How to Ruin a Wedding

Dying was the easy part. Staying dead is another matter entirely.

In another life you were sanguine: one of many blood mages employed by a prominent family of vampires to clean up the kinds of messes human trafficking so often makes. It was a quiet, uncomplicated life until the day your father dumped you, drugged and bleeding, hours from home.

What should have been a death sentence becomes a path to a new life when you’re rescued by the owner of a queer nightclub who has supernatural secrets of her own. One year, a new gender, and a stolen identity later, and you’ve crafted a life that is truly your own. For this one moment your past is truly behind you.

Unfortunately, a new life doesn’t make old problems nonexistent.

When your existence is discovered by the son of the woman who wants you dead, the two of you strike a deal: your services in exchange for his silence. Years will pass before he calls in your debt, but when he does it sets off a chain reaction that threatens to destabilize the region, break centuries-old alliances, and ruin one very expensive wedding.

Sophia Durand

[ PREVIOUSLY DECEASED ]

You were once a prodigy training to succeed your father as one of the Corbeaus’ head mages. Now you work in a club, oftentimes cleaning up messes that aren’t much different from the life you lived before. You’ve found a family among the outcasts of a mundane world and will do anything in your power to keep this life from being threatened.

Meliza Flores

[ REAL-LIFE FAIRY GODMOTHER ]

A former associate of one of the organizations in the Corbeau’s criminal network, her story echoes the ordeal Sophia is facing when she arrives at Meliza’s nightclub, The Broken Crown. She’s now devoted herself to protecting those discarded by society, but her cause is threatened with the arrival of a face from Sophia’s past.

Alexandre Corbeau

[ MOMMY'S FAVORITE SOLDIER ]

A high-level enforcer within his family’s organization, Alexandre’s propensity for violence is well known. Despite this, and much to his own dismay, he falters when face to face with his father’s alleged killer. This chance encounter with Sophia raises

Jamie Saint-James

[ THE BIG BAD WOLF ]

The youngest of eight siblings and a disappointment to his famous parents, Jamie’s only worth comes in the form of his engagement to heiress Desiree Corbeau. Though neither party is particularly pleased with this arrangement, he’s happy enough to oblige. That is, until he meets Alexandre’s new girlfriend and uncertainties about his impending nuptials begin to grow.

Collaborative story: follower votes determine story path, dynamics, and protagonist actions

Character customization: MC appearance and stats were decided by follower vote at the story's start

Romance paths: Options to romance multiple character, including opportunities for polyamorous relationships

Character relationships: Approval and disapproval scores shapes interactions, forming friendships and rivalries

Build alliances: an expensive wedding attracts powerful guests. build potential alliances with members of each faction

18+ scenes: romances include explicit adult content

Bad news: I'm making it exclusive to my patreon

More good news: the lowest tier is only $2/month

Do you want to see the impacts of your votes?

Example:

Go fuck yourself wins the vote.

"Go fuck yourself," Sophia spat, lifting her chin in defiance as if she were above his ultimatums.

[+2 Alexandre approval]

He quirked his head to the side, taking in her fury.

I haven't forgetten my plans to revive things here! School is still winding down, which is why we haven't started quite yet, but once things cool down there we'll pick back up.

we'll have three different rounds of votes concerning:

appearance

personality

starting stats

And the slow start begins. First up, we have the most basic part of any story: narrator point of view. Kind of hard to write anything without that. Winner decides whether the story will be written in first, second, or third pov

Our return is imminent! However I have just a little bit of plotting and planning left to do before reviving the corpse.

and now the patreon plug

Anything relevant to the plot is going to main free. However, members of my Patreon will be able to get bonus, sometimes 18+, stories. Which is largely code for (not necessarily canon) sex scenes I write as character exercises.

I'll also be running a patron-only interactive story alongside this one for anyone who wants a double dose. This will be something completely independent from what's going on over here. Patrons also get access to a discord server which I have inexplicably themed after a royal court.

How to Ruin a Wedding as an overall story will remain free. I'm never going to lock anything important behind a paywall. However, the less time I spend worrying about money the more time I'll have to devote to making sure the story runs smoothly.

Hey y'all.

Last year I sort of dropped off the face of the earth after I started school. But I've been putting a LOT of thought into this story still. I can't make any promises about timelines, but I've been thinking of picking this back up.

Of course, as time has passed I've gotten a better understanding of where things are going here. It's not a huge change from the previous story so much as it is giving it more of a noir slant. Really, just making characters a little more hardened.

So here's a poll to kinda get a feel of things:

in the back office going over the club’s books when Meliza walks in.

“Guess who,” she says as she holds out a matte black box tied with a crimson ribbon.

You frown, taking the box from her. The bar is tentatively under Alexandre’s protection from the other families so long as you remain an asset to him, but you’d still prefer not to be reminded of your debt. It’s unnerving to think that he can find you now whenever he likes.

There’s shouting in the hall, and Meliza leaves to break up a fight between two dancers. You stare at the box, and for a moment you consider denying whatever’s inside and, in turn, the role Alexandre is asking you to play in whatever he’s planning. Doing so may very well come at the cost of your life, but at least it won’t be at the cost of your freedom.

Eventually, however, your curiosity wins out.

“Write me sometime,” a handwritten note inside reads. You wonder if he wrote it himself or had someone else do it for impact.

When you see what’s beneath the note your breath catches in your chest: this kind of book is rare and, more importantly, prohibitively expensive. Most sanguine will go their entire lives without ever having seen one, much less using it. Fumbling in your excitement, you scramble to find the small blade you always keep on hand for moments like this that require a touch of blood.