#bonus points for MCs who are absolutely not religious at all or who are a religion other than catholic/christian

[zephyrchama]

It was dinnertime in the House of Lamentation. Conversation petered out as everyone focused on the hot food in front of them, leaving a quiet lull interrupted only by clinking silverware.

“I’ve always wanted a traditional church wedding,” you said, entirely unprompted.

The clinking came to a stop as the seven brothers processed what you had just said. They turned their eyes towards you.

Beelzebub was the first to break the silence despite his mouth full of food. “Huh?”

“I just always thought it would be nice. A quaint wedding in a nice little church. Maybe a chapel.”

Leviathan briefly choked on what he was chewing.

“Oh I totally get it!” Asmodeus empathized. “Rows of pews with white flowers, those high arched ceilings, the evening light of the human world sun shining on us through a beautiful stained glass window as we kiss? Oh!” He clutched his shoulders, “it gives me chills just imagining it!”

“Asmo, we can’t enter churches,” Satan stated matter-of-factly. The knife handle gripped in his fist started to bend.

“Hah!? What? Lucifer, is that true?” Mammon slammed his fork down and just about jumped out of his chair as he shouted at the oldest.

“Sit down, Mammon.” Lucifer rubbed his temple and tried to perform damage control before the inevitable headache set in. “What brought this on suddenly?” he asked you.

Keeping a straight face was immensely difficult but you pulled it off. “I was just thinking about weddings and stuff, y’know. It’d be nice. Ever since I was little I thought a church wed-”

Belphegor interjected with “You’re not even that religious.”

A flood of complaints washed over the table as everyone started loudly protesting.

“You… You’re not allowed to get married anywhere without me!” Leviathan shouted.

“Does it have to be a church? What about a restaurant instead?” Beel suggested, looking worried. “I know a lot of pretty ones.”

“We could build a mock church in a studio and get married there,” Asmo fantasized. “The stained glass could be you and me as cherubs, we can ask Luke to be the flower boy. He’d be so cute in a little tux!”

“You wouldn’t even need a ceremony with me,” Belphegor said. “If you really want one, we can have it outdoors under the stars.”

Satan’s knife was bent at a 90-degree angle. “What a stupid thing to say. Libraries are just as quiet and nice as churches. Probably. They sure suit you better than a church.” 

“The restaurants also have in-house catering,” Beel continued.

“That ain’t gonna happen!” Mammon bounced his knee, shaking the entire table as he lamented, “I ain’t lettin’ my human get married in some church! We can go anywhere you want! Anywhere else!”

”There’s a church in my game!” Leviathan gasped. He thought an in-game wedding would be just as good as a real one. “I can show you! We can go now! Lets make you a character!”

Lucifer cleared his throat once. Then twice. The third time was a warning that got lost amid all of the whining. “Enough,” he finally growled. The room went silent for him. “You’re not getting married in a church. End of discussion.”

“Oh.” Weird of him to decide that on his own, but you were at your limit. A wide grin had already spread across your face. “Yeah, ok. By the way this roast you made is delicious.”

[ranmanjuu]

How about headcanons of the warlords with a superstitions MC? Like opening a umbrella indoors or break a mirror 13 years of bad luck. See a penny pick it up and crossing your fingers for something good to happen. Oda Forces please. Thank you!

so i had to google some superstition things and i picked a few (not sure if some of these count but i hope [and like most of them tie with luck?? i mean ig makes Sense]) so here ya go:

—nobunaga:

nobunaga is known more or less for being ruthless. such is a fact you learnt since history class back in school.

it was another assassination attempt (it’s become a part of the monthly, if not weekly, experience for you), and as any other time, nobunaga deflected it easily. the ronin, upon seeing he couldn’t so much as land a hit on his target, set his eyes on you.

he lunged, the tip of the sword aiming for your head. nobunaga quickly caught it, pushing the blade off with his own. and in that process, accidentally shattering a mirror behind you.

soon after all that, the ronin was taken away to the dungeons, and nobunaga’s gone to hugging you protectively in his tenshu. a frown was etched on your brows, he noticed. his grip grew tighter.

“why does your expression look troubled, fireball?” he asks, leaning into you slightly. you sigh in return, “you broke a mirror.”

now, he was confused. you never expressed a fondness to said mirror, and while yes, you’re sometimes upset when items are broken, you get over them quickly.

“and why does it bother you so?”

you turn around, your face facing his. “there’s a belief that if you break a mirror, you’ll be cursed with bad luck for years.” seeing his expression turn into slight confusion, you explained further, “it’s said that a piece of your soul is held in a mirror, and if you break it—”

before you could finish, you were suddenly falling on the floor, with nobunaga under you as a cushion. a smirk was the first thing that caught your eye.

he finds it rather amusing, you were less mulling about the near death experience and more of a supernatural belief.

“even if that were to happen, my lucky charm will surely ward them off.”

—hideyoshi:

a battle was coming near. and as any other time, you came as support. it wasn’t as dramatic or dangerous as previous ones, you’d be there for hideyoshi (no matter how much he insists otherwise).

you kept yourself at camp, tending to the injured. during the afternoons where hideyoshi wasn’t fighting along side his lord, he’d be by yours.

a messenger came, and you couldn’t help but tense up. by instinct, you crossed your fingers and hoped for good luck. surely, it was, and you could slump your shoulders in relief.

hideyoshi noticed this small tendency, even before you started dating. the way your lips pursed slightly as your fingers crossed, a slightly pleading look in your eyes. and he’s always just a bit confused.

“why do you always. . .do that?”

you look at him confusedly, not sure what he’s reffering to, “do what?”

he mimics your fingers just moments before, and you emit a small ‘ohh’.

“well, i guess it’s a bit of a prayer? there’s a belief that if you cross your fingers, good luck will be granted.”

oh, so it’s a bit of a religious thing, he thought, and understood. he starts to pick up each time you were a bit worried and wished for a bit of good luck by doing it, and would comfort you either in the moment, or afterwards.

actually—he starts picking it up too after a while.

in camp, or a warlord council meeting, he’ll unconsciously cross his fingers.

and, in the event he proposes to you. . .he’ll definitely do it too ♥

—mitsuhide:

since sengoku japanese was a bit different than modern japanese, mitsuhide had taught you language as well.

it was a test, one that can be classified about 5th grade elementary level? around that. you’d done pretty great, it was mostly on writing the letters that tripped you up, but you were faring well.

and, as per mitsuhide’s own method, he had you do a spoken part afterwards. again, you breezed through well enough.

“well then,” he stacked the papers to an orderly pile, “let’s do a bonus question, for ‘extra points’ if you will.”

you started sweating, cause mitsuhide can absolutely be a devil and ruin your score by asking one out of left field. but to your relief, it was just,, counting, apparently.

“one, two, three, five, six, eight, ten—”

“little mouse,” he cut you off, “it seems some numbers escaped from those.”

oops. you forgot, and reflex took over, skipping over the numbers four, seven, and nine. and although the other pronounciations were used more often (yon, nana,) you still avoided them.

“oh, uhm, right—!” and so you redid your countings with those pronounciations.

he did ask you well, more of tease but it led to the same explanation about it afterwards. you just huffed— “well, it’s said that it brings bad luck you know!”

“oh, and what is it little mouse?”

he asks in a more teasing manner, but he didn’t expect you to actually answer seriously. “well, the pronounciation for four, seven and nine are homonyms for ‘death’ and ‘suffering’, for four and seven respectively. and nine’s said to be a homonym for ‘hostage’, i think?”

he’s amused—you’re as silly as ever. and he wouldn’t have it any other way. in fact, new teasing material!

—masamune:

summer rolled around soon, and holy hell is it hot out there. while you spent most of your days inside, sometimes you have to go to the market too, y’know? and so to help through with the heat, you ordered two paper umbrellas that a fellow friend who worked in the castle had a business of. it was a delivery order, so you told her to drop it off at masamune’s manor.

and it came around when the sun began to set. you admired the fabric used while masamune looked in the background.

“‘ey lass, how about we test it?”

upon his suggestion, you just chuckled a bit uneasily. you believed that opening an umbrella indoors would cause bad luck—and also the fact that masamune could absolutely wreak havoc with just that.

“eh, it’s fine.” you waved it off, setting the thing on the table, “we can use it in the day when the sun’s ou—”

before you could finish your sentence, masamune reached for the umbrella ordered for him, and opened it quick.

“—! masamune—!” you yelled out, watching as he sways the thing around like a child would with a toy.

after a tiresome chase, you managed to have him put the umbrella down and gave him a stern talking, with slight anxiety in your eyes.

“lass, since when did you become hideyoshi? it’s nothin’ big.” he says with a wide grin.

“it brings bad luck you know!”

at your argument, his interest peaked with an arch of his eyebrows, “oh, does it now?”

his tone was more of teasing, excitement also, but you just huffed and nodded, “yeah! it’s said that if you open an umbrella indoors, it’ll bring bad luck.”

he accepts your belief without so much as a question why, but it definitely becomes another source for chaos and teasing from him.

—ieyasu:

you’ve always been fond of cats. given the chance, you would absolutely stop and pet one on the way to somewhere. even so, you held the belief that black cats brought bad luck. due to those two clashing factors, you’d just sigh at your (future) misfortune but still stop to pet it.

such is the case when you find a stray black cat in the garden.

ieyasu was with you when you first spot it, and heard your small ‘aww’, one not in response to its cuteness, but more of. . .disappointment, he supposed.

still, you went and pet it, with your lover trailing behind and watching you silently. he reveled in the sight of his dearest playing with a cat in such a loving manner.

and soon, you had to go back as the sun was setting to ieyasu’s manor. while settling for the night, you couldn’t help but slip something, “it’s a bit of a shame we ran into that cat.”

“what do you mean?”

“oh yeah!” you realized that such superstitions most likely didn’t exist, so you explained, “there’s a belief that if you come across a black cat, you’ll be cursed with bad luck.”

“. . .and you believe it?”  /  “yeah,,?”

he went silent for a moment, then all he did was chuckle, pulling you closer in his arms, “you silly girl.”

—mitsunari:

it was hard enough to get mitsunari to commit ‘actually fulfilling your Needs’. it was already enough to snap him out of his reading trance, more so telling him gently that even though he he’s “not hungry”, his body needs to eat.

and even then, it’s easy to see that he doesn’t have the,, best eating manners. his movement’s always hurried. as if he could absolutely not spend another second eating, just to get back to reading. and such, it’s most definitely lackluster.

he doesn’t notice it, but you do.

so when one day, when he leaves his meal with his chopsticks facing up, you flipped. you pulled mitsunari before he got into his reading trance, and practically lectured him like how hideyoshi would.

meanwhile, mitsunari’s very confused. he already forgot how he put his chopsticks when he left it. he looked back to his bowl, it was facing up, with the tips dug into the rice.

“forgive me, but i don’t think i understand?”

you pursed your lips and tried to explain it to him. “well, putting your chopsticks up is very rude cause it’s used in funerals—”

despite it being a small thing you believed in, mitsunari listened in as close as possible. it’s like his trance, but verbally.

the moment you finish, he’s slightly berating himself in his mind. seeing the small hesitancy in his eyes, you quickly reassure him it’s fine, it’s just something you deeply believe in and he didn’t know, all the likes.

he nods, he doesn’t comment anything about it. instead, he keeps it in mind each time he eats. he always sets his chopsticks down properly, and in fact, learns and executes a few table manners! hideyoshi is slightly relieved, but masamune won’t stop lecturing him to ‘savor the flavor’.

—ranmaru:

in your days off with ranmaru, the two of you spend it mostly by going in town and, more often than not, snacking on some sweets at a teahouse (and by some, it’s enough to drain your earns for the week).

because of this, hideyoshi told you two to basically go and take a walk, y’know, commit Health(^TM). and by your own suggestion, you ventured to the outskirts of azuchi forest during the breezy noon.

while just looking around, you noticed a glint in the dirt. brushing it away with your fingers, you call ranmaru over, “hey, i found something!”

he came with hopped steps, leaning to you. you pull up a small gold coin, probably lost from a traveler. he gasps like a sweet child, “treasure! but should we take it? does it count as stealing?”

you thought about it, and shrugged, “it’s a pretty small amount to lose,” you stood up, brushing your kimono, “besides, do you know that picking pennies up can bring you good luck?”

(”what’s a penny?”  /  “oh, uh—a synonym for coin, is all.”)

ranmaru’s eyes fill with stars of child-like wonder, “really?”

you smiled innocently, his infectious bright mood spreading over to you, “yep. there’s a saying from my,, hometown that goes, ‘find a penny, pick it up and all day long, you’ll have good luck’!”

it plays out more like two kids telling each other what kind of supernatural ‘fact’ they found out yesterday and sharing it with a friend, because you two were practically that.

his eyes glowed brighter, “wow! then you must be lucky, eheh!”

and after that, each time he sees a stray coin on the ground, he’ll pick it up. and in the case of having company, he’ll tell them what you said with a smile etched on his face.

[mary-nesbitt-larking]

Why I moved from Choices to Lovestruck (and you should too)

It’s no secret to anyone who knows me well that I was a BIG Choices stan. I ran three Choices blogs (begging-for-kamilah, ask-kamilah sayeed and ask-priya-lacroix) for a long time, fulfilling fanfiction requests and interacting with many wonderful people. During my time in the fandom, I made some beautiful friends and created brilliant memories that I wouldn’t trade for the world. Unfortunately, as time passed, I started to notice a decline in the quality of content that Pixelberry were providing, and after a lot of hesitation, I decided to remove the app and leave the fandom. I was very lucky in that a very good friend introduced me to a different app with a similar style. Lovestruck was something that I’d heard about on the grapevine but had no idea what it was or if it could possibly compare to the fun that Choices had given me over the years. After a lot of resisting and stubborn behaviour on my part, I finally gave it a chance and have never looked back since. Here are just some of the many reasons why you should too:

There are no forced love interests in Lovestruck. That’s right. You read that correctly. You choose your love interest BEFORE you start the story so there will never be any frustrating interactions with characters that you’re not interested in. Remember in Bloodbound Book 2 when you go to Paris with Adrian and Jax (leaving the only two female love interests at home) and you were forced to hold hands with one of them (until Pixelberry later apologised and altered the scene)? There is definitely none of that to worry about in Lovestruck. The person you’re interested in is the only character who will show interest in you, and the entire story will be centred around him/her/them. 

Speaking of which, it’s time to talk about the fantastic level of LGBTQ representation in Lovestruck. Non binary characters aren’t just side characters. They actually have their own routes, as well as a huge array of adorable side characters. There are also demisexual characters, asexuals and of course, plenty of lesbians and bisexuals. Voltage (creators of Lovestruck) also very proudly celebrate pride month by releasing incredible LGBTQ content.

On the topic of representation, something that has to be applauded is the racial and religious representation in Lovestruck. You can romance Jewish characters, black characters, south American characters, Asian characters and I’m sure the list goes on. Choices fans might be sad to find that you don’t have the option to customise any love interests or MCs, but I think that this is a blessing. 

Something that I find very cool about Lovestruck is that there are different stories for every love interest. For example, if you romance one person from a certain book, romancing another from the same book will get you a completely different story with a totally different route. It’s a stark contrast to Choices, in which Pixelberry- quite literally- copy and paste the same lines for all the available love interests. 

And along the same lines of copying and pasting, it’s very refreshing to see that Lovestruck doesn’t reuse faces. I always found it terribly off putting when you’d be playing a Choices book and a love interest from another book would be your waiter or waitress. 

One brilliant thing about Lovestruck is the way that they present the MC. Every MC has their own unique personality and backstory. Whilst that does mean “less choice”, it’s really refreshing having an MC with parents. With siblings. With a job. A life. An actual story outside their love interest. There’s one MC who discusses her experiences as a woman of colour, and I think that’s exceptionally important for the player. 

On a superficial note, Lovestruck has GORGEOUS art. I did love the art in Choices too, but I don’t think it has anything on Lovestruck. The backgrounds are stunning, but it’s the characters who are gorgeous. Not to mention, we get absolutely beautiful CGs. This is something Choices sorely lacks. In the later books, the LIs and MCs even blink and move which I find gives it a more engaging feel. There are also MANY more facial expressions for every character in Lovestruck. Blushing faces, a neutral face, smiles, angry faces, sad faces, shocked faces, anxious faces... It’s not just the same standard five like in Choices. 

Another superficial- but very cool aspect- of Lovestruck is that almost every outfit is 100% free. The MCs and LIs will change their clothes whenever appropriate and you don’t have to pay a penny. The only time when outfits will ever cost any in-game currency is if it will mean you gain a CG out of it, but in my personal experience, I’ve only ever seen this being the case for two books. 

This is just a side note but something I love in Lovestruck is that adorable animals aren’t paywalled. They’re just there. Your love interest might have a cat- or a bear in one book- and you don’t have to pay to love up on them. They’re just another part of the story.

Still on the more superficial side of things is the music. I will totally admit, I LOVE the music in Choices and have a fair bit of it downloaded to my iTunes. But for anyone hesitant to move over to Lovestruck for the sake of the music, don’t panic! The music is just as brilliant, just as catchy and just as heartfelt. 

One of the things that always stressed me about Choices was the in-game currency. Diamonds were expensive and unfortunately, every single chapter would involve multiple diamond scenes. In many books, the diamond scenes were so important to the story that to go without them would mean that huge chunks of plot were missed. The amazing thing about Lovestruck is that if you choose not to do the premium scenes (the currency is hearts) then it does absolutely nothing to the story whatsoever. The heart scenes are purely there to give you a little bonus but whether you choose to do them or not, nothing about the story or your relationship with your love interest will change. 

And whilst we’re on the topic of heart scenes, it’s important to note that whilst Choices usually has 3-4 diamond scenes PER chapter, heart scenes only pop up around 9 out of every 12 chapters, and you will VERY rarely find anything that costs more than 30 hearts. 

The system to earn these hearts is totally different to Choices. Whilst you could watch ads to earn diamonds a few times per day, plus playing chapters would gain you two diamonds, Lovestruck gives you “quests”. Every few hours, the quests refresh and all you have to do is read a certain amount of chapters of a specified love interest, and you get the hearts. It’s a win/win situation because the more you play, the more you get.

Not to mention, every day you get to earn a puzzle piece and when you complete a puzzle, you win a certain amount of hearts. It seems tedious at first but they add up fast! 

And it’s not just hearts you earn, either! In Choices, you would use “keys” to read a chapter. In Lovestruck, you use “tickets”. Some quests mean that if you read a certain amount of chapters, you get given 2, 3 or even 5 tickets so you can just keep on reading! 

Since I’ve addressed some of the Lovestruck mechanics, I just want to talk about how much I love that you can fast forward, rewind, autoplay (it plays hands free and there are three different speeds to choose from) and even choose the chapter you’d like to play. This is amazingly refreshing because when it comes to Choices, you have to start the entire book again if you want to get to a specific chapter, AND you have to click through it fast because you can’t fast forward. 

Oh, and when you’ve played a chapter, a little heart symbol will appear next to it if it has a premium scene so you know whether or not you need to save your hearts! 

I really want to address the smut scenes. I know that sounds like another more superficial topic but I think it’s pretty important. I think there’s something more “mature” about Lovestruck and smut. The sex scenes are tasteful yet somehow sexier. They’re not rushed at all. And Voltage aren’t afraid to include actual kinky moments. 

More importantly, though, is that Lovestruck addresses virginity and handles it incredibly tastefully. It’s done in a realistic fashion, too. Sometimes, characters don’t really feel like having sex with their partner. Sometimes they want to at first but then feel anxiety. Sometimes they’re scared. Sometimes they want to stop half way through. Sometimes they have trouble reaching orgasm. All very real scenarios that are addressed tactfully and beautifully. The virgins (be they the MC or LI) in Lovestruck are realistic. They don’t just dive into bed. It’s a process. There’s fear along with excitement. There are moments of panic. It’s not just smut for the sake of smut. It deals with adult situations, something that I always thought Choices struggled with. 

Actually, it’s not just sex. These character get anxiety, depression and genuine mental health problems. And it’s dealt with so perfectly, yet so realistically. They’re anxious when it’s appropriate. 

I don’t want to bash Choices too badly, as I don’t think Pixelberry are an evil company, but some of the things they did- particularly towards the end- were unforgivable. 

Hana Lee’s infertility and the way that it was merely glossed over was appalling. As someone who is also infertile, I can tell you that you don’t just “get over it”, even if your partner is carrying your child. 

I’ll also never quite get over the fact that when you’re almost raped in Red Carpet Diaries 2, you have to pay 30 diamonds if you want someone to stay and comfort you. As a sexual abuse victim, I think that’s grotesque, and a glorification of rape. 

I can safely say, there is NOTHING like that in Lovestruck, and just to reiterate, all the important plot points are FREE. 

To bring this mood back up a little bit, something I think is really cute is that when you’re choosing the love interest you’d like to romance in Lovestruck, you can see sweet little facts about them, including their birthdays, their height and their personality traits. 

Sometimes the stories cross over, too, and love interests will appear in each other’s stories. And the cute thing is, if you’re romancing an LGBTQ character, it will be canonical that whichever love interest crosses over will be in an LGBTQ relationship with MC. 

There are also fun little side stories that you can play, and to really make things interesting, you can often play the same book but from the point of view of your love interest! These do usually cost hearts but not many at all. 15 hearts can get you things like 4 chapters, for example! 

I just want to talk about how wonderful Voltage are as a company, too. You can tell this isn’t about money for them. They just want the best for their players and it shows. They are often asking the community what they want and bringing out polls, and they will always let us have our say.

There are also no false promises of stories being “in the works”. If a story is abandoned, they won’t lie about it. There are no “politician’s answers” from them. Just pure transparency. 

The last thing I want to talk about is the writing style. Lovestruck’s style is worlds apart from Choices. To describe it for you, Choices feels like playing a fun app with cool stories. Lovestruck feels like reading a book, immersing yourself in a novel. And the style is unbeatable. 

TLDR; it’s time to cut the apron strings and move on from Choices. Lovestruck awaits! Tagging @lovestruckvoltage because I love you and appreciate you.