Tumgik
#villain romance
julls · 24 days
Text
Tumblr media
cheeky beautiful comm from zfedraws ( ꈍ ꈍ ) Enver Gortash x Durge Juria ♡
680 notes · View notes
seraphinitegames · 3 months
Note
Will the villain of book 4 be female/male or can we choose the genre considering there is a romance option? *_* Also, if we are in a romance with the vampires, does the villain still want the MC?
The plan is definitely for now to make it a choice, yeah. Especially as they will be a romance option! I've already planned in the choice and though it might be a bit jarring narratively, I need to remember it's also a game as well as a story and some choices just need to be obvious, lol! :D
And yes. The villain will be trying to...bring the MC to their side no matter whether in a romance or not as, once again, the MC has something the villain wants...related to their blood in an unexpected way this time!
It's just the romance angle will only play out if you choose it and only on the 'friend' route where you're not already romancing one of the vampires. And you will have multiple options to stay in the romance or not as it is a villain romance and this villain is really...very villainous, lol! Definitely may not suit everyone!
Thank you so much for the ask! :)
502 notes · View notes
rookthebird · 4 months
Text
"you can't enjoy this fictional character!!"
what are you going to do, reach into my brain and remove the blorbo rotation apparatus?
397 notes · View notes
elf-kid2 · 1 year
Text
Movies Where the Villain-Romance WINS!
Princess Bride: The Dread Pirate Roberts successfully steals away fair Buttercup, who was betrothed to the handsome Prince!
Strange Magic: Princess Marianne of the Fairy Kingdom winds up in a whirlwind romance with the Bog King of the Dark Forest, who is known for his “Anti-Love” approach to both law & foreign-policy decisions.
Megamind: After defeating the Hero, the Supervillain winds up dating the beautiful & brilliant Investigative Reporter he used to kidnap...
Robin Hood: Notorious Thief elopes with Respectable Noblewoman! News at 11!
Nightmare Before Christmas: Jack Skellington, the King of Halloween who attempted to Steal Christmas and kidnap Santa Clause, finds a loving romantic relationship with Sally the Patchwork by the end of the story.
(Reblog, if you can name MORE stories with this!)
676 notes · View notes
sarahreesbrennan · 13 days
Text
A Villain Revealed
Tumblr media
Quote: ‘You’re awful. Just like me.’ Readers, 80% of you voted to see a villain! Marvellous evildoers, it’s my pleasure to present through the playful beautiful artistry of Venessa Vida Kelley @vkelleyart, a MOST dishonourable bodyguard.
Key of the Cauldron, free spirit, easy smiles, has killed before, will kill again. Some achieve evil, some are thrust into it, and Key is in gleeful free fall to the depths. Known as: the gutter guard, the Villain of the Cauldron, the Hero of the Cauldron (deeply embarrassing misunderstanding, why would an act of wanton violence be interpreted as heroic?). The court is horrorstruck by his accent, and maybe all the murders. Dragged up rather than raised in the Cauldron, a ‘liberty’ within the city where the law holds no sway and thus a den of vice seething with the city’s cutthroats, Key’s elevated to the palace guard as an honour. He would prefer being honoured with money. Will nobody pay him to commit crimes… What’s that, my lady? Two writer friends call him ‘the murder meow meow.’ I can’t wait for you to meet him.
To meet him and get a signature and character art you can preorder at one of the indies participating in the preorder campaign (yes I did pick this one to be hilarious).
56 notes · View notes
chinomiko · 5 months
Text
Tumblr media
Oopsie, forgot to post this here.
PoV : When MC is working undercover at the tavern and being hit on by other customers, but you’re a dark ruthless pirate who claims to care for nothing and no one and you just have to bite your tongue.
Finally done with him, yay Just playing along and practicing My pirate OC Varkas
-Original art and character -Do not edit or repost -Not related to beemoov works
87 notes · View notes
bone-and-butterflies · 4 months
Text
39 notes · View notes
savvy-devine666 · 2 months
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media
I Love villain pairings and I am feasting on this shit!
40 notes · View notes
blackpoison66 · 4 months
Text
Eight foot joe x Ariel
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Art: おちゃのこ
28 notes · View notes
suzannahnatters · 1 year
Text
Trope Talk #1: Enemies to Lovers: A Deeper Dive
Tumblr media
Reports of my death have been exaggerated, but not greatly. While I was in bed for a week lately, roleplaying a Victorian invalid, I watched a YouTube doing a deep dive on the enemies to lovers trope. While it was really fun seeing her break down subtropes (hate to love, rivals to lovers, reluctant allies, villain romance, and more - all of which I adore), I found myself somewhat disappointed by her attempt to discuss the deeper issues surrounding the trope. Like, yes: a lot of people enjoy things in fiction that they would not enjoy IRL and mature readers CAN distinguish between fantasy and reality...but also the media we consume DOES shape us, not all readers ARE as mature as we'd like to think, and while this trope can be executed in a way that's not problematic, it can also be executed in a way that is. Even if we wouldn't all personally draw the line between toxic and healthy in precisely the same place, I think that line does objectively exist. So, here are some of the ways I've subjectively drawn that line in my personal writing and reading when it comes to this trope...
SOME WAYS OF DOING ETL RIGHT
1. Not everyone is going to agree as to what's healthy and what's not, and it's important to listen to others.
Some are going to be mad at me for loving this trope at all, and some are going to be mad at me for thinking that one still needs to exercise judgement and that not everything goes, but hear me out. As a writer, the harder you go with this trope, the more divided your audience will be. Given that we all tend to draw the lines in different places, I think that listening to each other and discussing the reasons behind our own preferences and choices is going to help all of us understand the stakes, avoid hurting or triggering readers who have trauma from toxic relationships, and extend grace to storytellers who don't make the same decisions we would. And we shouldn't be defensive that this is necessary. ETL is actually a fairly new and under-explored trope, which I think is part of why it can be so divisive, especially in a post-#MeToo landscape where a lot of us are starting to rethink the controlling men and helpless women in pairings we've been conditioned to see as romantic. Meanwhile, as an author with a deep love for this trope, I hope that posts like this will help more cautious readers to understand that writing about dark and spiky relationships doesn't necessarily mean romanticising abusive behaviour. Either way, I've benefited from listening in humility and I truly think my stories are better for it.
2. Remember that evil is not misunderstood.
If you'll be writing ETL, then you need to decide early on if the love interest is evil or just misunderstood, and be careful to write him accordingly and be honest about it. If the love interest literally goes around killing innocent people, deal with that. That's evil, that's not (just) a traumatic childhood. On the other hand, if the love interest is antagonistic because of a misunderstanding, but is a fundamentally decent person deep down, he probably wouldn't casually slap the heroine around or otherwise act like a jerk. One mistake I used to see a lot of writers making (less often these days) is trying to convince me that some loathsome jerk is just misunderstood. No, if he's been doing bad things, don't try to explain his guilt away. Confront it head on.
THE LAST JEDI was my gateway drug to ETL precisely because I'd never seen this trope done so beautifully and so uncompromisingly: when Rey is forced to face the fact that the boy she likes is unrepentantly evil, she refuses to join him, explodes him and gets out of there. Ben isn't ready to seek repentance yet; he's a proud, if wavering, villain. Because the movie was absolutely honest about the evil within Ben, I was able to genuinely hope Rey might confront that evil and exorcise it, instead of being gaslit into thinking it was all right.
By contrast, in the very Bluebeard-vibes kdrama MASK, the love interest believes he's responsible for the death of his late fiancee and is being manipulated by the villain into thinking he's criminally insane. As a result, he believes that he's going to kill the heroine, his new wife. Physical touch and dirt are both triggers for him, too, and what the audience sees as a trauma response comes across to the heroine as strong hostility. He tells the heroine he is going to kill her, and she believes him, but the truth is that he dreads it as much as she does. This is a really beautifully done form of misunderstanding. Just remember that to be believable, misunderstandings need to be resolved fairly quickly.
3. Enemies doesn't need to mean hatred or toxicity.
While hate to love is a valid subtrope - especially in contexts where the characters aren't literally trying to kill each other, like in a contemporary romcom - ETL does NOT need to involve toxicity. There's a difference between ordering the assassination of an enemy, versus strangling your wife to terrorise her into obedience; both are bad, but only the latter is classic domestic violence, which casts doubt on any "HEA". Enemies need not hate or even abuse each other to be at odds; they may feel deep personal respect for a worthy opponent, who just happens to be ideologically committed to an opposing cause and therefore duty bound to antagonise the other. Personally, these characters may like, respect, or even passionately love each other - but thanks to duty, they're obliged to thwart each other.
A favourite example of this is Nikita and Michael from the spy show NIKITA. The pair started out as master and pupil before becoming coworkers for a rogue government agency, Division. Now Nikita has gone rogue herself and is working to bring down Division. She knows that Michael is still hanging in there for several reasons - he still believes Division serves his country, he's been skilfully manipulated by the head of the agency, and above all he feels the need to protect Division's young agents who are increasingly exploited by them. Nikita still has respect for Michael because of all these things and because he's the man who trained her to be as awesome as she is - and because she's his best student, Michael returns the sentiment and still goes out of his way to protect her, even as he's trying to hunt her down. Midway through the season, Nikita tries to protect Michael by preventing him from taking out the man who once killed his family - at which point Michael's view of Nikita sours. But she never stops respecting him and he's still willing to work with her when necessary to protect his agents. Throw in some mad chemistry and you've got the ingredients for a perfect ETL situation - although it has some hostility from Michael's side, it's never without that solid core of care and respect for each other. This is what makes the romance work, of course; all romances need a good reason for the character to care about each other. 
4. Remember that ETL is a fundamentally transformative relationship.
This builds on my first point. In ETL, unless there's a valid misunderstanding at play, there are probably moral/ethical differences between the characters. Thus, a huge part of your romance needs to be about resolving those differences, usually for the better. In other words (unless you're really into a corruption arc for the protagonist), the villainous/antagonistic character needs to genuinely repent and change, and we need that change to be demonstrated convincingly in story. At this stage, then, a good ETL story becomes about character growth, which means that it cannot be rushed. If the love interest has genuinely been evil, then he needs to change and prove it.
LOVE BETWEEN FAIRY AND DEVIL is a great example of a transformative ETL story. At the beginning of the drama, Dongfang Qingcang is a terrifying evil overlord who has frozen his emotions, killed his own father to rise to power, mastered hellfire magic and terrorised the three realms. As the story unfolds we do learn that there are some misunderstandings: Dongfang's father is the one who destroyed his emotions and forced him as a child to kill him, as well as instilling in him the fear that his people will be destroyed unless he conquers their enemies. But, this doesn't make Dongfang's villainy okay. Even after his emotions have been reawoken by our adorable heroine he still needs to realise that invading her homeland is not the right way to say thank you. By the end of the story we see that Dongfang is indeed a changed overlord. It takes a while, but it is believable.
5. Related, the characters should be a match for each other, especially when it comes to power and to morals.
I think a lot of the objections to ETL and villain romance pairings come from a perceived mismatch between the two characters: a weak person with a stronger person, or a pure and good person with a despicable manipulative blackguard. I think that it's always a good idea to balance this out. If your story begins with the love interest kidnapping your heroine to be his queen, why not let your heroine run a coup and replace him on the throne - right when he least expects it? The fact that your heroine is willing to get her hands dirty when it comes to this antagonist is not just delicious drama - it's also evidence that the two of them have more in common than they might think, and that in a longterm relationship she won't have any problems standing up to him. Alternately, if your heroine is going to remain pure and good throughout, she should probably be a match for the villain in terms of power, however that is measured in your story (and it can be a totally different sort of power than the villain wields). One of the most delicious things when watching any villain fall in love is finding the one woman whom he's absolutely helpless before.
I think Holly Black did this really well in the FOLK OF THE AIR trilogy. At first, Jude is a powerless mortal in the deadly fae court, and Cardan is the fae prince who delights in tormenting her. Jude proves herself far more cunning and ruthless than Cardan as she maneuvers the two of them into power as reluctant allies. It's clear that what Jude lacks in magic she makes up for in sharp intelligence and will to survive, and her ability to find a happy ending hinges on her ability to let down her guard and be vulnerable to Cardan. On the other end of the scale, Beauty and the Beast in most of its incarnations is about two kind people who want different things for sympathetic reasons, so that even though Beauty is held captive by the Beast we can understand the Beast's desperation to break his curse (and the Disney animated classic makes his motivations even more sympathetic by imposing a rapidly narrowing window of opportunity in which to do so). The Beast is truly gentle, and Belle is just spirited enough to snap back at him when he snaps at her. Both these stories work because the lovers are fundamentally a match.
6. Be creative.
There are all sorts of ways to create that delicious see-saw between "I adore you" and "I am going to kill you". The kdrama THE MASK, as mentioned above, uses the hero's mental health in an incredibly respectful way to create a sense of antagonism. The kdrama FLOWER OF EVIL does something similar. In Megan Spooner's absolutely incendiary SHERWOOD, there's a scene where the love interest goes from nearly killing the protagonist to tenderly embracing and caring for her within the very same chapter. Normally this would be the red flag to end all red flags, but it doesn't work that way here. How did Spooner manage it? Simple. The love interest doesn't know that the outlaw Robin Hood, whom he's trying to capture, is actually the same person as Maid Marian, the fair lady he's in love with - and when a quick costume change takes our heroine from one persona to another, the love interest's behaviour changes too. The emotional rollercoaster is real - but only for her.
7. There doesn't need to be a HEA.
I know, a lot of you are going to be up in arms about this, but it's true. Sometimes, especially in a straight up villain romance, the villain shouldn't get the girl. Maybe that's because she wants someone else, maybe it's because he's too manipulative and evil to be convincing as a long term relationship. But, let me frame it like this: why limit yourself just to writing the viable romances? There's a lot of good fun that can be got out of unviable romances too. You may not feel comfortable settling down with the villain, but that doesn't mean he can't be kissed :3
For example, in THE RINGS OF POWER the showrunners did something I never expected and gave Sauron himself a little crush on his greatest nemesis, Galadriel. The final episode, as he revealed his true identity and did his level best to manipulate her into joining him to rule Middle Earth, put joy into the souls of fangirls everywhere. It also caused a whole lot of people to clutch their pearls for some reason which remains opaque to me. After all, Tolkien was the man who wrote Eol, Maeglin, Wormtongue, and that moment when Morgoth himself was perving on Luthien Tinuviel. That aside, this is never going to be a viable match. Galadriel is married and hates Sauron's guts and Sauron is still a manipulative snake whose plans for healing Middle Earth involve him ruling as its lord and master, hopefully with Galadriel at his side. Galadriel doesn't fall for it for a second, which is one of the very things that makes this kind of story so incredibly satisfying to me. The fact that she won't succumb to his manipulation and temptation is incredibly empowering. As in THE LAST JEDI, the ball is in Sauron's court as to whether he changes to deserve her. And of course he won't - not just because he goes on to become the Lord of the Rings of Barad-dûr but more importantly because he never loved Galadriel for who she is but because of the way she made him feel, powerful and purposeful.
Not all villain romances need to end this way, of course, because some villains are capable of change. I think this is what makes Reylo viable where Haladriel is not. While Sauron and Galadriel each appeal to the EVIL in each other, Rey appeals to the good in Ben; he meanwhile desires the Light in her. This is why her refusal does ultimately prompt him to change, although of course the story's resolution was massively bungled in THE RISE OF SKYWALKER.
8. Love should be what the villain needs - but not what he wants.
It's hard to make absolute rules when it comes to any artistic choice, but this is probably the closest I come when dealing with this trope: because there should be consequences for the love interest's misdeeds, especially when it comes to the heroine. I call this the POTO rule: if the love interest wants the heroine romantically or sexually abuses her, he should not be rewarded by getting her. Enemies to lovers may fight over anything by any means, but not over romantic or sexual possession of each other. If the villain becomes a villain in order to possess the heroine, then a HEA for them involves giving him exactly what he wanted and thereby justifying his bad behaviour. Mind you, this doesn't mean the love interest can never want the heroine on some level; if he did not then this would not be a romance. We're talking about his most fundamental motivation and his most important story goal. She should not be either of them; she should be a distraction, an impediment to them.
This is simply good writing sense. Enemies to lovers normally implies a positive change arc for the love interest. Every good positive change arc involves a character who Wants one thing, say, to rule the world; but Needs something totally different - the capacity to make peace through compassion, say.  Such characters may or may not get what they Want, depending on how good it is for them and the people around them, but they'll always get what they Need. This is why I think ETL works best when the heroine herself is the thing the antagonist doesn't know he Needs. As an enemy, and even more so if he's a villain, he's likely to be unscrupulous in getting what he Wants, and he shouldn't get her for the same reasons that characters often don't get what they Want. Think about it: the villain probably needs some hard consequences for what he's done. He can get them, *and also get the girl*, but only as long as the girl isn't the motivation for his crimes.
{How does this fit with the "stolen bride" genre of story, usually a fairytale? Do I disapprove of those on principle? Mm, no. If the bride was stolen primarily because the kidnapper claimed to have a romantic or sexual attraction to her, I might object. But there's usually some other motivation. He wants to break a curse; he wants to annex her kingdom; he wants to keep her out of his enemies' hands; he might have been ordered to marry her by someone he dares not cross, or bound by an ancient custom; in any case he ought not to be personally motivated to control or possess her. This is one of those grey areas where lines blur and it's wise to listen and be careful because so many real women have been trapped in marriages to real live villains; but the thing is very doable under the right circumstances.} 
I call this the POTO rule because it was inspired by THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. In this story, Erik is obsessed with Christine to the point where romantic and sexual possession of her drives everything he does. He kills, manipulates, and gaslights everyone at the Paris Opera in an attempt to win Christine's heart, and ultimately he's willing to threaten to kill the man Christine truly loves in order to get the thing he Wants: Christine's hand in marriage. Now, I know a lot of you ship this pairing and I'm not going to scold you for it; maybe you ship them the way I ship Haladriel, loving the relationship without thinking it should end in a HEA, or perhaps you think Christine can fix Erik through some genuinely transformative plotline, or maybe you just want Erik to get what he wants even though it's messed up, and whatever it is I hope you have fun with it. But personally, from the perspective of a published author with a sense of responsibility to my readers, I really think the story ended in the best possible way. Erik doesn't get what he Wants (Christine) but he does get what he Needs (a transformative moment of transcendent compassion that enables him to act in a truly loving manner, by letting Christine go).
So, most of the time, I think it's wisest if the heroine is what the love interest doesn't know he Needs. Again, LOVE BETWEEN FAIRY AND DEVIL does this SO well. Dongfang Qingcang doesn't have time for love - emotionless and too busy Evil Overlording, he's never been in love before. So, when he's saddled with an adorable, dimwitted flower fairy, he can't wait to break the spell that links them together so that he can kill her and get on with his villainous plans. When her emotions begin to infect him, he can't help falling in love with her, even though he fights it every single step of the way. She's absolutely not what he Wants, but she is everything he Needs to thaw his frozen heart and teach him to act with compassion and empathy. Even though he spends much of the series planning to kill her, the HEA doesn't strike me as being Problematique the way that an Erik/Christine HEA would be - because a HEA with Orchid represents the moral growth that Dongfang needs, rather than the selfish desire he wants.
9. Maybe the villain's HEA is with someone else.
This doesn't mean a villain is irredeemable or shouldn't get a HEA. It just might mean that his HEA is with someone else. (Unless he's actually a rapist. Then just light the man on fire.) Erik shouldn't get Christine because he's done so much evil in order to possess her. But, once she's broken through to him to show him compassion, he might be ready to learn to love and to make amends for his past crimes...perhaps with someone else.
This was a huge part of the inspiration for the character of Vasily in my Bête Epoque stories. He does something which traumatises the heroine so much, there's no realistic HEA for them. Like Christine, she forgives him anyway, even in the midst of betrayal. And like Erik, he finds he's unable to go through with his villainous plans. She gets her HEA with somebody else, but I found myself with this incredibly compelling character whom a lot of people were pulling for. Vasily has already learned a huge lesson through having loved and lost my first heroine - so when he meets my second heroine, even though in a lot of ways he's still a treacherous monster, he's able to start afresh, and do better, with someone far more resilient who holds far greater power over him.
10. Individual characters will need individual things.
Finally, I think it's necessary to use judgement based on the individual characters and what they need. This is another reason why it's so difficult to make hard and fast rules here. For instance, I said that if the enemy sexually assaults the heroine he should forgo any hope of a HEA with her. But I think we've all seen romances that involve, say, some dubiously consensual kissing, which we can understand the kissee forgiving. By the same token, the act which disqualifies my character Vasily from his first HEA is not sexual assault but something which is coded that way within the story world, and experienced that way by the heroine (vampire bite). The fact that it's not literally sexual assault is what makes it possible for Vasily to get a romantic second chance, but the fact that it is figurative sexual assault is one of the main things that decided me against a HEA the first time. So, I think that whether you're a writer or reader, it's important to exercise judgement based not just on the things that are obvious, but also on less obvious things like the characters' specific needs, the thematic symbolism of the story world, and more.
--
So those are my best ETL writing guidelines - and again, this is only what works for me! I think it's really hard to make hard and fast rules for any artistic work, but from thinking about what works for me and what doesn't, these are some of the lines I've drawn for myself. If you're reading this, I hope it provokes some helpful thoughts :-)
157 notes · View notes
ninjaofdeath16 · 3 months
Text
BLACK APPLE POISON PART TWO
This book is dedicated to wavering souls like me who desire to chase their dreams and hesitate because of the fear of not being “enough” in some shape, form, or capacity. There will always be someone better, however, that does not take away any of your value or worth and you should chase your dreams if only to seek happiness.
[Prologue] [Part One] [Part Two] [Part Three] [Part Four] [Part Five] [Part Six] [Part Seven] [Part Eight] [Part Nine] [Part Ten] [Part Eleven] [Part Twelve] [Part Thirteen] [Part Fourteen] [Part Fifteen] [Part Sixteen] [Part Seventeen] [Part Eighteen] [Part Nineteen] [Part Twenty]
PART TWO
After living in a leaky dungeon cell for two decades, the last two weeks felt like a fleeting dream since his master left him with the Keeper of the Realm. Three meals a day, a library full of books, and the freedom to roam the castle – Adam only experienced niceties however, some of the niceties were difficult to adjust to. A bed with a mattress, for example, was normal to seemingly everyone but felt too soft for Adam after sleeping on a stone floor or wooden bench. His room was dry and insulated and solely his with a fully functioning bathroom, both a luxury he’d never anticipated, though despite the endless privacy, he couldn’t sleep at night. The windows were too large compared to the barred box he had in his cell and the dry room felt too hot.
He knew he shouldn’t complain, but as he sat in the nook of the window, he pulled at the collar of his pajama shirt to cool off without allowing his amygdalin scent to escape and pressed his forehead against the window. He longed to feel the cool rainwater against his skin and was tempted to take another cold shower so he could go to bed at a decent hour. The rain pattered against the window at a steady pace, a soft rhythm to lull him to sleep, and he wanted nothing more than to sleep, but feared contaminating the sheets. Despite the reassurances taken to get around his ‘condition’, Adam couldn’t relax.
He knew firsthand the dangers of his sweat and touch and didn’t want to risk harming any of the employees within the castle. Even just picking up his shirt off the ground was enough to singe their hand. As sleep threatened to finally take him into the depths, a knock sounded softly at the door and his head snapped up. “Master Adam, I know you’re awake.” It was Frederick’s exhausted voice called out from the other side. “I see the candlelight under the door.”
Blinking in surprise, he turned his head to the candle stick still burning on his nightstand. How the old butler could see the light was beyond him, but he held his tongue.
“May I come in?”
Adam leaned his head back against the wall with a sigh, “If you must.”
The door quietly swung open as Frederick, wearing a fluffy bathrobe over his tall frame, crossed his arms and entered with a sigh. “Why are you not in the bed?”
“I’m not a child you must watch over.” Adam huffed and his tail flicked irritably on the nook seat.
“No, but the longer you stay awake the more the ghosts of the castle pester me to come to you for whatever it is you need.” He pinched the bridge of his nose as he shook his head. “If you wish to stay awake until the waking hours, so be it, just blow the candle out.”
“I don’t wish to stay awake all night.” Adam groused and rubbed his eyes. “However, nothing in this room is safe so long as I reside in it.”
“We’ve been over this, Master Adam.” Frederick’s tired green eyes gave him a bored look. “We’ve applied the alchemical formula Roese used to create your clothes for everything in this room so it is safe for you to do in it as you please.”
“There’s still a chance – ”
Frederick held his hand up to cut him off. “You don’t have to worry about anyone risking the poison because I’m the one that will turn down the beds and change the sheets as necessary.”
Adam’s throat felt dry as he frowned at Frederick, “And how do you know you won’t be affected by my poison?”
Frederick laughed sardonically as he dragged his hand down his face and looked between the cracks of his fingers at Adam. “My dear boy, what do you know of your origins?”
His brows furrowed at the question but recited his history as best he knew it. “Malice, a broken heart, and a poisoned apple.”
“Not just any heart, the broken heart of a lover.” Frederick waggled his finger in correction. “Whose heart do you think was used to create you, hm? It certainly wasn’t Roese’s; that part of her died long before she arrived here in Pluvia.”
“I don’t understand.” Adam’s nose wrinkled as he tried not to think of the man in front of him as his master’s old lover. The idea of his master loving anyone other than herself was unthinkable, especially a man as kind as Frederick.
Frederick’s face went slack as he slowly pulled open his robe to expose his chest. The comment Frederick made of freely giving his heart to his master echoed in his mind and the gaping hole in the center of his chest proved he’d meant it literally.
“You gave her your heart.” Adam’s eyes widened as he couldn’t look away from the place where his heart was supposed to be.  “How are you standing?”
“Let’s just leave it as a special littler perk Mr. V was so generous to bestow upon me.” Frederick chuckled mirthlessly and quickly covered his chest again. “Anything more than that and he’ll chop my tongue off.”
Adam quickly sobered, smoothing a hand over the center of his own chest. “Just because your heart was used doesn’t mean you can withstand the poison.”
“You might have my heart, but you certainly have her mind.” Frederick scoffed and crossed his arms again. “How do you think she learned how to create a poisoned apple, hm? You really think the woman would’ve only used me for my heart when she had so many other recipes she needed to test?”
Adam’s eyes widened and shook his head in disbelief. “You ate the apple?”
“I took about three bites before I passed out and she revived me and made me eat it to the core.” His face fell into melancholy and his shoulders seemed to droop. “I know more of what you suffer, and I’m the only one in this castle that won’t die from touching your things. So, get in bed and go to sleep, or so help me I’ll get Mr. V involved; and the Keeper doesn’t like to be disturbed from the little sleep he gets.”
Adam’s eyes drifted to the bed but didn’t move towards it. There were too many questions brewing around in his head for him to possibly sleep now. However, Frederick gave him a hard look before heaving a sigh and closing the door behind him as he left. Regardless of his threats he was too tired to put up with Adam’s insomniac tendencies.
Adam waited until Frederick’s footsteps were gone before approaching the bed with trepidation. Touching the bed with a tentative finger, he waited for a reaction – any burning or disintegrating – and when there was none, he took the risk of climbing into the bed and allowing sleep to take him.
Tumblr media
The rich scent of coffee followed by the dark liquid being poured into a cup roused Adam from the land of the dreaming, blinking hard to find Mr. V leisurely reading a book and sipping his coffee, at a table prepared with too much food for breakfast. Black eyes quickly scanning the room to make sure he hadn’t slept walk and was indeed in his room, Adam sat up slowly.
Mr. V’s golden eyes flicked up immediately at his movement and his mouth tugged into a smirk. “Finally awake. Frederick informed me you’ve not trusted the measures taken to ensure you don’t kill the entire castle and had to coax you into bed last night.”
Adam’s nose wrinkled in displeasure but didn’t disagree.
“Sleep well?”
“I slept.” His tail reached for his gloves on the nightstand and slid them onto his hands.
“Good. We’ve a few things to discuss before you’re sent off on your first mission.” He snapped the book was reading closed and gestured to the seat across from him. “Come, sit, eat.”
His tail curled around one of the chair legs as he took his seat and pulled a biscuit onto his plate. “What mission?”
Mr. V had hinted over the last week that Adam was almost ready to go out and start his story – whatever that meant – but he needed to put more meat on his bones before he was released into another realm. Not that Adam totally understood what going to another realm meant. Mr. V had briefly explained that Pluvia acted as a library of sorts and the realms were the books he needed added to his library.
“Nothing major for the first one.” Mr. V shrugged and pulled a small inkwell from his coat pocket. “Just some reconnaissance and surveillance.”
“For what?” He bit numbly into the biscuit and felt his mouth go dry.
“To discover your story, of course.” Mr. V plucked a feather from his hat and set it on the leather-bound book. “You’ll need these to record your findings and anything else you should deem important. You’ve been here long enough now that I think you’re ready to finally get out on your own. Compared to the others, you didn’t need much rehabilitation, though your sleeping habits and the lack thereof concern me.”
Adam’s brows furrowed these ‘others’ mentioned and stared at the leather-bound book Mr. V slid across the table to him but didn’t reach for it. He didn’t feel ready for anything that Mr. V was suggesting, nor that recording his findings would be helpful.
Noticing Adam’s face, Mr. V’s smile faltered, and his brow pinched with worry. “You can read and write, can’t you? Or did Roese see fit to keep you as incapable as possible?”
Adam shook his head. “She needed me to read out ingredients for her spells and curses when the print was too small.”
“Ah, good.” Mr. V removed his hat from his head and rested it on his knee. “You’ll be crossing over Realms, so you’ll need to know how to read and write if you’re to survive in another realm.”
“And how will I be crossing over realms?”
“Eat and then I’ll take you to the Wardrobe and explain things there.” Mr. V waggled his finger as he took a sip of his coffee. Adam’s brow furrowed but nodded as he finished his croissant only to have Mr. V scoop a side of scrambled eggs onto his plate with a meaningful look before scooping eggs for his own plate. “I know this has been a lot to take in; it was the first time I came here. But it’s all for your benefit, I promise. I’m looking forward to what you’ll come with. I can’t help but wonder what sort of story you’ll come up with.”
Adam huffed and his tail thumped against the chair leg. “You keep saying that, but that doesn’t make it any clearer.”
“It will mon ami, give it time.” He waved his fork at him. “Once you go into this realm, you’ll get a general idea of what you’re getting into and will shape it into your own. I just know it.”
“But how?” Adam frowned and rested his hands on the table. “What am I supposed to do?”
“Anything you want.” His golden eyes glittered with excitement. “That’s the fun part.”
Adam’s brows dipped low in disbelief but didn’t question the Keeper any further as he resumed his breakfast without any further inclination of what exactly it was Adam was to do. When Mr. V finished his second cup of coffee, he left the room so Adam could change and waited outside his room. With a quick once over and a nod of approval, Mr. V led him down the winding series of halls until they reached a long corridor with paintings of strange places. Underwater kingdoms, castles in the sky, a cave of enchanted fire, a desert with blue sand and an orange sunset sky - if he looked long enough Adam would have thought he saw movement in the paintings.
Past all the paintings was a set of ornate double doors that opened to a large circular room that contained a large wardrobe with ornate sigils carved into the wood. Adam could feel the magic humming within the large wardrobe as they passed the threshold and hesitated to step forward. Magic could heal as much as it could harm and after the experiment his master did on him, he knew better than to trust it blindly.
“What’s this place?”
“The Wardrobe.” Mr. V pointed his cane at the obvious furniture and tilted his head with a smile. “It is the door between realms that will take you from this one to the one where your story will take place.”
Adam looked at the door then to Mr. V. “How?”
“I don’t know all the specific magics and sciences that went into creating these doors, but the specifics aren’t important. All that matters is that it takes you to where you need to go. Speaking of - ” Mr. V dug around in his pocket. “You’ll need this.”
He dropped a strange stone pendant on a chain into his hand. The stone was a vibrant green peridot nestled in a circle pendant and Adam felt the warm hum of strange magic through his leather gloves, and watched it pull towards the door.
“It’s a portkey and how you’ll travel from Pluvia to Apfel in one piece.” Mr. V explained as he watched Adam slip it over his head. “Can’t get in or out of Pluvia without it, and even then, they only answer to certain mirrors.”
Adams head snapped up, eyes wide and tail stilling behind him. “Mirrors?”
“Not the Mirror, but it is a mirror.” Mr. V patted his shoulder as he walked past and approached the Wardrobe. “I haven’t successfully come into contact with that bastard since he went silent from the realm, so you won’t have anything to worry about.”
Adam nearly scoffed. The Magic Mirror was something to worry about no matter what realm he resided in. The Mirror within his master’s castle went silent the week prior to receiving the invitation and Adam considered it short of a blessing at the time, now he couldn’t help but wonder just where the Mirror went.
Using his cane, Mr. V gave the Wardrobe two gentle knocks and the doors eased open by themselves. While the floor of the Wardrobe was visible, the depths beyond were nothing but an abysmal darkness of writhing shadows that threatened to pull an unfortunate soul in. When Mr. V placed his hand on the Wardrobe, the shadow tendrils calmed and allowed Mr. V to step inside. The moment he took a step in the dark, a floor of rainbow-stained glass brightened under his foot.
Mr. V glanced over his shoulder with a smirk. “Come along, there’s one more thing I need to show you.”
Climbing into the Wardrobe behind him, the doors closed behind them with a soft click and plunged them into darkness with only the glowing floors to guide them. The stained-glass floors clinked under their feet and weaving and winding in a strange pattern before leading to a long platform with floating mirrors, all in different shapes. Circles, squares, rectangles, crescents – so many different mirrors with different places reflecting within them. The pendant tugged forward, and Adam gravitated to the first mirror in the shape of his portkey.
Within the circle frame a world of green meadows and a black mountain appeared before a light flashed and the image turned green when he stood close enough to it. While he was most averse to mirrors, there was something about this one with its bleeding warmth that called to him.
“Good, you seem eager to start.” Mr. V chuckled and rested his hand atop his cane. “A word of caution to the foolish, be aware of your surroundings for there is one – and I can’t stress that enough – only one entrance per realm that will return you to my castle. It is too great a hazard to others to have multiple doors open to this place. It is already dangerous having only one to take you back and forth as it is.”
Adam sensed there was a story to this cautionary note, but Mr. V was quick to clear his throat and change his tone as he continued, “And just one more thing, don’t let anyone from the realm you visit see you leaving or entering the portal. The Wardrobe doesn’t take too kindly to curious unwelcome visitors trying to enter Pluvia.” Something dark flashed within his golden eyes and the lights around them dimmed. “I don’t want to have to clean up any unfortunate accidents if they can be avoided. Are we clear?”
“Crystal.”
“Good.” His smile returned to his face, and the lights returned to a warmer glow as he held a hand up to wave. “Now that’s all settled, go explore, have fun, and remember, be back by dinner.”
Author's Note:
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy it.
Please remember to leave comments, feedback, and reblog for more content. ^_^
Thanks for coming along the journey with me!
Want to read more? Please consider checking out my Patreon.
25 notes · View notes
julls · 1 month
Text
Tumblr media
fav couple dynamic - threatening each other while still longing for their lips!! Enver Gortash x Durge Juria comm from goblingruel ♡
526 notes · View notes
seraphinitegames · 4 months
Note
AAAAAHHHHHH I've just seen a post from a fellow fan suggesting abt the villain romance becoming an option in A's route and since then i my head's a mess,, but.....can it be possible? 👀👀
The villain romance in Book Four will only be available as a separate option if you're not romancing any of Unit Bravo.
It's quite a lot writing all those romances without adding in the complication of another triangle, hehe! :D
Though not saying there might not be someone else who enters the MC's life in A's route when things seem impossible between the two in the future.
A did say they had to let the MC go, and the MC might just feel the same, after all....
Thank you so much for the ask! :)
577 notes · View notes
coffeewritesfiction · 2 months
Text
For the curious, a quick and rough rundown of my Runner Owen series WIP
in a Victorian inspired world of eternal night, a transgender detective for hire resists forces both human and vampire that wish to own the city, and him
A gothic fantasy series with heavy MM sideplots, featuring not one but two hot antagonists who desire the protagonist. Set in a fantasy world based heavily on the 1890s, Owen Rosedown lives in a POC-filled, queer accepting society where trans people are common and gay marriage is accepted, but that doesn't mean it isn't prejudiced in its own ways. Owen, the youngest to become a member of the Runners' Society of detectives for hire and the first trans man, has his work cut out for him to get taken seriously by his middle and upper class clients even before the vampires get involved...
As this is a gothic, this series deals with heavy topics, so pay attention to future warnings both in and out of the books. Both villainous love interests involve age gaps - the vampire is a few hundred years old, and the human is ten years older than Owen - and while the vampire is your typical European white guy, the human is black. Smut is almost guaranteed, though probably within side stories and separate novellas instead of the books themselves.
The first book is currently titled Farewell Vesperos.
If any of this sounds like fun, leave a like/comment/reblog to be added to the tag list!
16 notes · View notes
poetryorchard · 10 months
Text
Tumblr media
Hi himbos, bimbos, and nimbos! We're hosting a surprise workshop inspired by dark fairytales!
Join us on May 28 at 12 PM CST / 2 PM EDT / 7 PM BST with host Maria @shylovrs for a dark & mystical workshop
Spend time with invite the villains, the damsels-turned-wolves, and elegant creatures as we explore the transformative themes of the Dark Fairytale genre
Feast your inner creative. Write and perform exclusive prompts
You can sign up here! We operate on a pay what you can basis, and if cost is a barrier a few free tickets are available. Hope to see you there!
51 notes · View notes
sarahreesbrennan · 19 days
Text
My Dutch cover
instagram
Today I wanted to show you my Dutch cover! I’m delighted Long Live Evil is being published (simultaneously with the US and UK) in the Netherlands - Luitingh Sijthoff is the most amazing fantasy publisher, who publish George R.R. Martin and Naomi Novik. My Dutch editors kindly said they were over the moon to publish this story about the magic of books. And I’m over the moon with this cover: its amazing sprayed edges, the sword, the serpent (we always have our evil snake mascot!) and dove motif, and the fairytale roses. Because behold the heroine of the story… and behold my villainous protagonist, who is in fact her wicked stepsister. Discover the villain within!
47 notes · View notes