#olnf rambles

[that-culdesac-kid]

Tamarack the "I'll stand up for what's important to you and be on your side no matter what"

[hanni-3]

Sooo...

MARIANA INTRODUCTION TIME !! :33

I'll do a Lucas introduction as well but lesbian first

-*———*-

Let's starts with the basics shall we? ; At 10 years old Mariana Martinez moved to Puerto Rico all the way to Golden Grove. The move was....something. Travelling to somewhere to a completely different continent, with a different language, different culture— just everything is different.

At least she has her Mama with her, despite not having the best relationship with each other, deep down Mariana really cares for her mama. She just has hard time expressing it.

In step 1, Mariana is a cis girl from all the way to step 4 and doesn't really care what pronous you use "You guys are obsessed, She..He..They. I don't care." she says

-Originally when I made her ; They were a transgender boy but I scraped it (and made another one that I'll introduce later cough cough)

Mariana isn't afraid to tell the truth, she's very blunt and so horribly honest. ex : Random "Hey! What do you think of my new hat?"

Mariana "It sucks."

So..yeah.. And because of this ; back in Puerto Rico she did not have that many friends. Some parents complained to Opal about it even but guess what? Mariana still doesn't care and continues on being 'mean'.

Fun fact while we're at it : Mariana has a bit of an accent in step 1, but by the time passes they manage to cover up the accent but it'll often come by from certain words. Especially the r's and the v's (pronounces the v = b's)

And the famous bilingual problem ; forgetting words. Both native and english, when people at school found out she was from Puerto Rico (which made her a bit more popular, bragging) people would often come up to her and ask him if their Spanish homework was good enough or what that word meant. She'd either :

A. Be blunt.

B. Knows what it says and capable of translating it but, just, can't.

C. Knows the word in Spanish but forgot it in English.

(^ mostly happens in step 2)

The relationship with the leads!!!

Whenever you would ask Mariana about love, she'd peek at Tamarack Baumann secretly and look back at you, plainly responding by "I don't do that romance crap."

In step 1 : When Tamarack popped out of the leaves, catching Mariana off guard, noticing how pretty Tamarack is.

She was hostile about her at first because of how her heart keeps fluttering everytime she'd smile. They're immediately and naturally close, without Mariana noticing much. And would defend Tamarack at anytime, Tamarack said you look like a broccoli because of your hair? Well she's right and she's being honest about it. Suck it up. Nevertheless ; while those two pining idiots goes trought the hardships of Tamarack not really feeling like a regular and Mariana being, her and confused about her feelings, in the end they could call each other's girlfriend's <3

As for Qiu Lin, ehh...they're neighbors all right. Mariana was ticked off by Qiu's charming personality and Qiu's being a people pleaser.

But in step 2, while Mariana is confused with her feelings and other stuff. Not wanting to bother Tamarack or her mama and on the other hand Qiu's confused with their gender. They'd rely on each other instead and give each other their shoulders to rest their head on to either ramble or stay in complete, comfortable silence. Then Mariana would maybe give a chance to Qiu. Despite Qiu giving up on befriending her, she'd try and befriend them.

And voilà !! All the main stuff you need to know about Mariana. Thank you for giving me your time to talk about her, of course if you have any questions about her or hell, another mc that caught your eye you can ask them away. And I'd cry. Have a wonderful day/afternoon / night!!

[that-culdesac-kid]

I know that step 2 is the time for angst™, but looking at these scenes makes me feel like we'll be getting quite some angst in step 1 too.

Looking at Qiu's track record, I have a feeling that it'll have something to do with him beating himself up over a small mistake (that people don't even consider one to begin with) or being unable to fix something that's outside of his control.

As for Tamarack's, I'm not really sure since there's not much we can conclude from the public demo, but I think it can have something to do with her bluntness and how she might accidentally hurt/offend people with it despite having the best intention(?).

(There's a high chance that I'm really wrong about this, but it's still kinda fun to speculate)

Anyway... Yeah. Crying Qiu and Tamarack are real; they can hurt you.

Who said what to the child

I just wanna have a nice and happy convo 😊

[iwrite-sinsandtragedies]

Day 1 — Soulmates ₊˚✧ ﾟ

Submission for @goldengroovy's @olnfweek2024

MC: Micha

Long ass ramble under the cut 😂

Okayokayokay SO-

I love soulmate au's. I cannot tell you how many fics I've read or how many prompts I've played with or media I've consumed or how many bullshit ideas I've come up with in my own head for them, I CANNOT.

It's just - hhhhhhhhhhhh- Soulmate au's and Time Travel au's are just the shit that gets me out of bed some days 😩💖my world weary soul drinks that shit like medicine, okay?

That all being said, it's probably a little ambiguous which au I picked to some, so let me explain: There are two au's I'm mashing up here really, both are from fics I've read back in the day. One being a Clack fic and the other a Thilbo one 🤷‍♂️kind of calling myself out here but w/e, they were good fics.

The Thilbo one is easier to explain - the concept is "Heartsong" which is, literally what it says on the tin. You find out who your soulmate is the first time you hear them sing (and no, that does not mean everyone is just a naturally good singer - they can be ass at music but, the point is, when you hear them their song is the perfect song for you and your heart knows that). There's a lot of little nuances to this one - things like you hearing your heartsong when you dream so you always know the moment you find them. Also people who have quiet dreams because their heartsong died, sometimes before ever even meeting them. etc etc. The heartsong also seems to expand, in some respect, to instruments (as Thorin plays his harp one night and Bilbo starts to hum without thinking about it because it sounds wonderful to him and that's how Thorin finds out).

Overall, it's a very soft and sweet concept to me and as someone who has a deep love of music, it's also one of my very favourites.

The Clack one is a little less easy to explain? I think. Maybe because it's nuances are so round about but I'll do my best. The concept for this one is "I Only See Colour When I'm With You" - anyone who knows how Clack fics usually go knows where this is probably headed 😂 and I am sorry to have hurt you but, overall, the idea is: You live in a noir-esqu world where everything is black and white. This only changes when you find your soulmate, of course, who brings the world into full saturation and lets you see colour for - possibly - the first time in your life (I say possibly because I genuinely can't remember if you start out colourblind or if it's an age cap thing).

Unfortunately, for as much as I adore this concept, it's been a long damn time since I read the fic and I don't even know if it still exists somewhere. So I can't actually recall if it was a 'you have to touch them' or 'you have to hear them' thing but the fic takes place with Zack on the cliff right before Midgar where he holds Cloud and looks at the sky - so I'm willing to bet it's a touch thing.

I also really loved this fic because it was the first one I'd read that brought in the concept of multiple soulmates to me - As Cloud later sits with Aerith and sees the colour he couldn't see with Zack, meanwhile Aerith only sees black and white, because she was only able to see colour with Zack (who was never able to see colour with her, because he needed Cloud for that).

Essentially, they all needed each other to see the world in colour. As a polyam person who didn't quite realise I was poly back then, it was a very comforting (and now dearly cherished) fic.

Anyways! Now that you have the background on the two concepts, you can kind of get what I'm going for with this piece.

Tamarack, Micha and Qiu are all soulmates in a fuzzy, desaturated world (I'm sorry, I'm not cruel enough to but them in complete greyscale LOL) and the way you find your soulmate is by hearing them sing and, when they do, your world is suddenly vivid and bright and beautiful. Suddenly, you can see things as they were meant to be seen and it's a permanent change (unlike the Clack fic) but things are always clearest and brightest when your soulmate speaks or sings 💖

I get a real kick out of the idea that Micha's known for fucking months that Tamarack is his soulmate (if not years) because he's always listening to her play but never says jack shit about it because he's emotionally constipated that way 😂Though genuinely, it's probably because he just doesn't think he's her soulmate and he's a bit against finding out he's right honestly.

Joke is on him, he's Qiu's and Tamaracks soulmate! And he couldn't have picked a better moment to grow a pair an take the risk 🥰

[goldengroovy]

warm up doodle of the cutest ppl in the world

[citrusbuds]

something i'll never recover from when playing OLNF is just how america the school looks. like its comical; the checkered boards and the lights, it feels so TV set. so disney channel. like i swear a character from TAWOG is gonna appear on my screen.

especially considering how most schools in my country are so open for more air circulation. will never get over it. do schools actually look like this ??? i will never know....

[dreamtydraw]

To the bitch ass anon who sent me a « i like your art but why do you always try to start fandom drama » regarding me saying that sexualizing characters who are minors is Bad, turn off that thing and I’ll answer your ask publicly.

I’m at point where i’ll allow myself to swear on main but what the fuck is wrong with some of you ? I am not talking about people who can learn from their error or people who genuinely didn’t see the harm and are willing to understand I am talking about the morrons who think that pointing out an issue in a fandom means I’m insulting it. So i will repeat and keep repeating it again. Adults know better than sexualizing characters who are minors in a fandom full of minors. I saw blogs of olnf fans stating they were 14. Some players are the exact same age of the character you’re sexualizing and you’re exposing them to that because on top of being a weird person you don’t tag your shit properly.

I will call out the weird people making sexist comments, transphobes content and pedo artwork because I’m an adult who knows better and I want a better fandom space for young players who deserve to enjoy a wholesome queer game without being met with creeps.

If me wanting to do that makes you uneasy then start to heavily reflect on yourself.

Yes I’ll read step 3 qiu x mc smutt if the trope seems interesting you know what ? Cause smutt isn’t the problem, people being weird as shit about minors and not being decent people are the problems that why. Writte all the smutt you want to kinktober as long as it’s with adults character and well tagged to not appear on main tags between two fanarts of 10 years old tamarack playing with crayons.

[toxxiin]

OLNF oc infodump :]

Step 1:

“baroness of the bandages”

i wanted to follow the template for qiu and tammy’s intro sheets, so where qiu and tammy are the king/queen, aspen is the baroness—the lowest rank of nobility since she doesn’t think too highly of herself in step 1. she’s clumsy so she’s got a lot of bandages plastered everywhere.

the colour palette is bright for this step, she’s just expressing herself.

Step 2:

“mediator of the monarchs”

we’re still not sure what caused tam and qiu to be not friends with each other—but ever since the ‘breakup’, aspen has been the mediator for them (monarchs referring to step 1 queen tam and king qiu), having to keep things civil.

this takes a toll on her, of course, having to be the peacemaker between two of her closest friends, and she only wants them to make up again. she does get bitter about it though—getting tired of being the one keeping them together.

the ‘tightrope’ aspen’s balancing on is actually a metaphor for both his identity (trans!) and his neighbours. it also explains the more neutral colour palette of his clothes for this step.

Step 3:

“gentleman of the generation”

(lets pretend that says step 3 on the infocard LOL) aspen is transmasc! and he’s proud. he’s changed a lot from his kid self.

he’s on his way to become a fashion designer! (headcannon that if qiu and tammy are still ballet dancer/musician respectively, he designs clothes for them to wear during their performances :])

[that-culdesac-kid]

So... I noticed that Qiu wear their jacket slightly differently in step 1, 2, and 3.

In step 1, they leave their jacket open without bothering to button or zip it up.

In step 2, they do the exact opposite by wearing their jacket closed and completely buttoned-up.

And in step 3, they loosen up their jacket again, but not completely. Ending up with a middle ground where their jacket is partially open and partially closed.

I just think it's interesting that the changes in how they wear their jacket parallel really well with their character arc in every step.

Also the way their outfit went from warm palette (brown green jacket) -> cool shades (blue jacket) -> mix of both (blue-green jacket).

And the way they went from wide grin -> not smiling -> soft smirk.

Yeah.

[that-culdesac-kid]

Ok, so... This is probably just a design choice and totally unintended, but her hair DOES look more sparkly in the step 3 icon!

The number of sparkles actually doesn't change much if you count the small dots (she went from 9 to 8 to 9), but all of her sparkles are equally big in step 3, so they're more noticeable compared to some of the dot sparkles in step 1 and 2.

As I said before, this is probably nothing, but I want to point it out because I really love the hc.

hc that probably won’t happen in the game but like. hair sparkles

tamarack’s hair sparkles are super noticeable in step 1, dim so much you have to squint to see them in step 2, and then go back to being noticeable in step 3, where they shimmer and dim depending on her mood- but usually are glittering brightly, fitting her reborn confidence.

[hanni-3]

The new OLNF demo uptade healed me

[softplushiee]

aauuuuhh qiu’s reaction to the mc using ms and mr <333

he’s talking like there’s two lily seconds haha

[onelastskip]

yoooo what up party people!!! I finished my essay and it's only 3am so it's a little ms paint chi aubade from my drafts, ain't she beautiful?

kinda just a little status update post coz I'm addicted to this app, but I got two more essays due soon— HOWEVER I WILL BE POSTING PERCY BIRTHDAY ART!!! (hopefully,,,)

[that-culdesac-kid]

Yeah! And there's also this too:

And this isn't one of those special things that he will only say to a crush or a friend, so he's actually this attentive and caring to everyone. No wonder all those kids are catching feelings.

OK, has anyone got this yet????, like dam, he was worried

[sapphoscorner]

I have a longer post for this where I’ll go into detail on this, because I think people need to understand where this is coming from, but I really need our life fans to understand that game is queer and it’s so clear that some of you are avoiding making tamaracks mcs only because she’s a girl, and fat and because y’all hate sapphics.

I saw an anon asking for another game with a male li, as if 90% of otome games aren’t about straight romances or around men. Can we sapphics have something? Or do we constantly need people showing us down our throats men and men romances? Are y’all able to survive without men?

We have a fucking game where neither of the mcs are men, CAN WE PLEASE HAVE THID OR DO YOU HAVE TO BRING MEN INTO THIS ONCE AGAIN???? Because some of you seem, SO DESPERATE to have men in this to the point where you’re misgendering qiu and is fucking annoying

[theo-grayson]

Anyone who's taken a look at my notes knows I Fucking Ramble, so don't look here unless you wanna see me share way too many thoughts about Our Life: Now and Forever (including way too much about my personal life)

Guys. Oh my god. Where do I even start. Maybe with just:

Little things I love about the demo

I am a sucker for character customization, and this game delivers that in spades. You can choose so many different things, from your appearance with a doll maker/picrew type thing, your gender and pronouns (with a BUNCH of customization), to what your bedroom looks like, to little stuff like what kind of drink you get at a restaurant. This was present in the first game too, Our Life: Beginnings and Always (OL:BA), but it's more in-depth here, and I love it. And I love that you can see your little avatar when your character speaks. I feel like it just flows so nicely, and it makes me wanna replay it with different characters. Of course, you also get many different dialogue choices, and there are so many choices to pick from. I LOVE it.

So, I absolutely adore OL:BA, and I love Cove with my whole entire heart. But man, inside of me there are two wolves: one of them is a Summer Disliker, and one of them is a rabid Autumn Pinterest Girlie. I ADORE fall, colourful leaves, mushrooms, rain, etc etc etc.

So seeing that Our Life: Now and Forever (OL:NF) takes place in a sleepy town in the AUTUMN?? With scenery like THIS???

I want to live here in real life.

The art style in general is just so beautiful. The colours, the softness of it all, the spritework, the cg art: everything is so stunning. The soundtrack is absolutely amazing too.

On a different note, the extent to which you can customize your relationships with Qui and Tamarack is so cool. You can go through a slow-burn romance, as neighbours to childhood friends to crushes to partners. You can have a cute love-at-first-sight childhood crushes story. You can avoid romance altogether and have a chosen-family dynamic. You can have a poly relationship and date both of them. Not ONLY that, but even the way that they interact with you can be customized;

That's so cool!! You can choose whether a character looks up to you or takes care of you, or whether they prefer to compliment you or tease you. And you can choose the same kind of thing when you interact with them in turn! A visual novel having this level of depth in a relationship is so awesome. The game will even remember things: like, if you react negatively to certain types of interactions, the characters can remember and act accordingly in the future. That's so cool!

I like that this story seems to be a little bit more serious than the last game. OL:BA has basically zero stakes, and very little serious conflict. That's not a bad thing at all, it's very much supposed to be a comfy, indulgent game. But OL:NF begins Step 2 by showing that the main characters have drifted apart as they've grown older. Not only is that nice realism, but it also adds both possible comfort potential (bringing your old friends back together and having good times) AND possible whump/angst potential (watching who used to be your best friends drift apart completely). The (optional) jealousy mechanic could also add to this. Obviously the game isn't finished yet and I could totally be off the mark, but even if this kind of thing doesn't end up happening, the fanfic potential is also there!

I really like how complex the characters are. Even as kids, they have wants and motivations and flaws, and they're so likeable. They change throughout the story, because not only are they growing up and older, but they have their own experiences and personal struggles. And speaking of characters:

Quick thoughts about Main Characters

> Tamarack Baumann

Oh my goodness. Ohg. Tammy. She is so so important to me. She is so sweet and supportive, and she's so pretty. Look at her. Oh my god I love her.

I absolutely adore Tamarack, and part of it is that I relate to her in a couple ways. I grew up as the insecure fat girl. I love frogs and toads. The cello is my favourite instrument, and I would love to learn to play one day. When she first said that she lived with her Omi and Opa, I literally gasped in real life, because I lived with my Omi and Opi for about a year, when I was her age.

> Qui "Autumn" Lin

QUI!!!!!! I love them so dearly, their mannerisms and the way they speak are so so endearing. They change a lot throughout the story, which is going to be so interesting to see. And they are ALSO so so pretty. Oh my god.

As a trans person myself who is definitely playing as a trans MC, I'm so curious to see the interactions with Qui, since they struggle with their own gender identity as well. Also, when they do figure out their identity in Step 3:

What??? That's so cool!!!

In which I get a little bit too personal:

This is probably tmi but I don't care. To make a very long story short, I had a really shitty traumatic childhood. Especially around ages 10-15. Even disregarding that, I was always a 'mature for my age' child, who followed all the rules and was terrified of ever stepping out of line. I never got the chance to be a normal kid.

So, getting the chance to go through this game, being able to experience growing up in such a beautiful area, with a supportive family and no trauma and friends that care about you. It's just. So nice.

-

Anyways. I'm gonna go now and make a bunch of OCs to play through the demo with and make different choices, because the hyperfixation is truly all-consuming