Directory of Writings

Works on Ao3

Basically all Astarion x (fem)Tav/OC fanfic at this point. But that does include some poetry!

Hunting Creatures

Completed longfic! 118k words, 34 chapters.

Written in her POV, the story of Strix, my half wood elf ranger/assassin OC, and Astarion. No on-screen sex in the first third, plenty after that.

Birds and bloody kisses, nature imagery and ecology tangents, and smut that occasionally devolves into poetry. Big, hedonistic feelings.

My first, and I think this one will always be close to my heart.

The Vampire's Verses

Astarion's poetry, in the Hunting Creatures canon.

Jury Duty: The Flowers of Evil

Active multichapter/longform WIP (long novella/short novel length).

Modern AU, where is Strix gets jury duty for a civil trial with Justice Astarion Ancunín presiding. They start fucking on day 2.

Kinky sex, Les Fleur du Mal (Baudelaire), and sneaky writing about writing.

The author puts her liberal arts education and nerdy lawyer group chat to good use, to the end of writing porn. But it's porn that took on a life and emotional depth of its own, and has ultimately taken me by surprise (in a good way). I'm lowkey super proud of this one.

At the time of this post, I am almost done writing the penultimate chapter.

Closing Shift

Active multichapter/longform WIP collab with VakarianSyndrome. I write Astarion, she writes her lovely OC, Adelaide.

Modern AU, in which Adelaide and Astarion work the closing shift as baristas at a coffee shop. And while this increasingly heated workplace flirtation might be just the thing to spice up the tedium of their day-to-day lives, it isn't all fun and games; because Adelaide might just have a stalker, who gets creepier and creepier with every passing day...

Inspired by this one time Vak and I watched a stream of Chilla Art's "Closing Shift.Gratuitous flirting, suspense, camp, (eventual) smut, and of course, Whippuccinos. Lots of fun.

Fangs for the Memories

Modern AU collab with FartasticDurge, on indefinite hiatus.

WIP Whenever

Thanks to the lovely @vividiana for the tag.

Written this morning, for something I hope will eventually see the light of day.

And since I just realized I also got a last line/ sneak peak tag from @nw39, here's another sneak peek of a future oneshot that is still very early stages, but that you can expect to see before the above (same universe, though)!

In which His Honor learns to love the great outdoors (shameless birder porn)...

Last line game

Thanks for the tag, @arzen9!

I was just jotting down some initial dialogue for a prompt I got on discord, and here's the last line I wrote:

(horny AAngst? horny AAngst.) tags for @dramatiquechipmunk @nocryptographer @deadly-diminuendo

heh so "The Vampire Lover" is what I call my collection of unpublished original poems that are all, in one way or a another, about writing fanfiction. Here's one called "Lust" that I wrote last summer.

I actually just made a post for that one here! So feel free to pick another, if you like 😘

hehe so this is a post-Jury Duty smutshot idea I had a few months ago that started, as so many of my ideas do, with a joke I made on Discord; specifically, about turning boring and tedious things into porn. And in this case, the boring, tedious thing in question is doing taxes.

The snippet below is all I have actually written. But the US tax deadline is looming, so...

Okay, this is a crack AU idea inspired by bizarre tumblr sponsored content; in which Astarion is a self-help "guru" (grifter) selling expensive video courses to the gullible masses about how you, too, can ascend—I mean, AASCEND (cc: @nocryptographer).

I kind of imagine this as largely taking place in conversations with the other origin characters, who are all concerned about the fact that their former companion has become a shameless, toxic scammer. So far, I think Gale is a struggling academic, and Shadowheart is a yoga influencer (whose wife Lae'zel probably owns a gym). They might attempt to stage an intervention at the end.

But all I have in the actual document is this (lol):

Yeah... Gale is gonna nitpick the hell out of this stupid acronym, hehe. If I ever actually write it.

WIP Folder Game

Better late than never lmao- thanks, @nocryptographer!

And I did this one a few months ago, but I'll do it again. There have been a few additions, a few things completed, and a couple things that have not progressed at all.

RULES: make a new post with the names of all the files in your wip folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have wips.

No idea who has or hasn't done this at this point, or how long ago, but here goes: @dramatiquechipmunk @alwaysmauria @arafel0194 @vividiana @preciouslittlebhaalbae @arzen9 @nw39 @dr-acula121

Final chapter of Jury Duty: The Flowers of Evil

Posted yesterday- what a wild ride... 🥲 Come and get it!

I'm not crying, you're crying. Excerpt below.

Photo by Jamie Francis

GREAT ASK!

So, as you may have caught in one of the end notes of Jury Duty, I've been using the 1954 William Aggeler translations which are available for free on https://fleursdumal.org/, with a few tweaks of my own. The choice of that particular translation is largely due to it's being what I consider the best available option on that website; as it's nice to use a translation that readers can access for free, and also, I'm lazy. And I can read/infer enough French to say that Aggeler's translation is pretty literal.

But! Your ask made me self-conscious about the fact that I really haven't put any effort into exploring other translations, and I was like, shit... I should do that (seriously, thank you!). So, after doing a little research, I just ordered a copy of the edition published by New Directions in 1989, which is sort of compendium of what they considered to be the best available translation of each individual poem at the time; and also, a new translation by Nathan Brown, published by Verso. Will report back!

It's worth noting that Baudelaire's original poems in French have rhyming that some English translations attempt to preserve/mimic, but I personally prefer translations that prioritize imagery/feeling/syntax over rhyming that usually can't be replicated in a way that does justice to the original poem.

And finally, as somewhat of an aside, I did also manage to figure out that the translation I read in college was the one by James McGowan, published by Oxford World's Classics.

Anyway, here's the cover of the New Directions Edition I ordered:

And here's the Nathan Brown translation:

20 Questions: Writing Edition

Thanks, @nocryptographer!

How many works do you have on ao3?

8 so far

What’s your total ao3 word count? 291,622 including several co-written works, so not all those words are mine. My personal count is probably closer to 240k?

What are your top five fics by kudos?

What fandoms do you write for?

Baldur's Gate 3

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do! Sometimes it takes me a while, though. But I really love and appreciate hearing from people, so I do make a point of acknowledging that.

What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Refusal

Do you get hate on fics?

Hasn't happened yet.

Do you write smut?

Oh yeah I do. Lots.

The only thing I have on Ao3 that isn't rated E for sex is The Vampire's Verses (Astarion's poetry collection, rated M), and that still gets rather sexy at times.

Do you write crossovers?

Nope

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope

Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Yes!

What’s your all time favourite ship?

Strixstarion, if that wasn't obvious (Strix, my female OC, and Astarion)

What’s the wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Fangs for the Memories

What are your writing strengths?

Physicality, sensation, emotional nuance, imagery. I think I'm thoughtful and imaginative, in language use and larger story concepts.

Smut.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I could be more disciplined about editing/final read-throughs. I don't think this bites me too hard, because I write pretty methodically in the first place (I seem to be incapable of doing the whole "throw the words down first, go back through them later" thing- have always struggled with timed writing, for that reason). But I definitely find unnecessarily awkward sentences and paragraphs in stuff I've published, that presumably could have been fixed or improved had I not been rushing through a final read-through/revision run with zero remaining brain cells and executive function.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

In general? idk... if it works and makes sense, then it works and makes sense. Hasn't come up for me personally.

First fandom you wrote for?

Baldur's Gate 3

Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

Don't make me choose between Hunting Creatures and Jury Duty.

****

Tagging @vividiana @preciouslittlebhaalbae @arzen9 @nw39

WIP Sunday

Thanks, @dramatiquechipmunk! That was a very exciting snippet ❤️‍🔥

Here's another one from the upcoming final chapter of Jury Duty: The Flowers of Evil. I should actually finish it this week. It isn't even long! lol 🥲

Anyway, the language gets *more* NSFW after the break. But there are no explicit references to naughty bits before, so it's fine. Right? Right.