You Live And Fern

A development blog for a slice of life romance IF based around you and your friends starting a science video channel! Written by Beth, she/her, 27, UK! This IF is for people who are 18+

[beetlebethwrites]

You and your group of friends are going into the exceptionally competitive landscape of nature filming and photography. Will you find success on a video platform, educating the masses about nature and wildlife? Will you find love? Balance production of your nature channel with your personal life and make your network a success!

This slice-of-life escapist romance IF follows your 24 year old post-university MC as they work through trying to get your science-based video start-up off the ground for good. This is a largely character driven and focused game which I'm hoping people will find funny too! This game is for people who are 18+ and deisgned for those who want something fun, cozy and aren’t quite sure what they’re doing right now. 

I’m hoping that this will be a game that you’ll still be able to get a lot from even if you choose not to go down the romance options, since the real themes are friendship and a found family vibe.

In this game you will be able to;

Play as male, female or non-binary with the option of being cis or trans.

Play as straight, gay, bi/pan, asexual and/or aromantic.

Choose your background, including your interests and specialism.

Romance one of six ROs, including 1 which is gender selectable.

Work hard to make your channel a success, or don’t work at all.

 Demo here! (Updated 31/12/23) //RO information here! // RO skintones here!

[beetlebethwrites]

this still going?

Very slowly, but yes.

As I've said before, I have a hectic job, and that, combined with numerous potential paths, means that chapter updates are becoming increasingly lengthy.

Drop in itch.io's current stance on adult content then... idk how long YLAF is going to take. I need to rewrite the current chapter because of the change in adult content rules.

I adore the characters and think about them every single day but I could easily spend all of my time on tumblr writing snippets and never getting anywhere with YLAF.

[fern-does-stuff]

welp its mothing time:

this is a antler moth, and they are amazing, they kinda resemble a little owl in pattern :3

[beetlebethwrites]

🎁 What would be the perfect gift to buy your OC? What would be the worst gift? Are they themselves any good at gifting things or are they really indescisive? How do they wrap their presents? For the ROs!!

Matt is someone who gives and likes to receive functional gifts where possible. He doesn't want a gift just for the sake of it and won't give one just for the sake of it either. His things are entirely adequately wrapped but they will not be neat.

Eve does quite like to receive gifts but she's someone who would prefer to receive things she's requested, whether that's books or specific clothes or something similar. Books are her default gift for people and they will be very well wrapped. A card along with the gift will always be beautiful, picked very specifically.

Alex is a great gifter and receiver. They pick things up when they see them for people they love and will always gift many small things. Anything that is a thoughtful gift is perfect for them. Wrapping is often haphazard, clearly done at the last minute. They have been known to wrap with tissue paper and put everything in a colourful bag.

Jordan is an indecisive but great gifter. Everything they gift will be extremely thought out and will be the best thing they've been able to find. They prefer to receive experiences rather than items in return and like to have experiences they can share with the gifter, usually because they don't have lots of space to store their own things. Their wrapping skills are entirely average.

Char loves to receive gifts but isn't a great gifter, mostly because he isn't great at remembering to buy things for certain dates. A good gift for them would be some nice coffee, a patch or something else that you like and would like to share with them. They wrap badly, roughly and often on the way to an event.

Bo-yeon is not a gift-giver for no reason and doesn't love receiving gifts for nothing either. A nice quality food/bottle of wine is the safest food to gift xem. People xe cares about will always receive a gift on the relevant occasions and they will be thoughtful but not overly extravagant unless specifically requested. The wrapping is flawless, xe's one of those people who can wrap cylinders and bottles perfectly.

[beetlebethwrites]

👀 and 😍 for everyone?

👀 : Does your OC believe they are attractive? Do they use that to their advantage?

Matt does see himself as quite attractive. He did think he was more so prior to breaking his nose but he's physically fit and fairly handsome so he does know he's objectively quite attractive and he definitely uses that fact when he can.

Eve is mostly indifferent toward the concept of being 'attractive'. She knows people do find her attractive but if it's not for her personality and thoughts then she isn't interested. She knows her appearance could get her advantages but she never consciously uses it.

Alex is happy to say that they do find themself pretty attractive, yeah, but they've worked hard to get to a point where they can look and feel like themself and feel attractive. They love to use it to their advantage where possible.

Jordan does think they're fairly attractive, they like how they look overall. A lot of work goes into looking for nice clothes that fit their budget and a lot of time goes into their hair. They don't ever use it to their advantage.

Char knows that they're not 'typically' attractive, their piercings and body sees to a lot of that. Still, they find themself attractive because he likes the aesthetic that he keeps. He can't really use it to his advantage though, as other people don't really find him attractive that often; he usually uses his appearance to be intimidating.

Bo Yeon doesn't think xe's massively attractive. Xe works to try and keep xirself into a pretty narrow margin of what xe thinks as xir 'most attractive' state. Xe would describe xirself as attractive in personality and prospect rather than physicality.

😍 : What does your OC find irresistible in others?

So I've answered similar questions before so I'm going to link you to here, here and here (nsft). I think I'd basically just be rehashing those answers in this.

[beetlebethwrites]

for more marriage-minded ros, which ones would rather propose and which ones would rather be proposed to? how would they like to propose/what type of proposal would they like to receive?

Eve and Alex don't want to get married.

Matt would want to propose. He'd go down the traditional nice meal and down on one knee kind of thing.

Jordan has no preference over whether they would be the proposer or proposee but they would want it to be something nice and preferably around their family.

Char would be pretty unlikely to propose in anything like a formal way. Maybe a quiet agreement to get married on a lazy morning.

Bo-yeon has no preference over whether xe would be proposing or proposed too. Xe would prefer it to be just the two of you, maybe after a particularly nice meal, on an anniversary or a date that means something to you.

[beetlebethwrites]

How would you rank the ROs in terms of their cooking? Who could make michelin worthy meal and who could burn water?

So.... best to worst cooks;

Bo-yeon > Jordan > Alex > Eve > Char > Matt

Bo-yeon and Jordan both grew up cooking and around cooking so they cook really instinctually. Food in their families was a big ritual and a part of showing how much they were cared for. The only reason Bo-yeon is higher up than Jordan is that xe's had a lot more time living by xirself and so is more used to being creative when cooking.

Alex is pretty competent cook, as largely taught by their grandmother. They're used to making something out of nothing and have collected a small but useful collection of spices and other things to make food taste great. They know a lot of tricks to bulk food and make it taste better on the cheap.

Eve and Char are both completely fine as cooks. They can follow recipes but there's no kind of flair from them past occasional substitutes for ingredients. Eve can cook 4 things from saved recipes and that's it. Char occasionally stretches into baking which he's also decent at as long as he has the time to properly follow the instructions.

Matt isn't a bad cook. He can't burn water but his food is largely limited to things you can either boil or put into the oven. As a result, his food is pretty bland and he tends to get takeaway for people who are coming over rather than cooking.

[beetlebethwrites]

i’m genuinely so excited for future chapters when we get to see more of bo-yeon and char ❤️❤️ char’s already got me so bad and i cant wait to get to know bo-yeon better

You'll have to wait a little longer for Bo-yeon, xe's not around in the MCs life all the time like the rest of the cast are. So I hope xe's worth the wait.

Char can be very present in the next chapter though, if you choose their route.

[beetlebethwrites]

what are some things that the ros would do to cheer themselves up if they were having a bad day?

I guess this is kind of an RO react type thing, which I obviously haven't done in so long. That being said, I always love to answer questions about the ROs!

Matt tries to get himself out into nature. At university, he would have thrown himself into sports training but now it's more like going for a hike or a jog if he's really feeling it.

Alex will settle themselves down with a movie night. The ideal for them is to watch a film with just one other person.

In this case, Eve isolates herself. She tends to recuperate her energy by making herself a nice cup of tea and settling down with a book she's wanted to read, creating some time for escapism.

Jordan relies on their family when things are tough. There's no one thing they prefer to do, just being around their sisters or family doing anything helps them clear their mind.

Char practises the drums. It helps them to give themself something different to concentrate on but also gets out frustrated/upset emotions in a safe way. The other option is a video call with his mother.

Bo-yeon has been known to throw xirself into xir work when things get tough. If work is what's making times tougher it's a little more complicated for xir. Xe'll get a little treat, whether that's a rare takeaway meal or clocking off early to give xirself space to breathe.

[beetlebethwrites]

Hello all,

Just an update based on the poll from last week. People said that they preferred for updates to be whole chapters at a time. As a result, I'll try to continue with that where possible.

For very long chapters e.g. the one I'm working on right now, I may decide to release parts of it? Just to give you all some new content after so long? We'll see!

Hope you're all well and are managing to get some down time over the holidays 💛

[beetlebethwrites]

hey, glad to see you're back!! as a bio student who often does scicomm at uni i always get a cozy, almost familiar feeling from this if <3

Thank you so much! As a historic biochem student who loved scicomm I also find it so so cosy. Even though I don't do it anymore I love writing it

[beetlebethwrites]

I think about this IF, I very much like your writing and characters, they are a place of peace for me :)

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoy it as much as I do writing it 💛

[beetlebethwrites]

Heya, I stumbled over your story and need to say it's an amazing story, the characters are sweet and wonderful and the premise to be in nature with friends, to make pictures and to get more subscribers is a great idea. I'm looking forward to read more 😀 ❤️

Thank you! I'm glad that you've enjoyed reading it as much as I've enjoyed creating the world. It's very special to me 💛

[beetlebethwrites]

So... fun decisions have been made by sugar cube updating. I think I'm going to finally get rid of the gender-selectable optioning in YLAF and make Jordan non-binary, using they/them pronouns. This is something I was thinking about last year anyway, Jordan in my head has always been non-binary and I kept them as gender selectable just so that everyone had an extra RO option. It wasn't something that felt the most natural decision for the writing otherwise.

The thing I've kind of come to terms with is that YLAF is first and foremost a queer slice-of-life/romance game. Keeping my characters true to 'my vision' or whatever, means making Jordan non-binary.

So from the next update (whenever that is) Jordan will use they/them pronouns exclusively.

[beetlebethwrites]

just curious, it feels like the story is starting at a “low point” between matt and alex’s relationship, obviously. how do they act historically when they’re actually getting along? have they always just kind of tolerated each other?

So Matt and Alex have a tricky dynamic. Basically, they're friends from university and at university when they had similar priorities they got on quite well generally.

They have very different personalities and without the glue of the MC and Eve, they'd likely not still be friends.

However, yes, at the start of YLAF they're at a particular low point.

[beetlebethwrites]

I've been thinking about the way I update and I have a pretty simple question for you all. It's obviously been a hell of a long time since I've updated and part of that is that Chapter 5 is the biggest so far, with lots of branching and variation to cover all the various 1 on 1 interactions with the gang.

So my Q for you guys is whether you'd prefer an update when the whole chapter is done or whether you'd prefer updates when chunks of the story are done, leaving some branches unavailable while they're worked on. I know @barbwritesstuff does something similar although even more frequent updates wouldn't be anywhere near as frequent as updates by Barb.

How would you prefer I update?

Update when only whole chapters are done

Update in chunks, even if that means my preferred route isn't updated every time

I don't have a preference, do what works for you

Voting ended onDec 14, 2024

Thanks gang! I'm hoping that a possible change might make me better at updating as there isn't such a massive task ahead of me constantly? But I really would like to know your preference on this, I know chapter by chapter is the usual way people do things but I'm open to trying and seeing if something new helps my productivity.

[beetlebethwrites]

Hi!! It's good to see you back!

Is it okay to send an ask? I've been sitting on this one for a while now 😅

It's in regards to Matt's identity, but the end might be a bit nsft!

Since we could see that he has trouble coming to terms with his sexuality, I've wondered if he has ever been with a guy (romantically, one night stand, etc). I think it's been answered somewhere but I couldn't find it, sorry! Also, I remember you saying he wasn't out to his family, so if he ever started dating a non-female MC would he take them to meet his parents or would he keep them a "secret"? (Nsft ahead!) Following that line, most guys who struggle with their sexuality refuse to bottom, mostly because they feel that will "100% make them gay", so I have the feeling he has never bottomed (at least for a guy, I see you Miss strap-on Eve🤭), is that right? And since pursuing his romance with a non-female MC is already going to be a journey, would he be okay with dating a stone-top MC?

Sorry for the nsft as soon as you come back😓 it's just that Matt seems to struggle with that part of his sexuality the most out of the characters, and it's interesting to see how he thinks, his beliefs, preconceived ideas, etc etc, cause at the end of the day most queer people have struggled to come to terms with their identity, and I can't wait to read more about his journey of accepting himself :) thank you for writing beautifully multifaceted characters <3

Hello, glad to be back and more than happy to receive asks!

I'm going to dodge some of your questions a bit, just because they'll be answered in the game context. I don't want to ruin any of Matt's in-game arc.

As for Matt's history, I'm much more happy to answer questions on all of that. Matt has dated a couple of guys in the past but it was all completely on the down low on both ends. Neither of them were ready to come out more widely or be in a visibly queer relationship. His parents met them but it was entirely 'as friends'. Matt has in theory come out to his family but it was a sort of one-time conversation and then has never been mentioned again. They're hoping he gets married to a nice girl and settles down etc.

So the case is that yes, Matt has been with guys before and he has bottomed before (maybe you're correct that wasn't with guys, I'll leave that up to you to headcanon). He would definitely be with a stone top MC but again that might have to be a bit headcanon-y as writing in that level of variation... hoo, might be a bit much for me.

Matt is definitely the character who struggles with his own queerness the most but it's a very internalised thing for him and how that'll play out in the story... guess you'll have to see. The sort of dramatic irony with Matt is that if he listened to Alex he could learn a lot from them, he just chooses not to 😅