And Ends

Merry welcome, and merrying hellos and greetings.

"And Ends" is a visual novel about existing when nothing else exists anymore. An eschatological tale to an extent.
Following two characters: the only two living things left (and i mean the only two left, everything else including animals and plants have died off), meeting and living in a lodge at the edge of a cliff in a desert somewhere nowhere, where the only sight is an ever-eroding inert desert.

It asks some questions about mortality and the end of life as a whole — ultimately pondering about the end of everything.
Further explanations in the Tone section of the description.

Note that this is a demo/preview version. It should be playable online.
It is being worked on as a side project, as I have a failing forestry business to run into the ground (haha).

• Worldbuilding:

The universe itself is pretty much an idea of the world of now, if it went through an apocalyptic end of life, but in a very slow, peaceful and mellow way. Simply, the end of life here would not occur through drastic changes, but the gradual disappearance of the food chain, up to the top (where the humans would be the only ones alive until they could not sustain). Knowledge, how-to and dependencies are lost over time as well. There is a little bit more about that very early on during the prologue, if you are willing to sit through it. But, ultimately, this takes place as the logical end of this setting; but is not the setting per say, as it is the end of that setting. Though I suppose in this way, it still is the same setting? Usually you would hear about death and rebirth in these types of scenarios, but here you will have none.
This plays in a non sci-fi version of the world (as there would be no science): simply, it is a gentle — a simple ending. 

It follows the events of a previous VN I worked on, but I think that VN was less than mediocre, so I will not link it here. 

• Characters:

Dasasrulye and Sitsariell. Those are slightly modified Georgian words. Honestly I picked Georgian because I think their alphabet is very pretty and nice to look at. If you never looked upon the Georgian language, I'd invite you to do so, they have very beautiful letters.

Dasasrulye means "The End" (Დასასრული) - or so a translation software told me and i believed its binaries.
Sitsariell means "Emptiness" (სიცარიელე)  - or so a translation software told me and i believed its binaries.
Take this as you will.

These two characters exist there as only them since nothing else would be, by the time the game takes place. They are similar to one another at their core, having met and spent many a day together in the past. As such, it is an already-established relationship of a close friendship.

Both used to preside over all rites of remembrance within their respective villages. Both took the position (made?) after a journey of soul-seeking (or something) with one another. Before that, odd jobs for their village so that things would exist and keep going, as they would have gone. Surviving and mostly living as humans would.

• Tone:

As you may guess from what has already been written, this certainly is not about happy things. It is more of an exchange of strange essays with poetic undertones and flowery language, sprinkled with a long-standing close relationship between two beings (that are Being).
While its story is very much odd, and follows a non-traditional storytelling structure (that i know nothing about to be honest), perhaps the value it would have otherwise is within the abstracts they talk about, and some macro-views on life, things, and time.

An ontological/existential novel at its core, these are, ultimately, ponderings in an essayist-like dialogue between two, sprinkled in-between with familiarity, and the comforting vision of a dear friend; a way to talk that would probably only make sense in a post-post-apocalypse setting.

I hope that what is written here does not sound full of itself. There are undertones of disdain for many things, hence the pessimistic core of it all, and because of this (or thanks to this?) there is an attempt to avoid academic-like talks. Whether or not it succeeds at it… I cannot be the judge of that, because I cannot read (see the post-scriptum).

The atmosphere of the VN is just emptiness. The music, I hope, reflects that, as it was created with the ideas of the VN in mind (exemple: https://somerled.bandcamp.com/album/untraveller-part-ii).

The visual art part is all AI-generated, because I am unwilling to learn how to draw, and unwilling to pay an artist when this is only a demo and there is so much to do. Think of it as a proof of concept type deal (that may or may not carry on to be part of the finalized project).
Since AI art is a virulent topic, if you desire to talk of it, I would here only welcome takes on a more ontological aspect of things and the human. The micro of the AI subject is of no interest in this VN, and by extension, to this page. For copyright-related issues, licensing is covered under the Midjourney's terms of service. Until the class-action lawsuit finds its verdict, there is nothing else to be said (maybe — actually I really don't know, but imagine this is like some goober saying "not financial advice" even though it clearly is. It gives an illusion of protection that is reinforced by the fact that people actually don't care about it so no one corrects it. The fear of it not being here however; it is a spectacle of safety. And, by saying all this, would it cancel out all that was said before these comments? That would be funny).

• Caution:

This touches on certain subjects, such as drugs (alcohol), addictions (tobacco), mental anguish, grave illnesses, and other things I forgot about.
But if you're already interested by this, that means you probably don't care too much about being affected by that sort of thing. Honestly I'm not quite sure why I write this, though I guess I don't want to cause unwanted existential crises. If it is hard for you to handle heavy topics, I would advise to steer clear of this, and I wish you a steadfast recovery.

You can reach me at somerled.tihomir@gmail.com or human.bog@pm.me.
Alright cool big heart big hearts; have a nice day or evening or whatever sun quadrant's position. Life's life, and a weird one at that…
Remember that love will always light the way (and also look at the sky every once in a while. The clouds are perfect up there, you know?).

- Somerled / Pox

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You can also check my website's page for… pretty much the same exact information as here, except it's a simple html page because i don't like fancy things and bloated garbage:
https://hollowgrove.xyz/And_Ends.html | External download there as well.

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• Credits:

Thank you for checking out this page for my Visual Novel. Double thanks if you end up playing it (it goes like: thank you you, or thank thank you, or thank you thank you, or thank thank you you).

This was created using the TyranoBuilder software for assembly, and the novel script with Scrinever.

For drawings, generations by the NijiJourney AI, and their edits (ranging in intensity) with Gimp.

Music created in FL Studio.

Here's a list of unalive things, and alive things to credit:

* Thank you to Mali for helping out with initial testings and great suggestions

* As well thanks to Wurm (and I want to say Garf, but this bean has been very very busy with his life, so he's been absent of this project)

* All the music used are my creations. I've used an assortment of my personal works, mostly recent ones however, such as the albums "Untraveller".

* Poems that aren't credited are because I don't think crediting yourself is a thing to do (it would be very weird).

In no exact order or categories, here are all the references (even those those stated inside the novel, like certain poems):

> Note that for music, the naming convention goes like this: Name - Artist - Album

- [Music] Driving - Grouper - Grid of Points

- [Music] The Microphones in 2020 - The Microphones

- [Music] Thanksgiving Song - Grouper - Grid of Points

- [Multimedia] Safe Mode - U m a m i

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• Scene cards references:

- [Music] Heavenly Bodies - Douglas Dare | [Book] Paul Koudounaris - Heavenly Bodies

- [Music] Ōtani Kō - 灰羽連盟 サウンドトラック ハネノネ 羽音 | It's the "main" Haibane Renmei OST CD

- [Music] Thanksgiving Song - Grouper - Grid of Points

- [Music] Youth - Mount Eerie - Sauna

- [Music] Lighthouse - Grouper - Ruins

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• Changelog: 

v0.1.3 Demo - 14/01/2023

- First public release.

PS:

Am actually ⑨ smoothbrain ⑨

>>>>>>>>> I have the stupid