#katy-133

[fucking-gabriel]

Sending you a prompt: Gabriel sitting behind a desk, receiving a receipt that says Aziraphale used a miracle to "put forty policemen to sleep," with Gabriel reacting to that.

The Policemen-Mystery

[naominorbez]

I made a Youtube playlist for @katy-133 's romance VN The Heart of Tales! :D Play it here: https://katy133.itch.io/the-heart-of-tales

Playing the game made me think of some older jazz romance songs because I'm a nerd for jazz.  So I thought I'd assemble a playlist with at least one song for each moment in the game. Thanks for listening! :)

1. What A Difference A Day Makes: A song that covers the whole game, and how over the span of a few days, the protagonist finds what they need in romance.

2-3: Sunday Afternoon & Lonely Town: The protagonist has nice relaxing retirement life.  But it is a lonely life, and the protagonist needs to learn something.  Enter...

4. Mack The Knife: Mithamoore the Earthburner!  An insidious dragon who's been turned human!  And someone else knocks at the door...

5. Stella by Starlight: Cole, a knight who wishes to learn from the protagonist.  This song is meant to represent how much he idolizes the protagonist because of how they awesomely saved the world once upon a time.

6. Hit The Road Jack: The protagonist wants these two to leave her house so she can get back to her life!  But her talking sword convinces her to kick them out in a more roundabout/genius way.

7. We Three (My Echo, My Shadow, And Me): So the protagonist keeps Cole (the "echo") and Mithamoore (the "shadow") around.

8. The Good Life: She sends the two on a fake quest!  But it turns about things aren't as good as they seem out there--danger may be brewing. (I'll be perfectly honest: I wanted to put this song somewhere because I love it so much.  But I also can't find a perfectly-good song for this moment either--and the lyrics in The Good Life work pretty well in places, at least to me!  If you have a better song for this moment, please let me know!  Thanks!)

9. Ain't Got No, I Got Life: Mithamoore has a hard Real Talk moment with the protagonist, and the protagonist has a hard Real Talk moment with Cole.

10. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood: The protagonist hopes that their words got through to Cole (and Mithamoore to an extent).  Plus, some feelings may be stirring within her heart...

11-13. I Could Have Danced All Night & Cheek to Cheek & Lullaby of Birdland: The protagonist dances with the one they love.  I associate these songs to Cole’s, Mithamoore’s, and Sareth’s dance, in that order.

14. Almost Like Being in Love: The protagonist reflects on recent events, and recognizes their romantic feelings.

15. I Could Write A Book: Mithamoore's declaration of love to the protagonist.

16. Teach Me Tonight: Cole's romance with the protagonist.

17. All The Things You Are: Sareth’s declaration of love to the protagonist.

Love is in the air!  But so is villainy...

18. Feeling Good: As Anemza returns, I can imagine him singing this song! >:) Yes I know that’s not the context.  The context of the song is actually quite interesting actua--OK FOCUS, BACK ON TOPIC.

19. Everything Must Change: The protagonist realizes what it truly means to put her faith in another person, and that she must do it.

20. Where Flamingos Fly:  The Sareth path with Anemza.  It's a powerful scene.  Also applies to Mithamoore’s path.

21. It's All Over But The Crying: Mainly for Mithamoore's ending, where the protagonist must kill him to snap him out of the spell Anemza's put him under.  This song could be taken straight, or Anemza could be singing it sarcastically to the protagonist.  Maybe 1st verse straight, 2nd verse Anemza sarcasm.

The next few songs apply to the ending choices!

22-23. I'll Be Seeing You & Speak Low: The protagonist chooses to let the one they love go.

24. Tea For Two: In the Sareth path, the protagonist chooses to return to retirement with him.

25. Fly Me To The Moon: For when the protagonist chooses to fly away with Mithamoore.

26. New York, New York: A song for choosing to return to adventuring!  With Cole/Sareth.

Bonus: The Lady Is A Tramp: When the game talks about the bards still singing about the protagonist, I'll imagine this song. ;)

Thanks for listening.  This was really fun; I discovered quite a few new songs doing this.  Hope you enjoyed it!  Let me know if you have any suggestions!

[norbezdraws]

 More fanart of The Heart of Tales by @katy-133​  (play it here!  You won’t regret it!).  I really like this game–I even put together a jazz playlist for it.

The Mithamoore and Sareth romances are probably my favorites.  Last time I drew Sareth; this time I drew Mithamoore!

Branching off the ending where the Hero (Perri Jone in my playthrough) goes with Mithamoore to try and find the person who turned him human. I headcanon that Perri Jone left Sareth in Cole’s care while she and Mithamoore went on their romantic quest.

I did a few sketches this time, of Mithamoore and the hero chilling, then them being romantic.  The bottom one is when Mithamoore turns human, crying and hugging the hero--you decide whether this scene is a dream or not. ;)

Other headcanons:

--The world is confused.  So confused.  The Hero basically peaces out for two years, then saves the world again out of nowhere, and NOW is travelling everywhere with a “friendly dragon”?!  What is this.  The bards can’t make sense of this craziness.

--Once in a while, they reach a town that was damaged by the Earthburner.  Mithamoore has vowed to make up for his mistakes, so they stay a while and do what they can to help the community.   Mithamoore is a helpful dragon!  He can hunt for animals, make fires, make wind with his wings, among other things.

--Not that many communities will have them.  Most places flat-out refuse the Hero entry--even if they are THE HERO, they still have a huge dragon that is also Mithammore the Earthburner, so.  Nothing personal.  It takes quite a while for people to accept this weirdness and let the Hero in--most places need her to keep the GIANT DRAGON outside, though.  The Hero usually goes inside to do her business, but then sleeps outside with her love.  They spend many nights under the stars, and Mithamoore points out the constellations, the ancient dragons watching from above.

--There’s also a lot of people who think that the Hero defeated Mithamoore and basically forced him to serve her, or owns him now.  It takes a while for that misunderstanding to die--and even after it’s mostly gone, there are still whispers of it.  Some people say that the Hero is in love with the dragon--but that would be absurd!  That’s totally not what’s happening here. ;)

--It gets to the point where the king summons the Hero to his castle to find out what the heck this is.  Needless to say, she tells him.  He’s pretty flabbergasted, and keeps their conversation to himself.

--Things are hard in the beginning.  Not only in terms of acceptance and limited living spaces and dragon killers (more on that later), but also with the Hero and Mithamoore’s relationship. Mithamoore still struggles with trusting, trying to force his cynical beliefs out of his heart and believe in the one he loves.  At night, he has dreams of waking up alone, abandoned--or, worse, with the Hero’s sword in his belly.  At first he tries to hide his fears, so he is not seen as weak.  But after a tense night, after lashing out, he apologizes shares them with the Hero.  He waits anxiously for her response, terrified that his fears will come true, that his anger and fear will cause her to leave him.  But she smiles, and puts a gentle hand on his nose.  “I’m glad you told me,” she says.  “You should know that no matter what happens, I’ll still love you.  We can work together on this, ok?” In that moment, he knows--again--that he chose the right person.  After this, he vows to be more open with his partner, for both their sakes.

--He also has trouble being humble, coming to terms with his new reputation--not as a being feared, not even as one respected by humans (because of his association with the Hero and the ownership misunderstanding).  In his time with the hero, he fosters a new kind of strengh: that of compassion and kindness, a strength discovered when he met the Hero, which he grows as their journey goes on.  He redefines himself, comes to understand and expel the darkness in his heart, respecting humankind along with the words of his ancestors.

--So many people want Mithamoore dead, now that he’s vulnerable and out of the safety of his lair.  Think Inigo Montoya types, except replace “father” with “town/farmland/other family member who died in Mithamoore’s wake (who may or may not be a father)”.  The Hero and Mithamoore pay restitution in the cases they can--Mithamoore’s layer is full of gold, after all, and he has grown to be willing to give it to those in need.  But some things cannot be restored--the lives Mithamoore took as a killer will never return to those who grieve.  The dragon would give his own life if he could, but to do so would seperate him from his love forever.  So he lets the person make a request of him--and no matter how obsurd (within some reason, of course), he will do it.

--Growing is not easy.  There are some nights Mithamoore cries himself to sleep--”I am a hidious beast, a terrible being who does not deserve life--I’ve done such awful things in my lifetime; how can she love such a horrible thing as me?”  And yet she does, the Hero reassures him, and she always will.  Which only makes him cry more.

--When/If, then finally find the sorceress who cursed Mithamoore, it is after a long, multi-year search, following rumor after rumor, person after person, until they locate her tiny shack on the edge of the Fifth Kingdom’s woods.  She recognizes Mithamoore immediately, and smiles as she listens to his and the Hero’s story.  “You are not the same dragon I cursed all those years ago,” the woman says.  “Very well.  I will give you your human form.”  When Mithamoore once again has hands and feet--he wears the clothes the Hero bought him the week they met--at once he runs to his love and wraps his new arms around her, feeling her warmth.  The Hero smiles and hugs him back, patting him gently on the back.  “Good to see you again.”

ALSO

if you have not read the book How To Raise and Keep A Dragon,

I PITY YOU.

That book is awesome!  It’s basically framed like a how-to guide for keeping a pet, but it’s dragons!  It’s adorable!  And also very informative in case we ever discover dragons exist. ;)

Mithamoore would hate it.  But you, the non-fictional human being, should read it!

Anyway, thanks for reading this post!  Hope you enjoyed!

https://katy133.itch.io/the-heart-of-tales

[norbezdraws]

Sareth: What do you think?  Great introduction, right?

Hero: Don’t ruin the moment, silly.

Sareth: What do you mean?  I’m making the moment even better than it already is!

Hero: (sighs and rolls eyes with a smile)

OK SO

My friend @katy-133 recently released their game The Heart of Tales (play it here!  You won’t regret it!).  I really like it--I even put together a jazz playlist for it.

The Mithamoore and Sareth romances are probably my favorites (I want to draw Mithamoore sometime--maybe later...).  Sareth is a talking sword who’s been at the hero’s side for years; in his romance path, he talked about wanting a human body.

So I thought, what if he was able to get one someday?  Branching off the ending where the Hero (Perri Jone in my playthrough) and Sareth decide to adventure again, maybe they find someone who can turn Sareth human?  Perhaps the person who changed Mithamoore.  Anyway, this is my interpretation of human Sareth! c:

Both love interests in The Heart of Tales are short-haired and clean-shaven, so I decided to make Sareth long-haired and scruffy.  I can imagine he won’t care much for shaving that beard. X) He’d also LOVE the hair--maybe keep it in a braid one day, let it hang loose another.

Other human Sareth headcanons:

--Dude loves being human.  First time the Hero holds his hand he probably screams.  “I’M HOLDING HANDS WITH MY GF!” “Sareth we’re in the public square.” “THEN THE PUBLIC SHOULD OBSERVE THIS BEAUTIFUL MOMENT! (sniff)”

--He can probably shift back and forth between human and sword form though?  Maybe?

--Also the Sareth and the Hero’s first kiss.  Oh man.  “. . . In all my years as a claymore . . . I’ve never tasted anything quite like what we just did.”

--The Hero teaching him human things. X) And I can imagine him happily charging into human things (running, climbing, fighting) with his ego and failing spectacularly as the Hero watches wth a soft smirk.

-- He’s like, “The first thing I eat needs to be cheese on toast!” “. . .Why?” “For memories!” Loves food more than he thought he would. “Maybe not as good as goblin blood though.” (The hero had a heck of a time explaining that remark to suspicious villagers who think that Sareth might be a vampire!)

--Gets MAD if you disrespect the Hero who saved the world twice!  Not that can actually hurt a fly in this human, non-sword body.  Hero watches as he punches pathetically and then pushes him aside and says, “I can handle this.”

--I can imagine him hearing the bards on the square and wanting to sing like them.  So he learns to play and sing in their ways.  Some of his tales are clearly ego-driven, pompous tales of his greatness; others are silly stories not even children would believe; then there are the songs of the past, of his life being passed from person to person, full of tragedies and joys and mundanity; and then (of course) there are the grand, beautiful love songs for his beloved Hero.

--Over time, his ego starts to leave him, like a skin being shed.  He still holds great pride in himself, of course!  But love begins to make him more generous as well, and he starts showing a more humble side of himself, a gentler one.

--The Hero and Sareth are relaxing after a quest.  Sareth is loosely playing a few notes, singing a love song.  When he finishes, the Hero stands up.  “Sareth, we have another quest.” “Oh?” (Hero pulls him up, holds both of his hands) “Sareth the Claymore, love of my life, will you give me the adventure of marriage with you?” (Sareth gasps--a happy grin spreads on his face, and tears run down his cheeks) “It would be an absolute honor, Perri Jone the Hero.”

I’M GONNA MAKE ANOTHER FANGAME AT THIS RATE.  Goodness. X)

Hope you like this!

https://katy133.itch.io/the-heart-of-tales

[norbezdraws]

“When it comes to stepping out into the Universe, you’re in or you’re out.”

A quick-ish Morwenna from @katy-133‘s Three Guys That Paint.  I had to satisfy my need to draw fanart after replaying 3GTP yesterday.

I’m not 100% happy with some things in this, but I’m happy I drew it.  Morwenna is awesome.

[naominorbez]

[redacted] Life: End State by Naomi Norbez

It was never just a horror game.

Games have the power to change a person's life.  Unfortunately for Adrian and Hanna, it was for the worse.

__________

It’s here!  My first SuNoFes game (it concludes an epilogue I wrote--part 1 of the epilogue is here)and my fanwork of @katy-133's [redacted] Life.  

PLAY THE ORIGINAL HERE!  IT'S GREAT; YOU WON'T REGRET IT!  You also won't understand this story unless you've played [redacted] Life, so you NEED to play it.  It's ~30 minutes, so give it a shot and come back afterward!

Also shoutout to @fakemagicjaye & @yuukipudding for their awesome work on the original [redacted] Life; check them out!

Enjoy!  Thank you for playing! :)

[naominorbez]

[redacted] Life: End State Postmortem

 [redacted] Life: End State is a game I made for the 2017 Summer Novel Festival, and a fangame of @katy-133 ‘s [redacted] Life.

This is gonna contain SPOILERS for both End State and the original [redacted] Life.  Go play them first before reading.

Also, End State explores trauma and recovery, which will be dicussed in detail below.

And awwway we go~!

(Postmortem is pretty fitting considering what happens at the end of the game.  Anyway.)

First off, I didn’t set out making ghosts.exe at all.  I originally planned just to end the epilogue I wrote; I’d been pondering whether to write or draw it for a while, and was more inclined to writing it (especially after the injury in my hands this summer).  And since we’re in the season of SuNoFes, I thought I might as well put it all in Twine, like I did with Three Guys That Paint: Homestretch.

As I was replaying the original [redacted] Life again a few weeks ago (because I was stuck on a scene with Adrian and Hanna), I was re-introduced to Clara and Simon as characters, and the idea faucet in my mind went full blast.  I’d wanted to explore Hanna and Adrian’s trauma and recovery process a bit in my epilogue, but replaying the game made me realize that there was more to explore than just the two main characters.  Why was Clara so angry?  And who was Simon; why was he important?  He’s the only scientist in the game mentioned by name, after all.

The Clara fic came first, and the Simon one naturally followed.  I also wanted to write a third ghost for Tirle, but it did NOT want to get written, which was fine because this piece isn’t about them.  But also a shame because I really like Tirle, and would like to explore them more in the future, if the right idea comes along.

Originally I wavered on whether to put a third ghost to tie everything together (this one was the toughest one to write and probably took the longest) but I knew it would complete the story so I decided to do it.  You also might have noticed the ghosts were named after the spirits from A Christmas Carol: Past, Present, and Yet To Come.

In the last ghost, I wanted to explore trauma from the position of the victim and one who took part in hurting them, and explain that bad things do not make a person impossibly evil, BUT the bad things they did shouldn’t be ignored b/c they still hurt someone, AND there is alway hope for change.  Recovery is a process and requires work, and change is super tough, but it’s worth pursuing.

I’ve been exploring trauma in my fiction a lot recently, especially in my long-term novel (if you’re a friend, feel free to ask me about it sometime).  I also like multi-faceted villains and was inspired by this post here (great post--read it).  I liked the idea that Adrian and Clara’s trauma stems from similar roots, and that they could learn from each other.  I didn’t want Adrian to ignore the fact that he was almost KILLED by Clara, but I wanted him to see her actions as a cry for help, and CHOOSE to try and help nonetheless.  Which is a tough choice to make--not everyone can/should make that choice, but my Adrian did.

I can only hope all of this came through in the final fic.

I also pondered whether or not to explore Adrian and Hanna’s lives in detail (state their ages, where they live, etc), but I eventually decided that writing about their trauma and recovery was more important than whether or not they’re in college or whatever, so I kept it vague, with a few details here and there (mostly inferred from the original).  My headcannon is that Adrian has a college degree/minor in medieval art history, and that he and Hanna watch/riff anime from time to time.  Renissance Fairs/Festivals (which are a thing in the U.S) probably make him nerd out big time, kinda like me and birds, except he's likely very knowledgeable on medieval things. He either loves or hates the video game Catherine.  They won’t watch Madoka Magica again.

The one big story thing I added was the class-action lawsuit aginst [redacted] Life.  How did it happen?  In my mind, [redacted] Life decided to beta test again sometime later when they thought their technology was ready, but the conscious play system kept players asleep.  Some of those players sued, and Adrian and Hanna, as former beta testers, were contacted and asked if they wanted to be a part of it.  They both deliberated it for a while, and eventually signed on.

Also, when I started writing this, I remember thinking, “Hanna and Adrian’s gonna be totally platonic.  We need more strong platonic friendships between male and female characters.” As I wrote the final ghost, I said to myself, “. . . Actually, I can totally see this romance happening.” Whether it’s platonic or romantic is up to you; I can see it both ways, and I can also see it going wrong or blooming into a healthy friendship.

Btw, this was supposed to be my first real venture into Twine 2!  But the code for ghosts.exe wouldn’t work in Twine 2 the way I wanted, so I made the first part in Twine 2, and ghosts.exe in Twine 1.  It worked out great in the end.  I wanted to draw some art for these games, but I decided not to because of my hands.  Perhaps another time.

I listened to a lot of Bastille while writing this (their Wild World album fits these characters very well, I think), as well as jazz singers from the mid-1900s.  Clara comes across to me as very Manhattan by Blossom Dearie when remembering Milo (note the “toy” line midway through).  Also, side note: jazz singers from the mid-1900s are one of my favorite comment sections on Youtube--it’s all very peaceful and nostalgic.

Aaand that’s about it, I think!  The story of how what was meant to be a short part 2 to an epilogue became a project with a word count of OVER 9000!  I had a lot of fun making this game, and I hope you enjoyed it too.  Thanks for reading!

[norbezdraws]

[redacted] Life: Epilogue START (Part 1)

https://www.patreon.com/Norbez/

This is a fancomic of @katy-133​‘s awesome visual novel  [redacted] Life, which is a brilliant visual novel that you should play immediately.

Also because this comic is kinda spoilery & may not make sense without playing the game.

With that in mind:

One of the things I talked about A LOT in my [redacted] Life audio review (which was recently removed from Soundcloud because I ran out of audio space--I’ll reupload it to Youtube as soon as I can) is the psychological damage of believing one is only a video game character, and “loving” (should that be in quotes?) a virtual person (Rebecca).  Adrian went through some pretty messed up stuff (not trying to neglect Hanna--I’ll try to talk about her in Part 2).

I wanted to write fanfic about this, but about a month ago I was drawing a lot of comics in the 3-panel format I was required to use for a comic in a recent contest.   And, since I was been drawing a lot of 3-panel comic pages, I thought I might as well give a few to the [redacted] Life fanfic I've been meaning to write!

I quite like the 3-panel format, and have been using it very often.  It allows me to draw without worrying about the comic format, better understand and experiment with panel arrangement & sequential storytelling, and tell a good narrative, but without taking too much time away from other aspects of my life. 

My comics move slow a lot of the time, and this one isn’t much different.  I really was taken by how Adrian would be affected months of even years after his terrible VR experience, and I wanted to pace it well.  Hopefully I did!  Though I wish I could’ve shown off more of Hanna & Adrian’s awesome dynamic from the game--hopefully that’ll show up in Part 2. X)

This is only part 1 of . . . 2?  3 at most.  I’ve been experiencing (still am experiencing) some kinda-major health issues recently, which is why this comic was delayed & why there’s only part of it here!  I hope to finish it soon, but I sadly can’t say when Part 2 will be up.  Likely after November has started.

For now, hope you enjoy this!  Thanks for reading.

(P.S: This is totally random, but Katy, I’ve started watching Black Mirror and Sherlock thanks to you.  IT’S BEEN AN EXPERIENCE.

Also I still want to write that fanfic from Tirle’s POV.  Did I mention that before?  Ah well, I have now!  It’ll be done . . . someday. . .)