Spitting Embers

Writer of 20+ years, player of many games, and maker of random Beat Saber custom maps. Also, many, many pictures of my photogenic cat Piglet and various bits of nonsense. My AO3 page for fan fiction can be found here. My wordpress site for original works can be found here. My Beat Saver profile can be found here.

[shinjishazaki]

Story Update: All Through the Night

Chapter Seven: Those Able to Run

“I was just wondering if my eyes were deceiving me,” she said, “or if I truly had the luck to be seated beside the winner of the Emperor’s Cup and the empire’s heirs.”

Teio leaned around McQueen to look as Oguri and Tamamo did the same. Tension rising in the air from the other soldiers in the car, Teio said, “Your eyes do not deceive you. Do you have some business with me and my family?”

“Only to congratulate you, your highness,” the umamusume said. “And to admit I’m traveling to watch the grand prix in support of your wife. But let me introduce myself. My name is Sunday Silence. You may call me Sunday.”

[shinjishazaki]

Story Update: All Through the Night

Chapter Seven: Those Able to Run

“I was just wondering if my eyes were deceiving me,” she said, “or if I truly had the luck to be seated beside the winner of the Emperor’s Cup and the empire’s heirs.”

Teio leaned around McQueen to look as Oguri and Tamamo did the same. Tension rising in the air from the other soldiers in the car, Teio said, “Your eyes do not deceive you. Do you have some business with me and my family?”

“Only to congratulate you, your highness,” the umamusume said. “And to admit I’m traveling to watch the grand prix in support of your wife. But let me introduce myself. My name is Sunday Silence. You may call me Sunday.”

[shinjishazaki]

Story Update: All Through the Night

Chapter Six: A Beautiful Union

In Rokensera, it was said that the most auspicious time of the year to marry was the summer. Monks of the old faith were never more busy than in the summer, the empire’s many shrines bustling with marriage ceremonies. McQueen had dreamed of such a wedding ever since her teen years, and knowing she would be wed at the capital’s shrine made the many dress fitting sessions more bearable. Even as the summer crept into the city and left her sweating after each session, her mood only improved.

(Explicit content warning for the end of the chapter)

[shinjishazaki]

Story Update: All Through the Night

Chapter Five: Darkness in the Distance

The thought of Teio’s lips against hers brought a drowsy smile to her face, and it lingered as she got out of bed and prepared for the day. She sang to herself as she bathed, as she brushed her hair. It was only when someone knocked on her door as she was finishing brushing and oiling her tail that she stopped singing, but she continued to smile because it was Teio at the door with servants bearing food and drink.

“I thought you might like a private breakfast this morning,” Teio said.

“I would, as long as you’re part of it.”

[shinjishazaki]

Story Update: All Through the Night

Chapter Five: Darkness in the Distance

The thought of Teio’s lips against hers brought a drowsy smile to her face, and it lingered as she got out of bed and prepared for the day. She sang to herself as she bathed, as she brushed her hair. It was only when someone knocked on her door as she was finishing brushing and oiling her tail that she stopped singing, but she continued to smile because it was Teio at the door with servants bearing food and drink.

“I thought you might like a private breakfast this morning,” Teio said.

“I would, as long as you’re part of it.”

[shinjishazaki]

Story Update: All Through the Night

Chapter Four: In the Emperor's Name

“It is true,” Rudolf eventually said. It sent another wave of murmurs throughout the room.

“So it wasn’t just gossip from the newspapers,” Ramonu said quietly.

“How many deaths?” one man asked.

“Has Istvian replied to any missives?” another woman called. “If so, what have they said?”

“What does it mean for us, your majesty?” came yet another woman’s voice.

Rudolf’s held up a hand for silence and received it in short order. She said, “To answer each of you, ten deaths, Istvian is not responding to us beyond making an open demand for our land, and…it comes to war.”

[shinjishazaki]

Story Update: All Through the Night

Chapter Three: Embers, Dwelling and Stoked

“There is a way,” Rudolf said.

“Father?”

“There is a way to unify the nobility. By my reckoning, it would unify most of them behind a singular cause.” She looked at Teio over her shoulder. “Tell me, Teio. Surely you have an idea of what it is.”

Teio looked at her, confusion still in her eyes. Then, her face crumpled. She said, “Father, that can’t be our only answer. It would only buy us time before the nobles grow more discontented.”

[shinjishazaki]

Story Update: All Through the Night

Chapter Three: Embers, Dwelling and Stoked

“There is a way,” Rudolf said.

“Father?”

“There is a way to unify the nobility. By my reckoning, it would unify most of them behind a singular cause.” She looked at Teio over her shoulder. “Tell me, Teio. Surely you have an idea of what it is.”

Teio looked at her, confusion still in her eyes. Then, her face crumpled. She said, “Father, that can’t be our only answer. It would only buy us time before the nobles grow more discontented.”

[shinjishazaki]

Story Update: All Through the Night

Chapter Two: Of Night, Of Day

Teio huffed a joyless laugh. “Calling me your partner now? You must be serious.”

“Is a wife not a partner?” McQueen said. “Surely you would be happier to have a partner than someone distant.”

“I…would, but…”

“But what?”

“I am the crown prince.”

[shinjishazaki]

Story Update: All Through the Night

Chapter Two: Of Night, Of Day

Teio huffed a joyless laugh. “Calling me your partner now? You must be serious.”

“Is a wife not a partner?” McQueen said. “Surely you would be happier to have a partner than someone distant.”

“I…would, but…”

“But what?”

“I am the crown prince.”

[shinjishazaki]

Story Post: All Through the Night

Chapter One: The Duchess and the Prince

In the empire of Rokensera, land is everything. The country’s great tracts of land were parceled out to the nobility, and the vast number of umamusume amongst the nobility built racecourses on their land for the glory races. The seventh-crowned emperor, Symboli Rudolf, is set to change the glory races, to the nobility’s chagrin.

Among the houses that supports the emperor’s mandates of change is the Mejiro house, with its duchy’s roots as old as the empire itself. The reigning duchess, the young Mejiro McQueen, receives a letter from Emperor Rudolf after expressing her support. To her surprise, the letter is quite lengthy, and soon after the letter arrives, so too does the crown prince, Tokai Teio.

Along with an arrangement.

--------

The spring storms of 1825 were in full force when Prince Tokai Teio came to the Mejiro estate following her father Emperor Symboli Rudolf’s letter. For anyone else, it might have marked McQueen’s first meeting with the prince as inauspicious. One look at the prince’s sunny disposition, however, put those anxieties to rest.

[shinjishazaki]

Story Post: All Through the Night

Chapter One: The Duchess and the Prince

In the empire of Rokensera, land is everything. The country’s great tracts of land were parceled out to the nobility, and the vast number of umamusume amongst the nobility built racecourses on their land for the glory races. The seventh-crowned emperor, Symboli Rudolf, is set to change the glory races, to the nobility’s chagrin.

Among the houses that supports the emperor’s mandates of change is the Mejiro house, with its duchy’s roots as old as the empire itself. The reigning duchess, the young Mejiro McQueen, receives a letter from Emperor Rudolf after expressing her support. To her surprise, the letter is quite lengthy, and soon after the letter arrives, so too does the crown prince, Tokai Teio.

Along with an arrangement.

--------

The spring storms of 1825 were in full force when Prince Tokai Teio came to the Mejiro estate following her father Emperor Symboli Rudolf’s letter. For anyone else, it might have marked McQueen’s first meeting with the prince as inauspicious. One look at the prince’s sunny disposition, however, put those anxieties to rest.

[dlartistanon]

Arranged Marriage AU

[dlartistanon]

I like to imagine them being really into physicality once their relationship progresses that far

[shinjishazaki]

Story conclusion: let love in

chapter five: to the stars we come from

The end of the school year brings with it mended friendships, family visits, New Year’s prayers, a graduation—

And a promise made.

--

And that's the fic! I had a lot of fun writing this and shaking off the rust from a year away from writing. Now it's time to write an even bigger fic that swings back into my drama hound wheelhouse. :)

[shinjishazaki]

Story conclusion: let love in

chapter five: to the stars we come from

The end of the school year brings with it mended friendships, family visits, New Year’s prayers, a graduation—

And a promise made.

--

And that's the fic! I had a lot of fun writing this and shaking off the rust from a year away from writing. Now it's time to write an even bigger fic that swings back into my drama hound wheelhouse. :)

[shinjishazaki]

I made a teimaku discord for funsies. :) https://discord.gg/VQy6pZre

Check out the Teimaku Town community on Discord - hang out with 7 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.