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el🦋 | drafting🌿

@thatfunkylilfey.bsky.social

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el🦋 | drafting🌿 @thatfunkylilfey.bsky.social · Aug 6

a guide to MOTHLIGHT

— an adult urban fantasy for fans of ARCANE, JOHN WICK, and SIX OF CROWS

featuring;
🦋 a shapeshifter
🦋 a charming rogue
🦋 revenge + romance
🦋 dual pov

[ #QuestPit ; #W ; #A ; #F ]

A Reader's Guide to MOTHLIGHT by @thatfunkylilfey

Overview

Ever since their sister’s death, Aeramis—a shapeshifter—has been aimless, moving through life in a haze. Then, six months ago while working on a contract for a group of rogues known as the Serpents, they discovered evidence leading them to believe their sister might still be alive. Since then, the shapeshifter has been on their own, following a path they know ends in blood.

When Aeramis’ hunt leads them back to Bastien, the captain of the Serpents and a man willing to break his code for them, the two of them find that their paths may have been entwined from the start, unraveling secrets long since buried in the past.

Contents

NB MC x Trans MMC
Dual POV
Memory Loss
Found Family
Breaking + Entering
Mutual Pining
Eerie Underground Forests
Urban Fantasy
Queer Normative World
Revenge
Grief
Identity + Belonging
Shapeshifting as a Metaphor for Gender Identity/Expression

Comps

Arcane: science x magic + morally ambiguous characters
The Cask of Amontillado: questionable conversations over wine + leading men to their deaths (literally)
John Wick: revenge in the name of those you love + revenge as a way to process grief/trauma
Monkey Man: revenge against corrupt leaders + revenge as a way to process grief/trauma
Thornhedge: twists on changeling + foundling lore
Six of Crows: banter + criminal pulling off impossible jobs

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Yulia Zhuchkova @avalach.bsky.social · 29d

HUMAN artists, use only one piece to convince people to follow you

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el🦋 | drafting🌿 @thatfunkylilfey.bsky.social · 29d

i am love them😭🩵

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Aubrey 💖🏳️‍🌈 @clericofthevoid.bsky.social · 29d

Just two lesbians making a secret and tragic pact with each other cause they can’t admit their feelings 🙄 (still one of my favorite little moments from Name Her Holy, or maybe I’m just thinking about it a lot lately)

#SapphicSeptember

“If I am a danger—”
“You’re not.”
“If I am,” Jude repeated firmly, “would you handle it? Do what needs to be done?”
To her surprise, Kye didn’t balk. Didn’t so much as waver. Her expression fell stoney. The placid set of her jaw held like a cat, teeth clamped around a wounded bird she didn’t know yet what to do with. Jude knew it should have been her first warning flare.
She said, “Would you do the same for me?”

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el🦋 | drafting🌿 @thatfunkylilfey.bsky.social · 29d

they’re my gym bro dynamic for sure lmaO /pos

and i love that for them

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el🦋 | drafting🌿 @thatfunkylilfey.bsky.social · Sep 9

in every draft, my favorite chapter remains the one between Aeramis and Jaxon, my two little shapeshifters [in different ways]

their friendship is oh so special to me

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el🦋 | drafting🌿 @thatfunkylilfey.bsky.social · Sep 4

Silksong has successfully been purchased so i will be vanishing into the ether for a time🪡

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Ian Haramaki 🏳️‍⚧️✨ @cometkins.bsky.social · Aug 13

one day we'll kill the idea that indie =/= quality. trad has gatekept (and continues to gatekeep) so many marginalized stories. not being corporate publisher approved doesn't mean something isn't good, and that includes the smutty books you deride. loser

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el🦋 | drafting🌿 @thatfunkylilfey.bsky.social · Aug 7

thankue everyone for the love and support on the pitches yesterday🩵🩵

seeing everyone be so supportive and excited about one another’s stories is really what makes these events fun

el🦋 | drafting🌿 @thatfunkylilfey.bsky.social · Aug 7

oh i’m so intrigued👀🩵

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Pamela Cochran @pamelaelaela.bsky.social · Aug 6

THE BOOKMAKER OF PELLMELL
A cynical woman who can see the future grudgingly takes over a cage fighting ring to save her sick friend—and is horrified to find that she’s excellent at it.
🌘dystopian grounded fantasy
⚖️morally gray FMC
🔥romantic subplot
🫶found family
🌈diverse cast
#QuestPit #W #A #SFF

Background: an island superimposed with a woman pressing money to her face with a blackened hand

Title: An agent's guide to THE BOOKMAKER OF PELLMELL by P. A. Cochran

Subtitle: Dystopian urban fantasy / 75k words

Background: a male fighter's back pressed against a chain-link cage

For fans of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab, Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Peaky Blinders, and The Last of Us

The pitch: Trapped in a bleak world, a cynical young woman with the ability to glimpse future possibilities grudgingly takes over running a cage fighting ring to save her sick friend--and is horrified to find that she's excellent at it.

Images: (1) a hand holding burning money (2) a figure walking down a city street filled with litter (3) an albatross flying across an orange sky (4) a crumbling hotel (5) a woman sitting at a red-lit bar (6) a fighter's back against a cage

Text: gritty neo-noir vibes | grounded fantasy | lyrical prose | FMC w/ "Breaking Bad" arc | found family | romantic subplot | cost of talent & obsession | hope's ability to save & corrupt

Opening lines:

It was the beginning of storm season, and Tremmel City was glossy and slick as a bloodied fist.

Arin didn’t mind. The wet paths up the caldera wall were dicey, but at least the rain muted the stench of trash and mule excrement. She pulled her jacket closed, the same black leather jacket she always wore. A relic of the past she couldn’t part with that swallowed her whole. She crossed her arms over her chest and climbed up the stone steps.

PENTA OR BUST

BLESS THE BRICKERS

CURB THE COGS

The graffiti was so repetitive it had long ago taken a melody in Arin’s head. She used to argue internally with each one: Don’t put your faith in the Pentathlon—only a fool would trust those odds. Don’t glorify the brickers—they only saved us once. Don’t demonize the cogs—some of us exercise self-control. But eventually the arguments petered out until all that was left was a bleak refrain.

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el🦋 | drafting🌿 @thatfunkylilfey.bsky.social · Aug 7

!! thankue so much!! 🩵🩵

el🦋 | drafting🌿 @thatfunkylilfey.bsky.social · Aug 7

thankue so much Tamara🩵🩵

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Makayla Leigh 🌿🌊⚔️ @themakaylaleigh.bsky.social · Aug 6

WARNING: FALLING IN LOVE WILL RESULT IN DEATH

🌊a deadly heist including dragons and vampires and sea witches, oh my!
🗡break the mark or kill each other
🖤if everyone is a traitor, where is the line drawn?
⚔a torturous slow burn

#QuestPit #OS #AG #A #NA #RF #F

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 6

🕊️ LIGHTLARK X PRIORY OF THE ORANGE TREE 🍊

#questpit #w #wip #na #a #fantasy

nine realms. ten competitors. all vying for the chance to rule it all—and someone’s not making it out alive.

[coming to your query box soon!]

working cover of ODE + “political intrigue” “3rd person multi-pov” “queer & disabled rep!!” “forged family”

LIGHTLARK X PRIORY OF THE ORANGE TREE

In this fast-paced high fantasy, everybody wants something, and power’s up for grabs. winning favour among members of the king’s council is crucial, but the Bardaegan Trials are only beginning. is risking it all worth it?

• work in progress (currently editing)
• for (new) adult audiences
• fantasy inspired by Norse tradition
• diverse cast of characters

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Catherine @catandherwips.bsky.social · Aug 6

Fount Marzanna has unwillingly served Silver's decadent church for most of her life. When her accidental Miracle draws the attention of the High Priest & his complex vassals, she will stop at nothing to manipulate a path to freedom with her devoted Fiammetta by her side.

#questpit #p #a #df

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Catherine @catandherwips.bsky.social · Aug 6

Wynnifred is a spoiled heiress, an artistic talent, & a demon summoning prodigy. But the prince of demons she summoned to take over society (& dodge a beloathed fiancé) refuses to obey, & worse - their attraction to each other is undeniable. As dire as an omen.

#questpit #p #a #df #rf #bi4bi

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Madelyn is ✨Editing✨🌈 @madelynknecht.bsky.social · Aug 6

In a world where beauty is more coveted than life, state orphan Gwen's only chance to escape the ghosts of her past lies in a prestigious sculpting academy. But only if she doesn't lose her sanity to untrustworthy allies, violence, or the twisted truth of the school itself.

#questpit #A #S #H #W

Image with a dark academia aesthetic and list of tropes: sculpting terminology and history, rivals to allies to ???, morally gray cast, queer slow burn, inspired by 1950s Prague, dark academia, art as a form of coping with trauma

Snippet: Gwen’s hands eventually stopped. Clay clung to her fingers, painting her hands beige. She used the back of one to wipe her brow and finally breathed. Her lungs burned and spots popped in her vision. Outside the tall stained window, the world was dark, and gas lamps had been lit. A candle waxed on the side table, the tea long since gone cold. How long had it been?
A door opened and footsteps clipped across the marble floor. Gwen found her legs too weak to move, protesting when she tried to stand. Her head swiveled toward the newcomer and Madam [redacted] appeared, assisted by a butler carrying a candlestick.
Her lips parted as if to speak, but then her gaze swept to the sculptor’s table. Madam [Redacted]’s easy demeanor at once turned rigid, her expression dropping and morphing into sheer terror. A gargled noise left her lips.
She screamed.

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Makayla Leigh 🌿🌊⚔️ @themakaylaleigh.bsky.social · Aug 6

THE DEADING x SotR x THE 100

🌿a sentient earth hungry for vengeance
🗡rivals to lovers who seek to uncover the truth no matter the cost
🔆found family paired with a competition for survival

#QuestPit #OS #AG #YA #SF #SFF #S #RF

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Paris Vivian @parisvivian.bsky.social · Aug 6

The Claws of the Ounce 🫀

The myth of the full moon is just that: a myth. However, the lives of some shapeshifters are ruled by cycles of much subtler and more vicious varieties.

Werecats 🐆
Shady researchers 🥼
C-PTSD & anxiety rep 💚
Nonlinear recovery 🩹
South Ontario setting 🏞️

#QuestPit #A #UF #DF

A digital art piece showing a brown-haired white man sitting behind a table. He leans over an open book, frowning as he draws something on a diagram with his pen. A messy stack of papers lays to the side. To the right of him is a close-up of the diagram: it’s an anatomical diagram showing a woman’s digestive organs, heart, lungs, and brain. He’s drawn dotted lines around the liver to indicate it should be larger, and through the small intestine to indicate it should be shorter.

A digital drawing of a young, thin white woman with a grey-and-black bob cut and amber eyes. She is standing with her head tilted forward, a very tired / dejected expression on her face, as a disembodied hand holds a translucent full moon in front of her right eye. In the background are the phases of the moon, with the full moon replaced by her eye in a circle of snow leopard fur.

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Paris Vivian @parisvivian.bsky.social · Aug 6

The Mysteries of the Apricot Sun 🌇

Darby is a precog. She’s spent the last year hiding in the place where the Last City meets the ocean, trying to avoid her father’s gambling schemes. Then a strange locket gets her attacked by a demigod and throws all her plans into disarray…

#QuestPit #A #F

A moodboard made up of nine images.
Top left: The Sun setting over clouds, its light split into eight distinct rays.
Top centre: A block of pink buildings at night, lit by neon lights. A line of palm trees grows at the side of the street.
Top right: A black bird comes in for a landing on a tree branch, in front of a yellow sky.
Centre left: A street in San Francisco at sunset. The Golden Gate Bridge is visible in the distance.
Centre: The title of the story, “The Mysteries of the Apricot Sun”, on a yellow background.
Centre right: A green and purple Aurora over rocks.
Bottom left: A few light orange (one light grey) dresses on hangers and mannequins.
Bottom centre: Two arcade machines with a game called “Easy Money”.
Bottom right: A brass door carved with a Sun / star design.

Underneath two palm trees on a pale beach, a young white woman with a dusty pink shag haircut and a red pyjama tank-top looks out at the ocean. She is leaning forward slightly, having just stopped running. The sky is deep blue, with a brilliant white-and-yellow star visible between the two trees. The palm on the left is mostly offscreen, and the palm of the right is mostly onscreen; underneath its leaves are five large pods, each one a different shade of brown and with a lettuce leaf-like structure protruding from it.

A digital art piece of the same woman about to eat a bowl of dumplings. She is sitting and holding a fork in one hand, looking down at the bowl with a neutral expression. She is wearing a loose orange shirt and green pants, and her nails are painted in shades of blue. Behind her is an early sunrise sky in shades of blue, white, and orange, overlooking the ocean with a trail of light on the water.

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camila is querying 🗡️ @carosas.bsky.social · Aug 6

— a south-american inspired gothic fantasy

🌦️ grief & sisterhood
🗡️ forgotten magic
💝 romance sub-plot (ft. trans LI)
🌛 colonial history

#questpit #Q #YA #F

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leona has an agent✨🦋 @leonahwrites.bsky.social · Aug 6

five (somewhat) prodigies enter into their final year of academy

only this year is destined to be different than the last

🌊ex friends & ex lovers
🌬️island town & gossip
🌑a scholarship project goes awry
🌬️unlocking ocean magic
🌊dark coming of age

#questpit #YA #F #W #AG

a nine picture ocean moodboard

row 1, 3 pics: a black and white foggy picture of a pirate ship, two people fully clothed laying on the sand as the waves wash up to their heads, a black and white foggy picture of a man in ship sails
row 2, 3 pics: a girl swimming in the ocean at night, a woman holding a lantern looking out at the sea, a boy sitting on the beach at sunrise
row 3, 3 pics: waves crashing up against dark rock stairs, sparkly dark blue waves washing up at night, a dark picture of a kelp field

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Lee🍄🌈🍉 @leeiswriting.bsky.social · Aug 6

Romeo & Juliet x My Happy Marriage but Sapphic.

💍a political marriage to end a war
👑a catatonic princess brimming with witch power
🗡️a fae hunter in human skin

Not all are willing to let go of the past but Nymael and Runnan must if their desire for peace is real.

#QuestPit #W #A #RF

Mood board. Green to purple-blue colour way from right top corner to bottom left corner. Text on torn paper reads lyrics from Hozier’s Work Song: lay me gently in the cold dark earth, no grave can hold my body down, ill crawl home to her.
Pics top to bottom, left to right: a white woman with blonde hair in a garden. Green hair in a braid. green leather armour. A hand against the backdrop of an evening sky and crescent moon. Holding hands. A forest with yellow eyes peering out. A woman in pretty dress. An eye glazed with swirling starlight. The back of a hood figure with a bow and arrow.

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Gorey Cask of Amontilladoing @coreybrickley.bsky.social · Aug 7

The Yellow Wallpaper

Spooky smoky shadow lady with glowing white eyes creeping around inside the shifting yellow wallpaper pattern of a dilapidated Victorian home

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el🦋 | drafting🌿 @thatfunkylilfey.bsky.social · Aug 6

my fav [@ you] 🥹🩵

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