Welcome back 🙂‍↕️ thank you for the kind words, it makes me very happy to see TSOM be appreciated like this.

And, of course, I'm on it 🙂‍↕️

Vihaan would be angry. Very angry. I can already hear them: Why would you do something so foolish? Are you out of your mind?

They'd immediately fling you aside and focus on making sure you both can escape. Vihaan is typically averse to confrontation, but they're not afraid to get down and dirty when necessary. You see how the bad ending played out, after all. On your way to safety, they're sulking the entire time. They've always found it hard to accept MC's reckless behavior. Doing anything like that is utterly unacceptable; do they not think of how worried he'd be? What would he ever do if you had died? You'd never hear the end of it, I fear. But hey— they'd take really good care of you after the fight is over. They'd dress your wounds and prepare something nutritious to warm your body. They never stay for too long besides that. Sometimes they return, when you're asleep (or pretending to), and run their fingers through your hair with a disapproving, endlessly loving scowl.

Sanath is baffled. They're your guard, not the other way around. They'd look back at you, eyes widening in shock, but there is no way they're leaving without a fight. They have your back. You take a hit for them, then they weasel around the battlefield quickly enough to catch you. They've got one arm secured around you, the other on their polearm, and fury in their eyes. You're spun around within seconds to the sidelines; enjoy watching them from a safe place, as they now fight with deadly force. If you're badly injured, that is. If not, prepare for them to call you forth. You want to fight? Let's take them down together instead of dying mindlessly, then. They'll have fun sharing the fight with you. This is what they're meant for, after all.

Deepika would feel highly conflicted about it, but I think it would deepen her relationship with MC. Right after you save her, she's terrified. Battle is messy, confusing, and she's slow on the uptake in high stress environments. But she's not stupid. Expect her to create a distraction in some way, to pretend to be aiding the attacker only to finish them when they least expect it. Deepika is quiet but her arms are solid as she drags you back to safety. She's stuck to you like a duckling afterwards. You'd be allowed into the inner worlds that she never lets anybody else see. She'd be more open with you, more trusting. You'd become part of her strength, and she'd vouch for you whenever necessary. Whenever you see her nowadays, she smiles at you, and you smile back at her. You have a pass to ask her for a favor, now. It is her rules.

Dhanyata will have an extremely tough time. Reasonably, he has a lot of fears regarding losing his loved ones, and is sometimes paranoid enough to try to control others' freedom just to keep them safe. Fighting is always out of his mind, as a conscious choice. Dhanyata is the type of person to sacrifice part of his agency just so everyone stays alive. Stay alive, that's all they want. How do you think he'd react to MC taking a blow for him, truly? He'd focus all his efforts on escaping and giving MC assistance right away. Dhanyata's heart will be muddled, his emotions confused and torn, but his mind would be extremely clear. This is perhaps the only type of circumstance where you'll see Dhanyata barking orders left and right. He's working on autopilot to save you, even if the injuries are not fatal. He's terrified. Please, never do that for him ever again.

We're selling two ORCA-themed items, a t-shirt and sock pair, to celebrate Cove and the non-profit he loves so dearly. This drop is also a part of Makeship's pride month program, so it'll be available for the full month of June.

Like the Ocean Hoodie, these wearables are here for a limited time, so grab them while you can!

Check out the official links here 👇

👕 ORCA T-Shirt

love your work so so soooo much!!! 🫶🏾🫶🏾

Thank you for the kind words!!! I love answering asks like these, it's very fun!!

This gives me the opportunity to talk about Charvi's death a bit, which I haven't done before. The thing about her passing is that it's senseless. 100%. There is no reason for her to die. You're told that she's gone, and you're like, "just like that? Off screen? She's dead now? Why?"

In the context of invasion and violence, there is never any reason for people to die. War is senseless. Absurd. Colonial ambition is not a real reason. Charvi dies like many other people in Nakshatravana Bay, and it touches everybody that knew her, but the world at large moves on and remains ignorant of the injustice that caused her death.

When Charvi started working at the fabric factory, she was one of many. But her voice was a little louder, she was a little too compassionate; she had a little too much hope for herself. It threatened the hand that fed, and so, the only reason she was murdered is that she existed as herself. And that's never a real reason.

But what if she came back to life, somehow? If you were strolling through the marketplace one day, and saw her gentle smile and swaying braids out of the corner of your eye, what would you do?

This is a question that torments Dhanyata many times, especially in the beginning. He thinks about this a lot. Immediately after Charvi's passing, he was a mess. Paranoid, afraid of the world, disoriented as to how to even live without her. If she came back then, he'd run to her immediately.

He'd embrace her and bawl his eyes out, apologize for not reaching her sooner when she needed him. He'd feel like he should be angry, ask why she ever left to work for these people— but he knows the answer and Dhanyata has never had it in himself to be angry.

He'd never let go. Every moment would be significant. They'd work hard to rebuild their life. There would be something eerie about seeing Charvi live after he's witnessed the opposite, but he'd ignore it, because everything would be normal again.

Now, if Charvi were to return later on, when he's fought hard to rebuild his life and pull himself out of depression, it would probably be different.

Dhanyata has found a new sense of normalcy at this point. He's still overly protective and frightened, but he's learned to accept things as they come. Would he go back to Charvi and drop his family? Probably not. He loves his wife now, whom you'll meet.

He'd take her in, and make her part of his life again in other ways. Tendresse is the word. He'd be gentle, nurturing, welcoming. He'd be delighted to show her the world again. Dhanyata would never question why she's here again. He doesn't want to think of that.

Vihaan wouldn't be able to look her in the eye. We know they're a rather avoidant person, and they feel responsible. Losing control or the situation was their worst nightmare. They were there when it happened, on a diplomatic mission.

None of this was ever meant to occur. Honestly? I don't think anyone's ever heard them yell in fury as loudly as they did at the time. The factory hall was entirely destroyed. The guy leading the staff got a slap across the face hard enough to double over on the ground.

What a disorganized, disgusting display of power. What he really wanted to say was, that's my friend. Vihaan would let Charvi rebuild her life without talking to her ever again. They believe they're cursed and bring misery to everyone around them anyway, mainly because of their chronic imperfection. But they don't know what to change, so they leave silently instead.

Sanath is the only person that wouldn't be okay with this. Not because they dislike Charvi or wouldn't be grateful to have her back, but because the dead are not supposed to return.

They'd be wary, and honest. Sanath would be the only person to look Charvi in the eye and say, do you really want to be here? Is there anything you've left unanswered or undone? But they're not doing it, because they know Charvi would disappear again amidst sea foam and never return. People need her. They're just looking from the sidelines.

As for Deepika, she would be deeply moved. There were so many years of shared girlhood and love between her and Charvi. Losing them all in an instant terrified her, and is part of the reason why she so readily complies with the invader.

Deepika has been terrorized and intimidated by them many times; losing Charvi made her lose her footing. If she were to return, so would Deepika's freedom. Charvi wasn't just a friend, but also a sister.

She represented liberty for everybody, but specially for Deepika. When Charvi was around, she felt like there was nothing she couldn't do. Similarly to Dhanyata, she'd never question her return. She'd just hold Charvi in her arms, and cry about how much she's missed her, and how much she never wants to miss her again. Deepika is a very one note woman in terms of showing emotion; Charvi is the exception.

It's like 2am for me so I'll keep it brief but I LOVED this game. The writing genuinely had me in my feels 😭 the characters feel so alive and genuine and the feelings of love and loss are conveyed beautifully!!

I'm wondering what happened to the characters down the line thoughh how did their lives develop after the main story? I was also wondering if the MC and vihaan would even have children? Since their powers were inherited from their parents I was wondering how that worked

HAHA I'm diligent, yessir!! The coding error was so simple that I felt kinda stupid when I found it. But those are my favorite, it means that I can get things in order swiftly!

Firstly, my goodness, I'm really happy that you enjoyed the game this much!!! It was such an adventure to bring it to life... love and loss, grief and growing up, change... they're all such personally meaningful themes to me. When I first thought up of TSOM, my main idea was that these themes shouldn't be presented as opposites. They are two sides of the same coin, all part of what it means to be wonderfully human.

I'm currently developing the short stories that will complement the main game, and I'm also exploring these in many other ways!

Secondly, onto the cast: Some things I will have to keep simple, because they'd entail spoilers for the short stories I will release.

This might break a lot of hearts, but, the most canon-compliant ending for Vihaan and MC is the Neutral Ending.

Vihaan survives the explosion and spends the rest of their life trying to take down the Church of the End of Days, the organization that spearheads the colonization of several magically significant enclaves around their world. You could still make this work with a Good or a Bad Ending: what remains true is that Vihaan eventually leaves Nakshatravana Bay.

Vihaan abandons his wealth and becomes part of the crew of Captain Cherelle Baptiste. They end up all the way across the oceans in the small island of Si Si Conobui, a Trinidad-inspired indigenous monarchy lead by the legendary queen Blue Acou.

Vihaan becomes a very important part of the resistance in the main narrative which TSOM is a part of. They're one of the principal guardian figures in the life of Rojarani Séraphin, an air-nymph baby created by the colonizing forces as part of a superhuman (war crime) project. Whether MC ends up with him there, whether they're back in Nakshatravana Bay— that's for you guys to decide!

Now, If they were to have children, their powers would be passed down onto their children if they so willed it, just as their mothers passed theirs onto them. Only one version of their power can exist in the world at a time.

Sanath remains a temple guard their entire life and devote themselves to the defense of their homeland in varying capacities depending on the ending. We know what happens in the bad ending though, so keep that in mind for anything that involves them regarding the other characters. After a very complicated upbringing, romance and relationship, they marry Deepika. They grow up into a very jolly person regardless of the circumstances, but never quite lose their cutting personality.

Deepika resumes her work as a translator/interpreter in the embassy. In a good ending, she will establish her own linguistics academy and spread their language and culture across trading routes. In the bad ending, she remains under the control of the invader, still as an interpreter. She's left to raise her child as a single mother for some years; the nature of that pregnancy is rather sinister, I will not beat around the bush. She's not alone, however. Sanath, Dhanyata, her sister, and basically everybody around her are always fully dedicated to keeping her and her child safe. Fun fact: Deepika's baby is a boy, and his name is Suraj.

Dhanyata adopts the little girl he finds in the bad ending in every other ending as well. He remains an acolyte of the Third Fate, and cherishes everybody close to him. He remarries eventually, but his short story is all about that so I won't go into much detail <3 Dhanyata opens an animal sanctuary for persecuted magical creatures where the temple is, or used to be.

The memory of Charvi lives on through him. She never quite disappears from the narrative despite her fate, you see— and it goes beyond just being remembered. Charvi is your air. Charvi is the monsoon rain. Charvi is the wind. This will be explored fully in The Weaver, her dedicated short story.

THIS IS THE CUTEST THING IN THE WORLD OH MY GOD

Hi, I [21F] have been focused on my studies these last few months so that I can focus on attaining my degree with high(-ish) grades so that I may be able to apply for a university near my bff so we can talk more frequently and all as getting to talk as we grow older has become difficult with all the responsibilities that come with age. She's the light of my life and also she hates my guts bc she always scolds me and makes fun of me and kicks me when I am down by saying goodnight when I'm in the middle of lecture. I worry that there's a rift happening between us honestly as we have to worry about our lives outside each other. I think she is mad at me. Any advice to fix this??

def AITA!! my sources are telling me she looks like this

meet me at the poppy hill 🌷