[POLL/VOTE] What's Going On & What's Next • June - TIER 1 (Patreon)

In this post, I'll be completely honest about what's going on right now and what I have set up or plans for in the near-future. It's a long post but I hopefully formatted the post in a nice way.

There's also a vote at the bottom for me to get a sense of what y'all want next. I'm not full-on promising that I'll be fully able to commit to the results of this vote, but it should at least give me a strong indication of where the interests lie and it could start discussions either here or on Discord.

• What's Going On With The Work?

Over the past weeks I've been making smaller vignettes and one-offs to fill in some space for the very large Dionys (office with Claudia and Mia) set. I'm both running out of ideas for more vignettes and I feel like I have enough at this point to start up another bigger set. Perhaps with dialogue.

I have some ideas and I'm still open to yours but here's what I have already, in various stages of development.

Furthermore, I'm still rendering and editing the Dionys set. It's a very, very big set.

I'm working on the Rhiann x Horse content. I don't want to make this a big set at all. Just an efficient, get the point across set that leaves people wanting more. I don't want this set to impact anything else.

I still have a handful of ideas for vignettes, like Linde and Yuna hiking. I also still need to render a lot of these vignettes, mind.

In short;

- Want to wrap up this collection of smaller vignettes soon.

- Want to wrap up the Rhiann x Horse content; shouldn't be a big set.

- Still rendering and editing the Dionys set. It's big.

• What's Going On With Animations?

I have semi-given up. I'm still keeping an eye open for updates on plugins that I foolishly bought to see if they fixed issues that I've had. But the whole animation process, at least in large part the setting up and porting of characters, has left me with a very very bitter taste.

I thought the challenge would be nice, but it's just been a frustrating process throughout with setting up characters and preparing them being the most frustrating part. Things just break, constantly and I'm plugging up holes more than animating.

For what it's worth, the actual animation process was nice and quick.

I feel too dumb for Blender. I might pick it back up if I have time to spare, which I never have.

• What's Going On With Me?

Thanks for asking. I don't know if it's the bad sleep quality or the heat, but lately I've felt in a big slump. The content has stagnated and so has the growth of Patreon and Twitter. This might be the plateau for me and if it is, it's unsustainable. 

I feel like if I was going to be bigger, number-wise, it would've happened by now. I'll be honest, I'm starting to feel myself inching towards the exit door. 

That said, for now, I'm keeping this going. I have more ideas and I haven't completely given up.

• What's Next?

Another, great question. So I have a few ideas, in various stages of development.

• Hailey/Daria/Regina Storyline Continuation.

We started the Hailey/Daria/Regina storyline. We could continue on from that, showing more of Daria in the police station and the reasons why she did what she did.

We start with Daria, during the day pulling over a car. Before she steps out, we see her adjusting her dashcam, pointing it at the vehicle in front. She lies to him about why she pulled him over and tells him to get out. Stating he matches a description of somebody involved in a recent robbery.

The man steps out and Daria searches him. Probably gropes him and makes comments about it. She tells the man to stand behind his car as she needs to search his car.

Daria had a small bag with the pills she stole from Hailey sticking out of her gloves and plant it in his car. She acts like she found it in his car. Holding it clearly up in the air for the dashcam to see.

We cut to the police station and Daria brings the man in, in handcuffs. He yells throughout that she planted the drugs and that he didn't do anything.

Daria will be shown to be sort of ostracized at the police station and Daria is desperate to either get a promotion (to have power over the people who ostracize her) or to at least prove herself competent.

One of her superiors (a named side-character that we'd need to design together) is attracted by all the yelling and they emerge from their office. They ask Daria what this is all about. Daria hands the bag of drugs to them, explaining they found it in their car and has been finding these pills a lot recently.

Her superior tells her to send it to their labs to get it checked out. Daria asks for permission to follow up on this, wanting to prove herself. The superior sort of remarks that Daria wasn't brought onto the force for her brain but for her strength. But since Daria asked and shows they want to be more than just a patrolling officer, they give Daria a hard, near-impossible task and if they can pull it off, they can investigate into this further together with another investigator (this other investigator will also be a named character and will be designed too).

Cut to Regina's home. We see Regina coming home early morning. It's raining. They often ride their motorcycle to lose some steam. They step into their home and see Hailey on the couch, sleeping. Evidence of drug use on a nearby table. A needle.

A blanket has fallen onto the floor. Regina puts the blanket over Hailey again. Regina is still frustrated and angry over what they've seen on their phone, they want to partly lash out and blame Hailey, but they want to help Hailey rather than blame her. But it's an internal struggle for them.

Regina goes to bed themselves. The next morning, Hailey and Regina talk about what happened. They're both in their underwear. Hailey tries on their cheerful mask of making it not a big deal and tries brushing things off, but Regina isn't having it. Hailey tells Regina that Daria stole those pills off of her and Hailey is worried about that.

It ultimately ends in a bit of a fight; Hailey angry at Regina about not telling her about how they knew Daria prior to this and Regina angry about what happened, not being there to help Hailey and about Hailey, as usual, trying to down-play it and bury it. Eventually, Regina dresses themselves and leaves Hailey with some cash as they goes out in search of Daria.

We THEN introduce Madison Deakins and Aisha Laurent to the story. Aisha returns from work and Madison is in the kitchen, preparing dinner. Madison is only wearing an apron, with an open back. Madison is being very flirty and flamboyant. Almost like a former theatre actress. Aisha remarks the large, open windows and how she's showing everything to everyone. Madison retorts to let the world gawk. The world is her audience.

At the dinner table, Aisha is shown to be sort of worried. Madison asks, but more because you're supposed to ask if you notice somebody worrying about something. Aisha tells her it's just work related and Madison doesn't push further.

Madison brushes her feet between Aisha's legs and rubs it against her crotch. Some dialogue between Madison aggressively flirting and telling Aisha to just forget about work. "Just forget about work and enjoy... -- ...your meal."

Cut to night-time in bed, mid-sex. Madison is in the moment, Aisha is lost in her brain/work. Sex, sex, sex, orgasm. They take a moment to rest, Aisha sort of looking into the distance/ceiling and Madison more gazing at Aisha. Madison notices that same look that she saw at the dinner table and knows Aisha is still just stressing about work. 

(this part is still VERY early in production) Madison says something about her apparently not being distracting enough. Aisha excuses herself and explains there have been some thefts at her laboratory. Hinting at those pills that Hailey had.

Aisha is worried, because they were not ready and consumption can be dangerous and cause health problems. But Aisha is almost more worried that her work is going to be copied or even improved upon if those pills. Making her look bad or worse, have someone else take credit for her work.

Madison tries to smooth things over, showing physical affection mostly with Aisha not reacting much. Madison ends the conversation whilst standing up to clean herself, with something stinging about the relationship/work. Maybe something like "Well, let me know when you're ready to be in the real world with me again. I'm gonna take a quick shower."

Madison exits and Aisha is left alone, perched on her elbows looking at the door, deep in thought.

This set sets up more Daria/Regina conflict. It sets up and explains a little bit more of the pills that Hailey had and how Hailey got it, whilst still keeping questions about any of this. This set also shows a lot of character depth and relationship depth between Hailey and Regina but also Madison and Aisha.

Hailey is sort of dependant on Regina and Regina is misplacing the anger they feel towards themselves onto Hailey for not protecting her from Daria. It also explores Hailey being an addict and how there's more a sister-type relationship between Hailey and Regina.

This can also potentially set up Daria to turn into more of an ally to Regina in the future, if they're in charge of the investigation into their pills she can covertly work against the investigation, whilst simultaneously work on her career.

I also like the idea of Daria and Regina having a previous relationship with each other before falling out, but I don't want to bluntly state it just yet. Maybe in a future fight between them.

This is also the first time we see Aisha and Madison and the theme of Aisha only thinking about her work and being very prideful and ego-centric about her work. She's more worried about her work being used by someone else, than the potential health crisis these stolen pills could cause. 

And we see Madison desperate for Aisha's attention and love through the only way she knows; sex. Which will be a point of character growth for her eventually when Aisha pushes her away at some point for always sexualizing things or solving things in that way. 

• Nina's Introduction

We can also introduce Nina properly in New Peitham. In the story that I have, Nina currently is not living in that high-rise apartment, but in a like basement-apartment? Much lower class and Nina is scraping by. They're working as a waitress/barista in a small coffee shop.

We see Nina coming home at night, exhausted, to messages on their phone. Visible are a bunch of inconsequential messages, a message from their landlord about missed payment, missed messages from Claudia from years ago and unopened messages from Amaya. Asking Nina what they're up to like a childhood friend would ask; lots of friendly insults.

Nina texts back. "Just got home, need a long warm shower. You up to anything?"

Nina steps into the shower after a long day. Close up of Nina's phone on the sink, it's Amaya: "About to hit up [Club name]. Bring that derrière."

Small montage of Nina showering, dressing up and doing their make up; ready to go clubbing with Amaya. 

Nina takes the bus, various folks in the bus ranging from creeps to couples kissing and potentially more. There's a group of men eyeballing Nina, making them uncomfortable.

Nina exits the bus and meets up with Amaya outside the club. They enter and it's a packed club. They drink at the bar, dance together and have a great time.

Nina and Amaya are standing at the bar, yelling over the loud music. Amaya orders and pays for drinks for them both. They're both pretty drunk and high.

Amaya remarks there are a bunch of really hot people around as they both scope the room. Nina concurs.

(This conversation is early in development)
Amaya tells Nina that they're really happy they came back to New Peitham after so long.
Nina remarks the city feels really different from when they were kids. (I'm still looking for a narrative or character theme where this conversation can go.)

Eventually a very pretty person orders at the bar behind Nina. (This character will be designed together, but will be somewhat androgynous but have some feminine traits) Amaya is attracted to them and Nina can tell by just looking at Amaya. Amaya is looking over Nina's shoulder/head at the other person.

Nina dryly says to Amaya: "Like what you see?"

Amaya into Nina's ear, over the loud music: "There's a really hot piece of ass right behind you..."

Nina turns to face the bar, between Amaya and the attractive person, leans in and speaks into their ear: "My friend likes you."

The attractive person speaks back, whilst looking over at Amaya: "The tall, muscular black lady?"

Nina: "Yeah. She wants to fuck you... really hard."

Nina looks over their shoulder at Amaya laughing whilst the other person, very interested also laughs.

Amaya then leans in and speaks into Nina's ear: "What'd you say?"

Nina: "That you really like them and you want their number."

Amaya: "Cool, thanks, I don't want to seem like some sex fiend, you know."

Nina: "I got you."

Nina returns to the attractive person: "Do you want to get fucked by my tall, muscular black friend in the bathroom?"

Attractive person: "What?" They couldn't hear or thought they misheard over the loud music.

Nina to the attractive person: "Do you want to get fucked? In the bathroom?"

A beat. Nina looks at them, almost annoyed and dumbfounded that this is taking so long for them to answer.

Another beat, the person sort of has a brain-shortcut as they process the question.

Attractive person: "I'd like that."

Nina turns to Amaya and talks in her ear. "They want to talk to you in the bathroom."

Amaya is sort of confused. Bathroom? Why? More importantly, how this Nina do this so efficiently?

Nina again to Amaya: "It's too loud. Talk in the bathroom."

Amaya fist-bumps Nina and leaves her half-drunk glass on the bar. Thankful for arranging a talk in the bathroom with this person. Amaya disappears in the crowd of people.

Nina finishes their own drink and also drinks Amaya's drink.

Montage of Nina dancing on their own in a crowd of people. Drunk. High. The visual style at this point distorts somewhat to match Nina's perspective. 

Eventually someone else joins the frame (this person will be designed with you).

Nina seductively dances with them for a few shots. Then, drunkenly and "highly" gropes them. They make out on the dancefloor.

Cut to the packed restrooms, Nina and the other person barge into the room. Kissing aggressively against the restroom walls. They fondle and make out as they make their way through the restroom stalls. 

They enter a vacant stall. But before everything kicks off, the other person pulls out a baggy with a white powder inside.

They both take lines off of the back of the toilet.

Nina takes the bottom role during this scene. Throughtout these shots, whenever applicable, we see Amaya's feet in another stall with the other person from the bar.

An overhead shot of Amaya and Nina having sex next to each other.

Sex, sex, sex, orgasm.

The person who was with Nina doesn't RUSH, per se. But doesn't linger. They dress themselves and leave. As they do, they don't even close the stall door.

Nina exits the stall when we see Amaya and the attractive person from the bar sort of waiting for Nina. Amaya has her arm over the shoulder of the shorter person. They all sort of stifle laughter for a bit as Nina goes to the sink to clean their face.

We end with another montage of the three dancing on the dancefloor.
Them saying their farewells in front of the club; Nina and Amaya going the same way and the attractive person entering a taxi.

Nina and Amaya drunkenly stumbling through the city.
Nina falling over into someone's garden/bushes.
Amaya pissing against a wall.
Both walking and laughing.

Amaya walks Nina home. They drunkenly talk to each other, telling the other how much fun they had and how they probably shouldn't do it again, but that they can't wait to do it again. Throughout this conversation I want to give the sense that they kind of want love from each other at this point. But they're both not acting on that, because they don't want to potentially ruin their healthy friendship.

The conversation is cute, it has some silences and some maybe drunken confessions.

Amaya: "Look, I want to get home before people wake up and see me like this out here."

Nina longingly looks at Amaya before turning around and entering their basement apartment. Amaya looks at Nina waiting for an invite inside that never comes.

Amaya smiles to herself as she walks away.

This set sets up Nina, our main character I think, and how they deal with their issues of loneliness, fear of connecting (and losing connection) and the outside struggles. It also explains more of Amaya and Nina's relationship where there's obvious attraction and maybe love from both sides, but for Nina it's that fear of connection and maybe confusion between if they love Amaya or are just that alone.

For Amaya it's not wanting to ruin the good friend she is to Nina. Amaya is a real ride-or-die friend. And it's a BIG move for the both of them to change that dynamic. They are also incredibly intoxicated at this point, so they both would LOVE to take that step, but they're both filled with doubt.

This set also shows a little bit of what New Peitham is like, this place corrupts over time and sexualizes everything. Which is something the entire cast comes into conflict with.

• Büla's Story

We can also continue on with Nina and Büla's story. I have a storyline that focusses on the consequences of what Büla did to free Nina. They're currently hiding out in the forests a couple of days out from the city where the colosseum is. And so, they want to journey farther away, up north. But they need more supplies and clothes and all that.

So they secretly go back into town, to buy these supplies. This is a few days travel, they'll camp out at night and do the usual stuff.

But in the market, they're confronted with orcs like Büla being treated even worse and even enslaved. There's wanted posters of Nina and Büla. 

Nina draws too much attention for some reason and they have to evade incoming guards. Büla and Nina almost get caught, they dip in and out of alleyways and eventually hide out in the ruins of a home where they find another orc hiding.

They will be a new named character, who will be designed with the help of you. They'll explain that after that night, all the orcs were basically punished for what Büla did and the story sort of explores how Büla deals with that. So this new character really hates Büla and Nina.

...or I do some smaller sets focussing on usual stuff. seems to work for some people.

thanks for coming to my Tedtalk.