What Lies Beneath (Rido Kuran)
Episode 4
Tutorial Mode (Selecting All Options)
Beloved, Mine
You wake up in the softest bed, so soft you think you’re laying on a cloud for a moment and don’t want to move. Being used to a whacky sleep schedule, you can tell that it’s evening.
The sun most likely just set.
As you go to throw the covers off of your body and sit up properly, what felt like a steel band wrapped around your torso and jerked you backwards. Belatedly, you realized that it’s someone’s arm that’s holding you so tightly, and you’re pressed, back to front, with the person.
Before you could agitatedly shout at the person to let go, they spoke first.
“It’s too early to be getting up. Let’s just laze about in bed like this for awhile.”
Chills ran down your spine and you broke out in goosebumps.
That dark and seductive drawl, rich and smooth, caressed the shell of your ear and your heart skipped several beats. As much as you wanted to just sink into the embrace, to relax into this person, it’s impossible.
‘This simulation is just throwing all my past and present favorite bishies at me!!!’
A finger is placed underneath your chin, turning your head. Your met the amused gaze of Rido Kuran. His right eye, an icy blue, and his left, the trademark garnet red like all Kurans, is trained on your face, scrutinizing, though what he’s looking for, you’re unsure.
“…What’s wrong? Did you not enjoy last night? …Or maybe, you regret it?”
Before you can have an absolute meltdown over the fact that you slept with a bonafide (sexy as all get out) villain, this raving, sister obsessed lunatic, time paused.
Legit, you wound yourself into a frenzy, pacing all around the room, ugly laughing to the point of hysteria. By the time you managed to somewhat get a hold of yourself, your stomach hurt and you could feel a bit of a headache coming on. Just as expected though, those ghostly white words are waiting for your perusal, as always.
/Vampire Knight is a story based game that features player choice. The consequences of all your in-game decisions will affect the past, present, and future. Choose wisely./
Selecting Options, you swipe right until you come across the Tutorial Mode, deciding to turn it on again.
The sight of the green light thrumming through the room causes your shoulders to unconsciously relax. Although everything you’re usually more of a ‘learn as you go’ type of gamer, the earlier decision that you’d made likely was too hasty. It feels as if there are some features that the system expects for you to intuitively know and other times, it’s as if the system assumes you’re a returning player that already knows all the in’s and outs.
Highly competitive as you are, and at the same time, proud, you refuse to not get the full experience.
Glancing at your simulated body, tangled up and in bed with the true head of the Kuran household, you can admit, if only to yourself, deep deep down (like, way deep, deep down) that you actually like the intimate scene. Curious about how it actually got to this point though you are, for now, you hold off on reading the background and looking at the stats screen.
You exit out of the Options screen.
Almost immediately afterwards, there came the potential choices.
[“…What’s wrong? Did you not enjoy last night? …Or maybe, you regret it?”
a.) “….”
b.) “If you have to ask that obnoxious question to satisfy your own ego, then I refuse to play along.”
c.) “Meh, you were so-so.”
d.) “…I’m getting out of bed now. I’m hungry and I have to use the bathroom.”]
‘The level of sass and deliberate avoidance!’ You can feel an ugly laugh building in your throat but force it down. Slapping a hand over your face, covering your eyes, you peek through your fingers at the multiple choice answers again and internally writhe in agony. ‘Is it possible to full body cringe?!?! I’m dying! Someone please kill me!!!!’
Knowing that you actually do want to see how this all plays out though, you look off to the side and choose at random. When you look back, you see that you’ve chosen option B.
Time unfroze and you found yourself saying that sentence aloud.
Rido’s expression didn’t change in an obvious way but that amused glint in his eyes definitely disappeared, and he sat up. In order to avoid sprawling backwards onto the bed at the abrupt move, you used the sheets to cover yourself up more and quickly braced yourself as he left the bed. You got an eyeful….of….of everything as he shamelessly put his lean, subtly muscled and naked body on display.
He was definitely aware of you staring as he stretched, the muscles in his back flexing, you could even see his…his…
‘Ohh dayum, someone is blessed.’ You thought dazedly, mouth watering. “Where are you going?” You ask, quickly looking away once you got ahold of yourself.
“To the shower.” The answer is succulent and to the point. “Don’t worry, I won’t ask you to join me. There are other rooms where you can shower.”
“Thank–”
The door to the bathroom closed quietly but it was done in such a way that it might have been better if he had slammed it.
{Rido Affection decreased by 7.}
{Rido Affection decreased by 7.}
{Rido Affection decreased by 7.}
{Rido is hurt.}
‘Oh my God, this big ass baby!’ You’re exasperated.
Honestly, you’d think a guy like this would have thicker skin. Da fuq!
Time paused and not a moment too soon as you’re still kind of fuming. Ghostly white writing appeared in front of your face again.
/Uh-oh! It looks like you’ve made your first significant mistake. …Or was it? Whichever is the case, understand that certain choices will lead to the people around you liking or disliking you, not just your lover.
This is known as Affection and Loyalty.
We’ll talk about Loyalty later.
As you get closer to your lover, you’ll notice that their behavior becomes either warmer and affectionate or distant and disinterested depending on the choices you’ve made. Be careful! If you antagonize your chosen love interest too much, they can and will leave you. Getting back together is much harder and they will remember how you treated them, making gaining Affection that much more difficult unless you do a complete replay on a new save.
Now that you’ve received this information, would you like to try the other choices?
a.) Yes
b.) No /
Nibbling your bottom lip, you mused over the ominous as fuck warning.
It was a little funny to poke fun at a big bad like this, but at the same time, you had always secretly wondered what he’d be like if he actually was with someone who would and could recioperate his love, if he were capable of giving his heart to someone else in a somewhat healthy (because c'mon, it’s Rido) and committed relationship.
Breathing out through your nose, you cursed your soft heart and selected ‘Yes’. Honestly unsure what you expected, you find that time is… it’s…. rewinding. Kind of like watching an old cassette tape, actually.
The view is discorneting.
After a little while, in a subtle flash of light, you witnessed that your simulated body is once again in the same position from the beginning. Ghostly writing floated in front of your face, though now, it’s a little different.
[“…What’s wrong? Did you not enjoy last night? …Or maybe, you regret it?” (⬤ + 5)
a.) “….”
b.) “If you have to ask that obnoxious question to satisfy your own ego, then I refuse to play along.”
c.) “Meh, you were so-so.”
d.) “…I’m getting out of bed now. I’m hungry and I have to use the bathroom.”]
Deciding on the last choice, as it looked to be the tamest, you chose option D. Time unfroze and you found yourself saying the selected choice. Rido’s eyes crinkled at the corner, the amusement getting stronger. He rested his chin on top of the crown of your head, ignoring you huffing about him messing up your hair.
“…You’re so blunt, but since you’re not ripping me a new one….” His arm unwound from around your waist and you half slid out of the bed, pulling at the sheets, futilely, wanting something to cover yourself with as you made a beeline for the bathroom.
Rido’s being a bit of jerk, though and wouldn’t let go.
“Damn it, Rido, I have to pee!” You couldn’t help the little foot stomp even though it’s childish. “Let go of the sheets, please!” You were even doing a little jig by now. In the next moment, you found yourself picked up, wrapped in the sheets and all, and in Rido’s arms as he strode towards the bathroom.
“You know you’re absolutely precious, right?” After delivering those heart stoppingly sweet words, all too soon, he set you down on your feet again. “I’ll take it easy on you this time since you’re too cute.” Pressing a firm kiss to your forehead, he reached behind you, twisting the knob of the door and it opened. Dazed, you stepped inside and he closed it after you.
{Rido Affection increased by 6.}
{Rido Affection increased by 6.}
{Rido Affection increased by 6.}
{Rido finds you adorable.}
Time paused.
/Congratulations! You’ve unlocked the Time Loop feature.
By using the Time Loop ability, you’re able to reverse time and undo past decisions. Sometimes, undoing the past and changing your decisions and words or actions can be for the best, or it could be for the worst.
Either way, it is not a power that can be used indefinitely and each new game you start that you decide to play in, your Time Loop slots is set at a default of five, to increase the slots, you have to complete the episode. Instances in which you can use Time Loop will be marked clearly with a ⬤ symbol.
Now that you have this information, would you like to continue or go back and try out the other choices?
a.) Continue
b.) Go back /
You let out a quiet breath. Already, you chosen two out of the four options. Why not go all the way, in for a penny, as they say and all that. Choosing the ‘go back’ option, this time you’re not as caught up in the surreality of what’s happening and within a blink, you’re back in that familiar position.
Ghostly writing in your face again, slightly changed.
[“…What’s wrong? Did you not enjoy last night? …Or maybe, you regret it?” (⬤ + 4)
a.) “….”
b.) “If you have to ask that obnoxious question to satisfy your own ego, then I refuse to play along.”
c.) “Meh, you were so-so.”
d.) “…I’m getting out of bed now. I’m hungry and I have to use the bathroom.”]
Having never selected the silence option before, you figure that this time it wouldn’t hurt to try it out. Pressing choice A, time unfroze and you said nothing. Instead, you found yourself blindly reaching for the sheets and instead ended up touching what was definitely not the sheets, and you flinched, jerking your hand away, eyes darting to the side anxiously. “S-sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. After last night, you know that I consider my body as yours. Do whatever you want to me and I’ll gladly accept it all.” That was a comment that certainly sent your heart into overdrive.
Holy shit, that was smooth.
“…Talk to me, [Your Name].”
“I don’t know what to say.” You were being honest. You were seeing all kinds of sides of Rido right now and you didn’t know how to handle this or conduct yourself.
There’s a rustle and then, Rido is sitting up. Taking you with him and adjusting accordingly. His arm is back around you and his body is intimately placed against you, you can actually feel his… “Okay, then.”
“Okay?” You echo, sounding uncertain and confused.
“I know my record isn’t squeaky clean with you and this doesn’t help at all. I refuse to be sorry though, or to stop touching you unless you’re clear and tell me to.” He rested his chin against the space between your shoulder and chin.
“I’m being as patient as I can…”
Your hands lift and bury themselves into his wavy brown hair.
Rido let out a content little hum.
{Rido Affection increased by 8.}
{Rido Affection increased by 8.}
{Rido Affection increased by 8.}
{Rido respects your decision}
Time paused once again.
That little scene certainly warmed your heart. It wasn’t as charged, sure, but there was a type of comfort and dare you even think it, care, in how Rido handled you and the way he spoke to you.
It was coming back to you all over again why you’d liked him, at least in the physical sense.
Admittedly, you were getting sick of those same options, but again, this was what you’d chosen to do. So when those ghostly words appeared in front of your face, you pushed back the irritation.
[“…What’s wrong? Did you not enjoy last night? …Or maybe, you regret it?” (⬤ + 3)
a.) “….”
b.) “If you have to ask that obnoxious question to satisfy your own ego, then I refuse to play along.”
c.) “Meh, you were so-so.”
d.) “…I’m getting out of bed now. I’m hungry and I have to use the bathroom.”]
The only option left is the option C.
The others are a dim grey color, signifying that you’d chosen them before. Nodding thoughtfully to yourself, you acknowledge that it’s a good idea, in order to avoid repeating the same thing over and over again. After a second or two of hesitance, you choose the final option. Again, time reversed itself, quicker than normal it feels and now you find that it’s easy to relax back against Rido.
Time unfroze and the words left your mouth in a flippant tone, you even made the ‘so-so’ gesture. You expected him to get angry again, to leave you alone, but he caught you off guard by poking you in a ticklish spot.
Unable to really control your reactions, this made you jerk and a snort escaped. Slapping a hand over your mouth, you look at him in horror. Rido raised an eyebrow, an amused tilt to his smile and then he did it again. You flinched, a giggle muffled by your hand.
He worked to pry your hand loose and you struggled to evade him.
The two of you were all over that bed, the blankets kicked free at some point, your hands captured in a vice grip held high up in his hold as he straddled you carefully to avoid you kicking a sensitive area while he tickled you.
“Rido, Rido…stop! Okay!” You gasp breathlessly. His free hand hovers near your tickle spot and you wiggle ineffectively. “Okay, I take it back. Just stop. I can’t…”
“You yield?” Rido asked, smug triumph audible in his tone and oooh, you want to kick him so bad, but he’s got you pinned. “Say it, ‘I yield’.” Leaning in close, his breath brushed the shell of your ear.
‘Did the heat wrack up to 11 all of a sudden?’ You wonder dazedly.
“I yield…” You turn your chin, about to do something really, really dumb, like kiss this ridiculously sexy, evil bastard, but he proved his absolute evilness by leaning back and you felt horribly rejected for a moment.
Something must’ve shown on your face because he leaned down again and kissed your nose. “Since I won and proved my superiority, I’m feeling like taking a victory shower. You could join me and I’ll give you something better than a ‘so-so’ performance.”
{Rido Affection increased by 7.}
{Rido Affection increased by 7.}
{Rido Affection increased by 7.}
{Rido thinks you’re cheeky and he likes it.}
Time paused for the nth time. Unlike the usual ghostly writing, the words are different and glowing a soft gold.
/Congratulations! You’ve used the Time Loop feature in order to complete all the dialogue options and witnessed all possible outcomes. Now has come the time to decide which option that you’d like to explore further, better known as a Branch Choice; completing certain criterias or having a certain stat, etc. can lead to a hidden branch choice. There is always only one per episode./
[Which scenario do you choose? WARNING: You can’t go back again, so choose carefully!
a.) ???
b.) ???
c.) ???
d.) ???]
‘Talk about some serious pressure!!’ Your finger hovered over A and then went down to D, then back up to C, you pulled back, wringing your hands anxiously. Then you repeated the action getting increasingly worked up over it. Eventually, you just covered your eyes and pointed at will.
A heartbeat later, you peeled back your fingers over your eyes and saw another golden block of text.
[Are you sure this is what you want?
a.) Yes
b.) No]
Panicking, unsure what the hell you’d chosen, but equally knowing you’d just end up in the same predicament again, you select ‘Yes’.
Any of these options could be interesting regardless, right?
Right?
…You hoped.
Time unfroze and then…sped up.
Things are rearranging themselves at such a dizzying pace that you closed your eyes. After a second or two, you opened them again, only to find yourself back in a very comforting position, Rido with his arms around you.
Your hand buried in his hair.
Everything is quiet and peaceful.
Slowly, your heart matches the steady rhythm of his and it’s the most comforting thing in the world and you relax further, not minding as his grip subtly tightens. You think that you’re half asleep almost when you feel his tongue laving over your neck. The action is light enough that at first you really think that you’re dreaming, and then he does it again.
Your eyes half open and you stare up at him.
Taking in the crimson tint his eyes have taken on, cataloging how his grip has tightened again.
It should hurt.
You should be pretty terrified right now to have a hungry Pureblood vampire, arguably the most gluttonous of them all, lapping at your neck and clearly wanting to bite you.
And yet, he hasn’t.
His entire being is trembling, straining. Perspiration has broken out over his brow. Still, he doesn’t bite you. Tastes you, sure, further torments himself with the want, but still not indulging.
Your hand detangles itself from his hair and cups his face.
He stills.
You’re gentle as you trail your fingers over his jaw, back and forth, back and forth. It doesn’t feel like he’s breathing. You tilt your head to the side, exposing your throat in open invitation, and just in case you’re not clear enough, “Drink.” You command.
He laps at your throat one more time, and then you feel his breath. The faintest pinprick of his fangs and then he bites down. Rido is a lot more careful than you’d expect, gentle even, and because of that, the pain is fleeting, barely a twinge.
Soon, the pain fades to pleasure.
You can feel him drinking your blood, your life essence. This should repulse and disturb you, but instead, everything in you wants him to take more.
To take all of you.
It’s his. You’re his. He’s yours.
He belongs to you, this is the way the that it should be.
As if he can hear your thoughts, or more accurately, read your desires from your blood, his hand is in between your legs. Maybe another time you’d be embarrassed over the fact that you’re so wet already, but you’re too busy pushing yourself against his hand, begging for relief, begging for more.
Ignoring how you let out a whine, he stops drinking from you, tongue laving over your neck once, twice, and instinctively, you know the puncture wounds from his bite are gone as if they’d never been. Rido captures your chin, turning you to face him for a kiss and the lingering taste of blood makes you moan, even as you desperately suck on his tongue. You can feel him hard and heavy, twitching against your back and instinctively grind against him. His hands stroke over your thighs, the sensation soothing and comforting and sensual all at once.
He breaks the kiss, voice husky and drenched with need.
“Tell me to stop and I will.”
Desperate to be connected, to be joined intimately, you grip his cock in hand, lift just slightly, before sinking down. The breath whooshes out of him, and he grips your waist, as if he could stop you, but at the same time, not wanting to.
You shakily begin to roll your hips, trying to get the rest of him inside, and then Rido stops being an absolute idiot and gets with the program, hips snapping upward on your downward thrust, filling you up completely, almost to the point where you can’t take it. The rhythm he takes starts off slow and steady, just letting you get used to him, but quickly gained momentum.
It’s so good but not enough.
“Harder…please…I want it….harder…”
Rido kissed you, hard, as if trying to get you to shut up.
He pulled out completely for a moment, ignoring your desperate pleading, before positioning you over the bed, on your hands and knees, rubbing his cock against your pussy lips for a second before thrusting inside to the hilt on that one stroke.
Your eyes rolled back in their sockets as he did it again and again.
He has one hand holding yours together tightly, like manacles, pinning your wrists to the bed as he fucked you with deep, hard strokes. You could feel a pressure building in your stomach, and you tried to warn Rido that you’re about to cum but he’s way ahead of you, because he reached down with his free hand and massaged your clit. It’s too much stimulation and you’re cumming. He managed a couple shallow thrusts before soon he stilled above you, pressing as deep as he could go while he came inside you.
Instead of collapsing on top of you, he gently pulled out of you and had enough wits to roll onto his side. There isn’t any time for you to feel some type of way or say anything because he reached out and dragged you closer to him without any prodding from you whatsoever.
You snuggle up to him and enjoy the moment. His fingers stroke your skin, spelling something with his fingers, before he turned his body into yours, hugging you to him and then settled down for a nap.
It’s just as well that he did because not long after, time paused.
/Congratulations! You’ve made a very significant choice that delved into a hidden branch choice which has been forged into a deeper connection. Saying ‘No’ is always valid and accepted. Refusal will not be used against you and your partner will always respect it. If you’d like to opt out of the mature scenes and have them fade to black, you can do so from the Main Menu.Would you like to do that now?
a.) Yes
b.) No /
{Rido Affection increased by 30.}
{Rido cherishes you.}
{Gained the ‘I only want you…’ achievement}
You feel as if cold water had been dumped on you.
That…everything hadn’t felt like a simulation. It felt real.
Holy hell. This is… You just….
‘I feel like that gif where Dean from SPN has his hands pressed to his head and #WTF is underneath it. …oh God, is Dean from SPN going to show up here too??’ Feeling that this is too much information to process and you’re quickly reaching the stage of hysteria, you breathe in, shove everything down deep and go to the Main Menu.
You swipe right until you find the backstory.
And what a backstory it is.
You’re the last of the [Last Name] family.
With the blood of kings and queens running through your veins, and once labeled a goddess made flesh by an eccentric, you’re a Pureblood vampire. The place that you’d been born is unclear, but it’s understood that you’d made the United States as something of a home base and had lived there for decades, speculatively, even centuries, moving around from state to state as you pleased.
Fascination with humans and technology, education, eventually led to altercations with America’s Hunters’ Association and Senate. Much later, you migrated to Japan, annoyed with the restrictions you’d been forced to endure. Things aren’t really different here; the Association and Senate have an even more prominent role and reach. You’re not exactly on good standing with either organization but that’s irrelevant. The Senate tried to acquire you a fiance but rethought it after you made it clear that’d be unwise (i.e. You threw a couple of them out of a third story window)
‘Yaaas queen, slay!’
Swiping until you came to the Stats screen, you check out the full body screenshot of yourself, in a lovely dress that highlights your best features. Your hair is done up in a braided bun, your full lips showing off a sardonic smile and a hand is thrust in front of you, as if you’re in the process of telling someone to back off. Sassy and classy, that’s you, boo.
Health (100)
Charisma (43)
Abilities (89)
Leadership (69)
Strength (95)
*[Your Name] refuses to state what her special vampiric ability is, only seeing fit to inform the Senate that she does have an ability.
Once again swiping right, you come across the Friendship Stat screen. Unsurprisingly, very few people actually made it on here.
Haruka Kuran is at level five. He doesn’t hate you, but he is a little wary of your devil may care behavior. Tentatively, he would consider you an ally. Juri Kuran is a level three. Again, like her husband, she doesn’t hate you, but your personalities just don’t mix that well in close quarters; she’s never rude to you, at least. Asato Ichijo is a level 0, he hates and fears you. You dangled him outside a third story window after all. Shizuka Hio is at level 9; she’s crazier than a bag of cats when she isn’t fed but otherwise, she’s pretty chill and you two get along well.
Rido Kuran is level 7.
Irritation wells up in your fiercely. If you could, you’d roll him right off this bed. ‘Level seven and I just gave him the best sex of his life??? Boy, bye!’
Shaking it off, you go on to read that Rido initially met you shortly after he… Pausing, you inhaled, exhaled, asked for strength. Then you read on. Rido initially met you after sacrificing his (true) nephew to the Kuran ancestor, Kaname. As it happens with all true mates, upon meeting your gaze, he knew that you were his mate. He rejected you and you rejected him in return.
The Senate somehow found out about this and demanded that the two of you get engaged. You nearly tossed Asato out of a window (again). Haruka and Juri actually ended up convincing you to try and make it work with Rido, and reluctantly, very reluctantly, you agreed to tolerate him.
It’d taken a long, long time to get to this point, you realized while skimming through the crucial events that’d happened. Three years of exposure to each other, really. Purebloods could live for millennia, so this was nothing, you guessed.
As you swipe right, eventually you come across a familiar screen.
/Save and Continue or Save and Exit?/
»»————- ————-««
So concludes another episode but this time with some spice. The deeper you dive into the simulation, the more you forget what’s real and what’s not. Do you continue or not…?