Author Answers (February) (Patreon)

General

Saw someone ask this question in discord and got me hook on the possibilities. What went through each ROs' mind (Halek and Croelle too if possible) when MC told them that they married once and divorced? Their ex-partner was the one who wanted the divorce and MC, at that time, agreed out of love and desire for the other to be happy. (Mild angst today only 😅). MC wanted to be forefront of their lingering feelings/insecurities from divorce before any possible problems arise once they and ROs decided to be in a relationship. How each RO feel about this news? How it affects their approach/decision to be in a serious relationship with MC? MC's feeling to RO is real and true also in case it's not clear.

Apology if my question kinda jump around a lot.

I think this would depend a lot on the details! How likely is it that the ex-spouse would come back into MC's life, or are they still an active part of MC's life? What is the strength of MC's lingering feelings for their ex? Is it just like leftover regrets or insecurities from the failed marriage overall, or do they still have strong romantic feelings for their ex while also having feelings for the RO? Since we can't cover all the scenarios, take this with a grain of salt!

Blade: I think this would hurt him a lot because he can't personally imagine having really strong feelings for two people at the same time (it's MC or no one for him without question), so hearing that MC still has feelings for their ex (and would still be with them to this day if they'd been given the choice) would make him feel pretty unsure and down about things. Ultimately, if the ex wasn't a part of MC's life anymore and the chances of them reentering MC's life were pretty low, he'd be able to get past it and be able to deal with it with relative grace. But if there's a high chance that Ex would return or is still a part of MC's life, or if MC acted really unsure about how she felt and seemed really torn between them, I think he would quietly remove himself from the situation because it would be too painful for him otherwise!

Trouble: I think he could deal with the situation with a respectable amount of aplomb, like "Oh okay, I appreciate you telling me, but I'm happy with how things are if you are"! Privately, it would sort of (or definitely) bother him, but mentally he would be able to make sense of it and be pretty fine with it on the surface and not let it trouble him for years at a time... until Ex came back into the picture, which is when he'd start to unravel emotionally pretty fast 😅

Tallys: hmmm, this wouldn't deter her in the least when it came to a friends-with-benefits relationship, and she'd be very understanding and sympathetic to MC's plight, as well as appreciative of their honesty and forthrightness! However, when it came to making the relationship more serious, she would need to be told by them in no uncertain terms that she's "first" to them in terms of how they feel about her (aka their feelings for her are stronger than the feelings for the ex) and that they would never get back together with Ex in the future for her to feel comfortable about moving forward into a committed relationship with them! If they couldn't tell her these things, she'd be like, "Okay, then I think it's better that we only sleep together/end things now," but she wouldn't hold any grudges--in fact, she'd appreciate the fact that she wouldn't be blindsided years down the road!

Shery: I think this would crush her, and it's very likely that she would never be in a serious relationship with MC because of it. She already struggles with feelings of comparison, inferiority, and insecurity enough, already feeling unworthy of being the partner of the Hero of Haven... to be told she also has to worry about their ex, whom they have feelings for and who they wouldn't have broken up with if the ex hadn't fallen out of love, would be too much for her to deal with. It wouldn't extinguish her feelings for MC, but it would make her never take the plunge into having a serious relationship with them, so she'd basically be consigned to a lifetime of pining!

Riel: I think he could wrap his head around this and be relatively okay with it if MC were vocal about their feelings and commitment to him, like, "I have this baggage and etc. but I do love you and would never deliberately hurt you or leave you for my ex, this is just something I thought you should know." If they were more uncertain or unsure, like if he were to ask, "If Ex showed up tomorrow and said they wanted to get back together, would you do so even though you have feelings for me/we were together?" and they weren't sure of their answer, it would be a no-go for him, but no hard feelings, he understands that they need to sort things out and it's not personal! If they were to move into a serious relationship, he'd be pretty bad about keeping tags on Ex and subtly finding ways to ensure they stay as far away from him and MC as possible...

Chase: I think he'd be more okay with this than others? He'd mostly be surprised/shocked that someone would voluntarily leave/dump MC and not the other way around, and he'd say something casual like "Wow, they were married to you and made the mistake of not appreciating you? What an idiot... well, that's their loss!" Like kind of playfully like "thanks Ex, I get to benefit from your raging idiocy!" I think he'd be able to stay pretty composed and calm on the surface if he were to meet Ex face-to-face, maybe even friendly and genial, but inwardly he'd be feeling all sorts of sudden jealousy/insecurity he wasn't thinking about when they were out of sight, out of mind, and not sure what to do with those feelings!

Red: I think he'd be okay with this, it's obviously not an ideal scenario but he and MC can get through it! His first reaction would be similar to Chase's, one of almost pity towards Ex, like "well, if they let MC go, that was their mistake..." I don't think he'd be worried unless Ex directly showed up again, and in that case I think he'd hold his breath and just hope and pray MC and his relationship was strong enough to survive the encounter and that he wasn't in for a world of hurt! Like silently questioning oh no have I made a terrible mistake but trying to get through it all like it's not bothering him!!

Ayla: I think her gut, knee-jerk reaction would be like "oh, that's in the past, I don't care, it doesn't change my feelings at all," and she'd sort of shrug it off and put it out of sight and out of mind, and if Ex never showed up again in MC's life, it wouldn't be an issue. But if they were a continual presence in MC's life, the insecurity and doubt would start to eat away at her, especially if they were still on friendly terms, and eventually she'd probably give MC an ultimatum: cut Ex out of their life or she has to end the relationship. If MC refused to cut Ex out, then Ayla couldn't be with them, and it would probably be a pretty bitter breakup--she'd probably leave town entirely!

Briony: Oh boy, this is kind of a touchy subject for her, given that she has a lot of fear about someone from her own past (like a spouse she forgot due to the amnesia, a family, etc.) coming back and torpedoing her relationship out of nowhere, so the revelation that someone from MC's past could do the same would absolutely terrify her! I think she'd tell MC that she understands, and she's happy to date them casually for as long as they need to sort their feelings out and find closure and healing over their past marriage, but if they want anything more, she'd probably not be open to that and would have to say it's probably not the best idea! And if MC admits they're actively still in love with their ex in some capacity, that would be a dealbreaker for her, but she'd be open to revisiting the relationship in the future if their feelings change!

Lavinet: Sorry, this is a no-go for her. Dating someone who'd been married before would be something she would have to wrap her head around as it was, but finding out that they still had feelings for their ex-spouse is an absolute no for her, and honestly she would be quite annoyed with MC for pursuing her or allowing things to develop between them in the first place if that was how they felt! So this would be a relationship-ender for her in those circumstances!

Hope I don’t miss the deadline!! don’t think this has been asked but what is one thing the main cast wants to hear, needs to hear, and would dread hearing? (Can be from MC or someone else you have in mind saying it)

Hi there, the questions regarding "needs to hear" or "wants to hear" have been answered before in various forms, including here and here! As for what they dread hearing, I think it would be:

Blade: "You can't protect me"

Trouble: "We're not family"

Tallys: "I'm going to leave you someday, and you'll have to go on without me"

Shery: "Everything you're anxious about is true"

Riel: "You can't think your way out of this one"

Chase: "I just can't trust you"

Red: "It's me or your studies, you can't have both"

Ayla: "No one wants you, not even your own parents" 

Briony: "Everything you suspected about your past is true" 

Lavinet: "You've lost everything" 

Halek: "You have to make the choice yourself" 

Valentine's Day in the world of Blest—what does/did/will Prihine do? XD

Honestly, if we're talking about in the actual story, she probably just relaxed alone with a glass of wine and a bubble bath! If she were dating MC, though, she'd want to be absolutely spoiled with flowers, candy, a gift (something like jewelry), and then taken out on the town to a fancy candlelit dinner somewhere! She basically wants the royal treatment that she never really got from someone without having to demand it, if that makes any sense... 

Can an Enchanter!MC read the mind of an infant? And what about someone who's mentally ill?

Skilled Enchanters can technically read the minds of toddlers as early as 3 or 4, but very few ever do because 1) you have to be enormously careful not to mess something up, as their minds and defenses are vastly more delicate and fragile and easily-affected than adults', and 2) you wouldn't often get much use from reading their minds at such an early age, anyway, since their memories are either going to be quite fragmented or distorted, or their perspectives aren't going to make a lot of sense to the Enchanter (like they'll remember a big scary man coming into their room at night but it might have been a passing shadow of their dad or a dream or a false memory or something--they're just too unreliable to have their thoughts read in any really useful way). Any earlier than that age is theoretically possible, but just not done. Enchanters typically can only read the minds of beings that share a similar sentience and psychology to theirs, and a baby's frame of mind and method of thinking is so completely foreign to them that  it's just a meaningless stew of new sensations and infant instincts most of the time. It would just be like "....dada!" when they recognize their dad, and then the other 99% of the time it would sort of just be like blank gibberish and blind instincts and biological urges? It would be like, if the adult mind looked like this:

It's like, okay, an Enchanter knows what to do, you either find the key to open the lock or you pick it, and then you lift the lid, and etc. etc. But a baby's mind looks like this:

So the Enchanter just like has no idea what to do with that. How do you... open that? Where's the seam? Where's the lock? The lid??? What... where would you even start? Is there even anything inside??

And yes, skilled Enchanters can read the mind of someone who's mentally-ill, though of course it takes a lot of delicacy and skill not to create further harm with the intrusion. An exception might be someone who's permanently reduced to an infantile state of mind, perhaps due to something like dementia or a brain injury, but otherwise, it would be like reading anyone else's mind!

Hi Lena, hope you're having a great week:D

So, if the Shepherds were to spend like, maybe a few weeks in our world, how would they feel about it? What would they enjoy, what would they hate and is there anything that they would make sure to bring back/invent once they get back?

Thank you, I hope you're having a great week as well! And great question! The Worldwalkers (the Travelers who were able to traverse different worlds) actually had a strict code to not cross-contaminate worlds by bringing too much stuff or even concepts back, as it vastly upsets the balance of that world's history and technological progression (this was after the early ones were showing up with, like, horses and shit), but let's ignore that for now:

Blade: I think he would hate everything about modern cities. Just too much noise, smells, pollutions, rushing, traffic, crowds... it would just be mega-sensory overload for him and he would genuinely loathe all of it, to the point of being flatly disinterested in most types of technology, especially the flashy kinds like phones (loud and bright), TV screens (loud and bright), social media (loud and bright)... you get the picture. The one exception would be cars and motorcycles for him, I think. Nothing captures that feeling of GOTTA GO FAST... He wouldn't want to bring it back to Blest for the sake of being responsible, but off the top of my head, I think that would be one of his favorite things about our world!

Trouble: he'd be enamored with EVERYTHING. It's sort of like Steve Trevor in WW1984, if you've seen it. He's just like JET PLANE. ESCALATOR. GUNS??? So he'd pretty much be into everything, especially mechanical stuff--like Blade, he'd probably be pretty obsessed with cars and motorcycles, if not more so--and definitely all of our different firearms. His favorite thing, though, would probably be our food... especially the ease with which we can access it! Microwaves would be absolutely magical to him and probably be the one thing he'd tell a Mage to start working on... a box that you can put a thing into (bag) and have it cook into something else in less than a minute?? (popcorn)

Tallys: I think our foods (particularly our weird fruits and vegetables) and our animals might be her favorite thing about our world! Just hearing how different our trees are or tasting, like, edamame or a banana or something would be endlessly delightful for her! She'd probably sneak back a few seeds if she could... and the thing she hated most would probably be cars and traffic! Or litter. The pollution and smells of diesel and fumes would probably make her sick!

Shery: my guess is that her favorite thing would be TV shows and things like Netflix! An endless library of stories that you get to see acted out like a play you can watch and rewatch any time you want?? She'd almost certainly get hooked on cute romance shows and K-dramas and never look back... she'd literally cry to have to be leaving when she knows there's so much more to see!! She'd probably hate cars, though; she's already frightened of horses, so people zooming around in two-ton steel death traps and like honking at each other and mowing people down would be terrifying to her!

Riel: oh God, he'd be completely obsessed and terrifying about everything. Can you imagine what he could do if he got his hands on the Internet? On a phone with a calculator? Digital banking? I literally think you wouldn't be able to get him to go home... and even if you could, he'd set about MADLY trying to create electricity in an effort to get as close to computers as possible. It would be insane. He'd literally become a madman trying to transform Blest into a form of our world. But I think the thing he'd hate most is everyone's tendencies to get their phones out and record strangers in public. The lack of privacy--and the ownership and permanence of images once uploaded somewhere--would be very alarming to him.

Chase: why do I imagine his favorite thing would be, like, Starbucks lol? It's like hey walk up to this window and get handed a huge drink and get a HUGE spike of dopamine and adrenaline and caffeinated energy, lol. Or fast food! Or modern pop music! Or trolling people on the internet! He probably wouldn't be interested in trying to bring any of it back, but he'd have lots of fun with it in the meantime!

Oh my God, what if his favorite thing was TikTok lol 

Red: pretty much every single thing in the existence of our world would make him completely nerd out ("they have hammers here too!! but they're different and made out of a different alloy!!! that's crazy!!" is it, though), so I can't really pick any one thing that would be his favorite, lol. Maybe the Internet, with its capacity to instantly retrieve or archive infinite amounts of information--the very concept would alter his life forever! His least favorite thing would probably be news channels lol he'd find them both overwhelming and depressing

Ayla: her favorite thing might be, like, a grocery store or a Target or a Walmart... just an endless sea of shelves packed with anything you could ever want, all in extremely convenient and colorful packaging. Frozen pizza? Beanbags? Boxes of crackers WITH little cups of spreadable cheese?? Cans of stuff?? She'd literally want to LIVE in Walmart. You couldn't drag her away. Her least favorite thing would probably be people not knowing to be afraid of her lol. I can just imagine some snotty suburban high schooler making a comment about her outfit and Ayla being shook by the AUDACITY

Briony: her favorite things, like Shery, would probably be TV shows/movies, but also cameras! The ability to perfectly and instantaneously capture a memory or a scene in complete and immaculate detail, and to have virtually endless amounts of pictures, would be absolutely magical to her. She would 100% steal a camera and bring it back to Blest, no hesitation. But I think her least favorite thing would be social media, if she were given long enough to really understand the implications of it and how harmful it would be to always be comparing one's life to that of others!

Lavinet: I think phones would be her favorite thing about our world, and it would be something she tried to invent in Blest when she came back. The idea of instantaneous connection--not having to wait three weeks for a letter to reach Clara, and then three weeks to get one back, with all this stuff happening in between and not being able to talk about it--would be amazing to her. But her least favorite thing would be our fashion because she doesn't understand it! What are those short frayed blue tubes of canvas you have wrapped around your thighs?? Jean shorts?? Well get rid of them, they're hideous!

Happy Valentine's Day Lena! I think I recall you stating you are a fan of Dragon Age so I hope my question makes sense! So, what would the ROs reactions be if they found themselves in a Dragon Age: Origins predicament where they were faced with the MC having to participate in a ritual that involved sleeping with someone else (whose motivations weren't entirely clear) and becoming a parent of a child, or face the likelihood the MC would perish slaying the final boss? Would some ROs want them to participate out of fear of losing them? Would others have no idea what to do and just go along with what MC wanted?

Happy Valentine's Day, Jonathan! And I am indeed a fan of DA:O! And oof, this is a tough one! I think all of the ROs would want MC to go through with the ritual if it meant saving their life, I just think the degrees of agony would be different depending on different details, like who the other person is or how okay with the idea MC seemed to be! I don't think a single one of them would try and discourage MC from going through with it; if the stakes are high enough that there's a real possibility MC would die otherwise, each and every one of them would take the deal and encourage them to do it rather than risk them dying. But the feelings involved are very different if the other person is, like, Trouble versus someone like... Croelle! 

Blade: he'll do anything to ensure that MC lives, so as long as MC is willing to go through with it (and not like crying and desperately not wanting to sleep with the other person), he'd tell them to do it and accept whatever happened with stoic composure. MC's life is his first priority, to the point where he gets tunnel vision about it!

Trouble: this would make him sick to his stomach at first, but he would encourage--even beg and plead with--MC to go through with the ritual and live; they can deal with whatever happens afterwards together, and nothing will ever change his feelings for them! 

Tallys: she would tell MC to do the ritual without reservation, immediately. She doesn't care about anything except keeping them alive. Hell, she'll even help raise the child if she's allowed to!

Shery: the same as Tallys, pretty much. Although the thought would be gut-wrenching, the idea of losing MC when they could have prevented their death is even worse, so she would wipe her tears and gently tell MC to do what they had to in order to live. She'd even sort of look forward to meeting and helping raise the potential baby after the fact and wouldn't hold any resentment towards it or the other person--they basically saved MC's life!

Riel: he would see how MC is feeling about the whole thing, first and foremost; it's their feelings that are most important, not his. If he saw that they were willing to go through with the ritual, he'd sit down and try to analyze the thing from all possible angles, weighing risks and pros and cons and seeing if there's any possible way out. Ultimately he would encourage them to go through with it and would maintain a stony, unreadable composure, acting almost businesslike about it! He tells himself that it's a physical encounter meant for preservation and survival, nothing more.

Chase: this would bother him more than he let on, but he would never say so beforehand and would tell MC he's fine with whatever they decide. Of course, he'd be hoping that they do the ritual (well, not hoping, but it's better than the latter), but he would accept if they were absolutely not willing to do that and would rather risk facing the final boss themselves. He just quietly resolves to face the final boss beside them and sacrifice his life if need be; if they die, he dies, and if there's a chance to jump in the way and save them, even at the cost of his life, he'll do that, too. 

Red: he would respect MC's decision, first and foremost; he'd give them permission and encourage them to do the ritual, trying to hide a very heavy heart while doing so, but he'd ultimately try and respect and understand whatever choice they made. If they did choose to go through with the ritual, he'd be there to comfort and support them afterward. If they chose not to, he'd try to persuade them but ultimately come to accept the decision without trying to force them. 

Ayla: this would make her physically sick, and it would be very upsetting for her, to the point where she might have an emotional outburst, full of futile rage towards the universe for putting them in this impossible situation. Once she wore herself out and had no more anger left to feel, she'd tiredly tell MC they have to go through with the ritual, because there's no way she's living on this earth without them, but I think she'd always hold a strong dislike and resentment towards the other person and even towards the child as constant reminders of that awful event. 

Briony: she wouldn't know what to do and would break down weeping. Ultimately, she'd want MC to live first and foremost, so she'd definitely encourage or even push them to do the ritual rather than the alternative (and would be quite angry if they wanted to essentially risk death instead), but she would also be very upset about the whole idea of the ritual at first and would be extremely emotional! If they went through with the ritual, she'd be relieved, but also confused and turbulent and jealous afterwards, hung up on the unfairness of it all, especially if the other person had to stay in their lives as a result of having MC's child!

Lavinet: this would be like her worst nightmare, lol... she'd try to be dignified and noble and selfless about it, encouraging MC to do the ritual, but inside she'd be screaming with hurt, jealousy, sickness, and rage. Not towards MC, of course, just towards the general circumstances. I think she'd be able to get over it, but she'd always treat the other person with a certain degree of coldness and aloofness, even if she knows it's not technically their fault; she would just never be able to bring herself to like them!

What does day-to-day life look like for a Lunar Corps member between missions? Is it free time? Are they hanging around Haven picking up slack for the Solar Corps?

I sort of mentioned this in December's Q&A (under how long it would take someone to realize MC was not doing their normal routine/had gone missing), but I would describe a Shepherd's day-to-day schedule as quite malleable, haphazard, and unpredictable! At its best, it falls into something similar to a college student's schedule, except instead of having Sociology 101 from 1:15-2:30 PM every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the classes and their times can change pretty much every day... if that makes any sense?? 

Roughly, if you're a standard Lunar Corps officer (not someone who works a particular special role like the Quartermaster or someone who works the night shift), your schedule might be structured like this:

WAKE UP/BREAKFAST: a bell is rung around dawn (let's say around 6 AM) to signal things like changing of the shifts and the opening of the refectory for breakfast. If you do not have anything special scheduled for the day and are working a standard officer's job, you can usually choose to ignore this bell and sleep in for up to two more hours. The official time that the 'day shift' starts is 8 AM, though there's flexibility here; you could be having breakfast in the refectory until 8:30 or 9 if you're having a low-duty 'on-call' day. Most people choose to get up around 7 and wash up, get ready for the day, and have breakfast to be ready by 8. Some choose to get up even earlier to get in some extra training, exercising, head start on work, or what have you. 

CHECK ROSTER: first thing to do after leaving your room (especially if it's the start of the week) is to check the assignment roster that's pinned to a communal board on each floor of the Shepherd quarters. It lists everyone's duties for the day as well as for the week, though one should check it frequently in case things change (which they do pretty often). Typically, a Lunar Corps officer could be assigned several things on any given day: they could be told that they'll be patrolling a new high-risk route with a partner from 10 AM to 2 PM every other day this week, they could be told to quell a minor Imp infestation in Ashtown, they could be told to report to X to receive details on an investigation or lead that Solar Corps is finally passing up to Lunar Corps, they could be told they're being deployed on a team mission at the end of the week, they might be called upon for their special skills like helping the research team wrangle an unruly spirit or confer with a visiting blacksmith on crafting a new kind of weapon, or they might be expected to report to mandatory training sessions or classes under a specific instructor for that week because their captain sensed a skill that needs shoring up--or any number of things!

DAY SHIFT: Outside of these assigned tasks, which typically come with an estimation of how much time they'll take (patrol from 10 AM to 2 PM, training from 3-5 PM, etc.), the officers are left to fill the time in between tasks however they'd like. There are several things they're expected to take care of--they should be taking care of their assigned ahfuri or mounts, maintaining their weaponry, keeping up with their training and physique, and of course there's always random errands and tasks that crop up throughout the day or month like mending torn clothes, replacing field supplies, etc.--but so long as those things are fulfilled and no one can accuse them of dereliction of duty, it doesn't really matter when or how those things get accomplished. (And, of course, you have captains, other recruits, instructors and battle-masters, hostlers, and etc. who will notice if you straight-up neglect these tasks.) So Trouble, who gets off of patrol at 2 PM and has time to kill until training his recruits at 4, could grab an afternoon meal at the refectory, or check in on Dog, or squeeze in some boxing in a side courtyard; Briony might use that same time to pop over to a shop she's been meaning to visit to pick up a dress or work on a painting; Halek might take a nap; Ayla might actually use that time to tend to her weaponry and check on her ahfuri; Shery and Lavinet might decide to go out to lunch; Chase might be hanging out and playing cards with some of the other thieves in the lounge. Sometimes everyone's slots of free time line up throughout the day, and sometimes they don't; it's all quite random!

END OF DAY: If you are a Captain, you have additional duties you might have to tend to, including training your recruits, doing paperwork, and other administrative or Shepherdly duties. Again, it's your choice how frequently and when you want to train your recruits once they're out of the Officers' Academy and the hands of the battle-masters, but if they fail the regular physical and fieldwork exams that take place or do poorly on their missions, it's not great news for you. 

The official day shift ends around sundown (6-7 PM), though of course Lunar Corps officers are always on-call for late-night emergencies, demonic incursions, etc. At this point, everyone congregates for dinner in the refectory, and if you don't have anything in particular scheduled for the evening, that's when the majority of everyone's social free time is, because that's when everyone's off the clock (except for the night shift people). This is when people are hanging out, playing games, and etc.!

Frequently, all of this will be disrupted when urgent missions and assignments come in, particularly those that require immediate deployment to somewhere outside of Haven. Sometimes there's some time to prepare for these; when Trouble and Blade got the news about Wallmire or the Reach, MC had a few days to prepare. Sometimes these missions will show up on the roster ahead of time, like you'll check on Monday and nothing will be there, and then you'll check on Wednesday and see you're being called for a mission and to be prepared to leave on Friday; other times, you won't get any forewarning of them at all until your Captain or the mission assignee pulls you aside to tell you about it in person. 

If these mission orders don't show up on the roster and are more immediate, sometimes they'll be delivered in the forms of summons delivered personally by Shepherd couriers (Solar Corps members) and messengers; in those cases, you usually have to drop everything and go immediately because it's an emergency. You see MC's team do this while they're training in uhh I think their second or third day off interlude!

FREE TIME: On the days that there aren't any particular assignments like a patrol, case, mission, or some other specific training or duty, these are referred to as 'low-duty' or reserve days, where you're expected to stick around headquarters or its general vicinity in case you're needed, but you're basically free to do whatever you want in the meantime. It's not exactly a day off, so you shouldn't, like, leave town or immediately head to a bar and start getting wasted; you're still technically on-duty, it's just that no one needs you to do anything in particular at the moment. Most officers will use these days to rest, train, finish tasks that have been left unattended, catch up on paperwork, do laundry, hang out with other officers, read up in the library, or... basically whatever. It's up to you! You can leave the compound, usually to do errands like shopping or what have you, but you need to leave a note of your whereabouts or planned schedule with a superior officer in case you need to be tracked down and summoned back. Low-duty days are typically one or two days out of the week in the early days of the story, but become more frequent as the ranks and numbers of the Order swell and things settle down after every initial 'mass recruitment' and absorption of new members (thanks a lot for the buttload of gladiators, MC)! However, sudden mission orders, assignments, or new cases can also frequently disrupt these reserve days. 

DAYS OFF: True days off where you can basically blast off and do whatever you want and are considered truly off-duty come once a month; you basically know how these work, with MC starting with one and then getting two once enough people join the Order. Notably, Lunar Officers in the canonical sense of the story actually earn 2 days of paid leave for every month they're in the Order, for a total of 30 days in a year; they can technically take this leave all at once after a year of service, though few do and instead sprinkle them throughout the year, turning their 2 mandatory days off a month into 4 or 5, etc. It would be too much work to code this into the game, but you can just imagine that your MC is taking other days off throughout the month other than what's described explicitly in the interludes!

Uhhh this got really long, sorry if it's overly-detailed and boring to read through, lol! 

Spoilers

What, if anything, does Tallys remember about life before the Castigation?

Tallys was the Elvish equivalent of a young pre-teen or child (probably around Caine's "age") when the Castigation happened, and she spent her formative years growing up directly in the Castigation's aftermath, so not a lot has actually changed for her over the years since then. While Elves tend to have excellent memories, her memory of what the world was like directly before the Castigation is rather skewed, since she really only saw the Elvish cities, and those were already very secluded from the outside world. So she was never walking around the streets of Haven, seeing Mages use magic openly or witnessing Norms being treated poorly--they weren't even really talked about by members of her immediate family at that point in time, and they weren't part of her reality or field of concern, if that makes any sense. She was quite young, and her clan didn't see much of the outside world before the war, so her frame of reference is only limited to her memories of what the Elvish capitals were like before they were destroyed by the Western armies. So basically, she just remembers how grand and ancient Elvish civilization was back then (and how sad it is that those same cities are mostly in ruins now); but even those memories are a bit brief and fleeting, since she didn't spend a lot of time in those places to start with! Otherwise, not much changed for her in terms of her actual lifestyle once the Castigation actually happened; she was already traveling around with her tribe, and she continued to do so after the war broke out, just with the added danger of being caught by their new enemies!

Will there be a gift for every companion that results in a +5 increase, or are some companions capped at something lower? I ask because I was able to get +5 for Riel & Halek, but the highest bonus from gifting I could get for Chase was +2.

As the game is coded now, the bonus for Chase isn't actually "capped", it just uses fairmath! The most loved gift for Chase still gives you +10%, the same as it does with all of the other characters (such as Riel and Halek). However, the way fairmath works is that that number is giving you 10% of the difference between your current score and 100. I know that sounds confusing, but basically it goes like this: 

+10% to Chase means:

10% of (100 [the highest possible stat] - [Chase's current relationship to you])

So if your score with Chase is 80%, and you give him the gift with the highest possible boost, it will be calculated as:

100 - 80 = 20; 10% of 20 is 2; so your stat boost for giving him the gift is only +2 because your relationship with him is already so high.

But if your relationship to Halek is, say, 50%, giving him the same type of gift (with a 10% boost) would give you +5. That's why there's a difference between the two gifts--it's all relative and dependent on your relationships to the characters, rather than a hard-coded cap.

I realize this is a bit confusing, but it's the principal way to handle stat changes within ChoiceScript (and the worst part is, once you start using it, you can't really mix and match with flat point additions or subtractions, you either have to use all fairmath or all flat integers, otherwise it will cause errors). The good news is that I've come to really loathe this way of doing things because it's so hard to nail down stat changes between players, so I'm getting rid of it entirely and using only flat numbers in the Twine version of the game! So in the final version of the product, it will be a +5 increase no matter what. 😮‍💨 Sorry for the long-winded explanation, but I hope that makes sense!

What is MC's squad's and the RO reactions (minus Blade since it was his idea lol) to MC being elevated to  Commander-Legate?

Trouble: he was enthusiastically for the idea, he thinks MC is such an obvious choice for the position that it's a no-brainer, and he also likes that it takes the pressure off of him and allows him to be in more of a support role than being the face of the Order, which he had basically become when it was him, Blade, and Tallys in charge! 

Tallys: she was relieved... she only took the position of Third-in-Command because there was no one else nearly experienced or hardened enough when the Order was first founded, but it wasn't exactly something she really wanted, especially because the thought of having to work with the Autarchy still makes her uncomfortable!

Shery: excited but unsurprised! MC is the Hero of Haven, after all, it was only a matter of time... she had a gut feeling that things would lead to this from the moment they woke up in the infirmary!

Riel: relief and satisfaction. Perfect choice. Everything is falling into place. MC and Blade are probably the two people he respects most in the Order, so he's most pleased to be working with them!

Chase: complete non-surprise, but he's a little bummed that they're going to have to be all respectable and stodgy like Blade and Riel DX kind of hard to ask the Commander to sit on the roof and flick yogurt down on people... so he hopes they don't turn into a total stick in the mud like the other two, but otherwise it makes total sense to him!

Red: yup, makes total sense. he definitely checks in with them to make sure this isn't a "Archmage Tevanti forced me to become Archmage and I couldn't say no because everyone was suddenly depending on me :D" situation, but so long as MC really wants to do it, he's happy for them and willing to do anything he can to support them!

Ayla: yeah, not surprised. "couldn't be me though LOL" she's sort of like "good luck with that" because she couldn't imagine accepting that commitment and pressure, she knows she'd fold immediately!

Briony: she's genuinely excited for them and feels like everything is falling into place!!! they were destined to be Commander and they're going to be amazing at it, what an incredible idea! 

Lavinet: since she just joined the Order, she's still getting her bearings and is like 'omg the person I asked to come deal with my shitty Elemental problem is actually a really big deal and now they're my BOSS'. It's sort of like calling the police to deal with a drunk guy in your backyard and Beyonce shows up, only you don't know it's Beyonce until you follow them back to the police station wanting to join and there's all this paparazzi there going 'OMG IT'S BEYONCE' and also immediately after you become an officer, Beyonce is promoted to police commissioner and your boss LOL but she's happy for them and it makes total sense to her!

Halek: the thought of the responsibility and leadership MC is VOLUNTARILY taking on makes him feel queasy... as well as all sorts of complicated feelings. It's like, damn, they're answering this call to action for people they don't even know and just got to Haven for the first time like a year ago, and he complains when his own people want to be sol... So it definitely makes him a bit uncomfortable and uneasy, but he's dealing with it and is obviously congratulatory towards MC, though he's also like, 'if you ever need to get away from it all, just give me the signal and we'll run'

As for MC's recruits, Justyn is pleased for MC but a little nervous that even more scrutiny will be applied towards their squad with MC's new position; Ysa feels bolstered in confidence and like she really wants to work even harder to live up to MC's name and reputation; Daren is smug, like 'yes that's MY leader who became one of our three commanders. not that I was surprised'; and Cybele is sweating, like 'omg if I thought life was hard when MC was just the Hero of Haven, I might actually die now that they're Commander......' _(:‚‹」∠)_

NSFW

I have a NSFW: How crazy would Blade go if him and mc tried the reverse cowgirl. Since he gets front row tickets to see her butt. Extra points if it a bubbly butt!

He would definitely enjoy it, but to be honest, he would probably enjoy positions where he could see MC's face and expressions more! So I actually think he'd go crazier for cowgirl rather than reverse cowgirl, though of course he wouldn't pass up the chance to admire the view either way!

NSFW question: Which of the female ROs would be into pegging male MC?

This has been answered here!

Hi! In one of the older asks, you mentioned that Red has erotica that he keeps "for research" of course. Do any of the other ROs enjoy spicy content? Like torrid romance novels or smutty comics or maybe a tasteful burlesque show?

Link for what porn is like in Blest for those who are curious! 

Blade: he read one of his older cousin's smutty erotic novels or two when he was a teenager, but he hasn't naturally felt inclined to seek such material out since!

Trouble: he's glanced through a "songbook" (see above link) or two on occasion, but more out of idle curiosity rather than as material to masturbate to! It's more like a "whoa...." or "wtf, I didn't even know a person could do that" than it is erotic, if that makes any sense?? I guess it's just not something that really rouses his interest, I think because it's quite static 😂

Tallys: she has a tasteful collection of erotic art and woodcuts in a discreet box in her closet, but it's more something she looks at with a willing partner than on her own!

Shery: she probably has the biggest collection of steamy romance novels and smutty erotica than anyone in the Shepherds, so yeah, I'd say she's a thorough researcher LOL

Riel: he has copies of the most famous erotic stories and novels for posterity (like literally, he believes in having a diverse library of any kind of text you can think of), but leafing through them did nothing for him; he's the type to criticize purple prose and poor turns of phrase in erotica than to be turned on by it! 

Chase: he's definitely seen his share of visual porn and erotic art! I'm guessing he doesn't own any permanent copies himself, but he's definitely bought (or stolen) copies to leaf through and then either returned them or thrown them away on occasion. When he's feeling horny, he vastly prefers just seeking out a partner rather than looking at still images or (god forbid) reading black and white text, but he's no stranger to erotica and is very casual about discussing/mentioning it offhand, and has shown definite curiosity about it in passing! It's just more of a "expanding knowledge and research" thing than it is a "getting off" thing for him. Basically, he has an academic-level interest in all things dirty lol

Red: he owns one or two tasteful but definitely smutty novels, and was known to sneak more off of bookshelves he shouldn't have been perusing as a teen 😆 it's nothing really trashy or obscene, but definitely material that gave him useful tips when he was younger and less experienced LOL. I don't think he would ever admit to owning them, though!

Ayla: aware of erotica's existence, but never got into it herself! She has visited one or two brothels in her time, though!

Briony: she absolutely reads a new erotic novel or porny steamy romance at least once a month!

Lavinet: same as Briony, if not every few weeks!