Hey Guess What? More Qin & Hades Outfits 1/2

I need to know all your thoughts of cecile

i need to preface this spiel with thanking you for opening my can of worms. will this satiate my endless need for this freak? maaaybe not. but like gay sex, it's a temporary fix and by god will i take it.

so, this post will delve into multiple aspects of my thoughts on cécile. i'll have to section it because if not, you'd probably just have a post the equivalent of a werewolf barking at their reflection in a mirror. here they are;

i. visual design

ii. personality and traits (backstory) / character development + his romance arc

iii. comparison to other characters + what made him stand out to me

no read more will be added on this post because i'm forcing everyone to either scroll past a wall of text or indulge my insanity. is this analysis? my simple thoughts? who fucking knows, man. not me. i don't know anything ever. everything is speculation, because my man's ain't even in the demo yet. ask me this question again when the extended demo drops LMFAO

i. visual design

the most notable aspect to cécile is his metal jaw, facial scar, and black eye.

his metal jaw had me in a pickle. for the longest time, i thought it was a prosthetic. as in, he had his lower jaw removed - regardless of how and why - and it acted as a replacement. however, on the ravenstar tiktok account, they show a draft of cécile's sprite that caught my attention.

he doesn't have his metal jaw, nor his iconic scar or black eye. he does have his original lower jaw, though. maybe this is just a draft before they settled on his current design. maybe this is how he looked in the canon past. maybe! but on top of seyl (the director of lost in limbo) confirming that cécile still has his tongue, i believe he was always intended to have his lower jaw. so the prosthetic is out of the picture.

right now, i believe it's more like a retainer; teeth appears to literally be growing out of his cheek, and i don't think it's the teeth in his mouth jutting out. i can't tell what exactly is the cause of all this, too. my favourite medical student (bean ily muah) said his facial scar appears to have been caused by a controlled flame, and shrapnel to the face based on the scarring around his lip. so he could have suffered an act of assault (physical? magical?), an accident, or maybe he's afflicted with a curse that developed teeth on his skin + his red eyes. could he be turning into a monster as time passes?

i also find it incredibly tragic that his eyes used to be brown before The Incident (air quotes). there's always something inherently tragic about the mundane being unattainable - to think that of all things in the world you are forbidden from, you are barred from the sweet innocence of adam and eve, rather than the glorious garden. brown eyes are the most common eye colour here on earth; imagine how cécile feels, the interloper with a face unmarred. a face that was once his. his dislike towards mc runs deeper than his dislike for everyone specifically because they're a harbinger of danger to the master he protects, and they could just be the past he's been hiding like a wound underneath his clothes.

the gaze of his bloodthirsty eyes... is it really? as in, always bloodthirsty? or is it so because it's your blood he needs on his hands?

aside from the practicalities of his metal jaw, i just think it's super... metal. (i wink at a camera offset and i proceed to get shot a million times. where were these snipers at the trump speech smh)

cough... anyways. i think it's bias, but one of my own oc's has a metal jaw prosthetic because they lost theirs in a fight long ago, so you can imagine i morphed into the spiderman pointing at spiderman² meme when i saw him. it's just automatically intriguing when the character's face is unapologetically damaged, unapologetically different. cécile and lázaro attracted my attention instantly because of how unique they look, and i appreciate that cécile's face does all the talking of his character while his attire is rather subdued. (even that itself speaks for him tbh)

as for my personal feelings, i appreciate a man with a long/wide nose. hit tweet, let doja cat smite me down herself.

now, as for his sprite's body language. i was rather taken aback at the fact that cécile has a less imposing stance than envy - yes, there's a defensive undertone to the way he holds his hands in front of him, but it's not to close him off from the world the way envy's crossed arms communicate that. in fact, cécile appears to be comforting himself. most people who hold/rub their own hand tend to do so because they're revolving a subtle conflict within themself. it doesn't help that the hand being held is the one that appears to have suffered the brunt of whatever he endured, based on the scars around his wrist. he could be holding it because it's instinct - to protect the side of him that was hurt the most. cécile is a weapon of war and a shield to his very core. he hurts others, and i don't think it'd be a stretch to say he hurts himself (why wouldn't he? the man that stares back in the mirror is so very wretched and it wouldn't be wrong to want to tear it all away.) cécile protects others (literally only gael) from the world, and cécile protects himself from the world and the additional enemy of himself.

he is a walking wound of all that has happened to him, and he knows acutely where the gash continues to weep.

yet, his cocked head also denotes a level of serenity that not even envy has. atleast, that's what it reads to me. it could also be an expression of interest in his surroundings, and hence, he's actually more on guard than envy. he doesn't keep his arms crossed, and instead in a stand still, because he constantly needs to be ready to pounce. maybe!

back to his attire. i adore the idea that gael actually picked it out for him. cécile is, technically, a representative of gael, so it makes sense his attire needs to hint at that, with the purple and all. but again, i would like to think of gael comparing outfit after outfit on cécile, engaging his opinion on which he thinks is best - and all cécile offers is, "whatever you deem is best, i will accept." (never ask this hoe where he wants to eat /j). one of the few things gael can do for a man like cécile is offering him a part of him to carry around.

also, for anyone who missed it - cécile has freckles ;)

ii. personality and traits (backstory) / character development + his romance arc

cécile is stated to be an istj, and seyl confirmed he's likely to be a scorpio sun. if so, loyalty is legitimately built into this man. a man if the fates wept tears of their eternal duty onto the spool when they wove his life into existence.

his reliance on the past + his traditions is gonna be like a pair of crutches to a man with both legs lobbed off. routine is the prison that keeps him going - break it, and you break him. after all, experience is all he has to go off of. as much as he may try not to linger on his past - that's exactly what he does. his memories are like ghosts in the corner of his bedroom. every good and bad experience, and by god is there a plethora of the latter, stands out like bruises he can't stop pressing down on. that's why i believe it's especially harder for you to gain cécile's worship; gael is all the good he's known, and you're just a strange human. why would he love you, a fickle being that can barely stop themself from being killed by him, when he could have an immortal sovereign? why, indeed. and it's gonna be especially hard for a man like cécile to grow accustomed to a love that's soft, because he's known violence all his life. he was born of it, made of it, and will be undone by it. that's all he can offer you, so he will expect the same from you the day he accepts you.

also, like... cécile literally fits the bill of scorpio's holding life long grudges. aside from protection, his primary desire is vengeance. and it's not something you can dissuade him from. why would you? you loved cécile because he's a walking bundle of rage and despair. you love him because his heart bleeds on you like an open wound. you will kiss the blood off his lips after the carnage - yours? his? someone else's? who cares, it's ours - and he will only sigh on yours, a thank you for being the best constant in his life of spite.

i can also see where cécile's need for domination comes from, with that extraverted thinking (Te). he may be a bodyguard in subservience to a god, but even they must know when and where to call the shots. it's very clear that control was robbed from him repeatedly ("[...] those who snatched his soul away from him—"), so it comes as another instinctual need to maintain control in every situation. and if he must trap it in the iron-fisted palm, so be it. that's exactly why cécile, like envy, benefits from an mc who knows how to push past sharp commands and loud warnings to chase after him. he relies on people shrinking away from him when he snaps to establish a clear line of boundaries. ultimately, it is by obeying caution that you'll never romance him, because you're playing into what he wants - and what he wants is you away from him. he needs an equally dominant person in a way that has them constantly battling for ultimate dominance, or maybe someone who is more dominant, but not in a way that completely imposes on him. in a way that shows him why exactly you can be his new master, y'know? in this life, everything is chains and prisons to cécile. it's just a matter of picking the most luxurious one. if you're shameless about what you can offer him, he might just take you up on it.

i think it's pretty obvious that cécile has volatile emotions hidden underneath (aries moon maybe???). he buries his softer sentiments deep below, where they lie, they run rampant. i'm a little unsure as to how this'll manifest, but cécile obviously can be soft and sentimental when he wants to, especially or only when the mc isn't looking. he traces their face in the dead of night - he alleviates their burdens behind their back - his favourite sex position is one where they can't see his face, but he can service them just fine. he can be vulnerable, but he doesn't want you to see him when he chooses to be once in a blue moon, lest you get the impression that there is a secret goodness to this violence. there isn't. he's not like envy - standoffish and cruel on the outside, soft and pliable underneath. no, peel away layer and layer of rage and you'll find more rage. crack away at that and you'll find a hollow heart. he's doing it because every human, no matter how depraved, is capable of SOME tender intimacy.

also, man. i think switching his loyalties is gonna be the equivalent of ripping all his skin off. like, yes. he loves you. the need to worship is strong, but it is unbidden for a reason. it is essentially betraying gael, isn't it? loving someone else? a man like cécile has a lot of 'love' in his heart, and all that love can only be directed at one person.

now... extraverted intuition? coupled with his scorpio sun? i imagine it feeds into the possession and obsession. it's less about worrying that you might look at others - it's about knowing that everyone has their eyes on you. it's an irrefutable fact, that there's a bounty like a guillotine on your neck. and he promised to protect you. he did, he promised. and he will, no matter what it demands of him, because you're the one thing that makes it all worthwhile and he'll be damned if the world takes more from him.

i don't know if i can sum his personality up, and i'm not interested to. he's an enigma, and i prefer complexity. as for his character development? i don't know. i really don't know. would it be bad to say? that i don't want him to get 'better'?

the appeal of cécile is that he can't offer you a 'normal' love that even a god, for all they're entrenched in, can offer you. his love is always bloodied. his love is always cruel. his love is all-consuming, like a punch in the mouth.

i think the one thing i wanna see, or predict for him to have, is to learn that there is someone who will do more than passively accept him. there is someone who actively desires him - needs him, even, in all his depravity. i want him to realise that he's not the only one who loves like he's the forest fire, and they're the forest or the witness. fire meets fire. violence for violence, like beasts.

maybe i want to see him become more open to someone calling the shots for him? and know that he can trust them, that they won't use him like everyone else has. honestly, it's difficult to not 'use' him. he's a lover, a weapon. the only difference is the affection in your grip when you swing his blade down to take another head. i want romancing him to come slow yet fast, harsh and cruel and intimate. i don't want the devs to feel like they need to water his morality or cruelty down, because like... isn't that his whole appeal. he's a killer and a sinner and that's why you love him. so on that note,

iii. comparison to other characters + what made him stand out to me

i originally was not interested in lost in limbo, because i tend to prefer darker horror. that changed when i saw lázaro, because the knife scene made me believe they were a FREAK freak. turns out they're pretty chill; and that's simply not my cup of tea, so my interest waned even more.

until i saw cécile.

my favourite romance trope of all time is obsession, but it's something i abstained from for so long because it's ALWAYS one-sided. with cécile, there's the strong potential that you're mutually obsessive, because let's face it. you won't be able to get anywhere with cécile without matching his freak. AND I MATCH HIS FREAKY I LOVE HIS NASTY!!! I LOVE UNAPOLOGETICALLY VIOLENT CHARACTERS!!! I LOVE CHARACTERS WHO UNAPOLOGETICALLY KILL AND MAIM AND DESTROY!!!! FUCK!!!!

i am not someone who is made to enjoy the tender mundanity of love. i want to be loved like a body hits the pavement below and that is exactly what cécile is.

i think the biggest difference is that cécile's whole romance with mc, aside from his loyalty to gael, relies on the dilemma of knowing he's just a man. the main cast are gods, they can afford to put up a better fight against whatever is ailing the two of you.

but cécile? he has almost nothing. he's just a dog, after all. he'll fight tooth and claw just to keep mc because there is quite literally nothing else he can do in the face of it all. and i love that it would make his route a lot more desperate. in life, we will all suffer so very beautifully. he might as well be your suffering, in name and heart. then, is he truly yours. then, are you truly his.

also, i adore the fact that cécile is the only openly hostile love interest to mc! envy has that ease to growing flustered that endears him even in the face of his... lack of manners. but cécile's only official existing line of dialogue is warning you to stay out of his way lest he gives you a quick death. STAY AWAY is literally printed in big, bold, black letters on his forehead, and i don't doubt he isn't afraid to be the one to kill mc.

AND I LIKE THAT OK!!! GIVE ME A CHALLENGE!!!

i think that is... the brunt of my thoughts, off the top of my head. feel free to ask me any more questions and i will try to go in depth but for now... we rot. @ravenstargames this is all your fault cécile is chasing me around in his basement AND I CAN'T GET OUT

Raises hand

What sort of nicknames or pet names do the love interests + unlockables like to call their partners? And what kinds do they like to be called in return?

✦ The LIs and pet names!

✦ Amon: Calls their SO (significant other) "babe", "baby", "sugar", "honey"... Obviously can't forget about "bunny". He doesn't have a preference when it comes to him, though.

✦ Raeya: "Dear" or "sweetheart" for both her and her partner. Surprise her with something cheesy to make her blush.

✦ Gael: "My love" is his favorite, both for him and his partner. Also uses "my sunshine" for them.

✦ Envy: Not really into pet names. Likes their partner to call them by name, by their true name, and does the same.

✦ Ara: Sweetie, pumpkin, cutie pie, strawberry boo, bubba, kiwichoo-choo...cheesy things and made-up pet names are her thing to call and be called! Also likes calling their partner "gorgeous" and LOVES being called "princess"!

✦ Xal: Tries to use "cutie" or "beautiful" on his partner but always thinks he sounds cringe. Any pet name they use on him will make his knees go weak, honestly.

✦ Father Pride: "Dear", "darling", or "beloved" for him and his loved one.

✦ Lázaro: Also a "darling" person. Would call their SO "my star" or "my heart". Would like any pet name they think suits them.

✦ Cécile: Would kill to be called your love. "My love", "my everything". Calls you exclusively by name.

💚Harvester💀 Zoro & Soul guide 👻Luffy💜

people in the official lost in limbo discord have definitely seen me screaming at a brick wall about this, so people of this beautiful free site i present to you;

dom gn!mc x dom cécile

dom4dom freak off.

why exactly would you care for this, you might ask? no particular reason. battling for dominance with a man that practically exudes control and danger because i'll be damned if he doesn't learn what it's like to not have a pretty, pliant lamb for him and instead a partner that will actually match his freak is what honks my horn - therefore it will be your horn to honk now.

nsfw below (vague mentions of violence, the sexy blood kind, in bed)

cécile is used to people who cower from him, and he knows it's for good reason. his hands are stained with blood he can never scratch off and it's not like he detests this with all his might, no. he won't pretend at some secret goodness that could be his redemption. he's strong. he's strong and he breaks bones and he snaps necks and somewhere along the line he's stopped feeling sorry for these people and himself. he's a killer and somewhere along the lines, he might even have come to like that.

and cécile is the rather unfortunate combination of possessive and obsessive. he wants all of you, you see. all of you as you are. don't you think he could handle what you are if you, oh lonely interloper, dared to chase the tail of the hound that only knows to snap, never to whine and roll over?

clearly something about you roused this suffocating, unbidden want in his stomach everytime you push past the pikes surrounding his heart that you very well could've ended up skewered on. cécile has made his dislike for you clear from the very start; to romance him is to have him spit in your face and like it. to court cécile the bodyguard is to be willing to spit in his mouth because he does not take kindly to cowards. to fuck this man is to know a monster, loved, still bears all its teeth and sharp claws - no matter how dearly it loves you too.

here's the thing about dominance; people confuse the means for the end goal. dominance is a tool - a method, just as much as submission is.

cécile craves dominance, yes. he also wants to belong. he wants to be yours. your love, your heart, your everything. by god, your determination drives him mad as much as it gets his dick hard. i can't spell it out any clearer; he wants you because you're the only one who received the most of his threats on your life, only to decide, "yea - that's actually really hot and i'm gonna bone this man now," all while showing him you aren't some spineless coward waiting to be skinned alive. at first he had to partially respect your gall, then the attraction hit him over the head with a big rock. hell, even if someone else tried to assume control over him before, he'd have curled his lip in disgust before he bludgeoned them to death. he won't tell you this - that obnoxious confidence of yours turned out to be far more charismatic than it should be. so it reeeally wouldn't be the same if all the tension that set off his urge to bed you in the first place you just suddenly disappeared once your pants came off and he came and all was said and done. yea?

one thing about cécile is that he fears being puppeted the most because he has no say in coming under another's complete oppression.

there is a choice here, begrudging as he may be. it's different. the control you have over him... it's like a hand crushing his throat that he resists, but never wants to let him go. the thrill is in the 'fight' for a complete power that will never come. the excitement pushes him to cum when he's finally met his match. push him down against the mattress so he can fight you off and flip you over; force his legs open so you can suck his dick so hard he can only grit his teeth, and he'll try to rip you off by your hair, but the moment you stop, he frowns. the push and pull is the whole point. let him resist, let him show you he's just as dangerous as he says he is. show him you're strong— strong enough to protect him and kill him in the same breath. for once, he doesn't want someone he can only protect. he wants someone that can protect themself from him, and protect him, without making cécile feel like a helpless dame.

it's like leashing two dogs together. even the loudest bark can make up for the weakest bite. you needn't the strength of god to challenge cécile in bed and in romance - use your wit, drive him mad, and watch him choke on his own chain.

let him know he must earn even wanting to cum inside you, and by god he will go the mile. he'll let you know you can never kiss him without his teeth crunching blood from your delicate lip, and he'll make you mistake your own blood for ichor. let him know he too, can have the pleasure of being completely and utterly ravished without being any less dominant.

he'll destroy you into his likeness, so be good to him and destroy him beyond any notion of saving when you have him bouncing in your lap for the first time in his life.

just a thought: as much as i really LOVE seeing luffy with one of zoro's earrings, i honestly hc that zoro would give him all three. because zoro doesnt give luffy just a part of him; he gives his entirety to luffy. and not just in that whole "i'll follow his every order" or a "i have an unquestionable faith in him", (which i'd like to note, neither of those things are wholly true between them imo), but because zoro is someone who has naturally surrendered himself to luffy--his unwavering adoration for luffy is the ultimate constant. like it's not just devotion it's "you've never had just a slice you've always had the whole cake." so he would not be such a coward as to hand luffy only one of his earrings but all three. i suppose it's just another way of laying himself bare for luffy lol

besides, on a more practical side, i imagine he'd probably like for the set of three to stay three, and it's either gonna be his ear or luffy's no split. it's supposed to be three like there's no point in wearing it if it doesnt go along w his whole concept haha

Could you guys tell us a bit about the three personalities the MC can have? I'm guessing green is altruistic, blue is like cooperative and red is strong-headed or more aggressive? The drawings aren't very clear imo

SURE! You were mostly on point with these so at least the drawings aren't terrible lol

I'm confident you'll get to better grasp the different personalities in the Extended Demo, but they can be broken down in these basic traits:

Green is warm, kind, empathetic and altruistic.

Blue is down-to-earth, intelligent, calm and collected.

Red is bold, brave and strong-headed.

Simplified :^)

For the Cécile fans, here's his sticker design made by our wonderful merch artist, Dess! 💜 Even if his route isn't funded, we'll work hard so those of you who want some merch of him can at least get something, if not now, then in the near future!

We are 99% funded! 💜 Help us reach our main goal, and even reach our first stretch goal, our original soundtrack!

⭐ Support us on Kickstarter!

✦ Lost in Limbo Devlog #14 | 12.02.24

And November is over! This month has been filled with paperwork, organizing receipts, and so on, which isn't very fun, but it's part of the job!

We are making great progress with everything overall; merch has been ordered and we have received proof and approved it; our voice actors are already delivering the voiced names y'all paid for during our Kickstarter campaign; and more! Let's see it in detail, shall we? :^)

Our dear Raquel has been working hard (I think I say this every devlog, but damn) on reworking the sprites for the extended demo now that the Special postcards for the Kickstarter are done! For this next batch, she'll be working on Ara and Amon, so here's a WIP of how Ara is looking so far! 💜

I think you can see how her design is already more detailed and cohesive in some areas. We'll most likely ask for feedback when Amon is ready too, to test the waters with both characters like we did with Gael and Xal :^)

The street is coming to life! This background is almost ready thanks to Astro. We'll have four new locations in the Extended Demo to help with the pacing and the introduction of our world and story to (hopefully) make it perfect. Or something close to it!

In the writing department, I've so far added 7000 words to the prologue. We have one flavor choice, two personality choices (and several personality reactions), and three "relationship choices". These basically shape your relationship with Evie in this case. For example, you'll be able to choose if you are intimate friends, are warm to each other, or if you prefer something less physical / touchy. And Evie will remember that!

And this is just so far. While River has a kind of "set" personality, I want people to be able to shape some aspects of their life.

In the writing department I should also include the documents I've provided to our VAs, and to our composer, Tomás. More on that below!

We have a proper help screen! Wohoo! 💜

Now you can enjoy Ren'py's default help screen but looking a bit nicer. This is for those who are not familiar with Ren'py's usual keybindings and stuff :^)

Nothing else on the programming side this month. I've focused on writing the script and that's going to be my main job until I can actually start programming something!

As I said before, our beloved voice actors are already working on the voiced names! In fact, Xal's VA (Francfil Pontañeles) and Pride's (Pat Langner) already recorded them! A little surprise is that we have been able to add our default MC's name, River, as a voiced name. For those of you who want to play with that name, you'll also enjoy some voiced lines!

What else—ah! We are already working with Tomás for our OST, and we have settled in 19 tracks total. Those are even more tracks than we expected! This is thanks to you all, and especially thanks to those of you who ordered more merch via Backerkit. You made those four extra tracks possible!

Our merch has been checked and so far only the pins are missing a preview and therefore our approval. We had to edit some files (beginner's mistake!) but being the first time we do this, I'd say things have been rather smoothly! We'd like to be able to start shipping this month, but it may not be possible. Which is a bummer! But well, we settled in December / January, so January it is, if nothing happens!

(Don't mind the colors being too flashy here—they will look more cohesive in game!)

OH, and the last extra bit! I've been working on the personality choices, as you all know, and Kayden has been helping me make the icons that will appear next to those choices for those who are colorblind. An extra thing to make them pop and differentiate them better! I think they are pretty self-explanatory, and if not, well—that means we have to give those icons a twist!

November has been a chaotic month for me due to the aftermath of the floods and my vacation week. The rest of the team has also had their good amount of irl stuff happening around them, but we've made it! The new year is approaching faster than I thought, as per usual, and I hope we can finish 2024 on a good note!

And that's all! As always, please take care, have fun, and enjoy the rest of the week!

He drew them in their Egghead outfits

And he drew them looking at each others eyes.

That ain't gay.

I guess no one ships ZoLu more than Zoro himself