's all folks! Gemini out 🫶🏾

am I wild to drop this at the VERY end?? under the cut?? no, not at all

[norbezjones]

Yancy At The End Of The World: Who Is Beck?

It’s another character intro for my now-released aroace zombie game—you can play it here or here!  Last time we talked about Yancy At The End Of The World!, we went over Laz, and today, we’re introducing Beck!

Beck was the popular kid in high school, on the top of the food chain and shoving those xe deemed unworthy back down the ladder.  Nowadays, xe has been humbled majorly, and is trying to be a better person as an adult than xe was as a kid.  Xe does papercraft art as a way to destress, and also helped create the art server Nekoni hosts.

Beck was designed by octopubbi/geckoz and is voiced by Lunar Star Sam, who has a very lovely voice that instantly captivated me when I heard their audition.  Beck’s art is also done by Crow Caller—oh yeah, I suppose I haven’t been talking about that in these posts, huh?  Let me make up for that.

Mack’s art is done by Shade_Reverie.  Mack is a skilled traditional artist, and Shade had the skills to bring his art to life. I'm very happy with the final results, and that Shade agreed to come on board!

Artemis's art is done by DollhouseIRL. I worked with her on her first VN, Purple Prose For Purple Hearts, drawing sprites for the character Lucia and offering support behind-the-scenes. When I saw DollhouseIRL's art, I knew it would be perfect for Artemis, and I asked her if she would draw for the character. I'm delighted she said yes!

Beck’s art is done by Crow Caller.  Crow makes these papercraft creatures that are in a very unique style—I know about them because I watch his YouTube channel, where she primarily does book reviews but also shares his “paper children”.  When I figured out that Beck did papercraft, I immediately knew who to reach out to, and I was delighted when Crow agreed to join the team!

That’s all for today.  Thanks for reading!

[dragon-reblogs-and-rambles]

One down 7 to go hoooooooooooo boy

fun fact this is the first time i got 100% achievements on a game please ignore the Visual Novel tag I am a very pro gamer I swear

anyway some quick rambles:

I've been slowly making my way through this game rather than rushing through so some of my thoughts on the early sections are lost to time,

the main thing about this is that it takes a while to get to the good part but also without the slice of life elements i think it would be a significantly worse game so probably slowly going through rather than binging all at once is the right call

also the steam release has "updated" sprites (you can turn off) and i have a rant on why those sprites are actually worse in my opinion even tho they are technically drawn better but that could be its own post

(would you believe me if i told you these two sprites are supposed to be conveying the exact same emotion, according to the game these are the same sprite)

(or what about mion being banned from showing emotion beyond default anime expressions, not like she's a super playful energetic character or anything)

you can turn these out so it's not an issue but if we have to have redraws for rereleases can they be like.... good, when all a visual novel has is a couple dozen sprites per character they need to be good at showing emotion

oh yeah also its very obvious they only have like 7 songs total for this game ost lol there is only one good song in the ost btw, from a quick google serch looks like every version of the vn has a different ost lol

what else was i gunna sayy uhhhhhh

oh right yeah one thing is that going into the VN knowing the twist from the anime i think did make the experience slightly less good in some places i kinda do wish i could go in 100% blind but i know it would not hold my attention otherwise

(spoiler talk) knowing about the Hinamizawa Syndrome ahead of time def made it some some suspenseful scenes had me going "Keichi you ass your literally just tripping balls" like on one hand scenes where i notice a logical explanation with the context of knowing the twist is a sign of good writing but because i did not get my first experience with the VN idk i feel like i was missing out

regardless ill probs slowly go through the rest of the VN cuz i liked it overall, i already bought the next 3 games (first was free) so i guess i have to cuz i hate having a backlog

oh yeah the first chapter of the VN is free and its 10+ hours so if you like sorta kinda are intrested cuz of the anime you dont have anything to loose i wouldnt say its a strong reccomened yet but its more a "i enjoyed it and didnt feel like my time was waisted"

[traumendesmadchen]

✨ Chronotopia Spotlight 15 - Lys, guardian of memories✨

🔴 1 DAY LEFT BEFORE RELEASE 🔴

Lys' in-game sprite, by Anako. She looks cute but you'd better not piss her off!

After explaining the whole purgatory concept, let's finally tackling the cute but intriguing guardian of the place: Lys.

Lys was originally a minor character in a VN I had planned to make. Weirdly enough, I grew fond of her & decided to give her a special power: she can slip into the background of other TM games ����‍👤.

Lys' concept art (Anako). She's meant to be Little Red Riding Hood~

She quickly became the best candidate to become the lost soul's guide as: ⚰️ she's the only character able to go in & out of the Graveyard 📚 she doesn't have a story of her own

And that’s how she ended up in Chronotopia even though she was only supposed to make cameos!

Meeting Lys for the very first time is always something~

You could consider the whole purgatory segment as just pure writer’s intellectual pleasure. I just find it fun that a game which explores forgotten fairytales would be made of pieces of my own forgotten stories 😄.

✨You can learn more on itchio!✨

💜 Wishlist Chronotopia on Steam💜

[skaruresonic]

My earliest memories of the VN are a little hazy because a lot has happened since then, but I'll try to share the bits and pieces that I do recall. ---

One of the first things I did was compile voice clips in order to have a comprehensive credits list. This included sifting through dialogue compilations. The characters' quotes then shaped ideas for plot beats and informed the kind of narrative it would become. In the earliest draft which... hadn't really been written at the time, but was 90% locked away in my head, the plan was to have Sonic help settle a dispute between Shadow and Rouge following a failed apprehension of some bank robbers. Their chapter would have paralleled Tails and Knuckles' in that two characters approach Sonic instead of just one. Not sure where their chapter would have fit into the overall narrative, but I'd guess around mid-afternoon, just before early evening, when Cream's chapter begins. I couldn't find anything viable in David Humphrey's voice clips, and Jason Griffith's sounded... for lack of a better word, a little too mean-spirited to use. It would have made Shadow seem as though he were raking Rouge over the coals instead of being a little annoyed and aloof. So then I was like, "Maybe I should set this aside for now." Eventually, as Knuckles', Cream's, and Amy's chapters grew in size, I decided it would have dragged the plot out for too long to include Shadow and Rouge's story, and hence cut it. --- The first draft was supposed to have the player take Sonic's place instead of Eggman. The implication being that Eggman somehow separated Sonic's sprite from his dialogue variable and is attempting to control Sonic's "shell" through manipulating the player. As time went on, I realized this was a difficult concept to convey properly. It would have also probably broken immersion to dictate the player's reaction after rendering them a silent entity for most of the game. That's why the switch was then changed to a more direct one between Sonic and Eggman. The player is instead given silent involvement where ultimately their say matters more than Sonic's or even Eggman's. The act of choice demonstrates the sheer power imbalance that exists between the characters and the player who directs them. ---

Eggman's "bad ending" speech was the first thing I worked on, which took about 15 minutes to speedread (so... maybe 30 minutes of regular reading?). It's not "truly" present in the current version of the game, though part of it is there in some form; it just requires a little digging to find. About half of the original speech is preserved in base64 when Sonic's dialogue gets deleted and replaced with barcode. You can see the base64 in the script. During the Good ending where everyone shows up to the surprise party, Sonic calls back to this speech. Eggman is confused because this implies Sonic can read his narration despite several layers of encryption, mirroring Eggman's ability to read Sonic's narration. --- The rave cave was originally supposed to take place at Amy's house, when Eggman would have flooded the place with raving Egg Pawns. All that hawt robot mosh pit action would have carried Sonic out the door and tossed him onto the lawn.

--- The final game has just two routes and many looping choices. A third route where the graphics driver fails, causing Sonic and co.'s sprite textures to fail to load, and an angry overworked Eggman assigning you the task of retrieving the lost textures before the end of the workday got scrapped as well.

[glasswinggames]

Late Night Talks with Noah

So whilst I do some outfit redesigns for my sprites, I thought I'd post some of the lil short fics/stories I've written as warm-ups when I've been writing Ever After!

They are non-canon, as in they aren't included in the vn itself, but are just little and hopefully cute scenes written from the perspective of a particular gender-neutral MC who I just refer to as Saint for now.

They're more casually written but hopefully, people enjoy these lil moments! <3

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

There it was again. The footsteps.

The first night when I was woken by the sound, I'd grabbed the protective dagger from under my pillow and held it close to my chest under the covers. I waited for longer than I can measure for the potential assassins I had been warned of, but none came. The second night I'd climbed out of bed, dagger in hand, some dubious looking red liquid that a priestess said can be used for defence, in the other. Only to find an absence of anything when I opened the door. The third night, tonight, however, I was ready.

I'd been sitting by the door since before the time I usually went to sleep, and had been waiting patiently. I don't know what it was, but I was almost certain that the footsteps would return eventually, and this time I was going to find the source.

So when the sound of heavy steps broke the silence of the night, I was up in an instant, weapons in position to defend and attack as I swung open the heavy door and lunged forward.

"S-Saint!" Large hands grabbed my shoulders stopping me in place, but it wasn't the force of his grip that caused me to freeze, but rather the all too familiar voice who called my name.

"Noah?" I look up to meet the panicked expression of the Holy Knight Commander, whose eyes were somehow brighter than the illuminating stone he'd dropped onto the floor. His thoughts were always written all over his face, and I could almost watch in real time as he started to worry about the worst. Before I could let him spiral away, my dagger fell to the floor with a loud clang, and my hands brushed against his cheeks (even if it was a bit of a stretch), causing him to almost turn into a statue. Stubble scratched against my thumb, as it stroked back and forth gently, soothing Noah as he processed the shock that the unexpected gesture of softness caused him.

I almost go rigid myself, when instead of smiling brightly whilst simultaneously pulling back behind his usual boundary lines, he leaned into it, his golden eyes fluttering shut as the softest of smiles settled on his face. His own hand finds purchase on mine, and he doesn't remove it like I'd expected, instead he just holds it there, encompassing my hand in the warmth that radiates from him.

"What are you doing here?" I have to stop my voice from going all twisted, for some reason I'm the nervous one. I'm so used to him being the one to get flustered from any display of affection, that it didn't cross my mind that he could affect me too, even unintentionally.

"Oh," My question broke the spell between us, and he pulls back with a nervous laugh, scratching the back of his neck as he looks away. There's an uncomfortable coldness that lingers in my hand after the contact is broken, but I can only shake it off for now. "Well, I guess, the story is I suppose, um…" he continues, there's a sheepishness in his voice as he stalls for him, he can't lie for the life of him, nor does he try to, but he still gets embarrassed admitting things. "I've been getting back home pretty late, things leading up to my appointment have been really busy y'know? But by the time I get home you're usually asleep, which is not your fault at all, I'd much rather you get sleep because you deserve it, I just, it's meant I haven't been able to spend any time with you the past few days and I really enjoy spending time with you, so I end up outside your room just in case you're awake, but I haven't been able to bring myself to knock so I just leave, which makes every worse and--"

"Noah!" I have to almost shout to be heard over his ramble, and I can only hope that I haven't disturbed a bunch of sleeping people, but it luckily stops his spiralling ramble in an instant. I can only sigh fondly, unable to fight against the smile that comes from seeing his teary puppy dog face. There'd been a part of me that considered telling him off for scaring me the past two nights, but looking at him now, waiting patiently for me to speak, and worrying completely about me… well… there was no way I could be mad at him for this. "I'm thirsty, shall we go make some hot chocolate?"

"What?" It took everything not to laugh at the blatant disbelief in his tone.

"Hot chocolate, surely you've heard of it? Or is my big Saintly impact going to be introducing a hot beverage to the world?"

"I've heard of it," his shock dissolved to make way for the laughter that falls from his lips, "sorry it was just unexpected Sunshine, I can get some brought to you if you'd like?"

"Nope, it's not the same as making it ourselves, now are you coming with me? Or are you too tall to fit into the kitchen?" Hands went firmly onto my hips, so he'd know I wasn't budging on the matter, but all that did was make him snort into laughter even more. So much so that he had to quickly cover his mouth with a large fist and look away. Still, that wouldn't faze me in the slightest.

As his laughter faded, he looked back with the softest eyes, like the gentlest of early morning sunrises were captured within them. Then with the warm smile I knew all too well, he held out his arm for me to take. "Now what kind of knight would I be if I turned down your request? I'll risk knocking my head against the ceiling any time for you Sunshine."

The walk down the two flights of stairs to the kitchen a quiet one, as we both did our best to not disturb the rest of the mansion. I'd forced Noah to give up his boots part way, though he hadn't put up much argument, except for expressing a small disappointment into having to let go of my arm. We may have also had to hide from the head butler, who would certainly have at the least looked at our adventure with extreme disapproval. Other than that however, we got there completely safely.

"So what's first?" Noah asked once the illumination stones in the room had been activated, making it much easier to see the equipment and ingredients that had been carefully tidied earlier that evening.

"Nothing!" I throw a grin over my shoulder at his look of confusion, "for you at least, you just sit there and rest and I'm going to do it myself!"

"But--"

"No buts, it's a fine art, hot chocolate making, and I can't give away all my secrets just yet."

"I'm sorry, I had no idea you took hot chocolate making so seriously." He was failing to hide the laughter again. A part of me wished he wouldn't hold it back so much, it was always a joyous and musical sound.

"Of course I do, though I suppose you do have one very important job to do for me."

"Hm?"

"Well usually I'd have music, or a podcast, but since I don't have either of them, I'll need your help to keep me entertained."

"You want me to just… talk?"

"Or sing."

"Talking it is. What would your podcasts usually talk about?" There was genuine curiosity in his voice. Noah had never asked questions about Earth before unless I'd brought it up first. Even though he wanted to know, the concern over upsetting me with memories of a place I'd had to leave behind, far outweighed his interest in another world.

"A lot of different things really, sometimes about books, games, theories, others just spoke about what they enjoyed or were passionate about. Others spoke about places they'd travelled to, and I'd imagine what it was like to be there myself."

I busied myself finding the ingredients and settling in place before the stove, as I let the silence settle. I knew him well enough by this point to know he was lost in thought. He'd speak when he was ready.

"It was a long time ago now, actually it was when I was a boy, long before I came to Archelia, and I don't even remember the name of the place, but I remember that I'd had an argument with my dad, and me being young and stupid and with enough pocket money saved up from chores, I thought if I ran away I'd be completely fine on my own. So, I set out with no clear destination in mind, grabbed the nearest form of transport and just… head off. I had to switch a couple of times on the way, and it used up nearly all my money, but when I was kicked off, I just kept walking and walking and walking, until I ended up on this small beach that was more pebbles than sand. It was the dead of winter, and it was absolutely baltic and in my overconfidence I hadn't brought my scarf or gloves, so I was freezing my socks off, but the ocean was so pretty and moon gave everything this opal-like glow that I didn't even care. I walked back and forth over that beach for ages, searching through the pebbles, and I found this really cool looking pebble that had been chipped away at and in my eyes looked like the sun. Side note, it looked nothing like the sun, I just think I was delirious at that point. Anyway, I just remember wishing my dad was there for me to show him, I'd forgotten why we'd even argued, so then I started to cry because I thought that I'd never get back home with no money left. But before proper tears could even fall, my dad rushes over, worrying that I'm hurt. Apparently he'd followed me the whole way, but wanted to let me have this journey on my own terms, which is why he'd never dragged me back. I don't remember much else, except for on the way home we got hot chocolate from a local café, even though he hated it cause it was too sweet."

Noah met my eyes, which had been watching him for a while as he'd told the story, and as he realised how much he'd spoken without pause caused him to flush crimson.

"I-I guess I just remembered that story since it was the last time I had hot chocolate until now."

"Your dad sounds really sweet," I said softly, walking over with two steaming mugs, "maybe that's why he couldn't handle anymore sweetness from the hot choc."

"Maybe that's it," he laughed, though he didn't give it his all, and the redness didn't fully leave his features.

"Did you ever keep the rock that looked like the sun? I'd love to see it." I hopped up to sit on the counter beside where he leaned, and for the first time I was at his height, or at least closer to eye level. Noah picked up one of the mugs in an attempt to distract himself with something to divert part of his focus to.

"Sadly I lost it, but hey I found you, and you're definitely more like the sun than it'd ever be." There it was again, that smile. I couldn't help but be reassured every time it fell back onto his face, he almost looked wrong without it. I picked up my own mug, covered in marshmallows and cream, and almost spilled it everywhere when there was a small weight that landed on my shoulder. Luckily it was safe, and the source was identified as Noahs' head that now rested on my shoulder.

For a while, nothing was said, but the silence wasn't uncomfortable. Noah had a knack for making sure everyone else was okay and felt alright, but this was different, it was the peaceful comfort of companions. He was probably the only person in this crazy, magical world I could trust, and as happy as he tried to make everyone else, as happy as he tried to make me… I wanted to be able to do the same for him.

I stared into my now empty mug, my voice was no louder than a murmur. "Noah?"

"Yes Sunshine?" He didn't move off my shoulder, though that might have been because I rested my own head atop of his.

"You know what you were saying earlier? Upstairs?"

"… yeah?" My lips upturned at the embarrassment in the single word as he remembered his ramblings.

"I missed you too."

He said nothing in reply, instead his hand took mine and gently squeezed, and that was enough for me to know he'd heard. My eyes fell closed as time slowly crept on, and we stayed like that for a little longer.