Fantastic !

Uhm drunk mhin headcanons if nobody asked for it..(⁠ ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ⁠)⁠♡

Nobody has! Here ya go (˶ > ₃ < ˶)♡

TW: Alcohol (Obvi) Small note: I think it goes without saying, but this ain't romanticising addiction.

🕊 Whatever it is that got them drunk has to be strong.

🕊 Not because they handle alcohol well, no. Mainly because they're used to being hyper-aware of their surroundings and in control of their actions. 

🕊 They are quiet… until they aren’t

🕊 Their normally sharp senses are dulled, their movements clumsy and uncoordinated. They look slightly disheveled and dazed; the edges of their vision’s slightly blurry and their head is swimming.

🕊 *stare…*

🕊 Their glare shifts from cold to something slightly flustered and aloof.

🕊 And even pink flushes against their cheeks — it’s borderline adorable gqbuifcsgbfcu

🕊 They are so squishable

🕊 POUTY

🕊 Definitely more relaxed, easygoing and less threatening — perhaps to the point where they are willing to hold an almost normal conversation with Ais

🕊 If offered anything sketchy they’re give the other a deadpan look that morphs into annoyance.

🕊 They’re not that incapacitated, come on.

🕊 Even if they were, it’s highly unlikely to accept anything that’s not out of Kuras’ hand (force of habit strikes in)

🕊 The only difference would be them talking.

🕊 and I mean talking

🕊 no filter

🕊 Alchemical experiments, anatomy, cats, the stars, whatever’s interesting to them. You just have to smile and nod and they can go until the alcohol wears off or until they’re out cold.

🕊 If Vere tries to mock–flirt, they flirt back

🕊 and then they laugh

🕊 not just giggle, actually, truly laugh. With that beautiful, tinkly “jingle of fairy bells” laugh that rings through the silence.

🕊 Vere is left speechless

🕊 Everyone is stunned

🕊 “Alright, that’s enough drinks for you,” Mama hen Kuras has to intervene.

🕊 w h i n e y

🕊 “I’ll just… just one more? Please?”

🕊 I dare you to say no to those eyes

🕊 I dare you

🕊 Stronger people have been brought down by less

🕊 Next day they lay sprawled across the bed, a hell of a hangover pounding in their head.

🕊 “...I’m fine.”

🕊 They’re not

With a wide selection of different times of day, MC’s room is a new location sure to get a lot of screentime🕯️Who guessed this background right?

Yeah, agree. What is the point of doing it if you're not enjoing it?

Every 21st century piece of writing advice: Make us CARE about the character from page 1! Make us empathize with them! Make them interesting and different but still relatable and likable!

Every piece of classic literature: Hi. It's me. The bland everyman whose only purpose is to tell you this story. I have no actual personality. Here's the story of the time I encountered the worst people I ever met in my life. But first, ten pages of description about the place in which I met them.

I think there’s potential for Ais to go all “scorched earth, no stars” when it comes to protecting his territory, especially when he has no choice BUT to be violent.

I feel gangs wars, the loss and conquering of territory, and returning to his former glory are gonna be important factors for Ais’s route, even if it means he has to eradicate everything and everyone that stands in his way. He’s a former powerful leader that’s quietly bitter about the loss of his old gang, whether that be through death(because of his temper) or they just straight up abandoned him(once again, because of his temper).

How his fake smile dropped immediately after his “gang took a walk” line in the demo, it’s still obviously a sore subject for him. He pretends to be okay with being alone, but it’s obviously wearing thin on him. We all know he’s gonna snap soon - but what would be the inciting incident?

I think that pivotal incident will have something to do with his beloved tamed Soulless pets - no one else but Ais cares for them. Eridians are terrified of any kind of Soulless, so it’s possible people will rally together to get rid of them, even though the Soulless belonging to Ais are under his control. Not only that, but Eridians are probably unnerved in general by the whole concept of the Seaspring and the wastelands. They will probably try to form a mob to kill Ais because he’s evil in their eyes - eventually, Ais will become tired of everyone hating him because he’s the black sheep of Eridia.

Ais will definitely go crazy if anything happens to his tamed Soulless pets, ESPECIALLY Princess. All that volcanic rage that he’s been containing within himself will erupt and there will be nothing but bloodshed for anyone unfortunate enough to get in his way. The Soulless are the closest thing he has to a gang, a family, and he’s gonna protect that at all costs.

So I imagine Ais just being like “fuck it” and going on a horrific bloody rampage, forcing himself and his Soulless pets into Eridia’s territory, reclaiming it, conquering it, ruling it, his reasoning behind all of the carnage he’s causing is “if me and what I love can’t live in your world, then you will all die in mine.”

And that would be so awesome to witness❤️

Happy belated birthday to lovely Mhin~ They’re taking a well deserved break.

Alternate version without shadows under the cut cause I always like it better

Being chronically ill is like

“It’s fine”

“It’s fine”

“It’s fine”

*complete mental breakdown because you can’t do this anymore*

“It’s fine”

Lagoona called someone a cunt canon and real

im so normal ab them ^-^!!

ill try drawing them in this form again once i leave my art block cell 💔💔

Touchstarved Origins

Okay, so there's been a lot of divisive opinions over the replacement of 'The Hound' background with 'The Exile' background. I have my own thoughts that I wanted to express on the situation, as well as the origin system as a whole.

TLDR: I'm not against 'The Exile' existing, but I do think it's the least interesting and the weakest of the four backgrounds. I'm also firmly against the replacement of 'The Hound'. I also want to talk about how I would add/fix the current backgrounds. Also these are just my opinions - I'm not speaking objectively.

Spoilers ahead!

What's the point of the Origin system?

There's two main reasons for the current origin system.

First of all, each background has a 'perk', which each background can gather different types of information about the world and the love interests. This info may effect player decision-making.

Secondly, the backgrounds allow for roleplay and MC creating. This aspect is a huge part of the fandom, and RSS encourages people to make OCs with the backgrounds as a 'guide'.

How well is Origin system implemented?

I think it's important to keep in mind that it's only a demo out right now. That being said, as of these demos, I do not think the origin system has been implemented very well.

The 'perks' the backgrounds give and the story/dialogue differences are pretty minimal. This means that the way the Origin system currently works, the don't really meet the intentions behind the backgrounds.

The Exile & The Hound

Welp, onto the issue that inspired this post. First of all, I believe that 'The Hound' shouldn't have been replaced at all. IMO it was the weakest in terms of implementation, but that doesn't mean it should have been removed, just made better.

People have been building their MCs/OCs for years at this point, and it's straight up not fair for people to have their backgrounds taken away for seemingly no reason. There was no communication from RSS or even a survey from RSS asking about changing up the backgrounds.

I've also seen people say the backgrounds are 'similar enough', which I can't fully agree with. They're both survivalists, but the contexts are just too different - One is survival in in a socal world, and the other is survival in 'the wild'. Also, I think the biggest appeal to a lot of people about 'The Hound' was the criminal edge and the social intuition, which in a game about character interaction, is a big loss.

There's also the 'balance' of the original three backgrounds. While I don't think the OG backgrounds were the epitome of character building, they were different in the 'right' ways. For example: 'The Hound' is street-smart and familiar with lowtown's entertainment district, 'The Alchemist' is book-smart and somewhat familiar with lowtown's entertainment district, and 'The Unnamed' most likley has some education and isn't familiar with lowtown's entertainment district. They've also all been betrayed, which adds on to their desperation. This also means they learn different information that is relevent to the LIs (eg, 'The Unnamed senses familiar about Kuras, but 'The Alchemist' notices no magic from the reattached limb).

So, what about 'The Exile'? Backstory-wise, there's the isolation of 'The Unnamed' and a parental figure of 'The Alchemist', but no 'betrayal'. It does take some the the social intuition stuff from 'The Hound' (eg. "I've learned to recognise a leader when I see one" about Ais) but for a character that's described to live away from other people (apart from the hermit), it doesn't really fit or make sense. The 'perk' of an 'uncanny intuition' is very similar in flavour to 'The Unnamed' - I can't see why 'The Unnamed' wouldn't also have the red choice to 'move immediately'. 'The Exile' is also fluent in multiple languages, but that seems like something 'The Alchemist' would know.

In short, 'The Exile' feels like a mish-mash of the original backgrounds, lacking a strong identity - both storywise and gameplay-wise. It has qualities that already belong to a background or qualities that should belong to another background. If the goal was to have more 'cohesive' backgrounds, we ended up with a redundant background.

That being said, I do think there's a place for 'The Exile', but as it is right now, it needs a major rework.

Sidenote, blind/new players of Touchstarved aren't going to know what soulless are when selecting the backgrounds, so making it a 'selling point' of the background isn't a great move.

Things I Would Add to the Backgrounds

These are just some moments I could see happening with events that happen in the demo + feel in-tune with the background.

'The Unnamed':

I'll note it's hard to think of moments for 'The Unnamed', since we lack information on how their religion and temple function.

I think 'The Unnamed' should be the weakest fighter out of the backgrounds. Should probably never feel comfortable in altercations.

Should be the most 'aware' on what their curse does to people. Could come with different dialogue during Mr. Chocky's scene or Leander's 'hold back' scene.

Just more references to 'The Unnamed's' old faith. It was such a big part of their life, that it feels wrong to know so little.

Less knowledgeable of 'normal' society. They say the entertainment district in unfamiliar to them, but we don't actually see them go about the place much differently. For example, they shouldn't assume Vere is a sex worker because of the 'parted pink curtains'.

'The Hound':

I actually don't think 'The Hound' needs to be some super proficient combatant, but they should be the most compatent when caught off guard and general 'physical' situations. For example, they don't get knocked to the floor by the 'lowlife' in the bar, and/or their escape from the soulless is more skilful (not just trying to open a door and failing). Mhin would still show up of course.

Let. Them. Steal. The best moment I can think of is after they left Kuras's clinic, they pickpocket someone and use the money to buy food. I think it would make sense because they're already thinking about money in that scene.

Related to the last point, but 'The Hound' should be the most 'comfortable' finanally. Unlike the other backgroudns who have likely not been finanally responsible for themselves, 'The Hound' is used to poverty and low spending power (since most of the money they did have was for a cure). And of course, they have the means to steal. Maybe alter MC's lines about being worried about money.

'The Alchemist':

Not a great physical fighter, but as they get more settled in Eridia, having 'The Alchemist' preparing things such as protection enchantments. If taken off guard, they'll be weak, but if they can prepare for an encounter and such, they'll be in a better condition. That's to say, I don't mind them being 'weak' in the demo.

Some more general history stuff. For example, 'The Alchemist' thinking about how old Eridia is.

'The Exile':

I think if you're going to add a choice to fight the soulless, and a new backgound that's 'familiar' with soulless, I think it's fair to say the MC should have lived in the encounter. It's not like Mhin wouldn't have swooped in to kill the soulless anyways.

Final Thoughts

I do hope RSS come out and explain why 'The Hound' was removed, since I doubt they can add it back in without adding a lot more work the finished game. This also isn't made as a dig at anyone who likes 'The Exile', I just have a Thoughts™.

Also, please tell me if I've missed anything I should have mentioned or if I've said something incorrect!

Touchstarved doodles