#this section is especially dialogue heavy

[nerdalmighty]

BG3 Tag Game!

I was tagged by @khywren!!! Thank you!!!!!!

I'm going to tag @vanilkaplays @okthisway @maladaptive-menace @riddlerosehearts @starkspi and anyone else who wants to play along!

Favorite romance: It will surprise no one to know that it's Astarion. I find his backstory so incredibly interesting and I love his dumbass personality. At the end of the day, he just wants to do whatever is the most hilarious and I adore that. I especially love how soft he gets when you get together in Act 2. I could go on and on but I'll never be able to fully articulate my love for him.

Favorite class to play: Bard! I love that they're really the jack of all trades and are pretty good at everything, including spells and sword fighting. Persuasion and deception are SO helpful in this game, plus playing music to distract crowds and cause shenanigans in Baldur's Gate is wonderful.

Favorite NPC: I think Raphael. While yeah he absolutely SUCKS, I'm obsessed with his obsession with his own voice. He's a thespian, he's a freak, he's an idiot. I love it. But yes, I did kill his ass.

Favorite song off the soundtrack: Probably the Harpy Song. I listen to it a lot in my spare time, especially when I'm working on a specific fic I'm attempting to write. I'm a big fan of haunting melodies and, unsurprisingly, the concept of hypnotizing music.

Tell us a little about your Tav: I wrote a pretty long post about her here, but my Tav is named Birdie and she's a bard who was born and raised at the Water Queen's House. Previous iterations of her had her as a siren (hence the deep love of the Harpy Song), but I'm still not 100% sure if this version of her is. Basically, she's a mermaid ass goof whose main gang of idiots include Astarion, Gale, and Shadowheart. Chaos often ensues.

Something you wish was in the game: I know this game is huge. I know there's probably stuff people haven't even discovered yet. But god would I love some more camp animations. More interactions between the companions AT camp. Cut scenes where there should probably be cut scenes (The second time Astarion drinks your blood, Wyll celebrating the defeat of Ansur, etc). I really really love this game, but I'd love to hang out with my friends EVEN MORE.

Do you create fanworks? Share something with us: Oh boy I'm TRYING. I've never really written fanfiction before but the stupid vampire has inspired me to do so. I'm in the process of writing two different fics (one multi-chapter, one one-shot on the longer side) and am having a blast but I'm not sure if/when I'll post them. I've noticed my writing style is very similar to the way I write scripts, which is what I went to college for, so they're full of dialogue and quick, dumb banter. It might not be for everyone, but I'm having The Most Fun! Let me know if you'd maybe want to see more? Here's a silly excerpt from the one-shot (she may or may not get smutty later on 👀):

There was no sign of the vampire, save for an open hatch beneath the stone of the tower leading into what you presumed was a cellar of sorts. Off to the side was a discarded set of Thieves’ Tools. Yup, that’ll be him.

Rolling your eyes affectionately, you began to descend into the basement below. 

Before you could even make it to the bottom, however, you heard Astarion’s voice tinged with annoyance. “Don’t bother, darling. I was just coming back up.”

You paused on the ladder and looked down at him. “That bad?”

“Eh, a few coins, some food. Nothing worth risking one’s life over. Foolish gnome.”

“Shame,” you pouted down at him, not an ounce of real sympathy behind the word.

He smirked as he met your eye. “Go,” he said, indicating you should climb back up the ladder. “There was a rather large amount of smoke powder though. That could be fun.”

When you emerged back into the early evening air, you turned to help Astarion out. “Maybe you can blow up a quaint little gnomish village.”

Astarion’s eyes glittered with delight. “Oh, do you think there’s one around here? That would be- Oh. You’re joking.”

You nodded.

“Gods, you’re no fun.” He sighed dramatically and then started back towards the Blighted Village proper. 

You scoffed in mock offense. “I’m a lot of fun!”

Astarion tsked. “If you have to say you’re a lot of fun, odds are, you’re lying to yourself.” He shot a challenging half smile at you from over his shoulder.

“How dare you,” you laughed.

“Such a pity, too,” he went on. “Aren’t bards supposed to be entertaining?”

You made a sound of agony, which had Astarion fully turning back to look at you. You threw a hand to your heart and staggered towards him. “You wound me, Astarion. Look upon me with pity and remember me fondly!” You set an arm on his shoulder and let your body weight go, as if collapsing from a killing blow. 

Astarion was quick to catch you under your arms. He made a show of groaning about how heavy you were now that your body had gone completely limp. After you’d hung loosely from his grip for a few seconds, he finally yielded. “Alright, enough.” 

You resumed control of your body and stood up straight, a smug look on your face. “I’m fun.”

“Dramatic.”

“Theatrical.”

“Annoying.”

“Endearing.”

“Loud.”

“Enthusiastic-”

Just then, a loud howl came from a barn a little ways off. 

You and Astarion eyed each other.

“Was that you?” Astarion asked.

“‘Was that me?!’ I’m not THAT loud.”

“Could have fooled me.”

You rolled your eyes. “Come on.” You started in a light jog towards the barn.

Astarion groaned. “You can’t be serious.” He caught up with you easily. “Haven’t we done enough heroing for today?”

You looked at him thoughtfully. “One more act of heroism probably won’t kill you.”

“It might!”

“Oh, now who’s being dramatic?” You came to a stop at the double doors.

“I-” Astarion floundered, then pursed his lips and crossed his arms.

“That’s what I thought.”

[kwanisms]

The Library of Illusion — the Restricted Section (finale)

«« previous | masterlist | end.

➮ incubus!Hongjoong × fem!Reader wc: 9.6k (I'm tired. You didn't see that lol) summary: After obtaining the final key and incapacitating the Keeper of the Keys, Y/N finally enters the Restricted Section, hoping to find the famed treasure and access her freedom but instead funds something much darker and more sinister awaiting her. genres/themes/au: angst, smut; fantasy, horror, supernatural, biblical & demonic; non idol au, demon au warnings: adult dialogue, female reader, demonic themes, predator-prey dynamics, pierced & tattooed!Joong, Hongjoong is a demon (he has horns, demon eyes, and other attributes like hoofed feet, a tail, sharp teeth, forked tongue, etc.), sexual content (18+ mdni), see smut warnings under the cut!

permanent taglist: @yoonguurt @wonderfulshinee @candidupped @dejavernon @violagoth @tigermoonbiss @katsukis1wife @luvsooby @thesolarplanetarysystem @salty-for-suga @devilsmatches @dmnspiit @simeonswhore @yangracha @seonghwalover @atinypurr @aikyubi @labyrinthonmymind @bintificreads @toxic-babexe @prestineaugstine @sunwoosbaby @lilramennoodle @deadgirlwalking3

special tags: @thelargefrye @hwasangelbaby @yourfatherlucifer

ateez taglist: @2hodefender @cixrosie @pyeonghongrie-main @flowerboykun @sanjoongie @anyamaris @stardragongalaxy @kpop-stories-21 @wooyoungmybelovedhusband @mlysalt @cinnamoon-belle @briannabk22 @is4b3ll3s @hyukssunflower @vampiirose @0325tiny @ateezstanforever @justiny @jeongwangjessmina @lacie220900 @aaaaajonghooooo @dementedaly @rangerobbie @yunhosmelonbar

join my taglists! Strikethrough means I cannot tag you. MINORS WILL BE BLACKLISTED & BLOCKED.

a/n: the restricted section is supposed to be taboo subjects, which is why I went in this direction. Of course, if you aren't not comfortable with these subjects, do not read this piece. You can always read the beginning for the lore but there will come a point where there's no return so to speak. Thank you so much for joining me for this journey and for reading my works. As always, this is a work of fiction and all characters are not reflective of their respective irl counterparts. for entertainment purposes only. Header and banners made by me. Adult content & reblog banners made by me with a template made by @cafekitsune. I do not allow reposts, translations, or continuations of my works. All my writings are ©️ kwanisms.

TW: THERE ARE HEAVY DUBCON & NONCON THEMES IN THE BEGINNING. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. I will include a warning before the dubcon and noncon again. You have been warned and will be warned again.

smut warnings: unprotected sex (wrap it, especially if you're gonna fuck a demon lol), use of pet names (sweetheart, angel, princess, slut, etc), fingering (f receiving), oral (f receiving), rough sex, dacryphilia, big dick!Joong, demon cock!Joong, choking kink, breeding kink, forced orgasm, Joong has an oral fixation, impact play (mainly spanking), Joong has a tongue ring, mention of blood during sex. I think I got all of them but let me know if I missed any!

═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════

“Welcome to my home.”

You stared at the man before you, eyes glancing up at the horns protruding from his forehead. Your eyes continued to look him over, trailing down to his exposed stomach, noticing black ink decorating his skin. You hadn’t noticed he was watching you watch him with an amused grin

“Hasn’t anyone told you that it’s impolite to stare?”

Your breath caught in your throat as he crossed the distance between you in seconds, leaning into look even closer as you stumbled backwards. He let out a dark chuckle.

“Someone’s shy,” he whispered. “You weren’t this shy before,” he added.

You narrowed your eyes. “B-before?” you stammered. Hongjoong sighed, closing his eyes as he rolled his shoulders before opening his eyes again to look at you.

“Never mind that,” he murmured. “As I’ve explained, this is my library and it’s my home. You, mere mortal, have wandered into my home,” he started to explain, slowly starting to circle you, keeping his eyes trained on you.

Almost as if he were a predator and you were his prey.

“Why are you here?” he asked suddenly. “I—” you hesitated. Hongjoong waited for you to speak, tilting his head to one side. “Are you here to find the treasure?” he asked softly. You shook your head, closing your mouth quickly.

Hongjoong’s head tilted the opposite way, like a puppy. “Are you perhaps looking for… satisfaction?”

Your heart skipped a beat, your stomach lurching. ‘How does he know that?’

Hongjoong’s curious expression morphed into another mischievous grin, like he had a secret or knew the answer to something you didn’t.

“This is my library,” he reminded you. “I know everything that goes on in here.”

“Like Seonghwa?” you asked, noticing the way Hongjoong’s smile fell.

“No,” he said, all amusement gone from his voice. “Seonghwa’s vision is limited. He may be able to see what happens in the sections, but he cannot see into this one. Only I can truly see and hear everything,” he explained, continuing to circle.

You fell silent, following Hongjoong with your eyes, only turning your head when he left your line of sight. He continued to slowly circle you before speaking up again.

“Have you found what you’ve been looking for, little lamb?” he asked. “Have you found satisfaction?” You shook your head silently, keeping your eyes on him. “You haven’t?” Hongjoong asked, stopping in his tracks. “After all those lovers? Are you truly that insatiable?” he asked, a smirk spreading over his face again.

You shook your head again. “That’s not the satisfaction I meant,” you answered, your voice meek and small. Hongjoong’s smirk grew. “It’s not?”

You nodded as he resumed circling. “I didn’t set out to find this place only to fuck multiple men,” you added. Hongjoong snorted. “Only two of them were men,” he answered. “The other five were monsters.”

You felt heat settling in the pit of your stomach as well as rising to your cheeks. “I hardly think monster is an appropriate term,” you retorted, drawing his attention. “Sure, they might not have been human,” you continued.

“But they weren’t awful.”

Hongjoong let out a laugh this time. “That’s not what I meant by monsters, sweetheart,” he explained. The alien and the elf are one thing,” he continued. “But the jorogumo? The vampire? The naga? Those are all bestial creatures. Sure they’re part men but they’re mostly driven by animal instinct. Even that alien is driven by pure instinct.”

You watched him as he continued. “And despite not looking for that satisfaction, you seemed to leave each section satisfied.” You narrowed your eyes before scoffing. “Because I managed to obtain the keys,” you explained. “The sexual aspect was unintended.”

Hongjoong let out another deep chuckle.

“If that’s the case,” he started, stopping to turn and face you. “Then why did you keep accepting their advances?”

Your words failed you as you were faced with the truth of his inquiries. Why did you keep accepting the advances of each guardian? You could have easily killed for the keys. All encounters seemed to have one common denominator.

You easily, and in some cases willingly, gave into the carnal pleasure. Why?

You tried to wrack your brain for any reason but found none. ‘Why did I agree to have sex with all of them?’

Wooyoung, Mingi, and Seonghwa had all mentioned their venom being an aphrodisiac so that could easily explain your behavior but what about Yunho? Or Jongho? Or Yeosang? Or San? What was the excuse? What was the explanation?

Looking up, you decided on one thing. It didn’t matter.

You did what you had to, reminding yourself you needed each key to get to this point. To access the restricted section so you could escape the Library of Illusion.

“Does it matter?” you finally asked, trying to keep your voice steady. Hongjoong tilted his head, a playful expression on his face. “Does it matter? No,” he said softly. “I suppose it doesn’t.”

You nodded once. “Exactly. I did what I had to, I gathered the keys, all to escape this place. I want to leave and return home.”

Hongjoong’s eyebrow raised. “Without the treasure?” he asked. You exhaled a deep sigh. “I’ve never wanted the treasure,” you admitted. “I came here to find knowledge, see what my parents were so keen to find. And I’ve found nothing of importance.”

Hongjoong’s smile fell, replaced with a scowl. “Nothing of importance?” he snapped. “Is that what you think?” You took a step backwards as he glared at you with an intensity you hadn’t been prepared for.

“You think your experiences aren’t important?”

You shook your head. “Had I not come here, I wouldn’t have had to do those things to escape. I expected to find something of note. Some kind of knowledge or something of great historical importance. Like the Library of Alexandria,” you explained. “But instead, I found a magical library full of horny creatures and men!”

Hongjoong bared his teeth before relaxing and standing up straighter. “Fine,” he finally spat. “If all you desire is to escape,” he continued. “You may do so.”

You stared blankly at him. “Just like that?” you asked.

Hongjoong scoffed. “Of course not,” he answered.

“You still have to find your way out of here,” he explained. “I’m going to give you a head start,” he explained. “A head start? What for?” you asked softly. Hongjoong smiled at you, the points of his fangs barely visible.

“I’m going to count down from fifteen,” he explained. “You have fifteen seconds to find your way out.” You felt a shiver run up your spine. “And what happens when fifteen seconds are up?” you asked in a quiet voice.

The smile on Hongjoong’s face widened. “Then I start hunting.”

Your stomach dropped, heart skipping a beat. “W-what?”

Hongjoong tilted his head, an eyebrow raising as he stared at you.

“You think I’m going to make it easy for you?” he asked, an amused tone in his voice. “You have fifteen seconds to get as far as you can before I start hunting you down.”

You swallowed the lump in your throat before speaking, your voice cracking.

“And if you c-catch me?”

Hongjoong’s eyes glazed over. “Satisfaction,” he bit back, smiling and displaying his fangs.

You stared back, frozen to the spot as terror coursed through your veins.

Hongjoong licked his lips before opening his mouth.

“Fifteen, fourteen, thirteen,” he said softly, staring at you, eyes full of excitement.

“Twelve, eleven, ten,” he continued, tilting his head, smirking at you with a devilish look. “You should probably run,” he whispered.

Heart pounding, you spun on the spot, glancing around quickly before taking off as Hongjoong continued to count down. You shined your light around, looking through the aisles, stepping over ruined books and crumpled paper.

‘Where is it? Where is the exit?’

Your eyes landed on a distant neon sign that looked to be an exit sign. You started to sneak your way towards it, ducking behind shelves and turning off the light, taking slow deep breaths to try and steady your breathing and your racing heart.

“Five, four, three, two…” Hongjoong paused for effect, the thud of his heavy boots echoing around the room as he walked towards the edge of the circle.

You held your breath, blinking away the tears that threatened to spill. The room fell silent and you peered through a gap in the books beside you, allowing you to see into the center of the room where Hongjoong stood.

Your eyes widened as he seemingly scanned the room, stopping briefly over the shelf you were hiding behind. When he continued to look around the room, your shoulders relaxed before his head snapped back to the shelf you were hidden behind. “One.”

In a split second, the demon had crossed the room, grabbing the shelf with a clawed hand and ripped it from the floor, carelessly tossing it aside.

You screamed as the shelf crashed into another, wood splintering before scrambling up and dashing off in the opposite direction. You ducked around bookcases as Hongjoong laughed in the background. The echoing thud, thud, thud of his boots started to follow you in a casual manner.

“Keep running, little lamb,” he called out as he walked. “I’ll always find you.”

You managed to sneak your way to the opposite side of the room and squeeze yourself into a small alcove, focusing on slowing your breathing, making sure to breathe through your nose and keep quiet as Hongjoong stopped walking.

You could hear him start to chuckle, turning into laughing as he started walking again, each foot step heavy against the ground. “It’s so funny when you try to steady your breathing,” he said as he continued walking, drawing closer and closer. “But you could hold your breath and I’d still find you.”

Your heart hammered in your chest, hitting your sternum with a tha-thump, tha-thump, tha-thump. Hongjoong clicked his tongue, allowing you to deduce he wasn’t far away. “That right there,” he continued. “That’s what gives you away. Your heart is so loud. I could hear it in the other room while the vampire had his fun with you.”

You peeked around the corner, making sure the coast was clear before silently sneaking away as quickly and quietly as you could. You needed to get your bearings and find that exit sign again. You peeked over a low shelf and saw it off to your left. If you could just sneak around the corner, you could hopefully make a dash for the exit.

Upon scooting closer towards the exit, you found yourself at a dead end where two bookcases blocked your path. ‘What the fuck?’ You turned around and crept back to the center of the room, keeping your eyes open and avoiding the circle of light as you crept around the edge of the circle.

“You’ve discovered my little maze, haven’t you?”

You froze, ducking behind one of the shelves as Hongjoong stepped into the light. His appearance had altered slightly. He still had the same horns but his eyes were different. Black scleras with golden irises. He also sported a tail that had seemingly torn through the back of his pants.

“Oh, that was rude of me,” Hongjoong continued. “It’s not fair if I read your mind.”

You cursed silently as you listened. ‘Shit, I completely forgot!’

“Tell you what,” Hongjoong said, coming to a stop in the center of the room. I’ll give you another chance,” he said, holding his arms out in a grand gesture.

“And because I’m so generous, I’ll give you another head start but since I already gave you a large one, I’ll give you a smaller one this time. And I promise not to read your mind or use my super hearing. I’ll give you ten seconds this time,” he added with a mischievous smile.

You glanced back to find the wall behind you was solid. You decided to follow it, keeping low and out of sight as you crept behind the short bookcases until you slipped into an opening as Hongjoong began to count down from ten.

“Nine… eight… seven…six…”

You pulled a bandana from your bag and wrapped it over the front of your flashlight before clicking it on, the cloth cover dimming the beam and casting a dull red glow in front of you. He was right. This place was a maze.

You followed the path until you reached a large open area. You had two options; you could go left or right. You chose right, following the shelves until you reached a dead end.

Cursing silently, you backtracked, taking a left and following the shelves to another fork. This time you took the left path and followed the narrow aisle until you reached another crossroad. You chose to continue to the left and let out a soft swear when you reached a dead end.

Now you had to backtrack again.

You moved quickly, keeping your eyes and ears open for any sign of the demon. Once you reached the second fork you’d come across, you went the opposite direction, taking the right path instead of the left you chose earlier.

This path took you to another fork. You shined your light at the right but upon hearing a book fall from that direction, you took the left path which led you to…

“Another dead end?” you whispered, shining your light around. You backtracked, freezing when you heard the familiar thud, thud, thud.

He’s coming.

You decided to take refuge behind a bookcase, hoping Hongjoong would take the path to the left like you chose so you could sneak past him.

A shrill whistling met your ears as he whistled a tune, walking slowly until his footsteps stopped just on the other side of the bookcase. You ducked down, hoping he couldn’t see through the wood or books.

You heard him sigh before he started whispering.

“Eeney, meeney, miney, mo…” he trailed off. You held your breath, blinking tears away before you heard his footsteps head for the left. ‘Yes!’

Once you were certain the coast was clear, you peered around the bookcase before silently sneaking out from your hiding spot. You cast a glance back as you backtracked to the first fork. You’d tried two routes already and hoped the third would be the correct one.

You made it back to the first fork and took the left path, following it around, turning left and right as you followed the narrow aisle. From behind you and several aisles over, you could hear the heavy thudding of Hongjoong’s boots. “How clever, little lamb,” he chuckled as his voice echoed around you.

“Making me think you went one way. Such a clever little girl.”

You choked back a sob as you hurried forward. The bookcases opened up and you could see Hongjoong standing in the center of the room. You made eye contact, stomach churning as he smirked at you.

Before your eyes his coat ripped, wings sprouting from his back and making you scream. You turned away and made your way towards the green neon sign that you could now see read ‘exit.’

“You can’t escape me,” Hongjoong called, the wings shaking off the remnants of his jacket before he took to the air as you reached a straight shot towards the exit door. You glanced back once more and let out another shriek as the demon started towards you, flying over the bookcases, filing cabinets, and tables.

You ran as hard as you could, finally pushing the door open and slamming it behind you.

Blinking at the sudden light you looked around before something hit the door. You screamed, looking for something to barricade the door and decided to push the cabinet beside you against it.

You managed to block the door and backed away as the demon growled, roared and pounded against the door. “Come out, come out, little lamb,” a deep gravelly voice said. “Leave me alone!” you screamed, tears freely flowing now.

“Aww, you want to be alone, little lamb?”

The deep, demonic layer to his voice was gone now. A beat of silence was followed by his maniacal laughter. “You’ll never be alone again,” he said, the threat in his voice apparent as he scratched against the door, his nails grinding against the metal.

Turning away from the drawer, you scanned the room. It was a small room with a few bookcases, a rolltop desk, and a hutch cabinet. The glass on the cabinet was either broken or coated in a thick layer of dust. Everything was coated in dust.

You looked around, eyes settling on the desk where a stack of papers was strewn across the surface. You slowly walked over, inspecting the contents now that the banging had stopped though you knew you couldn’t linger for too long.

Your eyes landed on a specific sheet of paper. It was old with loopy handwriting. You carefully picked it up and read, eyes scanning the sheet.

‘Twenty-third of June, in the year sixteen-hundred and twelve,’ the first line read.

‘We’ve gathered at the town centre, many of us coming from villages from far away. The town has called upon us to act. Residents have complained of being plagued by a demon. Yunho was the first to arrive—’

“Yunho?” you whispered, pausing your reading as the face of the alien from the science fiction section flashed in your memory. ‘What does he have to do with this?’ you wondered before continuing to read.

‘Next to arrive was Jongho, a young priest from an ancient sect. The youngest in his order.’

Jongho’s face, a shy smile on his lips, filled your mind’s eye. ‘What is going on?’

Continuing to read the manuscript, you learned that all of the Guardians were based on these priests and the one who had written the manuscript was Yeosang.

“This doesn’t make sense,” you whispered, turning the page over to look at the back where a symbol had been drawn. It was something you’d seen before. The insignia on Seonghwa’s key and it happened to be an amalgamation of all of the guardians’ insignias.

“So these priests were drawn to the town to capture the demon?” you whispered to yourself as you looked over the other sheets, seeing hastily written scripture, crude drawings of what appeared to be various rituals and symbols.

‘Were they trying to banish him?’

A chill ran up your spine and you decided you’d seen enough. “I don’t have time for this,” you said, tossing the paper onto the desk before turning to look at the open doorway you’d seen when you first looked around the room.

It was dark and made you hesitate to enter but you knew that was probably your only way out. Your feet refused to move though. You glanced back at the desk, looking down at the papers before letting out a frustrated groan and pushed the papers aside.

You found sketches of the priests, eyes widening as you looked each one over. There they were. The faces of all six guardians staring back at you. “What the fuck?” you hissed. The details were uncanny. It wasn’t like they resembled them. The guardians were exact carbon copies of the priests.

“If the guardians are modeled after these priests,” you whispered, setting the pages down. “Then who is Seonghwa? How does he fit into this?”

You started rifling through the pages, setting aside the ones you’d already looked at. You knew you didn’t have time for this but you’d never have this question answered if you didn’t look now. ‘I don’t have much time,’ you reminded yourself.

‘But I have to know!’

Your search concluded as you read an old newspaper article from the late 1870’s. Your eyes scanned the page, reading a story about a woman and her fiance who went missing in the jungle you currently stood in. Your eyes widened as you looked at the pictures of the couple.

The woman was beautiful, she had long dark hair, styled into an elegant updo. She wore a dress with a high neck, reminiscent of the fashion of the Victorian era. The man was the spitting image of Seonghwa. ‘Is this…’

Your thoughts were cut short by a distant metallic clang coming from beyond the door frame. You dropped the newspaper and turned to look at the doorway, the blackness both inviting and intimidating.

‘That’s enough research,’ you told yourself. ‘Time to go!’

You made a dash for the doorway, peering into the room on the other side to find it was actually a stairwell. Rushing past the doorway, you leaned over the railing, looking down to see the steps continued for a long while, eventually descending down into darkness.

Raising your head, you looked up, squinting slightly as you were met with bright light coming from what seemed to be a square cut out in the ceiling. You raised a hand to shield your eyes as you looked. ‘Is that… daylight?’ you wondered, feeling a slight swell in your heart. ‘Is that the way out?’

“Finally,” you whispered, starting for the steps leading up. “This nightmare can end!”

As you reached the steps, you froze in the spot, one foot on the landing, the other raised to step onto the bottom stair.

Something felt wrong. You looked up, peering between the cases where you saw a face peering back from several floors up. Your eyes widened in horror as you made eye contact with Hongjoong. The eyes were the same black sclera with yellow irises, his horns were still the same black but his skin. His skin had changed.

It was now a sickly gray and flaking, giving him a grotesque and monstrous appearance. He grinned at you, showing all of his sharp teeth. “Hello,” he said cheerfully. You gasped and turned tail, heading down the stairs instead of up. Footsteps pounded against the stairs, following you down as you used the railing to turn the sharp corners.

‘Come on, come on!’

The darkness never came as you ran down several flights of stairs before finally bursting through another door, glancing back to make sure you were followed.

You ran into a solid body and screaming, hitting the figure only for them to grab your arms and yell at you to calm down. “Stop! Stop!”

You glanced up, eyes widening as you looked into the face of…

“Seonghwa?”

The vampire held you firmly as he inspected your face. “W-what? How did I get here?” you asked, looking around. You weren’t back in the lobby but you were in a dark hallway. The walls and floor were made of stone. The same sandstone as the temple. “Wh-where are we?” you gasped, turning to look behind you where there was nothing but an empty wall.

“I heard you screaming,” Seonghwa started to explain. “So I came back here and I found you running away from that wall,” he added, nodding towards the empty wall. “Are you alright?” he asked, looking back at you.

You turned back to meet his gaze. The same golden eyes you’d seen before looked back at you. “Y-yeah,” you gulped down air as you nodded. “You’re almost free,” Seonghwa said, giving you a kind smile. “This is the last stretch.”

You let out a tiny sob as he pulled you into a warm hug. “You’re doing so well,” he whispered. “Come on,” he added, pulling back and pulling you forward, taking a step behind you. “You’re so close now,” he added.

“Don’t give up.”

You felt him give you a small push towards the direction you were facing. At the end of the hall was a door. It was unlike any of the doors you’d entered before. It was white painted wood. You approached it slowly, turning to look back at Seonghwa who nodded, gently moving you forward.

“I can’t open it for you,” he added. “You have to do it yourself.”

You strolled forward, stopping just short of the door before taking a deep breath, reaching for the knob and twisting it.

The door swung open to reveal your living room. You let out a shocked sob, looking around the room. You turned to look back at Seonghwa who nodded, giving you a smile and gesturing for you to enter. “Go on,” he urged.

You stepped past the threshold, looking around the room. Everything was as you left it. You ran your hand over the dark stained wood of your staircase bannister, a smile spreading over your face. “I can’t believe I’m home,” you whispered.

“This is goodbye,” Seonghwa said from behind you. You turned to look back at him. He had a somber expression on his face. “Come with me,” you said suddenly. “You could escape him, too,” you added.

Seonghwa gave you a sad smile. “No one ever escapes him.”

His words seemingly froze you in place. Your breathing increased, heart racing as you stared at the vampire. “Wh-what did you say?” you breathed.

Seonghwa had looked down at the ground. “No one escapes him,” he repeated before looking up. His eyes had changed. You let out a gasp as the facade of Seonghwa melted away to reveal Hongjoong.

“I told you I’d find you, little lamb,” he said with a dark chuckle. “N-no,” you whimpered, backing away from him. “You can’t. I’ve made it out!” you screamed. Hongjoong glanced around the room from outside the door.

“Are you sure about that?”

Glancing around the facade broke. You weren’t in your home. You were in a large room. There wasn’t much except a table with some chairs, an old four poster bed with dusty sheets, an old wooden chest and a wash basin.

You looked back at Hongjoong who gave you a menacing stare before stepping into the room. You backed into the table as he entered. Your lips parted, eyes widening as you took in his true form.

His pants had faded away into black fur, his legs were no longer that of a human but were bent the way a goat’s legs bent, fur covering from his waist down to his feet. The heavy black boots were gone, replaced with black hooves caked in either mud or something else you didn’t want to imagine.

Your path out of the room was blocked, Hongjoong now standing before you at an impressive seven feet tall, his tail flicking behind him with excitement. The tattoos adorning his torso and arms faded into a smoky black at his waist and near his wrists. His fingers were capped with sharp claws, also an inky black.

“Please,” you whimpered, edging away from him along the table. “Please let me go.” The tears flowed freely as you begged him. Begged for him to let you go. For him to spare you.

“Let you go?” he asked, tilting his head. “But we’ve had so much fun,” he explained, advancing slowly on you as you backed against the wall.

“F-fun? Chasing me all over, stalking me? That’s fun?” you whispered. Hongjoong let out a deep, frustrated sigh. “Maybe that was more fun for me but what about everything else?” he asked, leaning in and caging you against the wall.

“What are you talking about?” you snapped, trying to cower away but the wall kept you from escaping. You flinched as Hongjoong brought one of his hands up, taking your chin gently in his hand. “The hut in the jungle?” he asked, tilting his head. “Or what about the cave? All that web? That wasn’t fun?”

You gasped, about to ask how he knew about all of that but he kept going.

“And what about at dinner? When I cut your dress open? That wasn’t fun?”

You shook violently, trying to push him off. “S-stop,” you whimpered.

“And what about the section after that? The crime section? That wasn’t fun? I lost control for a bit there,” he said, chuckling as he remembered and it suddenly clicked for you. When Jongho had you bent over the counter. His voice had changed and he’d known about the other encounters.

Had it been Hongjoong the whole time?

Hongjoong chuckled again as recognition passed over your face.

“And what about in the treehouse? You have to admit that was fun,” he continued. When you said nothing, he tilted his head in the opposite direction. “And what about in the temple? I’ve always wanted to try having two coc—”

In response, you brought your hand back, slapping him across the face. “SHUT UP!” you screamed. “Stop talking! Just shut up!”

Hongjoong blinked slowly before turning his head to look at you again. “Wrong move, sweetheart.”

You felt his fingers close around your throat. You grabbed at his wrist as he lifted you against the wall, pinning you. You gasped for air, feet dangling inches from the ground. “Please!” you gasped. “Put me down!”

Hongjoong let out a growl before throwing your body onto the bed. You sputtered and gasped, coughing as the dust rose around you. A stretching rubber sound caused you to look up to see Hongjoong’s appearance had shifted again. The black goat legs were gone, his black pants back as he knelt on the bed.

You backed away until you were cornered against the wall and the headboard.

[FINAL WARNING. NONCON & DUBCON THEMES UNTIL THE NEXT CUT]

“Don’t touch me,” you hissed. Hongjoong let out another frustrated huff of air before grabbing your ankle and pulling you towards him. “No!” you cried, trying to grab onto the sheets and trying to pull away.

You tried kicking him with your free foot but he caught that one and pinned your legs to the bed. “This will be a lot easier for both of us if you’d just cooperate.”

You thrashed wildly, trying to free yourself but his grip was too strong.

“You gave into me before,” he said, pulling a bed restraint from under the mattress and cuffing one of your ankles. “What’s so different now?” You screamed, trying to pull free but he grabbed your other ankle, cuffing it as well. You sat up, trying to pull the cuffs but he was too quick, climbing onto the bed and pushing you back, pinning your hands against the mattress.

“Six times,” he said breathlessly. “Six times you’ve given yourself to me.”

You blinked up at him, tears streaming down the sides of your temples. “Why is it so different now?” he asked again, sliding his hands up your wrists and lacing his fingers with yours as his head ducked between your head and shoulder, tongue dragging over your neck.

“Haven’t I proved myself a very capable lover?” he asked softly, trailing kisses up your jaw to your cheek slowly. “Haven’t I satisfied you more times than anyone?”

You choked back a sob. “Haven’t I pleased you? Made you cum every single time?” You let out another whimper. You shook your head. Hongjoong pulled back to look at your face. “No? That’s not what you said before,” he added, leaning in, his lips inches from yours.

He was so close you could feel his hot breath on your face. “Shall I recall each and every orgasm you’ve had so far because of me?”

You shook your head again, a small sob leaving your lips. “P-please,” you whimpered. “Please let me go…”

Hongjoong huffed, dropping his head briefly as he shook his head slowly. “I told you already,” he said softly. “No one escapes.”

“Why are you doing this?”

Hongjoong hesitated, the tip of his tongue sticking out, playing with the metal tongue ring you’d barely gotten a glimpse of earlier.

“Why am I doing this? Doing what?” he asked softly, leaning in to brush his lips against your cheek. “Why am I trying to seduce you?” You shook your head.

“Why does no one escape? Why won’t you let me go?”

Hongjoong sighed heavily. “You really haven’t figured it out yet, have you?”

You stared up at him as he sat back, keeping your hands pinned to the mattress.

“What am I?” he asked, tilting his head. You glanced over him quickly. “A demon,” you answered, albeit hesitantly. Hongjoong nodded, giving you a grin. “I am,” he answered. “But I’m no ordinary demon,” he added.

“W-what does that mean?” you asked, your voice barely above a whisper. “It means,” Hongjoong said leaning in. “I know you read those papers,” he whispered. “You know what I really am.”

You swallowed the lump in your throat. You had read those papers, he was right about that. You learned about the binding ritual, the priests that had come from all over to seal the demon, the man hovering over you now, to this location. You learned about Seonghwa’s involvement and how he came to be here.

You’d also read Yeosang's notes about what Hongjoong was and the kind of havoc and terror he wreaked over the town.

‘In his most vile form, the demon is half man, half goat, blackened skin on his hands, almost as if he’d been burned, the skin charred from the flames of Hell. Black patterns like vines creeping over his arms, torso, and back. His black fur covered legs bent like that of a goats. His eyes black as night with golden rings in the centre. Black horns extending from his forehead and curving back over his caramel hair. Truly a hideous beast to behold. But to the women of the town, he appears much different. A man, not a beast. There’s only one word for his kind.

Incubus.’

You nodded slowly, looking up into his eyes. The black sclera had changed back to white but the same golden glowing irises looked back at you. “What am I, sweetheart?” he asked softly. You tried to speak but your voice failed you, tears burning at the corners of your eyes. “Speak,” Hongjoong said softly.

“I-in-incubus…” you whispered, your voice no louder than a breath.

“Do you know what an incubus is, sweetheart?” His inquiry made your breath catch in your throat. Had you not known before reading those papers in that room, you would have learned what an incubus was.

Thanks to your upbringing and your parents’ instilling a love and thirst for knowledge in you, many nights had been spent reading as many books, texts, and documents as you could. The vast library at your childhood house was home to many books in a vast array of differing topics.

You were around 18 when you first learned what an incubus was. The texts in the Library here had explained in further detail the deeds Hongjoong had performed before the priests arrived to seal him away.

‘Many women have fallen to the advances and lies of the demon. He’s managed to seduce and ensnare many of the town’s women, both married and unmarried. He’s defiled much of the town’s female youth, seducing and bedding them. He would have their very souls if left to continue. He must be stopped.’

You nodded silently. “Yes,” you whispered. The smirk on Hongjoong’s face grew.

“And you know what I’ve done?”

Again, you nodded, blinking away the tears. “And you know what I’m capable of?”

“Y-yes,” you stammered. “I could easily force you,” he continued. “Force myself on you.” Your heart hammered in your chest, stomach lurching and heat rushing to your core. Hongjoong seemed to notice the shift in your body.

“Does the thought of me taking you by force arouse you, little lamb?” he asked, grinning mischievously, the points of his fangs exposed. You tried shaking your head but you could ignore the feeling between your legs when Hongjoong pressed his erection into you. “I think you’re lying,” he muttered, an amused tone in his voice.

He rolled his hips against you again, this time earning a soft moan which you tried to hide by biting into your bottom lip. “It’s okay to enjoy it,” Hongjoong murmured, watching as your face contorted in pleasure each time he grinded against you. He could smell the arousal pooling in your panties and the heat radiating from your skin.

“It’s okay to give in,” he added, leaning in to nip at the skin just under your ear, chuckling when you whined in response. “Sex is nothing to be ashamed of,” he continued, nipping at the skin up and down the side of your neck.

“Sex is natural,” he added. “Humans are sexual creatures, Y/N.”

You felt a shiver run up your spine. “You are a sexual creature,” you heard him whisper in your ear. “I’ve seen firsthand what your body can take, sweetheart,” Hongjoong continued, one of his hands moving down to your hip, fingers digging into your skin.

“I’ve explored almost every inch of your body,” the demon whispered, tongue sticking out to lick a long strip up the side of your neck. “Every time I get to have fun, it’s always through one of those infernal incarnations,” he growled, tips of his pointed canines brushing against your pulse point.

“And now I get to have fun as myself only for you to deny me.”

You moaned, feeling him grind against you.

“I can smell it, you know,” he continued, raising his head to look at you. “You reek of sexual desire. I know you want me,” he added. “I know you want this.”

He punctuated his words with another roll of his hips. “You’ve been such a responsive and receptive slut,” he continued when you still couldn’t speak. “You’ve welcomed all my advances. I can change into any one of them again,” he added, the corners of his lips curling into a devilish grin.

“You want that alien again? I can add more tentacles,” he whispered, fingers teasing the top button of your shirt. “Stuff all of your holes at once,” he continued.

You moaned at the idea of seeing Yunho’s face again, the way he growled and pushed you against the floor as he took you from behind.

Hongjoong kept his eyes on your face as he undid the first two buttons on your top. “Or maybe you’d like the naga again. Maybe you’d let me fill that pretty pussy with both cocks this time,” he added, pressing his hard cock against you.

Your shorts were starting to stick to your slick folds, the pressure of his heavy cock against your clit was driving you mad. ‘Say yes,’ your brain kept telling you. ‘Give in.’

You weren’t sure if it was your own brain or if Hongjoong was somehow influencing your thoughts. Could he even do that? You didn’t know the extent of his powers but you knew he could accomplish some incredible visions. Illusions.

‘The Library of Illusion. They’re his illusions.’

You heard Hongjoong chuckle, seemingly having overheard your internal monologue.

“You’re just now piecing that together, baby?” he asked, shaking his head slightly.

“Maybe I should just be myself,” he murmured. “Stop playing with your head.”

You choked out another moan as he pressed his erection into your now soaked shorts. “You’re so fucking wet,” he added. “I bet I’d slip right in.”

You felt another two buttons of your shirt release. “You aren’t exactly stopping me,” he added, moving his hand to the button on your shorts. You glanced down through a heavy lidded gaze. “Joong,” you breathed.

He looked up from your shorts, meeting your gaze. “Joong?” he asked, raising a brow at you. “That’s different,” he continued. “Please,” you whimpered, hips seeking friction against his cock. “Oh little lamb,” Hongjoong said, moving a hand to cup your cheek.

“You’re gonna have to beg better than that.”

You swallowed the lump in your throat. “Please, Hongjoong,” you choked out. “It’s so hot.” The demon tilted his head to the right. “Hot? You want me to help? Want me to cool you off?” You nodded frantically. Hongjoong’s lips parted in a grin, his pointed fangs making your walls clench around nothing.

“Tell me what you want, sweetheart,” he added, leaning over you, fingers hesitating at the button of your shorts. “I want…” your voice trailed off as you looked up at him, his glowing golden irises studying your face.

“You have to say it,” he urged, eyes narrowing. “So say it.”

“I want you,” you finally breathed out. “Want everything.”

Hongjoong let out a huff before easily undoing the button of your shorts before finally undoing the last couple buttons on your top. “You want everything? You want my tongue? My mouth? My fingers?”

His eyes darkened before adding “my cock?”

[CONSENT CONTINUES FROM HERE]

You nodded quickly. “Yes, Joong, I want it all,” you whimpered.

Hongjoong let out a deep rumbling growl and slowly tore your shirt off you with a slow and nasty rip sound as he pulled the fabric apart and tossed it aside. You moved your hands to rid yourself of your shorts but he stopped you, pushing your hands above your head. “Keep them there,” he instructed before climbing off the bed.

You could feel how embarrassingly wet you were through your shorts as he stood at the foot of the bed. “You want me to release you?” he asked, one hand wrapping around the post of the footboard. You nodded as you looked at him standing near your feet.

“And you promise you won’t run?”

You nodded again. “I promise,” you breathed out. “Just want you.”

Hongjoong barely touched you but your ankles were suddenly free and he was back between your thighs, kneeling in the same position. His hands grabbed the back of your thighs, pushing them against your stomach. “I can’t wait to fuck you like this,” he growled, squeezing your thighs.

“Pump you full of cum and watch it leak out of you,” he added.

You moaned, cunt convulsing around nothing at his words. “You want that?” Hongjoong asked,, a hint of amusement to his voice. You managed to whisper out a yes as his hands moved up your sides, fingers skimming your skin.

One of his hands moved up to your neck, lightly squeezing it before you felt his thumb brush over your bottom lip. “Open,” he ordered. You obeyed, parting your lips. Hongjoong pushed his thumb past your open lips, almost groaning when your lips wrapped around him, tongue tasting the pad of his thumb.

“That’s it,” he murmured, watching you. “Open again, pretty girl,” he added. When you did, he pulled his thumb out, replacing it with two fingers, pressing them against your tongue. You felt him grind against you again, pressing your wet shorts against your clit. “Maybe I should remove these,” he mumbled, keeping his eyes on your lips wrapped around his fingers.

Without a word, he removed his fingers from your mouth, leaning over to take your lips in a searing kiss. Your thighs instinctively clenched around his waist, legs wrapping around him. Hongjoong parted your lips, his tongue slipping into your mouth. You tasted steel and moaned against his lips.

He pulled back much too soon for your liking but your complaints failed as he started leaving wet kisses down the side of your neck, trailing to your chest. “I’ll stop teasing you,” he murmured, giving you another thrust before taking one of your nipples in his mouth, his tongue swirling around it.

You moaned unrestrained as his other hand moved to knead and massage your other breast. “Joong, please. I need you,” you moaned, back arching. Hongjoong chuckled, the sound muffled against your skin. “Not very patient,” he murmured, letting your nipple fall from his mouth.

“Very well,” he added, scooting back to leave wet, open mouth kisses down your stomach, stopping to nip and bite your skin.

You looked down, meeting his heated gaze as he smirked at you before ducking his head and taking the zipper of your shorts in his teeth, pulling it down and making you gasp, dropping back against the bed.

A thin sheen of sweat had started to cover your body despite losing more and more clothes. You weren’t sure when it had happened but Hongjoong had managed to lose his clothes in the process. The leather pants had been replaced with the black fur you’d seen before.

Your thoughts were interrupted as Hongjoong kissed back up to your navel.

“Oh god,” you moaned, back arching as Hongjoong bit into the skin of your exposed hip, slowly tugging your shorts down. He raised his head slightly, looking up at you through his lashes. “Now that’s just mean,” he murmured.

“Saying his name when I’m right here,” he continued, grinning when your eyes met his. “S-sorry,” you breathed. Hongjoong shook his head, finally pulling your shorts down your thighs and tossing them aside. “I know,” he replied. “It’s just an expression.” His hands slid under your behind as he lowered his mouth.

“But I promise I’ll have you saying my name real soon,” he added with a wink.

He didn’t give you a chance to respond before you felt his tongue against your sex, lapping up your essence. “Shit!” you hissed, one hand moving down to comb through his locks.

“That’s not my name either,” he mused before moving his hands, spreading your folds. You tried to bite back but the sudden sensation of his tongue against your clit, the cool metal brushing against the bundle had your mind going blank.

Your thighs threatened to close around his head but he pushed them apart. “Hold them open for me,” he ordered. You moved your hands, grabbing the backs of your thighs and holding them open, leaving his hands free to pull your folds apart again. He gave your clit a couple light licks before spitting on your aching hole.

“What’re you— oh!”

Your words faltered as you felt the metallic tip of Hongjoong’s piercing against your entrance. You moaned as you felt the muscle enter you, squirming against your walls. It wasn’t human. Human tongues weren’t this long. You were briefly reminded of Yunho’s tongue but Hongjoong’s growl and the way he pulled his tongue out of you brought you back from those thoughts.

“Don’t do that,” he growled, making you look up as he hovered over you.

“D-do what?” you whimpered. “Think of other men. I’m right here,” he answered. “Think of only me. Those men aren’t even real. They’re illusions.”

Your mouth acted quicker than your thoughts. “They were real at one point.”

Hongjoong’s eyes narrowed and he was quick to wrap his hand around your throat, holding you against the bed as two of his fingers on the other hand plunged into your wet hole, making you squeal at the sudden intrusion.

“Whose fingers are in your cunt, sweetheart?”

“Y-yours,” you answered. You felt his fingers around your throat squeeze.

“I can’t hear you,” he growled. “Yours are!” you almost shouted.

You let out a moan as he slowly started to pump his fingers in and out of your hole, ignoring the wet sounds as he stopped to curl them against the soft spongy spot inside you. Your back arched, a low moan leaving your lips.

“If you keep thinking of other men when I’m right here, I won’t hesitate to punish you. You’re mine, little lamb. No one else's,” he growled. “Not even the vampires. You’ve always been mine. From the moment you step foot into the Library.”

Your words failed you as your mind went blank, whimpers and moans leaving your lips as Hongjoong’s fingers moved quickly, your arousal no doubt spilling from you and onto the bed. Your hands moved to grab his wrist as he kept a firm hold on your neck. “J-Joong, please, I’m gonna—”

Hongjoong removed his fingers quickly, making you cry out in protest.

Can’t have you come undone just yet, angel,” he said, a hint of amusement to his voice. “I’d rather have you come undone on my cock.”

You tried to follow his movements but his hold on your throat kept you immobilized as he took his cock in his hand. You wanted to see it but he refused to let you move. “You don’t need to see,” he muttered as he stroked himself slowly, coating his cock in your juices.

“It’ll be inside you soon enough.”

You felt him press the tip against your hole and you gasped as he pushed only the head of his cock past your folds. Your entrance stretched to accommodate the size and you knew you were in for a rough time. He was bigger than any of the others you’d taken.

You were dazed out of your thoughts with a light slap against your cheek as Hongjoong pulled the tip of his length out of you, instead resting it against your clit. “I told you not to think about other men when I’m right here,” he growled. “This is your last chance,” he warned.

“I’m sorry,” you muttered as he rutted against you, the weight of his cock pressing down on your clit as he coated the underside of his cock with your wetness.

“I mean it,” he said. “Keep thinking about other men and I won’t let you cum,” he warned. “I’ll fuck that pretty throat of yours and cum down it and not let you cum.”

You whimpered, moving your hips to grind against his cock.

“I’ll—hn— I’ll be good,” you stammered. “I p-promise!”

Hongjoong leaned over, pressing a slow, deliberate kiss against your lips as he guided the head of his cock to your waiting hole. “This doesn’t mean I’ll go easy on you,” he mumbled against your lips. “You’re in for a long night.”

Your brain emptied as he pushed his cock into you, stretching your walls as your body tried to accommodate his impressive size. He bottomed out quickly, the tip of his dick pressing against your cervix, a small bulge resting under your navel.

“S-so full,” you whimpered, eyes blurring with unshed tears. Hongjoong’s grip on your throat loosened. “You like that?” he chuckled. “You like being split open?”

You nodded, unable to speak as your tears flowed freely. Hongjoong had to resist the urge to slam into you if only to see you cry harder.

He never was good with self control though.

As he pulled back, leaving only the head of his cock inside, you braced yourself for the return but you still weren’t prepared when he snapped his hips forward, the head of his cock hitting your cervix.

“Oh fuck!” you gasped. Hongjoong placed his hand on your stomach, pushing against the bulge that was the head of his cock. You moaned out as he gave you another thrust, and then another, setting a slow but hard pace.

Each thrust had you gasping as you felt his cock hit your cervix and just under your navel each time. “It’s so d-deep,” you choked out in a sob, tears flowing more, staining the sides of your face.

Hongjoong let out a deep growl, his free hand grabbing your hips as he thrust faster, keeping his eyes on your face. The tears spurring him on, he made it his goal to have you screaming, his thrusts increasing by the second as he drove his cock into you repeatedly.

Your walls clenched around him as your thighs shook. “M’gonna cum!” you gasped, your grip on his wrist tightening. “S-stop, stop! I’m gonna cum!” Hongjoong let out a dark chuckle. “I’m in charge here, princess,” he murmured. “You cum when I say so.” You let out a shriek as he slammed into you.

“Hongj-joong!” you sobbed, walls convulsing around his cock as you came, the demon helping you ride out your high before he pulled completely. You had no time to come down from your high as he rolled you onto your stomach, lifting your hips and reentering you from behind.

Your face dropped into the sheets as he resumed the same relentless pace, driving his cock deeper into your pussy, though how he managed to go deeper you weren’t entirely sure.

“I’m not stopping until you’re screaming,” you heard him growl over the sound of his skin hitting yours.

“So you better start screaming if you don’t want this to last all night.”

You felt one of his hands hit your ass, your walls clenching around his girth.

Another smack caused your body to jump.

“J-Joong!” you whimpered, feeling your wetness slowly rolling down the inside of your thighs. Hongjoong glanced down, noticing it got much wetter. “Oh,” he murmured, slowing his hips. “You’re bleeding,” he added.

Your fingers dug into the sheets. “Don’t stop! Please don't stop,” you begged, pushing back against him. Hongjoong shook his head before taking a firm hold on your hips and slamming back into you. “Be careful what you wish for, angel.”

You cried out into the sheets, your voice muffled as your walls clenched around his cock again, cumming with a shriek but he didn’t stop this time. He fucked you through another orgasm. Your back arched as he placed a hand on your back between your shoulder blades and pushed your chest down.

“You seemed to like this position before,” he chuckled. “Stay down,” he added in a growl.

Your nails dug into the sheets as his thrusts sent you hurtling towards another orgasm, walls hugging his cock as you came again. “Scream,” he ordered. “Scream for me.”

He gave you a much harder thrust, the head of his cock pounding into your cervix and making you finally scream into the sheets.

Hongjoong leaned over, grabbing your shoulder and pulling you up, your back pressing against his chest as he moved to grab your throat. “Again,” he hissed, slamming into you and making you scream again, this time unrestrained.

“That’s it,” he groaned, hips never faltering as he fucked you through yet another orgasm. You’d cum more times than you cared to count. Your mind wasn’t in the state to be keeping track. “I’m close,” you heard the demon growl in your ear, his hips hitting your ass with a lewd wet smack as your essence coated your entire ass and inside your thighs.

You were sure you were a mess but couldn’t be bothered to care.

“Gonna cum and fill this ruined pussy. You want that, princess? I've already ruined your pretty pussy. You want me to fill it with my cum?” You moaned as he tightened his hold on your throat. “I’ll take that as a yes,” he chuckled breathlessly.

“Open your mouth, slut,” he grunted. You obeyed, parting your lips enough for his fingers to enter your mouth, pressing against your tongue. “Suck,” he growled. You wrapped your lips around him, sucking as his other hand moved down, fingers finding your clit and circling the sensitive nub in time with his thrusts.

“So close," he gasped. "I’m gonna fucking fill you. Breed you like a bitch in heat.”

Your walls tightened, fluttering around his cock as you came for the nth time, Hongjoong finally finishing. You moaned against his fingers, spit covering your lips and rolling down your chin as he exploded inside you, cock twitching with each spurt as he emptied himself in your walls, coating them with a heavy load.

You felt it start to seep out of you, rolling down your thighs and no doubt dripping onto the sheet but he wasn’t done. As he continued to pump more of his seed into you, he pulled his fingers out and pushed you over, thrusting into you and forcing his cum further into you.

“You’re going to take all of it,” he growled, fingers digging into your hips, his sharp nails leaving marks. “All of it,” he added, thrusting as he finally emptied the last bit. You moaned loudly against the sheets, feeling impossibly full as he kept his cock buried to the hilt inside you, the cum he’d emptied inside you filling every crevice.

You were sure some of it had managed to seep into your womb. You were incredibly full. “Just like that,” he murmured. “Stay still.”

Your walls clenched, pushing out a small amount of his cum. “If you keep pushing it out,” he growled, looking down at the semen that had trickled out and was rolling down the inside of your thighs.

“I’ll plug you up.”

You moaned, walls clenching involuntarily. Hongjoong clicked his tongue.

You felt him pull part of the way out only to push back in, the base of his cock now thicker. You screamed into the sheets as he forced a knot you knew wasn’t there before into you, plugging your cunt and now keeping everything inside you.

“I warned you,” he said simply, thumbs tracing circles into your skin.

“Full of my cum and my cock,” he murmured. “Now you really are mine,” he added. “No one else can have you.”

You whimpered as he thrust forward, a slight laugh escaping him.

“And now I have all of eternity to breed you over and over again.”

The demon let out a dark chuckle as he snapped the book shut and got up from his seat. He walked over to a shelf with brightly colored books. Seven of them, each with their own special insignia on the spines.

The green book with the stars and moon, the red book with the spider on its web, a gold book with a palace, the silver book with a magnifying glass, the purple book with a dragon, the tan book with the snake, the blue book with a bat, and lastly the book in his hands.

The orange book with a demon mask on the spine.

Hongjoong placed it next to the purple book and looked up at them all.

“Right where you belong,” he said softly, turning away and walking from the shelf.

“No one escapes.”

[qwertyprophecy]

Composing music for game design and narrative purposes in The Dark Queen of Mortholme

With my lamentably limited knowledge of music, composing the Mortholme OST took than the size of the game perhaps warranted. I'm happy though, since I managed to explore in the main narrative ideas I'd wanted and hopefully made the most of the format's weird limitations.

The gameplay of Mortholme is formed of you as the Queen repeatedly defeating the Hero, and them coming back to try and squeeze a few additional seconds out of every attempt. That means a few things for the main battle theme:

Interruptability required

In the early game, the music will likely only play for a couple seconds at a time. Initially I'd wanted a rather moody and atmospheric theme (y'know, back to the FromSoft roots), but quickly discovered that interrupting a slow paced track just made it sound confused. Interrupting something dramatic, on the other hand--especially a bombastic build-up--sounds funny, which is exactly what smacking some uppity heroic figure into their sudden death with a giant mace should be, for the first time.

2. Further into the track = further into the narrative

The cool thing about the format is that the better the Hero does at the fight, the longer the music has time to play. As the relationship between the Queen and the Hero develops through the deaths and the dialogue, the player will likely get to hear later parts of the song.

It's like a chance at adaptive music without having to learn how to do it! By assigning the characters their own instruments and leitmotifs, the track can develop from "the Queen's domination" to "the Hero persisting amidst it" and finally into "the Queen must acknowledge the Hero" as the Queen's brass section begins to respond to the Hero's leitmotif (while ending on a darker chord).

3. Short is sweet

With the start-and-stop, there really aren't that many seconds the full track can run. I'm not even sure if most player will realistically hear the third passage, if the game ends up being balanced to go faster. But that freed up all my leftover enthusiasm for composing to be used on variants beyond the battle theme.

There's the ominous slow variant for dialogue; a hollow, barely even melodic version for when the Hero is not in the room (the music follows the "player", after all, and a video game boss has no life beyond their visits); a Hero leitmotif heavy dialogue variant; and as the last one being currently finalised, a high tempo battle variant for phase two with synths and rock drums and basically anything I can throw in to make it sound so FINAL BOSS TIME!!! that it makes me laugh. I don't know anything about whatever this genre is either but that's fine, I put an amp on an organ and it sounds outrageous.

[omorimodreverie]

Reverie Dev Log - November and December

Side Note: This one is quite long, if you only want an important part, there is a TL;DR summary at the bottom.

New Year Note

Happy New Year! We have now reached 2024! Reverie has begun as a little project since April 2021, before it even has its name. The more modern variant began after the demo release in August 2021, with CH1 releasing in May 2022, so it’s been a long way.

Though to admit, considering CH2.5 update came in December 2022, this means CH3 has a gap of a year now (though there are some updates and patches on 2.5 for a few months. This makes it seem like progress has been in stagnation, especially with delayed dev log recently.

This one will be shorter in technical and progress details, and more about the general gist of development plans in general, the surrounding environmental change in modding and OMORI as a whole (as that bears a great effect currently), and finally explains the slow down a bit (though a TL;DR: basically the past few months is holidays).

Also, Development post will now rather be every 2 months as well.

(And also the time is better spent on actually development than just writing, lol)

Overview

November and December for its period of time wasn’t as much done compared to previous months, though it wasn’t as bad as the worst case scenario when factoring in multiple holidays coming in that could have easily killed the motivation entirely. So all things considered, it’s relatively steady going despite the circumstances

For a quick rundown:

More NPCs implemented in maps

Writing is a bit more organized and more steady in terms of work now (And also an additional writer member!)

Portraits started to be done for most main characters

Connected up some progression from separate disjointed cutscenes

Some new plans that reduces workload*

Some enemy sprites are done as well on the side**

A few changes and re-polish on some music tracks

*for example, sunset are done on same map with filter than whole new set of maps

**Which are low priority, more of optional content in CH3 context

Updates, Changes and Needs

There are multiple factors that affect development, here it will be listed from short term factor to long term factor and potential future.

Holiday and Breaks

Let’s start with easy stuff, the short term factor. The past few months contain multiple holidays and also school breaks for some people. There isn’t much to say here, people on holidays get busy therefore less people are doing mod work, especially Christmas and New Year holiday.

(I mean, reverie is a fan mod project, not a job, lol)

Though there is still at least some minimum baseline of trying to keep interest up with some check in, so the interest doesn’t die off entirely, as mentioned in previous Dev Log before large holidays tend to be in big risk for that.

CH3 and Real World Content

One major thing to think about is the length of the real world section and the amount of content it has. The real world content has a large upfront cost due to making an entire new asset for the majority of aspects, so any new things added more will take far longer time than usual other chapters in the dream world.

There are two major aspects to consider, the mandatory story aspect, and the optional side content aspect. 

Mandatory / Story Content

As of current the main story aspect of CH3 is quite short, unlike Dreamworld areas, the Real world main content mostly revolves around cutscenes and dialogues, if you speed through the dialogue and cutscenes, it could very well take only half an hour or less to go through (though that’s unlikely the way it’s played on first playthrough at least, ignoring reading time).

One conflict is that, Reverie as a mod is far more focused on Dreamworld sections and battle heavy, making real world sections a bit awkward to make, taking quite a large amount of development time compared to other dream world chapters. The question then is how much real world content should be made, factoring in development time?

Side / Optional Content

As for side content, like in base game it’s mostly NPCs giving fetch quests (which are simpler to make), or potentially jobs (which is a bit more complex).

One unique aspect of Reverie over the base game though, is some amount of gameplay battles to at least give something to do (think of Jackson poster in Hobbeez in base game, but more fleshed out).

The important question is, how much side content should there be in the real world section of reverie? While it is cool to have some side content in real world and is a common complaint on base game itself that the real world feels lackluster, making more things in real world also takes up a large amount of development time which is not ideal. It’s a balancing act between not too lackluster but also not too much content which would take too much time.

RPGMV Needs and Modding Community

And finally, the general community aspect. The OMORI fandom has aged quite a while now, and as time passes the amount of people interested is reduced as well. This project is ultimately a fan project so the amount of interest on the mod isn’t really a problem, but what does this mean is there are less people interested in OMORI and also modding in general,.

A fair amount of people who tend to do RPGMaker MV (RPGMV) works tend to now be out no longer modding, or new members who do would tend to be making own project anyways. This means there has been less people who are available with RPGMV side, which means aspects like cutscenes should be cut down smaller to avoid development hell.

What this means for development is the gears shift from previous usual development focused on efficiency (getting task as parallel as possible), to a slower but sustainable development, focusing more on sustaining interest, which is better than losing interest totally.

TL;DR

Basically, the key important points are:

Short term aspect of Holidays and New Year makes November and December slow period in general.

Real World content (and CH3 by extension) is more time consuming and harder to make than other chapters

Therefore, amount of Real World content needs to be discussed, both mandatory and optional content

There has been less people in Omori community in general meaning there is less people to go by, especially RPGMV sector

Therefore, development has switched to a more slow burn state, taking things slow but sustaining interest to avoid burn out or lost motivation

And for development posts, now will be posting every 2 months than every months instead to reduce writing.

And about Applications...

Applications are always open! RPGMV / Programmers are always appreciated!

Final Stuff

Well now that you read this far, here's some portrait of Daphne and Bowen! (and also probably the only few sprite that is showable related to CH3 now)

There isn't much detail, but when resized down it is enough as a sprite

[fuckyeahgoodomensfanfic]

Good Omens Fic Rec: sanctuary

“You’re staring.” “Oh dear,” says Aziraphale, completely unapologetic. “How rude of me.” Crowley begins to smile something slow, bright, and lovely, but he schools it with a bite to his lower lip. Aziraphale thinks of the way he looked two millennia ago, pressed up against the wall with Aziraphale's blessing healing his wounds, the only demon to experience divine ecstasy and live to tell the tale. How Aziraphale's hands itch to do it again, and again, and again. Crowley opens his mouth as if to say something, but then stops and spins around instead to go back to stirring the curry. “Shut up,” he says to the stove, flustered.

Length: 22,635 words

AO3 Rating: Teen and Up

Best for: Safe for public, best at home, fluffy but in an angsty way? romantic

Triggers: None

Read it here, fic by moonyinpisces

*Minor Spoilers* I've been feeling very restless tonight, couldn't settle, it took me a couple hours to actually sit down and read this once I had it pulled up. Once I started, it's like everything quieted and I was able to just soak this story up. It's poetic without being dense. Complex and introspective but not heavy. This is an Aziraphale centric story following his anxieties after the thwarted apocalypse. Things have changed and Aziraphale is desperate to regain some control. I love the flashbacks. They give context to Aziraphale and how he feels about the Heaven, God, and Crowley in some clear ways but also at the end a new meaning is revealed. I love what Aziraphale later reveals about those memories. It was very impactful. You'll have to see why for yourself on that one.

The prose here is excellent, but I want to especially compliment the dialogue. I feel it was very close to canon. It was very easy for me to read it in their voices. Aziraphale uses the word "flim-flam" at one point and now I need to hear it in season three. Top notch longing, yearning, tenderness, agony. All the good stuff. The kind that breaks your heart a little bit, but also makes you believe love is real actually. Oh and the quotes in between sections, *chefs kiss*. You could read this in public if you wanted to. But it's a quick read and so cozy it should be savored at home. Like I wish I had a proper bathtub so I could read this in a candle lit bath. That sort of read.

Read it here, fic by moonyinpisces

[king-paimon]

Houseki no Kuni Chapter 104 Thoughts: "My Way" By Frank Sinatra

Hello everyone! I hope your month had gone by well. Mine had been...eventful, to say the least, though I suppose things could have turned out much worse.

Anyways, that's not what this is about. I just finished going through the latest chapter and... wow. That last image. Many fans have pointed out the signs, and I think it's safe to say that those last few pages confirm how this long saga is finally going to end...

BUT before I get into that, as always, I'll share some of my thoughts in this post. This will be long and ramble-y as usual (I truly meant to keep it short this time, I swear! It just kept getting longer and longer...) and I may come back to update some things. And as always, please feel free to share your own thoughts!

BTW: After reading this chapter a few more times and struggling with a title for the post, "My Way" by Frank Sinatra kept popping up in my head. It's honestly pretty fitting. That's why it's my title now. Please look up the song and lyrics when you get the chance and you'll hopefully see what I mean.

View of Humanity Through Untainted Eyes (Or lack thereof...)

Like the last couple of chapters, this chapter was dialogue heavy and it was admittedly hard to pick which parts I liked the most. Eyeball's (Or should I address him as "Brother"?... I'm sticking with "Eyeball") dramatic performance at the beginning was very funny and informative. It really showed how much he not only hated humanity and yet valued the professor during her final moments. And his talk with Phos at the end of the chapter was engrossing. But for this section, I'll mostly focus on Phos's interactions with the pebbles; I'll focus more on the first pebble in the following section.

Phos has truly become a teacher/mentor-like figure ( and dare I say even parental figure) for these pebbles, especially because of how they spoke to them. Phos literally reminded me of a thoughtful pre-school teacher with how patient they are with each of the pebbles and giving them the chance to express their differing opinions and giving what I think were appropriate responses. In some ways, Phos's mannerisms in this chapter reminded me of Adamant, though Phos's approach with these pebbles seems more gently, at least to me.

Hmm...You know what's funny? As I was writing this portion, a little thought popped into my head claiming that Phos may have inadvertently adopted more of Adamant's habits than I first realized. I'll try to explain more on this in the next portion.

But let me first go back to another thing that I liked about Phos's interaction with the pebbles: their individual responses. It could have been so easy to have the pebbles all be likeminded after hearing the history of humans, but that's not what we got. Each pebble had their own opinion; some were curious, some were scared, some were right in the middle, and a few seemingly blasé. I don't know why but I like how these varying responses further emphasize that the pebbles individuality goes deeper than their varying appearances and mannerisms. And I'm also thankful that Phos and Eyeball weren't seemingly perturbed by their responses... at least Eyeball wasn't.

"I want everyone to be happy": Naivety or Profound Point of View?

Now let's focus on the main pebble, because of course, out of all the responses, their response to Phos and Eyeball had the most weight despite how simple it sounds on the surface.

You can argue that the pebble's response was due to their naiveté, but I think this pebble has repeatedly shown that their nuanced view of the world around them is sophisticated and mindful. After being told by Phos and Eyeball about how fascinating and yet awful humans were and even acknowledging humanities good and bad qualities, the pebble still believed that everyone deserves happiness, even those considered "bad".

I couldn't agree more with Eyeball and Phos on this page:

At first, I thought that these innocent and yet wise responses reminded me of old Phos, but the more I thought about it, this couldn't be further from the truth. While Phos was also very naïve at the beginning of the story, I think they were to lost in their own heads to truly think outside of their own unrealized desires, even when they claim their actions were to help everyone. So if you were to tell old Phos the stories of humanity and ask them the same questions, I don't think we would have gotten the same answers the pebble gave. And the more I think about, I doubt Phos would have ever made the same conclusion at any point in their story. There's nothing wrong with that, but that just has me thinking... It's interesting how this small pebbles seem more empathy for others than the previous human descendants, from the Lunarians, Admirabilis, and the even the Lustrous, even though they looked more human.

Tell me what you think! This was weird character analysis tangent and I'm curious to know if anyone has feels similarly or differently. But speaking of Phos's character... Onto the next section!

Friend to Closed Off Guardian: The barrier between Phos and the pebbles

While I was typing the paragraph that focused on Phos's mentor-like persona, I made a small realization. Is it just me or doesn't Phos's interactions with the pebbles feel different now? Yes, I pointed out that Phos is acting like a kind teacher in this chapter and I could be overanalyzing this, but while this interaction is cute on the surface, I can't help but feel there is more to this interaction. This is why I brought up Adamant, for Phos's interactions with the pebbles in this chapter reminded me of a certain aspect of Adamant's old relationship with the Lustrous.

As you may recall, Adamant assumed a leader/guardian role with the Lustrous over time. He had many reasons of doing so, including for their protection, but assuming this role came at a price; Adamant ended up keeping the Lustrous at an emotion distance. With the exception of Antarctictite and eventually Phos and Euclase, Adamant closed himself off from forming true close relationships to the gems, for their sake and his, effectively creating a barrier between them. This barrier only became obsolete after Adamant finally relented and opened up to the Earth gems after Phos's first attack on them, and even if it were just for a short time, Adamant and the Lustrous interacted on a somewhat equal footing.

Now lets go back to how Phos initially interacted with the pebbles. Not long after Phos found the first pebble, they didn't interact like how Adamant used to with the Lustrous. The two talked freely and sang together without a care in the world. Though Phos and this pebble are vastly different in many ways, it was clear that Phos saw them as a friend. An equal. And Phos was happy.

But now look at how Phos interacts with the pebbles now. I don't see Phos's interaction with the first pebble or any of the pebbles the same way anymore. Yes, Phos encourages the pebbles to speak freely, but to me, it feels like the same can't be said about Phos now. Phos isn't speaking as freely as they did before. They are selective in how they address the pebbles, kind of like Adamant. Phos is acting more like their guardian rather than their friend... like Adamant used to. Phos is fully embodying Adamants old role now and it's a little sad the more I think about.

After being alone for so long in more ways than one, Phos had finally found beings who treated them like a real friend. But because something in them changed, Phos is now slowly but surely assuming their role as the pebbles guardian and in doing so, that friendship connection is being replaced by a similar barrier that Adamant once donned.

Like I said, I'm probably overthinking this and giving Haruko Ichikawa more credit than what's due, but I just can't help but think about the parallels here. What do you think?

Acceptance: The End is Near

The last thing I'll touch on are the last few pages because...wow.

If I remember correctly from posts made by some keen eyed fans, the story had been hinting that the main sun is about to die. And one of the final stages of a star's death is that it would expand into either a red giant or a red super-giant, which was being depicted in that last image.

And if I'm interpreting those last few pages correctly, it seems that both Phos and Eyeball are aware that the sun will eventually consume the Earth. It will take a couple more thousand of years, but as we've seen here and in the previous chapters, time doesn't matter. The real end of everything is coming and those two are accepting it.

Yup. It looks like we have true confirmation for how this saga is going to finally end. And just like those two, I'm ready for it. Not out hatred or anything truly negative towards this series... I just feel like I'm ready for that final curtain call for this unique, thought provoking, and strenuous story.

I just hope the end will be a worthy end.

WHEW. This post ended up being even longer than I originally intended! Sorry about that. Regardless, I hope you liked it. Please don't hesitate to share your thoughts, even if you don't agree with me!

Until next time!

[tadpolesonalgae]

Ur descriptions of the lil coastal town and the sea with its little creatures and the lil trinkets is so amazing omg I cant help but get sucked right in. It just makes it so bittersweet that reader at least gets to experience this much but there’s still so much more out there for her to learn about and live through… she just can’t with her ‘timeframe’.

Fuck… the Bas scene rlly was a heavy hitter. I think that I (along with the reader) had just gotten so used to him being somewhat of a constant that this rlly did a number on me. Life rlly has been particularly awful to reader… to find him in such a state… especially when she expected him to outlive her by CENTURIES, to live and move on from her, experience what she couldn’t… when all things calm down, I hope the reader gets to see him off properly

You have done such an amazing job creating such a compelling character as Bas. I genuinely don’t think I’ve gotten so attached to a character as him. And as much as it hurts cause you have just made him so damn loveable, know that he lives in my brain on the constant.

Good job Azriel Shadowsinger (I’m using his full govt name cause I’m still mad at him) for being able to lull her to sleep after the ordeal(s)!!! It rlly was a rock and a hard place type situation😭 I’m happy that we got the lil look into some of reader’s happy childhood memories tho!

Also reader snarling and sassing him in the shop LMAO more of that please. He deserves to get some attitude.

It was a HEAVY chapter but you did amazingly (as always) I couldn’t put my phone down even if I tried to ❤️❤️❤️

'Ur descriptions of the lil coastal town and the sea with its little creatures and the lil trinkets is so amazing omg I cant help but get sucked right in.'

Thank you so much!!! <3

Since it was the first time I was taking you somewhere non-canon in the fic I really wanted to make it feel like an actual place, if that makes sense? I think actually writing those beginning sections where reader is observing the valleys, the shoreline, the town itself, and the beach were the parts that took the longest? With dialogue, or more character-driven scenes I mostly rely on conversation to keep progress up, while having small sentences of movement in between so the story is still moving even during conversation? So actually having to write more descriptive sections takes more effort, for me at least! Definitely trying to pull together a picture of what I want to describe, and pulling on past experiences?

I have this memory from when I was younger and visiting either Bristol or Brighton, and coming across a row of houses that were painted sea-shades of blue, and a couple of pink, and yellow ones, so that's where the coloured houses came from, then the summer before last I spent some time in Wales and visited a few different beaches, which helped with describing the shore section! <3

'Fuck… the Bas scene rlly was a heavy hitter. I think that I (along with the reader) had just gotten so used to him being somewhat of a constant that this rlly did a number on me.'

Yeah... I'll tell you, from the standpoint of being the one writing the story, it was so difficult getting asks about the Summer and Autumn Court sections (which looked like they were going to be the next chapters) and not being able to talk about much of that! :')

And I'm still going to miss getting to actively write his character - I think he honestly ended up becoming an integral part of reader's life, so losing him is going to cause some changes for her, and her perspective on life, and love.

On one hand I'm sorry that anyone who also liked Bas now won't get to see him again, but on the other hand it makes me so happy (?) that some of you connected enough with his character to feel sadness, or loss in that section? I know that's a weird way to phrase it, but in a sense it's heartwarming you're missing him, so thank you for your willingness to believe in him as a character <3

'especially when she expected him to outlive her by CENTURIES, to live and move on from her, experience what she couldn’t…'

Yes! For reader, she was born human, so in the beginning was probably still getting used to the idea of immortality, whereas for Bas it was practically a given. Like reader said, she wasn't expecting to experience more loss before she got to go, and especially not from someone who was supposed to outlast her by such a massive stretch :/

'You have done such an amazing job creating such a compelling character as Bas. I genuinely don’t think I’ve gotten so attached to a character as him. And as much as it hurts cause you have just made him so damn loveable, know that he lives in my brain on the constant.'

This makes me so unbelievably happy to hear - thank you so, so much! <3

Although again, I think that to form a strong attachment with or to a character, there has to be a willingness on your part to accept that character, and temporarily suspend some beliefs to make them come to life, so thank you to you for being open to him <3

'Good job Azriel Shadowsinger (I’m using his full govt name cause I’m still mad at him)'

As you should, as you should

I wouldn't have anything else to write if you forgave him immediately after that chapter, as relieving as I found it to finally write Az finding a way to kind of be there for reader, in his own, unique way

'for being able to lull her to sleep after the ordeal(s)!!! It rlly was a rock and a hard place type situation😭 I’m happy that we got the lil look into some of reader’s happy childhood memories tho!'

Despite that scene being a draining one to write, it was also kind of calming? I had this relaxing, instrumental, winter playlist on so it was a pretty cathartic scene for me, after the anguish of the section prior to that! And I'm glad you enjoyed that brief, wandering part as reader's drifting off to sleep, and Az trying to lull her into that fatigue by asking her questions that will conjure up ideas to dream about <3

'Also reader snarling and sassing him in the shop LMAO more of that please. He deserves to get some attitude.'

Yes! I loved getting to write the section with Malachite!! He really rubs her the wrong way, for some reason!

I think also, from a writing standpoint, it'll feel more natural for reader to be a little more open with her irritation, now that Azriel has already seen it passively?

'It was a HEAVY chapter but you did amazingly (as always) I couldn’t put my phone down even if I tried to ❤️❤️❤️'

Thank you! :') Though I don't know how you managed to keep concentrated for that long! I find my eyes sometimes go a little weird if I stare at a screen for too long without taking a break!

And I'm sorry for the heavy angst in that last part, I swear it's going to be Summer Court in the next chapter!!

And thank you so so SO much for writing in!!!!! Both after such a long break, and with such a heavy chapter, it's so relieving that you're still interested in cbmthy and happy to chatter away with me about it! It's always so fun, and such a lovely experience getting to hear different thoughts and reactions to the things I've written, so thank you! <3

[emblemxeno]

Definitive “Feelings On 3H” Post

So I’m making one big post on my feelings on major things worth discussing about 3H and how I feel about it. Don’t feel obligated to really interact with this one much, it’s mostly just for my sake, as something I can just link to and say “go to section X about how I feel about Y”.

The reason behind this is I just don’t really want to actively engage in 3H discourse anymore. I feel as if I’m a broken record at this point. If I have new things to say about it somehow, I’ll say it, but for the most part, I’ll refer people to this if they wanna know how I feel about general 3H talk. 

Story

Story Section 1- General narrative feelings on each route.

Azure Moon is, in my opinion, the most solidly constructed route in terms of writing, character development, and storytelling. It knows what it wants to accomplish and, aside from a few gripes, I will always applaud it for that. Verdant Wind and Silver Snow meanwhile, aren’t bad and I certainly didn’t have a terrible time playing through them. However, the unique story bits in each route don’t justify the gameplay experience you have to work through in order to get to them. Still, the big reveals in each route were nice to hear for the first time, and specifically for VW I enjoy Claude very much. Crimson Flower I don’t enjoy that much at all. Its story is what I can only describe as a static, eye-roll inducing victory march, which makes up for its lack of length with its seemingly intentional negative character development; everyone is ignorant, an asshole, or sad as fuck aside from the CF exlcusive cast. I would give the route props had the game bothered to stand in its foundation rather than flounder and make numerous attempts to depict every perspective as absolutely equally valid and righteous. 

Story Section 2- In trying to appeal to every perspective, the game lacks focus, foundation, and respect for itself.

It should be expected that a game with multiple routes tackle different specific subjects. However, in Fire Emblem, there always, always manages to be a unifying theme or foundational story philosophy-an Aesopian type moral if you will-no matter the route. Alm and Celica learn that their one individual philosophies can’t exist on their own, and that leadership requires strength and compassion of equal measure. Eirika and Ephraim learn that personal wishes must take a backseat for the good of Renais and Magvel as a whole, as their routes in FE8 use their own weaknesses to develop them as leaders and royalty. Corrin’s one constant in the Fates games is that conflict is inherently meaningless and does nothing but perpetuate a brutal cycle of hatred, vengeance, and violence. 

Even in games like FE7 and FE10, where the technical ‘route splits’ are more unconventional, there’s still unifying themes that manage to wrap back around at the end (7′s ‘single-minded pursuit of justice and strength/power to protect can actively hurt you and those around you, especially if you are ignorant to the pain others are going through’ and 10′s ‘people have as much capacity to be good as they have to be evil, they will hurt each other due to petty misunderstandings and bigoted views, however, they are worthy of living as they are because of the ability to grow, change, and aspire to something better’).

3H, to put it simply, does not have any grand unifying theme unique to itself. The closest examples I can think of is ‘It’s worth it to reach out to those around you to share your pain so you don’t become engulfed in it’ and ‘no matter what side you fight for, war makes everyday life a living hell for everyone’.

But to me, both of those things are just... basic truths and story elements present in every dialogue heavy FE game. War has been showcased as being terrible since FE1, where characters were held hostage, threatened to fight for a cause they didn’t believe in, innocent villages were destroyed, there was a literal child slave market, etc. And sharing your pain with those close to you in order to bear life’s challenges has been a constant trope with many FE characters, story significant or otherwise, since at least FE6 with Guninivere (probably earlier if I’m missing something from FE4 or 5). The only difference is that 3H has a fun little song to go with it.

That leaves the specific themes of each route and perspective, but because each leading character is so different from the other, and the writers didn’t want to overtly favor one over the rest, every dialogue regarding these things feels compromised; half baked, or lacking a point. 

‘Crests are symbolic of a harmful power structure but also are a symbol of justice used to ward away threats but also are a tool used to gain social and political capital in order to change the world but also are an ancient power obtained through destruction that must be used with wisdom.’ Four different perspectives from four different routes that the game attempts to depict in a balance in almost every single dialogue regarding them. And this same process is applicable to the game’s attempts at discussing race/ethnicity, xenophobia, classism, religious views, mental health, etc. There always has to be two, three, four, or five sides to every story in 3H, and that results in an exhuasting and stretched thin narrative that, in its attempts to appeal to everyone, ends up lacking substance in every point it tries to make.

Now, that itself would make for a fascinating and meta theme for the game to uphold, where ‘attempts at trying to balance and accept every perspective leads to an ineffective world that desperately needs unwavering, unconditional, and compassionate leadership’ but 1) that would require the game to play up the need for ‘seeing every side’ as something to be deconstructed, and the game doesn’t do that, it’s played painfully straight, and 2) when it’s one major power (Edelgard) vs. three major powers (Dimitri, Claude, and Rhea), the attempt at balance fails no matter what you do. This lack of focus reads to me that there was lack of respect for the game’s story itself.

Story Section 3- “It insists upon itself, Lois.”

Every time I think about the finer details of story bits in 3H I don’t care for, my brain always comes back to that Family Guy scene where Peter talks about not caring for The Godfather and saying that it’s because the movie insists upon itself. Now, that was done for comedy, but for 3H I must say that it’s a perfect sentence to use. 3H insists upon itself. This is in spite of the fact that there’s no one unifying point that it’s trying to convey to the player, beyond what any other FE games was able to do. So to make up for that, each small instance reads like the game beating the player over the head with whatever minute moral or lesson it’s trying to convey.

Crests are bad? Roll out the Edelgard, Sylvain, or Lysithea dialogue saying so. Church is sus? Get Edelgard or occasionally Claude. Nobles are pretentious? Get the sad NPCs or the few actual commoner characters to imply it. War is bad and cruel? Fire the next “Sad Dorothea” dialogue at the player’s face. Interactions feel artificial, ostentatious even. Part of that is because there’s no other way to get these points across due to Byleth being a silent avatar, the other part though? Feels as if the writers were overtly proud of themselves. “Wow, the war means Bernadetta leaves her room more often, isn’t that a sign that it really changes people?” Yeah, no shit. 

Perhaps the most egregious example is the endless instances of the game pushing the idea that there’s “no good side” in war or that “war is a battle of ideals and no one is fully correct” or other moments that want the player to know how deep and Morally Gray the narrative is. It’s cheap and inauthentic, especially when you have a faction like the Slithers. You can’t prop up Gray Morality and have an inarguably evil underground terrorist group. 

To be crude, this game explains things to you like you’re five despite being rated T for teens in a series catered mostly to young adults. I get the point you’re trying to make, you did it poorly, now stop repeating yourself, your final grade is a D+.

Story Section 4- 3H likes spectacle over substance.

3H revels in being showy over being constructive. There’s great moments, but there’s not a great plot. 

For example, Byleth has many flashy moments that show how awesome they are! They’re connected to a goddess, they can wind back time, they have a super cool historical sword, they’re a top tier mercenary, they’re a great teacher, they’re next in line for Archbishop or the throne for all of Fodlan, their Crest is the game’s version of the Fire Emblem!

Cool! What’s the significance behind all these choices in the writing room? Seemingly next to nothing other than it sounded cool. That’s how it feels anyway.

The SotC doesn’t do anything in the story beyond be Sothis’ bones, likewise the Crest of Flames is nothing other than symbolic since it lacks gameplay or story significance beyond “main characters have it”, Divine Pulse has weak narrative justification for what should be a simple gameplay exclusive rewind, the goddess in question is an underutilized character who checks out before part 1 ends, there’s no gameplay basis showcasing that they’re any better at fighting than their students, and every high level position Byleth is granted makes no sense for them to have given what little established character we get.

That’s 3H in a nutshell. Crests don’t matter other than to be a story device. Being noble or commoner doesn’t matter. The hidden technology doesn’t matter. Abyss is a joke. And on and on and on. 3H profits off of being enticing and cool looking for the sake of it, without actually utilizing or explaining any of this flashy stuff that matters for a video game medium. It makes for underwhelming gameplay and artificial characters. Example, for as much as I love Yuri, take a few minutes to read his backstory; it’s batshit and nigh unbelievable. And it’s indicative of the fact that 3H cares more about including things that sound cool than it does about making sense of anything. We see the impact, but never any material significance, which is the opposite of what you want in a detail oriented narrative like this.

Story Section 5- 3H has very gross tropes.

During 3H’s first year of being out, I desperately wanted to stay true to a view that “hey now, just because it’s depicted like this, doesn’t mean we should blast it, it’s just a video game” but, y’know. I grew up. And part of growing up is recognizing the nuanced parts of these kinds of things. 

I won’t accuse the writers of being actively ignorant or bigoted, cuz I don’t know anything about them. But fuck. Fuck, does this game read worse and worse over the years in terms of how utterly terribly it handles sensitive issues.

Multiple brown characters treated like trash by the white/pale majority, with countries said brown characters hail from described as savage and animalistic. Rampant misogynistic tropes, most notably selling women off to be married. Strange, and incessant sympathy for the character starting a war that upends the lives of common people, said character also allowing human experimentation to occur. The offensive and archaic handling of mental illnesses, specifically anxiety disorders, personality disorders, and PTSD in certain instances (IMO only Dimitri and Marianne are done with any sort of grace). And that’s just the explicit stuff! Just the other day I was talking about how there’s incredibly disturbing anti-Semitic undertones regarding the Empire (confirmed to be based on Germany btw) and the Nabateans, something that’s, at times, uncritically repeated by people in this game’s community. This game is mired in terrible allegories and metaphors, which make me cringe the more I think about the real world implications that these lines of thought can have on people in volatile corners of the Internet.

And the kicker is that the writers are so committed to making these things relate to Crests or nobility, as if either of those things are strictly the reason why oppression or discrimination occurs.

The game employs drastic harmful stereotypes, and undercuts all of them by foisting its half-baked unique gameplay/lore toy onto the conversations. It fumbles the ball and didn’t even clean up the mess well.

Characters

I have a tier list of how much I enjoy the characters right here. 

Long story short, when the characters are good, they’re good. Like, holy fuck, love them. But when they’re bad? Throw them away. Can’t stand them. And sometimes characters fall in the middle where I see the good but they’re at times written in ways that piss me off.

Worldbuilding/Setting - More is not always better

First off, when you make a character tell the player “Go read in the library for lore”, you’ve lost me. There’s nothing fun and interesting in 3H as a game for you to read in the library.

Fire Emblem’s gameplay cycle doesn’t mesh too well with the typical JRPG standard of storytelling, so the common solutions to building the world and crafting the stories was 1) make as much use as possible of cutscenes, art/cgs, and narrations to communicate the important details before and after battles and/or 2) make an intuitive inclusion to ‘break the pace’ between maps, such as a home base, in order to supplement what’s already present. Alongside this, support conversations were an ingenious tool to develop the characters and the world at the same time, as your varied and quirky cast can help you infer what their place of origin is like. Plus, the game actively rewards the player for seeking this auxiliary information out, granting extra stat bonuses when you purposefully put characters next to each other.

3H, on paper, understands this well. However, the game has too many minute details for a typical FE game structure to handle. The devs themselves even said the game became a “living creature on its own” and claimed no one on the team knows everything about 3H’s story or world. Ignoring how that’s a serious flaw for a video game narrative, what this ultimately means is that since cutscnes and a standard base can’t cut it, we need more and more and more. Libraries, side quests, tea time, ally notes, gifts, NPCs that exposit at you, etc. The DLC even added another damn library for you to sift through, as if the first one wasn’t a pain already.

And though these little flavor texts, landmarks, and set pieces are fun to read about... that’s it. The game hardly uses any of it. It’s flavor without substance, once again. It’s why half the fucking fandom is confused every other day when you bring up these tertiary details as evidence to prove a point, since the active story is too busy trying to weave the other 600 plot threads together to use any of it. That means, for all of this supposed great details regarding each nation and the important territories, we hardly see a damn thing that’s actually different. More is not always better, and in this case, it’s actively worse for both the game experience and the community experience. Not a good look for a game that the devs explicitly wanted people to talk to each other about.

As a fan of FE ever since 2013, who has gone back to play several of the games to see how they tick, 3H’s methods of describing its setting are just so antithetical to what makes the series enjoyable, and for so little reward. It sounds hypocritical given that I love Fates and Engage, but those games actively set up their glorified bases to be as unintrusive as you want them to be. 3H, however, has its gameplay built around a boring and unintuitive cycle.

Gameplay- Fire Emblem but half the time you’re not playing Fire Emblem

Gameplay Section 1-Monastery

The monastery is the most debated gameplay aspect of 3H, and IMO, for good reason.

It sucks.

Worldbuilding wise, while it makes sense that an important location is the hub for the game, that doesn’t account for how dull it is. 12 months and 4 seasons pass and does the place ever look different? No. A shame, since an improved aesthetic would drastically help ignoring the fact that the place is a bitch to traverse. For as fast as Byleth can run, they can’t outspeed the load times. Quick travel only makes the issue more apparent, as well. From door to door, and from week to week, you’ll endure more load times in one in-game month than an entire playthrough of a GBA FE game.

The other aspects of the monastery gameplay, such as teaching, activities, professor level, and motivation, while freshly fun in a first playthrough, become a repetitive slog in subsequent playthroughs. Giving gifts and lost items, eating meals, planting the right things for the garden, optimizing support point gains, using the sauna, taking care of the statues, etc. This cycle is not something I enjoy in an FE game, and unlike Fates or Engage, I can’t actively ignore it without huge penalty. 

You can skip right to each main mission, but you’d be giving yourself a huge handicap by doing so; not actively teaching students at max motivation in order to maximize skill point gain is a huge detriment in the long term. It means longer wait for better weapons, longer wait for better spells, longer wait for class change, and longer wait for better skills and battalions. Now on Normal you can get away with this, not as much on Hard, and sure the fuck not on Maddening. To me, it feels like sloppy balancing on top of an already exhausting and dull game cycle. Why let the player skip months if you didn’t bother to carefully balance the game so that the players who do skip months could have even a small chance to clear the game? Honestly, it just feels as if they thought “people might find it annoying so let’s just tack on a skip feature”, and that’s disappointing and lazy.

Overall, I hope nothing similar to the monastery’s implementation is included in any future Fire Emblem game. It’s too antithetical to FE’s main gameplay structure, IMO.

Gameplay Section 2-Battles

To be honest, Fire Emblem has never been the pinnacle of balanced gameplay, and frankly I don’t want it to be. It’s a single player game with fun anime sword guys, magic powers, and dragons. So long as it’s not dreadfully easy or overly complicated, I have no qualms about certain classes or characters being better or worse than others.

3H though is a mess. A fun mess, but still a mess. Movement decrease to foot units means you want a mount cuz the game’s maps are big, and the speed penalty for cav classes means you want a wyvern or a pegasus. Physical units do just that (or maybe War Master for Quick Riposte), you get your dancer, have a Stride unit, have your Magic units and warpers where you need them, and congrats! You solved the 3H meta. 

Half-joking, honestly. The game is extremely easy to break, the hardest part is getting to that point (after all, slugging through the monastery is a bigger test of your patience than anything else). Maddening mode, of course, you have be extra careful in the beginning (cuz they probably didn’t play test it cough cough) and utilize your combat arts and gambits effectively, and being extremely conscious of positioning. But, much like Awakening before it, 3H is very easy to snowball. Especially on NG+. That doesn’t mean it’s not fun, but it can get mindless. I don’t personally play that way, but even still, tools such as weapons mostly not being class restricted, Crests, combat arts, gambits, and accessories make the game incredibly simple. It’s a breeze, and only gets harder when certain things are stripped away from you or your debilitated somehow. Again, it’s still fun, because FE is always fun, but challenging? No. Not in a way that I find meaningful, anyway.

The maps themselves? Meh. They look pretty! Lots of small missable details that you wouldn’t see if not for the zoomed in view, that was a neat feature. Not at all useable for actually playing the game, of course, but fun to mess with and to sight see. It does make me resentful, cuz again, we could’ve potentially seen lots of rich, detailed, and varied locations bustling with townsfolk and entering villages to really feel each location. But alas, this is as good as we get.

Anyway, the maps are...fine-ish? Part 1′s maps are seared into my brain, for better and for worse (mostly worse) cuz you have to play them at least 3 different times for all the routes. Prologue through Chapter 5 are either boring, terrible, or both. Chapter 6 is the first map on my most recent playthrough that I say I had fun with in Part 1, then it continues for 7 and 8, then nosedives for 9 and 10, before picking back up for 11 and 12. In short, more than half the story maps for part 1 I find are either unexceptional or plain bad.

Now Part 2? Hunting By Daybreak is atrocious, Garreg Mach defense is pretty fun, Ailell is boring as fuck, Myrddin Bridge and Deirdru are good, Gronder Part 2 ebbs and flows between being awesome and awful, Merceus, Enbarr, and Fhirdiad are okay but tend to drag, Tailtean is alright, Shambhala is hot garbage, CF endgame is pretty fun, AM endgame is okay, VW endgame is awesome, Snow endgame is terrible. I think all routes’ part 2 is better than part 1, but not by much.

All of Cindered Shadows is peak, every map was good IMO.

Paralogue maps I have no opinions on, they are recycled maps with nothing meaningfully interesting about them that I remember aside from Dedue’s, Ashe’s, and Petra’s. 

In short, the battle maps in 3H are okay for FE standards. It’s just pretty fucking insane how many times they get reused, so I got tired of them very quickly.

Fandom

Last but not least, just a shoutout to a very unpleasant community experience. Though it might be the best selling FE game as of now, it comes with the price of having some incredibly disrespectful, vicious, and ignorant fans.

Never have I been witness to or been the target of as much harassment on the internet as I have with certain 3H fans. Entire discord servers made to make fun of groups of people with differing opinions, taking over old blog domains to mock people, deliberately seeking out people who want nothing to do with you just so you can defend your favs, etc. And that’s just on this site! There’s editing wars on TV tropes and the wikis, mods on various sites having to do deleting sprees of 3H discourse, artists being harassed on Twitter, and in general just... inserting yourselves into places and spaces where you were not invited nor encouraged to comment. Some of these people lack basic human deceny, respect, and boundaries, and it’s not cool.

Part of the reason why I’m breaking away from 3H now is because this behavior is something I got wrapped up in too, and I’m deeply ashamed of it. It’s toxic, and not at all something I want associated with one of my favorite video game series anymore. I got real life things to worry about and other games to play.

-

Anyway, that’s pretty much it. All of my general thoughts on 3H, localized on one post. Sayonara, Fodlan Discourse, you won’t be missed. 🤗

[inkblackorchid]

Discounting anything in Embers so there’s no worry about spoilers, what would you say was your favorite duel to write, and why? And you can include things around the duel as an explanation- like I would count Crow teasing Yusei about giving Aki Stardust or Yusei just giving a shit eating grin to Team Unicorn as great moments that are still part of the duel even if they don’t involve the actual duelists.

Tried to think about this a bit, but even now as I'm looking at the ask again, I'm honestly not sure I have one definite favourite. I'm pretty proud of my finished duels in general—largely on account of the effort that goes into them—and there's always something immensely satisfying about making plot and cardplay work together.

That said, let me try and give a proper answer. I can narrow my "favourite" duels down to three, I think. One would be the Aki VS Divine duel in To Bloom or To Wilt, the first duel I ever wrote. I like this one a lot because I'm proud that I actually gave duel scripting a shot instead of chickening out and because I love the narrative tension this specific duel has going on. So I guess you could say my love for it partially stems from nostalgia, but also from the specific stakes and character interactions that duel had. The second one would, depending on whether you count that as one, two, or three duels in quick succession, be the Team Unicorn duel rewrite in Snapping Jaws and Piercing Horns—specifically the section where Aki plays against Breo. The main reason why I like this one so much is very simple: I have seldom had as much fun writing a duel as I did when I let Aki sass Breo to hell and back. Generally, the sense of stumping Team Unicorn instead of letting Aki play into their hands that I was able to play with because of that duel was a continuous source of joy and amusement. The third duel would be Aki VS Misty in Be Careful What You Wish For, on account of the sheer amount of emotional tension in that duel. I went all-out on the heavy dialogue in that duel and still look back at it with a sense of pride because those emotions run deep and I'm glad I could capture that while also entangling the cardplay in the action.

If I had to pick a favourite out of these three, specifically, and thus out of all my fics right now, on the spot, I think I'd actually choose Aki VS Misty in Be Careful. It was the culmination of several duels that came before it and I like what I did with it. There are a bunch of callbacks in there, both to canon and to my own fics, the cards really worked to give me the escalating tension I wanted, and though the duel is technically short in terms of the number of turns, it perfectly accomplished exactly what I needed. Misty's Reptilianne deck was also fun, in a way, even though I know her cards aren't great in the TCG. And the dialogue, often tied to certain cardplays, came from a very raw, emotional place and I like the feel of it, especially once the tension breaks during the grand finale. I was playing with the readers' perception VS Aki's perception a lot in that duel, too (in regards to Aki's monsters) and enjoy how that turned out. (Though I realise it's probably my most dialogue-heavy duel so far. Make of that what you will.)

Aki VS Breo is a very close second place, though, because writing Aki's sass in that one gave me life. ^^

[bluecatwriter]

Director’s cut ask game: ⭐️⭐️ (aka whatever story you want to talk about!)

Thanks so much for the ask! I scrolled through my fics and chose one of my ensemble pieces, "Waiting,": "It's mid-October, and as the group stays in Varna listening for news of Dracula's whereabouts, Jonathan observes the way that each person deals with the growing suspense of waiting." (Spoilers ahead...)

-I think I started drafting this fic after I'd finished my first run of Dracula Daily back in 2022, but it sat half-finished for several months before I finally started working on it again. As is evident from the huge number of my fics that take place during the week in Varna, I'm a bit obsessed with that part of the book: the waiting feels unbearable, and of course my mind starts spinning stories of what everyone is doing to pass the time!

-I decided on Jonathan's perspective here, because I thought it would be interesting to view each person's coping strategy through one person's point of view. (I ended up doing this again in a different fic from Arthur's perspective, called "A Week in Varna.")

-The story has five parts, each focused on a different member of the Crew of Light (with Jonathan and Mina sharing the last section). I can't remember the original sequence, but I do remember that I reshuffled it a few times in order to get the narrative to flow.

-In the part about Van Helsing, I tried to show how heavy a toll all the waiting was taking as he tried to stay in control: keeping tabs on Mina's slow transformation, trying to do research, and so on. I loved the image of him praying the rosary over Mina while she slept during the day, too. And he's doing his best to try to make sure Jonathan isn't getting snacked on (but he's not very tactful about it). I tried to show Jonathan's compassion and empathy for him, even as Jonathan is withholding information from him.

-Beloved Arthur! He's the guy in the group who always has a granola bar in his fanny pack, and we love him for it. He is always golden-retriever-coded in my stories, but especially when writing from Jonathan's perspective. I did some minor internet searching to find a candy that someone would be likely to find in Bulgaria in the 1890s, but not sure if I succeeded. (If the violetki is anything like the drop hard licorice I ate in the Netherlands, I probably would not like it! Hopefully Jonathan does, though.)

-Quincey and Jonathan having an unexpected connection was a nice addition to this story, and looking back I can see some seeds for my later fic, "Step Into the Light." I liked the image of them sitting together in companionable silence, each cleaning and preparing their weapon.

-The section with Jack was the most fun to write, because he's being unbearably awkward and annoying to Jonathan right now, which is a dynamic that always makes me laugh for some reason. Though his dialogue is pretty ambiguous in the story, as I was writing it, the vibe I was going for was, "Trying to bring up the subject of 'what if your wife is eating you??' but wisely deciding to settle for some extremely ineffective flirting instead."

-The Jonathan/Mina scene in this one was the hardest to get right, but I'm happy with how it turned out. I wanted to show the ways that Jonathan is both supporting her (agreeing to pray with her every night despite All That going on with him) and putting his foot down (insisting that she drink from him every night). I also wanted to emphasize the different ways that they are dealing with God at this point— Mina through devotion, Jonathan through a dread and angry sense of waiting to see how it ends for him to make up his mind about what's going on. I'm one of those people who headcanons Jonathan as keeping his faith— albeit in a different, more mature form— in the end, but at this point all he knows is that Mina is hurt, and his teeth are bared.

-Speaking of bared teeth, Mina gets to drink all the blood she wants! #girlboss. This scene was pretty erotic but I ended up writing a more explicit version of it from Mina's perspective, which was really interesting, too. 

-I'm a bit too happy with the closing line: "Jonathan kept his promise to the professor— he did not need to tell him about the marks on his thigh, because he knew exactly what had caused them." BOOM. MIC DROP! But seriously, I liked how this tied the ending to the beginning scene, and how it shows Jonathan once again disobeying an old man telling him what to do by being sneaky about it. That's my boy!

Thank you again for asking! :D

(Ask game here)

[apollos-boyfriend]

psst you got any more creepypasta fic recs? 👀

i have quite a few!!

putting them all below the cut to save space, and i cannot stress enough that if you want to read most of these you Need to read all the tags. some of these are very light and sweet, others do not play about with the genre. i’ll be giving overall synopses + warnings (somewhat) but do read the tags for further details!!

in loco parentis by nymm_at_night is. well. you’ve all heard me praise it before. you say “more” so i assume you’ve already read it, but i legally can’t make a fic rec list without it. it centers around jeff, jack, and ben + tim/brian, and is where i’ve taken So much inspiration from. if any of you who like creepypasta have not read it yet please do. tim/brian (in a divorced way), all the chapters have their own disclaimers but the overall biggest overarching ones i can think of are semi-heavy descriptions of death and gore.

visual arts by killer_cat is a very good, short one shot! it centers around helen and jack and i absolutely love the author’s characterizations/interpretations of everyone. gen and mentions of blood/typically creepypasta-typical killings, but overall nothing too major

KISS ME WHEN YOU KILL ME by notaccessible is unfinished with only two chapters, but i really like where they’re going with things! they’ve retold both jeff and jack’s origins in pretty compelling ways. jeff/jack, but there’s no actual ship content as of yet. there are a few heavy scenes, largely dealing with abuse, murder, and suicide, largely in jeff’s chapter.

undone drawings by sleeplywritings (pancakebluess) is a very sweet, cute one-shot about sally and jeff. some of the formatting is wonky at times when it comes to the dialogue, but it’s not too bad, and overall understandable. plus the overall mansion dynamics are fun and silly (AND they’re normal about tim 🔥🔥). gen + no real warnings

water bearer (paint me red) by xfreesomebodyx is a one-shot centered around jeff and jack. it goes into extreme detail about jeff the killing people, so do tread carefully, but i REALLY enjoy their jeff characterization. i like it when authors latch onto his whole being beautiful bit. i’m ambivalent towards their jack at best, but GOD is jeff well-done in this. heads up so you don’t get confused like i did there IS a formatting error in it where a section seems to have been pasted twice (as of writing this). tagged as jeff/jack but there’s nothing explicitly romantic, largely just subtext/undertones.

a house full of serial killers VS the barbie movie starring margot robbie and ryan gosling by salty_sam is a one-shot chatfic but you guys know they’re my guilty pleasure so i can’t not add it. it’s largely just the author messing around with character dynamics and mansion relationships which is what i am here for always. tim and brian are off (brian especially) but everyone else is super fun and consistently entertaining. gen, no real warnings outside of mentioned drug use

handling rejection by sunsh1ne_sweethe4rt has wonky formatting BUT if you can get past it it’s just a cute one-shot, if not a little simplistic in terms of writing. it’s just about tim trying to help nina get over her crush on jeff. i’m a bit biased bc anything with tim written normally makes me instantly herald it like a miracle but i really just think it’s cute and funny :] gen (with the exception of nina’s crush on jeff) and no real warnings i can think of

déjà vu by nightstar1888 is a bit hit or miss for me due to their tim/masky characterization, but i REALLY enjoy the stuff they did with ben. it’s a one-shot about toby helping jeff dye his hair, nothing too special, but i like the parallels they drew between then two. it’s tagged as jeff/toby but nothing romantic really happens outside of a few lines of semi-flirting, no real warnings outside of mentions of toby + jeff’s backstories and all they entail

the collar incident by honeycirrus is. well i’m hesitant to fully recommend it. there are certain parts of it i really enjoy, especially with the dynamics between the mansion cast, but that’s pretty much it, and those are kind of few and far between. i’d recommend the first four chapters ish? they do some fun stuff with BEN that i might honestly steal for myself, but i spent way too long wondering if they actually meant BEN or didn’t get the 2020 lore update. ben/toby, one semi-intense self-mutilation scene.

[peaches2217]

I used to think dialogue was my strong suit. But I’m writing a dialogue-heavy section and I realize now just how lumbering and awkward I make verbal exchanges between characters, especially when there’s more than two. Just paragraph after paragraph of he said she said quotations. I’m trying to break it up with some more physical action and introspection, but it all feels so forced.

I’m not gonna beat myself up over it! I’ll find a way to make it work! But dear God I need to double down and improve. 😅

[harpoonsandmusicals]

Ok so I just got around to listening to the very first episode of Dracula: The Danse Macabre, diving in with zero idea of what its about other than the title. and guys. 😍 im obsessed 😍😍 i'm so in

Gabriel Urbina is back at it again with the most vividly real scenes you've ever seen conveyed through only audio. I was completely engrossed in the world from minute one. The bit with the flies? The wolves distantly howling at every spooky part?

I'm also enjoying the characterization, from a noble and kindhearted but slightly stupid Jonathan Harker, to a very creepy ominous Dracula, to possibly the highlight: Mina's very pragmatic, dead-pan, snarky and yet no nonsense attitude (and her trusty typewriter)

This is going to be one of the most unique, out-there Dracula adaptions around and I am SO interested to see where it winds up heading

the rest of this is going to be super spoiler heavy SO GO LISTEN TO EP 1 RIGHT NOW PLEASSSSSE ITS SO GOOD ITS ONLY GOING TO BE FOUR PARTS AND DONT SPOIL YOURSELF

i trust that everyone who has not listened is gone. so.

THOSE PLOT TWISTS FOLKS????? WHAT EVEN.

the vampire-hunting organization thing came out of NOWHERE and had me genuinely giggling in delight. I also am intrigued by the idea of Dracula being the exception to a species of mindless beasts. Is it because he keeps eating the souls of smart people? I'm not sure about him apparently thinking smart people are genetic and that he's eaten all the ones around here, that feels very icky. I hope its an intentional character belief that they're planning on unpacking and examining.

About halfway through, I began to suspect that "Jonathan" might really be Vamp!Jonathan due to the very uncomfortable tension between him and Mina, especially after Mina's rant about Jonathan being noble and kind which seemed to very much be in the past tense. I was not expecting full on Dracula-just-using-Jonathan's-voice. Wow. It's so well done, too, because the transition into the voice is so smooth (I didn't even realize they had the same voice actor for a really long time), and its straight out of the original book so I knew to expect that bit from listening to Re:Dracula (it was just as creepy as Karim Kronfli's take), but the idea that he isn't just doing it to wig Jonathan out for a minute or two, that's just his voice now??? And then of course it reframes everything we've just seen between Mina and "Jonathan" this whole time. What a twist on the central conceit of the story, our assumed protagonist is just dead now. AND. I didn't read the "about" section for the podcast cause I wanted to go in blind, but even if I had, the line "dialogue between two of the novel's most iconic characters" CAUSE OBVIOUSLY THE AUDIENCE WOULD ASSUME MINA AND JONATHAN. BUT ITS DRACULA INSTEAD. WHICH ARGUABLE FITS "MOST ICONIC" BETTER. Aah I just can't get over it.

The whole scene with Mina and the priest was priceless. I think my favorite line might be "Aw, I'm here, you're here, the corpse is here, why don't we live a little?!" Iconic. And the perfect response to casual sexism. Second fav might be the bit where Jonathan talks about lock-picking being such a fine and delicate art...*cue loud smashing sfx* "Not having time for such things, I smashed the lock." Wonderful.

I'm so endless curious about what chain of events ensue to end with MINA and DRACULA in some random cabin(?) talking to each other and putting the report together instead of, you know, MURDERING EACH OTHER???? I can't wait for the next episode. I hope it will also have me giggling from sheer delight at the immense creativity the whole time

[kels-orange-joe]

introduction ^_^ (regularly updates)

haii my name is stitch (not my real name obviously)

and yes as in the chaotic blue creature from lilo & stitch but that’s besides the point

this is my side blog!! an omori (mainly kel) themed one at that. my main blog is @stitchthelilo, and this is specifically for stimboards/sensory boards (well some other stuff too but that’s like the main thing) whatever you wanna call em, it’s also a kel fanblog cuz he is THE BEST OMORI CHARACTER!!! I WILL STAND BY THAT TIL THE DAY I DIE BECAUSE ITS TRUE

nonetheless.. i do take requests! and my status will update when they are open and stuff like that idk

i tend to use emoticons a lot and i’m a lil bit cringe so just a warning

my first time doing this so criticism is accepted with wide arms :)

the stuff you can request is what i have put in the tags section :3 (will further elaborate in rules/boundaries section)

ohh and even if you wanna request something really specific (like combining #sunny’s sketchbook and #character portraits for example) you can still request it as long as it’s something that is a combination of tags that i put

also if you want to request a prompt pls specify if you want it to be dialogue or scenarios

TAGS

#waves of orange joe = stimboards/sensory boards

#sunny’s sketchbook = art

#character portraits = pfps

#mari’s picnic blanket = flags

#headspace shenanigans = fanfics

#basils’s photo album = headcanons

#white space vibes = mood boards

#space boyfriend’s tape = playlists

#sunny’s inner mind = prompts

#the headspace alter egos = names/pronouns

RULES/BOUNDARIES

sfw interactions only!

any fandoms are accepted! some i just know more about better than others which i will get into in a bit, so please do understand.. as that is why the accuracy for some stimboards is off

i have the right to deny your request, ESPECIALLY if it’s something very icky

proshippers/comshippers, dubcon/noncon, nsfw blogs, ddlg blogs, anti-lgbtqia+, anti-religion (muslimphobic, islamophobic, etc. etc), anti-xenogender/neopronouns, anti-otherkin/therian/whateva idrk, racist, zionists, and just anyone who supports anything gross GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM THIS BLOG DNI

please do understand i have a life and you will have to be patient, your requests will be done eventually just wait

just have common sense, if you KNOW something is bad but are still here then go away oml

feel free to just talk to me in the asks! anon or not, i’m willing to just talk, as it isn’t just for requests. you can vent or rant there too if you want, i’ll listen! you are loved remember that <3

any ships are fine as long as they aren’t illegal or anything, a personal favourite of mine is suntan :3

you may request: fluff, angst, hurt/comfort, whump, slow burn, nsfw (just not smut, i’d rather not do that on a blog like this.. implied smut is ok though! and gore and heavy topics are fine too), panic attacks, all types of horror, comedy, drama, pining, mutual pining, all kinds of relationships (as long as the toxic ones are not romanticised), and basically just anything that isn’t in the you may not request part

you may not request: smut, proship/comship, dubcon/noncon, romanticisation of gross things (but if it isn’t meant to be romanticised then you can request), just anything gross really

THINGS I WILL MAKE

ocs as long as you provide pics and/or info, info is optional though ofc! but if you don’t provide it i am just gonna go off of aesthetic

total drama

danganronpa

omori

undertale/deltarune but moreso undertale

pokemon

sonic

mario

cookie run

the amazing digital circus

murder drones

smg4

bfdi/bfb/tpot

ii

hfjone

any object show really lmao

mlp

adventure time. however……. i may not be that accurate when it comes to later seasons or fionna and cake, cuz i never actually finished it or watched the spin-off, lmao sorry

gravity falls! same as adventure time though, haven’t yet finished it (but ik bill cipher and allat)

vocaloid

warriors/warrior cats (i haven’t read the books though, might not be accurate sorry)

scp foundation

bbc ghosts

she-ra: and the princesses of power

memes

garfield

the sims

among us (as cringe as that may sound, it’s a good game)

my singing monsters

the battle cats

dnd

agere/petre/agedre/petdre

otherkin/therian

furry

starters movieunleashers

hazbin hotel/helluva boss (i do NOT support vivziepop or her team, i separate content from creator because the episodes can really be good, even if they miss most of the time.. and i love the concept of both shows. I PIRATE IT Y’ALL DW I AM NOT GIVING PRIME VIDEO NOR VIVZIEPOP MY MONEY 😭)

doctor who

good omens

and much more! but i can’t be bothered adding them.. if any more of my interests are in an ask i’ll just tell y’all and edit this

[raayllum]

hey I have some thoughts and theories on season six that I want to post but I feel like they’re kind of in cohesive and all over the place and rambly and I’m not really sure the best way to get them across especially when I’m more of a brainstorm type of personof like 10 different ways something could go I’m not really sure how to organize it or make it comprehensible to the average Tumblr scroller do you have any tips for this? because I want them to get reach cause I do feel like I’m contributing something but sometimes I think what I’m saying makes no sense at all or no one’s going to read all that you know. or, TLDR: Do you have any tips on making meta in general since you seem to be the main producer of it in the fandom ha ha, your input would be invaluable

So I actually did start writing a post a while ago about well, a kind of how to guide for writing meta, but it felt very self-gratuitous so it got semi-banished to the drafts although I still might finish / clean it up and post it someday

That being said your ask does make me realize that your query is not something I had considered going over, approaching it from more of a "here's how to train your brain to notice things that can be fun to write meta about" > organizing said thoughts, so thank you for bringing it to my attention! I hope some of this advice will be useful, and it may even have some overlap with other thoughts I had planned

The most useful way I've found when it comes to meta is treating it like an essay, with an introduction, body paragraphs / sections (and sometimes headers), and a conclusion of some kind when warranted. This means looking for similarities or main ideas with possible consistent threads (i.e. avenues Aaravos' evil plans could go might be split off into branches, each one detailing a different avenue). So that would be my best advice when it comes to organization.

However, most concerns about "not making sense" comes down to thinking through what context you have to provide for your audience to understand what you're discussing, depending on the length and depth of the leap / analysis. Are there any symbols being drawn upon we will want to explain in more detail before theorizing how they relate to the show? Are there any smaller details or scene summaries to include when putting these things together?

For example, when I wrote a meta about Rayla being the metaphorical light to Callum's darkness (pre-S5), I first had to establish why I associated her with light, drawing from visual examples from S1, S2, and S4, as well as the "Dear Callum" letter. Callum's side of things was more straightforward with dialogue in the text. Then I could take it one step further and talk about why this light-dark duality indicates that she will likely save him from possession after possibly leading to the fall in the first place. But I had to go from a bottom-top approach in steadily building the layers rather than starting from the top and working my way down, as for more symbolic matters in particular, that can often be confusing.

Although sometimes more simplistic, consulting the 5 Ws (who, what, where, when, and why) can likewise be useful in meta in terms of 1) tracing where certain ideas are coming from in the text, 2) what is being posited/suggested, and 3) why these things might be conflated, and 4) who might be involved. Obviously meta tends to be more "what" heavy, particularly when its predictive, but it's kinda like explaining why one character might be more involved in one plot line than another, etc. There's going to be a Why to that Who, and those things both combine to form the What (otherwise known as theory or just plain analysis).

And don't be concerned about if people are gonna wanna read it. I find most people in TDP fandom are pretty down to theorize even if they may not necessarily write a lot of it down themselves (and often have cool ideas/contributions too!) and I am the king of making things overly long, yet people muscle through anyway!

That's about it for me without more specifics (a character study vs foil vs theme vs prediction are all kinda different in their own way) but I would love to hear more if you'd like to message me off anon or if you have more thoughts/questions you'd like to leave in my inbox once that's opened back up! Have fun theorizing, have fun writing, always feel free to break longer metas up into smaller bite sized ones as you go, and I look forward to seeing them int the tags!

[reuska]

The summer event is insane

For anyone who is at least roughly following the deeper lore of Genshin, the current course of theories - or making theories of their own... this event must surely be as overwhelming and mindblowing as it is to me.

Especially if you've watched Ashikai's latest GI video (Teyvat's Bubble World), some of the dialogues feel like direct confirmation.

[Various degree of theory and the event spoilers ahead]

I can't imagine anyone doubting that Teyvat is not in some shape or form a dream at this point. What Nahida first brought up during act 2 of Sumeru archon quest (I believe) about us not knowing if Teyvat itself is not just a cycling dream, has been getting more and more foreshadowing (retrospectively even prior Nahida).

The Narration Footnotes quest tackles this, imo, head on. It has a NPC knowing that the world it lives in is made up and questions if his existence is valid. It talks about other people just accepting colliding truths without challenging them further and asking more difficult questions.

And in reference to Ashikai's video, where she speculates that the suspected Teyvat dream world is meant to "pop up" and become real eventually... how is this not directly forshadowed by this toy Detective and Mini Durin? We heard on at least two occassions that it's possible even for these made-up fantasy characters to leave Simulanka and enter the "real" world - which is Teyvat for them.

I don't even have to mention the whole Constellation Metropole - with its toy characters having defined paths (but they can choose what to eat for breakfast), the need to return to their set tracks including built-in fail-proof mechanism. If this is not reflection of Teyvat's Fate, Heavenly Principles etc, it's a gorgeous red herring. Which brings up the question whether whoever is behind the Fate in Teyvat doesn't want the Teyvat inhabitants to grow so strong they can defy their fate fully (which has been speculated about multiple times already as well) - just like one of the witches wanted for the Metropole inhabitants (I forgot if it was B or M).

I'm just scratching the surface of all the possible foreshadowing in this event, the paled out animals did feel like a heavy reference to people who lost their visions in Inazuma. Losing color = loss of memories. Then the ink would correspond to vision/ambitions and if the connection goes further, it's something that needs to be replenished for everyone alive by some higher force to keep them functioning. Could it hint on the need to maintain the Teyvat dream from above (the upper layer)?. Or is THIS the section that foreshadows Natlan as it is a lot about color?

Gods, this could mean so many things, I love how I feel so many underlying messages there but I'm still unable to piece them together right now :D

I love Genshin