dominimoonbeam

[dominimoonbeam]

Ruby and the Wolf

The paperback is available!

I shared this steamy steamy novella from the House of Teeth universe last year as an ebook. At the time I was thinking of publishing the short stories as just ebooks but I can't not make a paperback too.

After some formatting, Ruby and the Wolf is now available!

The wolf limped over to her, his eyes so pale a yellow that they were nearly white. She could swear he was watching her—really watching her. And then his shoulders jerked and his bones cracked. She held her breath, thinking now was the moment her mind had finally decided to unravel. He changed, right in front of her, all that darkness turning into smoke rolling off of him like steam, until he wasn’t a wolf at all. He was a man. A large, naked man. Scars and tattoos cut lines across his lean body. The tattoos seemed to start at his left ankle and make their way up and across him, to the other side of his neck and down his right arm to the back of his knuckles. His eyes were still pale yellow, gleaming out from wet, black hair just long enough to be a mess he had to push back from his face. He came closer still, blood on his lips and smeared down his chest. For the first time in her life, Ruby did the sensible thing, and passed the fuck out.

#own work #wallflower trying #ruby and the wolf #werewolf romance #short steamy book #House of Teeth universe #<3

[dominimoonbeam]

To The Edge - 8

This work is mine and I do not give consent for my works to be used, copied, published, or posted without my permission. I am sharing chapters as I work on this story but it is copyrighted material that I plan to rework and publish when completed.

story tags: scifi romance, hijinks in space, rogues learning to trust, violence, blood, guns, death, explicit language, so much kidnapping,

Works organized and easily found over on the patreon. <3

TO THE EDGE - CHAPTER 8.

Rory contemplated some of the worst hours of his life to reassure himself that being duct-taped to a chair in his own ship, unable to do anything but wait and see if his bounty came back alive or not, wouldn’t make a list of his top ten.

There was the first time he got in a fight with pirates and got his ass handed to him. He’d almost lost an arm.

There was that time when he was working salvage and got stuck outside a wreck of a ship in a malfunctioning suit. Hypoxia had set it and if someone on his team hadn’t gotten the hatch open and dragged him inside, he would have died. He’d never felt his heart beat that hard before.

And then there was the first time he went to space—the first time he left the planet where he’d been born. He hadn’t been able to see the stars, packed into the cargo haul of a rickety ship, shoulder to shoulder with a hundred other desperate souls. It had shaken so hard, the hull creaking and screaming as they broke atmosphere. He had never been more scared before or since. That was the worst hour. The one where he thought he’d die crammed into that dark room, so close to escape, without a single star in sight.

This was not the worst.

This was not even close.

But it definitely felt like the worst when he considered just how much trouble that strange, naïve primer could be getting into on Styx. Where were they even going? If they wanted to piss off their family by running away, why this way? Why not go to Eaton? Why not go any damn direction other than the edge? The Solar Court had given up on this stretch of space—had found their limit and abandoned settlements along the border, like skeletons to mark the beginning of no-man’s-land.

The ship door opened, his ears popping and his head whipping to the side to try to see the entrance hall. “Stardust?”

It could be anyone. His primer could be anywhere.

“Did you enjoy your time alone?” they called, sounding chipper.

Rory laughed. “I spent the last two hours contemplating my mortality and just how quickly life can go to shit…”

Nodding, the primer walked onto the bridge. “You’re being dramatic.”

He huffed a laugh but forgot what he was going to say when he saw them. “Oh, look at you. I wasn’t expecting this much leather. Okay, I’m willing to admit that you might look better in that outfit than you did in my clothes…” Because he definitely wasn’t ready to admit how much he’d liked seeing them in his clothes… Did they get their hair cut too? That side shave was clean.

Stardust smiled and even did a little turn for him to get a good look at those leather ankle boots and tight pants, the faded t-shirt and leather jacket.

“What size is that jacket?” And where had they found it? He’d been looking for something like that for years. “Wait…How did you buy all of that?”

They blinked at him like they didn’t understand the question.

Rory shook his head. “There’s no way you had time to barter my stuff for that… Did you get into my account somehow or…” He sagged into his bindings. “Oh, Stardust. Tell me you didn’t use your own accounts.”

The primer pressed their shoulders back and their chin up. “It’s not like it’s a family account,” they said. “I have my own.”

“Not the family account? You think they don’t have tabs on your private one?”

Stardust rolled their eyes and waved a hand at him dismissively. “It doesn’t matter.” They settled into the pilot’s seat—his seat—and tapped at his controls, bringing his ship to life.

Rory ground his teeth, tugging at the tape he knew wasn’t going to budge but couldn’t stop himself from trying. “You really didn’t put much thought into running away, did you? Just figured that since you were already this far away, might as well keep going? Or did you like being in cuffs?” He grinned cruelly, hoping to get a reaction out of them. “You know, if that’s the case, I can cuff you again.”

He saw their hand hesitate over the keys.

Rory leaned forward as far as he could. “In fact, I promise that I will,” he whispered.

Stardust whipped around in the chair to glare at him, but when they opened their mouth, the ship beeped.

Incoming call. L-Class Yacht.

He saw the way their eyes flared at that announcement and barked a laugh. “That’ll be one of your relations. At least they’ll be able to tell from your shopping spree that I wasn’t taking advantage… Although I am definitely going to try on that jacket when I get loose.”

“Shut up! You’re not going anywhere, Cosmic. You’re in that chair until I’m done with your boat.”

He jerked at his restraints again and bared teeth at the back of their head. “Oh, I’m getting loose. See, you don’t know this yet because you have no fucking idea what you’re doing, but no one stays kidnapped forever. I mean, just look at yourself! By all rights, you should still be in a pirate’s storage compartment, but here you are, getting comfy in my seat, touching my controls, flying my damn ship—”

Another beep. Incoming call. L-Class Yacht.

He leaned back into his seat. “Are you going to get that?”

Stardust angrily tapped a key. The ship beeped. Call declined.

Rory gaped. “Are you out of your mind?”

The primer huffed a laugh, fingers flying over the controls. “Are you scared they’ll be mad?”

“Scared? Yes. Yes, I am scared of what your nightmare family might do if they think I fucked up this job. Have you met your grandmother? I haven’t and would like to keep it that way. Why do you think even pirates won’t go into the prime quad?” He didn’t need to wait for their response. “Because your family is there and they’re too snobby to step foot past their territory lines. So, assholes like me bring damsels like you back!”

Stardust tsked and he wondered if they’d rolled their eyes at him too. “I think we can both agree I’m not a damsel… and if you’re right, then I’m free and clear.”

“No. No, that does not mean that if you stay out of the prime they won’t get to you.”

The ship beeped. Detached from dock. Resuming course.

Rory sighed. “You’re not listening.”

The ship jostled as it decoupled from the station, stars gliding past the window and engines humming. “Don’t worry so much,” Stardust said, another tap at the console and they were off—cutting a line through space. “You’re going to be fine.”

“If they think I double-crossed them, or just botched this job, they will put a bounty on my head and hire someone else to drag you back. There’s no getting out of this.” Was he really trying to reason with this spoiled brat again? “And didn’t you want to go home? You made me promise.”

They shook their head but stubbornly wouldn’t look back at him. “You said you’d take me home. I never said the prime was my home. But I’m not holding you to that promise, okay? So just, sit back, relax, and you’ll have your ship back soon enough.”

Rory watched their shape bathed in starlight from the window, like a shadow being tested. “Prime isn’t home? Since when?”

They didn’t move. They didn’t answer.

He scoffed. Fucking primers. “Fine. Fine!” He pulled at his restraints again. “But when I starve to death in my own ship, that’s on you, Stardust. You’ll be a murderer as well as a thief!”

They finally looked back at him, eyes shining. “Then I guess we’re the same.”

Rory laughed cruelly. “Fuck you. We’re not the same!” he snapped but they both smiled. They were not the same—not by a long shot. And Stardust wasn’t a killer. He wasn’t even convinced they were a good thief, though admitting that in his current state would be too embarrassing to bear. “Seriously… Do you have any idea how humiliating this is?”

They kicked the lock on the floor and spun the chair around to face him. They looked way too comfortable in his seat, leaning into the side and putting a boot up on the cushion. “It’s not that bad.”

“I can’t get kidnapped by my own kidnappee. This will wreck my reputation.”

Stardust shrugged, trying not to smile and failing.

“Oh, you don’t give a shit about that? I’m really starting to regret patching you up.”

The primer put their elbow on the armrest and their chin in their palm, watching him squirm.

“You are officially my least favorite kidnappee.”

Stardust grinned.

No primer should have a smile that crooked.

#to the edge #defying gravity #sci fi romance #ride or die in space #audio script to novel #adventures of stardust and cosmic #<3 #own work #dominimoonbeam #clover down

[dominimoonbeam]

The review copies have arrived and are looking pretty good! Excited to finalize and publish these soon!

Ruby and the Wolf is already out as an ebook but I couldn't resist making a physical version too.

#own work #writblr #contemporary romance #werewolf romance #<3 #ruby and the wolf #don't touch my stuff #clover down #wallflower trying

[dominimoonbeam]

To The Edge - 8

This work is mine and I do not give consent for my works to be used, copied, published, or posted without my permission. I am sharing chapters as I work on this story but it is copyrighted material that I plan to rework and publish when completed.

story tags: scifi romance, hijinks in space, rogues learning to trust, violence, blood, guns, death, explicit language, so much kidnapping,

Works organized and easily found over on the patreon. <3

TO THE EDGE - CHAPTER 8.

Rory contemplated some of the worst hours of his life to reassure himself that being duct-taped to a chair in his own ship, unable to do anything but wait and see if his bounty came back alive or not, wouldn’t make a list of his top ten.

There was the first time he got in a fight with pirates and got his ass handed to him. He’d almost lost an arm.

There was that time when he was working salvage and got stuck outside a wreck of a ship in a malfunctioning suit. Hypoxia had set it and if someone on his team hadn’t gotten the hatch open and dragged him inside, he would have died. He’d never felt his heart beat that hard before.

And then there was the first time he went to space—the first time he left the planet where he’d been born. He hadn’t been able to see the stars, packed into the cargo haul of a rickety ship, shoulder to shoulder with a hundred other desperate souls. It had shaken so hard, the hull creaking and screaming as they broke atmosphere. He had never been more scared before or since. That was the worst hour. The one where he thought he’d die crammed into that dark room, so close to escape, without a single star in sight.

This was not the worst.

This was not even close.

But it definitely felt like the worst when he considered just how much trouble that strange, naïve primer could be getting into on Styx. Where were they even going? If they wanted to piss off their family by running away, why this way? Why not go to Eaton? Why not go any damn direction other than the edge? The Solar Court had given up on this stretch of space—had found their limit and abandoned settlements along the border, like skeletons to mark the beginning of no-man’s-land.

The ship door opened, his ears popping and his head whipping to the side to try to see the entrance hall. “Stardust?”

It could be anyone. His primer could be anywhere.

“Did you enjoy your time alone?” they called, sounding chipper.

Rory laughed. “I spent the last two hours contemplating my mortality and just how quickly life can go to shit…”

Nodding, the primer walked onto the bridge. “You’re being dramatic.”

He huffed a laugh but forgot what he was going to say when he saw them. “Oh, look at you. I wasn’t expecting this much leather. Okay, I’m willing to admit that you might look better in that outfit than you did in my clothes…” Because he definitely wasn’t ready to admit how much he’d liked seeing them in his clothes… Did they get their hair cut too? That side shave was clean.

Stardust smiled and even did a little turn for him to get a good look at those leather ankle boots and tight pants, the faded t-shirt and leather jacket.

“What size is that jacket?” And where had they found it? He’d been looking for something like that for years. “Wait…How did you buy all of that?”

They blinked at him like they didn’t understand the question.

Rory shook his head. “There’s no way you had time to barter my stuff for that… Did you get into my account somehow or…” He sagged into his bindings. “Oh, Stardust. Tell me you didn’t use your own accounts.”

The primer pressed their shoulders back and their chin up. “It’s not like it’s a family account,” they said. “I have my own.”

“Not the family account? You think they don’t have tabs on your private one?”

Stardust rolled their eyes and waved a hand at him dismissively. “It doesn’t matter.” They settled into the pilot’s seat—his seat—and tapped at his controls, bringing his ship to life.

Rory ground his teeth, tugging at the tape he knew wasn’t going to budge but couldn’t stop himself from trying. “You really didn’t put much thought into running away, did you? Just figured that since you were already this far away, might as well keep going? Or did you like being in cuffs?” He grinned cruelly, hoping to get a reaction out of them. “You know, if that’s the case, I can cuff you again.”

He saw their hand hesitate over the keys.

Rory leaned forward as far as he could. “In fact, I promise that I will,” he whispered.

Stardust whipped around in the chair to glare at him, but when they opened their mouth, the ship beeped.

Incoming call. L-Class Yacht.

He saw the way their eyes flared at that announcement and barked a laugh. “That’ll be one of your relations. At least they’ll be able to tell from your shopping spree that I wasn’t taking advantage… Although I am definitely going to try on that jacket when I get loose.”

“Shut up! You’re not going anywhere, Cosmic. You’re in that chair until I’m done with your boat.”

He jerked at his restraints again and bared teeth at the back of their head. “Oh, I’m getting loose. See, you don’t know this yet because you have no fucking idea what you’re doing, but no one stays kidnapped forever. I mean, just look at yourself! By all rights, you should still be in a pirate’s storage compartment, but here you are, getting comfy in my seat, touching my controls, flying my damn ship—”

Another beep. Incoming call. L-Class Yacht.

He leaned back into his seat. “Are you going to get that?”

Stardust angrily tapped a key. The ship beeped. Call declined.

Rory gaped. “Are you out of your mind?”

The primer huffed a laugh, fingers flying over the controls. “Are you scared they’ll be mad?”

“Scared? Yes. Yes, I am scared of what your nightmare family might do if they think I fucked up this job. Have you met your grandmother? I haven’t and would like to keep it that way. Why do you think even pirates won’t go into the prime quad?” He didn’t need to wait for their response. “Because your family is there and they’re too snobby to step foot past their territory lines. So, assholes like me bring damsels like you back!”

Stardust tsked and he wondered if they’d rolled their eyes at him too. “I think we can both agree I’m not a damsel… and if you’re right, then I’m free and clear.”

“No. No, that does not mean that if you stay out of the prime they won’t get to you.”

The ship beeped. Detached from dock. Resuming course.

Rory sighed. “You’re not listening.”

The ship jostled as it decoupled from the station, stars gliding past the window and engines humming. “Don’t worry so much,” Stardust said, another tap at the console and they were off—cutting a line through space. “You’re going to be fine.”

“If they think I double-crossed them, or just botched this job, they will put a bounty on my head and hire someone else to drag you back. There’s no getting out of this.” Was he really trying to reason with this spoiled brat again? “And didn’t you want to go home? You made me promise.”

They shook their head but stubbornly wouldn’t look back at him. “You said you’d take me home. I never said the prime was my home. But I’m not holding you to that promise, okay? So just, sit back, relax, and you’ll have your ship back soon enough.”

Rory watched their shape bathed in starlight from the window, like a shadow being tested. “Prime isn’t home? Since when?”

They didn’t move. They didn’t answer.

He scoffed. Fucking primers. “Fine. Fine!” He pulled at his restraints again. “But when I starve to death in my own ship, that’s on you, Stardust. You’ll be a murderer as well as a thief!”

They finally looked back at him, eyes shining. “Then I guess we’re the same.”

Rory laughed cruelly. “Fuck you. We’re not the same!” he snapped but they both smiled. They were not the same—not by a long shot. And Stardust wasn’t a killer. He wasn’t even convinced they were a good thief, though admitting that in his current state would be too embarrassing to bear. “Seriously… Do you have any idea how humiliating this is?”

They kicked the lock on the floor and spun the chair around to face him. They looked way too comfortable in his seat, leaning into the side and putting a boot up on the cushion. “It’s not that bad.”

“I can’t get kidnapped by my own kidnappee. This will wreck my reputation.”

Stardust shrugged, trying not to smile and failing.

“Oh, you don’t give a shit about that? I’m really starting to regret patching you up.”

The primer put their elbow on the armrest and their chin in their palm, watching him squirm.

“You are officially my least favorite kidnappee.”

Stardust grinned.

No primer should have a smile that crooked.

#to the edge #defying gravity #sci fi romance #ride or die in space #audio script to novel #adventures of stardust and cosmic #<3 #own work #dominimoonbeam #clover down

[dominimoonbeam]

EDITING!

#bite to bruise #own work #writers of tumblr #writblr #<3

[dominimoonbeam]

Antiquity Tuesday!

Tagged by the lovely @pinksparkl! Thank you, my wonderful friend!

The challenge? Promote an older piece of art you've created.

I'm sharing Lucky in Love, an early relationship, angst-with-a-happy-ending David/Angel fic written in David's POV.

Summary: During their monthly poker night, Milo and Asher can’t help but tease David about his budding relationship with Angel. To shut up his friends, David denies that the relationship is as serious as they make it out to be. Much to his shock and dismay, Angel overhears every callous (and false) word David says. The whole ordeal makes David realize just how deeply he cares for Angel and just how close he was to losing them, in more ways than one. Maybe David could be convinced that luck exists, after all.

Tagging anyone who'd like to play along and giving an extra shoutout to @starlitangels, @dominimoonbeam, @belovedbow, @slushiepizza, and @slushrottweiler. (No pressure, friends!)

#antiquity tuesday sounds so classy! #and this fic is sooooo good! #i love this trope so much #and romi writing is a gift! #redacted asmr #redactedverse #david shaw

[dominimoonbeam]

Official Author Webpage/Newsletter!

I made a webpage and a newsletter for the romance books! If you join the newsletter for book related updates and sneak peeks, remember to fish that first email out of the spam pit. <3

This took me way too much time to get together but I did it so now I need to share it.

#clover down #wallflower trying #romance writing #authors of tumblr #writblr #<3 #dominimoonbeam #own work #romance

[dominimoonbeam]

If only you all could have seen my brother's face when I told him how I removed my computer fan and blew the dust out of it like an NES cartridge.

It went from moderately impressed at the removal to suspicious of where this was going, to a suspecting cringe because he knows me, to complete disappointment.

#live and learn #but the laptop is working again sooooo #and no one blows in the cartridge for fun! it's an act of desperation damn it! #<3 #computer problems

[dominimoonbeam]

To The Edge

This work is mine and I do not give consent for my works to be used, copied, published, or posted without my permission. I am sharing chapters as I work on this story but it is copyrighted material that I plan to rework and publish when completed.

story tags: scifi romance, hijinks in space, rogues learning to trust, violence, blood, guns, death, explicit language, so much kidnapping,

Works organized and easily found over on the patreon. <3

TO THE EDGE - CHAPTER 7.

Styx wasn’t what Stardust had expected.

When they’d envisioned a lawless trading outpost adrift beyond the charted edge of space, they’d imagined thriving debauchery—red light districts, fruit bars, and endless stalls of unregulated goods.

Walking the plaza of the repurposed military station, they realized their imaginings had been more in line with Cache, the largest casino in the galaxy, which was laughable because there was nothing outwardly illegal about Cache.

Styx wasn’t really lawless either. Stardust spotted the cameras along the corridors funneling off the plaza down the long arms for parking ships and the entrances to residential districts. People lived here. The shops weren’t just fun fronts for the amusement of travelers, they were businesses cultivated and run by real people. There were kids—families. Had they fled to the edge to escape the solar court? To escape justice or debt? Or had they been born out here?

Stardust winced at the sight of a small child laughing and running circles around a parent’s legs.

There were stories about the dangers of having kids outside the SC and Eaton. Slaving wasn’t legal in any of the governing bodies of space…but unregistered people off world weren’t really the problem of any of those governing bodies. As long as no one brought them home, no law in the stars would bat an eye. They called it wreckage. They called them wreckage.

Stardust stole glances into the shops, trying to look like they’d been there before and weren’t gawking at everything new and different from the prime. They’d been born and raised in the center of the galaxy, on worlds that became stranger and stranger in contrast to the places they had seen in the months since fleeing for their life. What they knew of the worlds and stations beyond the prime quad had been learned from classrooms and soap operas.

Everyone loved a good trashy story about one of their own being stranded or tricked into the deep where they found themselves at the whim of an incredibly attractive brute.

That was not the reality—not that Stardust had been looking for it. The pirates had been assholes, barely more than idiot children with a language of violence, and Cosmic…

Cosmic wasn’t what they had expected to find in the deep either.

Stardust scrubbed a hand over their face, trying not to think about him taped to the chair back on his ship. He was fine. He wasn’t going to die just because they left him sitting there for a while. They’d find a new ship—a way back on course—and he’d be fine.

First, they needed to access their accounts.

They finally spotted a café full of screens, some people laid out in chairs with visors on, cables in their necks, or just light swirling in their irises as their minds drifted far away. Others sat at consoles, fingers dancing over lightboards or keyboards.

The disconnection of their optic implant this far from charted space had been jarring at first, the quiet of not getting constant messages, updates, notifications, and calls was disconcerting. They’d never felt alone like this before. They could still use the apps: vision upgrades, language translators, and files of images and recordings. They’d spent a lot of their time in the cramped cargo hold of that pirate vessel rewatching episodes of their favorite drama and playing endless rounds of mahjong solitaire.

They found an available console and sat down.

A synthetic leaning behind the café counter eyed them, light strobing across his cheek, like lightning under his skin. Their console turned on, offering them access for four minutes to start a tab before it would be shut off.

They tapped keys, syncing their implant and sighing with relief when the whole universe seemed to come into reach again. Paying the tab was not a problem. They put in an order for a coffee and a strawberry bun and then started sifting through their mail.

They had dozens of messages from Genesis, pretending to be worried about them—wanting to know where they had gone and promising to help protect them from the other cousins. It was a lie, of course. Genesis was a silver-tongued monster. Did he think they didn’t know? They weren’t some stranger who hadn’t seen the bloodshed of his games.

Tansy, on the other hand, hadn’t felt the need to lie. She was hunting Stardust and had sent just one message, offering to let them live when it was done if they surrendered.

Stardust was a poor excuse for a Solinoh, but they still wouldn’t surrender. It wasn’t in their blood to yield, and it was an insult that Tansy had even suggested it.

They grabbed one of the blank plastic cards from a stack to the side and placed it on the keypad, moving money from an account onto it. It would have to do for now. They’d considered getting a long-range upgrade for their implant, but weren’t sure if their cousins could track them by it if they did. Their family had a skill for acquiring inventors and new tech. Maybe it was better to stay low for a while?

They were about to place a call when a figure stepped up beside them, just inside their little space of imagined privacy. A large, clear, glass nestled onto a saucer was placed beside their keyboard. The foam atop the cappuccino bulged, stretching the limits of physics by not spilling over. No hand but a synthetic one could have carried it without disrupting it. Stardust doubted they’d be able to lift it for a sip without making a mess.

The barista waited.

Stardust cocked their head back to look up at him. They’d expected charm and flirtation on that artificial, perfect face now that they’d started a tab and clearly had the funds for it. That was how synthetics had worked the last time they’d seen any in the prime. They’d been big smiles or politely lowered heads.

The synthetic looked just as unimpressed as he had behind the bar. He hadn’t lowered his head to look down at them where they sat either, he’d just shifted those starless black eyes down the slope of his cheeks.

Stardust flushed, reminded why there were no more synthetics in the prime. It had been cycles since the wars, but those wars had been almost a decade of fighting and dying across the solar court… outside the prime, of course. When word of synthetics turning on their creators spread, when those first acts of revolt stained the prime worlds, the golden center of the galaxy had done what it always did—protect itself from all others.

It seemed like overnight, all the synthetics in the prime had disappeared.

Stardust remembered it with discomfort, especially under those manmade eyes. Could he see it on them? Their family and friends had been upset in those first years of the Synthetic Wars because of the trouble it had caused them. They had to let lower-class humans back into the prime, back into their homes and onto their ships, to do all the jobs the synthetics had been doing before them. The consolation had been that it was cheaper to pay a human than it had cost to buy the synth.

Stardust suddenly wasn’t hungry anymore.

Another strobe of light shimmered under the skin of his face and this time Stardust was at an angle to see those pastel colors reflected in the blacks of his eyes—creating stars in that night.

As though he saw it—saw how their stomach had turned—he placed the second plate with the strawberry bun beside their coffee. The dishes bumped and the coffee overflowed the edge, pooling in the saucer. His mouth twitched with a smile and Stardust tried not to marvel at it—at him. It had been so long since they’d seen a synthetic that they’d somehow forgotten how incredibly real their design had become. It was beyond uncanny valley and onto something else. It wasn’t just perfection, it was better than that. There was a quirk to his smile and a menace to the beauty of his face.

It seemed humans had done what they always did. They made things better than themselves and lost control of it.

Looking at a synthetic didn’t feel like looking at something that wasn’t quite human… it felt like looking at something humans wanted to become.

“You’re going to get yourself killed if you stay here too long,” he said, a drawl to his deep voice that rolled under the hum of music and keystrokes in the room.

Stardust didn’t look away, pitching an eyebrow. “Are you threatening me?”

His smirk remained. “Don’t tempt me, Solinoh.”

Stardust’s stomach lurched, suddenly realizing he was between them and the exit. Did it matter? They couldn’t outrun him if they tried. Maybe if they hit him with something…

The synthetic scoffed. “Handle your business and go. I don’t want to see you in here again. I don’t need you dying in my place.”

His place?

Heat rushed their face. They’d just assumed he worked there. No, that wasn’t true. They’d assumed he belonged to the building or to the owner.

Fuck.

He nodded like he knew it, that gaze flicking over them again. “And when you’re done here, go to the catwalk and get some better clothes. Your mortal ass isn’t long for this world and even I’d be disappointed to see you die in sweatpants.”

Stardust wasn’t sure if that was a joke or just the truth, either way, they nodded in agreement.

Light strobed across his cheek and his expression changed. They caught the start of a true smile when he turned toward the opening to greet a trio of synthetics.

Stardust forced their gaze down to the coffee on their table, refusing to gawk at these people. He was right, though, if they were that easily identified by synthetics, they needed to get moving.

They placed a call while they were still connected. The camera on the screen lit up to film them but when the call connected, the scene they watched was in their implant only, projected like a screen but only for their eyes.

Cornelius answered on the first ring, a sign that Stardust had truly rattled their friend because Cor never answered on the first ring as a rule. They were lucky if he answered at all.

“You’re alive!” Cor whisper-yelled, hurrying to get someplace private. Strings of diamonds swayed and tangled from the circlet around his head, the front strands framing his cheeks while others stretched the length of his neck, gleaming against smooth dark skin. The background sounds were warped, automatically filtered out by his implant. “Where are you? Your family has been crawling all over me looking for you. I mean, I don’t mind some of them crawling all over me…”

Stardust exhaled hard, feeling the first real sense of relief since the pirates targeted their ship days ago.

Cornelius got someplace where he could talk because he really looked at them now, expression growing uncharacteristically serious. “What happened to you? Where… Did Genesis find you?” He whispered the name like a curse.

Stardust shook their head, clawing an unruly lock of hair behind their ear. They tongued the glued scab on their lip. They didn’t look half as bad as they had yesterday, but looking at Cor and remembering their life just months ago, they imagined it had to be a horror to see them now. “One of those assholes put a bounty on me,” they whispered. “Some pirates wrecked my jet and grabbed me—” They choked up and stopped, surprising themselves with a well of emotion they hadn’t even realized was there.

Cornelius nodded. “Where are you? I’ll send someone.”

Stardust wished it was that simple. “I’m past the edge.”

He stared, the strands of diamonds settling around his jaw and neck. “You… You really went out there? Everyone is saying you ran away or were kidnapped but… You’re really going?”

“What choice do I have?”

“Come back! We’ll hide out on Lu-Pan. Between the two of us, we can buy up half the islands and amass a little army.”

Stardust ached for that option. Lu-Pan was familiar, but it wasn’t safe. There was nowhere safe from their family. “I just wanted to check in. I’m alive.”

Cornelius frowned and Stardust realized how rarely they’d ever seen their best friend frown. They’d been together since they were toddlers. There was no one else Stardust trusted or loved more, which was exactly why they couldn’t run to him. “Where are you?” he asked again.

“I’ll check in again when I can.”

“Star—”

Hanging up physically hurt. It surprised them, making them swallow twice and look up to keep the gathering of tears from falling. After a couple quick breaths, they paid their tab and disconnected. Pocketing the plastic cash card they’d been clutching, Stardust realized they hadn’t touched their food. They almost left it, but their stomach growled in protest.

They compromised and picked up the bun on their way out.

Walking to the exit took them right past the three synthetics at the bar talking to the owner.

It was impossible not to feel the air shift and those immortal eyes turn on them, running over them from head to toe. One, a giant, grinned with a flash of metal-tipped fangs. “It’s a shame… I would have liked throwing a Solinoh in my cargo hold,” he said just loud enough for Stardust to hear even though the words were directed at his friends.

One of the others, wearing a body that appeared to be entirely made of gold and glass, waved a delicate hand through the air as if taking in the complications of fate. “Don’t hold your breath. No one but a Solinoh would put a bounty on a Solinoh, and there are just some people not even we’ll work for…”

 Stardust kept walking, bun in hand, until they were out of the café. They turned a hard right and wove into the crowd, finally taking a big bite.

They needed to get out of there…but they also needed to get a change of clothes. They followed the signs for The Catwalk.

The synthetic café owner wasn’t wrong. This was not an outfit worthy of dying in.

#to the edge #defying gravity #sci fi romance #adventures of stardust and cosmic #audio script to novel #own work #ride or die in space #<3 #dominimoonbeam #clover down

[dominimoonbeam]

To The Edge

This work is mine and I do not give consent for my works to be used, copied, published, or posted without my permission. I am sharing chapters as I work on this story but it is copyrighted material that I plan to rework and publish when completed.

story tags: scifi romance, hijinks in space, rogues learning to trust, violence, blood, guns, death, explicit language, so much kidnapping,

Works organized and easily found over on the patreon. <3

TO THE EDGE - CHAPTER 7.

Styx wasn’t what Stardust had expected.

When they’d envisioned a lawless trading outpost adrift beyond the charted edge of space, they’d imagined thriving debauchery—red light districts, fruit bars, and endless stalls of unregulated goods.

Walking the plaza of the repurposed military station, they realized their imaginings had been more in line with Cache, the largest casino in the galaxy, which was laughable because there was nothing outwardly illegal about Cache.

Styx wasn’t really lawless either. Stardust spotted the cameras along the corridors funneling off the plaza down the long arms for parking ships and the entrances to residential districts. People lived here. The shops weren’t just fun fronts for the amusement of travelers, they were businesses cultivated and run by real people. There were kids—families. Had they fled to the edge to escape the solar court? To escape justice or debt? Or had they been born out here?

Stardust winced at the sight of a small child laughing and running circles around a parent’s legs.

There were stories about the dangers of having kids outside the SC and Eaton. Slaving wasn’t legal in any of the governing bodies of space…but unregistered people off world weren’t really the problem of any of those governing bodies. As long as no one brought them home, no law in the stars would bat an eye. They called it wreckage. They called them wreckage.

Stardust stole glances into the shops, trying to look like they’d been there before and weren’t gawking at everything new and different from the prime. They’d been born and raised in the center of the galaxy, on worlds that became stranger and stranger in contrast to the places they had seen in the months since fleeing for their life. What they knew of the worlds and stations beyond the prime quad had been learned from classrooms and soap operas.

Everyone loved a good trashy story about one of their own being stranded or tricked into the deep where they found themselves at the whim of an incredibly attractive brute.

That was not the reality—not that Stardust had been looking for it. The pirates had been assholes, barely more than idiot children with a language of violence, and Cosmic…

Cosmic wasn’t what they had expected to find in the deep either.

Stardust scrubbed a hand over their face, trying not to think about him taped to the chair back on his ship. He was fine. He wasn’t going to die just because they left him sitting there for a while. They’d find a new ship—a way back on course—and he’d be fine.

First, they needed to access their accounts.

They finally spotted a café full of screens, some people laid out in chairs with visors on, cables in their necks, or just light swirling in their irises as their minds drifted far away. Others sat at consoles, fingers dancing over lightboards or keyboards.

The disconnection of their optic implant this far from charted space had been jarring at first, the quiet of not getting constant messages, updates, notifications, and calls was disconcerting. They’d never felt alone like this before. They could still use the apps: vision upgrades, language translators, and files of images and recordings. They’d spent a lot of their time in the cramped cargo hold of that pirate vessel rewatching episodes of their favorite drama and playing endless rounds of mahjong solitaire.

They found an available console and sat down.

A synthetic leaning behind the café counter eyed them, light strobing across his cheek, like lightning under his skin. Their console turned on, offering them access for four minutes to start a tab before it would be shut off.

They tapped keys, syncing their implant and sighing with relief when the whole universe seemed to come into reach again. Paying the tab was not a problem. They put in an order for a coffee and a strawberry bun and then started sifting through their mail.

They had dozens of messages from Genesis, pretending to be worried about them—wanting to know where they had gone and promising to help protect them from the other cousins. It was a lie, of course. Genesis was a silver-tongued monster. Did he think they didn’t know? They weren’t some stranger who hadn’t seen the bloodshed of his games.

Tansy, on the other hand, hadn’t felt the need to lie. She was hunting Stardust and had sent just one message, offering to let them live when it was done if they surrendered.

Stardust was a poor excuse for a Solinoh, but they still wouldn’t surrender. It wasn’t in their blood to yield, and it was an insult that Tansy had even suggested it.

They grabbed one of the blank plastic cards from a stack to the side and placed it on the keypad, moving money from an account onto it. It would have to do for now. They’d considered getting a long-range upgrade for their implant, but weren’t sure if their cousins could track them by it if they did. Their family had a skill for acquiring inventors and new tech. Maybe it was better to stay low for a while?

They were about to place a call when a figure stepped up beside them, just inside their little space of imagined privacy. A large, clear, glass nestled onto a saucer was placed beside their keyboard. The foam atop the cappuccino bulged, stretching the limits of physics by not spilling over. No hand but a synthetic one could have carried it without disrupting it. Stardust doubted they’d be able to lift it for a sip without making a mess.

The barista waited.

Stardust cocked their head back to look up at him. They’d expected charm and flirtation on that artificial, perfect face now that they’d started a tab and clearly had the funds for it. That was how synthetics had worked the last time they’d seen any in the prime. They’d been big smiles or politely lowered heads.

The synthetic looked just as unimpressed as he had behind the bar. He hadn’t lowered his head to look down at them where they sat either, he’d just shifted those starless black eyes down the slope of his cheeks.

Stardust flushed, reminded why there were no more synthetics in the prime. It had been cycles since the wars, but those wars had been almost a decade of fighting and dying across the solar court… outside the prime, of course. When word of synthetics turning on their creators spread, when those first acts of revolt stained the prime worlds, the golden center of the galaxy had done what it always did—protect itself from all others.

It seemed like overnight, all the synthetics in the prime had disappeared.

Stardust remembered it with discomfort, especially under those manmade eyes. Could he see it on them? Their family and friends had been upset in those first years of the Synthetic Wars because of the trouble it had caused them. They had to let lower-class humans back into the prime, back into their homes and onto their ships, to do all the jobs the synthetics had been doing before them. The consolation had been that it was cheaper to pay a human than it had cost to buy the synth.

Stardust suddenly wasn’t hungry anymore.

Another strobe of light shimmered under the skin of his face and this time Stardust was at an angle to see those pastel colors reflected in the blacks of his eyes—creating stars in that night.

As though he saw it—saw how their stomach had turned—he placed the second plate with the strawberry bun beside their coffee. The dishes bumped and the coffee overflowed the edge, pooling in the saucer. His mouth twitched with a smile and Stardust tried not to marvel at it—at him. It had been so long since they’d seen a synthetic that they’d somehow forgotten how incredibly real their design had become. It was beyond uncanny valley and onto something else. It wasn’t just perfection, it was better than that. There was a quirk to his smile and a menace to the beauty of his face.

It seemed humans had done what they always did. They made things better than themselves and lost control of it.

Looking at a synthetic didn’t feel like looking at something that wasn’t quite human… it felt like looking at something humans wanted to become.

“You’re going to get yourself killed if you stay here too long,” he said, a drawl to his deep voice that rolled under the hum of music and keystrokes in the room.

Stardust didn’t look away, pitching an eyebrow. “Are you threatening me?”

His smirk remained. “Don’t tempt me, Solinoh.”

Stardust’s stomach lurched, suddenly realizing he was between them and the exit. Did it matter? They couldn’t outrun him if they tried. Maybe if they hit him with something…

The synthetic scoffed. “Handle your business and go. I don’t want to see you in here again. I don’t need you dying in my place.”

His place?

Heat rushed their face. They’d just assumed he worked there. No, that wasn’t true. They’d assumed he belonged to the building or to the owner.

Fuck.

He nodded like he knew it, that gaze flicking over them again. “And when you’re done here, go to the catwalk and get some better clothes. Your mortal ass isn’t long for this world and even I’d be disappointed to see you die in sweatpants.”

Stardust wasn’t sure if that was a joke or just the truth, either way, they nodded in agreement.

Light strobed across his cheek and his expression changed. They caught the start of a true smile when he turned toward the opening to greet a trio of synthetics.

Stardust forced their gaze down to the coffee on their table, refusing to gawk at these people. He was right, though, if they were that easily identified by synthetics, they needed to get moving.

They placed a call while they were still connected. The camera on the screen lit up to film them but when the call connected, the scene they watched was in their implant only, projected like a screen but only for their eyes.

Cornelius answered on the first ring, a sign that Stardust had truly rattled their friend because Cor never answered on the first ring as a rule. They were lucky if he answered at all.

“You’re alive!” Cor whisper-yelled, hurrying to get someplace private. Strings of diamonds swayed and tangled from the circlet around his head, the front strands framing his cheeks while others stretched the length of his neck, gleaming against smooth dark skin. The background sounds were warped, automatically filtered out by his implant. “Where are you? Your family has been crawling all over me looking for you. I mean, I don’t mind some of them crawling all over me…”

Stardust exhaled hard, feeling the first real sense of relief since the pirates targeted their ship days ago.

Cornelius got someplace where he could talk because he really looked at them now, expression growing uncharacteristically serious. “What happened to you? Where… Did Genesis find you?” He whispered the name like a curse.

Stardust shook their head, clawing an unruly lock of hair behind their ear. They tongued the glued scab on their lip. They didn’t look half as bad as they had yesterday, but looking at Cor and remembering their life just months ago, they imagined it had to be a horror to see them now. “One of those assholes put a bounty on me,” they whispered. “Some pirates wrecked my jet and grabbed me—” They choked up and stopped, surprising themselves with a well of emotion they hadn’t even realized was there.

Cornelius nodded. “Where are you? I’ll send someone.”

Stardust wished it was that simple. “I’m past the edge.”

He stared, the strands of diamonds settling around his jaw and neck. “You… You really went out there? Everyone is saying you ran away or were kidnapped but… You’re really going?”

“What choice do I have?”

“Come back! We’ll hide out on Lu-Pan. Between the two of us, we can buy up half the islands and amass a little army.”

Stardust ached for that option. Lu-Pan was familiar, but it wasn’t safe. There was nowhere safe from their family. “I just wanted to check in. I’m alive.”

Cornelius frowned and Stardust realized how rarely they’d ever seen their best friend frown. They’d been together since they were toddlers. There was no one else Stardust trusted or loved more, which was exactly why they couldn’t run to him. “Where are you?” he asked again.

“I’ll check in again when I can.”

“Star—”

Hanging up physically hurt. It surprised them, making them swallow twice and look up to keep the gathering of tears from falling. After a couple quick breaths, they paid their tab and disconnected. Pocketing the plastic cash card they’d been clutching, Stardust realized they hadn’t touched their food. They almost left it, but their stomach growled in protest.

They compromised and picked up the bun on their way out.

Walking to the exit took them right past the three synthetics at the bar talking to the owner.

It was impossible not to feel the air shift and those immortal eyes turn on them, running over them from head to toe. One, a giant, grinned with a flash of metal-tipped fangs. “It’s a shame… I would have liked throwing a Solinoh in my cargo hold,” he said just loud enough for Stardust to hear even though the words were directed at his friends.

One of the others, wearing a body that appeared to be entirely made of gold and glass, waved a delicate hand through the air as if taking in the complications of fate. “Don’t hold your breath. No one but a Solinoh would put a bounty on a Solinoh, and there are just some people not even we’ll work for…”

 Stardust kept walking, bun in hand, until they were out of the café. They turned a hard right and wove into the crowd, finally taking a big bite.

They needed to get out of there…but they also needed to get a change of clothes. They followed the signs for The Catwalk.

The synthetic café owner wasn’t wrong. This was not an outfit worthy of dying in.

#to the edge #defying gravity #sci fi romance #adventures of stardust and cosmic #audio script to novel #own work #ride or die in space #<3 #dominimoonbeam #clover down

[dominimoonbeam]

If we're writing a coffee shop au, it has to be raining. Clearly. Is it ever NOT raining in a coffee shop au?

#asher/darlin #<3 #redactedverse #fanfic

[dominimoonbeam]

If we're talking Darlin/Asher ideas one I've always enjoyed the concept of is barista x exhausted grad student who always comes in to study and asks for an obscene amount of caffeine and I feel like there's potential for both of them in either role

Alternatively Darlin as mechanic who is Done and Asher whose car is being held together by duct tape and prayers

Oh anon... I've slid hard into aus in Redacted. I've got the tattoo shop au, the bodyguard au, and the college au going and you're tempting me with a coffee shop au??

I love it. I'm thinking on it. Thank you for the suggestion!

#thank you anon #i think i'm developing an au problem #redactedverse #<3 #asher/darlin

[dominimoonbeam]

I know you've written like 90 different Darlin-centric fics already HOWEVER. Ashlin fic perchance?

We've got Milo/Darlin and we've got David/Darlin and we've even got David/Asher/Darlin (all Good Fucking Food btw) but what we do Not have (yet?) is Asher/Darlin

I am but a simple guy--- I read about our favorite insanely emotionally intelligent beta taking care of the stoic self destructive lone wolf and i Melt

...

Oh my gosh. How have I NOT done that, yet? You're right! I'm going to think on this! If you have ideas/prompts for it let me know!

#asher/darlin #redactedverse #fanfics #<3

[dominimoonbeam]

Okay. Until I can fix my laptop, I'm using the emergency backup! I bought this one maybe 5 years ago when my laptop died suddenly and I really didn't have the money to replace it so I got the cheapest one at the time. This sweet baby has no memory. I have to plug it into an external hard drive to access documents but it works and that's all I'm asking for!

Bonus! One of my favorite stickers! <3

#update #computer troubles #<3

[dominimoonbeam]

hows ur laptop?

also cute nails <3

Thank you, anon! And it's not good. I opened it up and cleaned the fan but it's still making chainsaw sounds. I'm going to get some oil and try that on the fan too. Fingers crossed!

#computer troubles #<3

[dominimoonbeam]

okay... I'm going to open it up. I don't usually do this but it's still doing this sound and I'm imagining it's the fan?

*pretends to know how to do shit*

...there's a demon trying to start a chainsaw inside my laptop.

Cool. Cool.

[dominimoonbeam]

...there's a demon trying to start a chainsaw inside my laptop.

Cool. Cool.

#update #writers of tumblr