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Alex/Charm's James Riley Appreciation Week 2025 Archive

Summary:

All my creations for James Riley Appreciation Week 2025 archived onto AO3 because why not

Notes:

Decided I might as well just have all of my works put together somewhere. I'll probably do this with future James Riley Appreciation Weeks too. Also considering doing it for my past ones just to have them up here for fun. All images will have alt text.

Chapter 1: Prompts

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James Riley Appreciation Week 2025 May 4 — May 10 Sunday: Family and Siblings / Hobbies Monday: Reunion / Hurt/Comfort Tuesday: Future / Headcanons Wednesday: Favorite Quotes and Scenes / Comic Thursday: Memes / Crossovers Friday: Birthday / Celebration Saturday: Free Day!

Chapter 2: Day 1: Family and Siblings / Hobbies

Summary:

Family and Siblings / Hobbies

Notes:

Orion and Bethany from Story Thieves babysitting my fan kids/their baby siblings, Aiden and Audrey Sanderson!

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Digital colored doodle of Orion / Kid Twilight (drawn with light brown skin, brown eyes, and short black hair with a blue fade on his bangs wearing casual clothes) and Bethany Sanderson (drawn with white skin and curly red hair past her shoulders) from Story Thieves by James Riley with two young babies with white skin and short light brown hair. Orion is kneeling upright holding the hands of one baby, smiling as he helps her walk. Bethany sits cross legged with the other baby in her lap as he happily pulls on her hair, Bethany wincing in pain.

Chapter 3: Day 2: Reunion / Hurt/Comfort

Summary:

Reuinion / Hurt/Comfort

Notes:

Ciara and Meg from The Dragon's Apprentice. I don't know the context of this, I just wanted to draw something for The Dragon's Apprentice.

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Digital colored doodle of Ciara (drawn with light skin and freckles all over her body, brown eyes, and curly red hair in two loose braids, wearing a light green tunic) and Meg (drawn with brown skin and black hair in two braids behind her shoulders wearing brown and blue leather armor) from The Dragon’s Apprentice by James Riley. Both girls sit close next to each other, Meg leaning towards Ciara with an upset frown. Ciara frowns up at her in worry.

Chapter 4: Day 3: Future / Headcanons

Summary:

Future / Headcanons

Notes:

OLD WOMEN YURI!!!! Ria from The Revenge of Magic absolutely has my heart <3

The drawing is catered more to Future, but has some Headcanons sprinkled in inevitably, and the fic linked caters more to Headcanons, but takes place at least 10 years into the future after the end of the series.

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Digital colored doodle of Jia Liang, a Chinese woman, and Rachel Carter, a Black woman, from the Revenge of Magic series by James Riley. Jia and Rachel are drawn as old women, Jia with gray hair in two braids over her shoulders wearing a blue sweater and long skirt and Rachel with an afro and a blue headband, red button up, and jeans. They sit on a couch together and lean into each other happily, a gray cat laying on Jia's lap and a brown cat sitting next to Rachel staring up at them. Behind them is a simple portrait of when they are younger, a young child between them looking like a mix of the two.


“Gee?”

“Yes, Ray?”

“Ever thought about having kids?”

Chapter 5: Day 4: Favorite Quotes and Scenes / Comic

Summary:

Favorite Quotes and Scenes / Comic

Notes:

Ended up doing both prompts kind of inevitably. And I had to do two scenes for today: One from Story Thieves: Worlds Apart because that scene has stuck with me for years, and the other from Once Upon Another Time: Tall Tales because Lena my beloved.

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"You should have just gone on without me," Charm told him, holding his hand tightly in hers. "That was really dumb, Owen. I would have been fine."

"You would have . . . been eaten," he said, trying to take in a deep breath, but the pain was too intense.

"But you didn't leave me," she whispered, staring at him. "Everyone leaves me, but not you. I don't . . . I don't know what to say to that."

—James Riley, Story Thieves: Worlds Apart

Digital doodle of Owen Conners (drawn as a Filipino boy with dark brown curly hair and eyes in a blue T-shirt and khakis) and Charm Mentum (drawn as a light skinned girl with white hair in a ponytail and wearing a black fullbody suit with a robotic left eye, a broken robotic right arm, and a robotic left leg) from Story Thieves. Charm is kneeling down, using her robotic arm to hold up Owen who is laying on the floor. Charm stares down at him crying as he smiles up weakly at her, her normal hand holding his.


Digital colored doodle comic featuring Gwentell (a human sized fairy with gold skin, gold wings, a gold dress, gold hair in a ponytail, and gold eyes) and Lena (a girl with brown skin, brown eyes, and curly brown hair in a low ponytail wearing a blue tunic with a brown shoulder bag) from Once Upon Another Time by James Riley. Gwentell flies next to Lena, smirking as she says, “So you didn’t tell me your wish.” Lena has one hand on the bag’s strap as she walks, rolling her eyes and replying, “It wasn’t anything that impressive.” Gwentell asks, “You wanted to find your prince, right?”

Gwentell looks off to the side with an annoyed look, waving it off with one hand as she says, “That’s what most people wish for, a prince or a princess. They say it’s true love, but really they just want to marry royalty and get rich. It’s all a scam.”

Lena gives a disgusted look, saying, “Ugh, no. I didn’t wish for anything like that.” Gwentell raises a brow in surprise, asking, “Seriously? Nothing about a prince? A princess, then?”

Lena crosses her arms with a tired look, replying, “No, neither. I don’t care about that stuff. It’s never… I don’t know. I just wasn’t ever interested in people that way.”

Gwentell flies close to Lena’s startled face with sparkling eyes and an excited smile while saying, “Oh, giant girl, you’re the most fascinating creature I’ve met in years! You’ve got to tell me your wish now.”

Chapter 6: Day 5: Memes / Crossovers

Summary:

Memes / Crossovers

Notes:

Every James Riley main character (or at least almost every character that has had a POV in any of the books) and their dads/dad issues.

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Various characters from James Riley's books in the "Wait, you guys get paid?" meme format. Lena from Once Upon Another Time smiles and says, "My dad is alive and I have no relationship problems with him." Bethany Sanderson from Story Thieves and Forsythe "Fort" Fitzgerald from The Revenge of Magic frown as Bethany says, "Our dads were traumatically taken away from us before we were able to get them back after a long time." Jack from Half Upon a Time frowns with concern as he says, "My dad ruined my family's name and abandoned me after being forced to work for the Evil Queen in order to get my mom back, and I was raised by my grandfather instead." May Winterbourne and Phillip from Half Upon a Time, Kiel Gnomenfoot from Story Thieves, and Ciara from The Dragon's Apprentice stare blankly as Owen Conners from Story Thieves gives a confused look and says, "Wait, you guys have dads?"

Chapter 7: Day 6: Birthday / Celebration

Summary:

Birthday / Celebration

Notes:

Drawn in honor of James Riley's birthday today!! I can't believe I've been reading his books for 10 years now and that they've continued to stick with me to this day.

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Digital drawing of James Riley, a light skinned man with brown hair, green eyes, and stubble wearing a button up. He smiles as he holds an open book. Tiny/chibi versions of some of his different characters sit on him or are around him in some way:  Ciara from The Dragon’s Apprentice sits on his head, looking at Scorch the dragon as he flies by. Rachel Carter and Jia Liang from The Revenge of Magic sit on one shoulder, holding hands. Forsythe “Fort” Fitzgerald sits next to them, looking at Cyrus who sits on the furthest end of James’ shoulder. Lena from Once Upon Another Time sits on his other shoulder with a smile, Jin floating nearby with Shefin on his head. Phillip, May Winterbourne, and Jack from Half Upon a Time sit on his arm, Phillip and May looking down at Jack as he tries to climb up. Bethany Sanderson from Story Thieves pops out from the pages of the book, Owen climbing up nearby and looking worriedly at Kiel, who happily dangles from the edge of the book’s cover and winks. Next to James it reads, “James Riley Author May 9th”.

The same drawing of James without the characters.

Chapter 8: Day 7: Free Day!

Summary:

Free Day!

Notes:

At first I was gonna wait until next year to do this redraw but then I figured I could redraw it for Free Day this year because why the heck not. My iconic Half Upon a Time drawing

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Digital art of Merriweather and Jack from the Half Upon a Time trilogy by James Riley. Merriweather laughs with her arms in front of her holding her wand as she says, "You actually thought she cared for you?! Child, you weren't supposed to have met her!" Jack cries, his eyes covered in shadow as he grips his tunic over where his heart is.


2021 version

Digital art of the same scene from 2021, but not as expressive.

2016 version

Digital art of the same scene from 2016, but not as expressive or emotional.

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