I bought ebi-hime's BL bundle on Steam because a) I love her games and b) after immensely enjoying To Have and To Hold, I needed more Yuel/Tavi in my life. All Idleness and Ephemera is the first game that centers their relationship.

The first thing to know about Idleness is it's an AU spin off of All Ashes and Illusions, a cishet hentai game. Ashes is where Yuel, Tavi, and Safiya debut. Given her adoration of the cousins now, it was extremely funny to read in the Notes that ebi-hime stumbled upon the Yuel/Tavi ship mostly by accident--she wanted to write something else with Yuel in it, and Tavi was a warm body, haha. Idleness poses the question of what if Yuel focused his obsessive love on Tavi instead of Safiya. You don't absolutely need to play Ashes to understand Idleness, but the starting narration sort of dumps you into an already established world. It was a bit disorienting and abrupt, but hey, that's the cost of starting in the middle.

The second thing to know is All Idleness and Ephemera is a game centered around sex scenes, though I'm given to understand this designation is more on a technicality than a true entry into the nukige genre. I'm a big believer that sex (and fight) scenes shouldn't actually be about the acts they involve. Instead, they should be about the characters--showing who they are, changing them, and moving their arcs forward--as well as being hot to trot. With Idleness, ebi-hime displays a true mastery of the craft. The majority of the game is pa-pa-pa, and each caress is a crucible. Both Tavi and Yuel are transformed by their intimacy. I gobbled it up. Got some high quality erotica right here, lemme tell ya.

If the fantastic narrative wasn't enough, the soundtrack is full of bangers. The reason I have a 7 hour play time isn't that I read slow. No, I actually left the game running to hear the music while I did other work. It's that good! Thank goodness the menu has the music tracks available and loop-able. Plus! There's like, a little lyric music video in the game after the first scene. Seeing that the first time, I was absolutely tickled. How fun!

If you like sexy, sexy character studies with great background music, I heartily recommend All Idleness and Ephemera.