LUCIDITY tags: light fantasy, brief amnesia, dreamwalking, reincarnation
Not everyone makes it to the afterlife.
Legends tell of an island far beyond the boundaries of the Amaranthine Sea that death does not touch. But with such a ‘gift’ comes a price: not every soul can find a body, and not every body can find a soul.
But there is a middle ground. Souls strong enough to displace the newborn souls of infants, permanently altering the body’s aura, the ‘shield’ that binds a soul to a body.
Known as Sleepwalkers, these people live a life of extremes- without an aura to bind the soul to the body, the soul is free to wander, especially while asleep. The first sign of a Sleepwalker is the ability to walk through other people’s dreams.
The second sign is a unique susceptibility to being possessed.
You are a Sleepwalker recovering from a recent possession. Discover the extent of your newly-found psychic abilities, get to the bottom of who buried you alive, and go on your dream date (literally).
Features:
- Play as male, female, non-binary (with options for 3 different gender presentations), or genderfluid. Your pronouns can be changed at any time and are selected separately from your gender.
- Choose one of six pets (starling, fox, red panda, giant beetle, feathered dragon, or pallas cat), and romance one of five unique ROs.
- Hone your abilities over time- learn to dreamwalk, astral project, and even summon things from your dreams- or even someone else’s nightmares.
- Learn more about your hometown, The Last Stop, and work through the trauma of being abandoned there as a child.
- Set your relationship with your family- do you get along with your adoptive brother, or did you fill his pillowcase with slugs one too many times when you were children?
ROs
(listed in the order in which they are met; Leo and Nakoa will be included in the next update!)
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Rhunea | female, romanceable by women/fem-leaning NBs
- Local genius uses massive intellect, photographic memory to annoy local spirit watcher for her fantasy YT channel- more at 11. When she’s not causing problems on purpose, she’s probably napping. 4’9, but it just means she’s better at fitting into places she really, really doesn’t belong.
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Finch | flippable, romanceable by same gender/same gender-leaning NBs
- Finch is hot, and it’s not just because they were so overwhelmed by your flirtatious comment that they accidentally set their workbench on fire. But that’s probably a big part of it. Finch didn’t let their tragic dog allergy hold them back from being a dog person- they worked around it by using their tinkering skills to create a fully automated robot dog. Sarcastic at the wrong moments, licks things that shouldn’t be licked, that person who has a YT channel dedicated to seeing what can and can’t be microwaved.
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Arbor | NB (they/them), romanceable by all genders
- Do you look at someone over the height of 6’4 and immediately want to climb them like a tree? You’re in luck, because Arbor actually is a tree. Well, sort of. They’re a tree soul reincarnated into a human body (though you might think they’re actually a golden retriever instead). Sure, they might have a minor addiction to maple syrup, and yeah, sometimes they grow leaves instead of hair, but they’re normal just like you. If the word thembo existed in this universe, Arbor would have it on their tinder profile.
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Leo | trans man, romanceable by all
- A necromancer with a larger-than-life attitude. Never what you’d expect- the king of self love (but also bad first impressions). His habit of bragging about himself is annoying, not just because he’s arrogant, but because he’s usually right. Interests include hot baths, wine, skeletons, and you, if you’re lucky. (Or not so lucky- because once he’s adopted you, you’re his friend for life, whether or not you want to be.)
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Nakoa | gender-flippable, romanceable by all
- Ever fantasize about sleeping in a bed with your SO and your seven dogs? Nakoa might be the guy/gal for you. Soft-spoken, gentle, unexpectedly funny. Allergic to most things that start with C, including conflict, commitment, and cats (but they’ll still try to pet every one they see). An open book with a page torn out. (Their dogs probably ate it.)
(note: if I add any ROs, it’s probably going to be Salem, Salem, or Salem. She would be romanceable by the same category as Rhunea, but I’m not making any promises.)
Focuses
- Ideally, I’d like to focus on making customization choices, as well as plot choices, feel impactful- for instance, different characters will react differently to the MC based on the MC’s background, appearance, gender, etc.
- As I’m writing this primarily to explore my own characters as well as the arc of the MC, the plot is fairly character-driven. Romances will have a heavy focus, but each character has their own platonic ‘route’ as well. All romances are also ace-friendly.
- All characters, even gender-variable ones, have established sexualities and were written with them in mind. Finch is always same-gender/same-gender-leaning attracted, and Nakoa is always bisexual.
- Hopefully the world will feel unique & well-formed. If not, I’d love to hear your feedback! Worldbuilding is one of my favourite parts of writing.
Hey there! I’ve been working on this WIP on and off since June (interest check thread link- as you can see, a lot has changed) and decided that it’s about time I published it to get a little help from the community, as I’ve been rereading and tweaking what I have for so long I’ve basically forgotten how to be a human being. I’m planning on updating at least once a month, though right now the next update will probably be late February as my classes start up again, and right now, the demo is 4 chapters and ~13k words long. Right now, chapters 5, 6, and 7 are already about an additional 10k words, so hopefully there won’t be any roadbumps there.
I’m a sucker for any feedback, large or small, so feel free to leave any comments in this thread, or you can hit me up on my tumblr at lucidityawakening! (I’m likely to be a lot more active there as well!)
UPDATE LOG
- Update 0.1. Corrected minor pronoun and grammatical errors, solved soul problem, added short fourth chapter to smooth the narrative transition between the first and second full updates.