Unsurprisingly time continued to pass by rather quickly since I had so very many things to attend to at every possible moment, so before I knew it nighttime had arrived, bathing everything in that comforting darkness that beckoned sleep.
Managing those various projects as best I could, taking care of my family however they needed, setting down some plans for the next day and giving help to Heila in the kitchen meant that I had very little free time, though those moments where I could just step back and catch my breath were... interesting.
Obviously I wanted them quite badly with the chaos, yet the moment that I had these brief moments of quiet all to myself I only found myself more concerned about everyone else instead of just focusing on me, which I suppose was about right all things considered.
It got to the point that I was just making my 'breaks' those few moments when I could get the pups to be calm and take them around the compound, or if they were being far too energetic already then I hoisted up Bashuk and cuddled the intriguing Orc.
Bashuk was a healthy in between of Thalia and Vesper, being just as 'stoic' as her Dama yet also having clear outbursts where she used her 'strength' to try and get what she wanted, which most of the time was just my complete and undivided attention or more typically, my boob.
It was during those fleeting moments though that I realized Luna was still here, yet with the sporadic openings I had and Luna spending a lot of time lingering around Vesper and the other two pups, I didn't really have a chance to speak to her until around dinner time... which was now.
Leaning against the railing and staring over the river below, I pursed my lips before asking "Do you have to go tonight..?", which immediately earned me a soft hug from behind as Luna murmured "I have a lot I need to do, Astra... I'm sorry."
"Like what?"
"Dama wants to finish rounding up the last of this bandit group that came down from the desert, and we need to help the city guard with a few things here and there, so... for the time being we're quite busy. Plus most of the Pack has returned to their posts, so we're a little light on hands."
I pouted at that yet still nodded and leaned back into her, enjoying her hug before savoring the hesitant kiss she gave me; she was still quite... 'hot and cold' when it came to this, yet that was certainly one of the more charming things about her.
Those moments where she was intense and passionate were so arousing, yet these more frequent moments of calm and collected maturity was so reassuring from someone, especially someone that was a Dama of one of my children.
"But when then does that mean you can move here for good..?"
"I don't know, but hopefully soon. I'll visit as often as I can, don't you worry. I just... need to get this done first."
I nodded again before savoring the second, more certain kiss she gave me, and for a moment I could tell she was getting turned on by how I was rubbing against her, but sadly I was still a little achy and everyone was sort of 'watching' from inside.
"Tomorrow afternoon at the earliest, dusk at the latest. I'll be here, I promise. So will Dama, and she'll likely be bringing gifts or toys. If you want more advice on keeping a stable Pack, make sure to ask her tomorrow, alright? Sadie isn't wrong, but us Wolves... we're far more aggressive and domineering than any Dogkin."
A third and final kiss reassured me before she left, departing with that kiss for me and one for our daughter before heading out from the compound and getting back on the road to the city, leaving us for the time being.
Being reminded that I would likely never be able to have all of my children's parents with me here at home all the time was a bit saddening, yet it made me determined to cherish every moment we had instead of being melancholic over what had been.
Heading back inside and joining everyone for a large, celebratory dinner, there was a lot to discuss with everyone about the immediate future, because with such a large amount of people currently here and more on the way it was clear we needed to set realistic priorities...
That hurt to admit since I wanted everyone here to be equally loved, but with how everything was turning out to be that was extremely unlikely, so I decided to just be up front about it and hope someone else could come up with a solution.
The best I had was to try and set a schedule for at least the upcoming week that we should try and stick to, which would give everyone purpose in the short term and an understanding of where everyone was going to be.
It would help me as well since I could tell what was going on with who, but if there wasn't enough effort coming out of everyone else then there was a good chance that we would feel even more lost than we were now.
With so many people doing so many different things, I just... wasn't certain on how to manage everything, though that was where the benefits of having so many people came into play, and it was also where I was beginning to have more and more desire to uproot and get the appropriate amount of space for a family this size.
At the very least I think I might need to acquire a few more of the plots around here just to be safe, but that would need more money which would mean more work... because I didn't want to ask Renna for something that substantial, though she was likely to offer it anyways because that was just who she was.
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Alright, I have two ideas on how to handle structure going forwards but want some input on which one sounds better as a reader:
There's the first which is to continue the way things have been going with switches between PoV's of quite a few characters every ten or so chapters, giving highlights of what they're doing whilst the 'main plot' is crawling forwards.
That's technically more of the same and means that something like the journey that Rhefia and Aethisia took could happen again, where it stretches that arc out by an additional 10-25 chapters or whatever because of everyone else.
It is more flushed out but that also means that it takes longer irl to finish since... well, we're on an (almost) one chapter a day schedule, so what should take 10 chapters/days ends up taking 25-30 chapters/days.
The other idea is that I can hard stick to Astra's PoV for as much as humanly possible while only switching here or there for half chapters of anyone's PoV unless I deem it 'necessary', which would push the plot forwards a lot faster but would mean some characters get legit no time at all...
Which again is technically just more of the same since Kalia hasn't had a chapter for a little while, Sari has been mentioned here or there and without the previous chapter we hadn't seen Prix/Yiks in forever.
But now if Astra doesn't do anything with them that means likely no chapters of them whatsoever, so some characters might just start to actually fade into 'irrelevancy', which I don't want but is likely something that I 'need'.
Like some people have said and like everyone has noticed, the actual plot is abysmally slow, but then again this is smut with a dash of plot anyways that somehow made it to 1200+ chapters lmao~!
Anyways yeah, leave a suggestion and let me know what sounds better, because believe it or not there is a goal here in the immediate future, I just didn't know if I should swap on over to Kalia soon for some Inik action or if we should move forwards with everything regarding our mysterious 'friend'.
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