The source for Ruuna's card art is Hazakura Hinata. Note that the card image has been edited with inpainting and photoshop to remove some hair that was irritating to describe.

This card is based on the CFTF? Exchange, for which I was given two images that really lovely digital waifus sent in. Funnily, I had already been in communication with him because he very kindly introduced himself after I posted my first bot, so I elected to be sneaky and secret and tell him nothing.

The two images presented to me (1,2) took some deliberation to conceptualize (though I quite easily imagined the latter girls as being bushed). By my understanding of the event, the purpose was to be inspired by the cards rather than to try and directly replicate what was presented. This was my philosophy when sending in my images (1, 2), so I applied the same reasoning to creating cards based off what I was given.

Despite that, I struggled with coming up with an idea that I considered interesting enough to put into a card. For the first image, I contemplated creating a humourous parody of the 30 year old boomer, but this was quickly scrapped because of its simplicity and needlessly comedic nature (my first card was a comedy card that, however lungsplitting, was not something I wished to replicate so soon). I briefly gave thought to the idea of making a Yakumo Ran card, depicting her as a wife as in the first image, but 2hufans are better suited to such things than I. A "life simulator" card—where {{user}} would self-insert as the 30 year old boomer in the picture—did not seem particularly interesting to me, either.

The second image I, admittedly, did not think much on. A straightforward route for the card would have been to make a coomcard emphasizing heat and body odour, with the two kitsune inviting {user} to warm up beneath the kotatsu. Unfortunately, I could not think of a way to make the scenario interesting in a nonsexual capacity; and, really, a coomcard did not interest me all that much. I shall say the idea of heat was interesting, though; I might explore temperature in a future card.

With most ideas done away with, the only immediately inspirational avenue I had left unexplored involved the Ram-chama from the first picture. I love children—honestly, I do!—so I latched onto the idea of Ran-chama. At some point or another, I thought: what of an orphan? The idea might have originated from my disregarding Ram-chama's parents from the comic. But, then, I thought: I want to make something more interesting than a mere girl.

Lo and behold, I thought to make a raising sim called Kitsuneducation! Sort of like Princess Maker, but with more variety and input on {user}'s part.

There are many lessons I learned.

The first (major) lesson is that whilst it is technically possible to create a raising sim using current methods and technology, it is irritating to do in the context of presenting it the way I would like to. Possible, but irritating. It might be odd to say that it is possible when I have not released a finished product demonstrating as much, but considering that the original card uses the same basic idea of triggers and blah blah blah that are at least somewhat comparable to triggers in The Rite of Belwick or Cerebryx—the latter of which you could argue is a sort of raising sim—it is not a far stretch of the imagination to say that a card utilising lorebooks and macros and embedding and other systems to create a more comprehensive, gamelike raising sim is possible. The difference is that my execution was amateurish (though, a valuable learning experience and a fun one). That said, I have yet to see a comprehensive LLM raising sim presented in the manner I am thinking of (though it's conceivable I've missed a memo; gomen). I would wager that at least some of this comes down to currently available ST macros (having to type random:7,8,9,10 rather than being able to specify a range in the roll: command is particulaly irritating), but I believe you could pull it off at the cost of sanity.

The second particularly valuable lesson I learned is this: neither simplicity nor complexity attach value of their own accord. A work's merit is in its execution. A complex thing is complex, not good; a simple thing is simple, not good. Part of me had the notion that Kitsuneducation would be good because it was complicated ("Look at me!!! I made something complex!!!"), even as I was telling myself that was a nonsensical line of thinking.

The third lesson is that I can always go back to Kitsuneducation and fix it up, especially as ST and technology in general improves. I will openly admit to being distraught when I realised I would not be able to release the card I wanted on time, especially as I had put in a good deal of work through testing and experimenting and jotting down notes and ideas and this and that and this and that. It honestly felt like I had failed Ruuna, for how odd that sounds. The fact that I could fix it in the future is very reassuring, of course, but I must still profess a fair amount of personal disappointment for my foolishness and timelessness.

I could write more on Kitsuneducation but I would rather not fill this creator's note with information about that card rather than this one. If you are interested in what that mess looks like, have a look at the card and lorebook. Because I use the "Creator's Metadata" fields to keep track of changes, additions, ideas, things to include, etc. over time, you can piece together a picture of my troubles.

Writing Ruuna was rehabilitating. In Kitsuneducation I could not provide too much of her character due to token costs, but standalone I could flesh her out some. For this card, I imagined cute and potentially interesting scenarios for different {user}s to muck about in, and then gave them as open ended possibilities. Taking some thoughts from my last card into account, I added greetings where {user} has a more defined role in Ruuna's life, but still kept to the philosophy of keeping things open for {user} to fool around with. Despite the open nature of bots, these greetings were all made with an assumption of kindness. I wanted to make a cute girl to hug and go on misadventures with. That said, I do wish I was more timely so that I could have added more greetings of greater interest.

I mentioned previously that Ruuna's card image is a modified picture, but I should also explain that I avoided choosing the art used in the first catbox link I received because the character was Yakumo Ran. Not wishing to earn the ire of 2hufans or to repeat the logic I used with Salami Hock, I elected to use a unique picture. Of course, it was originally intended for Kitsuneducation, but it still fits!

Some of the information in this card I originally wanted to include in a lorebook. It would have included information about Hopian, the surrounding areas, Saint Kisai's, etc. Time constraints arising from my stupidity meant that I was too exhausted by the time of release to do that, though.

The original complex card placed Hopian on Oregon's coastline. In hindsight, this was a poor decision; Oregon is beautiful (from the pictures I've seen), but does not quite bring to mind the bittersweet introspection associated with orphans and orphanages. Oregon, on the whole, strikes me as a land of occasional thought where the landscape rises and falls dramatically alongside a person's emotional state. Maine, by contrast, is better suited to the gentle woes and worries of holism. Autumn's effects on Maine's forests are integral to that perception, since there are—to my knowledge—no such cacophonies of colour in the Beaver State's west. It's all conifers that, however lovely, are not the same as Pollock forests.