Author Answers (April) (Patreon)

General

Hii I wanted to ask how much of the alpha build content can we create fanart of? Is there anything of limits that we shouldn't publish (I'd imagine the big reveal at end of chapter 7 would count for that) or is it enough if we tag them as spoilers?

Hi there, this question is addressed in the FAQ!

In short, fanfiction or fanart based off of alpha build content is totally fine with me, even if it's spoilery--I'd just suggest tagging accordingly so the people who don't want to be spoiled aren't! Thanks for your question!

Hi and belated congratulations on your engagement!

We recently had a funny scene at work when a supervisor had to come in for an urgent matter on his day off. He had to interrupt a daddy/daughter makeover date and showed up with a ribbon and a bit of glitter in his hair.

Would the ros be willing lab rats for their childrens similar antics? I know my mc would!

Hi there, thanks so much for your kind words! 💖 The story about your supervisor sounds so cute! 🥹 There's actually a similar question to this here!

Blade: he'd let his kids crawl all over him or put bits of accessories and pins on him, but he probably wouldn't naturally be inclined to let them 'experiment' on him or give him a makeover with makeup or nail polish, lol. It's more probable that he'd be sitting patiently playing pretend/roleplay games or silly nonsensical board games with them, listening seriously to their instructions as if they're totally valid and not just kid-babble!

Trouble: he's gonna let those rascals do whatever they want to him. he would 100% rush into the forensic scene of a murder with glitter in his hair and smudged lipstick on his cheek

Tallys: I think she'd participate in helping them make MC over, but she wouldn't be sitting and letting her kids draw on her! She'd definitely play pretend with them and have tea parties or pretend to eat their mud pies and etc., though!

Shery: she's more likely to excitedly help them experiment on MC, but she'd let them brush her hair or pick out her clothes and dress her up for fun!

Riel: no... (he would participate in playacting and pretend games to encourage the imagination, but he would not let them experiment directly on him, lol, he keeps Trouble around as the fun uncle for that)

Chase: short of actually applying scissors to any part of him, he'll let his kids (get away with murder) do whatever they want!

Red: pretty much the same as Chase: as long as it's not anything permanent, he'd totally let his kids make him over, draw on his face, put ribbons in his hair, whatever!

Ayla: she'd let them paint her nails or do her hair, though she'd be a bit awkward about it at first, but she wouldn't give them carte blanche to do anything to make her look really ridiculous like applying clown makeup!

Briony: she'd be so excited and would really praise and fawn over the results of whatever makeover they decided to give her lol, even if they cut her hair she'd just go with it and rock the new haircut (after going to a professional to clean it up, of course)!

Lavinet: no........ she'd let them pick out her clothes on a fun off-day or help them experiment on someone else, though!

For the ROs where biological children are applicable:

Is there any specific features they would hope the child inherits? Like "I hope she has MCs eyes" or "I hope he gets my hair colour".

To be honest, I don't think this really applies to any of the ROs: they either don't think about kids or their own specific traits enough to think "I really hope my kid inherits X"! Someone like Riel just doesn't care about the color of his eyes enough to want that to be passed on to his future progeny! I think the farthest it's gone has been Red vaguely and apologetically warning MC beforehand that the red-headed gene in his family is strong and to just expect their kid to come out with flame hair of some kind, lol. And I think Tallys hopes for pointed ears, and Briony thinks it would be fun to pass on the pink hair or the iladrin, but it's not like a really urgent desire or anything like that!

How would the main cast (ROs + whoever you find significant) react if they got caught by the MC pulling on a push door? There's enough angst in this world and I just love seeing these muppets have moments of idiocy. 😂

Blade: he would just reach past and silently push on the door for MC with a completely straight face. Only someone who knew him really well would see the slight amused smile curling the corner of his mouth. But they would just never speak of it ever again lol

Trouble: he wouldn't even really think anything of it, he would just casually and nonchalantly open the door for MC and strike up a conversation with them without registering anything unusual

Tallys: she would politely point out that it's a 'push' door and reassure MC that it's no big deal if they act really embarrassed, but she'd be holding back a smile as she asked innocently what's got them so distracted today

Shery: she would help MC and then sincerely reassure them that it's no big deal, everybody does things like that, she does it all the time!! and she would provide several genuine examples and basically just rush to make them not feel silly about it all. It would honestly probably make Shery like them more, because it would make her feel close to them after realizing that they're truly only human!

Riel: completely deadpan: 'it's a push door'. depending on how long they'd been at it, he would either just go about his day and not think about it again or it might be -1 rielromanceflag

Chase: if he's in a flirtatious/romantic relationship with them, he'd probably use it as an opportunity to sneak up on them from behind and, like, half kabedon them, leaning in and murmuring in their ear, "looks like something's got you mighty distracted, gorgeous" and then smoothly pushing open the door because he was just 'innocently' helping them, of course!

Red: he'd kindly and gently come up to help them like 'ahaha, let me help you there! 😅' acknowledging the silliness of the situation, but not making them feel about it! Mages and being spacey go hand-in-hand, so this is not foreign behavior to him!

Ayla: she'd snicker and definitely tease MC about it, like 'uhhh that's a push door lmao' but not in a mean way, just normal ribbing!

Briony: she'd earnestly and sincerely try to help, like, "Oh, MC, that's a push door! that's okay, I wouldn't have known about it either, only I just did the same thing earlier today... oh, don't worry about it, just yesterday I walked into a glass window, so..." just casually chitchatting as she helped MC get to wherever they were going

Lavinet: she'd stop and stare for a bit before delicately and pityingly interceding... I think if they were just friends she'd be kindly about it, but if she was in a crushing stage with MC, she'd sigh internally a bit and question some things, lol...

Hi Lena! 🩷 I'm asking a silly question just because. If you could only invite three of the Shepherds to your wedding, who would it be and why? (Chandry shows up anyway because he thought you needed some flickerflies for added ambiance 🤡 ☄️)

Hi Steph, great question! 😂 My three picks would be Briony, Red, and Lavinet, generally the easiest, most socially-capable, and least chaotic Shepherds I could invite! I imagine party planner and event lover Lavinet would be in Problem-Solver mode, where if she caught any whiff of an issue, she'd efficiently whisk in with some solution, like if I needed to put my flowers somewhere, she'd be the one taking them for me and putting them in water, or redirecting some rowdy uncle, or something like that! Briony would be in peak Cheerleader mode where she'd just be super excited for us and eager to do anything to make our day the best day possible (and is friendly and socially-adept enough to make that happen), while Red would be a great Facilitator of conversations, able to mingle and talk to a variety of guests and make them feel at ease in his own natural way!

Chase is a very close runner-up and would be a fabulous wedding emcee, someone who could get the crowd hyped up and on the dance floor, and probably any wedding that involved him would be talked about as one of the most fun nights in recent memory... But I'm so Type A that I would be stressing throughout that day, like 'where is Chase. what is he doing. does anyone have eyes on him. is he pouring moonshine into the punchbowl or bribing the caterers to go buy a pinata. okay. please watch him' that it would be too much for me to worry about lol!

I hope your April is going well and it isn't too hot yet! (Having lived in AZ, I know how fast it starts to heat up!) My question is: are there people outside of trained Mages taught how to resist Enchanters from digging around in their heads? Is shielding one's mind from psionic intrusion only something that can be done by Mages, or can anyone learn? Because, if possible, it seems a useful skill for the Inquisitors and the Khehi Ket to have. (This has been burning a hole in my head since I idly wondered how Blade/Chase/Trouble would've held up against Thurl's magic if one of them had chased him instead of MC.)

It's already starting to warm up to the 90s, but we were blessed with an unusually long and cool spring this year, so I won't complain! Normally it's mid-March that it starts to get toasty, so I'm very pleased with how the season turned out this year!

And great question! So shielding one's mind from psionic intrusion is something anyone can learn, though obviously Mages are the only ones with "guaranteed" iron-clad protection. It's sort of like how you can technically teach anyone to protect their computer from viruses, but people with backgrounds or degrees in computer science and programming are still going to be way more equipped? But the people who were taught anti-virus methods are still far better off than the people who don't think about viruses at all!

So yes, the methods and techniques often differ, but certain groups (including the Khehi Ket, Inquisitors, registered Hunter exorcists, and certain government, military, and Autarchy members) are trained in these counter-espionage and psionic protection methods. A lot of it's being trained to recognize when someone is poking around in your head and how to get them out, or how to conceal or redirect them from important secrets, or to fill your head with so much distraction and noise and labyrinthine structures that it's impossible to extract any useful information. Sort of like how in Inception, Cillian Murphy's character and all high-level execs are implied to have some level of anti-inception (?) training, which is why they had to go deeper and be sneakier about it.

Anyway, this training is actually standard and mandatory for all Shepherds, though the results and abilities obviously differ drastically from person to person! For such a powerful Enchanter as Thurl, this kind of basic training probably wouldn't have really given him too much trouble, especially since he wasn't really concerned with remaining undetected and was just callously brute-force ripping stuff open, which really requires magical protection to stand up against, but if you're curious, it would have shaken out:

Blade: could have held his own for the longest out of the boys, simply because of the nature of his previous profession, mental discipline, stubbornness, and extensive training

Red: would have withstood it for quite a while, but only with the help of his magic; and it wouldn't have been anything fancy, it would be like frantically swinging a broom at a bird that is desperately trying to get in through your open window that you can't close for some reason

Chase: would have withstood it for a decent amount of time as a result of both training and an extremely forceful personality; you can see how well he held during O Happy Dagger

Trouble: he would have cracked the soonest, his mind is already quite easy to read due to the force of his emotions and his honest nature, and the counter-training didn't really 'take' too well for him, it was a lot like meditation and he just wasn't that great at it

I know that there were bits about it while meeting Caine's friend who got kidnapped by the Equalists, but it picqued my interest and I need to know - how exactly does Healer Mages's "mind therapy" work for, say, a Shepherd officer who was tortured and is having hard times adjusting to life after that? How would it differ from our world's therapy? What are the limits of this kind of magic? Also, would the Order cover such an expense for a mentally injured/traumatized Shepherd? Generally, how aware of the importance of mental health are the Shepherds and people in Blest? Is there some understanding that mental wounds need to be healed along with the physical ones or is it that people are told to toughen up and walk off anything from trauma to PTSD? For people who would be uncomfortable working on their trauma with a Healer Mage - are there Norm psychologists/therapists or is it still too soon in your world for them? Sorry, there are so many questions, feel free to skip or pick and choose, it's just such a fascinating topic and I'm so curious.

Thanks for your great questions! The kind of healing magic that most Healers employ for the mind is similar to what they do for the body: they literally use their magic to heal physical damage that intense trauma and PTSD have left on the brain, regenerating and renewing the neural pathways and brain tissue in the same way they would heal old scars or flesh wounds, which obviously alleviates the mental effects a person could be suffering from. The most advanced Healers can actually use a mix of healing and psionic magic, similar to what Enchanters do, to delve into a person’s actual psychology to help repair fractured memories, smooth over traumatic experiences, or help distance someone emotionally from their pain, accelerating the process of healing and making them feel like a triggering event happened a long time ago (metaphorically) rather than reliving it with as much freshness and rawness as they might otherwise feel. However, this second method is very invasive as well as extremely tricky—a more refined version of what MC might have done to Lord Romar in Chapter 9 to make him forget about his feelings/affair—so people are often reluctant to go that far with it! It’s also a tricky line to walk because, if you’re looking at it from a modern point of view, the patient isn’t doing the emotional ‘work’ to process and heal from their trauma themselves; they’re just less affected by it, desensitized to it, or can even risk forgetting about it entirely, which generally results in a happier, more light-hearted patient, but the argument could be made that it’s less… ‘authentic’? Like the person you are after watching your parents die in front of you is fundamentally going to be different from a person who saw the same thing but pretty much forgot about it/doesn’t think much about it anymore because of a magical cure, except as a distant ‘oh yeah that happened,’ so the field can be extremely tricky to navigate because of this. It also doesn’t work on everyone—you need a totally cooperative and trusting patient to accomplish these kinds of results, and one who resists you or lashes out can actually put the both of you in danger—and it also may not always be permanent, especially if the person continues to be exposed persistently to the same kind of trauma that damaged them to begin with. For example, if Hal were to go through this kind of healing, but were to be kidnapped by the Equalists for a second time (for whatever reason, lol), it’d break his mind even worse the second time! Soldiers who are actively still in warfare, too, are not good candidates for this kind of thing. But for a Shepherd who was tortured in specific circumstances, it’s very possible this would be a good fit if they were having a hard time distancing themselves from the memories of what happened to them!

There’s not really any such thing as therapy or psychological counseling—where you sit and pay for someone to talk things out with you—in Blest, especially not in the Autarchy. They’re sort of still in olden times when it comes to their medicine and matters like childbirth (some physickers still prescribe leeches as everyday remedies), so they’re not very advanced in the fields of mental health either. People are aware of mental health and that it’s important to monitor and maintain it, just as one should look after the body, but their world is so gritty and full of everyday violence and tragedy that there’s not a lot of special attention paid to it, and the bar for considering someone especially ‘traumatized’ is pretty high. What we would consider traumatic is often so commonplace that it’s kind of just shrugged off as a way of life, like ‘Oh, your parents were killed by demons? Big same’ or ‘You’re distressed by your government hunting your people down and executing people in the streets? Get in line.’ That’s why no one really bats an eye at Chase’s tragic backstory, or Ayla’s, or Blade’s. (Chase and Blade: oh you were also a child assassin working for forces that didn’t have your best interests in mind? casual Spiderman pointing) It takes really beyond-the-pale stuff, like active and brutal warfare, for people to be like ‘oh yeah you went through some shit that fucked you up,’ and even then the solutions tend to be external, like numbing the pain with alcohol or being prescribed medicines and tonics to alleviate the distress, rather than internal or therapeutic! There is sympathy for such persons, it's not really like a "oh just tough it up and power through" dismissiveness; it's more just a resigned understanding that there's not a lot anyone can really do except wait for time to heal the wound or seek the attention of a Healer or physicker!

Hope that all makes sense!

I remember reading that the birthday party of doom more or less made a crater out of MC's hometown, and I was wondering, what does Drummond's Point look like nowadays for a ket!MC? since the town is/was by the sea, I've been imagining the birthday party crater flooded over from seawater.

Drummond's Point is actually situated on a high cliff overlooking the sea, not on the seashore itself (you'd have to take a winding path down from the village to reach the coastline), so it's not filled with seawater! Now the grass has grown over and colonized the site where it used to be, it's pretty much indistinguishable from the rest of the cliffs surrounding it! I always imagined something like the Cliffs of Moher, but with more of an actual shore!

Is it widely known that the endarkened returned all at once on a specific day or do people think they kinda gradually started showing up. And if it's known that they suddenly popped up, is that day marked as something special? Do people go like 'Oh next tuesday is darkday. There'll be no happy vibes then.'

Hi, this has been answered here and here!

How would the RO's + Halek be with an asexual MC, one that's still comfortable with physical/sensual intimacy? I'd imagine Chase and Tallys wouldn't be interested

Hi, this has been answered here!

Spoilers

Was there any reason why Thurl left the auspex alive? Chase refers to the auspex as “ancient” and he was alive during Lyden and Berendal’s murders (though it sounds like he didn’t support the killings). Or am I remembering that chapter wrong? (It’s been a while since the Wallmire chapter but this question just occurred to me.)

You're remembering it exactly right! The current auspex, although ancient, was not acting as auspex at the time that Thurl's family was killed: he inherited the title when he was a bit older, so while he was an adult in Wallmire at that time, he was not the same auspex who led the mob against Lyden and Berendal and didn't agree with how things were handled back then. He did not take part in the events that led to their deaths, so Thurl didn't target him specifically, though it's up in the air whether Thurl would have eventually gone after him once he'd run out of guiltier targets! There was also the matter that he lived very centrally in the village, with a large family, so it was harder to access him than many of the other elders and adults that Thurl did claim!

Is there a reason Chase still wears the same/similar scent (both having been described as amber kind of being their signature scent)as Saya? Wouldn’t the smell remind him of her? 👀

Chase was actually already wearing amber kind of scents long before he met Saya, so he doesn’t really associate them with her; I also think of “amber” as a broad enough scent that Chase’s “amber” and Saya’s “amber” actually smell very different, so he’s never reminded of her when he smells his own scent! His is more of a cologney, masculine, rich and luxury and casino-like amber, whereas hers was more floral and powdery or possibly dark/smoky/spicy/woody, with hints of white jasmine and musk. I’ve been more interested in fragrance/perfume terminology lol so sometime I’ll have to revisit everyone’s scents and try to break them down more descriptively!

NSFW

How would Chase and Tallys react to a same sex (high friendship) MC propositioning them to experiment because MC trusts them (and might be attracted to them)?

Tallys would be honored that MC trusts her enough to have their first same-sex experience with her, and she'd definitely agree to it, provided that she felt a sexual attraction to them too obviously! It wouldn't be quite the same as just hooking up with her, because she'd take special care to be really delicate and careful and attentive to making sure MC's experience was positive (not that she doesn't always, she'd just be way more focused on their pleasure rather than the more natural and organic balance that happens when she's just casually hooking up with someone more experienced)--it would be basically the same as hooking up with her as a virgin, she probably wouldn't even worry about her own completion the first time and would just be focused on MC!

Chase would actually gently decline if presented with these circumstances. That's way too much pressure for him, and he'd shy away from turning casual sex into what he thinks is a high-stakes emotional situation that requires more intimacy and obligation than just his typical no-strings-attached FWB dynamics have... the chances of MC catching feelings or just some tangled feelings arising out of the whole thing is just too risky for him. He'd probably only oblige if 1) he genuinely had romantic or sexually-lustful feelings about them already, AND 2) he caught wind of some alternative plan they had, like sleeping with someone else that he felt wouldn't treat them well or would make the experience terrible for them!

First of all congratulations on the engagement 🥳🥳🥳

Secondly, how would the ROs react to catching MC reading a super spicy romance novel?

Thank you so much! I'm just going to write this assuming they're already in a relationship/hooking up:

Blade: he'd smirk a little bit, then casually lay down on the bed next to them (I'm imagining them reading in bed for some reason) and ask them to read aloud a bit for him, slightly teasing but no judgement... and then while they were reading, his hand would just casually start stroking their knee, but he'd encourage them silently to keep reading... and then one thing would lead to another!

Trouble: I think he'd laugh and tease them at first, like, 'ohhh you like reading these kinds of novels!! are you looking for specific material? *reads a passage aloud while laughing and holding the book aloft while MC tries to claw it back* MC, this is actually smut lol!!' But then like a week later MC would catch him reading the same book like

Tallys: she'd smirk and definitely use the opportunity to seduce MC, teasingly and playfully, like, 'oh, don't let me interrupt you... you look like you're enjoying it. why don't you read me your favorite passage?' And she'd probably start reenacting whatever MC read aloud!

Shery: she 100% reads super spicy novels, so at first she'd freeze like, oh no, MC found my stash! She'd definitely be pleased by the revelation that MC enjoys material like that as well, but her reaction would depend on theirs: if they acted super embarrassed, she'd try to act casual and brush it off laughingly but sort of awkwardly, like 'oh, don't worry, I've read that novel too!... Isn't the protagonist's sister so interesting?' which might devolve into a genuine book club discussion depending on the MC, or if they acted brazen about it, like arching a brow at her to see if she has anything to say about it, she'd probably blush and squeak that she'll leave them to it! But it would definitely be occupying her thoughts for some time later...

Riel: gasp! erotica? in his house? he'd act totally normal/like he hadn't noticed anything untoward in the moment, but afterwards his curiosity would be piqued... he's always thought those were cheap trashy dime novels, but he'd be interested to see why MC was actually reading one... so he'd pick it up later and actually end up giving it a read! then he'd sit on it for a while before slyly bringing it up in conversation, like MC remarks on some coworker's personality, like 'he's such a control freak, so annoying to work with,' and Riel would say with a straight face, 'yes, quite the autocrat, much like [name of protagonist of spicy romance novel]' and would wait for the dime to drop, lol! It'd probably be his way of either teasing MC mercilessly (if the novel was trash) or be a bit of a come-on if he ended up actually seeing the... merit... in it haha!

Chase: he'd be delighted. this would make his year. he'd be like a kid in a candy shop, grabbing the book before MC could hide it and going 'ah-ah-ah my love, let's see what homework you've been doing while teacher's been away!' and gleefully reading some passages aloud before it devolved into a heated makeout session! Fade to black!

Red: he'd be caught a bit off-guard, like he was not expecting to walk in on that or that MC would read that kind of thing! but he'd try to act super casual and normal about it, like almost oblivious: 'what's that you're reading? oh, a romance novel? what's it about?' And he would basically play dumb and let MC think he didn't know it was basically porn LOL it'd probably be something he admitted years down the line!

Ayla: she'd let out a squawk of genuine surprise, like incredulously going, "Is that porn? Are you reading smut?" After getting past her shock a bit, she'd turn kind of bawdy and mischievous, ribbing MC and making them blush and teasing them mercilessly for days afterward!

Briony: she'd gasp, and her eyes would go as round as saucers, like :O! but then she'd squeal, quite innocently and excitedly, "I've read that one! How are you liking it?! Do you read stuff like that often?? How have we never talked about this??" She'd be blushing a bit knowing they've both mutually read the words "turgid member" or something, but she'd talk about it with MC as eagerly and casually as any other book, it's just a romance novel that happens to have sex scenes in it after all, totally normal!!!

Lavinet: her eyebrows would arch, and she'd politely give MC the opportunity to hide it and pretend she hadn't seen anything with true parlor room etiquette! but afterwards she'd grin to herself, knowing she knew MC's dirty little secret, and ruminate on exactly when would be the right time to play that trump card again...