#verse: down the lethe (main)

[eris-the-phantom-thief]

@museofthemoment

Continued

“N-no I have no plans, Shinji is working late tonight. It’s one of the nights I’m not working. He seemed, strangely insistent that I not be there tonight.”

She had to admit it was odd to her that he seemed so against her being at the Stray Sheep tonight. Was there some kind of event tonight? Not that she had heard about at least.

“Maybe I should cook him something nice and bring it down.”

[eris-the-phantom-thief]

“Coming up!” Hana skated over to get her another drink and soon had it placed down in front of her. When she sat it down she took a moment to scan Catherine.

Huh…I feel like I’ve seen her before…but where..?

Something about her…unsettled her.

But why?

She couldn’t quite out her finger on why. Either way, she couldn’t very easily vocalize it.

Not without risking her job.

This chick feels like a walking red flag… but I might as well just do my job and hope nothing freaky happens…

( eris-the-phantom-thief. ) ━━━━━━ Hana skated around the stray sheep serving drinks, when she spotted…an unfamiliar girl in white. “Huh…” Is she…waiting for someone?

     ❛  uggh,  this  is  the  last  time  i’m  inviting  marina  out.  ❜   with  a  roll  of  your  eyes,  you  nurse  your  finished martini glass,  sucking  your  teeth  when  you  saw  the  woman’s  message  regarding  her  needing  to  work.  sitting  back  in  the  booth,  you  peruse  the  menu  (  as  if  you  have  not  been  here  multiple  times  )  and  settle  on  a  pizza  for  the  night.  looking  up,  you  see  the  waitress  skating  by,  causing  you  to  raise  an  eyebrow.  is  she  new?  you  don’t  think  you’ve  seen  this  one  before.  when  eye  contact  is  met,  you  flag  her  down. 

❛  can  I  have  the   berry  punch?  I  heard  that  beer  is  really  good!  ❜  you  give  her  your  sweetest  smile,  ❛  kinda  got  stood  up,   so  it’s  just  me  tonight  .  .  .  unless  you  can  find  a  nice,  hot  guy   to  join  me.  ~  ❜

[eris-the-phantom-thief]

@electricea (continued)

“I’m staying in Tokyo for a little while longer.” Hana chuckled as she closed her sketchbook. “Mainly because I want to be with you for as long as I can…” Her arms wrapped around his torso as she rested her head against him.

“Ryuji? What do you picture doing after high school?” She pictured him working with kids as a coach personally, but she prayed that he could run again as he wanted.

[skyheld]

— how to they bear it? — as best they can.

skyheld. independent, selective multimuse for dragon age & bg3. lovingly tended by ciri (she/her, 30). established in the olden days & revamped may 2024, under reconstruction now and probably forever. interest tracker.

!!! on veilguard.

i’m going mostly blind into veilguard and probably won’t finish it very soon, so i ask for any spoilers to be tagged for at least a couple months. if i post any spoilers early on they will be on a readmore and tagged da4 spoilers, and i’ll make a note of when i start posting hcs/threads etc (and still tag them for as long as it seems reasonable). i will not be following or check out any da4 blogs yet, but i'll get back to you as soon as possible!

muses.

ameridan | a minor canon character from Dragon Age: Inquisition, the Jaws of Hakkon DLC | non-binary, using gender-neutral terms but he/him pronouns | TW: animal death present in backstory | DRAGON AGE VERSE | BALDUR’S GATE 3 TAV/COMPANION VERSE

gatt | a minor canon character from Dragon Age: Inquisition | cis male, he/him pronouns | TW: slavery, indoctrination into a cult, ptsd. sexual assault present backstory | DA VERSE | INQUISITOR VERSE | BALDUR’S GATE 3 NON-TADPOLE COMPANION VERSE

lethe | a tadpoled companion oc from Baldur's Gate 3 | cis female, she/her pronous | TW: parental abuse | BALDUR'S GATE 3 VERSE

merrill | a canon character from Dragon Age: Origins and II | cis female, she/her pronouns | TW: blood magic | DRAGON AGE VERSE | BALDUR’S GATE 3 VERSE.

shianni | a minor canon character from Dragon Age: Origins | cis female, she/her pronouns | TW: slavery and (fantasy)racial oppression. Shianni is a rape survivor, which is mentioned/alluded to in her biography | DRAGON AGE VERSE

guidelines.

1. SELECTIVITY. I’m mutuals only and somewhat selective, meaning if I follow/follow back, I’m interested in writing with you. I will try to reach out to you with memes or by liking interaction calls and I highly encourage you to do the same! Sometimes it may take a while because I’m not seeing a meme that fits or I’m not on the dash when you post (hello GMT+1), but that never means I’m not interested. I am here to write. OOC communication will probably make me a lot more excited for our threads, even if its just a small comment in the tags. discord is available to mutuals on request.

2. MEMES. If in doubt, send the meme! I may not respond to all of them and never expect you to do so either. I might send several to give you options, feel free to delete any that don’t inspire you. Turning a meme into a thread is highly encouraged if you feel inspired to, and I usually try to write them with an opening for continuation. Please try to send me something if you reblog a meme, or reblog from the source.

3. PLOTTING. I might lean slightly towards plotted thread and/or plotted relationships, just because I find they last longer. Again though, memes can be a starting point and ice breaker.

4. STARTER CALLS. I will probably not post completely open starter calls very often because I find it very hard to write a starter with no direction. For specific verses it may happen, or I may reblog a list of starter prompts. When I do, it’s because I want more threads. If I’ve written several starters for you and you haven’t replied to any of them, I might approach you for plotting before I write you another. it’s totally fine to just tell me a particular starter isn’t working and we can figure out another, but I don’t like the feeling that I’m just writing them for no response, especially since they tend to take me a while to write.

5. SHIPPING. I love shipping and while it's not my main reason for writing, I'm always down for any sort of established relationships. If you feel like there’s chemistry there probably is, so don’t hesitate to say it!

6. TRIGGERS. This blog deals with some heavy themes. I do my best to tag them when explicit or prominent in my writing and always if graphic, but not always when mentioned in passing. tags are formatted as ___tw (heavily present) or ____cw (just mentioned). Do let me know if I didn’t tag something I should have.

7. TRIGGERS II. I won’t follow/will unfollow if you don’t tag:

nsfw / nsft / whatever tag you use as long as I can find it.

pregnancy and childbirth (I’m fine with mentions and can deal with it in backgrounds and such. Descriptions and imagery are worse.)

8. FORMATTING. please don’t use double small text or gif icons in threads with me as I find it hard to read! I default to small text but will use regular if you do, and I alternate between almost no other formatting and a little bit more ~fancy~. If anything makes it hard for you to read, let me know.

9. CALLOUTS. I understand that sometimes callouts are necessary to protect others, but won’t reblog if I can’t verify the truth of them (which means it probably won’t happen). Someone acting shitty doesn’t warrant a callout but simply a block; someone being genuinely manipulative might. If harms people, it isn’t ‘drama’. If I do ever post/reblog a callout it will be tagged as ‘callout cw’.

10. ACTIVITY. this blog runs on a queue for thread replies, while meme replies will be posted as i finish them. i have an uneven work schedule and something of a life outside the rpc so i'm not always terribly active.

Thank you for reading!

[keytoyourhearts]

Review of The Nightward by R.S.A. Garcia (2024), 1st book of the The Waters of Lethe duology

SYNOPSIS:

On the day she would be granted her Blessing at nine years of age, Princess Viella’s court is overthrown, and she is sent on the run after witnessing her mother and queen murdered.  Her bodyguard with a hidden past, Luka, manages to escape the court with the now-Queen Viella relatively unscathed and must now keep her safe from the Dark and the secret magic found in the pages of the Nightward.  They eventually meet the third of their trio, Eleanor, a warrior-mage tasked with escorting Queen Viella to nearby court to give the young girl a fighting chance at retaking her thrown.

See my full review and rating below the cut!

RATING: 3/5 STARS

MY THOUGHTS:

I received an ARC of this book through a giveaway, thank you to the author and Harper Voyager for the opportunity! Overall, I found The Nightward to be an atmospheric, high-fantasy adventure that had me so enthralled, I could not put it down- until the sci-fi aspects were introduced.  I was unaware and found it incredibly jarring for unexplained technology to appear after such an exciting fantasy environment and premise were unfolding in front of me; it felt unnecessary to convolute the plot further.  I am also not well-versed enough in Caribbean mythology to know if it was done well, but I did find the included mythology intriguing.  While I may not pick up the next one, I mostly enjoyed the time I spent in the sci-fantasy genre and The Nightward.  It made me feel things that most books could only dream of.  RSA Garcia is a strong writer, and I would love to delve into more of the worlds she so vividly creates.

TAGS: fantasy, sci-fi, sci-fantasy, magic, speculative fiction

CW: explicit depictions of violence & death, sexism, misandry

RECOMMENDATION: I would recommend this novel for fans of sci-fantasy looking for something emotion evoking, who also don’t need their hand held through world-building and mystery unraveling.

THE GOOD:

The atmosphere of this novel was wonderfully crafted and such a pleasure to read.  RSA Garcia is obviously a talented writer when it comes to her beautiful environmental descriptions and exposition, not to mention her skill in evoking emotion and developing an air of suspense.  The opening of The Nightward exemplifies this.  I was so stressed, so heartbroken, and I knew what was coming!

I found the choice to make a nine-year-old one of the main characters to be interesting and refreshing.  The dichotomy of being practically helpless and emotional while also sophisticated and intelligent due to her upbringing made Viella a compelling protagonist despite not actually doing very much to further her journey.

THE BAD:

Despite the wonderful descriptors, I found the world-building to both be poorly explained and convoluted.  The magic/caste system still does not make sense to me.  I could not tell you the difference between the Word vs. the Sight, except that only certain genders can use one but sometimes both but sometimes none at all?

Perhaps this is rectified in the formal release, but my copy of this novel did not include a map, and boy, did I need one.  Queens and courts are introduced seemingly at random and when convenient, and they are sometimes conveniently connected by portals.  I cannot even tell you if we were on the same continent or a different world by the end.

Unfortunately, The Nightward lost my attention soon after the beginning, which is a travesty for how much I enjoyed it.  Most of the midsection felt like a slog of repetitive scenes and strangely informative dialogue, like the characters were too busy explaining things for the reader to continue their conversation.  Many side characters felt pointless and unmemorable, like their ‘stories’ were only included to pad the page count.

Speaking of padding the page count, here is my final gripe: it is a personal pet peeve of mine when authors are so focused on building up to next book in the series that they leave the ending of the first without resolving a single thing.  It is not a cliffhanger if the climax never comes to a head, it is poor pacing and drawn-out story beats that force readers into purchasing a sequel when all of this could have been solved by writing a single, albeit longer, book.

[eris-the-phantom-thief]

Hana held onto her stuffed Banette, and swallowed hard. She couldn’t believe she had said that to Junpei.

Truth be told…she didn’t have the stomach to talk about what she had dreamed about.

After all…it would require her to divulge certain things about her and Luca. She couldn’t say that because of how it would sound…on top of it…

“U-Um…”

She quickly scanned around for anything she could use to change the subject, “U-Um…my water cup…I guess I should refill it.”

@eris-the-phantom-thief sent: "Get off me! No! No! Wait - wait, I'm sorry -"

LATE NIGHT PANIC ATTACKS // accepting

He knew he had to be patient when it came to Hana. Junpei had no idea what she went through and that was something he didn't really have the balls to ask her about. Knowing that a light touch on the shoulder, with her being in a deep dead sleep, led to her reacting like this ached at his soul.

"H-hey, are you okay? I saw you were fighting in your sleep and well, didn't wanna see you get hurt." Junpei stated softly, sitting down on the edge of her bed and kept his hands to himself. "Do you need me to get you something?"

[eris-the-phantom-thief]

“Hana?” Fuuka knocked on her door, wondering if she was even up so early in the morning. “I was wondering if I could take to you? I had this weird dream about Akihiko…and wonder if we could talk about it?”

“Huh?” Hana stirred awake and rubbed her eyes. “Who’s waking me up so early…?”

[eris-the-phantom-thief]

Yukari appears with a Mega Banette-themed hoodie! Complete with a belt with a mega stone on it!

Plus zipper pants and boots that’ll make a Nomura character jealous.

Hana snuggles all cozy in the mega banette outfit as she hugs Zippy close to her chest. “So soft….”

[arch-dieangelo]

MARVEL/DC/GEN SUPERHERO VERSE

aka verse that just doesn’t have any camps and extremely little godly involvement past childbirth and no quests but rest assured the monsters and dangers are there still and very terrible. note: by default nico will be around 20-23 in this verse.

venice, circa 1930s! congrats maria di angelo! you have two kids with the lord of the dead and wealth! hades is actually more involved than the other gods with the di angelos. he checks in more often than he probably should. hades moves the di angelos to d.c. as wwii begins, and zeus tries to strike them down, killing maria. hades has his children’s memories wiped by the lethe river, and bianca & nico are relocated to the lotus hotel

to the kids, it feels like they’ve only been in the hotel for a month or two. really, about 80 years have passed once they are released. they don’t notice anything different (thank you lethe & mindnumbing arcade games).

nico and bianca are 10 and 12 respectively when they are placed at a year round boarding school in maine. they spend a grand total of one year there before shit goes south. one night during a week-long field trip to new york, bianca is tragically killed while nico bears witness to the crime. in the past year, bianca had discovered that she has some amount of control over the darkness and, somehow, the dead, and from what nico overheard (or thought he heard), the attackers had wanted her/her abilities. frightened and understandably distraught, nico runs. he doesn’t go back to the field trip group and never returns to maine. 

[gestures vaguely] things happen. he finds that he too has abilities when he comes across a graveyard that he was inexplicably drawn to. ghosts reach out to him and promise him revenge. naively, nico follows their instruction. ghosts and other dead (and occasionally the knowledgeable living) teach him about who he is and what he can do. he follows every direction, and before he knows it, he’s being sent out on missions to eliminate and take care of problems that the ghosts have, under the assumption that he’s getting closer to his own goal. infrequently, he assists someone who’s dead return to a living body. 

it takes years for him to figure out he’s being heavily manipulated by the dead and the living. at fifteen, he breaks apart from them and hunts for bianca’s killers on his own. he finds them, kills them, and realizes that he gained almost no satisfaction from the action. he’s lost, scared, and doesn’t have anyone to turn to. even ghosts seem to have abandoned him.

he roams aimlessly between d.c. and nyc, sometimes visiting the underworld. he doesn’t exactly live anywhere, instead squatting in abandoned buildings and the occasional hotel. he picks pockets and finds that it’s very easy for him to come across cash if he wants to, sometimes finding wallets with an impossible amount of cash and several credit cards. it’s also often that he finds monsters on his tail and has to take care of them.

at sixteen, he finds reason again in communication with bianca’s ghost. she’s remorseful that this is who he’s become, and urges him into doing something better, finding something outside of the past and the grudges he holds. she also mentions that she’s chosen to be reborn, and this is the last that he’ll see of her.

ok ! damn ! fine ! nico ... tries helping people.... except his idea of help is very... hmm.. how do i say... he just does what he thinks is right. even if others wouldn’t do the same. he primarily works in the night, as that’s when his powers are at their strongest. he kills when necessary, but will do his best to protect those who need it.

by twenty, he has a small studio apartment in new york. he forged documents (with the help of some *coughs* undead people) and maintains an alright job at an italian restaurant as a line cook. it’s fine. whatever. he doesn’t care. he has more fun with his night job <3 

ermmmm regarding his alter ego. he’s known as ghost king (he was 16 please don’t judge him. or do. i cant stop you). all his powers/abilities are the same as they are in canon. he uses a stygian iron kopis sword as his main weapon that he summons through a skull ring that never leaves his left hand, though he is also inclined to use a silver pocket knife on occasion. as he has long hair, he ties it back. his mask & armor/suit are made of shadows that he summons. the mask covers the lower half of his face (below the eyes) and is the design of a skull maxilla & mandible. chest armor is the design of a ribcage. everything else is dark and nondescript, but often just seems to swirl around him.

thats all i got folks. thanks <3

[eris-the-phantom-thief]

👍

“S-shinji!” Hana stuttered at Shinjiro’s opinion on her butt, but at the same time she wasn’t complaining....and he’d seen it plenty of times:

[eris-the-phantom-thief]

@tacitusauxilium

Hana was just playing in her room with the kittens, swinging the feather toy around as they scrambled. However, her mind was taken to a nasty smell seeping through her door.

The kittens hissed and hid under her, “it’s okay babies...mama will go see.”

She stepped down the stairs of her college door and slinked to the kitchen. With the smell getting worse the closer she got. What she saw was an unfamiliar green haired woman over a pot of....something she couldn’t identify.

[corpse-art]

Hulloo, I'm bouncing around with a powers/fantasy au along with some friends and as always Tommy's hero/vigilante name is leaving me stumped :'')

hush probably has my favorite alias I've seen used for him ever so i was wondering how you'd come up with it? Maybe it wasn't anything big but the sheer simplicity and yet the power that the name Red Chaos holds is kinda too much for me to handle man jdjdj And on that note do you have any advice for coming up with hero names??

Bruh, names are an absolute pain, so I feel ya. 

I think Hero names, for me, comes down to usability and the feeling of it/how much is suits the character in question?

Usability for me is really just - okay, I have a main character, I need a name that a) doesn’t feel awkward being shouted b) works with what I want the character to be/represent. Red Chaos is a mouthful but Red and Chaos both works as shortenings and gives me something easy to work with unlike, say, the Blood God. You don’t shorten that easily- both Blood and God are a bit too awkward to shout down a busy street, which is a-okay with a character like Techno, but not something I’d personally pick for Tommy. 

Red is also good because Tommy is so clearly associated with the colour so I get some of his essence in the name which, win. So first part over and done with.

Had I written Tommy as an up-and-coming underdog of a Vigilante I wouldn’t have picked Red Chaos, for one. More likely I would have gone for something more grounded with a scrappy feel to it because Tommy’s Hero name is supposed to reflect his position in the world of Heroes as the sidekick/guard dog of the Number One Hero (depending on who you ask). It’s something of an unreachable position so I wanted something impactful - a sort of representation of what he is to those around him. Once I had a solid grasp of where I wanted to go with the name I honestly just went synonym hunting. It’s a bit of a trial and error and trying things out and weighing the sensibility of it.

I think the hardest thing about Hero names is honestly making sure that it feels right for the character in question in relation to who they are, the role they play and their background/relation with other characters and who they are in canon.

Hero/Villain/Vigilante? The Blade vs The Blood God vs Lycomedes -- a pretty/cool name and the reasoning behind your character picking the name/having someone/the media pick it for them. Costumes, powers, quirks and character traits can also be used to explain them.

Sometimes I work backwards when it comes to names. I have something I like/works well with the character because of canon? How do I work it into an AU verse? Say I wanted Lethe for Ranboo -- how do I reason it? Techno is an easy connection there, maybe a confrontation between them, alternatively connect his power to it or something in his past etcetc.

I wanted Quackity’s to relate to his casino because it’s a big part of him. But I didn’t want to use the Joker so, other cards, tarots- the Fool then but it felt too blunt and didn’t quite suit what I wanted with him and was too close to Foolish. But what related to both of them - the (court) Jester. Clever words, mockery, and being underestimated - it fit perfectly for what I wanted for him.

Sapnap’s Valorant was something my lovely friend @tomcat-303 suggested when I was struggling because I wanted his Hero name to be more than just something fire related bcs it didn’t fit with what I wanted with him for Hush Now. Valor means  “great courage in the face of danger, especially in battle” -- perfect Hero name and something that really felt like it was his. 

Anyway, this is how I kinda reason when I go about considering names. I don’t want names to feel too out of the blue which is the hard thing when it comes to Hero and Villain names. Even if I don’t go about explicitly stating the reasoning behind a name in-verse I want you readers to look at it and go, yeah, okay, that makes sense. 

You’re always welcome to send me a private message if you want to bounce some name ideas, or just think out loud :)

I wish you the best of luck with figuring out something that works for your story! 

[eris-the-phantom-thief]

“Be upfront. But not too much to where you scare people. Basically don’t be Daisy.”

Okay, maybe it was a bit mean to say it like that. But Daisy did make an… impression. Not a good one, but she did make an impression.

“And maybe take him somewhere he won’t be more focused on keeping tabs on me. Or better yet if you do go to Stray Sheep, then go on a day I’m not working.

“Fuuuuuu!” Hana poked at Fuuka.

"Good evening, Hana--are you heading to bed soon?"

[eris-the-phantom-thief]

@plethora-of-souls continued

Hana smiled gently as she held Ken close to her, she thought he hadn’t been himself so decided to try to help him feel better.

Admittedly she was slightly embarrassed, but she also knew he wouldn’t try anything on her. He wouldn’t try to take advantage of the situation to pull a fast one on her. No perverted comments, no copping a feel, or any weird...Er gestures.

Her face heated when she heard him speak, but at the same time she felt herself relax. She brought her ungloved hand to his fluffy hair and started stroking it affectionately.

[eris-the-phantom-thief]

“Date?” With my Ken

Who asks for it:

[x] Your muse asks mine

[x] My muse asks yours

(I actually have this mental image of both of them asking each other at the same time XD)

Type of date:

[ ] Platonic Date

[x] Romantic Date

[x] First Date

[ ] Double date with: ____ & ____

Location for the date:

[x] Movies

• [x] Romantic Comedy

• [x] Adventure Movie

• [x] Animation (Pixar/Disney)

• [x ] Horror (So if something scared her she’d wind up hugging him.)

• [ ] Drama

• [ ] Buddy Movie

• [x]Neo Featherman (other options)

[x] Restaurant

• [ ] Expensive/High Class

• [x] Small and familiar

• [x]Fast Food

[x] Nature

• [x] Beach

• [x] Park

• [x] Forest

• [x] …and having a picnic

[ ] Visiting a Museum

(Hana likely wouldn’t ask him to go to one because she would probably pay more attention to the exhibits than Ken…)

[x] Visiting an amusement park

[ ] Visiting a haunted location

(Hana would be interested, but it’s not exactly a romantic local. Like “oh yeah that’s where a people got turned into hamburger meat, hey wanna make out?)

[ ] ___ (other options)

[x] Staying at home

• [x] Watching movies

• [x] Playing Video Games

• [x] Reading

The date might hopefully end with…

[x] …holding hands

[x] …a kiss

[ ] …in bed (maybe after a while.)

[ ] …knowing each other better

[ ] …sleepover between friends

[ ] …a marriage proposal

[ ] ___ (other options)

Should you reblog this?:

[x] Yes. I want to send you one.

[ ] Yes.

[ ] No.

(Well you did one for me first XD)

[eris-the-phantom-thief]

“oh”

My Muse changing clothes facing away, showing off their back

(I got some of my dnd dice and rolled a 6)

Hana had the misfortune of being caught off guard by rain, the weather had been so nice before that she couldn’t have seen the rain and the bitter cold coming. It all felt like a cruel joke on behalf of nature, and she had been forced to book it the rest of the way back to the dorm.

When she finally got back and with her shoes noisily sloshing she trotted up to her room. (Hopefully Mitsuru wouldn’t be too miffed over the trail of wet foot prints.)

Upon arriving in her room she didn’t hesitate to peel her drenched clothes from her equally soaked body. She trembled from the cold, and it amazed her she hadn’t gotten hypothermia. She managed though and now just needed to warm up...and avoid sleeping for a little bit.

She was soaked down to her undergarments and it amazed her that her bag with her work wasn’t soaked too bad.

“S-s-so cold...! It was so nice this morning...!” Hana removed her soaked hoodie and tie with haste as it made her body even colder. Not caring that with her blouse being drenched showed off the pink of her bra.

Her blouse and skirt were the next to go. Both hugged her body to an uncomfortable degree, but were soon on the floor. The grey plaid of her skirt was now black, her white blouse was grey from it becoming see through from the rain.

She huffed as she made her way to the bed and pulled at her stockings. Which clung to her legs like a leathery second skin.“Come...OFF!” She groaned as she slowly removed the now wretched to wear stockings.

Her shoes sat by the base of her bed. A simple pair of white mary janes, which contrasted the black of her hoodie and stockings perfectly.