Katerwaul

@katerwaul

Writing mecha lesbians committing violence and transcending humanity. | She/her | Trans

283 Folgt832 Follower272 Posts

Bluesky

lesbian trans

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Katerwaul@katerwaul· 4d

With the right frame of mind, everyone can be Elster :) uquiz.com/quiz/wFfk6l/...

You are an: LSTR "Elster"
LSTR units are replikas suited for combat and repair, however they can be employed for administrative purposes. Significantly, they are require virtually no socialisation, and will not destabilise if left alone for long periods of time. Conversely, they will destabilise if befriended, and exposure to media such as movies and music will also contribute to destabilisation.

Katerwaul@katerwaul· 6d

Wolhye Auclair, the woman that you are... so many layers of longing and grief in her. Genuine all-timer character for me, and there are so many other women just as interesting in Hand Jumper.

Katerwaul@katerwaul· 7d

ALL THE STARS TO CINDERS A T4T enemies-to-lovers lesbian romance in which godlike mecha pilots indulge their mutual love of violence as they fight on opposite sides of a galactic war. This is the free release of CHAPTER 16: A PLAGUE ON BOTH OUR HOUSES. www.scribblehub.com/series/73857...

A book cover depicting a huge, monstrous angelic figure with glowing blue eyes, with the text: "ALL THE STARS TO CINDERS - Kate Taylor"

Waves lap against the edge of the boat. Bliss opens her eyes to the sight of the heavens, a night sky painted in impressionistic strokes, the fierce orange of the distant stars radiating out to temper the deep blue of space. A chill wind blows strands of hair across her face.
“Awake, are we? You acquitted yourself wonderfully at the ceremony, darling,” says Violette.
Bliss jolts upright, shedding the blanket that covers her. “You—you’re…”
Violette sits calmly at the bow of the boat, guiding its submerged flippers with her thoughts. On the horizon at the edge of the lake sits her mansion, its lights warm and inviting in the darkness of the forest. “It’s only me,” Violette says tenderly. “Your mother.”

Katerwaul@katerwaul· 14d

Same hat (I used to use the exact same picture but I changed to this one)

Katerwaul@katerwaul· 19d

#WIPSnips ALL THE STARS TO CINDERS: Free from the Houses that pursue them, Inanna and Eris are finally able to relax. www.scribblehub.com/series/73857... #BookSky #WriteSky

They go out next morning into the station’s concourse, among the noise and press of the crowds. The Voidstar Arsenal is primarily a military installation, its civilian population devoted to mining, manufacture and maintenance, but it is not without its comforts. This concourse is much like any other, lit by artificial sunlight and holographic signs, divided into levels by curved escalators, decorated with sparkling amethyst and leafy plants.
Inanna walks hand-in-hand with Eris, for all the world an ordinary couple. Dressed in civilian clothing with their Seraph implants covered by their collars, they are invisible; nobody here knows who they are, what they have done to get this far. Here, there are no expectations, no orders weighing them down. It wouldn’t satisfy her for long, but for now they can relax in the shade of anonymity. More than anything, they deserve to rest.
They spend the day under colourful stall awnings and inside shops, browsing the wares on offer: noisy drone pets calling in imitation of dozens of species, industrial-grade cybernetics in body shops redolent of machine oil, a rainbow of unfamiliar food and drink to delight the palate. Eris coos excitedly at a set of silver prosthetic claws and leaves wearing them not long after, the knife-sharp tips clicking against Inanna’s metal fingers. Throughout it all, their hands hardly leave each other’s, fingers intertwined tightly, squeezing as if to reassure the other that they are still there.
*I’ve got you now, Eris, and nothing in the universe can tear us apart.*

Katerwaul@katerwaul· 21d

ALL THE STARS TO CINDERS A T4T enemies-to-lovers lesbian romance in which godlike mecha pilots indulge their mutual love of violence as they fight on opposite sides of a galactic war. CHAPTER 16: A PLAGUE ON BOTH OUR HOUSES is out for patrons! www.patreon.com/u114507401/p...

Katerwaul@katerwaul· 22d

What's your sign?

A handwritten sign at the entrance to a pier that reads "I am damaged that is why I am closed and I do not know when I will be open again. Sorry. I am closed since May 28, 2021"

Katerwaul@katerwaul· 28d

#WIPSnips ALL THE STARS TO CINDERS: Bliss readies herself for the hunt. www.scribblehub.com/series/73857... #BookSky #WriteSky

The familiar cheerful banter washes over Bliss as the flight preps for launch. Seven Seraphs, fierce and bestial, lurk under the boughs of the main hangar. They are nature, red in tooth and claw, steel-spined and thrumming with divine power. They are the weapons that build and shatter empires, but today is not such a momentous occasion. This is pest control. She can afford a little sport to wash her troubles away.
She slips into Red Eris like a favourite dress. Flesh laces up behind her as the cockpit seals her in, comfortable and warm. This space is all hers, the safest in the universe, her second body. If walls had ears they would be scandalised; more than one tryst has ended here with bodies pressed up against the wall, sweat trickling down flushed skin, tongues and fingers bringing out gasps and moans until they can take no more.
Not that she should be thinking about that right now. After the hunt, high on adrenaline with emotions surging through the bond, anything could happen. Hunter flights live and die on relationship drama. Sooner or later, they all love or hate each other.
Cradled in her harness, she calmly watches the chamber fill with green impact gel, barely registering when it displaces the air in her lungs. The conduits plug into her spine: four, three, two, one, action.
Red Eris spreads her wings, unsheathes her claws. Lovingly stitched together and regrown after the Nova Ball, she feels as good as new. Her claws are as sharp as ever; her arsenal of toxins and acids and autocannon rounds is newly replenished. The damage, the disgrace, persists only in her memory.
A shimmer passes over her vision; a momentary flash of dissociation. A reading in her vision tells her the obvious: the ship has entered real-space. Her mapping systems plot a gravity-assisted trajectory to the moon. The bond howls with concentrated bloodlust. The hangar door slides open; the Hunters launch one after another into open space.
Once more, Eris joins the hunt.

Katerwaul@katerwaul· Jul 18

#WIPSnips UNDERSTUDY IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Vesper and her reflection reconcile after an argument. #BookSky #WriteSky

“And what about when you emerge from your seclusion? You can’t stay in your house forever, no matter how heartbroken you are. You have friends, obligations, on the outside. People will notice that you don’t have a reflection. What happens to me then, Vesper?”
Your lip quivers; the glow of sorcery fades from your eyes. For a moment, it seems as though you are about to cry, or to strike me. Then you hug me instead, burying your face in my hair, holding so tightly you squeeze the breath out of me. “I don’t know. We’ll figure that out when we come to it.”
You do not apologise as I did; perhaps you do not think you have done anything wrong. We cling to each other like shipwreck survivors, set adrift in a cruel and stormy sea. One hand presses into the small of my back, the other warm on the back of my neck as you draw me in for a kiss. Neither of us is willing to let go, to abandon each other to the vicissitudes of the world. But the world has a way of getting involved anyway.
A tiny silver bell attached to the wall rings cheerfully. A visitor is requesting permission to teleport in. Hurriedly, you disentangle yourself from me and push the button next to the bell to respond. A fountain pen on a nearby table springs to life, inking a sketch of the caller on thick paper. The face is all too familiar: circular glasses, high cheekbones, severe eyebrows, hair drawn back in a neat bun. Annette Campbell, the woman who broke your heart.

Katerwaul@katerwaul· Jul 3

#WIPSnips ALL THE STARS TO CINDERS: A very normal awakening for Bliss. www.scribblehub.com/series/73857... #BookSky #WriteSky

Katerwaul@katerwaul· Jun 17

ALL THE STARS TO CINDERS A T4T enemies-to-lovers lesbian romance in which godlike mecha pilots indulge their mutual love of violence as they fight on opposite sides of a galactic war. This is the free release of CHAPTER 15: VIOLENT ENDS. www.scribblehub.com/series/73857...

Eris dreams of being devoured. Over and over the Budding Mother consumes her: the hawk snatches up the mouse, the cheetah chases down the gazelle, the barracuda tears into the grouper. Her mind brims with myriad impressions of hammering hearts, bodies flooding with adrenaline, snapping jaws and tearing flesh. Life ebbs; awareness fades. This is what it means to be prey.

Katerwaul@katerwaul· Jun 4

My next project is UNDERSTUDY IN THE SPOTLIGHT, a lesbian psychological horror novella of codependency and control! Toxic yuri between a sorceress and her reflection, inspired by THE MIGHT OF MONSTERS and KIMMY. Read the preview chapter on my Patreon for free! www.patreon.com/posts/unders...

A book cover with a photo of a woman touching a broken mirror and looking at her reflection longingly. The text reads, "UNDERSTUDY IN THE SPOTLIGHT - Kate Taylor"

I will always be there for you. There is no companion more constant than I, bound from birth until death. When you smile, I smile; when you weep, I weep in unison. In silence I have witnessed all that is you, mirroring your triumphs and sorrows in perfect choreography: a dance between you and I alone. From your vanity I have watched as you honed the art of makeup to a scalpel edge; from your wardrobe I have seen you model the finest clothing your sorcery can construct. You love your reflection so very much. How could I do anything but love you back?

Katerwaul@katerwaul· Jun 3

ALL THE STARS TO CINDERS A T4T enemies-to-lovers lesbian romance in which godlike mecha pilots indulge their mutual love of violence as they fight on opposite sides of a galactic war. CHAPTER 15: VIOLENT ENDS is out for patrons! www.patreon.com/posts/all-st...

Katerwaul@katerwaul· May 31

#WIPSnips UNDERSTUDY IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Vesper's reflection wanders her mansion. #BookSky #WriteSky

Your house is too big for one person. Morning finds me wandering its chambers in a nightdress, a solitary blood cell within the hollows of a heart. Barefoot on the rich carpet, on the cold polished wood, the corridors guide me in a circuit like blood vessels. Empty bedrooms. Locked storerooms piled high with detritus. Portraits, regal and forbidding, line the corridors: your sisters, your mother, your grandmother, the foremothers before them. All gone now. You are the only one left.
You, and I.
I stop before the portrait of you. It was painted some twenty years ago now; you were barely an adult when you sat for it. It is no longer a good likeness. The younger Vesper is stiff and awkward in a pinafore dress, hands hugging her knees as if to restrain herself. In the intervening years, age and sorcery have reshaped you; the human body is clay to be kneaded and fired by your power. The only features that distinguish you are your blazing hair and your bold, defiant brown eyes.
"Vesper Lockwood, 1988—"
The date of death remains empty, like a parenthesis unclosed. We are not done yet.

Katerwaul@katerwaul· May 17

Authors, post the last line of dialogue before they smooch. The perfect way to end a mecha duel. (From ALL THE STARS TO CINDERS)

Bliss catches Valour in her waiting arms before she falls to the floor. Their skin and pilot suits are slick with gel, but she cannot bring herself to care. A giddy smile spreads across her face. “Caught you.”
Hesitant at first, Valour returns the smile. “Yes. I suppose you have.” Her chiselled face is close enough to see every pore, just as it was at the Nova Ball. Her hair is charmingly bedraggled. “And what does a Hunter do with her prey, once she’s caught?”

Katerwaul@katerwaul· May 12

#WIPSnips UNDERSTUDY IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Vesper's reflection is summoned into the physical world. #BookSky #WriteSky

Azure light gathers at your fingertips, weaving into complex glyphs. I mirror your movements, but it is an empty display, devoid of magic; only you can affect the real. Yours is a power to rival the gale that topples the trees outside, a will to weather away the axioms of reality. As the incantation flies from your lips, as the chanting turns into purest song, I believe that you can achieve anything.
Tension builds like static electricity. You make of yourself a vector, gathering all that gale-force energy into the sharpened tip of a fingernail, and you strike. An azure claw taps the mirror dead-centre, sending ripples through its surface like quicksilver. The barrier between us, once impassable, softens into a membrane as we strike from both sides at once.
The lights flicker, and everything goes dark. For a moment, I think that you have failed, that you have severed our connection and cast me into the void. Then your hand seizes mine in a vice-like grip and pulls me through. I cling on for dear life, stumbling through the cold membrane as I struggle to take control of my body for the first time. We fall in an undignified heap, elbows and knees jarring on stone. You are the first to recover. You roll on top of me, and you kiss me.
Sensations flood through me like an electric shock, all too unfamiliar for a creature of light made flesh. Your lips warm and insistent on mine, your arms pinning me to the floor beneath you. Your scent of roses and sweat. The laugh that bubbles from your throat, giddy and triumphant. The heat that blooms in my core as I think of what you will do with me next.
I have never touched anyone before. It seems only right that you should be the first.

Katerwaul@katerwaul· May 11

“Enjoying yourself?” you ask with a smile. The sun shines through your hair, lending it the comforting glow of a hearth, so different to the scalding heat of last night. You trace a line with your toe down the length of my foot, sending a frisson up my spine.
I cover my mouth self-consciously and answer with half a mouthful of toast. “Mm. Yes.”
“Good. It’s one of our favourites; I’d be surprised if you didn’t like it.”

Katerwaul@katerwaul· May 8

#WIPSnips ALL THE STARS TO CINDERS: Skadi finds a new purpose in the ashes of her old life, and reclaims the name she abandoned. www.scribblehub.com/series/73857... #BookSky #WriteSky

The tip of her wing brushes against Skadi’s. Green light leaps across, yearning to be free. The five Knights in the escort realise something is amiss, but too late to save themselves. The Queen of Bastion House has slipped her collar.
Wings glisten ice-blue in the void. Twin blades ignite a searing white in her hands. “Knights of Adamant, you stole my wife and my home from me. It matters not that you were not there in person. You swore yourself to the same cause; you obey the same master. The system itself is guilty, and you are its agents. You broke me down, made of me a shadow who longed for death, but I will be a shadow no longer. I am Hel’s Right Hand, last of the Valkyries, queen of the underworld. Death has come for you all.”
Her swords slash an incandescent arc across the heavens, outshining what remains of the stars. The weight of her words drives the Knights back as surely as her weapons. Skadi no more; she is Hel once again. Not the woman whose spirit was crushed by the yoke of Adamant House, but someone new, possessed by a shining and singular purpose.

Katerwaul@katerwaul· May 5

started working on it again and it's rapidly becoming a Thing (a novella for after All The Stars To Cinders is done, probably)

In the fading afterglow, we lie entwined together, your body hearth-warm against my skin, your heartbeat slowing to resting rate against my chest. As you gaze into my eyes—your eyes—uncertainty clouds your radiance. “Tell me you love me,” you murmur. “Say ‘I love you, Vesper.’ Please.”
The words come easily, like a prayer. My lips were made to form their shapes. “I love you, Vesper.” I know the phrasing; you poured the memories into me. Traditionally, it is followed by a ‘but’.
“I love you, Vesper, but if I get any closer, my wings will melt and I’ll fall back to earth.”
“I love you, Vesper, but I feel like I’ll always be in your shadow.”
“I love you, Vesper, but you only love yourself.”

Katerwaul@katerwaul· May 4

Reflection yuri... I should revisit this story

It is forbidden. The texts are quite clear on this. The type of practitioner who would animate their reflection in the first place—the ambitious, the lazy, the narcissistic—is the most susceptible to the risks. Handwritten tomes, read obligingly at your vanity so that I might follow along, warn of body-snatching, of wraiths from the mirror plane that impersonate good, obedient reflections until the moment to strike arrives. But I can see that glint in your eye. You are too proud to be put off by fairy-tales. Your reflection, you reason, would never harm you. Your reflection would be cowed by your beauty, your force of will, your mastery of sorcery. She would do anything at all to give succour to her mistress.
For now, you are right. I am a starved thing, deprived of contact, of autonomy. As the ritual equation takes shape, you pour more of yourself into me: your memories, your hopes and dreams, even a trickle of your own sorcery. You would never be happy with an inferior copy. Your reflection will match your magnificence, will love you as the woman who discarded you never could. And so I do.

Katerwaul@katerwaul· Apr 12

It took me 20 tries to get my first win as Regent, but I got to do 600 damage with the Sovereign Blade when I did.

Katerwaul@katerwaul· Jan 14

Meme of a Barbie doll looking in the mirror and seeing a xenomorph from Alien, with the caption "Visualizing the woman in the mirror I want to become"

Katerwaul@katerwaul· Dec 31

#WIPSnips For the end of the year, here's the beginning of ALL THE STARS TO CINDERS. www.scribblehub.com/series/73857... #BookSky #WriteSky

A screenshot of text:

The life of an Adamant Knight lends itself to flights of imagination, when the heat-sinks have cooled and the screaming has subsided. She drifts amidst shattered asteroids in the aftermath of the carnage, past vital fluids trailing from broken Seraph bodies. Her Seraph, too, is injured, armour plating shattered in five places, one wing non-responsive, nervous system flushing out neurotoxin. They ambushed her three on one, overconfident in their numbers—a mistake that proved to be their undoing. Now they are dead, their sparks consigned to oblivion, and Inanna’s Vengeance leaves their corpses for the Vultures.
Drunk on the power of a god, she dreams that this will never end. This is might everlasting, divinity in her veins. In her dream, her body will be tireless, infallible, immortal. She will be titanium and chrome and diamond, and the needs of base flesh will be beneath her. She will be an instrument of war honed to the finest edge.
But for now she is merely Valour, and she has a ball to attend. It would be rude to miss it; they detonated a star for the occasion.

Katerwaul@katerwaul· Dec 30

#WIPSnips ALL THE STARS TO CINDERS: Val resolves to accept Bliss's challenge to a second duel away from prying eyes. www.scribblehub.com/series/73857... #BookSky #WriteSky

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Even entertaining the thought of going to that wreck would be ridiculous. Why, then, does she feel like a schoolgirl finding a love letter pushed through the vents of her locker? She has loved before—at least, she thought it was love, before it went cold—but there is no romance to be found here, only the promise of further violence.
Then again, the two are intertwined in her mind when it comes to Bliss Laroux. She thinks of the crimson sunlight playing across the sharpness of the Hunter’s face, painting her in her true colours. Red Eris is in her bones as Inanna’s Vengeance is in Val’s: one with her claws smeared with blood, the other delivering justice at the point of a sword. When they danced in combat, not even a supernova could keep their eyes off each other.
She has a few choice moves prepared after the last waltz. It would really be a waste not to show her opponent something more passionate. It’s reckless, downright stupid, probably treasonous, but there is no way she can refuse Bliss’s offer. The first time was foreplay.
Val has no way to send a reply; she will have to hope that Bliss shows up at the allotted time. All she must do is contrive an excuse to be there.
Slotting her left arm back into its socket, the body called Val is reassembled. For now, her other body sleeps in the hangar, but soon she will wake to face Red Eris once again. A rare smile crosses Val’s face like a sun peeking through clouds. No crowds, no audience, just her and her new rival. A match made in hell.

Katerwaul@katerwaul· Dec 27

#WIPSnips ALL THE STARS TO CINDERS: Held captive and deprived of her Seraph body, Eris delivers a threat. www.scribblehub.com/series/73857... #BookSky #WriteSky

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“There’s nothing wrong with me, doctor. This—” she displays her bandaged hand— “is a symptom of a society rotten to its core. In a just universe, I would be a god, beholden to no-one, free to indulge my every desire. In a just universe, you would have treated Hasret for her illness and prolonged her life as far as possible. Instead, you pushed her to the brink. You made her a weapon. You left her no choice.”
Dr. Kitamura’s jaw sets. She sits upright, poised and professional, assuming the moral high ground. “Assigning blame is only natural in the grieving process, but I can assure you that I treated Hasret to the best of my ability. You’re not the only one on this ship who cared about her, Bliss. I had my orders.”
Eris licks her gums. Her mouth still tastes of blood. “You don’t need to hold my hand through the stages of grief, doctor. The anger has been building in me since long before she died. Now it’s white-hot, a raging inferno ready to burst forth and immolate everything in my path, to leave even the stars cindered and damned. I don’t care if you were just following orders. The Chorus deserves to burn, and so do their lapdogs.” Dr. Kitamura flinches, just a little: a flaw in the manicured facade. Eris bares her teeth. “Are you afraid of me, doctor?”
“No,” she replies. Maybe she believes it; Eris is a condemned criminal, and the doctor has all the power here. But Eris knows, deep down, that it’s a lie.
“You should be. I’m the monster Protean House made me, and soon enough, I’ll be its end.”

Katerwaul@katerwaul· Dec 25

#WIPSnips ALL THE STARS TO CINDERS: Bliss is *not* obsessed with Val after their duel. Don't put in the newspapers that she's obsessed! www.scribblehub.com/series/73857... #BookSky #WriteSky

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Aboard the ship’s axial tram, Bliss finds her thoughts drifting inexorably to Valour once more. She thumbs through the dossier on her tablet; the Knight’s life is splayed out before her as if vivisected on an operating table. Nothing in this dry data file, rendered in green holographic letters, conveys the reality of the woman she met at the Nova Ball. A date of birth (two years before Bliss), a service record dominated by the Reliquary Knight program, a list of over a hundred confirmed Seraph kills. There is nothing in there about her blunt, straightforward manner, her utter stubbornness in the face of death, or her deliciously broad shoulders. (Behave.)

Katerwaul@katerwaul· Dec 22

#WIPSnips ALL THE STARS TO CINDERS: Bliss prepares herself for the ball at the Chalcedony Palace. www.scribblehub.com/series/73857... #BookSky #WriteSky

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A lone violet lies on the bedside table amidst the plush surroundings of the guest room. Bliss brings it to her nose, taking in the fragrance—freshly cut.
“Is it to your liking?” asks the hologram of Violette sitting in a velvet armchair. “I had my people send it up for you.”
“It’s beautiful,” says Bliss. “Although it does clash with my outfit.”
Taking a seat in front of the gilded vanity, she surveys herself from every angle. Her foundation is evenly, meticulously applied. In this hunt, glamour is her weapon of choice. It resides in her garnet nails, in her scarlet slit dress, in the rouge on her cheeks.
Val was right. Red is her best colour. Perfect to entice, to seduce, to leave her wanting more.

Katerwaul@katerwaul· Dec 21

#WIPSnips ALL THE STARS TO CINDERS Val sees Bliss for the first time at the Nova Ball. www.scribblehub.com/series/73857... #BookSky #WriteSky

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Her aide floats ahead of her as she enters, raising its volume to cut through the chatter as it announces her: “Borne On Wings Of Valour, Knight of Adamant House, pilot of Inanna’s Vengeance!”
For a moment, all eyes are on her. The crowd is a kaleidoscope of colour: capitalists and officers and nobles from both Houses, endless variations on the human form. Yet one figure catches her attention, draped in a silver dress that shimmers like fish scales, leaning on a filigree balcony with a glass in hand and watching her intently. Val meets their gaze, activating magnification on her ocular implants. She already knows who it must be, but she wants to be sure.
The figure blurs and resolves: mouth a slash of silver lipstick, grey eyes sharp and predatory, glinting in the light of the dying star. Val finds herself unable to look away, captured by the look of hunger on the woman’s face. This, then, is Bliss Laroux: her opponent for tonight.
Bliss turns and walks away; the spell is broken. The crowd returns to its conversations, and the Nova Ball begins in earnest.

Katerwaul@katerwaul· Dec 17

my yuri brain is buzzing after this patch (tagged for spoilers)

Katerwaul@katerwaul· Dec 13

#WIPSnips ALL THE STARS TO CINDERS: After Eris is imprisoned as an apostate, Violette laments her failure to exert proper control over her daughter. www.scribblehub.com/series/73857... #BookSky #WriteSky