ashen-crest

[ashen-crest]

friday sunday kiss

tagged by @indecentpause, thank you! another claws kiss? anther claws kiss. awful boys time

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Rainier stands, and Vivien wets his lips, and the want grows stronger. He swallows down the urge to bend Vivien over a desk, make him scream until the Grand Magus comes running. Fuck, it’s all he can think about. Why is it all he can think about? He reaches over the desk and grabs Vivien’s shirt, pulls him into a kiss, hard and short and full of teeth. “We have to be careful,” Vivien gasps out, when he pulls back. “Yeah,” Rainier says, equally breathless. “Yeah, we do.” Vivien’s eyes are a pulling abyss. Who has eyes like that, like the space between the stars, like pits of formless ichor? Last class done. Admin he can ignore waiting in his office. An urge he can’t standing right in front of him. He’s sick and fucking tired of being careful.

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no-pressure tagging @foxboyclit @viscerawrites @ceph-the-ghost-writer and @ashen-crest to give me you worst (or best, i'm not picky) kisses

claws taglist: @belovedviolence @foxboyclit @coven-archives @noblebs @mjjune

@revenantlore @sarandipitywrites @k--havok @asterhaze @verba-writing

@indecentpause @bootstrapparadoxed @olliexwrites @cowboybrunch (ask to be +/-)

[ashen-crest]

‼️‼️Please Don't Skip Me‼️‼️

Dear humanity,

I'm Amal, a mother of three children, living under the weight of the genocide taking place in Gaza. 🍉

The Israeli occupation forces launched drone strikes on my husband, Fayez, and my son, Mohammad.

Although my husband's condition has stabilized, my son is still suffering immensely and urgently needs medical treatment outside Gaza.

I lost most of my family. I'm afraid to lose my son too 🥺 .

I need your help please donate and share, evry contribution, no matter how small, brings us hope in these dark times.

Mohammed deserves to live a happy and healthy life, just like every other child on this earth.

So I humbly ask you to donate even a little or at least reblog this appeal.

Please Donate now:👇

https://gofund.me/d272a0d1

Ddonate Via Paypal 👇

https://www.paypal.com/donate

.

[ashen-crest]

draft 0 of draught for a dragon is complete!

I really wanted to go into 2025 with a draft of both finale books being written in some form.

The Spirit's Curse has a complete draft 1, and I'm compiling alpha reader notes in the new year. that draft 1 needs a shit-ton of work, but at least it's there.

A Draught for a Dragon now has a completed draft 0. don't get me wrong- this hot, stinky garbage is riddled with bullet points, placeholders, and summaries. I don't even have the main festival of the book named yet. but it exists from start to finish, and that's enough for me to start compiling notes and fixing things.

now I've got five months to fix TSC, and ten months to fix ADfaD. hoo boy.

[ashen-crest]

hand-kissing turnabout is fair play:

She didn’t know what came over her. Whether it was relief at Fio being safe, relief at being let go, relief at the street finally becoming normal again— She lifted his hand and kissed the back of it, then smiled up at him. The blush that bloomed across Luka’s face was fierce, a deep pink that stretched from his neck to the tips of his ears. “Oh,” he said, so soft she almost missed it. “Really?” Nat’s smile widened. “Really.”

Luka: looks at Nat with the Biggest Brown Eyes, brings her to a cave with beautiful acoustics, plays her and only her a lovely song that he knows will soothe her worries, kisses the back of her hand

Nat: how am I supposed to know if he likes me? it's impossible to tell. I'll need to get Banneker to do a tarot reading. it's the Only Way

[ashen-crest]

happy sts! what do you think the dudes of brew's jobs would be in our magic-less world? in planning your books, have they always been potioneers or did you toy around with different professions before settling on one?

Thanks for the ask!!

In the Rival world, they were always potioneers, since the phrase that first dropped into my head was "rival potion shops." But thinking about the real world...hmm.

Ambrose would have to be some form of scientist, though I could see him being into all sorts of specific fields. Chemistry, obviously, but there's biology, astronomy... I don't know if he'd be an astronaut, exactly, but he could build spaceships and stuff. He's smart and all that.

Eli could be:

Steve Irwin

a firefighter

a nature photographer who gets to travel a lot

darkest timeline: a marketing guy

[ashen-crest]

Writing is 10% inspiration,

90% 'I swear I’ll fix this in edits.'

[ashen-crest]

Happy Winter Solstice

adventuresofghostie

[ashen-crest]

Luka: looks at Nat with the Biggest Brown Eyes, brings her to a cave with beautiful acoustics, plays her and only her a lovely song that he knows will soothe her worries, kisses the back of her hand

Nat: how am I supposed to know if he likes me? it's impossible to tell. I'll need to get Banneker to do a tarot reading. it's the Only Way

[ashen-crest]

My brain: put ambrose in a sandwich call that a hambrose

Me: alright well that was certainly a thought that I had-

My brain: we need to tell ember about that. TELL HER

…adding this to the list of things I need to draw in the new year

[ashen-crest]

ohohohohoho

[ashen-crest]

Eli stood. “We can get back to the Scar in two days, easy—we just need to find a tree mimic.” Ambrose’s expression fell flat. “What, the thing that tried to eat me?” “Wait, what?” Nat said.  “I mean, the thing that did absolutely nothing to me?”

Ambrose <3

[ashen-crest]

hey so 👉👈 guess who has some news! after fifteen months of querying, i'm now represented by Shannon Lechon at Azantian Literary Agency! i can't express how intense and crazy and wild this has been; i really was in for the long game, and that patience and persistence paid off. i cannot WAIT to jump into edits for The Great Glavenisean Theater and bring it one step closer to all of you who have been so supportive here!

[ashen-crest]

12/19: Ernest & Burgess

Also on AO3 | Index

“Ooooookay. So, uh… I guess the first meeting of Ernest’s E… Book Club can come to order…”

Ernest sighed, looking at the chairs that he had gathered an hour ago in the apartment building’s common room. All unoccupied, save one with a very sunny Burgess with a copy of the book of the month in his hands. “Alrighty! I’m excited!”

Ernest let out a non-committal “Uh-huh…” before running a hair through his hair. “…Sorry for the low turnout, Burgess… Glad you could make it, at least.”

“Of course! I’ve been getting dizzy with all the scripture I’ve been reading lately, and then I saw your flyers and figured it was the perfect opportunity to try something fresh!”

“Mm-hmm…” Ernest was fighting the urge for his face to scrunch up. “That…that’s cool! I, uh…didn’t exactly expect you to be into this kinda book…”

Burgess’s brow raised. “Oh, me neither! I didn’t read the blurb beforehand and I just dove in…and then a murder happened in chapter 2?!”

“Yeah…” Ernest looked down at the cover of his own copy. Dark Illumination… Did Burgess just pick it up because of the title??

“It gave me the heebie-jeebies…” Burgess continued, shuddering a little. “Wasn’t exactly expecting it to be so…graphic.”

“Ah-hah, yeah, the author’s kinda well-known for his super visceral descriptions and stuff like that… Maybe I should’ve put warnings on the flyer…or maybe picked something lighter for a first meeting…”

Burgess rapidly shook his head. “Oh, oh, but! I had to put down for a night…didn’t sleep so well…but then after that! The detective came in…and then I was hooked!”

He flipped open his book, revealing a whole host of little sticky notes in a wide array of colors, teeny tiny writing jotting down where he had found clues and breadcrumbs.

“All of a sudden, I felt like…I was the detective! Piecing together all the evidence, watching what all the witnesses said… It was thrilling!”

Ernest blinked, mouth agape a little. “R…right?! And—and…the author set up the twist so well! Like when the serial killer—”

“—wasn’t actually a serial killer at all and all the police force just wanted to see it like that?! YEAH! It-it-it made me wanna go back and just read everything again! Look, I even brought in a whole new color of sticky note when I found all the bits I missed!” Burgess flipped the open book towards Ernest, pointing at a few bright red sticky notes with bold and scribbly exclamation points on them.

“Huh, you caught more than me… You sure that was foreshadowing?”

“Ooooh, listen to this…!” Burgess giggled.

On and on they went, page after sticky-noted page, theorizing and tittering at all twists and turns in the mystery. The cookies in the box that Ernest had brought for refreshments slowly disappeared one by one as he and Burgess sat engrossed in the world of the story for far longer than he ever expected.

It was only after the evening started to fall that they had run out of things to say.

“Well!” Ernest said, clapping his book shut. “I guess we can call that a meeting!”

“This was fun!” said Burgess. “Thanks for having me! When’s the next one?”

“Well…I guess that depends… I dunno if anyone new’s gonna be interested if…this is all we get for meeting 1… Uh—that wasn’t meant to be a dig on you, sorry.”

Burgess brought a hand to his chin with a hum. “Do you think…I can recommend a book for next month? I can try to get a few more people to come, too!”

“That’d be cool if you could. Fair warning though, I dunno if people want to read scripture or Church stuff outside of services…”

“Oh, I wasn’t planning on it! I think I have some stuff on my shelves that I haven’t gotten to…I can get everyone copies!”

“Yeah, yeah! That…that’s great.” Ernest felt the smile creep up on his face and he knew that he meant it. Maybe there was some hope from Ernest’s Excellent Book Club after all.

[ashen-crest]

Fields of Mistria is 20% off for the Steam Winter Sale ❄️ The sale lasts from 12/19 to 1/2! 🔗 http://bit.ly/Mistria

[ashen-crest]

Oh you're a couple? So which one of you is the "now all I want is my partner back" and which one is the "in all timelines, in all possibilities, only you can show me this"

[ashen-crest]

at some point once I've refined this section, I'll make a post comparing it to Ambrose's hurt/comfort scenes in Rival, but for now, please have Nat and Luka from book 3 where Nat is Going Through It:

Once [Luka] wiped her fingers down, [Nat] stared at her hands, still not daring to move them. The danger had passed. The pain was gone. She was all right; she was fine.

She burst into tears.

“Oh, my dear,” Luka said quietly, reaching instinctively for her hand, then retracting. “It’s all right.”

“I know,” she forced the word out through tears, the horrible kind that made breathing painful and her eyes sting. “Why? Why am I—?”

Luka gingerly held out both arms in a silent gesture. 

She should have been ashamed for how quickly she accepted the embrace. Her old thoughts shouted something about weakness, about traps, about how dangerous this was—

But that was how she survived Aphos. Not Rosemond Street.

She fell into him, and they both found themselves on their knees on the workroom floor, Nat clutching Luka’s shirt as if the draft would buoy her away otherwise. She wasn’t even sure why she was crying anymore. Pain, fear, shame, gratitude—all of it stained Luka’s shirt.

And as she sobbed, as she bled out every feeling she had ever felt, Luka began to hum.

It was soft, like he always was. The melody the music box had stopped playing a while ago. But it made his ribcage vibrate, thrumming against her palm, her cheek. As he hummed, he stroked her hair, his eyes closed. And slowly, her tears dried, her chest empty of anything but the little song.

She might not have been fine, but…she was all right.

[ashen-crest]

Nat hummed. “Madam Mila had a bard in from Kolkea once. Didn’t like him much, though. Pretty sure she threw him into the deep tunnels where the big spiders live.” She looked up; Luka was staring at her again, and not in admiration this time.  “Is this…” Nat bit her lip. “Is this one of those things I think is normal but is actually—?” “Terrifying?” Luke nodded. “Yes.” Don’t mention the spider tunnel murders, she noted. Got it.

Normal conversations with Nat and Luka