Hello, so this is my first time using this forum, but I wasn't sure
(NOTE: SOME STUFF IS NOT SET IN STONE, AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AS NEW IDEAS ARE GIVEN)
Idea 1: A potential fairytale-esque Winter VN Jam entry. You, the protagonist, get lost in a snowstorm when a mysterious pale lady named December offers you shelter in her cabin. The protagonist suspects that the woman has something to her, so they do some investigating in the cabin.
It's revealed that December herself is actually a benign snow sprite who genuinely wishes to help. She arrives and leaves as the snow does.
A concept doodle for December herself.
Idea 2: A horror visual novel where the player is being interrogated/interviewed? in a single, dimly lit room by a black-haired woman named "Dorothy". one idea I had would be that the woman interviewing the player would start off asking innocuous questions, but they'd become more unsettling and personal overtime. Like, for instance, she'd ask things like what your hobbies were, but then she'd start asking stuff like "Have you ever been betrayed, abandoned, or otherwise made a complete and utter fool out of?"
No concept art for Dorothy, though. This idea's more recent than the other one.
Both visual novels would be made in RenPy, and both would be no longer than 2 hours.
I have no idea how to flesh either idea out, so I'm posting here as a last resort. Apologies if my ramblings are a bit disorganized.
December is super cute and I was inspired to write something of a romance that could work as an idea! It could be either BxG or GxG
I got incredibly lost in the sauce and wrote for like 2-3 hours (over 1500 words lmao) before realizing I was writing an entire script
Also I didn't add any branching paths or choices, but they could be added pretty easily I think
You, the protagonist, are a young adult with a penchant for exploration. You didn't have a kind youth, and an obsession with escaping society has driven you to take larger and larger risks to reach further and further into the remote wilderness of the north.
Evidently, your overconfidence has finally caught up to you. You're days away from the nearest settlement, and a surprise blizzard has halted all progress. There's no choice but to hunker down in a hole in the snow and wait for it to pass. Hours and hours go by, but the blizzard only becomes more intense.
As your body temperature drops, you try everything you can to stay warm. You remember that singing could help, and so you start to repeat a melody taught to you long ago by your late mother. After you repeat it a few times, somehow you think you can hear something like a flute playing along with your lyrics.
Hope is eventually lost. Your lips numb, and you aren't able to keep singing. As the flute fades, your hear a voice. A beautiful, pale, crystalline-like woman appears before you, introduces herself, and praises your song excitedly. At first she appears unaware of your predicament, but as she continues to talk enthusiastically and you barely reply, she eventually realizes something is wrong.
You yourself dismiss the woman as nothing but a hallucination, and wonder if you're already dying of hypothermia. It's not until she takes your gloved hand into hers that you believe her to be real. After the realization kicks in, you agree to come with her to her cabin.
After reaching the cabin, December starts a fire in the unused-looking wood stove and you sit down in front of it. Your extremities warm back up, and thankfully it doesn't seem like you have any frostbite or severe hypothermia. You notice that December doesn't take off any of her winter clothes even after the room is warmed up. She warms a can of food for you, and after you eat it, she offers you a bed. You fall asleep instantly from exhaustion.
Waking up, the cabin has gone cold. Thankfully, the cold-weather sleeping bag you had with you was enough to keep you warm overnight.
You slide out of your sleeping bag and quickly put on your winter clothes. Exploring the cabin, December is nowhere to be found. It's a simple log cabin with just two rooms, devoid of anything modern. There isn't a speck of dust to be seen, but the cabin seems like it could be straight out of a scene from the old frontier. The only heat source is a cast iron wood stove, the food storage is full of unlabeled tin cans, the furniture is wooden, and the beds are piled high with animal furs.
As you finish exploring, December comes in the front door, happily humming along to a familiar tune. She smiles happily when she notices you. "You're up!"
She asks how you're doing and smiles again when you assure her you're doing fine. She then produces something from behind her back, looking proud of herself. "Perfect for breakfast, right?"
It's a white hare, plump and fat. It's dead, but looking over it you can't find any trace of an injury. December looks a little nervous as you inspect it, perhaps mistaken about your intent. "Sorry... I don't actually know how to prepare one of these..."
You assure her it's fine. As an avid back-country explorer, you have plenty of experience preparing game. She watches in admiration as you skillfully skin the hare and remove the guts.
You ask if she has any seasonings, and a look of recollection passes over her face. "Ah, yes, I think we have something like that here!" She looks around in the food storage and eventually comes up with a small wooden box.
The box contains a few recognizable basic necessities for cooking like salt and pepper, but unlabeled as they are it's hard for you to tell what else you could use. You shrug and decide to make do with the basics.
Upon cooking the hare, you offer some to December. She happily accepts, and blows heavily on the meat to cool it down before eating. Her smile afterwards seems too bright for such a simple meal. "I haven't eaten something like this for so long!"
After the meal is over, an awkward silence falls over the two of you. December looks like she has a lot she wants to say, but a nervous, sad look keeps stopping her. You can't decide if you should wait or speak up first.
Eventually, you shiver once as your inactive body begins to cool down, the fire in the stove dying. December finally takes it as a chance to speak up. "I'm sorry... it's too cold for you, isn't it? You... need to go back home, right?"
"I'll be fine, I spend most of my time outside in the winter anyway." You reply, having no intention to go back home anytime soon. December has well and truly piqued your interest. "But you aren't a normal human like me, are you? It's plain to see that the cold is more comfortable for you."
December sighs as if letting out a ton of stress. "Was I really that obvious?" She thinks for a moment before continuing softly. "I'm... a snow sprite. I think."
It's something you've heard of before, in an old book about the northern wilderness, but you can't recall the specifics.
You urge her to continue, and she elaborates. "Apparently, it's what happens when snow spirits are infected by the innermost desires of nearby humans."
"The snow sprite inherits the same desires, and once they fulfill their desires, they disappear, and the snow spirits die along with them. It's why there are so few snow spirits left these days."
"Of course, both snow spirits and snow sprites disappear each spring as well, but we always come back once the snow falls again."
You listen in awe as December continues her story.
She once lived here in this cabin with another person many, many years ago. They were also someone that had bitter memories of humanity, and thought that they wanted to live alone for the rest of their lives. Because of the remote location, the snow spirits of the area were even more sensitive to emotions than usual, and over time this person's inner, hidden desire for love and companionship infected them.
Being born with these desires as her only personality, December often pestered the loner. Unaware of her nature, they rejected her flatly time and time again. She would follow them wherever they went during the winter, whether hunting, gathering firewood, or just hiking. She even snuck into their cabin to be with them as they slept, despite her aversion to heat.
Eventually, the loner grew fed up with December, believing she wanted to trick them, and tried to kill her. A bullet through the heart or the head had no effect, but the loner had also noticed her aversion to cold. They trapped her inside the cabin and forced her to sit in front of the fire. She melted away, but was back the next day to pester him again. (Maybe she doesn't actually melt, idk exactly what her physical body is like)
In a last ditch attempt to get rid of her, the loner left their home behind for a summer and made the long journey south to the nearest city. It was there they read up on snow sprites, and realized December's true nature. When the first snowfall came that year, they finally took December in their arms and apologized with all their heart.
The December in front of you sheds a tear as her voice wavers through this part of the story. She shakes her head before you can say anything and continues on.
December and the loner spent many years together, happy and content. Their living situation was always a strange mix of too warm and too cold, but they made it work. One day, the loner realized that they had made a grave mistake. If December would disappear upon having her desires fulfilled, then loving her should have made her disappear!
They discussed it with December, and neither of them could figure it out. In the end, they simply went with the assumption that December would disappear once the loner passed away.
"But that day came and went, and I never went anywhere."
December finally chokes up at that line, and breaks down crying completely. You stand, worried, but you're not sure how to comfort her. Would it hurt her if you touched her?
WAIT I'M WRITING AN ENTIRE SCRIPT HOW DID I GET SO LOST IN THE SAUCE, I'VE BEEN SITTING HERE FOR LIKE 3 HOURS
Further ideas summarized:
- December asks you to stay for just a little while, knowing that most people aren't weirdos who live out in the wilderness like the loner
- You have a fun time with her, get to know even more about her, and physical boundaries are tested
- You fall in love and extend your stay again and again until the snow begins to melt
- Emotional goodbye as spring comes, you promise to be there in the fall
- You go get supplies over the summer and come back super prepared to live with her happily all winter
One of two endings
- The condition for her to disappear is actually for her to have a family, and after giving birth to a child she disappears, breaking your heart but leaving you with a cute child to keep you company
- There is no way for her to disappear because her desires are "to find true love and companionship for life", so she is actually cursed with immortality in a weird twist where she could fulfill the desires of you and the loner, but not her own desires, so she doesn't disappear after you die either. However, perhaps she has a child or two to keep her company this time?
(Child may or may not be compatible with GxG, but it's supernatural so it can probably work somehow)
