Hello !
Soooo, this is a small notice chapter that WILL be deleted later, if you're reading this please read till at least half (I tend to ramble so yeah half is enough to get the point across).
Tomorrow is Halloween! I'll be posting 2 side stories, the first is on Lyor and Nikias (Vahe) and the second is on Lowe and Rainier. They're aus so, not relevant to the main story and also they are relatively short, just small Halloween specials.
The second subject I wanted to talk about is in the title, I want to make a Q&A special after I hit the story mid-way (chapter 20), as I mentioned a few times this story will be composed of 3 parts (I go a bit more in depth in my discord server).
Part 1 is 'Here Lies the Weight of the Crown' and is more focused on Nikias learning to embrace his new life and also him building the foundation that will help him in the future, it's basically the ground in which the rest will stand on. Part 2 is 'Here Lies the Weight of....' (not gonna spoil), where we'll have more politics and deeper lore, it'll also have the "climax" of the story. And Part 3 is a treat, slice of life shit to heal my heart mostly, and it'll be called 'Here Lies the Weight of...', yes I'm incredibly creative with titles I know.
The point is, the half-way of HLWC is coming and I want to open here for anyone that wants to ask questions for me or directly to any character. If I don't get any I will pretend I did just to save face (jk I'll just not make it). Please if you have any questions comment it here. This chapter will be deleted a week after I post Chapter 20 (at some point mid-november). So you can ask questions after that chapter if you would like to wait.
Another thing, chapter 18 will be delayed again (if you're in the discord server yk I suck at following schedules sorry I try), I'm getting insane shifts at work, and if I may rant, they're not even paying me properly and I'm working over 40h a week. I don't know what to even do, because I'm an immigrant, a legal one but still. And the payment system is already different from my native country (payments were monthly) as they pay per week.
I'm like, 5 weeks without pay already and I'm sooooo pissed. What's the good of receiving in euros and buy power and all when you DONT GET PAID??? I thought about quitting but damn I hate confrontations and they did say they'll pay me this week...
Sorry, I entered a tangent (that was what I used Twitter for but that place is a shithole so I quit it).
Anyway, Chapter 18 will probably be up by Monday, I'm getting sick again (too much rain in my face), so that's a factor as well for the delay.
Also, on side couples. I am 100% aware that having too many side couples can ruin stories and y'all are here for Nikki, that's why I put most of the side couples development in side stories, however there will be more ehe. Not in part 1 (aka HLWC), but in the second one. Then you must ask 'why?' and the answer is simple:
If you're surrounded by 10+ different people and their lives influence yours and vice versa, would their relationships be also relevant in the progress of your ultimate mission you share? The answer is most likely yes. This story happens from when Nikki is 17/18 until he completes 30 at the end of the last part, so yes, it's to be expected that people around him will have their own lives and when they're constantly around him and Lyor and influence their lives directly or indirectly then yes I'll touch on their personal relationships. And because I dedicated WAY too much time in world building and characters sheets, I will most likely make a bunch of side stories.
But then my recommendation is simply: don't read them. Or read only Nikki and Lyor's ones (before the start of every side story I put the characters and in which stage of the story they are in). Any aspect of the side stories that might be relevant to the main story are summarized.
Oh, and we will be seeing a lot of Lowe and Rainier in this part in the future as well, I won't put everything in the main story, however their relationship is crucial for some of the plot points that will happen, so if you don't enjoy them as a couple I apologize, but they're the most important side couple right now :/
Jiwon and Dacre also will affect the story but they're complicated, so their development is fully on side stories until it blows on the main story further down the line (I would say in the last third of this part), mainly because of... Shit I can't spoil but I'm not good with secrets damn. (I'm the type to buy a gift and immediately tell the person what I got them)
Alkaios and Evangelia will get a development soon as well, since their wedding greatly affects Nikias and also the Exos Empire.
Anyway this note is basically begging for questions so I can make a Q&A because I always wanted to do one of those. You can direct your questions to a specific character or even ask info on them, as long as it won't spoil anything I'll answer it in the special chapter.
Also please read the Halloween stories when they come out because damn I loved the concepts.
The first one is a 'what if' scenario where I put the situation as Vahe having fully died and became a ghost, and Lyor who was never born as a human, becomes a semi-godly figure in a different dimension (due the universe rules), becoming something similar to a Grim Reaper, and when he comes to collect Vahe's soul they sorta fall in love, but also not because they're both way too damn complicated and a short story isn't enough to fully make them love each other.
And the second one is another 'what if' scenario where Rainier never got adopted and became a vagrant drunkard and met a merman Lowe after he went to the beach waaaay too drunk. I love writing their back and forth, especially because Lowe is so honest is so fun to write him talking.
(About Lowe being honest I adore when he says to Rainier that he might never love him back and that might frustrate him in the future, in their 'Two Sides of the Same Coin' side story, I swear Lowe is just amazing at pointing out things that most characters would just let it go unoticed).
Ending my tangent.
Thank you everyone for reading this and even if you couldn't care less about asking questions to me or the characters pretend you do because I do need the pick me up <3
(This chapter will be deleted once a week passes after Chapter 20 is posted).
Everyone knows I love recommending music, so if I may, one of my favorite artists dropped an album please go support it on any streaming platform. The artist is Lydia the Bard and the album is called The Woods, her voice is amazing and I love her songs, my favorite from the album is Changeling and The Wife's Murder Ballad, but all songs are amazing.
Also KiNG MALA released a new song (if you ever listened to the HLWC playlist you know I adore her songs) called EAT THE SPOON and shit it's... amazing, I've been listening to it together with Lydia's album literally non stop.
(Yes I do like mostly female singers, if you want a male singer I can recommend mostly bands like Maneskin, Seb Lowe and Dead Poet Society, however I do listen to like 70% female singers so yeah).