#... I also might be getting ready to do a new character romance video with a song

[blackbutler-readerinsertsandjunk]

thank you guys so much for all the support last night. today was a much better day, and all the kind words and virtual hugs helped a lot!

I'm also supposed to be getting some sugar free treats and shower steamers in a package tomorrow so I'm looking forward to a nice self care night after work haha

bout to try a new scent/flavor pod on my water bottle, to stay hydrated while I pump some more things into the queue! once I get down below 100 requests, my brain gives me permission to recopy my list down... requests are currently at 118, so, we're getting there!

I can't WAIT to reopen the askbox and get some new things... uwaaaah <3 <3 <3

[seraphinitegames]

The Wayhaven Chronicles - Update 22/March/2024

So, I decided where Chapter One is going to end! It should leave people very excited for what’s to come in the rest of the book (and later demo releases), hehe! ;D

I think it does give a very good clue at what might be the source of the problem for the love interests and the MC throughout Book Four, too…

It’s gonna get exciting, guys! :D

Knowing where the demo is going to leave off, I also started looking back at the character creator. After actually playing through what I had a while back, I realized I really wasn’t so keen on what I do normally, and it really needs streamlining.

And I think (hopefully!) I have a plan for how to do that now.

I will try to see if I can get some screenshots or a video of it and post it up so you can get a hint of what it looks like after my redo so far, if my internet ever wants to play ball again!

With only one option per page being possible, I need to make sure people can get through the character creator as fast as possible so they can get playing! And I think putting in big descriptions of what each choice is or means is where some of the flow is coming from. Definitely need to scrap those.

Also realised what I was doing wrong in the previous ‘character creator’ screens for the personality/skill stats and why they weren’t high enough when you picked that they were, in fact, the highest! So, I’ve fixed that for this one, and I will do it for the other books when I can get the time to go back to my spruce up of the previous books too.

Obviously when Book Four releases people will be able to import their character—and I also had a thought on that as well!

With the villain romance being an option, I figure as a player I might already have a character I’ve played through past books with that would work, but I might already be on a romance path (the villain romance only being available on the non-romance ‘friend’ route) so can’t pursue the villain’s storyline.

So I’m thinking of adding in an option where you can modify an imported character with a few choices (such as romance choice). The game will play out as though the character has always had the new options though, so I need to make sure that’s clear. But it’s definitely something I think could work as an option for those that wanted it.

It was definitely a more code-focused week this week, which makes my brain a bit mushy, lol! So I’m very excited to dive back into writing, as well as get the first demo section ready to be sent to the editor and readers…the first time people apart from me will actually see the start of Book Four, hehe!

Hope you all have an incredible weekend! We'll be offline as usual, so I'll update you all again next week! <3

[plethomacademia]

I spent most of yesterday logged off and that took a lot of the energy out of my veilguard critical sails. It's fine. You can see all the places where they had to cut content. There are lots of ideas with little cohesion.

It reminds me of da2 in that way a lot, but I didn't care about it with that game. Sure people just appear out of crates to hit you and there's exactly one cave. There's something to be said for smaller scopes. I loved Kirkwall and I loved the people I got to know over years there.

Sure, this game cannot be a single city and the stakes are too high to take years, you're fighting at least one god no matter what due to the set up in inquisition. (Which ugh don't get me started on that after credits stinger and how they might have set themselves up for failure again.) But did we need six factions, especially when three of them feel half finished at best? Did there need to be a version of galactic readiness which forces you to engage with each faction to the point that you can see the gaps? Did there need to be so many boss fights that they didn't have time to design so they just threw in another dragon?

I like the characters but I feel the gaps there too. There's enough here for me to play with, but this need for everyone to be nice ... Ugh I really hope this isn't the future of this company. Remember when characters could disagree? Remember when you could literally hate fuck? Remember when Ashley shot Wrex in the head?

I guess since this is a whole thing, I'll get out the last part: the romances are really disappointing. I don't mean this in a where are the boobies way, who truly cares. Bioware was really onto something with their last two games and romances. Veilguard suffers from everyone having basically the same progression: empty flirts that feel weird -> a lock in that feels very late and gets you a kiss -> good job gamer here's the sex. This is the me1 and me2 model!

Their last two games had really started to play with allowing different characters to have different ways to engage in a relationship. Some people will never consummate, some want to fuck on the first date. The thing I remember the most from Andromeda is that it let me play my Ryder like the absolute messy nepo baby that I wanted, which included fucking her friend on the couch after playing scifi FIFA and then calling it what it was: blowing off steam, having fun. After that, she was able to have a long, slow build up romance with a pink alien who helped her stop and think for three seconds and become a better person.

This is good! To use phrases that I think Bioware might care about, this is representation! I have always been a fuck on the first date, catch feelings later person, so the whole building to sex always felt off to me. Let some people lead with their bodies. Let some people lead with the feelings. Let people be people! If nothing, it felt even more video gamey and empty changing it back to this and I have a feeling this is once again a victim of cuts in development.

Apparently my sails were still full. I do plan to play this game again, but with the difficulty turned down, enemy hp set to lowest, and free rein to skip cutscenes that made me roll my eyes the first time. I really hope this did well enough that they get to have another shot at mass effect, but I am also worried that this is their new standard and I am going to have found family everyone is nice in space whether I want it or not.

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

My memory is terrible so I wanted to do a breakdown of my stuff every once in a while. Might be monthly, might be whenever I feel like it. Also there are too many shows on and something is always finishing or starting so a month is a lot.

BL - Currently Watching

1000 Years Old [2/12] - It's silly, and entertaining and makes me laugh. The friend group is delightful and I'm having a good time watching them. Was excited for a minute when Yo suggested a haircut for Pun because I cannot handle that wig. 🤞

Anti Reset [5/10] - This is one of the most frustrating shows I've watched in a while. The show doesn't seem to settle on what is actually trying to say about the AI of it all, and when it says something I'm not crazy about it. Why is it so frustrating? Because they are so fucking endearing when they're together on screen. I wanna love this show so much.

Cherry Magic Th [11/12]– I love them so much. I'm fascinated by the choices that the show is making. As a big fan of the manga and the jbl I came into this with reservations and this show is just blowing my mind. This was the best episode 11 of all time and Tay/New are delivering. My heart is so full with this.

Cherry Magic Anime [7/12]– Another helicopter ride! Yay. The date song was hilarious. We're now getting to the point where they are dating and Adachi is feeling guilty for lying so I'm curious how the show will adapt the next phase of the relationship.

Dead Friend Forever [10/12]– Glad to see we are all on board with Tan's murderous impulses. It's been so much fun having more people join in on the fun. As for me, I NEED White to stay alive. That's really all I want. Getting curious about how Perth factors in to all of this.

My Strawberry Film[2/8] - I feel it coming. I see sadness in my future. But I'm bracing because I'm loving the look of this show. And pining boys are my favourite type of boys. I'm ready.

Ossan's Love Returns [8/9] - The videos messages destroyed me but then that ending made me annoyed. I don't know what to expect in terms of Kurosawa but I hope he's not actually dying and there's a really good reason for all this. Medical mal practice might be the thing. Although as @twig-tea pointed out to me, since it was said in show it might not actually happen. I want happy for the ending anyway.

Perfect Propose [5/6] . Why must I only have them for 6 episodes??? I need more. Kai is everything to me, and that back hug followed by that smile melted by cold heart. Hiro's boss needs something heavy to fall on him from a great height. And please Hiro,sweetie, I need you to eat better and sleep.

Although I Love You, and You? [7/10]- Sakae is letting me down. And by that I mean, the show is letting me down. Sakae needs to put his foot down with Mizuki and go back to being a fool in love with Soga.

To Be Continued [1/8] - It's not amazing. but I'm a sucker for second chance romance and there are two couples so there's a 50% chance I will like this. We'll see. Also, they need to start hiring younger actors for the high school flashbacks. This goes for A Secretly Love too. Having 27 year olds and up playing ten years younger just won't do. It's terrible.

Unknown [2/12] - I'm intrigued. Not completely sold yet but I'm liking it so far. Also nothing would keep me away from watching Sam Lin again.

Also watched the first episode of A Secretly Love and caught up with City of Stars but it's on the 'I need to shut of my brain' schedule so I'm not necessarily watching to weekly.

BL - Finished

Cooking Crush - I will miss all of them. I loved it so much. The whole cut/uncut version thing was annoying and the editing was weird at times but overall this was wonderful. Communication done right. Relationships and character growth was stellar and both couples won my heart. Aungpao really surprised me, considering he was surrounded my pros on all sides. Dynamite was a joy to watch. And OffGun delivering with all the kissing. Everyone should watch this.

The Sign - I mean, what they did to this show is absolutely insane. Not airing the finale like the rest of the show. Having to pay extra for happy ending is ridiculous (although I kinda predicted this and @lurkingshan is my witness. I said as a joke and it turns out reality is a joke.) Then waiting 2 whole weeks for whatever that was. Just the most unsatisfying experience. Go read this from Shan because I agree with everything said there. Also @bengiyo final thoughts here really echo how I felt about this show overall.

Happy Ending - 20 minutes split in 3. Why? No idea. Was it a happy ending? I think so. Was it cute? Sure. Was it great to watch Seong Hyuk again? You betcha. But I didn't love it. I need Choco Milk Shake S2, like, TODAY.

Playboyy - It ended.

Rose Watches OJBL - I feel bad about this. I didn't watch any of the ones I planned to. This might seem like whatever but I've been trying to catch up with awards season films, because since uni, me and a couple of friends always do it and finish it by watching the oscars together and so ojbl was were I dropped the ball. Gonna restart soon though.

Not BL - Watched this month

Night Has Come Death's Game Shop for Killers

That's it for right now. As usual my ask box is open for gif requests and any other questions. All my gifs are under #rosygifs.

Have a good week💜

[hardworkandguts]

SDF Macross

超時空要塞マクロス

(Anime)

Mecha romance musical by Shoji Kawamori

Era: Early 80s

Rating: S

Plot: In the late 90s, a giant spacecraft of unknown origin falls on an island, leading to the creation of the UN Spacy, to both protect earth from a possible alien invasion and to rebuild the spacecraft. 10 years after, the SDF-1 Macross is ready to be launched, and in attendance are Hikaru Ichijyo, a young stunt pilot at the invitation of friend Roy Focker, Lynn Minmay, a waitress in a Chinese restaurant in the city that grew around the Macross during the rebuild process and Misa Hayase, a first lieutenant working on the bridge of the Macross. However, during launch the solar system is invaded by the Zentradi, who identify the Macross as a ship of their former enemies.

Length: 36 episodes + 1 film + 1 OVA

Thoughts: And here's one of the big ones. Hard what may have come to the heads of two Gundam fans to think "what this needs is jet fighters with legs and singing", but I'm guessing saying "we can sell a lot of toys and soundtracks" at a meeting was probably it. How they *convinced* them it could work is another issue, but oh boy, does it work. It pretty much defined what the series would be known for in the following iterations - the variable fighters, an aspiring music star with a connection to protoculture (after all, what is music but an universal language) involved in a love triangle and the tensions between the civilian side of the Macross and it's military leadership in what's often terrifying life-or-death situations.

The weakest point of the story is probably the love triangle itself, making it where all vertices are very wishy washy about their feelings is just messy. Extending the story to the aftermath of the conflict also didn't seem such a good bet for this show (would payoff in terms of exploring the role of the Zentradi in the post-war) and probably would be better served focusing on different characters. Animation varies a lot (unsurprising for a show that may have had more than a handful of studios involved in, including very young Gainax), but the action scenes are pretty thrilling and you can still feel the impact they had on the medium as an whole, if only for the "this machine transforms into another machine" thing. Wonder if that picked up.

Might do a DYRL post separately, but in brief it's a condensed version of the story with some changes (Hikaru is already a rookie pilot and Minmay a up and coming star) and outstanding production values and maybe *the* defining song of the franchise that gives the movie it's title. Flashback 2012, which serves as the epilogue to the story, is a video album featuring Minmei's songs over footage from both series and movie and new sequences planned but not directed showing her final gig at earth, as she boards the Megaroad (captained by Misa), humanity's first colony spaceship. I don't think it replaces the series (for instance, it compresses the Jenius - Fallyna relationship to a bare minimum, and their kids appear all over the place over the rest of the franchise) but it allows you to get to the basics of the story.

Recommended to: fans of big robots and idols

Plus:

The variable fighter design by Mikimoto is one of those for the ages.

While animation can be a bit spotty, combat is generally on point. Ah ah missiles go brrrrrrrrr

Asking the important question, can singing save the world, which feels very 80s

Unsurprisingly, the music. Iijima is great as Minmei and this role as a virtual idol launched her career and is what best remembered from the show, but Kentaro Haneda's work on incidental music is incredible as well.

Inconsistencies between the TV series and DYRL being attributed in-universe on it being a war film? That works.

Minus:

Other than the infamous baby tossing scene, the added 9 episodes feel like a complete afterthought and feel the only reason to reignite a love triangle is to change it's shape.

Said triangle narratively is a complete mess.

Some bits of animation were very, VERY rushed.

[thotsforvillainrights]

OOO IM SO EXCITED THE BOX IS OPENED AGAIN!! I love your writings it always feels like you and horikoshi really have the same brain when it comes to the characters minds!

Can I request some bedroom time with skeptic 🫣

I hope you have an amazing day and your gonna be a great mama💖

[Oh I wouldn't take credit for that one since I do tend to write characters very...out of character most of the time lol. But I appreciate you enjoying my silly content! Let's see if I can finally do some actual smut or if I'm still not ready. Test those waters haha]

[sidenote: thank you, I'm still anxious about parenthood so it means a lot to hear that]

~Romance~

-Tomoyasu Chikazoku Smut-

Romance: a feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love.

It was no secret, anyone could see it. Tomoyasu was by no means a romantic person. I've said it before, and I'll bring it back up again. Even when he'd proposed to you, he'd entered the room and tossed the ring box at you before saying "Let's get married". Although he sobbed at the wedding, he still hadn't managed to find the proper way to romance you without cringing at the thought of it. Roses and candlelight, smooth words and sexy music. Hanabata had given his unsolicited advice a million times over. A lovely dinner, a walk in the park, a horse driven carriage. All lovely advice from his grand commander. Perhaps something simple like playing video games together? Geten added his suggestions. A night out on the town, shopping and eating, passionate love making. Chitose's annoying smirk at the very end had made him shutter. Making love and fucking, what's the difference. Sex is sex yes?

Nonetheless, he finally decided to let himself bare the risk of embarrassment. He took a few pages from the romance book and began setting up the cliché environment when he arrived home before you. He was far from being a good chef, but he managed to follow a basic pasta recipe. He'd taken a link to a rather inappropriate music playlist from Hanabata. He lit a few candles, but not too many. The smoke might set off the fire detectors. He'd even ran by the store and grabbed some new sheets and a blanket set. Not just to romance you but also because it was on the grocery list and he was supposed to had bought it last week. Finally he took a minute to think really hard about the words Chitose spoke earlier. Making love, was there really a difference? Even on your honeymoon he remembered the way he'd taken you. Now that he thinks about it, he hasn't taken his time or went slow with you at all. You never complained but still...

"Tomo?" Your voice rang out as the front door had opened and closed. Why was he freezing up now??? He sat still and listened to the sound of shuffling around. No doubt you were putting away your bag and taking off your shoes. A few more worries started flooding his mind. What if you didn't like it? What if this is too much? What if, what if. "There you are. Is everything okay? You look like you've seen a ghost." You smiled gently at him and took a seat on the bed. "So uh, let me start by saying that I'm really glad you finally got the bedset. I was starting to go crazy sleeping under the old one. And this one is real soft by the way, I love it." You complimented him and he nodded, keeping his eyes to the floor. "Tomo…what's all the stuff for in there?"

"Never mind it, I'll get it all cleaned up." When he went to stand up, you grab his arm and stop him. "Oh no, no way. I smell the spaghetti in the kitchen and there is no way you're trashing it. I'm starving. And anyway, I was just wondering about everything since it's not like you. There's nothing special happening is there?" He was quiet for a moment before turning to finally look at you. "I uh...I just wanted to be romantic for once. It's stupid shit so just disregard it." You chuckle lightly and caress his face with your hand. "I don't think it's stupid. I like it. I mean, I really appreciate it yknow? It's like mixing things up every once in a while. Thank you." You smile warmly at him and lean to kiss him gently (which honestly ends up being slower and longer than you anticipated. "I will say this though..." Your hand trails along his thigh and he's frozen, face turning red slowly. "With the kind of music playing in there, I don't assume you intended to just eat pasta and sleep, hmm?" Like a switch he immediately leaned over you as you ended up with you back on the sheets. He paused for a moment to think this through.

'Slower...'

He carefully moved his hand up your inner thigh and to the hem of your pants. Sure you were confused but the burning need inside far outweighed any confusion in the moment. He was never this gentle. By now you'd be face down in the pillows, ass up while he absolutely ravaged you. He'd just now managed to wiggle your pants and underwear down, the whole time kissing you still a bit rough but sweetly at the same time. He made sure to take his time and let his tongue explore every inch, every crevice in your mouth while his hands made quick work of your clothes and then his as well. He was taking special note of the way his fingers interacted with you, and the way he took just a small moment to service you with his mouth instead of the other way around had you believing something happened and this was not truly the Tomoyasu you knew and loved.

He moved slow, using his tongue to shift motions and evoke deep moans from you. You'd reached down to grip at his hair and pull, making him shake and release a moan of his own. The vibrations did nothing more than lead you further and further into an orgasm all for him. He'd be lying if he wasn't proud of causing it by the way.

He'd also even took his time to let you catch your breath, leaving buttlerfly kisses along your skin until you were finally back down to earth. Yes he was doing his best at being romantic and slow for you but he was still the same as usual too. He'd made sure not to skip his usual filth of spitting on his own cock and stoking it to lube himself up before entering you. However, this time he went in slow and gave you time to adjust. It was a delicious torture for him, and you could tell just by the way he was groaning and shivering slightly as well. He sat still until you started moving your hips indicating you were ready for him to move finally. It took everything in him to not just start drilling into you as usual. His thrusts were steady, slow but choppy and rough at the same time. He remained eye contact for a short period of time, moaning for you and uttering your name all for you. He stared into your eyes and even slipped out a small 'i love you' before leaning down to nip and kiss at your neck. He was close and you knew it from the way he kept gripping at your hips, so hard he would cut into them any minute with those nails of his. "Fuck...please?~" You nodded, feeling your own release on the horizon for the second time tonight.

He spoke your name once more, finishing and trying him best to stop that constant little twitch he gave out every time he came. It was impossible but you didn't mind it. When the both of you regained your composure, he gently rubbed circles into your back and stared up at the ceiling while you lay your head on his chest. "I really do love you by the way. My apologies it's rather difficult for me to show it like most others are able to do so. I am going to do better from now on."

"I never complained about it before Tomo. I love you and I know you have a weird way at showing it but I also never doubted your feelings for me. I love you so don't push yourself out of your boundaries if you don't want to do so. By the way...we need to get up and eat before that spaghetti gets too cold."

[korgbelmont]

Choices Summer Updates

I admit, I didn't expect to be doing a post like this until next week with the July Insiders, but here we are!

Undercut due to length of post

Blades of Light and Shadow 2 Oh, do we have a story for you! When you face the Shadow Realm once again, your skills are put to the ultimate test. Are you back in the Realm of your own accord? Or are you there against your will? Only time will tell, in the September 2023 premiere!

So it looks like the skills from BK1 may be carrying over to BK2. I'm interested to see what the Empire of Ash is like compared to the Shadow Court and how everything will play out.

My guess is that these are the new Love Interests mentioned in the video that was put out after BK1. Which means those who were hoping for Aerin when BK1 was releasing could potentially have their win! And just like Imtura, Mal, Nia, and Tyril, he is getting a new look. The other is named Valax, and I am intrigued about her and how she'll fit into the story. I remember when it was announced BK2 would add new Love Interests, I was hoping it would be a female Elf and male Orc. It looks like I may have been half right.

Unbridled: An Untameable Story Saddle up, partner! In the spinoff of Untameable, you’ll play as a brand new character, but you'll still see some familiar faces around. So get ready for a rodeo of a good time!

My guess is that the new MC will be someone who takes a job at the ranch in someway. As for the Love Interest, no idea. I imagine, like Untameable, it'll be a Single Love Interest book.

So I think the first image may be something to do with the new MC as we know that it is a gender of choice book. The second image I think might be related to Kit in someway as they may have since gone more into their dream of working in food. The third and fourth image I'm guessing may be CGs for the Love Interest.

The Cursed Heart 2 Coming 2024: The Cursed Heart 2! After a grueling battle to rid Kieran of their curse, you may think all has been put to rest. But friends, that could not be further from the truth. A new threat stands to rid the land of fae – no matter which Court they belong to.

I really don't know what to expect for The Cursed Heart 2. I do have a theory that somehow Longclaw is going to become Gleam again, but I don't know.

Intrigued as to what this could be in relation to during the book. Only one way to find out.

Immortal Desires 2 Another sequel is in the works! Immortal Desires 2 will also premiere in 2024! After your Turning at the end of Book 1, your kindling romance with both Cas and Gabe soon turns to jealousy when you are faced with the ultimate decision – which coven will you dedicate your life to?

To this day, I am still surprised at the decision to give this a sequel rather than have it be a standalone. And I am definitely ready for more. I had a feeling the whole choosing a coven thing would be a part of it and it'll be interesting to see how the decision affects the relationship if you went the poly route during BK1. For me, it'll probably be Clement as I played Gabriela's route only.

All that being said, I feel like there could be a chance something will happen that may see MC, Cas, and Gabe make their own coven.

Upcoming Themes Sometimes, the community will request a certain type of book, and we love to hear those ideas. We often can’t share details about books that will come out way in the future, but we dug up a few hints that we wanted to share. In 2024, you can expect to see books about: 👻♥️ | 🔪🧐 | 🏒🔥

I know I've said about being rubbish with emojis, but this time I'll have a go haha.

The first I imagine means another supernatural book (woohoo!), bit of a strange pair of emojis to pick though. I guess the heart refers to the Love Interest(s). Guess we'll find out next year.

The second screams mystery book. The monocle emoji gives me Poirot vibes. I'm guessing a murder mystery.

The third pair I imagine is in reference to the sports book they announced earlier in the year. Looks like said sport could potentially be hockey. I'm not really a sports person, but for now, I'll say I'll give it a go.

So that was everything regarding upcoming books in the blog post. I'll be back with more thoughts next week for the Insiders.

[polskasroka]

Distraction | Chapter 2

Here's chapter 2 of my Mel/Od fic, hope you enjoy!

Pairing: Melinoë/Odysseus

Tags: Older Man/Younger Woman, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Pining, Romance, Eventual Romance, Self-Doubt, Friendship, Friends to Lovers, Spoilers, Written During Hades II (Supergiant Video Game) Early Access, Character Study, mel is a tough gal overall, but she has her weaker moments, Denial of Feelings, Nightmares, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Kissing

AO3 link

Or Chapter 2 (6166 words) under Read More

In spite of Aphrodite’s straightforward advice, it seems that Melinoë’s chickened out, without wanting to admit it to herself. Yes, she smiled once she saw that her plants had been watered each time she had no time to do so and she indeed felt her heart soar, knowing that Odysseus doesn’t mind that additional chore that he chooses to fulfil more often than not.

Maybe Melinoë should’ve gone for it immediately after her conversation with Aphrodite. Maybe she should’ve thought about herself and her own feelings towards others. Maybe if she’d done it, she wouldn’t end up with a growing need of feeling close to someone.

Of course, she is close with everyone in the Crossroads. But it’s not that kind of close that she’d like. There is that desire to be close to someone emotionally, to feel attached to someone that Melinoë isn’t sure how to deal with. Apart from that, she’d also like to be able to just hug someone, without others looking at her funny or them giving it too much thought. It’s been a while since she’s fallen into someone’s safe embrace and she’s now longing just for that and it may be clouding her resolve and reflexes while traversing Oceanus. Is this the little distraction that Aphrodite was talking about?

It is a bit of a hindrance, yes, but Melinoë reaches Tartarus anyway. Even those coin bags that Melinoë simply despises are manageable and after beating at least twenty of them, she pays a visit to the Titan once more. The hate that she holds towards him obscures any distractions that may have been lurking in Melinoë’s mind during this run. But oh, Chronos has his servants and they have provided him with information that he will use against Melinoë anytime there is an opportunity to do so.

“I thought you would’ve got here sooner than that. After all these attempts, you seem to be slower and less precise in all your actions down here today,” he announces with superiority in his voice that lowers at the last three words he utters.

“Maybe it’s all those satyrs of yours that aren’t fast enough to provide you with the news,” Melinoë quips, determined.

“I might consider taking your advice this time. Perhaps, I will do some cleaning up among my units, since they have been failing me. So observant… Would you care to join me?”

“Never. Dream on, Chronos.” The Princess narrows her eyes and readies Descura for the attack.

“I shall do just that. Beware, for my dreams shall become your nightmares. A humble gift from me to you, granddaughter.”

Chronos’ voice stings and seeps through the skin and flows through the bones like venom that seems impossible to remove once it enters the body. But there is no way that Melinoë will let it all get to her – she’s heard many a rambling and belittling of the sort to let it affect her at this point. Now, it is only a matter of whether she will conquer Time himself or not.

And it occurs that it is yet another futile attempt at beating Chronos. With the last strike of his scythe, he forces Melinoë to return to shadow, his sick laughter resonating in her head, following her to the realm of her dreams where she the least wants anything that reminds her of Chronos.

Time doesn’t relent, though, and keeps tracing each step that Melinoë makes in her sleep. His voice keeps echoing somewhere near and somewhere far from the Princess at the same time and Melinoë can’t run away from it, no matter where she hides in the void of her own slumber. Even when it feels like there’s a moment of rest, the haunting tone of Chronos comes back, reverberating in the abyss, making Melinoë wish she could wake up.

That voice is soon accompanied by occasional wails and screams, all indiscernible at first. They mix with one another, only to become clearer the further into torment Melinoë is lead. The yells are spurred on by the Titan’s demands to reveal the hiding spot of Melinoë’s, to tell her and Hecate’s whereabouts but there’s no answer. And when there’s no answer, the disarrayed yells filled with pain are heard.

Chronos allows Melinoë to know that it’s her father’s laments. It doesn’t take long before she has tears in her eyes. While torturing Hades, Chronos doesn’t hesitate to drill himself into Melinoë’s conscience, blaming her for all that’s happening to her father and the rest of her family. He blames her for cowering in the Crossroads while everything else around her is going to hell.

You keep failing, little one. What hope is there for you to fulfil your task now that I’ve showed you how much of a disappointment you are? Doing all this in vain, only to learn that I am the one in control of everything. You cannot stop me. You cannot stop Time.

Come, granddaughter. Come and surrender. Come and join me, and I shall free your family. That’s a fair trade, is it not?

Melinoë bolts upright, sitting straight as a shocked gasp leaves her lungs.

“I’ll show you a fair trade, Chronos,” she growls and stands up in one rapid move, wiping her eyes to get rid of the tears that are streaming down her face.

In a couple of long strides, Melinoë is out of her tent and headed to the training ground, passing the now silent and sleep-veiled centre of the Crossroads. She’s glad that there is no one to stand in her way, even the Commander is not there.

Melinoë picks a weapon for this attempt – Zorephet. She dearly hopes that this will be the arm that will help her fight Chronos and beat him to a pulp, so that he remembers that no one messes with Melinoë or her family.

From the outside, it looks like the Princess is in a frenzy and she… somewhat is. Driven by the nightmarish images that she’s just been a witness to, she has this unstoppable urge to rush through Erebus, Oceanus, the Fields of Mourning and Tartarus to get straight to Chronos and end this stupid war once and for all.

For the first time in her life, it seems to her that she can do it. Melinoë is so fuelled by rage now that there’s no possibility for anything or anyone to stand in her way and prevent her from diving into the depths of the world and slaying the Titan. This is her ultimate aim, this is her task that she’s been preparing for her whole life and she’s going to achieve the goal right now.

At least, that’s what Melinoë thinks she’s going to do. Dragging Zorephet with herself, she marches on to the entrance to the woods, ignoring the familiar voice calling after her. It is only when the voice resounds once more right behind her and a hand grips her wrist that Melinoë halts and turns around to see what the fuss is all for.

“What do you want? I don’t have time,” Melinoë huffs, searching Odysseus’ face with her glassy eyes all frantically, afraid that she’ll be late for something if she stays in the Crossroads a second longer.

“You shouldn’t go there now, Goddess. Not in this state,” Odysseus says with all seriousness, trying to catch up with Melinoë’s wild stare.

“There’s nothing wrong with me, Od. When if not now? I finally feel like I… like I can do it! Like this is the night when all this mess will be put to an end!” Melinoë pulls her hand to herself in an attempt to free herself from the man’s hold but it’s of no use and it frustrates her to the core.

“Have you forgotten what Lady Hecate has taught you? Don’t tell me that I, out of everyone, have to remind you not to act on an impulse,” Odysseus states firmly but there’s nothing mean about it. If anything, his words are packed with concern for the Princess.

“You don’t know how it is. She doesn’t know how it is. I have lost my family and I have to save them. I have to go there now! There won’t be a better chance anytime soon, so let me go!” Melinoë drops Zorephet’s handle and something inside of her stings, as if the weapon has just let her know that it doesn’t like this ridiculous idea of not seizing the opportunity as well.

Melinoë uses her free hand to pry her captured wrist free but Odysseus doesn’t loosen his vice-like grip. It makes Melinoë boil and she grunts and digs her nails into the man’s hand but it results in nothing successful. Quite the opposite – Melinoë’s other hand is now held by the wrist too and she’s forced to face Odysseus and look him in the eye, whether she likes it or not.

There’s fury in her mismatched eyes and that’s clear for both of them. But the white-hot anger is hiding something else beneath – it’s hiding great fear, one that sprang out and evolved into full bloom in Melinoë’s nightmare and has remained with her ever since. Odysseus has known the Goddess for long enough to notice that and be aware that it’ll soon pass and Melinoë won’t go anywhere. She’ll come to understand it in a moment too.

“You know I’m stronger than you,” Melinoë goes on with her little tirade, despite her voice shaking more and more and her feral resolve breaking piece by piece. “You know that I can just push you away and you’ll stand no chance against me, Od!” she yells into his face, all desperate, her rage-powered cover crumbling down. “I’m a Goddess, I’m going there and I’ll kill Chronos because it’s my family that needs me, because it’s my task, it’s what I’ve been training so long and hard for and I can’t let it go to waste now, Od, imagine what Headmistress would say if I just…” Melinoë hiccups and she gives in to Odysseus’ strength.

A sob rips out of her throat and she grows limp, so that Odysseus releases her wrists and wraps his arms around her to safely sit down on the ground with her. Melinoë curls up and presses her face into his shoulder, sniffling and going on about her task mindlessly.

“I can’t let this chance slip through my hands, I’m the closest to beating Chronos than I’ve ever been, I can’t disappoint everyone again, I…”

“You’re not disappointing anyone,” Odysseus speaks evenly and gently, rubbing Melinoë’s back with his hand in a soothing manner. “Who told you that?”

Melinoë squeezes her eyes shut but tears manage to roll down her cheeks regardless. At the same time, she’s trying to calm down, focusing on the grounding presence of Odysseus and his hand spreading warmth over her back.

“Chronos,” she finally confesses and then chokes on a sob that nearly breaks Odysseus’ heart. “He haunts my dreams, showing me visions of my father and all the terrible things that he’s been doing to him.”

“Don’t believe that bastard, Goddess. He’s doing all he can to trick you into self-doubt. But you’re better than that and you won’t fall for that, aye?”

“Aye, sir,” Melinoë agrees and swallows a big gulp down her throat.

Satisfied and more at peace, Odysseus presses Melinoë closer to himself, providing her with all the comfort that he can give her. And it’s working. Despite the Princess feeling more than horrible about everything that has just transpired, she clings onto the tactician, focusing on her own breathing to match it with his even one. She’s also ashamed of her outburst but she can’t really do anything about it, can she?

As if reading her mind, Odysseus speaks again, “promise me one thing, Goddess. You won’t blame yourself for all that’s happened just now. You already have a lot on your plate, you don’t need to add anything to that.”

“I promise,” Melinoë swears with a slight nod of her head.

“Melinoë. Odysseus,” says a distinct and kind voice from behind the two.

“Madam,” Odysseus greets back, now looking at the Witch who’s joined them.

“Headmistress?” asks the Princess in a raspy voice, peeking over the tactician’s shoulder.

Melinoë is the first one to stand up and the man follows her. He doesn’t leave her side when they approach Hecate, keeping his arm over Melinoë’s shoulder in a protective and reassuring way. The Princess is grateful for that as well as for Hecate’s arrival.

“I didn’t want to disturb, since you’ve handled the crisis so well, Odysseus. Truly admirable.”

“I’ve done what had to be done, madam. Besides, I couldn’t leave your student in such a miserable state, now could I?”

“Certainly not. And you yourself know it well that it’s rather unwise to act on one’s instincts. In fact, Melinoë surely knows that too, especially after seeing Cerberus in the Fields of Mourning.”

“When driven by his instincts and utter woe, he’s something I’d never like to become,” Melinoë manages a small laughter, which earns her a slight squeeze on her shoulder. “Otherwise, he’s a good dog.”

Melinoë’s innocent shrug elicits a chuckle from both Hecate and Odysseus.

“Now, Melinoë. Please, come with me and let me shield your dreams from Chronos for the rest of your sleep today. I think I know just the thing. I shall teach you this spell, so that you can cast it yourself and fight our enemy off even in your dreams.”

“Thank you, Headmistress.”

Hecate walks in front of Melinoë and Odysseus as they return to the centre of the Crossroads. The Witch then heads to the Goddess’ tent and announces that she’ll wait there for her if she wants to exchange a word or two with Odysseus.

“Thank you, sir,” Melinoë says softly and a bit sleepily as they pull away from each other.

“No need for that, Goddess. I’m glad I could help.” Odysseus remains humble, a hopeful smile on his face.

“I’ll get you another bottle of nectar tomorrow. Then, we’ll be even.”

“If you insist, I won’t say no. Now, go back to sleep and bring someone around here a nightmare. It always helps you, aye?”

“Aye.” The smile on Melinoë’s own lips is wide before she and Odysseus go their separate ways.

All this time, Melinoë has thought that her nightmares can’t be remedied but Hecate has decided to prover her wrong. The Titaness only resorts to it when the nightmares are becoming too vivid and too realistic, for she doesn’t want to interfere with Melinoë’s nature, she explains.

In fact, Hecate has used such spells on Melinoë when the goddess was younger. It was years ago and Melinoë understands why she doesn’t recall ever being under the influence of sleep spells. She was too young to remember.

Melinoë doesn’t evoke any nightmare that she knows about this time. It’s as if the sleep’s void has consumed her for the rest of her slumber and she’s been embraced by its tranquillity until she completely woke up.

Although she has tried hard to change it, she’s still embarrassed because of her nocturnal activities. Alright, she’s always had troubles with peaceful sleep but she doesn’t have to run around and rouse everyone because Chronos doesn’t let her relax. And he’s not going to. Melinoë knows that the Titan will keep invading her mind anytime he has a chance to do so and she’s going to learn how to push him out of there. He doesn’t belong anywhere near Melinoë’s mind.

But that’s a task for later. For now, Melinoë’s lying in, contemplating the recent events. What she discovers seems suddenly even more embarrassing than waking Hecate and Odysseus up so abruptly. Namely, Melinoë clearly remembers the pang of loss that she felt when she no longer was in the tactician’s embrace. Immediately, she reminds herself about the talk with Aphrodite and it makes her wonder if she’s not talking herself into believing that yes, she needs affection – both physical and emotional at that.

And oh, praise the Fates! Melinoë received both.

When Melinoë allows herself all these emotions, they appear addictive. Once she goes back to the memory of how close to Odysseus she was a couple of hours ago, goosebumps rise on her skin and she wants the ground to swallow her up. Whether it’s all Aphrodite’s doing stops being all that important because Melinoë would like to spend some time with the tactician again. But she’s aware that since she was able to sleep so soundly thanks to Hecate, she can’t waste this energy for pastime now, despite the fact how rewarding it could be.

She will indulge herself in that once she has a spare moment, though. Definitely.

“Hey, haven’t seen you sleep in like that for a long time,” Dora emerges out of nowhere, startling Melinoë.

“Dora!” the Princess scolds her and sits up. The shade shrugs.

“All I’m saying is that you’ve finally done that. Congrats! You can’t just… you know, rush out of here, ready to beat the old Titan’s ass. Kinda unhealthy.”

“What are you trying to say?” Melinoë wonders, raising an eyebrow.

“What I mean is that you really should rest more. Talk to other shades perhaps. I’ve done that. Was more fun than I’d thought. Thanks, Mel.”

“So I should just listen to my own advice, then, huh?”

“Yep. Go hang out with the Big Witch or the horned guy. He’s cool.”

“You two have been getting on well, haven’t you?”

“Yeah, you could say so. Come join us sometime. Our talks might entertain you. Just unwind a bit more is what I’m saying. Got it, Mel?”

“Got it.”

But that’s for when Melinoë has less energy. Now, she really can’t waste it, so she doesn’t waste time anymore and she’s promptly off and heading to the forest. However, something or someone catches her eye. There’s also some kind of a special atmosphere that’s radiating from Odysseus himself and it’s nothing else but tiredness caused by a nightmare that he must’ve had very recently.

It immediately stops Melinoë’s stride and she feels a wave of guilt wash over her. She realises that Odysseus asked her to give someone a nightmare to feel better but–

“Goddess, I know I don’t look the best today but is that a reason to be staring at me?” he startles Melinoë with his question that’s super playful for someone who’s got bags under his eyes.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to… I pondered off.” She walks over to the shade and averts her gaze, worrying about Odysseus and his sleep. “Od, I know you don’t like it when I apologise for giving any of you nightmares but…”

“Aren’t you a stubborn gal, eh?” He leans against his desk and folds his arms.

“Maybe so. It’s just difficult not to care. I bet you know the feeling.”

“That I  do. Speaking of which, did you sleep well after that, erm…”

“Incident?”

“Accident.”

“Alright. Accident. Yes, Od. Frankly, I haven’t slept so well in a while. It wouldn’t be possible without Hecate’s spell and, well, my nature getting out of hand, apparently.”

Melinoë sighs and looks down, which makes Odysseus lay a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

“I know I’m trying to slay a titan on my own but… You shouldn’t be getting any collateral damage anyway.” Melinoë shrugs and peeks up at Odysseus uncertainly.

“We all knew what we signed up for, Goddess. We can handle it. Trust me.”

“You’ve handled worse is what you’re trying to say, right?”

“Aye. You’re a quick learner, as always.”

“Except for the bow?” Melinoë sniggers briefly.

“Except for the bow.”

It is quite amazing to think that after such a nightmare, Melinoë has managed to slay the Titan. She doesn’t go boasting that much about it but it’s clear to everyone that she’s proud of herself – rightfully so. She receives praise from Hecate and that matters a lot to the Princess but it doesn't mean that Melinoë will rest on her laurels. There’s still much to learn and practise, so that one day Chronos will be beaten for good. Melinoë knows that such a day will come eventually, especially when she’s aware of her power and capability of getting rid of the Titan.

The event boosts her confidence to a great degree and she doesn’t hesitate to try and fight Chronos once again. The next run, however, is not as successful and she falls to Cerberus this time. For some reason, this failure doesn’t sting as much as it probably should. It’s likely that it’s caused by the fact that Melinoë does sympathise with the poor dog and she fights him only because she wants to help him. Perhaps she should look for an incantation that would permanently shield him from the sorrow that’s omnipresent in the Fields of Mourning.

Melinoë would also gladly come up with something that would keep Chronos’ minions away from Cerberus but this may take quite a while.

For now, though, the Goddess is sat at the bank of Cocytus, watching the constant flow of the river and the occasional ripples in the water. Sometimes, she even catches a glimpse of a fish playing in the tide. The sight and the sounds soothe her and help her zone out which is highly needed after a day of hard work. After all, it’s not only the physical aspect that’s taking a toll on Melinoë – when all the emotions ebb away, the Princess often feels like falling asleep.

The rhythmical sound of steps approaching her keeps her awake, though. If she doesn’t get herself together, the visions of the one who’s joined her at the river bank might keep her awake at night and that’s something she shouldn’t afford. Not now.

“Goddess.”

“Odysseus!” Melinoë’s face lights up. “What brings you here?”

“I reckon that the nectar you’ve kindly gifted me with tastes better when shared with someone.”

“You don’t have to!”

“In fact, I do,” he says jovially. “Considering today’s events, we’ve something to celebrate.”

“Are you suggesting a feast? Here? In the Crossroads?” Melinoë asks in disbelief and amusement.

“Just a little one. Not sure if Olympus would approve of that but…”

“They’re not here, are they?” A smile doesn’t leave Melinoë’s face and it only makes one linger on Odysseus’ face as well. “Besides, this is our place. We feast here as we see fit.”

“Impossible to disagree with that, Goddess.”

After that, Odysseus opens the bottle of nectar and is about to pour it into two cups but Melinoë deems it unnecessary and a tad too stiff. The man doesn’t mind and happily hands the Princess the bottle from which she takes a not-so-modest gulp. She then passes it back to Odysseus, who drinks from it too.

It’s only a matter of seconds until the topic drifts from the victory against Chronos to the tales about Odysseus’ journey. They have spoken about it a million times but Melinoë thinks that each time she hears these stories, a new detail emerges, one that she hasn’t heard of before, and this is what makes the tales fascinating even after all these years. Melinoë probably knows them all by heart now but it changes nothing.

Apart from that, she also enjoys the way Odysseus tells his stories. Enthralling as always and Melinoë can’t take her eyes and ears off of him.

Attention flatters him and attention from a witch who’s also a goddess flatters him twice as much. He just can’t help it. It’s possible that everyone in the Crossroads knows that already (Moros and Hecate certainly do) but Melinoë sees nothing wrong with that. Especially not when the nectar bottle becomes half-empty sooner than she thought it would.

“You really wouldn’t like to hear that wailing of Scylla’s, you can trust me on that,” Melinoë claims, chuckling softly when they’ve reached that part of the tales.

“Curiosity killed the cat, Goddess,” Odysseus laughs lowly himself and takes another swig from the bottle.

“You can go with me next time if you want. You’ll just have to survive every wretch I come across before we reach Scylla and the Sirens. And don’t forget Headmistress!”

“What do I have my scout-shades for, then, eh?”

“Are they there, in the audience, watching me fight those noisy creatures?” Melinoë wonders and snatches the bottle from Odysseus to have a large sip of nectar.

“Some of them.”

“Always keeping an eye on me, aren’t you? Is that your idea or Headmistress’?

“Neither’s, Goddess. We trust in your skills out there, whether it’s Erebus, Oceanus, the Fields or Tartarus. And the shades… The shades are just doing their work.” Odysseus ends his statement in such a way, that Melinoë immediately knows that there’s something more that he wanted to add.

“But?” she asks, silently mourning the little amount of nectar left.

Odysseus sighs and then answers, “but it’s good to know that you handle it all out there as well as you do. It’s something that does make me and Lady Hecate proud of you. Don’t know about Nemesis, though.”

“Thank you.” Melinoë’s cheeks flush with a pale pink hue. “And when it comes to Nemesis – she’s the opposite, I assure you. I sometimes wish she weren’t and I’m trying to get through to her but all my efforts seem futile.”

“It takes two, no matter the relationship, Goddess. You can’t force her to like you,” Odysseus states matter-of-factly.

“At least, she tolerates me. That’s a start, I guess.” Melinoë shrugs, staring at the river.

She shakes the almost empty bottle in her hand and offers it to Odysseus but he kindly refuses and tells her to down the thing. That cheers the Goddess up after the brief talk about Nemesis and she drinks the leftover nectar until there’s no more of that in the bottle. She puts it on the grass beside her and soon finds that she’s got nothing to do with her hands.

Normally, Melinoë would embrace her knees in a spot like this but she knows it may look as if she doesn’t want to talk or open up to her companion. That’s something she doesn’t want at all, so she slumps her shoulders and sighs, now inspecting her phantasmal arm. She’s aware that as she wrings her hands and wrists, Odysseus is watching her from the corner of his eye.

There’s silence between the two and it’s a rather comfortable one. Melinoë and Odysseus are simply enjoying each other’s company and the blissful effect that the nectar’s put on them – slight light-headedness and a rising want and courage to do something, anything. Preferably, something out of the ordinary and maybe somewhat against the custom.

By some miracle, Odysseus has been keeping himself in check the whole evening and he’s unashamedly proud of his own self because of that. Melinoë, however, has been suffering from various thoughts racing in her mind, encouraging her to act on the emotions that the nectar has seemingly uncovered or released.

It’s like her hands are itching to just act but it actually doesn’t matter what part or parts of her body the Goddess engages in whatever activity she’ll see fit.

Then, Melinoë decides that it’s high time she took Aphrodite’s advice to heart and let her divine nature reign for a while or two. She’s a goddess after all and she will not hide behind inhibitions that a mortal could have.

Thus, all unceremoniously, Melinoë leans her head against Odysseus’ shoulder, which causes him to freeze and halt whatever he’s been thinking about until now. It makes Melinoë stop any movements for a second as well and reconsider whether it was a wise choice. She did this with Icarus, after they’d got to know one another, and he didn’t mind. But he didn’t mind many things; in fact, he enjoyed them. They both did.

But Odysseus is not Icarus and Melinoë can’t let herself forget that.

“Please, do tell if I’ve overstepped–” Melinoë may have no inhibitions but she will still be polite.

“No… No, you haven’t, Goddess, I… I just wasn’t expecting that,” Odysseus admits in a startled but happy tone, his form becoming relaxed once more.

“I’ll warn you next time.”

“I don’t mind a pleasant surprise.”

The warmth in his voice puts a smile onto Melinoë’s lips. She also lets her eyes close as she tunes in to the sound of the water flowing so close to her and the deep breathing of Odysseus’. Those things could easily lull her to sleep but Melinoë isn’t sparing that a single thought, for she’s already plotting what else she could do to entertain herself on this fine evening seasoned with at least half a bottle of nectar. She indeed thinks that she drank more than Odysseus did.

A moment later, Melinoë is boring a hole in Odysseus’ profile with her gazing. The nectar is surely doing its work on her as she doesn’t let her eyes fall off the man beside her. Of course, Melinoë notices the smirk and hears the huffed out chuckle that has Odysseus’ shoulders shake slightly.

“What’s so funny?” she asks innocently.

“You’re beaming with mischief, Goddess. I don’t have to look to know that you’re plotting something against me and I can’t seem to put my finger on what it could be no matter how hard I try.”

“Maybe you should try harder. And how can you know that it’s you, out of all people, that I’m plotting against? How can you be sure that I’m not inventing new ways of how to fight Chronos? Or at least bother him significantly?” Melinoë tilts her head slightly, scanning Odysseus’ profile with her curious mismatched eyes that always land back on the man’s smug smile.

“One learns to recognise it after years of experience.”

Melinoë rolls her eyes at that but she doesn’t mean anything unkind. She’s generally amused by the whole exchange and the way Odysseus looks like he wants to make a move but is convinced that it’s going to earn him a curse. So, Melinoë makes a decision for him and allows herself to lean in closer and plant a quick and soft kiss on Odysseus’ cheek.

As she pulls back, the corners of her lips rise once again and she searches the tactician’s expression for any clues as to how he’s feeling about what the Goddess has just done. There is that calm satisfaction there that serves as a mere cover for the hammering of his heart and the racing thoughts in his head.

Melinoë may not realise that she’s just caused some part of Odysseus’ resolve to shatter.

Once he moves to face her properly, she quickly turns her head away in mock-timidness. Yet, what she can’t hide is the blush that’s spread from her cheeks down to her neck and bare shoulders – something that doesn’t escape Odysseus’ notice. The sight of an allegedly bashful goddess has him swallow and exhale slowly; the latter mostly to compose himself.

“Will the years of experience help you now?” Melinoë wonders, her tone laced with more playfulness than she expected.

“Only if you let them, Goddess. If you let me.”

Melinoë can’t say no to that low tone, so she spins her head around to find that Odysseus is closer to her than she imagined. She feels her cheeks burn and she grabs the hem of her chiton between her fingers as Odysseus places one of his hands behind her, on the grass. Melinoë almost doesn’t know where to look anymore, her own heart racing when she wills herself to meet Odysseus’ gaze.

And a little nod of her head tells him everything that he wants to know.

He doesn’t have to wait any longer, so he leans in to kiss the Goddess properly but ends up pressing his lips to the corner of hers when she’s moved ever so slightly. Yet, it’s enough to make Odysseus let out the quietest groan of disappointment mixed with endless determination to woo every witch he encounters.

“Sorry,” Melinoë whispers, glancing to the side, crumpling up the fabric in her slender hands.

“No harm done. Tell me to stop if that’s what you wish,” Odysseus muses against her skin, making the Princess dizzy with his breath that’s warm – unnaturally so for a shade.

The last time she’d been so close with anyone was years ago and she now realises how much she’s missed all the feelings and flutterings of heart connected with such activities.

“It’s just… The shades, they’re looking at us. They’re going to talk and soon the whole Crossroads will–”

“Does it matter? You’re a goddess, so those shades should be of no import to you when it comes to your pastime.”

Melinoë knows that the way he murmurs those words to her is going to be the end of her. It’s as if she can’t think straight and it scares and excites her all at once.

“You’re right,” she decides, biting down on her lower lip as Odysseus hums in approval and moves on to leave a trail of butterfly kisses on her cheek and up to her ear. “Maybe we should give them a little show?” Melinoë even manages out of her lungs that are too busy trying to level her breathing to care about some redundant waste of air.

The suggestion pulls a chuckle out of Odysseus and Melinoë closes her eyes to enjoy the sound to the fullest. She then lets out a shaky exhale and revels in how the man so close to her plants kisses on the shell of her ear and then nibbles on her earlobe only to return down the pale skin of her cheek to where he started. It does draw Melinoë’s attention back to him being so near in front of her again and she lets her eyes flicker open to meet his, lidded with careful but still avid adoration.

“Goddess…” he rasps out with nothing but reverence in his voice.

“Od…” she breathes and tilts her head to finally seal their lips together.

Only then does Melinoë learn that she has indeed missed this. Greatly.

It’s not rushed and this is exactly how Melinoë likes it. She’s actually in control here and she’s well aware of that. One word, one flick of her fingers and Odysseus could be gone or at least severely cursed but she would never ever do that. Not after being shown how delicate and passionate this man can be in the art of kissing.

Melinoë shifts in her spot a little, still holding the hem of her chiton but it changes once Odysseus lays his other hand on the other side of her face. His palm is warm but it’s nothing in comparison to the feverish flush of the Goddess’ skin.

The Princess relishes having her cheek cradled like this and she can’t help it but put one of her hands atop Odysseus’. She only squeezes it a tad when he nips at her lip and she can’t be bothered by the fact that it drags a soft whimper out of her mouth. But Odysseus is there to swallow it and store it in his memory for later.

A moment after that, a dissatisfied grunt can be heard and it belongs to Melinoë who chases Odysseus’ lips once he’s broken the kiss.

“Od…” Melinoë whines silently, leaning into the hand that’s still cupping her cheek. She looks at him with her shining mismatched eyes and a little frown, and it takes his whole strong will to put this thing to a halt. For now.

“If you’re not going to curse me, then Lady Hecate or Nemesis will if I keep you here any minute longer. You know how annoying our dear Retribution can be when someone tells her that you’ve allowed yourself a moment of rest, aye?”

Not the best reasoning by his standards but it should do.

“Aye, sir.”

She says it so lightly, out of habit and politeness. She can’t imagine what that short word is doing to Odysseus in a situation like this (it surely makes him forget his crappy excuse from a second earlier).

“Good.” Odysseus moves away but before any physical contact is lost between them, he rubs Melinoë’s skin with his thumb and then holds her hand for a while or two. After all, he won’t refuse a goddess who’s intertwined her own fingers with his. “Now go and take some real rest, Goddess. You need it.”

“I wish you were wrong sometimes, Od.” She gives his hand a squeeze and then lets it go. “Would you… mind repeating it one evening?” she asks almost too straightforwardly.

“By no means. As long as you’re interested, so am I.”

Melinoë sends him a warm smile that he reciprocates.

“But, are you really sure that I won’t curse you?”

“I’ll take my chances.”

[loganofthenorth]

Hi!!!!

Wanted to ask what ur novel was bc we also are writing a trilogy (I’m pretending we haven’t got oc introjects from it) and wanted to know how you published it too?? :D

or even how long it took from first draft to published!!

Hi! *happy stims*

Okay, so, my novel is the first in a series. My goal is to make it like the Marvel Universe but a Fantasy World, with a main story being the main protagonist’s life story, series branching off of the main series, and side stories that take place in the same universe.

The first book is about Margaret, a disabled woman living in a retirement home, and Jean, a High School student volunteering at said retirement home. With Margaret’s family not visiting her, her spouse missing for the past fifteen years, and the nurses/volunteers at the retirement home being concerned with the stories she tells about her past, Margaret is quite thankful for Jean’s company. Jean, being new in town and having several mental disabilities as well as an undiagnosed physical disability, is also quite familiar with loneliness, and finds company in Margaret.

When Margaret gets a letter from her missing spouse, Mortimer, explaining that they’ve been stuck in the world of magic that Margaret has told stories of, Jean accompanies Margaret on an adventure to reunite with Mortimer. However, on this adventure, they discover that both the world of magic and their own world are being threatened by an evil God that seeks to destroy both worlds.

As for how I published it, I was fortunate to have parents that helped me a lot through the process. We edited it, found beta readers, designed a cover, and published it all within a year. It was a lot of work to get it ready to publish, but the actual publishing process went quite smoothly. We self published through Amazon, which I chose because it seems to be the easiest way to self publish. There are other ways to self publish through other websites, I might research them and see what other ways I could do it for other series.

And I can relate to having OC Introjects, I’m pretty sure Jean has become an alter in my system. Funny enough I found out she was having difficulty going along with the romance stories I was writing for her because she’s aro/ace. We had a discussion that went sort of like:

Me: Okay, Jean? You know this love interest I made because you felt the first one I made was problematic?

Jean: *playing video games in the inner world* Yeah, they’re really cool. Why?

Me: Well, you don’t seem particularly interested in that storyline, at least, not as much as your platonic storylines. In fact, you seem to be treating this love interest in an incredibly platonic way.

Jean: Mhmm *fighting a boss*

Me: Do you think, possibly, you could be aromantic?

Jean: *pauses the game and finally looks at me* But I’ve canonically had crushes on fictional characters

Me: Those are fictional characters.

Jean: Yeah, and what am I?

Me: *sighs* Jean, they are fictional characters in your world. As far as you know, you are real, they are fictional.

Jean: I literally state several times that I’m aware that there’s a reader and that I live in a story.

Me: As a coping mechanism

Jean: Okay, okay, geez.

Me: So, fictional characters, aromantic people can be attracted to them. That happens. However, would you actually want a romantic relationship with one?

Jean: Sure, I guess. *returns to her video games* besides, I was attracted to Xania when she was first introduced.

Me: Because she made herself look like a fictional character, and that attraction instantly disappeared once you interacted with her like a person.

Jean: Yeah, I guess.

Me: Let me ask you this. If you had to choose between having a romantic evening with the love of your life, or playing video games with your best friend, what would you choose?

Jean: Video games. First one sounds boring,

Me: …

Jean: *playing video games* …

Me: Jean?

Jean: Yeah?

Me: I think you’re aro/ace

Jean: Okay *keeps playing videogames*

Me: Okay, time to change the storyline again,

Jean: Cool.

[lifebyyounews]

April 26, 2024 Ask the Team Q&A

Below the cut you can find all of the questions and answers from the ask the team Q&A:

Q: I just wanna know if we can restrict outfits and/or clothes based on traits A: I feel like I have an answer for this somewhere, let me go digging know I have one for objects: Can you add tags to objects, so that specific traits interact with them? Rather than adding tags to objects, you add Trait Appeal to the interactions on those objects. For example, if you have someone who has the lifestyle Active, they are more likely to participate in interactions with high Trait Appeal for Active. Interaction tags are used by traits for other purposes, but you can make your own tags, apply them to Interactions, and apply new or existing Interactions to a Lifestyle’s Trait Appeal!

Q: Can we get any more info about demographics? I believe it's been said we can control population settings like gender, orientation, race, etc. Does this also extend to things like traits and income? Is it possible to even extend that to the clothing a certain group of people wear? Also can we set different demographics per region? Per subregion? A: You can control population settings using Population Presets-- Population Presets define a bunch of things like clothes, traits, skills, likes, dislikes, colors, age ranges for the life stages. Then, from the Demographics screen, you can select the proportion of the population for each Population Preset. You can apply clothing to specific groups of people and you can check out Willem’s latest tutorial to see that in-editor! Any demographic changes would apply to your entire population, not specific regions currently, but please do add a request if that’s something you would be interested in.

Q: How many people can you create in the create a character mode? If you cannot create enough for the family you need can you link relationships with other people in the world? A: You can make as many unique characters and save them to your library as you want, however our starting limit for a household is currently set to five people in the character creator– you can add more once you’re in-game. You can also update relationship types in game, either through entering a romantic partnership or going through the mod tools (using Live Edit mode for those who have watched our videos), however we are considering adding more robust options for people moving in and out of households later on.

Q: 1. There's a social media app (Social Feed) in LBY and that's how news get spread around the world. Can we post rumours/gossip on there too? Can they be false? 2. Do things posted in Social Feed affect our relationships with characters we know and don't know? 3. What features most likely won't be ready for Early Access release, but will be one of the first things to get added/changed/improved in Early Access? A: To answer your first question: You can post information that has been crafted to be promotable to social media, including specific actions or state changes (basically things that naturally show up in the timeline). You click on it in your timeline and hit "post to social media.” The content can be whatever you’d like. For our content, we have kept it "true" to avoid confusion but this is absolutely something that modders/creators can use to create chaos gremlin content, like scandalous lies.

Q: If we can ask more than one question, I have another two I'm interested in. No problem if it's just the one question per person. 1. What is the "Markets" section in the mod creator? 2. I've seen postboxes in a few videos now. Are they functional or just decorative? A: For your first question on "Markets": These are in game markets for creative careers like writing, where you can edit the demand/pricing around products. For example, a market might be Science Fiction Novels or Romance Novels, and the markets will go up and down and have a demand/price which changes over time. An important note: We have unhooked our first creative career (Writer) for the start of Early Access, as it requires new UX and some polish. However, we hope to test and edit this feature alongside you all during Early Access! If you’re looking for how to set up a shop, there is a Stores editor in the game right now, which you can use to edit or create new store lists available in online stores, through in-game store displays, and at cash registers. You can actually hook a store up to the object of your choice.

Q: One of my main question was asked that Rocio said she'd look into 🙂 yesterday about would we be able to build worlds in Unity engine them port them into the game? Outside of that, I'm curious if there's a medical system planned that could link to hospitals in the future? A: For your second question, on a medical system: We are currently focused on other priorities for the start of Early Access, however we will be balancing community requests for specific content like hospitals, based on what’s most highly requested. Definitely drop anything you’d like to see in the requests channel!

Q: How many subregions can we attach to one another and what is the largest map size for one region? A: Right now each region is its own map, however, due to their size, we have multiple “towns” in our first region, which serve as subregions. We'll go into further detail on this in future videos, but creating your own from scratch, which I think you're referring to, is separate in Unity and will be a big ol' guide post-Early Access launch. And for anyone reading this and wondering what we're talking about, check out our rundown of regions here: [lby-general-chat channel linked]

Q: What is the feature you're most proud of? A: We conferred for this one and ultimately, this is going to differ depending on who you ask on the team– however, in general: building a living, breathing open world was one of the biggest challenges that we took on as a team, and ultimately is something that everyone has put hard work into. We had to overcome a lot of technical, art, and design challenges to make the open world work on so many levels. Humans had to simulate, build relationships, collect and share social information, go to work and be believable, and so on. Basically, every little decision we made was impacted in some way by the open world. That is probably our biggest accomplishment as a team, but I'm also open to going around asking everyone individually if you are curious

Q: Have you thought about some iconic lore for premade families already? If so can we get a little hint about who they are A: We are working to add lore to the game (as you all have requested), however we're starting off by testing out a few environmental ways for us to introduce lore. While we don’t have any premade families yet, we are talking about some characters to start populating the character library at the start of Early Access, so please let us know if you have any requests for types of characters!

Q: Can you save characters to a library or similar so you can use the same character in multiple games? A: Yes! This timed really well with our most recent modding video where Willem shows you how. In case you haven't watched it yet, you can find Willem’s most recent video here: https://youtu.be/TBnlVLIGN8M

Q: The team constantly monitors feedback on social networks, often there are players with unjustified criticism, is the team satisfied with the feedback? Because it affects the release of the game A: As the community manager, I’m happy to answer this one! Something I learned early on in my time as a community manager is that criticism typically comes from a specific place of dissatisfaction. While the feedback itself might be unclear, the feeling behind it isn’t. So my job as the community manager isn’t necessarily to say ‘Players don’t like X’, it’s really to say why don’t players like X. If someone doesn’t like something because it impedes their gameplay, because it lowers their enjoyment, because it’s not intuitive– those are all different things to solve for, scenarios for the team to tackle. The tldr here is: I’m always happy to receive feedback! I would always much rather receive feedback that needs a quick interpretation from me than receive nothing at all.

Q: For the requests channel I wanted to know if the team would you prefer more singular specific requests? Ex. "I want beanies and pom pom hats" "I'd like to have baseball caps" "I'd love it if we could have bonnets" Or would you rather fewer requests but with more detail? Ex. "I want to see all kinds of hats. Bowler hats, top hats, fedoras, and berets to name a few..." I just want to know what the team would find most easy to go through, so that our requests are as constructive as possible. A: This is fantastic question, thanks so much for asking! To be honest, I think the most helpful for us would be to be as specific as possible-- Some folks may ask for specific things that are more/less popular than others and it's easier for us to digest and understand which when it's a more focused request.

Q: Will we be able to mod the number of traits to be more than 2 per category if needed? A: Currently it's capped at 2 traits per category, however if you find that you need more, please let us know in the ⁠requests channel.

Q: Will it be possible to have different stores attract (or repel) different people based on various things like age, likes, career, attributes, wealth bracket etc? So for example maybe you have a hot topic type store with only goth/punk clothes that attracts teens or goth/punk characters and then you have an upscale avant garde clothes shop that attracts rich customers or those with a snob/posh attribute. Would that be possible? A: Yes, however not something we're currently testing with. Character autonomously shop, so a store with only Teen clothes would only be used by Teens. But we need to dig deeper on this during Early Access to make sure we cover your suggested cases. Which we love by the way!

Q: Hi, you mentioned previously you can only create 5 at a time in character creation, how will this work with big family’s such as parents, children, aunties and uncles and grand parent living together and having that relationship tie ? A: Great question! You can add in characters outside of the character creator and assign them relationships through the Live Edit menu currently. We plan on seeing how this works for the start of Early Access and expanding upon it as we add more family gameplay, so we do hope to have more options for you down the road. Expect the Character Creator to get updates throughout Early Access

Q: Will my current characters simulate if I do a 10-year timeskip? Like start relationship, have children, and so on? A: Our current timeskip includes basic life events right now (including death), and it will exit the timeskip for a birth (once those are available). Other events will be added during Early Access!

Q: Hi! Can lots be placed directly next to each other/how close can they be placed? And can walls be placed on the edge of lots? I want to attempt row houses/dense building areas A: Currently lots can be placed next to each other! Buildings such as terraced houses will require further work during Early access (because lots overlapping or touching can look a bit odd). But yes-- you can customize Lot sizes, place them right next to each other, and place walls/objects on the edges.

Q: What is the population limit per region? A: Population is currently set to 90, but that number may evolve through early access. Population is a key performance driver, so we will include recommended population levels for folks with lower specs. This is a configurable value, though it comes with the caveat that it will impact performance. Things like the number of beds in the world and lots will impact how many people organically visit the town over time and how the town is populated, but you can add/remove those as you see fit!

Q: There's a social media app (Social Feed) in LBY and that's how news get spread around the world. I got a few questions about it. 1. Can we only post information we've seen, or can we post things other characters told us that we haven't directly witnessed? 2. Can we post fake rumours, can fake rumours be posted about us? 3. How do things that are posted on Social Feed affect the humans? A: Hi Vix! Could you split these up into three questions? It helps us when we're going back to answer!

Q: In Life by You will it be possible to run your own business or buy a community lot and also will restaurants, shopping malls, grocery store, convenience store, car dealer, electronics store, supermarket, department store, barber shop, bars, clothing store, motel, hotel, resorts and etc A: You can absolutely create your own community lots and add jobs to them via the editors (like your example of being an "owner"). If you're not wanting to create your own custom store from scratch, you can take objects from existing stores lists and place them on the lot to begin selling.

Q: What would you say the most challenging thing has been in the development of LBY? A: We would say the scale of it. A simulated open world where each object is interactable, plus having the entire game customizable by players and modders, all which with autonomous characters has been a massive challenge. Happily it all came together!

Q: Can you interact with the beach water at all? Such a swimming, surfing, boating, or fishing? A: Water-related activities are not currently in for Early Access, however it is content that is on our designers' radars and will be prioritized once we enter Early Access alongside other community asks. I think you've already mentioned it in the ⁠requests channel, but another good one for that channel!

Q: Can you turn aging off? A: You can currently via console command, we will look into adding aging off as a setting for Early Access! You can also edit your life stages to be younger or older during gameplay or adjust your population using demographics by limiting the age ranges.

Q: Are apartments planned for early access or the full launch? I'm just wondering because I've seen a description on the postbox item that mentioned apartments. A: Apartments aren't currently planned, however it is something we are aware the community is asking for! Like some of the other requests, it will be prioritized alongside those other requests based on what we think the community wants most.

Q: Do we always have to start a new game in the character creator? Can we not just start in a world and pick someone or build first? A: For now, the flow is: you start on a screen where you can select and customize your region demographics, then move into the character creator. Currently you need to go through this flow, but to get around this, you could randomize a character and jump in immediately-- either controlling them or any other person in the world. If you'd like to stick to building, you can also remove characters to build out that way. Noted the request in the ⁠requests channel for this though!

Q: We know about some of your team's thoughts on heavy themes such as nudity, misfortune, abortion and women health (as you are looking at it), Can I ask what is the team's stance on alcohol, smoking (ciggarettes, vaping), light drugs (cannabis) and gambling? Is it something too heavy for the game (even in terms of rating) or is there possibility of adding these into the game? A: We are a PEGI-16 game and will need to stick to the requirements of that rating when it comes to these particular topics. PEGI has specific guidelines around how thse topics can be portrayed. For example, some of this content is allowed by their guidelines but how its is portrayed is crucial. Mods created by others however are not subject to the rating-- just be sure you're tagging your mods appropriately when the time comes!

Q: Does the game come with a calendar where we can add custom reoccurring events to it like wedding anniversaries or some system to track that info? A: The game does come with a calendar system (which you can access viat the phone) which includes player chosen events. Wedding anniversaries are not yet in for the start of Early Access. But a fantastic suggestion for us to add during Early Access!

[signalwatch]

90's Watch: Chungking Express (1994)

As Jamie and I discussed after the movie - the 90's were the wild west for cinema in the US.  Indie cinema and the *flavor* of that indie movement were a truly big deal.  It was also a rich era for a semi-mainstreaming of international cinema as the same theaters that carried those indie pics also brought in some European film and Hong Kong cinema.  I'm not saying no theaters do this anymore, but it was much more a part of your standard film scene at the time.

And if you didn't see it in theaters, you might still find the movies for rent - maybe not next to Robot Jox at Blockbuster, but in the go-go 90's Austin film rental scene, I could walk across the street from my dump of an apartment and get whatever I wanted at I Luv Video.  

But, as mentioned before, I just never picked up the films of Wong Kar-Wai.  I was too busy watching Chow Yun-Fat kick ass or whatever.  I was still a dude in my 20's.  Grant me peace.

And the reason I bring all of this up is that Chungking Express is more or less what I guess a quirky romantic comedy with some heart to it is made elsewhere by folks with a lot of skill but their own worldview, aesthetic, story-telling modalities, etc...  Ie: what does a Tarantino-era romantic comedy look like coming out of Hong Kong with a storyteller as famed as Wong Kar-Wai?

You can't not mention the film contains two completely separate stories.  They share no common characters (which led to me making a really dumb comment during the film about the chronology), but they do reflect on one another.  It's two cops, one a plain-clothes cop and hopeless romantic, and the other a beat-cop with a certain rigidity looking to get shaken up.    

It's early in the cycle, but both stories have a bit of the manic-pixie-dream-girl aesthetic, one with more of a pulp-crime angle as our clueless romantic pines for a girl who clearly does not miss him until he eventually meets a criminal on the run.  The other is a story of a cop who can't move on (Tony Leung) because, for him, nothing has changed until he meets the erratic girl behind the counter of his favorite snack shop.  

Apparently this was meant to be a triptych, with three stories told - or possibly four.  The remaining story or two were spun off into 1995's Fallen Angels, which I've yet to see, but like the first film, includes the criminal underground of mid-90's Hong Kong in its stories about shattered relationships.

The first story in Chungking Express includes a human trafficker/ smuggler who somehow manages to lose a gaggle of Indian nationals she's sending abroad loaded down with cocaine.  While the cop ignores his job and hangs out at a snack shop hoping his ex will call, a heavily disguised Brigette Lin tries to find her charges in Hong Kong, growing increasingly desperate.  Her concrete worries are juxtaposed with the worries of the cop who thinks his girl will come back to him if we can keep finding cans of pineapple with an expiration date one month from their break-up.  The absurdity of both's plight leads them to meet in a bar, get drunk and find companionship - if not romance - crashing in a hotel room.  

The second story follows Tony Leung who believes he's found the one in an air hostess who dumps him for more exciting times and men.  The somewhat insane new girl working at the snack shop receives a letter meant for the cop, including the return of his key from the air hostess.  While the cop is out, she ventures into his apartment, slowly replacing the items in the apartment - an almost haunted place for the cop who thinks the things there held the sadness he felt - until, eventually, he no longer misses the air hostess and is ready for new things.

Like many 90's relationship movies, or break-up movies, it's a mood as much as anything.  There's certainly plot, but the work of the film is to capture a feeling, some more sympathetic than others.  We can recognize the plainclothesman is a bit of a dumdum in matters of the heart and can't recognize a disguise or actual criminal right in front of him, but still root for him to land on his feet.  And we may think Faye is nuts, but still cheer for she and Tony Leung.

In an American film, I'm not sure how any of this would be presented.  In the mid-90's, I can see the goofy, $15 million dollar movie getting released with one of these stories, but made into a slapstick, knocking the edges off that make this film have a sense of realism and therefore relatability.  It's possible an indie movie would have tried for this, but then you can imagine the fun-friend that would be added to give the cop someone to talk to rather than hearing their inner-monologue.  Everyone would be telling the lead males to buck up.

People love this movie, and I get it.  I liked it a lot.  It made me very glad to not be dating, but I liked it.  And I'll be following up with Fallen Angels soon.  

   https://ift.tt/yqbsZfa

from The Signal Watch https://ift.tt/gxeYlTZ

[realcube]

trying to be nice to their crush hcs

navi | masterlist | taglist

thank you to 🍦anon for this cute request!

characters: tsukishima, kyōtani, sakusa & suna

content warning: swearing & sexual references 

kei tsukishima 

♡ this is all yamaguchi’s fault （︶^︶）

♡ he found out tsukki had a crush on you bc he mentioned you a lot in conversation so yamaguchi interrogated him for answers then lo and behold, the beanpole had a lil thing for you 

♡ you sit in front of tsukishima in homeroom while yamaguchi sits beside him so when you leaned back and asked him if you could borrow a pencil and he spat back a snarky remark about you being too irresponsible to care for your own pencils, yamaguchi hastily offered you one of his own before scolding tsukishima 

♡ he explained to his clueless friend that being nasty to people isn’t a good way to get them to like you 

♡ so perhaps he should be nicer :)

♡ honestly, tsukishima would’ve just looked yamaguchi straight in the eyes and went ‘no’, if it wasn’t for the fact you shot tadashi the sweetest smile anD PLAYFULLY BLEW HIM A KISS AFTER HE JUST GAVE YOU A DAMN PENCIL LIKE WTF 

♡ after that, he decided to give up his current personality and pick up a new one 

♡ jk jk 

♡ but he had to binge a whole bunch of those youtube psychology videos that are like ‘psychological tricks to make people like you’ and ‘THESE 5 MIND TRICKS WILL MAKE YOU THE MOST POPULAR PERSON *EVER*’!!

♡ spoiler alert: he wasn’t the most popular person but perhaps that was bc he only went to the effort of using those tricks on you 

♡ god bless him; he tries hard, he really does. (not his best, just hard)

♡ but you don’t have to be extremely observant to realise that he’s began acting different around you and of course, it confused you seeing tsukishima being nice

♡ what irritated you was how dismissive he was being of your questions though, as he was clearly trying to lead you to believe that you were crazy and he’s just always been a nice guy 

♡ but as soon as he figures out that he angered you, he’ll instantly switch back to him normal self - draining his mind of the hours of phycology studying he did last night to just pretend like it never happened 

♡ and if he’s feeling flirty, he might be extra mean to you （￣︶￣）

♡ also he makes a mental note to never take yamaguchi’s romance advice ever again 🙄

♥　♡　♥　♡　♥　♡　♥

you sighed, removing your hand from your bag after desperately rummaging through it in search of a pencil once again - deja vu. once you accepted that a pencil wasn’t going to materialise out of thin air, you peered over your shoulder and tapped the corner of yamaguchi’s desk, who wore a suspicious grin which you decided against questioning. 

“yamaguchi, do you think i could borrow a pencil again? sorry, this is the last time, i swear. i’ll be sure to get some on my way home after school tod--” 

yamaguchi dropped the line him and tsukishima had rehearsed many times beforehand, while clutching his pencilcase dear to his chest, “woah, (y/n). you’re so irresponsible. sorry, i can’t lend one of my pristine pencils to someone who is too forgetful to remember to buy some; what if you forget to return it to me?” 

tsukishima cringed at how forced it sounded but he couldn’t help but admire yamaguchi's dedication to his role. this allowed tsukishima to swoop in, pencil in hand, “here.” that wasn’t in the script but he panicked! okay, now, eye contact. 

you just sat there and stared at both of them with the most dumbfounded look plastered on your face. what just happened?  why were they both acting like they were in drama class?  and why are they both so bad at acting? they’re both passing performing arts for fucks’ sake!

kentarō kyōtani 

♡ sorry but i firmly believe kyōtani is the sorta guy to be extra mean to ppl he fancies smh

♡ the rest of them just act (somewhat) like themselves around their crush but kyōtani is himself2 (himself^2)

♡ like one time yahaba found you trembling in your locker bc you had gotten mud on mad dog’s white shoes so he chased you through the hallways of the school, threatening to trek mud on your forehead 

♡ yahaba took it upon himself to investigate as to why kyōtani was so rude to you and he got his answer as soon as he mentioned your name to mad dog and the boy’s face immediately flushed red 

♡ so after practise, yahaba schools mad dog on how to get chicks (⌐■_■)

♡ in short, his advice was ‘good guys get laid’ and for kyōtani’s understanding, ‘good’ and ‘kind’ were interchangeable 

♡ mad dog wasn’t completely oblivious to how he treated you and he was aware that he was far from ‘kind’

♡ although he usually doesn’t listen to people in general, yahaba seemed to know what he was talking about so he figured there was no harm in trying to be nice 

♡ but ngl, he just spent the rest of the day wondering...what is kind?

♡ after a few messages back and forth with yahaba, he figured that the best place to start was by apologising for - y’know - chasing you around the whole school 

♥　♡　♥　♡　♥　♡　♥

“oi!” kyōtani bellowed through hallway, paying no mind to the students that cast him dirty looks as his sights were locked on you. standing unsuspecting by your locker, stuffing your textbooks into your bag until you heard his deep voice echo through the hall, to which you visibly perked up and began frantically looking around.

he marched towards you, hands in pockets and when you noticed him out of the corner of your eye, you were more than ready to drop all your shit and bolt away. but he didn’t let you as before you were able to take off on your heels, he grabbed your shoulder and spun you around to face him - then he noticed your hands raised in defence by your face and your head hung low.

his heart sank and his grip on your shoulder immediately softened, “i’m not gonna punch you, idiot.” he spat, rolling his eyes and gritting his teeth, trying to appear angry in hopes you’d mistake his light blush for pure rage. 

“i just wanted to say that i felt bad for chasing you through the halls yesterday - you didn’t stand a chance so i guess it was a bit unfair.” he said, frowning as you replied with silence so the duty fell on him to fill it, “and i got the stain out, anyway so.” 

more silence. lovely.

suddenly, he puffed his cheeks out as his eyes snapped to meet yours and he roared, “ARE YOU GONNA FUCKING SAY SOMETHING OR ARE YOU TOO BRAINDE-”

“are you wearing eyeliner?” 

and that was the true story behind why you missed last period, because you and kyōtani had a 30 minute conversation about eyeliner and make-up, then he convinced you to skip the rest of class with him so he could buy you ramen as an apology gift.

so yeah, he figured that perhaps he should try being nice more often.

kiyoomi sakusa

♡ he didn’t need someone to tell him to be nicer, he’s just predisposed to attempt to show kindness to someone he is fond of

♡ in his mind, showing kindness, respect and stripping himself of all his personality = the only way to be desirable 

♡ (ofc this takes place before he meets atsumu tho lol)

♡ so it’s not the realisation that’s the problem for him, it’s the execution 

♡ like how is he supposed to be nice without either sounding creepy or condescending? 

♡ *cut to sakusa practising in the bathroom mirror* ‘your hand looks- no-’ he scoffs, flicking cold water onto his face, ‘your hair looks cool- pretty- nice?’

♡ *camera pans to sakusa laying in bed, staring intently at the ceiling while imagining vivid and scarily detailed scenarios about ways he could mess up while talking to you* 

♡ *camera zooms in on sakusa’s face as he manifests a nicer version of himself*

♡ he might - depending on how insecure he is - watch one of those psychology videos or read a wikihow for help

♡ but other than that, he independently tries to alter his personality in order to gain your favour bc..true love ?

♥　♡　♥　♡　♥　♡　♥

you smiled as a basketball rolled up to your feet during gym class, followed by the sound of someone approaching you and upon raising your gaze, your eyes met sakusa’s unmistakable black ones. his face hovered only a few inches away from yours due to the fact you had both reached down to pick up the ball at the same time.

he quickly pulled himself away, tucking the basketball under his elbow as he adjusted his mask so it properly covered his face to ensure that you didn’t see the light blush slowly spreading across his cheeks. he then proceeded to blurt out what he had been rehearsing for the past few nights, “oh, thank you, (y/n). your hair looks lovely today, by the way.”

you giggled, holding your hands firmly by your side to avoid fidgeting and making it obvious that his sudden comment flustered you, “thanks, sakusa. and, if we’re handing out compliments today, i didn’t know you were good at any sport other than volleyball but you’re doing surprisingly well at basketball.” you joked, your lips slowly curling into a cocky smirk, “though, i don’t think you’d stand a chance against my team.” 

god, you’re such a tease. you make it so hard for him to be nice to you. so, of course, your comment returned his ability to utter almost every sarcastic comment that comes to mind - screw being likeable. “you think so?” he quirked a brow, tossing the ball onto your lap then pacing backwards, “go on, then.”

rintarō suna

♡ it was probably those tips on social media that told him he has to be nicer 

♡ and plus he saw terushima get all the chicks and he was just sitting there like ‘where are my bitches at? 🥺’

♡ anyway, all the guys on social media that had girls lining up outside their door always had one thing in common: misogyny  obnoxious personalities !!

♡ and his whole personality was a sacrifice suna was willing and ready to make for just a crumb of cooch  🤲

♡ though you weren’t exactly his crush yet, suna thought you were the best person to carry out this experiment with bc he heard through the grapevine that you had a crush on him so perhaps this would make you happy

♡ he didn’t prepare much beforehand though which he immediately regretted as soon as he approached you bc admittedly, his game plan of ‘be self-assured but friendly’ was a bit vague 

♡ so he basically just had to bullshit through a whole, awkward conversation with you while wearing a forced ‘bold’ smirk which, in reality, looked as though he had just seen tiddies for the first time 

♡ hardly self-assured or friendly 

♡ also, the fact you thought he was playing a prank on you must’ve drastically altered the results of his experiment 

♡ at one point he says something extremely stupid you’d just quit playing along and just blurt out ‘wtf is wrong with you today’

♡ to which he’d be like ‘ahaha, nuthin much bbg, how bout you?’

♡ THE EXPERIEMNT ISN’T OVER UNTIL HE SAYS IT’S OVER OKAy?!

♥　♡　♥　♡　♥　♡　♥

you rubbed your temples in order to soothe the throbbing headache suna gave you simply by existing. like yes, you had a crush on him 10 minutes ago - but that was before he came up to you and started acting like terushima on dodgy medication. “oh and your skin is glowing bab--”

“jesus christ, rintarō, shut up!” you cried, gripping the edge of your skirt to prevent your self from delivering a swift punch right to his stupid face. he’s seriously gotten on all your nerves at this point; firstly, by spamming your phone in the middle of the night asking for homework answers (accompanied by cursed memes) as he actually managed to wake you up. secondly, by acting so oblivious to the fact you clearly had a crush on him and now, this!

heat rose to his cheeks in embarrassment as his creepy smile instantly fell right back into his resting bitch face, “this isn’t working, is it?” 

“what’s not working?”

suna scoffed, rolling his eyes - his façade having evidently disappeared. “this.” he sighed, looking around as if someone was going to save him before his eyes finally settled on you and he was reminded of what he wanted in the first place, his sparkle was rekindled for just a moment which caused him to blurt out, “just fuck me already, i’m not asking for much.”

[seraphinitegames]

The Wayhaven Chronicles—Update 22/Jan/2021

Another great week where I'm going to praise the new routine yet again! :D

I don't know how I managed without it before! I'm getting so much more done. I'm still trying to catch up to where I want to be, but that actually seems do-able now that I'm really able to focus more on the writing/creative side of things.

And Nai is doing an AMAZING job at taking over so much social media for me. She has ideas and posts for it I could never even think of! Plus she's loving get involved with the community!

I'm wondering about adding a scene to Chapter 5, but Chapter 5 has been a bit never-ending, so I'm not sure if I want to. But now I've thought about it, it won't leave my head! Might finish Chapter 6 first and see how I feel then.

But I do still need to get that editing and playtesting done for Chapter 5, so I will be focusing on that next week.

I'm planning to get Chapter 5 over to SpunkyCat in February so as she can start edits, but mostly because I really want her reactions to the stuff in that chapter...It's always my favourite part of sending over the chapters to her :D

Me and Nai also recorded our first Q&A video for YouTube this week, ready to go out next week. Oh guys, it was AWESOME! It was so nice to have time to really go more in depth to the asks instead of keeping to a time limit. We did get rather excited talking about Wayhaven though, so we talk pretty fast at some points. Just hope you guys will be able to understand it, hehe!

But yeah, Chapter 6 opening is coming along. It's a pretty intense chapter due to immense amount of variations again, as Chapter 5 was. But it brings into play some skills as well as setting up some very important stuff for the rest of the story. Also it brings in some important moments for a couple of the romances, especially N's.

Like, Chapter 5 was more about personal stuff, and Chapter 6 is more focused on the action. But both obviously still heavily swing towards on romance and characters, just different themes for it.

It's gonna be a good ending for the last part of the demo though...hehehehe ;D

Curse of Creek Edge is getting back on its feet too. I’m trying to get back into drawing the love interests so as I’m more prepped for their sprites when I come to do them. 

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and I'll talk to you all soon! <3

[alj4890]

All Through The Night

A Choices: The Royal Romance Dark AU fanfiction. 

A/N Other than my few Bloodbound shorts, I’ve never written anything with supernatural overtones before. After receiving requests to see Liam and Riley’s story if he was a vampire, this storyline was born. Since it is set in one of my favorite books from Pixelberry, I had to include as many of the main and supporting characters as I could. The following chapters will explain more where they and what our main characters are. Not going to lie, I am very anxious to step out of my comfort zone for this, but I’m also super excited to see how it goes. Along with The Royal Romance, I will be referencing and altering both The Crown and The Flame and The Royal Masquerade.

@gkittylove99​​ @krsnlove​ @kingliam2019​ @texaskitten30​ @yourmajesty09​ @mom2000aggie​ @ofpixelsandscribbles​ @twinkleallnight​ @lodberg​ @twinkleallnight​ @amandablink​ @neotericthemis​  @mm2305​ @sfb123​ @iufilms​​ ​ ​

Masterlist

Prologue

Once upon a time...

"Father!" Zenobia rushed down the stairwell. "Kenna is at the gates!"

King Luthor's frown deepened as he studied the places his troops had been destroyed. His hope to unite the five kingdoms and wipe off the abomination was for naught.

Kenna would not stop until he and his surviving offspring's heads were on pikes.

...until their blood filled the crystal goblets of the Dark Queen.

"What do we do?" His son, Diavolos, asked.

Luthor knew it was only himself Kenna wanted. After he had killed her mother, hoping to stop the monsters once and for all, Kenna would have her revenge.

If only he had known that she was a vampire...just like her mother.

"Listen carefully." His voice trembled at this possibly being the last time he was able to speak to his son and daughter. "A Nevarkis must always be ready to fight the creatures that prey on the weak and vulnerable."

"But..." Zenobia sniffed. "How? How can we possibly kill the unkillable?"

"She can be killed just like her mother before her." Luthor snapped. "Sunlight. A dagger to the heart. Cutting the head off." His features hardened with resolve. "Know that those are our true allies. Continue your training with daggers. Never stop being vigilant. Educate your children. And remember: where there's one vampire, many more lie in wait in the shadows."

Diavolos stepped forward and gripped his father's shoulder. "We will fight for you."

"No." Luthor corrected. "Fight for our people. The innocent. Fight for a chance to live without fear of monsters."

He cleared his throat. "If I should die--"

"Don't say that!" Zenobia screeched. "We'll be--"

"Kenna is coming for me." Luthor interrupted. "I know I must face the consequences of my actions."

"But--" Divalos lowered his head. "What are we to do?"

"Kill her." Luthor ordered. "Let your emotion be your strength." He took their hands. "And remember that a vampire is nature's evil incarnate. They will do whatever they want and kill anyone who they think is in their way." His voice turned to pleading. "Kill Kenna before she has a chance to kill you."

Zenobia nodded in a jerky manner. Diavolos swallowed with tears in his eyes.

"Good. Now prepare yourselves." Luthor pulled his sword from its sheath. "The devil herself is here."

*****************

Two years later...

Kenna cuddled her infant son, humming a lullaby.

Dom came in, a soft smile gracing his lips at the sight of his family.

"How are we this evening?" He asked, placing a kiss first on her lips then one on his son's forehead.

"A little fussy." Kenna explained. "But otherwise perfect."

"Good." Dom stretched then went to stoke the fire. "I will be going out later tonight."

Kenna's head jerked up. "Why? Are there more rumors?"

He nodded, a determined frown formed on his lips. "The Nevarkis brats refuse to let us live in peace." He moved to stand before the window that looked out toward the kingdom he had once lived in.

High in the mountains, the couple and those like them had found sanctuary. They built a kingdom, one of darkness and shadow that allowed them to live freely. He and Kenna were crowned the rulers, chosen by their people...those that were cursed as monsters.

"Si and I will be standing guard." He explained. "I will not risk you or our child."

"Dom..." Kenna pulled him close, capturing his lips in a long tender kiss. "This must end. I was foolish to let my need for revenge take over." Tears sparkled in her eyes. "Luthor might have left us alone if I had given him a chance."

Dom's face contorted into furious hatred. "A Nevarkis can never be trusted!" He gripped her waist, hands heating as he lost his temper. "He would have plunged a dagger into your heart the first chance he had."

"Dom." She said softly when he singed her clothes.

He wrenched his hands from her with a grimace. "I didn't burn you, did I?"

She shook her head. "I'm fine." She tried to lighten the mood. "Just a little overheated."

He took deep breaths to get himself under control. "Stay here where it is safe." His eyes searched hers. "Have you fed recently?"

"No, but I should be fine until you return." Kenna lifted a bottle with blood for their son. "I can call on one of the servants to help me if I need to."

"Promise me you won't go outside." He pleaded.

"Only if you promise to come back to me." She responded.

His lips quirked in that cocky smile she has always adored.

"Always, my queen." He kissed her once more, then slipped out the door to search out their enemies.

******************

Present Day New York...

"Cordonia...land of both beauty and mystery." Riley wrinkled her nose. "Boring."

"No, it isn't." Hana argued. "I think that is the perfect beginning."

"Look at the comments from our last video." Riley swiveled her laptop so her friend could see. "People love our walkthroughs and all but hate my narration."

"Well..." Hana's brow furrowed. "Maybe we should try to add more to it than just narration." She pulled out some sketches. "We could add some animation of the history before showing our footage of the country."

"That might work." Riley mumbled, tapping her pen against her notebook.

The two set to work planning their next project.

After years of trying, they had finally achieved their dream of traveling for a living. The two college friends had taken every class they could on how to make their hopes into a reality. With Riley's love of history and business and Hana's talent with art and fashion, the pair had created a successful travel channel that showcased rarely visited countries and cities around the world.

Hana took care of all the shopping and dining found at their chosen destinations. Her "day trips" were hailed as must see for anyone planning a vacation. Riley took over for what could be found at night. Myths and legends blended in with what could be discovered once the sun set. A place's nightlife was thoroughly researched and reached a wide variety of their audience, causing many to plan a vacation just on her recommendations alone.

"Did your mom suggest where we should go first?" Riley asked, after skimming the same few articles about the elusive country.

"Not really." Hana hedged.

Riley glanced up. "Is she giving you a hard time again?"

"Yes." Hana slumped in her chair. "She told me to call when I was done playing tour guide."

"Geez." Riley grumbled. "Does she not realize that we have created a legit business?"

"Ladies shouldn't be involved in anything that does not pertain to their husband and family." Hana quoted. "I was supposed to have my debut to Cordonian society last year." Angry tears filled her eyes. "She still hasn't forgiven me for missing out on the Masquerade Ball."

Riley wrapped her in a comforting hug. "I'm sorry."

Hana patted her back. "Don't be. I finally feel like I can accomplish anything."

"That's because you can." Riley sat back with a grin. "Especially with planning out what we should focus on first."

Hana giggled as she went to search out some of her old books she had inherited from her grandparents. "These might help you with your part."

Riley's eyebrows lifted over the titles. "The Crown, the Flame, and The Night Queen."

"That is the earliest recorded story of vampires and monsters in Cordonia." Hana explained. "Queen Kenna Rhys and King Luthor Nevarkis both fought over uniting the kingdoms that make up Cordonia." She shook her head in disbelief. "There is a legend that Queen Kenna was a vampire that married a man who could transform into a dragon."

"For real?" Riley eagerly opened the book. "What happened?"

"Luthor died." Hana reached for another history book. "Some say it was a sword fight while others say she ripped his throat out with her fangs."

"Whoa. Either way, she sounds pretty epic."

"His son got revenge though." Hana flipped to another chapter. "He sneaked in one day and supposedly dragged Kenna into the sunlight. Before her husband could save her, she burned to ash."

"Brutal." Riley shivered. "What did the dragon do?"

Hana shrugged. "Supposedly he left with their child to protect him." She pointed at some drawings rendered from the Dark Ages. "Kenna's son came back to extract revenge. He eliminated one entire side of the Nevarkis family tree."

"And let me guess," Riley picked up another book. "The remaining Nevarkis's struck back?"

"It's supposedly been a feud for centuries between the Nevarkis and the Rhys' families." Hana pulled up an image on her phone. "Though one is currently ruling Cordonia."

Riley studied the image. "Queen Olivia Nevarkis. Looks like the Rhys lost the throne."

Hana shrugged. "There's a myth that they still rule Cordonia from the shadows."

"Mythical royal vampires, huh?" Riley laughed at the thought. "I hope I bump into one just so I can figure out who's really in charge."

Hana giggled at the thought. "You would be the only person to ask a logical, government question instead of the usual, whoa you're a real live vampire!"

Riley threw a pillow at her. "Hey! I can be calm and collected when faced with the unknown."

Hana threw the pillow back. "Tell that to the supposed haunted house we visited on our last trip." She broke out into laughter with Riley's defense that squeaking doors were the true villains. "On that note, I'm going to start packing. Our flight leaves first thing in the morning."

"I'll be ready." Riley promised.

Once alone, she flipped to a more current timeline of the supposed Dark Kingdom.

King Constantine Rhys the Third rules over what is his rightful kingdom. Rumors swirl that he is simply biding his time until he can eliminate the usurper, Queen Olivia Nevarkis, First of Her Name. The people know that one day, a Rhys will sit upon the throne, uniting the Dark Kingdom and Cordonia once and for all.

****************

Cordonia's Royal Palace, 2 a.m.

"Heeeerah! Olivia threw her daggers as hard as she could while doing a roundhouse kick.

The blades struck into the chest, head, and groin of the makeshift dummy.

She brushed the few strands of red hair that had escaped her hair clip out of her eyes. With a great deal of scrutiny, she studied her dagger placement.

"The one to the head needs to go deeper."

She spun around with a start at that all too familiar voice.

"You're late." She folded her arms and tapped her foot.

Liam rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry. Had to stop off for a quick bite."

Olivia rolled her eyes. "That's not funny."

"Not that kind of bite." He teased, holding up a styrofoam box.

"Oh." She blinked in surprise. "I forget that you enjoy normal food too."

He chuckled at that. "There are certain foods that I don't think any man could ever give up."

Olivia decided to ignore that as she wiped the sweat from her face and neck. "Now that you're here, let's get the formalities over with."

"Very well." Liam gestured toward her. "You may go first."

She sat down on a bench lining one side of the palace gym. She motioned for him to join her.

"Not you!" She hissed when she saw his all too familiar guard.

Drake Walker bristled at her tone. His brown eyes clashed with her green.

"Give us a moment, please." Liam asked him.

"Don't let your guard down." Drake warned. "Remember, she's a Nevarkis."

Olivia tensed. "Perhaps you should remember what happened the last time you said something like that."

She quirked one eyebrow at the man and felt a sense of glee when he winced in memory.

His hand automatically drifted to his side where one of her daggers had once struck true.

With a quick bow to Liam, Drake stepped back out into the hallway.

Liam shook his head. "Are you two ever going to get along?"

"Stop talking stupid." Olivia snapped. "Now then, as you know...I must have my revenge."

"I know." Liam folded his arms and leaned casually against a column.

She eyed him for any sign of hatred.

It drove her crazy how unvampiric he could be.

He seemed almost human.

He seemed...kind.

A vampire is nature's evil incarnate. You can never trust a Rhys.

Those words had been drummed into her skull by her parents and then her aunt after their deaths by Constantine's hand.

And yet...Liam had done the unthinkable.

He had actually been a friend to Olivia.

*************

The night after her parents' funeral, five year old Olivia had been sitting alone before the fireplace, weeping over them.

Her aunt had left her to deal with her own grief and to plan the next attack upon Constantine.

As she searched for a tissue, Olivia jumped back with a shriek at the little blonde haired boy that held the Kleenex box.

His eyes were filled with unshed tears as he handed her a tissue.

"Who are you?" She asked, remembering that a Nevarkis must always be brave.

"I'm Liam." He explained. "I wanted to...I wanted to tell you I'm sorry about your parents." He sniffed and took a tissue for himself. "My mom died too."

Olivia blinked and took a cautious step forward. "Are you...are you a vampire?!"

He nodded.

She whipped out the dagger her mother had given her and rushed at him.

Liam moved faster than she could comprehend, gently keeping her hand above her head.

"Let go of me, monster!" She ordered. "You're why I'm all alone!"

"I didn't do anything." He told her, anguish taking over his handsome features. "I don't want to hurt you or anyone."

"Liar!" She snapped. "That's what you do. Lie and kill." Her tears ran faster down her cheeks. "And now you'll kill me."

"I won't." He promised. "I swear I won't hurt you." He ignored his own tears trickling down his cheeks. His blue eyes burned with resolve. "My mother made me promise never to hurt a human."

Olivia shook her head. It had to be lies. Isn't that what vampires and monsters do? Lull you into letting your guard down so that they could have an easy kill.

"Your father will pay for what he did." She said, hoping to see his true, evil nature. "He must die!"

"I know." Liam slowly released her and took a step back.

Olivia watched in surprise as he sat down before her fireplace and pulled out a silk blue ribbon from his pocket.

He motioned for her to join him.

She slowly lowered herself down, dagger poised in her little fist in case he made a move.

"May I have your hand, please?" He asked.

He patiently waited on her to decide whether or not to give it to him.

She tentatively placed her hand in his.

His lips turned up into a relieved smile as he wrapped the ribbon over their joined hands.

"What are you doing?" She asked, lowering her dagger.

"Making a bond." He explained. "I, Liam Rhys, Crown Prince of the Dark Kingdom, promise to never seek out revenge and to end all vendettas against the Nevarkis family." His blue eyes held her green. "Just as my mother, Queen Eleanor wanted me to."

Oliva's lips parted. "You mean it?"

"I do." Liam's voice held a great deal of sincerity. "I would rather walk into the sun than not do as she asked."

"Oh." Olivia sniffed. She could understand that kind of devotion.

"Do you," Liam's cheeks colored. "Do you think we can be allies?"

"A Nevarkis will never be friends with a monster." She repeated the rhetoric that she knew by heart.

"But," Liam's shoulders slumped. "We're not all bad."

"All monsters are bad at heart."

"I'm not." He pouted. "I don't want to be."

"You're so weird." She muttered.

"Am not." Liam grumbled. "I hope I'm not."

Olivia looked down at their hands still bound together. "I guess since you promised something, I should too."

He didn't bother to hide his surprise.

She stuck her tongue out at him. "I, Olivia Nevarkis, The Crown Princess of Cordonia, swear that after I kill Constantine Rhys, I will lay down my weapons." Her brow furrowed. "I'll pick them back up though if you or any other monster tries anything."

Liam's smile grew. Before she could react, he tugged her into a quick hug.

"Now we can be friends!" He cheered.

"Friends?" She shook her head. "I'm a Nevarkis and you're a Rhys. We can't be friends."

"We will be." He vowed, jumping to his feet. "I have to go before Father finds out I've sneaked out. I'll try to come back in a few nights."

Olivia didn't have a chance to tell him whether or not she wanted him to. In the blink of an eye, he had jumped from her balcony and was already out the palace gates.

*****************

That had been the beginning of Liam's visits. Through the years, he had remained true to his promise. He did all he could to befriend her and never tried to sway her from seeking vengeance.

Olivia had once asked him how he could take her threat against his father so easily.

He had merely shrugged, explaining that he knew it was the way of things. His father had killed both her parents, while he had only lost one. He hoped she didn't since he did not wish to see his father or her dead.

Olivia had then told him again how weird he was, bringing another smile to his lips.

And now here he was again, calmly taking her promised vengeance well.

"So what business brings you here tonight?" She asked.

"Father thinks it is time I chose a wife." Liam responded. "I thought you should know that I will be spending more time in your kingdom to find one."

Olivia shot up off the bench. "What? But you promised to never hurt a human!"

"And I will keep true to that." He explained.

"But..." Olivia's brow furrowed. "You'll turn her into a vampire."

"Only if she wishes it." Liam explained. "I won't force her to make such a decision."

"I see." She began to pace while thinking. "You'll have vampire children."

"Only if she's a vampire." He reminded her. "Remember my brother."

Olivia paused. She had forgotten about Leo Rhys, The Great Disappointment of the Dark Kingdom. His mother had begged Constantine not to turn her. It had never been asked before, and in his mercy he had agreed. That was when they all discovered that a monster and a human could only produce a human child. In order for the heir to the Dark Kingdom to be a vampire, both parents had to be the same being.

"And you'll be fine having human children?" She asked. "If you're chosen bride refuses the Vampire's Kiss?"

"Of course." He responded.

"Lord, you're so weird." She muttered.

His smirk flashed. "Let's hope the woman I choose doesn't think so."

"Are there no women in your kingdom you can choose from?" She asked.

"I've looked." He shook his head. "It's hard to explain, but if one doesn't have an arranged marriage, then we must search until we see the one meant for us."

"And you somehow got weirder." She brushed her hands down her pants and held one out to him. "Good luck, I suppose."

"Thank you." He grasped her hand and lifted it to his lips. "I'll keep you updated on my progress."

"There's no need."

"Of course there is." He winked at her on his way out. "We're friends."

Her lips parted to once again remind him that they couldn't be. For some reason, she decided not to say it.

Liam had somehow wormed his way into her life and had become the closest friend she had ever had.

********************

The Lee Residence, Shanghai, China...

Lorelei paled as she reread the report. 

It can’t be. Not Now!

Of all the times for this to happen, it would be when her stubborn, foolish daughter decided to visit. 

Given the nature of her relationship with Hana, she knew that there was no way she could convince her to postpone her trip to Cordonia. 

There was only one course of action left to take. She would have to call the one man who was capable of protecting her daughter. She would promise hiim anything as long as he kept Hana out of Liam’s clutches. As much as wanted her to give up this ridiculous hobby she called a job and settled down with the right sort of man, she would never put her in the path of becoming the next vampire queen. 

Setting down the packet of information from one of her informants, she checked to make certain no servant was out in the hallway and then searched for the needed phone number.

Taking a deep breath, she placed the call.

Her trepidation grew when he didn’t immediately answer.

"Hello."

"Lord Beaumont?" 

"Yes." She could hear a door closing in the background. "Who is this?"

"Lorelei Lee." She replied.

"Lady Lorelei." He responded with a recognition. "How can I help you?"

"My daughter and her friend have got it in their heads to come visit Cordonia." She began. "I'm not certain how long they intend to stay, but I was hoping that I could retain your services."

"For what exactly?" Lord Beaumont asked.

"Protection." She replied. "I have heard through certain channels that the dark prince is beginning to search for a bride." She took a deep breath. "We do NOT want our daughter anywhere near that vile creature."

"I understand." He replied. "I usually don't do personal security. With my brother, Bertrand, retired," he hesitated, "it is left up to me to help protect Cordonia's borders."

"My husband and I would be in your debt if you could watch over her in the evenings." Lorelei cajoled. "I've heard that your brother is planning on extending his vineyards. We would be more than happy to invest in the production and distribution of his sparkling wine. Perhaps even let it be the only sparkling wine we serve in our hotels."

"Send me her information and picture. Call her and tell her that since our family is an old friend of yours, that I've volunteered to show them around. Find out where she's staying and when she plans on arriving."

"Oh thank you, my lord. We--"

"I'll also need a contract prepared and signed for all that you offered." He added.

"Yes of course. I'll get everything to you at once." She promised.

Once he ended the call, she sank back down onto her chair. 

She bowed her head and began to pray that her daughter came to no harm these next few weeks. To lose Hana to one of the many creatures that roamed the night in Cordonia was too horrible to even contemplate.

If anyone could keep her daughter safe then it was none other than Lord Maxwell Beaumont.

[kaeyas-beloved]

Be You {Leviathan x Reader}

Leviathan x Reader (They/Them) || Obey Me!

Warning(s): None (Well, actually I make Levi bully Mammon for less than a paragraph)

Note: This was a request I received from someone on Wattpad!

-------------------

Finally, Leviathan’s done it. It’s been a long three days, hours upon hours having been poured into this playthrough. 

“Woop woop! Aren’t I the best!” he praised himself, smiling wide. He’s skipped meals, pushed assignments to a later date and avoided any outside interactions to finish this game. His sight may be blurry and his limbs numb but if those were the sacrifices he had to make to go full completionist then it was all worth it. Now, time to celebrate a well deserved win.

“I think this calls for some of Ruri-chan’s celebratory season 3 limited edition candy and-!”

A chorus of knocks on his door immediately snuffed out his joy. Levi scowled, turning to glare at his door from his chair, it’s gotta be Mammon. The third born is absolutely positive that it’s his scummy older brother - it always is - back yet again to mooch more money off him for a trip to the casino. The usual slander he and his brothers would throw at the second born was on the tip of his tongue, ready to fire at will. 

“Hey Levi? You there? It’s me....”

A voice that definitely doesn’t belong to the second born piping up and Levi, halfway through spouting the first syllable, shuts up all together. That’s his normie. A weight presses on his heart: he was just about to yell and insult his Henry… 

Clearing his throat in hopes of gaining some kind of composure (all previous anger having diminished) the usual “What’s the password?” came out in a stutter. The demon was only acutely aware of his heart beat. How it skipped periodically. How it raced like he himself just ran a marathon. Levi waits a moment for the human to finish reciting the TSL excerpt. His hands begin to shake, his palms exuding profuse amounts of sweat. Gah! Why was he so nervous? Yeah, he’s aware that he’s just some gross shut-in otaku but he shouldn’t be this anxious! It’s not like this is the first time the exchange student has hung out in his room... alone... with him…

“Yo Levi?”

“Yes MC?”

“You think you could open the door now? Please?” Snapped back to reality, Levi hastily opened the door, finding himself regretting it soon after.

“I, uh, MC? What do you…?” his voice trailed off, orange gradient eyes locked on their garments. Immediately he sputtered, taking a step back. A bright scarlet coated his pale cheeks. Levi tried to hide it with his hand, though it was proven useless. The sea demon's at a toss up; should he screech? Slam the door shut? Combust all together!? At the rate he’s going, number three is looking pretty probable.

On the other end of this exchange, the human stood almost timidly out in the hall, fingers fiddling with one another while their eyes darted anywhere but at the man in front of them. The words of the fifth born rang in their ears:

“You absolutely have to wear this dear! My brother would surely fall head over heels for you, even more so than he already is!”

Oh whyyyyy did they trust him? Cause he had knowledge in fashion and love? Yeah, that was it. Still, if this turns south Asmo is going to get a lecture worse than any Lucifer could ever give… Damn, they really should’ve never let the lust demon shoo them into his private bathroom and make them change into this girly outfit. 

And it hit them all at once: Levi doesn’t like it, what they’re wearing. What if he never talks to them after this? Maybe if they leave now then there will still be a chance they can forget about this.

Time went on slowly, like people who walk through mud are, and MC just about tuck tail and ran, what they had planned and gained courage for be damned. 

Levi had other plans though. 

Only now registering that the two were standing out in the open for all to see, in a blind and desperate attempt to save himself and the human from embarrassment, the third born latched onto their wrist, yanking them into the safety of his room. Unfortunately, demon strength is a funny thing and Levi had handled them with more force than he meant to, the human crashing into his chest - hard. 

Perhaps it was instinct -- a need to protect the fragile being within his grasp -- but the demon's arm found purchase around their form, pulling them almost impossibly closer as they tipped. The pair, balance long gone, toppled over, landing with a thud.

Somehow, just like in all the romance anime he’s watched, Levi found himself hovering over them, arms propped on either side of their head. Their noses brushed, both staring frozen into each other's eyes. It wasn’t everyday that either of them were this close to one another, the exception being when the duo falls asleep playing video games. God, with this kind of proximity he was sure that the normie could hear how fast his meek heart was pounding. If this went on any longer he might actually die.

“Levi?” They whispered, their voice so quiet that he almost missed the call of his name. He however did catch their whisper and tensed up before coming back to the here and now, catching sight of the ‘what’ that led to their current position. Standing, Levi’s face burned hotter than ever before.

‘It was all because of them,’ he thought, turning away turning away with tense shoulders as he still tries to mask the red that licked all the way up to his ears. ‘It’s always their fault when I start to feel like I do now!’

“S-stupid n-normie! Why are you even wearing that?” he asked, chancing a glance over his shoulder. Levi did have to admit… they looked kinda cute in those clothes… and it looked like something Ruri-chan would wear too… 

Gah! No no no focus Levi!

The ‘normie’ didn’t answer right away, instead raising to their feet and opting to grab a bag from beside the door. That wasn’t there before. 

“Asmo…” they sighed, turning back to face the demon, nervousness swirling within them. Now or never, “Asmo said you’d like it if I wore something like this” So this is Asmo’s doing? Damn him… “Anyway, here, take it.”

“Wha-?” A shimmering gift bag the same colour of the water Henry his goldfish swam in was thrust into his hands, whatever he was about to say dying in his throat. 

A present? For him? Oh why must a no good otaku like him have to go through such an intimate endeavor???? He just can’t take it! 

Then again, this was like that one scene from season 2 ep. 22 of this anime he binged: I Forget Important Dates all the time which causes me to get into really awkward situations. This time I forgot about my Birthday and my Crush handed me a bag before confessing their love for me!

So-! Spurred on by fictional characters and MC’s urging “go on, open it”, Levi tore the tape, presented with his spontaneous gift: a popular multiplayer game from the human world; one near impossible to get in Devildom.

“WHAOOO!” MC couldn’t help but think how much he’s acting like a kid on Christmas, the notion cute in their opinion. The human stood still for a couple minutes, allowing their friend to rant and gush over the game (and how cool they were for even acquiring it).

“But…” the purple haired demon calmed down, “why did you suddenly give me this?” What? Did he not know what today was?

“It’s… it is your birthday isn’t it!?” Don’t tell them Asmo lied to them about Levi’s birthday!

Levi pulled out his phone, his eyes widening to the size of saucers, “No, it is my birthday,” he assured. With all the gaming he was doing he must've failed to noticed, which is strange considering the last time his special day drew near he practically counted down the days. 

“MC.” He got their attention, looking them right in the eye, his words and actions portraying a sureness and sincerity, “Thank you and…” As quick as lightning strikes the ground, the human had themselves pulled flush against Levi once more, his head resting on their shoulder and nose buried in the crook of their neck. His hair, so soft and fluffy, left a ticklish sensation on their skin.

“And about what you said before. With Asmo. I do like what you’re wearing but…” he tightens his hold, “I like you just the way you are. I know you don’t usually dress like this and I want nothing more than for you to be comfortable, like how you make me. If that means dressing tomboy-ish then so be it. I want you to be you: the human only you can be: my Henry.” 

“I’m glad you feel that way…” They smiled, arms wrapping around his torso. They hope their gratitude is able to shine through in the hug, “Now, ya wanna play your new game?”

“Yes!” He smiled, pulling back and raising his hand. They return the grin, suppressing a chuckle seeing as the demon reminded them of the YES demoji. “Oh, but um! Would you like to change first? It’s not that I don’t like seeing you dressed like that or anything but like I said I want you to be comfortable but also I don’t think my heart can take it anymore… wait that’s not what I meant!” That made them chuckle though.

“Do I have to?” They teased, enjoying the reaction they got out of the third born. Levi gulped, ducking his head while whispering a small no. “Then maybe I’ll stay like this a little longer. It is your birthday after all.” Tugging the envy demon towards their usual gaming spot they let Levi set up the game before the two plopped down in their spots.

“Oh and Levi?” He hummed, tilting his head, the light of the screen illuminating the side of his face. They hugged him once more, “Happy Birthday”

-------------------

[Masterlist]

Thank you for reading!

[wonderwomanfantasy]

Iwaizumi NSFW Alphabet

just remebered that this is my blog and I control the iwa smut

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

He’s pretty good, he catches on pretty quick to what you like and will usally have some water and snacks on hand by the bed so he doesn’t have to get up to take care of you. Also, his after sex massages are godly 

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

Okay I know this sounds weird but he has this treasure trail on his stoumach that he is sooo cocky about. He knows it drives you wild when you see it (cus like it is very hot) and he loves to show it off as much as posible 

On his partner? hes all about the ass. Big small, round or flat he doesn’t care he loves the booty no matter what besides it’s not like you’re flatter than Oikawa anyways

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

So conflicted when hes about to cum because on the one hand you look so good covered in his release and when you scoop up his semen with your fingers and lick it off your hand oh god nothing gets him harder. but on the other hand when he’s pounding into you it’s like your body is begging for him to cum inside so usally he makes you tell him where you want it. 

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

He would gladly Cuck Oikawa or let Oikawa watch, sex and putting Shittykowa in his place are Iwa’s two favoret things so why not combine them

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

He’s had a few partners but he’s not really a fuckboi, he likes having a steady partner so he can get to know their body rather than a string of one night stands. 

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)

Doggy, like I said he’s all about your ass and he will spank you while fucking you, He’ll also push your head down onto the bed if you aren’t arching your back enough for his taste.

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

He’s more serious in the moment but that isn’t to say he isn’t capable of finding the humor in things. He loves to tease you and it often helpd break the tension if something awkward happed. IE you asked him to spike your ass like a volleyball and he laughed at you for an hour straight before doing just that.

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

it’s a little messy, don’t get me wrong it’s still all clean down there but like unless you ask him to shave he’s keeping the bush. 

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

The romance really comes after everything is all said and done, like he won’t have any sweet words for you in the heat of the moment but that’s mostly becuase his mind goes totally blank when he fucks and he can’t formed words. 

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

sometimes, mostly just to tease you. he’ll send you a video of him jerking off and moaning your name with some caption like “doesn’t this look a lot better than studying” to get you to come over and get him off for real. If you really can’t come fix his issue he’ll still send you a video of him cumming all over himself cus he’s nice like that

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

daddy kink plain and simple. he just loves heairng you cry out for daddy while he eats you like it’s is last meal but he also likes it when youre just like  “hey daddy can you grab that for me?” cus like yeah he is your daddy even out of the bedroom. Rip to you if you say that infront of the team 

public sex you are getting fingered in public 100% he doesn’t want to get caught persay. but he’s sure as hell not afraid to. as they say no risk no reward. you have also defently fucked in the boys changing room... and sucked him off in the club room, and gotten fingered in the volley ball storage closet. It’s a mericall no one from the team has caught you two yet. 

cock warming. He tries to work it into every sesion of aftercare its just nice to have his cock inside you even if it’s soft. makes him feel closer to you. watch out becuase the two of you will just be cuddling and watching a movie and boom his dick is out and hes looking at you like “so you gonna sit on that or what?”

roleplay? kind he gets really turned on when you roll up your uniform skirt and start “acting like a slutty little school girl” and he pretendeds he’s a teacher punishing you for braking dresscode. this is all in his head by the way, hes a little too ashamed to admit why he wants you to keep your clothes on while he fucks you or ask you to call him sensei.

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

Like I said anywhere in public is a rush for him, but his absolute favorite is in the shower Aoba Johsai locker room shower. The water just hightens everything and your moans echo beautifully off the tiles. 

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

when you complemt him.  “Wow iwa that was such a great spike you’re so strong!” “wow Iwa I never realised how mucular you are,”  “oh Iwa that was a great game you looked so cool out there!” are all sure fire ways to get your back blone out. 

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

ight hear me out! hes not into choking. Iwa just doesn’t trust himself enough to do it right in the heat of things and would never want to hurt you (yes he leaves bruises on your ass he spanks you so hard yes he doesn’t want to choke you until you black out) if you really want him to choke you he’ll do it, but like while you're riding a toy or something so he doesn’t get distracted. 

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

He perfers receving tbh. you just look so cute on your knees gagging on his cock (choking on his dick and choking on his hand are two difrent things stfu) Iwa lives to condicened to you while you’re trying to fix his XL meat in your mouth

“you’re such a pretty baby, if only there wasn’t a big fat cock making you cry but you’re so much of a whore to let go of my dick now that it’s in your mouth isn’t that right?” stuff like that. 

also his head game is godly. he holds your hands and kisses yo right on your sex then procieds to send you to anouther plain of existance with his mouth. he won’t let up until you're crying. you make such a mess every time, not that either of care.

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

unless its a special occasion he’s rough and brutal. real head board braking motherfucker RIP to (y/n)’s hips they are fucking gone

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

He kinda has to be quick when you too are banging where someone could walk in any second. But he does perfer to take his time with you especially since he loves to make you cum over and over again. 

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

Once he hits a grove he kinda likes to stick to what he knows. He might drag his feet a little but he’ll ussally try new things. 

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

oh my god good luck he can go forever if you let him. the only time you can even hope of going less than three rounds is if he just had a big game and he’s tiered from it, even then games tend to rile him up more than anything. 

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

He owns a pocket pussy, not that he uses it much. He’s fine with using toys on you as long as he’s the one in control. Doesn’t like it if he finds out you’ve been using a vibe somwhere without him. 

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

It depends. Normally he doesn’t tease much he’s pretty straightforword and would rather just get down and dirty about it. But if he feels like you’ve earned a good teasing? good luck. He’s patient and he knows your body so well he can have you in a mess in less than a minute and he’ll keep you there until you’re begging for him.

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

Not very loud, lots of grunts and deep huffs if he’s talking it’s broken phrases repeated over and over again “you feel so good, so good so good,” “who’s cock is making you cum? who’s cock? who’s cock?” like I said his mind shuts off when he’s fucking you. He does tend to shout when he cums though. 

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

He loves fingering you something about seeing his hands work on your body really gets him going. He like how deep his figners can go, how much they make you squirm. How the veins and the tendions on the back of his hand look while he slowly edges into three knucles deep. 

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

do I even have to say it? big cock citty population Iwaizumi Hajime. It’s a little longer than average and a little gatherer than you’d maybe ecpect and it really streaches you out. The head is a flushed read color and it’s sesitive as hell. please suck on the tip of his cock while fodleing his heavy balls he will literally cum in seconds. 

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

not very high. He’s always ready to go when you are but most of the time he’s just chill with hanging out. Unless he just won a game or you are wearing some of his clothes in wich case he is defently horny. 

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

please, you rock his world but you’re not half the work out a five set volleyball game is. He is fine to go to like the gym or something after sex even if you are completely wreaked. but if you ask him to cuddle and happen to fall asleep, well a nap wouldn’t kill him right?