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Tutoring and Tension
Dom! Leighton Murray x Alt fem! reader smut
A/N: Hi! This is my first time writing for something non ST fandom in a while so please be patient with me!
CW: sex, smut, porn with plot?, Leighton x reader, fem! reader (v) desperate! reader, alt reader, piercings and tattoos mentioned, makeup mentioned, oral sex (v), overstimulation, degradation, humiliation, sub! reader, dom! Leighton, use of toys (vibrator), power play, aftercare, etc.
When you first moved to Vermont, you knew there would be people like Leighton Murray. Rich, spoiled, kind of mean.
What you didn’t guess, however, was that they would maybe be gay.
Which was a shock to you while studying at the library, muted whispers at the table across from you.
“I know! I know! I was shocked too! But then she pulled me into her bed and…”
Muted squeals came from the table behind you as you rolled your eyes. You came to Essex for the fact that you could be away from your small town judgment at a prestigious school, but were starting to regret every second of it. People weren’t receptive to you, and most of the students were rich assholes who would sooner tell you that your diy patch jacket was clearly ‘Not Saint Laurent’, and call you ‘cute’ when you mentioned thrifting.
And it didn’t help that most of the student population was scared of your look. Tattoos, piercings, dark clothing, and platform shoes. Sometimes, even colorful hair. You were a walking social pariah. You knew it, but you didn’t care. You were here to make a name for yourself through extracurriculars and studies. To follow your dreams.
If only math wasn’t kicking your ass.
You could never focus. Sitting behind Leighton Murray meant you had to watch the back of her perfect blonde head and that you could smell her perfume (something classy and brand name, probably, all you knew is it made her smell like florals and vanilla). You kept getting C’s and D’s on papers and tests, too distracted by Leighton’s perfect handwriting.
And it wasn’t until you got an F that you finally plucked up the nerve to talk to the professor, begging for help. And of course…they brought Leighton over.
“Could you help Y/N with this class, please? They’re struggling a lot.”
Leighton looked at you with a smile, but her eyes said she wanted to strangle you.
“Sure, Prof. I’ll definitely tutor her.”
The two of you were sitting in Leighton’s dorm, looking over the books, your heart racing. Sure, you wore dark makeup and clothes and people were scared of you…But Leighton was much scarier. She was pretty and smart and damn blunt. You had gone over some of the problems and were still feeling your brain turn to mush next to her. You were pretending to heavily inspect an equation when she suddenly turned to look at you.
“A-Are you, like, a goth? Sorry, I just…I don't understand this whole…Hot Topic aesthetic…thing. No offense,” Leighton blurted out, her brows pinched together as she had an awkward smile on her face.
You laughed a bit, smiling. Her confusion was funny, despite her harshness. “Goth is a music genre…but I do like it. So kinda? I just like dark clothes…They make me feel like me.”
She nodded a bit before putting up her book, setting it aside as she scooted closer, eyeing you.
“Don’t tattoos hurt? You have…a lot.”
You nodded, feeling heat travel up into your cheeks, stomach fluttering. “They hurt a bit. But I like them. They make me feel kinda like an art gallery, ya know?”
You noted her eyes traveling over your collarbones and to your cleavage, before turning to your books again, cheeks slightly pink.
“So anyways, do you get the gist?”
You furrowed your brows, smiling awkwardly, shaking your head. “I’m sorry, math just isn’t my thing.”
She rolled her eyes, expression snarky as she smirked. “Let me guess…your thing is arts or social sciences…maybe even English?”
You held up your hands, a devilish grin on your face as you attempted to match her energy, your cheeks heating up. “Guilty.”
She tutted, eyes rolling before looking down at the paper. “Well, we’ve got to figure out some way to incentivize your learning…”
You stared, slack-jawed, as she crossed her legs in her mini skirt, perfect pink mouth chewing on the end of her pen. She seemed deep in thought. She was like Cher in Clueless, the perfect prim and well-bred American girl…and you had such a huge crush on Cher as a child.
She seemed to look over at you before smiling a bit, clearly catching you staring at her and your ever-growing embarrassment. She tilted her head at you, a smug expression on her face. “Do you like treats?”
Your face heated at her sudden attention as you furrowed your brow, laughing awkwardly. “W-what? Like candy?,” You asked, voice cracking because your mind was flooded with other…ideas.
Leighton smirked and fingered the metal loop on your choker with one perfect manicured hand. Her voice was low and sultry, her eyes mischievous. “Something like that.”
She leaned forward a bit more, whispering in your ear. “I see the way you look at me in class. It’s a bit pathetic really,” She coos condescendingly, her voice sending chills up your arm. “Big scary girl like you…all whipped over a little spoiled rich girl? What would everyone at school say?”
You squirmed in your chair, your thighs squeezing together to relieve the throbbing need beginning to grow. “I..I just, I don’t-”
She cut you off by squeezing your face in her hand. You felt your desire grow, your heart racing.
“Shut up.”
She let go of your face, standing up and smiling, her expression dangerous and yet so enticing. She crossed her arms, looking down on you.
“Here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to work on a problem. You get it right, you get a treat…get it wrong…and I’ll test your limits. Got it?,” she asked, voice radiating authority and lust. You nodded quickly in agreement, the heat in your cheeks growing and traveling to the tips of your ears.
She grinned, pointing at a problem while still standing. “Get started, baby.”
About an hour in and your mind had become a puddle. You were face down on Leighton’s bed, your head in her pillow, no doubt smudging eyeliner and mascara on her satin cases. She was standing near you, her wand pressed against your clit as you whined, your nails clawing at the bed. She whispered in your ear, voice low and dripping with lust.
“Aww, is someone wanting to cum?”
You whined, your clit throbbing at the constant attention and from the overstimulation of the last 3 orgasms she had given you. You couldn’t see her but knew her expression was probably that of an evil grin, her eyes glinting with pleasure at the mess you had become.
“Please, please, please, please…I’ll fix the problem…please..,” You sobbed, fists clawing at the bed, earning yourself a spank on the ass, Leighton gripping your hair and pulling your head to look at you, your vision of her blurred through your tears.
“Don’t fucking mess up my bed.”
You nodded helplessly, thoughts only swimming with Leighton, Leighton, Leighton. She dropped your head before finally diving into your pussy, her tongue delving into your folds from behind as she ate your out, the vibrator against your clit still. You cried out, your body about to snap, your thighs shaking and clit pulsing painfully.
You could barely hear her over your moaning, but managed to hear the muffled ‘cum for me.’
So you finally snapped, body shaking as you felt waves of pleasure wash over you, your eyes rolling back and shut, your thighs shaking as you came, feeling Leighton moan against you and seeming to ride you through your high, your body worn out and practically collapsing at the end.
You laid there for a minute, hearing some shuffling before you felt a warm wet cloth wiping you off, and Leighton’s soft manicured hand rubbing your back.
“Hey,” She whispered softly, “Turn over.”
So you did, brain still floating as Leighton softly wiped at your face with some cool makeup wipes, cooing softly in your ear.
“You did wonderful, baby.”
You felt her softly remove some of your jewelry and leftover clothing before dressing you in some comfy pajamas, silky soft like her own, before she kissed your forehead. You were slowly coming back to yourself as she snuggled up next to you, eyebrows raised as she looked down at you, smiling softly.
“So.. I imagine you like my tutoring style?”
You let out a giggle, feeling your cheeks heat as you sheepishly offered. “Is it that obvious?”
She grinned flirtatiously at you, hands rubbing at your side as she whispered cheekily, “You’re gonna be acing this class in no time with my help.”
You grinned.
You couldn’t wait for more math.
#leighton murray#leighton murray x reader#slocg fanfic#sex lives of college girls#slocg#slocg smut#renee rapp#renee rapp smut#slocg x reader#leighton murray smut#tslocg#fanfic#renee rapp x reader#renee rapp x you#leighton murray x you#tslocg x reader
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By the 1980s, some women had had enough. After decades of struggling with prams and shopping trolleys, navigating dark underpasses, blind alleyways and labyrinthine subways in the urban obstacle course mostly made by men, it was time for a different approach. “Through lived experience,” wrote the Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative, when they launched their manifesto in 1981, “women have a different perspective of their environment from the men who created it. Because there is no ‘women’s tradition’ in building design, we want to explore the new possibilities that the recent change in women’s lives and expectations have opened up.”
A case in point is the Essex Women’s Refuge. The complex, designed by a male architect, had got basic things wrong, from the shared kitchen, which was far too small, to the location of the children’s play areas, which were completely separate from the main communal areas, with no visual or aural connection for passive supervision. Matrix worked on the centre in 1992. Using what became a regular tactic, they presented the women with big cardboard models of different spaces, which they could rearrange to test out different configurations, along with using ribbon marked like a ruler to measure their existing spaces, which were added to the plans as a comparison.
“These were all simple techniques,” says Jos Boys, a founder member of Matrix, “But they made the women feel part of creating the project. A key part of everything we did was to make the language and practice of architecture more transparent and accessible to non-experts.”
Boys describes what now sounds like an unimaginable heyday of community action, participatory planning, squatting, workers’ co-operatives and technical aid centres, with public money readily available. Much of what Matrix worked on was funded by the Greater London Council under Ken Livingstone, before it was abolished in 1986 by the then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. Their projects included the groundbreaking Jagonari women’s educational resource centre in Whitechapel, east London. Working for – and with – a group of South Asian women, Matrix ran workshops with demountable models, asked the women to bring pictures of buildings from their home countries that they liked, and took them on a “brick picnic” walk to discuss what building materials and colours they preferred.
The result, completed in 1987 and now home to a childcare centre, incorporated a variety of Asian influences, deliberately not linked to any Hindu or Islamic imagery. It included decorative metal latticework over the windows, to provide both visual interest and security, mosaic patterns around the doors, squat toilets and sit-down sinks for washing large saucepans from communal meals. Every part of the building was fully wheelchair accessible too, a rarity in those days.
“They understood exactly what our requirements were without being patronising or judgmental,” wrote their client, Solma Ahmed, in a glowing tribute written three decades later, in support of an unsuccessful bid for Matrix to be retrospectively awarded the RIBA gold medal. “We said what we needed in that building: safety, security, childcare, sensitive to women’s cultural and religious needs while breaking some myths about Muslim women in particular. They were [the] perfect fit.”
When people have encountered Matrix in the past, they have sometimes asked what exactly feminist design looks like. How would a city designed and built by women be different? But, in Boys’ mind, that misses the point. They weren’t promoting a feminist aesthetic, but a way of looking, listening and designing that takes account of people’s very different needs and desires, one that embodies “the richness of our multiple ways of being in the world”. It’s about who gets to build it, too: a large part of Matrix’s work was devoted to publications, manuals and events, explaining routes into the building trades and running training courses.
As Matrix write: “Consciously or otherwise, designers work in accordance with a set of ideas about how society operates, who or what is valued, who does what and who goes where.” The question is who gets included, whose values we prioritise, and what kind of world we want to create.
#excerpts#urban planning#architecture#1980s#1980s england#design#matrix feminist design co-operative
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11, 12, 24 for ishmael and 14, 25 for ahab? hope you have fun 💗
Took a while thinking about this one because these are amazing questions so I had to think about some for quite a while, hoping you'll enjoy these answers
11. "Would you date this character?"
First of all he is Your Wife so no out of respect for that lol. And of course there is also his harpooneer husband I know doesn't fear any God. And I need you to know I mean this is in the best way possible: He's Way Too Much Like Me. I love him so much, and there are a lot of things about him that make me think, 'haha same' in a very expected way, but also a few that make me think, 'hm... I get that. I really do. And that's Not A Good Thing.' And like brother I do not think we could fix each other. I think he's adorable in so many ways but we would end up making each other worse. Also no one would be able to tolerate our Combined Ramblings.
12. "What's a headcanon you have for this character?'
VERY glad you asked this one because So Many. First one I had going in as something of a 'get blasted with my transgenderification beam, boy' thing, but I was then told it's actually basically canon-compliant from a fellow Dickhead or two. So to me he is trans in some way or another. I have something of a longer story about that, possibly several. But another: The whole reason I became interested in Moby Dick in general was because I was really interested in the Essex whaleship disaster, read about that, and then read Moby Dick, so by the time I read Moby Dick and found out Ishmael was once a merchant ship sailor (presumably) sailing out of New York, you can imagine my delight, knowing a survivor of the Essex (the cabin boy, at the time), Thomas Nickerson, would have Been a captain of merchant ships from New York, and the quotes from Ishmael implying all that happened to the Essex, he knew about on some level. Of course we do not know like anything about when all of this takes place but I like to imagine Ishmael just may have became interested in whaling and Nantucket partially due to having met him during that.
24. "What (is) other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?
This one actually took me a surprising amount of time. Expected one from the Terror, but Not Quite. Spent nearly this entire day thinking, 'There is one I know, I swear' but couldn't remember until Very recently: Dante From The Divine Comedy. This is like. Probably weird. I do not think he was actually based on him. But it's something about the narration that stats to intertwine the people he seems to love or at least be very involved with and what he does with Something Else that seems in some way divine to him. Also both go on journeys that are prompted by the people they love and being in terrible life situations anyways, and have a very specific kind of pathetic-yet-convictedness to them (how I read them and feel about them anyways).
14. "Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character."
Hm. Modern aesthetic? Leather type of stuff that's not overtly sexual but makes one Wonder. Ambiguous time period? Lighthouse keeper. Lighthousecore if that makes sense. I would like to see that old man in a knit sweater.
25. "What was your first impression of this character? How about now?"
Before reading the book I think I thought he was, if it makes any sense, basically as much of an 'archetype' as the whale? That little about him was more than what we saw, really. And technically, he's definitely a really direct character in many ways, but also like. I think what made me understand what I enjoyed about him as a character to read was seeing different adaptations and how they did or didn't really fulfill what I felt like was necessary which was that his whole anger and vengeance, he's very purposeful and intentional about. It's not just anger in general he has, though that's also there, but he's very knowingly taking things completely unrelated to and attributing a lot of them to the whale in a way that even those committed to what he wants almost definitely couldn't believe was. True. And at the same time, there's definitely a way he's able to connect with people that ensure they just follow that too. And that also fascinates me. Honestly, what might captivate me about him most Is how he's in so many ways extremely good at what he does, but still Chooses What He Did, which is. Just extremely interesting to me.
Very much hoping these were satisfying answers! Thank you for asking all that you did
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I get what you mean. I might sound controversial here but Si Spurrier took Chuck Austen's spot in my list of bad Nightcrawler writers for awhile now.
After this tho ? This whole 6$ mess?? I actually prefer Austen to him. It's incredible.
Should have seen this coming, all the clues were there from the start : Nightcrawler's selective memory on everything he went through, none of his friends caring about him (100× worse than Austen on this one), that bit in Legion of X where we could see Nightcrawler's s3xual fantasies which included a woman that straight up looks like Rogue, the whole Mother Righteous deal, the Golden Child in Nightcrawlers (we went all later season Rick and Morty here) and of course the Margali fiasco, to which I'm still going "why just why" whenever I think about it especially after finding out Orchis actually has a magic user (new oc from Dark X-Men) who captured an alternative version of Nightcrawler + Madelyne Pryor before Fall of X went down (so like why tf couldn't they have another oc or just her be behind Legion of X's horn plot instead of the only good parent Kurt has??)
Just get Si Spurrier away from Nightcrawler forever. I'm begging here
Who are you and how did you find me
Outside of getting an ask that isnt from people I talk to on the daily, i assume, uh. Yeah what's been happening to Kurt has all kinda a big mess.
People can like the retcon and more power to them if they do, but I just. personally dont like how it messes with everything (a la Maximoffs arent Magnetos kids anymore, but somehow worse?) Full on explaination of my thoughts under the read more, be warned though, it might be a bit messy just based on it being me trying to collect my thoughts in a written form
Spurrier has made some very weird choices in the comics, definitly, though not all of them suck IMO.
(I'm probably the one person who thought about how Azazel has basically soul magic and how Kurt could thusly have magic aswell, meaning that Hope Sword being a magic weapon that kurt made in his soul (one which he should not have, but apperantly grew back) satisfied me and me specifically beccause AHA magical kurt!)
BUT YEAH NO, they messed up Margali ALOT, which, read the headline she is my girl, I liked seeing her again but WOW did they not understand her and what she does and the way they characterized her could be considered a form of character-assasination and possibly even. downright horrible considering the fact that she is a roma woman (though lets be real there are many issues with how writers treat the romani characters and as someone who is not romani, I wont speak on it in detail now, cause it's not really my place. but like man); Mr Sinisters rule 63 self was a whole thing, again as my headline says, do not like her., i think her character was handled horribly. Plus they made her like. the reason why margali does magic and as the number one margali fan in the world, thats bullshit. Margali has been sorcerer supreme twice, possibly even trice depending on how you read her being guardian of limbo so having her get to that point cause some fuckin Nathaniel Essex clone was like "teehee i actually gave you magic" and then making her take margalis magic and kill her?? It's bad. (also i dont like the way she looks, why would she look so different from other essex clones, its just. aesthetically weird to me); On the note of the nightcrawlers, I actually quite liked them as a concept, though I think they couldve gotten more creative with their designs. Please make them look like more than just character but hit with a blue coat of paint, theyre a mix of two genetic samples, not a full clone of one character. They are in a sense of biology, children of those two characters, dont make them look boring also dont like how two of them had a baby. they both have 50 percent kurt DNA. thats. thats not gonna be a healthy baby. Do like the baby tough, shout out to the god baby, her concept is way too funny to dislike.
NOW, I will say, reading over the stuff again, i feel like its implying that Raven used a bit of the dna from the baron and azazel for the whole, having a baby thing???
WHICH, if I'm reading that right, might actually mean that they just actually did the most insane move of basically going "actually every bio-parent we've ever given Kurt is Kurts Bio-Parent" and I would actually respect that and it would change my opinion on this comic INSTANTLY because this kind of shark jumpery would be amazing.
But either way, I feel like retconning everything is really bad for everyones characterization, especially Destiny and Mystiques, part of it being the "oh we had to leave you cause future vision said so" feels very much like them trying to find an excuse for why they wouldnt raise their child
Idk it feels weird to have him be raven and irenes beloved darling child that they were forced to give up when you have mystique and destiny not really giving a shit about kurt, like ever previously in the comics.
To me it feels empty and almost like a cheap reference. It isnt something easily inserted in todays canon, years ago, when we didnt have all the baggage of years of interactions, you couldve easily added that fact and explained why they left him, but now, its a mess
Plus they JUST brought Az back in the comics in the dark x-men thing, which. feels like really bad timing, if they just let azazel fade from memory and then do the retcon like "yeah kurt just dreamt all of that demon stuff teehee", it'd be annoying but.
He's in comics.
Recent comics.
Why would you remind everyone of his existence, yknow, the man literally made and designed to be kurts bio-dad down to basically being a red Kurt with straight hair and without ectrodactyly. and then. retcon him being the father.
It feels so weirdly timed, did they not talk to eachother when planning these series??
Also I get that not everyone likes Azazel and his deal, which is fair, he's a kinda one note weirdo guy, but idk man. I like him. I think he's funny, I like villains like him being just annoying pests.
ALSO!! Spider-Kurt is actually one of my favourite things recent comics has done, because FUNFACT there's a character who we only ever see the tombstone off on battle world, from a different universe, called Amanda Wagner-Parker aka Spider-Crawler and. I am kinda obsessed with her?? Like. They actually just gave us a hinted at Kurt/Peter kid a tonne of years ago??? possibly??? like that??? and no one ever talks about her So them making Kurt be buds with Peter and hang out was actually catering to me specifically. That was a good idea. Kurt as spiderman with magic powers was written for my tastes and no one elses ever actually
Also uh, all comic characters are technically ocs so being like "ooo new oc from this" feels a bit dismissive to me, just say character
#also pretty sure you dont have to censor yourself on this platform#at least like not in asks#idk man I like azazel and I think just this weirdo dude being kurts dad is funny and a fine choice#big sidenote also I love Golden Child#I think she should come back and become some sort of god-child shes so funny as a concept#let the god toddler be a powerful force brought back into this reality by her own god powers or something#and now they have to raise a god toddler who also glows and floats and has wolverine genes so she probably also has claws#anyway back in my 'one day I'll write character analysis' hole#the dagur and kurt analysees that I keep wanting to write will maybe one day exist#moth answers#moth fuckin. writes a novel more like it
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Mark Hollis
Director's cut version of a piece originally published in The Wire 459, May 2022
Mark Hollis: A Perfect Silence
Ben Wardle
Rocket 88 hbk
Biography, as Ben Wardle admits in his introduction to the first full-length work on Mark Hollis, is of dubious value in considering his music. Avoiding interviews wherever possible, insisting his personable face not appear on album covers, pressing his idea of his work against resistance from labels and his own bandmates in Talk Talk, he appeared as a classic romantic aesthete. Not only are primary sources scarce – he was notoriously private and his family and close collaborators consistently refuse interviews – but Hollis himself felt his work was untouched by his life and opinions: “At the end of the day the record is what I have to say… I can’t add anything.” And yet, of course, he abandoned art for life. After his sole, self-titled solo album in 1998, he remained a stay-at-home dad until his death in 2019, living on the substantial proceeds of Talk Talk’s 1980s hits in Switzerland and the Netherlands. As Wardle outlines, Hollis was far from shy, but his ready, dry sense of humour and occasional manic intensity deflected from an armoured silence around his life and feelings.
Wardle, a former major-label A&R man, was able to convince a few figures – some, like Talk Talk manager Keith Aspden and keyboardist Simon Brenner, key to his success – to open up and fills in many of the blanks that Hollis left in his biographical record. The results are, inevitably, somewhat thin and textureless. We see Hollis entirely from without, through his often cryptic statements in music press interviews and the clashing perspectives of a handful of observers. Moreover, while Wardle is strong on the music biz politicking that went on around Talk Talk – such as Hollis’s quixotic sallies against his patient and indulgent bosses at EMI and Verve – and he’s able to shed a surprising amount of light on the increasingly idiosyncratic recording processes Hollis adopted from 1986’s The Colour Of Spring onwards, the music’s inner meaning and intent remains elusive.
This is, in some ways, fortunate. Opacity has been kind to Hollis, allowing legend and rumour – that he’d used heroin, that Spirit Of Eden had been recorded in an incense-filled abandoned church, among other stories Wardle debunks – to intensify his work’s effect. Nothing here, still, really explains how in five years he went from playing overwrought synth-pop on Saturday morning kids’ TV to composing Spirit of Eden, an album that combines music’s modern technological decomposition – atonality, free improvisation, studio-as-instrument – with the intense expression of an inscrutable private theology.
At its best, the colour Wardle adds only deepens that mystery and gives it amusing new facets. Growing up in Essex’s overspill towns, Hollis was a teenage hanger-on to the Canvey Island pub-rock scene. His older brother Ed emerges as a vivid figure who guided young Hollis: an encyclopaedic record collector, party animal and manager to Eddie And The Hot Rods, who Mark briefly roadied for, he succumbed to a worsening heroin addiction, dying in 1989 at just 37. Though Hollis lacked musical training, he had an incredible ear, a massive, detailed knowledge of music and a remarkable confidence from early on. (Journalists were frequently baffled and annoyed by his incessant references to Debussy and post-bop.) Apart from a few sympathetic collaborators – particularly Tim Friese-Greene, who masterminded the micro-collages of Spirit Of Eden and Laughing Stock – he frequently bullied and belittled musicians who couldn’t give him what he was fumbling for or weren’t his flavour of workaholic. (He often barracked Brenner with cautionary tales of his time working in a toilet-seat factory, a spell, according to Wardle, that in fact lasted just a few months.). Recording with Hollis after 1985 was slow and torturous; he had a habit of cultivating intense partnerships and then dropping people entirely, including his Talk Talk bandmates. As Aspden comments, “He needed other people, but he didn’t want other people.”
Hollis insisted in late interviews, somewhat implausibly, that the barely-there structures of Spirit Of Eden – the musics once called “jazz” or “punk” persisting only as half-erased fragments of the old world after the Biblical flood – were “where the first three albums were always heading”. Wardle is careful to show how their musical sophisticationand Hollis’s discontent with routine performance and promotion steadily grew in tandem. The increasing tension in his relationships with other performers, along with disappearing major-label largesse, seems to have been the all-too-human reason for his retreat. After his 1998 self-titled solo album he recognised he could only release new music in the independent sector, but had never learned to do without vast recording budgets or tolerant collaborators. That album’s setup of two room mics, a few session players and pre-written arrangements would have been standard for an experimental artist, but it ended up costing well over £100000. His particular obstinacy about music played a part too. As Wardle reveals, Hollis did in fact work on some projects after 1998 – including a bizarre offer to score Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette (2006) – but always encountered some personal sticking-point. By then he’d “had enough of that life” and had long since lost interest in contemporary music, only listening to older jazz and modern classical. What remains, rent between innocence and experience, flush with texture and pockmarked with silence, is among the strangest and most moving popular music of the century. It’s a music that reflects back on life, its tragic contingencies and intimations of immortality, but extends life’s vistas past the vanishing points of biography.
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Foundation Anti-Wrinkle Courses in Essex and London – Faces on Faces
We offer anti-wrinkle aesthetic course at best price in Essex and nearby London. Learn and become master of safe and effective injections. Go & grab the deal. For more details visit us https://www.facesonfaces.com/course/8/foundation-anti-wrinkle
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INTRODUCING...
danica ‘dani’ reznik is a gamma-level mutant with the ability of bone spike protrusion. they’ve been in new york for nine years where they spend most of their time as a student at the xavier institute. when i think of them, i think of antlers tangled in thorny vines, muffled sobs, bloodshot eyes, and a taste of something sweet to hide the bitterness. they are affiliated with the former essex house residents & the xavier institute. || (kathryn newton, twenty-two, cis woman, she/her)
@c23intros
BASICS
Full Name: Danica Reznik Nickname(s): Dani, ‘Jane Doe’ Age: 22 DOB: October 31st, 1976 Zodiac Sign: Scorpio sun, Libra moon, Pisces ascendant Sexuality: Unsure Traits: reserved, skittish, quick-tempered, affectionate, bitter, determined Occupation: Essex House survivor Student at Xavier’s Family: Ivan and Sofia Reznik, parents; Klaudia, Amalia, and Lukas Reznik, younger siblings.
APPEARANCE
Height: 5’4” Eye Color: green/hazel Ethnicity: White Nationality: American Aesthetics: messy blonde braids, oversized clothing and hunched shoulders, fading bruises, candy wrappers torn to confetti. Tattoos: None Piercings: None Scars: So many. Anywhere she’s grown a bone through the skin and retracted it without cleaning and bandaging the wound, or anywhere a bone spike has remained external for an extended period of time, there’s a scar. Additionally, she has a permanent pair of bone antlers growing from her skull thanks to a series of ‘experiments’ at Essex.
HISTORY
The early years of Dani’s life passed in relative normalcy; she was born the first of four children to a Czech immigrant couple in Providence, Rhode Island, and spent her childhood running around the suburb they lived in befriending anyone who’d stop long enough to talk to her. Kids her own age, their parents, the mailman, no one was too big or too small for a healthy dose of Dani’s cheerful chatter. At school her teachers despaired of ever getting her to keep quiet for an entire class period, but most simply encouraged her to write things down and save them for later rather than reprimand the one little girl almost everyone liked.
When she was nine, Dani made her first real best friend - a boy named Matteo, who’d just moved into their school district when he was placed with a new foster family. The two quickly became inseparable, and for four years they played together, studied together, shared secrets and planned adventures without a thought to all the ways the world might separate them.
That separation came far too soon, provoked by a middle school bully who couldn’t resist making Dani a target, though she no longer remembers why. The other boy got too close, made a threat that was a little too genuine, and all of a sudden Matteo is between her and the bully while the florescent lights overhead burst like balloons. Everyone in the room stares, but Dani’s eyes are full of wonder and admiration rather than the fear that seems to have struck their classmates and teachers.
Of course they hustle Matteo to the principal’s office to wait for his foster parents; Dani doesn’t want to stay behind in class, but the teacher insists and so she grabs Matteo’s hand and promises she’ll wait for him at their bus stop the next morning. And she would have, if only she’d gotten the chance, but when she tells her own parents what happened they tell her in no uncertain terms never to go near ‘that boy’ again. Her father says he’s dangerous, her mother says they won’t let him go back to school tomorrow anyway, and Dani begins to realize that she may never see her best friend again.
Her own mutation makes itself known later that evening, when her father catches her trying to sneak out a window and grabs her arm to pull her back inside. Furious and distraught, Dani barely feels the bone pushing through her skin until Ivan lets out a yell of pain and jumps back clutching his now bleeding hand. She is dangerous now too, and with very little deliberation Ivan and Sofia make their choice: she can’t stay.
One phone call and a four hour drive later, Danica Reznik becomes a resident of the Essex House, and her former life becomes little more than a memory. Through it all she thinks of Matteo, looks for him in every new face she sees, sighs with relief every time a dark-haired boy turns around and isn’t him. Wherever he is, it has to be better than here.
(c)
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introducing: jackie marie young
hiya, all! im allie! im 25 and from the cst timezone. i use she/her pronouns and jackie already 100% owns my ass. feel free to reach out to me on d.iscord for any and all plots!!! cant wait to write with you!
possible tw: infidelity
connections found here
( maude apatow, cis female, she/her, oc ) oh snap! is that JACKIE YOUNG? they work over at high volume where some of the other employees have labeled them as THE MAGNET. that’s probably because they can be a bit ( alluring. ) but also pretty ( brazen. ) they’re 24 and they’ve been living in woodstock for TEN YEARS. it must be their shift because i totally hear THE CRANBERRIES blasting from the record store. ( aesthetics: heart shaped sunglasses, a tote bag full of books and random knick knacks, red lipstick, bright smiles and loud laughter, a carefully planned out surprise party for friends, pens with a fuzzy purple cap, secondhand sweaters from goodwill or past lovers–you could never really tell which )
BASICS
NAME: jackie marie young
BIRTHDATE: march 17, 1977
HOMETOWN: essex, ct
CURRENT TOWN: woodstock, il
GENDER: cis female ( she/her )
SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Bisexual
HEIGHT: 5'4"
HAIR COLOR: Brown
EYE COLOR: Brown
IDENTIFYING MARKS: a constellation of freckles on her back that kind of resemble florida, a tattoo of bunch of wildflowers and lavender on the back of her arm, ears pierced,
AESTHETICS: heart shaped sunglasses, a tote bag full of books and random knick knacks, red lipstick, bright smiles and loud laughter, a carefully planned out surprise party for friends, pens with a fuzzy purple cap, secondhand sweaters from goodwill or past lovers–you could never really tell which
FAMILY
FATHER: andrew young
MOTHER: ella young
SIBLINGS: mitchell young, grace young, eli young (half sibling)
ABOUT
jackie young always radiated light and warmth. even in the worst circumstances, the girl always finds a way to find the good or to make the situation better. maybe it was the way she would alter the situation in her head to make things better. even from a small age, jackie was a storyteller. she preferred to be the narrator, draped in beautiful words and rather than the girl playing dress up in shimmering dresses.
the only thing to ever really turn her world upside down happened a few nights after her fourteenth birthday. news breaking that she had a half sibling--eli. he was the byproduct of her father’s many business trips that took place in woodstock, il. not long after the news broke and after many, many arguments, the young family’s small home was now cluttered with boxes and a moving truck was out in their driveway. they packed up their belongings and moved to none other than woodstock, il to get to know eli.
before working at high volume, jackie was mainly focused on her college courses. when the money she had saved up babysitting and doing other small tasks started running thin, the girl knew she needed a job and fast. she thought of the record shop she loved exploring when she first got here. she remembered the feeling she had first stepping foot into the building and wanted nothing more than to give that to someone else.
CONNECTIONS
childhood friends: friends jackie grew up with. people she went to high school with. she moved here when she was fourteen so any friendships during that time!
her sibling’s friends: she has an older brother and younger sister as well as her half sibling! they’re all two years apart, but her half sibling is only a few months apart of her!
sibling like friends; they bicker, argue, and love like siblings
coworkers; pretty self explanatory! ones that get along with her and im sure there’s at least one person she works with and gets on their nerves.
classmates: people she currently has some classes with or had classes with previously. maybe they help each other with different assignments or even somewhat tutor each other or one.
roommate: probably in just a cute little 2 bedroom apartment!
unlikely friends
exes/past romantic things
current romantic or romantic-ish things
honestly, she probably hosts a book club like an old lady if anyone were interested in that!
literally anything! im all ears!
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The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry.🐍
As I have just finished reading it, here's a quick review-
I found the novel beautiful in parts. Set in Victorian Era, it's primarily a story about friendship - in all shape and form. Science and religion, facts and myth wonderfully mingle during the course of the novel. The story builds up steadily, pulling you right into the daily life of the characters. But I felt the ending kind of fell flat, after that promising build up. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading it, and now I'm really looking forward to the Apple TV adapted series, starring Tom Hiddleston as William Ransome and Claire Danes as the protagonist, Cora Seaborne.
Also, on another note, how GORGEOUS is that book cover!! It's so aesthetically pleasing, with a Slytherin vibe ( or maybe a Loki vibe ;p ) !! 💚
#The Essex Serpent#Sarah Perry#Tom Hiddleston#Will Ransome#Claire Danes#Cora Seaborne#Apple TV adaptation#TV series#Slytherin aesthetic#loki vibes#book quote#book quotes#book photography#books of tumblr#book review#my pictures
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“Medieval queens, who were among the greatest lords in England, of course also owned deer parks and forests – and they, too, altered the ‘ecological signature’ of their landscapes. For example the park of Kings Langley (Hertfordshire), which was made for Eleanor of Castile in 1276, was stocked with 30 fallow does from her Hampshire estate at Odiham, as well as five white roe-bucks and one white doe from the king’s forest of Cannock (Staffordshire), some 170km away. Aside from their purely aesthetic appeal, this importing of fauna associated with the primary signifiers of the nobility –hunting and heraldic display – is in line with Eleanor’s obvious concern to alter the external appearance of her castles and palaces more generally, for example through ornate gardening schemes which reflected the status of their occupant.
Surviving evidence shows that many late-medieval English queens went to great lengths to preserve the deer and other resources in their parklands, in that way linking parks directly with the question of lordly authority. Indeed the ways in which queens actually used their landscapes, including building work on their castles and palaces, is an aspect that deserves further study. This is particularly the case because high-status women have traditionally been discussed in historiography firmly behind closed doors in the ‘private sphere’.
In view of O’Keeffe’s observations (see above) it is worth pointing out that among queens’ traditional dower properties were many castles, some of which were the preferred residences of particular queens. Leeds Castle (Kent) was a favourite of Eleanor of Castile (d.1290); Marlborough Castle (Wiltshire) was beloved by Margaret of France, who died there in 1318; Isabella of France (d.1358) chose to spend her widowhood – and confinement, after the death in suspicious circumstances of her husband, Edward II – at Castle Rising (Norfolk), and Joan of Navarre (d.1437) favoured Devizes Castle (Wiltshire), as had many of her predecessors.
Moreover queens could be highly active regarding castles. In 1257 the patent rolls record that Eleanor of Provence (d.1291) had ordered the constable of Windsor Castle to hand over crossbows for the munition of Corfe Castle (Dorset), and she also arranged the delivery of weapons for Dover Castle while staying there, later in her consortship. On her widowhood in 1272, Windsor Castle and its forest were committed to her so that she answer at the Exchequer [for it] in the same manner as Nicholas de Yatingdene, late constable of that castle, deceased, used to answer. Her daughter in law, Margaret of France, who will appear frequently in this paper, apparently fought hard c.1305 to be assigned, as was traditional, the Forest of Savernake in Wiltshire alongside her castle of Marlborough, as her husband, Edward I, eventually granted it to her, saying that he had had no intention... that the forest, which is necessary for the frequent repairs of the castle... should be omitted.
Indeed one of Edward’s last acts in 1307 was an acceptance as though it had been of the king’s will, of takings by Margaret, the queen consort, of timber in the forests... and parks belonging to the castles, etc., granted to her for life, for the repair of the same, and of gifts by her of oaks [from them] to divers persons. Later, she was given license to grant oaks to whomsoever she will. Clearly Margaret was aware of the symbiotic nature of the castle/forest relationship, and used gifts of forest resources to enhance her royal reputation through largesse, just as did kings.
Many royal forests were held by queens as part of their dower properties, over which they invariably exercised full seigneurial jurisdiction – Isabella of France’s right to appoint her own justices of the forest for the Forest of Essex, to hold forest courts there whenever she thought fit, and to receive all fines raised in them, for example, was confirmed in 1324. In the 13th century the queen’s forests included Savernake Forest in Wiltshire (along with Marlborough Castle), Gillingham Forest in Dorset, Bere Porchester (with Portchester Castle) in Hampshire, Feckenham Forest in Worcestershire, the Forest of Rockingham in Northamptonshire and the New Forest in Hampshire.
The forests were, of course, central to a queen’s revenues; before Edward I’s intervention resulted in a pardon, Margaret of France had been due a 2,000-mark fine for trespasses in the forest from John Lovel of Tichmarsh (Northamptonshire). Margaret’s grant of Rockingham Forest, including timber for repair of the manors of King’s Cliffe and Brigstock, is another illustrative example. It allowed her at all her visits there firewood for the expenses of her household, as much and as often as she likes, and also to have her game, as well in the said forests and woods as in the... parks [of]... the said manors, and take venison and have it taken by her people (implying that she was expected to hunt in person on occasion).
Queens are most often observed in the documents using forests to exercise their patronage through the granting of forest offices – although it is not always easy to do more than assume their direct influence behind the decisions made. For example in 1272 a servant of Eleanor of Provence, Richard Dyve, was given the wardenship of the Forest of Weybridge in Huntingdonshire with mandate to foresters, verderers, and other ministers of that forest to be intendant to him. This was presumably a reward for good service, which Eleanor must at least have approved.
Similarly queens could protect favoured servants by engineering their exemption from serving as foresters, regarders and verderers against their will, as was probably the case regarding Eleanor’s cook, Master Henry Lovel, in 1248. Eleanor of Provence’s hand is possibly more clearly observable in 1290, when pardons were issued by her son, Edward I, to the prioress of Westwood and others for trespasses of vert and venison in the Forest of Feckenham, over which Eleanor had had lordship while queen consort, but which was by this time in the hands of her daughter-in-law, Eleanor of Castile. The pardons were issued while the king was staying at Amesbury (Wiltshire), in the abbey of which his widowed mother had been living “as a humble nun of the order of Fontevrault” since 1286.
The involvement of queens regarding forests was in any case certainly not all passive, and their personal concern, and their own agency, can sometimes be observed more directly. A dispute over tenure in Gillingham Forest runs, in the Close Rolls, for around two years from June 1311. The complainants asserted that they had a right to the lands as tenants in chief, by service of keeping the forest and park. However Margaret of France argued that the lands were ancient demesne, held of her according to the custom of the manor, and that she ought to do... right according to the said custom. By December 1312 her stepson, Edward II, was complaining that ...the queen would not execute [his orders regarding the matter], alleging a reason for not doing so that the king deems insufficient.
Margaret was obviously attempting to exercise close control over her estate, and to exercise good lordship, the judgement of the king notwith-standing. She almost certainly wished to use the office(s) of forester and park-keeper to reward her own favoured servants, and her involvement, and the frequency with which she appears in this paper actively guarding her rights and asserting her agency, is noteworthy since studies of queens have found it hard to locate her voice by interrogating more traditional sources. Clearly a focus on landscape has the potential to uncover a different side of queenship.”
- Amanda Richardson, Beyond the Castle Gate
#late middle ages#medieval#queens#amanda richardson#history#eleanor of castile#margaret of france#isabella of france#joan of navarre#eleanor of provence
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BASICS
Full Name: Lachlan Douglas McLeod
Nickname(s): Lach
Age: 32
DOB: June 12th, 1966
Zodiac Sign: Gemini
Mutation: Hydrokiensis
Sexuality: Bisexual
Traits: Protective, Jumpy, Compassionate, Understanding, Overbearing, Emotional, Determined, Strong Willed
Occupation: Landscaper
Family: Mother (status unknown), Father (status unknown), Brother (status unknown)
APPEARANCE
Height: 6′0
Eye Color: Brown
Mutation Eye color: Dark Blue
Ethnicity: Nigerian, Scottish
Nationality: American
Aesthetics: Greens, Browns, Pinks, and Yellows, Overgrown verandas, Open button downs with a white shirt underneath, work boots caked in mud
Tattoos: None
Piercings: None
Scars: Electrocution scars on his hands in a lightning bolt pattern
BACKGROUND
TW: drowning, torture, electrocution, hospital mention
Lachlan grew up in Rochester, New York in a loving home. His Mom, a well loved Florist in town, and his Dad a landscaper and construction worker. When Lachlan turned four, the family grew when his Mother gave birth to his baby brother.
As time went on, Lachlan and his brother got on about as well as you can imagine siblings do. There were plenty of fights, but none of them really meant anything to Lachlan. He just got worked up sometimes, that was all it was. He loved his brother and his family more than words could describe. He’d do anything for him.
As far as his mutation, Lachlan had his suspicions. It started simply when he was 13. The water in his glass shaking anytime he got stressed over school work, the fact that he never got water in his eyes in the shower anymore. If anything, Lachlan was relieved it was harmless. His parents could accept the fact that he could move water around, what harm could that do?
It was a hot Summer day in 1984 when everything changed. It was another stupid fight with his brother about who was going to use the car for the Back to School bash. Lachlan was going into his senior year, so obviously it should have been him. His brother would get two more years of the bash. But, things heated up between them more than Lachlan had expected. Harsh words being tossed carelessly back and forth between the boys, when his brother said something that struck a nerve.
“Mom and Dad think you're a freak and so do I. Nobody likes a freak.” Of course, he didn’t mean it. He was sixteen and he wanted something that his older brother wouldn’t give him– careless words were bound to fly. But, something in Lachlan snapped, and he lost complete control.
Water exploded all around them. From the kiddie pool they had been sticking their feet in, to the spigots on the side of the house. All of it swallowed his Brother whole, and Lachlan watched it happen in a state of shock in horror. He can still hear the sounds of muffled, gurgled screams as he tried desperately to snap out of it the way he was able to before, but it didn’t happen. The only thing that stopped it was his Father tackling Lachlan.
His brother was rushed to the Hospital, and Lachlan was kept away. For the first time it felt like people feared him, and he didn’t know what to do. He sat in a stiff waiting room chair, desperate for someone to say something to him, but everyone walked by and spoke in hushed whispers.
Eventually, two men in suits arrived, and invited his parents into a room nearby, still out of earshot. But, Lachlan was determined to hear what they had to say, because somewhere deep down, instinct told him that it was about what he had done.
Stepping out of the isolated room they had put him in, Lachlan paused just around the corner of the room, the curtain that acted as a door letting the sound travel with ease.
“It’s for the safety of your Son,” One man said. “Both of them,” Added the second. Essex is what they called it. They wanted to send him away to some place, promising that it would help him and be good for him. His heart skipped a beat hearing all of that, knowing that, if it was what his Parents’ thought was best, he would go without question. After what had happened, and seeing the fear in his brother’s eyes when he looked at him, it felt right.
To Lachlan’s surprise, his parents didn’t agree. They told those men that it was a family matter, and they would sort it out as a family. Reluctantly, the suited men obliged, leaving their business card, promising the family could reach out any time if they changed their minds. The twist in Lachlan’s stomach made them wish they would.
Instead, they took him home that night, assuring him that it was an accident, and there were people out there they could find to talk to him. The mutant gene had to come from somewhere, maybe someone else in the family had the same ability, and they just hadn’t shared it. But, each word left him feeling hollow and foolish. He had hurt his brother. He could have killed his brother. There was no fixing this with sit downs and family meetings. He needed the Essex House.
It was that very same night, that Lachlan packed a bag and left a note explaining everything. He was going to the Essex House. If they could help him, that would be what was best for everyone. He’d be back once he learned how to control it, don’t worry about it. It wasn’t forever, it was just for now.
Lachlan left behind the car keys with the note ‘P.S. tell him he can have the car for Back to School night.’
Taking all the cash he had saved, Lachlan snagged a bus ticket for the city, and was on his way to Essex. When he showed up at the doorstep the next morning, with a shotty promise that his family had changed their minds, and dropped him off, he was sure they’d see right through him, and send him home.
Instead, they welcomed him in with open arms (he was eighteen, after all, able to make his own decisions, they had said). What Lachlan couldn’t imagine, is the hell they would put him through for twelve years.
They did everything from forcing him to drown animals, to electrocuting him while he used his powers to see what would happen. He felt sick to his stomach everyday, and desperate for his family who, he was sure, had written him off by now. Just a while had turned into a whole decade and he had never received one letter or visit. But, most nights, he found himself longing for just one more hug or one more chance to say that he loved them that he would never get. He had learned that there was no walking out the front door of Essex– not without a fight.
The rumblings of the escape made their way to Lachlan, and he knew that he would do whatever it took to get out. And, somehow, they succeeded. But, Lachlan knew the only way to keep his identity a secret, and to keep his family safe was by staying away. He knew what Essex was capable of now. If his parents or brother knew where he was, knew he had survived the fire, they’d be in as much danger as he and his fellow escapees would be.
Lachlan took up a job working with a Landscaping company as some way to keep a connection to his parents. He plans to stay in New York as long as it takes for the truth about Essex to come to light, and it be safe enough to go home to his family for the first time in fourteen years.
Intro Task | connections
@c23intros
#c23intro#drowning tw#electrocution tw#torture tw#hospital tw#<- not a lick of this is graphic#just brief mentions#also#yeah i used the same template for his intro as i did finley's revamp#what about it???
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Do you think Tom reads as much as fans assume he does? I know he has a lot of books, but I feel like we've (the collective we) built up this academic!Tom aesthetic, and while I don't doubt he enjoys reading and learning, where does he find the time?
Yes, but not what some fans think he does. He's said multiple times that that's what he tends to do in his spare time.
But I agree it's not this Professor!Tom academic reading nothing but high culture stuff.
Yes, he does love Shakespeare - but if you look at his book recommendations, they're generally new things, or fairly new - Sapiens, Purity, The Order of Time, the Patrick Melrose novels. He's also said that he's read all the James Bond books. So he's not sitting in a leather chair, sipping tea (he prefers coffee) and reading either Shakespeare, poetry, or the Classics in the original Greek all the time.
Of course, he reads for his work, too - I have no doubts he's read The Essex Serpent, just as he read the Thor comics, The Night Manager, all the Gothic Romance novels GdT recommended, undoubtedly the Hank Williams biography (or a few) and all the JG Ballard books - he had a picture of the stack of them.
And of course, his job does afford him time to read. He had a couple of months off between Loki and TES. He had 1 yr off between Hamlet/IW/EG filming and Betrayal. And there's always down time for actors on a set.
But now that I've just gone back to his Shanghai interview where he mentioned the Rovello book, it might give clues as to some things about Loki...
The Order of Time (Italian: L'ordine del tempo) is a book by Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli. It is about time in physics. Carlo Rovelli is the leading scientist who writes about "warped time" and at the forefront of physicist who are trying to unify theory of relativity and loop quantum gravity theory.
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Landing Page
This landing page contains before the cut info on how to support me, the different social media links I have, my Patreon and Ko-Fi jar, and then below the cut, I’ll link books I have for sale, serials I’m currently working on, and short stories I have published.
I’m really trying to do as best I can to earn money from my writing, because I do put a huge amount of work into it and I love it to pieces, but the more I can earn with it, ultimately, the more I’ll be able to produce and work on in future.
I know not everyone necessarily has money to spare, so if you can’t but you enjoy my work and want to support me, that’s just fine! You can support me by:
liking and responding to my work when I post it wherever
sharing my work on other media, especially with reviews
RTing my promos on Twitter or Tumblr
rating and reviewing my books on Goodreads
Also in general just following me on any media. There’s this Tumblr, of course, but then there’s:
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Also, if you do feel like making aesthetic posts, fanart, or other pieces of fan media for Heart of Stone or Powder and Feathers or any of the rest, tag me in it and I’ll reblog it! That kind of fan media really helps too. (My plan once I get my first royalties is to reinvest some of the money in commissioning more artwork.)
If you’re a Medium member, I would find it incredibly helpful if you would read my work on Medium. I understand that for people interested in my short stories, it’s frustrating that a lot of my work is behind the paywall on Medium, but like... It’s pay. My Medium is here.
If you’re interested in subscribing to my Patreon, you can do so here - I often post serials on there, too. If you’d like to leave a one-off tip, you can do so in my Ko-Fi.
And if you’d like to buy any of my books, there are links below the cut, as well as masterlists of short stories and serials.
Heart of Stone is an 18th-century slowburn slice-of-life/romance between Henry Coffey, a vampire who is occupied with publishing, and Theophilus Essex, his new secretary.
It’s set in the 1700s, but Henry is written with the intention of portraying ADHD, and Theophilus is autistic. There’s light humour throughout, and the emphasis is on the slow build of their relationship with one another.
$4.99 | £3.99 | €4.99
Smashwords
Amazon
Goodreads
Theodore Halloran is coming into himself; Godfrey Digbett III seems to be coming into nothing but trouble.
Perhaps one might amend the troubles of the other.
Divine Service is a novella (~22k) set in a fantasy universe following the coming of age and ascension of a young demigod to the divine position afforded him by his father, and simultaneously following the struggles of a young nobleman desperate to avoid being affianced or, worse, married.
£2.99 | $2.99 | €3.99
Amazon (sorry Divine Service is only on Amazon, it’ll be on Smashwords from November. I enrolled it in KDP by accident and then couldn’t back out :( )
Goodreads
The Mermaid and the Fisherman | $2.99 | 7000 words
M/M trans man/merman oviposition erotica.
A young man fleeing home has taken up residence in an old fishing cabin on the west coast of Scotland. He is observed, very closely, by a mermaid from beyond the maerl beds nearby.
On Smashwords | Goodreads
It seems to Aimé Deverell that there is very little point to life, except for what pleasures can be enjoyed before the grave. Life is short — thank God — but at least there’s enough in the world to dull the senses in the meantime.
That philosophy shatters like glass when he meets Jean-Pierre, an angel.
Powder and Feathers is a fantasy fiction serial following the lives of three fallen angels newly arrived back to Dublin. If you are already holy, must you try to be good?
On Ao3 - On Wattpad - On Medium - On Patreon
The Boatswain’s Hook
These stories are all set in the aftermath of the events of Barrie’s Peter Pan, but they’re focused on the lives of Captain Hook and Mr Smee after an illness forces them to leave Neverland.
It’s funny, it’s silly, it does dig a lot into Hook’s canonic depression, and it’s pretty gay.
On Medium
Little Devils
Velma Kuroda, a student in Art History, finds her side interest in antiques becomes abruptly more central when her aunt decides to hand over her business. That business involves demonic infestations, run-of-the-mill hauntings, and other supernatural occurrences that might require a specialist — Velma has to learn to adapt as quickly as she can.
On Ao3 - On Medium
Short Stories
Youth Inquisitive - Fantasy. Vizma Riorda, a priest devoted to Oghma, a god of knowledge and truth, meets a young thief who does not lie.
The Dragon’s Treasure - An ex-knight, getting on in years, makes a dangerous annual pilgrimage.
In Perpetuity on Medium - on Smashwords - Genesius/Marcellus. To them, the modern word is all at once too loud, too fragrant, and too full, and yet two men — even two vampires — cannot exist in isolation forever.
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