#almost done with the backlog.. i promise

[realchrollo]

i know im late for new year but hear me out: its been a rough year so far

[charliemwrites]

Ok ok I have to work on my backlog of fics BUT

Thinking about usurper king Price on an uncontested conquest of an entire continent. No one knows how he does it, but one day a kingdom is standing independent - the next, its bearing his coat of arms.

(He’s got a team of his most trusted warriors. One goes in, gathers intel and allies and plans, takes down all the key players and opens the doors for Price’s army.)

He’s a good ruler in the sense that he is EFFECTIVE. Brutal and cruel, short tempered and occasionally unpredictable. But overall, he has solid infrastructure, flourishing economy, and trade deals for goods from other continents that are mostly trying to appease him. It’s incidental that most everyone fears him. Deeply. They have good reason for it.

Reader’s kingdom is on the far side of the continent, with two much larger and more robust countries between. They’ve just allied together, so there’s actually some hope that they’ll be able to stop Price’s conquest at the halfway point.

(He knows that, but it’s much easier to force convince cooperation with nowhere to run. Feeling protected breeds complacence, it’s really all too simple it’s like they WANT to be at his heel.)

He’s taking special care with this one, goes himself as a new hire to a paranoid king’s royal guard. The other king is foolish, prideful, nothing but nepotism in his court and corruption at every turn. Almost all of his advisors are happy to turncoat for coin or promises of station in the new regime, one by one.

(Key word: almost. There are only a few, he can count them on one hand, but they’re loyal not to the king. They’re loyal to his heir.)

For all of his many, many faults the current king cares deeply for you, his heir. Who price is assigned to guard with his false identity. Who becomes your shadow, not from duty (as you might assume) but obsessive fascination.

(You’re just so good. An idealist, an optimist, an altruist. All terrible, damning things for a leader to be. Poor thing, you’re not suited to ruling. You’ll tear up that soft heart on hard decisions and necessary sacrifices. You’ve overcorrected your father’s negligence by caring too much. Price is doing you a favor by taking over.)

For as sweet and benevolent as you are, you’re also whip smart and strong-willed. Have to be to get anything done in your father’s circus show of a court. Truly the only thing between the people and careless greed of the rich and powerful, but you wear that responsibility as well as any crown.

And you’ll put yourself between Price (your guard) and citizens that just want to shake your hand, or offer you sweets out of well-earned devotion. He loses track of how many times you scold him for the coldness he’s so well known for. Or how often you snip at him for voicing his opinions about your legislation (not that you ever tell him not to share them, he notices)

(He imagines that pouty face melting away beneath moans of pleasure. Your tiara slipping off while he bounces you on his cock. That smart mouth wrapped around his cock, or crying his name. You’re gorgeous and clever and so fucking contrary for all that you are infuriatingly kind - he takes pleasure in being the only one to provoke you so.)

and when the time comes, your father and all his useless advisors slain, blood on the same gold that bought their own slaughter, he has you brought before him.

There’s steel in your spine even with tears running down your face and you lift your chin when you tell him he’s no king. Not to you, no matter whose flag decorates the ramparts. That the only way you’ll kneel is by force and it would only prove he’s not fit for a throne.

You’re beautiful and heartbroken but defiant in a way that makes his blood run hot and he adores you. Adores you so much that he can’t bring himself to cut you down, as he has with all royal families he’s usurped. No, not when you have so much potential. When you are the only part of the old regime worth salvaging.

He doesn’t, however, feel the same for your younger sibling - who takes after you with all the attitude but none of the grace (or his favor).

A life for a life, he bargains. The former king’s son in exchange for you - belonging to him now, that is. He doesn’t need your loyalty, but your compliance is convenient to sway the people towards submitting without bloodshed. And isn’t that better? He could raze the fields and streets to cement his rule, but you love your country too much to sacrifice it for your own pride. Not when you can do something to convince him otherwise, even this.

Besides, anything worth having is earned, he knows - and your heart will be his greatest possession.

[ophelieverse]

Can you please write anything you want with Aegon and Tully!reader?I love this house and no one use them to write images🥺

ʚ the lovers ɞ 

Aegon II Targaryen x fem!reader

I also like House Tully,even though i don’t like Cat and Lysa but I’m more than willing to write a Tully reader.

Aegon and Y/n are married,now that he is king he doesn’t have much time to spend with his wife so she takes the matter in her own hands.

A little smutty piece that i don’t know how to feel about😪

Thank you for requesting and let me know what you think💕

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The midday sun was burning in the sky with all the violence this time slot could offer on a mid-summer day.

The hot rays of the sun were beating on the streets markets,roofs and the chairs at the corner of their balcony.If she squeezed her eyes,Y/n could even see the air vibrating on the railing.

Till a moment ago,in the shared maritals chambers of their majesties a small servant girl was using a fan,moving the hot air from one side to the other,without really doing much to bring relief.

The temperature was so high that even the floor had cooled,and staying there lying on the ground was becoming counterproductive,as well as uncomfortable.

Y/n turned on her side,grunting when the hard stoned floor met her bones,the heat that killed her every initiative to get up was trailing up her bare legs till her back.

Not too bad... from the new location she could admire a much better view than the sky paled by the heat.

Aegon,the new King of the Seven Kingdoms and her adored husband,was sitting at the large table in the middle of their chambers a few steps away from her.The thin shirt sleeves rolled up over the elbows,the unbuttoned collar and a wrinkle of concentration between the eyebrows.In front of him a stack of backlog reports to complete.

His cheeks were redden thanks to the heat and the wine,pale hair stuck to nape of his sweaty neck and lilic eyes moving fast through the pages in his calloused hands.He was so beautiful when he was assorted,becoming king had changed his demeanor,taking the responsibilities and duties on his shoulders more seriously.

Y/n didn't understand why he decided to get to work with that heat,especially when it was Sunday morning and they could have done anything else.Also,the fact that she hasn't had his attention for almost an hour made her want to go there and tear up that paperwork in front of his beautiful eyes.And she would have done it even if she hadn't been too hot even to stand up.

Of course,it would have been great if he had gotten up to come to her instead.The two of them had been married for three years and knew each other for six,Y/n knew that Aegon would’ve done that.Seeing her,so beautifully tempting in her white transparent nightgown,long hair wild on her shoulders,full red lips and soft cheeks with sparkling needy eyes.He would’ve pounced her like a starving animal.

But that was prince Aegon,the same person that took her on Dragonstone beach,promising her that he would made her his queen,the mother of his children and that made love to her like it was their last night on earth.King Aegon was a different story,he had his head on his shoulders and his mother and grandfather on his back constantly.Ruling a whole continent was hard, tiring and took all of his attentions.

«Aaaegon.»Y/n called him,stretching the first syllable of his name,with a sweet voice.

«Mmh?»he replied with a distracted murmur,without even looking up from the table.

«Do you still have a lot of those?»she asked him,watching the pile of papers becoming smaller not fast enough.

He shook his head«I'm almost done.»

«You said that even half an hour ago!»she emitted a sound of affliction.

«I would do it faster if you got up and came to give me a hand,instead of standing there complaining.»he scolded her,not in the same teasing and playful way,but almost irritated.

Being Queen wasn’t easy and it was something that Y/n never wanted.Her mother had planned that future for her since she was a child,promising her to prince Jacaerys in the beginning and then to prince Aegon.The only thing that her mother taught her about marriage was being a good and docile wife and give her husband healthy and male heirs.No one taught her how to be a queen,not even her husband mother.

Y/n was good at being a gentle and loving wife,she supported and took care of her husband and gave him two beautiful sons,heirs to his throne.But she missed him,she knew he loved her very much and that they should have other children to strength the blood of the dragon,if only he wasn’t so busy all the time.

Not at all satisfied with the kind of reactions she was getting,Y/n pouted and reached out towards the golden cup lying on the floor:the only thing in her range that had a temperature of less than thirty-six degrees.She brought the cup to her mouth and the last residue of cold wine now vented into her throat.

When she finished,she passed the empty cup behind her neck and chest,continuing to observe Aegon out of the corner of her eye.

As much as he was trying to keep his eyes fixed on those papers,it was evident that his body was also suffering from the heat.The silver locks stuck to his sweaty forehead as his shoulders lifted and fell under the weight of long,fatigued breaths.He put the ink down for a second and sipped his wine too.

Y/n watched him arch his neck and swallow,adam’s apple moving rhythmically over the larynx.She bit her lower lip in front of the show,her hand automatically slipped below the hip line.

Fuck… “Family,duty,honor”as her House words said,looked so good on him.The ethereal aura of his royal presence,the way he carried himself and spoke in the throne room or in the Small Council,the crown on his head.Even though she missed care free prince Aegon,the King was something so divine to look at.

Seriously... they could have done anything else in the moment,she could still give him another child and show him how much of a great job he was doing as a ruler.Literally anything but staying there on the floor while he worked.

An idea caught on her mind.Suddenly the heat stopped being a problem.

«Aegon.»she called again,voice now lower.

And again,he replied without looking at her«What do you want?»

Y/n opened her mouth,then closed it.She reflected on what were the best words to use,those that would be best to persuade him.It was supposed to be something provocative,but not too much.Something sober,but impactful.

She rubbed her legs,the ache between them,and uttered candidly:«You,my King.»

She couldn't help but smile triumphantly, because at those words Aegon finally looked up from the table.His deep purple eyes stared at her,a spark of involvement and desire shining under his eyelashes as he took in all of her appearance.

It didn't last long.

«Not now.»was his calm answer,as he looked away and brought the focus back to his work.

As he spoke he wrote something with his pen and Y/n thought she wanted to bite his fingers.

«Also it's too hot for it at this hour,»he added,«better tonight,when the sun is down.»he continued.

Y/n stretched her limbs on the floor and lazily curved her back like a cat«I thought that dragons preferred the heat.»she smiled,licking her dry lips.

«Yes.But little,cute fishes like you are too sensitive for it.»the smirk in his voice made her shiver and smile even more.

He wasn’t wrong,she was still a pure maiden when they first laid together and since that time,as he showed her the immense and colorful world of pleasure,her appetite had been insatiable.Especially with a husband like him.He would take the lead and have her crying underneath or on top of him in less that five minutes.

«Hmm... I don't know if I'll be able to wait until tonight.»she purred with a vibrating throat.

Aegon scoffed,tracing the paper in his hand with a finger,rereading the same sentence for the third time«Then go on our bed,put a pillow between your legs and do it yourself.What do you want me to tell you?»he sounded exasperated.

They both were,pent up and dying by the hot weather.

«If this was a dirty talk attempt,know it was really terrible.»a laugh escaped from her.

Aegon stopped responding,bowed his chin and went back to immerse himself in the silence of concentration.

Y/n accepted the challenge.

It wasn't the first time she found herself playing with Aegon self-control since he was crowned and so far she had never lost.She had often enjoyed making him restless and starving for something else during dinners with his family:fleeting caresses under the table and winking glances between the glass bottles.

But it was easy to shake him like that when they were in public,surrounded by other eyes.The fact that they were now alone in their room,the only spectators and participants of their game,made Aegon less tense,and therefore more firm on his positions.

It would have taken a lot more to move him.

«All right...»she whispered,more to herself than to him.

Y/n stretched on her back on the floor,oriented her delicate hand vertically on her soft belly,and slid two fingers under the hem of her small cloth,trailing up her body the thin layer of her nightgown.She began to touch herself nonchalantly,lazily at the start,describing slow and interspersed circles around the clitoris.She kept her head turned to the side,ready to catch the slightest sign of distraction from Aegon.

She had to wait five long minutes before the pen slowed down on the paper.

Y/n grabbed the opportunity and began to speed up the work of her fingers.Her body was giving in to stimulation:a pleasant tingling was building up in the lower abdomen as moisture began to cover her fingertips.When a choked moan of his name formed in her throat she did nothing to repress it.

That's when Aegon raised his eyes for the second time.

His gaze on her was a mixture of surprise,opposition and embarrassment,with a small spark of lust.Y/n pointed at that.

«Y/n.»he began,with what clearly wanted to be a warning,but which did not go beyond her name.

She saw him licking his lips and swallowing.

«What?»she bent her lips into a smile«Wasn't what you told me to do it myself?»she asked sweetly.

Aegon blushed in spite of himself,he felt like a twelve years old again«Yes,but not here on the floor.»he said.

«Why?Am I distracting you?»she said with a fake tone of concern.

«What do you think?»he sarcastically said,his eyes not leaving the hand that was still moving between her legs.

The ache growing in his pants and the fire tickling his lower belly,made her proud of herself.The look he was giving her,filled with lust and irritation,told her that she was winning.

«Well,my love,as a refutation of your thesis:so far you didn't notice at all.And it's not like i started at this very moment.»she informed him with a breathy and witty response.

The blush on Aegon face reached the tip of his ears,but his gaze remained of ice«You've been... silent... so far.»he noted,trying to find a comfortable position on the chair.

«Oh?So if I keep my mouth shut I can continue without any problems?»Y/n immediately asked.

It took him a while to answer her.He stopped staring at the spot under her navel where her hand lay and took a big sip from his cup full of cold wine.The two countermeasures seemed to work.With his mind a little more lucid and the trail of freshness in his esophagus,he started talking to her with the same firmness as before.

«Absolutely not.Get up and go.»he said with the same seriousness he had adopted in the last year as a ruler.

In front of his serious face,Y/n smiled even more.He was cracking and was trying so hard to keep it together.

“As if you didn't want me here.”she though.

Y/n huffed«I don't want to.I'm too hot to move.»she said,returning to distractedly moving her fingers.

Aegon made an effort with all of himself not to look at her.He took the pen in his hand and began to turn it between his fingers to have something to engage his eyesight in.

«Your logic doesn't make any sense.»he pointed out to her.

And in fact no,it didn't have it.But in all honesty Y/n was starting to lose the thread of the argument,the need for release was becoming more pressing and Aegon had not yet moved from there.In the absence of a witty response to counter,she raised her hips and moaned his name deliberately,trying to appear as provocative as possible while doing so.

A few seconds of silence followed,then the ticking sound of the pen on the table,and finally a sigh.Y/n didn't bother to hide her immense satisfaction in finally having Aegon body bent over her.

«Can you stop?»He blew on her lips.The baritone voice with which he said it threw a burning pang between her legs.

Y/n raised her chin.The game of the challenge that made her blood tingle in her veins«Make me.»

Aegon wrinkled his forehead.He knew exactly what game his wife was playing,and he also knew he would win.He always won.He was the one in control.

«Gods,you can be so childish sometimes.»he said with a long exhale.

«And you can be serious and snoty like an old man... sometimes.»she told him with a childish attitude.

Yes,sometimes.

Aegon mind went involuntarily to the other times,where it was the exact opposite.Between him and Y/n it worked like this:they almost always ended up at the antipodes,at the two ends of the line,exchanging places with each other all the time.There was almost never a balance.And when he was there it didn't make it easier for him to define their relationship.

Sometimes Y/n was a little girl,hungry for affection and attention.An accomplice mistress who kissed and touched him when she didn't have to,who stretched out her fingers under his arm and who filled his glass when he didn't look.

Sometimes it was him,with his hands sneaking under her gowns,his lips trailing dow her neck in the empty hallways.Playing with her foot under the table.Whispering dirty thing in her ears and watch her blush in front of everyone.

Other times Y/n was an adult woman,with a deadly seriousness in her eyes and a melancholy over something lost.A kind of younger sister - or even a mother - who seemed to have lived a hundred lives,who applied patches to him even on the smallest scratches,and who stroked his hair when she realized he had cried.

Other times it was Aegon who takes the responsibility,guiding and sheltering her.Much like a king would,a husband who duties were to make her a happy wife,a old friend to keep her company and loving to read and sit together in their solarium.

When they were like this,when they took a part and left the second one for the other,Aegon remembered those few years of difference that separated them,remembered how much ambiguity there was in what they did and in the behaviors they adopted towards each other when he promised to marry her on that beach,the first time they had laid together on the cold sand when he was drunk and guided only by lust.

And an unpleasant cold ran on his back. Despite this,he had never done anything to change things.Because Y/n was still very young and was tremendously good on both sides,because - after all - condoing by that ambiguity was convenient for him... because he liked it.Because he did kept his promises and married her.

He liked to play lovers,he thought,looking for her lips.For two like them it was easier than really being king and queen.

Aegon lips were warm,but Y/n welcomed them as if they were the freshest and purest of waters.She liked it too.The lover was her favorite role.Not the wife,the mother or the queen,but his lover.

«The balcony... is open.»Aegon felt a duty to remind her of it,of all the servants that could be outside,snatching words from her increasingly insistent kisses.

She stroked his cheekbone with her tongue«Good,some fresh air.»she replied,letting him know that she didn't care.

«You are shameless.»he told her as if he didn’t taught her to be like this,but the balcony remained open and the papers abandoned on the table.

Y/n smiled as she felt his hand run down her stomach to get to surround her wrist.Her wet fingers slipped away from her throbbing sex,and her hand was carried to the height of their faces.The lack of contact caused her a bit of annoyance,but it took a back seat when Aegon put her hand close to his lips.

He began to place soft kisses on her knuckles, without stopping for a second looking at her. Slowly.Meticulously.Y/n closed her eyelids and breathed a sigh.She contemplated in awe of his lips opening,then the index and middle fingers disappear between them.Aegon moved his tongue under her phalanges,sucked them, enjoying the taste of her melting in his mouth.

«Aegon...»she called him,he groaned around her fingers in response,without interrupting his occupation.

«Take this thing off,»he continued,pointing to the skimpy nightgown she was wearing.«It's too hot.»

«You first.»Y/n whispered out and he smirked.

Receiving the message,Aegon began to unfasten his belt with his free hand,then his boots,and the first buttons on his shirt.He soon realized he couldn't do much else.Surrender,he let go of her fingers to allow both of them to undress.

Although he was now used to seeing her walking around their chambers with just one or two garments,Aegon would never stop appreciating his wife body.At that moment the sun in its apogee illuminated her nudity like white marble,skirting the curves of her profile with light.

If beauty was something describable in words,Aegon would have described it that way.

He stood to contemplate the play of light on her skin as he went back to lying down,unaware that similar thoughts were going through his wife mind.

In fact,the more Y/n looked at Aegon,the more she was convinced that there could be no such thing as graceful and aesthetically pleasing in the world.She would spend hours observing the way his moon locks cast shadows on the clear features of his face,or tracing the veins paths on the muscles of his arms.

As she thought about these things Aegon caught up with her,taking her wrists with his hands and slowly crossed them over her head.

Y/n gaze lit up,not surprised and intrigued.

She had never shown a particularly dominant personality during sex;she usually just indulged in his initiatives,following the instructions of his voice and body,doing and letting herself do whatever he decided.

Aegon was never displeased,on the contrary.In that way of behaving in intimacy he found the same confidence as when they risked their lives together: proof that she was ready to put herself in his hands in any circumstance.

That’s why seeing herself caged to the floor by his body,with his austere eyes scrutinizing her from above,made her lower belly languish in the same and delightful way.The idea of being the one who abandoned herself in his hands once again was tempting,having her king finally giving her all of his attention and devotion.

At the expense of his expression,Aegon 's grip was not very firm and the slowness in his actions betrayed a certain insecurity.It’s had been a hard week and he was tired.

Y/n caught him in a kiss to reassure him.She could still taste herself on his tongue,along with a vague aroma of cherries and wine.She was already addicted by the combination.

Aegon moved aside first,his lips ran down her jaw to the curve of her soft neck.Y/n did not oppose it,waiting for his next move with a rapid beat.She felt him adjust his grip on her wrists, then place his knee in the middle of her legs.

A soft command tickled her ear«Grind on it.»

Y/n gasped.She felt on fire,little fishes like her were too sensitive to the heat and her body's reaction was unexpectedly immediate.Her hips lifted obediently,then lowered,then went back up,until she found herself rocking against his knee at a fast pace.

Aegon kissed her neck with his mouth open, feeding on her accelerating heartbeat.He could feel her skin moistening at the point where she met his leg.

«Good girl.»he whispered in her ear,hot breath tickling her.

He bit her shoulder to suppress a moan,she arched her back and her breasts brushed his chest.His erection was throbbing in pain,but Aegon gritted his teeth.He thought of those backward papers that would force him to do the wee hours tonight,and pushed his femur forward,wishing for a little revenge.

Thanks to the previous stimulation,Y/n was already on the vege of an orgasm.She groaned restlessly,debated her hips and calves to the ground,squeezing his thighs around the bone bump.

Aegon free hand traveled along her waist and went to surround one of her tits,stroked the perky nipple with his thumb,soon replaced by his mouth.

It was hot.Y/n felt it inside and out,in every single particle of the air and in every single fiber of her body.

Sweat dripped from Aegon hair on her chest, his mouth left hot trails where he touched and his breathless breath condensed on her skin.But oh,he never wanted to stop.

Y/n moved her hips faster,craving that sweet, liquid pleasure that was heralding.

She was so close,so close...

«Stop.»the sound of the word reached her ear indistinctly,all her senses blurred,her body continuing to move tirelessly.

Just a little more...

«I said»Aegon grip on her wrists tightened,his hot palm pressing on her pulses«Stop.»with such an authority that made her even wetter.

One hand stuck her hip against the floor and Y/n stopped,stunned.Aegon bowed to one side and removed his knee,leaving fire in her lungs and her belly burning for release denied.

He looked at her,with the power of a man and curious like a child,his purple irises reduced to two thin circles around his dilated pupils.He waited in silence for her to calm down,then relaxed his fingers and released her wrists.

Y/n reached out for him,numb arms circling his neck to bring him closer.A compressed energy that still permeated it from head to toe.

«Aegon,please.»she whined,kissing his jaw and holding him.

«I know baby,you were close?»He asked her,kissing the reddened inside of her wrists with a mest expression.

She moved a lock of hair behind his ear and nodded enthusiastically«Yes.»with a cute pout on her lips.

Aegon nodded in turn,looking slightly relieved.

«I'll make you come,only if you promise that you won’t bother me and let me work for the rest of the night.»he caressed her cheeks,his thumb playing with her lower lip.

«B-but-»she tried to protest.

Aegon hand gripped her face,their noses touching«Will you do that?Will you be a good girl and do what your husband asks you?»he murmured on her lips slowly.

«Yes!I promise!»she immediately answered,trying to get him to kiss her again.

He ran his hands over her hips for a few seconds,focused,as if he was about to make an important decision.Y/n wasn’t surprised when from his mouth came another command,albeit more docile than the previous one.

«Turn around and lay on your stomach.»he ordered,before kissing her and caressing her hair.

She did as he had told her,turning around to give him her back.

The floor was warm and she was so sensitive that the mere pressure of her flattened belly against the stoned pavement was enough to snatch a moan from her.Meanwhile,a finger began to trace her spine,slowly flowing the vertebrae from the coccyx to the cervical.

Y/n curved her back under that touch,while looking for more friction under her hips.

«So desperate to get fucked on the floor?»Aegon murmured on the back of her neck,before licking the salt from her skin.

«F-fuck yes.»she whimpered out.

«Oh»Aegon said amused«I thought i married a proper lady not a slut.»his shoulders trembled with a laugh.

Y/n face was crimson red«I’m not a-a…a slut!»she answered embarrassed,but she knew he was right.

«Mmh,i should’ve know since you had let me fuck you on that beach before we were even betrothed.»he kissed and bit the skin of her back making her tremble.

He kissed her between her shoulder blades,with one arm separated her abdomen from the ground and held her to himself,hip to hip.And Y/n felt him,damp and hot,stinging her entrance.

«Please.»Y/n called for him,hands digging on the floor and wiggling her ass up to get more friction.

«Behave,or I’m leaving you here.»he spanked her,the sting of the slap and the way he caressed the redden skin of her ass made her choke on her saliva.

«With how eager you are,the castle should be filled with our children.»Aegon continued,massaging her.

«Maybe you should give me another,»Y/n breathed out,closing her eyes.

She felt him curse under his breath and holding her closer«Is that what you want?Another kid to keep yourself occupied with?»the idea of seeing her full with his child made his head spin.

The anticipation was a tongue of fire that tickled her from the inside,licking the walls of her stomach in an agonizing way.

She didn't have time to perform in the plea she had thought.Aegon grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him as he sank into her. The movement was unique and fluid,facilitated by abundant lubrication.

Her mouth opened,the air scratched her re-stuck throat.He began to move slowly,with soft and precise blows,while with his tongue he explored her mouth and swallowed her moans.

Her neck hurt from the position,but she still stretched out backwards when he brew the kiss to pay attention to her shoulder.Aegon moved his lips over the curve of her neck and marked the skin with his teeth.He bathed her with his tongue,feeling genuinely guilty.

He thought maybe he wasn't cut for a more dominant role in sex,but the moment he did,Y/n voice shouted«More!Please!»And his mind was silent.He was the one in control and yet he would give her anything she wants,even another child if that meant having her happy.

He anchored her to his body with one arm and used the other as a lever to increase the pace and intensity of the thrusts.And every time she asked to go deeper,faster, stronger,something stretched inside him,like a rubber band on the breaking point.

It was his turn to moan.To feel how warm,wet and tight her welcoming cunt was for him every time.Made by the gods for him.

The open balcony remained a distant detail,the world restricted to that fierce union of their bodies,a bubble of heat,blood and pleasure.Just like when they got married and unite House Targaryen and House Tully.

«You’re there already,baby?»he was out of breath as he felt her clench around him again.

All she did was nod and the hand he was pressing on abdomen dropped lower.One,two,three circles and the pleasure poured into her,dense and glowing like lava, poured out from that point deep that he kept hitting with his thrusts.

Above her Aegon looked at her with fascination and desire.The torso raised to admire her body contracting in irregular spasms,his head tilted to grasp fragments of her face.

«You are...so beautiful...Y/n.»he moaned.

Y/n hoisted herself on her elbows,bent her arm to reach his head,and kissed him as if he was the most precious thing in her life,because he was.He really was the love of her life.

Aegon moaned in the kiss,feeling Y/n last contractions taking him to the limit with her«You want it inside?»he asked her urgently.

«Yes.»she pleaded again.

Her approval,in a seductive tone and oblique smile,was the last straw.He poured into her,moaning and growling on her shoulder,until his muscles gave way.

They lay facing each other on the sticky floor, their limbs suffering and heated by the effort. Only when they both stopped having a shortness of breath,Aegon pulled her close to him to let her lay her head on his chest.

«We are going to have another baby.»Y/n suddenly murmured,placing a hand on her stomach.

Aegon didn't seem upset by the information.He remained silent looking at her,as if at the moment there was nothing else in the room that deserved more attention than her.And Y/n lived on moments like these,the exclusivity of his gaze on her,his needy touch on her skin, shared kisses,his worries.

«I pray for a girl.»he said then«Baeron and Rhaego are going to drive me insane.»he continued thinking about his sons and how much they were like him.

This time he wanted a baby girl that,even though she would probably look like him,taking in the Valyrian features,she would be just like her mother:sweet,gentle,a little playful.

«They just miss you.»she whispered,almost feeling guilty«Like I do.»she admitted with a sad tone.

Aegon held her closer,he felt ashamed for neglecting his wife and his own children.As soon as he become king he forgot that first he was a husband and a father.

«I’m sorry for interrupting your work-»she started to apologize.

«Don’t.»he stopped her immediately«I’m the one who’s sorry for not being around lately.»he said kissing her temple sweetly.

Y/n smiled warmly«How about we have dinner together tonight with the kids?»she asked hopefully.

He nodded,it felt like forever since he had last spent time with his little family all together«Sound perfect.»he kissed her on the lips one last time before closing his eyes and drifting to sleep.

[nouearth]

because i love you.

jason todd x male reader.

summary: your birthday is a memory you often ignore. jason is determined to forge a new, unforgettable one.

wc: 3k. genre: fluff, comfort. warnings: domestic!au, crying, descriptions of food.

a/n: happy belated birthday, anon! i know this was late, but i wanted to priortize this over my other requests before it would be even later, LOL. hope you had a great one, and that this was a gift to remember!

request: anon.

“so,” a gruff voice briefly broke your focus from peering through the oven door, but the cookies had seconds left in the oven, so you'd figure a hum to acknowledge jason's presence would suffice.

it was a painful and mundane process to squat and watch the cookie batter form into heavenly, ooey-gooey chocolatey goodness. sure, you could’ve done something to pass the time—finish your backlog of books, or even the tv dramas you promised your friends you would finish soon—but the cookies always came out perfect like this.

once, you decided to do laundry while letting the cookies bake. as soon as the oven rang, the thought of over-baking your perfected recipe of cookies, that everyone had gleefully devoured and expected at every potluck, chased you faster than a wild fox could. to your bewilderment (and exhaustion), a few seconds longer in the oven changed the texture of the baked treats. though no one noticed, even if you insisted that the taste changed as well, it ruined your entire day and since then, you’ve made a silly promise to yourself to never let these cookies out of your sight.

even if your boyfriend was squatting with you, kissing you at the neck now. 

“earth to (m/n),” his lips brushed deep into your skin, and you could hear him inhaling your natural scent. for a minute there, he forgot you were baking, so the smell of chocolate and brown sugar certainly awakened an unexpected appetite in him. it growled. 

“hello.” jason stretched a whisper into your neck, and you chuckled when his gruff voice tickled you, vowels vibrating lowly into your skin.

“someone’s needy.” you turned to finally greet him with a smile, some kind of acknowledgement, and he begrudgingly accepted it with a kiss. it was almost as sweet as the sugar crystals in the cookie batter he sampled earlier. 

two more minutes now.

“guess i’ll have to bake myself into a cookie to get your attention these days,” jason muttered, pressing his chest to your broad back. the heat from the oven radiated in front of you, yet your back felt warmer.

your head leaned back on his shoulder, grinning towards his frown while he tucked his chin in the vacant space between your neck and shoulder. “whoa, are you envious of my cookies now? that’s kind of sick considering you inhale them within seconds after i take them out of the oven—“

“i eat anything.” jason stated dryly, his palms roamed over your stomach to chase his appetite away as if your body and his were connected. his lips found your neck again, adding to the flush of your skin while one hand slipped under the waistband of your shorts to satiate a different craving. your legs slowly sprawled to accommodate his inviting touch, humming. “they make a great pre-workout.” 

and with the close of your legs, access had been denied. “so, they’re not delicious like you’ve been claiming?”

jason widened his eyes, yanking his hand out of your shorts to put his hands up defensively. “wait, no. that’s not— okay, we’re getting off-topic!”

“hey,“ the oven sang, and with a delighted hop, you abandoned your boyfriend on the floor to tend to your long-awaited baked goods. “you’re the one that brought it up!”

the smell of chocolate and sugar billowed in the air when you opened the oven, and jason’s appetite returned like a parasite once the delicious aroma hit his nose. 

it hadn’t been that long since you’ve started baking, but your hobby had quickly become a beloved activity (and expense), and your affection for it was telling through the wear and tear of your oven mitts. you burned yourself a few times when the baking sheet pressed into various ripped holes, but despite jason’s concern, you never found it damaged enough to purchase a new one. besides, it didn’t take very long to learn the pattern of the hot spots.

two baking sheets, filled with freshly-baked cookies, slid onto the stovetop, and you closed the oven, turning it off after. steam rose from the bloomed batter and you marveled at the sight: rustic, crinkly brown doughs that harbored mounds of comfort and nostalgia in one snack. though for some people, in one bite. the smell hits you after, stung your nose with brown sugar and chocolate chips, and you approved the batch with a deep inhale. 

“what did you want to talk about?” a crack of kosher salt was topped to the cookies, adding to the rustic presentation of the baked goods.

“well,” the smell of the cookies pulled him back to his feet, then by your side as he watched the chunky salt enchant the goods to a higher level. “it’s someone’s birthday soon.” though he knew not to, he reached out to sample an edge of the dough anyway.

“careful,” you watched him with amusement and high curiosity, eyebrows raised to inquire him of the taste. though you knew the answer by the time the chocolate hit his tongue, it was tenfold more interesting than the topic of your birthday.  “what about it?” you asked, and he hummed in approval, greed guiding his hand back to the piping hot cookies.

“so—ow,” the heat bit at jason’s fingers and his hand yanked back to immediately flick remnants of the sting off. “didn’t you want to do anything? a party? dinner? you never even told me what you wanted for your gifts.”

“hm,” you took the oven mitts off and directed the draft towards the steam with quick and light swings, then towards jason’s fingers as he began picking at the chocolate that oozed out. “i never took you as someone who cared about birthdays that much.”

“yeah, well,” he blew on his chocolate stained finger once more before pressing it to your smile. “we’re learning more about each other every day, aren’t we?”

“and it’s kind of incredible how you haven’t dumped me yet.” you laughed and licked the bittersweet stain off your lips. jason only joined with a mere chuckle. he never liked it when you talked about yourself like this.

“seriously though,” jason leaned on the counter with his elbow, nudging your waist with a gentle pat. his hair delicately parted to the side, watching you like you were the only one. “what do you want to do? we can do whatever you want.” devouring the cookies was the last thing on his mind now. 

you’re the only one.

“jason,” the steam slowly waft in the air as you averted your gaze to the cookies cooling. salt glinted under the lights, and they have never looked sweeter. “it’s sweet of you and i appreciate it, but…” yet, there was a bitter aftertaste when you nibbled on a crumble. “i don’t really celebrate my birthday.”

“what?” his immediate instinct was to hold you, taking you by the waist as if it could protect you from the memory of the past. “how come? did something bad happen?”

“no, no. nothing like that!” laughing it off always helped you alleviate the bitterness of your thoughts. “it’s just…” but for some reason, your throat began to swell when you do.

“just…?” jason pressed his hand to your waist in a heartfelt attempt at squeezing an answer out of you. “come on, i’m at the edge of my seat here.”

you laughed, taking his hand off and then into your own, as you guided him out of the kitchen and to the living room. the sweet smell was dizzying now. plus your legs hurt from the squatting earlier. you needed some place to snuggle yourself into. preferably, your couch. 

“my family could never afford stuff, so it hasn’t been a thing since…” a yawn escaped your lips as you found comfort into the embrace of jason’s arms. his broad chest was a pillow you never asked for, and these days, you found it to be the best solace your head demanded for. “i guess when i was eight?”

“oh,” jason realized, then began stroking the side of your head as an apology. “i didn’t mean to pry or—“

“it’s no big deal.” in between his caresses, you quickly tilted your head back to press a kiss to his palm—a measurement to dispel his worries. “i’ve spent a longer part of my life not celebrating it, so it’s just a norm now! honestly, i didn’t even notice that my birthday was coming up until you mentioned it to me.”

closing your eyes, images of your family appeared in soft, fading blurs. they smiled through gritted teeth, as did you, and sweated through hard labor of work that managed to put food on a table. “and i also don’t blame my parents, if that’s what you’re thinking. i did at first, but shit happens.” 

though, never a cake.

“you really do nothing since then, though? not even cook yourself dinner or something?” the affection caresses spread to your cheeks and the warmth pulled at the corners of your mouth into a smile.

“i did once,” you shifted to connect your warmth to his. in midst, you were reminded that the smell of jason’s cologne will always triumph over the scent of your cookies. “but it just kind of made things sad, to be honest. it felt weird.” 

“but you celebrated my birthday.” the memories warmed him. “for someone who never celebrated their own, you sure knew how to throw a great party.” laughter, a delicious dinner, and drink shenanigans echoed in passing. “even if it was only us.”

you chuckled at the irony of it all, satisfied that you’ve managed to impress your boyfriend despite your inexperience. 

“well,” glancing up, you then held jason’s doting stare, collected it into your soul, and then sealed it into a vault.

“that’s because i love you.” 

the stroll from your car and to your apartment seized all the energy left in you. aside from carrying bags of groceries, the heavy weight slowly drained your arms of life, the long day of work had a major factor to your exhaustion. awaiting approvals while you were approaching a tight deadline was never ideal, but luckily it got extended, so you can sleep a teensy-bit better tonight. 

grunting, your veins pulsed when you lifted the heavy bags with one arm to punch in the code to your keypad, refusing to be defeated by packs of frozen fruit, greek yogurt, jason’s protein powder, and his mandatory cereal boxes. the beep and green light compelled a satisfied noise out of you and you immediately bouldered into your apartment, stumbling through the garden of your shoes and jason’s, and into the kitchen within a single, hurried stride.

“jase?!” you grunted loud from below, setting the groceries down as soon as the handles pressed into a certain spot in your vein that made you wince. jason’s voiced boomed from above. 

“yeah?!”

as much as you hated it when jason left his soda out, today would be an exception. you downed it in one dreamy gulp, and you could feel your body absorb the sugars, working overtime to churn it into energy afterward.

“can you put the groceries back for me?! i want to go shower!” the kitchen sink alleviated some of that humidity built atop your hands, but you needed it off your body.

“yeah!” jason shouted out. “i’ll be down in a sec!” 

it took you a moment, still high from the amount of energy you’ve exerted within the short amount of time, but the air smelled sweetly familiar. of vanilla, brown sugar, a hint of cinnamon, you sniffed out. 

must’ve baked the cookies i froze for him. you looked around, a sudden desperate need for another ounce of sugar in your body after your commendable performance today. 

and of course, he ate them all.

as soon as you came up the stairs, jason met you outside with a kiss—a password to your bedroom, you’d reckon.

your arms opened up for a hug. “they didn’t have the flavor you wanted, so i—“ but embracing the body of your lover, they were immediately occupied by a pile of your clothes for the night.

“yeah, yeah! that’s fine.” jason began nudging, then pushing you to the bathroom, scrunching his face. “you stink, go shower.”

“wait, why are you acting—“ bewilderment passed you as you stumbled back, and your curiosity was met by more push back, literally. the latter looked nerved, unusually antsy, and that was never a good sign. “jason, are you okay—“

“uh-huh, yeah! yeah, yeah. fine.” before you could even get another question out, the door slammed shut. “wash up! i’m gonna put the groceries back!”

oooookay..?

it took a few beats to register what exactly happened, but all of it was buried to the back of your mind as soon as you started the shower. refreshing and cooling as that soda you downed earlier.

damn, i should’ve restocked on that…

the cold draft cooled your damp skin when you stepped out the bathroom, releasing harbored humidity, and your stress for the day left along with it.

“hey,” your voice echoed while you stepped downstairs, expecting jason to either be on the couch or in the kitchen, most likely eating away at your snacks. “what do you want to eat for dinner—“

“jason?” instead, you were met with complete darkness—well, as dark as it could be while impending dusk approached your windows.

he wasn’t on the couch, entertainment-free. 

you stepped into the kitchen. not there, either. the groceries were put away, but the plastic bags were scattered around the floor. not a single soul, a whisper, or a sound, except for the crinkle of the bags as you stashed them into your recyclables.

either the shower cleared your sinuses, or jason plugged in a new wall fragrance, because the smell was sweeter compared to before. chocolate in its new top note, and vanilla, again, in its base. 

it was strange, you checked the oven. though it was warm, nothing was out of place. then the fridge, nope—jason didn’t stash any leftovers there. once again, catalogued the entire kitchen, suspiciously nothing.

you figured you’ll ask jason about it later, whenever he would come back, but for now, your priority was satiating that grumble in your stomach. as you browsed through your fridge for ingredients after turning on the lights, the cooling air wafted the sweetness away, only for it to return stronger.

and just as quick as the smell of chocolate returned, the lights flickered off.

“what the—“ you turned, and your curiosity was immediately startled by the presence of the missing man. “jesus, jason. where were—“

the only source of light that lit the room came from a soft yellow blur that flickered near jason’s chin. gentle, then not so when he took a step. another waver of light when the draft caught onto the light as he approached you. the light grew bigger, flickered stronger, as if it was connected to your heart and memorized every beat, and the smell of chocolate was pleasantly stringent to your nose.

cake. 

it was a chocolate cake all along, and jason held it with a smile that had been shadowed by the candle. anxiously, you’ve never seen him wore it with a grin before, but it made your heart skip another beat, then two when he confessed.

“happy birthday,” the dark of your orbs refracted the candlelight, yellow and orange light reunited with a wave, several excited waves as if they’ve lost you, and the smoke burning off it cooled the impending wetness of your eyes.

“what— what is this?” your breath hiked, and the candles found it calming, like the sea breeze as it brushed against them—through them. “what are—“

it felt like an eternity since you’ve been celebrated. no, it had been an eternity.

tears slowly rolled down your cheeks as you felt years pass by, heard the cries of a child that received nothing. 

the first year, it was because you were expecting of it. a gift that was never promised, but your hands were bare of nothing. 

the second year, it was hope. something that clung onto because you were promised something. 

the third year. it was denial. it had to be this year, right? you rocked yourself to sleep the night before.

the fourth year. anger. you screamed as if a gift was the only testament in the world to truly display a parent’s love for their child. 

then, the fifth year. acceptance. 

and since, you’ve matured, learned why, and thought it was for the better.

“make a wish,” jason said calmly, breaking you from the spell of your own thoughts.

“what?” you croaked weakly.

years of sheltering your birthday made you clueless, but luckily, jason was here to teach you—to remind you.

“make a wish, then blow.” as much as he wanted to hold you right now, he couldn’t risk his hard work dropping to the floor.

“oh—“ you did as you were told. you wished silently, closing your eyes until another swell of tears were forced to roll out, then blew. 

when jason turned the lights back on, the sight of the cake pulled a laugh out of you. slanted in its position, chocolate smeared all over the cake board, thick icing to cover up the mistakes, you laughed until you wiped tears.

“did you bake this for me?” you snickered, taking the cake and setting it down, because you needed to hug him, embrace him, squeeze him.

“god,” jason laughed, pressed a kiss to your head as he took you in with a strong hug. “if i bought a cake that looked like that, i’d demand two refunds. one for the cake, and one for the happiness they swindled from me.”

“i told you not to, though!” you playfully beat at his chest, the blush on your cheeks pulled a smile wider than you have ever felt, than jason had ever seen. “why?”

“because,” he sighed, then pressed his forehead to yours, holding your damp gaze like it was a prayer. the tension in both your bodies go limp, and he held you closer, worshipping you until he became besotted in your smell, your voice, your gaze, your touch.

“because,” jason repeated, and you held his cheeks, caressing his rough skin.

until even your existence wouldn’t be enough to sober him.

“because i love you.”

nouearth. please do not repost, plagiarize, or translate my works. andif you like this story, please reblog and leave a like!

[fa-headhoncho]

Unlike The Rest: "Love" Letter

(Eventual) George Weasley x Malfoy!Reader

Summary: George isn't too keen on his older brother Charlie visiting.

Word Count: 1232

Reader: Female

Warnings: None!

Author’s Note: Shout out to everyone who keeps reading these. I have been posting these for the last 5 years and there is no schedule what so ever. I have a huge backlog of these when I need comfort.

If you have requests for this series, please send them. No promises when they will get done but you will be tagged.

Masterlist

Series Masterlist

=====

The corridors are bursting at the seams when the clock signals the end of the day. The extra two student bodies make it almost impossible to move down the hallway at even a turtle’s pace. Yet, that does not stop you as you drag Ginny through the current of people. Some Beauxbatons girls send you glares at the lack of manners when you plow through them but you don't care. 

You didn’t remember when you picked up the youngest Weasley, you just saw a tuff of the familiar shade of red long hair and started dragging her to the next destination.

The leaves crunch under your Oxfords when you stomp onto the grounds in front of the clocktower. You finally come to a barreling stop, sending Ginny to almost trip over herself before you catch her.

After a moment of you helping her steady herself, you let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding. “What’s gotten into you?” She just gets a brief moment of eye contact before your eyes flick to her tie. The thing is a mess, tangled messily and you can’t help but shove a piece of parchment under your armpit and reach out to fix it.

The motions of untying the scarlet knot seem to bring you back, the muscle memory of it all pulling your racing mind to a halt. “Just-“ Your lips pull into a grin, the sprinting across the castle and slight autumn breeze adding color to the apples of your cheeks. “Just excited, that's all.” The parchment under your arm burns mockingly at your understatement.

Ginny stares at you while you fix the tie she so hastily slugged on this morning to beat the traffic. She runs different scenarios in her head that might cause such a reaction, the color on your cheeks seems like a blush… “Did your sweet Georgie finally write you a love let—“ She cuts herself off with a choking sound when you tighten her tie a little too tight.

The warning glint in your eye when you so innocently look back at her tells her she’s wrong yet she can’t help the teasing grin that slips onto her own face at the reaction. “Worse than my own little brother sometimes.” You mumble, fixing her hair back over her shoulders before turning away.

She rolls her eyes, knowing the quip was joking considering you give her your “hand-me-downs” that somehow always fit her perfectly. But she has no time to call you out because you’re grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the group of her brothers sitting by the fountain.

You stop before the three of them, still out of breath with one hand gripping the piece of parchment and the other cutting off the circulation in Ginny’s hand. The breeze ruffles your hair even more, the strands that fell out of your hair-do tickling your nose.

The good mood you were in dampers slightly when you see Ron staring up at you from his place by his brothers. You let out a hum, annoyed to see him since he’s still giving poor Harry a hard time.

The fourth year shared an almost identical eyeroll to his sister’s from earlier as he munches on some candy. “What do you want, Malfoy?” The twins' heads comically snap up at his tone, both giving their little brother different disgusted looks.

“I thought the agreement was you don’t talk and we let you sit by us.” Fred reminds the boy and you honestly wonder how his eyes didn’t roll out of this head. He mumbles something under his breath before shoving a handful of chocolates into his mouth again.

The twins finally turn to you, who is nearly vibrating out of your skin at this point with the news you’ve been holding in for the last few hours. “What’s with the impromptu family reunion?” He greets you with.

You release Ginny’s hand and hold out the piece of parchment out like a kid showing their mom their highly scored exam. “This.” You gleam with a lift to your voice.

“What is it?”

“Secret admirer.” Ginny’s response earns her a glare from George.

You let out a dreamy sigh, turning the paper over to read the words again, “Even better.” The three siblings all hold in their amusement at George’s abrupt standing. He swiftly switches places with his sister who gladly takes her seat on the lip of the fountain.

The taller boy tries to read the supposed letter over your shoulder but you are quick to hug it to your chest. “You know how your brother is… visiting.” They all nod, “Well, Charlie convinced Dumbledore to let me see the dragons when they all come as long as I don’t tell anyone.”

“Doing a grand job at that.” Ron snorts but you ignore him, too excited to entertain his snarkiness. 

“How did you even find out about him coming?”

You shrug, oh so casually with the bomb you drop on poor Georgie’s heart. “Oh, well, he told me.”

“When?”

You scoff like he knew that you’ve been pen pals with his hotter older brother who takes care of dragons. “Our last letter. Come on, Georgie, he’s been sending me letters ever since the whole Norbert thing. He even said that they might be taking interns this summer and he’ll put in a good word for me.”

“Since third year?” He mutters out, acting as if you just told him that they blocked all the secret passageways they memorized from that map. “Before we were even friends?”

You shrug, mumbling a “I thought we were friends.” under your breath before perking up again. “Well, just thought I’d tell you lot so you wouldn’t be so surprised to see me down there in a couple days. Plus, this is like the best thing that’s happened to me since I saw Buckbeak take a chunk out of Draco and I can’t even tell Cedric anything.”

George’s mind is doing laps around the castle grounds at how fast you’re moving past the topic of exchanging letters with his cool brother for the last three years. He doesn’t even hear you talking with the rest of his siblings before you announce you were heading to the library to draft up a list of questions to ask Charlie and his fellow dragon tamers.

He snaps out of his trance as you start to walk away, grabbing the strap of your bag to get your attention. The three are Weasley’s left sitting there struggling at this point to keep their composure, just watching their brother almost beg his crush for one drop of recognition. 

The tall redhead doesn’t even ask to come with you, he just leaves you standing there confused as he gathers his things from the courtyard’s floor and snatches the parchment from your hands before walking away.

You whine out his name, now trailing after him to get back the letter that confirmed your visit. George nearly preens at you following him, every so often jumping and bumping into him to get your letter from his outstretched hand.

“I can’t wait for Charlie to visit now.” Ginny is the one to break the silence after you and George disappear in the crowd at the doors under the clock. The two brothers let out a fit of giggles, barely audible words of agreement between laughs.

[manonamora-if]

May Check-In

Hi. It's been.... almost a year since I did one of those. And until Harcourt, I hadn't posted here since October. During that time, things... happened in my personal life. I'm not going to get into it* here, but it affected greatly my ability to create and interact with IF in general. I'm getting back on the tracks, slowly returning to my original routines and circles. *maybe through more cathartic writing? after more settling.

Let's get into the longer things:

Recap of last month's progress what I've been up to since July

The 2024 To-Do List

Plan for this month

Some general lines for the rest of 2025

TLDR on the important things because it's really long: Harcourt was my announcement of some return to normalcy. I'm in the process of moving. There's going to be an announcement later this month. It's good to be back. Here's to a healthier rest of the year!

What I've been up to since July?

Some posted here, some missed (I should make some separate posts). Instead of comparing posts, I'm just recap'ing it all.

The 100% Good Assets

I created a Harlowe guide for Saves and Settings, updated the huge SugarCube Guide to match the 2.37 release, generalized the Tweego Folder for Mac users and other Twine formats, expanded the ChoiceScript to SugarCube Guide, made a Harlowe template to resemble Chapbook, updated all the SugarCube templates to 2.37, ported Cloak of Darkness to Adventuron, started Chapbook templates (Save System out, Config.style still a WIP), and finally, made a Chapbook Reference Page for convenience*. *the Guide is already chef-kiss, but the Ref Page is easier CTRL+F'ing stuff

Releases

I participated in a secret jam from the Sacred Veins collective with Svipul (an excuse to create in Twine 1/SugarCane). The theme was Righteous. This is not a happy story.

And as a final hoera in 2024, Dénantir for the Partim500. It's a mini French parser made in Donjon.FI (which had been on my to-try-list for at least two years). Some more sadness and reminiscing.

As you can see, there was a mood...

Updates

Aside from the assets listed above, obviously, the major one: the final story update of The Trials and Tribulations of Edward Harcourt. Released 6 months later than announced, but out nonetheless. Granted, the game was 90% done last October, but I dragged my feet (when IRL wasn't in the way to begin with) to deal some major coding issues that messed a lot of things.

Neo-Interactives and other Events

After the major success Neo-Twiny Jam, where we raised more money than last time (help us repeat it?), there was the Single Choice Jam, Bring Out Your Ghosts, Anti-Productivity Jam, The Bare-Bones Jam, (from here, I was less involved) Educational Jam, ShuffleComp 2024, Smoochie Jam, and the recently ended Dialogue Jam. A lot of participation overall with pretty neat entries! After a very busy, but very exciting, first full calendar year of events, we've decided to scale it back a little*. In 2025, at least, only the month-long jams will be held. *I have a huge backlog of stuff to play now... and NTJ25 is coming soon...

In other events I've helped, there was the IFCOMP for which I did Socials and Moderation, and the SeedComp! that kinda fizzled out at the end (tbf being completely MIA didn't help).

And finally, the Interactive Fiction Showcase 2024 which had so many entries. Which reminds me, I didn't announce the 2025 Showcase yet, which I should do sooner rather than later.

I did play some games, and reviewed a bunch last winter, but that fell off as well earlier this year.

Awards and other cool things that happened

I interviewed Chandler Groover for @the-rosebush-mag, following his win at the 2024 IFComp. This was such an honour to sit down with him and talk about his journey through IF.

I PROMISE I AM WORKING ON THE GAME and machina caerulea was included in the 56 edition of Indiepocalypse! A double feature~ And included with some really cool other people too!

I PROMISE I AM WORKING ON THE GAME was in a 1st-place tie for Best Use of Interactivity at the IF Short Game Showcase.

Les lettres du Docteur Jeangille won Outstanding French Game of 2024 at the IFDB Awards!! And a bunch of nominations for most of my 2024 games (though none came as close). Really proud of this. Twice in a row too! Won't happen this year, because no French Comp for me.

And David Welbourn included Not Another Sad Meal in his monthly parser walkthrough (January 2025). It's kind of wild. I've been using his amazing walkthroughs when playing many old-school parsers. And now I'm in the list! That reminds me, I need to fix some things.

~ And I think that's it? I've missed some pretty eventful periods, so a lot of stuff fell through the cracks.

It does look like I've done a lot, even during my quiet times, but it's really been more in spurs. Short periods of extreme activity and long ones of nothing (half of the summer, the whole of November, most of December, most of January, and from February until mid-April). In other words, when I had some quiet time to actually do something and when shit really hit the fan. It's been hard to balance, but I think I'm regaining my footing. April's been somewhat of a blessing in disguise.

~

The 2024 To-Do List

... has not really been followed. I haven't fixed the bugs on any of my older projects, or finished any of my WIPs (well, Harcourt, but 6 months too late). Instead, the first half was filled with unplanned game releases. On the bright side, I've fulfilled my wish of testing out new programs, or getting better at them. Well, and with Harcourt now out, I guess one thing got crossed out.

On the other hand, I haven't reviewed/played as much as I had hoped*. Even updated my website is completely out of date. Also dropped the ball on all the social media stuff. Very lacklustre year. *esp. the Neo-Interactives entries. It was important to me that every entry got some comments, to ensure everyone knew people looked at their work.

So hum... yeah. ⭐for "participating", lol.

~

The PLANtm for May

Not so much of a plan, more of what to expect this month, which... won't be much. Because the thing is: I'm moving at the end of the month. So between packing, selling, cancelling stuff here, and unpacking, opening, and probably buying things there, my IRL To-Do is arm-length at this point. It's both super stressful and a huge relief. I picked such a good time to come back, lol.

But I hope to have time to do some things. If not in updates/engaging, at least in planning for the rest of the year.

Harcourt: while the story is finished, there are still some kinks in the code/interface that can be handled better. As mentioned in the the update post, it's currently an Open Beta. There are a couple of things I'd like to add in-game. Nothing major. I don't expect the polished version to be out this month, but I'd like to make some progress on it, at minimum.

Secret Project: this will have a proper announcement later this month, but I'm currently planning a summer project for myself. It's both related to IRL and IF. Some good stuff I hope.

Really Bad IF Jam: is back by popular demands. The whole month of May, you can let out some steam by making terrible stuff. If I manage some free time, I might wing something?

Website Update: because it's a long time coming. Half a dozen games are missing, so does a bunch of new info. And it could do with a new interface.

Reconnect with the community. As a whole. I want to catch up on a lot of stuff I missed, and return notes that have been sitting in my inbox for too long.

I think if I can update the website and manage to tick off enough from planning of the secret project, I'll be pretty pleased with myself.

~

Some general lines for the rest of 2025

Normally, this is where I whip out my yearly to-do list of things I want done but probably not even manage to make a dent into it. You know the list from the start of the year, when I do my retrospective. Which hasn't happened this year either. So there's no list.

But for now, my main goal is to get back into a good healthy rhythm, where I can balance IRL stuff, IF responsibilities, and my own projects, without burn out looming or me being unable to do the things I enjoy doing. I think I'll need to make peace with my own capabilities, and stick to proper limits.

In terms of limits, the first has to be participating in events. It's not sustainable for me to try and make a game for all the IF events/game jams that catch my eye - even if I really want to or find them inspiring, and even if I can combine them. Almost all my projects have been created for or ended up submitted in a competition or jam; with ~90% of those being done on a whim/last minute. And because nothing I put out is a perfect bug-free experience, that means re-adding more to my plate with each submission. Because I still like those events very much, I need to be more realist with what I can do, and back out when things are not attainable. Like I have so far this past year. I had full planned or some form of ideas for the SingleChoice, Anti-Productivity, Educational Jam, ShuffleComp, the French Comp, the SpringThing and the Text-Adventure Jam, which all passed without a peep from me; as well as projects I've pushed for a later time for the ParserComp, IntroComp, IFComp (can't since helping organising), and EctoComp from last year. It's both been a disappointment (because I can't work on those ideas), and a relief (less stress to meet a too-short deadline!). So, for now, I'll most likely stick to just @neo-twiny-jam (for a good cause), and the Partim500. In huge part because it's only 500 words max. But also because they are the most fun experience I recall having, consistently. For any other jam, I'll restrict myself to long length (>= 1 month dev) only if I have actual time and a concrete plan (not just a vague idea/vibe - even if I want to test a new program). As for competitions, no submissions until I've finished at least one more WIP - and the entry is actually polished and tested properly (maybe I'll get better reviews now lol). That should leave me with more time to fix older projects, and complete current (and secret) WIPs. Actually actively removing stuff from my desk. For actual realsies now.

In terms of limits pt.2, IF responsibilities. I've been a part of a bunch communities, at different levels of organising, and with different amount of required efforts. Since getting more involved in the community, I've given more than 100% of myself to everything I've said yes to. It was working great for me... until I realised how much piled up. It was already too much last year, and I knew it - I couldn't keep up with most things then. Which is why I said my goodbyes to the great @interact-if last summer, and left a bunch of other discords/spaces. As mentioned above, Neo-Interactives is scaling back as well in terms of events. I had the foresight of preparing a bunch of stuff in advance (this is why @neointeractives has had scheduled posts with reminders). It's been less hectic and stressful, since not having something looming and having to untangle every 2-3 weeks. Gotta give major props to @lapinlunaire-games and @cyberpunklesbian for all their work too (esp during my breaks), they've been real rocks! As for other events, I can be pretty laissez-faire with random unranked events (like the Showcase or Really Bad IF), like posting it and let it be. But comps (and anything with more than one clear rule) require a minimum of admin and promotion*. Time and energy I need to see if I can spend (especially if I delegate) and reevaluate. *seriously... it's more work than you think it is, because it's very concentrated on specific days. It's exhausting. Rewarding too! but exhausting. That would give me a a more balanced planning at least. More time for updating stuff (the reason why yall are following me) :)

A potential path for myself in the soon future (brought to me by moving) is maybe being able to start a Ko-Fi or Support author button on itch. There's a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo attached to that, but it's definitely something more attainable than it was while being here. It's something I'll be checking out this summer, and if possible, there will be an announcement (maybe even a new dev name?). Anyway, that's at least for late-2025-me to worry about. Also will need to find a new job first...

In any case, a slower, calmer, healthier "normal" on the horizon. And a new website! 🤞

[chippedchina-teacup]

Summary: She's the youngest, the newest, and yet she has lived a thousand lives worth of grief. When she thinks she's found something that might bring her some happiness, even if only for a little while, it ends - just like it always does. But Booker? He will always be there for her.

Word Count: 2,919

Warnings: It's mostly just sad. The reader's mother dies after being sick for a long time, and a lot of people in her life have died, There's a toxic relationship, and I guess you could say there's an age difference but when you're literally going to live forever it kind of becomes a moot point.

A/N: I wrote this ages ago for a blog the no longer exists because I deleted the account. Anyway, I promised a backlog of my old work and this definitely counts. Please enjoy my shitty writing from back when the world was entirely shut down for four years.

You had told him you couldn’t die.

Which was true. Technically you were immortal; you didn’t like that word. A lifetime spent studying too many myths, too many legends, too many religions had guaranteed that. So, you told him you were deathless.

And he had left.

You had called him, of course. He had answered the first time, and called you a fucking bitch, he’d told you to fuck off. You could tell he was drunk. The second time, he answered, and then he put you on speaker phone and had you listen to him fucking another woman for fifteen minutes before the shock of him doing such a thing wore off enough for you to hang up.

The third time, he didn’t answer at all.

You had cried then. Buried your face in your hands and sobbed. Choking on air, and unable to catch your breath. Booker had found you like that, on the front steps of the safe house in your pretty new dress, that you had worn because you’d thought he might like it, with tears in your eyes and a broken heart.

Seeing you like that was enough make him angry. Not his usual, depressed and defeated anger that was directed at the world for damning him to this hollow existence, but the kind of anger that made his vision flash white hot with rage, and made him clench his fists until the skin broke, and blood dried under his nails. The kind of anger he hadn’t felt in nearly a hundred years. The kind that couldn’t have been chased away by scotch or brandy or anything.

——

You were the youngest of them all; younger, even, than Nile. You had never been a warrior, or a fighter. You were a girl who couldn’t catch a break, and this was the latest in a long list of horrible, shitty, things to be thrown at you, that never should have been.

At 19, you had died in a car crash after a drunk driver hit you head on. There was nothing you could have done, and first responders were unsure how you were able to walk away from the crash without a scratch, when the car itself had been nearly unrecognizable. Your older brother had not been so lucky - his neck had been snapped when the force of the collision had pushed him forward in his seat, and then back all too suddenly.

Andy, Nicky, and Joe had found you the next week, sitting next to a hospital bed where your mother lay dying a slow painful death - the same way she had been for the last ten years.

She had been barely conscious, laying there on the hospital bed, unable to do or say anything due to her tracheostomy, and the cocktail of pain meds swirling through her system, providing what meagre comfort they could.

You had been curled up as small as possible in an armchair at her bedside, with your knees, covered in the black material of a pair of leggings, tucked up to almost under your chin.

You were dosing uneasily, likely having nightmares about their own deaths. One Air Pod, in the other nowhere to be seen, nose twitching slightly, brows furrowing and relaxing over and over again, the front of a men’s flannel clutched tight in one hand, to ward off the cold air blowing from the vent above your chair. The other holding your phone in a white knuckled grip.

The front of your Ramones shirt only just visible, and the laces of one of your converse undone and hanging over the edge of the chair.

Andy had told the receptionist she was your aunt. Nicky and Joe had said they were your brother and brother-in-law. The receptionist was too busy reading Cosmo to bother asking for ID.

Nile had been trying to track down Booker. They had said 100 years, and had it not been for you, it would have been. But none of them had had dreams of dying the way you had, and none of them knew what to do about it. The others hadn’t been sure that finding him and ending his exile early was the best decision, but Nile had insisted, and she had made some rather sound arguments in her attempt to convince the others. Or at least, she had come up with semi-reasonable reasons until not agreeing made them all feel like assholes.

——

She had finally found him in a seedy looking bar somewhere in Paris. It was barely five years in, and already Nile could tell that he wouldn’t have made it much more than another year without a psychotic break. She’d sat down on the barstool next to him and ordered a glass of water and a cup of strong coffee. It took entirely too long for Booker to even notice she was sitting there, and even then, it was only because she slid the coffee mug in front of him, and told the bartender that he’d had enough.

He’d looked up with a drunken smirk, and a hollow laugh, and asked, somewhat vaguely, if the hundred years were up already.

Nile shook her head and said “No.” before filling him in on the new immortal that was joining their rag-tag little family.

Booker hadn’t thought that was reason enough to end his exile, his own guilt telling him that he didn’t deserve to see his family again so soon. But Nile had insisted. And then the bartender had told them they were closing, and that they needed to “Get the fuck out,” in heavily accented English, so they’d gone back to his shitty little apartment in an even shittier part of Paris, that no one who hadn’t been to Paris would have ever associated with the city.

They’d stood in his tiny kitchen sipping cups of too strong coffee that Nile had made, and then mistakenly burned, using a cheap moka pot that one of the previous tenants had left behind in cabinet Booker hadn’t even opened yet. He’d moved after Quynh had shown up. It seemed like her centuries spent drowning had changed her from the woman Andy had known, and he knew that whatever trouble and bitterness she might bring, that was the last thing he’d needed. It was the only smart decision he’d made recently, and he wasn’t even sure how sober he’d been.

Nile had spent the night. She’d slept in his room - almost passed out once her head hit the pillow, and Booker had taken the lumpy sofa in the living room, not that there was much distinction between the two rooms, and spent most of the night staring blankly at the tin ceiling tiles, the paint peeling off them from years of neglect, occasionally gulping down a few mouthfuls of the cheap brandy he’d found under the sink - the way it tasted, it might as well have been gasoline with an only vaguely raisin-y aftertaste.

The next morning, they’d found themselves on a military cargo plane returning stateside from Germany, and they’d had to get up far too early for Booker’s taste. Nile, of course, had seemed unaffected by the early wake up, followed by the moderately long, four and a half hour, drive to an American air base in Germany, and seemed perfectly at ease on the trip. He wondered if Andy or Copley had been the one to arrange transportation, or if Nile had managed this one herself.

Eight hours later had found them in New York, and boarding another flight, this one on a commercial airline, to Seattle. Joe had met them there, and only paused to explain that Andy and Nicky had stayed with you in the hospital.

——

You had been shaken awake by a warm hand on your shoulder, the first thing you saw being a pair of gentle brown eyes belonging to an unfamiliar man with an Italian accent. Another man, this one with dark curly hair and a beard, was standing behind him, a sad smile barely touched his lips, and for a second you assumed the worst, and turned your head in your mother’s direction, not facing the two men again until you saw her chest rise and fall once more with a labored, shuddering breath. 

The heart monitor had long since lost any reassuring meaning with it’s almost painfully consistent beeping. Seeing her breath always did more to reassure you, especially as her condition had worsened.

It was only then that you took notice of the woman standing by the door.

Andy had been the most surprised when you hadn’t needed much convincing to believe that you were immortal. Maybe it was because Nile had refused to believe her even after she’d shot her in the head, or maybe it was because you had just accepted the news and hadn’t needed any proof or evidence that she was the only one of them that could die - and that even that had been a rather recent development. 

Whatever the case, your newfound immortality had obviously not been your primary concern at the moment. If anything, you had seemed resigned to the fact that you would outlive all your loved ones, and it wasn’t until she looked at the bed with your mother in it that she realized; you already had.

When the heart monitor had flatlined, you’d simply grabbed your canvas messenger bag from where it was located next to your chair, moved the chair back to its original position closer to the wall, and moved out of the nurses’ way as the came rushing into the room with a crash cart. You had mumbled a quite “Goodbye, Mom.” and made your way into the hallway to wait for the doctor to tell you, officially, that your mother had died.

It sounded cruel if you said it out loud, but you hoped she had. Ten years in pain as her body slowly consumed itself was not something she had deserved.

It was only two hours later when your mother’s doctor had come out to tell you something you already knew. You would have expected him to come out sooner, but they had rushed her into emergency surgery - something about trying to drain fluid from somewhere it shouldn’t have been. You had nodded and remained calm. 

He had known you since you were a child, seen you lose your dad to alcohol, and then your grandmother - who had taken care of you and your brother after your mom got sick - to old age, she’d died peacefully in her sleep, and you were only glad she hadn’t had to identify your brother in the morgue.

He knew you wouldn’t say yes, but he asked if you wanted to say goodbye anyway. You simply shook your head, smiled sadly, and said you had a long drive home, and needed to be leaving soon. Joe had already left half an hour ago to pick up someone named “Nile”, and maybe someone else named “Booker”. He hadn’t seemed particularly happy about the second person.

——

The next morning was almost eerie in its normalcy. You woke up early, ignored the polite but artificial condolences being offered by your neighbors who had either stopped by with a casserole or a who had called far too early in the morning - how anyone knew that your mother had died the night before you would never know, but small towns have their way of knowing what’s happened in someone’s life before they should - and let Joe and the other two unfamiliar people who were with him in when he called through the screen door of the laundry room, open only so people would stop ringing the damn doorbell at a quarter past eight in the morning.

You made breakfast like you normally would for yourself and your brother, except you made five times as much, and then you ignored the pancakes and the bacon and the eggs, and opted instead for a cup of black coffee, hoping it would settle your churning stomach.

Everyone seemed to enjoy their food, and they talked softly at the dining table as they ate, while you sat on the kitchen counter, nursing a third cup of coffee, then a fourth, and sneaking occasional glances at Booker.

He hadn’t been one of the ones you’d met at the hospital. He was one of the ones Joe had picked up from the airport. He hadn’t been saying much at the table and was the first one done with his breakfast. It only surprised you a little when he had appeared next to you, and placed his dishes in the sink, before leaning against the counter. He hadn’t said anything, but something about him was comfortable, it drew you in, and for some strange reason, you found yourself laying your head against his should without even realizing it.

Booker had been surprised by the action. No one acted like this around him. And he had absolutely no clue why you, a nineteen-year-old girl and the reason why his exile had been cut short by 95 years, might be as apparently comfortable in his presence as you were. All he knew was that there was some kind of a connection. Whatever it might be, the two of you - despite many apparent differences - would get along well. There wasn’t any particular reason to believe that to be the case, but somehow you both seemed know. 

And the others, they noticed it too. In less than an hour of knowing each other, you already felt comfortable enough rest you head on his shoulder, and Booker, seemingly unknowingly, had instinctively wrapped an arm around your waist to keep you from falling forward, as you drifted off to sleep.

——

That had all been ten years ago. Meeting everyone, your mother dying. Finding out about your immortality and becoming inexplicably close with Booker almost immediately. In that time, you had found someone you had thought you could have learned to love, and Booker, despite trying his best not to, had fallen in love with you.

It had taken a while. You had had to settle into a new life in a new country – in multiple new countries. You’d had to learn languages you’d never have had any use for before, something that was made much easier with Booker’s help. You’d had to figure out your relationships with your new family.

But eventually, you had settled. Nicky and Joe were sort of a cross between older brothers and fathers to you. Likewise, Andy had essentially decided that you were going to be a sort of niece or younger sister to her. She hadn’t really known how to act around you at first, you were basically a teenager when you first met, and she had tried to act a bit like a mother to you at first, without taking the place of either your mother or grandmother, and then she realized that you were far older than your age, and you’d both been able to relax around each other.

Nile almost immediately became like a sister to you. You were both the youngest, and you both had the most culturally similar childhoods to each other.

Your relationship with Booker, however, was never solely platonic. You were always the closest to him, and he to you - something that shocked everyone, even him. You would usually seek him out when nightmares of drowning or of watching your brother’s neck snap as you were unable to do anything to help plagued your sleep, or when you needed a shoulder to cry on. Somehow, he always knew what to say.

When you had first called him and asked him if he could pick you up after your ex had first made you cry, he had wanted to find him, and hurt him the way he had hurt you.

He hadn’t, if only for your sake.

The second time he had simply found a way to distract you - no one had believed Joe when he had told them that he had found the two of you slow dancing in the living room at midnight, your head laying against his chest, soft smiles on both of your faces as you had been spun slowly about the living room in time with the quite music playing from the old record player in the corner.

The third time he had simply wrapped a warm blanket around your shoulders, handed you a glass of brandy, that for once didn’t taste like gasoline, and pulled you into his chest where he gently combed through your hair with his fingers until you fell asleep - Andy and Nile had found you both on the sofa the next morning, Booker’s arms wrapped around you protectively, and they had both started to wonder if Joe had been telling the truth about the two of you dancing in the living room.

This time, however, was too much. Once he had found you on the front steps, he had managed to get you to calm down enough to tell him what happened. And the only thing he could think to do was wrap an arm around you the way he always seemed to, and murmur quietly “I may not know what love is, but I sure know what love ain’t.”

And somehow, that had made you smile again, and while there were still tears in your eyes and your dress was still dusty from sitting on the steps where you were, you had never looked more beautiful.

[mraprilfools]

Welcome to my Blog! I'm April Fools(He/Him), I write Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss related content. Sometimes I draw my OC's, Vox, Alastor, or Radiostatic. You most likely know me from my Imagines!

I'm doing a rotation between Alastor, Vox, and Adam for now with the imagines! But I might open up to more muses later. Be sure to click the AprilFoolsImagine tag to see any imagines you've missed!

All my Fics are posted to Ao3 and open to guests without accounts!

Do you take requests?

I do! But I cannot promise a timely turn around. Keep an eye out to see if my Asks are currently open. I write x Readers and certain CCxCC. (I don't write WLW or my NOTP's so I will have to respectfully decline those)

I am currently: CLOSED

Do you write 18+ Content?

I do! But until further notice I will only be linking 18+ fics to my Ao3. Please do check the link above if you're looking for something spicy.

What are you favorite Pairings?

Almost anything with Vox! With Reader, Alastor, Lucifer, Charlie, Rosie, Valentino, Emberlynn to name a few would be those I'd be thrilled to write for. But Radiostatic is my OTP

I'm also a fan of AdamsApple and EmberlynnxLucifer

So what kind of content do you post?

The daily imagines for one, and any SFW fics I end up writing! I'll do Fluff, Horror, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, and even platonic dynamics.

Any exciting Projects we should keep an eye out for?

I am 2/3rds done with the first draft of a Mutual Radiostatic fic that is spanning currently over 150k+ words. It's my baby I've been working on for MONTHS and once I finish the second draft you'll be hearing so much more about it. I'm prewriting the whole thing before I start posting.

Until then I'm planning on: More Oneshots for Sepia Colored Days, A possible continuation of The Heart of the Machine(If you'd love a 2/3rd part totally bug me), and more than a couple requests in my backlog.

Vox Masterlist

The Heart of the Machine

🔥Corporate Punishment

🕊️The Final Broadcast[Vox character Study]

🌼Caught

🌼I Missed You(Old!Vox)

A Snowy Day Off(Old!Vox)

RadioStatic Masterlist

Rose Garden Days(QPR)

Jekyll & Hyde(QPR)

Silk Flowers(QPR)

My Dear Monster(QPR)

Hell's Greatest Rivals

Misc Reader X Canon

🔥Greedy for You[F!Reader x Mammon]

🔥AdamsZapple+1[AdamxReaderxVox]

Other

🔥The Abandoned Factory[Vox x Angel Dust]

🕊️The Deal[Alastor Character Study]

🌼The Rotten Apple of my Eye[AdamxLucifer]

Just Pretend it's a Woman[MammonxAdam]

The First Snow[Old!Vox x Lucifer]

My Snowflake[CharliexVox]

Key:

🌼- Short fic! Under 1.5k!

🔥- 18+. Links to my AO3

🕊️- Dead Dove. Links to my AO3

[anne-is-ominous]

Raising The White Flag

My friends... I surrender.

I've been trying for months to balance two writing projects simultaneously. I'd done it before - cranking out chapters on the fly with ease. But, over the last few months - especially since the Fascistpocalypse in November, my physical and - to a far greater extent, mental - health has been in absolute tatters. I am trying to navigate the health issues while working two full-time jobs and juggling two writing projects, and it's breaking me.

Beyond that, the three-chapter-a-week schedule of Reignited has prevented me from ever getting far enough ahead - due to all of the other things crippling my writing speed of late - to give me any time to work on book XIII. I've been prioritizing Reignited because it has the higher readership count, and because the drumbeat for new chapters is so much louder, but that means I never get to tell new story, and it's starting to feel like a chore to sit down and write at all. That way leads to a much more permanent form of author burnout that none of us want, and that could eventually call the completion of Phoenix itself into question. This action is being taken preventatively, in large part to cut that burnout and frustration off at the root before it can become a much more serious problem.

As much as it breaks my heart to admit defeat, something has to give.

In the next 24 hours, I intend to release the final chapter of Book II of Phoenix: Reignited Edition, as well as the long-overdue chapter 8 of Phoenix Odyssey Book XIII. Once that is done, I'm going to be tweaking the schedule as follows, such that I only have to manage writing one project at a time. I'll usually still be releasing two, but... more on that in a moment.

This is my current backlog situation. It's... pretty grim.

Of the six Book XIII chapters I have in the can, they're not sequential. I have today's, but I'll need to write more after that to close the gaps in Act 1 of book XIII.

My intent is to pause releases of Reignited - not for long, just a week or two - between books two and three. This will give me a few days (during which time I am going to try to take a vacation day or two from work for a mini-writing retreat) to crank out the remainder of Book XIII's Act 1. Releasing one chapter a week on Mondays, that would give me almost three months' worth of content in the can.

While those chapters release on Mondays, I can then flip back to Reignited, and hammer out book three. Note that book three is by far the weakest of the original series; it simply needs the most work. I will pause Book XIII writing while working on book III of Reignited, which may mean a gap of a week or two between book XIII's Acts 1 and 2 depending on how well the schedule holds.

I'll continue the back-and-forth until books IV (Reignited) and XIII (Odyssey) are done, and then we'll talk about what happens for books XIV and beyond, and the Reignited version of Phoenix Ascendant (books V - IX.) I know this is confusing. Here's the TL;DR:

I'm going to stop trying to write both ends of the timeline at the same time because it's driving me crazy

If the back-and-forth schedule holds, there shouldn't have to be gaps of more than a week or two in any project until both are across the finish line

This "limp along" strategy is intended to get me to the end of Reignited book 4 and Odyssey book XIII and we'll re-evaluate after that

I'm so sorry I haven't been able to keep up with everything. I bet on myself to do the impossible, and I did not count on the absolute nuclear warhead the last few months have been on my life on top of it. Could I have maintained it otherwise? Maybe. Probably. But second-guessing now is only going to drive me crazy. I promise I will do my best to get this content out to you as quickly - and in as high of a quality - as I can possibly manage while still keeping myself out of both the hospital and the loony bin. I will see this project done - all sixteen books, and Reignited too - if it kills me. It's just that I'd prefer it didn't kill me, and so I'm going to do it a bit slower than I originally planned.

I'm truly sorry.

[shootingstar-scuderia]

learning that you only get the raw end of the deal

nortrell | f1 driver!max fewtrell x not famous!lando norris

max gets his maiden f1 victory but really he should know better by now, he never comes out the winner

a/n: the first to be released from the backlog of my fics! i can't guarantee that it's properly proofread but i hope you enjoy anyways. title is from seen my man by trixie mattel

masterlist

Max can hardly think about anything the moment he crosses the finish line first. Can barely think about the fact that he’s finally done it, that he's won a F1 race, that everything he’s put into his career has paid off. Can barely think about what it means, to him and everyone else who’s built up. 

The only thing he can think about is the rush of blood in his ears, the way it makes his hands shake on the wheel – the feeling of being a winner.

When he finally manages to check his phone he’s got a string of texts from Lando that’s near incomprehensible. All caps and full of misspelled words. He responds to them, diligently reacting to the ones that deserve them and sending off a thanks bob.

He doesn’t do much, not when he’s expecting a call from Lando any moment so they can properly scream about it. Max Fewtrell, F1 race winner.

Only the call doesn’t come and Max’s stomach does a funny flip because of it. A twisting that seems to stick in his gut.

Max sends off another text to Lando, a wish you could have been here. 

That doesn’t get another text from Lando either and there’s a near constant buzz of anxiety that sits under his skin because of it. He’s shaky with it, heart pounding out of sync and fingers numb. And when he sends off a third text and Lando still doesn’t respond Max knows properly that there’s something there, brewing, bursting out from under the surface.

He nearly turns down an offer to go out and celebrate his win. Almost preferring to sit by the phone waiting for a call from Lando. But it’s a call he’s less and less confident is coming with each hour that passes and he should go out to celebrate, proper, like a winner, Lando be damned. Still, he does wait by the phone, just this time it’s under flashing lights and in the sweat of a crowd, wondering if he should text again.

It could be even worse now, now that Lando’s got a few hours to stew properly about it. Somehow, even after so many years, Max still never knows exactly what he’s stepping into. Even after so many years he still only knows enough to test the water but never enough to read the result.

He caves.

next time bob

i promise

He doesn’t expect an answer, knows better than to at this point. But Max also knows, even though he’s got the shiniest trophy, even though he’s stood on the highest step of the podium –

Somehow he’s still coming home first loser.

[e-likes-bones]

hi, it’s been awhile :)) idk if u remember me but I asked for the mini mozzarella art?? Do u still do requests like that? Cuz I had a strange one in mind :))

yo, yeah i remember you!

i’m not gonna lie, i still technically have a backlog of requests that i. really need to work on because they’ve been sitting in my inbox/notes for like. almost 4 months now (sorry to y’all about that! i will eventually get them done i swear! i just haven’t been doing all that well)

but ya know, i’m curious what your request is. no promises i’d get to it anytime soon but i am intrigued !

[captainmvf]

Okay.

PC cable was replaced so video editing and processing is back.

Frame by frame animation is still out of the question. (Huion answer my emails.)

The cable to replace for my Wacom was STOLEN by an attendant in the apartment I live in (got a refund, but that final straw almost made me [data expunged]) and the replacement was supposed to arrive yesterday at my family's house but instead arrived today... While I was on a plane to return from vacation. (Note: I will not be asking for anything to be delivered to my address FOREVER now.)

No super crisp art from me atm so it's all on Procreate via iPad and regular traditional art.

-but HEY!! I can do video work again and type on a regular keyboard!! Also sit in a chair as I work so that'll save my back.

Besides projects I'm promised to, I will still be on a semi-hiatus with videos. I have a backlog of stuff to catch up on including written works I'd like to be done and wash my hands of.

[ladykailitha]

A Heads Up and a Schedule Update

Just a few things to go over with you today!

Posting schedule

What's Next Story Wise

Halloween and WIP Wednesday

My permanent tag list

1- First up, my posting schedule. The days AREN'T changing. This is just an update on which stories will be released.

This Sunday is the last chapter of Icarus (metal band) and I will start posting its sequel "Around the World" and it's epilogue "The Rise of the Fallen".

Because I want to get as much of "Around the World" out as possible in the spooky month, it will post starting on Tuesday, Oct. 22 and will post one chapter every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday until it completes. Then once it is done, "The Rise of the Fallen" will premier at the first Sunday AFTER "Around the World" is done. So if it ends on Oct. 31st then it will come out on Nov. 3rd. But if it ends on Nov. 5th, the epilogue will premier on Nov. 10th. Does that make sense?

"The Rise of the Fallen" only has two chapters so there is no need to rush them out. So the two chapters will release a week apart.

The Hellfire Club (stripper) is nearing it's completion and will have 13 chapters. It will continue to release every Friday ending on Nov. 22.

Now, depending on what finishes first, "The Au Pair Boy" (nanny) will premier the following week. So if the Fallen verse ends first, then it will come out on a Sunday, if Hellfire does then it will come out on Friday Nov. 29th.

As always I am constantly writing so as these finish I move onto other stories and will begin posting new stories once they get at least 3 chapters in backlog. Which brings me neatly to number two!

2- What's next story wise?

I have so many ideas (waves at my Discord chat, if you know, you know).

Some really interesting ideas that I've come up with recently are:

Noir AU

Mafia AU

FB Prompt

Amnesia

Steddie as Dragon Dancers (which I haven't written up for Tumblr yet)

And any or all of them will be used as I finish the other stories. If you have one you'd really like to see, put a comment or tag in and I'll see about moving it to the top of the list or at least closer to the to the top.

3- Halloween and WIP Wednesday.

I won't be having WIP Wednesday on the 30th, because I'm doing the Trick or Treat ask game on the 31st.

This is how I will be doing it. I will have two pick wheels up on my laptop. You send Trick or Treat (with the name of a current WIP) and the first wheel determines whether you get a trick or a treat. A treat is a snippet from that WIP or if it's a trick it will go into the second wheel where it pick a number and I will answer the corresponding ask from this list.

Just like with WIP Wednesday you can play as often as you like. You know me I love asks. Any remaining asks will be answered the next week as part of the usual WIP Wednesday.

4- Permanent Tag List.

It's that dreaded time of year again. Trimming and rearranging my tag list. About every six months or so, I go through all my stories and if you haven't liked, reblogged, or commented on a story in the last three months, I give you a whole month of me constantly, almost aggressively tagging you to respond whether or not you want to remain on the list.

I do this because sometimes people fade from a fandom and I don't want to keep tagging someone who isn't interested in my writing anymore. It's not fair for them, and it's not fair for the other people who want to be on the list but can't.

If after the month and you haven't responded or if you respond that you want to be removed from my list (which I am 100% okay with I promise!) you'll be removed from the and refill any vacancies to the list.

I have a hard max total of 40, and depending on how many I lose this time that might go down.

THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO REQUEST TO BE ADDED TO THE LIST PLEASE!!!

I already having a waiting list of SIX people who comment, like and reblog my stuff all the time that I want on it. And they will be given top priority to be added. @fearieshadow

@dreamercec @blondie1006 @kultiras @thesecondfate @sadisticaltarts

If there is any room after I add them, then I might be open to requests. But again it depends on how many is left. Like if after the six get added and I have 37, then I'll open for three more. But if I have 35, I might lower the hard limit to the 35 so more casuals can get a chance to be tagged in a specific story as my story tag lists have a hard limit of 50. Which means as it stands only 10 casuals can request to be added at this time.

So starting on Nov. 2nd I will send out the call. And every Saturday until the end of Nov. I will repost (not reblog as a reblog doesn't RE-notify you) with how many days you have left to reply.

Then on Nov. 30th I will trim the unanswered and the removals from the list and add the wait list. Then if there is any room I'll do an open call. If there isn't enough room for all six, I will use a pick wheel to fill the list to keep it fair. Same will go for the extras if more than required amount to fill it goes over.

[thatwordybirb]

For the fanfic ask game!

7. Coffee or tea while you write?

Or

10. Is there a character/ship you'd love to write for but haven't?

Or

17. What is something you've recently felt proud if in your writing?

Or

24. What scene/theme was the main inspiration for All We Might Have Been?

Or

32. A character you enjoy making suffer

Feel free to answer as many or as little of these as you want!

A! :'D Lesse here-

7. Neither, actually! Raised Mormon, never had coffee, only tried tea once in adulthood last year. Some things I said due to the caffeine, and I quote thanks to the magic of backlog: "I can feel my heart in my ears." "I can feel my eyes move in my skull." "I can feel my thoughts on my skin." So my body is comically unequipped for the stuff. |"D When I have my weekly THC gummy, though, it often seriously helps with the writers block, so I guess that's my answer?

10. Oof, that's a good one. There are several ships I sail that I haven't written for - Badgermao, Krazyshipping, Wildehopps, Maebea, and some others I'm forgetting I'm sure - but I feel like my writing style would fit and muse would latch onto Roquill the best if I just had a story idea I could really get behind. Rocket Raccoon and Peter Quill have some really fun dynamics going between them, and Rocket's a sterling member of my Menagerie of Sad Bastards, so I feel like I could do a lot with them. Honestly I also feel really bad I missed the boat on the GotG fandom, I'm only really getting into them now years after the last movie came out...

17. Well, last month I finished the first chapter for anything since my spouse had that brain hemorrhage this time last year! :D It was for The Roads We Walked Remain, though, so, only my beautiful beta readers have gotten to see it so far. Still, the next two chapters of All We Might Have Been are almost done, so I'm happy about that!

24. Ooo, well... it was a combination of a few things coalescing! When I wrote Just Make Me One Promise, shipping Nezu with All Might was a joke I teased one of my beautiful beta readers with, 'cause she's totally into the idea in the lewd way. Theeen I kept thinking about it and realized that the two of them being an ace couple would reinforce the themes of the entire series perfectly. Then a bit later it hit me how much Nezu and Tomura Shigaraki have in common, how fascinating it'd be to see them as foster father and son, and I already thought Izuku Midoriya would work better as a villain protagonist than a hero (and the popularity of Villain Deku shows I'm far from the only one). Then all at once, the premise of All We Might Have Been clicked into place, and I've been loving bringing it to life ever since~!

32. All of them? All of them. I think all of them. Every character I care about. I want them to get their happy ending, even if it's not the happy ending they envisioned, but I want it to hurt, I want to see what they're made of when they're pushed to the point of breaking - or even the point of inverting, of becoming everything they're not. I want to see them in the depths of the despair and at the height of hope. A happy ending to a happy journey just... doesn't feel Right, instinctively and inherently. It doesn't feel real. And feeling real is a key ingredient to fiction that ignites the imagination and stokes the soul, last I knew.

[helenrourke]

January Writing Progress Wrap-up

Hey, it’s the last Saturday of the month and I have a lot to talk about. So I may have accidently posted this early while editing it at work and found out hours later...opps (i'm just gonna leave it up). I got a lot of writing done and hit my goal of writing the first drafts of The Imperial House up to Act Six.  That means that we will have at least one post a month until May.  I don’t know how busy I’ll be with grad school, but I’m glad I have some sort of backlog prepared.  I also got to explore some other fic ideas since I had all this free time since I was on break.  It was a productive month and I’m glad that I was able to write as much as I did.

What I published

A Quarter to Three – aka the AU – Alternate First meeting/College Tsukushi x Tsukasa fic I wrote as a last-minute replacement for toxic to the end, which ended up being much more popular than I thought it would be. What a way to start off the year.  I’ve heard you requests to turn this into a series and I plan to release several one chapter works involving other Hana Yori Dango characters in that universe.  I almost didn’t publish this fic, but thanks to everyone who encouraged me too.  Also, a quick shoutout to @purplesoil whose fic Red Butts inspired my fic in the first place.

The Imperial House – I was able to release Act Two and I’m glad that we finally moved on from that evil cliffhanger I left everyone on last month.  Act Two also introduced Kaede and I’m having so much fun writing her character.  Also, because I was able to surpass my writing goal, I will be releasing Act Three on January 31st.  Act Three is exciting because I finally get to start the Soujirou x Yuuki ship subplot I promised in the tags.  I hope you all enjoy it when it finally comes out.

Currently Writing

The Imperial House – I am currently up to writing the first draft of Act Eight as of writing this.  What can I say, except Act Eight wasn’t even in my original outline, however Rui has told me he didn’t feel like he was getting enough screen time in my fic, so I am writing a more Rui focused chapter.  Hopefully I’ll be back on track for Act Nine which is a chapter I’ve wanted to write for a while now.

Mene – is a Hana Yori Dango Au - Canon Divergence Tsukushi x Akira one-shot that I’m working on as a side project.  I expected it to be 3000 words at the most and it’s become much longer now.  When I finished the first draft earlier this month, I looked at the word count, and it was over 10K. I was debating splitting it to two chapters, but I decided not to.   Honestly, I’m loving writing this AU and I really would like to have the final version out by Akira’s birthday (February 28).

Lucky Me! – All I’m willing to say is that this project is finished, and I’ll be dropping it on ao3 when you least expect it.

What I Dropped

toxic till the end – this was a hard decision to make, but I decided to not publish this Seiya x Usagi one-shot.  It’s not that I hated the story, it was just that I have trouble coming up with an alternative ending for the story, since I was not happy with the original result.  Sometimes you have works that are better left in your draft folder.  I promise I’ll try to write another Sailor Moon one-shot one day to make up for it.

Baby Blue – I’ve mentioned this before, but this was the Tsukasa x Tsukushi one-shot I was writing based on the world of Nina the Starry Bride.  This project started to deal with grief, and I was planning on writing a story where Tsukasa and Tsukushi don’t get their happy ending.  However, the story felt too close to the original source material it felt too close to plagiarism for my comfort.  I may try to retool this story in the future, to make it into something more original.  But this version of this one shot has been dropped.

I Hope You Dance – is another story I started during my illness after watching Dirty Dancing while sick in bed.  What I can tell you is that it’s a Hana Yori Dango fic based on the movie, however with a twist.  The original movie takes place in the 1960’s and I was not alive then, so it’s been moved up to the 2000’s.  I also want to try to deviate from the original plotline to make it more authentic to the 2000s since abortion has been legal in the state of New York since 1970.  However, I have too many planned projects as it is, and I don’t have the time to work on this idea just yet.  So, it’s simply shelved for now until I can focus on it.  I do think it has potential.

Future Goals for February

The Imperial House – After posting Act Three. The goal is to finish editing and finalizing Act Four and post it in mid-February.

Mene – if everything goes well it will be published at the end of the month as planned.

3AM – is the sequel to A Quarter to Three focusing on Shigeru and Akira.  I would like to start drafting an outline if possible.

Final Thoughts

January was crazy, with the loss of my pet and an illness to start off the month.  I was able to recover and write a lot.  I really think that being able to write helped me deal with all the stuff that happened to me to be honest.  I’m still looking forward to continuing to write and grow as an author in 2025

[icypantherwrites]

It is finished.

Words I wasn't sure I was ever going to be able to write, but at 11:51 pm last night they became reality.

Bottled Ocean is finished.

I am really, really proud of myself for being able to come back to this story. I started writing it in all the way back in May 2020 so it has been almost four years from start to finish and it's been a really long, bumpy road. So much has happened over those four years and the story went from a vibrant, engaged audience when it first published to, if I'm lucky, one or two engaged readers and maybe five reading it total. It's been really hard to put forth the energy into writing such a monster of a story (it is officially over 250,000 words long) knowing that there's no one there really to read it and even now I'll be lucky to have one or two engaged readers for it.

But it is done. My legacy after writing over 400 fanfictions in the last 7 years is not an incomplete story. It's something I can look back on and be proud of that I wrote that and as anyone knows, 250,000 words is not a small undertaking.

I had promised myself that if I went back to writing this I would finish the story before it began publishing again on Patreon (which resumes today) and then life hit. I had Covid the last two weeks and felt really terrible and dizzy and unable to focus. I thought writing fight scenes was hard, bah, writing fight scenes while you're distracted by the word 'sword' because it says 's-word' and going off on a tangent of swear words you think pirates would say while still trying to write a fight scene is hard. I kept going.

I reached yesterday morning and realized that I still had at least four chapters to write and I wasn't sure how I was going to do it and even if my deadline was self-imposed I was going to fail it.

I didn't.

Outside of taking breaks to walk the dog (it reached 42 here in Chicagoland and for this time of the year that's practically tropical) and guzzling down over half of a 2-liter of Dr. Pepper and trying to drink water in there too, I did it. I sat down, wrote my ass off, and a little over 16,000 words of the most pinnacle parts of the story as it all comes together and concludes I did it. I am exhausted and I honestly didn't even recall most of the final chapter so I went back and read it this morning and not to toot my horn but damn I'm a good writer, and I am just so relieved and happy it is done.

I am done too. My writing journey comes to an end with this story (I'll still for sure be posting on Patreon for the rest of 2024 though with my insane backlog and of course Bottled Ocean and some works on AO3 too) and I'm hanging up my keyboard. It has been a long seven years full of the good and the bad, the bright spots and the dark, but I can look back at this chapter of my life and see that I wrote over 3.2 million words worth of stories to share and I feel...

I feel content. And relieved and honestly my wrists are aching from pressing against my laptop all night, but I am happy. Thank you to all who came on this writing journey with me, who have been with me since As Color Fades Away posted in 2017 or stumbled across my works this year. It has been a life-changing seven years of writing.

I'll still be around here posting updates and hopefully, maybe, trying to get a few of y'all to bite at Bottled Ocean and join me in reading my final fanfiction, but this author is finally, finally finished and it is the start of a new adventure.

Thanks everyone ♥