asheepinthenight

[asheepinthenight]

Talon’s End Devlog: April 2024

How is April almost over already?? Most of this month was spent coding a big chunk of pre-festival character customization. Character creation is fairly spread-out in the early chapters of TE (which I don't have plans to change), but the next update will include a fairly dense round 2 of that, both adding some new options and letting you tweak some of what you chose at the start. Round 2 includes options to do the following, if you wish:

Start waffling about gender!

Finish waffling about gender!

Select a body type descriptor (fat, thin, tall, short, etc., including an option for custom)!

Select a hair and skin colors (including an option for custom)!

Chop your hair off!

Think really hard about growing your hair out!

I'm excited for you all to get to some of the actual romance/friendship content soon! TE is still something of a slow burn, but the festival will be the first chance to start going from strangers to something more than that.

Below the cut is a small spoiler from early in the next update: Hawk assisting with the much-anticipated option to try bribing the beast into friendship via food!

You quickly step in front of Hawk to get their attention. "I'd like to put food out for the beast. What does it eat?"

"Besides humans?" Nothing in their tone indicates Hawk is joking, but hopefully they are. "It can take care of itself."

"It should get a consolation prize since it can't have me."

"Fine. Come."

You follow Hawk into the pantry, and they lead you to a bushel of apples not far from the door. Rather than picking a few, Hawk hands you the whole thing.

"You're sure it's not carnivorous?"

Hawk nods. "Even if it eats them, don't expect it to be friendly."

#talon's end #te: devlog

[asheepinthenight]

Hello Dani! Can I ask a question if you don't mind? I was wondering if there's special festival/holidays in Maressea? Thanks you!

Yes, there are! There are some areas that have smaller regional holidays, but the four celebrated throughout Maressea happen around the first full moon of each season. Depending on the community a person lives in, festivities may last anywhere from one day to a full week.

A rundown of the major holidays is under the cut!

The Maressean New Year celebration takes place at the start of spring. Traditionally, the New Year is celebrated by visiting neighbors and family and offering to share what one has if they have need of it following a harsh winter. This tradition came about following the Cataclysm when Maressea's climate suddenly grew much colder. Most people had a difficult time getting through the first few harsh winters that followed, so when the weather started to warm up at the beginning of spring, those who still had supplies would clear the roads and travel to bring those supplies to people who needed them. Maresseans are very used to their climate 3000 years later, though, so the visits and other events (like the ball MC's family hosts) are usually more social than anything else. But when there's been a particularly difficult winter, people do still use it as a time to check on their friends and family and share what they have.

The summer festival (sometimes called Green Fields) is more or less an excuse for a big communal cookout. It's a celebration of the warmer months returning and crops (hopefully) growing well. In modern Maressea, it's probably the most free-form holiday with some people (especially in rural areas) going all-out with a giant potluck barbeque and others just inviting a few family members for dinner.

The autumn festival has probably the biggest image difference between rural and urban areas. In places like Cheldwick, it's a time to relax amid the busy harvest season either resting at home or at community events like Cheldwick's. In the city, it's taken on a few more spooky connotations like real-world Halloween. Autumn was traditionally a time when people would harvest not only crops but the benefits of magical blessings cast early in the year. So when magic became taboo, some people came to see it as a time when curses and other dark spells could take hold. Since magic was never vilified as much in rural areas as in urban ones, the spooky vibes never really reached far outside of cities.

I talked a little about the winter festival, Hearthblaze, here.

#asks #holidays #maressea

[asheepinthenight]

The April extra has done my ailing heart so good cause I'm sick as a dog rn. It truly helped me feel a lil better so thanks very much 💕

Oh no! I'm glad it helped, and I hope you feel better soon! ❤️

#asks #hawk does eventually get better at helping when mc gets sick #soup is within their cooking capabilities

[asheepinthenight]

Nah, that short story with hawk and sick MC got me kicking my feet like i'm a school girl and giggling to myself.

Hawk can be smooth every now and then! And they have the bonus of being immune to human illnesses, so a sick MC can guiltlessly cuddle with them as much as Hawk can be persuaded to endure.

#asks #they can be persuaded to endure quite a lot

[asheepinthenight]

Remedy (Talon's End Extra April 2024)

Some short fluff for this month's extra! MC comes down with a bad cold, and Hawk doesn't know what to do about it. Contains mild spoilers for post-game Hawk/MC relationship. Mostly written for the romantic version of their relationship but could also be queerplatonic (maybe even platonic, depending on how you feel about cuddling and forehead kisses) if you ignore a couple lines near the end.

You sneeze for what feels like the hundredth time in the last hour, and Hawk's head immediately snaps up to look at you. They put their book aside and lean over to put their hand to your forehead. The difference in temperature between their cold skin and your feverish body makes you shiver. They tuck the covers around you more tightly and look down at you as if, should they blink, you will come untethered from this mortal coil.

"It's just a bad cold, Hawk."

They narrow their eyes at you. "Many animals feign wellbeing in their final days. Self-preservation instinct to avoid predators' attention."

"I don't think I'm feigning 'wellbeing' very well."

Hawk gives you a rueful smile. "No. You're not."

You reach over to pat Hawk's hand where they're unthinkingly pulling a loose thread from the edge of the blanket. "I'll be well in a few days."

"That's what you said yesterday."

"And it's still true—it's only been one day so far."

Hawk scowls at the accuracy of your statement, and your laugh initiates another round of coughing. Once it passes, you look up to see the same look of deep alarm that you've seen in Hawk's golden eyes too many times since yous tarted falling ill. "You're sure this is normal?" they ask

"Very sure."

Hawk manages to sustain a few seconds of anxious silence before resuming their questioning. "And you don't need a healer...?"

You shake your head. "Just rest. You don't have to stay if you don't want to."

"I want to. If you want me to."

You nod, and they reach out to take your hand in theirs. Though Hawk's body isn't warm, it's not unlike a blanket: once it takes on enough of your own body heat, it holds it there, insulating you from the cold outside the bed. As you close your eyes and try to relax, you can feel the anxious static of Hawk's energy fade toward their usual calm.

You drift in and out of sleep, the fever and cough keeping you from resting deeply. After some time, you wake up sweating and kick all the blankets off, only to later wake again shivering. You sit up to hazily claw the blankets back over yourself, but you feel yourself being pulled into Hawk's arms as they lie down next to you, sweeping the blankets up over you both.

"Ridiculous," Hawk says as you bury your face against their chest. "Just rest."

"I'm trying," you say through chattering teeth.

Hawk sighs. "I don't know anything about... any of this. I don't think I'm helping."

"You are." You hold onto Hawk tightly as they rub your back, the warmth slowly returning to you.

"There are times I've wished I were born mortal, but I don't want this part."

You laugh—carefully, so you don't start coughing again—and pull away just enough to look at Hawk. "You'll have to leave the bed when I get too warm again."

"The human body makes no sense."

"Did you just realize that?"

Hawk scoffs and kisses your forehead. "Hardly, but I'll endure the whims of your fever and leave when you ask."

"You'll stay nearby, though?"

"Of course. As long as you want me to."

"Forever, then?"

Hawk chuckles. "You don't need to waste energy courting me; I'm already yours. So yes." They press their lips to the top of your head. "Forever."

#talon's end #te: extras #te: snippets #hawk

[asheepinthenight]

Talon’s End Devlog: March 2024

Boy howdy, what a month... My couple weeks off turned into about a full month off due to family medical issues and other chaos (everyone seems to mostly be on the mend now!). But I'm finally back to writing! The last few months have thrown off the release schedule I was hoping for, but I'm hoping to have the next content update out late spring or early summer. No previews yet--hopefully next month!

Since there was no monthly extra for March, I pulled a short excerpt from the scrapped version of Shea's Valentine story that tells a couple abbreviated versions of a Maressean folk tale about a Mermaid and a fisherwoman:

You exit the exhibit into a long hall of statuary from three centuries ago when Maressea was under imperial rule. Each piece was rendered in a similarly realistic style by a variety of different sculptors, but running down the center of the hall is a sequence of statues by a single artist that depict the fairy tale of The Mermaid and the Fisherwoman.

In the commonly told version of the story, a fisherwoman goes many days without catching a single fish, and when her tears drop into the sea, a mermaid finds her and offers to bring her all the fish she can fit in her boat in exchange for stories of life on land. Their deal goes on well for some time, but as her prosperity grows, the fisherwoman becomes greedy. One day, she catches the mermaid in her net and refuses to release her until the mermaid brings her all the fish in the sea. The mermaid promises to deliver the fish to the fisherwoman if only she will release her so she can get the help of her father, the king of the sea, to do so. The next day, the fisherwoman's village is washed away by a huge wave propelled by the strength of all the fish in the sea.

But the sculptor appears to have had a very different interpretation of the story. Instead of bringing the fisherwoman only fish, the mermaid--who fell in love at first sight--brings her gifts from the bottom of the sea to woo her. The final statue--according to the plaque that accompanies it--depicts the fisherwoman asking not for all the fish in the sea, nor for more gifts, but for the mermaid's hand in marriage. Judging by the intimate--and artistically nude--embrace in which the statue's figures are engaged, you can only assume the mermaid was glad to give it.

When the only other people in the hall make their exit, Shea leans toward you. "I think I like this version of the story better. No one has a happy ending in the original, but in this one, the village is safe, and the fisherwoman and the mermaid find love. Or maybe this is the original, and the story changed when society did."

#talon's end #te: devlog #te: extras

[asheepinthenight]

HELLO I LOVE YOUR GAME!!! Your writing is so so excellent and there’s clearly so much effort and care put into the game. Also as an aro person I can’t tell you how much it means to me not only that that’s an option but also that a queerplatonic relationship is on the table! I hope that’s able to be explored. Additionally, my MC is a trans guy and I am absolutely loving all the details that persist through the story relating to that. The moment where Shea offered him basically magical gender affirming water literally made me emotional bc I was so excited and have never really seen this attention to queer detail in an IF before.

Thank you so much, and I'm glad the story has struck a chord with you! Both Hawk and Shea will be onboard with a queerplatonic relationship if that's something the MC wants, and I hope the non-romantic routes will feel just as rewarding as the romantic routes! And Shea was definitely excited to be able to help trans!MC out that way! They had to figure some things out the hard way, so being able to use the knowledge and resources they have now to help another trans person feel safe and comfortable means a lot to them.

#asks

[asheepinthenight]

I loved the extras!!! I'm deeply in love with Hawk and to see how comfortable they will be with mc in the future? it was so sweet, really addictive!

I'm glad you enjoyed them! Hawk has been compared to a cat pretty frequently, and their friendship/romance does have the energy of an unfriendly cat eventually deciding that you, specifically, seem like a cool person to hang out with.

#asks

[asheepinthenight]

Hi Dani, what's the word count for the public demo?

Including code, it's a little under 68k words. I write and code at the same time, so I'm not sure what it is without including code or per playthrough. My super vague guess is maybe around 1/3 of that per playthrough? I'd like to get an actual number eventually--probably when the game is finished so I only have to get the per-playthrough word count in one big batch!

#asks

[asheepinthenight]

Hi Dani! I see a lot of ask about, like the Winds, the seasons ext.. And I was wondering. Why your story has such a strong link with nature in general? People who worship the Winds, aristocrats wearing seasonal colored clothing, even Hawk and their storm "entrance". The nature is like, always present, even in a subtle way. Why this choice?

If you're asking about the meta reason, I grew up in an area that has four seasons and is somewhat prone to extreme weather (blizzards, heat waves, tornadoes, etc.), so I've always found natural cycles and the power of nature interesting. There's something both terrifying and comforting about how small humanity is compared to the natural world.

For the in-universe reason (since not every part of the setting places the same importance on nature), the culture MC grew up in has a strong historical connection to nature by necessity, so it affects many aspects of their life. Maressea relies heavily on agriculture and has historically tried to keep their magic (when they still used it) in some degree of harmony with nature. The weather patterns in the region were permanently altered by the magical cataclysm that occurred around 3000 years ago, and many people came to believe that ensuring their lives and magic aligned with nature was the best way to avert future disasters. So although Maressea has changed a great deal since that time, many of their modern traditions have roots in much older beliefs.

#asks

[asheepinthenight]

Hiiii :)Sorry to bother you but can I ask a question? It's a stupid ask, so... If you don't want to answer, no worries! About the wedding dress of my MC, this, is written:"The only acceptable part of the day is your dress. The color is seasonally appropriate—pale yellow, as is proper for a summer wedding"So... What about... The others seasons colors? Why some colors would be inappropriate? Are the seasons playing a big role in your IF?Thank you and have a nice day!

Not a bother at all--those are good questions! I mentioned it a bit here, but the seasons are an important element of what's fashionable to wear in the kingdom where MC lives. The colors for wedding clothes are even more specific: pink dress/green suit for spring, yellow dress/red suit for summer, orange dress/brown suit for autumn, and blue dress/white suit for winter. It's a cultural convention on what's "proper" and a part of aligning the union to the natural world. Some people do wear other colors anyway, but there are superstitions that doing so will weaken the union. So Hawk not wearing the "correct" color would be seen as a bad omen.

As far as the larger role the seasons play in the story, they will come up a decent amount! The story starts in late summer and ends in spring, and there are some big seasonal events in autumn and winter, too!

#asks #maressea

[asheepinthenight]

sorry to bother you, but I think there's a bug or coding error somewhere- when someone tries to use a pronoun for the mc, this pops up instead: "$mc.they[_prand]" or "$mc.them[_prand]" I am trans, nonbinary, and using he/they pronouns, if that helps!

Oops, I accidentally uploaded a test version that included multiple pronoun sets when I fixed another bug! The good news is that I think they're all fixed, so I guess multiple pronoun sets are available ahead of schedule! Thank you for the bug report!

#asks #accidental early feature drop #if you see anything else from my weird test version please let me know and then pretend you saw nothing

[asheepinthenight]

Talon’s End Devlog: February 2024

Hoo boy, another chaotic irl month has come and gone! Most of the writing time I had went to the Valentine shorts, including a from-scratch rewrite of Shea's story. Sometimes, the vibe's just off, and this was one of those times. I think the overall lesson from this month is to not set a release window until beta reading is mostly complete!

I'll be taking a short writing break for the next couple weeks before getting back to working on the next demo update. I'll still be checking tumblr every few days during my break, but for now, I hope you all had a good extra-long February!

And a just for my own curiosity...

#talon's end #te: devlog

[asheepinthenight]

Can we convince Hawk to learn to cook with us? Would Shea be willing to teach MC how to cook? Would they teach Hawk too?

I wanna make sweets for them.

Can we give Hawk some of our drawings? Serenade them with the lute?

I intend to emulate Isla's level of sweetness. No secret magic weapon mess. Only sweet fluffy interactions

I don't want to spoil too much, but depending on your choices, yes to all of the above! Isla would very much support a fluff-only agenda. Even big problems (like marrying a cranky elf to learn their secrets) should be solved with kindness, understanding, and learning how to bake cookies together.

#asks

[asheepinthenight]

Hi Dani! I love Talon's End so much! I love the writing and Hawk and Shea and the Siblings and Isla and Erich and not so much mom, but I still love her and it's amazing.

Question: How would you describe the usual human clothing of the region? I'm trying to draw my MC (helps with getting to know the character) and I'm not sure of what clothing she'd wear.

Thank you and take care! <3

That's a super good question! I got a little carried away, but hopefully this is at least kind of helpful!

TL;DR: Women mostly wear dresses; men mostly wear trousers. Regardless of gender, clothes tend to be light and loose in style without a lot of ornamentation. Currently though, elegant, ornamental hairstyles are in, and many people are growing their hair out to take advantage of that. Hair length isn't particularly culturally dictated or gendered. Clothing colors usually reflect the seasons' colors in nature, but only members of high society (like MC's family) are really expected to have whole ensembles of the "proper" colors. For those curious, robes aren't at all common due to their association with mages.

Details under the cut!

The area where MC and their family live is relatively diverse, so fashion there has been influenced by a variety of different cultures. Maressea is on the warmer side of temperate with a fair amount of precipitation, so during warm weather, clothes tend to be light and not have too many layers--but coats, jackets, and capes to ward off the rain are common. Even when it's warm, sleeves, trousers, and skirts are usually long, but they tend to be more loose and flowing. During the winter, heavier fabrics are a must, but the styles are relatively similar to warm-weather clothes. Colors are an important part of styling, though. The colors of an ensemble should generally match the colors seen in nature during a given season. This is obviously pretty expensive and, therefore, a thing people will be judged by if they're considered a member of Society. But in situations where no one could reasonably afford multiple dyed garments for every season, people still often use seasonal colors for ribbons, handkerchiefs, and other small items. Even among the nobility, garment patterns and shapes are often relatively simple since the mundane aspects of fabric arts were only revived in the last century. Those who had the knowledge to revive things like lace-making and detailed embroidery are highly sought after, and their services quite expensive.

Hats aren't a big thing--unless they're necessitated by weather--since elegant, complex hairstyles are having a moment (the vibe but not necessarily form of fancy wedding updos). Historically, there hasn't been a major tendency toward long or short hair, regardless of gender, but long hair is stylish due to greater options for the aforementioned elegant hairstyles. (Not quite Hawk-length, though!) Hair accessories like ribbons, combs, and gemstones are common based on what a person has available to them.

Women are usually expected to wear dresses, and men are expected to wear trousers. But some avant garde women (including Sabine) have started wearing trousers at informal events (and formal events, if they're feeling extremely spicy). Some men have begun wearing dresses as well, but it hasn't taken off as much just yet. Robes are sometimes worn, but it's very rare since they're associated with being the garb of mages--not the most popular thing these days. So Hawk's gift had the double sin of being a robe AND not being a seasonally appropriate color.

#asks #maressea

[asheepinthenight]

Dani! I want to play the extras but it doesn't let me add a name or nickname, is a bug?

That sounds like a bug! You should be able to type in both blanks, make your other selections on the page, then either hit enter or the Next button at the bottom. Can you let me know how you're playing (pc/mobile, browser, and what you're seeing/not seeing compared to the screenshot)? You can submit a screenshot if you need to. I'll see if I can reproduce it and get it fixed.

#asks

[asheepinthenight]

Awakening (Poly Valentine Short)

"I thought I understood things well enough back then, but… in just the last few months, I've learned so much."

"You know, I'm not sure we'll need those warming stones after all."

Hawk and Shea settle in on either side of you, their presence comforting as you hear the storm mutedly raging outside.

Play here: Talon's End Extras

Finally, the last of the Valentine extras is here! It turned out a little shorter than the others, but I may beef it up a bit at a later date. Thanks for your patience, and I hope you all enjoyed the Valentine extras!

#talon's end #te: extras #hawk #shea #poly