20s ・ she/her ・ and the leaves... they were sparkling.
✨ from the southern california sea to mountains covered in autumn gold. difficult life may get, it all works out just the same. welcome to my little corner of the internet. 🍁
house rules ・ sparkling leaves ・ tamarack analysis ・ ao3
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Since it's going to be summer soon in a few short weeks, I'm thinking about replaying OLBA..... but the last time I did that, I ended up replaying OLNF instead lmao. I kept going "*sigh* I miss Tamarack." I'll try to stick the landing this time, I miss the Last family and the brine-filled air of Sunset Bird
Hi, I hope you're not too busy with your semester having been finished! I've seen your post with "Our Life"'s ask game (super creative questions and all, loved it), so I am doing my part right now
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter - what's your favourite season? (I love talking about it, don't ask me why, so I have to ask this)
If you were tasked with making an OL3 and OL4 (spring and winter), what would you do for the setting, LIs and the plot/inciting incident? (apropos creative questions...)
Does your MC have a special hair quirk and if so, what is it?
Anyway, I hope I'm not intruding, since it's been some time since your last activity from what I know... (not that I'm judging)
Have lovely timezone, boo-bye! <3
I thankfully haven't been too busy, I've just been working on learning a new skill/investing in a new hobby and got distracted! But once I get better at it, I'd love to be more active here especially with early access for OLNF being right around the corner!
Thanks for the ask game questions! I haven't done one of these in a while =O=
1) Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter—what's your favorite season?
I actually answered this question over here!
15) If you were tasked with making an OL3 and OL4 (spring and winter) what would you do for the setting, LIs and the plot/inciting incident?
I actually already answered this question here!
21) Does your MC have a special hair quirk and if so, what is it?
Nope! This MC is a plain jane in that regard! Same for my Qiu MC I don't ever talk about jnkjdng Maybe one of these days I'll make an MC with one, it would be fun even if it's something on the simpler side
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On another note, should I open asks so people can send me their MC’s to doodle… maybe just step 1 MC’s for now.
I think it would be a fun way to get to know other people’s mc’s because I’m not active otherwise. I’m hoping to start being more active in my fandoms and communities, maybe.
Step 1 + Step 2. Rewrite of an old fic. Halloween Boy, or Joey, is the kid mentioned in the Colorful Class sneak peek on the GB Patch youtube channel.
Since she was younger, Nyla had been fascinated with a world of fantasy—imagined she’d go on a quest to lands unknown. Her arrival to Golden Grove was one of the practical sort. Mom got a promotion at work and off to Oregon they’d went. An adventure’s an adventure though, no matter the practicality that surrounds it.
This includes slumber parties.
Nyla splays her limbs against the grass of the Baumann family backyard with a happy hum.
It’s only the two of them. Qiu had his own arrangements for after-school fair—a sleepover invite of his own extended by Halloween Boy. Those were the perks of being popular, Nyla supposes. Qiu is in constant demand.
“Girls!” Granny peeks her head through the kitchen window, “you’ve got thirty minutes ‘til dinner!”
“Okay!” Nyla calls at the same time Tamarack says, “Okay, Omi!”
Looking back at her, Tamarack beams. Neither of them had been invited to this special slumber party, so it made sense to throw their own. “Maybe Omi will let us stargaze after.”
“If she doesn’t, we can sneak out when she sleeps.” The two of them share matching expressions of mischief at the thought. Is it really a slumber party if there isn’t? Not that Nyla had many in her life before moving to Golden Grove to make the comparison. Movies are really her only insight into the childhood ritual. Moving from apartment to apartment, it left little time to connect with kids enough to be invited to one. She’d never been a fan favorite enough in any of her previous classes for it in the first place.
That much hadn’t changed in Golden Grove.
Hers and Tamarack is a similar problem—too.
Too loud. Too much.
Or maybe they’re just boring. Nyla’s pretty sure they’re just boring and her best friend would agree. It’s only been a month or so since Nyla and her mother moved to this mountainous town in Oregon, but it has always felt like she’s known Tamarack Baumann her entire life.
She’d tossed a paper airplane at Nyla’s shoulder and the trajectory of Nyla’s life changed forever.
A glint of gold pulls Nyla from her thoughts. They’d been in the middle of digging around for mushrooms when Granny made her announcement and Nyla realizes she hasn’t continued since. “Nyla,” Tamarack cocks her head. She’s set aside her haul of pretty stones and mushrooms in favor of furrowing her brows in concern. Nyla’s chest warms despite the cold. “You okay?” There’s hardly a quiet moment between them with how much they talk.
“Did you know I can hold stars in my hand?” Nyla says suddenly and Tamarack blinks at the sudden declaration.
“Really?” Tamarack leans. “You can?!” Her red eyes widened, cheeks puffed in a smile of surprise.
Nyla grins with a nod, “uh huh!” She scoots closer across the leaf-dappled ground. “I’ve never shown you before but I can.”
It’s the second part that really gets Tamarack excited, bouncing on her knees like she can’t contain it. “Show me! I wanna see you hold a star!”
If Nyla were like Mrs. Murray or Qiu, she’d hum to draw out the suspense. Pretend to hem and haw before doing exactly what she already planned. But she’s isn’t. She’s buzzing with too much energy to even try. “Alright.” Nyla shuffles to sit directly in front of Tamarack. “But you have to close your eyes first.”
Giggling, Tamarack squeezes her eyes shut.
It’s nothing for Nyla to cup Tamarack’s fluffy locks in her hands. Nyla has met a lot of people in her 10 years of living.
Some of them had cranberry hair like Mom. Some of them had red hair like Mrs. Murray. Some had dark brown, orange, pink, purple or even peach. None of them ever had hair that sparkled—Tamarack is the first and only.
It’s amazing.
“Tada!”
Tamarack opens her eyes and a series of expressions pass over her face from anticipation to confusion. “Where are the stars?”
Tamarack giggles, “That’s my hair, Nyla!” Contrast to her usual movements, the way Tamarack shakes head is careful. Nyla watches in amazement how the natural occurring shimmer never fades, moving like glinting sun on waves of gamboge. “That’s not a star!”
It’s hard to breathe as Tamarack’s apple-red eyes look up at her, just as dazzling as the sparkling strands that frame them. Still Nyla stands firm. “Nope.” The ‘p’ pops against Nyla’s lips in a mirthful-variety of stubborn. Seldom is there a topic the two of them disagree on, this will simply have to be an exception.
Soon evening will fall over Golden Grove. The sun will set beneath the horizon and the town will drape her shoulders with a star-dusted shawl and it will be evident to all that the stars above rest upon a crown of gold on Tamarack’s head. It never has to be a specific time of day to see them.
Tamarack Baumann is the prettiest girl in town, and probably the entire world too. Magic. She’s made of magic. Nyla’s known that since day they met underneath a rainfall of leaves in the middle of the forest. This was truth in its purest form even if Nyla knew half of the child-aged population of Golden Grove would be keen to disagree.
Nyla wiggles her fingers and marvels at every individual speckle.
That’s okay, Nyla thinks. I’ll think it enough to make up for it.
—
It’s four years later and it’s the first day of school—or, it had been. It’s been a couple hours since the school day ended and Nyla and Tamarack are leaning against the stone edge of the bridge. A final adventure before the day ended and they were forced to retire for the night by rules imposed on them by their respective families.
Nyla’s neck aches as she looks back at the skies and she gives it a break. The milky way is crystal clear. Something to do with a lack of light pollution, Tamarack told her. As a man of science, it’s a factoid that would make Mr. Murray proud.
Tamarack has stars of her own—their glow may be faint in the low light their cellphones and the moon above provides, but still they shine. They’re from her mother, Nyla learned over their years of knowing the girl next door. Not that Nyla ever had a chance to see it with how often Dr. Nichole Baumann dyed her hair.
That makes Tamarack’s all the more special.
It takes a moment before Tamarack realizes Nyla’s eyes aren’t on the skies above. Her eyebrows knit for a heartbeat, concern flashing over her face—then her expression relaxes as if recalling Nyla’s words in front of the Diner Place. If Nyla were upset, she’d tell her. So Tamarack smiles, soft. “What’s got your mind so preoccupied?”
“Nothing,” Nyla murmurs with a lazy smile. “Just stargazing.”
My last Serenity post aside, I think in the Sparkling Leaves context we probably become friends before she and Tamarack do. Golden Grove doesn't have a lot of Black residents, so the few that exist stick out like a sore thumb and it's through me she ends up meeting and befriending Tamarack
It's obvious to me that she's closer to Tamarack that she is to me in the end, but there's no hard feelings because it's the same way on my end with us being best friends and crushes prior to either of us meeting Serenity. I can see Serenity in Tamarack's half of the wedding party in the coveted Wedding DLC and whenever it's Serenity's time to tie the knot, if they want to be married in the first place, Tamarack is Serenity's maid of honor
It was a question that never got added to that OL ask game I made a while ago, but if my favorite lead wasn't available as a romance option... *cries in Serenity isn't interested in women romantically since with what little we know about her, I think they'd be an interesting character to have slotted in the LI position*
I hope in a future GB Patch game, there will be another black romanceable lead though that would be really nice
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None of the central female characters of OLNF can do anything right for you people, and I think that says more about the fanbase than it does about the characters.
I will be fair. The lack of interest in Serenity can largely be attributed to the fact that she hasn't had much of an appearance so far. We only see her for a small amount of time in the Step 2 prologue, and it's up in the air how often we'll be seeing them in Step 2. So hopefully, the lack of interest in Serenity has nothing to do with them being a very dark-skinned black demigirl and the more we see of Serenity in-game, the more fan interest will develop.
But the way a lot of you talk about Vianca is outright disgusting.
When it comes to Renee's behavior in Step 1, every excuse under the sun is whipped out to justify her at the time behavior from her age to her gender issues. But in Step 2, Vianca is 14 and personally believes that the only people she can relate to are girls. Y'all can act like 14 is that much older than 10 when it comes to levels of maturity, but it isn't. Both come with near equal amounts of immaturity and the need to still grow and develop as a human being.
To become better.
Vianca is never outright mean to those who don't identify as girls, but she is very curt and prefers to keep interactions to a minimum. Renee in Step 1 would actually say disparaging comments about you and in front of you to her friends if you and Tamarack identify as girls. But also, like Ren, Vianca grows out of this phase a step later.
And, much like how you have the ability to push at that line with Renee in Step 1 and grow to become friends if your MC doesn't identify as a boy, you can do the same with Vianca in Step 2 if your MC doesn't identify as a girl. You even see in Assistance, despite her lack of interest in anyone that isn't similar to her, Vianca goes out of her way to let Qiu know that if part of their lack of desire to audition or try in their sport is because they don't want to be slotted under masculine roles, then she'll take them instead in an attempt to understand Qiu better.
That isn't something a genuinely terrible person would do and yet a large portion of this fandom is weirdly comfortable with trying to vilify her and constantly will ask GB if it will be possible to literally fight her or cuss her out to which the repeated response from OLNF's developer is:
"No, you can't pop off on a 14 year old girl."
"No, you can't verbally attack a 14 year old girl."
"No, you can't hit a 14 year old girl."
I don't know if it's because some of y'all were just bullied in high school and Vianca who isn't a bully mind you has a similar enough personality to those girls, that you are taking those pent up frustrations out on her, but the way I've seen a lot of you talk about a fictional teenager is insane, let alone the comfort you all have saying this vitriol to developer of the game. The absolute lack of decorum.
You would think that Vianca was comparable to Space Hitler with the way a considerable chunk of you talk about her, and she isn't even a romanceable because like Serenity, due to the fact they have a gender preference when she dates—Vianca can't be.
But you know who is a love interest? Tamarack. And I swear she really can't do anything right in the eyes of this crowd. When all we had to work with was Step 1—she was annoying.
Loud, too much, incapable of understanding social cues. Oh, and my personal favorite, 'too immature to be a love interest', when mind you... Duh? Obviously a 10 year old is going to be immature. She's 10. Even Qiu, for all their comparative maturity at the time, is a 10 year old who is 'too immature to be a love interest'.
Then we get to Step 2, where Tamarack is shy and at her most anxious, and now she's just 'boring'. The traits that caused her hate in Step 1 from the fanbase are gone, but now she's boring and being picked at for that instead. Interesting.
Maybe she is, when you only prioritize interacting with Qiu and getting to know them instead.
But I'm also 99% sure that if Tamarack was a skinny white boy instead, there wouldn't be nearly as much critique of her character and she'd be almost as loved as Qiu, if not more so for being cis. Honestly, the most similar character we have to Step 2 Tamarack is Step 1 Cove and I don't see any complaints about how disagreeable he was at the time or comments that he was 'boring'.
And, to be frank, a lot of y'all are fatphobic and very comfortable with it. You either draw her skinny, would and still ask the dev if she will ever become skinny in later steps...
I think y'all just need to admit that you didn't want OLNF to have characters that weren't men be love interests, let alone one that is bigger bodied. And I honestly think that Qiu's popularity largely stems from the fact, they're the closest thing to a male lead you people have.
And that is some internalized transphobia, you all need to fix.
These are the same people who largely use Qiu's he/him pronouns over their they/them pronouns, despite them being genderfluid and leaning more towards the 'they' part of their identity. Y'all wanted boyfriends again, not a girlfriend or a partner or whatever term Qiu prefers since according to GB 'partner' sounds too formal to them. Maybe this is exacerbated by the fact that, according to the developer, Qiu doesn't plan on physically transitioning or otherwise altering their body as it is.
After OLBA had back-to-back male leads, y'all set the expectation that OLNF would be the same with a fall-colored coat of paint and now that the reality doesn't match those expectations, you scramble to find the male lead similarities and are hypercritical of the female lead and the female-centric cast.
There's so many people that ask the developer if there is going to be an 18+ wedding night moment in OLNF like OLBA has, and I'm honestly glad there isn't because the discourse surrounding it would be so exhausting.
I can honestly see so many people in droves saying that Tamarack should be asexual and completely averse to sex, not because they care about having acespec characters represented in the game—
But because they don't want to have to entertain the possibility of a fat girl being desired sexually by her partner. They don't want to see the rolls or the stretchmarks. They don't want her drawn explicitly or wearing lingerie, because they themselves can't see themself being attracted to Tamarack because she's a big girl.
"Ten people I'd like to get to know better" Tag Game
I was tagged by @cookiecutter5!
Last song: My Body by Keith Sweat
Favorite color: Blue. All shades of blue, my beloved
Currently watching: Right now the main thing I'm watching is One Piece (the current arc of Elbaf) and Thai thriller anthology Girl From Nowhere (I'm a little over halfway done with season 2). Other than that, I'm gearing up to start a rewatch of ATLA. 2/3 of these series are ones I grew up with so they have special places in my heart!
Currently reading: The main manga I'm reading is One Piece (the current arc of Elbaf, I just finished reading the most recent chapter this morning lol). I'm also reading a variety of different manhwa like "My Childhood Friends Are Trying to Kill Me", "Sistervention"... and honestly, I've been aching to reread "Concubine Walkthrough" which is my favorite of the Otome Isekai genre
Outside of official works, I'm currently slowly making my way through reading a fanbook my friend from the JP side of the One Piece fandom wrote for one of our favorite ships. Since it's in Japanese, it's taking quite a bit of time though but it's really sweet so far she's a great writer!
Current obsession: SEVERAL LOL! Our Life 2, I'm sure you can guess. One Piece (fun fact: I even have a tattoo from the series!), I've fallen knee deep back into my love for ATLA and Kataang and Zukka, and my recurring special interest honestly is watching deep dives on youtube explaining the saga of MsScribe (this one is my favorite)
Last google search: "Andropogoneae examples", I play the metazooa games for animal of the day + plant of the day and sometimes I have to google the families
Currently working on: This post I'm working on some drawing exercises!
I'll be tagging.... @swiftieee-13 @qiuliets @rivvyribbons and this is also an open tag for anyone else interested in filling out their own info!
"Ten people I'd like to get to know better" Tag Game
I was tagged by @cookiecutter5!
Last song: My Body by Keith Sweat
Favorite color: Blue. All shades of blue, my beloved
Currently watching: Right now the main thing I'm watching is One Piece (the current arc of Elbaf) and Thai thriller anthology Girl From Nowhere (I'm a little over halfway done with season 2). Other than that, I'm gearing up to start a rewatch of ATLA. 2/3 of these series are ones I grew up with so they have special places in my heart!
Currently reading: The main manga I'm reading is One Piece (the current arc of Elbaf, I just finished reading the most recent chapter this morning lol). I'm also reading a variety of different manhwa like "My Childhood Friends Are Trying to Kill Me", "Sistervention"... and honestly, I've been aching to reread "Concubine Walkthrough" which is my favorite of the Otome Isekai genre
Outside of official works, I'm currently slowly making my way through reading a fanbook my friend from the JP side of the One Piece fandom wrote for one of our favorite ships. Since it's in Japanese, it's taking quite a bit of time though but it's really sweet so far she's a great writer!
Current obsession: SEVERAL LOL! Our Life 2, I'm sure you can guess. One Piece (fun fact: I even have a tattoo from the series!), I've fallen knee deep back into my love for ATLA and Kataang and Zukka, and my recurring special interest honestly is watching deep dives on youtube explaining the saga of MsScribe (this one is my favorite)
Last google search: "Andropogoneae examples", I play the metazooa games for animal of the day + plant of the day and sometimes I have to google the families
Currently working on: This post I'm working on some drawing exercises!
I'll be tagging.... @swiftieee-13 @qiuliets @rivvyribbons and this is also an open tag for anyone else interested in filling out their own info!
Can I ask more about Nyla? Her likes and dislikes, her hobbies, is she good in school or joined any clubs? Thanks for answering!
Oh wow thank you so much for the asking! Tbh Nyla's just my self-insert, so her hobbies and dislikes are my own. Anime, pun enthusiast, jrpgs, art, a fanfiction writer and lover of long walks, languages and yearns for adventure/traveling (and, of course, a gourmet)
Oh! And she's a lover of the sea! Living by forest and sea is definitely the ideal spot for her to have the best of both worlds
Dislikes math, it's her worst subject. She does decent in school, but has the tendency to procrastinate hence she has regular study sessions to stay on track. Other dislikes? Hmmm, probably talking about her issues lol. Tends to be really good at acting fine and nonchalant, deeming herself a pragmatic optimist so it can be hard to gauge when she's actually distraught about something serious
No clubs though, since I never really did clubs back in high school since anime clubs were so weirdly elitist at my schools and there were never any clubs I wanted to go out of my way to join, so Nyla's the same. All her interests can be done at home
But, she did take orchestra as an elective since Tamarack is taking it and best friend solidarity, and all that jazz. And she's taking theatre
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I went completely radio silent to avoid being spoiled on the new OP chapter. Now that I've read the official release, I can finally scroll in peace TuT