esme-elora

[esme-elora]

I cant wait until I can get Silksong so I can marvel at the beautiful new areas while Hornet thinks of amazing new curse words to describe how much she hates it

[esme-elora]

When the camera is scary and you must warn it to heckin BACK OFF.

(don't worry, no mantises were harmed in the making of this photo, here he is 10 seconds later chilling like usual, I just startled him when I moved the camera at first)

He is SUCH a pretty boy.

[esme-elora]

I love how much ppl hate Deepnest because I find it so calming somehow. Like wow...nice ambiance. Pretty glowy mushrooms. And look at all these darling little creatures. This one's wearing a red cloak like Hornet! Garpedes are so cool...wonder where they're going. I'm gonna pet a Stalking Devout

[esme-elora]

Stasis: A Hollow Knight (Herrah/Monomon) Fanfic

Summary:

From the Dream Realm, Herrah watches her daughter grow up and reflects on her own life with the help of her friend and lover, Monomon. Meanwhile, Monomon has a plan that could change the course of everything.

Rating: M for mature themes and intermittent adult scenes.

A/N: This is a project I did not imagine I would actually undertake, but my love for Hollow Knight was simply too powerful! I also really wanted to explore Herrah's relationship with Hornet and muse upon what it would be like to watch your child grow up without you. Further, I adore Herrah and Monomon and think they'd be quite the power couple. After all, the Sleep TM had to make the Dreamers close, right?

Though the overarching plot is both Herrah and Hornet's relationship (or lack thereof) and a budding romance between Herrah and Monomon, there is intermittent smut in this. I will place an asterisk on any explicit chapters so you can skip them (or just jump to them, you freak). I won't put significant plot details in these chapters, but is it really my work without a lesbian spider having sex? It isn't.

Enjoy what I have so far and I'll try to update more frequently than I have been!

If you like this, consider supporting me on Patreon!

[esme-elora]

[esme-elora]

Daughter of the silk kingdom

[esme-elora]

I can’t believe my spider has fanart!

This is so sweet. Thank you so much!

My jumping spider Pumpkin has gotten so big 😭 she's in her ninth instar now

She's grown to be such a sweet little lady and loves to help me work. Look how helpful she is!

[esme-elora]

I’m on a roll! Aurora Ch 1 and Stasis Ch 4 are both 3/4 of the way written. I got another 500 words tacked onto my Lacenet fic as well. I’m gonna be busy this weekend so I hope I’ll be able to finish at least one of these by Monday, but we’ll see!

[esme-elora]

Halfway through Chapter 4 of Stasis! Hoping to finish it tomorrow

I’m also about 1/3 of the way done with Aurora’s first chapter and it is turning out BEAUTIFULLY

I am BACK

[esme-elora]

WIP: Aurora: Chapter 1

Previous A/N: This is pretty different from its original form but I think this flows the best. Esme did not originally live in Vredrivala, but moved there as an adult, and despite being a spider like the other denizens, she still feels like a fish out of water. You'll soon see why this is.

I traveled alone to meet a god.

Despite living in the ever-superstitious and magically-charged Queendom of Vredrivala, I never considered myself terribly religious. I celebrated our local holidays and left offerings, but they were more routine than anything, my feeble attempts at feeling in touch with my people’s culture than any true devotion. Going on some sort of godly pilgrimage was never something that I considered.

Until the Dream...

Continue Reading

[esme-elora]

Snippet: Stasis (Hollow Knight Fanfic): Post-Coitus With the Queen

A/N: Here's a future snippet of Stasis about Herrah and the White Lady having a discussion after some...special time.

"Why'd you marry him, anyway?"

The Queen did not turn to look at Herrah to respond, which Herrah decided made sense—after all, it wasn't like she could see her.

Instead, she gently chuckled, a low but breezy vibration. "Oh, Herrah," she sighed. "I don't expect you to understand the ways of Higher Beings."

"I'm the Queen of Deepnest. I'm sacrificing my soul to live in an eternal stasis for Hallownest. Those practically make me a Higher Being even if I wasn't born as one."

The Queen hummed thoughtfully at that. 

"Besides," Herrah continued, "I must be high enough of a being to have caught your eye. Not like you're out here bedding every common bug who says your leaves are pretty."

This got a genuine laugh from the Queen, the vibrations a little more condensed than before. "I'm glad that is something you understand," she replied as her laughter subsided. "A high libido doesn't inherently mean low standards."

"Your standards are pretty low if you married a fork."

Continue Reading

New to Stasis? Read the story here!

[esme-elora]

Snippet: Stasis (Hollow Knight Fanfic): The Death of Herrah's Wife

A/N: Just a little future scene of Stasis exploring how Herrah lost her partner and why she hates the Pale King so much.

Everything happened in slow motion.

The longneedle, Soul-charged and glowing like a beacon of light in the dark of Deepnest, left his hand. When it striked, it did not hit the nearest Devout or even one of the Weavers devouring his workers.

It hit Asafina.

It impaled her, chest-first, sharp enough to penetrate her shell on her back. Hemolymph burst forth, dripping down her body and soaking her cloak. She clutched her chest, seeming in a blend of shock and pain.

Then death claimed her, and she fell.

Continue Reading

New to Stasis? Read the story here!

[esme-elora]

My jumping spider Pumpkin has gotten so big 😭 she's in her ninth instar now

She's grown to be such a sweet little lady and loves to help me work. Look how helpful she is!

[esme-elora]

Atlas of Aefarell: General Overview Notes

During my rework of Aurora, I've decided to GREATLY downsize my worldbuilding for the Aefarell Empire. I think bug fans will really appreciate this!

This is a very general overview on how the world works. There will be more detail in different areas to come!

[esme-elora]

First Draft: Aurora: Prologue

Description:

Esme is ready to start over. After enduring years of suffering, Esme, a spider, is leaving her past behind and venturing to Varaz'khor, the roach territory in the Far North. Though she is partly on a mission to uncover the secret abandoned library of her matron goddess, she is also hoping to find herself far away from all that has plagued her before. But Esme ends up finding much more than that, for within the library is a mysterious moth, Lutra. For years, the Lutra had been squatting in the abandoned library, doing all she could to make ends meet. Quickly, the two bond over their troubled pasts, their shared loneliness, and eventually, they decide to rebuild the library together, going on adventures for new relics and tomes, hiring assistants for research, and more. But along with all the artifacts, Esme and Lutra find the most special treasure of all: love for each other.

Author's Note:

I'll be releasing this as patrons only until I am completely up to date so I can update everything on Ao3 at the same time. $6+ patrons will see these chapters first, with $3 patrons one chapter behind, so be sure to pick the tier that best reflects what you're looking for! Further, the $9 tier gets access to all worldbuilding content, so if you want to know more about the Empire of Aefarell, make sure you pick that one.

It was a bitter winter's day when we saw an unfamiliar face walk into the Arcane Athenaeum. 

Winter was always harsh in Varaz’khor, temperatures delving so far below freezing that the glass windows of the Athenaeum were cracking, letting in gusts of fierce blizzard winds. It was impossible to make sense of the world outside the windows; combined with the darkness of the night and the high winds, there was next to no visibility outside our literary sanctuary.

My wife, Lutra, had the idea to cover the windows with tapestries, and I had been working hard to weave them over the last several hours in between patrons. They were not as ornate as I would ordinarily make, but the magic shimmering on them was far prettier than the void outside, and they did keep the bulk of the cold out.

It was while Lutra hung up one of the latest tapestries when our unexpected patron walked in.

[Continued under the cut]

It wasn’t unusual to have patrons. The Athenaeum was primarily a research facility for mages, most of whom traveled here to study the Aurora, though we also got students from the roach schools and the occasional civilian looking for a good book. We got steady traffic day in and day out, though less during storms, as no one was setting out in a blizzard unless they already lived nearby. We did, however, provide shelter when necessary for those people to the best of our ability even if the windows were cracking and our pipes were freezing.

But this guest was particularly unusual.

She was mantis, for starters, wearing a thick blue cloak to cover most of her lithe verdant body. We didn't normally see her kind out in Varaz'khor. Most of its population were cockroaches, being that they could withstand the cold better than anyone else, and the moth scholars studying the Aurora.

When the door opened, a gust of wind followed, covering the threshold and rug with powdery snow. The mantis slammed the door shut, trying to keep the cold out. This did shield us from the worst of the storm, though the impact widened the already-present crack in the door windows.

Lutra finished attaching the tapestry to the wall and turned to greet our patron. "Welcome in!" she exclaimed, using her hands to speak as she did.

Read the full chapter here!

[esme-elora]

December Update: Aurora Update, Layla Hiatus, Cordyceps Project, and Hollow Knight

Hello Spiderlings!

This was originally a Patreon exclusive post but given the magnitude of the updates, I figured this one needed to be public.

My mental health has gotten so much better lately. I'm writing, I'm plotting, and I'm finally having any time to do anything but work. Further, I FINALLY GOT A NEW LAPTOP!

While working on Chapter 7 of Aurora, I realized just how big of a scope my worldbuilding is. Having so many different species/races is so very hard to consolidate everything into something cohesive. After a LOT (and I mean a LOT) of thinking and planning, I've decided my worldbuilding is going to exclusively be bugs. There's so much flexibility in bug-only society that hasn't been covered in text already (using text to mean any form of media). If you want to see what the world of Aefarell looks like now, here's a general overview!

This means I'll be fixing Aurora to fit this, cutting a lot of content in the process. Aurora will be exclusively focused on romance with a side of mental illness, so things that aren't relevant to that will be taken out. I'm not going to make these updates public until I am up to date on them, so they will be exclusively on Patreon for the time being.

This is taking the majority of my focus, so I'm putting Layla Shay on a semi-hiatus. I'm not completely discontinuing it, as it's a fun, lighthearted work, but it's just not a priority.

The real bulk of world exploration will be explored in a formally untitled project I'm referring to as the Cordyceps Project. I’m sure you can imagine what that is about! It'll be a proper epic fantasy/cosmic horror novel (with queerness, but that's not the focus). A lot of content I'm cutting from Aurora will end up in this.

Finally, as you may have seen, I finally updated my Herrah/Monomon Hollow Knight fanfic due to popular demand. People have been really taking to this and I've been simultaneously encouraged to write a Lacenet story in lieu of no Silksong. These will be fun lighthearted warm-up projects as well! I don't normally post my fan works on Patreon, but what do you think of including drafts of them in my early access? Since patrons support me so much, I'd love to give them even more special access.

It may seem like this is all a lot, but my schedule is so much better now, as is my work-life balance. I'm capping how many words I write in a day on each work so I don't burn out, but I definitely have more time now and I'm so happy. Writing will always be my favorite hobby, and I'm so grateful you want to read what I want to say.

I'll cease my ramblings for now and use that energy for writing, but do let me know your thoughts! Are you excited? Which work are you the most excited about? Which part of the worldbuilding do you want to know the most about?

I look forward to hearing from you all!

Esme Elora

[esme-elora]

Stasis: A Hollow Knight (Herrah/Monomon) Fanfic

Summary:

From the Dream Realm, Herrah watches her daughter grow up and reflects on her own life with the help of her friend and lover, Monomon. Meanwhile, Monomon has a plan that could change the course of everything.

Rating: M for mature themes and intermittent adult scenes.

A/N: This is a project I did not imagine I would actually undertake, but my love for Hollow Knight was simply too powerful! I also really wanted to explore Herrah's relationship with Hornet and muse upon what it would be like to watch your child grow up without you. Further, I adore Herrah and Monomon and think they'd be quite the power couple. After all, the Sleep TM had to make the Dreamers close, right?

Though the overarching plot is both Herrah and Hornet's relationship (or lack thereof) and a budding romance between Herrah and Monomon, there is intermittent smut in this. I will place an asterisk on any explicit chapters so you can skip them (or just jump to them, you freak). I won't put significant plot details in these chapters, but is it really my work without a lesbian spider having sex? It isn't.

Enjoy what I have so far and I'll try to update more frequently than I have been!

If you like this, consider supporting me on Patreon!