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edgarbright · 3 months

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Caleb = Sylus theory

And if that turns out to be incorrect, then renamed as:

My thoughts on Caleb and Sylus!

tl;dr my heart wants Caleb back as a LI and my brain continues to report that Caleb being Sylus makes a lot of sense

General spoiler warning for any game content released up until June 18, 2024. Long post is long and has pictures.

So first things first! I’m going to need everyone to think about Caleb beyond being just our sweet and teasing childhood friend. Because if we viewed the other male leads as plainly as Caleb is often viewed, then Zayne is just a workaholic doctor, Xavier is just a narcoleptic hunter, and Rafayel is just a playful-personality artist.

But we find out Zayne has done work in battle zones as a military medic and we hear how his morals and ethics are held high when organizations like Ever Group try to recruit him. We discover that Xavier is an immortal who has flown across the galaxy in a spaceship and regularly goes toe-to-toe with criminal syndicates and wanderers alike. We learn that Rafayel is a Lemurian, the God of the Sea, and an assassin who carefully and cleverly deals out bloody revenge.

While we don’t have a lot of Caleb content in the first eight chapters and side pieces, there is still a lot of information to work with! Because we know he has been around for years and must be doing something with his time when he’s not talking with MC about coming home.

And one of the clues we’re given is that he is a busy guy. In the character notes, we read that MC doesn’t see Caleb outside of holidays after he became involved with the Aerospace Academy at Skyhaven. He has since become a pilot for the Deepspace Aviation Administration. Then there is their last argument about how they are adults now and they don’t need to keep secrets from each other. But just when Caleb is about to open up, he locks it down. And then he’s gone.

The End? Except I don’t think that’s where his story finishes.

I. Official game descriptions

Caleb: "My childhood friend. Grandma took us in when we were young. Now he works as a fighter pilot for the Deepspace Aviation Administration. Ever since he went to Aerospace Academy in Skyhaven, we don’t often see each other. But we always visit Grandma during the holidays. While he loves teasing me, he’s actually a reliable person whom I trust."

Sylus: "The leader of Onychinus is said to have built his empire on illegal Evol weapons and Protocore deals. He’s the most influential, dominant figure in the N109 Zone. However, he hasn’t been seen for a while."

II. Caleb as a love interest: Brother vs childhood friend

Stating the obvious to get it out of the way: that Papergames had to give Caleb a completely different relationship role with MC in the English-speaking market is akin to a public statement that he is going to be a love interest. They would have saved themselves the trouble by leaving him as brother if he was never going to play a more intimate role with MC.

III. Caleb and MC's lingering connection: the necklace

The “When U come back,” apple-and-dog-tag necklace picked out in a style MC really liked as a present for Caleb before he left for Skyhaven.

The necklace where, in chapter 4.06 ‘Saying Goodbye,’ MC and Caleb share a Kindled moment as we take the necklace from his hand and he leans forward to let us put it on him.

The necklace that Caleb was wearing under the bulk of his jacket when he entered Grandma’s house before the explosion.

The necklace that is nowhere to be seen after the explosion, but suddenly appears on the ground in front of us when MC looks back down. Caleb was wearing that necklace when he entered the house, but here it is now, completely intact. MC’s hands are covered in dirt and ash while the necklace is in clean condition.

Caleb is alive in one way or another. And the necklace, now back in MC’s possession, is a tie that still binds them.

IV. Official Announcement of the Next Male Lead

(Disclaimer: I am only able to go off the English fan translation and google translations so my interpretation is at the mercy of missed nuances from word choice and mis-translations. But we’re just here to be delusional have fun, so play nice!)

During the CBT in 2023, Papergames released this announcement:

Then on February 24, 2024 as part of an apology post to angry Chinese players, Papergames provided a follow-up and official confirmation that hunters will get to meet the next love interest, Qin Che/Sylus, in the next big story update coming this July 2024.

This February announcement does not mention Caleb, but then the original Q&A was clearly only referencing a question regarding a single pre-mentioned person. So between CBT and now, my understanding is that we have only ever been promised one new male lead to top us off at a quartet.

And in that initial announcement in CBT, it continues to strike me as strange that they talk about this mystery man Sylus and then they bring up Caleb. They first talk at length about someone we don’t know at all and then about someone the CBT players were already interested in: our doting brother/childhood friend, someone who clearly likes us, someone whom the MC obviously likes in return, someone with a unique personality from the other LI, and someone we have lost and grieved over and want back.

But the official name of the next male lead is Sylus.

“His identity and your relationship to him,” however, could also suggest that the name “Sylus” may not be his true name. Is there just some guy named Sylus walking around Linkon City or does he become Sylus when associated with Onychinus and when he enters the N109 zone? After all, his identity is a question, it is a mystery, he is mystery, and our relationship to him is a question. Our true relationship to him is in question, because perhaps it is someone we thought we knew but didn’t truly know at all.

V. Sylus: a powerful persona in the N109 zone

As the main story plot progresses and MC sets her sights on entering the N109 zone, she learns that the acquisition of a bold fake identity is a key part to her safety. By the sound of it, even someone like Xavier doesn’t enter as Xavier, but instead as Lumiere as it was Lumiere who was rumored to have caused a mess there recently.

Therefore I’m further encouraged that the name “Sylus” could just be a new identity for someone we already know. Even more so, once ‘Caleb the fighter pilot from the Deepspace Aviation Administration’ has officially been declared dead, the only identity left to him is Sylus.

But strangely enough, after Caleb is gone, even the character description states Sylus hasn’t been seen for a while, either…

VI. Symbols: the jacket and the crow

Caleb is wearing a Deepspace Aviation Administration (DAA) jacket before he begins attending the Airspace Academy at Skyhaven, as seen in the flashback scene. He is still wearing the same jacket on the last day we see him in chapter 4.

Of interest, in chapter 3, we see a crow in the forest watching MC and Xavier after they destroy the developing Aetherwyrm and taking Onychinus's modified Protocore.

Note the diagonal orange bars on the mechanical feature on the crow’s left wing and the design on the jacket on Caleb’s left chest:

The bars mirror one another. The crow seems to have four bars but only three are full whereas the jacket shows four full bars.

Note as well on the jacket's left arm: the crow-like head triangle with the curved wings.

With MC currently entangled in tens of thousands of years of history with three other men, I don’t think this is a game that deals with mere coincidences.

But considering this crow symbol existed on the DAA jacket before Caleb went to the academy teases all types of connections and, most appropriately, spacetime considerations rooted around the Deepspace Tunnel.

VII. The Deepspace Aviation Administration

After completing his training at the Airspace Academy, Caleb rose up to become a pilot in the Deepspace Aviation Administration. His whole job involves flying around and near the Deepspace Tunnel.

The same Deepspace Tunnel that the Linkon broadcaster speaks of so frequently regarding possible Wanderer appearances.

The same Deepspace Tunnel that appeared at the time of the catastrophe.

The same Deepspace Tunnel that Xavier and the Backtrackers took to travel from Philos to Earth.

Just as MC is learning new and weird things about the world while working as a hunter, surely Caleb has come across some new and weird things, too.

MC states that the DAA is secretive but Caleb takes it a step further: it’s not just secretive, it’s spooky! It’s creepy! It’s mysterious! It’s shadowy!

Whatever the DAA is dealing with isn’t, necessarily, normal!

Because while the DAA is of course focused on the Deepspace Tunnel, we have also heard that some of their interests lie in the Lemurian ruins…

So we shouldn’t take the Deepspace Aviation Administration at face value. Honestly, nothing in this game appears to be as good and pure as it seems! It’s suspicious that MC works as a hunter in the Unicorns division when Unicorn was also the code name for her as an experiment. The public face of Ever Group has them seeming to work medical miracles and conducting revolutionary science, but we know they conducted cruel experiments on MC, we have clues they experimented on Lemurians, and it’s revealed they have dark dealings with the Backtrackers.

Note that while Sylus is the leader of Onychinus and built it up as an empire, that doesn’t necessarily mean he is the founder. The Deepspace Aviation Administration could easily have criminal ties of their own or be a cover for a front for their true reason to exist.

But whatever is going on with the DAA, Caleb has been involved in it for many years and has kept it secret from MC this whole time.

VIII. Male Lead Introductions

It feels too strange to think that Sylus will be an entirely new face because not only would that put him at a disadvantage, it would neglect a lot of clues and game features laid out for his association and arrival.

For starters, Xavier, Rafayel, and Zayne are all introduced to MC in the very first chapter. They get faces and little encounters to go along with them.

Meanwhile Caleb is faceless. He is just a voice in chapter 1. But to the MC, it’s the familiar voice of someone she obviously knows and loves and is excited to see again. She has history and memories and a developed relationship with this person.

But even through the teasing affection shared between MC and Caleb over the phone, his face and expressions are left in the dark. He is a mystery to us.

Except… maybe we do see a face of Caleb? In the face of the all-seeing-eye of Onychinus that appears a moment after MC gets off the phone with him.

So, going back to that CBT announcement, Papergames asks if the players found any clues regarding Sylus in the main story… right before they bring Caleb into the conversation, who for all intents and purposes is dead? Whether they were making a hint or not right there it’s too suspicious.

IX. Lore: The Eye in the Sky Watching Over MC

We spot the red eye watching MC on at least three occasions:

[Top left image] At the end of chapter 1: After MC has completed her first day as a hunter and Caleb bids her goodnight after their phone call, she sees the eye for a moment outside her window as the weather begins to turn bad.

[Bottom left image] In chapter 3: MC recalls a reoccurring nightmare when her 7-year-old self was running blindly in pain and fear during the Chronorift Catastrophe. While she initially thinks it is the moon, when she wakes up she realizes it was actually the same eye she saw in chapter 1. Of interest, notice how her description of the eye’s arrival is portrayed rather positively:

Rusty-red rain falls from the sky and seeps into every nook and cranny of the city. I step over the puddles, running away. I sense a powerful force. It's about to burst from my heart. Then the moon appears. Magnificent, it descends before me. It flickers. It seems to be blinking at me.

[Right image] At the Nest in chapter 8: the eye is in a robotic contraption watching events unfold on Hunting Day and when MC is captured.

So it seems this eye has been with her since she was seven years old and it found her before even Xavier did. As an observation vessel, however, it was not able to help her. All it can do is watch. So the question is who has been watching her from the other end? Ever Group? Onychinus? The Backtrackers? Caleb in some form?

X. Caleb is never doing what MC expects

On the phone call in chapter 1, MC thought he would still be in-flight, but he brushes it off by saying they finished early. He uses this surprise “free time” to call her right when she returns home and asks how her first day as a hunter went.

When MC arrives to Grandma’s house in chapter 4, she thought he wouldn’t arrive until the next day at the earliest, but he was already home. He uses this surprise “free time” to cook and have dinner ready for her right when she arrives.

He just always seems to be a step ahead of the MC… for the sake of doting on MC!

But it’s still rather odd that lower-level military personnel would get early clock-outs so conveniently when activity in the Deepspace Tunnel and appearance of Wanderers are on the rise…

And what is he doing that is making him so sleep-deprived?

XI. FM News vs Caleb: Deepspace Tunnel Activity

For the record, all of chapter 1 takes place over a single day. MC starts her morning by receiving her badge; spends the day hunting Wanderers, meeting Xavier, and getting her placement in alpha team; spends the evening with Tara before she meets Rafayel; rushes to her 6pm check-up appointment with Zayne; has a nighttime phone call with Caleb; and spots the eye outside her window before bed.

And from morning to night, the news report and Caleb’s report are complete opposites.

“Hello, Linkon City. DPSC FM here to greet you on this early morning. Did you sleep well last night? Weather's nice today with winds at 5 km/hr. Certain areas have a higher Metaflux index due to the Deepspace Tunnel. Expect Wanderers to appear more often. We would like to thank the hunters in the city for allowing us to live a normal, peaceful life. Next, a detailed report for each district. Areas that are at a "high risk" of being attacked by Wanderers-- All medical personnel, today is going to be another busy day.”

Compared to

MC: "Did you guys encounter any Wanderers in the Deepspace Tunnel? Was it dangerous?" ... Caleb: "All right. It's been peaceful. The field within the tunnel is as stable as it can be. Very few Wanderers. Don't worry." MC: "Really? Every time you tell me not to worry..." Caleb: "Everything else is top secret. My lips are sealed."

Now, it’s entirely possible that he’s lying about the danger in order to make MC feel better, but if he was lying and the situation was more severe, he wouldn’t have gotten off work early and been able to call her.

Which also brings up the question: is he even at Skyhaven or with the Deepspace Aviation Administration at this time...?

XII. Theory Speed Bump: the Exploding House

During the phone call in chapter 1, Caleb sounds very relaxed about MC having become a hunter on her first day. He asks her how it went and when she starts talking about having had some trouble, he teases her to stop--because he knows she did well! They go on to tease each other about when he’s going to next visit and he says a very sweet good night. He doesn’t sound worried for her safety or anxious or anything of the like.

The visit at Grandma’s house in chapter 4 is a little different. He seems more worried.

Caleb shows up a day early—and if he is Sylus, leader of Onychinus who are wildly in-the-know, obviously his connections would have alerted him to the moving activity posing a danger toward MC and Grandma. But considering how well Xavier stays off most radars, the other Backtrackers are quite good at moving in secret, too. Knowing there is danger isn’t the same as knowing where or when exactly it will hit.

From the World Underneath files, Ever Group appears to have lost track of experiment subject “Unicorn,” but they still had tabs on Josephine as one of their former researchers. The files the Backtracker acquired after the explosion that he delivered to the Ever Group’s Raincoat appears to be their confirmation on MC’s identity. Although we’re left listening to the lackey’s discussion, it doesn’t appear that Ever Group intended to do MC harm just yet, but that doesn't mean she couldn't have accidentally been caught up in the explosion, too.

While MC and everyone are at the table eating, the story about the multiple metaflux explosions are shown on the TV.

When MC excuses herself from the table in order to go scout the neighborhood, Caleb, who just voiced concerns for her safety, jumps up and follows her.

Caleb very obviously lies about going shopping (my guy has empty hands when he reappears). He continues to follow her, albeit from a distance as he is not quick enough to get involved in MC’s encounter with the sneaking Backtracker (note how the MC observed that the man sounded much older than he looked).

Although it’s interesting how, after Caleb knows she was attacked and how he stuck by her side as often as he could while they were outside, he enters the house first and leaves her alone outside.

But the only reason he entered the house first and alone was because MC told him to go inside first. He was the one who suggested they return home before Grandma got worried. Whatever danger Caleb was on high alert for, I’m left conflicted if an exploding house was something he considered since it was his idea to return.

His necklace magically appearing in front of MC after the explosion, however, suggests he was involved in the necklace placement in some way.

Also we don't know what his Evol is exactly. Some players have suggested telekinesis or gravity based on how he was able to take the necklace from MC in the flashback. Magnetic force should also be considered, I think, but I won't open that can of worms here. The question is still: how deep does this rabbit hole go? Was Caleb caught in an explosion he was prepared for and escaped or is another force at work here? We know there have been many Rafayels and Zaynes in the timeline. Maybe there are many Calebs, too.

XIII. Grandma's records have no mention of Caleb

Before she took in MC, Josephine states in the World Underneath files that she has never had children before. Meaning Caleb was not in the picture before MC.

In the game character notes, MC says Grandma took both MC and Caleb in when MC was seven years old.

So where did Caleb come from? And what made her take him in, too?

When we are at Grandma’s house, we also see just one picture frame. The only ones in the picture are MC and Grandma.

In all of Grandma’s notes, there is not one mention of Caleb. There is just one instance where it looks like his name ought to be, but the notes trail off instead with an ellipsis.

Did she herself exclude him from her records or was his name purposefully removed?

Nonetheless, I'm sure the leader of Onychinus would value such anonymity, if it were him.

XIV. "A decisive man as always"

At the family meal, MC expresses concern regarding Grandma’s health. Caleb speaks up and shares that he has taken care to see that Grandma is cared for.

When MC, a little peevish-sounding in English, asks him the when and why, all Caleb does is let out a small laugh and goes back to eating.

Grandma notes that she didn’t know about this plan either. "A decisive man as always," she says with a troubled expression.

And thus Grandma has thrown an interesting character trait into the mix as Caleb always seems so laid-back with MC like he’s simply going with the flow of things. Except it’s clear he’s decisive, determined, and taking care of things behind the scenes. And surely that includes taking care of MC.

XV. Sylus's Character

We have two points of concrete information about Sylus.

The first is the game description, which I’ll repeat here: “The leader of Onychinus is said to have built his empire on illegal Evol weapons and Protocore deals. He’s the most influential, dominant figure in the N109 Zone. However, he hasn’t been seen for a while.”

The second is an observation made by Captain Jenna in chapter 3:

"We speculate it’s not about money, given Sylus’s track record," she says.

So Sylus "is said to have built" a whole empire on illegal sales but apparently he’s OK with his sales taking a loss because it’s not about money. We see in several news reports in-game about the amazing medical progress made due to the use of Protocores. Modified Protocores, especially such revolutionary ones made by Onychinus, should easily be worth more than their weight in gold. The one that MC and Xavier take from the forest is even powerful enough to start the revival process of the strongest type of Wanderer.

So we have this mysterious Sylus who has prioritized power and influence over wealth, but what can he possibly do with those if he’s gone AWOL…?

But such a decisive man who has gained authority over the N109 zone likely has everything under control, right?

XVI. Grandma Josephine vs Caleb

In chapter 4 under the title “Secret,” in part due to the mysterious locked box MC receives, we the player (not MC) learn that Grandma had entrusted MC to Zayne if the “worst-case scenario happens.”

But what about Caleb? We know that he is away from home very often so it’s highly unlikely anyone should consider something bad happening to both her and him. The “us” she uses could mean them both, but it seems more likely she meant Zayne’s promise to Grandma and MC (as MC is the beneficiary).

Let’s go back to that family meal conversation and see the follow-up reactions that show some interesting motives:

We have Caleb taking responsibility for family matters, MC and Grandma caught by surprise—then look at what Grandma does: she doesn’t argue with his decision, but instead turns to MC and immediately encourages her to get back in touch with Zayne.

Caleb’s response to that in turn is to suggest that instead of Zayne and MC meeting alone, Zayne should come for a family dinner. Caleb’s reaction feels rather sarcastic with the emphasis on “looong time.” Zayne is given the treatment of, rather than being a family friend, he is more like that kid they used to know back in grade school. Which is true. Zayne has been absent in MC and Caleb's lives for the past 10 years. Zayne hasn’t been in the picture since MC was about eleven years old and it’s been Caleb looking after MC as her childhood friend/brother this whole time.

So it’s no surprise when MC and Caleb are walking back home together that their conversation turns out like this:

"If not me, who could you possibly turn to for…" he begins, then stops. He smiles bitterly, shakes his head, and plays it off.

Is this him choking up on his yearning? Is this him realizing what Grandma tried to do earlier by bringing up Zayne, and realizing there are other people MC can turn to? Is this him realizing MC is right, that he really can’t protect her forever? Is this him realizing he can’t protect her as just Caleb? Or is there something else going on in that head of his?

It seems to me that not only are Grandma and Caleb not working together at this point, despite them both prioritizing MC's safety, Grandma might not consider Caleb outside of being the family cook!

What does Grandma know about Caleb that would make her turn to Zayne instead?

XVII. What Onychinus knows about MC's Aether Core (spoiler: everything)

Summary: This all happened in the immediate aftermath of the Chronorift Catastrophe. Dr. Noah was bought into the picture shortly after Grandma took MC into her home. Around that same time, one of the researchers who experimented on MC joined up with Onychinus. From that point on, all the other researchers started dying or disappearing—except for Grandma Josephine.

Grandma, however, is eventually killed by the Backtrackers hired by Ever Group, who had been looking for details about their missing Unicorn.

MC notes that Grandma didn’t leave any work files at home. Therefore Caleb wouldn’t have learned anything at the home.

But because Onychinus knows everything through that researcher, Sylus also knows everything that happened to MC. He knows what Josephine did. He knows about MC’s condition. He knows about her special heart. He knows about the Aether Core. He knows what dangers might pursue MC.

And what is Onychinus’s main project? Modifying Protocores.

MC learns that the frequency of her heart matches that of the modified Protocore she found in the restricted zone with Xavier. Both her heart and that modified Protocore had been effected by an Aether Core.

The crucial part I’m getting at is that Onychinus already knows about MC before she ever went to the Nest. They have known about her for around 15 years and during all this time Onychinus have never, ever approached or harmed her!

In this Sylus = Caleb scenario, he already has MC (trust me! he pleads), he already has her Aether Core, and he's trying to keep it secret, he's trying to keep her safe.

The other researchers had to die to keep her safe, because the knowledge they held of her would die with them.

"If not for me, who could you turn to for..." Caleb had once started to say, because if not for him, who else could have protected her all this time? Who else would work so tirelessly and decisively to do what needed to be done?

XVIII. Onychinus is not our enemy

One of the reasons I love Love and Deepspace is because the world building and lore are incredibly interesting. But we must use critical thinking because they are also deceptive. So many characters keep treating Onychinus as dangerous, as deadly, but we not only don’t know their true motive, we have no information on what bad things they’ve actually done besides existing outside normal society.

Both Jenna and Xavier tell us that Onychinus's most famous achievement is modifying Protocores. There is no word of Onychinus ever doing direct or indirect harm using these modified Protocores. We don’t even know to whom, exactly, they sell these Protocores—and we know that it’s not about money.

Onychinus is a mystery! What anyone knows about them is all speculation!

Ever Group, meanwhile, has conducted experiments on Lemurians as explored in Raymond's situation and experiments on MC when she was a child. These actions directly resulted in the "death" of MC numerous times and the probable death of at least one Lemurian if not more. In the World Underneath we discover that Ever Group also knows about the Backtrackers and about Philos. Ever Group hired the Backtracker that destroyed MC’s family. They also use Xavier and are plotting to, for lack of a better word, enslave him once they figure out the chemical compound of the medication he and the other Backtrackers use as injections.

It’s not a mistake, however, that Ever Group is praised by the public for their ingenuity and medical advances for the sake of a better society while Onychinus is treated as dangerous renegades.

Then there is also the Deepspace Aviation Administration who are "unraveling the unknown" at the Deepspace Tunnel while fighting Wanderers.

XIX. I promise you’ll see me every day when you wake up ;)

For the longest time I read Caleb's final promise at face value. He was coming back home to visit, so every morning when MC wakes up at Grandma’s house, she’ll see Caleb.

And I know I’m not the only one who shouted OBJECTION after the explosion (All Men Do Is Lie)!

Except waking up doesn’t have to be literal.

In the pre-registration announcement video released November 1, 2023, Zayne says the following line:

“When you and the world wake up, I hope we do not meet again.”

Perhaps MC just needs to wake up to the truth—the truth of what happened to her before she met Caleb and Zayne and Rafayel and Xavier, the truth of what Grandma and the scientists did to her as a child, the truth… of what she might find in the N109 zone, where Onychinus is, where the question to Sylus and her relationship with him will be answered…

When MC learns the truth, when she opens her eyes to the real world, she will see Caleb again.

(She will get to see him every day just like he promised.)

XX. Theoretical consideration: we’re in a time loop with possible time travel

If there are multiple timelines, it’s possible that the Sylus-Caleb we eventually meet isn’t the Caleb who entered that house before the explosion. They could be the same but different. Perhaps Caleb in one timeline died in that house while a Caleb in another timeline did not. Perhaps the necklace we picked up belonged to a different Caleb.

Because let’s be real, everything is a bit of a mess now: Dawnbreaker and Zayne sharing dreams, Xavier as an immortal alien on a completely different planet, and Rafayel has a millennia of emotional baggage to unpack and a lost civilization he has yet to revive.

There are also the rhythms in which the characters are living in their respected timelines. We have Xavier the immortal who has witnessed the many lives of MC living and dying tragically and being reborn again and again. We have Rafayel who is in a matched reincarnation cycle with MC where he seems to meet her in each life, but she has forgotten him while he may or may not have forgotten her. We have Zayne who is in an unmatched reincarnation cycle with MC where he may or may not meet her in each life, but he sacrifices himself for her sake at each end.

Let's not overlook the possibility of an actual time traveler with Sylus. Perhaps even one who has been looking for a timeline where he can keep MC safe. After all, coming late into the game, Sylus will need to have a new spin to his myth and connection with MC if he's going to compete!

Plus Caleb is also represented by the apple, the forbidden fruit: take even the smallest bite and be banished from paradise. But a bite of the apple also wakes one up to the truth, to the sense of shame, to desire, to sin, to love…

"I promise you’ll see me every day when you wake up," he said.

(And I’m a fool who wants to believe him 🍎)

#my lnds #love and deepspace #love and deepspace spoilers #lnds caleb #lnds sylus

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beefrobeefcal · 11 months

Text

Dark!Frankie Saga: IV

Chapter Four: Going Out in Style

Pairing: Dark!Frankie Morales x Fem!Reader

Summary:

Boston. The Frontiersmen is a crime syndicate that deals in drugs, arms, and anything else they can to keep themselves on top. Since the original ring leader, Tom, was allegedly taken out by a rival gang, it's now run by Big Fish, with Pope second in command. Ironhead runs the numbers and Benny is the muscle. Your family member put you down as collateral when they needed credit to score more smack. Problem is, they can't pay it back, and Big Fish & the Frontiersmen always get their payment...

Rating: Explicit 18+ (MDNI)

Chapter Word Count: 4,350

Content Warning: SMUT (YES WE'RE HERE!), references to SA, almost SA, violence, threats of violence, crime, weight talk, eating, belly admiration, cooking, fingering, blow job

Author's Notes:

A day late, but we're here!

Once again, the biggest, juiciest, wettest thank you to @neverwheremoonchild for being the Beta Fish for Big Fish (get it? Beta'ing the story about Big Fi-... okay, you got it). Thank you, Nevy! 💜🥩💜

And this is not the Chubby!Frankie we know and love in the Catfish & the Mouse universe; he's dark, mean, and hungry. I'll be updating this each week (Monday/Tuesday) until you lose interest or I finish it - let's see what happens first! 👌

Beefro’s Master List | Previous Chapter

--------<3---------

It had been over a week since you last saw Frankie, when he shoved you into your room after eating the entire tray of shepherd’s pie. In that time, you’d also had no run ins with Pope or any of the other frontiersmen beyond Will taking you to and from the office and Benny taking Will’s place when he wasn’t able to be there.

Today had been different. You were up and ready, waiting for Will to arrive. When he didn’t, you popped your head out of your room into the quiet hallway. Hesitating for a moment, you finally walked down the corridor and opened the door, peaking into the lounge; it was empty, too.

You’d been waiting and were hungry. Normally, Will would have you stop in the kitchen for a quick breakfast on your way to the office, but being that he was over an hour late, you wondered what the harm in getting your own breakfast would be. Quietly and quickly stepping across the room and into the kitchen, you made quick work of the instant oatmeal and a banana before scurrying back to your room to eat.

Another hour passes as you wait for Will. You’d now gotten an old Kindle and a few books from Benny, and despite the contents of the e-reader being nowhere near what you would normally read, you were thankful for it especially this morning. You sat up in bed, legs stretched out with one dangling off the side.

It was almost noon when Will did arrive. He seemed off, like something had spooked him, and his eyes didn’t stay on the same spot for more than a second, wildly looking everywhere after he barged into your room, breathing heavily.

He looked you, wide eyed, trying to steady his breathing. He looked over your desk, seeing the evidence of your breakfast and nodded.

“Good… yeah… Got breakfast… good.”, he breathed out, nodding.

Will’s thoughts were overrun with trying to grapple with what he’d discovered and how he was going to keep Frankie - his boss, his friend – safe. Why he came to you while his mind raced through every scenario and how to avoid terrible outcomes, he didn’t know.

You, on the other hand, didn’t know if he was high, coming down off something, or what the problem was, but you nodded back at him, pulling your legs towards you out of caution.

Will’s eyes darted back to you, his brows twitching between a frown and concern, then he went unnervingly still, his eyes boring into you, like he’d been trying to solve a problem and then solution had struck him. A eureka moment had never looked so sinister.

“You… you like Fish – Mr. Morales, right, honey?”, he said in a staggered voice, taking a step closer to you, nodding with a grin, like he was telling you what your answer should be. “You… you want him to keep protecting you, right?”

Eyes trained on him, you nodded, willing the bed to allow you to sink further into it and the wall behind to get away from Will closing in on you.

“Yeah?... yeah, you do… yeah…”, he breathes with a wide, nervous grin. He ran his hand through his hair, looking at the ceiling for a beat. “You gotta do something for me, honey… something for Mr. Morales.”

Will’s breathing was almost labored, like he was on the verge of a breakdown, and he was trying to bring himself back from the edge. He nodded at you as he pulled out the chair at your desk and sat down. You could see the sweat on his brow, the beads dripping down his neck. He must be high. You thought to yourself.

He rubbed his palms on his jeans and nodded again, breathing out okay, okay, okay to himself. You watched, not able to react outwardly, not sure how he would react to anything you did.

“Honey… you gotta listen to me… he… uh, Mr. Morales wants… he told me to tell you… he needs you… to… to be… useful…”

Your eyes went wide, and you shook your head, and Will stood up, coming towards you. He leaned over you, gripping your knees, and he nodded.

“Yes… yes… honey, please… Mr. Morales… he needs you to… to make the first move… this is… what he likes… please… you need to…”

Will’s eyes were pleading as he nodded at you.

“No… please no… I can’t!”, you hissed back at him, desperation making you shake.

His brows furrowed and then frowned, his mouth tightened, and his cold, blue eyes glared into yours. The grip he had on your knees grew firmer.

“You’ll fuckin’ do it… he’ll fuckin’ throw you to Pope. You think he’ll keep you off limits if you don’t fuck him? You gotta be useful for him to keep you ‘round!”

A terrified whimper sticks in your throat, and your chin quivers.

“I’m on your side… I know what he likes. You’ll… you’ll be fine. I just wanna help you.” Will’s face relaxed as he spoke, his tone, however, remained tense. “You do this? He’ll treat you good… new sheets… new books... might get to leave the compound more often… better protection. Just gotta… gotta make yourself more useful, honey.”

“I am useful!”, you plead, trying to pull away from him. “i… I-I do the books w-with you and-and I cooked for him… I fed him… I did what I was told!”

Will scowled at you and shook his head.

“Honey… Frankie doesn’t eat… he fuckin’ devours… and the only way you’re gonna survive is if you let him devour you.” He growls lowly, leaning his face closer to yours.

You didn’t have a choice. You didn’t have a choice but to comply if you wanted to make it out of this. You had no idea what had come over Will to put you in this position, but you knew this was not an argument he was going to lose. You searched his face one last time for any hint of an out, and when nothing was found, you nodded.

“Good girl.”

*****

You found yourself at the door to Frankie’s office. You were nervous. You’d told yourself you shouldn’t be but given how terrifyingly Will had behaved before giving you a crash course on how you needed to behave for Frankie and how you could hear Frankie berating someone behind the door, your knees felt weak.

“You fuckin’ pull that shit again! Fuckin’ try me!”, you heard him yell. “Now get the fuck out of my sight, you shit weasel!”

With that, the door to the office flew open and you were nearly bowled over by one of the lower rung men as he ran out of the office. You moved out of the way just in time, but not before Pope saw you from his position beside the desk Frankie hulked behinds menacingly.

“Hey Honey.”, he said in a horribly smooth voice. “Fish, we got company.”

Frankie was leaning over the desk, hands planted on the wood, and he looked up at you. The harsh, tight frown he held on his face softened, and he nodded his head to grant you entrance. You stepped in, remembering the lesson your learned about hesitating at the end of your last interaction, moving towards Frankie, and standing in front of the desk.

You held your hands in front of you, nervously fidgeting them. Before coming to the office, Will had picked out a dress for you to wear. He’d ripped through your clothing, almost deranged, until he’s come to the one you now had on; it was form fitting and short. You’d always worn it with tights or leggings, but Will had sent you out bare legged and vulnerable.

Frankie looked you over, and he huffed a small, cold laugh as a grin tugged on one side of his mouth.

“What is it, baby? What do you need?”, he asked in a much gentler tone than you expected.

You opened your mouth to respond, but before a word could come out, Pope sided up next to you, one hand coming to fix an errant hair and the other’s fingers gently skimming your side.

“I know what you need, Honey...” His breath was hot on your jaw and neck as he spoke lowly.

You turned your head, pulling your body away from his touch and he chuckled.

“Hey, fucker!”, Frankie’s voice boomed, making you jump. You turned your eyes up at him and they were zeroed in on you.

“Sorry, Fish... my bad.”, Pope chuckled with a devilish grin, holding his hands up as he took a step back from you. Frankie could see how uncomfortable you were and motioned you to come to him with his fingers and you moved to the other side of the desk, taking care that your dress didn’t ride up with each step.

He turned to you, resting his hand on the desk and the other on his hip. His face softened again as he licked his bottom lip.

“What’dya need, Honey?”, he said softly.

You could feel Pope’s eyes on you, and it made your skin crawl.

“Come on, honey... boss doesn’t have all day...”, Pope sneered.

“Shut the fuck up, Pope.”, Frankie barked, pointing at the smaller man. He turned his attention back to you, placing the hand he’d just pointed so aggressively at Pope with gently on your shoulder and lowered his voice, “Come on, baby... tell me what’s going on.”

“Will sent me to ask if you... if you wanted dinner, Mr. Morales.” You felt your cheeks flush as you heard yourself speak in that ridiculously meek voice as Frankie gave you a soft grin.

Pope let out a laugh from behind you, and snickered, “Fuckin’ Will...”

Frankie glowered at Pope, then turned back to you, with a low voice, and he gently moved his hand to your neck, his thumb softly touching your jaw. “What’re you gonna make me, baby?”

“I make... I make a pretty good lasagna. Do you like lasagna, Mr. Morales?”

Pope let out a loud bark of a laugh, standing closer to the desk and sitting on it sideways, forcing himself to be a part of this conversation. “I like lasagna, too, honey... We all do.”

Frankie’s face turned back to Pope, and he barked one word: “OUT.”

Pope’s smile fell and he scowled at you, but you wouldn’t meet his gaze. He looked up at Frankie, and when he was met with his cold stare, he raised his brows, got off the desk and nodded. He turned and stalked out of the room, slamming the door.

Frankie watched him leave and took a deep breath before returning his attention to you. He smiled and spoke to you like he would a child.

“You go make that lasagna and you bring it here when it’s done. Okay, baby?”

“Yes, Mr. Morales.”

“Good girl.”, he smiled, giving your neck an affectionate squeeze before releasing you.

You quickly turned, not wanting to hesitate, and walked towards the door.

“I like your dress, Honey.”, he called out to you with a sly grin, and you turned back to him with a shy smile, giving him a small curtsey, which highlighted how short this dress really was on you.

“Thank you, Mr. Morales.”

*****

“Benny?”, you called out from the kitchen. After what seemed like hours, you were finally ready to put the lasagna in the oven.

Benny walked in and watched as you carefully placed the casserole dish on the rack and closed the oven door. He’d asked earlier about the last time you’d cooked for Frankie and how it went, and after prying the details out of you, he felt uneasy about the whole thing. He liked you, thought you were sweet and cute. He knew you were off limits, not that he wanted to touch you, but he felt like he needed to step in and be that protector, that older brother you deserved.

“You’re gonna take this to his office... and what? Feed him?”, he asked, quietly, not wanting to think about what Frankie had planned for you. He was his friend, but you deserved better.

“I don’t know, Benny.”, you sighed with a shrug. “I just have to, I don’t know... I have to be useful.”

You didn’t mention to him about Will, knowing he had a temper and not wanting Frankie to find out that Benny lost his shit on his brother because of something you said.

Benny said nothing in response; he just shook his head and huffed.

“I’ll be fine. I’m a big girl.”, you smiled warmly at him.

Benny smiled back at you, but it didn't reach his eyes. Something about the way he looked at you made you question the gentleness of Frankie’s touch in his office, the soft voice he used for you. Yeah, Will said that this was how you could be useful, but Frankie wouldn’t do anything like that to you,would he?He just liked to have someone pretty bring him food and watch him eat, which if you were being honest with yourself, you were the perfect candidate for the job.

He likes pretty things. Pretty cars, pretty views, pretty profits, pretty girls, Honey. Will’s words rang through your skull as your eyes searched Benny’s for more information.

But what if Frankie wanted to use you like that? You had expected as much before, going so far as to mentally prepare yourself for him to fuck you the last time you’d been left alone in the very kitchen you stood in.

Why was Benny looking at you like that? Like he felt... guilt? Oh god...

He watched your face fall, and he cleared this throat, looking away.

“Come on, Honey... can’t keep the big guy waitin’.”

*****

Benny walked along side you in the hallways, helping you bring the food along with the accompanying dishes and cutlery to Frankie’s office. As you approached the door, Benny quickly stepped in front of you. He looked down at you, the nervousness overtaking his features and voice.

“Nothin’ you don’t want, Honey. Don’t let’im do nothin’ you don’t want, okay?”

You nodded in return, a sour feeling blooming in your gut. He nodded back and took a deep breath, then pushed open the office door.

“He’s not here.”, Benny said with a slight hint of relief in his voice. “I’ll help you bring this back to the kitchen.”

“No… just put to down. He said for me to bring it to him here.” You kept your eyes lowered as you placed the plate, knife, fork and a beer where he sat at his desk. Benny put the casserole dish down on one of the side tables, then turned and looked at you.

As he was about to speak, the office door opened, and Frankie walked in, followed by Will. You froze as you saw him trail in after Frankie. He made quick eye contact with you before shifting his attention to Benny.

“We’re gonna head out to collect some payments, Benny. Come on.”, Will ordered, motioning him to follow. He waited at the door as Benny walked past you, giving you one last look, before moving towards the exit. Will gave you a quick glance then closed the door behind him and Benny, leaving you alone with Frankie.

Frankie watched you and Benny exchange looks before the younger man left with Will, and he felt a pang of jealousy. You trusted him, and, from what he’d been told and what he had seen, you weren’t afraid of him. Benny had even said you were funny and smart. Not that Frankie doubted that, but he’d never seen that side of you. He had a fleeting need; he wanted that for himself, feeling he was owed that given that he hadn’t tossed you to one of the other guys, especially Pope. He wanted you in your entirety. He couldn’t deny how hot it was that you were so much smaller than he was, especially when he towered over you after he ate. But was that really him or was that the lifestyle and power he had acquired now that he led the Frontiersmen? No one said no to him or questioned what he said, but you, with your openness to Benny countering your nervousness towards him, had destabilized this secure notion that had carried him the last five years. He knew he had to tread lightly with you to get what he wanted.

Before you heard Frankie, you felt him move behind you; his hand resting softly on your upper back between your shoulder blades. He stepped closer to you, gently moving his hand down your back and around your waist to turn you around to him.

“Smells really fucking good, baby.”, he groaned. You could hear the smile in his voice and sure enough, it was confirmed as you turned to face him. Looking up into his face, you could see his soft brown eyes looking down at you warmly.

“Thank you, Mr. Morales.”

You were getting lost in his eyes, hypnotized by his gaze as he backed you against the desk. When your backside hit the mahogany, he pressed himself against you and cupped his large hand against the back of your neck, his thumb, as he did earlier, touched your jaw lightly.

“Did so good for me today, Honey. You’re gonna plate some of that delicious smelling food up for me and you and I are gonna get to know each some more, okay?”

You nodded in return, and he gave you a stern look. “Gotta use that pretty mouth and talk to me, baby.”

“Y – yes, Mr. Morales.”, you stumbled.

He smiled and stepped back, releasing you to get to work. He sat heavily in his office chair. You could tell he’d eaten already today, based on the way his belt and pants pulled a little tighter across his waist and how his undershirt that he wore under the open Hawaiian shirt was already looking a little snug.

As soon as you’d plated up his food and places it in front of him, he tugged you by the waist to sit on one of his thighs, then pulled his chair closer to the desk. He picked up his fork and took a bite of the lasagna, and you watched him intently.

After he swallowed, he smiled and huffed a laugh as he shook his head and said before taking another bite, “You’re gonna wreck me for any other cook, baby. Tell me how you made it.”

*****

You’d only stayed on his lap for the first helping, moving to sitting on the desk next to his beer with your knees crossed for the remainder of his meal. His hand would occasionally come up and rest on your calf or thigh before he would grab his beer for a drink.

He asked for more information about you, your home life, your up bringing, anything he could think of that Benny would have asked and you slowly seemed to be less nervous with him.

By the time he’d finished the whole dish, Frankie was sitting back in his chair, thighs wide and belly protruding. He’d finally deemed you warmed up enough for him and he turned the questioning over to you.

“Alright baby… enough of you hogging the spotlight.”, he grunted with a smile, shifting his belt and pants lower to allow more room for his stomach. “You got any questions for me?”

You thought for a moment about what Will had said. Frankie liked food and he liked pretty things.

“Come on, honey… you gotta have some questions rattling around in that pretty head of yours.”, he said lowly as you watched his heavy middle move up and down with each breath. You smiled shyly, enjoying his use of the word pretty when he spoke to you; did it mean he liked you?

“Well, I was wondering, Mr. Morales…”, you spoke sweetly as you played with the hem of your skirt and lifted it slightly, seeing his eyes shirt to watch your fingers. “What’s your favourite dessert?”

A low grumble came from his chest as his eyes darkened, and he grinned.

“I like a lot of things, baby.”, he growled, his hand moving up your thigh, higher than the hem of your dress, and he gripped it, forcing your legs to become uncrossed.

“I like cake… pie… ice cream… pastries, chocolate, macarons, not picky about dessert, baby. But you know what my favourite is?”

You stared at him, eyes wide and your core trembling, and you shook your head. He moved both his hands in front of him on the desk to heave himself out of the chair and he stood between your parted legs. His face came close enough that his nose touched yours and he ghosted his mouth over your lips.

“Sweet… soft… warm… pussy.”

He didn’t kiss you but the hand that wasn’t bracing him above you pushed between your legs and moved your panties to the side. Frankie groaned when he felt how wet you were, and a self-satisfied smirk grew on his face as you whimpered.

He traced his middle finger through your folds, bringing your slick up to your clit as he circled it. Every small whine, pant or whimper was met with him nodding and saying “yeah” or “uh-huh, baby” under his breath in response.

“You want more, pretty baby?”, he cooed, nuzzling his nose against yours. The gentle act had you almost come right there, but your made your self nod.

“Yeah-yes, please… please, Mr. Morales!”, you whined breathily.

He removed his hand and gripped your panties, pulling them down and off you, before he pushed you down and shoved your skirt up. He pushed one of his thick fingers into you and pumped in and out while the other hand pushed down his belt and jeans to give his belly further room before it moved to hold your hip.

“Jesus, you’re pretty… but you look so much prettier like this, baby… fuck, you needed this, huh?... too fucking tight for your own good.”

“Please… please more… more, Mr. Morales!”, you whined.

He added another finger and pushed in deeper with each pump, making the wet, squelching noises obscener.

“So fucking wet… just for me, right?”, he said darkly before growling, “No one else touches you, right?”

“No… no one else… only you, Mr. Morales.”

“That’s fucking right… just me… you’re mine…”, he grunted, adding a third finger harshly.

You yelped out, trying to move away but his hand on your hip held you firmly in place and his face was dark with his brows crossed and his mouth twisted in a frown.

From out in the hallway, Pope could hear sounds. It only took a minute of his ear up against the wall to figure out what Frankie was doing to you. He grinned devilishly and hurried down to the rec room to tell Benny. He couldn’t wait to see that blond shit’s face when he told him that Frankie was finger fucking you over his desk.

“You’ll fucking take what I give you, baby… be a good girl…”, he growled, finally moving him thumb to rub circles around your clit, bringing you some relief. “That’s it… I’ll make it feel so good for you, but you gotta behave… there you go… that’s it… feels good now, baby?”

“God!... fuck, yes, Frankie!”, you cried out, not even realizing what you’d said until his fingers were ripped out of you, and he grabbed your jaw with his slicked up hand.

“You don’t call me that.”, he snarled, his lip curling in a menacing sneer. “Don’t you ever fucking call me that! You only get that privilege if I fuck you in my fucking bed!”

You wanted to beg his forgiveness, explain it was a mistake, tell him he didn’t have to finish you off, but your voice was caught in the lump in your throat. Your eyes were starting to tear up and you chided yourself at being so sensitive.

He gripped your face tighter, and barked, “Do you understand?!”

You swallowed hard and nodded, and he shoves your face away from his, slumping into the office chair.

“Get the fuck out of here.”, he snarled as he wiped his fingers on his napkin.

You trembled looking at him, knowing if you left, you were back at the mercy of his temper. You had to prove you belonged here with him, that you were useful to him.

You slid off the desk and got on your knees, crawling towards him. Once between his open legs, you placed your hands on his thighs and lightly rubbed them.

“The fuck do you think you’re doing?”, he growled in a warning tone.

“Apologizing, Mr. Morales.”, you said softly, slowly moving your hands to his belt buckle, giving him ample time to stop you. But he didn’t.

With a little more effort due to his belly heavily pushing against it, you unbuckled and opened his belt and jeans. Your eyes stayed on his as he lifted his hips a bit and you pulled his jeans down, and then you saw the impressive tent in his boxer shorts, topped with a wet patch from precum.

“I’m really sorry, Mr. Morales.”, you cooed, reaching up and gently tugging on his covered erection.

“Bet you are, baby…”, he grunted and sucked in a breath. “Go on… show me how sorry you are.”

You pulled the fabric down and released his cock, slapping up against his belly, and he hissed as the cool air hit it.

Frankie figured he’s get a hand job out of you and call it a night, but when you gripped his cock and opened your mouth and swirled your tongue around the tip, his jaw slacked and his eyes widened.

“Fuck… pretty baby…”

You gave the tip a few kitten licks and said before taking his length down your throat:

“I’m sorry, Mr. Morales.”

--------<3---------

TAGLIST:

@theywhowriteandknowthings @harryleatherfit @harriedandharassed @neverwheremoonchild @rebel-held @beee-haw @nevergoingbacknowshine @idolatrybarbie @v4vayha @lalocitos @xdaddysprincessxx @deathsholywaterr @heareball @lyssramscal @wintrwinchestr @blackfemalenerd @toxicanonymity @southernbe @starkeydaviss @noxturnalpascal

#pedro pascal #pedro pascal characters #pedro pascal fanfiction #pedro pascal tummy #frankie morales #triple frontier #francisco catfish morales #frankie morales fanfiction #chubby frankie rights !!!!!#dark!frankie still chubby though #dark!frankie au #dark!frankie morales #dark!triple frontier #on the waterfront #otwf #beefro's bistro #🥩

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nanaarchy · 11 days

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Any ETA on when you'll post your Invisobang fic? (This isn't me trying to hurry you I am genuinely just curious so I know when to look for it)

HEY GUYS!!

first off I just wanted to say i am so so happy to see the excitement for this fic??? like its so crazy to me to see so so so many people hyped for it sbgkhskshgs i hope i deliver something good :") i think it's not gonna be what people expect it to be, it's a combination of factors that I haven't seen anywhere on ao3, so im excited to see reactions lol. im still happy so many of yall wanna read it,, soobbign... cyring....

during the IB months I wrote 6 out of 8 chapters, abt 3k words each? is that a solid amount of words per chapter? no clue tbh. plus I had to rewrite a bunch, oops. I really am Not a fast writer

and so much has been happening irl, ive been hella busy :( honestly i was very much hit with the ao3 author curse lmao

and thus, many delays. but I am currently finishing the last two chapters, and once I finish this one i'll start posting!!

soooo, ETA?

Sunday the 15th!!

or maybe monday the 16th. my posting deadline is this weekend so i wanna start sharing things already ^^ and i'll prooobably post a chapter every two days >:) yippee

shout out to @zillychu (here!) and @they-bite (here!) for making the art for this fic. theyre absolute angels, incredible jaw-dropping awe-inspiring breath-taking artists <3333 GO GO GO LOOK AT THEIR ART PIECES !!! thank you both for being so so patient with how long this fic is taking. YOU GUYS ARE ABSOLUTE SWEETHEARTS!! you were both so supportive with everything, your excitement really fueled me to keep going with this wild fic, and i am so so so grateful for having been paired with two of my absolute favorite phandom artists. the stars really aligned to put me on a team with the kindest most skilled more ingenious artists i've seen around these parts, two artists that chose to make art for my silly little goofy fic, and i am beyond thankful. yall are gems <3

thank you guys for being so patient as well!!! <3

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crazy-ache · 5 months

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Dear Lucien, Dear Elain: An Epistolary Fic (Chapter 4 Update)

Title: Dear Lucien, Dear Elain: An Epistolary Fic (Chapter IV) Rating: M Summary:

“Perhaps you can speak them to me, if you so wish. I apologize if that is too forward, but I yearn to know you beyond simple pleasantries.

Yours truly,

Lucien

P.S. My lady, your secrets are always safe with me.”

Epistolary (adj., of a literary work) in the form of letters. After the winter solstice in ACOSF, Elain and Lucien exchange letters as a means to get to know each other away from prying eyes. This fic is a collection of those letters.

Author’s Note: CHAPTER UPDATE for our collab (me + @zenkindoflove)! Our plan is to update with one set of letters each week, as these letters are getting longer and longer each time. Can't wait to hear what you think!

READ HERE ON AO3

Preview

My sister did describe you as charming when you first met, though I can’t say she has ever used the word polite. Arrogant, sarcastic, and a rake were thrown around a lot. “Lucien has sharp wit and an even sharper tongue,” was a phrase she mentioned that stuck out to me. The other members of the inner circle also refer to you as “the sly fox” and Amren, who usually offers no opinion on anyone unless it’s a cranky one, simply refers to you as “the handsome one”.

If you'd like to be added or removed from our Tag List just let us know! (see tag list on reblog)

#elucien #elain x lucien #elucien fic #elain and lucien #elucien fanfic #elucien letters #pro elucien #elucien supremacy #sexy pen pal vibes #regency vibes #epistolary fanfic #elucien moodboard #collab fic #we hope you enjoy!#elain archeron #lucien vanserra #more angst and flirting for you to enjoy

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doppelgangercomic · 7 months

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another update. love that for me

hey guys, dan here again!!! wanted to give another update on progress!

so if you follow my main you know im also working on other stories/comics at the same time as dpgii! my dbz oc comic "mirrors" is my current baby that im putting most of my time into. having said that, i kind of..havent been working on any doppelganger pages x'D but theres more to it than just being occupied with another comic, which is what i wanted to talk about!

the original plan for dpgii was that i was going to just do the entirety of chapter 1 as a comic and then stop, allowing everyone to read the fic afterward once they got a taste of the story. then i realized i didnt have the energy or interest to invest into a full chapter, so i decided to compromise with saying i'd do a small scene from each chapter instead. THEN i realized i dont have the motivation for even THAT much...and i left it at the first five pages.

i guess that's where i'm at right now? im kinda lowkey getting back into danny phantom for reasons i kinda talked about on main a while back, so my interest in dpg has been on and off rather than just..off x'D but ive been considering at LEAST, if nothing else, drawing the one scene i was excited for--or...i guess in this case, the whole chapter. chapter 5! it has the most action and the most drama--just like the og comic--and i was really looking forward to drawing it!

so im thinking i might do that :] however this could change too..so i dont want to promise anything! apologies if any of u were excited for a full comic or even little snippets 🙏 its just hard to invest so much time and energy into something i only have a little bit of interest in..as much as i genuinely love it

i guess as a reminder, my main is @eirian, my art blog is @dansaiyanart, and my other currently-running comic blogs are @mirrorscomic and @villain-school! also, the FULL SEQUEL is available as a fic here if you'd like to read what i had planned!

the future of doppelganger is uncertain, but it will always be important to me u_u <3 thank you all so much for the support youve given over the years, it means the actual world to me and was the reason i started making comics beyond doppelganger at all!

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a-court-of-moonlight-and-ire · 8 months

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I made a mistake last time, I said that I read chapters 22-30 when I only read 22-29, but now I have read chapter 30 and also chapters 31-34 so lets talk about those

Its so frustrating how Im more than halfway through this 700 page book thats ostensibly supposed to be about Feyre and Rhysand's complicated relationship developing and theres been no development because the things that should make their relationship complicated have just been completely handwaved. Like, if this book HAS to focus so much on Rhys to the detriment of Feyre, and he also just HAS to be morally good, atleast give him some kind of character arc of bettering himself, right now Im basically just looking at this stagnant statue of a guy through someone elses eyes which doesnt make for a rewarding reading experience

Ive also been noticing more and more weird retcons and idk what to call it, justifications for why Rhys is better even when hes doing the same shit as Tamlin I guess? The two big ones being, when Tamlin blew up that room after Feyre told him that he was suffocating her he did it out of anger, and, Feyre is fine with wearing dresses for the night court because she knows she can go back to wearing Illyrian leathers anytime, which is not how it was at the spring court.

First of all, I keep saying this, I am not a Tamlin girlie, I dont like him that much and hes doing a bad job dealing with Feyre, but you dont need to make shit up to make Feyre's choice to leave feel justified. Like, he was not punching the walls in anger, he felt so bad and guilty about hurting Feyre when all he wants is to keep her safe that his magic went haywire over it. And thats bad enough! I mean Feyre, who has a lot of trouble communicating her feelings, finally managed to tell him everything thats wrong and makes her feel bad and makes healing from her trauma difficult, and he reacts by basically having a panic attack which makes his magic react in a dangerous way. Idk about you, but I would not feel comfortable or even safe expressing my feelings to him, even if he didnt react like that out of anger

Like, Feylin could have just not worked out, it couldve just been disfunctional without being portrayed as abuse but it cant be, I guess because it needs to be abuse in order to justify Feyre leaving him. And thats so strange to me because the idea that women need any kind of ("serious") justification for leaving a relationship is completely anti-thetical to the themes of feminism and choice that this book is trying to go for. Like, why cant a woman just break up with a guy because she stopped feeling it, theres no reason not to break up with a guy who makes you feel bad even if hes not being outright abusive. Although, in this particular story there actually is a reason, which is that if Feyre left Tamlin without a "good" justification then Amarantha would win, she would be proven right about the fickle nature of humans and the pointlessness of their un-eternal love from beyond the grave and that would be a bummer because the first book is about how Love Conquers All, as is the case with pretty much all great romances. So Tamlin's unambigiously abusive now so that that beautiful idea of Love Conquering All doesnt end up being dragged through the dirt. ACOMAF essentially posits that the Love that was supposed to Conquer All isn't real because neither Feyre nor Tamlin were willing or able to truly love each other through their trauma, ergo it didnt actually Conquer All. Thats also why Rhysand isnt meaningfully affected by what should be traumatic events; because while Feyre can love someone through her own trauma, she cant seem love someone whos traumatized themself

I feel like the way I phrased that was pretty harsh, but I do think its kinda true, in a way. Idk man, the thing that makes talking about Feyre's new UTM trauma so difficult is that everyone, including the narrative itself, is expecting her to have worked through it within less than half a year when its like, shes immortal and also living in a world with no therapists, she can take a bit longer than that. I mean hell, everyone in the inner circle is like 500 years and all of their major traumata happened when they were very young and most of them have still not learned how to actually cope with them aside from killing/avoiding the people who caused it (atleast from what Ive seen, especially of Cassian), Feyre might honestly be doing better than all of them but she keeps dogging on herself which, remember, her perspective is objectively correct as of this book, so that sucks

Alright, three paragraphs to talk about that first point, lets move on to talking about the dress thing. I have already observed that it seems like Feyre might stop wearing pants entirely at some point despite how much this particular book keeps going on and on about Tamlin forcing her to wear dresses in conjunction with going on about Tamlin forcing her into a subserviant mother-role, implying that dresses are inherently depowering, and well. I hate that for Feyre but I do love being proved right

And like, okay, I think Feyre hating dresses is another ACOMAF retcon, but its a retcon in a weirdly circular way. Let me explain; in ACOTAR I didnt get the impression that she hated dresses, I thought she just preferred pants because its what she was used to and because for a pretty large chunk of the book she was thinking about fleeing or was in situations where she needed to run away from something and pants were just more practical for that. But when she trusted the fae a bit more and a special occasion came up or she wanted to make Tamlin feel flustered (? that one doesnt make that much sense to me tbh), she did ask for dresses to wear and only felt a little embarrassed about it because she didnt usually wear them. I didnt even get the impression that she hated the impractical rich noblewoman dress they put her in when she was sent back to the human world, just that she found it really silly and unfitting for her. And I do think her being willing to wear dresses was supposed to be a signifier of her healing journey and her learning how to be gentle and let herself be loved in that book

Then ACOMAF comes around and she suddenly hates wearing dresses, which also ties into her suddenly becoming some kind of adrenaline junkie when she previously wanted to live a peaceful and comfortable life. Now, granted, the difference is that in ACOTAR she wore dresses that she explicitly asked to wear, whereas in ACOMAF Tamlin just assumes that she will always wear dresses by virtue of her being a woman without asking Feyre about it at any point (I know Ianthe was actually more involved in the dress-stuff, but the narrative is making Tamlin responsible for it so Im just gonna go along with it for simplicity's sake). Thats reasonable enough

But then a little further into ACOMAF we have Rhysand doing the exact same thing, hes assuming that she will wear dresses for the sake of keeping up appearances and helping him with his politics (and also, he's assuming that she will let herself be sexualized via the apple-breast comment in front of Tarquin (and later the CoN-UTM reeanactment scene)) and hes right, because of course he is. But the reason its fine when Rhysand does it, I guess, is because he keeps reassuring her that she has a choice in these matters when she really doesnt. Like, did he pack some illyrian leathers just in case Feyre didnt want to wear the dresses he got her? If he did, theres been no mention of it. Theres also been no mention of him asking her if she preferred to wear pants or a dress for the Summer Court mission, even though it seems to me that harem pants are considered to be unisex in the Night Court while they seem to be considered distinctly masculine in places like the Spring Court

And then we get to the thing about this dress-stuff that makes me call it a 'weirdly circular retcon'; while Nuala is dressing Feyre up for her date with Tarquin, for lack of a better term, she looks at herself in the mirror and thinks about how maybe, after everything shes been through that forced her to become hard, shes starting to heal and can finally let herself be feminine and soft and pretty. If you'll recall from a few paragraphs ago, that already happened to Feyre in ACOTAR except it was more subtle, I dont remember her just straight-up thinking about it like she does in this scene in ACOMAF. So its the same thing, but instead of her wearing dresses that she excplicitly asked to wear, shes wearing dresses that her new bf picked out for her and all but made her wear

And honestly, thats a really good way of summarizing the differences between Feylin and Feysand and the way Feyre gets treated in these book, which is why I wrote so fucking much about this pretty insignificant detail

Surprisingly enough, Im not done with this monster of a post yet, because I have some stuff to say about the Summer Court

The way Cresseida was introduced and treated made me have what Im just gonna call an angry epiphany. Like, before she came along I just thought the feminism of this series was very shallow and very white, but after her introduction I was just angrily thinking to myself "How the FUCK is this series considered feminist in any way?! The three types of women that exist in this story are literally Protagonist's Sisters (characterized as Haughty Bitch and Infantilized Clueless Cinnamon Roll Who Can Do No Wrong respectively), Protagonist's Slaves Servants Who Are Inexplicably Always Darkskinned Women and Promiscuous Bitches"

Varian seemed fine, but I dont like that he seems to have something going on with Amren. I know I said I didnt particularly like her, but I did still kinda latch onto her as my aroace rep so I find that very disappointing. But I guess thats on me for having expectations like that of the most amatonormative book series Ive ever read

So, from observing this part of the fandom prior to reading the books, it seemed that if sjm critical people dont like Feylin, theyll usually like Feyquin as an alternative to the horrible but canon Feysand. Despite that, I didnt have the highest expectations because honestly, it not much harder for a character to be a better love interest than ACOTAR!Tamlin and Rhysand. Like, the thing about Tamlin is that he was a really boring guy but hes a very good love interest, and the thing about Rhysand is that hes also really boring and hes a very bad love interest, so I thought "okay, I know Tarquin is the youngest and he has that whole thing about actively wanting equality for faeries but no one taking him seriously because everyone thinks hes inexperienced, OBVIOUSLY hes more interesting than the guys who can access their power with no issue, and then he'll just be kinda flirty towards Feyre, as SJM MaLeS usually are and that makes him a decent enough potential love interest I guess" and thats all true but idk, actually reading about him made me like him sooooo much. Like, him and Feyre telling each other theyre easy to love? Mwah, gorgeous. I bet Rhys is really glad he has that mating bond because without it his sorry ass would NOT be able to compete with Tarquin

So now my list of m/f Feyre ships goes Feyquin > Feycien > Feylin and Feyre/Azriel are on about the same level to me I think > Feysand (not including feyssian bc I think its a crime to ship cassian with a woman sry)

I specify m/f Feyre ships because if I included all of the Feyre ships, Feyanthe would be at the very top followed by Feyre/Amren. Idk, I know its obscure, but when she was describing how Amren was wearing a crop top she said something like "a sliver of skin was left exposed, as tempting as a calm lake" and I was like oh? 👀 Those guys have potentialllllllll I mean who needs Mates when youre both Made amiright fellas. Also, Feyre/Mor would go above Feysand

Anyway, thats it from me again, I hope you enjoyed this

#anti acotar #anti acomaf #anti sjm #anti rhysand #anti feysand #flames and darkness liveblog

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roughdaysandart · 4 months

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I Am Bewitched🤌

*sigh*

I just wanted to take this moment to shout out @djarins-cyare (I was gonna do it as an 'ask' but for some reason it wont let me do it from THIS account and only lets me do it from my other one)

Girl, I cannot overstate how stellar I think your writing and level of detail is. Ive read your smaller works in my past few months on tumblr (and of course loved each one) ......

.....*another sigh*

But just started listening (I plug it into a voice -generator) to Be all and Endor while I work on my panels and....my God even the notes at the end are a joy to read. I deeply deeply appreciate the detail and accuracy youre trying to achieve because I know it can be so tedious to pin down definite answers from so many different sources or lore in the SW-verse.

I'm only on chapter 4 so I cant to give a broad opinion on character-development (although I CAN say I am just eating up that first dinner scene with a fork and mother-fucking KNIFE) just yet but I'm very engaged with the main character's narrative voice and the poetic language so far. It gives a good break between spoken lines and really stretches out the scenes so time doesnt seem to pass as quikly (at least for me). And your use of foreshadowing and the small revelations of her past are enticing but not overwhelming/overstated.

Jesus CHRIST I mean even beyond world-building and lore you researched Din's DIALOUGUE DEVELOPMENT? We get this level of detail incorporation for FREE? FUCK, ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE ME FALL FOR YOU????

I know you live across the ocean but I am sending premium healing, loving, and anti-writers-blocking vibes to your precise location, express international shipping, babe. I'm so glad to see different levels/perspectices to approaching charachters/world building to consider in my own fic writing trhough this amazing series, I cant wait to keep listening ❤️.

-Madison (@roughdaysandart)

#mando fanfiction #mando #din djarin #the mandolarian #mando x reader #mando x you

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starfall-spirit · 9 months

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Ancient Myths Retold Series Masterlist

~Perseus and Andromeda~

Summary: An irksome trip to the Summer Court on matters of business and assistance against a threat at sea takes an interesting turn when Rhys discovers the solution to Nostrus' problem no longer lies with his army, but a female sacrifice, bound at high tide in hope of appeasing the beast terrorizing Nostrus' shores. He certainly never predicted the rescue mission would result in an accepted mating bond.

AtMotS Playlist

Read on AO3

Chapter I: The Damsel & the Serpent

Chapter II: New Beginnings

Chapter III: What I Claim

Chapter IV: Caught Up in Your Spell 🌶️

Chapter V: Waiting for a Sign

Chapter VI: How the Fragile Fall

Chapter VII: This First Taste of Forever 🌶️

~Odysseus and Penelope~

Summary: Lost at sea for the last ten years, Lucien Vanserra, Heir to Day has been presumed dead by all but one. Clinging to that thread of gold and loyal until and beyond death, Elain knows every one of the gossiping fools and suitors cursing her doorstep are wrong. Even still, feeling their bond grow frailer each morning has taken it's toll.

Each night she can't help but fear that bond will at last be cleaved, and the wolves will close in for their prize—her hand in marriage.

Inspired by EPIC: The Musical for Elucien Week 2024, specifically The Challenge

Read on Ao3 // Golden Prompt Moodboard // Adventurers Prompt Moodboard // Tension/Healing Prompt Commission

Chapter I: Buying You Time

Chapter II: My Everything 🌶️

Chapter III: Full Speed Ahead

Chapter III: They Think They've Won

Chapter IV: Let the Arrow Fly

Chapter V: If I Became the Monster

Chapter VI: I Will Take the Suffering From You 🌶️

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definitelynotshouting · 11 months

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Hello again! My ADHD has decided that the Hunger AU is to be my newest hyperfixation, and as such I have some more questions/interpretations I'd like to push forward, if that's alright. As always, no pressure in responding, and I hope this ask is fun to read :)

First off, I was going through some of your Listener posts for Reasons and I noticed a little tidbit in one of them: Watchers cannot feed off of the emotions of Listeners. If this is still the case, why were Martyn and BigB in the Life Games, if Grian can't feed on them, and were their mindsets still adversely affected? Could Grian (or theoretically, any Watcher) tell something was Off about them this way?

Another thing I noticed was that all Watchers are essentially clones of each other. Passing by the question of ecological diversity (I might think on that a different time), this implies that Grian, or at least, the Watcher-larvae that got implanted in him prior to all the code-copying, is a copy of another Watcher. Am I reading this right? Because if so that has implications and I love it.

And finally the biggest thing that's been on my mind: the Void (or the in-between, I've seen both). The space between servers. This thing has vexed and fascinated me since I read chapter one of your fic months ago. I think I've come to my own interpretations on the space, but I'd love to hear what you have plotted as well. For example, you mentioned that Developer Crystals are sort of hubs for servers - considering how you talked about it, the number of servers they can support must be pretty high. I've come to think of it kind of like a galaxy - and elliptical galaxy to be specific. Is this a correct way to think about it?

You've mentioned that being out in the in-between is dangerous for those not prepared - how much training does it take to be a Voidwalker? How does inter-server travel for regular players work? Are there extra steps that need to be taken when traveling from one Crystal's hub to another?

And on a personal interpretation note, I interpret the Void as looking kind of like space (as you often refer to in your work), but also... not. Specifically, when you talked about Developer Crystrals, I imagined them looking kind of like the Paths from Attack on Titan, just minus the ground (and being a lot bigger).

One final question, since it's been bothering me for ages: how does the ground work in the Void? It's been killing me since chapter 1.

Sorry for the massive ask, but it takes a particular sort of worldbuilding for me to come up with so many questions. I'm really having a fun time working with these rules - so thank you for making them!

Heyo!! I finally got a chance to answer this, which ive been trying to do since you sent it but unfortunately real life had other plans 😂😂😂 but i have the time and brain now, so here are hopefully some satisfying answers to your questions!!! :D

1.) BigB becoming a Listener was relatively recent; he was still a Player when he got pulled into the life games. As for Martyn, i think that because Listeners are so new, he was probably the first one Grian had ever encountered (at the time of 3rd Life at least). So he didn't realize he couldn't feed off of Martyn's emotions-- all he saw, in that half-frantic frenzy of "i need to eat right fucking now," was hey, i know that guy, and he's also in close proximity to BigB, so Grian sorta automatically pulled him in.

Afterwards, I'd say once Grian figured out he couldn't feed from him, he still ended up pulled in the next two times because of the familiarity (and because for as much as Grian can't feed off of him, Martyn still causes a lot of edible emotions in other people). But yeah, any Watcher would be able to tell if someone was a Listener!! And Listeners are able to tell if somebody is a Watcher, although their Player usually won't understand what that means beyond "hey theres something Weird going on with that guy."

2.) Yep!! All watchers are structural-code and utility-code copies of each other; their memory codes and surface codes are the only things that differentiate them from one another. This does indeed have some very fun implications to ruminate on fjsbdkdnd

3.) I'm not sure if i would describe dev crystals as a "hub," if only because that sorta implies that they're habitable-- but they are indeed the center of each server cluster, and i would honestly say the description of an elliptical galaxy is totally spot on :] they can indeed maintain a high amount of servers, but if the count grows too high then they can overload and stop processing the flow of unraveled code as efficiently, which can then cause backups, which then make them blow up, which is. obviously, pretty not good akdnwkdjek

Think of the void between servers as the bottom of the ocean. Absolutely crushing depths, the kind that will kill you in an instant if you don't have the right protective gear. Voidwalkers are basically people who are so good at coding that they can keep their code from getting pulverized and walk right through it like they're taking a casual morning stroll. It takes a ton of effort and energy to do, and is very dangerous-- i would say you have to be EXCEPTIONALLY quick-thinking, an efficient multitasker, and have a lot of practical foresight to achieve it without dissolving. Hence why there aren't many of them, and I'd honestly say Xisuma is probably one of, if not the, best. The fact that he was able to take five people including himself into the in-between, and keep them all alive, is INSANE. Brother outdid himself truly

As for interserver travel, thats something im currently working on lore-wise (and will hopefully be able to post about soon)!!! But the basic gist im working off of right now is that there are servers that act as server hubs, or waystations-- basically servers whose only purpose is to act as an in between point to access other servers. I'm toying with the idea of special portals called launchers, and the concept of zip files/share folders + creating folds in the fabric of the Greater Code to cross vast distances within a short distance. If you've read A Wrinkle In Time, thats the sorta thing im thinking of. But unfortunately right now its all spaghetti in my brain, so im still working on straightening that out until i can explain my thoughts coherently 💀💀💀💀

I can say rn that travel between dev crystals and their server clusters is not possible just yet. The universe is fucking HUGE, and there are countless devs and server clusters within it; the ability to travel between them isnt quite feasible right now, but it'll get there eventually :] not within the scope of the main story, though-- all of that fully takes place in this single corner of the universe

For dev crystals themselves, i picture them looking a lot like giant end crystals!!! the thought is that end crystals are basically like. a mini version of a dev, and that the beams you see healing the ender dragon are bursts of raw code pulled in from the rest of the server. so yeah, end crystals except massive on a scale we can barely comprehend and also ten million times more explosive (and more capable of handling the stability of an entire server cluster so it doesnt collapse in on itself)

4.) LAST BUT NOT LEAST. I. will fully admit when i wrote the walking on the void it was, at the time, a purely aesthetic choice. But i am legitimately thinking now about the implications of that, and toying with a few concepts that i wanna noodle on more before i fully commit to them. Sorry for leaving it a mystery for now!!!! 😂😂😂😂 it'll probably get answered in the post i'll eventually make about launchers and interserver travel

hope these were helpful and continue fueling your brainrot!!! thanks for being patient while i wrangled my brain enough to answer them :]❤️❤️❤️❤️

#shouting speaks #asks #hunger au #VERY FLATTERED THIS IS YOUR HYPERFIXATION :DDD #hope this provides some good answers!!!#long post #txt

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thetalesofno-one · 7 months

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Curse of Strahd, Act I: Pt. 1, Ch. IV -Deadman's Path-

D&D Campaign Retelling Part 1/6 Chapter 4/5 ~4.8k words Content Warnings: Curse of Strahd typical content, Read at own risk

Summary At the fork in the road, the Deadman's Path is chosen. The messages of tallies and arrows followed like a promise into the mists where the land drinks of their spirits. Read Previous Chapters also available on AO3

Evie stares at the empty air where Roshan and Evrrot should be. Where any sane person would still be if they hadn’t fucked off into the crazy weird fog without a thought for how sound an idea that could possibly be. The fog is exactly what started this mess and she doesn’t think getting home will be as easy as walking right back into it.

She doesn’t so much as blink, searching that creepy slithering fog for any signs of the fools. There’s nothing there. Literally fucking nothing. No little angry swirls where they passed, no blurry shadow of their silhouettes being eaten alive. Nothing.

She hopes the bastards beyond are still alive to hear it if for no other reason than to let them know she will chew their ears off next she sees them. Who looks at a wall of churning, slithering fog that swallows all like a damn hydra and goes, ‘Let’s go this way’.

Evie catches the giant ponce looking at her with that long suffering look that’s becoming more and more common between them. She hates that she’s wearing it too.

A string of curses creative enough it would’ve raised her father’s brows from his grave face find their way to her lips, but under her breath because she’s still a temple girl even if she’s not exactly sure where she stands with that. To his credit, the tree of an elf beside her doesn’t so much as raise one of his immaculately sharp brows. She wonders a moment if he shapes them himself or if he’s just born that way. Probably the latter. Pure blood elves and their useless handsomeness. She hopes he can swing that broken glaive as well as he fondles it. She swears his hand never leaves the busted thing. Oh he hides it well enough beneath that dark cloak of his, the worn rag draped over one shoulder to hide his blade arm. But she’s short enough to catch a glimpse here and there when he walks and sure enough, his hand hasn’t left that thing since he strolled into the barn with his lifted chin and judgy eyes, looking down on them all.

He looks down on her now. Granted he’s about two feet taller than her, but that’s beside the point.

Evie sighs, “It’s not like we don’t both know we’re just going to follow them.”

He stares at the fog a moment, watching it writhe and swirl in strange patterns before their eyes. For a moment she thinks he’s going to turn back and abandon her—wouldn’t be the first person—but he seems to resign himself and steps into the fog without looking back at her readied glare. She expected him to put up a small resistance to walking ahead of her in his strange, quiet, if misguidedly protective way. Waste of a glare.

She follows in his shadow immediately, not taking any chances with fucky fog in weird forests. It swallows everything, even threatening to swallow each other despite their proximity. She moves closer and feels him tense as her arm brushes his gloved hand, but even right next to him, he is difficult to see through the thick haze, half gone from her sight. It is far too easy to lose each other in this mess and any sign of the others mere moments ahead of them is entirely impossible.

The mist paws at them, crawling over their skin, and sweeping through their hair. The more they breathe it in, the more it feels like something is being stolen away. Evie forces her lungs full, but the choked air only tightens her chest leaving her feeling more empty than before. The strength seeps from her bones like blood from a wound. Even Emet seems more slouched.

The air is too thin, her head growing heavier with each laboring breath. Exhaustion floods them and Evie is reminded of her early days in the temple. The first time she put on armor, it felt like she’d drown in it. The first time she carried a weighted casket, she thought she’d be in the grave herself if she had to take one more step. They made her carry that weight daily until she could bear it. And not just physically. But in this mist she feels like she’s back on that first day, fighting for her life to get the casket on her shoulder even with the aid of another, the familiar strain burning in her lungs and filling her legs with lead.

She and Emet—the moon elf bent and slouching, suffering quietly as he tries not to look like he cannot breathe either—trudge through for what cannot possibly be longer than a handful of minutes, and yet when they finally exit the blinding and sapping fog into the normal unending mist, they feel as though they’ve both run the length of a city in full plate armor.

She pants and catches her breath shamelessly. Emet finally gives up the ruse of not suffering and sinks his back against a tree, leaning far too heavy for someone who’s not dying with her. They both spare a lungful to curse out Mr. “I think I’m so sexy” tiefling and the crazy old man for abandoning them. But their misguided leaders are nowhere to be seen.

“This was a mistake,” Emet snarls, breathing in deep, trying to fill his lungs. It is taking too long for the burn to fade, “Never trust dead men.”

“It’s taken you that long to work that one out?”

“No. There simply wasn’t much other choice.”

Evie takes one more lungful, savoring the strange bitter sweetness of this air. Cemetery air. Air of cold stone and faint rot, sharp and empty with a lingering taste of sorrow, the same air she’s breathed since Daggerford fells into the mists hours ago. The same air that told her they were far, far away from home. But at least it isn’t choking away her every breath. Her strength slowly returns.

“There’s always another choice,” she whispers.

Somewhere else beyond the vampiric mist and lost in the forest, Evrrot and Roshan fight off the same drain on their body and spirit. The fog doesn’t so much as pull away from them as simply end between one step and the next. One moment consumed and blind with the air stolen from their lungs and the next beyond the slithering snakes of fog into the slightly less slithering fog of the deadwood forest.

Roshan quickly spins behind him to check on the others, his loose white robes swishing around his ankles. Evrrot pants heavily beside him with hands on his knees looking as though he just outran the guard. That seems like a thing the devil boy would do. He acts like someone who has outrun many a guard and not just because of the horns. His personality tells a story all its own.

Gulping in the mildly stale air like a parched man finding water in the sands of Calimshan, Roshan puts on his best grin for his next joke before realizing that Evrrot is the only one with him. He spins in a circle, searching along the fog wall’s edge.

“Where are the other two?”

“Probably lost in the mist,” Evrrot pants, gulping loudly.

He lifts his glowing staff, “But I shined a light for them to follow.”

“I don’t know.” Evrrot tosses up his hands and leaves down the path without a second thought for those missing. “I’m gonna keep going, you good to keep up?”

“I am not old,” he says by way of answer.

Roshan’s brow furrows, looking again to the place where the others should appear any moment if they are not lost. But they do not come and Evrrot is already walking away.

“Should we not try and find them?”

Evrrot’s steps end and he sighs.

“If they are in the mist, surely they will come out soon,” Roshan continues.

Though he is stopped, devil boy does not turn back. It is as though he hoped Roshan would simply forget about the people who were just with them and move on. The tiefling chews his lower lip with an air irritation, tail swishing as he impatiently settles his weight from one foot to the other. Roshan wonders if Evrrot must actively force his feet from walking away. As though waiting for others goes against his very nature. Devil boy stares pointedly ahead with the longing of a starving man restraining himself from a hot meal. It is like watching someone decide between cutting off their own hand or taking a slice of honeyed pastry. The choice is no choice at all. Roshan doesn’t need to be a seer to sense Evrrot’s struggle to find a reason to care about the others is a difficult one for him.

“Numbers are better in this sort of situation,” Roshan offers gently.

Evrrot continues to stare pointedly away from where they came. He bites his lip a bit more, devilish fangs worrying the edge before clicking his teeth together.

“Alright, fine.”

He clenches his jaw then loosens, shaking off the tension and grabbing hold of Roshan’s words to force himself back. At least the boy’s mind is capable of seeing the practical and logical value in having a few more bodies between them. It is a start.

Roshan pats Evrrot’s shoulder like a father does a son’s head, “Good lad.”

“Don’t touch me.”

“Why are you so angsty? Do you have a bad relationship with your father?”

“No, it was a pleasant one, but…” Evrrot glares, “Why are we even talking about this?”

Devil boy storms off to go find the missing people he’s been told he’s supposed to care about and Roshan sighs. It is a start, he reminds himself.

“Can’t believe those guys went off without us!”

Evie sets her fists on her hips and sneers as she mocks the assholes who left her with the giant ghost. If she can’t tear them a new one, then she’ll settle with complaining about them to Emet instead.

“I thought we were supposed to be sticking together! And yet I can already hear the sound of that damned Evrrot walking away and fucking off into the mist like a twat. Probably thinks he’d do just fine without any of us. Wankers.”

Evie chews a nail then stops herself, “We weren’t that far behind were we?”

She hates how she can hear the worry in her voice when the anger burns itself away. As if all there really is—all there’s really been—is worry. But worry is fear, so she sets it aflame and calls it rage. Because she doesn’t want to be afraid. She wants to be angry.

Emet runs a hand across his face, the metal gauntlet getting tangled in the loose strands of his long white hair a moment. He shakes them free, “No, a few seconds at most.”

“Maybe they’re hiding or some shit.”

“I swear, if one of them jumps out of the mist, I’ll stab them.”

She doesn’t think he’s joking and some part of her respects that. Evie begins calling out for ‘old guy’, making it very clear this isn’t very funny and daggers will be involved if they jump out at them.

She’s about to get more creative with her threats when a strange noise fills the space between her calls. Something like metal whirring and spinning wildly against glass. Evie turns to Emet first wondering if the towering bastard has gone and done something, but his eyes are cast down at her hips. She’s about to curse him out when he wordlessly points and her eyes follow the line of his finger to her pocket. The compass.

The strange sound grows louder as Evie removes the tarnished copper thing. The needle—once erratic and stubbornly refusing to point North—now whirls in a frenzy as though caught in a storm. The sharp red needle now a blur beneath the glass. Small scrapes cut the surface from underneath.

“Well, that’s great. It’s even more useless,” she says.

Evie shoves the broken thing back in her pocket and goes back to loudly and obnoxiously calling out for ‘old guy’, not quite wanting to say her nickname for sexy tiefling out loud since he’d probably ignore the sarcastic nuance and take it as a compliment. No one replies of course, but she and Emet wander aimlessly around the border of the sapping mist in the hopes the other two haven’t actually abandoned them.

She hopes not.

Expects so and yet still hopes not for some stupid reason.

One stolen glance at Emet and she can tell he’s already given up on the others—if he ever expected them to come back for them at all. Abandonment issues isn’t something she wants to have in common with him. It isn’t something she wants at all and yet believing they’ve been left behind is an easier pill to swallow than thinking anyone would come looking for her…them. Come looking for them.

“…get very irritated very quickly. Who hurt you?”

The sing-song melody of Roshan’s accent carries through the still air. Not close, but not far either. She glances up at Emet silently wondering if he hears it too, or if the mist is playing tricks again. But he’s staring off in the same direction she heard the voice. He heard it too then. They pick up their speed, Evie half trotting toward the sound of Roshan’ melodic voice, the human asking something about why Evrrot does not like authority figures as the tiefling trudges into view alongside Roshan. Evrrot wears the expression of someone deeply regretting a decision.

Relief floods Evie like a cool drink on a hot day. Warmth poured over her heart and bones in a brief flicker at seeing them. She almost smiles. Almost. And out of the corner of her eye she catches Emet’s mouth quirk up into a faint grin as though he’s about to make some sarcastic comment before he glances over to her and the smile falls into something else. Like remembering something lost.

She senses the softness on her face before he can say anything, her expression open and unhidden behind the sharp barbs she set in her heart to keep moments like this from happening. To keep people from realizing she still has one. Evie’s eyes sharpen into knives. She’s about to cut Emet first for that look before Evrrot finally spies them, offering a fake smile and an impatient tap of his foot saying, “Alright, we got everyone? Then let’s keep going.”

That’s it? Let’s just go like you’ve been keeping us waiting. No question of what happened or are you alright? Evie wants to snarl at Evrrot and give that tapping foot of his a trim with her short sword or maybe pry out a fang or two from that fake ass smile. She wants to scream and roar and cut something—anything to get away from that moment of letting her mask of steel slip.

Roshan halts his psychological analysis of Evrrot, “Where have you been for the past three minutes?”

Evie blinks, hearing the exact words she wanted to hear but her anger has gone too far already. “Where did you go? You just fucked off!” Evie bites back, venom sharp.

Evrrot’s fake smile turns into a frown matching her own offense as though he has any right to be offended at all.

“We’ve been here!” He yells loudly, “Waiting for you two.”

Evie is about to tell him exactly where he can wait for her booted foot before Roshan starts patting the air like he can put out the flames, “No, no, no. We walked around for a bit hoping to find you.”

“We were right behind you,” Emet gestures to the mist, a little irritated himself if Evie is hearing that faint sharpness in his tone correctly. “Barely a few steps between us.”

Something like concern crosses the holy man’s face, and at least when he wears it, Evie believes it.

“It was more than a few minutes for us,” Roshan answers, “We waited a few minutes and you were nowhere to be found.”

“Minutes?” Emet scoffs, “We were seconds behind you. How could you have had minutes to wait?”

A day and night’s weariness of travel and strangeness wears at the ends of Evie’s nerves with a faint building static. She’s tired. She’s hungry. And all of them are at the very edge of whatever hospitality they had to begin with, which wasn’t much. Roshan tries to explain how time went for them a little better, but his story and their just don’t add up and as tired as they all are, it probably never will. None of this does.

Emet runs a hand through his hair, resigned and looking twice as tired as the rest of them. She wonders if he always looks tired, but the thought is cut short as his eyes catch on something beyond them. Evie turns and spies an eerily familiar tree, with 43 tallies and an arrow. She isn’t sure if she should be glad or furious.

“Either we continue with these endless trees or we risk the fog again and try to find our way back. So which is it,” Emet says flatly, as though he knows that whatever he chooses the tiefling will likely decide the opposite for no other reason than spite. Or perhaps it’s some weird kink for control and this is how he flirts. She doesn’t know anymore and doesn’t care. At least for now, they need to stick together and preferably that will happen someplace away from all this damned fog.

Roshan shakes his head, “The fog is a bad, bad place.”

“All of this is a bad, bad place.”

Without anyone having really decided, they all trudge through the muddy path toward the tree with their feet heavy and minds burdened by the frustrations this day has brought upon them.

Evie’s fingers wander absently over the brooch about her neck, twisting it back and forth on its black velvet cord knowing she can never take it off. Can’t take it off. Her fingers trace the familiar shape of the smooth surface, the last time she’s seen it outside of a mirror or reflection being when her father put it on her. Before, she never cared to take it off. And the first time she tried only weeks ago, she couldn’t. No one could unlatch it or cut it. And soon after her father left, it started to tug at her. She might not know where this heirloom of her father’s is leading her, but she never would’ve guessed it would be to a barnful of strangers forced to rely on each other in some strange land. And without any kind of rest.

Tensions are high.

Sleep and food. That’s what they need. Something hot to fill their bellies, something warm and comfortable to wrap around their shoulders, and something soft to lay their heads upon. Maybe things will make a bit more sense after that. But for now they’re still lost on this cyclical path with heavy eyes and frayed nerves, teeth bared and ready to latch onto each other’s throats. Only the old man seems to have any sort of calm about him as though this is just a casual stroll through winter woods with friends and not a bunch of tired and angry strangers thrown into some kid’s messed up bedtime story.

Sexy tiefling and old man find their way to the tree first, though this one is slightly different than the rest they have encountered. Stabbed into the gnarled and cracked bark of the tree, an old dagger of a style unfamiliar to any kind Evie has seen rests above a crude carving of a man atop a horse. The phrase ‘The horseman rides, the Seer spoke true’ carved below, and once more another 43 tallies with another arrow.

“Well, that’s not ominous,” Emet growls.

“Do you think the horseman is that man we found dead?” Roshan studies the carving a bit closer, “Or that silhouette of the man with the flaming horse? And who is this Seer?”

Evie’s eyes widen, “Oh shit, do you think it’s the same guy? His horse wasn’t on fire though.”

“No, but horses are not usually on fire.”

Fair enough.

“Which one do you think it is then, old guy?”

“I think that man is dead. He is not the problem. He is probably the one who gave this message though. I think we should find this Seer and that we should follow the arrows.”

Evie eyes him. That’s a lot of ‘I think we should’ for someone she just met hours ago. All she wants is to get to some semblance of safety, figure out what part of Faerûn the damned mist spirited them off to, and then be on her way.

“I don’t see why any of this is any of our business.”

“We do not know where we are, any help would be grateful.” Roshan looks around the mist again, nodding to himself, “This place is bad. Bad, bad.”

“I’m with you there.”

The weariness of the day—days?—sets in. Roshan is the first to search the sky for any sign of what time it could possibly be since they entered the parasitic mist. Not like Evie expects anything. Since the air turned from the sweetness of Daggerford celebration to misty cemetery air, they’ve been wandering for what must have been five or more hours by Evie’s estimation, and yet the sky remains a stubborn endless dark grey somewhere between night and day. Only faint greyish light filtering through the tangled barren boughs of the gnarled trees indicates that it might be daylight somewhere above that low blanket of clouds.

“Surely the sun should have risen or set by now, no?” The holy man rubs the burnished metal sun hanging about his neck as though the action might summon the sun emblazoned on it. With no tangible response, he adjusts his robes and points after the next arrow.

“Right, come along children. Let’s go.”

Children?

Evie rolls her eyes. Being twenty-five doesn’t make her a child no matter how young she looks with her half-elven blood. And sexy tiefling has got to be in his thirties with the way he seems to still prize being an asshole. Too old to be smooth faced and full of lies and too young to have gained any maturity or wisdom, clearly. And poncy boy the seven foot giant elf? The man may look like an untouched by time young thirties, but he’s a pure blood elf. He could be 300 years old for all Evie knows and she’s only partially certain the old man doesn’t have quite so many years under his belt. Evie finds herself assessing Roshan once more, trying to determine his age.

“I thought you were 32?” Evie asks.

“Yes, but you keep calling me old one, so I might as well accept it.”

“There’s just something about you,” Emet adds, “You must have an old soul or something.”

“I have never heard that one, thank you,” Roshan says with such a deadpan expression, Evie can’t tell if that’s sarcasm.

The group, all wishing in their own way for a bed and some sort of hot meal continue along the muddy footpath with less and less motivation to bother. How many more trees with 43 tallies will they pass? How many more cryptic signs carved in bark with no sun or hint of where or when the hells any of them are?

Evie hangs her head with a dramatic sigh, groaning loudly incase anyone has any doubt about how done she is with this endless day, when she stops in her tracks. They’ve been walking this muddy foot path since Roshan decided with his magic feather that this was the way to go, but Evie never really gave the path any kind of investigation. Why would she? A path is a path right? Unless the path is worn by only one person.

She stares into the mud, hoping she is wrong. But whether she looks behind where they’ve walked or ahead where they’ve not yet trampled some of the tracks, it is the same.

“I’m starting to get a bad feeling, guys.”

“You are only starting?” Roshan asks.

“No, a new bad feeling.”

“Ohhh.”

“I mean I’m not the smartest but other than ours, I’m not seeing any tracks that were made by more than one person,” she points at the hoof prints, “and one horse.”

Evie squats down on her thick platform heels, fingers tracing above the footprints that came before theirs and the ones that lead further beyond, “This path was made by one man. Look, these are the same shoes over and over.” Her finger finds hoof prints next, “And this is the same horse. The horseshoe has that knick in the metal in every track.”

Emet seems to make the connection first as she lays out the points. The deadman and horse made this path, wore it into existence with endless repetition. Forty-three times, Evie would hazard to guess. Forty-three times through that draining patch of fog before they finally had nothing left.

Evie stands up from her squat, wiping the mud off her hands, “I don’t know, this seems wrong.”

“But it means we will likely make it back then, no? If it is a circle?” Roshan asks.

“I hope. We should have followed the other path.”

“When we make it back, we will go the other way.”

“If we make it back,” Evie bites back, but a little more gently, “The dead guy didn’t.”

Evrrot slings his bow across his back and steps up to one of the taller trees, kicking his boot into the trunk to test for any softness or give.

“I’m gonna see if I can get a better vantage point.”

Look who’s taking some initiative.

“Do not fall,” Roshan calls out as the tiefling swings himself up to the lowest dead branch and begins scaling the tree with familiarity. Evie half wishes it would break under his weight and drop his ass in the mud. It holds, to her disappointment.

It doesn’t take Evrrot long before he reaches the higher canopy, the tree full of easy branches to scale and most of them still strong enough to support his weight—unfortunately. A few close calls as weaker dead boughs snap beneath him, but always another branch not far from hand.

Balancing himself against the thinner and weaker boughs near the top of the tree, Evrrot carefully stands above the canopy.

“Well that’s fucked,” Evrrot calls down.

“What?” Evie calls up.

“There’s nothing. It’s just fucking fog everywhere.”

Evrrot calls out his view. All around him, a sea of endless tangled branches pierce the fog like thorns. And behind, where that wall of vampiric fog tried to sap them of what little energy they have left, a massive roiling pillar of white climbing endlessly into the overcast skies still stubbornly caught somewhere between night and day. Seems there is no escape from that impenetrable fog. Even from above.

He carefully, if a bit angrily, makes his way back to the ground. If there’s any sort of settlement in this place, the fog hides it well. They have no choice but to follow whatever damn path they can find. Roshan is quiet as Evrrot explains the situation, closing his eyes a moment as he grasps that burnished sun once more in his calloused hands and whispers something beneath his breath. Evie’s sharp ears only catch the last word, “Are you there?” Whatever he is seeking, Evie knows he did not find it. The old man’s shoulders droop almost imperceptibly.

“Does he typically answer?” Emet asks softly.

“I usually feel his warmth. Now there is only cold.”

He nods as though expecting as much, “That must be the way of gods.”

Roshan’s eyes are dawnsteel.

“Not this one.”

Emet quietly assesses him, perhaps seeking a weak point to exploit. Perhaps looking for any waver in his conviction, but finds none and keeps his silence.

With nowhere left to go, they press on to follow the arrows in the hopes that they will cross the abandoned wagon trail once more.

Several minutes and several more 43 tallied trees pass before all breathe a hesitant sigh of relief. There, ahead of them, the lonely wagon trail that started them in these misty lands cuts across the deadman’s path. But that relief is quickly overshadowed.

The deadman—once still and rotting, nothing more than a feast for crows—is gone.

#dark fantasy #gothic fantasy #gothic fiction #curse of strahd #barovia #d&d campaign #dnd campaign #vampire #vampire fiction #ongoing fic #fantasy fiction #creative writing #fiction writing #my fiction #adventure fiction #writers on tumblr #writeblr #my writing #Tales of No One

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tasteleeknow · 2 months

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hey jade! i recently became active on tumblr again and I saw that you've started a new job!!! congo!!! (also yaas the adhd meds woke a new version of me when I first started them lolll. never knew I could be so productive tbh)

i remember sometime ago you said that your basic outline for hello stranger was for like 10 chapters?? do you feel like that has changed over the progress of the fic? i wanna write some things for myself too but I'm terrible at planning :( do you feel like you have changed significant plot points or character traits instead of how you initially envisioned them??

im sorry but i just love the way you write and I'm soo curious abt the brainwork that goes behind it

(im sorry if the tone of this msg comes off as pushy. I'm on laptop and I'm feeling too lazy to copy/paste emojis because my laptop doesn't support them :(( )

hi! (the adhd meds have allowed me to accomplish things ive been putting off for actual years, its insane)

its def longer than 10 chapters at this point yeah. i'd say maybe 15 but again i dont know bc i end up adding scenes as i go, beyond my outline.

planning sucks and you dont need to do spend ages on it if you hate it (like me). i use a method where i brainstorm at the very start like super super vague basic outline of my idea and how it will progress as a story (start/status quo, external/internal obstacles or conflicts, dark moment, final conflict, closing). then i just say fuck it and see what happens as i go. it usually ends up completely different than the starting outline. i often edit the outline as it changes with each chapter.

THEN i draft without editing bc editing will keep you (me) stalled forever. just write the chapter/one shot without intending for anyone to read it at all. the first draft is just for your eyes. the sentences can be as ugly and as grammatically incorrect as you want.

like im serious, no editing. aim to not go back and edit at all just word vomit into google docs or whatever until ur brain is empty. pretend you cant move the cursor. you are using a typewriter (with a really fancy backspace feature that you get to use sometimes, so lucky and spoiled). NO REREADING AND OBSESSING OVER PHRASING AND VOCAB AND DIALOGUE AND SENTENCE STRUCTURE. attempting to perfect every part as i write it..... worst possible writing method.

then when ur empty and ur ideas are out of ur head... u can begin editing. which is my least favourite part of the entire process. read it over and over and stew and think abt how u could be better and then remember its just for fun and then stew some more and second guess everything and never write again (until u do).

that's my process.

thanks for asking, i love talking abt writing!!

(and it doesn't come off as pushy at all, ur all good!)

p.s i often just give up on editing and let it be bc i will stew forever (i'm a struggling perfectionist) so yeah editing can die

#answered

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mejomonster · 11 months

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Started reading In The Dark, first chapter Nightmares:

Interesting vibes. Before anything else, I love the descriptions in this. I've been losing my own ability to spit out what the fuck Im trying to describe when writing lately, and the slightly poetic imagery but also to the point present tense of how this is written... it's really helping inspire me. (And of course, seeing quick examples of describing characters and buildings quickly without clumsiness but also still with some emotion is helpful)

Expectedly, the leads appear to be "two hot men" as is the bl usual ToT it is what it is. I'm partial to modu's babes still, but I'll get used to a new novel again lmao (what can I say? No character in a Long While is gonna top the fucking Captain China descriptions, the personality of priests characters screaming out so much that its ultimately the feeling of the character so unique and bizarre that you remember more than actual looks).

I am hoping, somehow, this novel's gonna be written as intelligently (as in intense themes, parallels, symbolism, points to make) as a priest novel. Im spoiled cause all the other chinese bl novels ive finished reading? Fucking excellent. I think my hopes are justified, tbh. If for no other reason than this writer doing some of my favorite shit: they name dropped a japanese murder author Ive read (and mentioned a plot of it im intrigued by), and they've left a TON of potential foreshadowing threads.

Said threads: opening, character dreams of a bloody woman? Could be a Fei Du (ish) situation where he did awful stuff and blacked it out. Could be a darker situation, where he's actually the bad guy/antihero/dangerous and we get a story from THAT point of view in some regard (which is a fascinating potential).

Character meets guy who clearly matches him, was at the theater for him, stalking him? At some prior point, started watching him first? Oh you know me. I like a slow burn. I like a long history (as long as its not childhood friends anything but that), i like rivals, its giving L X Light, Beyond Evil guys energy.

The movie playing: the stranger says he doesnt like roses. And the earlier quote from the murder novel, the Xie Lanshan remebering the quote that "even a demon essentially Id still love you." My prediction: one of them believes even cruel they'll love the other, but the other believes they'd stop loving and fight each other. This of course also implies: one will go darkside/be cruel/lose themselves/already is lost, and either that same one Or the other will not be loving the other when love is whats expected. Sort of the whole "youre a monster, but you wont hurt me" then the monster DOES hurt you. Or "even though youre a monster, ill still be here with you" (which is luo wenzhou 100 percent) but with the monster going "well that was a fucking mistake cause i am killing/betraying you now." If this novel likes foreshadowing, which i like, itll play with this AT LEAST in some case long arc. And ideally itll play out between the leading lovers. Which if so, is a story Id be interested in reading

And yes, i did go into this totally blind except knowing its (probably) a dark detective bl story. So we'll see how the predicting goes lol

For real though, i do really enjoy its writing style and the way its snappy but lingers just enough on painting images emotionally.

#in the dark #lb

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omnipicureans · 3 months

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# OMNIPURICEANS ━━━ private, roleplay blog for APONIA of HONKAI IMPACT 3RD; interpreted & loved by BARELY ( any pronouns & eighteen ); affiliated with GNOSTIC HYMNS.

NAVIGATION.

i. lawbook ━━━ includes mun information, blog rules, shipping availability, art credit, writing specifics, & more! ii. portrait ━━━ includes muse information, lore, support system, headcanons, & more! iii. abilities ━━━ necessary talents / stats page, as of the affiliated group's rule. iv. interview ━━━ the interview of the muse, better read on desktop instead of mobile. v. pinned post ━━━ notes on both the character's portrayal and interaction information, found below the cut of this post with the explained tags.

PORTRAYAL & INTERACTION NOTES.

within the crux of the elysian realm's chapters, APONIA is said to have committed suicide by sacrificing herself wholly to merge with the realm; hence, her later death when the elysian realm is destroyed in the final battle. since her simulation, too, has been deleted by the herrscher of corruption, aponia is hardly more than a remnant of what she once was. now, the issue of context.

in the theory of her giving the whole of herself to augment the elysian realm, i am taking the liberty of implying that being brought back by elysia to fight in the final battle with the other flamechasers allowed a fragment of her real body to exist outside the augmentation. thus, this aponia is ONLY HER SIMULATION, boosted by the quarter fragment of her real body; hence, the recreation of a more fragile, unstable elysian realm ( as she cannot exist without or outside of it, because of how wholly she sacrificed herself into its being ) .

to bind the flexibility of this, in the hopes of benefiting her place in gnostic hymns, meager lines of aponia’s code have been scattered across worlds to supplement a larger foundation of the elysian realm’s stability. with this, DIVISIONS OF APONIA'S SIMULATION ARE ALLOWED TO APPEAR OUTSIDE OF THE REALM, though they are weaker than the original and are bound to only remember the memories they make within that specific world, not including whatever memories they may already hold. ( for example, if your muse makes friends with the aponia in teyvat and travels to jarilo - vi, the aponia of that world will not recognize them, nor remember being their friend. )

in a similar light, aponia's DISCIPLINE and HEAVEN'S EYE are very significant to her character and thus, are usually difficult to avoid the usage or discussions of, even if done subtly. here's two quick(?) explanations of each;

aponia cannot control her HEAVEN'S EYE, as the threads of fate are always visible to her from where they sprout on people's foreheads. she describes these threads as silk, which break off once out of her peripheral; a limit she doesn't have when seeing the future in glimpses. of course, i will not assume anything of your muse in these cases, since i'd like to play around with that power narratively in more introspective threads. otherwise, it will be up to us whether or not it's fair to imply that she'll become somewhat aware of both your muses' past and distant future upon their first or second meeting.

however, with her DISCIPLINE, that power is more interactive. by default, even without it, aponia is a convincing soul, usually hardly refused; paired with discipline, she is never refuted nor refused, even if the person is aware of what's being done to them. as you can tell, this is beyond godmoding at its core. so, this boundary will only be crossed to make a thread or interaction crazier. to utilize discipline, all aponia must say is please, though i will italicize and adorn the word with brackets so it's clear when she does and doesn't compel it. similarly, discipline isn't simply mind control; it's the process of introducing an order unto another, the manner in which they abide by it depends on their wish. don't worry, it's complicated and can be further discussed later.

CONTENT WARNINGS for this blog, as introduced in the interview, are discussions, mentions, and examples of, but not limited to, child death, mass murder, canon - typical violence, suicide, misunderstood & heavy survivor’s guilt, dehumanization of self, heavy existential - questioning concepts, abstract & concrete religious themes, and morally skewed ideations & thoughts of a religious "prophet".

TAGS EXPLAINED.

: ̗̀ ʚїɞ :: ❝ 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐃 𝐅𝐀𝐈𝐓𝐇 ・ / in character . ( all posts that are "in character", hence the tag )

: ̗̀ ʚїɞ :: ❝ 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘 - 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 . 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐃 ・ / out of character . ( all posts that are "out of character", ex. shitposts, maintenance, meta, etc )

: ̗̀ ʚїɞ :: ❝ 𝐄𝐍𝐕𝐘 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐍'𝐒 𝐎𝐌𝐍𝐈𝐏𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 ・ / gallery . ( reblogged art, including possible art by the mun, of the muse )

: ̗̀ ʚїɞ :: ❝ 𝐓𝐎 𝐄𝐗𝐈𝐒𝐓 𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐑𝐄𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐓 ; 𝐓𝐎 𝐑𝐄𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐓 𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐈𝐍 ・ / headcanons . ( posts centered around a muse's headcanons, meta, etc )

: ̗̀ ʚїɞ :: ❝ 𝐆𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐒 𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐆𝐎𝐃'𝐒 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐄𝐒 ・ / prompts . ( all reblogged posts with prompts, ask memes, sentence starters and the likes )

: ̗̀ ʚїɞ :: ❝ 𝐒𝐈𝐌𝐏𝐋𝐄 𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐀𝐍 𝐋𝐔𝐗𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐑𝐀 ・ / inbox . ( all posts that are replies to an ask, excluding threads made from certain asks )

: ̗̀ ʚїɞ :: ❝ 𝐀 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 ・ / thread name . ( the threads tag )

#pinned post .#: ̗̀ ʚїɞ :: ❝ 𝐖𝐈𝐋��𝐄𝐃 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐃 𝐅𝐀𝐈𝐓𝐇 ・ / in character .#: ̗̀ ʚїɞ :: ❝ 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘 - 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 . 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐃 ・ / out of character .#: ̗̀ ʚїɞ :: ❝ 𝐄𝐍𝐕𝐘 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐍'𝐒 𝐎𝐌𝐍𝐈𝐏𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 ・ / gallery .#: ̗̀ ʚїɞ :: ❝ 𝐓𝐎 𝐄𝐗𝐈𝐒𝐓 𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐑𝐄𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐓 ; 𝐓𝐎 𝐑𝐄𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐓 𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐈𝐍 ・ / headcanons .#: ̗̀ ʚїɞ :: ❝ 𝐆𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐒 𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐆𝐎𝐃'𝐒 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐄𝐒 ・ / prompts .#: ̗̀ ʚїɞ :: ❝ 𝐒𝐈𝐌𝐏𝐋𝐄 𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐀𝐍 𝐋𝐔𝐗𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐑𝐀 ・ / inbox .#: ̗̀ ʚїɞ :: ❝ 𝐀 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 ・ / thread name .

5 notes · View notes