All Idleness and Ephemera
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android
“Hey, cuz! It’s good to see you again! It really has been too long!”
Yuel was only six years old when his mother died: put to death in a grisly public spectacle for her uncovered infidelity by her own husband, King Khalil.
Yuel has carried the weight of his mother’s death around him for many years, and is no stranger to feelings of abandonment. Largely ignored by his mother, even during her life, and shunned by his powerful, megalomaniacal father, Yuel grows up bereft, lonely, and unhappy.
Yuel’s only ally, as a young boy, is his kindly nursemaid, Safiya – but even she leaves him, once Yuel matures, and becomes a young man.
Now, shortly after his eighteenth birthday, Yuel comes to a crossroads in his life. Driven to madness by his own misery, he turns to his older cousin, Tavi for comfort – but he finds much more than he originally bargained for.
Yuel’s relationship with Tavi, in this spin-off of Ashes, takes on a significantly more sensual turn, as Yuel slowly learns how to overcome his sorrows in Tavi’s arms; and learns, too, how good it can feel to make somebody else feel good.
- About 50,000 words of text (approx 2-4 hours of reading)
- A kinetic story with no choices/branches
- Detailed background and character art
- A custom soundtrack
- Lots of consensual BxB sex scenes
- Silly banter
- A significantly healthier love story than the one present in Ashes
- Handsome men! ❤︎
Writing/programming: ebi-hime
Character art: Renmiou
Background art: Fuyunokawa
UI: Sasquatchii
Music: yuzuki
Lyrics: Geiky, Rage
Vocals: Geiky, Nate, Rage
Opening video: Phinalgo
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $8.99 USD. Your purchase comes with a Steam key. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- Small update13 days ago
- BL VN All Scars and Starlight announced!Feb 10, 2024
- BL VN All Idleness and Ephemera released!May 05, 2023
Comments
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Slightly confused. Is this not playable on mac? ;__; I don't see the apple-symbol on any of the files.
You probably can play Idleness on mac since the build contains an .app file, but Ren'py games had some issues running on macs a few years ago so I don't officially list mac support on my commercial games. I don't want people to spend money on something only to discover it doesn't work, and I don't have the time to troubleshoot it.
You can download one of my free VNs and see if it runs on mac. If it does then Idleness should run without issues too.
Hmmm, well I do have this world unknown on steam and it worked well last time I played it on my macbook – although it's gotten quite old so games don't run well on it as they used to – but I get it! Troubleshooting sounds troublesome (no pun intended haha), so I appreciate your honesty! I've been really interested in these two characters thus why I really wanted to play the game *-*
I'll look up one of your free games to see how well they run on this mac and decide after that :)
A couple of people on Steam told me my most recent VNs were working just fine on Mac there, so I'm going to go back and mark most of my VNs as being compatible w/ Mac on Steam and Itchio at some point in the future...
I'll get to all of my BL stuff eventually 🙏
I just saw your update about the mac build and I am OVERJOYED. Can’t wait to play the games with Yuel and Tavi. Thank you!😊🥹
You'll have to tell me how it works, since I've received conflicting reports... Some people on Mac are saying the Mac builds work perfectly while other people are struggling to open them...
Granted the people who are struggling seem to only have problems with a couple of my free VNs on Itchio for some reason 😔
Hey, where's the Steam key?
There's none after the order.
There are still plenty of keys remaining for the game, so it might be a problem with Itch.io.
You can either contact Itch about it, or you can email me at ebihimes@gmail.com with a screenshot of your receipt from Itch and I'll send you a key over.
The story was amazing and I really loved the interactions between Yuel and Tavi <3, do you plan on writing/creating more stories with them or just in general? I also saw in notes that you decided not to add a few parts you wrote into the game, is there anywhere to read/download/purchase those "extra/extended" parts at all? : )
Aaaa thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed reading about my boys! ;a;
I did write another story about them, Unluckily in Love, but it takes place in a different universe to Idleness. These two stories are unrelated plot-wise, since UIL is basically an AU, but Yuel and Tavi are more or less the same as characters, and they have a lot of fun banter there too. If you liked Idleness you will probably enjoy UIL too!
And I was working onanother short VN with them in another AU too haha, so you can look forward to that as well!
There isn't anywhere to read the misc scenes I wrote with them at the moment; maybe I'll polish them and upload them onto AO3 at some point... I'll see haha ;;
😳😳
(WARNING: some tiny spoilers maybe???)
So, I was thinking... It wouldn't be impossible for Yuel, as a king, to make gay marriage a thing in their country, marry Tavi and live happily ever after?
If that's not possible, then... this is what definitely must've happened in their future: since Yuel doesn't want to be intimate with anyone except Tavi and there's that looming expectation of him finding a wife and having a child... He met a lovely noble lady who was already pregnant but has lost her lover, and to help protect her honor (as she got pregnant outside of marriage), Yuel married her... and somehow no one ever suspected nor found out that the child isn't Yuel's. The lady and Yuel had a respectful, platonic relationship, and Yuel was never forced to be intimate with anyone he didn't want to.
Yes, that's what happened and you can't convince me otherwise, I'm not listening! >3<
As for Tavi... It would be nice if, at some point in the future, he decided that he could be content being with only Yuel (as Yuel expressed he wishes to have him only for himself) and give monogamy a chance, but if not... well, Yuel loves him for who he is and has accepted him, so who cares, as long as they're both happy!
That being said, I loved the VN! I didn't expect it to be SO spicy, but it was definitely a nice surprise. And as always, I enjoyed their bantering so much! The ending felt a bit more bittersweet compared to Unluckily (perhaps due to Yuel's looming responsibilities in the future asa a king), but, well, it was still mostly a happy ending so I'm happy too! Still loved it a lot.
I know I'm utterly shameless, but... do you plan on making more VNs with the two of them? I know that it has to end somewhere, but, but, BUT... I just like these two so much TwT <3
Aaaa thank you for the very long comment ;a;
It was very fun to read all your thoughts on the story, and about My Boys; I appreciate it >_<
And, as for your thoughts..........
So, the 'lore' I was working with while establishing this universe is that homosexuality isn't illegal in Indra (since Tavi talks about sleeping with men pretty casually), and gay marriage is also legal. So, Yuel and Tavi could get married without any issues...
Exceeeept, since Yuel is the king, his advisors would really rather him marry a woman so he can have kids who'll inherit the throne when he dies. So, they wouldn't be very supportive of Yuel marrying Tavi and if he tried it might cause ~political friction~
There's also the issue of whether Tavi would even want to get married because he probably wouldn't want to be 'tied down' like that, which would also cause Problems.
I actually did write several more scenes in this universe which didn't end up in the VN itself, because it'd double the artist's workload and make it prohibitively expensive to make: plus, I think Ephemera has a pretty nice conclusion as-is.
I do know how I see their relationship progressing, though.
Basically, I wrote it so Yuel does end up marrying a woman, under pressure from his advisors. They have a bit of an awkward relationship, since Yuel is just The Most Monogamous and only wants to be with Tavi. However, he does treat his wife with respect and compassion, and they get along fairly well despite neither of them being in love with one another.
Yuel ends up having a child with his wife, and Tavi offers to help look after it (since Yuel ends up freaking out about how he's worried he can't be a good father b/c he didn't have a proper father figure in his life). So, Tavi is pretty involved in looking after the child too (and Tavi has to look after Yuel during this too lmao) and as they get closer Tavi ends up dedicating himself fully to Yuel because he loves him and wants to support him.
Yuel's wife ends up being a bit of a third wheel in this scenario (and tbh I feel a bit bad for her....... haha......) but I think it's still a happy resolution for the most part.
But, yeah, I only partially wrote this continuation out, and since I didn't wind up actually releasing these extra scenes you're free to disregard it and come up with your own ideas for how you'd like things to go hahaha ;;;
And I do have plans to make more VNs about my boys because
I love them a lot lmaoI think there's more I can explore with their relationship.One of these VNs is a modern day setting like UIL but both Yuel and Tavi are older and it's a little more morose (but not super sad), and the other is another offshoot of Ashes which is depressing AF lol...
I'm not sure when either will be finished (especially since I'm working on some other projects which are actually about other characters lol), but I'll definitely make more about them at some point!
Even if it's not the wisest idea financially speaking sksksksk but I'm having fun so I guess it's OK.........Omg!!!
I'm so happy we get to see more of Tavi and Yuel!
More Tavi and Yuel!!!
You get to see quite a lot of them in this VN too ;w;
It will have a happy ending?
It does, indeed, have a happy ending. The romance is quite wholesome for the most part!