may contain traces of pining idiots, housemates/workmates with a questionable list of rules, family closure and a full persephone-scale exploration of Cardan’s power set
AO3 | Wattpad
you're right in that everything would become suddenly renewed through Cardan's perspective. i get the feeling the land magic uses its kings and queens like a battery, much like disney's Atlantis, and so a younger, more chipper battery would give it/its people more vibrant colours and emotions
imagine. every time the land gets a new monarch, the people get a new era.
may contain traces of pining idiots, housemates/workmates with a questionable list of rules, family closure and a full persephone-scale exploration of Cardan’s power set
AO3 | Wattpad
if you could see my google docs you'd know i never gave up on it but i for sure have left it in limbo for a frankly cruel amount of time. there's a little update here
and here's couple of snippets (with some spoilers cut away from between them) just to say thanks so much for your continued interest in spite of my sporadic posting :)
enjoy! (and thank you SO so so much again ily)
Jude | 𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐃𝐚𝐲
There were two notes waiting for Jude when she woke. The one she found, and the one she did not.
More on that second note later.
The note she found had been pinned to a dress that usually hung in a suit bag at the back of her wardrobe, but now billowed enticingly from the curtain rail in her bedroom. Deepest blue to twinkling white with an entire forest in between.
The coronation gown.
The poor thing hadn’t come up for air in years.
...
It was a bit of parchment. Sunbleached. Expensive. Similar if not identical stock to the one that had been splattered with her name and wedged into Alice’s Adventures.
Unfolding it revealed a sketch on one side that staggered her.
She had not expected to see herself there, seventeen and severe, rendered in elegant strokes of charcoal and chalky blue pastel. Somehow, the very fey dress design still managed to compliment all her very human muscles and curves. There were notes and arrows scribbled around it that had long since faded beyond legibility. She would have to ask the artist to fill in those blanks for her later.
The young prince Cardan probably thought this was terribly romantic.
The older prince Cardan probably did, too.
But the girl in the sketch would not have thought it so. If she had discovered this drawing, she might have sent it back to him in a thousand angry little pieces. She certainly wouldn’t be caught dead in any dress that he had a hand in designing. It was fortunate, then, that Cardan now dealt with the woman that girl had grown into. She liked him well enough to tolerate this sort of thing. To appreciate it, even.
Now for the note proper.
Just a few words scribbled on the other side of the sketch. ‘A deal’s a deal,’ she read aloud. ‘At twilight, follow the bird.’
hello hi yes lovely human, it is fall in the northern hemisphere (spring where you are), but I kindly request some information regarding snakes and lattes, the lovely fic you have written for us peasants that hasn't been updated in a while.
I am having withdrawals and only ask because it is one of the few things in my meager life that brings me joy and you are extremely talented when it comes to slow burn, but also writing as a whole.
No pressure, of course, just curious. I hope you're doing well.
hugs and kisses from howl pendragon
sweet howl anon <333
i'm sorry it took a while to respond, but you should know that the notif put big smile on my face and unburned my bacon
i wish wish wish i could trade your fall for my spring! i hope it's crisp and kind to you.
spring is hardly a season at all here, it's more like a threat that reminds you summer isn't as far away as you'd like it to be. however, i've made my peace with it. i have in fact embraced many more visits to the sea, as well as a new hobby of hunting down citrus fruits i've never tried before from various fresh food markets around town. apparently sumo mandarins are super common and popular, but i had never tried one before. i can't get enough of them now!
onto our unupdated story
i didn't want to give a boring "i'm working on it" or "one day" response because it's such a sweet message and you're a wizzard and that means i need to get fancy. SO. please accept this top secret never before seen evidence of Chapter Art for the next chapter:
and a chapter title: "At Twilight, Follow The Bird."
the chapter is 90% finished, and the migraine that kept me from writing it for months seems to have mostly cleared up. the next installment will immediately follow a recap "interlude" chapter i've also written with added notes for ease of further reading.
thanks for your continued interest in spite of all the seasons that passed us in between <3
someone needs to teach him how to use all that weird earthy plant magic
they’re both one broken nail away from a villain arc
mommy issues + maternal = found family wholesomeness
iridescent feathers
wait maybe they shouldn’t team up
doing so might result in a fashion event so cataclysmic it tears a rift in the spacetime continuum
but anyway dark hair
they have this super mean group chat reserved for gossip, sales, schemes and roasting everyone’s outfits
they watch geralt and jude training from the comfort of their matching deck chairs whilst sipping chilled wine and complaining about the sun wrinkling their skin
if you're lost dw, it's a scene from a fic i wrote :) i've had so many requests for art of this scene from ch.5 of snakes & lattes. clearly i had fun! it was a wonderful refresher sketch for working with this art style
links to the chapter and original post: post , ao3 , wp