anne-is-ominous

[anne-is-ominous]

Phoenix Reignited 2.23: Tickled, Pink

A few minutes late, but here's an extra-long Reignited chapter for ya! I know I missed yesterday's Book XIII chapter, but I'm still going to try to get it out this week, hopefully tomorrow.

The last few days have been quite the rollercoaster for me, and most of us in this community. But if there's anything I hope Phoenix has taught you all, it is that you are wanted, you have worth, and you have people who care about you.

Together, we will fight. And we will win. It will be slow, and it will be hard, but we will prevail. Period. We have something they don't: courage, honor, determination, and a just cause.

Wake brave, my lovelies. I love you all.

Akane grabbed the brass handle, pulling open the heavy glass front door of the Phoenix to the sound of thundering applause. Under her breath, she cursed her calculus teacher for holding her late after class and making her miss the first hour of Ranko’s performance. She hadn’t even taken the time to go home and change clothes, so she was still in her blue and white school uniform. Akane wished she’d thought to bring a change of clothes, as she worried that her Furinkan pinafore reminded Ranko too much of the life she’d left behind. She’d promised Ranko - by way of a message delivered via Nabiki the day before - that she’d be there, though, and keeping her word had been the most important thing. She didn’t want her new girlfriend to think that she’d been stood up. 

My girlfriend. Holy shit. I have a fucking girlfriend, Akane thought, her cheeks flushing hotter than the flaming Dragonfire cocktail Mei carried past her with a wave and a smile. The flustered high schooler was barely coherent enough to return the gesture. Does that mean I’m… gay? I mean, I don’t like girls. Not like that. It’s not like she and I have… Somehow, her face warmed further still. I don’t think I could ever do that with a girl. I’ve never even done anything like that with a boy! Never really wanted to either, though. Wait, does that mean…? Shit.

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You ignite, and you rise.

Shared this today with the 150+ amazing friends @princesscolumbia and I have made on the Storytellers' Speakeasy Discord server we run - a vibrant community of trans writers, readers and allies. But I thought there were probably a lot more folks who could use to read it in the next few days, minutes, weeks and years to come.

We love, see, and support you all.

[anne-is-ominous]

Phoenix Reignited 2.22: Bubbles

Look at me, posting shit on time like a good girl!

The commuter train hissed to a stop, and the redhead stood, picking up her white peacoat from the seat next to hers and slipping it on over her blue tee shirt. She’d paired it with her black jeans and black heeled boots. It was unseasonably warm that Friday afternoon, and Ranko was glad of it; after the frigid December, she thought it might take until May to get the chill out of her bones. Part of her had wanted to dress up for the occasion, to make as good an impression as possible and hopefully balance out the disdain she expected to receive as soon as she walked in the door. Ultimately, she’d decided that if she was going to go into battle, she needed a little bit of armor, and fidgeting with her uncomfortable clothing would only have made things worse. 

Slipping the strap of her black leather purse over her torso and stepping off of the train onto the platform, Ranko looked around with a resigned sigh. The thick heels of her boots made a metallic rattling sound as she strode across the steel grating of the station floor, the noise giving way to a rhythmic clacking when she stepped outside the station and onto the sidewalk. Ranko winced, shielding her eyes as she emerged from the subterranean transport hub into the mid-afternoon sun. Man, I gotta get some shades, she thought as she blinked the sunspots from her eyes. She remembered the heart-shaped pink sunglasses she had back in her little studio apartment, though she’d never thought to wear them other than onstage. I mean, I guess they’re cute, the redhead mused as she scanned her surroundings to get her bearings. Her foot tapped the asphalt with nervous energy as she waited for the signal to enter the crosswalk. When the light indicated it was safe to cross, she scurried across the busy street and into a wide expanse of grass. It was one of the largest green spaces in the Minato district, and there was a peaceful air about it that permeated Ranko’s anxiety, if only a little. She hummed to herself as she rounded one of the winding bridge trails that made their way across Imperial Pond, smirking to herself as she spied a brilliant blue kingfisher perched on one of the bamboo poles jutting upward from the surface of the murky water. In another life, another day, I’d have jumped across those just to prove I could, she thought with a chuckle and a shake of her head. And today, I’m just worried it would mess up my hair if I fell in. I guess a lot of things are different than they used to be these days.

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[anne-is-ominous]

Phoenix Reignited 2.21: In With the New

A few moments ago, I made an announcement about the release schedule of Phoenix Reignited and Phoenix Odyssey going forward. TL;DR: I'm doing my absolute best, but life is kicking my ass, and I'm gonna miss chapter drops now and again while I figure it out. I promise I will continue to work on Phoenix every day, and I'll keep content coming just as fast as I can while holding myself together with duct tape and chewing gum.

But in the meantime, here's the long awaited reignition of chapter 2.21: In With the New. This is one of my favorite chapters in the original Phoenix story, and it felt so good to give it a much-deserved glow-up. Enjoy!

As the sun rose on the first day of 1990, the young singer-in-residence of the Phoenix swayed behind the service bar humming an upbeat Japanese pop song. She made quick work of arranging the Collins glasses she extracted from the dishwasher onto the back bar behind her, readying them to be filled with the mojitos and Dragonfire cocktails of a Wednesday night service shift. The last week-plus since the Christmas concert had been a blur for her, a whirlwind of family activities, shopping, and work. Her throat was still a little scratchy after spending most of the previous night’s New Year’s Eve celebration on stage, though the performance had been nowhere near on the scale of the twin Christmas shows that had saved the little dive bar she called home from financial ruin. Must be the cold weather getting to me, she thought with a shiver.

Perhaps the biggest reason the days had run together since the Christmas show was that she hadn’t seen Akane since the morning after it, and Ranko missed her something terribly. She hadn’t even had a chance to give her girlfriend her Christmas gift yet. Ranko had never been anyone’s girlfriend before - despite all the boys who’d tried to claim her as such since her fateful trip to Jusenkyo - but she was pretty sure it wasn’t supposed to feel as lonely as it seemed to. She closed her eyes, remembering the kiss she and Akane had shared in her bed that morning, and her left foot involuntarily kicked off the floor and rose behind her backside as she set about wiping down the bar counter with a light blue rag. 

It sucks that she hasn’t been able to get back here to see me, Ranko thought, her brow furrowing as she set about scrubbing out the steel sink basin behind the service bar. I hope I didn’t freak her out, and now she’s just hiding from me. I guess her dad might have just been running her ragged with holiday stuff too. I wonder if they had a big party again this year. I wonder what she wore. I wonder if anybody there missed me. I wonder if Akane…

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So, yeah...

I've been... not so much with the release schedule this week. At this point I'm two chapters behind on Reignited and one on Book XIII, and none of them are ready. Every day this week, I've panicked about oh no, I have to get X out today, and I just didn't feel capable of putting out quality work, and so I've decided to just declare those chapters missed and try to resume my schedule with a chapter tonight.

I say try, because right now, I just can't promise four quality chapters a week. I'm so sorry. I'm trying so hard, but I am burned out beyond belief, the life challenges continue to escalate, and it's reaching a point that the guilt over missing deadlines is contributing almost as much to the writing challenges as the issues themselves are. I feel terrible, because I went to all this effort with Reignited and promotion and everything else to build a following around Phoenix that is orders of magnitude what it was before Reignited and the Ranma anime reboot. I feel like all I've done was amass a bigger audience so there was more people watching me fail. When I made the decision to pursue Reignited, I was nailing chapters day in and day out with no sign of slowdown, and then the wheels fell off.

I don't really want to get into the details publicly for what's been going on in my life since October, but those that hang out in the Storytellers' Speakeasy (my official fan Discord) generally find out pretty quickly. So, if you're dying to know what's been hampering the escapades of your favorite fictional songstress, joining is a great way to get into the inner circle. I'm not trying to have my life travails become the next "AO3 curse" meme on Reddit. Suffice to say, it's big, it's consuming nearly all of my emotional bandwidth, and it's not going away anytime soon.

So, I'm going to do my best to keep to a schedule of Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday for Reignited, and Mondays for Book XIII, resuming now. The one caveat is that the release schedule is now being considered as a goal I can feel good about meeting most of the time, as opposed to a deadline that I need to self-flagellate at length every time I miss.

Realistically, if things don't settle down a lot, at some point I may look to a schedule that alternates Reignited and leading-edge work. Currently, it's looking like the most likely scenario would be a pause in Reignited after book IV so I can write Book XIV in its entirety, but that timeline is way too far in the future - and the day-to-day realities of my life far too volatile - to commit to anything right now.

I've been assured by literally dozens of other writers that I'm taking this too seriously and I should be able to just write at my own pace, take care of myself, and that I won't lose much support in the doing. I sure hope they're right. Phoenix - especially the Reignited project - is one of the most ambitious projects I've ever undertaken, and it's freaking working at levels I could scarcely have fathomed. I'd be heartbroken to see the astronomical growth it's had since October stunted by a meteor striking my life out of the blue like this. Me making this statement is putting a tremendous amount of faith in everyone who has ever commented on Phoenix and encouraged me to put myself first, that they were telling the truth that they'd still be here at whatever pace I can produce content. I know how important Phoenix has become to so many of you, and I feel terrible letting you down, but I have to make the decision to bend before I break.

I have good people looking after me - a horde of friends, a supportive boss at work, and the best human being to ever walk the world at my side as my wife. They're taking good care of me. It's time I start helping them.

I'm sorry, Firebirds. I promise, I'll do my best.

Starting right now, with the Reignited version of one of my favorite chapters in all of Phoenix: In With the New.

[anne-is-ominous]

An even more belated Phoenix Reignited 2.20: The Most Wonderful Time

I. Suck.

This was supposed to be Thursday's chapter, and I'm only an hour away from not getting it posted in time for Saturday's release window. The last few weeks have continued to be amazingly hectic - the last few days in particular - but it has been amazingly good stuff. My life has been turning for the better in almost every conceivable way - and it's just been eating up a lot of time to do it.

With the Bad Times in October through December eating through all of my chapter backlog, and things still being insanely busy here in Anneworld, it hasn't been a great time to need to write whole-cloth chapters weekly for Book XIII and a four-chapter, fifteen thousand word brand-new arc for Book II of Reignited simultaneously. That arc now concludes, and I am so very proud of it. As soon as I get this chapter posted, I'm going to grab a quick bite and set about reigniting the chapter that was supposed to come out today, and with any luck, get that out either tonight or in the morning as well to get back on track.

It's becoming clear to me that at some point soon - the most logical point being the end of Reignited book II in a few more chapters - I'm going to need to pause for a few days to catch my breath and rebuild a backlog. I didn't want to have to do that, but when I set this schedule - and the even more ambitious one I've already scaled back from - I was not counting on the total and complete life upheaval I have experienced since October. Things are good now - better than I can recall them ever being - but I am just now starting to clear away the debris of the stability I had to bulldoze to create space for something new and improved, and thinking about what new palace is going up in its place. It's exciting, and terrifying, and very, very time-consuming.

Anyway. Enough rambling. Enjoy some belated Christmas fluff! I'm so sorry again for the delay, I appreciate everyone who has reached out with support (and insistence that I should look out for myself first and the story second, if that), and I promise I'm evaluating ways to do this that I can reliably deliver without continuing to fry my brain six ways from Sunday. I love you all, my wonderful Firebirds.

~ Anne

Ranko beamed, stealing a quick, victorious glance at Ayako. Toldja she’d like it. “Well, I thought, you keep dropping your Game Boy in the bar, and one of these days, it’s gonna break if you don’t have something better than your purse to carry it in.”

With an emphatic nod that sent the red bows in her long blue pigtails bobbing, Mei reached for the shabby yellow cloth drawstring bag that served as her daily driver purse. “I mean, this is the third one I’ve had as it is, so, you’re totally right!” She pulled the grayish device from her purse, tucking it into the padded main compartment before beginning to connect the periwinkle plastic clips of the shoulder strap to the matching loops on either side of the bag.

“At least she only cracked the screen on the second one,” Izumi said, giggling as she sidled back to her spot on the couch between her boyfriend and son, handing Kaito a disposable plastic cup full of eggnog that smelled strongly of cinnamon and rum. “The first one ended up in the freakin’ fryer.”

“Proof,” Yui said with a grin at Mei, “that not everything is better deep-fried. Most things, I’ll grant, but…”

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A very belated Phoenix Reignited 2.19: Present, Accounted For

I'm so very sorry this is a day late, Firebirds. I have zero backlog right now after some grueling times during the holidays, and with a commitment to release four chapters a week - all of them new this week during this new arc in Reignited, it's been a tough slog. As soon as I'm done posting this chapter everywhere, I'm downing another energy drink and cranking out the finale to this arc, so you will get a chapter tomorrow too, even if it's late in the evening like this. 

“Yeah, maybe,” Ayako said, lowering her voice and widening her smile. “But you wanna be cute when the guys at the next table are checking you out, don’cha?”

Ranko’s eyes widened almost as much as her mouth. “They what?!” She snapped her head to the right, by which time both of the college-aged men at the next table over had averted their eyes. 

Laughing, Ayako shook her head and let her forehead fall into her palm, her elbow resting on the resin tabletop of their two-top in the mall food court. “Good gods, kiddo,” she whispered. “You have absolutely no chill for this kind of stuff, do ya? You’re not supposed to let ‘em know you caught ‘em looking!”

“Well, then they shouldn’t look!” Ranko glanced back at the table, where the two men were clearing their trash. They’re probably haulin’ ass ‘cause we noticed ‘em. She lowered her voice, leaning over the table. “Besides, I’m…”  “Gay,” Ayako whispered just as her sister finished her sentence with “taken.”

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Chapter tomorrow

Sorry everybody. It's been a rough day and my brain just would not let me write fluff. Will try again tomorrow. *shame*

[anne-is-ominous]

Phoenix Odyssey 13.07: Not Quite Right

Shrugging, Akane slumped over the table. “Wouldn’t matter if I did; I can’t afford to take one. I’m six orders deep, and there’s no sign of it letting up. Only reason it’s not worse is Ranko doing back-to-back sets and keeping them occupied, and she’s dragging ass, too. You can tell; she’s barely even dancing up there. How are you holding up in the kitchen?”

“You are a non-compliant, strong, defiant, self-rescuing princess!” came Ranko’s final declaration from the stage.

Mei rolled her eyes, exhaling heavily as she looked over her stack of yellow order slips. “Not too bad, I guess. Four pizzas, a couple baskets of chicken and some popcorn shrimp. I should be able to catch up in a few minutes,” she proclaimed at a shout over the crowd’s raucous cheers for her sister’s song.

The young server nodded in acknowledgement. “That’s good. We’re way behind on drinks, though. Izzi had to run home to help Kaito with Mioko, so we’ve just got Yui.”

“Awww, no. Poor thing still sick?” Mei frowned, her shoulders drooping. Akane nodded again. “Running almost a thirty-eight degree fever. Hopefully Izzi will be able to get her to sleep, and she said she’d come back if she could. We called Aya, but we got her machine. I think she had plans with Kage tonight. And as for Yui…” Akane glanced over at the main bar, where Yui was trying to serve drinks with one hand while holding the bar’s cordless telephone to her ear with her left shoulder. “I don’t know what the hell she’s doing over there.”

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Phoenix Reignited 2.18: Sleigh, Girl

Our brand-new Christmas arc continues! Dropping Saturday's chapter hella early because it's going to be a crazy busy day; I'm afraid if I don't do it now, I'll be late again.

“Alright, that’s Mei and Izzi done! What you thinkin’ next, superstar? Yui, maybe?” Ayako grinned at her family’s youngest charge as the pair exited the mall’s only store specializing in video games. She looks like she’s having so much fun. I can tell how badly she wanted to do this, and she just didn’t want to ask for help to pull it off. 

She sighed happily, an easy smile forming on her slightly-chapped lips as she remembered a very similar shopping trip she’d been on in the very same mall three Christmases prior. Poor Mei was in the middle of detoxing, and she still had the time of her life that day. I’m so grateful to Mama for suggesting I take her back then. I guess me doing it twice with the new girl before her first Christmas with us makes it officially a family tradition. Ranko shrugged in her sister’s direction. “I am completely drawing a blank on her, Aya. She just doesn’t talk to me about anything except work, and… well, me, I guess. But, she’s been so good to me. I really want to do something special for her, and I don’t even know where to start.” She strode the mall’s cavernous interior central corridor at a brisk pace alongside her companion as she spoke.

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Phoenix Reignited 2.17: Checking It Twice

The start of a brand-new arc in Reignited! I'm so excited about these next few chapters; Ayako has long been a gaping hole in Phoenix and I'm looking forward to letting you all get to know her better!

Also… Happy New Year, Firebirds! Hope 2025 is amazing for you all!

“Ranko?!” A loud rapping came at the front door of the little shoebox of a studio apartment. “You up?”

The redhead jumped, startled by the sudden sound, and struck the back of her head on the roof of the refrigerator’s cold compartment with a hollow bonk. 

“Owww… Come in…” Ranko was still rubbing the back of her skull and blushing when the door swung inward and Ayako entered in a white cable-knit turtleneck sweater and a pair of black jeans. 

“Good morning, little sister!” Ayako grinned, tossing a brown paper bag onto the white pine dinette table and setting a clear plastic cup of brown liquid next to it. “Breakfast is served!”

Ranko beamed, opening the bag and finding her sense of smell had not betrayed her. She extracted a large chocolate muffin, still warm from the oven, from the bag and shoved a straw down into the cup of iced coffee. “Aya, have I told you lately that you're my favorite sister?” she asked with her mouth still full of the first bite.

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Phoenix Reignited 2.16: Pillow Talk

I am so very sorry that today's chapter is late! New Year's really... hit me hard in a lot of ways. But, I'm back - and we'll have a regular chapter drop tomorrow, too. With today's (well, yesterday's technically) chapter, Royal Road is now caught up with the other 12 platforms where Phoenix: Reignited Edition posts, which means we'll be cutting back to a Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday release schedule in line with those platforms. Thanks so much for all of your support as we got Reignited off the ground on Royal Road!

Ranko blinked her eyes open, reacclimating to her surroundings after a blissful few hours of sleep. Man, my dreams were freakin’ crazy last night. I could have sworn that Akane… She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and when they opened again, they fell on her bedroll, still rolled up tightly on the floor. Wait. Why would that be there, unless…

She started to move her arm tentatively, but found she couldn’t, as it was being pinned down by the left arm of the person holding her from behind. Her eyes jolted open, and she rolled over on her back to look behind her. 

Holy shit. It was real. 

Her mind raced through her memories of the evening. After the show, Akane… kissed me. She just helped me out of my outfit, we blushed and stammered at each other for twenty minutes, and we went to bed. I was gonna sleep on the floor, but she invited me to share the bed. We were both girls, so it’s okay, right? Nothing else happened. It’s not like we had sex or anything… hell, how would two girls even… Ranko shook her head, careful not to let her ponytail fly back and strike the sleeping Akane’s face. Yui would know. She swallowed hard enough for her gulp to be audible. Not like I need to know! Not thinking about that! Nope! She’d never want to…

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Ever wanted to hear Ranko's songs? Now you can...

I'm going live streaming on the Storytellers' Speakeasy, my Phoenix fan Discord server, in about 15-20 minutes! I'll be streaming for the next few hours, singing for you! C'mon in and make your requests! <3

[anne-is-ominous]

Phoenix Odyssey 13.06: The Interview

“Ooh, what about this one?” Akane held up Ranko’s lacy mint party dress, giggling and swishing the skirt about a bit on the hanger as she carried it from the couple’s closet toward the bed. “This is one of my favorites on you.” 

Ranko groaned, letting her back flop to the mattress with her calves still dangling off the edge of the bed to the floor. She wore nothing but a pair of white cotton panties. “You're making a way bigger deal outta this than it is, ‘Kane!”

Akane tittered brightly as Ranko's arms flopped to her sides on the bed. “Oh, come on, Ranko! You wanna be all pretty for your big date, don't you?!”

“I told you, it's not a fucking date!” Ranko sat up on the bed again, the frustration in her eyes reaching a fever pitch. “It's just a stupid school thing! That's it!” Akane snickered, sitting on the edge of the bed and draping Ranko's dress over her wife's mostly-nude body. “I don’t know… A handsome boy is taking you to a fancy restaurant for lunch. Sounds like a date to me…”

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Phoenix Reignited 2.15: Empty Chairs at Empty Tables

I posted a chapter on time? What is this wizardry?! I promise, I'm working to get better. It's just been a hectic few months.

“Okay, everybody,” Ranko said into her microphone. “I’ve got time for one more song, and then I’ve gotta say good night and let everybody go home! Of course, this place is home, for all of us here at the Phoenix, and that’s why it means so much to us all that you came out to celebrate with us tonight! After all, it wouldn’t be Christmas without you!” 

As she finished speaking, a backing track of jingle bells and a tambourine began playing through the bar’s sound system. Ranko swayed on the stage, letting her fur-trimmed green dress dance playfully around her knees over the white lace petticoat Izumi had insisted she wear. She clapped her lace-gloved hands around her rhinestone-studded microphone, doing so gently both to prevent an audible thump on the microphone, and to protect her injured fingers. 

A few seconds into the music, the track began a feminine vocal repeating just the singular word, ”Christmas”, every few beats, and Ranko began singing between the repetitions. 

“The snow’s coming down! I’m watching it fall! Lots of people around! Baby, please, come home!” Come on, Ranko. Closing number. Gotta have a big finish. One more big push. You can do it. The young songstress threw herself fully into the performance, adding even more vocal runs and pushing her voice into as high of a register as she dared despite her weariness. She barely had energy to dance after five hours onstage, but she tried to make up for it with her voice and her thousand-watt smile.

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Phoenix Reignited 2.14: Bright Lights

An hour late, but better than I expected. Had to pause my drive to Georgia halfway, but it freed me up to post!

Akane took her seat at the one table left on the floor, off in the side wing where the pool table and arcade machine used to be. A few of the other tables were stacked behind her, and the rest had been removed up to the rooftop for the evening in order to free more space in the main bar for the overflowing crowd to stand. She looked around the room at the hundreds of assembled revelers waiting for Ranko to take the stage, and smiled warmly. Look at what you’ve done, Ranko. You’ve completely reinvented yourself in such a short time, and now, all these people love y… Akane shuddered, cutting her thought off before it had a chance to fully form.

Mei walked out onto the stage, and the audience erupted in a raucous cheer. “Hey everybody!” She waved enthusiastically to the crowd. “Welcome to a very special night here at the Phoenix! Merry Christmas! Is everybody having a good time tonight?” 

The beyond-capacity crowd roared in response. 

“That’s what we like to hear! But it’s not what you’re here to hear, is it?” Mei tapped her temple twice with the microphone, letting the thump thump from just below her left pigtail echo through the speakers. “What could it be, what could it be… Oh! You’re here to see my little sister sing, aren’tcha?” 

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Hey everybody. My trip to Georgia is taking longer than expected and tonight's chapter of Reignited may be pushed to tomorrow morning. Sorry everyone. I know my schedule has been a hot mess this last week or two and I promise to try to get my shit together in January.