Weekly Progress Update [6/NOV]

Hello, hello! Hope your week has gone well ✨

I've still been chipping away at CH10, though progress was a little bit slower the past 2 weeks since I was finishing up an exam period. Now, however, I'm free to work on AToC until January!!

Chapter progress

I'm making good progress on the LI POVs, especially X's and D's as I've been feeling a bit inspired lately, so I've decided to share some previews in advance. No screenshots anymore because they format horribly in Patreon, but the Twine codes are still visible since this is literally just a copy/paste.

Here's the preview for X's POV, minor spoilers:

$xname looks up to stare at their back as it recedes. “Heval—”

“Don’t,” Heval calls back, the rigidity of the word conveying that they are restraining their temper, as well as their fear. Their worry for $xname. They won’t be party to this.

They slip away between the trees, back towards camp.

$xname turns to Tûjo, whose eyes linger on the place where Heval disappeared from view, though $xname can still hear their footsteps, heavy across the grass. 

“Do you think I’m making a mistake, brother?” $xname asks, $xtheir voice quiet. Straining to even leave $xtheir mouth.

Tûjo looks at $xthem then, hesitance plain in the pull of his brows.

“I understand your reasons why,” he says.

“But?” 

“But nothing.” Tûjo averts his gaze. “I’m not here to act as your conscience.” 

“And if I were to ask for advice?” 

Tûjo stays silent for a long while. $xname can sense something inside Tûjo ease as the uncertainty around him clears up, perhaps with acceptance; he knows $xname has already made up $xtheir mind. 

“Don’t get caught.” 

And here's the preview for D's POV, which is a bit shorter as everything else is very spoiler-heavy:

“When?” 

Nima’s voice is hoarse, strained into a croak when she responds. “When what?” 

“When did you become one of them?” 

She’s silent. Her silhouette does not move in the column of light that has captured her, the brightness of it burning through the barrier into $dname’s eyes.

When finally an answer comes, it is far from satisfactory: “I don’t know.” 

“Then tell me why.” $dname’s hand presses against the cold stone column of the wall beside the cell, $dtheir pulse throbbing through the limb. “Let me hear it, Nima, from your mouth.”

Other stuff

Preview snippets aside, I'm currently also working on a bonus patreon snippet for longtime patrons who have been supporting me since the Patreon launch. 

I gave them several prompts to vote for, but the prompts that are not chosen are ones I will use for the general snippets available on the Patreon page! 

Here are some you may expect to see pop up from December onward 👀

• Alternate timeline where Ferzan isn't assassinated/the MC becomes the Crown "the proper way" and the Crown and LI meet for the first time.
• Canon timeline, established relationship, the Crown saving *the LI* from an assassination. 
• Alternate timeline where the Crown's parents haven't died and the LI meets them.
• Alternate timeline where the Crown isn't the Crown but an average person and they meet the LI at a party/during a job/during a tense situation/something else juicy

Some of these could be a romantic snippets and others I could tweak a bit to make it a character snippet, I'll have to think about it...

That was all for this week!

Until next time 💖