Ground Down
Series Metadata
Listing Series
-
Tags
Summary
Born into silence and sharpened by expectation, Diande Ampora grows up as the sole heir to a criminal empire where love is conditional and perfection is mandatory. His father, the infamous Dom Vector Ampora, raises him not as a son but as a weapon, polishing him through pressure, surveillance, and relentless control. Diande excels because failure is unthinkable, yet every victory rings hollow.
A late-night coffee shop becomes his only refuge, and its gentle barista offers something Diande has never known: warmth without strings. But proximity to softness is dangerous. When his father intervenes, Diande is forced into command of a contraband ship and sent into hostile waters where monsters are real, blood is earned, and survival reshapes him into something feared and respected.
This is a prequel to my story Ground Down, following the story of Eridan's father, Diande Ampora.
Series
- Part 1 of Ground Down
-
Tags
Summary
He runs a café like it’s the only place that makes sense.
Home is where he feels smallestEridan Ampora opens the coffee shop before dawn and closes it long after dark, clinging to routine, precision, and control as a way to prove his worth. The café is his refuge. It is something he built with his own hands, where effort means something and people listen when he speaks.
At home, his father waits. Wealthy, distant, and unimpressed, Diande measures success in power and prestige, and Eridan never quite measures up. No matter how hard he works, the approval he craves never comes.
Then there is Sollux. A quiet regular who sits in the corner every morning, notices too much, and asks questions Eridan is not ready to answer. Where others judge, Sollux observes. Where Eridan deflects, Sollux waits.
As exhaustion sets in and the pressure from home grows heavier, Eridan is forced to confront what he is running from, and what he might be building instead. Between early mornings, late nights, and a café that feels more like home than his own house, Eridan begins to realize that being seen, truly seen, might matter more than earning anyone’s approval.
Series
- Part 2 of Ground Down