#one tree hill headers

[archiveoth]

please like if you save

[packspetrova]

• like or reblog if you save/use

@httppetrova

[zendobx]

one tree hill headers.

[notabilizou]

[cherrysource]

˒ headers made © cherrysource — effect by @peachcoloring + effect by @miniepsds ˒ do not repost my edits. if you save like or reblog

[tokyicons]

[dumpitos]

hey! poderia fazer headers de one tree hill?

feito bem!

[poisonliar]

📌 Brooke Davis header + icon.

Credits to @ POISONLIAR on X.

[babyangelsky]

BL Boys I Wanted Carnally in 2024 💖✨

Welcome to Babyangelsky's 2024 Wrap Up! To commemorate my second year of watching QL dramas, and my first year of actually talking on my blog, I've compiled a series of lists to celebrate all the QL things I loved this year!

Please feel free to take my categories and make lists of your own and tag me in them if you do!

💜 All the lists can be found here! 💜

Remember this game? I'm bringing it back!

MERRY CHRISTMAS LET'S LOOK AT BEAUTIFUL MEN

♡ Fort Thitipong as Mahasamut (Love Sea)

I wrote a whole post about how badly I wanted to eat this man with a spoon and how stupidly fucking attractive he is because I could not keep it to myself. I WANT TO EAT EVERY LAST BEEFY GOLDEN INCH OF HIM AND THEN I WANNA DO IT AGAIN!

♡ Furuya Robin as Takashi (Love is Better the Second Time Around)

I see Hiro. I understand Hiro. If this man made this face at me, I would also go have a really good shower.

♡ Ngern Anupart as Arthit (Fourever You)

THEY MADE HIM A FOOTBALL PLAYER AND COVERED HIM IN TATTOOS I NEED PART 2 LIKE I NEED AIR *SCREAMS INTO A PILLOW*

♡ Great Sapol as Yoryak (Wandee Goodday)

He's my blog header and blog title for a reason. Putting this beautiful giant ass man in bunny ears and a tail was a gift *specifically* for me. A gift for which I am eternally grateful, bless you thank you P'Golf.

♡ Mark Sorntast as Pie (Battle of the Writers)

I would like to once again thank the cameraman for this very slow pan up Mark's body and I would also like to thank whoever decided that Pie should strip for Ozone because they really blessed us all.

♡ Top Piyawat as Namping/Sian (Every You, Every Me)

I want them both in very different ways which, once again, all the credit in the world to Top both for Looking Like That and for having the skill to portray these two characters so differently.

♡ Pond Ponlawit as Hill (Fourever You)

I don't ever not want Pond carnally when he is on my screen. He was also great and attractive as Third in Century of Love but he didn't get enough screen time and also they didn't show him to us like this:

♡ Joong Archen as Fadel (The Heart Killers)

Style's just like me fr because I would absolutely RUIN my life for this man. I would ruin several lives for this man. I'd beg, borrow, and steal for this man.

♡ Frank Thanatsaran as Atom (The Rebound)

Atom is too sweet and too good and too damn fine not to have gotten his happy ending. I would do so right by him. He'd get a happy ending and then some.

♡ Nagumo Shoma as Arashi (Love in the Air Koi)

No one has ever been more perfectly cast in anything ever than this man. Shoma was made to be the Japanese version of Payu. The daddy dom energy just drips off of him. AND THAT SHOT OF HIS BACK? STILL NOT OVER IT.

♡ Big Thanakorn as God (Monster Next Door)

He's just so unfair. The sweetest, greenest flag of a man ever and built like a goddamn tree it's NOT FAIR!

♡ Lin Chia Yo as Johnathan (See Your Love)

Peace and love to Xin Jia he's just a baby gangster trying his best but I would NEVER let Johnathan leave that bed whether I remembered how we got there or not. NEVER.

♡ Sailub Hemmawich as Oab (This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans)

The long pretty eyelashes and the fuck me eyes and that body I just--ONE CHANCE JUST GIVE ME ONE CHANCE OAB PLEASE

♡ Yin Anan as Jack (Jack & Joker)

HE HAS A NECKLACE OF MOLES AROUND HIS NECK! HE HAS A MOLE JUST BENEATH HIS SHOULDER BLADE! DO YOU GET IT DO YOU UNDERSTAND?

♡ Jaonine Jiraphat as Latte (Knock Knock Boys)

Of course he's on this list. Do you know how many of his gym thirst traps I've posted on this blog since this show aired? I would like to personally and very sincerely thank whoever styled Jaonine in this show.

♡ Max Kornthas as Tai (Two Worlds)

I'd get distracted too if he was looking at me like this while I drew him. Doesn't matter which version of him it was, I would let him do anything to me and if it was the scarface version, I could fix him.

♡ Poom Phuripan as Joe (My Stand-In)

The way I would give Joe anything he wanted just to see that beautiful face smiling up at me. Congrats to Ming for being rich and everything but he could never treat Joe as right as I could. I would babygirlify that man to within an inch of his life just like he deserves.

♡ Honorable Mentions ♡

I am going to break my own rules a little bit because this is my list and I can so I'm going to include:

Kevin Chang as Ever4 (Eternal Butler)

Like I know the show just started and thus doesn't meet my criteria but I can't NOT include our new favorite daddy dom robot butler because...

...reasons. If I do a list like this for next year, best believe he's gonna be on it again.

Nike Nitidon as In (180 Degree Longitude Passes Through Us)

This breaks my rules even more but I watched this show for the first time like a week ago and it immediately landed itself on my list of favorite BLs ever because everything about it is like heroin to me and I NEED this man to be in another BL so desperately like you don't understand giVE HIM BACK TO ME.

[fruitcoops]

The Moon That Breaks the Night

Day 8: throwin' it back to the beginning. Characters from @lumosinlove's Sweater Weather, header from @noots-fic-fests <3

Yesterday's movie (as was so correctly guessed!!!): Scooby-Doo! Also, talitasami on Instagram literally drew the Marauders as the Scooby Gang on the 18th and somehow I missed it??? It's brilliant, go check it out!

The wolf was hungry, and the woods were stocked full.

He kept his nose low for traces of rabbit. Those never bored him. They were quick and vicious, always ready to leap into some new strange place or nip at his snout. Their strong back legs had battered him about the ears and eyes many times.

He could smell squirrel on the wind. Dull. Loud. Always scrambling up into the trees where he couldn’t reach for risk of splinters in his paws.

Hungry, hungry, searching.

Cedar and pine eased his way down the ridge, cautious steps muffled to nothingness. He rested his weight back and slid the last few feet in a spray of red-brown leaves. The wolf licked his lips, pleased, and shook himself free of debris. Fun fun fun fun fun. His tail thumped despite himself.

The forest was calm and cool this far into the night. His ear was itchy, but not so bad he had to stop as he trotted past the river. The lake would be sweet with late autumn. His journey was making him thirsty. He may even be able to catch a fish in the shallows, one of the darting ones with silver scales.

The howl of another whispered over the foothills and he sneezed. Ah, well. That limited his range, but he would survive. There was plenty hidden in the burrows and bushes of his own territory, and few who would challenge him for it. He trotted on.

Full moon tonight, loup. Fish-silver light lanced through the sparse canopy; Sirius’ voice buzzed in his head, in the soft space between his ears. The wolf shook himself again. He knew no people, just the dog and the antlered thing that played chase and tug and hide. Hungry. Would they be hungry? Had they gone away?

Loup. That was him. The voice was affectionate and low—it made the wolf want to stretch from his toes to his tail, to lean into the scritches behind his ears and whine until he was allowed to kiss kiss kiss the fondness that smelled like winter ice. The thought made him yawn happily as he moved toward the slope of the lake’s eastern bank. A friend would be good. Even the poor doomed rabbits would become wearisome if he remained like this.

The moon murmured to him through mouthfuls of cold, clear water. He drank deep, and listened. She had kind things to say to him most of the time. He missed his friend, with his thick black fur and lolling tongue. He missed the tall beast, whose antlers he was permitted to gnaw on as long as he was gentle when they napped near the end of the night. The little one was still too small to play on his spindle-legs.

He didn’t like to be alone out here. The other wolf was snuffling on the other side of the hills, too close, turning his stomach. His bones hurt. The moon couldn’t save him.

He would fight if he was caught, kick and scream and howl and bite. They would try to drag him back but he would clutch the boards with bloody hands and he would not lose his hold again. He would not leave the ice they could not take him from it. He had fought too hard to get it back. Teeth and claws, crimson and ivory. This time, they would bear witness. This time, they would understand.

A bark.

Bright, like the north star.

Close, closer than the other wolf, who would not touch him with the dog near.

Moony turned toward it and took off running.

[archiveoth]

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[bluejayblueskies]

De Tocht Der Koeien \\ The Journey of Cows | MxCaptain

[ID: A hand-bound book shown from the front. There is gray bookcloth along the spine and black bookcloth on the front pasted on top of silver and black marbled paper. The title in both English (The Journey of Cows) and Dutch (De Tocht Der Koeien) is painted onto the cover in silver fabric paint, as well as the author name MxCaptain and a graphic of grass. /End ID]

As another gift as part of Fandom Trumps Hate 2023, I did a bind of MxCaptain's fic De Tocht Der Koeien and its English translation The Journey of Cows! Both fics are contained within this volume, one after the other.

[ID: A hand-bound book shown from the spine. The front cover can also be seen from an angle. There is gray bookcloth along the spine. The name in Dutch (De Tocht Der Koeien) and the author name, MxCaptain, are on the spine in silver fabric paint. /End ID]

The cover and spine are both stenciled with silver fabric paint, and the cover has black bookcloth glued atop black-and-gray hand-marbled paper (not marbled by myself). This is, like my previous book, a sewn board binding, and the ends of the boards are painted black.

[ID: Two images of the interior title pages of the book. The first shows the half-title page, which has both titles De Tocht Der Koeien and The Journey of Cows separated by a line and the author name, MxCaptain, beneath a graphic of a cabin. The second shows a two-page spread with a watercolor painting of a pine-tree-covered hill with some highland cows on it. The same titles can be seen on the righthand page, as well as the same author name. /End ID]

The half-title page precedes the title spread, which has a full-spread painting. The edges have been trimmed (very carefully, using a utility knife, which I only attempt with thin books like this one because it is generally very perilous to trim this way) to bring the book down to A6 size and to get the white space away from the edges of the spread.

[ID: Two images of interior pages of the book. The first image shows the front matter on the left and the summary page on the right. The front matter has QR codes with links to the fics, the Blue Skies Books logo with a bluejay, the Renegade Publishing logo with a bookpress, and information about the book. The summary page has the summary in Dutch and English as well as sketches of cows. The second image shows the chapter header on the righthand side. The chapter header has the English title, The Journey of Cows, encased within a woodcut print of cows, with the text of the fic beneath it. /End ID]

The summary page and chapter headers have some more public domain cow images from rawpixel, and I'm especially pleased with the chapter headers, which I think are very cute!

[fioreofthemarch]

Finding Her - Chapter Photos

Finding Her has a header photo for each chapter, taken using the in-game camera. These photos were inspired by the chapter contents or recreating one that Link takes in that chapter (if I could manage it!). Here they all are in one place!

Chapter 1

Log is accompanied by a picture of a Zonai Steward Construct. Its large, see-saw head is angled slightly to the side, as if perplexed.

Chapter 2

A photograph of a soft brown mare, saddled and ready for travel. Link is sitting in the saddle, smiling at the camera. The immediate next photo is a self-portrait taken by a Hylian Guard, Scorpis, the camera too-close to his face as he tries to snap a picture of himself and Link, who is waving to the camera from his horse.

Chapter 3

A photograph taken from Impa’s hot air balloon of the geoglyph of Hyrule Ridge, depicting a large figure with long ears and an outstretched hand. 

Chapter 4

A photograph of the huge dark cloud that stretches high into the atmosphere. It is encircled by two dozen or so floating wooden structures.

Chapter 5

A photograph taken from the underside of a Lightroot, its sturdy vines wrapping around the central orange tuba and rising up towards the surface above.  

Chapter 6

A photo of the Gorondia, the Fire Temple, emerging from the Depths. It is flanked by lava falls and seems carved from the bedrock itself. Unseen to the photographer is a small, ghostly figure of a young woman, with blonde hair and green eyes, standing on an upper level of the enormous structure. She looks at the camera with a blank expression. 

Chapter 7

[Kakariko Village - this photograph is not depicted in the chapter]

Chapter 8

A photograph of a lone house in Hateno, in the old pre-Calamity style. It has a single chimney and a rendered brick exterior. Beside the house is a small garden with a large oak tree and a pond that glints in the moonlight. There are frogs in the water, strategically located beneath a concert of fireflies that have gathered at the pond.  

Chapter 9

[Penn at Wetlands Stables - this photograph is not depicted in the chapter]

Chapter 10

[Mipha's Court - this photograph is not depicted in the chapter]

Chapter 11

A photograph of a Zonai contraption: a cart with a steering stick and two small wheels attached. There is a Zonai rocket attached to each wheel. The vehicle looks as fast as it is flimsy. 

Chapter 12

A photograph of the Great Plateau with its evergreen trees and rolling landscape. The Temple of Time is in the foreground, ahead of a gentle hill that rises towards the overlook leading into the Shrine of Resurrection. A campfire is burning, just off the pathway up the hill. 

Chapter 13

A photograph of the painted mural in the Gerudo underground shelter, a determined Riju standing before it. She is deep in thought, a hand to her chin. There is no hint of fatigue on her features. 

Chapter 14

[Purah at Lookout Landing - this photograph is not depicted in the chapter]

Chapter 15

A photograph of Lurelin Village and the Pirate Ship on its shores. The huge, horned skull on the bow leers with blank menace. On the ship, a group of bokoblins and their boss bokoblin dance and jeer. 

Chapter 16

A photograph taken from the Thunderhead Isles of the Popla Foothills to the north. The Light Dragon is seen flying just below the clouds. There's a sense that, no matter where someone is in the world, the dragon’s light would shine upon them. It's a familiar feeling, like the light that shone from Hyrule Castle when its Princess called out to— wait. No, stop that. That’s— what are you talking about? The feelings aren't familiar at all. It’s just a dragon. Nothing more. This isn't even a good photo. It’s blurry, and dark, and should just be deleted. 

Chapter 17

A photograph of a ring of Silent Princesses. They grow tall, strong and radiant, and are clustered around a small shallow in the ground. At the centre, a dragon tear awaits. 

Chapter 18

[Josha at her research station - this photograph is not depicted in the chapter]

Chapter 19

[Penn at Washa's Bluff with the Light Dragon overhead - this photograph is not depicted in the chapter]

Chapter 20

[Rist Peninsula as the sun rises - this photograph is not depicted in the chapter]

[ceciliatan]

The Unexpected, the Sublime, and the pastime of looking up.

Welcome to my latest monthly newsletter! If you'd prefer to get this directly in your email each month, you can sign up here: http://eepurl.com/TEWfvor you can join my patreon to get not only posts like this but other writer-y stuff and fiction as well.

Thinky Thoughts: The Unexpected, the Sublime, and the pastime of looking up. The last thing I expected this month, after just having seen the total solar eclipse in April, was an even more mind-blowing celestial event! But a Coronal Mass Ejection resulted in spectacular auroras at both poles of the Earth, and with little to no warming I decided to abandon other plans and hop in the car late Friday night to chase it. Seeing a really spectacular aurora has been on the "bucket list" for most of my life. I have seen the Northern Lights twice before, technically, once on a red-eye flight from LA to Boston in 2004, and with the naked eye once in 2015, but we really only saw it the white shimmers for maybe ten minutes before it clouded over. That time I had bookmarked several helpful websites, though, which I checked before leaving the house (including the ClearDarkSky map of New England amateur observatories, NOAA Space Weather Prediction, and SpaceWeatherLive.com). The solar flare was strong enough that some feared it would knock out GPS, so I set my downloaded map data for a place called Cumberland, Maine, just inland from Portland, where it was predicted to have clear skies after 11pm. On the drive, a tiny copper sliver of moon, the fingernail clipping of a god, was setting. Once it was gone, any light I saw in the sky I knew had to be either the glow of a city (or shopping mall...) or the aurora. As I headed north, I could not really watch the sky and the highway at the same time, but at one point I looked southeast and I could see clouds that were lit up white with a dark sky behind them. And when I looked to the north... I could see the clouds were DARK with a light sky behind them! That could only be one thing, then, aurora! I resisted the urge to just pull over then and kept on toward my more northerly destination. It was just about midnight when I made it there, and fortunately Google maps was working just fine. I quickly found a place listed as a park "open 24 hours" where the map photos showed it was a large flat open field. Five minutes later I pulled in to a small parking lot and pulled out my camera. The photo you see at the header of the newsletter was the first shot I took to the north. At first it was the most visible through my phone's camera, but as I stood there, the aurora continued to brighten. I decided to try heading north to see if I could get somewhere with no trees in the way. Google pointed me to something listed as a fairground on "Bald Hill Road." A bald hill sounded ideal, no? So off I went again, but I hadn't even gone five minutes north before I pulled over again and shot this one:

You can see that even with the blinding light of an oncoming car, the aurora is still visible. I pulled over by the fence and just watched the curtain wall thicken and shimmer. At this point it was easily visible with the naked eye, although the phone camera could still see more color. (Not just on long exposures either: just looking through the phone screen.) I decided to press on to the Bald Hill on my map, another 15 minutes north. When I got there, indeed, the fairgrounds were an ideal viewing spot, with a parking area for the car where it was safe to exit the vehicle. And this is when it turned extremely magical. I had been about to head for home, but I decided to check the space weather one last time and it showed I had actually been in a relative lull, and the strongest burst of the night was about to arrive.

The curtain wall seemed to be getting higher and higher in the sky. What I wasn't expecting was that instead of looking at an aurora happening somewhere north of me... I was soon looking at an aurora that was happening all around me. The colors turned to pink and lavender and the pillars, instead of all in a row to one side in the sky, instead encircled the horizon and met above my head like a giant, flickering circus tent. In the one spot where there was still a little doorway of dark sky I could see flashes of lavender-white light as if I were watching the actual solar wind blowing a gigantic gas flame around. Here's what it looked like directly overhead:

Merriam-Webster Online says the following for "sublime": "implies an exaltation or elevation almost beyond human comprehension."   I am having a hard time coming up with a better description. And to think, without certain properties of our planet, we would see no aurora at all. The magnetic field and the atmosphere are both necessary to create aurora... and to sustain life capable of seeing it. It makes me wonder... in the most wondrous sense of the word "wonder." I'm writing this a week later and I'm still floating on air from it. And to think, if I hadn't checked Twitter, I might have missed it entirely. But I didn't. I was at the right place at the right time to experience something sublime. ------------- Here are a few more shots from that night. Stunning. With the naked eye the colors were more subtle than what the phone camera captures, but they were definitely discernible once I got away from other light sources. --------------- Meanwhile, I'm proofreading like mad... When I haven't been looking up at the sky, every other waking minute that hasn't been taken up by other work has been spent staring at PDFs of various volumes of Daron's Guitar Chronicles. Volumes 1-3 are live on Amazon (and in KU!), with Vol 4 coming June 1. I just proofed volume 8. Cover art for books 7, 8, and 9 is almost finalized! So excited. My goodness, so f***ing much happens in these books, I had forgotten, and yet they are really not about "plot" so much as they are about changes in the human heart and the changes we make in ourselves as a result of our experiences and the choices we make in the wake of our traumas. Daron tests the bonds of found family, questions definitions of both queerness and masculinity, and examines art, music, and creativity as a reason for living. I'm still kind of amazed I wrote over a million words of that, and grateful every day that people read it, and continue to read it. Here's hoping KU helps even more folks discover it?

Upcoming Appearances TONIGHT! Wednedsay, May 22, I'll be reading something queer and chit-chatting on Neon Hemlock Live (on their Instagram). But I just added a new virtual event to this September: Kink Between the Lines! KBtL, as it's known, is an event specifically by and for members of marginalized groups who crossover into kink. I'll be teaching my online "How to Write a Sex Scene" class and also hosting an erotica reading. (Stay tuned for who else will be joining me at the reading! I only just found out and haven't herded any cats yet.)

2024: - May 22: Neon Hemlock Live! - June 6-9: SFWA Nebulas Conference (in person!) - July 11-14: Readercon, Boston area - August 7-11: SABR National Convention, Minneapolis - September 27-29: Kink Between the Lines - October 16-20: World Fantasy Con, Niagara Falls 2025: - August 13-17: Worldcon in Seattle, WA   Works-in-Progress Report But I know, I know, what you really want to know is... how are my writing projects coming along? I have a bunch of short stories & poems out on submission, but... I'm focusing the most right now on Windmark, the working titles of the so-called "dragon romantasy" book, while the aforementioned DGC proofreading takes up most of the rest of my time. I'm honestly not sure if it is going to be "romantasy" in the end, since that definition seems to be a moving target? But it's definitely fantasy (with dragons) and there is definitely romance. I started at the end of January. The word count just passed 32,000, which is a lot more than I've done on anything else in such a relatively short period of time! I know, I used to write that much in a single month, but since 2016, not so much. I'm planning to put a sneak peek of it on my Patreon on June 1st, for paying patrons only. (So if you'd like to take a gander, and you're not already a member at the $2 level or above, now would be a great time to do that...) Among the tropes that have fallen into this one like dominoes into a wicked cauldron of twisted eroticism: - love-hate triangle (that's like a love triangle... except they all hate each other) - enemies to lovers - palace intrigue - telepathic bonding with dragons (eventually) - dragon breeding - royal companions - third-gender dragons (and people) - one person's poison is another's medicine - masochistic gladiators - everyone's probably bi - did I mention dragons?   No book recommendations this month... Because ALLLLLLLL of my reading time is going into proofreading Daron. But I did just bring home a haul of books that includes Justinian Huang and Olivie Blake... so maybe by next month I'll be able to recommend one of those...?   Con Report: RomCon at the Ashland Library This past Saturday was the annual romance celebration at the Ashland Public library, with panels and autographing all day. It was really fun to catch up with some writers I haven't seen in a long time, like Loretta Chase and Caroline Linden, whom I used to cross paths with regularly at NERW and RWA, but also to meet some new folks! Unfortunately Kosoko Jackson had a family emergency come up in the morning and could not make it. He and I did a virtual Romance Bookstore Day event back in 2022 so I had been looking forward to meeting him for real! Oh well. It was fun to talk to Kathryn Ann Kingsley who writes "villain" romance (The Unseelie Prince), Jessica Martin who writes small-town with a Shakespearean twist, and Kate Canterbary who puts a high spice factor into contemporary series set in Rhode Island. I also got to briefly say hi to Tori Anne Martin who has a sapphic witch romance out now entitled This Spells Disaster. Head organizer Meena Jain says they'll be doing it again next year, so keep an eye out!  Me with Kathryn Ann Kingsley, who came to my rescue when I had brought gun to a knife fight, I mean, a pencil to an autographing.   With Meena Jain, the delightful organizer of the event in Ashland. Kate Canterbary (In a Jam), Cecilia Tan, and Jessica Martin (For the Love of the Bard) about the speak on a panel on contemporary romance at the Ashland Public Library.   A Recipe: Kaddo Bowrani One of my favorite recipes from the internet used to reside on the Chowhound boards, but of course Chowhound was recently shut down, then sold and restored, except the bulletin boards no longer appear to exist. But fortunately, my favorite recipe was also several other nerds' favorite, and copies of it exist, including here and here. The recipe is for the Afghan national dish, Kaddo Bowrani, which is on the menu at the Helmand restaurant(s) here in Cambridge and in San Francisco. Imagine a bed of basmati rice topped by a layer of deliciously caramelized roasted pumpkin, topped by a rich and tomatoey ground beef sauce (or "impossible meat" for vegetarians), which is itself topped by a dollop of garlic-yogurt. Yum. The thing that has always kind of weirded me out about the recipe is that everyone on the internet seems to make it with "pumpkin," and they use the common October "sugar pumpkin." Far as I can tell from grilling the waiter at the Helmand restaurant here in Cambridge, this is not at all the "pumpkin" they use. The vegetable used by the restaurant is much more like a Kabocha than like an American, thin-walled sugar pumpkin. When we started getting a farm share many years ago and rather large kabocha were showing up on a regular basis, I started making this recipe with it, and it is nothing less that carotene-laden deliciousness. So my first tip is don't use sugar pumpkin, use kabocha. My second tip if you are using kabocha, is that you DO NOT actually need the full quarter cup of sugar that the original poster insists on. Two tablespoons is great. My third tip is do NOT overdo the garlic. One clove and one only. If you want to snazz up the yogurt sauce more, sprinkle it artistically with paprika. Final tip: you can make basmati rice in the rice cooker, but cut down the water and toss in two pats of butter.   One Featured Backlist Book Mind Games A Paranormal Erotic Thriller PB $14.95, Ebook $3.99 Bookshop • Amazon • Audiobook on Everand • This was the very first romance I wrote back in 2009! It was put out by to a "digital first" publisher and got really excellent reviews from the romance blogosphere (back when people read blogs). That publisher went under a few years later so I republished it myself. I brought a few copies with me to Ashland and they all sold! So I thought, hey, maybe this book is worth reminding folks about. What happens when your stalker can enter your dreams? Ever since she foresaw the death of her parents, Wren has suppressed her latent psychic abilities. Avoiding strong emotions, Wren leads a placid but lonely life until her quiet is shattered by her sister Abby going missing... and the private investigator searching for her. Derek Chapman isn't what Wren expects. He's young, handsome, and immediately protective of her. Wren is attracted to him right away, but fears that deepening any connection with Derek-emotional, spiritual, or sexual-will open the floodgates locked in her mind. A mystery man appears in Wren's dreams, dealing pain and pleasure. Is Wren's subconscious warning her away from Derek, or longing for him? When the search for Abby leads to a secret sex club, it seems fate is pulling Wren into Derek's arms, whether she is ready or not. ------------ Okay, that's it for this month. Next month I'll let you know how the Nebulas conference in Pasadena went! And, no really, I'm getting some stuff ready to serialize on the Patreon. I just have to get this proofreading done first! -ctan Read the full article

[everlaneptune]

Allow me to place where credit is due. Thank you to Clannad for providing the photograph for my custom-made Tumblr header, which I made myself! It's so cute and matches the vibe of this one-shot.

Note. The first and second trio of asterisks symbolizes a flashback. The third trio of asterisks serves as a jump into the future.

WARNINGS: Gore (blood, severe injury), character death (not really, but she does die).

MINORS DO NOT INTERACT. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

•°•

Haunted By Memories

Alcina

Icy condensation showers from the gloomy sky. Alcina’s hair adheres to her forehead and cheeks. Her damp clothing hangs heavy onto her trembling frame. Her teeth chatter as her body drops in temperature. She shivers when the gust of wind assails past her.

What happened? What happened to her for things to go bad?

***

Brambles rip at the skirt of her dress and cut into the fragile skin of her legs. Icy air bleeds into her lungs with every breath that she takes. Tears stung at the corners of her eyes. Servants gossip that the Ragnvindr brothers engaged in a physical altercation. She imagines that the driving force would be the death of Crepus Ragnvindr, owner of the Dawn Winery and father to Diluc.

Her legs scream at her to slow down, muscles aching from exertion. She, however, continues forward. She refuses to stop, fearful of what might happen if she does not reach the Dawn Winery in time.

Alcina crests over the hill that leads to the Dawn Winery. Red and blue light illuminates the horizon, a beacon in the dark night. She dashes into that direction, eyes trained on those lights. Alcina trips over a tree root, spraining her ankle. She shrieks in pain.

And yet, she does not let that stop her.

She pushes past the grapevines until she reaches the lake shore. Alcina spots the brothers standing steadfast, neither of them moving an inch. Glass sprinkles the sand from the blazing heat of Diluc’s claymore. Ice blankets the lake’s surface from Kaeya’s sword.

The battle has already come to a conclusion.

Turning on his heel, Kaeya walks away from his brother. He cradles what he assumes to be a vision close to his chest, right above his heart. Diluc stands still, not pursuing him, even if his grip tightens ever so slightly on his weapon’s handle.

Cautiously, she approaches him.

“Diluc?” she quietly calls out.

She reaches out to touch him, but he flinches away like a wounded animal.

“Don’t.” Diluc whimpers. “Don’t betray me like he did.”

“Diluc, I’m not going to betray you,” she reassures him.

She reaches out to him a second time, but Diluc steps away.

“Are you working behind my back as well?” he hisses out.

“What?” she asks incredulously. “Where did that idea come from?”

“Kaeya confessed he’s an agent of Khaenri’ah,” Diluc informs her. “He serves a fallen nation. So, I ask again: Are you working behind my back as well?”

“Of course not!” Alcina answers. “Diluc, I am your sister. I would never-”

“Not by blood.”

Diluc struts towards the entryway of the Dawn Winery. He enters his home without sparing her a glance. Alcina stands in the rain, tears silently streaming down her face.

***

Alcina limps home. Diluc has considered her as family since childhood. They share countless memories together, ones full of love and joy. He flushes them down the drain willingly. Not only that, but he accuses Kaeya of having ulterior motives. She refuses to believe his accusation, but the strange pupil and dialect all points to the truth.

She peers up at the sky, and her night worsened.

Carbon dioxide rises into the sky. When she crests over the hill, Alcina witnesses the destruction of her home. Hungry flames consume the Mordremaire Estate and everything in it. Navy banners with white flowers in their centers stood before the gates. Strange men patrol the area, weapons she had never seen before in hand.

Her family is nowhere to be seen.

“Papa! Mama!” she shrieks.

Alcina attempts to dash towards the blaze, but a hand catches her.

“My lady!” a familiar voice cried. She turns around to see her butler, Albert, standing before her with a box. “My lady, we must flee. This area is no longer safe!”

“But- But Papa and Mama are still in there!” she protested. “We have to save them!”

“My lady,” Albert consoles her. “Your parents are dead!”

Alcina stares at him in disbelief. She refuses to believe him, yet the look of devastation on his face told her enough. She flees with Albert, who leads her to a cabin hidden deep in Brightcrown Mountains. He guides her into the cramped space. First, he sets the box on the countertop. Albert then sits her on the couch.

“I am going to Mondstadt and retrieve supplies,” he informs her. “Please, do not leave the cabin while I am away. Who knows what dangers roam these mountains right now.” Albert stands and heads over to the door. “I will return in an hour or so.”

Her butler leaves shortly after.

Alcina sits in the quiet room, only hearing the gentle hum of the box.

She knows the object to be her family’s heirloom, a goddess’s power source.

The Cryo Gnosis.

Her thoughts take a turn for the worst.

“I… I don’t want this to happen again.”

Alcina rises from the couch where she cowers for hours. Snatching the Gnosis from its velvet bed, she stumbles into the kitchen to retrieve the butcher knife in the wooden black. With a trembling hand, the black hovers above her chest, directly above her heart.

“And you will never take anyone from me again!”

The blade punctures her chest. She cries out in agony, yet she refuses to falter.

Blood drips onto the cabin floor. Then it pours like a waterfall. An organ beating with life plops onto the floor, breathing its last breath. She shoves the Gnosis into her chest, assuming the role of her heart. Her body sways from left to right before she crumbles onto the floor.

The door scrapes against the floor that cues Albert’s return. Her butler calls out her name once, twice, and a third time in anguish.

“ALCINA!”

She falls into a puddle of blood and salty teardrops.

***

Alcina shoots up from the bed with a scream. Cold sweat drips down her body, and it drenches the bedsheets. Her body shakes, and her trembling hands cover her face. A sense of vulnerability washes over her. Those memories have not resurfaced in years, and they inflict a dull ache in the empty cavity of her chest.

“Not by blood.”

Salty tears burn in her eyes. Her breath loses its steady rhythm. Panic overwhelms her body, causing it to shake even worse than before. Alcina gnaws on her bottom lip, muffling a sob that retches out from her chest. Pain blossoms in her head, throat, chest, and abdomen. It spreads from those areas to the rest of her body, inflicting numbness onto her limbs.

What other memories are going to resurface? Nightmares she wishes not to relive.

“Alcina?” a voice calls out to her. “Are you awake? Breakfast is ready.”

Tartaglia… Her sweet Ajax.

Please leave me alone.

She tries to speak, but a sob escapes instead. Alcina claps a hand over her mouth. She hopes that he does not hear the sound.

I don’t want you to see me like this. I don’t want you to see me in such a vulnerable state.

Archons be damned.

The doorknob swiftly twists, and Ajax steps into the room. His eyes go wide when he sees her disheveled state. He hurries over to her side without a word. Once he embraces her, she breaks down. Alcina clings onto him, her hands gripping tightly onto his shirt. He reciprocates, tightening his hold ever so slightly.

“It’s okay,” he murmurs. Tartaglia kisses her head. “It’s okay.”

Shaking her head, Alcina says. “No it’s not.”

He nods. “Okay.”

Respecting her privacy, Ajax asks nothing. He comforts her, giving her head an occasional kiss. His long, slender fingers comb through her curls. Sometimes, her boyfriend pulls down his sleeve and wipes away her tears. He sways back and forth at some point, a rocking motion which steadily calms her down.

Ajax offers support to her, and she greedily accepts it.

I’m pathetic.

“Do you want to eat breakfast or stay in bed?” he asks.

Her stomach answers for her, rumbling loudly. Ajax laughs softly while she averts her gaze, embarrassed.

“Breakfast it is.”

He lifts her up from the bed. They exit the bedroom and head downstairs. The scent of tea break pancakes wafts into Alcina’s senses. She remembers when Crepus made those every morning for her and his sons.

The empty cavity aches again.

“I figured you would be craving a Mondstadt specialty,” Ajax tells her. “I’m glad to see that I’m right.”

Confusion spreads through her. Then she feels something wet at the corner of her mouth. Horrified, Alcina wipes it away immediately.

She was drooling.

Her reaction elicits another soft laugh from him.

“Don’t be embarrassed,” Ajax reassures her. He kisses her cheek. “I think it’s cute.”

“Of course you’d say that,” she replies.

“I speak only the truth, Cina,” he grins. “Everything about you is perfect.”

No. Not everything about me is perfect.

Alcina simply smiles at that statement. He sets her down on a chair before he heads into the kitchen, presumably to retrieve their breakfast.

She stares out one of the nearby windows, which overlooks the bustling harbor. Alcina listens closely. She hears merchants calling out to potential customers. The laughter of young children floats into the atmosphere.

When she hears that sound, something stirs within her.

Alcina never fancies the idea of having a family. Her family leaves nothing but tragic heartbreak in their wake. The Tsarista cast a heritable curse onto her family, decaying their bodies from the inside out. Having children will allow that curse to inflict in their bodies.

The sound of laughter reminds her of Ajax’s dream.

Everyone slows to a halt. She says on that one thought.

Ajax’s dream to have a family.

Alcina spirals. She cannot imagine being the mother of Ajax’s children. The possibility of their children inheriting their poison is too high. She hates to imagine the heartbroken expression on Ajax’s face when he discovers their child’s blight.

She desires Ajax to have a child with a blightless woman.

A gentle tap on her shoulders lures Alcina out of her thoughts. She looks to Ajax, who sets a plate of pancakes in front of her.

“Breakfast,” Ajax says. He kisses her forehead for a nth time. “Quit thinking, start eating.”

“Yes, darling,” she replies. She munches on her breakfast.

She saves those thoughts for the future. Thinking about it now doesn’t benefit her.

Instead, she enjoys her boyfriend’s presence. She listens to Ajax, who shares his agenda for the day and stories of Snezhnaya. Alcina smiles while he rambles on.

Yes. A future alongside Ajax sounds lovely. She knows that she will be loved every day, even if she’s haunted by memories of the past.

. . .

© everlaneptune 2024

[icelogged]

see the taglist project [live reconstruction]

long obnoxious tags with deeply personal meanings my beloved! I add on as i go!

[last updated 2023/05/12 AD]

#evidence of life - original posts

#cold #warm  - vibe tags

blog/main project tags: #they say there's something in our seas / we should all be careful / i'm not swimming anyway / i'm too busy moping #thesis

organizational tags that group specific motifs

#and if that means changing shape if that means putting together the unexpected that is any monster's ancient right - monster grrl trans wrath

#behind you - darkness

#christ haunted - Christianity related

#crime scene - not real crimes scenes just settings for writing or art

#deer in headlights - deers, stags etc

#doll bones - dolls, dollkin

#flower girls play lover grave games in the courtyard - wlw coven monster packs

#fortress of cold stone - vamp castle vibe

#found face down on the ground - body dumping grounds

#freezer bride - freezer bride aestheticisms

#gallons of the stuff - BLOOD

#he promised to kill what he loved - a bad man

#holy backrooms - backrooms liminal spaces

#i'm left in the fumes of a guilty machine - SA related

#if you have the stomach for it - romance tag uno

#i wanted it to be home - my house in nebraska is a cottage in *grey hound bus passes*

#left blood on the oil painting - reds

#lightning hit my wings - fallen angel, angelcore

#like a fist like a knife - romance tag dos

#mermaid blood - mermaid aestheticisms, fresh and sea water

#smile you're on camera - found footage vibes

#tied to a tree and fed strawberries - weird forest date

#waterlogged - waterlogged corpse vibes

#winter fairy - winter, snow, winter coquette

media

#art #moodboard #web weaving 

#horror

#[haunted] cabin fever - the shining

#a tragedy in three parts: daughter wife and mother - the story of a preacher’s daughter wife and mother as told by Ethel Cain

#by a cord of sticky flesh - dead ringers

#canadian coming of age documentary - ginger snaps

#cannibal apologist - Hannibal NBC

#girls will say i know a place and take you to silent hill - silent hill

#inherited divine suffering - hereditary

#la casa awoo - la casa lobo

#lollipop chainsaw massacre- TCM

#maddened by the breath of god - Possession (1981)

#my auntie buffalo bill - the silence of the lambs, Hannibal (2001)

#shakespearean tragedies for magical girls - 魔法少女まどか☆マギカ

#tests to gauge one’s will to survive through physical or psychological torture for rehabilitation to some and valentine’s gift to others - saw franchise

#vroom vroom (1996) - crash

#wouldst thou like to live deliciously - the VVitch (2015)

#music #music box - audio files

#chelsea wolfe #deftones #ethel cain #nicole dollanganger

personal 

#face reveal - about me /silly (actual pictures of me are in evidence of life plus my icon and header if you’re curious)

#gender class study material - my attempts at gender absorption #gender: broadcast - how I’m tryna be 🏳️‍⚧️🤍🥩

#make it go away - this blog’s comfort tag

#memory fuel - photos that break through dissociative fog

#my meals - self explanatory yay edrecovery

#wardrobe - stuff I’d wear, fashion, looks

#wrapped in ribbon - favourite posts

lovermaker.exe / ocs with left beef

#huckleberry

places

#eternal rest - cemeteries, graves

#manitoba #ontario #saskatchewan

Entities [leads to their tumblr unless stated otherwise because you should check them out]

#camojacketfag #churchrummagesale #deejayphoto #hayden anhedonia #isabelle adjani [leads to tag] #michael donovan #plastiboo #shelley duvall [leads to tag] #tearsandtheteeth #user ojibwa

tags so people i want to show stuff don’t have to dig through their @s

#march #my twin God made our two bodies two minds one soul and yeah it was good

etc #collection - trinkets and things lotsa knives :3 #friends - animals #BATS !!! - self explanatory #message in a bottle - asks #visual stim - self explanatory #words - self explanatory

backlist / warning

#ed tw ed tw in tags - not a ed blog im just a girl with an ed that runs a blog and sometimes complains about it

#horror - this a horror blog and content that could be unsettling content can be untagged! the horror tag mostly covers horror media specifically! if you’d follow but this is a problem i suggest stopping by my main instead :3

#mdni - minors don’t interact

#nsft - i doubt this tag will be will be used. for example this text post would not be tagged [silly and not graphic but alludes to sexuality] nor would this painting [“artistic” nudity] i don’t plan on posting anything that would warrant that tag but it’s what I would use in the event that I do

#sfx gore - self explanatory real life cuts, bruises, injuries, medical, violent text posts will be untagged unless someone requests something specifically tagged. remember blood has a tag. there will be no promotion of self harm or irl/non-SFX gore imagery.