Well, she’s started writing the opening for b4 now. Found the update interesting…
So it looks like A, N, and F will get nice openings where they are good to the MC and M will end up being an asshole, since she seems so negative about their opening. But we knew there’d be a retcon for M, undoing all the b3 progress. Shouldn’t be a surprise, I suppose.
That’s…not what the post says though. She hasn’t said anything about which character is nice or mean to the MC, she’s only saying that she’s finding M’s scene more difficult to write.
She said F’s flowed nicely. On Patreon, there is more of a description of it–and it paints a pretty picture, as does N’s scene. A’s will apparently be really good and show progress as well.
She then said M doesn’t cooperate with scenes and that they can be “awkward” (as in the character is awkward). That’s what we got in the slam pig comment at Haley’s–a M who didn’t want to be there in the way they were there.
YMMV, but I think we need to be prepared for a completely retconned M, especially since we’ve been told repeatedly that M is still clueless and stupid, despite taking a shot for the “I never” game and basically telling A that the MC “has” them. For M to still be completely stupid, those two things have to be ignored.
Whatever the case, we’ll see for sure when the first demo comes out sometime much later this year.
I… I uh… forgot that there was even a villain in B3😅
I don’t even know how that freaking happened! B3 is supposed to be my favorite in terms of the romance but I even forgot the names of the villains💀
There wasn’t one, only a few scenes with an over-the-top brainless blowhard who ended up posing no threat whatsoever to anyone. And that the Agency allowed to have auctions for who knows how long because they are a bunch of incompetent boobs.
Probably didn’t help that the plot was a hot mess, lol.
Mhmmm you might be right. It’s not how I understand it though - to me, it just reads as a character refusing to cooperate with the writer as in ‘not letting the author write the scene easily’ with no indication as to their actual behaviour in the story, but I guess her phrasing is slightly ambiguous and it can be taken either way. I’ll just hope you’re wrong because…well, I’d hate it if you were right 
For what it’s worth, I hope I’m wrong, too. 
It’s just difficult to expect anything other than a retcon after all she’s said about M since b3. And, considering she’s almost always negative about M period, her comments about M’s opening seem like a glaring warning sign that M’s about to return to the “I don’t give a shit about the MC except for sex” attitude.
Really, it’s almost amusing how she has nothing but glowing things to say about A, N, and F, but everything she says about M is either snarky, dismissive, or flat out negative. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that writing M is difficult–writing characters you dislike is always difficult.
Oh god…
I really really hope it’s not a retcon.
M has made so much progress, like c’mon! This is good character progression!
Never thought I’d see Gojo and M on the same “Hated by the writer, love by the community” boat, but here we are XD
Is there a book 4 thread anywhere? I wasn’t able to find anything.
No, it’s in progress.
So, it looks like the first demo for b4 will be one chapter. Not sure if that means we’ll get three demos of one chapter each or six demos of a chapter each, but whatever the case, we’re closer to seeing something from b4 sometime in the future.
I think it does give a very good clue at what might be the source of the problem for the love interests and the MC throughout Book Four, too…
Since it’s only one chapter, I’m not sure how much can actually happen, but it seems we’ll get a LI scene. Anyone want to take bets on the “problem”? Let’s see…
A: They realize they can’t stay away from the MC, despite saying they have to, which is exacerbated by the fact that they, you know, work together. So, they ramp up the tortured emo drama, with the longing looks, almost touches, and more admissions of feelings, continuing to jerk the MC around.
M: Easy… the return on “dumb as a box of rocks” M, with a revisit of, “I don’t understand… duhhhhhh…”. And, perhaps, another slam pig comment, only with different words and not as blatant.
F: No drama other than F being clingy.
N: Dr. Jekyll continues trying to keep Mr. Hyde from the MC (let’s see that tier X side of you, N…). And N continues to worry constantly.
And, of course, they are all tortured over the scent of the MC’s blood, so being around the MC is painful and horrible for them, while the rest of the team is unaffected (despite the MC’s blood supposedly being a temptation to all supernaturals). 
Good, because I really want to know the tone of this book and potentially how the antagonist/love interest POV will play out. Is it too much insight into their mindset that doesn’t leave us readers surprised or curious, or is it just the bare minimum of them plotting against the MC, but we don’t know how or why until the end?
Aside from the obvious bloodlust for all of the RO’s, I think that A will actively ignore the MC’s presence unless it’s work-related. For example, leaving rooms, not looking the MC in the eye but instead directing their gaze at their head, not having any one-on-one discussions with the MC, and the game giving the MC the option of doing the same in return or the opposite. It would be great if they reverted back to their Book One personality and completely ignored the MC’s opinions, ideas, and place on the team; it helped them keep distance between them, and it would make sense to revert back to behavior that kept them emotionally safe and secure.
M won’t understand the magnitude of their feelings and will mistake them for just having a FWB relationship. M may be spotted with Alina, and the MC may react irrationally because the relationship hasn’t been established and they don’t feel secure with the status of their relationship. M will be confused by the reaction to Alina, given that they’re not in a committed relationship, and in some circumstances, the MC has likely not indicated an interest in that. M will probably realize some things with the help of Alina, and maybe the MC will as well.
F more than likely will continue to not have any drama, I hope. One way I could see a problem in the relationship is if the MC is confused or isn’t accustomed to moving slowly in their relationships. F is taking things slow and moving at their own pace, so realistically, I could see some contention in the relationship with certain MC’s because of that, but I don’t think that’ll actually happen. I can’t see F limiting their time with the MC based on the temptation that their blood has on them. F is the youngest, I think, so maybe their control isn’t as good, and they accidentally hurt the MC, which then leads to them avoiding them out of shame?
N is still running around acting insane with their split personality drama, as you’ve stated.
Mason will try to say something about his feelings despite the player stating that it’s still FWB and that they do not care what he does in bed and with whom he dallies. He’ll get in with Alina, and we’ll be tortured by two-page long PoV about him trying to figure out if it’s better to date literally who or the person who has pulled his arse out of trouble for seventeen chapters straight. He’ll probably say something mean to MC as well, and MC will have no choice but to get mad for two pages before trying to seek forgiveness from him. With the situation resolved, we’ll get fade-to-black sex and another PoV where MC’s bestie trolls M about how he totally fell for the detective, for real, bro.
P.S. It’s Alina, not Avina. Damn, these names of people in close relationships with MC’s LI of choice are getting harder to discern!
Unless the formula changes, the entire plot for the villain will be spoiled at the beginning of the game and the villain will be explained, ruining any mystery at all. For once, I would love to wonder who the villain was for at least five or six chapters so my MC could figure things out without me (the reader) being told who the villain is and what they want as soon as the damned game starts. For someone who uses “oh, that would be a spoiler!” for anything regarding the LIs, she sure does like spoiling everything about the book before we get into it very far.
I actually meant the question regarding the “problem” to be more what we’ll see in chapter 1, since she said that will show the LI’s problem we’ll see throughout b4, but I enjoyed this.
I think both A and M will be avoiding the MC for a good portion of b4. F wouldn’t do it, and N is too obsessive to do it, I think.
I would love this. I don’t think it’ll happen, because I think we’ll get more of the “Oh, I musn’t!” bullshit, with A giving mixed signals, leaving the MC to point out (if we’re lucky) that A said they’d stay away. I know it won’t happen, but I’d love to see the MC have enough and just push A away, leaving it to A to fix things when they finally pull their head out of their ass instead of the MC being turned into an UwU tween fluttering and fawning over everything A does.
The absurdity of having this happen would make me scream, considering the MCs I have who are bffs with M are recognized as such in b3. For M to “realize” in b4 that the MC is a “friend” instead of a cum receptacle is a slap in the face. That said, I could totally see it happening.
If it were done well (and if he hadn’t already fucking realized he wants to be with the MC when he and A talked outside the MC’s room, but that will apparetly be swept under the rug in the name of “angst”), I wouldn’t mind Alima being the catalyst for M realizing they’re in love with the MC. Unfortunately, I doubt it will be done well and will just be used for cheap drama that is resolved two minutes later when the MC chases M down instead of leaving him alone and making him go to the MC.
This would be interesting, and a good way to get F to follow suit and avoid the MC (if that is, indeed, where b4 is going, which I believe it is). Like you, I can’t see F avoiding the MC just because their blood smells good, unless something happens to prompt it.
ROTFLMAO! I can’t see this happening, unless the feeling is “I’m horny” and he’s trying to get laid. Especially not after Mishka said M still has no clue what they feel (hence the coming retcon from the conversation with A).
Well, we’ve been told repeatedly that M doesn’t date. Ever. I know she wouldn’t have M banging Alima, because she’d consider it cheating (which, really, it’s not since there’s no relationship between them and the MC), but I think you’re right that M is going to start hanging out with Alima again, and at some point it may appear he and Alima are together.
This would be laughable if it wasn’t exactly what happened in b3 (“I’m mad, but have now chased you down in your home… you’re sorry for calling me a slam pig, right?”). But yeah, it’s a given M will be shitty again. And probably avoid the MC for most of the damned game because they want the MC’s blood and can’t take it. Maybe absence will make the heart grow fonder, or maybe M is more “out of sight, out of mind” until they see the MC again and realize they missed them.
Or weird sex where it’s not clear wtf is happening or if it’s even sex. More than once in b3, I was left wondering the MC and M fucked or just got each other off other ways. And I’m still wondering how the hell a 6-foot tall man straddled my 5’3" tall MC’s lap and fucked her in the back of a hatchback where even her head almost hits the top of the roof.
Alima. And yeah, there seems to be a trend of similar sounding names of asshole people macking on the MC’s LI and being shoved down readers’ throats until they choke on them.
I personally hoped for the realization break when MC got kidnapped by Trappers in B3. Great emotional fuel, potential to mount a rescue mission where both sides have to play their part, the scene where M sees Detective deathly tired, still ready to pop-pop, watching Trappers drop and realizes that, maybe, he has grown attached to MC much more than he’d like to admit. Would be also nice if it was him who suggested the idea in his own roundabout way while ignoring pointed trolly remarks.
The blood subplot is such a non-issue I’m not buying it in the slightest. Oh no, I have magical blood… and I also make your constant super-senses much quieter, so you’re not assaulted by smells, sounds and thoughts of other people. M is not A to stoically suffer without any word or mention of it, so I hope MC and M will deal with the issue together, as a team. Not by M fucking off and getting ten pages of PoVs.
I chose to deliberately ignore that part because I hope it would not come to that!
Xiulan is pretty short. About 165 to 170 cm - does he straddle MC no matter what height they are?
That’s not quiiiiiiiite what happens. The Detective doesn’t dull M’s senses, they HYPERFOCUS them. The senses devote so much processing power to the Detective that the rest of the stuff becomes background noise (/sight/scent/whatver).
Same here. One thing that really bugs me is that the “rescue” scene is also basically retconned, since M basically said he’d give anything for the MC.
I think the problem is that she felt like she had to create that moment for all LIs, but wasn’t ready for them to actually mean it, so it’s ignored. I mean, you have M stating the following:
But somehow, M doesn’t understand this means they want to be with the MC? Doesn’t understand that they care about the MC past getting off and being on their way? It makes no sense, even with M’s lack of experience with relationships. It’s like these comments and scenes were put in to make things “even” (A basically declared love, N declared love, F clearly wants to be with the MC), but had to immediately be walked back because “it’s not the time” that was previously planned to have M realize things. It ends up just being weird, where you can’t even trust what you read because you know it’s just going to get jerked away from you again.
I’m beginning to think that is not the author’s style, at least not with M. It’s just a never ending buffet of forced angst, with them never being allowed be more and to be a united front against their problems instead of having M being a dick, being nice, being confused, and rinsing and repeating until the fucking series is almost over. I mean, we know b5 will be nothing but angst, so it’s not like we will get a united front then, either.
I’m not, either. It’s fucking stupid that the only one we see having “trouble” is the LI. It’d be so much more interesting if the rest of the team started losing their shit about the MC’s blood and the LI ends up having to help protect them from their team (and every other supe out there). Instead, we get more angsty bullshit where UB doesn’t even notice the MC’s blood while the LI is starting to be “too tempted”. 
I just had to look that up to see how tall that is in feet/inches. He’s still taller than Dezh, lol (who’s around 160 cm). But yeah, he straddles the MC no matter their height. Maybe it’s different if it’s Mason and a M!MC, but with a female MC, that’s what you get. It was such a weird scene. It’s not my canon run (canon run is Dezh not letting anyone learn), but I wanted to see car sex. Or whatever the fuck that was.
If that’s the case, why isn’t the same a thing with others? It seems that vampire powers already pop in and out by the virtue of plot, and it feels weird that the blood, the blood B3 and B2 spend time hammering down is attractive to all supernaturals (even that random fae girl) and acts like a dampener does not affect anyone but LI. Like, I’d expect F to complain that this thing makes them feel weird and empty even without romance, but they just… don’t?
It just makes it feel like it’s all another reason to add in hot-and-cold stuff. I don’t like B1 M, but B2 had pretty enjoyable progression. B3!M is… weird in general, to be honest, and I fear the blood subplot will strangle B4!M even harder than it already does.
Huh? Will an angel pop up with the desire to destroy the entire world and we’ll have no option to counter it? Bravos don’t seem that concerned with human lives, save for N and maybe F, so it must be something personal. And my B1 Lara knows they take the blows to their ego quite damn hard.
It’s quite possible, to be honest. My m/m pair in B2 had sex with Xiulan in bottom position, and it seems that different combos have different texts in general for them in B1 at least. Maybe it is dependent on gender, because I remember something about topping…
For a variety of reasons. Some of those:
All of that just goes to show authors terrible planning and writing execution. Frankly, we’re at the halfway point, if B4 demo is not perfect I’m out.