H.Y. Motte's HYlights

Currently writing a serialized web novel following a psychic medium, Lost Spirits Found Souls. He accepts a job to find a lost teen and it's all downhill from there (aside from the cute ghost hunter he meets).

It's been fun keeping up with serialization. I'm forced to be consistent lol I don't expect this to be like Dungeon Crawler Carl, but I enjoy seeing the few reads every chapter.

Premise after the break:

WIP: Prince wholly dependent on his guard is captured by the tribe trying to gain independence from the empire. Enemies to lovers with a love triangle

words of the day: subside, commemorate

“Then dawdle with me! Look at all these vendors, Elliot,” Kamil countered, placing his hand on his guard’s arm—the most intimate he would risk in public, however much he wished to lace their fingers together as lovers. “I want to find something to commemorate your twenty-sixth year as my protector.”

...

The merchant and crowd around them chuckled, endeared by the prince’s sudden shyness. He quickly bade the merchant farewell and escaped back to where he left Elliot. Once the flush subsided, it was replaced with a new fear. His guard was nowhere to be seen.

WIP info: An idea for a paranormal fantasy. An actual psychic that can see spirits teams up with an overly enthusiastic paranormal investigator.

Why not add in a love triangle too

Words of the day: veneration, smidgen

“Chat didn’t like that idea, Eric,” Ben comments. “Hey, psychic, move to the left just a smidgen so I can get a good shot of the foyer.” “To the left” translates to “away from Eric,” but I move regardless. Now that I’m used to the general energy to the place, I can tell there’s nothing in the foyer anyway.

...

Energy overwhelms me. I don’t even feel myself hit the floor as pure violent rage grips my soul. My already existing desire to beat the shit out of Ben is amplified tenfold, but not for the usual reason. I feel… veneration? Memories of the house when it was new flash through my mind. The spirit loves this house and only wants to protect it. By any means necessary.

As I reluctantly step out of my comfortable world of low effort social media posts and random writing exercises on my Substack, I find myself slowly discovering that graphic design is, in fact, not my passion. The trials and tribulations of creating a website, social media pages, blogs, and an entire world haven’t stopped me yet, though. I plan on pushing through until I reach my goal of…

WIP info: This is an idea about a prince from a deposed royal family, who was kept and researched in a tower most his life because royals are the only ones with magic. Merc was sent to bring him to the small faction of loyal royalists so he can have his revenge.

5/22/25 Word(s) of the day: teratoid (monster-like), voluble (excited/incessantly chatty)

“I found a clearing surrounded by berry bushes over this way. They all looked edible, I think. There were some mushrooms too, and maybe a fruit tree….” The prince rambled on as they walked, growing more and more voluble as they went. “Thanks to the royal family’s magic, the forests are full of food. You should all be grateful. With practice, I could probably just grow these bushes whenever we need, so we wouldn’t need to venture into the dark….”

...

Movement in the treetops made Lance reach for his sword. A teratoid shadow loomed above them, a single wing larger than a grown man reaching out from the branches. The creature made no sound as it eyed the pair from its perch.

WIP idea: Prostitute escapes his brothel and runs into a former customer that was coerced by friends to go to the brothel. He gets employed as the young lord’s assistant. And that’s all I got :/ Seemed like a fun premise, just need an actual plot now

Words of the day (now with definitions!): hapless: unfortunate hebdomadal: occurring every seven days

I had no idea how to repay him, other than with my body. But… he made it clear he didn’t want that. He simply said my “hapless situation” had nothing to do with his helping me, and that he just happened to be looking for an assistant.

...

“Your contract. Compensation will be remunerated hebdomadally, starting seven days from now. Duties will include transcriptions of documents, deliveries, managing schedules, and other secretarial tasks."

WIP idea: Priest called to deal with paranormal activity and has rare ability to actually see demons. Demon he was called to exorcise just leaves to hang around topside. Both priest and demon (separately) respond to another spike in demonic activity to be met with a more powerful demon that turns the first demon mortal. I was thinking a demon-priest buddy cop type deal

Words of the day: chagrin, gloze

“Are you speaking to me, little priest?” he rasped, voice weak and strained. With a scoff, he added, “Such asinine gloze….”

...

“Have you eaten?” “I don—” He stopped himself, his grim reality sinking in. “You’re mortal now. You need to eat, drink, and sleep.” Bellis kept silent, the pain on his face now more chagrin than hunger.

WIP info: fantasy story about a forest sealed to outsiders, and the secret love between two people from opposite worlds

5/19/25 Word(s) of the day: saunter and antithetical

Carts and carriages dashed by, surprising the forest dweller each time and causing him to cling ever closer to Nathaniel. Rushing merchants, shoppers, beggars, and thieves all shoved past, Shae’s meandering antithetical to the market’s fast-paced bustle.

...

Shae neared the counter, growing more excited each passing second. Nathaniel watched, captivated, until a group of idle nobles sauntered by, blocking his view. In typical Idle fashion, they walked at a snail’s pace and glowered as Nathaniel tried to push through them.

WIP info: Found a prompt on here that was something like “a mage uses counterspell/dispel magic on an assassin that comes for him, but ends up dispelling the brainwashing magic the assassin guild put on him.” So, yeah… another story idea.

Words of the day: reaper, talisman

“I presume you were to be my reaper this lovely afternoon?” No response. “I say, this is the first time such a handsome assassin came for my life.”

...

Silently, I instructed Philip to retrieve a certain talisman I’d been studying. While I didn’t know the full scope of its abilities, I knew it acted to negate magic at the very least.

WIP: A thief accidentally wins the prince’s marriage contest and gets pulled into a darker scheme linked to his past.

5/17/25 words of the day: coalesce, judder

In a cozy tearoom, with a tray full of snacks still on the table, there was a massive tank of water in the corner. As I sampled each of the different biscuits and tarts, fish no bigger than the tip of my finger swam around in their otherwise empty tank. When I approached, the tiny fish coalesced to form a pulsing dark mass. It was probably meant to scare away predators, and, when they started to vibrate and glow, it worked on me, too.

...

The machine juddered and spit out thick black smoke when I kicked it, but I still couldn’t tell what it was supposed to be. Why did nobles waste their money on things like this?

WIP: potential crime/detective story about a serial killer that marks kills with tarot cards. This scene would be a prologue I think. The two MCs meeting

Words of the day: imperil, impervious (I had to cheat and combine yesterday’s and today’s to get two good words….)

“Are you satisfied?” Dominic spat, goading the thief into spilling details. “Your little heist imperiled the lives of innocent people, and for what? A couple shiny jewels?”

...

The thief seemed impervious to the officer’s attempts to rile him, acting as remorseless as Dominic made him out to be. But, as Olly put the cuffs on his wrists, a quiet question shattered that image.

WIP info: An idea for a paranormal fantasy. An actual psychic that can see spirits teams up with an overly enthusiastic paranormal investigator.

Words of the day: argus-eyed, milestone

I scan the cemetery, argus-eyed and hyper-focused, phone out and camera ready. My heart is pounding as I think about what powerful entity could have wiped out all the residual energy. If I find something crazy, like demonic activity or cults or something, I might hit the next milestone on my YouTube subscription goal with graveyard footage.

WIP info: Takes place at a university for magic, using the schools in D&D (restoration, abjuration, illusion, etc). Necromancy is forbidden and not even considered a valid school of magic. Story follows a secret necromancer (not on purpose, just has a hard time healing things before they die) and a prodigy.

5/13/25 words of the day: singsong, apotropaic

“Oh, leave him be!” Fae interrupted, slapping Aqor on the arm. She took Meirel’s hand and swung it back and forth, her singsong voice brightening the mood. “Look at this amulet! Isn’t it beautiful?” The bird-shaped amulet around her next had an ephemeral glimmer to it, clearly enchanted, and the wings spread along her collarbone as if it was ready to fly off her chest. It was pretty, but there were dozens just like it in any shop in town. “Yeah, I guess?” Fae puffed her cheeks out, annoyed. “Oh, you boys have no taste!” She took it off and held it out, testing the look of the silver metal against Meirel’s pasty neck. “It’s a powerful apotropaic amulet! They said it even keeps bad luck away and can detect forbidden evil magic.”

WIP info: My random scifi idea. An alien ends up on Earth (not sure how yet) and is held an a research facility. But rather than dissect him and whatnot, they befriend him. Very few plot ideas, but I messed around and made a whole alien language so….

5/12/25 Word(s) of the day: peregrine, fester

Once allowed—very limited—access to the facility, Scynl’s peregrine curiosity and dangerous resourcefulness made him a veritable thorn in the base commander’s side.

...

“Commander, sir, please. He’s doing so much better out here. Every test has shown a nearly 50% increase and he’s just happier. Do you really want to lock him up again and cause resentment to fester instead?”

WIP info: A knight is assigned the task to find a Healer to help with a plague sweeping the kingdom. He finds an old friend, a Healer who was run out of the city under suspicion of dark magic use, who is also bit of an asshole. (This scene is in the past, though. Before the getting run out of town)

5/11/25 words of the day: affinity, close-knit

“Fuck the Healers.” The venom in Len’s voice struck Emrys silent. “…Sorry, just…. One of my little sisters is sick and the only Healers that would see her without demanding a hefty ‘donation’ couldn’t do a damn thing.” Emrys’ voice softened. “That’s terrible…. I know how close-knit you all are.”

....

“Never saw a Healer with such an affinity for violence,” Len cut in. He snaked his hand around Emrys’ waist to pull him away from Ashe. “I was concerned at first, but I say we let the man work, hm, Emmy?” Ashe’s eyes locked onto Len’s hand. “…Emmy?” He dropped the merchant and turned his full attention to the knights-in-training.

I used the word of the day to craft another scene from my first (mostly) completed debut novel!

WIP: A thief accidentally wins the prince’s marriage contest and gets pulled into a darker scheme linked to his past.

5/10/25 words of the day: ill-fated, felonious

“Don’t do it, Rhys.” Her voice was sterner than I’d heard it in a while. The last time she was cross with me was when I left her house to chase after the scar-faced man. “Why are you mad? I didn’t say I agreed…. And is it even that bad if I did?” “You think I’d let you get mixed up in some ill-fated tryst? Don’t get caught up in the lies of the aristocracy.” She laid into me like I told her I’d sold myself to a brothel. “There are villains among those nobles, Rhys. They think of plans more felonious than you can imagine.”