#this isnt really that fluffy but its bittersweet so

[mandalhoerian]

last words on moth to a flame.

oh god i kept sleeping the whole day away on and off this fic really drained me and now i'm literally done with it i feel so empty. (if you dont know what im talking about, final part to ghost to its haunt is out)

like moth to a flame (as a series) is the first project i've completed EVER and i'm feeling so great (even though half of it was shameless porn) but also it's done now and idk what to do with myself hhhhh

no joke i've written a whole novel. the minimum words for a novel is 50K and:

It feels SO WILD.

Thank you so much for seeing this through with me, all the support and being patient with me as I scrambled to finish everything!

More blabbering thoughts below the cut for the final huzzah (i am giving this fic a send off after all. ur getting a huge author's note)

moth to a flame was the first leonxreader fic i'd written and no joke, my first smut too. looking back i was really writing it for ME lmao, practicing and playing around with leon's character and everything.

i am lucky to have it blow up this much (thanks to that one tiktok account who recommended fics you have my heart) because it t came out relatively early like right after re4r release. i received incredible comments on it. like PARAGRAPHS and whole essays picking it apart and appreciating the details and i never got around to answering any of that because i didn't feel deserving of that kind of praise. I've never gotten attention like that before and i felt unworthy of it? I didnt feel it was anything special, leon isnt a new character there are better works out there,

but i get that fics for re4r leon were being put out SLOWLY and mine just happened to be on the better side of the spectrum since i started working on it way before march when the remake came out and had months to revise and edit, so that's why it's much more superior to lamb to the slaughter and ghost to its haunt which are dopamine-fueled, weeks-old projects barely beta-read basically running on concentrated inspiration (and i've been dealing with cholecystitis for months waiting for surgery through it all. so it's really been a roller-coaster ride) 

to this day i have no idea why both ended up to be 25K words each dude 😭 i just wanted there to be a story i guess? like, when people said they wanted more in mtaf's comments i just wanted to deliver a decent plot and have a strong background on how the reader had ended up in a situation like that with leon, and things just branched out from there.

i took so much time on them because I FREAKED OUT over it being slightly popular. you guys know. lmao . its all i talked about on ltts notes BSDSJDS

by the time they came out though, attention and interest had fizzled out majorly, like, anons who were begging for a sequel did not come back after ltts dropped I CLEARLY remember (after getting what they wanted from me) AHAHAH but i did deliberately shoot myself in the leg with that one, i am AWFUL with expectations, so it was between "what the hell, let's go low-ER" and "let's go out with a bang"

i think i did get back on track A BIT with ghost to its haunt, but still, it's its own thing, you know? i did say it'd be a good ending, so it has a good ending... in moth to a flame standards.

this series ended up to be a choose your adventure type of story. it's up to you how it ends. if you like angst, just accept it ends with moth to a flame and reader and leon are done and go their separate ways. if you don't want to settle with that and want the story to continue, you have a dark romance with a doomed ending with lamb to the slaughter; and if you like a kinda hurt/comfort fluffy bittersweet conclusion instead, ghost to its haunt is for you.

So yeah. It's really over.

Thank you so much everyone. It's been a pleasure and a great couple of months. If you want to come talk to me in the asks or whatever about the series, you're more than welcome.

See you next time in potential new projects!

[alyssalikestoreadbooks]

The Seven Year Slip - Ashley Poston

"Sometimes, the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it.

So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone—she isn’t sure her heart can take it.

And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. A man with kind eyes and a Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again.

Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in his future.

Her aunt always said the apartment was a pinch in time, a place where moments blended together like watercolors. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed.

After all, love is never a matter of time—but a matter of timing."

Read Date - June 2024

Length - 352 pages

Genre - Magical Realism, Romance, Fantasy

Rating - 10/10

Stars - ★★★★★

Notes - I really like how it starts out with talking about how magical the apartment is, and eventually Clementine grows up and doesn’t believe anymore. I think its very bittersweet and talks greatly to our need to find magic in the world as adults, and how we lost the charm we used to have as children. It really builds up to the moment when the switch happens, and suddenly you’re 7 years in the past. I love the magic and mysticism of the world, and all the world building that’s been placed to get us 7 years in the past. I think the heartbreak between Analea and Vera is really good and sets the tone for the rest of the novel. I think Clemintine and Iwan’s interactions with each other are so adorable and silly, and i love the way it plays out so much. It’s so light and fluffy to begin with. Watching it play out is so sweet and i couldn’t get enough of it. The pain of Clem coming back to the present day is felt throughout the writing and you can feel it in your body as you read it. The reveal of James Ashton being Iwan is an amazing reveal and its the perfect levels of foreshadowing. And the reveal that he remembers?? DELICIOUS!! aside from that, the topic of loss is clear throughout the entire novel, and you can feel it weighing heavy on Clemintine. the reveal of suicide is so shocking, and i never saw it coming in a million years. That’s kind of the point, isnt it? There are sometimes warning signs, and other times there arent. Depression doesnt discriminate and it’s a very powerful thing. I think this book handled it extremely well, and beautifully done. the parts where the past and future start to intertwine are so amazing and answered all of my questions i had while reading. The spice in this book is REALLY REALLY MF GOOD. LIKE. I CANT GET ENOUGH, and thats saying a lot coming from me. AND THE REVEAL WITH VERA AND IWAN!!! man this book was just GOOD GOOD GOOD with every single thing it aimed to do. I couldn’t speak higher of this book if i could. It’s one of my absolute favorite books ever

[startistdoodles]

It's hard to maintain your identity when your father is an absolute madman. There's something deep down in your heart that makes you wonder if you are really more similar than you would like to believe. Others might say otherwise, but how can you ignore the face of your sinful father staring back at you in the mirror? 

---

I wrote a thing!!!!!!

I have been really inspired by the Dad Privileges Revoked series that @queenofcats17 has been writing so I did my own little thing expanding on how Mary-Jane is trying to recover from all the black magic she’s been a part of and the scary memories she has.

Hope y’all enjoy!!

[fellcharas]

my dreamtale variants :-)

more info abt them under the cut!

DREAM

he got a more sharper face because i didnt want to make him look super soft and innocent! even though he IS the guardian of positivity, he isnt naive

his crown has a sun shape instead because a lot of people feel warmed by the sun. even though his name is dream, he looks a lot brighter than you would expect. you could headcanon that the sun shape on his crown changes into a star shape when he visits those in dreams, but when hes awake its a sun shape

aside from design notes, dream has Issues. i dont know exactly how old he is, i just know that my variant of him is immortal and he has been through a lot. being the guardian of positivity can be draining. not to mention his childhood...

he swears. its kinda funny. his voice is also deeper than youd expect. not peter steele-deep, but just... you know. not what youd expect from someone who looks like dream

dream cares a lot about nightmare, but doesnt let it show much. being the guardian of positivity also means you have to let others be happy, even if that means sacrificing your optimism. so dream thinks nightmare is better off without him after all this time and he doesnt try to pressure her into anything. if they fight, they fight, he believes that shes made her choice and she’ll live with it unless she wants to approach him first

NIGHTMARE

her cloak is sorta in the works. i wanted to give it some cyan accents but i wasnt sure how to place them. regardless, the hood is sorta fluffy or feathery. she made it to match dream’s a long time after they’d uh... you know. separated.

even though she wanted to match with him, she still didnt want to completely be the same. she got rid of her crown because it grew uncomfortable for her to wear, both emotionally and physically (due to the corruption). her outfit under her cloak is also in the works.

nightmare’s whole corruption thing went the same as it originally did. except its more like a venom-and-eddie-brock situation. the corruption doesnt have full control over nightmare but it can add itself to her physical being on its own (ie tentacles). nightmare has learned how to control the corruption’s power over her (aside from her appearance) over time, but she cant really escape its thoughts. they share the same mind too.

nightmare does not like to swear. sometimes she will if she feels overcome with emotion, but she avoids it if she can. her voice is also softer and more silky.

nightmare didnt come out as transfem until a long time after everything, when she had already formed her gang/polycule with killer, cross, horror, and dust. shes always gone by the same name since she doesnt see any point in changing it, but just the way ppl refer to her is what she had changed. coming out to dream was kind of hard. because nightmare felt that dream didnt care for her anymore, she put it off, until finally she did approach him. he thought she wanted to fight but she didnt. it was sort of bittersweet. nightmare knows that what happened when they were kids can never be taken back, and she feels regret. she wants to reach out to dream and reconnect with him, but that is just as difficult.

ANYWAYS their relationship is REALLY COMPLICATED and still kind of under the works but uhh! i love them. siblings. tragic twins who still love each other very much but they both think differently about their feelings. ask me about em

[sexysilverstrider]

ok real talk my rating of the game? 7/10

the pros of this game is that i absolutely LOVE the complete change of genre once u enter a specific route. tbh i didnt expect violence or gore at all in the game. some hurt/comfort? yes. some angst? yes. pure emotional trauma? character absolutely going berserk and broken? mc going thru near-death situations multiple times??? thought i left all that in piofiore and cxm lmao. the game really encapsulates the 'you have unlocked friendship with misyr! he will now die for you.' i am however a huge pain of painful angst and drama so while shocked at first i welcome it with open arms

the story does have a nice balance of funny and sweet. i believe this game so far is the game where i laughed a lot compared to other otomate games. the characters are lovable and sweet. mcs reaction to baffling things are realistic and i love tht she does her best to keep it together among a group of extremely powerful handsome creatures. good for her

music is AMAZING!!! the ost slaps so hard! also a bit bias but i adore ono yuukis voice acting as an angy soft tsundere and the fact tht junichi suwabe voiced a sexy ojisan with a tragic backstory thats chefs kiss for me

cons? oh boy lol. the general route is too long. if youre a fan of general routes youll enjoy it as they introduce each character. buuuut im the more jump straight to my choice of character kinda gamer. while it wasnt as laggy as code realize once i did unlock a specific route it feels too short which left me unsatisfied and craving for more :')

plot was nicely done. romance? ehhh lacking tbh. esp in misyrs route which is considered the canon route. i expected more fluffy sweet moments before being thrown to hell but in the end it felt lacking and worse. bitter considering their happy ending :')))

there isnt a short story section which left me surprised since usually most otomate games hv extras just so we can enjoy more romantic moments w the chara we want. ESPECIALLY in a game where its (on the surface) focus is cute fluffy slice-of-life romance. ESPECIALLY in a game where the branched routes are short than other otomate games.

and lastly. the canon route :') i get that this game is the immortal/mortal ship so ofc one day the mortal will die n leave the immortal waiting and alone. but i AT LEAST expected the canon to be a twist where they can achieve happily ever after. as far as im concerned this game has no sequel so their relationships can have an open ending which usually ends in a bittersweet tone. but oof to hv the reverse card shoved to your face....honestly doesnt give much of a happy ending despite its title

so yeah.....i expected fluffy romance but i got my heart stabbed many times. didnt expect it but wasnt disappointed! but in the end the lack of certain criterias left me unsatisfied so ✌🏽