The ideal for me would be to turn into a supernatural of our choice(most likely vampire) and keep the powers the Detective already has, no one would mess with us in that case.
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This was the distinct impression I had, too. Was it something that was stated or hinted at somewhere? Assumptions on our parts? I thought, with assuredness, that it would follow a pattern of taking a few books to figure interpersonal things out and the rest of the series would be about the Duos-In-Love powering through situations together.
There’s only so much “I would die if the MC died, so I better get as far away as possible from them emotionally while still remaining as close as possible to their side” that I, as a reader, can take. Start acting your age, Mx Millennium.
If these were high school characters, this’d be fine, but they are vampires from 70-1000 years old. C’mon, now. This story is beginning to feel like a power fantasy for an insecure high schooler who just needs someone well beyond their grandparents’ age to constantly tell them they are “special”. I guess it’s just not the direction I was expecting the series to go in. I thought it was going to be a more mature version of Twilight, still YA Fiction but handled better, and I was down for that.
I never feel like the MC is in much danger. I’m half tempted to make an MC that fails at everything starting from Book 1 just to feel like dangerous things can actually happen to them. Maybe it’s because they can walk around all the time with a bounty on their head, alone in the middle of the night, and never be accosted by anything or anyone.
I mean, researching on the rooftop while an Anunnaki is flying around was a pretty stupid idea, M, but at least there wasn’t any danger of being snatched off the rooftop because of course there wasn’t!
When the MC finally gets into the action, then the stakes are raised a bit, but there’s always a stat check to pass so the danger feels less…important, I guess. Murphy felt great because there was a tremendous amount of danger there. The maa’alused felt creepy-scary because they could travel through any reflective surface. Talk about nightmare-inducing. Sin was never actually going to harm the MC so the auctioneer should have hooked the MC up to a blood-draining device right there on the stage, or something. Kind of like a call-back to Murphy. Put the MC back into an instant high-stakes situation.
The audience keeps getting told that everyone wants the MC’s blood, so let’s see everyone trying to get at it, like, all the time. Then, any interaction with their LI would feel like a comfort and respite, even on the A and M paths. Go ahead and complicate matters with the LI now wanting MC’s blood, too, but figure out a way to work through that to make their relationship grow stronger.
I’m down for this. Bring him out of his mental torture prison and make a soul-crushing deal with him in order to gain information.
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I would love to be a dark Magic user and kick ass!
But beggars can’t be choosers. So, vampire, it is.
Elidor does say there is magic in everything so we should be able to learn a bit at the least, I always hate it when the use of magic is restricted to your race.
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I think it’s both of these things - too many books and the romances needing different paces. Also, the A and N routes are tangled up with the LT route, which causes more complications.
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Precisely where I’m at. I’m not thrilled at all about the prospect of getting to/having to dance with A at a masquerade ball at this point in time. Depending on how M is going to be treated in Book 4, I’ll probably feel the same about them.
Now, dancing with anyone else—particularly someone on Team Alpha, or Elidor—or someone else, would be great. Not for a jealously side-plot, but just to have a nice, normal interaction with other Agency members for once, instead of being dragged back down into emotional turmoil.
But, if the masquerade ball is the climax or main point of the story, it’s going to fall flat for me. Where’s the danger and excitement? Where’s the main problem/disaster/issue that only the MC can solve? Just getting to be in fancy clothes dancing next to the LI, feeling all titillated inside? That’s Prom. That’s all that is.
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I meant more of a “not being turned into anything” mutant more than a weak assed human. But it’s extremely unlikely, anyway, so it’s pointless talking about it.
I’m wondering (well, hoping) that, given the text, the soul bond between the MC and LI is a more natural thing that can’t be broken and is a good thing if both sides accept it and stop fighting it. A bit more on the soul bonds under the cut.
Soul bonds
The soul bond doesn’t seem to be a bad thing when it goes “right”, according to F, which makes me think that there are bonds where no one enslaves the other one:
#Grimace. “I don’t know what soul bonded is, but it sounds horrible.”
“I don’t know what soul bonded is, but it sounds pretty terrible,” I say with a grimace.“When it goes wrong, it’s about the worst it can get,” ${felix} scoffs with a shake of ${f_his} head. “But when it goes right, it goes really right.”
Then there’s the bit that @JBento shared, where it’s a “meant to be” thing, like the connection is already magically there.
Then there’s this:
Unit Tango were successful in arresting a group of Trappers at the edge of Wayhaven’s borders. We’re unsure what they were attempting, but it looks like some kind of ritual. We consulted Jong-Soo of Unit Romeo, who said the ritual appeared to be attempting some kind of ‘soul-bonding’ effect, but according to him, soul bonding is connected to soul magic. What was performed here would have mimicked the effects, but not been a true soul bond.
So there’s soul magic, something that is used, it sounds like. And there’s the imitation that they tried to use on Sin:
I turn to face ${f_him} with a tight frown. “Do you think…?”
“That Mr. Birdman might be the product of their experiments?” ${f_she} finishes my thought before blowing out ${f_his} cheeks. “I’ve never heard of anyone successfully imitating a soul bond, and, seriously, so many people have tried. But I guess it’s possible they finally cracked it.”
But, most importantly, F shares this bit:
#Wince. “That’s not the romantic idea I hoped for when hearing about soul bonds.”
A wince twinges through me as I realise the implication of what ${felix} has said. “That’s not really the romantic idea that was conjured up when I heard about this.”“No. Not for me either,” ${nate} replies through a heaved breath.
“Romantic notions are best left in fairy tales. Magic is anything but romantic,” ${adam} states, folding ${a_his} arms with a frown.
“Eh, that’s not always true,” ${felix} says. “Most of the time the soul bond brings people together who really are supposed to be…together.”
${adam}'s frown deepens. “Have you proof of that?”
“No, but I did meet a couple once who were soul bonded, and they were annoyingly in love.” $!{f_she} groans, but it’s still said with a wistful smile.
${adam}'s arms drop to ${a_his} sides as ${a_she} rolls ${a_his} eyes. “Whether real or not, it would seem the Trappers are using something like this to keep a hold over the anunnaki. That is what we need to deal with.”
Anyway, if it’s something where one is affected and the other isn’t, it’s fairly obvious the vampires are the ones unaffected, since two of them happily jerk the MC around and constantly walk away from them. And, no doubt, they’d snap that sucker, given the chance. And if the MC is the one with the control, it’s laughable how useless it is since they’re the ones on the short end of it.
So, squickiness aside, I just don’t see her writing something like this. Unless she’s decided to go full-on dark, anyway.
@Requiem
There are a few things that support both A and M taking longer.
First, a very old post estimating when “deep romance” would happen.
M won’t fall anytime soon (ask was while b2 was being written).
On both M and A taking a long time to progress.
M taking quite a few books to get to caring.
M not happening until “quite far” into the series.
And, most recently, she flat out said that M still doesn’t know they’re in love as of the end of b3.
If you want more, I’ll see if I can find them. Those were the quickest to find. So yeah, neither M nor A will actually get a relationship anytime soon, according to her.
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The Soul Bond we can form with UB is not something you can compare to Sin and the Auction Host. Not even close…
As for going dark, considering how watered down is the angst in this game…that ain’t gonna happen lol
Hold it, hold it right god damn there, book 6! I love a slow burn, but I like a well written one . After what I seen in book 3 if that’s what we’re getting for the next two books, I can’t even describe this feeling of immense anguish.
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Damn, I was expecting A relationship to begin book 5, to for some reason break up with us in book 6 and reconcile on book 7, now I don’t know which is worse.
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Well, even in that one ask (see the hidden details in the post from me above to Requiem), she didn’t specify, but there are asks where she said b6 for the LT resolution. I’m guessing A will take about the same amount of time, since M is like b5 for “deep romance” and it’s implied A is even slower than M. She stresses in several posts that there will be just as many “moments” for the LIs that aren’t in relationships as there are for those that are. She’s been fairly consistent with that, I think.
I still think A-mancers will get an actual relationship before M-mancers do, so there’s that. And I figure that, given b5 is “serious angst” and misery, it’ll involve being split up from the LI for a time. The LI will probably push the MC away and distance themselves to protect them or some such bullshit. The only thing new for A and M-mancers would be the reason, lol.
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With M’s ending I doubted that… until I read that they may just ignore what happened and go back to their old self and don’t know what’s going on or take a page from A’s book and pretend to not know and deny it.
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I just hope something causes it, rather than it being like the jump from b2 to b3 with A, where they just seemed to memory hole it. But I’m not counting on it. I get the feeling that, until the plot dictates it, M and A will just keep resetting to zero at the beginning of each book.
Ditto. I’d rather my A-mancer and M-mancer be able to go with someone else. I like your idea of someone from UA, not for the jealousy part, but to have the MC around someone who is consistently decent to them. If M really does revert back to calling Dezh a cum bucket or constantly spouting how “I don’t understand, derrrr” then she’s going to want to be around someone else for the ball, for certain. After Mason being so good in b3, it’s going to hurt like hell to go back to him being distant or dickish.
Yeah, I can’t say I really give a damn about the ball, either. I mean, who cares getting dressed up and going to a ball with A or M? M doesn’t dance (per Sera’s tumblr), so it’ll just be more of the MC having to beg them to do shit they don’t want to do and them bitching about it. With A, it’s more “angst” of them having to touch the MC and freaking out about it.
It would be fun with N or F, if I actually gave a crap about them as characters, though, lol.
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M could have a reason if something happens and they end up “needing” their memory bound again, I doubt it will be anything like this though.
Same, shame it doesn’t seem it will be an option and if it is it’ll be pretty meaningless thanks to the soul bond, UV could be some nice options for some too.
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And we probably won’t get the opportunity to ask about them taking a shot during “I Never”, either. Like N-mancers can’t question N on anything that happens.
Maybe. It’d be funny if some M-mancers went with Alima, lol. I wouldn’t have a problem with a date with someone from UA or UV meaning nothing, though. Even if Dezh and Z are stuck soulmated to Mason and Adam, respectively, they deserve a bit of fun.
As an aside, do you have any idea how hard it is to type with a 80 lb dog on you?
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Yeah, it would be a little nice if we could, specially if we can tell them off before that.
I first had to turn that into kg to even imagine lol, and I did use to have a pretty big dog and just thinking of having her on my lap for any extended period of time makes me cringe a little haha.
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I think a lot of this concept has to do with quality over quantity. Of ‘being in the moment’ instead of just waiting for moments to happen. Of doing something rather than standing on the sidelines. Of actively seeking out experiences in spite of the fear of failure (and the fear of success).
Never waiting for the perfect time to take action, because there never is a perfect time. A writer writes. A reader reads. They don’t wait for the perfect moment in order to make these things happen, because then they would never get the chance to do any writing or reading because there is always something that gets in the way. We have to create small opportunities for ourselves where we can in order to experience the richness of the moment.
It doesn’t matter which decade you’re in, they are all important. Society likes to treat the 20’s like they are some magical timespan where only the best things are allowed to happen before we’re never allowed to experience cool things ever again. This is a lie. Magical things can happen in every decade of life, particularly if we are the ones willing to seek out that magic no matter what stage in life we are in.
Love my Zennials. 
I’m a Xennial, myself. I have so much sympathy for Gen Z’ers today. When I was your age, rent was only $300/month and I made $0.25 less than what the national minimum wage currently is today. Now, rent for that same apartment is $1600/month and you have to get 5 roommates in order to qualify through the application process. It’s insane and unfair. It’s definitely not your fault, and I hope things start getting better soon. We’re all being squeezed too hard right now.
I hope things improve with your parents, too. They are probably overbearing and overprotective because they care about you but it sounds like they aren’t going about it in a healthy way. Try to be patient with them while still protecting the parts of yourself you need to protect.
I hear you! Not only is it fun, it can be cathartic.
I feel the same way, quite often. I look back on all the jobs I’ve ever had, though, and realize I’ve done everything from janitorial work to driving a Zamboni. Some of my best memories have been from the lessons I’ve learned at those jobs and the friendships I’ve made along the way.
Just know that there is still time. There’s never a perfect time, but there is still time. Life isn’t over when we hit 30+. Far, far from it. I got preggers at 36 and started a whole new chapter in my life I didn’t think I was ever going to experience. Life doesn’t follow a rulebook so it’s up to us to create our own rules.
Soapbox over! Free internet hugs >> <<
This is the direction it sounds like Sera wants to take things, about the blood being addictive. I was thinking that this was going to be the catalyst for Book 5, too. Actually, I thought that was going to happen in this book, with the LI getting kidnapped and having to drink from the MC to get out of it.
I really like @EvilChani 's suggestion of going the other way with it: that after getting a taste, the temptation diminishes and it makes their bond stronger because then it no longer gets in the way of the job.
From what others have been saying, this is something that will only be an option at the end of Book 7.
This is definitely a major issue with immortality, for sure! Even though immortality doesn’t sound appealing to me, I’d still want to stick by my LI for eternity if they otherwise had to suffer it out alone.
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Yep, he takes the MC to his room and shows them a family portrait and talks about what happened in his past, almost getting to the point of where he turned.
This I’m not sure about, I haven’t tried the combat route with N yet. Sounds like it’s time to try!
I do know that if you have a High Science detective, they get to discover with M that M’s pheromones directly affect the MC. At least I think this is based on the science skill.
I wish this was something any type of detective could learn about, even if M is not the LI. This would be a good thing know, overall, for the safety of the team.
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Yeah but there are certain things you can only really do in your 20s, as the older you get the more responsibility lands at your lap.
I certainly know that life isn’t just over when you reach 30 but there is so much I want to do and it just feels like I am being left behind in a way, and I really appreciate the supportive words, also as an aside my parents are a lot like how N treats the detective at the start of book 3 with how they want to make sure nothing happens to them even if it means not respective their decisions, but unlike N they’ve always had the power to dictate my actions without me being able to fight back or simply say no, with my parents I’ve always just have had to basically bow my head and say “I guess I have no other choice”.
Personally when N tried to do that to my detective I snapped back, because I don’t like that kind of behaviour, I’ve already have a lot of my life dictated and guided in the pursuit of being safe and I know from first hand experience that safety doesn’t make someone happy if it means sacrificing everything you want to do, life is inherently full of risks so to make someone you care about miserable for the sake of protecting them is just harming them while saying you love them is just the worst kind of thing you can do.
I personally feel like first there needs to be a loss of control, it puts a strain in the relationship, either because both people are scared or one of them (MC) knows they didn’t do that because they wanted to hurt them but the LI is scared they will hurt the MC and it will be that process of having to figure things out of how to move forwards with this situation they now have to face as part of their daily lives and learning to live with it.
I feel like that desire will lower as well as the addictiveness of it just over time, but I feel like in the end they will always feel a compulsion but it will no longer be something that takes control over them like it did before, it might be more like they might want to feed from MC every now and then but it will be more asking the MC to do that instead of forcibly trying to feed on MC.
Personally I think all my detectives have made the decision that no matter what happens or how it might happen they are with their respective LI as a ride or die situation, they will be with them for however long life lets them and if they can turn into a vampire or some supernatural that will let them be with them longer they will not hesitate to take them.
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Thanks for this. I don’t understand Tumblr so I have a hard time using that site.
I don’t understand how A can be Demi and still fall in love ‘at first sight’ and have naughty thoughts without feeling a deep emotional connection. I also don’t understand how they can become really connected (deep romance) without exchanging vulnerabilities and not crushing them before giving them back. Yeouch.
I guess that’s what the next 3 books are for? Learning how to exchange emotions so they can finally feel that deeper connection? Talk about a slow learner. I guess that fits the character but…yeesh.
I’m liking M’s internal conflict better; in denial but still willing to give of themselves to get something in return, even if that ‘return’ is just physical for now. At least there is physical satisfaction.
I don’t feel like the MC is getting emotional satisfaction on A’s route, which should be the foil to M’s sex: M gets fucking and A gets brainfucking. 
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