⬩ I'm a fan artist drawn to soft horror, cinematic stillness, visual novels and character analysis.
⬩ I create slowly, allowing time for my studies and ideas to bloom at their own pace (not open to commissions or requests at this time).
⬩ This blog is still a work in progress, as I am still figuring out how to organize it, but thank you for being here.
⚠ Minors: this is an adult-owned space, so please don't interact.
✑ Please don't repost, edit, or feed my artwork to AI training models. I share my work here for personal expression and genuine connection. My full accounts and policies are listed here.
(Disclaimer: this post references a new UI element from the April 2026 backer/patron update, a plot point from Doki Doki Literature Club, and a mechanic from Life is Strange.)
There's a recurring thought about Leander I've been wanting to share for a while now, but not to be taken seriously, so don't read too deep into it (!) Fans have already discussed his character design, general trivia, symbolism and "red flags" over the years of production by now, but the devs themselves seem to have been building a little something around him, both through their socials and the writing itself. A kind of running meta-joke, beyond his manipulative tendencies and obsession with the MC… So what if Leander, in his own quiet way, knows a little more than he should?
˙✦ The character card (Dec 2022):
When his card first dropped, players spent a lot of time speculating about what his redacted flaw might say. Among the five LIs, Leander is the only one whose entry is hidden. Every other character has theirs visible: Ais "lets his emotions rule him", Mhin "resists change at any cost", and so on. But Leander's is deliberately censored, with this teasing caption from the studio:
"We could've sworn something was written here, but it looks like it was scratched out… What do you think it said? 🔍"
⬩➤ About the framing: the devs wrote it as if the redaction happened to the card rather than by them, like the scratching-out is something that occurred in-world. Maybe it's a simple story spoiler the team wants to protect. Maybe it's just the studio being silly, as we know by now. Or it could be a subtle hint that whatever's wrong with Leander is something he'd rather we didn't see.
˙✦ The matchmaker quiz (Feb 2023):
About two months later, the devs released a quiz to find out which LI would be your match. Most results were playful in tone, describing the kind of player who'd end up with each character: Kuras was for people who "think very deep thoughts and not talk to anybody", Vere was for those who "live dangerously or just constantly make very bad decisions", and Ais's and Mhin's followed in the same register.
But Leander's? It broke from that pattern entirely, pleading with the player not to even think about going back for a different answer:
"You're attractive, funny, nice and perfect… JUST like Leander, which is why the two of you are dating now. No take-backs! Don't you dare take this quiz again to try and get Ais instead. Don't you dare click retake. NO!!"
Which doesn't really read as him being possessive, but more like the quiz itself (or maybe Leander through it?) reaching for us, almost like a Stanley Parable-style narrator who doesn't want you to wander off-script... A rather pointed writing choice, for a quiz result.
˙✦ The first demo prologue and 2.0 version (2023 to 2025):
For longtime players, this was the very early prototype, back when the "Hound" origin still existed (later reworked into the "Exile") and the gang we now know as the "Adderstone" was still called "Bloodhounds". A lot has been refined since, but one thing that didn't really change is how Leander handles your impressions of the other LIs. Whenever you asked him about any of them, his response would shift depending on what you said first. Whichever way you leaned, he pushed the other direction just enough that your read couldn't quite settle.
Fans have been pointing out this exact behavior since 2022, so none of it is a new observation. But it's worth noticing that this pattern has been visible since the earliest prototype, and the writers kept it intact through every build, with last year's version only making it smoother.
And here's where the game structure makes it interesting: by the time you have this conversation with him, you've already picked his route anyway. There's no narrative reason left to keep you uncertain about the other LIs. That choice is locked. Whatever undoes it lives at the player's level, not the character's.
˙✦ The Tumblr post (Nov 25, 2024):
During the original demo's run, the studio also posted this little joke that caught the eye of some fans. A short video clip of Leander standing in the MC's room, arms crossed, staring directly at the camera, with the sky outside looking a little uneasy in a way that's hard to articulate but feels intentional. The caption was simply "Just Leander 🙂" and the studio tagged it with #:) among the usual game tags.
For anyone who's watched a playthrough or played Doki Doki Literature Club, the reference is pretty clear. It's a direct visual nod to Monika, a character whose whole thing is fourth-wall-breaking awareness inside what looks like a normal dating sim. The cryptic smileys feel like the studio winking at fans who'd recognize the staging.
And of all five LIs, that meta joke landed specifically on Leander. Again.
˙✦ The rewind UI (April 2026):
The studio recently introduced a new rewind UI in their April 2026 update for backers and Patreon supporters. I won't include the visual here since it doesn't feel like my place to be the one to put that out there yet. But anyone who's also played or watched Life is Strange will remember the concept immediately, since the devs themselves brought up LiS as an example. The two UIs are designed differently (a small swirl in LiS, more of a gauge bar in Touchstarved), but they share the same core idea: keeping the rewind option visually present as a continuous on-screen element, rather than the small text buttons or mouse-wheel inputs most VNs use alongside their Skip, Auto, and Backlog options.
That's a design choice worth pausing on, since LiS is a franchise built specifically around choice and consequence, where rewinding lets you test small decisions before the big ones become permanent. And in a game where Leander has been coded with fourth-wall-flavored details since 2022, the visual borrowing stands out a little more than it might in another title.
Now to be fair, Red Spring Studio has been clear that they're adding this "as a UX improvement, to make the existing rewind feature less buggy and harder to click by accident", especially with the Switch release down the line. So I'm not claiming they meant it as a thematic nod or foreshadowing something. But for someone who spent hours replaying chapters of Life is Strange years ago, the fact that the devs reached for that specific reference was the small nudge that finally made me want to share this theory.
˙✦ Anyway:
Whether the devs leaned into it intentionally or not, I keep finding myself coming back to this little meta association. It's a different flavor from the usual running jokes (like Mhin being the cast's eternal smol bean, bless them), but it lingers all the same. And it was enough to make me start wondering what his story might really be about, since Leander is the only love interest whose motives for offering the MC a cure have been kept hidden for years now, while the studio continues presenting him as the "heroic mage" with a sinister duality underneath.
Quick aside (and this one stays inside the game itself rather than around it): that specific line in the prologue where Leander tells the MC he knows the others "probably more than some of them realize" also stands out, as well as the ouroboros showing up twice in his design, once as an infinity symbol on his official keychain charm and once stabbed through by a dagger on his earring. Maybe like Monika, he's aware he's inside a romance game, one that loops the way the snake keeps eating its tail. But that's a thread for another potential post.
Again, none of this is a serious theory, and I'm not trying to crack a code. It's more that the flags keep stacking up in a way that's fun to put in chronological order across the game's development. The writers can take Leander in whatever direction makes sense for their story, and most of these patterns probably have simpler in-world explanations.
But if we ever do get a "Just Leander..." moment of our own at some point, well, I'm just saying, the breadcrumbs were there... (^^)⊹ ࣪ ˖
Mhin doesn't think they can keep anything alive under their roof for long, but they're more attached to the cats than they'll admit. They leave scraps in quiet alleys and guide the cats away from wandering Soulless.
More Mhin lore details ˙✦ I would love to know before the game is released where they actually live in Eridia though. Every other main love interest has an established space (Kuras at his clinic, Vere at a hidden outpost under Basilea's watch, Ais watching over the Seaspring in the Wastes, Leander ruling Lowtown and whatever lies under), but Mhin remains a bit of a mystery on that front. Maybe it's intentional given how guarded they are, but I can't stop wondering where they retreat to when they need to rest or deal with their own curse...
Happy Birthday Mhin!
Today you’ll find them fishing peacefully along the river, accompanied by their favourite companions - the stray kitties! 🐾 Sounds like a purrrr-fect celebration 🐈⬛🥳
Happy birthday to my sweet hunter ♡ Wishing them a quiet day away from everything with some sweet treats… They deserve every moment of peace they can find 🕊️.✦ ݁˖
(Since I was away from my desk setup, I wasn't able to finish another study piece in time to celebrate them properly today but a little animated test is coming soon.)
(No spoilers, just general observations about the April 3rd, 2026 Chapter 1 Kickstarter patch)
➜ Edit (04/26/2026): A small clarification since this post seems to be circulating a bit outside Tumblr! These notes are about the early April 2026 patched build of Chapter 1 Preview, which appears to be the same one now available on RSS's Patreon for $2.99. I wanted to mention this because the devs have been describing the patch as "mostly text/typo changes" in their March 2026 Kickstarter update and as "the same prototype first released on Kickstarter in December 2025" in their FAQ, but the patched version is actually meaningfully different from the December build that backers originally tested. So if you've only played the patched version and felt the writing still didn't land for you, please know the December prototype was a different experience for at least two characters!
⚠ Quick note for anyone who played the Touchstarved Chapter 1 Preview back in December 2025:
Vere's, Kuras's, and Leander's routes remain largely the same as the original build, so just a heads up if you were hoping for broader changes.
That said, Ais's route received some noticeable edits: some time has passed since their first meeting, the MC's behavior has been rewritten to feel more self-aware, the dialogue and banter flow more naturally, and their internal voice feels grounded in their actual intentions rather than merely reactive to the plot.
Additionally, if you're playing as the Unnamed origin, there appears to be a little extra background lore woven into certain routes, though I haven't tested the Exile or Alchemist origins yet to confirm.
And Mhin's route went through the most significant changes of all! As someone who had thoughts about the pacing and some contradictory elements in the original build, replaying it was a pleasant surprise. A lot of scenes and exchanges have been genuinely reworked and flow much more naturally now. The timeline feels more believable, and moments that felt rushed before have been given real room to breathe, allowing Mhin more agency. I was smiling the whole time at just how much more precious they are now.
The team has clearly been listening to our feedback despite all the technical challenges behind the scenes (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶) ♡
The reblog chain is one of the things that makes Tumblr unlike anywhere else. All the notes on reblogs are attributed to the original post, no matter which branch people actually liked or reblogged. We want to keep encouraging conversations, and give contributors the recognition they deserve.
Soon, you'll be able to like, reblog, or reply to any part of a reblog chain, and that note will go to that reblog's author. Each reblog will have its own counts, instead of one aggregated number from every version of the post. And yes, you’ll be able to like multiple posts in one chain.
If a reblog doesn't add anything, the love flows up to the last person in the chain who did. Your post doesn't lose notes just because people spread it quietly.
Past notes will stay on the original post — we're only changing what happens from here on out. Retroactively re-attributing all of them would be... a lot.
This is just the beginning. More changes are coming as we keep building this out – stay tuned!
We rolled out a significant change to how notes work on reblogs, and the reaction has been strong. We're not going to pretend otherwise.
First things first: We're reversing the change. Your feedback in comments, emails, and especially reblogs, made clear that the rollout created problems we need to address before moving forward. We also should have communicated this differently from the start, and we didn't.
We still believe there's a better version of how reblogs can work. One that gives every voice in a chain the credit it deserves. But we want to get there with you.
In the coming days we'll share more on how we plan to do that, including ways to work directly with some of you on this and future changes before they ship.
Um... But the credit was always there though? Your username sits right at the top of your addition, visible to anyone reading the chain so I don't understand why bother doing this unless there's a monetization angle somewhere down the line?
And your staff is still trying to get behind a "credit system" sounds less like a feature and more like a quiet handover since you were ready to roll and give away source/exposure of someone's content to whoever reblogged it with a simple caption. Not to mention a user being completely unaware that their photo could have been spread with harmful additions underneath it because the platform just made that invisible to them.
… Is it too much to ask to let creators exist without constantly finding new ways to complicate things seriously?
