god. while im in dumb theory mode. mr. ashtrey mentions that is wife died but left him with a son... what if mr. ashtrey is seth's dad?!
that would be absolutely insane because 1. it would necessitate mr. ashtrey being some kind of crime lord and 2. seth's last name, according to this itch page, is not ashtrey
but damn wouldnt it be wild
okay so i hit the TBC and am playing through each different field day (i genuinely love the full cast) and i swear to god.
[idk how to do spoiler tags in itch.io comments section so im just gonna hit enter a lot of times to try & bury this next bit cos...
it's a theory incoming]
.
.
.
.
.
.
NEIM'S TERRIBLE MEMORY IS TOTALLY FROM BRAIN DAMAGE SHE RECEIVED AS THE RESULT OF A NEAR-DROWNING INCIDIENT WHEN SHE WAS WEE BABBIES WITH MATT
IS THE JESTER EVEN REAL
IM QUESTIONING EVERYTHING
one thing's for sure - this definitely explains a lot about matt's character. ugh this is so well written i'm having such a good time
in more speculative territory RE the jester: the jester definitely could be some kind of hallucination neim's mind created to cope with the trauma... but also what if the jester is real and neim Also just happened to have a near-death experience? both could be true at once
so much to ponder
oh my god - i don't think this theory is true but it's Possible - what if the jester's curse was actually fine at the start but neim getting brain damage caused the curse to freak out and go full pun mode activate???
personally though i just think neim is Like That (and we love her for it)
anyways i havent even finished the entire scene yet i just had to go flip out somewhere
lynette in the school caf eating her gabagool
(seriously though - i'm not even done with it yet but playing this demo has really brought a smile to my face. it reminds me a lot of the otomes i used to play growing up - big cosy nostalgia feelings. can't stop grinning. and laughing. oh my god this game is insane - i'm spending most of it feeling absolutely baffled in the best way possible. i'll be queuing up to get the full game on release!)
binge read Incubus back in June and went to check out what else you'd written - imagine my surprise when i see Aloners!! i read it almost a full decade ago, but it always stuck with me. for that alone(rs), i was very happy to pay for a trip down memory lane and some bonus content. let me say - i absolutely adored it. i can see why it stayed in my mind for so long.
looking forward to the next chapter of incubus - utter bullshit it got deindexed by itch. i hope it'll be reindexed after review. hope you're doing alright through it all. honestly, if you ever made a mailing list (god... mailing lists... in 2025.......) to let people know when new games were released, i'd sign up for it in a heartbeat
[spoiler warning]
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
ooooooh my fucking god, poor Detective - finally they're getting to grow into a genuine & healthy relationship with Flea and past the unhealthy coping mechanism with Ted ... only for Detective to not only get sucked into a repeating nightmare of the worst day of their life, but then have Ted find out about their fucked up feelings. Goddamn. You are a devious motherfucker in the best way. I mean, I should've seen it coming - how could you let a story beat that juicy go untapped - but I totally fucking didn't and you got me good! That's going to be one fucking awful dinner with the in-laws - can't wait to see it!
And having mentioned that genuine & healthy relationship with Flea - goddamn. Goddamn goddamn. His domestic fucking ass talking about laundry pre-bone got me good. Just the simple joy of loving and being loved - of people carving out a life together... and Detective showing Flea their drawings and it's just all of Flea?! Loved how you revisted that later in Flea's POV - but I especially enjoyed the restraint with which you described the Detective's perception of Flea's reaction when they showed him. You're really, really good at letting the audience do the feeling - you don't tell us where the characters are at emotionally, but instead guide us to it in a way that leads us to connection & empathy. That's my pretentious way of putting it, anyway. But it's something I'm always itching for in writing and you're really, really good at it.
On a less pretentious note - I also loved Tabby trying to warn Flea something was wrong. In a world with demons walking about in it, cats truly would be supernatural geiger counters. As someone who also has a dumbass cat that loves my partner more than me, loving the representation here.
So excited for the next chapter & to see where this all goes! And then reread it all over again once it's done!
holyyyy shit it is 1:20am, i have shit to do in the morning, but i just devoured all 6 chapters of this as ravenously as bella ate those people in chapter 5. honestly each chapter was better than the last - i bloody loved this one. mainly just because - i dont know how different all the ted stuff is if you didn't choose for your character to be in love with him, but oh my god it was handled so well. i'm not even talking about flea's jealousy - though that was obviously very fun - but just the fucked up, complicated, traumatic nature of it all? just how fucking sad it is for the player character to be in love with ted? it wasn't in this chapter, but the flashback scene where you can have the player character touch themself thinking about ted and feeling so crushed and guilty about it - i thought it was handled so well. you captured the feeling with such clarity. i've been really enjoying slowly RPing my character getting over ted and finding something healthier with flea - becoming their own person. it's just so well written. unlike this comment, which is a big late night ramble lol... but yeah. as an Individual With Emotional Baggage, it just all really resonated with me. obviously my parents werent murdered by demons and im not in love with my sadguy cop foster dad. but there's just this kind of universal traumatic emotional perversion - perversion not in the kinky sense but in the distortion sense - that you captured really well here. i loved it.
anyways - i am sorry this is so wordy! i obviously enjoyed loads of other things throughout the game - the dialogue is extremely natural, flea is a fucking endearing little pest, and the sex scenes are genuinely really good. and im fucking picky about sex scenes, lol. i just wound up going on a long ramble about the ted dynamic because it moved me. apologies again for so many words and looking forward to chapter 7 :D
