Author's Note 2.14.19: Happy Valentine's Day, Everyone!

Happy Love Day All!

I'm really big on love, I bet none of you KNEW that about me, huh?
It's only painfully obvious
But... DESPITE this I wanted to do a little something for Valentine's Day to just tell everyone that I appreciate them.

I've been trying to work out a way I could do a sort of... fun and love-related note that everyone can enjoy! Things have been a little tense this semester, but I'm grateful I've got my schedule going!

Well the BIG news I have for you today, which I mean I can't promise anyone will actually like and feel like is a gift, but I kept my word! Red Roses is live, though not being updated currently! I said I was going to do something for Valentine's Day for it, and I have!

So I decided to celebrate Valentine's Day, I'd do a little bit of a teaser/fun chapter?

There'll be some spoilers in here, so if you're looking to stay clear of them... I highly recommend not going beyond my line below (however, to be safe, I've attempted to spoiler-tag them all, but depending on your platform of choice this may not work out the same so you know... proceed at your own risk)!

I wanted to take a bit of time and do some proper gushing about the couples I do have. Some will be spoilery, some will not. I'll start with the non-spoilery couples, then we can work our way further into the depths and me talking about some... future couples. Actually, I think I'll order this by story. That's an easier way for me, hopefully that works for you!

You with me?

Let's get this party starrrttteeddd!

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Nightingale
Non-Spoiler Couples: 

Quinn and Esmerelda

I'm doubtful this couple is a surprise to anyone, but who knows, I could be wrong. Ezzie and Quinn are my oldest couple, believe it or not. Esmerelda was made right before Late Night for TS3 came out. She was my favorite sim. She tested everything I did - including all my new neighborhoods if/when I'd buy them. Dragon Valley was one of them... and she's been with Quinn ever since. 

I mean, at first I thought it was a fluke, or just a goofy thing happening in a select few files... but it kept happening. Quinn met her in the park the first time and beelined for her. He chatted her ear off while I explored the town. He called her. He sent her love letters. He'd pop by the house I had her in to chat. I snorted, found it amusing, and moved on. I tried another save with her, I think to test out a challenge: Quinn made eyes on her and followed her around the park again, and she rolled wishes for him constantly. "What a weird fluke," I said to myself. I married them, thinking I should enjoy it while it lasted, and move on. 

I did another test where I put sims who weren't Ezzie into DV, and Quinn wasn't even remotely interested - even when I gave them the same traits as Ezzie. He found his computer more interesting than them. Now I was intrigued. I ran several tests and concluded it was Ezzie - just Ezzie he loved and she seemed to return the affections. They were a hilarious couple in that Quinn would occasionally flirt with a random girl, and Ezzie would make a face of annoyance which would send Quinn puttering around after her for the rest of the day. Free will is great that way! On the opposite end, I just wanted to play challenges, and seeing as I used Ezzie for everything and DV was my favorite town, she wound up there a lot... and the only person she ever married/showed interest in was Quinn Flanagan. 

I have proof of an old lifestate's dynasty of mine I did eons ago. I changed Ezzie's name and gave her a new haircut and eye color (as per usual with her) and set her to work...

Maybe you can all smell the start of the story you know today. Esmerelda EASILY became a Siren - given how often I changed her appearance a shapeshifter seemed fitting. Quinn's story became widely available after Majnun and I had a very long, interesting conversation about the politics of the world I was creating. They went through many iterations in the first few months of forming, but after that their story formed and has been very stable for quite a long time. Given their love story is 5 years in the making now (if not more) I'm very happy with it, and I hope those who are reading it get enjoyment from it too. 

In terms of the story:

We're only in act 1 right now, and I expect we'll be going through several, several more. There's at least 5 parts to this story, and being honest with you right now... Act 1 wasn't meant to exist like this. At all. When I was writing it, I figured I was writing what is NOW Act 2, but then I remembered... well something I can't exactly tell you until it happens. There's a massive part of this story that's about to be unlocked in really a short amount of time, which makes writing these chapters a little difficult. Preparing for the climax of this arc is going to take a LOT of planning and I'm very nervous about the delivery. I hope you all enjoy it. Also, if the one random character who keeps dropping in (his name is Sen, by the way) with a weird clock-eyes wasn't a hint... there's going to be some time-fuckery incoming... and I'm so freaking psyched for it.

♡♡♡♡♡

Spoiler-y Couples

I have... maybe two of them... for this story? It's really not many because there are so few characters of focus. One will be fairly obvious and I wonder if I can even call it a spoiler, but I will just in case, and the other is DEFINITELY a spoiler-worthy future couple that I'm more than happy to share! 

First, less-spoilery: 

Juliana and Hadrian

These are Esmerelda's parents, and in 2 chapters from where you are currently (on this day, Feb 14th) you'll see a LOT more of them, starting with just a taste of them in the next chapter. Surprising? I hope so. I think a lot of your questions will be answered then!

The second couple:

Melanie (Mellie) and Jeffrey

These are two small, side characters, but they ended up falling in love by coincidence. Mellie, as she's recovering from her breakup with Erik ends up meeting and falling hard for Jeffrey, who owns the bar you might remember from chapter 3. There'll be more about them in act... 3? Maybe act 2. Most likely act 3+.

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Factions
Non-Spoiler Couples:

Jack and Ana

I love this couple - they're just really pure. They also tap into this part of me that's really weak to the class difference. Jack is this witty, sarcastic, straight-forward guy, and Ana is this dramatic, over-the-top, go-getter girl. Jack was probably the bigger surprise of the two - as I hadn't expected him to have such snark. I always figured he'd be more the Wesley from Princess Bride style. The silent, ever-giving servant boy... but nope, he got a tongue and he uses it well on Ana, though not beyond what's reasonable. 

Fun FACT! The sequence from 1.14 (Dance With Me interlude) had been canonized since 2016.

Actually a bit prior to that, as I had rambled this all down in a chat in Hangouts as a brainstorm. One day I'll have to show you my brainstorms in action compared with the chapter... they're a lot like "rough drafts" only usually shouted into space at my best friend. We've made entire threads on our discord dedicated to these brainstorms - but before we had discords, we had hangouts.

As for the future of this couple... well... that leads us to our next, slightly spoilery couple!

Agonin and Sol

Ahh, my sweet spoilery variations of Jack and Ana. It's almost like I treat them like 4 different characters, despite them just being two people. Sol and Agonin have one of the sweetest relationships I've ever gotten to write, however sometimes I wonder how "real" it sounds. I mean obviously this is fiction in a fantasy world that I write, but I put a lot of effort into making my characters realistic. Agonin has no hesitations opening up to Sol and falling for her very easily.

Sometimes I wonder how hasty that seems, but at the same point I'm just being true to who he is, and I truthfully believe he feels something familiar in Sol that's tripping him up inside. We'll get a lot more of their closeness in the next two chapters I have written with certainty, but fear not... they WILL meet decently soon. Every time I feel like I get closer to it, though, something else steps into the way and I have to think for a moment about how I can juggle all of the politics and characters that are around and about. My entire reason I'm having all the space I am is because I wanted Sol to exist in the world without Jack.

I ran scenarios in my head for how soon they should meet, and the sooner they met - the less of a person she was. It was like she just sunk behind Agonin and hid there, letting him shield her and take care of her while she was comatose to the whole experience. By putting this space here, I'm making her come back into herself. She's going back to her hobbies, she's meeting new people, she's making friends. She's developing a world for herself where Agonin can be a support but not her lifeblood, which was extremely important to me.

Anyways FUN FACT time! For the very beginning brainstorms of Factions I planned for Soliana to be pregnant... yeah. I know. I'm glad I didn't do it either. At the time I was planning on it being Jack's child (yeah I'm not that much of a monster) but the timeline just didn't want to work. I could argue that her pregnancy would be sustained with her, but I also saw her being stuck with Zachurr (awake and alive) for a fair amount of time that would've prevented the child from being Jack's... and there was no way I was having a child that WASN'T Jack's. Besides the fact that Sol already had a delicate mental state anyways on leaving her stasis... I just couldn't do it. I had planned to have it revealed in chapter 3, then aborted last minute. I'm much happier with where the plot is going now because of it. I know me writing it out like this makes it seem like such a huge decision was so frivolously thrown about, but there was a great deal of time and running through all the plots and scenarios, ultimately, I liked this storyline better. I hope you do too.

♡♡♡♡♡

I have two more couples that are in the spoilery realm... this one definitely isn't so much spoilery in nature but I like to be safe:

Lucas and Rion

Lucas is 19 years old, going on 20 and he's struggling as a late bloomer especially, to come out as gay to Agonin, his father figure. Anyone who reads the story already likely well knows that Agonin is aware of this, but he's just waiting for Lucas to tell him so as to not push him. This storyline is one I was kind of afraid to do - no scratch that. I wasn't afraid so much as I am wary that I will not be able to tell it accurately. I'm a woman who is married to a man, regardless of my own wrestling with sexuality, I've never had to really face this kind of a challenge. However, I write about things all the time that I've never experienced, so I don't let it stop me. I also like to acknowledge that everyone is different and experiences different things in different ways. While there are general rules of thumb to consider, I spend most of my time putting myself IN the shoes of my characters and walking through how they feel and why.

Anyways, Lucas and Rion have a happy future, and I greatly look forward to telling it.

♡♡♡♡♡

One last spoilery couple that I'm SUPER excited about. It might not be fair to put them here, but I WILL because EXCITEMENT and RELEVANCE!

Minha and Terr (Terrance)

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Here it is! Minha, Agonin's High Priestess, has had an extremely difficult life. A lot of people may not see her for how amazing she is because that's the view she wants you to have. It's also the view I wanted to portray. She comes across as abrasive, pushy, and even sometimes just jealous or callous... and I love that that's what people see because that's not at all what she is. I love that through the lens of others you can develop this picture of her that's less than pretty because she does what needs to be done. Minha is the daughter of the previous God of Order, Noe, and she was abandoned when she was young in order to "save her" because Zachurr was hunting her family.

To be completely honest, what Agonin went through at the hands of Zachurr was really nothing compared to what Minha endured, so her getting testy with him for letting Zachurr still hold an anchor on him stemmed entirely from that. I'm not sure how much of her story I'll get to tell. I'd like to tell all of it, but it's dark. It's really dark. She's done a lot of things that she's not proud of, and she sees herself as someone with permanent blood on her hands, so in a way she's developed this mentality that she'll just keep doing the dirty work so other people will never need to have blood on their hands. She's been leading the cause to end sex slavery, and she's gone to great lengths (including selling herself into it on multiple occasions while disguised) to take down rings of these bastards.

Point is, she's incredible. Her first love story fell through due to reasons beyond my control, but it ended up opening up this INCREDIBLE opportunity... as I've now entered a co-writing situation with Blamsart. Terr is her character, and will be written by her. At the same time I've been writing a character for her story, Light the Way to Heaven. It's been super rewarding... and we plan to actually flesh this story out to its entirety because... goddamn is it cute!

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Reapers
There are no non-spoilery couples here! Sorry!
In fact, there's no MINORLY spoilery couples here!
Just one, fairly spoilery couple: 

Agnes and Rag (Tragic)

Some probably don't feel this is a spoiler, and I can understand why. They existed once before as a couple, but now they're very, very different. A lot of the reasons why I left my first attempt at the Reapers for a restart - besides the collaboration ending and me feeling trapped and suffocated by the storylines it created - was because I wasn't really that attached to either of these two... so when the time came to reboot, I spent several months flushing them of their old traits and personalities (except for the core ones - like their humor) and rebuilding them from scratch. Agnes is (to me) a lot more relatable now rather than empty protagonist. A lot of the reason my first attempt at the Reapers got so out of control is because I got so bored with her that I started to lean too heavily on the other characters around her for interesting stories... which opened up way too many plots way too fast. I was digging into Majnun and Mania and Olivia and Ezzie and Malice and it was just way too much.

Don't get me wrong, I loved all those characters and their stories... but they needed their own stories. Reapers wasn't meant to be the Keepers/Spirits/Vampires/Chronicles destination. The Reapers was meant to be Agnes and her family... and when I realized I could write entire chapters without even seeing Agnes and that I didn't really want to change that (or think that I even could) is when I knew I needed to change. So here we are with the reboot. Agnes is a lot more fun to write, though I really hate the first chapters of a story to be honest. There's so much I have to dump in that I don't even get time to enjoy her or see her get built. I've been doing shorter chapters to make them easier to digest.

I'm not going to say anything regarding the future of this couple, besides the fact that they are a couple and that I'm excited for them... really excited. Like... I have to tell myself not to rush these earlier chapters excited. Cause you know, something something journey not the something destination. Anywho, they're a fun couple, and if you don't like puns... they might not be the couple for you.

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Willow
This story is VERY heavy with romances, so in the essence of time and space, I probably won't say as much. Sorry if that disappoints!

Adriel and Theran

The BEEF of this story. Figured I should start with them, no? Though at this point it's not entirely clear how they're the beef - the MEAT of this story. You're probably getting a loose sense for it. I actually can't say much about these two as they are here. 

SPOILER incoming:

SURPRISE! How many of you were surprised? None? Lol this is one of those NOT A SPOILER SPOILERS I swear to god though if I don't spoiler it I'll get a verbal lashing from someone about how it's a spoiler! I kid! I kid! No, Olivia Egan and Kefka Keeper ARE the "human" incarnations of Adriel and Theran. This probably feels underwhelming, but you've not seen them in action yet, so I don't really mind. There was just no way I would ever be able to keep this a spoiler... No way at all. It's painfully obvious in their mannerisms and their actions as a couple. It's obvious in their drive and their abilities (Kefka absorbs magic and Olivia emits it? gollygee wonder who that sounds like)... but I really don't want to talk about these two here.

What? ME? Not talk about my FAVORITE couple?

Well truth is they deserve their own goddamn post. I don't even know how interesting this story would even be to all of you who read these. Kefka and Olivia weren't meant to happen. Anyone who's been with me from the start will swear up and down that this couple probably seems a bit WEIRD especially considering their starting origins... but it happened. There was a character as part of my last collab who I initially wanted Olivia to be with, his name was Thanatos. Olivia was always so soft and so sweet and thoughtful regarding him.

When her backstory expanded, I ran with it... and the entire time Kefka was crushing on her hard from the background and it took me way too long to see it. I could literally write a novel alone just on the entire backframe that ended up being my realization that Kefka and Olivia were meant to be together, and one day I plan to. So that's why I don't have much to say here, because it would literally take... hours. All I know is Kefka literally defied me at every turn to make her happy and to be with her, and for that reason they've got a very special place in my heart and soul.

♡♡♡♡♡

I'm going to just do one more for this, a spoilery couple for the future of Willow - as in, near future. I can tell you it's not Stefan/Hesper, Sarah/Tat, Sam/???, Lucy/Luken, Myra/Adam... this is a legitimate future spoiler, so keep that in mind! I'm even using a picture from next month's chapter!

Rob (Robert Egan) and Cat (Catrina Miser)

"Wow, I didn't see this coming!!" - No one, ever.
"Especially not with that list you gave leaving nothing to the imagination!" - Another no one, ever.
Lol yes so it's only spoilery in that it hasn't happened yet, but here, happy Valentine's Day. Confirmed Robert and Catrina are headed into a relationship. I know this might disappoint some, but I mean... I was foreshadowing it from way back when...

When did it get so warm outside? Good gods it happened when I got close to Cat but there's no way that's related at all, right? /s

My secret is out now!
Oh? What's that? There's more to the story? Like the woman in this chapter? Or THIS one? Hmm... I dunno. I don't see a woman there. I have no idea what you're talking about. (shrugs) Not a single clue.
(Whistles)
Have a great day!

I have more couples I can cover, but I'm unfortunately lacking time. I'm sorry I don't have more time to write and share, but I have to leave for class in an hour and a half and I still have homework that needs to be done.
In the meantime, though, please have a fantastic Valentine's Day!

Also, for the love of my other readers, try to avoid mentioning anything in the spoilers directly in your comments on this page! If you have any burning questions please feel free to PM/email/tumblr DM me instead. It's just easier that way and courteous to those who chose to not read the spoilers! I also am going to place a gentle reminder that I am an open book, and if anyone has any questions regarding my stories (with spoilers or not), I'm more than happy to answer them!

DUE to this, if there are comments on this post and I notice one of a spoilery nature I will probably remove it. I don't want to BE that person though, but I want to respect other people's desires!

I hope you all have a fantastic day! Spread some good love!

Lots of love,
Livvielove