u/nyneteen84_

So I’ve just started my path as a Merchant Sailor. My living conditions are that I work 4 months on a ship and am off 4 months. And Repeat.

Basically I’m at sea 8 months of the year, on shore 4, and for those 4 months I live in south east Asia and airbnb 5 star type places for $600-$700 a month.
On the ship I get all my meals and toiletries. I don’t pay rent, bills, nothing. I’m stacking cash during that time.

I don’t think I’ll have the time or bandwidth to deal with real estate when I’m only home for 4 months, so I was thinking of investing everything I make outside of my 4 months living expenses. I’m not against real estate, just don’t know if it’s worth it if I can’t deal with headaches.

I don’t know if it’s important to mention but since someone might ask;
My take home after taxes is around $104,000
My living expenses are probably $15,000
I want to put a little into some private endeavors and the rest into something that helps with retirement in 10-15 years. Call it $80,000 a year to invest maybe?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated

TITLE: THEY WERE FINE JUST YESTERDAY… I SHOULD’VE TRIED HARDER.

I’m working on a short psychological horror visual novel about two souls trapped in a place called The Ether; not exactly purgatory, but a dark space where the dead remain as voices, memories, and unfinished thoughts.

The story begins after Timmy dies by suicide and accidentally kills Sammy, his best friend, in the same moment. When they both arrive in The Ether, the souls already there realize Sammy was not supposed to die, and Timmy may be able to take her back.

The main mechanic is a split-screen conversation system.

Sammy is on one side. Timmy is on the other. As they travel through The Ether, you guide their conversation by choosing which thoughts become spoken. The choices are not meant to be simple “good” or “bad” answers. They push the conversation toward blame, compassion, honesty, avoidance, responsibility, or understanding.

The game tracks the emotional shape of the conversation. Not in a visible “morality meter” way, but in terms of how far apart or close the two characters become. Eventually, their conversation determines what choices are even possible near the ending and one of a few endings are triggered.

The game deals with suicide, grief, guilt, and the feeling of realizing too late that someone was not okay. It is not meant to romanticize death or self-harm. The goal is the opposite: to explore how someone can look fine on the surface while feeling completely unreachable inside, and how the people left behind often blame themselves for not seeing it sooner.

I’m posting this early because I’m trying to decide whether this is worth building into a full short game. I have a basic visual mockup of the intro and UI direction, but I’m still shaping the mechanics. Later on I’ll put together a real animation intro and ending and all the polished UI elements.

Would this kind of conversation-driven psychological VN interest you, or does the subject matter/mechanic sound too heavy?

Seriously don’t know which path to take. Why am I even making something like this?
Because I’m in a dark moment in life and wish there was an outlet for having that difficult conversation with someone who understands.
Not the typical “Everything is gonna be OK tomorrow’s another day” BS.

Something that touches a persons soul hopefully.