Author Answers (July)

General

What is the thing that they all need to hear from a romanced mc? Something like “I feel safe with you” or “you’re my home” etc… thanks ! 

Blade: "You make me feel safe"

Trouble: "You're my family"

Tallys: "I want to be with you forever"

Shery: "There's no one else for me but you"/"You're the most beautiful person in the world to me"

Riel: "I don't need anything from you except your love"

Chase: "I trust you"

Red: "I feel complete when I'm with you" 

Ayla: "I'm always here for you, no matter what"/"You're my home"

Briony: "I want to share my whole life with you"

Lavinet: "I'd do anything for you"

Hello Lena! If each of the shepherds were stuck handcuffed to another for a day (and can’t magic or lock pick or break their way out for some reason) how would things go?

I used a random generator to determine who would be handcuffed to who :)

Tallys <-> Chase

Shery <-> Lavinet

Trouble <-> Halek

Riel <-> Red

Briony <-> Blade

Ayla <-> Mimir

Tallys and Chase: they'd get on each other's nerves so fast, holy shit... Tallys would be 😑 at the beginning of the day and "by all the gods I hate this man and everything he chooses to do" and Chase would be so intimidated by Tallys's silent, unreadable energy that he'd mouth off and act a fool even more than he usually does, and it would just be... bad. It would probably end with Chase trying to drag Tallys into some mischief she absolutely does not want to do, Tallys completely losing it and blowing up at him, and the two of them stewing in angry/awkward silence for the rest of the day until someone figured out how to help them...

Shery and Lavinet: I think they'd be all right! It would be a little awkward at first, but they'd each find a way to laugh it off and make light of the situation, and would probably end the experience closer and with a better perspective of what it's like to be in the other's shoes. Honestly, it would be a bonding experience, and I could totally see them ending the day with a calming cup of tea and forgetting they were even handcuffed in the first place!

Trouble and Halek: I think it would go okay. They might get on each other's nerves a little bit (Halek's laziness would not jive well with Trouble's need to be active, and vice-versa, Halek would feel like it was drag to be hauled around by Trouble), but it wouldn't incite conflict or anything, it would just take some adjustment! They'd probably stress-smoke a lot together, so you'd just see a silent cloud of smoke hanging around their heads and then their handcuffed hands dangling beneath it. Ultimately Trouble would become fixated on getting the handcuffs off and would be like sawing at them while Halek would be like "you do you, I'm gonna take a nap," but all in all, it would be fairly peaceful!

Riel and Red: aw, they're going to have a fun day. Riel will get to sit in on Red's research and assist him in his workshop and Red would get to be a fly on the wall in Riel's office. Yes, it would undoubtedly be inconvenient and annoying, but they'd probably enjoy the opportunity to observe and assist each other for a bit before turning their collective minds to getting the handcuffs off! Ultimately a harmonious experience.

Briony and Blade: I feel like Briony would be excited, like "omg this is awkward but kind of fun!! a chance to bond with Blade, we're going to make the best of this, aren't we Blade?" while Blade was internally like 🫥 He'd be fine with it at first and would just proceed through his day as normal, perhaps with a faint air of inconvenience, but he'd be cordial and wouldn't really mind Briony accompanying him around (he likes hanging out with her in other circumstances, and this really isn't so different). But Briony is chatty, so eventually Blade's need for both solitude and silence paired with Briony's endless bubbly energy would not go well together... By the end of it all this black cloud would be hanging over Blade's head and he'd be completely silent and world-weary, though they wouldn't outwardly fight!

Ayla and Mimir: this would be a fucking disaster lol Mimir would drive Ayla up the absolute WALL like "stop saying weird shit!!! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANYTHING ABOUT FUTURE STUFF!!! *plugging ears* LALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!" Her inability to escape Mimir's weirdness and prophecies and Mimir's complete lack of response to Ayla's screaming would result in Ayla gnawing at her handcuff like a rat while Mimir just stood there, completely unfazed!

How would crushing!Ros react if they walked in on MC while they were changing?

This was already answered here! 

Spoilers

question about Lavinet’s arc—how does Prihine’s death affect Lavinet and MC’s relationship moving forward? I definitely don’t expect her to be BFFs with someone who lets her cousin die, but it’s mostly been a nonissue during Chapter 6 unless you trip directly over it. I’m curious how much it will color our interactions with her during her personal arc/the rest of the game. congrats on one year of WHABH!

Thank you so much!! And good question! I've answered this somewhere before, but Prihine's death actually locks Lavinet's relationship to MC to "hated", and MC will not be able to spend any day offs with her! Initially, Lavinet didn't reveal that she knew the truth to MC and "played nice" because she needed MC's team to help Lockwood through its crisis; and declaring enmity to MC before submitting her application to the Shepherds wouldn't have been at all prudent if she wanted to be accepted... so basically, she did what she's been doing her entire life and masked her feelings beneath the facade of a courtier! She'll finally tell them the truth if MC tries to talk to her on her first day off and will say that she can cooperate with them on a professional level and act with the bare minimum of professionalism, but that they will never be friends and that she'll never forgive them for letting her cousin die on their watch... so thereafter, she won't be interactable during days off! 

Congrats on your book anniversary!! I was wondering how recruiting worked as the shepherds got bigger—does blade delegate to someone? is there a magic lie detector or do they have to get through a test to be interviewed or something? thanks so much, i hope you're doing well!!

Hi there, thanks so much for your congratulations! And good question! Essentially, there's still an open call for recruits for the Order, and the normal process for someone off the street would be to submit an application to the Shepherds' recruitment office (they have a name for it like the Officer Liaisons' team, but I can't think of it right now): the recruitment team is comprised of people Blade trusts who have been around since pretty much the founding of the Order, who have opted to retire from the field due to various reasons like injury or just preference, but who have enough experience to have a good eye for who would make a good Shepherd (and who would last) versus who would flunk out. After their application is reviewed and tentatively approved, applicants would then go in for a personal interview with someone from the recruitment office, and if the interview(s) go well, they would then proceed through a series of physical tests to gauge their ability and aptitude, usually supervised by a member of the recruitment team as well as at least one of the battle-masters who are in charge of training recruits. They may also be tested in other areas relevant to them (such as magic if they're a Mage, etc.) and are are also given a health exam by a Healer. If they do okay on all of their preliminary tests (which are pretty low-bar, it's pretty much to ensure that you aren't completely hopeless at basic things like running and don't have some hidden health issue that would affect your performance), they then proceed to undergo their formal training in the new Officers' Academy under the guidance of various drillmasters, instructors, and etc., unless for some reason it's decided that the Academy would be a waste of time for them because they're already so advanced!

Captains and other trusted veterans of the Order typically have the ability to bypass a lot of this process by personally vouching for prospective new recruits to a commanding officer, the way MC came back with someone like Briony and was like "hey I think she would obviously make a good Shepherd" and Blade was like "bet". A move like this would require a personal meeting, evaluation, and subsequent go-ahead from Blade, Trouble, or Tallys, though, so no one ever does this lightly (except MC I guess, lol); and even special or unusual cases might be forwarded from the recruitment office to one of those three commanding officers (I think this is what happened with Lavinet's application: she wanted to do it the "right way" without MC just automatically bringing her into the fold and submitted her credentials to the recruitment office, and the recruitment people saw that she's like a friggin' heiress of a fiefdom and went :O and sent the form straight on to Blade)! 

People who are fast-tracked like this, if approved by someone like Blade, therefore don't have to do the whole interview process with the recruitment office and often don't even need to do formal Academy training (because no one would vouch for them to Blade if they were the type to need it), but they still have to undergo health checkups and orientations, swearing-in ceremonies, and things like that!

A silent element of this entire process is that no one can enter the inner sanctum of the Shepherds' compound if they have "ill intentions" towards the Order or the intent to harm those within it, similar to how Benir Roxak was caught by the wards and alarms for intending to poison people in the infirmary. How these spells work exactly is extremely nebulous and hard to parse because they were formulated by a long-dead Archmage in a very esoteric manner, but they've been very useful protection so far. So the spirits and magical wards guarding the Order also have a say in whether a prospective recruit is deemed worthy of joining it! It's not so much a lie detector as it is a danger detector, and as far as we know, it's been good at preventing spies and saboteurs from joining the Order in secret!

First of all I just want to say how much I deeply appreciate the time you take to engage with your readers Lena. It truly goes above and beyond anything I've seen from any other creator. It's humbling to see, thank you.  My question is super spoilerly so I understand if you can't answer, but will Briony discover about her relationship to Kaza Lightning-Cutter? And will we learn more about their relationship however brief it was? If so how will this impact how she sees her relationship with a romanced MC from Briony's POV?   Thank you so much for all you do!

Wow, thank you so much for your incredible kind words, Jonathan, it means the absolute world to me and it's so uplifting! 🥺❤️ I truly appreciate it, it's always such a joy and an honor to interact with readers, and I'm so grateful for your kindness!

And great question! Yes, Briony will ultimately learn the truth about her relationship to Kaza, how it unfolded, and how it ended, though it won't be from actually recalling those memories herself! How she responds to learning the truth will ultimately hinge on how MC responds to it, especially while in a romance: Briony will be experiencing a lot of turbulence, upset, and denial, especially because of the secondhand nature of how she learns the truth. She'll feel as if all of her fears about her past are coming true, because she always knew there was a risk that she was going to learn something awful (like she was actually a bad person, or that she had some really significant relationship that she no longer remembered) and having both of those things come true (in her own mind) is going to be really distressing for her! If MC chooses to accept her past and comfort her, she'll ultimately come to peace with it, though she'll initially still have some anxieties at first; and if MC sees her in a different light when the ugly details come out, it will make Briony ultimately too ashamed to embark on a romance with MC, feeling like she has to know herself and get herself together before she can truly enter into a relationship with anyone. I hope that all makes sense!

Hi Lena! Could you tell us more about the romance Tallys will have with MC? We know the lifespan difference but how much it will affect the relation or Tallys?

Hi there, the lifespan difference will play a huge role in Tallys's romance with MC. Initially, Tallys only wants a FWB relationship with MC, but slowly finds herself falling in love with them over time. She's not afraid of her feelings for MC, per se, but she is afraid that going down that road will end with complete devastation and heartbreak for her when she inevitably loses MC long before she even approaches old age. She's extremely hesitant to open herself up to that kind of pain when she's already lost so much, so while she's very honest and upfront about her love for MC down the road, she takes a lot of convincing to believe whatever time they have together will be worth it (because she essentially believes that it's easy for MC to say that; they don't have to deal with it, only she will). This will ultimately climax in Tallys resorting to desperate measures to give herself peace of mind, and how MC responds to all of this will determine how their relationship goes and if a happy ending is in the cards for them!

so we heard what chase says in the bed sharing scene… but what was trouble about to say in the cave scene before he & MC get rudely interrupted?

This was answered in the December Q&A (you can search "doki" to find it rather than having to read the whole thing)!

Hi! I have to say that the new update is amazing as always, I have read it a dozen times (still can't get that cute cave scene to pop up naturally with Trouble but I will win eventually!!!).  My question is what was it that Trouble was mumbling into MC's neck when they were snuggled in bed in Chapter 7?

If you click the option to stay totally still, it becomes clear that Trouble is just sleep-talking through some ridiculous dream lmao:

#Stay totally still. You have no idea what to do.

        Trouble keeps talking to himself in his sleep; you don't know quite what he's saying, something about cows and "paying his butt"—?

So sadly it's nothing very romantic 😂😂

Congratulations on the anniversary of the book! I can't believe it's been a year! So, my question is about Thurl. Does he know what his "tell" was for each of the guys he attempted to impersonate that tipped off MC? Or was that one of the things he was digging through MC's mind for?

Thank you so much! And Thurl only realizes his "tell" if he's able to successfully riffle through MC's mind! He doesn't really care about that in particular, it's just one of the things he happens to glimpse; he just wanted to root around in MC's head to see if they knew anything else of importance to him (such as if there were more Shepherd reinforcements coming, any weaknesses of MC's teammates, etc.). Thurl essentially knew the game was up once the Shepherd big guns showed up in the swamp, and it put a whole urgent deadline on his previously-leisurely revenge-murder scheme against Wallmire; he basically wanted to kill off Saranae and be done with it when he realized that the team had been to his house and were putting the pieces together. So he knew he was being sloppy, but didn't have enough time left to really attempt close recon and try to get his disguise really perfect. (Normally Changelings observe a target in secret for days, if not weeks or months, before attempting a close-up impersonation, which he obviously never got the chance to do.) He just wanted to finish the job that night and peace out before he got caught. Since it was his last target, he just decided to go for it, shoot his shot, and hope for the best, and was confident that he could get away or subdue MC even if he was discovered with his shabby disguise. Little did he know...

Hi Lena! How are you?  In Chp 7 if MC confronts Thurl and gets trapped by them…what was the RO’s inner dialogue/thoughts when seeing Thurl was going to kill MC?

Blade: KILL KILL KILL KILL--

Trouble: *incoherent rage* He's hurting MC? My MC? I'll kill the fucker--

Red: *knee-buckling relief* Oh thank the gods, MC is alive. Praise all the stars in the sky, all the gods on high-- *horrible realization and fear lances through him* NO.

Chase: Kill him. Make him suffer. Tear him apart. There won't be enough left of him for the birds to feed on. 

NSFW

Would Croelle enjoy shower sex?

I don't see why not! I think he'd enjoy it, but no more so than any other kind of sex! It would be an enjoyable way to switch things up for him, but not like a preference or anything!

I read an ask way back about Naolin like bigger boobs, so he would  be distract at all if fmc was well endowed or is he stone cold face regardless?

He's a stone-cold professional and the perfect gentleman when on the job, so in everyday life he would seem completely unaffected! In a relationship, however, it's a different story... 😳

What are the ROs preferred terms for sex organs? Clinical? Colloquial? Crass? Flowery? Situation-dependent? (Like in the bedroom…)

I suppose it depends on what you consider crass or colloquial versus what I might consider straightforward! When I think of dirty talk in the bedroom, I think of words like "pussy" or "cock" or "clit" as being like... more commonly-used than "penis" or "vagina" or "clitoris," but those words might be considered more crass or slang-orientated than I think they are! Anyway, let's give it our best shot...

Indirect (mostly refers to the body parts indirectly, like "You're taking it so good" or "You feel so good around me" or "Do you want me to put it here?" or "You are so beautiful" (while admiring their sex before oral, etc.) or "You're hitting that spot")

Blade

Red

Colloquial (uses terms like "cock," "ass," "pussy", etc.)

Chase

Ayla

Halek

Clinical (generally uses terms like "penis," "vagina," etc.)

Riel (however, he does not take it further and use terms like "stimulate my perineum" or anything like that)

Situation-dependent/mix of the above

Tallys

Shy (involves a lot of trailing off, implication, physical indication, or guiding rather than direct naming, like "I want you to touch me there" or "When you kiss me there, I...")

Trouble (mix of this and indirect naming, depending on how mind-blown he is)

Briony

Flowery (uses language mostly learned from romance novels, like "my flower" or "my pearl")

Lavinet

Shery

(But ask me next time how they all refer to the actual act of sex and my answer will be very different! XD)

NSFW ASK!!! How do the shepherds go about giving oral? Are they more sensual?? enthusiastic?? teasing??

Blade: sensual/passionate, like he's savoring every moment

Trouble: worshipful/earnest, like he can't believe he gets to worship you like this

Tallys: sensual/teasing, like she's going to take her time and draw it out absolutely as long as she can

Shery: shy/blushing, embarrassed by how turned on she is and how much she likes it but wanting to pleasure you

Riel: dutiful/compliant, one of the few times he's obediently submissive

Chase: wicked/teasing, smirking up at you and watching your every twitch and reaction

Red: can be sensual or playful depending on the mood, either loving and worshipful or quick and teasing, with a grin

Ayla: vigorous/aggressive, eagerly pushing herself to her limit in order to pleasure you relentlessly

Briony: enthusiastic/vocal, absolutely loving every minute of it and ridiculously turned on

Lavinet: imperious/commanding, like she's deigning to do this for your benefit and you'd better recognize how lucky you are but secretly enjoying it

On a scale of "can come without even being touched" to "can last all night with perfect control" how fast do the ROs orgasm during sex with MC?

It really depends on the circumstances, I think! How long it's been, how turned on they are, if they've been put in a sexually tense situation or if MC is doing anything special... there are a lot of factors involved, so take everything I say with a grain of salt! I'll approach the question as how "sensitive" they tend to be on average or on a regular given day, but again, there are always fluctuations and exceptions!

Blade: in the beginning, he's sensitive enough to finish more quickly unless he's really concentrating and can control the pace himself; if MC's in control, he's really quite helpless at first! Over time, his endurance improves drastically, though I think he could only endure two or three of MC's orgasms on average before he can't really take it anymore (at least for the first session)

Trouble: he's probably the most sensitive of the guys and can blow his load quite quickly, being extremely susceptible to MC's wiles and finding them unbearably sexy! However, his mental control is quite strong, so he's able to last a very respectable amount of time if he's prepared for it--but if taken completely off-guard or if not given any measure of control, he crumbles under MC's ministrations and they can play him like a fiddle!

Tallys: she's practiced and resilient enough to outlast pretty much anyone and has never encountered anyone who made her come when she didn't want to; she can probably last the longest out of anyone in the group and prefers being the one in control! This works in her favor because she loves extremely long sessions and tantric-style sex!

Shery: she's physically extremely sensitive and can come within 10 minutes in the right circumstances, even less if MC is quite practiced and if she doesn't need time to warm up to the situation (for example, if she's worried about someone walking in on them), but psychologically she usually isn't vulnerable enough to come instantly; I'd still put her on the "short" side of the "how long they last" scale!

Riel: he's quite resilient (and stubborn) and can last the longest (behind Tallys and Chase); though he can be a bit sensitive, his mastery over himself exceeds his physical inexperience and he takes it as a challenge not to come too early, so you'll rarely catch him losing control unless he willingly puts himself in a situation like that!

Chase: after Tallys, he lasts the longest and is very happy to blow out your back for hours, finding more enjoyment in pleasuring his partner endlessly and prioritizing his own orgasm second

Red: he lasts the longest after Tallys -> Chase -> Riel; while he is very responsive, he rarely loses complete control and is happy to play around with his partner in prolonged sessions for hours at a time! 

Ayla: she's probably the average or median sensitivity; if in control, she can last an indefinitely long time, but if she's the one being pleasured, she'll come after what I imagine is a typical amount of time for most women!

Briony: she's extremely sexually sensitive, probably the most out of any of the Shepherds, and she could even come without being genitally stimulated in some cases (if MC was dirty-talking to her, she was super turned on, and they were lightly caressing some other erogenous zone). She typically comes very quickly and quite a lot if MC will let her!

Lavinet: she falls a little on the more sensitive side of the scale, though not more so than Shery, Briony, or Trouble; probably hovering around where Ayla is, but a bit more prone to coming more quickly and being a bit more sensitive to touch and pleasure?

Halek: he falls more on the longer-lasting side, though he's not completely impervious to MC's charms... Realistically, I think the scale is:

Most sensitive to longest-lasting:

Briony -> Shery -> Trouble -> Blade -> Lavinet -> Ayla -> Red -> Halek -> Riel -> Chase - Tallys