#a darker blue

[skiitter]

So the incredibly talented @curies_curiosities on instagram made a bookbind of A Darker Blue for personal use and sent me an author’s copy and it is, without a doubt, the coolest thing I own. Every little detail is so perfectly executed, I adore it. Truly, truly so beautiful and I love it so much! ����

[stargirl-judooz]

Another piece for @officialzutaraminibang

A Darker Blue - by supergirrl : “Katara was silent, letting the governor grovel at her feet so he could work himself into an even more terrified state. Zuko came to stand beside her, and though his swords were held loosely at his sides, she knew he could spring into motion faster than his sister could shoot lightning.”

[Image description: The drawing depicts Katara dressed in her Painted Lady disguise, covered in painted red markings on her shoulders, neck and face. She’s wearing a wide brimmed hat veiled with sheer fabric, dark red fabric hood over her hair and sleeves hanging off her shoulders and wrapped with rope around her neck and middle with a shell in the center. Some hair is framing her face and escaping from the hood. Her hair and robes are billowing around her and she’s surrounded by fog. Her hands are out in front of her in a blood bending form and she has a malevolent smirk on her face. End image description.]

[skiitter]

hello! 3 for the ask thing? :)

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

OOOFFF I always waffle back and forth. I think it's probably A Darker Blue. It's literally a novel. I wrote a novel. Yes its fanfiction and yes its riddled with flaws (plot? sounds fake) but I still wrote it. I took it out of my brain and put it into the world. 140k words. Idk. Someone bookbound it the other day. That's crazy to me. It's just this silly little fic about two deeply damaged people stuck in a cottage by the sea and someone loved it enough to bring it physically into existence. that's what i'm most proud of, i think. that it mattered to someone. that i made a thing and it mattered to someone so much, they wanted to keep it.

[skiitter]

Hi there! I found your tumblr from AO3 because I've been reading A Darker Blue and I absolutely love it! It's one of the best redemption/war stories I've read probably ever. I couldn't find your binding policies on AO3 but if you'd allow it, I would love to bookbind A Darker Blue (and send you an author's copy!). You can also find/message me on Insta @curies_curiosities. Cheers!

Hi! First off, thank you so much!! Secondly, I hope you don't mind me answering this publicly but it seems like a good a post as any to properly express my Bookbinding Policies:

The only bookbinding I condone of for my works is for private, personal use. Should you wish to print any of my fics and bind them for you--and you alone--then that's totally okay! I don't mind you showing it off/posting pictures of it anywhere, but I do not condone any sort of selling/donating/auctioning of any of my work, in any fashion. This seems to be less of an issue these days but for a while there, bookbinding was getting crazy haha.

That being said, if you want to send me an author's copy I'd love one, but that's totally unnecessary (and I'm sure waaaay more work). And my preemptive apologies for the formatting nightmare of A Darker Blue since it was written in google docs, the notes app, and scrivener, and often using just my phone.

[skiitter]

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Epilogue.

And so we've come to the end.

[skiitter]

dropping by to say I hope you’re doing well & to thank you for gifting us with A Darker Blue 💙 it’s kept me going through some tough stuff. Can’t wait to read how you wrap up their story ♥️

🥺 thank you! I am doing okay. Being unemployed is difficult and rough on my mental health, but I’m surviving. I’m so glad my silly little fanfic brought you joy 😭 I wanna finish it but I’ve come to hate the way I wrote the latest chapter but idk if it’s feasible to go back and change it now. It’s been out there for a few months and I feel like if I redo it, the response will be negative. Plus idk I feel as though it reflects poorly on me as a writer haha ohhh anxiety. Regardless thank you! Messages like this truly make my whole day💙💙

[skiitter]

Chapter Twenty-Seven is out. Something terrible ends and something beautiful begins.

Endless thanks to @cuteasamuntin for without her it wouldn’t exist.

Enjoy 💙

[skiitter]

@simplifiedemotions commissioned @avendell to make me a piece for A Darker Blue and anyway it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. iuoshsfiul;hgid look at it. i’m crying. gonna hang it above my mantle.

[skiitter]

I'm waiting patiently for an update I swear but could I have an excerpt?

dlkjgdhslkj when this chapter comes out, everyone thank @cuteasamuntin because without her i simply would get nothing done.

anyway yes, here is a small snippet that i make no promises will be in the final cut.

It’s all self-sacrifice and martyrdom up until it isn’t. The loss of the self can only be justified so many times before it begins to lose meaning. Time and again I give myself over to the cause, to the good fight, to the righteous and the moral. I’d break any rule, burn any bridge, smother any fire if it meant safety and light and that sickeningly deceptive sense of correctness that accompanies the rush of victory. Immolation only feels good when it matters, when it’s seen. I’ve always thought I was above such base needs for attention, for the unflinching loyalty that you only find in the young and the brave. It was easier when I could frame my self-destruction as an inevitability, something that had to happen in order to ensure our coming out on top.  Standing here, in the wreckage and the chaos, with the screams of the unlucky echoing off of the ancestral walls, I realize that it’s never been about the finish line. I’ve never stopped being that awkward eleven year old girl with no friends and too much hubris to properly flourish. In the end, it was only for the sake of being useful, being needed, being loved, that I burned and in the end, it doesn’t matter. In the end, I’m alone.  And in the end, the only choice I have is myself.

[skiitter]

I think an issue I’m having with A Darker Blue is that I wrote Hermione’s loneliness using my own as a benchmark only I’ve yet to actually heal or recoup that so it’s difficult to finish off her arc when I don’t know what that feels like.

[skiitter]

so i went back and reread the entirety of A Darker Blue in an attempt to find the will to write and i am so....idk. i am proud of what it is but disappointed that it is not what i envisioned but that’s also my fault for publishing first and editing second and idk. i learned a lot about longfic and how i just dunno if its for me.

[skiitter]

Is Darker Blue abandoned?

No, I’m just goin thru it rn and my interest in Dramione has waned. It’ll come back, it always does. All that remains is the final chapter and the epilogue and I’m hoping to do them both at once and publish in one go. I’m sorry it’s taking me ages >< life is just very hectic and because I’m doing nanowrimo, it’s eating up the time I set aside for writing.

[skiitter]

Chapter Twenty-Six. Draco comes home from war and the war comes home with Draco.

[skiitter]

Thank you to wonderful @simplifiedemotions for the WIP Friday tag (a week ago but who am I to ever do anything on time?).

A Darker Blue, Ch. 26

She strikes fast. Even at my best, with both hands and a distinct lack of enduring trauma, Aunt Bellatrix would have been a formidable opponent. She is ruthless, focused, and deadly beyond measure. My chances of success are slim, if not outright nonexistent, but I made a promise to Granger and I've nothing left now except her faith in me. The first curse is aimed straight for my heart and I careen sideways to avoid it. The movement throws me off balance, sending me crashing into an antique marble bust. It hits the ground with a crack, scattering shards of rock at our feet; the disruption doesn't even register to her. The snarled expression on her face is fractured and joyous, betraying the depth of her bloodthirsty nature. I shoot a stinging hex at her but she glides effortlessly out of the way, laughing. "Nephew," she coos, "you've grown sloppy!" Fear robs me of the ability to speak and I respond with another curse that she deflects with ease. "Where's that precision I taught you?" Her next spell hits my ribs with a breathtaking show of force. "Where's that famous Malfoy skill?" Winded, I tremble and drop awkwardly to one knee. The shield spell is dispelled before I can even finish casting it. "Oh don't look so sad, love! I'm not going to kill you." "Even if I say please?" I wheeze. Her responding smile is lecherous and terrifying. "Oh Draco, I've missed you." "Pretty please?" Another laugh, shrill in the way that makes my toes curl, and she finally puts me out of my misery. As the creeping black crowds my vision, I cast my thoughts out towards the horizon and the weight of Granger’s hand on my heart.

[skiitter]

*beats your irl bullshit with a stick so you can write adb*

*brings you lemonade and cheers you on*

[skiitter]

Hi Skitter! Can you feed my lowly peasant self a morsel of a Darker Blue preview? I'm starving for anything at all!

I'm so sorry it's taking me an age to update 😔😔. There is some grade a bullshit happening irl that I have to deal with, as well as the start of my final semester. That being said, I actually did write tonight! So here's a cheeky little (unedited) snippet: