There He Is! Caduceus In Bulgarian Garb :D

Finished! Tespar, the drow paladin, and Freydin, the half-elf cleric. They’re from @savagegardenaesthetic and my upcoming story!

Starting off the new year by posting some art of my Lancer RPG pilot, Shrike! She's MSMC, and currently neck-deep in the No Room For a Wallflower campaign. She's got heaps of (yet untouched) backstory and I can't wait until we dive into it.

The Disappearance of Xiao Xingchen

Fandom: The Untamed Pairing: Song Lan/Xiao Xingchen/Xue Yang Rating: Explicit Words: In progress!

Xiao Xingchen has been a hostage to the Jin Empire for as long as he can remember. When a dark matter cultivator forces the surrender of Baixue Station, he is chosen as the imperial representative to tie them to the empire in marriage. He is prepared to be a friend to his new husband; but Song Zichen, furious and grieving the massacre that led to his people’s conquest, wants nothing at all to do with him. Alone in his new home, shut out of the governing council and estranged from his husband, Xingchen befriends Xue Yang, a Jin agent who has been assigned to Baixue Station. Their relationship fast grows dangerously close; and meanwhile the political situation on Baixue is getting worse. Resistance groups are fighting Jin control, Xue Yang and Zichen are both keeping secrets, and not all is as it seems. It will take everything Xingchen has to save his home, hold his relationships together—and uncover the secret, concealed where he least expects it, that might just break an empire.

Read it here.

Welcome to my first chaptered WIP since I was a teenager! This story has been in the works, somewhere in the background, since 2020, and I am so excited to finally be bringing it into the world. Some of you have been waiting for this one for a very long time. I hope it's everything you could have dreamed.

This is my entry for the @mdzsbigbang 2024. The gorgeous cover art was drawn by @svetlacreates, and the fic was betaed by yellingloud_zu (on twitter).

•••

“Pardon me, Lianfang-zun,” Xiao Xingchen says politely, “but I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

Jin Guangyao gives him a look that is just as polite but nonetheless conveys a businesslike impatience in the arch of his perfectly manicured eyebrows. “Surely the esteemed Xiao Xingchen-daozhang knows the meaning of the word ‘marriage,’” he says.

They are in Jin Guangyao’s private office, at the heart of Jinlintai’s Imperial Administration Pavilion. Jin Guangyao is seated very properly on an artificial silk cushion, behind a beautifully carved desk of imitation elm. A tidy stack of flimsy has been set at his right elbow, a brush and inkstone arranged just so beside it. On his opposite side, a delicate ceramic vase holds a single blooming orchid, its pale greenish petals veined with brilliant purple; a sleek tablet rests in front of it, its screen pulsing with the subtle golden glow of sleep mode. The broad window behind him opens onto a manicured view of one of Jinlintai’s innumerable peony courtyards; on the wall to his left—tastefully displayed for the benefit of both occupant and visitors—is a set of four elegant scrolls depicting the change of the seasons.

Those, Xingchen is fairly sure, are on real paper, painted in traditional inks that have never so much as gestured at a synthetic manufacturing process. A priceless treasure. He is very out of his depth.

He takes a slow breath. “I do, of course,” he says. “But I hardly understand why Jin-zongzhu would consider me a suitable marriage candidate in this case.”

“You may be confident that he does,” Jin Guangyao reassures him, though Xingchen does not feel especially reassured. “You have been an honoured member of the Jin imperial household for some time now.”

“For as long as I can remember,” Xingchen agrees. His voice is very neutral.

“When your virtuous teacher Baoshan Sanren sent you to us as part of our peace agreement, it was with the understanding that you would become a full member of the imperial court,” Jin Guangyao says. “Jinlintai would house you, feed you, and train you in the cultivation arts as a guest disciple. In exchange we would be assured of her willing cooperation with imperial rule.” He pauses there, evidently expecting some response, and after a beat of confused stillness Xingchen gives him a nod of acknowledgement. “In your time here you have been loyal, gracious, courteous, and obliging. You were the first among our selection when considering an alliance marriage.”

But it doesn’t make sense, Xingchen thinks. “Would it not be more appropriate to marry the representative from Baixue Station to a member of the imperial family?” he says. His voice feels very far away. “Surely that would be more effective in binding them to the empire.”

“There is no one in the family who is considered suitable at this time,” Jin Guangyao says. “All members of the royal household who are of marriageable age are thought to be too high in rank for this particular alliance, or else needed in another position. In their stead, you are an entirely acceptable alternative.”

His smile is as poised as ever, but there is something almost bitter now in the lines around his mouth. Xingchen considers him in silence for a moment. He himself has never paid any mind to the whispers about Jin Guangyao’s parentage, but he is also one of few in Jinlintai who has no interest in rumour. Though Jin Guangyao is second only to Jin Zixuan in the line of imperial succession, Xingchen is sure the Jin cannot have dismissed his suitability on the grounds of high rank.

“Very well,” he says eventually. It still hardly feels real, but somehow he finds himself opening his mouth to say, “When shall I expect the ceremony to take place?”

“In political matters such as this, much of the more traditional ritual must unfortunately be foregone,” Jin Guangyao says. His voice is brisk again, as it always is in discussion of logistics. “There is also the issue of standardizing your bazi across the different planets and systems of your births, not to mention the travel time between Baixue Station and Lanling. We have chosen the soonest realistic date after your betrothed’s projected arrival at Jinlintai.” He picks up his tablet, waking it from sleep and turning it to show Xingchen its display: a calendar, with a single date highlighted in matrimonial red. “The ceremony will take place in approximately three weeks. Your schedule has already been cleared.”

The air feels abruptly too tight in Xingchen’s lungs. “So soon?” he says. His voice is thin. “Forgive me, Lianfang-zun, but the surrender of Baixue Station was quite recent, wasn’t it? Are you certain it’s proper?”

“Entirely,” Jin Guangyao says. His expression hasn’t changed, but Xingchen has the sense that he is starting to lose his patience. “There are other matters to consider as well. The ceremony must of course take place at the palace, as this is an imperial treaty marriage, and the Jin delegation that will be taking over administration of Baixue Station should depart as swiftly as possible. Even three weeks is longer than we would prefer to wait.”

“Why wait at all?” Xingchen says. His head is spinning. “Would it not be more efficient for them to depart immediately? They could be in place on Baixue only a short time after the marriage is solemnized.”

It takes a long moment before Xingchen recognizes the look on Jin Guangyao’s face. There is exasperation, he realizes, in the twitch of his eyebrow, and a touch of condescension in how he wields his smile like he’s drawing a sword. “Because, Xiao Xingchen,” he says, “yourself and your new husband will also be part of that delegation.”

Read the rest on AO3!

Here’s the rest of the folk I drew for school

Cover art for @cemetery-prince‘s incredible Gargoyles fic Present Tense! Find it on ao3 and fanfic.net - it’s really an awesome read!

An icon of my gothic romance mains, Lord Alexander Blythe and Miss Temperance Malenova.

Pose referenced from the film "When a Man Loves" (a snippet of which I couldn't stop watching).

A little chibi sketch of @savagegardenaesthetic! We have the same shirt <3

I drew a samodiva, from Bulgarian mythology, for a collaboration with Rosekettles on Twitter!  Samodivas are beautiful fae women, associated with the forest and water. They are sometimes kind, sometimes cruel, and always powerful and filled with knowledge worth listening in to.

Some quick things.

Long time no see! Couldn't stop thinking about Yennefer of Vengerberg and that unused dress that didn't make it into the show.