#[ teatime is worth two hearts // about ]

[rotfallen]

man.... thinking about how sharon is tired of being treated like a little kid and just!! wants to fight!! alongside break!! but no she can't do shit in combat bc her chain is not suited for such things. she wants to learn how to use a sword but break is unable to teach her due to the fact that he's slowly dying (that and he's scared she'll hurt herself) so she feels kind of stuck. just!! thinking about her!! and sobbing!! my girl!!!

[luvly-writer]

"But oh..Cara Mia"

Ch. 10 Tensions Rising

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Dick Grayson x Latina! Reader

Warnings:

Status: Ongoing

Author's note: If you haven't seen the ask I responded to, I wanted to apologize for my lack of activity. I have been busy with university and life overall, and any time I get free, I have been too exhausted to even write. I hope all of you are alright! And cheers to a new chapter. Hope you all enjoy, always excited to see your feedback and know how I can improve! LOVE YOU ALL!

Taglist: @lorosette @nanas-teatime @prettyacademia00 @mxtokko @sarahkaliii @w31rdg1rl @Eurydicegrimes @writing-for-the-hell-of-it

Series Masterlist:

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BY THE WAY!!!! I managed to edit some of the pictures that I placed for Calvary's suit. I changed the colors so that you could have a clearer visualization. LOTS OF LOVE! (Creds to original artist)

I did want to change something in the story, which was that YN has always worn the B suit, even now. You'll see why in this chapter.

The only difference is that the headpieces are exchanged.

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You had managed to convince Diana to stay a few more days, trying to avoid the inevitable. You remember the look she had given you, perplexed by your request, but she agreed nonetheless. As of today, you had spent a big portion of it sparring with Artemis and soon you were going to meet up with Cassie to go on a swim. When you were walking back to your room after the swim, you bumped into Diana. "Just who I was looking for. You are needed in Gotham and you must leave as soon as possible. Bruce found something about the case and said your presence there was required." she said and saw the hesitation in your eyes. "I know you are troubled about this Tamaranian girl, but you know what I taught you" and you nod and mutter, "Responsibility and duty before selfishness" and Diana nods and takes your face in her hands "You have to go and face it once in for all. My dove, it will be fine. The gala will be in two weeks and we will meet again. I know this matter of your heart plagues you greatly and it pains me to see you so down, but you have a duty to Gotham and a promise to fulfill to Batman. Once the case is solved, if the troubles are too unbearable, you can always come back to New York with me and stay for some time." You nod and sigh. She kisses your head and lets you go into your room, change and pack.

You are about to board Diana's invisible jet when she stops you, "Wear your new armor" she says. You had always worn the full suit that you had ever since you were a kid, with the exception of the upgrades that you would add throughout the years. But, on this visit, Hippolyta insisted on gifting you a new suit. (You didn't know that Diana had mentioned your doubts about your status as an Amazon Princess and she would not have it. Her granddaughter SHOULD NEVER question her place in their family. She was an Amazon through and through, no space for doubts.) She had used the excuse that you were of age and it was unacceptable that you looked more like a bat than a wonder. You were a princess for heaven's sake, look like one. You had accepted it gratefully and wore it all throughout your stay. You had to admit, YOU LOOKED GOOD IN IT. You look at Diana questionably. She smirks and answers your silent question, "An Amazon always looks best with her armor." You quickly understand what she meant. Diana had made it her personal mission to make sure you understood that you weren't inferior that a Tamaranian princess and that you hold just enough worth as her. You nod with a smile and change quickly.

Once you are back, Artemis, Hippolyta, Cassie, and Diana are there to see you go. They all smile as you walk towards them, ready to say your goodbyes. You hug each one of them, leaving Diana for last. You notice she is holding something behind her back and once you look at her questionably, she holds her hands out and you gasp. A headpiece similar to the one she wears is presented to you. She places it on your head and kisses your forehead, "A worthy woman through and through, always enough for anything she puts her mind and heart to" and hugs you. You get on the jet smiling, happy with the support you always get from your girls, and begin to pilot it towards Gotham.

As they watch the jet leave, Hippolyta turns to her daughter displeased, "All her self-worth torn because of a man, Diana?" and Diana turned to her surprised. Hippolyta looks at her and laughs, "What? I am your mother. The same way Yn can't hide anything from you, YOU can't hide anything from me." and Diana chuckles "She loves him mother, and he loves her. He just needs a push to recognize it." Hippolyta humps in dissaprovement, "Well, he better be worth it! My grandchild deserves nothing but the best!" and Diana laughs in agreement with her mother. You truly do deserve the best.

You arrived in New York and landed on the roof of your mother's penthouse. You head towards the Zeta tube and stand before it nervous hell of what you will see on the other side. Well, Yn...its now or never.

These last few weeks had been torture for Damian, his mission had been fucking impossible. Dick left and Yn was there, but then Yn left and Dick came back WITH SOMEONE ELSE. Oh, Damian was not pleased. How dare Dick fuck up his plan. How could he?!?!?!? AND WHERE IN BATMAN'S GOOD GRACES WAS YN?!?!?! A deep scowl could be seen constantly on Damian's face, worst than the one he usually had. When Dick arrived with Kory announcing that they were back together, everyone tensed up. Tim and Duke exchanged worried glances. The color drained from Barbara's face. Jason cursed, and Stephanie's jaw dropped. It took Cass closing her mouth for her to snap out of it. They all mustered up fake (but surprisingly convincing) cheers and congratulations for them, yet as soon as Dick left, pulling Kory to his room, hell broke loose.

"I THOUGHT SHIT WAS GOOD WITH YN" screamed Steph

"We were almost there..." said Duke

"I knew something like this would happen cause of Kory's urgency to have Dick back with the Titans" muttered Jason

"And his urgency to leave" agreed Tim

"I have to warn Yn, she's supposed to fly here tomorrow" said Barbara hurridly and left to call YN

"he is running away from how he feels" seethed Damian and everyone stopped. No one had thought about that. "The coward slips back to comfortable because he won't face them!" continued Damian highly displeased and everyone sighed. These were going to be some tiresome weeks. And exhausting they were. They had missed Yn more than ever. Dick was unbearable, flaunting his relationship, excessive PDA and flirting, always mentioning Kory, they were sick of it. They decided to host another meeting in honor of the new...obstacle....

"Yn and Kory have never met face to face" muttered Barbara and everyone looked at her shocked. "WHAT?!" let out half of them and Barbara nodded, "They have heard of each other but never met face to face. With Kory always in Jump City and Yn alternating between NYC and Gotham, their paths never crossed. So, brace yourselves. I don't even know how shit will go down." Oh, what a mess did they find themsleves in.

Everyone had slipped into a routine of being cordial and kind to Kory, they weren't going to treat the girl bad just because they had an obvious bias, please, they weren't savages. Everyone except Damian. His bias was clear. Plus his lack of people skills came to play. He would answer drily, sometimes only giving a nod to her. He would only spend time with Dick if he was alone. He was not pleased because his mission was ALMOST there and now backtracked by a lot. He was anxious for Yn's return. It was definitely because of his mission and not because he had started to develop a similar attachment to the one he had with Dick with her. Obviously NOT. He did NOT start seeing her as a sister, that is preposterous to even assume. Safe to say, Damian was grumpier than normal. When his father sent a message to Diana, asking Yn to come back urgently, he had been relieved. She would be back.

Now, standing next to his siblings and Kory, they were discussing their next move. They had gotten sight of the poison in one of Penguin's clubs and noticed this could possibly be a bigger threat than they had thought. Not only were Riddler and Scarecrow involved, but now Penguin was added to the mix. They needed to work fast to gain the upper hand and it was proving difficult with a certain scientist gone. They were all suggesting strategies on what to do next and Kory would try to give her input every once in a while. At first, it didn't bother anyone, but then they started to get angsty. It was a common unspoken law amongst heroes that when working in Gotham, ALWAYS LET THE BATS LEAD AND JUST FOLLOW. As a matter of fact, it was known that when working in a city that's not yours, let the residents have the lead and give input when asked. After all, who knew their villains better than the locals. They understood she was trying to be helpful but it was interrupting more than actually helpful. They were holding back for the sake of not being mean to Dick's partner and their guest (Alfred always taught them good hosting manners). Yet, unlike the others, Damian's patience had run out. "Would you quit it" he said drily after another one of Kory's (unhelpful) inputs. Kory's eyes widened and Bruce and Dick went to reprimand him, but he stood his ground, "These are not your criminals, so I would find it most helpful if you remained quiet." They had all widened their eyes. Dick once again turned to scold him, but again, Damian was having none of it. "Grayson, she is a guest. Not a regular, I think we can manage just fine" Just as Dick went to scold him once again the sound of someone arriving by the Zeta Tuve was heard.

[dollycas]

Poppies, Perils, and Poison (Camelot Flowers Mysteries) by Erica Wynters #Spotlight / #Giveaway - Great Escapes Book Tour @ericawyntersbooks @ericawynters

I am happy to shine the spotlight on Poppies, Perils, and Poison (Camelot Flowers Mysteries) by Erica Wynters today! About Poppies, Perils, and Poison Poppies, Perils, and Poison (Camelot Flowers Mysteries) Cozy Mystery 2nd in Series Setting - Illinois Publisher ‏ : ‎ Gemma Halliday Publishing (March 19, 2024) Number of Pages - ~280 pages Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CPKP9N3G From author Erica Wynters comes another Camelot Flowers Mystery blooming with secrets, suspicions, and danger at every turn... Things are finally looking up with florist Gwen Stevens’ family business, Camelot Flowers, which means her biggest problem now is making her heart choose between her lifelong crush on the charming Chris Crawford and her budding romance with Finn Butler, the new police detective who makes her want to stop and smell the roses. But Gwen’s thorny love life takes a backseat when Shannon Wentworth, a newcomer to the small town of Star Junction, drops dead in the local coffee shop the day after she announces her candidacy for garden club president. Unfortunately, Margie Philips, Gwen’s surrogate aunt, has been garden club president for years and had threatened to win again this year at any cost—which suddenly puts her in the role of prime suspect in Wentworth's untimely demise! Determined to clear Margie’s name, Gwen digs deep and discovers a bouquet’s worth of secrets, including marital infidelity, a lawsuit threatening to ruin a local business, and even doubts about where Margie was right before the murder. With too many suspects all hiding something, will Gwen uncover the truth before the killer poisons her chances of a happily ever after? Great Escapes Praise for Poppies, Perils, and Poison (Camelot Flowers Mysteries) by Erica Wynters today! Poppies, Perils, and Poison is book two in Erica Wynters Camelot Flowers cozy mystery series but readers new to the series will have no trouble following along in this delightful story. Although I’ll admit I did buy book one for my kindle because I enjoyed this so much. ~Sarah Can't Stop Reading Books Poppies, Perils, and Poison is a fun, cozy mystery with an amateur sleuth who has a lot of helpers and even laugh-out-loud moments as they try to figure out whodunnit! ~Novels Alive About Erica Wynters Erica Wynters may have lived most of her life in the frigid Midwest, but now she spends her time in the warmth and sunshine of Arizona. She loves hiking, hunting down waterfalls in the desert, reading (of course), and napping. Can napping be considered a hobby? When not weaving tales of mystery with plenty of quirky characters, laughs, and a dash of romance, Erica works as a Marriage and Family Therapist helping others find their Happily Ever Afters. Author Links Website - Facebook - Instagram Purchase Links Amazon - Apple - Barnes and Noble  TOUR PARTICIPANTS - Please visit all the stops. March 21 – Mystery, Thrillers, and Suspense – SPOTLIGHT March 21 – Literary Gold – AUTHOR INTERVIEW March 22 – The Mystery of Writing – AUTHOR GUEST POST March 22 – Maureen's Musings – SPOTLIGHT March 23 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT March 23 – Elizabeth McKenna - Author – SPOTLIGHT March 23 – Reading Is My SuperPower – AUTHOR GUEST POST  March 24 – #BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee – SPOTLIGHT March 24 – Sapphyria's Book Reviews - SPOTLIGHT March 25 – Angel's Book Nook – SPOTLIGHT WITH EXCERPT March 25 – Sarah Can't Stop Reading – REVIEW   March 26 – Baroness Book Trove – SPOTLIGHT March 26 – The Mystery Section – SPOTLIGHT WITH EXCERPT March 27 – Christy's Cozy Corners – CHARACTER GUEST POST March 27 – Novels Alive – REVIEW March 28 – Ascroft, eh? – CHARACTER INTERVIEW March 28 – Cozy Up With Kathy – AUTHOR INTERVIEW March 29 – Teatime and Books – SPOTLIGHT March 29 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT March 30 – Guatemala Paula Loves to Read – REVIEW March 30 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT WITH EXCERPT March 30 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – SPOTLIGHT a Rafflecopter giveaway Have you signed up to be a Tour Host? Click Here to Find Details and Sign Up Today! Want to Book a Tour? Click Here Your Escape Into A Good Book Travel Agent Read the full article

[has-gilgamesh-doneanythingwrong]

Let There Be Cake!!

In which an assortment of Mastersonas visit Seihai’s Chaldea for some tea.

Disclaimer: Err well this may be a very random representation of all the masters, but I hope you enjoy it. (lmao) This may be a bit ooc ;; don’t destroy me pls

Decorating the tables with napkins and cutlery; Mash, Gudako and Seihai helped prepare for today’s meeting.

“I can’t believe so many masters are coming to visit,” Gudako grinned, as she nudged Seihai in the ribs- her eyes gleaming with mischief. “You’re lucky that I managed to get people like Emiya to lend a hand with the cooking!”

Rubbing their side indignantly, Seihai grimaced. “Hey, don’t nudge me like that! And yeah, I’m grateful...I almost had a panic attack once I caught sight of the guest list.”

Seihai was struck with awe once they realized how many different Chaldeas existed concurrently amongst one another. All they had sent out was a measly little pager, yet it had managed to make a huge impact.

“...To think that parallel worlds really exist...I dunno what to say, really.”

“Haha, try seeing it this way instead- if we can even summon servants from mythological epics, then who’s to say that only one version of this world exists? For all you know, we may live in an entire realm of endless interdimensional universes!” Spreading her arms wide, Gudako reared back her head with laughter, as Seihai accidentally tripped over the table. “For all you know, there may be 100 Gudakos! And they probably all have a nice harem tucked under their sleeves, as well!”

Before Gudako could lapse into yet another one of her much-loved rambles, Da Vinci rushed towards the door of the canteen. “Yahoo! The guests are all here, Gudako, Mash, Seihai. I sure hope you’re prepared!” And with a wink, they were back out the door again.

“Senpai, I think that’s our cue to go now.” Mash cuts off Gudako’s resistance by wrapping her arms around them. “No, senpai. Let’s leave Seihai to deal with teatime today. Good luck, Seihai.”

“Thanks....” Seihai muffled a laugh when they caught sight of the flailing Gudako, who was passionately yelling “NO, I DON’T WANNA WAIT ‘TIL LATER! I WANT TEA NOW!”

‘Gudako sure is an interesting master...’ Taking a deep breath, they went to greet the guests gathering within the hallway.

As soon as Seihai turned the corner, a ginormous loaf of bread was thrust in their direction.

“GWAH!” Leaping back in surprise, Seihai almost tumbled to the ground, until another master with cool, black-lace boots helped them up.

It was Candace and Quin!

“S-sorry about that. You know...I saw your face, and the bread. Yes, well here’s some bread.” Candace smiled softly, as they passed their loaves to Seihai. “I wanted to pass a gift for today.”

“Thanks, that’s nice of you. This bread smells amazing...I feel like I’m in bread heaven...” Turning back to face Quin, Seihai grinned. “Thanks for the save there as well, Quin. You have great reflexes.”

“Ah, that’s nothing much! I just wanted to help, that’s all.” Quin smiles sweetly, as they peer at the bread. “Ooh, that does look tasty...”

“It’s bread courtesy of my own Olive Garden,” Candance’s eyes gleamed with pride; as Quin giggled softly.

“I’ve heard the tales of your Olive Garden as well. BB says that she’d like to make dragon steaks there someday.” As Quin cheerfully shared this, Seihai paled in terror.

‘BB? DRAGON STEAKS? SHE’S NOT GOING TO COOK LIZ AGAIN, IS SHE?’ Only Seihai worried about this, as Quin and Candace enjoyed a good conversation about all of the madcap shenanigans that occurred in the Olive Garden; as well as BB’s cooking skills.

Once Seihai lead them to their seats, they greeted the next group of visitors. There, was none other than Kiryu- with a shy Bunyan lurking by their side, as they held hands- and Julius, holding a rather interesting contraption.

“Nice to see you both,” Seihai waved. As they peered down at the trembling Bunyan, concern flickered across their features. “Is Bunyan okay?”

“She’s just a bit shy,” As Kiryu patted her head, Bunyan smiled brightly. “Hope you’ve got some good drinks and snacks for today.”

“Err...Well we have some tea and stuff....Hahahaha...” In fact, Seihai had no idea at all what was going to be served for tea. They had more or less left everything up to Emiya. “Yeah...”

“I’m looking forward to it too,” Julius unleashed a rather huge machine. “In order to celebrate, I enlisted the help of a few allies to make a ‘magical tea’ device.”

“Cool, what does it do?” Kiryu gave it a light tap.

“It can create tea; in any flavor you want.” Julius explained excitedly. “And by any flavor, I mean any.”

“Nice. That’s more my kinda style.” As Kiryu hi-fived Julius for his genius idea, Seihai clapped with wonder. Julius’ inventions were awesome.

“Thanks, Julius. Well, the canteen is just by there. I’ll see you in a bit!” As Seihai went to look for the other guests, they were caught off guard by an array of floating cards.

Yes, floating cards.

‘B-bruh..what?!!!’ “Y-yo...” Seihai smiled awkwardly as they backed away from the dancing cards. ‘Shit...Where’s my runes? SHIT!’ Worried that they were magical spirits or something, Seihai was about to unleash the algiz rune to make a protective ward- until the cards transformed into people!

It was an amazing magical trick. Arising from a sparkling array of stars was none other than Faye and Vann; two mages that were very adept at magical skills. As Seihai breathed a sigh of relief, Vann posed.

“Yo, it’s me! I’m excited for some tea today.” Vann gave both Faye and Seihai a fist-bump.

“Me too, it’s my first time visiting here! Glad to make your acquaintance.” Faye shook Seihai’s hand.

“Nice to meet you both as well." As Seihai greeted them, the two began to discuss their various skills.

"I'm amazed you also know some card skills and tricks, Faye. Think we could work together?" Vann summoned a card from thin air.

"Hehe, I was taught them by some good allies of mine. Sure, why not?" Pirouetting, Faye invokes a supreme burst of magic, as a bunch of photos land in her hands. "I've been putting my magic to great use lately."

"Ehh! Lemme see!" Vann and Seihai clamored around Faye, as they peered at her photos. "WHOA!!!"

In her hands was none other than a gleaming collection of rare Ereshkigal and Serenity photos....photos that were worth their weight in gold.

'Hot damn, that's so adorable...' Seihai's eyes watered slightly when she caught sight of the cute shots of Serenity laughing and Eresh blushing. 'Faye has some mad skills.'

"Whoa, you gotta teach me that sometime...Wait. Seihai, where are we going again?" Vann looked up suddenly. "Aren't we going for tea?"

"Ah, yeah...I forgot. The canteen’s just by your left.” As they went off on their way, Seihai freaked out in horror as yet another card leapt into their face-Vann grinning mischievously at them as he and Faye walked along.

“H-holy crap...card magic is so good, yet so scary at the same time...” Seihai hoped that they could be as good as them at magic someday. Finally turning to look for the other masters, they bumped into some familiar faces.

“Oh, there you are! We got lost on our way to the canteen,” The final group of masters stood nearby, waiting in the wings. Maya, Val and the mage trio of Kat, Cris and Jeanne greeted Seihai, as they lead them to the location of the tea party.

“Ah, sorry about that. Actually, I also got lost trying to locate you all,” Seihai grimaced. They had lived in Chaldea for god knows how long; yet still struggled to find their way around!!! “How are you all doing?”

“Never been better.” Maya spun to the side, tapping their feet. “It’s a nice break from my regular duties.”

“Ooh, you mean your duties as the CEO of Chaldea?” Kat shot them a wide grin. “How’s that going?”

“Perfectly well! I’m having a lot of fun. What about you? How’s the trio doing?”

“We’re doing great! Although Spartacus ran into a bit of a frenzy during the movie shooting recently,” Jeanne spoke reflexively, stroking her chin.

“Haha, sounds just like him!”

As they burst into rancorous laughter, Seihai tapped Val lightly on the shoulder. “How about you, Val? Are you doing alright?”

“Huh...? Oh, yeah?” A light blush sprinkled across her cheeks. It seemed as if Val was hiding something. And Seihai definitely wasn’t the only one to notice. Leaning towards Val, Maya cheered.

“You hiding a little something?” As Maya winked, Val’s blush deepened.

“Er...Well, you see...” Sucking in an enormous breath of air, Val swung a ginormous box out of thin air. “The girls and I picked out a bunch of tabletop RPGS for us to play! But I was a bit worried that you guys maybe wouldn’t want to play...So, yeah. Well, you know.”

“Val...” Seihai’s eyes glimmered with unshed tears. The fact that Val had gone out of her way to bring games that she carefully selected with the people she loved...It was adorable. So sweet that Seihai clutched their heart. “I really appreciate the sentiment. Thank you.”

“Yeah, we do too. Games are good fun,” Cris patted Val on the back, as Maya helped Val carry the enormous boxes. “No need to worry.”

“Trying out new hobbies is good! Besides, I read Jeanne Alter’s doujinshi on a daily basis. There’s no way I’d judge you for that.” Maya was right. Hobbies were great to share!

“...Thank you...”

Once everybody had gathered for tea, utter chaos ensued. As Seihai panicked, Emiya was competing against Julius’ tea machine. That’s right; Julius’ tea machine was a challenger in Emiya’s eyes. However, Emiya won the competition once he showed off his brilliant bartending skills- by elegantly pouring Kiryu a nice cup of beer.

“Heh. Not even a tea machine can match up against my bartending skills.” His expression was smug.

“He’s got you beat on that one,” Kiryu conceded, as he took a nice sip of beer. “Wow, this beer’s amazing!”

On the other hand, the other masters were cheerfully wolfing down Candace’s baked loaves, and a wide assortment of cakes that had been ever-so-kindly prepared for them. Even Bunyan was treated to a special pile of pancakes.

However, problems began to occur as masters started to arm wrestle over who’d get the biggest slice of cake. Despite this, Quin defeated every single challenger as swiftly as possible.

“I love cake,” She exclaimed, as she took a glorious slice. Nobody could defeat her!!

‘I’m so damn jealous...’ Seihai sighed, as they settled into a small slice. After that, things went even more nuts when playing some of Val’s tabletop RPGS. Even though magic was meant to be banned when playing games, that certainly didn’t stop anybody!

By the ends of things, the canteen was bustling with fun; laughter; and a massive pile of cards.

Once Seihai saw all of the masters off, they chortled. ‘That was a lot of fun...’

They hoped that they’d all come back again soon.

Lol it’s finished. Sadly, I couldn’t go into detail about the tea time events as there were so many visitors! well hope u enjoyed. XD

List Of Mastersonas Included (tags):

@hasabbydoneanythingwrong @hasishtardoneanythingwrong @hasereshdoneanythingwrong @hasnightingaledoneanythingwrong @haspaulbunyandoneanythingwrong @hasspartacusdoneanythingwrong @havetheavengersdoneanythingwrong @hasbbdoneanythingwrong@hasnobbudoneanythingwrong

[cherripeach]

Relationship Headcannons

Dorm Leaders Pt.1

Riddle Rosehearts 

Now, this porcupine is a tough cookie. To get into a relationship with him, you would have to be from one of two cases either you are like Trey in which you have known each other for years and are really close or you happen to be someone like the MC who completely changes his world for him and makes him see a different perspective.  

In a relationship, the baby is absolutely wrapped around your finger if you give him just the tiniest bit of physical affection: hugs, kisses, hand holding, anything. Everything just makes him fall more in love with you and become more attached. However, the baby will also get very fussy if this physical affection is not kept in private or at least only seen by his close friends. Do not be stopped by this or anything that comes out of his mouth because truthfully he adores your attention. Also try to keep the physical affections with others to a minimum because no one wants a magic-sealing collar nor do they want a tiny chihuahua coming after them.

Dates include the obvious teatime at four o’clock and taking care of his hedgehogs. Riddle definitely appreciates your attendance and efforts with any of his interests as he will try to do the same with yours. On dates he will try to act as cool as possible but even he needs to be led by the hand sometimes. 

While fights might moderately happen especially over something neither of you will give up, he has learned to keep his calm toward those he cares for in order not to lose them. Please do not get mad at the child for some habit that he has; if you want to confront any issue with him the best way to do it is to talk about it rationally and try your best to not get overly upset with him. Yelling is a big no-no; please do not yell at this small child because either he will start yelling or he will start crying because the most important person in his life is yelling at him basically telling him that he is a terrible person. 

Please do not leave this baby. Riddle has huge abandonment issues, so please just give him the attention that he wants, and everything will be fine

If you are not doing well at any class and are either in his grade or the grade below (or even the grades above), please allow him to help you. This baby craves being of use to you, so if he helps you and you do well, he will feel absolutely blessed. He just wants you to depend on him as much as possible even if it is through school work or something small. 

In conclusion, please allow this baby to help you, and please give him physical affection. 

Leona Kingscholar

For a true, long-lasting relationship with Leona, you have to desire to become a close friend with him before even starting to date. He has the tallest and strongest walls around his heart that allow him to shield everyone from all of his feelings and emotions other than his anger. Please get to know this one truly with a brave heart and a kind soul and a determined mindset. Once one of you realizes your feelings for each other and starts your advances, the other will as well and everything is a slippery slope after. However, do not get swayed by his cockiness and reserved personality because it will surely be worth everything in the end. 

At the beginning of the relationship, there will be many ups and downs on both parts; the man has no problem not communicating and not even putting an effort into anything, but if you are not swayed by this and keep coming back to him, he will crack. Allow him the time to process the fact that he finally can call you his and that he has to put an effort into your relationship, and he will be the best man he can be.

After the beginning of your relationship, this kitty will become all the more touchy because of his dependence on you and your affection. Once his walls are cracked, he expects the daily cuddle and hug and kiss you give him. If possible he will never let you out of his arms, but with Ruggie keeping track of him it is very unlikely to happen. 

Most dates are in his room because he dislikes putting too much of an effort into something that he will not appreciate in the end. There will be the odd date in the gardens while Leona naps and you do whatever you came there for until he drags you to nap with him. 

You can tell him no when he drags you to cuddle, but please be careful with how you say it. If you want to distance yourself from him or he believes you are trying to, he will give you space; however, this space is because he believes you do not love you. He loves you, please, give him the attention he needs; he just wants to cuddle and love you. He does not want to make you upset, and this scaredy cat will do anything to make sure you stay with him. 

Fights are fun. Yelling is common even with small quarrels, and for the large fights it might become slightly physical depending on if you give up or if you keep heating the fight up.  Please do not be deterred and continue to love this cat because even if he becomes defensive and is mad at you for a while, he still loves you. He may give you the silent treatment for several days, but just like cats he will continue to want your attention and will not stray too far from your side. He might even mess up a couple of your things to get your attention on him.

Please keep your attention on him as much as possible. He is a huge baby and wants your eyes and affections for just himself. Besides, nothing good comes from when he sees you giving others your attention, unless that was your aim. If you are paying more attention to someone else in public, he will wrap his arm and maybe his tail around you just saying that he wants your attention very subtly.

A softy, no matter what he says. He just wants to be with you and enjoy his time with you.

Enjoy this big cat because, honestly, he will do whatever you want to keep his relationship with you.

Azul Ashengrotto

You probably met Azul a little bit before his overblot or after it because otherwise you were probably involved or witnessed his bullying, and we do not condone bullying in this household. Azul would not have realized how important you are to him before his overblot because all he cared about was his contracts and proving those who bullied him wrong. After his blot and calming down and realizing his wrong ways, he will become more cognizant of what he cared about and would probably understand what you mean to him. At the beginning of the relationship, he would most likely not care about his needs of telling you his emotions or getting your affection since he is afraid of you leaving.

Take care of the boy and give him your affections. He will try to distract you at first, especially in public, but if you are determined enough he will give in to you and let you hug and cuddle him. Just because he seems uncomfortable, does not mean that he is. The blush on his face is only there because he has never done anything like this with anyone before. 

After he is used to your affections, he becomes dependent on them. If he does not get exactly four of your bear hugs a day at eight in the morning, thirty minutes past noon, four in the afternoon, and exactly eight twelve, he will not survive the day. He craves your affection in private and will beg on his knees if he cannot have it. Even though he will not do this in public, this is not to say that your relationship is fake but that he just finds more comfort in private where he does not have to hide his problems or his desires from you. 

Dates will either be completely mapped out or sporadic; dates could range from beach trips and going to a theme park to regular drinks at the lounge and study dates. Azul wants your relationship and outlook on him to be the best any person could ask out of their partner; he wants to spoil you so that you continue to love him and depend on him. Help plan the dates and maybe even pay for some of it if he keeps on insisting that he has everything and that he just wants to spoil you. Spoil him, he wants it too. 

Good luck stopping him from crying when he sees you giving others your attention for a long time. He understands that he does not take up all of your time, but he is so anxious that you will leave him for someone else. Talk to him about it, promise him that you will not leave him. He is just worried; do not judge him for being worried that you will leave him. Also very greedy for your affections. 

Very few big fights will happen with Azul, this sweetheart will only be able to give you the silent treatment for a couple of days before he needs your attention again so any major fight usually is dismissed. Azul would break out crying if you start yelling at him, so please don’t. Also he does not like yelling at you either because you are too important for him to get incredibly angry at for something that might not matter in a couple of months. He also understands the pressure and disarray that one’s emotions get when getting yelled at by someone they love. 

He is obviously very insecure, so please tread lightly on his insecurities as he would do the same with you. Help him understand his worth because otherwise he tries to find out through being the “perfect” boyfriend of yours. 

Please treat this boy gently. Handle with care. He does not want to offend you in any way but he always wants your attention. Communication and determination is key with this one.

Have a nice day!

[flipomatic]

A New World Chapter 14: Blending

First Chapter Previous Chapter 

________________________________________________

Sayo was working in her room on a new composition, as she often did these days. What had changed was the purpose of her creation.

Unlike her usual compositions, Sayo wasn’t writing this one for homework. Instead, it was for a more personal reason.

It started when she wanted to branch out from what they were working on for school. While she had improved at conveying emotion through her compositions, she wondered if she could do even better. The pieces she composed for school were good, but in the end the motivation behind them had just been for a grade.

They weren’t genuine and there was still something missing. At least, Sayo felt like there was. So, she sat down to try and compose, to create from her heart.

As expected, it was proving to be quite difficult.

At first Sayo strummed aimlessly on her guitar, seeking a melody or strong chord progression. That wasn’t really working; nothing she played felt right. She felt aimless, like she wasn’t making any progress.

Perhaps she needed some inspiration, something to base her music on. Most of Roselia’s music was composed that way. Yukina created lyrics to represent the band and Rinko built melodies around them.

Thinking of the band sent a wave of irritation through Sayo, causing her to frown. She’d been trying and failing to put their behavior out of her mind. Her bandmates, particularly Yukina and Lisa, had been insufferable lately.

They had been dancing around their feelings since before Sayo met them, but recently it started to impact practice. Just recently Yukina had been too distracted to sing properly, so Sayo decided to help her out.

Of course, Yukina blew off her advice. Sayo wasn’t sure why she bothered.

Lisa too had been acting strangely. Sayo had never known her to date or do anything other than what was best for the band. It was clearly hurting Yukina; Sayo didn’t understand how Lisa couldn’t see it.

The two of them really needed to talk through their feelings.

The notes from Sayo’s guitar had strayed low, creating a darker sound. She stopped playing and shook her head, this wasn’t the kind of song she wanted to compose.

Sayo refocused and searched for a new train of thought, something happier. Her hands shifted to a lighter sound as she thought about her other friends, Tsugumi in particular.

She had visited the Hazawa café last week and spent some time talking to Tsugumi. After some light banter about how they rarely saw each other these days, Sayo had promised to hang out sometime. She wasn’t sure when that would be, but she would make sure it happened.

Sometimes there was music playing in the café, loud enough to be heard but soft enough to not disturb the guests. Typically it was songs from the 80’s or 90’s, ones Sayo wasn’t familiar with. She didn’t usually listen to it, but she still noticed it.

It suited the café well, but perhaps other music could work too.

Sayo wondered, if the café was a location in a video game, what kind of music would play there? Perhaps that would be something worth composing.

Her hands played a light melodic line, already way ahead of her thought process. The café would have a peaceful song, something that lifted the heart. That’s how Sayo felt when she went there.

She continued to play, molding the melody to match that image. It took a while, but slowly she developed a tune. The more she played it, the surer she was in the melodic line.

Sayo played it through a few times and tweaked the notes, smiling as she pictured the café in her mind.

She went to her computer, which was already open at her desk, to write down the melody in the composition software. Once all the notes were in, she stepped away to keep playing.

Sayo kept working on the song for the next couple hours, adding a lead in chord progression and refining the tune. This topic proved to be strong inspiration for her.

After putting the final touches on the composition, Sayo decided to record it so she could listen to it. She set up her phone on her desk, turned the amp up, and hit record.

As Sayo played, glancing at the sheet music for reference, she imbued the performance with as much light as she could. She played it enthusiastically and with certainty.

When she finished, Sayo immediately clicked the recording to listen. She closed her eyes as the music played from the phone speaker. The café appeared in her mind as she listened, with Tsugumi in the center of it. She smiled brightly in the image, matching the mood of the music.

The composition still wasn’t perfect, of course, but it accomplished what Sayo set out to do.

As the song finished, Sayo couldn’t help but smile. She emailed a copy of the video to herself so she could save it with the sheet music.

As she dragged the file into the folder, she wondered if she should do more with it. Sayo hadn’t wanted to share her previous compositions with anyone, but this one was different. Should she send it to Tsugumi?

Immediately, that thought warmed Sayo’s cheeks. That would be far too embarrassing, she could never do it. What if Tsugumi didn’t like it, or thought Sayo was overstepping by making it. Even if she did like it, the thought of letting her hear it sent butterflies fluttering in Sayo’s stomach. She wasn’t sure why, since she was happy with how the song turned out.

It didn’t really make sense, but her hesitation was firm and off-putting.

No, she shouldn’t share it.

Despite that thought, Sayo opened the video in an editing program. She exported the video as an MP3 and emailed it back to her phone.

Just in case.

_______________________________________________________

With two whole hours available until band practice, Sayo had no doubts about what she wanted to do with her time.

She hadn’t been to the Hazawa café in two weeks now, as she’d been bogged down with even more schoolwork than the first half of the semester. Sayo still spent some time texting Tsugumi, mostly catching up and chatting casually, but it wasn’t the same as seeing her.

The guitar recording on Sayo’s phone lived in the back of her mind since she recorded it. She almost texted it to Tsugumi during the week, almost hit the button to send it to her. She stopped herself. In the end she deleted it from the message, still not sure if she really wanted to share it.

It hung over her as she entered the café. Tsugumi greeted her with an enthusiastic wave, but she didn’t have time to chat. It was busy today, with most of the tables occupied. Tsugumi was moving from table to table, completely composed despite how many customers there were.

Sayo took a seat at one of the few empty tables. She leaned her guitar on the table and took out one of her composition theory books while she waited; she wasn’t in a hurry. Sayo read slowly, half watching Tsugumi move in her peripheral vision.

“Hi Sayo-san!” Tsugumi stopped by her table, wearing her usual apron and bright smile. “What would you like today?”

“Good afternoon.” Sayo closed her book as she replied. “Just a cup of black tea, please.” It would be a good choice for drinking slowly.

“You got it!”

Tsugumi vanished back to the kitchen, returning a moment later with a cup, pot of hot water, and selection of tea bags on a tray. She set it down on the table, before Sayo selected one and started to make her tea.

“It’s busy here today.” Sayo commented as she poured the hot water.

Tsugumi nodded, leaving the tray on the table for a minute. “It’s been like this all week.” She was still smiling, beaming at the bustling café. “I’ve been trying different types of advertising.”

Oh, Sayo did remember seeing an advertisement for the café online recently. She hadn’t realized that Tsugumi was the one creating them. “It’s definitely working. You’re doing a great job.”

Sayo hardly believed it possible, but Tsugumi’s smile somehow grew larger. “Thank you!” Perhaps Sayo’s point of view was biased, but Tsugumi almost seemed to glow. Her eyes practically sparkled. Sayo’s heart didn’t usually beat this fast, or if did she didn’t notice it. She felt an impulse to do something, say something, but she wasn’t sure what.

Then, as quickly as the moment came, it passed. Tsugumi’s attention was snagged by another patron, pulling her to the other side of the café.

Sayo took a deep breath to center herself, going back to her book. She finished steeping her tea as she read, then drank it slowly.

For a while, Sayo stayed at the café. She exchanged words occasionally with Tsugumi when the teen had a few moments free. Tsugumi shared that she’d been working on advertising for the last couple months, starting with local newspapers. It wasn’t until she went with targeted ads online that she saw these levels of success.

It was a good idea; Sayo wondered if they could sell Roselia cd’s that way too. She’d run it by Yukina later.

After an hour had passed, the crowd in the café started to thin out. It was getting later in the afternoon, farther away from the typical teatime and closer to dinner. Sayo had about half an hour until she needed to leave, so she could be early to practice.

“How’s Roselia been doing?” Tsugumi had more time to talk with less patrons in the café. She was standing near Sayo’s table, turned so that she could keep an eye on the other tables.

Sayo decided to focus on the whole band in her answer, instead of her frustrations with her bandmates. “Not bad. We’ve been trying to practice more often; it’s been hard since midterms.” It was hard before then too, but Sayo didn’t mention that.

“I can imagine.” Tsugumi was frowning slightly. Sayo wondered what she was thinking about.

“I’m headed there next.” Sayo replied, gesturing to where her guitar still leaned on the table.

Tsugumi glanced at it, then back at Sayo. The corner of her lips lifted as she spoke. “Do you have any performances coming up? I’d love to come watch!”

Now Sayo was the one frowning. The band hadn’t performed all semester, with all of their classes and schedule conflicts it hadn’t worked out. It left an uneasy feeling in her gut. “There’s nothing planned right now, but I’ll let you know.”

“I’ll look forward to it!”

The bell on the door signaled the entrance of another customer, drawing Tsugumi away. Sayo watched her go, shaking off her feelings from the prior conversation.

She had to leave soon, to be early enough to band practice. There was one section she needed to practice ahead of time. Sayo probably had time to share a few more words with Tsugumi before she left.

Sayo remembered the composition, that she had loaded onto her phone. As she watched Tsugumi interact with the new customer, she again wondered if she should share it with her.

Hadn’t it been written for the café? Didn’t she write it with Tsugumi in mind? If she was going to get better at compositions, she needed to be more comfortable with sharing her creations.

With Tsugumi here, less than ten meters away, it was easier for Sayo to make a decision.

When Tsugumi returned, after bringing a pastry and drink to the other customer, Sayo pulled her phone out. “I’ve been working on a new composition; would you like to hear it?” She asked, giving Tsugumi the chance to say no.

Sayo knew that Tsugumi wasn’t the kind of person who would do that. “Of course.”

Sayo opened her texts with Tsugumi and selected the song to send it. “I wrote it with the café in mind.” She said as she hit the send button, letting the composition leave her sole control.

“That’s great, I’ll listen to it after my shift.” Tsugumi tapped her pocket, where her phone had just buzzed.

“Thank you.” Sayo wasn’t sure why she was thanking her, to settle her nerves perhaps. She put her phone away and took out her wallet. It was time to get going.

After paying, Sayo exchanged a goodbye with Tsugumi and left the café. She went to practice, trying not to worry about what Tsugumi thought of her composition.

It wasn’t until later, in the middle of practice, that she found out.

Right in the middle of Neo Aspect, Sayo’s phone buzzed multiple times in a row. Her heart rate spiked as it did, but she stayed composed and finished the song before checking it. She ignored the way Yukina’s eyes narrowed as she pulled her phone out. As expected, the texts were from Tsugumi.

“The song is amazing!” A few heart emojis followed the message. “Sayo-san I love it!” Another text had immediately followed. “It matches the café perfectly!” There was a minute long gap before the fourth message. “Sorry about sending multiple messages, I got way too excited. I really like it, thank you for sharing it with me!” Sayo felt warm as she read through the messages, trying not to let it show on her face.

Sayo typed back quickly, before Yukina could murder her with her eyes. “I appreciate you listening to it. Thank you for your feedback.” Not a great text, but it was the best she could manage at the moment.

In the end, Sayo was glad she decided to share it.

___________________________________________________________

One week later, Sayo found herself back at the Hazawa café. She wanted to come more often, so she did. She still needed to plan hangout time with Tsugumi.

It was busy again today, even busier than last time. Tsugumi still found time to talk with Sayo though, even if they were just short exchanges.

When there was a lull in how busy it was, they had a longer time to talk.

“About your composition from last week.” Tsugumi’s cheeks carried a pink tint as she made eye contact with Sayo. “I couldn’t stop listening to it.”

“Oh.” Sayo blinked a few times, struggling to process that information.

“The more I listened to it, the more I thought, well…” Tsugumi seemed to be struggling to find the right words. She pulled out her phone, tapping on it a few times. Sayo’s phone buzzed in her pocket.

Sayo furrowed her eyebrows as she pulled out her phone, seeing that Tsugumi had sent her a message. When she opened it, she saw that there was an audio file attached. She glanced back up at Tsugumi, asking a question with just her eyes.

“I thought, it would just be perfect with the piano.” Tsugumi said, her cheeks shifting from pink to red. She looked cute like this, though honestly Sayo thought she always did. Sayo didn’t really understand what she meant by what she just said. “Please listen.”

That would be the easiest way to find out. Sayo pulled her earbuds out of her pocket and plugged them into her phone, placing them in her ears.

Then she hit play.

The start of the song was the same as Sayo remembered it. The guitar played a familiar chord progression, the start of Sayo’s most recent composition.

After a few seconds, a piano joined in. It started low, playing beneath the chords, before coming up and blending with the melody. Sayo’s eyes widened as she listened, hardly breathing as the music washed over her. It had still needed work before, but now it felt perfect.

In the corner of her eye she could see that Tsugumi had her hands together, watching with worried eyes as Sayo listened.

The song was short, and before Sayo could so much as think it was over. She looked up from her phone at Tsugumi, who seemed to be holding her breath.

“I love it.” Sayo said without hesitation. Tsugumi exhaled in relief, a smile returning to her lips. “You wrote this?” It had only been a week, and Tsugumi had somehow composed the piano part and added it to the recording. Sayo couldn’t help but be impressed.

Tsugumi nodded, finally allowing her hands to fall apart. “I couldn’t get it out of my mind.”

Sayo hit the button to play it again, listening even more closely to the way the piano part complimented the guitar. “It’s wonderful.” She wished she had better words to describe the way it made her feel, receiving the song like this, Tsugumi adding to her creation like this. Her heart was pounding again.

Even though that hadn’t been what Sayo intended, they made this together.

“I was wondering,” Tsugumi sounded nervous again. “Do you think I could use it in my advertisements?” She still looked right at Sayo, determination evident in her gaze.

Oh, that was a good idea. A good piece of music made a big difference in advertisements, and it would help bring more patrons to the café. This song would work especially well, since it represented the image of the café. It represented Tsugumi, her strength, her warmth, and her kindness.

As Sayo’s eyes were locked with Tsugumi’s, that feeling she had before, that she wanted to do or say something, was back again. Perhaps Sayo was starting to understand it.

“Please do.”

Next Chapter

[loyalflutist]

Satisfying Her Urge (Edeleth) [R-18*]

Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Category: F/F Words: 5,490 Summary:  Byleth and Edelgard enjoyed their times together. However, the times they've had for their nightly adventures had diminished. As the days pass, Byleth became impatient, the lustful demons eventually driving her to an intense session with Edelgard. 

A/N: It’s been a while since I’ve last uploaded any work on here. I kept doing it on AO3, but forgot this since I don’t visit Tumblr too often. However, I will still keep putting up my works, even if it’s at a slower pace via Tumblr. If you wish to see them as soon as possible once they’re up, feel free to subscribe to my AO3 account under the name “KazueEmiko”! 

---

To Byleth Eisner, restraint had always been a part of her life. Whether out on the battlefield or dealing with social situations, she had always kept herself under control. She partially blamed the Crest of Flames for afflicting her with stoic features and the inability to express complex emotions. However, upon her meeting with Edelgard von Hresvelg, the stunt in her emotional growth melted away. Once love bloomed, all boundaries were open before her eyes.

But that meant she had some difficulty pulling the rein back too.

Especially when pressure was built.

“…during my time out on the field, trust is important.”

Edelgard sat in the second row of the Black Eagle’s lecture hall, her hands on the wooden desk, staring at their professor. The teal-haired woman slowly paced back and forth in the front of the classroom, white chalk in one hand. Byleth would occasionally stop in front of the blackboard and draw arrows and write notes. But she would never stop speaking, her lecture droning on about trust and bonds.

“Trust is crucial,” she said, stepping behind the podium. “If you do not have trust, then it would be wise to stay away from the battlefield, lest you wish to die an early death.”

Caspar crossed his arms behind his head. “Kinda silly you have to say that, Teach,” he remarked.

Byleth blankly stared at him. “When all reasoning leaves you in a fight, most people’s instincts tell them to run away. Stay away from it. Abandon their comrades in favor of saving their own life.” The ex-mercenary placed the chalk onto the wooden surface, grabbed ahold of its sides, and sighed. “You would be surprised who stays and who runs.”

“We aren’t like that though,” Caspar said with sharpness. “At least, not for me. I’m not a chicken.”

“Caspar,” Linhardt grumbled in the background. “She means what you say if you were never in a situation may differ once it actually happens to you.” The young boy resumed planting his forehead on the table, mumbling incoherently. Caspar tried to shoot a retort, but it fell on deaf ears, the student dozing off to dreamland again.

When he groaned, it elicited a chuckle from Hubert. “It would do well to not only pay attention in class, but to use your critical thinking skills,” Hubert said. “Then again, you lack the skill, so I suggest you learn how to get one.”

“What did you just say to me?!”

Caspar rolled his left sleeve with a snarl. The instant Caspar got up from his seat and marched to the magus, and before Byleth and Edelgard could stop the two males, the monastery’s bell chimed in the background. They froze in spot as Bernadetta sprung to her feet.

“Oh, f-finally!” Bernadetta said. “W-We can go back to our room!”

Bernadetta shakily sighed, gathering her written materials into her bag. Unfortunately, Dorothea’s friendly slap on the shoulder threw her into disarray, causing her to make a mad dash out of the classroom without her belongings. That led to Petra running after the frightened student with bags at hand, calling out to her until the class could hear her no more. Dorothea followed them, jumping to the air of stray papers. Linhardt stretched his arms and slinked away from the lecture without another peep. As for Caspar and Hubert, they decided it was not worth pursuing their argument, though it lowered their tolerance for each other. Ferdinand dragged the two boys away from the classroom, admonishing them for their unprofessional attitude. Though it appeared that the instant he suggested teatime to settle their differences, Caspar and Hubert socked him squarely in the face, a vocal “OUCH!” heard.

Eventually, the lecture hall emptied out with the other students, leaving behind Byleth.

Or so it should’ve been just Byleth.

The professor raised her brow, staring at the remaining student. She placed the textbooks in a neat pile on the podium, dusted her hands on her legs, and approached the house leader. Edelgard stood in front of her desk. Hands behind her back, she watched Byleth come close.

“Is something the matter, El?”

“Please don’t use my nickname,” the student pleaded, feeling heat collect under her cheeks. “Someone could hear it.”

“Aren’t we alone, though?” Byleth inched closer until their face was directly in front of one another. Looking down at her girlfriend, she cracked her rare smile. “I sense no one nearby.”

“Are you sure?”

She nodded. “I’m sure. If you want to be extra cautious…” Byleth took Edelgard’s hand and, without further ado, left the premise, leaving behind their belongings.

“Where are we going?” Edelgard asked.

No answer.

Edelgard drew her lips to a line. She was not a pushy person, but it would do well to have some form of communication. A response would be great, especially if they left the classroom in a hurry. Byleth glanced over her shoulder. Edelgard frowned. Then, Byleth tilted her head.

“Remember what I taught in class today?”

“About trust?”

“Yes.”

“So, you’re telling me that I should trust you.”

“Yes.”

Edelgard’s shoulders slumped and strained a smile. Perhaps it was a surprise Byleth wishes to show to her. Yes, that might be it. It would explain her lacking response to her earlier question. But it appeared that their trip was shorter than anticipated.

Byleth clicked the door shut and locked it behind her back once they entered Byleth’s dormitory room. Edelgard, standing near Byleth’s desk, drifted her fingers over its surface, her lilac hues directed at the scribbled scrolls. She paused and looked up once Byleth approached.

“Is there a reason why you wanted to bring me here?”

“Yes.”

Byleth inched closer. Instinctively, Edelgard stepped back. Her back immediately bumped into the sturdy furniture, her hands grabbing its edge. Her breath hitched once their face was in proximity. Looking into each other’s eyes, Edelgard could see Byleth’s navy hues reflect her face. It showed a young lady, no younger nor older than 18, staring up at the person she called her girlfriend. Heat discolored her cheeks.

“Byleth…”

“El…”

The older woman leaned in. Edelgard knew where this was going, so she closed her eyes, tilting her head up, ready for what was to come.

Byleth kissed her softly on the nose… and stepped away.

“H-Huh?” Edelgard opened her eyes. As if she could read her mind, Byleth faintly smiled. “Edelgard,” she said. “I want to continue teaching you what kisses mean.”

Oh… oh, it was that. Edelgard was a bit disappointed, but perhaps she had read one too many erotic literature a few nights ago. The build-up was almost perfect. Invitation to a lover’s private bedroom, the physical closeness, and the kiss… That shattered in less than a minute. The house leader scratched her cheek and glanced away. Then again, she felt ashamed. Edelgard ushered her own lustful demons back into the abyss. She lowered her head and chuckled.

“What does this kiss mean then?”

Byleth’s hands slowly reached up until she cupped Edelgard’s soft cheeks. She leaned forward, planting another tender kiss on the tip of her nose. “This,” she said. “Represents a desire to care for someone. To be nice to them.”

Then, she moved her lips up to Edelgard’s forehead. She planted a kiss. “This represents dominance.” One of Byleth’s hands began to snake behind the back of her head, fingers gently combing through her white locks. Then, she hovered her lips above Edelgard’s.

“This…” she leaned in. “Represents how much I love you.”

A kiss on the lips.

Edelgard smiled into her girlfriend’s lips and retaliated with her own. When they parted, their blush was dark. Byleth leaned in once more until their forehead touched. They stared into each other’s eyes. At that moment, the older woman rested her hand on Edelgard’s chest.

“Your heart is racing…”

“So is yours— or so I would like to say…” The house leader’s gloved hand smoothed her chest, the corner of her lips pulled down. “I could never get used to your still heart.”

Byleth’s eyes were crinkled. She took her hand and removed it from her chest. Pressing the back of her hand to her lips, she said, “My heart may not beat, but I’m happy with you.” She kissed her hand. “El, I love you. I love you so much.” Then, Edelgard’s eyes widened, Byleth biting the tip of her glove. She slowly slid the glove off with a gentle tug. In its full glory, scars exposed themselves to the open. Edelgard bit her lower lip. Once the white material dropped to the floor, Byleth’s eyes darkened. “I can’t hold myself back anymore.”

“Hold yourself back?”

“Yes.” Byleth pulled Edelgard towards her and buried her face into her shoulder. She deeply inhaled, allowing the fragrance of scarlet carnations to fill her sense. The older female closed her eyes and, after craning her head, planted a kiss on her girlfriend’s neck. Edelgard immediately reached up, but was stopped short between their embrace, her hands trapped to gripping Byleth’s dark overcoat. She squirmed and felt her face become hotter as Byleth whispered into her ear, “This represents my desire to have you all to myself.”

Heartbeat. Edelgard’s ears heated up and she tightened her grip. Through her flushed features, she whispered, “I want you too.” Edelgard leaned upward to capture Byleth’s lips.

“Mmph!”

Byleth’s eyes widened, noticing her lover begin to insert her tongue inside of her mouth. She tried to move away, but her aggressive kiss enticed her to stay. The professor’s eyes narrowed, unintentionally letting out a groan into Edelgard’s mouth, feeling the heat build-up from within her chest. Edelgard was taking the initiative, but when they parted, Byleth instantly moved to attack, locking their lips once again.

“You don’t know how much I want to do this to you,” Byleth panted after parting. “I’ve been holding myself back for so long. We've been so busy and everything.”

Although they tangled their bodies and ate up each other’s nectar in the past, it was at odd intervals. With their profession on the line, their reputation, and their setting, Byleth and Edelgard hardly had some alone time with each other. Or rather, some alone time that lasted long enough to sustain their sexual hunger. Byleth’s fingers slid down until she came upon her shoulders. Then, she unclicked her red cape.

“Please, let me love you.”

“You know I can’t say no to that.” Edelgard shrugged off her cape, letting it plop to the floor without a sound. She smiled, starting to peel off her uniform bit by bit, eyeing her girlfriend. The sight of Byleth widening her eyes with a slacked jaw made her giggle. “But you’ll have to bear with me for a bit.”

She kicked her leg out and stripped her bright red legging. Her pace was agonizingly slow. And that was her intention. The rising emperor smirked when Byleth’s features became beet red, imaginary steam wafted from atop her head. Edelgard, in her white undergarment, walked towards Byleth. It was her teacher’s turn to back away. Her knees gave away, back falling upon the mattress from behind. Byleth’s chest rose and fell, her navy hues staring at Edelgard.

Edelgard climbed on top of her dressed professor, her knee snuggled between Byleth’s thighs, and placed a hand beside her head. She smirked and bit on the end of her remaining glove, pulling it out to expose another scarred hand. Byleth felt a puff of hot air seep into her head.

“You’re so sexy,” she whispered. “This can’t be a dream.”

“Then it would be a lucid, wet dream for you, hm?” The student laughed and pecked her nose. “What do you want to do now, my teacher?”

Byleth felt her core twitch in response. But she bit the bottom of her lip and locked her arms around Edelgard’s neck. She pulled Edelgard close until their lips met again, their eyes closed. Byleth poked her tongue, inviting Edelgard to open her mouth. A sweet moan vibrated the inside of her mouth as Byleth’s tongue snuck inside. But Edelgard was not one to timidly let Byleth dominant her, the young lady probing and pushing at Byleth’s. During their exchange, Edelgard’s hands slowly crept to her clothes.

“Take… these off,” she commanded with bated breaths. Another kiss was given on the lips, albeit shorter. “I can’t be the only one without my clothes.”

And she listened to the future emperor’s wish. Byleth sat up after Edelgrad removed herself, watching her lover remove and throw the clothes onto the ground. Those plump breasts freed themselves from her black shirt, surprising Edelgard that she wasn’t wearing any garment for it.

“No matter how many times I’ve told you to wear a bra, you still didn’t listen to me,” she said.

Byleth tilted her head. “I’ve never worn it before I became a professor. Why should I now?”

“Ugh, you are hopeless.”

Then again, they’ve developed into fine shape. The times she’s held them in her hands, they were soft and bountiful. A perfect substitution for a pillow whenever they slept together. Edelgard glanced down at hers and pouted.

“Perhaps I should not wear a bra either…”

“But I like your cute breasts the way it is now.”

“I don’t know if I should be angry at you for saying that.”

“It’s the truth. And easy for my mouth too.”

“YOU—!”

She was cut off short once Byleth stripped entirely. Whatever seething fury she had about her size, it vanished in a blink of an eye, the toned body becoming her eye-candy. Both now in their undergarments, one in a lone black underwear, and another in a pair of whites, Byleth captured her hands. A twinkle in her eyes, she said, “Let’s do something different.” The older woman remained seated and pulled Edelgard towards her again. However, she had her student face forward, her breasts pressed against her sturdy back. Edelgard shuddered, her lilac hues shifted to the side.

If she recalled, in those forbidden erotic books, they’ve mentioned that in this position, Byleth could touch her in all sorts of places. And Edelgard would be powerless to stop her.

“Hnngh!?”

Byleth bit into her shoulder. She did not harshly dig her teeth into the smooth skin, but the teal-haired woman impressed with enough force to leave a red mark. Arms wrapped around the now-squirming royal, she proceeded to kiss the same spot. She faintly sucked on the marker, kissing and sucking. Soon, Byleth moved closer to her neck, repeating the same action sequence, spreading the hickeys in a trail.

“T-That’s sensitive— Ah!”

Edelgard quietly cried out, bringing up her hands to cover her mouth. Byleth paused and whispered into her ear with a tinkly voice, “I want to hear you, El.” Then, she blew a hot breath, eliciting a yelp. “Let your voice out.”

“W-What if the others hear?” she said. “I can’t have Hubert hear me.”

“That won’t be possible.” Byleth’s hands slowly crawled to their next destination, Edelgard unaware of her advances. “No one should hear us.” She slid her slender fingers over her lover’s mounds, a soft whine escaping Edelgard. Byleth cocked her head at an angle, staring down at those perky breasts, her fingertips brushing over the covered erected nipples. Another whine. Byleth felt her heart race and she massaged them with care, saying, “But if he did, I won’t mind. I’ll deal with him later.”

“Y-You— Ah! You… you speak as if you know how to— Nngh… deal with him.”

Edelgard sharply inhaled when Byleth’s cool fingers slid under her garment. The fabrics that rubbed against her already-hot skin and direct contact with her sensitive mounds made sitting still difficult. She gasped again when Byleth pinched her nipples.

“I do know. I’m sure Hubert would approve me pleasuring the person he’s served his entire life.”

“Why would you tell him that?!”

“I won’t.” One of Byleth’s hands slipped out to undo Edelgard’s bra, tossing the white material next to her large overcoat. She resumed her ministrations on her breasts, chuckling and planting a kiss to her cheek. “But Hubert can’t say anything if it makes you happy. He’s told me so.”

“He told you— Nfh… gh!?”

The sensitivity oddly kicked up a notch upon hearing Hubert’s response to their explicit activities. Edelgard had tried to hide it, their relationship already placing a strain on Hubert’s tolerance of Byleth. She struggled to keep her groan down once one of Byleth’s hands roamed downward to her stomach… side… then abdomen. Rubbing them as they shared another passionate kiss, Edelgard finally heard a click in her head.

That explained why Hubert backed away from their relationship… and he was kinder to Byleth.

“Ahh… gh…”

Knowing that intensified her heat, her core burning with great fiery.

Byleth broke their exchange, a thin string of saliva connecting them, breaking in a matter of seconds. Panting, she leaned into Edelgard’s back, her breasts and hardened nipples pressing again into her girlfriend. She couldn’t calm her pounding heart with their exchange. Although she was giving more than receiving, the fact that Edelgard’s flustered features were bright red, her eyes clouded, and mouth occasionally singing lovely, lustful tunes tickled her hot core. Byleth rested her chin on the girl’s marked shoulders.

“You’re so cute.”

She traced the outlines of her white underwear, lightly scratching her crotch’s surrounding with her fingernails. And that made Edelgard wiggle in her grasp.

“B-Byleth!” she called out. “That… that feels good—!”

Byleth smiled. “I’m happy to hear that.” She eyed her lover’s reaction as her fingers eventually hovered above the white garment. A tap. When she retracted her finger, a small portion of her fingertip was wet. Edelgard, through her fast, hot breaths and moans, closed an eye and glanced down. Another wave of heat washed over her at the sight of her girlfriend’s finger. “You’re so wet, El.”

Another tap— This time, she continuously patted on Edelgard’s underwear, going up and down vertically. The taps soon transitioned into flicks, eliciting more gasps and moans from the noble. Once she felt the fabrics soaked enough to become visible, Byleth removed her busy hand from Edelgard’s breast.

“I’m going to take this off, okay?”

A pause. Then, Edelgard nodded, turning her head to look at Byleth. “Please,” she pleaded and captured her lover’s lips again. “I want to feel your touches.” Byleth’s eyes darkened again, an animalistic urge to tear off her garment and bring her to euphoria in a matter of seconds. She wanted to ravage her. To eat her up. To drag her on until she fell unconscious.

But she tried to hold herself back.

At least, for now.

Byleth stripped the soft, wet material from her girlfriend and, just like their other clothes, threw them off the bed. She groaned into the young lady’s mouth, her dominance faltering. Edelgard was fully bare, sweat glistening on some parts of her naked body. The Black Eagle’s house leader took initiative and nibbled on Byleth’s lower lip.

“Mmm… El, you’re so beautiful…”

Edelgard’s eyes squeezed shut when she felt a pressure applied to the nub in her crotch.

“A-Ah…” she moaned, barely cracking open one eye, staring at her teacher’s fingers. Byleth’s thumb pressed upon her clitoris, the bundle of nerves rattling underneath. She continuously did so as if it were a button, her other hand rubbing the outside of her labia. Mini explosions of euphoria colored her sensation, slowly overwhelming her sense of sanity.

“N-Ngh!”

The way Byleth pressed, hard, upon her clitoris, caused her to cry out.

“AH—!”

Byleth captured the hard nub between her thumb and index, pinching it.

“AH! B-Byleth— Not so— Nnngh! Not so rough— HAH!”

Keeping the clitoris in her grasp, Byleth rolled it between her fingers as if it were a ball.

“W-What are you— Wait—! A-AH! No— Don’t— H-Hyaaaah!”

Byleth’s other hand began to sneak two fingers inside of her moist labia, stroking the starting point of her inner walls.

“D-Don’t stroke so roughly— Nnngh! More! Byleth, I want— I want more!”

Edelgard arched her back, thrusting her lower body into her touches. If she had any shred of dignity left, she now had none of them. Her eyes heavy-lidded, Edelgard choked back an outcry as Byleth’s fingers worked through her. One focused entirely on her favorite spot, the clitoris, and another in her vagina, stirring and rubbing the throbbing walls. Edelgard started to grind into her hands until Byleth accidentally stuck two fingers deep inside of her moist cavern, Edelgard’s face twisting.

“Are you okay, El?!” Byleth stopped everything, looking with beads of sweat flying. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know I was going too fast.”

She felt a steel hold grip her wrist, forcing her fingers to remain inside of Edelgard’s inside. When she shot a worried look at Edelgard. But her expression loosened. Edelgard shook her head and softly growled, “Don’t you stop.” Byleth felt a switch flick on as she mumbled an “okay.”

Byleth resumed her ministrations, circling the stud and pinching it while rubbing her inside with two fingers. The rubbing came to a pause. Then, Byleth dug them as deep as she can into the cavern and curled her fingers up.

“Oh!”

A jolt of pleasure electrified Edelgard, her muscles jerking. Byleth narrowed her eyes and gave her another finger, stroking her inside, the rubbing also intensified on her clitoris.

SLICK

SLICK

SLICK

The wet sound of her pumping fingers and touches washed over Edelgard’s ears. She thrust her hips out again, moving them back and forth. Edelgard tried to grind as hard as she can on those three fingers and lean into the pleasurable rubs on the sensitive bundle of nerves.

“AH—! AH! Byleth— BYLETH!” she cried out, riding on her girlfriend’s hands. “I-I’m… I’m close—!”

Even though her muscles in her arms burned and sweat dripped down Byleth’s face, she grunted in response, burying her face into the girl’s shoulder. Byleth deeply inhaled, trying not to move her own hips against the fabrics of her mattress. She had to quell the monstrous desire to grind against her girlfriend’s back. Edelgard whined once Byleth bit hard, Byleth’s eyes squeezing shut.

She had to control herself.

She had to pull her rein back.

She—

“A-Ah— AHHHHHH!”

She snapped her eyes open and removed her mouth. Feeling Edelgard’s vagina clench around her fingers, Byleth immediately rubbed the nub well after Edelgard’s climax, her stiffened body jerking in her grasp. The orgasm slammed into Edelgard like a tidal wave. Hard. Although she came down from her high, Byleth didn’t stop, her rubbing only intensifying.

“Nnngh—! S-Stop—HAH! N-Not again— AH!”

Byleth bit back her own moan, aroused and full of heat from the sweet groans and cries from Edelgard. Beautiful. So beautiful! The beast inside of her had awoken! The teal-haired woman continued to focus onto Edelgard’s favorite erogenous spot: the clitoris.

Twisting it.

Pulling it.

Pinching it.

Rubbing it.

Ah, if only she could put her mouth on it…! But in this position, Byleth opted to continue using her fingers, instead, littering kisses and hickeys throughout the sensitive nape of her neck.

“I’m coming— I’m coming—!”

Byleth planted one last kiss before she roughly tweaked her overly sensitive nub.

“El…!”

“A-AHHHHH!!!”

Her efforts paid off. The pleasure that rippled through Edelgard spiked again before she could descend back to ground level, her back arching violently. Unlike previously, there was a silent scream, Edelgard unable to vocalize the near-whitening experience. Byleth bit back a cry, albeit for a different reason, an accidental bonk on her nose from Edelgard’s head bursting waves of pain throughout her face. The older woman shook off the anguish as her girlfriend collapsed into her arms, her breaths fast and spent.

“A…. Ah….” Edelgard lulled her head to the side, resting the side of her face in Byleth’s arm. She shakily brought her hand up to her chest, feeling her heart race a thousand miles. “That… hah…. was amazing…”

“I’m…. I’m… glad…”

“…Byleth?”

The Black Eagles student looked up. Her eyes widened and she scrambled to her knees, facing her professor. “Oh my gosh, are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” Byleth waved her hand and removed another from her nose. “It’s… Yes, I’m okay. It’s not bleeding.”

Edelgard felt sweat fly out of her head and sat on her knees, hands rested on her legs. She lowered her head, strands of her white hair slipping out of its place and hanging over her eyes.

“I am so sorry! I… I didn’t know I hurt you while we were doing it!”

“Things happen,” Byleth said with a strained smile. “But you… feel good, right?”

“Gosh, I… Why are you asking me that?” Edelgard leaned in and pecked her red nose. “I love it. I love every part of it.”

“Then I’m glad.”

Byleth glanced down and noticed her damp underwear. However, she pushed aside her own needs, happy to sate both her girlfriend and the erotic, horny beast that howls for food. As she reached for a tissue box near her bedside and wiped Edelgard’s bodily fluid from her fingers, the student too looked down to her teacher.

“…”

“…?”

Byleth felt her back press upon the mattress, her navy hues widening, staring at Edelgard from above. When she tried to move her arms, Edelgard had pinned them near her head. She smirked.

“I think it’s unfair that I’m the only one that’s feeling good.”

“Edelgard, you don’t need to— Hey! Don’t take it off!”

“Your words fall on deaf ears, my teacher,” Edelgard threw the wet garment aside, bringing forth a glorious sight. Beautiful is an understatement. No words could describe the lovely, toned figure before her. Edelgard exhaled, pulling out a faint gasp from Byleth as she stared at her wet nether region. “You always steal my breath away.”

“Huh, so you could say something cheesy too.”

“Professor!”

Now it was Edelgard would was red on the face, more so than Byleth! Byleth laughed and looked at her girlfriend. “What will you do now, El?” she smiled. “Will you ravage me like how I did to you?”

“Ravage? I am no savage.” Edelgard released her hold on Byleth’s wrist. She descended down her body. Byleth nearly choked on her own spit once a hot breath puffed upon her crotch. She propped herself up with both elbows, staring with wide eyes at Edelgard. Edelgard’s hands pressed upon her thighs, pushing it down, and eyed the moistened region. “I’m simply quelling your aches.”

“O-Oh, don’t be silly, I do not ache—”

“Byleth.”

“H-HNNGH?!”

The first stroke of her tongue on Byleth’s flower bloomed pleasure in seconds. Byleth tossed her head up, her hands fisting the dark mattress underneath. She let out a long groan, Edelgard tasting her again with another flick of her tongue. The noble raised her head with crinkled eyes.

“You shouldn’t lie to me. What happened to your lecture from earlier?”

Byleth moaned again before an objection left her lips, Edelgard tackling the wet premise. Vibrations fluttered through her sensitive region, the two groaning simultaneously. The young lady adjusted her upper body, keeping Byleth from snapping her thighs together, and took her time licking her folds.

Up and down, up and down, up and down.

Edelgard’s heart fluttered when Byleth clenched the bedsheet again. The teal-haired woman’s arms wobbled, her breathing ragged, Edelgard’s tongue undoing her little by little. Byleth was so used to giving, and she was used to receiving very little. It was her job as a mercenary. It was her job as a professor. It was her job at the monastery. But Edelgard was different. She kissed the hardened pink nub, eliciting a sharp gasp from Byleth.

“You’re…. really good at this, aren’t you— Nngh…. AH!?”

The kiss was followed up with sucking, and Edelgard sucked on her clitoris. Hard. Byleth’s arms collapsed, her back plopped back on the soft bed, a whine leaving her. She nearly bucked Edelgard off with her hips from the abrupt intensity! The student huffed and braced an arm across her hips to hold her down. Her mouth devoured and greedily tasted her sex, Edelgard sent to Cloud Nine from its sweetness.

“Haaah…. Haaah!”

Byleth could not sit up. Instead, her hands reached down to grab ahold of Edelgard’s head, her fingers tangling with her white hair. Although she had climaxed twice from Byleth’s help, the house leader felt her core heat up, the sexy moans and cries from Byleth tickling her to arousal. Edelgard pressed her hips into the blankets, the rough texture brushing her sore clitoris. She softly gasped and repeatedly ground into it.

“Nngh… This is addicting…” Edelgard whispered. Once she said her confession, Byleth bucked under her hold, Edelgard’s arm muscles tensing. In response, Edelgard enveloped her mouth over the entirety of her region, her tongue sliding around the entrance. She kept on licking, the strong, sweet, nectar-like smell of her bodily fluids seeping out from its warmth. And Edelgard lapped it all up. “I love you so much, Byleth.”

When she bucked into the blankets again, her tongue returned to her clitoris. She flicked her tongue on the bundle of nerves, occasionally running the entirety of her entrance vertically. And Byleth felt her abdomen burst in an explosion.

“A— AHHHHH!”

She had not climaxed, but her muscles from inside and out were twitching, her head thrashed left and right.

“NNNNNGH! Your— Your tongue— NGF— GH, AH!!”

“Oh, Byleth—!” Edelgard groaned, her thrusting becoming wild. Her licks were becoming sloppier, but the intensity increased by two folds, her focus now entirely on the clitoris only. “You’re so… beautiful— Nngh… I love you…. I love you so much, Byleth!”

The build gradually grew in time, the pressure of her stroking tongue increasing at the same rate. Byleth, and the swirling roll on the blankets growing the same way. Their pants were loud in the bedroom, hot breaths puffed from their mouth, as they desperately attempt to hit euphoria and relieve their aching core.

“I-I’m— I’m too close—!”

“Me… Me too— Hngh!?”

To their surprise, Edelgard climaxed for the third time, albeit it lasted shorter and with less intensity than the previous two. Her student slumped, her breaths fast. Yet her recovery was quick. Byleth immediately howled once she felt her tongue flick between her folds again. The bud of her clitoris was held in the warmth of her mouth, and she sucked on it like a baby.

Byleth slowly raised her head, her eyes staring up at the ceiling, and could barely cry out anymore. The pleasure was overwhelming. It had taken all forms of reasoning from the teal-haired woman, her throbbing bud enveloped and melting in her mouth. Byleth felt her soul transcend to the next plane as her fingers deathly gripped Edelgard’s head.

“….a….. Ah….. AH…… AH…. AHHHHHH!!!”

She squeezed her eyes shut and immediately sat up. Just like Byleth did to Edelgard, Edelgard made sure to drag her out into another round, her tongue abusing the hypersensitive area. A voiceless scream ripped through Byleth’s throat as she stiffened, her orgasm dragged on for what seems like a forever.

“Oh… Oh my gosh…”

Byleth flopped back on the mattress and released Edelgard's head. The highness that filled her body to the brim evaporated upon coming down to reality, her chest rising and falling. Byleth saw her girlfriend slowly crawl up to her outstretched arms. Edelgard laid down on her side, head resting on one of them. The two females stared at each other. Then, they softly laughed.

“Ha… haha… You…” Byleth shakily exhaled and turned to Edelgard, reaching over to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “That… was amazing…”

Edelgard closed her eyes and smiled. “I’m happy to hear that.” But their conversation did not continue past that point, their heavy eyelids closed and fatigue settled into their bones.

From the distance, right outside of the door, Sothis, once again, stared at the locked door, a pulsating red anger mark visible on her head. It had been hours, the sun had set, and darkness replaced daylight. She crossed her arms and grumbled.

“Great. Does that mean I have to sleep outside again?"

Meanwhile, Hubert and Ferdinand snuck into their quiet classroom, gathering their teacher's and Edelgard's belongings.

"What could have possibly transpired that they left their things behind?" Ferdinand asked.

Hubert paused. He glanced up at the ceiling. Then, his frown turned upside-down and his cheeks were inflamed. Hubert dryly swallowed and hastened his pace. "They... might've been busy with a matter." He grimaced, failing to dispel the heat. "It's best you know nothing about it."

"Why?"

"I will not repeat myself twice."

Ferdinand was about to open his mouth, but... clamped it after seeing Hubert's flushed features. "Oh." He shifted his gaze and adjusted his hold on Byleth's supplies. "...oh." It didn't take a whole minute for his face to turn bright red.  

[in-somnis-verita]

PROLOGUE

                                                family is everything. words that she saved within her heart and by which she lived by. After all, it she didn't, she wouldn't have been following his tracks for so long, would she? Mingled with the crowd and acting as a guardian of sorts (or so she saw herself as, at least, no matter how hypocrite that was of her), the ninth, the noah of dreams, for whom time didn't seem to pass, stood at a distance; pensively observing the small performance that the infamous garvey troupe had put, in order to sell a few more tickets for their christmas special. or so they said, anyway, but she couldn't be less interested about it. no sir, for this young woman, clad in an elegant, warm cape, had only been gracing them with her barely perceptible presence for a single reason: and that reason, ironically, had a name ━━ albeit he couldn't quite remember, could he? and yet, even though she could feel the frigid breeze passing by unruly locks of navy, and even though she felt her visage being kissed by the falling snow, mentally at least, Road was no longer on the lively plaza of edinstown. She was no longer surrounded by the cacophony of laughter and voices, of excited applauses and loud whistles, no ━ golden orbs might have been set upon the pierrot that perfomed with utmost grace, but the petite girl's thoughts was a thousand miles away; in dear remembrances that she adamantly refused to let go of.                                  it’s alright, no one will hurt you now. the world had, in a matter of minutes, gone silent and aureate; only evenly lit by the twilight rays of sun that entered through clear window panes and softly bathed their skin.   ━ ❝  apricot tea, ❞  the female offered, with a smile spread upon her lips as she carefully placed a porcelain mug on the surface in front of him. ━ ❝ it'll do you good, you'll see. ❞   ah, that sort of mellow teatimes wasn't uncommon at all between the two, quite the contrary: long conversations, that oftenly stretched into late night ones by a fireplace or beneath the stars, were born between sips of tea and nibbles on cinammon biscuits. And up to this day, she remembered that one afternoon so vividly: it had been thirty-five (or was it thirty-six?) years ago, and little did she know at the time, life as she knew it was about to crumble down to earth; leaving naught but destruction and misery on its wake. ━ ❝  thank you, Road, ❞  he ended up saying, as calm as ever, with a grateful smile across his lips. Mana still kept that very same kindness, didn't he? she could see it upon the way he had adopted that dog, that pulled impressive tricks along with him; or by the way he took that orphan child under his wing without hesitation. But she was diverging in her thoughts, wasn't she? ━ ❝ what would I do without you? ❞ looking back at it, there were so many signs that she ignored (or that maybe he hid from her).  And Nea, too … it was for her own good, she remembered the most mischievous of the siblings telling her in secret, one night, and that he was doing it for Mana's sake … up to this day, those words hadn't left her mind. ━ ❝ that's something we don't need to think about, isn't it? ❞ she recalled the hints of bemusement at her own words, and the lopsided smile that had bloomed upon her chasms. As far as she had been concerned, it made no sense to dwell on unrealistic events she was there, and there he was, were they not? wasn't that all that mattered? Watching as he briskly stirred his beverage and chuckled, so lightheartedly, did break her heart into a thousand pieces; each for a different reason. but it had still been a welcoming memoir.                                 it’s alright, no one will resent you now.  he was already suffering, then, wasn't he? she cursed herself for not having been capable of soothing his pain, back then, when it was bearable. It wouldn't change much, for prophecies are bound to happen one way or another, but she couldn't let go of the idea that, maybe, just maybe, she could have postponed it for a little longer. but it wasn't worth crying over spilled milk, was it? ah, at a first sight, the sheep that wielded the dreams of noah hadn't changed one bit: a youthful visage, framed by short locks of navy hair and large, dark azure hues that seemed to hold an entire starry sky within. But oh, despite the fact that it had only been seventeen years ago, Road felt as though she had aged hundreds of years. ━ ❝ don't get closer,  ❞  she had threatened, and oh, had she meant every single word. No matter how uttering them had ripped her appart, back then. It still did. ━ ❝ or I won't hesitate in fighting you, Nea. ❞ how could it not hurt? how could she not be pained, stained, broken, by the fact that she was cornered between the two people she had loved the most in her life? The fact that she had to choose between one and the other, the fact that she held an unconscious Mana within her protective grasp while promising violence to a very upset Nea. she remembered the silence that weighted between them and which lasted for what felt like an eternity, at the moment,  and she remembered the betrayal in his eyes at her decisive stance. She didn't want to choose, she never wanted to, but Mana needed her more than ever, then.  She remembered the way he turned his back on her and left, and she didn't regret her decision, she never had and she never would. she only hoped that he'd forgive her, when the day came.                                 it’s alright, no one will curse you now. or so she wished. Because with the cross he carried upon his shoulders, all she could do was to support him ━ whether he remembered who she was, or not. and so, with determinate golden orbs set to the grey clouds above, road kamelot, the one who harboured within her core the dreams of noah, swore to find them, when the promised day arrived, before someone else could.                                        because family is everything.  

[treatian]

The Chronicles of the Dark One:  The Dark Curse

Chapter 145:  Unexpected Disruptions

The truth of the matter was that he would have loved to send Pirithous off to spy on David that morning. As far as he was concerned until he had confidence that things were going the way he wanted them to, he wanted David monitored closely, just as closely as his brother had been. But with Pirithous getting dangerously close to putting together what was going on and when he saw exactly where David was off to that morning, he was even more glad that he hadn't made him follow.

First thing that morning, David had got up, fetched the horse from the stable hand, and disappeared out into the woods on his own. It was odd for a royal to leave unaccompanied, but he figured George probably figured out where he was going and called the guard off lest they see something they shouldn't, to him that would be more detrimental than someone murdering his False Prince and learning the truth. He was almost jealous of how smart the King acted, for the second he saw David finally arrive later that afternoon, he realized that he should have figured out where he was going too.

He went home. The journey from George's castle back to his home was significantly longer by horse than by magic, but the boy made good time. By afternoon he was standing outside his family farm, hugging his mother. He held his breath as he watched the exchange, wishing he had a mirror to listen to it, wondering if he should go himself and listen. But much to his pleasure, it ended the way it should, the way the Seer predicted. Not long after he arrived, it was clear that the meeting was truly a good-bye. She pressed a ring with a green jewel into his hands and, after a few more tearful words, David mounted his steed and returned to George's castle and James' life in time for dinner.

Then, yesterday evening, just as the sun was getting ready to set, he watched as Abigail and David got into a carriage and began the escorted journey that would take them to the palace. If they rode all night, as it seemed they would, then it would take a couple of days of travel to get to Midas' new castle. He'd watched them well into the early morning hours, shocked when he saw they had decided not to take the quickest route but the scenic route, that would add another day. On the morning of the day they should have arrived his eyes hurt. He felt like he'd done nothing for days but stare into that crystal ball. He'd been waiting, waiting, waiting all the journey for Snow White and David to run into each other. They were, once more going through a forest Snow White was known to haunt. And for one brief moment, he'd thought that Snow White was about to ambush the carriage, but something had frightened her out of her hiding place, and she'd been forced to run. Still…there was hope. It would be another few hours until they arrived at the palace. Thanks to an intercepted invitation he'd summoned to his side, he knew the engagement party wasn't scheduled until that evening. That left plenty of time for a run in and Midas carriage was a tempting treat for dear Snow. It was a situation to monitor for a few days, but Belle…

She was one of the only reasons in the last few days that he'd managed to tear himself away. He hadn't been spending as much time with her as he had before this mess had started, he mostly left her alone after dinner now, in favor of watching this drama play out. But he still ate with her. Usually by breakfast time and dinner time his eyes were sore enough that it was easy to convince himself to take a break and go eat with her. Now was about the time that he always left and went downstairs to move her chair so everything would be ready when it was time for breakfast. And a break would be nice. To be honest, more than a break would be nice. On a day like this, with the sun shining and the heat returning to the mountain slowly, he had no doubt Belle would be in a happy mood when she awoke.

Or rather when she had awoken…she was up already! Early! This early?! Before he'd even had time to move her chair! There she was, standing in the Great Room like always, putting out plates and silverware…but still far earlier than he ever would have expected her.

"Someone is a bit anxious for work this morning!" he announced.

She shrugged and continued her work. "The sun is out. I was excited, I was hoping to read outside today, in the light…" then she let out a disappointed sigh and shook her head. "But it's still too cold."

"Not enough light in the tower?" he questioned, though he felt sympathy for her as she finished her task. She wanted warmth. To him, it was warming up, but it wasn't enough for her to sit out and enjoy her day as he always imagined Baelfire would have. It saddened him for some reason he couldn't really place.

"Certainly not as bright as it is in here…or outside," she beamed, showing him her teeth and that despite the fact she couldn't go, she was still happy. He had mixed emotions about the particular comment that she'd made. Yes, it was rather bright in here, he had adjusted to it as he'd promised, but when he remembered that day, the images in his head, there were days he wondered if the cost of it was worth it.

Before he could let his thoughts wander back, a loud screech made him jump. The chair. He was in his seat and prepared to eat early with her, but her chair was by the fire. He never moved it when she was around, always when she was gone. And since he hadn't, he now found her at its side, attempting to haul the heavy, massive thing from the fireside to the opposite end of the table. He rolled his eyes as he watched her struggle. Why was it that women, especially that woman, never asked for help?

The magic it took to move the thing was barely worth considering. With barely a thought it went from her hands to the end of the table where it belonged.

Belle was confused at first, looking from her hands to the fireside and finally over to her end of the table to find it there. When she did, she turned back to look at him, shock and questioning in her eyes, as if the answer wasn't a simple thing.

"By the time you finish dragging that thing over there, it'll be teatime. And my floor will be scratched," he explained, staring at his food so he wouldn't have to see her smile. How did he know she'd be smiling? How did he know she'd probably be blushing? First on her chest, then her neck, then into her cheeks, that beautiful tone of red that made him want to blush just to match her.

"Thank you," he heard her mutter as she went to her seat.

Suddenly the world stopped. He felt cold. The table, the food, Belle, the fire, all disappeared from his eyes as the Seer threw image after image at him so violently he felt himself shake.

An image of a city like he'd never seen before…it vanished, disappeared into nothing but woods and coast.

Snow White, an old woman, finally caught by a flu and dying in a hallowed out log without a friend in the world.

David and Abigail, ruling side by side with three or four blonde haired children before them and smiles that never quite made it too their eyes.

A log on the road surrounded by royal carriages, like the image he'd seen earlier only in this one Snow White pounced!

A royal pouch. Stolen.

The same royal pouch, safe in David's hands.

The green ring collecting dust.

Regina's Kingdom in chaos.

Belle's grave, old and whithered bones before him.

A flash of a blonde haired woman and the face of Killian Jones, Captain Hook, standing side by side.

"If it doesn't happen…then nothing ever will!" the Seer screamed in his ear.

A vision of a rolling green hill, Hook and the blonde woman were staring at his castle on a sunny morning…it was now.

"Help them…or it will never come to pass."

An image of a man with dark hair, graying on the sides near his ears, a person he'd seen before in the original vision the Seer had given him came to mind, but then disappeared and faded from few. Except now he knew...it was Baelfire.

And suddenly a darker image came to light of a person in a cloak, holding the Dark One Dagger while he writhed on the ground. His blood was on the dagger, the name was changing as he was dying.

"Help them now!"

The Seer had released him from his vision, but her words lingered. On the other side of the table, Belle sat enjoying her meal as she always did, but he felt like he was dissolving. His heart was racing. He felt like he couldn't breathe, couldn't even swallow! Apparently, it wasn't only her words that lingered, but the sense of emergency as well. Something had happened, something that shouldn't have happened! Something that threatened his way back to Baelfire…and he knew where he needed to start. Now.

In a flash, he was up and out of his chair.

"Rumple! Rumpelstiltskin?!"

He'd received an image of two people just beyond the boarder of his property, across the river! One of them was Captain Hook. What had he done now?!

"Wait!"

If he left now, he could intercept them, learn what had happened, and put a stop to it. Anything to get back to Bae! The image of his son as an adult was strong and clear and crisp in his head. So was its fading. He had to stop it!

"Wait, where are you going? What's wrong?!" Belle cried out, following him from the room.

"Nothing to worry about, dearie!" he lied, waving a hand over his shoulder. Though he wasn't sure how he was to convince her of that when he couldn't even convince himself. He had to calm down, he had to breathe, he had to believe! He had to remember that if he worked hard enough, he could get to the bottom of this and set it all straight. But only by being who he was. Not by running off half-cocked, especially not if he was going to face his enemy.

He turned around to face her so fast that she nearly ran right into him. He almost moved to catch her before he remembered his vow not to touch her. He was exceedingly glad when she took a few steps back on her own.

"I have an errand to run," he explained as she stared up at him, looking almost hurt that he'd rushed off away from their breakfast so quickly. It wasn't his choice. If he could have, he would have stayed and enjoyed her company all day long…but this couldn't wait.

"When…when will you be back?" she asked breathlessly.

When would he be back…it was words like that which sometimes made him think she enjoyed his own company just as much as he enjoyed hers. And what a silly thought really, when she had all the books she could ever want and a Great Room that was full of the sun she so craved.

"Later," he answered before casting a glace to the other room. She wanted a day of warm sun, and maybe it was the fact that the thing he'd wanted for so long now hung in the balance, but he wanted her to have it. He moved the couch that she favored up in her library down into the great room, just below the windows where she could receive sun all day. Magnified by the window panes, she'd be plenty warm. But just in case she wasn't he moved his own chair back to the fire for her and sent his dishes away down into the kitchens, leaving her with her own uneaten breakfast. That should be plenty of entertainment for her, at least until he figured out what the hell was going on.

"Enjoy your books," he stated warmly. Then he disappeared and left her alone.

He had a future to restore.

[myblueshades]

1987 be me Saturday morning, sun is blazing Phone around friends houses, I know all their numbers by heart Speak to several milfs or hot sisters; no one is in Get RALEIGH BURNER BMX from back garden Get dog Ride around looking for friends in usual haunts Find them "What shall we do lads" "Let's go to that lake in the Howell wood" It's 10 miles away THUNDERCATS HO! Fuck about in the woods until dehydration kicks in Walk 10 miles home coz puncture Death_march.jpg Arrive home Drink best part of a pint of water before it touches sides Dog drinks for 6 minutes straight as well Rendezvous with bff after teatime "Dad says we can rent a video tonight" Choose from large selection of VHS titles by cover art Schwarzenegger? lel Watch Predator for first time Walk home alone in the dark Read in bed for 5 minutes Pass out

2013 Would you have the whole world become a temple? A hunger acute from lack of the same I count out progressively tinier cons coins* Notch my belt & pocket the metaphor This means nothing Letting go, floating, keep breathing As the trees demand There was paper & charcoal Pixels & dinosaurs re place Still Fruitless Burn more, mitochondria A nuclear response evolves Colder Harder Faster Ask her Yet the silence stretches Sinking roots feeding everyone Telling nothing no one know I patiently wait, all the same

2017 'Yeah, base 12 is easy, you just count off your knuckles. You don't even need thumbs.' (Y)

The young'n has been blowing me the fuck out in maths for years already so even the smallest victory is sweet I spy her turning her hand all nonchalant like while I pretend to look away

We're embracing capitalism and on our way to formerly The largest shopping centre in all of Europe Only the roads and walls are the same In what seems just a few months A horizon replaced with an Ikea Pop-up shops and street furniture re-veneered in the seasons aesthetic

I've fallen out of the habit of carrying cash, and being around people So everyone gets the death stare and a slipped shoulder My Navigator locates the bourgeois soap shop and begins browsing tested on humans toiletries But settles in the end for 3 posters despite only really liking 2.

I'm in the market for new work trousers Seems my old ones can't quite contain all of my power I'm helping a valkyrauntie to lower her lawn 4 inches It's fucking madness but so is paying £150 for a glossy shoebox half full of glittering soap It takes 2 whole fingers worth of sarcastic comments from my copilot before I finally locate the Toolstation Hidden away and boxed in on all sides by other chain stores, restaurants, a multiplex cinema The arena. The red brick workshops on a winding narrow road seem out of place Even their cloak of soot has faded away now I show the assistant a screenshot of FV8333 Fending off requests for my email & offers of quarterly catalogues I score a pair of 65% plastic trousers, foam knee pads and 3 pairs of branded socks with a complementary hot chocolate for £11.50 "I'll take 2, since they're on offer."

The manual labour feels good But not as good as stopping We chat about the cannabis doc on itv the other night Featuring my aunties oldest friends in the form of retired soap stars Crossing America in a huge technicolour RV Getting themselves medicated and wankered and educated in that order "I wonder if it would help me with my Arthritis." I know what's coming, but roll out the interesting facts anyway "I'd never touch it, not after what happened to our Jason."

He was just 26 when he slipped the nurses and swam out to sea The doctors blamed the weed. An open and shut case.

"That's not why he did it Margaret." "Do you think not?" "There's more to it than those cunts know I think he had demons he needed peace from.." She nods slightly, with a somewhat numb expression "Besides, look how much the world has changed since then We're the fools for sticking around for it." I'm glad this raises the chuckle I was aiming for

Tossing the last inch of my coffee onto the lawn I return to heaving the sacks of turf and soil into the car Two at a time for balance

[rotfallen]

I have decided to post the analysis here. The song is It Should've Been Me by Riproducer ft. SOLARIA.

I am dropping this below the cut as it gets long. Ask me to tag it because I'm not sure what to tag it with lol.

Let’s start with the first verse:

[ Not too loud

Not too quiet

Don’t be proud

Don’t be shy 

It’s rude to stare

Oh, do I dare?

Keep it bold

Don’t be timid

Not too slow

Make it quick 

It’s so unfair

I’m almost there ]

In my eyes, this is what she’s learned from the books she’s read. After all, reading is where she gets most of her information anyways. She also feels like she’s lacking because she isn’t seen as a “woman” in most people’s eyes because her body stopped growing at a young age.

Let’s continue into the first pre-chorus:

[ Lost in a fantasy

My very own pandora’s box

Swarmed by my jealousy

I hope that it doesn’t show

Ire dipped in flattery

Nobody’s been as close as me

I spilled my guts

And all for what? ]

Here we have Sharon trying very hard to hide her jealousy when Break spends his time with other people as opposed to her. She feels like she’s being left behind or abandoned by him, but she keeps her feelings hidden under a kind smile. She feels like all she’s done for him is pointless if he won’t see that she’s right there.

Now for the first chorus:

[ It should’ve been me

You should have picked me from the start

And after everything I’ve done for you

You don’t think it’s bizarre?

It should’ve been me

Where do you think I got my spark?

I chiseled down my personality

'Til it's a work of art ]

Sharon is willing to do anything to be noticed by Break, including chiseling down her own personality to make herself likable in his eyes. And yet he still won’t look her way.

Second verse:

[ There you are

Can’t they see it?

I’m in awe

Could it be?

“It’s rude to stare”

Yes, I’m aware!

What a sight

Nearly perfect

You alright?

Does it hurt?

I will be there

You know I care! ]

Sharon cares for Break. She hates it when he gets hurt, and states constantly that she’ll be by his side no matter what. And yet, due to his fear of attachment, he pushes her aside. Which makes Sharon angry. She doesn’t understand it. She never has.

Second pre-chorus:

[ Caught in my fantasies

Don’t look inside pandora’s box

Push down the jealousy

No, nobody needs to know

Please don’t think less of me!

I’m but a lonely soul, you see

Oh, what a shame

I’ve gone insane ]

Sharon has driven herself crazy trying to get Break to realize her feelings for him. In her eyes, he’s just stupid and oblivious, and thinks that she just has to try harder (at the cost of her own sanity and self-worth). She keeps pushing down the jealousy more and more.

Second chorus time:

[ It should’ve been me

I oughta be there by your side

Just think of all the possibilities that we could bring to life

It should’ve been me

I think I need you to survive

So now it’s your responsibility to make me stay alive ]

She feels like she has to be by Break’s side, no matter what. And ever since he became her retainer, she has been the one by his side. She feels like she won’t survive without him, and starts to think that her life is his responsibility.

Let’s move on to the bridge/final pre-chorus:

[ Trapped in this travesty

You’ve opened up pandora’s box

Struck by reality

It’s time to wrap up the show

Yes, it is how it seems

I’m full of animosity

And here I am

Where do you stand? ]

Sharon is finally done holding back her feelings. She blows up on him, finally letting out how she truly feels straight to his face. She’s done bottling up her jealousy.

And finally, the chorus, which is broken up:

[ It could’ve been me

Although I’m better than the rest

My polarizing rationality just couldn’t pass the test

It could’ve been me

But I’m unsure of my intent

Surely my fragile hospitality would shatter from the stress! ]

This part is Sharon giving up on trying anymore. She realizes that maybe it wasn’t for the best, and is dealing with the aftermath of that realization. She thinks that maybe her intentions weren’t the best ones after all.

[ It shouldn’t be me

And here I thought I was above

But now it’s clear to me you saw that I’m unworthy of your love

It shouldn’t be me

And I’m okay with that because I truly only want the best for you 

And I am not the one ]

Sharon admits that she only wants the best for Break, and that she isn’t the woman that will give him that happiness. It takes her a while to get over it and shake those feelings away, but she does.

She also feels that she’s “unworthy” of his love, as stated in the lyrics quite literally.

[paharvey99]

No Waitrose October 7 - Day 6

Day 6

Yesterday’s blog ended just before the four year-old I live with went to have her bath. I’d clearly decided nothing else of any note was going to happen that evening, so it was safe to write the blog. How wrong I was, dear reader.

I was warming milk in the microwave and generally preparing the ground for the nightly sleep battle, when there was a cry from the bathroom of “THERE’S A LEAK!”. This cry has been an all-too-common one over the past couple of weeks – long story short, we now have some pissed off downstairs neighbours, and a new washing machine. I bounded into the bathroom expecting a tidal gush, to find the person I live with peering at the base of the cold water tank and some damp washbags.

While it wasn’t spewing forth water as such, it was still clearly a leak, and given our relations with the downstairs neighbours were already fragile, we decided to get a plumber out immediately. This meant an emergency plumber, which meant double the cost of a normal plumber.

The plumber arrived an hour or so later, just as we were having tea (prawn, tomato, chilli, linguine, courgette, mushroom), drained the tank and stopped us panicking. He also said it was too dangerous to have left overnight, which made me feel better for having spent big dollars on an emergency plumber. 

We’re getting a new tank on Thursday, which isn’t exactly cheap. It’s incredibly annoying. We’re literally meant to be moving house in the next couple of months, and in the past few weeks we’ve had to shell out for a new boiler, a new washing machine and a new cold water tank, as they’ve all packed up at the same time. If our first bloody buyer hadn’t bloody pulled out in bloody July two bloody weeks before bloody completion then none of this would have been our bloody well problem at all. We’re still quite bitter about it, it’s not a good look, sorry.

Anyway, that’s the actual end of Day 5. Didn’t go to Waitrose.

Day 6 began with Fireman Sam and a relatively painless flat to nursery transition. On the way back I dropped my car in at the garage for a service then nipped into the Co-op in Hove as the person I live with had asked for some interdental brushes. Is anyone else into these? They’re fairly new on the dental scene, I can’t see what the fuss is about but the person I live with is all over them. Obviously I can’t go to the supermarket without picking up a few other things, so I got some fruit and some discount mince. I also had a look at the freezer aisle, as the Co-op generally has a mad freezer offer on. They didn’t let me down, they had an offer where you had to buy six specific items and you got them all for a fiver instead of £11.25 full price. The main appeal of this offer is that you feel like you’re playing a mini-sweep on Supermarket Sweep, if you don’t get exactly the right items, you don’t get the saving. It’s brutal.

I didn’t want any of the items in the offer, but I still almost bought them anyway, just because that kind of deal is literally too good to turn down. I then remembered that there was no room in the freezer anyway, rendering the idea of buying a load of chicken grills and Fruit Pastille ice lollies that I didn’t even want even sillier. With a heavy heart, I headed to the till.

Seriously though, the Co-op is worth checking for a mad deal. Earlier this year they were doing four burgers and four Stella Artois for £3.50. Except the branch I was in had run out of four packs of Stella and so were doing six packs in the offer instead. That’s essentially free beer, there’s no other way of thinking about that. Madness.

After that I headed home, worked worked worked ate lunch worked worked worked and then went to collect my car. I was fully expecting to be told I needed a new clutch and brakes and that’ll be a thousand pounds please, so I was over the moon to discover it was fine, they’d just changed the plugs, whatever that means. Then the man couldn’t find the paperwork, so he told me to come back tomorrow to pay. I’m going to, obviously, but as it stands right now I’ve had my car fixed for free and I am enjoying that feeling.

Collected the four year-old I live with from nursery, went home, bath, bed, teatime. I made jacket potatoes, spinach and trout for tea. Or it might have been salmon, who can say. Too tired.

Didn’t go to Waitrose.

[abangtech]

QuizUp founder gets back to trivia roots with the launch of Trivia Royale

Thor Fridriksson is no stranger to trivia. The tech entrepreneur founded QuizUp, one of the hottest mobile games of the early aughts, which attracted more than 100 million downloads, a deal with NBC, and had raised more than $40 million from notable investors. Plain Vanilla Games, the parent company of QuizUp, eventually sold to GluMobile for $7.5 million.

But that doesn’t mean Fridriksson is hanging up his hat on trivia. In fact, the lessons he learned the first time around have led him to this very moment. Today, Fridriksson is launching Trivia Royale, the latest game out of Iceland-based TeaTime Games.

Trivia Royale is, like it sounds, a trivia game in the genre of Battle Royale. It’s a 1,000-person head-to-head Trivia tournament. Like QuizUp, players can choose to do one-to-one Trivia matches based on categories in a casual way. But the real draw of the mobile game is Trivia Royale.

It starts with 1,000 people who are matched into one-on-one battles around general trivia. Each battle includes five questions, that go from easy to more difficult, with 10 seconds to answer each question. The faster you answer the question, the more points you get. The final question in the battle is worth double points.

If you lose your battle, you’re out of the tournament. The pool then drops to 500 people, and then to 250 people, and so on and so forth until you’re down to the final four and the final two. Folks who win a Trivia Royale get a ‘crown’ that’s displayed on their avatar, as well as access to the Royale Lounge, where they can check out global and local leaderboards and chat with other Royales.

What’s most interesting about Trivia Royale is that it’s built on the TeaTime Live platform.

TeaTime, cofounded by Fridriksson, launched in February of 2009. The platform is not a game in and of itself, but rather a developer platform for game makers that adds a new level of engagement, interaction and monetization to mobile games.

On TeaTime, users can create an Animoji-style avatar that employs the front-facing camera of a smartphone to let players interact in real time with facial expressions as they play a game. Since most users don’t necessarily want to show their actual face to strangers during gameplay, TeaTime uses Snap-style filters and Apple Animoji-esque avatars to let users engage with one another without revealing their actual identity.

The initial failure of QuizUp was an inability to monetize. TeaTime was built to avoid making that same mistake twice. The existence of avatars offers a built-in monetization strategy as users look to customize and build out their avatars.

Fridriksson was also extremely averse to mobile advertising within games while he was running QuizUp, and has made his peace with some advertising with the launch of Trivia Royale. When a user wins and is rewarded with points, the user can double those points by watching an ad.

Users can also supplement their winnings by buying virtual currency to update their avatar with hats, piercings, hand gestures, glasses and more.

Moreover, users need a ticket to enter into a Trivia Royale tournament. These tickets are provided every couple hours, so users who want to play game after game without waiting will need to use virtual currency to buy a ticket.

Obviously, it would be difficult to get and keep 1,000 players in a single tournament at once, so Trivia Royale focuses on matching people who are at the same level in the tournament rather than holding these tourneys in individual lobbies.

“The challenge is to get a hit game on a platform before it becomes a platform because you need that,” said Fridriksson. “So what I did, essentially, is that I just totally changed my focus as a CEO and went into full-hearted product mode for this game. I find myself back in the mode of creating a cool user experience, and it’s the most fun I’ve ever had.”

In beta, the company has used bots to fill in the gaps where there aren’t available matches for players. In the first five rounds of the Trivia Royale tournament, Fridriksson says there is about a 60 percent chance that users will be matched with a real person, with the likelihood of being paired with a bot getting higher then further a user gets in the tournament.

The company ran a beta in Ireland, New Zealand and Canada over the past two weeks and has gotten 9,000 beta users, with day-one retention at 50 percent and with average users playing around 12 games per day.

As the game gets more users, the company hopes to match users with real people 95 percent of the time and ultimately get to a place where the bots fade out of the equation.

At this point, the game has more than 20,000 questions across 40 categories including TikTok, Geography, Movies, Superheroes, Videogames, Sports, Disney, and Logos, with more questions added every day.

Source

The post QuizUp founder gets back to trivia roots with the launch of Trivia Royale appeared first on abangtech.

from abangtech https://abangtech.com/quizup-founder-gets-back-to-trivia-roots-with-the-launch-of-trivia-royale/

[un-enfant-immature]

QuizUp founder gets back to trivia roots with the launch of Trivia Royale

Thor Fridriksson is no stranger to trivia. The tech entrepreneur founded QuizUp, one of the hottest mobile games of the early aughts, which attracted more than 100 million downloads, a deal with NBC, and had raised more than $40 million from notable investors. Plain Vanilla Games, the parent company of QuizUp, eventually sold to GluMobile for $7.5 million.

But that doesn’t mean Fridriksson is hanging up his hat on trivia. In fact, the lessons he learned the first time around have led him to this very moment. Today, Fridriksson is launching Trivia Royale, the latest game out of Iceland-based TeaTime Games.

Trivia Royale is, like it sounds, a trivia game in the genre of Battle Royale. It’s a 1,000-person head-to-head Trivia tournament. Like QuizUp, players can choose to do one-to-one Trivia matches based on categories in a casual way. But the real draw of the mobile game is Trivia Royale.

It starts with 1,000 people who are matched into one-on-one battles around general trivia. Each battle includes five questions, that go from easy to more difficult, with 10 seconds to answer each question. The faster you answer the question, the more points you get. The final question in the battle is worth double points.

If you lose your battle, you’re out of the tournament. The pool then drops to 500 people, and then to 250 people, and so on and so forth until you’re down to the final four and the final two. Folks who win a Trivia Royale get a ‘crown’ that’s displayed on their avatar, as well as access to the Royale Lounge, where they can check out global and local leaderboards and chat with other Royales.

What’s most interesting about Trivia Royale is that it’s built on the TeaTime Live platform.

TeaTime, founded by Fridriksson, launched in February of 2009. The platform is not a game in and of itself, but rather a developer platform for game makers that adds a new level of engagement, interaction and monetization to mobile games.

On TeaTime, users can create an Animoji-style avatar that employs the front-facing camera of a smartphone to let players interact in real time with facial expressions as they play a game. Since most users don’t necessarily want to show their actual face to strangers during gameplay, TeaTime uses Snap-style filters and Apple Animoji-esque avatars to let users engage with one another without revealing their actual identity.

The initial failure of QuizUp was an inability to monetize. TeaTime was built to avoid making that same mistake twice. The existence of avatars offers a built-in monetization strategy as users look to customize and build out their avatars.

Fridriksson was also extremely averse to mobile advertising within games while he was running QuizUp, and has made his peace with some advertising with the launch of Trivia Royale. When a user wins and is rewarded with points, the user can double those points by watching an ad.

Users can also supplement their winnings by buying virtual currency to update their avatar with hats, piercings, hand gestures, glasses and more.

Moreover, users need a ticket to enter into a Trivia Royale tournament. These tickets are provided every couple hours, so users who want to play game after game without waiting will need to use virtual currency to buy a ticket.

Obviously, it would be difficult to get and keep 1,000 players in a single tournament at once, so Trivia Royale focuses on matching people who are at the same level in the tournament rather than holding these tourneys in individual lobbies.

“The challenge is to get a hit game on a platform before it becomes a platform because you need that,” said Fridriksson. “So what I did, essentially, is that I just totally changed my focus as a CEO and went into full-hearted product mode for this game. I find myself back in the mode of creating a cool user experience, and it’s the most fun I’ve ever had.”

In beta, the company has used bots to fill in the gaps where there aren’t available matches for players. In the first five rounds of the Trivia Royale tournament, Fridriksson says there is about a 60 percent chance that users will be matched with a real person, with the likelihood of being paired with a bot getting higher then further a user gets in the tournament.

The company ran a beta in Ireland, New Zealand and Canada over the past two weeks and has gotten 9,000 beta users, with day-one retention at 50 percent and with average users playing around 12 games per day.

As the game gets more users, the company hopes to match users with real people 95 percent of the time and ultimately get to a place where the bots fade out of the equation.

At this point, the game has more than 20,000 questions across 40 categories including TikTok, Geography, Movies, Superheroes, Videogames, Sports, Disney, and Logos, with more questions added every day.

[jenniferfaye34]

"...you won't want to put it down" The CEO, the Puppy and Me by Jennifer Faye... Blog Tour Finale... #books #romance #dogs #HEA #amreading #booklovers #readers

On Tour with Prism Book Tours

We hope you enjoyed the tour! If you missed any of the stops

you'll find snippets, as well as the link to each full post, below:

Launch - Note from the Author 

Thank you for joining me for the second book in The Bartolini Legacy trilogy. One diary… One secret. . . Leads to one unforgettable summer. . . . . . Now that their lives have collided, neither will ever be the same. But first they must take a journey into the past before they can forge a new future. Happy reading, — Jennifer

Rockin' Book Reviews - Review

"The CEO, the Puppy and Me is a poignant story about discovering truth, finding one's true self, opening up one's heart, also, of love and forgiveness. . . . The characters are very well defines and seem so alive. The situations are easy to visualize."

Bookish Jottings - Review

"An enchanting, poignant and captivating contemporary romance, it is impossible not to fall in love with Jennifer Faye’s adorable new novel, The CEO, The Puppy and Me. . . . A fantastic romantic read that is a joy to read from start to finish, The CEO, The Puppy and Me is another winner by the immensely talented Jennifer Faye."

Woven From Words - Review

"I found The CEO, the Puppy and Me to be a lovely, endearing story! . . . I enjoyed the interactions Gia and Ricardo have with one another, and there is a puppy that keeps their ties strong! . . . I highly recommend Gia and Ricardo’s love story for those seeking a sweet, lighthearted read!"

Splashes of Joy - Review

"I can say that the author does a really nice job with her characters. As I read the book I had the feeling these were real people in our real world. I love the family setting, and even though they have money, the three siblings do not mind working to support themselves. . . . If you love a good clean romance, check out The CEO, The Puppy and Me for a few hours of sweet entertainment!"

Book Lover in Florida - Excerpt

“What’s the matter?” Ric asked. “I twisted my ankle when my shoe got stuck. It’s not a big deal. Just help the puppy.” “You’re sure?” “Positive.” He did as she asked. However, his light gray loafers weren’t the best shoes to venture through this overgrown jungle either. Limbs poked and prodded him. There went the high-pitched whine again. 

reviewingbooksplusmore - Review

"I love books with dogs in the story. Gia finds a puppy that is hurt and rescues it. She meets Ric when she found the puppy. I loved how she wanted to take care of the puppy. I love the way Ric and Gia meet. . . . I enjoyed reading The CEO, the Puppy and Me and look forward to reading the next book in the series."

Books and Zebras - Review

"What a treat The CEO, the Puppy and Me was to read! . . . In a heavy world, a light, charming and sweet romance such as this is an ideal respite. I am never disappointed with Jennifer Faye or Harlequin Romance. Each book has been lovely and delightful."

Christy's Cozy Corners - Review

"The CEO, The Puppy and Me is a quick read because you won’t want to put it down. The story flows beautifully. Jennifer Faye has created a truly touching love story that encompasses not only romantic love but also familial love. . . . If you’re looking for an escape from this complicated world we’re living in, look no further. You’ll love this sweet story."

Baroness' Book Trove - Review

"I thoroughly enjoyed the story, the characters, and the setting. The Bartolini family is just incredible. It’s full of strong-minded individuals who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. Gia and Ric are so cute together. I love happy endings. Therefore, I am giving The CEO, the Puppy and Me by Jennifer Faye five stars and yes, I do recommend this book to all you romance readers out there."

Red Headed Book Lady - Review

"A sweet clean read that I had fun reading. . . . You won't want to put this book down. It is a quick read and I finished it in an hour. . . . I highly recommend it."

Pause for Tales - Review

"I enjoyed watching these two realize their worth and let go of their past, no matter how hurtful, and to see the gifts they had right in front of them in this classic love story."

Peaceful Pastime - Review

"What a relaxing, sweet and romantic read this novel is. I have been waiting to read this book after finishing the first one in the series, The Prince and the Wedding Planner. . . . This book is filled with loving, caring and warm characters that show you don't have to be related by blood to be family. . . . This is a wonderful fast-paced and delightful read."

Locks, Hooks and Books - Review

"I enjoyed taking a journey to the beauty of Lapri in The CEO, the Puppy and Me. Ric and Gia’s story was wonderful. I loved their chemistry and I was constantly rooting for Gia throughout the book and hoping for the best for her. . . . I highly recommend it for readers who enjoy clean and sweet romance."

Teatime and Books - Review

"I was so sucked into this tale that I literally did not sleep the whole night . . . I also loved the setting, this was so well-written that you just feel as if you are right there in Italy! This is truly one of the sweetest romances of the year!"

Reading Excursions - Review

"This was such a fast-paced, quick little read that it was over before I even knew it. Probably because it was hard to put down. . . . Romance readers who enjoy a sweet exotic romance with foreign locations (Italy, Greece, etc), as well as fans of the author; will likely enjoy this story. Certainly those who’ve read the first book will probably enjoy this perfect, beach-type summer read."

EmpowerMoms - Review

"This was an easy book to read with good story line and characters. I loved Gia’s love for family and animals, and her trying to figure out where she belonged and her search for her biological father. . . . I enjoyed reading this book-it would be perfect for a summer road trip or beach read!"

Hallie Reads - Review

"The CEO, the Puppy and Me is a delightful, escapist read from Jennifer Faye. If you will not be travelling far this summer, why not go on an Italian adventure with Gia and Ric? I enjoyed getting to know the pair as they uncovered family and love, and I look forward to continuing the series in The Italian’s Unexpected Heir."

Don't forget to enter the giveaway at the end of this post...

The CEO, the Puppy and Me (The Bartolini Legacy #2) By Jennifer Faye Contemporary Romance Paperback & ebook, 256 Pages June 1st 2020 by Harlequin Romance

Has the search for her past…

…guided her toward her future?

Gia Bartolini’s determinedly searching for her real father. First stop on the enchanting Italian island of Lapri? A mysterious abandoned mansion…where, rescuing a trapped puppy, she falls straight into the arms of alluring Riccardo Moretti! Her passion for the all-business CEO burns bright, leaving Gia with a question: In uncovering her true roots, has fate led her to true love?

(Affiliate links included.)

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository | iBooks | Kobo | PRINT

Go to Jennifer's Contact Page HERE and order your bookmark(s)!

Other Books in the Series The Prince and the Wedding Planner (The Bartolini Legacy #1)

By Jennifer Faye

Contemporary Romance

Paperback & ebook, 256 Pages

March 1st 2020 by Harlequin Romance

When different worlds collide…

…sparks fly!

With her family name on the line, wedding planner Bianca Bartolini needs this royal wedding to go perfectly—she can’t afford distractions. Too bad the bride’s dashing brother has other plans! Duty-bound Crown Prince Leo has mere weeks to announce his own engagement, but none of the candidates measure up to Bianca. They’re the most unlikely match, but might that just make them perfect for one another?

(Affiliate links included.)

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository | iBooks | Kobo | PRINT

And coming in September...

The Italian's Unexpected Heir

(The Bartolini Legacy #3)

By Jennifer Faye

Contemporary Romance

Paperback & ebook, 256 Pages

September 1st 2020 by Harlequin Romance

Her baby surprise proves… …that one night will never be enough! Reeling from the secrets that have torn his heritage apart, Enzo Bartolini is set on selling his family’s Tuscan vineyard and trying to forget the impulsive, dazzling night he and best friend Sylvie shared in Paris. While the sale moves forward, the thrilling awareness between him and Sylvie is harder to move past…especially when she upends Enzo’s world by revealing she’s carrying his baby!

(Affiliate links included.)

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository | iBooks | Kobo | PRINT

About the Author

Award-winning author, Jennifer Faye pens fun, heartwarming contemporary romances with rugged cowboys, sexy billionaires and enchanting royalty. Internationally published with books translated into nine languages. She is a two-time winner of the RT Book Reviews Reviewers' Choice Award, the CataRomance Reviewers' Choice Award, named a TOP PICK author, and been nominated for numerous other awards.

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | YouTube | BookBub | Newsletter

Tour Giveaway

One winner will receive a $25 Amazon gift card and a copy of THE PRINCE AND THE WEDDING PLANNER, winner's choice of print (US only) or ebook

Open internationally

Ends June 17, 2020

ENTER HERE

[beyondthedreamline]

10 favourite characters meme

The last time I did this meme, it was with characters from television, so this time I’m listing favourite characters from books (with the disclaimer that I have SO MANY favourite characters and this is only a small selection of them). I’ve tried to keep spoilers to a minimum, but no guarantees! I was tagged by @ghostcat3000.

Jane Eyre (Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë) ‘Who in the world cares for you? or who will be injured by what you do?’ Still indomitable was the reply - ‘I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.’ Jane is everything I most admire in a character: competent, kind-hearted, resolute and completely unstoppable once she makes up her mind. I am capable of fangirling over her for hours. St. John did not deserve ten minutes in her company and ought to be ashamed of himself.

Helen Huntingdon (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – Anne Brontë) Yet let me remember it is not I that am guilty: I have no cause to fear; and if they scorn me as the victim of their guilt, I can pity their folly and despise their scorn. Several years back I borrowed an audiobook of this to listen to while I was spring-cleaning, and knew absolutely nothing about it other than it was written by Charlotte Brontë’s little sister. It was so revelatory in its excellence that I kept stopping to listen properly and in the end I had to borrow the book instead to read it for myself, at my own speed, i.e. fast. There’s an irritating male narrator who has a bigger role than he ever deserved in Helen’s life, but she gets to narrate most of her own story and she is MAGNIFICENT.

Ducon Greve (Ombria in Shadow – Patricia A. McKillip) Ducon stood at the edge of the shadow city, drawing. Deep within the hidden palace, he had been pulled like some perverse moth to the place that no light could penetrate. This is one of my favourite books in the world. It is so exquisitely written, a jewellery box of beautiful imagery, and tantalisingly open-ended as so many of McKillip’s novels are. I love all the characters in it, but Ducon Greve is the kind of charismatic, unknowable not-quite-an-anti-hero I can never resist. He sketches compulsively, gives strange yet sincere compliments and would do anything at all to keep his little cousin safe.

Sam Vimes (The Discworld series – Terry Pratchett) “I'm not a natural killer! See this? See what it says? I'm supposed to keep the peace, I am! If I kill people to do it, I'm reading the wrong manual!” The Discworld books can’t really be separated from each other, building up as they do layer upon layer of world and character and story, but if I had to choose favourites, they would probably be Night Watch and Thud!, both of which are about Vimes, the policeman who raises the standard of policing over and over again. And so they are also about his city, because the two of them can’t be separated either.

Dustfinger (The Inkheart trilogy – Cornelia Funke) Dustfinger smiled. It was a bitter smile. It seemed to be saying: if only you knew! But you don’t know anything. You don’t understand anything. Dustfinger’s life is a string of bad decisions and worse luck. Every time I read the series, I want to wrap him in blankets and yell at him a bit and feed him soup.

Julie Beaufort-Stuart (Code Name Verity – Elizabeth Wein) You ignorant Quisling bastard...I AM SCOTTISH. This is a book to read at your own peril; it is gut-wrenching and just thinking about parts of it are enough to make me cry, but it is phenomenally well-written and Julie is utterly unforgettable. Her personality radiates off the page.

Maree Mallory (Deep Secret – Diana Wynne Jones) I told him, “Once more, my good man, gets you pins in a wax image, or worse. I’d do it now, and curse you into the bargain, only I’m crossed in love and haven’t the energy. Now you get out of my way.” Look, most of this book takes place at a science fiction and fantasy convention where actual centaurs rampage through the hotel and the lift is cursed. It’s the most fabulous romp. I adore so many characters in it but Maree, oh Maree, she’s so spiky and incisive and determined. I love her more every time I re-read it.

The Marquis de Carabas (Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman): He wore a huge dandyish black coat that was not quite a frock coat nor exactly a trenchcoat, and high black boots, and, beneath his coat, raggedy clothes. His eyes burned white in an extremely dark face. And he grinned white teeth, momentarily, as if at a private joke of his own, and bowed to Richard, and said, “De Carabas, at your service, and you are…?” Another of my favourite books. Actually, all the characters on this list come from favourite books of mine, that’s part of the reason they are my favourite books. The Marquis de Carabas is swashbuckling, unpredictable and named himself after a lie in a fairy tale, come on, how could I not love him?

Cath Avery (Fangirl – Rainbow Rowell) “Are you meeting people?”…“Not intentionally,” she said. Bookish, introverted, fanfic-writing, prickly and standoffish and painfully vulnerable; there was no way I wouldn’t get all protective over Cath Avery. And she has a love interest who’s actually worth her time, thank goodness.

Kate Schechter (The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul – Douglas Adams) “Are you?” simmered Kate.  “Well, I’ve no doubt that if you’d picked a slack moment to mention all that, I might have taken an interest, but right now it just makes me very angry. Turn the damn lights on!” I read this book in my grandmother’s spare bedroom instead of watching an extremely irritating film with my family. I have a strong sense memory of dim light through blue curtains and the coverlet under my elbows as I read about gloriously preposterous things that, having had a misspent youth in the mythology section of my local library, I ate with a spoon. Dirk Gently himself is the kind of weird I delight in but Kate is a character I’d like to actually spend time with. And also steal all the things she puts in baths, because I have the same addiction she does.

There is an unexpectedly self-evident pattern here: apparently my catnip is competent, exasperated women and charmingly disastrous but ultimately well-intentioned men. Good to know. @theladyragnell, @fozmeadows, @tansyrr, @epoh920, are you interested in this meme? Anyone else who wants to give it a go, consider yourselves tagged!