#ambergrich

So while I’m preparing the next chapters for Unlife is Strange, I thought I’d make an update post. Especially with Life is Strange: Double Exposure being announced.

Having worked on Unlife is Strange since 2020, I only had only one real curveball in 2021, when True Colors was announced. Before that, I had an entirely different arc for Steph Gingrich, writing her to be Rachel’s love interest. 

When True Colors was released, I ended up doing a full revamp of Steph’s arc and role; even giving her a power explaining how Steph could live her canon life, and go through what she did in the fic. In the current story, I’m even including Alex and Steph in the main plot. 

Will Double Exposure get the same treatment ?

That's actually a tough one. The easy answer would be “No” because Unlife's version Max and/or Chloe lived a radically different lived than what Double Exposure presents…but at the same time, the deal that applies to Steph could apply here.

Spoilers below

So I said I was gonna be posting these chapters on my birthday, but IRL shit happened and I had to get them out early. However I still decided to officially share this post on my birthday, so here we are.

Warning, both chapters are nearly two hours worth of reading.

Summaries for the uninitiated.

1. Unlife is Strange (A crossover between Vampyr + Life is Strange. And to a lesser extent Until Dawn and Control). 

Summary: “Those who die in darkness, find new life in the darkness; this is the first thing Rachel Amber learned upon awakening, as something less human, or more depending on who you ask. She gained a new mother in something ancient and terrible and now must heed her call, but something from her old life is calling her back, and she finds herself in need of new friends to help her.

On the flip side, reports of supernatural happenings in Beaver Creek lead to an attack on the small community, leaving Daniel Diaz and Chris Eriksen stranded and hunted in the wilderness; and nothing is going to stop Sean Diaz from ensuring his brother's safety. Both Sean and Rachel find themselves part of the same centuries old conspiracy, that boils down to a game played by a malevolent goddess, the war with her son, and the many pawns within.”

Link to the new chapter here.

2. Love’s Sacrifices (mainly a crossover between Pitch Perfect and Carmilla: The Series. However there’s still a lot of Easter Eggs and cameos of other works; some of them are plot relevant, mainly TVDU and Ginger Snaps/Orphan Black).

Summary: “Carmilla Karnstein and Laura Hollis are trying for a baby, and find themselves in need of a surrogate. Through mutual friends of theirs, they are introduced to Chloe Beale, who has joined a polyamorous relationship with Beca Mitchell, Aubrey Posen and Stacie Conrad. Due to helping raise Stacie's daughter Bella, Chloe wants to know what it's like carrying a baby to term, and agrees to be a surrogate for Carm and Laura, to the great concern of Beca, who due to a past incident, is cautious when it comes to vampires. 

For nine months, Carmilla and Laura must stay by Chloe's side, and help raise Bella as well to prepare for parenthood. As if a risky pregnancy for a damphir baby wasn't enough, yet another instance of Carmilla's past comes back to haunt her, and threatens all she knows and loves.”

Link to the new chapter here.

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I can not express to you how much I’m glad to get these two chapters out. For over a year I’ve been writing flashback chapters/arcs for both stories that I’m finally wrapping up. Both stories are still far from done, but I finally wrapped those flashback arcs, and I can finally get back to writing the present day stuff (y’know the main fucking stories ?).

With Unlife is Strange, I had a flashback arc for Rachel that covered what she was up to post “vampire resurrection”, leading up to the present day. Meanwhile I’ve been sitting on half written “Present Day” chapters I wanted to get back too. I just had to wrap up Rachel’s time in LA (and later Seattle) before we get to that. As I said, that storyline got wrapped up here, and I can now move onto the present day arcs I had in mind. 

With Love’s Sacrifices, I’ve been writing flashbacks of Carmilla’s mortal life as Mircalla Karnstein, leading up to her murder; as well as covering the backstory for the mysterious, present day “Count Karnstein”. There is only so much you can do write about an innocent, naïve young woman, near oblivious to the supernatural and monsters surrounding her, before it gets grating and tedious. Especially with the foregone conclusion of her murder. Same goes for writing Count Karnstein, and teasing his identity. I might do one more flashback down the line, but as it stands, Mircalla Karnstein’s arc is over.

This chapter also features a third party crossover with TVDU; I plan on writing a sequel that crosses over with Legacies, and wanted the Mikaelson’s involved in Carmilla/Mircalla’s past - especially her mortal death. Also the identity of the present day “Count Karnstein” is all but revealed here. Originally I was gonna include more info on Pazuzu, and the Agency Danny works for, but this chapter is long enough as is.

With Unlife is Strange, this chapter wraps up Rachel’s flashbacks as her early years as a vampire - and wraps up Steph’s relationship with Rachel. Originally Steph was gonna be Rachel’s love interest for the whole story, but when True Colors was announced and released I had to write a new plan for Steph for the present day. Hence why I’m writing a “Tulpa Arc” for Steph; it covers her being pulled back and forth between two different lives; one being Steph’s canon life, the other being what I wrote before True Colors was released. 

Also, Unlife’s newest chapter gives us a reveal about Bill Caulfield Price’s  - Max and/or Chloe’s son - and his parentage. In previous chapters, it’s mentioned Bill was born from Chloe’s donated ovum, and an unknown donor. He is raised either by a domestic Pricefield family (Route A/Bae Timeline) or to Max as a single mother, trying to keep a remnant of Chloe alive (Route B/Bay Timeline). Anyways, in the newest chapter we find out who Bill’s “donor” is. I know it wasn’t that big of a mystery, but I thought it’d be a question that would annoy me the longer it went unanswered.

My only hint is that Bill’s biological “father” is a canon character, and someone Chloe knows and cares about; but both Max (and/or Chloe) are in the dark about this donor's true identity.

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Content Warning: Both stories in general are full of violence, sex, nudity and other subject matter. Though in Unlife is Strange, the more extensive sexual content is moved to another series of prompts.

The newest chapter of Love’s Sacrifices may be the bloodiest I wrote so far; featuring my my take on Mircalla Karnstein’s murder, as well as sacrifices to the Great Old Ones such as Hastur and Ithaqua. The demoness Lamashtu is also featured in Love’s Sacrifices as one of the main antagonists; and with all the vile shit she does, Lamashtu should be a trigger warning in on itself. 

Here’s a brief description of her from the TV Tropes for Mesopotamian Mythology.

Complete Monster: Lamashtu is the daughter of the benevolent god Anu. A savage monster who rejects all goodness, Lamashtu causes famines and droughts, spreading pestilence and disease in the process. Not content with this, Lamashtu induces miscarriages and will steal infants to murder them while also murdering pregnant women and innocent young mortals, rending them apart to eat them herself. So vile is Lamashtu that even another demon like Pazuzu may be invoked against her, being the most terrifying and remorseless monster in the entire pantheon.

Unlife is Strange: Chapter 13 is up.

So the good news is I am finally - finally - finishing Rachel's flashback arc up, because for the past year it really felt like it was dragging on too long. The not so good news is that the current chapter was so long, that I had to split it into two parts. 

Not to worry though, I have literally one more segment to finish up before part two is complete, and I plan to post it on my birthday in September, along with Love's Sacrifices next chapter.

In other words I can finally get back to work on the "present day" chapters, regarding the Diaz Brothers, the Price-Caulfield Family, the Red Queen awakening in 2020, “Vampire Nathan” and the new Chengrich arc I thought up.

There’s a whole lot of half written material I’ve been sitting for over a year to get Rachel’s flashbacks over with. Arc Fatigue is a bitch, am I right ?

Originally I planned on Steph to be Rachel’s love interest, but that was before True Colors was announced, and I had to change a lot for what I had in mind for Steph and her arc. 

As a result, we now have a “Tulpa” Steph subplot. Even so, this chapter and the next is meant to give the Ambergrich ship a send off before moving onto the other subplots. 

We are also gonna learn a little about this Vampyr’s take on King Arthur (but I’m saving the full story for down the road), and a backstory that could be expanded on should I decide to write a full Until Dawn story.

Content Warning: While this chapter itself is pretty light, the “second half” was gonna contain brutal vampire related violence, and mild smut - but all that’s been moved to “Part 2″. (even then, extensive sex scenes are moved to a side story of prompts). 

With all that said, this “half” features a pretty gruesome fight scene, depictions of grooming relationships and discussions of rape (pertaining to Arthur, and Mordred’s origins); recreating and memories of Rachel’s time in the the Dark Room. As the stories tags say, Mark Jefferson is his own trigger warning.

Chapter twelve is up dear readers.

It just took a few months to fix things up.

On one hand, this chapter was supposed to close Rachel's LA arc, and move on to the present day but I had to split the chapter due to length issues (this chapter alone is like 27, 290 words). On the upside, the next chapter should be up sooner than I expect, as it's gonna be more action orientated.

On the other hand, I'm finally including Alex Chen into the story, and will be tying True Colors in with the present day stuff, so this is also our first Chengrich chapter.  

Furthermore, this is also the chapter where we begin to explain Steph having a tulpa, and what it entails.

Also as stated before, Until Dawn tie ins are gonna be more frequent, as the UD cast show up as supporting characters throughout the story. I also reference a UD story I wanted to get to writing but never got around too here. I even put in a quick reference to The Quarry, in case I wanna write a tie-in story with that game too.