I'm a few days late, but Sunday (1/11) was Carla's birthday! Carla is the player character of my liminal space otome, Romance The Backrooms. (The art of her here is by @specterofyou !)
In Romance The Backrooms, Carla (you) falls into the titular liminal space land, and meet five entities who are willing to help you get home. Along the way, she falls for one of them. Who will you romance, and will you be able to return to Earth?
You can play the first chapter here: https://norbez.itch.io/romance-the-backrooms . We are currently working on revamping it in Renpy with updated writing and new graphics all around!
The writing for Carla was inspired by otome heroines I admire, mainly Cardia from Code:Realize, Ichika from Collar x Malice, and Kotone from Cafe Enchante. Those MCs have their own personalities and bravery while still some leaving room for self-insert-ness. Carla is the same!
Carla's story has been explored a bit in the spinoff game Carla's Grief Quest, which discusses how she was impacted by the death of her grandmother. Fun fact: this was the first time @specterofyou illustrated Carla, before the revamp was in progress!
I love Carla dearly, like all of the Romance The Backrooms characters, and I hope you like playing as her. Happy belated birthday to her! <3
Saw all of the Miiverse "Yeah" art going around (since Twitter disabled public likes), and decided to do some versions with the Romance The Backrooms characters!
70th day of the 365 Days Of Character Development writing game! Basically how it works is that each day, we use (with permission, of course) a question from my friend's book on character development to get our creative juices flowing! If you like this game, I recommend buying the book to support an independent creator!
Also, I apologize for not posting prompts consistently—it’s been difficult for me to post a prompt every day. I can’t promise daily prompts, but I will try to do at least 1 per week from now on. I hope that’s understandable.
Here's today's question:
I'll be answering for the main characters of my liminal space otome game Romance The Backrooms. I’d love to hear the answer to the prompt for your characters—reply, reblog, and/or make your own post (and give me the link, because I’d love to see it!).
Carla (the main character) bursts into tears and sobs. She isolates herself from others, not answering calls or texts from people concerned about her. She spends most of her time in the “depression” phase of grief.
Kalcal becomes angry and sad. He laughs in response to intense emotions, including sadness, so he’ll laugh a lot and go looking for ways to relieve his stress and let out his energy. Once his energy is drained, he’ll curl up into a ball and cry. Poor guy. . . He spends most of his time in the “anger” & “depression” phases of grief.
Glarence buries his feelings and tries to move forward as normal. Unfortunately, this results in him releasing those emotions when he doesn’t mean to, lashing out towards people he cares about. It’s very rare for him to cry in front of people—not many have seen him do so. He spends the most time in the “anger” phase of grief.
Uri feels numb & sad, and blames himself. Even if he logically knows nothing he could’ve done would’ve changed things, emotionally, he feels at fault and like he should have done more. He spends the most time in the “depression” phase of grief.
Zenobos becomes in denial, then tries to figure out a way to undo what’s happened, find a way to fix it. Once it becomes clear it can’t be fixed, he breaks down. He spends the most time in the “denial” & “bargaining” phases of grief.
Adiel becomes sad, but knows that death is to be expected in the backrooms—it was bound to happen eventually. He spends most of his time in the “acceptance” phase of grief, but that doesn’t mean he’s not mad, sad, or depressed.
I'm making a dating sim that takes place in the backrooms!
The demo comes out next month for the Otome Jam, and I'm so excited to share this passion project of mine with the world. I've been hyperfixated on it since October of last year lol.
You play as this lovely lady right here:
More on Carla
And here's more information on the 5 love interests!
More on Kalcal
More on Glarence
More on Uri
More on Zenobos
More on Adiel
I tag everything related to the game with #romancethebackrooms , and I've made a few posts on Twitter if you want to check that out! Most recently, our talented voice cast was announced--I'm so humbled to be working with such talented people!
Lmk your thoughts on this idea. I'll be uploading more stuff about the game on this blog!
Inktober & OC-tober: October 2nd, 2024 (Romance The Backrooms)
Hey everyone!
So, this year, I have decided to participate in Inktober’s, well, Inktober event, and OC-tober, the latter specifically with @icannotreadcursive / @thepromptfoundry ‘s prompt list. Basically, how it works is that I will do a drawing & a story adhering to the prompts.
For the first half of the month, I will be doing these for the characters of my story Romance The Backrooms, a liminal space otome with 5 main love interests. For the second half of the month, I will be doing them for the characters of my IF Comp game Yancy At The End Of The World!, mainly to promote Yancy!’s Kickstarter, which launches at the beginning of November.
Today’s Prompts: Going out on the town & Discover
Characters: Carla
Other Info: This is Part 2 of what will be a series of stories dealing with Carla trying to come to terms with her grandmother’s death. Please know that this is primarily what the story is about and treat accordingly.
Part 1: Tumblr link, Pillowfort link
_________
The town was a ten-minute walk away from the cottage. Even though Carla knew that from her walk in the other day, it was still somewhat surprising to experience it. One moment, she was isolated and surrounded by woods, and the next, she was back in civilization.
Or at least, if not civilization, a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. Once she reached it, Carla was able to get data on her phone, and she looked up where food could be found nearby. In the end, she settled on a diner called “Earl’s Eatery”.
“Hey there! I haven’t seen you before. Did you rent the cottage?” was how her waitress greeted her.
“Um, yeah,” Carla replied shyly.
The people who rent the cottage, they’re always creative types, looking for their muse in the woods.” the waitress told her, giving her a menu. “You searching for your muse too, hun?”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Carla said, an awkward laugh escaping her mouth. She opened the menu, glancing at its contents.
“Ooo, intriguing!” the waitress said with a grin. “What brings you here, then?”
Not wanting to make the mood awkward by sharing why she was truly at the cottage, Carla simply laughed and said, “It’s a secret, sorry!”
The waitress chuckled. “I like you, hun. You got a good spark in you. Anyway, you want something to drink?”
“Yeah. And I think I know what I want to eat, too” Carla told her.
And so, Carla soon had a large “Ultra Cheeze X-treme” omelet in front of her (she was pretty curious to try it once she saw it on the menu, and had to discover its flavor for herself), along with a side of hash browns and the smallest slices of buttered toast she had ever seen. “Enjoy! Let me know if you need anything,” the waitress said as she placed the plate on the table. Then, she was gone.
Carla dug into her meal. No longer distracted, her mind went back to her quest, the real reason she was here: figuring out her grief.
Would that even be possible within the timeframe she had? Was two weeks enough to process such a terrible loss? Just thinking about trying to take on that pain made Carla’s heart feel heavy, and she sniffled, wiping a tear from her eye.
I wish Grandma was here; she’d know what to say, Carla thought as she dug into her food. But she’s not, and she never will be. . .
But what if she was here? her mind insisted. What would she say?
Carla thought for a minute, chewing her food thoughtfully. She’d say that even though she’s gone, she lived a good life, and gave what she could to the people she cared about, Carla realized. And in a way, the things you give to others helps you live on.
Fuck that. I’d trade that all way just to be with her again, her mind retorted. Even for a minute.
Carla held in her tears and finished her food. She paid the check, left a hefty tip, and left the diner.
I found out that creativepromptsforwriting is doing another prompt week and it’s Valentine’s Day themed and HOW DID I MISS THIS??? Regardless, now I gotta write something for the prompts! C:
As usual, the stories are for the characters in my game Romance The Backrooms, a liminal space otome with 5 main love interests.
There were too many good prompts to choose form, so I ended up writing multiple stories. They will be splt into 2 parts; I’ll link Part 2 when it’s up. Enjoy!
These may or may not be canon.
Today’s Overall Prompt: Accidental Love Confessions
__________
Story 1’s Prompts: Confessing in the middle of a stupid fight; During a very stressful situation, one screams "I care about you, can't you see that I love you?"
Characters: Glarence & Carla (the main character)
Other Info: Inspired by my BPD.
“I push everyone I care about away,” Glarence snapped. “I’m unstable—everyone around me can see that. So why the FUCK don’t you?!”
“Because I care about you, and I’m not letting you just shove me into a corner like some forgotten toy!” Carla shouted, clenching her fists.
Glarence scoffed. “You don’t care about me.”
“Of course I do!” Carla exclaimed. Anger & passion ran through her in equal measure, and she shouted. “Can you see that I love you?!”
Glarence’s eyes widened in surprise. “You do?” he asked, utterly dumbfounded for perhaps the first time in his life.
Carla looked into his eyes and nodde. “I do,” she replied. “I love you, Glarence.”
_____
Story 2’s Prompts: Saying "you're lucky I love you" and realizing too late what they said
Characters: Kalcal & Zenobos
Other Info: I write a lot of Kalcal x Zenobos stories, this is the latest one of the bunch.
Zenobos gave Kalcal a plate of food, looking embarrassed. “I kind of burned the Hound meat,” the green entity said sadly. “I’m sorry if it tastes bad. . .”
“Hey, your food always tastes amazing!” Kalcal replied, taking the food and ruffling Zenobos’ hair playfully.
Zenobos giggles. “And if it does taste bad?” he asks.
Kalcal laughed. “Then consider yourself lucky that I love you, buddy!”
Zenobos blinked, and stared at his friend. “You. . . You love me?” he squeaked.
“Of course I do, buddy!” Kalcal exclaimed. He leaned down and kissed Zenobos on the forehead. “You’re the person I’m closest to in the world. I love you more than anyone.” Zenobos blushed. “Thank you, Kalcal.”
(Didn’t post this yesterday because I was at the ER!)
Happy December, everyone!
So, @creativepromptsforwriting is doing a writing thing called “24 Days of Gift-Giving” where each day of December has a prompt, so I figured it would be fun to write something up for each prompt! Feel free to participate too, if you’d like! It could be a fun writing game!
Like usual, I will be doing these for the characters of my story Romance The Backrooms, a liminal space otome with 5 main love interests.
Today’s Prompt: Fourteen Fun Adventures; Surprisingly getting a few days off without any plans yet, they decide to let fate and a train ride decide on a new place to visit and explore.
Characters: Carla (the main character) & Kalcal
Other Info: takes place post-RtB, after the game’s timeline
__________
Kalcal was an adventurous person, and he couldn’t stay in one place for very long. So after the rain made his & Carla’s camping trip a bust, he suggested they pack up their things and spend the rest of their vacation exploring the area. Carla was hesitant at first, but after thinking it over, she agreed.
So, they went on the train to the next down over. “When we get there, we’ll look at Google Maps and see what we can find!” Kalcal said cheerfully. “It’ll be a blast!” Carla smiled and put her head on Kalcal’s shoulder. With him, every day was a daring adventure, one she never would have gone on without him. And she was grateful for that.
(This is yesterday’s prompt! Posting today’s later tonight!)
Happy December, everyone!
So, @creativepromptsforwriting is doing a writing thing called “24 Days of Gift-Giving” where each day of December has a prompt, so I figured it would be fun to write something up for each prompt! Feel free to participate too, if you’d like! It could be a fun writing game!
Like usual, I will be doing these for the characters of my story Romance The Backrooms, a liminal space otome with 5 main love interests.
Today’s Prompt: Eight Vacations, “An adventure vacation was definitely not his idea of a fun time.”
Characters: Uri & Carla (the main character)
Other Info: Post-RtB, a timeline where Uri has parted ways with Manorial (the entity that lives inside him and can bend reality in exchange for his memories).
__________
Uri wasn’t the type of guy who wanted adventure. It was the kind of thing that kept unfortunately coming to him, because that was what life in the backrooms was like, and he wanted peace & quiet more than anything. So when Carla suggested going on an adventure vacation, Uri was confused more than anything.
“Why would we do that?” he asked her.
“Well, I’ve noticed that you’ve lost a lot of confidence since Manorial left you,” she explained with a sympathetic expression. “I think it would be nice to have a fun getaway, and give you a chance to see how capable you are.”
“Come on, I’m not capable. . .” Uri mumbled.
“Yes you are,” Carla insisted, taking his hand. “Uri, you survived the backrooms—that makes you more capable than most people I know. And it wasn’t just Manorial’s skills that helped you survive—it was yours, too. And more than anything, I want you to see that.”
Uri nodded, taking this in. He looked into Carla’s eyes, and saw so much love & passion in her gaze—he could see how much she cared about him, and he smiled.
“Ok,” he agreed. “I suppose we can give it a try.” Carla grinned. “Great! You won’t regret it."
