![The Pale Tulip and Black Rose [UP MC, Regression, Magical Imposter]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.royalroadcdn.com%2Fpublic%2Fcovers-large%2Fthe-pale-tulip-and-black-rose-aadaqenx7rg.jpg%3Ftime%3D1779858227&w=640&q=75)
by OnceWritten
An imposter, neither magical nor a girl. Sam doesn’t have hopes of amounting to much. He’s just a delivery boy. All he wants is to complete his food orders, get paid, and go home to help his parents and little sister. When the angelic Astra, the White Tulip, battles the fallen Black Rose in the skies above, all he can do is dodge the fallout on his electric scooter. Then the unthinkable happens: the Black Rose kills the White Tulip. In a shocking twist of fate, Sam is pulled back in time and somehow ends up in the body of a younger White Tulip. But the Black Rose has followed him, with her powers and memories intact. The only thing stopping her from going on a rampage is her toxic obsession with the White Tulip, who is actually her twin sister! Now, Sam is living a nightmare. He’s sleeping in the same room as a ticking time bomb, only barely able to cling on to the mask of her obsession. He has only a glimpse of her dying memories, and none of her powers. He is but a pale imitation. What to expect: - Underpowered Protagonist (Hidden Potential)- Toxic Yuri- Angst and Identity- Dark Sci-fi Fantasy- Imposter, Imposter, Imposter Schedule: Updates on Monday, Friday. Part of the first Sapphic Summer wave, come join me on our Discord.
#14
8/11/2026
Peak #22
35d
#13
7/3/2026
Peak #6
38d
#12
7/3/2026
Peak #46
0d
#11
6/21/2026
Peak #18
12d
#10
6/21/2026
Peak #17
12d
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 2 Oct 2026, 03:18 UTC
Entry forecast updated 2 Oct 2026, 03:18 UTC
Ranking model: rs-public-oracle-state-v1
Forecast model: rs-model-entry-v1
Chart history contains only this ranking model's runs; legacy points are not spliced in.
Coupled 14-day outlook
rs-joint-entry-copula-v1
Any eligible RS entry
23%
Two or more lists
4%
Likely threshold order: Sci-fi → Romance → Action → Fantasy → Main.
Leading bundle: Sci-fi (18%).
Estimated from one fitted shared story path; category probabilities are not multiplied as if lists were independent.
Separate entry forecast; this probability does not enter the ranking score.
Overall Rising Stars Shadow RS rank
#8586 of 12,409 · 8536 below RS #50
By genre
beats 73% of similar stories
beats 50% of similar stories
beats 95% of similar stories
Firing on all cylinders
Traffic and conversion are both strong for a story this size. Readers are finding it and sticking — if Rising Stars is the goal, this is the moment to push.
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 20–49 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views over the recent window.
+25 more