Fairest - Scene 1 (Patreon)

Heyo,

For today's creative post we have something new. Well, technically, something old. Back in 2016, before the studio was actually formed, a few of us participated in the yuri game jam. The premise of YGJ is pretty simple: make a yuri game of any sort within a 2 month timeframe. Unfortunately, due to other obligations at the time, we weren't able to get it done. But we got part of the way there! We've talked about resurrecting and finishing it as an Élan project, although we don't have solid plans for it. Still, we'll be posting some of the content that was completed, way back in the day. Re-reading the first scene right now for posting, I'm really glad that I've improved a lot as a writer since then, hah. Not everything has been edited, so a lot of it is pretty rough. The familiar faces on the team were Rachel and I as the writers, as well as tenhit, one of the HotW background artists, doing backgrounds. The rest of the team was:

Character art: Arucelli 

Music: Phyrnna 

GUI: Hirei

So, with all of that said.... Here's the first scene, with the finished Samara and Sophie sprites at the bottom)

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Once upon a time in a certain kingdom there was a princess called Sophie. She was renowned for her beauty and grace as princesses tend to be. Princes from far and wide would travel to the castle where she lived in an attempt to earn her favor and her hand in marriage, but she turned them all away without fail.

“I shall never marry one of these vapid men,” she would tell her father, the king. Each time, he would yell and curse at her, sometimes with a fury so great that it even made the royal guard tremble. Eventually it came to the point where Sophie and her father never, ever spoke except for when they had one of these disagreements.

Then, one day, everything changed.

As Sophie was quietly reading a book, she became of aware of a peculiar aura. It was unnaturally quiet - no noise from the bustling castle or courtyard could be heard. Her room was on the castle’s third floor, so it was away from most of the clamor, but it was never this quiet. It was as if a heavy stillness had fallen over her room. Even when she slammed the book shut, it didn’t make a sound.

Rising to her feet, Sophie spotted a shape just beyond her window. It was blurry and faint beyond the frosted glass, but it was coming closer. Rather than fleeing or hiding, Sophie ran to the window and threw it open, very curious as to what this mysterious shape was. This was the most exciting thing that had happened in months!

And there, just beyond the windowsill, was an elegant woman in dark robes. Though she looked rather taken aback at the greeting, Sophie was much more interested in what she was standing on. Or rather, what she wasn’t standing on; the woman stood in mid-air in the same way that Sophie stood on her bedroom floor.

The two of them stood facing each other, stunned, before Sophie finally remembered her manners and stepped backwards.

Sophie “Are you coming in?”

Biting her lip, Sophie’s “visitor” drifted into the room like a breeze, and softly alighted upon the ground. Then, she pointed a shaking finger in Sophie’s direction and spoke in a deep voice, though it was clear that she was trying to be dramatic.

Woman “Are you the princess Sophia?”

Sophie “I prefer Sophie, but yes, that’s me.”

Now a swirl of misty blackness spread like spilled ink from the empty space behind the mysterious woman, and Sophie, delighted, clapped her hands just as she would at any magician’s performance.

Samara “I am the Dread Witch, Samara, and I have come to…”

The “Dread Witch” paused, her confidence clearly faltering.

Samara “To…?”

Samara “...To steal you away! As we speak, this entire castle lies enchanted, dormant beneath a spell of my own creation. Its denizens shall only awake when we depart, and then they will find that their beloved princess has become the victim of my fury.”

Sophie “‘Beloved princess?’ Are you sure you’re in the right place?”

Samara “The doors are all sealed, the guards ensnared, and--”

Samara “What? What are you doing?”

Right in the middle of Samara’s monologue, Sophie had begun to hurl a few possessions into a canvas sack that had been hidden beneath her bed: few sets of clothes, some well-read books, and fluffy toy rabbit with one missing ear.

Sophie “Nothing, nothing, carry on.”

Samara “For the sake of… Revenge of… The curse…”

Samara couldn’t seem to finish the rest of her monologue. Her arm still hung stiffly in the air, but with any sense of drama having long-since fled, she lowered it and massaged some of the gathering soreness away. She watched, utterly dumbfounded, as Sophie finished packing her bag and then tied it off at the top.

Samara “What are you doing?”

This was the second time she had asked the question, but now her voice had lost its forced, dramatic tone, and now she sounded almost nervous.

Sophie “You said you were taking me somewhere, right? I just wanted to get a few things together before we go.”

After slinging the bag onto her shoulder, Sophie approached Samara, who backed away on instinct.

Sophie “How does this work? Are you going to teleport me somewhere?”

Samara “We… We fly.”

Sophie “Really? That’s even better!”

And for the second time, Sophie clapped, her face lighting up with excitement.

Sophie “Let’s go!”

And so, wondering what exactly she’d gotten herself into, Samara bundled the overeager princess into her arms and half-staggered back to the window.

Sophie on the left, Samara on the right