Vee & Amara's First Date - Reflection

When I first thought of the idea to write a series of Patron-Only One Shots following the end of Book Four, I had a really great time thinking of different ideas to put in the poll. Many of the ideas came from all of you, of course, but not all of them. (For the record, the D&D adventure was entirely my idea. Arguably, so was the Evil Timeline, as it was something I've joked about in the Discord before, but someone did legitimately request it when I asked for ideas.)

Anyways, one idea that quickly sprang to mind was a cute little slice of life chapter showing Vee and Amara's first date. After I had the idea, however, it became pretty clear that this was too good an idea to pass up on.

On the one hand, I had a feeling that this story prompt would always win a poll, no matter what other stories it was up against. On the other hand, I really wanted to to write this date. It's something that really only makes sense now, in the gap after they finally get together, and I decided it was too precious to leave to chance.

I hope that was a good idea!

Writing this chapter presented some unique challenges. Primarily, I'm used to writing chapters in the context of a larger narrative, and it's often very easy to think of plot points I need to add in. If I've got a chapter that's too short, I can look ahead at plot points planned for later in the book and add in a scene that foreshadows that plot point or sets it up in some way.

This chapter, however, exists in isolation. It serves only itself, and there's nothing I need to set up for the future of pay off from the past.

So, what do I do?

Trying to outline this chapter felt very much like being a teenager awkwardly trying to plan their first date. Do they see a movie? Is that too cliché? Should I spend a bunch of time showing them fucking? Is that a waste of space that could easily be devoted to something else?

The other problem was trying to set up the whole idea. I didn't want to start right at the start of the date, that felt a bit too convenient. Thankfully, the answer to this one came pretty quickly once I thought of a really cute way to introduce the idea: Vee realizes they've never been a date, which is a little weird given how they've both nearly died for each other and declared their unending love in an angelic lightning storm.

This particular framing device also gives me the chance to show off a bit of the dynamic Vee and Amara are falling into. Vee seems to be used to sleeping over, and her presence gives me the fun excuse to highlight Amara's inhuman nature again (but in a cute way this time, not a murder-y way).

Personally, I just love the idea of Amara drifting further and further from normal humanity, but in fun quirky ways that don't hurt anyone. I try to show this with how much she uses her tail, but it also comes up in the fact that all of her clothes are now illusions, that she wants her coffee as close to boiling as she can get it, and that she finds hellfire a more convenient cleaning agent than soap and water.

Most importantly, I get to share my favorite fact about Amara that I've been sitting on for years: she wags her tail when she's excited. This is the cutest thing I've ever written and no one will ever convince me otherwise.

With the setup now over, it's time to jump into the actual date. The goal here was to give them a small handful of cute, mundane things to do, but to dress it up in a way that feels flirty and romantic. Ideally, the end of the chapter also feels like a bit of a mini-climax in its own right. With that in mind, the first activity on the list is the most generic: shopping to get Amara new soap. Yes, it's boring, but it's something they're doing together, and it's fun because of that. The mundanity of this activity also gives me a great chance to have the two talk about their pasts a little bit, to share some of Amara's feelings about herself and her past relationship.

One big problem I had going into this chapter was that I couldn't reveal anything central to the larger narrative. This chapter only exists for the small percentage of readers that subscribe to my Patreon, after all, so it would in bad taste to lock critical information behind a paywall.

However, one thing that I'm definitely able to do is add more detail to Ekstápoli, the town surrounding Aurelius University. I don't think my readers on AO3 or ScribbleHub will mind if they miss out on the critical information of—checks notes—how the city's downtown district is structured. However, adding those extra details to the world makes it easier for me to imagine the larger setting outside of the university, which is important to me.

(Tangent Time WOO!)

I personally hate when stories accidentally make it seem like the only location that matters is the one the main characters are at. My goal with the series is to show that, yes, Aurelius University has a lot going on, but that doesn't mean the rest of the world is barren. Nothing that happens here precludes events happening elsewhere.

What do I mean by that?

Well, let's say I want to up the stakes, so I introduce a new character that's the first witch ever. This character is completely unique, and if she turns up at Aurelius University, that means she's not turning up elsewhere. That inherently means that, even if there's witch drama happening elsewhere, it kinda feels less important by comparison.

That's one reason I try really hard to make my villains smaller. Vee was the antagonist of the first book, but she's just a normal angel. Sebastian Wellington was just some random guy that got a bit power hungry. Brandon was another random guy that lucked into magic ghost powers. Tessa's Coven had a bunch of people in it, and I've made it clear that they're only one of a bunch of other covens in the US alone.

The closest I ever got to breaking this rule was in Daughter of Damnation. Evelyn is Lilith's firstborn, and she happens to be cast out of Hell and land in Chicago, which happens to be near a massive soft spot that was sealed centuries ago. Then Zadkiel decides to fall in the same place because of that soft spot, and they happen to be pursued by the same Coven, complete with Davenport and everything. Now, personally, I like to think that these coincidences don't break the story, and that everyone has a pretty solid explanation, but that's only my opinion.

Zadkiel is only one of many Archangels. Evelyn is only one of many siblings of Lilith. The Coven pursues them because it was a weird thing that happened in Chicago, which naturally means it falls under the jurisdiction of the same Coven we see in SaS 4.

Big threats can also suck the fun out of an idea at times. If the Devil shows up in a book, and Amara beats him up until he cries and runs away, now the entirety of Hell is boring. What stakes are there when we know Amara is strong to beat up the Devil himself?

Alright, I think I'm done.

(Tangent Over!)

Let's return to our cute lesbian date, shall we?

After spending some time shopping for soaps and candles—which gave me a great excuse to show Amara talking about how she perceives auras—we then jump into a sandwich place, followed by ice cream! Writing this chapter was an exercise in trying to find activities that both felt perfectly natural to first dates, but also introducing things that felt natural to Vee and Amara.

The ice cream was essential to the story because I pictured Amara accidentally melting it and couldn't get it out of my head. Plus, this gives me a chance to show off their favorite ice cream flavors, which is something I canonized ages ago in a Q&A session!

I also loved the idea of our girls happily eating ice cream in the middle of winter while wandering through a frozen forest preserve. We get a bit of talk about illusions and how they work, which is always tricky to describe, and then Vee eagerly asks if they can go flying again. Honestly, I kinda wish I'd been able to find an excuse to have them do more while up in the air, but I just couldn't think of anything. This was a problem I ran into in the chapter where Vee and Amara take their first flight together as well. At the end of the day, flying isn't inherently the most engaging activity. Once you describe the thrill of the initial excitement, what else is there to do? It's basically just driving, and driving is so mundane it's pretty much never shown in stories unless something else is happening.

Although, at some point I'll find a way for Amara to have the flight equivalent of a car chase, but that was not this chapter.

Once they return home, they decide to dress up and little and have a fancy dinner. This was fun because I got to show Vee worrying about how fancy she was dressing, only to leave the room and discover that Amara had completely transformed her apartment into a fancy restaurant. I have absolute no doubts that Amara spent minutes internally panicking about if her illusions were too fancy, and I love it.

Their conversation here is probably, on a technical level, the most important piece of lore I drop in this chapter. Amara mentions the strange flashbacks she had before kissing Vee, and Vee reveals that she saw the same things. Gosh I wonder what that means it's probably nothing tbh.

Jokes aside, this is information that will not affect anything else in the story. It's more like a fun easter egg, and that's why I felt safe putting it here.

After dinner, their venue transforms into an elegant ballroom and jovial jazz music starts playing. The happy couple dance the night away, having random conversations that didn't feel important to show directly, but I felt it was important to clarify that they talked for a while before simply quieting down and enjoying their first dance.

Vee then invites Amara to the bedroom for some sexy fun, and after a quick joke about putting out on the first date, we cut to black!

This was such an amazing chapter to write, and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. Quiet moments like this help me dig into the characters a bit more than usual, and I love exploring the stretches of time that we don't normally see. Personally, seeing stuff like this chapter makes it easier to imagine what they get up to when the camera is off them, so to speak.

Nyx ♥