Allie

Sam: "Feels like Home"

You’re already thrumming with excitement the moment you and your father ring the familiar gnome-shaped doorbell on Sam’s front porch. You can hear the hum of laughter and conversation from inside, familiar voices you haven't heard in a while. Well, since Thanksgiving, but it feels like a lifetime ago now, what with the mad rush of finals.

Sam yanks the door open mid-knock, eyes bright, face splitting into that massive, unguarded grin—the one they've always reserved just for you. T...

G: “Hallmark Romance”

24 December

The pilot's voice crackles over the intercom, pulling you from a hazy half-dream. You press your forehead to the cold airplane window. Below, the landscape unfolds in shades of white and grey and deep green—endless pine forests threaded with silver rivers, frozen and still.

G sits beside you, thigh warm against yours. 

“How’s the book?” you murmur. 

G glances up, a small smile tugging at their mouth. They close the book—...

Rayyan Winter Snippet: "An Invitation"

28th December

The house smells like caramelized onions, garlic sizzling in oil, the deep, earthy scent of meat simmering in spices—it’s warm, savory, and comforting: the kind of smell that promises you’ll be eating well and probably too much. You take a deep, appreciative inhale the moment you step inside.

Rayyan’s mother answers the door the second you knock, as though she’s been hovering behind it all afternoon. She’s petite and soft around the edges...

Merry Crisis Chapter 5 is live!

​Hi everyone! 

Chapter 5: The Crisis

The latest chapter is live for ko-fi and patreon supporters! This is the one where things come to a head, and decisions have to be made...

Features: 

• ​Have one last day with Qiu, Shay, or Nat on Ubin, a little island a boat ride away from mainlan...

  2025-12-14 01:59:09 +0000 UTC View Post

Nov Dev Log

Hi everyone!

The end of the year is looming, and wow, it’s been a whirlwind (heck, typhoon) over here. Sorry this Dev Log is coming out a week late, but we've had so much exciting progress!

Merry Crisis

• The VN demo is officially out, and publishing to Steam has been a wild ride—over 400 wishlists in just 9 days, and less than 48 hours since the demo dropped. Absolutely surreal. Thank you all so much for the l...

  2025-12-08 03:59:08 +0000 UTC View Post

Hands on instruction (Geneviève)

It’s a sunny early-Spring day, but the late-afternoon air carries a bite sharp enough to make Geneviève shiver in her dry-fit shirt and shorts. “How the heck do you guys practice in this?” she asks, hopping up and down in a desperate attempt to warm up. “I’m already freezing.”

You grin, enjoying the rare sight of Geneviève in exercise clothes. “Don’t worry—I’ll have you sweating soon enough.” Adjusting the ball basket, you motion toward her. “Shall we start?”...

Hands-on instruction (Guillaume)

It’s a sunny early-Spring day, but the late-afternoon air carries a bite sharp enough to make Guillaume shiver in his dry-fit shirt and shorts. “How the heck do you guys practice in this?” he asks, hopping up and down in a desperate attempt to warm up. “I’m already freezing.”

You grin, enjoying the rare sight of Guillaume in exercise clothes. “Don’t worry—I’ll have you sweating soon enough.” Adjusting the ball basket, you motion toward him. “Shall we start?” 2025-11-17 15:25:49 +0000 UTC View Post

Rayyan's post-party POV scene

Rayyan sits on the edge of their bed, freshly showered and dressed, the shredded remains of the Mummy costume dumped in the laundry basket. The quiet of their room feels like a sanctuary after the chaos of the Halloween party.

They crawl into bed intending to sleep, but their mind's too active—turning over what has just happened over and over.

Rayyan hadn’t expected the night to end the way it did. Heck, they'd expected to be in and out of there after an hour, tops. Long en...

Oct Dev Log

Hi everyone! Hope you've all been having a wonderful October! If you have fall 🍂 where you are, consider me VERY jealous. To everyone who celebrates, happy Mid Autumn, Diwali/Deepavali, and halloween!

This month, a lot of exciting progress was made on the Merry Crisis VN, and I also did a lot of writing for Chapter 5 (the next chapter of Merry Crisis's text-based version).

Merry Crisis

• I've made so much progress on the Ubin Chapter this month and am proud to s...

  2025-11-01 01:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post

Halloween Snippet (Nat)

Halloween, Senior Year of College

I.

"This is ridiculous," you say, but you're already laughing. Three years in, and you still don’t understand the sheer enthusiasm with which Americans celebrate Halloween. 

"It's time-honored tradition," Nat corrects, waving a plastic retractable knife at you. They’re wearing a humongous, life-sized cereal box, with red-painted horror-letters that read “KILLER”.

You can’t help but fl...

Halloween Snippets (CT:OS)

SAM O’CONNELLY

<In high school> 

Sam shows up at your house covered in glitter, wearing fake vampire fangs that are a little too big for their mouth, a superhero cape draped over their shoulders, waving a lightsaber, with a pirate hat to top it all off. 

You can’t stop laughing. “Sam, what the hell are you?” 

Sam grins, already munching on a snicker’s bar. “There’s no rule saying you can ...

Shay (M) Morning After Sneak Peek

29 December

You wake to the sounds of Shay snoring lightly, smiling at the thought that even the air whistling out of his parted lips sounds strangely musical. Some time during the night, he'd ended up kicking the sheets off the bed entirely, and they now lie in a heap on the ground. 

*if had sex with Shay last night

The light fi...

Shay (F) Morning After Sneak Peek

29 December

You wake to the sounds of Shay snoring lightly, smiling at the thought that even the air whistling out of her parted lips sounds strangely musical. Some time during the night, she'd ended up kicking the sheets off the bed entirely, and they now lie in a heap on the ground. 

*if had sex with Shay last night

The light f...

Qiu (M) Morning After Sneak peek

29 December

You’re awakened by an unfamiliar alarm tone in an unfamiliar room. Sunlight slants through the little slit where the curtain hadn't been drawn all the way across the window. For a moment, disorientation grips you—the bed is a tad too hard, the sheets too crisp, the room too sparse and carefully organized to be yours. Even the air smells different—clean be...

Qiu (F) Morning After Sneak Peek

29 December

You’re awakened by an unfamiliar alarm tone in an unfamiliar room. Sunlight slants through the little slit where the curtain hadn't been drawn all the way across the window. For a moment, disorientation grips you—the bed is a tad too hard, the sheets too crisp, the room too sparse and carefully organized to be yours. Even the air smells different—clean be...

Nat (M) Morning After Sneak Peek

29 December

You wake to the gentle pressure of Nat's arm draped across your waist. The room is quiet, save for the sound of Nat's soft steady breathing. It takes you a couple of seconds to remember where you are: Nat's hotel room at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel.

With the thick blackout curtains drawn, you have no idea how late it is. Outside, the city must al...

Nat (F) Morning After sneak peek

29 December

You wake to the gentle pressure of Nat's arm draped across your waist. The room is quiet, save for the sound of Nat's soft steady breathing. It takes you a couple of seconds to remember where you are: Nat's hotel room at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel.

With the thick blackout curtains drawn, you have no idea how late it is. Outside, the city must al...

Sep Dev Log

Hi everyone! Hope you've all been having a wonderful September!

This month, CT:OS passed the 5,000 Tumblr supporter mark! I'm so honored and grateful for you guys's support. It has been such a wonderful journey so far and I cannot emphasize enough how much you all mean to me.

Merry Crisis

• I've made solid progress on the Ubin Chapter this month, and I feel like I've written something I'm proud of at last! I'm planning to release 3 'teaser' snippets in October (Nat, ...

  2025-09-30 13:35:21 +0000 UTC View Post

CT:OS Ch 7 Pt. 3

This update picks up where Pt. 2 left off, for the folks who didn't play against Sam and Pan.

Play it here! 

Features (~47k words)

If you didn't play against Sam:

• Play the full Malik & Sanderson Quarter-Final match (will you get through to Semis?)

• Post-ma...

  2025-09-05 15:17:00 +0000 UTC View Post

Aug Dev Log

Author’s note

Lots of super exciting progress this month, I really missed writing and development work, so it felt really good to get back into the swing of things.

I worked on quite a variety of things this month, but the main bulk of my time went towards writing for CT:OS and finishing up a 1st draft of the Merry Crisis visual novel demo.

Merry Crisis 2025-08-30 14:37:09 +0000 UTC View Post

State of Emergency: Guillaume's tennis weekend

Weekend of the NCAO Doubles Championship
Saturday, 7 Nov.

Morning routine

Guillaume wakes early, and makes herself a cup of espresso. The room feels too quiet without MC, who'd taken to stopping by for a morning coffee/tea/juice before practice.

Today, however, there's no thump of footsteps, no soft, sleepy grin, no brainless conversation.
Guillaume hadn't noticed how much he'd begun to enjoy this particular way to...

"State of Emergency": Geneviève's tennis weekend

Weekend of the NCAO Doubles Championship
Saturday, 7 Nov.

Morning routine

Geneviève wakes early, and makes herself a cup of espresso. The room feels too quiet without MC, who'd taken to stopping by for a morning coffee/tea/juice before practice.

Today, however, there's no thump of footsteps, no soft, sleepy grin, no brainless conversation.
Geneviève hadn't noticed how much she'd begun to enjoy this particular wa...

Jul Dev Log

Author's Note

Again, big apology to everyone for how quiet it's been—something personal happened and I needed to take some time off, and then I also had a long overseas work trip that sucked all my remaining time and energy.

I started editing, writing and coding again middle of last week, and have been slowly easing my way into things. This is sort of a stocktake of what my plans are after they were de-railed, but also some minor updates on the little things I...