Welcome all to a special edition of Tooth & Nail! This one is a double edition, by means of a proxy episode. Tex interviews his coworker, DelaX, on my behalf because I cannot speak Chinese (surprise!) and then I interview Tex! So we'll start with Tex & DelaX, and then move onto me interviewing Tex.

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First we’re going to get to know you better before we get to your work. Some of yourself, some of your thoughts. There’s gonna be an obvious furry bent, given you’re a furry visual novel creator.

我们希望再了解你的作品之前，想更加了解你的一些好玩的个人小知识。比如说一些想法，一些自己的特殊点。当然，问题会是以福瑞作为展开，毕竟您是一名福瑞视觉小说的作家和创作者。

Tell me about yourself.

首先，跟大家介绍一下自己吧。

大家好，我叫戴拉克斯，一个热爱自然，把更多传统文化带入游戏里的作家。作为来自四川成都的，我很喜欢品尝各种美食，也喜欢旅游。比较喜欢的游戏类型游戏是简单，清淡和松弛的游戏，比如说鸣潮。太难的容易退坑

Hey, everyone, I’m DelaX, a natural loving author, who wants to bring more traditional culture into the work I create. As someone from Chengdu, Sichuan, I find myself enjoying a variety of food and delicacy, as well as travelling around. For me, I’d enjoy simple, relaxing and light-flavored games, like Wuthering Wave. Anything too hard discourages me from continuing.

 Do you have a fursona and if so, what species? What does having a fursona mean to you?

你是否有没有一个属于自己的兽设呢？如果有的话，是什么品种的 （可以描述一下）？而对于你来说，拥有一个兽设代表着什么意义呢？

兽设不是看着很重，因为对你对自己看待的自己带着很多层次，所以一般来说，更加希望被人来看待的人来更加了解你来拓展你对你自己的一个了解。实话说，我主要是群里的主流而创造的兽设。所以，我自己做了一个维京蛮狼，以刺客信条英灵殿为灵感。毕竟，我对维京文化还是很喜欢的！太酷了！

I actually do not view having a Fursona too seriously, as to myself, the way how you see yourself in your perspective is far too layered and complex. In some way, I’d prefer to hear how others see you as, as a way to add knowledge to who you are yourself. Honestly, the reason I’ve made a fursona for myself is because of the trend flowing through the circle, which is why I made myself a Viking wolf, taking inspiration from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Since, I like Viking culture, so cool!

What’s your Hear Me Out? 

你的Hear Me Out（比较喜欢，可以是奇怪的福瑞角色。可能脑子里希望去草{一种植物}的角色）是谁呢？没有任何偏见，谁都可以。好吧，可能会有一点点。

没有一个去草的，但是个人喜欢的福瑞角色是辰虎，这个角色就是我的喜好角色设计出来的。而且，对我来说，老虎这种生物我很喜欢，去动物园是可以先奔老虎区去看的。而且形象和个色，还有人格，是对我来说，感情比较深的角色。其他福瑞角色的话，蓝猫，来自蓝猫淘气三千问。蓝猫是一个风趣和有意思的儿童角色，所以很喜欢，还有，童年滤镜。

No one I want to... you know, but Chen Hu is definitely one fav. That character (Not a self insert) is just a character that I have created around my own favourite interests and such. And to me, tigers are a species I just simply love, by their very looks! My very first stop to a zoo is the Tiger exhibit, I’ll have you know! But for one that doesn’t come from a FVN, I would say, Lan Mao(蓝猫), from Lan Mao and his Cheeky 3000 questions.(蓝猫淘气三千问). To me, Lan Mao held such a charisma to me, and is an interesting, impressionable character to me, so I like him. Also, Childhood nostalgia gives me fond memories.

Would you say you’re an active member of the Furry community? If so, what do you get from your engagement with them? And how do you engage? 

你会认为你是一个在福瑞群或福瑞圈里比较活跃的成员吗？如果你是的话，你一般从中得到了什么，朋友或者快乐啊？还有，你一般在群里是如何打交道的一个角色呢？

并不认为，可以这么说，做天合会之前是不属于这个群体的。如果要说的话，在这之前，是没有踏入这个群里的。但是入群后，得到了一些朋友来帮忙，而且缘分这种东西很好。属于一个偶尔插一两句嘴的人，偶尔聊个天，但是不会特别参与，或者打开话题。顺着别人的话题聊下去的人。

I wouldn’t say that, because, in my own words, I wasn’t part of this group until I’ve started creating TianHeHui. And If I were to say it, I’ve not even stepped into the Furry Community as a whole either. But after joining it, I have new friends in my circle, who would help me on this, and in Chinese Yuan (Fateful bonds), it is nice to see and relate to new people around me. And usually, in the circle, I play the guy who would occasionally intercede into a topic that I find curious, but never would I go out of my way to join, or open a topic with. I usually follow whatever topic there is, and go down it.

What’s your furry Hot Take?

你在福瑞圈里比较强烈的一个想法?

我希望这个圈子赶紧死（国内的圈子太乱了）。但是，更为严肃的答案是，希望圈子别有太多以色为主的作品，更希望有正常三观的作品，一个能递给一个好的价值观的作品，也是我为什么写天合会的初衷。也希望圈子能慢慢改善，从这种过度的黄色行为而改正为一个良好的喜好。我不介意偶尔的，但我介意过度的。. 

Really hope this circle dies quickly (Okay, that’s a bit of exaggeration, but the Chinese circle is too goddamn messy). On a more serious note, I would hope we see less sex/yellow focused (Rag note: Yellow= heavy sexual content) content in this circle, and that we have good works that presents a fair and normal fundamental values to the audience, a work that shares and deliver good values we hold dearly into this world. I also hope the community would slowly move out from over sexualized concept, into one that can be something enjoyed on a more normal convenience. I don't mind occasional, but I would much oppose when it is all it’s about. 

I think that gives our readers a good sense of you, as much as one can gather from bite-sized portions of your thoughts. Now let’s get into your work, and your feelings on FVNs overall. 

谢谢你的回答，这让我们的读者更加对你有一些了解，至少可以从这里收集到的想法等等。好吧，现在开始上主菜，你的作品，和你对FVN（福瑞视觉小说）的一个整体想法。

As noted, you have currently only one work, and is the artist and writer to the Chinese FVN TianHeHui, a Furry take on Wuxia genre in FVN mixed in with pseudo Modern elements, and from what rumours said, one of the most popular Chinese FVN in the Chinese FVN circle. Though we’re welcome to hear more of what you define TianHeHui as.

目前来说，你作为FVN作家只有一个作品——来自中国大陆的大作品，天合会，一个带有现代元素的武侠FVN，而且在国外群里的传闻，是一个在中国fvn群里非常受欢迎的作品。如果我们有任何需要补充的，欢迎你来解释和介绍你对天合会的定义。

如果在中国，武侠是一个更加属于一个专业的分类。金庸等这些作家带给故事的一个爱恨情仇，国家大爱的一种类型。天合会更加算一个国风，古风的故事，带有着对现代的一些微小的元素。一开始的侠客要素其实不算很多，但是之后接触了更多的作品，而了解更多的不同种类的武侠小说。之后会慢慢的会加入一些武侠要素，但是为主的是，国风和古风。

In China, Wuxia is more of a professionalized and detailed genre. Authors such as 金庸（Louis Cha Leung-Yung）focus on love, hate, vengeance, emotions, but also country, sacrifices and valour in a everflowing time of dynasty changing in what I would say, Wuxia novels we come to know as. But Tianhehui is more of an Ancient Chinese story, written with elements of modern days. In the start, heroism and Wuxia elements wasn’t too heavy, but it’s only after coming in contact with more of these works, I’ve come to understand different kinds and elements used in different Wuxia. And in the future, I would add more of these, but the focus would always be “Chinese” and “Ancient time”. 

What made want to make a Furry Visual Novel (and tell me about your general creative history?)

什么启发了你开始写福瑞视觉小说呢（而且，能否分享一下你的创作历史和心路历程？）

.有一天，我自己，就开始想了改变画风和内容，而尝试了画福瑞。完成之后，我就觉得很可以在此拓展的感觉。之后，我画了自己的设定后，也就诞生了更多的角色画，而此启发了写视觉小说的可能性。之前在我入群的早期所看到和接触的回音镇，外星狼和家有大猫，而从中发现了国风的fvn比较少，以大多数的FVN是国外的FVN，因此而开始想在这里面加入一个属于中国风的FVN。而引起了兴趣的是这些FVN启发。当时，我的第一个读的是家有大猫，而之后玩的外星狼,我都在剧情上感觉到了这些作家的热爱（我可以说更多，但是这个可以留到以后。我能说的是，我当时越往后面，越想跳过性剧情而读到那种细腻的感觉和人物发展和剧情本身），因此，而对我来说，能写一个国风小说来打开对外的大门是一件好事情。另外一个原因是群里的色剧情太多了，而我希望能用这个小说来慢慢的改善这个环境，虽然没有特好的改善吧：） 

One day, I myself decided to change my style and content, and drew Furry contents for once. After completing it, I felt it was something I could expand upon. And so, I gave myself my own fursona, and spawning from it was more concept character arts, and from that, it evolved into the possibility of writing Visual Novel. From FVNs that I came into contact, well before I tried to create one myself, and in my early heydays, ones like Echoes, Adastraand Nekojishi, I found that in my discovery, there was a lack of Chinese setting focused FVN, where the circle in China is mainly dominated by foreign writings. And so, I thought to add my own stroke with a dash of Chinese aesthetic and elements into the FVN circle, but nonetheless, these FVN inspired. From the first one I read, Nekojishi, to the next, Adastra, I felt a strong sense of passion burning from the story itself (I could go into a wild explanation for more why I enjoyed it, but I can leave it for the future. All I can say was, by the time I was deep into it, I skipped the sex scenes and dove straight into enjoying the interaction of the character that is well refined, and the story itself). As such, to me, to write a FVN based around our culture and setting is something I am happy about, opening the doors to the readers to see another side of the world. And another more self-reason is just there’s too much NSFW stories out there, and I was hoping to improve some of the atmosphere around it, though clearly, after two years, it didn’t do much :) 

What are some of your inspirations for creation?

什么是对你创作上的启发和灵感呢？

自己的画风是自己的鲜明发展，从不成熟的到今天被很多观众喜欢的。剧情方面，我也想过很多不同故事，其中一个早期想法是现代风格的故事。一开始没有很多古风接触，所以想试着写现代风格，但是发现太多现代风格的，而且上限也就在那里，所以也就往古风方向去写了。同时，辰虎就是个古风角色，而且没有辰虎，就没有天合会，因此更加往古风方向走了。最早的大纲之一是外国人来到了东方，而结识了新的伙伴等等.加上我自己喜欢旅游的特性，这些因素也就此激发了这个方向上的灵感。而天合会里的小故事，是啊来自不同的元素。一开始是没有接触武侠风格的书，但之后更多的阅读和玩这种游戏，而更加想去了解和积累这些想法。还有一些元素是来自新闻，书籍和纪录片，而亮出的。也是在创作前去了解FVN，但是也是发现上限没有成熟的商业作品的能力。所以以国产Galgame，BL 游戏等等来更加了解和接触不同的描写风格，方式和情感方面的描写手法。比如说萨利耶和柔风剧情，为了更加了解如何写那种男女约会的感觉，而去玩国产galgame来更加了解这种感觉。唯一的一个在创作上的压力就是应为第一章就有破荒般的大量CG，导致我之后的每一章都感觉要画更多的CG来吸引和保持属于自己的一开始的标准。有的时候，太热爱画画和画的太多也是一种压力啊。。。  

My distinct art syle, from the immaturity I had with it, to the one that everyone praises Tianhehui for. In terms of story itself, I have thought of many early concept, one of it being a modern day story. At the start, I wasn’t going to dive into Old and ancient times as a theme, and wanted to try my hand on modern stories. But I found the market being dominated by modern themes, and they have a rather limited skill ceiling, and as such, went for a more ancient, old time setting for inspiration. At the same time, Chen Hu, my fav, is basically from the start, a Gufeng (Old Style setting) character, and with no Chen Hu, there would be no Tianhehui, and that drove me more to explore those Old styled writing. But the concept I did employ was the story of a foreigner coming to the East, and made new companions and friends in his journey, and thus, with my already profound love of travelling, inspired this story and the direction I want to take it. As for the smaller, non-center plot small stories, came from other sources. Like I said, I wasn’t in contact with Wuxia reading, but after starting to get an understanding, I started diving into these readings and games, in hopes to better understand and build my knowledge pool. Other sources comes from news, books, documentaries, and well before that, other FVN as inspirations and sources as well. However, I did come to realize all FVN had a somewhat of a limit in how they explain certain aspects, and decided to expand more further, with Galgame, BL games to understand how they write certain emotional moments, and their writing styles. One example is Sallye and Rou Feng stories, where I went to Chinese Galgames to better understand how to replicate those Boy and Girl dating moments in writing. Though one thing I will say, outside of the topic, is that the biggest pressure in creating TianHeHui is drawing too much CG. Because of the overwhelming amount I had in Chapter 1, I felt the need to break my limit with every chapter to keep up with the standard I set for myself. Sometimes, a passion for drawing and drawing too much is a curse in itself...  

What do you hope people get from your work?

你希望，读者读到你的作品后，能收获什么呢？

对中华文化感到兴趣就是最好的。并且能够感觉到这个圈子不是全是色色，而且能启发更多人去写好故事，那就是最好的。

Interest in wanting to come and understand Chinese Culture is the Brilliant BEST. And as well as coming to realize that this entire circle isn’t filled with Sex-depraved people and NSFW, and in hopes to inspire more to write great and brilliant story, now that’s the SUPER BEST.

What’s next for you?

对于你来说，你的下一步会是什么呢 – 你可以比较直接或者比较隐蔽点，对你想象中的下一步等等。

下一步，就是做第五章做好，就比什么都重要了！自从年初完成第四章后，我去稳固生活等等，而之后后半年没有去好好继续，所以一步一步来才是真。

Just Finish Chapter 5, to be honest, it’s more important than anything else! Since finishing Chapter 4 at the beginning of last year, I went off to balance out my life and such, and leading me to not even start drawing or penning out how Chapter 5 works in the later half of the year. In some ways, step by step with honest and steadfast, is the real path to walk. 

And now for your thoughts on you colleagues, so to speak:

如果可以的话，分享一下一些你对你的队伍里的一些同伴的想法：

他/她们都是属于，不能想象能获得他/她们的帮忙。他/她们的主意能帮助到我很多交流上的方面，从慢慢的交流，到之后的一些分享。这也包括了古文，古诗，古词等等，还有古用语来完善整个世界观。它们的存在让我意识到了，我其实不是彻彻底底的一个人的战斗。我个人不是一个希望麻烦它人的，而且有的时候，知道人都不是无私的想法。但是还是不希望过度麻烦到朋友。毕竟，我们不是个正规的工作室，而且大家都有自己的生活去处理。名字我就不说了，主要它们是属于低调的一群朋友。除了我的翻译，那他是一个慢慢聊起来生活而了解的朋友。缘分，真是个奇妙的东西啊。

They are, to me, people I wasn’t expecting to receive help from. In some ways, the more I talked my ideas, the more they can help in shaping it through communication. From small exchanges, they became sharing session. And among them, it includes ancient poetry, texts and lyrics, Chinese Ci (A form of Chinese sing-song poetry), and even some ancient language usages to fully polish the world view. They are to me, men and women who made me realize, I wasn't working on this fully alone. Though I never want to trouble people, and I know that people aren’t a pure selfless creature, but still I hope not to trouble them, that’s not in my nature. And beside we’re not a proper studio either, everyone has their life to attend to, and them being low profile would prefer if I didn’t share their name. Just know I thank them. Well, the only non-low profile friend I have is my translator, who became friends over conversation and time. Weird thing it is, Yuan (The Chinese bonds and fates). 

What’s something you wish there were more of in FVNs?

对于你来说，你希望在FVN能有更多什么元素，或者你希望在FVN能更多出现的东西呢?

单纯希望更多的好好的讲述一个故事，也让女角色更多好待遇！兽娘不香吗？妹妹不可爱吗？我希望女角色能在这个圈子里别太过于边缘化，也有更好的待遇。

In hopes to delivering a well presented, good story, and focusing on the story more. AS WELL AS GIVING THE FEMALE CHARACTERS BETTER TREATMENT! IS FURRY GALS NOT CUTE? IS THAT LITTLE CUTE FLUFFY SISTER NOT CUTE EITHER? I just sincerely hope that girls in this field won’t be overly mistreated by being sidelined in story every time, and have better treatment from henceforth in more FVN in the future. 

What makes you want to read a FVN?

什么会激发你去读其他FVN作品呢?

兴趣，好奇，画风和故事。初略看到的介绍和画风喜欢的就去玩。

Curiosity, interest, with the art style and stories. My first impression by introduction and artstyle, if it captures me, will have me reading it. 

What’s something you hate seeing in FVNs?

你有没有在FVN里，比较讨厌见到的元素或者东西呢（可以是故事情节等等）?

A LOT， 太多了。举例，比如说以做爱为前提的，比如说上来就必须大炮作为能量的奇奇怪怪的设定等，来做这个故事。没有一个故事核心内想，而发布的故事。虽然了解性是一个作为人的本性，我也不会过度的反感，而且也知道有的tiktok抖音的主博从擦边慢慢拓展，但是圈子还是保持原来十年前的样子，让我感觉沮丧，所以希望圈子能从中成长。故事讲好才是最重要的，而不是为了色而创造的故事。

A LOT, TOO MUCH. Take an example, ones that just focuses purely on love, and uses Sex as some kind of energy kind of setting just weirds me out. A story I’ve seen too commonly in the FVN circle I see, one that doesn’t possess a solid core and thought revolving around it, releasing it to just let out all the bestial lust. I know that lust and sex is the very nature of humanity/furries/whatever, and I’m not overly against it，since I’ve seen TikTokers that went from implied NSFW content maker to expanding their content. But the problem is, the circle I’ve come to see have remained the same as it was ten years ago, and it saddens me. So with whole honesty, I want to see the community grow and rise, and tell a good story, first and foremost, and not make Sexual appeal all you focus on.  

What are your thoughts on some of the common gripes?

你对一些比较常见的观众抱怨观点的想法呢?（比如说太多分支啊，VNs 没有完工，半途而废，或者比较慢的更新速度，还有有的Patreon(红P)的付费框架，还有视觉小说出来前，就开始卖周边等等问题).

我的评价是，首先买周边，游戏没做好，就别开始卖周边。我可以举例，很多国内fvn就是以先用鲜艳的画风，约稿等等，而最后成品就是个Demo, 但却每次兽展之拿出更多的周边,而不是进度来圈钱，我很不喜欢这种行为。更新速度慢的观点，就是理解大部分的人都是为爱发电，不是很正规的工作室去完成一个，所以不能太过度要求。但是开始开众筹，而且开始赚钱了，那就成了商业模式，而你还因为非常没道理的原因来托更，那就真的不合适了。题外话，我其实一开始没有想卖周边，但是热烈要求，我就开始设计和推出新的周边了。应该，还有热烈要求的话，就是会出第三弹的周边把？

Simple comment. First, about merchandises, DO NOT SELL MERCHANDISES, WHEN YOU HAVEN’T EVEN MADE THE GAME. I’ve had an example of Chinese FVN that attracts the attention by commissioning beautiful arts, bright and fancy colours and art style, and the final product is a Demo for years to come. They can present all the merchandises in furcon, and they’d never show actual progress in a bid of money grubbing, I simply despise actions like this. And as to slow updates, I fully understand that most do this out of passion and love, and I simply cannot have over the top demand for them to ask them to finish things at a fast rate. But once you have anything like a patreon, Kickstarter and such, and earn legitimate money from it, it becomes something of a commercial value, and you still use absurd excuses to draw the update, that to me is unsuitable. And as an out of topic thing, I actually never wanted to sell merchandises in the first place, but after strong demand, I began designing and making new merchandises. And, should demand remains hot, perhaps I’ll work on producing a third limited time series for the merch?

Everyone knows all the big popular names— what’s your favorite underground/niche FVN? We’re here to try and uplift names that need more attention.

大多是人都知道一些大名字的FVN作品（Adastra外星狼，或者Echo回音镇等等）- 对于你来说，有没有一个小众的FVN你比较喜欢呢？我们这个采访的目的之一就是把一些需要更多名声的小众fvn带入观众眼里.

一，混圈子少。二，圈钱行动太多了，而导致我个人追的国内的不多。而引进国外的FVN都属于大作，所以对我来说，这是个难得问题。非要推荐一个小众向的，我会推荐的虹悦的汜水流年，是一个目前只有中国语，而且在中国有好风评的故事。

One, I don’t actually stay active in the circle, and two, with so much money grubbing with FVN in China, it meant that I haven’t kept up with most of the Chinese FVN. And any FVN outside of China are usually big named. So, if you’re seriously asking me one underground FVN, then I’d like to recommend 汜水流年/SiShuiLiuNian by虹悦/HongYue. A FVN that only has Chinese as of currently, and have a rather sizeable following in China.  

Now for some closing thoughts…

最后，一点感想等等… 一个我希望所有的嘉宾能回答，来让我和大家能了解的。

What’s something you wished I asked you about?

有没有一个或多个你希望我这次采访里能问你的问题呢?

问的都很全面了，好好把作品做好就是了。就算是我一个人了，就算朋友一个个因时间或者其他原因而退出了，我也会继续的。没有商业脑去做这个的。不会做到一半就不做的了。除非离开这个圈子的情况。

A wholesome question selection. I just believe in making your work as good as you can, and focus on making it well. For me, even if I end up the team just myself, even if friends leave this project due to time and other reasons, I’ll continue onward. I don’t even have the commercial head to do this, and there’s no way I give up halfway, unless I leave the community behind for good.

What is the meaning of life?

你对生命的解释和意义是什么? 

一场来自大自然的奇迹。 

A miracle from mother nature.

and Finally: （最后的最后：）

Anything you’d like to plug? And where can we find you?

有想给观众补充的话吗？还有，大家可以在哪里找你和你的作品呢？

混不了国外的平台了，所以上哔哩哔哩找我了，戴拉克斯！最后，我想说，感谢各位朋友对这份作品的支持。说实话，如果没有人支持和阅读，我早就会在第一章放弃了。但是只要有一个人等着，一个人阅读，我也会去好好做下去。虽然会做一点其他的，但是会慢慢做下去，分享给大家的。 

Can’t really be active in Oversea social media and platform, so go on Bilibili for 戴拉克斯 to find me! And finally, I’d like to say, thank you to every friend for supporting this game. In all honesty, if wasn’t for anyone reading and take interest in this, I’ve already have given up in Chapter 1. But as long as one person wait, one person read it, then I’ll continue to work hard. Even though I might take on a project or two elsewhere, but I will continue nonetheless, and share my work with everyone. 

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Rag and Tex

Tell me about yourself.

I’m Tex-Eugene, a name I’ve taken, based off of Ugin from MtG and the TianHeHui MC, and based on the fursona I’ve yet to pick. Majoring in psychology and media and graduated, and now am working on teaching secondary students. Part of the community due to my work on translating Tianhehui (THH from this point on). 

I was just confused because it doesn’t say Eugene in your current user name.

I’m using it because it’s the main character of THH—it was sort of an impulsive thing in part due to discord’s changes.

Do you have a fursona and if so, what species? What does having a fursona mean to you? And I always ask, because I find it curious, especially as I’ve now picked up my treesona.

For myself, right now I don’t have one, but it is being commissioned courtesy of DelaX’s work. Unfortunately, he’s a little slow on the uptake (Happy to wait though!). The one in the imagination/being worked on is a mixed of bloodborne Victorian-esque dragon and one that has features of eastern and western dragons and the scale color I’m imagining is Ugin’s white/silver scale. For me, having a fursona is just to help me integrate into the community better. It just represents what I want to be in this world. It’s not a full reflection, who I want to be, and just going with the trend.

Everyone loves going along with a good trend.

I do encourage some of the people in my THH server to come up with their own fursona and all that because we’re all drawn together by the art and all of that. I’m bad at art, but they’re really loving the art so— we’re trying to come together.

 We’re gonna get a bit more spicy now.  What’s your Hear Me Out? I always say it’s a no judgement zone, but that’s a lie. There’s a little judgment. 

I actually have two and unfortunately, neither I want to yiff. I learned one from revisiting my cartoon age. One is Hong Mao (Hong Mao and lantu). He’s from the cartoon series I really really like. He’s a brave courageous leader with a bit of a teenager mood. There’s the charismatic nature of him leading a group in defiance and outplaying his enemy. I really enjoy that.

The other is my furry char, because there’s no one I want to Yiff— it’s Ugin from MtG, the spirit dragon. I like the white pale blue/green mix, and I like his ancient wisdom. His wings with the feathers, he looks cooler than nicol bolas which you like. Yes, I said that! 

Ugin I do know, and he’s at least a hear me out for the furry community if they don’t play MtG, insomuch as I can see them being completely unaware due to the perceived difficulty of getting into the game. I’ll allow it.

Hong Mao also seems on point.

It’s my own weird taste, I’m proud of it.

Would you say you’re an active member of the Furry community? If so, what do you get from your engagement with them? And how do you engage? 

I shift. I tend to be rather active, but I would like to become a little more inactive with how much responsibility I have over the coming year and also my life and all of that. In terms of what kind of person I am, I am more of raising opinions whether controversial or adapt to follow the line of an interesting conversation. I tend to pull myself out when the convo gets a bit uncomfortable. I am a bit active right now, but I may become inactive as the time comes. I will keep a presence as I owe it to the community for being nice to me.

Being nice isn't a social contract requiring you to put in effort in response for nice tokens.

True, but I try to be extra nice if I can. That’s me in a nutshell. That is despite me playing violent rpg games and loving FromSoftware’s catalog.

One more more personal item. What’s your furry Hot Take?

This is really hard, because I personally do not have any hot takes. If you want me to say one, it’s that I feel like sometimes people treat furries unfairly, it’s a stigma, but I get why some of us are getting that stigma, and that tendency is I shift between agreeing with furry and going anti-furry, but overall I’m very neutral when it comes to my final POV which is, I Just want people to reduce a little bit of their libido and those who are anti furry, less destructive and biased.

I know we’re all occasionally sex crazed people, but I prefer if we delve into the nicer part of the furry, which I see in some of the chinese circle to which is to use furry characters to present educational items and uplift, instead of people drawing 18+ figures like drawing historical figures or poets from china and were doing it as a furry. I just hope we controla  degree of our libido and discuss more things that are helpful.

My question here is why do we need to discuss helpful things?

I feel like by discussing helpful things we learn from each other and more often, I feel like sometimes if we engage in too much—I’m not against sex jokes— but I just feel like it gets over abundant–it turns people off. Yes, I’m over 18, but that’s not me, I’m not feeling everything needs to be about dicks and pulsating buttholes. I feel like engaging in more helpful ways we might build up a more positive outlook, like what we can do with positive furry visual novels that are SFW and are engaging people and learning. I’m a psychologist, I’m wondering if we turn furry visual novels, limited as it is as a medium, into something that produces actual facts and capable of engaging in awareness and philosophical ideals. We remove the rose tinted glasses that people use to look at us, but we can try and learn more into the positive side, but there’s just too much sex jokes, it’s discouraging sometimes, and I know we don’t get younger demographics here, but I feel like if we can get people knowing about furry from a young age, they might not be so against it and will have some freedom of choices to join the community as such. That’s  my point.

That’s an interesting perspective, inasmuch as you’re equating a fandom into something that needs to have an informed choice to join it.

It’s my own personal outlook! I have only been in the fandom since 2018ish. I officially joined THH in '23 and that's when I started doing FVN work and got involved.

Yeah, but it’s a fandom. Like are we gonna start teaching the pros and cons of getting into sports teams, or drawing, or singing? I feel like it’s a bit melodramatic haha.

No, but it won’t hurt too bad if we start. It’s just my opinion. Sometimes I want to explore unexplored territory, but I don’t have the resources or time to do so, but if I ever do I will. It’s just the unknown.

Thank you, for the normally bite-sized portions but I think this is more of a mouthful of your thoughts haha. Now we’re going to move onto further details about your involvement in THH.

What made you want to work on a Furry Visual Novel (and tell me about your general translation history?)

I actually have never done translation prior to this. I am the one rare people in  my age group around me, that is quite very proficient bilingual. Some of us struggle with English or Chinese. While I happen to have deteriorated in my Chinese, I am able to do well in both. My official first dive into FVNs as a whole was Adastra and NMF, and I kinda got into it. THH was somewhere around my 7th, but I didn’t get into it until around 2022 due to the Ifaction engine problems that prevents it from opening unless you have a specific method for it. Once I accessed it I dived into a world I never thought would be explored, and all that familiarity, nostalgia, it resonates in you, like a love for a country, a culture, it sings to me. And, it’s fascinating, the characters, all of that— it’s not a story for everyone but I was determined to give it a shot. Back then there was no english translation and I felt it was a buried gem that is being forgotten, and DelaX was the kind of a guy who doesn’t proactively go out for translation, and he struggles to you know, find people out here, so I just one day got his contact that he left online and said “Hey you, want a translator?” and he said, “Sure, why not give it a shot”, and I found it was a struggle at the beginning and I had a lot of grammar mistakes and words I didn’t get because some of them are ancient texts, but over time I found more confidence in doing it, and ever since joining the actual discord server and his encouragement to build a social status here, I found myself being more and more active and meeting people like Sedge or Redd, I am kinda amazed by their works, and got more inspired about it, and I want to expand my role as a translator not only for THH even though that’s my main priority to also provide if possible to provide more translators to translate English to Chinese or Chinese to English for other furry visual novels.

I gotta say, you’re coming off as a go-getter. Not only asking to do the translation, but also the aspiration to do others if you have the time and/or training a task force of other translators.  Big aspirations! 

I don’t think it will be done this year, or next year, or in the next two years, but I want to give it a shot. IK think there are many valuable works the Chinese crowd and English crowds don’t know, and I just see—it’s a bit like art shouldn’t be lost in languages. It’s just a barrier. It’s a challenge but it’s worth overcoming so people can share art. If there’s a common language in the world, art is one of them.

That’s a lovely sentiment.

DelaX takes on writing, drawing, programming the VN in Ifaction (basically the powerpoint version of vn engines), while I take care of translating, organizing the team, getting new musicians for him— we’re basically yin and yang of two teams working together as one. I’m just the second in command at this point but still, I think he deserves full credit for taking on the task of creating the entire thing in the first place.  I only take tiny creative liberties when it comes to translating, in some minor easter eggs, but I keep 99.5% of the translation exactly as it is.

Interesting, because I do know that—I’m not gonna say that something as egregious as the pokemon anime saying rice balls are jelly donuts, but there is a measure of localization that is done, but you’re saying that you’ve mostly left that intact.

I keep the very important parts of the dialog and moments that should be sounding as philosophical as possible because I respect those texts most and those define the characters most. I only take liberties on small unnoticeable dialogs and some naming conventions. That’s my tiny bit of localization. It’s my ingredient x.

I’d say that naming is probably one of the air quotes, safest places for localization. Not that  you wouldn’t put care in, but it’s perhaps the easiest place to try and translate past the literal into a more appropriate perhaps term, but I can understand not trying to reach.

For example, I named a card game Magic the Gathering into General the Gathering, because it’s a tcg, it sounds similar, they have booster packs, and it doesn’t harm the game reading overall.

Alright, thanks for that rundown of your involvement in the THH’s creative process.

What do you hope people get from THH? I know you’re not explicitly writing the story, but you’re part of the process and you're putting time in, therefore I believe you should hope people get something out.

Oh yeah, absolutely. The one thing I want is recognition that there’s many games that come from different places and views and they’re equally amazing in what they do. They might not fit for everyone but they have their own hard work put into it and they deserve their time. THe second part is the same with DelaX, I found my calling, I just want to share a different culture into this place. Like all the eastern western fantasy japanese things, I want to change it up a little, because the only one we see a little of eastern inspiration is Nekojishi, that’s the one I want to show another view of China, of ancient china. You know it’s based on ancient China, I thought it’s amusing. I want to share it. It's a good story, why not?

If it wasn’t a good story, I might just have kept quiet about it, so why not share it with the world?

Now we’ll move on from your personal project thoughts, to your thoughts on the wider industry, so to speak. 

What’s something you wish there were more of in FVNs?

I would say I’d like to see more— I’m not certain. I’m a bit of the DelaX camp. I want to see more female MCs. Artemis, Mary—I want to see more that step out of being side characters and play more impact on story, on character roles and stereotypes. The other part is I want more good fantasy ones, I guess. We have plenty of fantasy ones but I want more. Especially Superhero genres, because the only ones I can think of from the top of my head is Glory Hounds and Super-Nova. I know there’s more (and fantasy that evokes superhero genre), but I’d like more superhero works added into the game.

I’d like to see one day we got Tokusatsu inspired works.

Good news, there is a Maywolf 2023 that was Toku inspired. 

OH, I’ll have to check it out myself. But I was hoping for a longer project. Maywolf tends to be for smaller projects. But I’d like it to be longer. Ghostie and I have been talking about our love for Toku, and what happens if we involve Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai. I’d like to see more girth to the superhero and Toku genres.

And here you are, saying there’s too many lewd jokes haha.

You know my meaning of girth! I mean longer stories instead of a 30 minute read! Which is why I sometimes get a little frustrated with Glory Hounds and Supernova, it’s not enough! But time and schedules, so I’ll wait for updates! 

Also reduced lewd jokes doesn’t mean no lewd jokes! I’m sure THH has some what I would call “tiptoeing the edge” jokes.

Oh I know, I was teasing hehe.

What makes you want to read an FVN?

Art, characters, setting, 3 important ones. Once I get into it, it’s the characters and story. I personally first look at the setting and genre, like I’m not the biggest fan of sci-fi except for NMF, but that’s the only one I’m genuinely loving. And then I’ll look at the art, and if the art impresses me, I’ll definitely try and give it a shot. Lately I haven’t been reading too much, but One Thousand Acts of Decency I’ve been trying out and it’s surprisingly good. I give things an experimental try but my tendency is my first and foremost is setting and art, and then the characters and story, which is built from summary and such. But then I always give the ones I read a proper chance before I drop it, and even then I might revisit based on updates and such.

I find it curious that you’re willing to go back into ones that you dropped on the basis of having a new update. For the most part, I find for myself, that the work is the work. I don’t expect major changes  with additional updates. I mean, the narrative might change, but my usual issues with a work aren’t explicitly “This story is bad” but “I’m not with vibing with the way it’s being told” and that should be the same.

I’m the guy that tries to give things second chances. 

What’s something you hate seeing in FVNs?

I really bloody hate villains. I hate irredeemable villains. I hate Cooper. Sorry, I never read RtF, but that’s the one reason I feel intense hate. The more vile acts the villain does, the more I hate them. But that’s more on a character basis.

On an element basis, I don’t like it when the story doesn’t deep dive into the world view and doesn’t flesh it out. I enjoy it if you occasionally give it half a chapter to flesh out the world a little more. Some FVNs don’t provide that, and I’d like to see it more I guess. I also don’t like how face-paced we dive into the character and story instead of sometimes fleshing out the world, sometimes going into other people’s lives to see how they interact with the cast. I enjoy that a bit more which is why I really liked Tennis Ace. You have occasionally glimpses of the cast’s lives, so it made the world more fleshed out, it doesn’t feel like the side characters are just there.

I find it curious that you say that many of the FVNs are fast paced, because if I compare the length of something like Tennis Ace, as you just mentioned, that is like around a million words, and it’s not close to complete, when a conventional novel goes for like 10% of that duration or less.

I know—I may be an avid reader and as such I tend to enjoy a bit of length in my reading. I do like it when they give a little more attention to it, but there’s not enough for the side characters. They’re there for a bit, they don’t get developed, and they get forgotten. I prefer it so when the world gets developed the more you get into it and other characters are supporting. I won’t say your view is wrong for those who prefer otherwise.

I don’t know if it’s always the point view, or so much as in part, budgetary constraints. 

Yeah… I just have to swallow it as a budget issue, unfortunately this is an indie place, we don’t have the budget to dive into the world consistently like a perfect statue. That’s why I like when the shorter ones,like Glory Hounds, you still see the various locations and businesses, the gay bar, it gives more life to the work. I hope they continue with diving into the setting and all that. Others don’t do enough of that I guess.

What are your thoughts on some of the  fandom’s common gripes? 

For merch selling before you release the game in substantial amount, just scrap it, don’t do it. I know you’re presenting a product to the world, cuz in the world each FVN is a product, but I still feel like you give us a product of the incomplete thing and try to basically scam us for money and I do not enjoy that kind of model. We don’t have a patreon for THH, so I can’t speak towards that. My only gripe with people complaining about update times is that we’re all people. This is our hobby—some of us it’s jobs—we can’t focus on it 24/7. We are doing our best, and sometimes there’s a bit of patience, but if you have a patreon model, try and be more transparent for your audience. “unfortunately we’re taking more time” — tell them. There’s some patreons that keep draining money with no update schedule coming out—I’d feel very upset for those. And finally, when you give a deadline, note that you can’t make it to the deadline or don’t even respond, I’m not a fan of that, and I would get a bit peeved, but if you give a reasonable explanation I’ll understand.

My final gripe—try and don’t do too many routes if you don’t have enough manpower/planning. If you have the plan, go ahead, I won’t stop you, it’s your time, you're writing it, but if you make a mess of the entire story, what’s the point? Why do too many routes in the first place?

I feel like some of these are people feeling obligated to do the trends that they see in others, for better or for worse.

Can’t demand too much, it’s just life, as it is.

Everyone knows all the big popular names, I don’t need to mention them further, cuz the point is uplifting smoller names so— what’s your favorite underground/niche FVN?  You’re not allowed to say Adastra. That’s not niche here haha. 

Most of the ones I read are pretty big names… I’m pretty sure you won’t accept NMF even though it's a niche in sci-fi and synths.

One of the ones that impressed me in the recent days is One Thousand Acts of Decency, surprisingly the gameplay captured me.

The other one is Beasts of the Thorns—it had an English translation but it got taken down, but I’ve been reading it recently and while it’s not my fav, it’s still a really good read.

My third one would be another Chinese novel by the name of SiShuiLiuNian —same answer of DelaX, about a Chinese university related story. I kinda enjoy that slice of life. Nostalgia, enjoying my university days.

As to whether NMF is niche enough? Good question. I’ll let the audience decide.

Thanks for doing this. Now for some closing thoughts… something I’d like to know of all my guests.

What’s something you wished I would have asked you about?

I’m upset about you asked everyone but me and DelaX what kind of games we enjoy! I’d like to go about game favoritism. My favorite games are FromSoftware based souls-like. Dark souls 1,2,3 Bloodborne and Sekiro and Lies of P, Blackmyth Wukong. I also enjoy hero shooters because they are’t hardcore. Marvel Rivals and Overwatch 2, I know it’s shameful, I’m still playing those, but it’s the only way I can feel good at myself because I suck at aiming but I don’t have to suck at everything else. And the last kind of games I enjoy is Metroidvania, still haven’t gotten to Ori, but absolutely love Hollow Knight and Blasphemous 1 & 2!

For hobbies out of the game fandoms—I enjoy reading all sorts of nonfiction and fictions—Trying to bolster my knowledge pool, I’ve also been picking up calligraphy. I’m trying to enjoy more of that.

What is the meaning of life?

Joke answer— get a packet of fried chips from the nearby beach.

Serious answer - Treasure it, you only have it once, and even if we are reincarnated, you’re still only you once. Treasure it. Don’t throw it away.

And finally, where can we find you?

Blueskyfor THH and their discord, which is on our itch.io. Follow DelaX. I’m taking a quote  out of a movie I really like— “People's prejudice and perspective is like a mountain, unmoving, unyielding".  (Nezha 1) But we can break through it, and forge a stronger world through it. So thank you, to all who support this project, and we aim to continue, as long as there's one out there, we will continue.