Author's Note insert:

Hello my lovely readers! As promised, a Q&A interlude! I just wanted to point out a few things and thank a few people.

First and foremost, to the detailed reviewers Lauramari, xxyangxx206, inredrainboots and guest, thank you so much! Your reviews are what push me to write and I love hearing your feedback and insights.

In regards to what I have planned, I do so in arcs. I call the first arc the "Persephone Plot" just because of how Bayak and Tory are going to/have reacted to the mating bond, and there's two arcs planned, the Persephone Plot and the Time Plot. Without giving too much away on Fate and Time, be thinking not so much what are they, but who are they. :)

I also wanted to shed light on a few fics and works that I got my inspiration from:

"Establishing a Dynasty" is a Harry Potter fic where Hermione is paired with multiple Malfoy men, and the way that the author constructed the polyamorous relationship is what gave me the confidence to write one of my own.

The works of JuliaAugusta here on FF is what made me want to write about the Volturi kings, her stuff is amazing, check her out.

As for books, I allude to or pull from The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Lora's comment on Fuku comes from this), The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (Gibreel's POV helped to form Eliza's experience with twisting time), The Gaurdians by Ana Castillo and probably a bunch more that I can't think of haha.

A few have asked how I plot and write this and other works, and tbh I smoke weed for my mental health, so sometimes I just smoke, drive and think. That's why there's song lyrics in or at the beginning of a chapter, it's what I was listening to when I got the muse for that piece. I write a chapter and then post it, though I do have a doc that just vignettes I've written and need to insert somewhere. Like, the part where Eliza asks who she buried I had written a week before that actual chapter.

I also wanted to give some nods to characters:

Delores 'Lora' Alma: Lora is a mixed bag, y'all hate her now, but wait until you find out her backstory haha. She's a mix of Beli from TBWLoOW and Tiny Tears in TG, I wanted to play with Dominican culture because I loved the fuku and zafa in Diaz's book, which will play out well with the Time arc.

Athenadora: This girl definitely knows what's up with Eliza, which she will reveal part of next chapter. While researching for this fic, I originally wasn't going to include her, but then I found out that her name means "the gift of death" and I had to sink my teeth into her, fleshing out her backstory. Clue/hint: she's one of the oldest vampires in existence.

Alice: I haven't unpacked her too much yet, but I wanted to drop a clue about her: she lost her memories of the past, but can see into the future based on decisions, while Eliza can alter the present by changing her decisions.

Bayak: After Tory, Bayak Black is my favorite character because she's savage. My mom never held anything back and to this day she will put a stranger in their place, so Bayak is a definite nod to my mom. Her backstory will get flushed out when Eliza returns home for Christmas, so it's a ways away but I have it planned and y'all are gonna love her, because she is a mom first and foremost.

Other notes:

The Black Family lives on Mariposa way, which is a nod to the butterfly effect.

Peter is the youngest child and brother to Billy Black, so Eliza and Jake technically are not related, but family is who you choose. On the other side of this, Bayak's mother is Margaret "Maggie" Young-Ulley, who while distant relatives of the Black family, is not the biological grandmother of Billy's children, though she treated them the same as Eliza, Tory and Louis.

Names are important, as Lauramari was clever enough to point out, Bayak means raven, Amare means love, Tempus means time and so on.

Also a heads up, I order chapters with what ff says they are, so since this is labeled by ff as chapter 14, the next actual chapter will be labeled 15 just so I don't mix myself up.

Last thing is a couple pronunciations: Bakak = By-ook and Loius = Lou-ee