upon this very night the clouds long parted to give way to the moon, inara's witness and companion, its pale light followed the vampiric royal and decorated them as the lead actor upon this stage. the wind that softly blew through snow white tresses sang a song of reverence, reminding the night who was amongst them. the house of worship where his lovely champion spend most of his time beckoned him, stained glass windows depicting idols of old stared down at the vampire. weeping, weeping, weeping. blood red eyes carefully canvas the building and its surroundings, wondering if his darling priest had taken some precautions to keep inara out. for a church wouldn't stop them. a holy cross neither. those symbols of a faith they did not believe in would not work ( but the priest could try, try and try .... figure out what would work on this infernal creature ).

he's upon holy ground now, fully upon the premises of the church. a step, another, no sound to indicate that inara was moving about. gracefully does he ascend the few steps that led towards the doors, white gown trails behind him, a phantom bride seeking his mortal spouse. a delicate movement of a hand soon follows, digits clad in lace curl into a small fist and then: knock, knock, knock. slow, practiced, at ease. then once more- knock, knock, knock. the sound bellows across the silent night, the smile upon blood red lips widens when the song of a heart beat is heard. he was inside. ❝ aoki. ❞ inara sings his name, sends it towards the moon that eagerly watched them, followed this blood -soaked omen towards the house of a lord this vampire carried little for. ❝ i know you are there. these doors ... separating us will not be able to do so for much longer. ❞ he's gone from the door, circling around the church, figure casting an unearthly shadow upon the windows, looming, peeking, peering inside.

❝ aoki, sweet, sweet aoki. i have missed you. wish to see you so dearly. must you keep me outside ? cruely ? agonizingly ? ❞ oh the woe within the vampire's voice ! a stark contrast to the simper that reigned supreme, bleeding a hunger for the one who's name rolled from tongue like prayers unsaid. inara, bloodlord, vampire divine, clad in white gown, billowing in the wind only wanted one thing: to drive this priest mad. mad for them, mad because of them, mad, mad, mad. a hand upon a window, claws visible and dark. he smiles, much like the idols painted upon stained windows do doe - eyes weep with unshed tears. the windows clatter, the door is pushed and pushed, clinging to its hinges. and so frost settles underneath the vampire's feet, spreading along the building and casting the night in winter eternal. yet all of this pales to the way inara parts lips and utters one final word, ❝ aoki. ❞ / 😌

plotted / always accepting !

🗡          — the priest hadn't been sleeping well. at night he was plagued with visions of a demon , or so that's what he deemed it. snow white hair like an angel only it were dipped in a nauseating shade of blood which complimented an ever haunting set of predatory eyes. it was a bad omen , a warning. aoki would toss and turn in his bed at the sight of it. a broken sleep would be welcomed if only his consciousness could spare him from these hallucinations , though regardless of whether he were awake or dreaming the beast was everywhere and in everything , and it was circling. the devil had it's eye on him and even in it's absence he could still sense it's evil , invading their little town like a nasty plague. no amount of prayer , no amount of holy water , no amount of faith seemed to wash the wickedness from his mind.

it felt like god had turned his back on him the exact moment the embodiment of sin wandered into their humble little commune and picked him.

that very thought , it was the first crack in the glass that was his faith. but that was the point , wasn't it ? for a demon to wear him down , induce waning resolve just enough so it could sink in it's claws and gain access to his soul. infect his very vessel with its burning poison and do with his body as it so wished. he would not be a puppet to such evil , not willingly.

so when inara's knock came , it's echoes found him on marble floors , pressed against the base of the altar. it jolted him awake , clutching his rosary so hard in his left hand that it was beginning to indent the skin. in his other a crossbow , now lifted back toward the entrance of the church. aoki knew it was coming for him tonight , whether it be the fullness of the moon , or the spiritual rumblings , he could always sense when the beast was near. his weary gaze flickers upward toward the statue of mary in the hopes of reassurance , only that reassurance dwindling the moment blood became to drip from her eyes. it was damning , to have his fate sealed so irrefutably. his heart hitting against his chest , as inara's fist did the door , echoing in synchroneity.

yet , he refuses to give in so easily. even if he were alone , and even if he were scared.

“ sancte michael archangele , defende nos in proelio ! ” he shouts , head pressed back against the altar as he hails the heavens above. “ contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. ” the words of protection carry over inara's taunts as the priest cites the prayer , unyielding courage bellowing in his voice. even as shadows of stalking movement close in upon him , the piercing sound of nails scraping against glass , aoki pushes it from his mind , immersing himself completely in holy spirit.

“ imperet illi deus , supplices deprecamur : ” he could not have him. “ tuque, princeps militiae caelestis , satanam aliosque spiritus malignos , ” he could not have him. “ qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo , ” he could not have him. “ divina virtute , in infernum detrude ! ”

then … silence. the unnerving kind that begged for a pin to drop. for he already knew he had not vanquished the beast , it's energy still haunts.

“ amen. ” he whispers with shaking breath , knowing it might be his last.

2. Is your muse a deviant? Are they overly flirtatious or forward?

Now this would be the part where everyone is surprised to find out that Conall is more reserved and vanilla than what he appears... except he isn't. There's no gap moe here. This man really is a freak and makes no effort to hide it and I hate him for it. As long as he's the one in the dominant role and gets to top, he would be willing to try most things no matter how insane they sound and he has quite the number of fantasies that are kinda worrisome. It depends on how resilient his partner is.

Conall's way of talking already is pretty suggestive and disrespectful even when he's not even trying to disrespect or get under the other person's skin. His way of flirting is really bold, but because of how all over the place and 'confusing' his attitude tends to be, his flirting might not be taken seriously. Also, I do have a post on Conall's way of flirting and how he does romance over here.

4. Does your muse initiate a lot of physical contact?

Yes, he's a very sensual and tactile person. He likes being able to touch and feel the person he's infatuated with and would use every opportunity to have them close and put his hands on them. That doesn't mean he's (always) brutish about it. For example, one of the things he likes doing if he really likes someone is, if he's sitting with them, grab their leg and put it over his knee so he can run his fingers over it and caress it while they're talking, watching a move, waiting for their food to arrive at the restaurant, etc. There's nothing sexual about it nor is he trying to arouse his partner, he just to be able to touch them.

He also likes caressing their nape and playing with the little hairs there, which isn't too bad, but it's weird because it's Conall and Conall has a weird fixation on severed heads.

16. Does your muse initiate heated/sexual contact, or do they wait for their partner?

He does, but he likes to take his time with it. Conall is a physical person, so chances are he'll already be holding his lover or keeping them close when he feels the urge to ruin them, so he'll be doing things that he knows have an effect on his partner throughout the day if he's feeling especially patient that day, or the few things that he knows will get his partner aroused in record time because this man doesn't play fair. The things he does depend on what his partner likes and their erogenous zones, but some examples would be, if they're already cuddling, then start by kissing their waist and nipping their hip bone; running his nails over their spine and pulling their hair back so they're forced to look at him; 'casually' fondle and caress their inner thighs while he's reading; if they're standing, he would put a foot between their ankles and nudge them to open them while he leans down to kiss their shoulder. That's how he makes his hunger known.

But he's not always with his partner since he travels a lot, goes on missions, etc. When he returns from a battle and he's in the mood because you know, higher testosterone levels + the high of victory, it's really obvious what he craves from his partner in those moments and he's more prone to picking them up and kissing them breathless as soon they're alone. If they don't mind the dried blood and war paint getting on them, then they'll be in for a wild ride. If they prefer him to take a shower/bath first, then Conall is carrying them to the bathroom with him.

Chase hadn't labelled this a date when he'd invited Roan to the carnival, but that's what it was. He'd enjoyed their flirting at the diner so much that he'd wanted to spend time with her somewhere else. Somewhere that wasn't his workplace. Somewhere where he wasn't wearing that silly uniform.

Usually in crowds like this, Chase would keep his hands tucked in his pockets, but Roan hadn't let that happen. She'd wrapped her pretty fingers in his - and for a moment, Chase had thought the feel of his hands might put her off. They tended to be dry, all moisture scrubbed out before he gloved up, or pulled out by sanitiser. But here she was, tugging him through the crowd to some game she wanted to play.

5. Is your muse comfortable with public displays of affection?

She is! Lupa is very likely to be the one to initiate any type of physical affection 95% of the time, from hugging to nuzzling, to little pecks and clinging to her s/o in general. But chances are that things like making out or something more risqué won't really happen since Lupa's ability to feel desire needs to meet certain conditions / triggers that most likely aren't going to happen in public and, if they do happen, Lupa would be dragging her s/o to a room or private space.

14. Is your muse more submissive or dominant in a relationship?

This is a very good question! On one hand, Lupa comes off as strong, and she doesn't stop to think before grabbing her s/o's hand and dragging them onto an adventure, battle, etc. On the other hand, she's very aware of this and will hesitate, wait for her s/o to say or do anything and be 'obedient' so she's not hated or feared (Why jump straight to hate and fear? We don't question how Lupa's thought process works) and make the other person happy. It's kind of a 50/50 situation.

21. Would your muse ever send a sexual text message? Would they send pictures?

Short answer: no. Slightly long answer: Going back to Lupa's libido needing to meet certain conditions to trigger it, while I can see her sending pictures because her closet has an entire section of risqué outfits and more that she can't really wear in public unless she puts a few layers on top and she would be really excited to show them off, unfortunately there would be no sexual intent behind them and I'm not sure if it could even be considered sexy because even if the combination of her body, fits and poses is insane, her face in all of them would be like :D and >:3 like what are you playing at Lupa, you're not taking this seriously!

On that note, if her s/o sent her a sexual text message or picture first, they would need to very explicit with what they want so she gets the hint. If she can, she would reply something along the lines of 'omw' and show up at their door asap. If that's not an option, then she would call them. Sending Lupa a spicy picture with no context will unfortunately fly over her head.

Tl;dr:

Your inability to read and retain information is not my responsibility and I’m not going to make it my responsibility. This is not about honest mistakes or slips ups or forgetting the occasional detail because we are not perfect people. We’re also not talking about cognitive issues or disabilities and this not about reading information that’s a little difficult to find. This when people don’t listen to you when you say something the first time and then make it your problem that you had to repeat yourself to them. You cannot interpret shit however you like and then feel some type of way at someone else when it's wrong, either. Like what?

The vibes are off or this convo is a little difficult? In this case, yeah it is. And it’s not fun for me either because you don’t listen and try to talk around a situation instead of talking through it with someone. Or, better yet, you should be reading and then trying to talk through it. I understand that sometimes, both parties misunderstand something and get irritated at each other. I have been in that situation before and I can go back and say “okay yeah maybe I was a little too hot” or like "i missed that. I should've gone slower" when I was responding to things sometimes. However, I don’t appreciate people making every misunderstanding that stems from this a we problem when it’s you, you know? I’m not sharing blame when you’re the one stepping on a rake.

I feel like most of my rp horror stories, my misgivings with shipping, or difficulties with some people center around that—people not listening or not reading. And at some point, that problem is between you and god. I don’t have to be apart of that conversation because I’m not gonna get shit out of it.

I can’t say all the experiences that I had surrounding this end poorly BUT the worst ones started with this. Like I’ve had people ( and former friends ) get to the point of:

trying to dance around the fact that they were veering into forceship territory after I explicitly said that I don’t want to instantly ship our muses together in an au and wanted to talk about building their relationship. And then, they proceeded come up with another au soon after because “it was different” and attempt the same thing to go around what I said. Same person started to get thorny with me when I got annoyed and repeated myself as I didn’t just tell them “hey. Stop.”

trying to make an issue they had with someone my issue. even though i had told them that they should be reading people's rules before they follow and i can't do anything about other people blocking them--especially when you know they don't like you and you apparently don't like them. and no amount of "please curate your space because this is not my circus" was enough because I was supposed to get mad with them and shit talk... when i did not want to ( I have a lot of stories about the “not reading-to-boundary crossing” pipeline with this person )

trying to talk around my muses not being afraid of theirs ( in a stalker-stalkee dynamic ) when both my muses and theirs are not easily frightened by other people and both will respond with violence. Then they pulled some crazy shit like… their muse infinitely growing stronger than ALL of mine ( and yes, I’m not making that shit up ) and would not take “okay then they’d just be hostile towards each other because my muse(s) aren’t the type to do some stockholm syndrome situation.” for an answer. then they got pissy with me over it and stopped talking to me soon after :) class act, this one was.

like these are mostly different issues as well ( and these are the worst or at least the most frustrating experiences I’ve had ), but they all stemmed from the person interpreting whatever they liked from what I said and then turning it on me when I tell them “wait a minute”. It could also be that they wanted me to act a certain way and didn’t want to have to say that. But that’s not my problem eitheeeeeer. It's, again, not my responsibility. i can clarify but if you choose not to listen or you wanna put words in my mouth, I can't help you.

So this is to say, stop doing this shit. Be transparent. Read and retain. It is not going to kill you. I don't think people understand how easily you can slip into the habit of not reading thoroughly and then internalizing things however you like. And then when you run into issues, you're just "this person is doing the most and i'm uncomfortable" when the misunderstanding stemmed from you. take responsibility for yourself.

although this may not be an unpopular opinion in of itself especially because I give very extreme examples of people not listening, it irritates me when it's clear that people aren't reading shit whether it be messages, the contents of a prior reply, rules, etc . You can be the most well meaning person, but you will still piss me off eventually if you show a steady pattern of not reading or not listening to me because I can only brush it off and be like "eh" so many times. there are still people in this community, evidently, that think that this doesn't apply to them--whether it is me or someone else. as i said in the beginning, it's not about making a mistake. it's exhibiting a pattern of behavior and then being like "well we're both wrong" or "you're wrong because you corrected me"

Like absolutely not. No. I deal with that shit enough at work. and i don't wanna deal with it here.

( back by unpopular opinion - @undvine )

The red-carpeted aisle was speckled with scales of light projected from the stained-glass window at the fore of the church, and candlelight flickered among the altar like twinkling stars. Dusk had fallen upon the world, and the last blaze of the sun burned through the sky that was yielding to the inexorable pull of the coming night. Sunsets came later in the summertime, the warmth lingering without the visceral scorch of the sun that bothered those who had to traverse the city streets. Yet, this place seemed vastly disconnected, like a bubble that remained stationary where the world blitzed on by.

Sitting politely in one of the pews, Clear obliviously studied the vicinity; transfixed by the decor, the idols affixed to the walls, the statues and other imagery he merely wanted to absorb without consequence. A meditative moment, until the muffled staccato of footsteps drew his eye--

this is gonna be kana when sera's done with her