<aside> <img src="/icons/defibrillator_red.svg" alt="/icons/defibrillator_red.svg" width="40px" />

about the author

BerkleyDrive or Bee, is a writer based in Manila, Philippines. She spent over a decade in journalism before turning to long-form fiction and writes literary fiction with commercial edges.

Her work uses romance and intimacy as methodology, not destination.

</aside>

<aside> <img src="/icons/defibrillator_red.svg" alt="/icons/defibrillator_red.svg" width="40px" />

pages

Plot Outlines

The Ad Drafts

</aside>

about the ad

• Adult dark romance fantasy series, fully digital for now on Substack + crossposted to AO3, Wattpad, and AFF
• Each installment begins with Penny responding to a mysterious job advertisement that transports her into a different world, genre, or reality.
  • Book 1 starts right smack in the game for added build up. The premise serves as the main plot twist.
• Every "ad" is an invitation into a new adventure, with Penny taking on an ordinary profession inside an extraordinary world.
• The series blends fantasy, romance, mystery, adventure, and emotional character growth through different settings.
• Series Structure: Each new installment introduces:
  • a new world
    • vampire mansion
    • magical library
    • dragon kingdom
    • ghost tea shop
    • steampunk city
    • celestial greenhouse
  • a new profession
  • new rules
  • new emotional conflicts
  • new romantic archetypes
  • new genre conventions
• Genre Philosophy: Each world represents both a setting and an emotional experience. Readers return not just for new worlds, but for new emotional journeys.
  • Gothic Romance
  • Cozy Fantasy
  • Mystery
  • Sci-Fi
  • Urban Fantasy
  • Fairy Tale
  • Dark Academia
  • Historical Fantasy
• Connection to Prima Materia: The series quietly exists within the Prima Materia universe. Readers initially believe they're reading standalone fantasy stories. Only later is it revealed that:
  • Penny is Chan Park's secretary.
  • Her ordinary life exists in Prima Materia.
  • The worlds are connected to a much larger universe.
• Guiding Principle: The series isn't about magical worlds. It's about ordinary people discovering extraordinary versions of themselves by saying "yes" to impossible opportunities.
• Story Philosophy: The series is not about chosen heroes or fantasy worlds. Not really. The series tackles the benefits and pitfalls of AI, our hubris reflected in the technology we create, and what it means to truly be human. What it means to truly live.

original characters

• FMC: Penny Bae
  • Chan Park's overworked secretary in the Prima Materia universe.
  • Outside work, she's a huge fantasy nerd:
    • fantasy novels
    • anime
    • cozy RPGs
    • cosplay
    • sewing/costume making
  • Core Strength: Her real superpower is adaptability; She:
    • quickly understands unfamiliar systems
    • creates routines
    • notices patterns
    • makes strange places livable
    • quietly improves every environment she enters
  • Character Arc: A woman who escapes into fantasy slowly discovers she belongs inside extraordinary worlds.
  • Each "ad" helps Penny discover another part of herself.
• MMC: Adam Stone
  • Game developer, coder, client support at Red Line Tech
  • Helped build and code the game, tested the game himself in its earlier Alpha stages
  • In The Ad 1, he plays Sunoo, Penny’s childhood best friend from the orphanage
  • Each “ad” helps him improve the program but also makes him realize the dangers of the tech he had created
• MMC: Eddy Vale
  • Founder of Red Line Tech
  • Adam’s boss

canon log

The Ad Main Canon Log

started:

2026

status:

in progress

• disclaimer