#i am simply a member of the edward edward squad

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hi ❤️ a long while ago you mentioned Edward, Edward on here and i read it and i LOVED it. i don’t read much historical fiction but i love that time period and that fucked up relationship between edward and the earl. could you recommend anything similar, preferably including those kind of relationships? thank you 🥀

Omg, thank you so much for joining me in the wild dark world of Lolah Burford! (I almost called her Lylah Clare, which seems fitting on some level.) 

I’m trying to think of anything I’ve read with a relationship that’s comparable to the dark push-pull between Edward and the Earl — it’s so squarely gothic but it goes into psychological territory that 18th and 19th century gothic lit couldn’t quite broach directly, I wish I had a really good rec off the top of my head because it’s such a striking aspect of the novel. 

The 18th and early 19th century isn’t so much my wheelhouse for historical fiction (I’m much more in late Victorian/Neo-Victorian/early 20th century hell) but there’s a lot of academic writing about queerness, taboo relationships, and the Gothic genre in that era — if you’re interested in that era and the novel’s thematic influences that might be a good place to start. I also recently asked for gothic lit recs dealing with trauma/queerness and got some good ones here.

For fucked-up 70s historical gothic romances, these ones are more hetero than Edward Edward but sound bonkers enough to be on my next-up-to-read list regardless:

This Other Eden - Marilyn Harris

The Flesh And The Devil and The Silver Devil - Teresa Denys

For dark m/m period novels about complicated relationships:

As Meat Loves Salt - Maria McCann

Dark Water - Elizabeth Lowry

Gaywyck - Vincent Virga (cornerstone 70s queer gothic but it’s tonally more of a loving pastiche of the 20th century gothic than the 18th century like EE is)

Lolah Burford has several other bonkers-sounding books like MacLyon, Alyx, and Vice Avenged but I don’t think any of them deal with m/m relationships or anything as close and dark as in Edward, Edward— Vice Avenged sounds very much thematically in line with some of the 18th century libertine stuff in EE, so I might pick it up next.

Hilariously, Goodreads features Edward, Edward on a list of “M/M Books With Potentially Outside Of Comfort Zone Themes”  — I wish it was easier to sort lists on Goodreads more like on Letterboxd, by publication date and the like. I feel like I should be tagging in @chthonic-cassandra and @forthegothicheroine as two people much better informed wrt [libertines in fiction/the Gothic and the taboo/20th century Gothic romance/just about everything] than I am. It’s really interesting to me that Burford’s other work comes up in an academic context (at least judging from a trawl through Google Scholar) in critical overviews of the romance genre and nonconsent in the m/f 1970s romance novel — I would love to read an annotated version of EE or even just an essay on it dealing with its own unique complexities. 

[worrentigre]

Reflections pt.2 (IC post)

“It’s a strange feeling that I’m having.  It’s both familiar and something different.  I feel full of energy.  But, then I feel like I’m floating and not really feeling anything at all.  I can’t move.  Can’t touch or smell or taste...  only see and hear memories.  Memories of the past several weeks.”

“I see myself training hard out in the desert.  I see myself training in my throne room.  I’m training with friends.  Berrod Armstrong.  We’re doing some grappling training.  We help each other, and he confides in me his lack of comfort and his panic attacks when grappling.  I give some advice on how to deal with it.  I hope it has helped.  In return, I confide in him what has ailed me for a while.  For many, many years, there has been someone out to get me.  Someone extremely powerful and equally terrible, but also dangerously intelligent.  As a brother, he lends me his fist if I were ever taken to task.”

“Karen Bright-Flower and Rana Kotsu have also came to train with me at the Tiger Palace.  This was the second time Karen has visited the palace.  She gave me a good spar, and we also enjoyed a drink outside at the table in our sitting area.  I did not know she worked with my good friend Eligor.  Rana stopped by to have her temple cyclas repaired.  Again.  It seems she was also in trouble.  Again.  That girl sure is a handful, but I can at least count on her for a good spar when I need one.  She also ordered a fireproof jacket.  I’m assuming it’s to go with the fireproof panties she had me make a while back. Unfortunately, certain aspects of our latest spar started reminding me of my lack of closeness with Aelisa these days.”

“Aelisa and I have drifted apart.  We have tried more than once to mend things, but we are just simply too different.  It’s lonely these days, and I have yet to officially break things off.  I need to do that; simply holding onto such a relationship is just going to strain the both of us further.  She was the only reason I kept my main office over at Artifice & Invention’s guild hall.  I owe my business to that place and they will always be part of my business as a primary sponsor, but I am off on my own with my own store now.  I never visit anymore except to see Aelisa and work in the office.  As of now, I have formed a contract with the Astral Agents, and as part of this contract, I am moving and reconstructing my reinforced office onto their premises.  I have formed two company contracts; one with the Bear’s Den Tavern, and the other with the Astral Agents.  Many of my friends and brothers are Agents, and I know things will be well in hand with my business supporting them.”  

“Before the contract with the Agents was finalized, I decided to tag along on one of their missions to see what I’m working with.  They were surprised when I suddenly showed up unannounced to come with.  We were to pose as bait by way of merchants, so our targets would attack and we take them out.  As a merchant myself, this was the easiest disguise ever.  It was a rough night.  Many pirates died brutally that night.  I acted helpless to keep the pirates guessing.  I actually got hit with a bullet or two, but I had the foresight enough to have my chakra open, and skin hardened like stone to protect me.  My barrier expansion training I’ve done in Dravania came to great use when I plugged a hole ripped in the ship’s hull.  It was draining, to say the least.  I also joined the Bear’s Den workers on one of their own mission.  Apparently the owner’s wife conducts mercenary operations with several employees.  This group... well... let’s just say that their morality and the way they deal justice is a bit different from mine.  There is one among the group that I ended up being disgusted with.  If he’s willing to do what he did over a jacket, who knows what he’d do over a *real* issue.”

“I have a new employee and trainee.  Her name is Liefhun Blacke.  She’s a young Ala Mhigan refugee who stopped by to order a new jacket.  She was enthusiastic to pay for her order with a sparring match, but I’m partially convinced it was because she had no money.  She cannot speak, and instead has a little mammet who’s very outgoing speaking for her.  I have since then made her a few outfits and offered her a job at the store, alongside Brytt, my prized pupil.  She wants to learn more about her people, and about the Fists.  And so, I took her to the Bear’s Den tavern to allow her to meet more people, and also to the Astral Place to meet some of them as well.  I mainly wanted her to meet Berrod and Osric.”

“Then, I started hearing from my mysterious adversary again.  He has been sending threatening letters.  And so, I started looking into it, gathering clues, and finding allies to help me throughout this ordeal.  I managed to secure a meeting with the Brotherhood of Ash, who has a member that claims to know who I am and who my foe is.  I ask Eligor and Berrod to join me, as I may need someone to watch my back.  With Berrod being a powerful ally, and Eligor holding a lethal killer instinct while giving me his full trust, I could count on them to help me.  And I needed it, because we were ambushed on the way there by a group of Amalj’aa.  Once there, I met a particular member of the Brotherhood who led us into the Qarn ruins to explain.  He told us the whole story.  Unfortunately, the enemy appeared and turned him into a pile of ash in seconds.”

“The enemy is an immensely powerful Amalj’aan warchief by the name of Arajj Goh.  He has harbored a hatred for me so intense that it has taken over his mind and his being.  He is attuned to the hell fire that Ifrit possesses, and he is no doubt tempered.  However, his rage for vengeance is so strong that his will power is overwriting the primal’s need for him to worship him.  All he wishes is for me to suffer for a long time, for me to break, and then for me to finally die alone.  Many years in the past during my days as a Brass Blade, a separate unit came across a group of non tempered Amalj’aa who were training.  They were all unceremoniously slaughtered by the Blades unprovoked.  Arajj Goh and his brother were among this group and were it’s only survivors.  One brother wanted to move on, but the other wanted revenge.  He was highly intelligent, and knew how to manipulate things in his favor.  Doing research, he found out that I, Captain Linh at the time, often conducted missions in the area.  

I became the target of his ire and the sole blame for his anger.  He managed to use our own currency and our capitalistic society to have my entire unit wiped out.  He ensured my mind and heart remained in pain since then.  He manipulated my father into casting the spell to block my memory after I became a bandit leader.  He’s even the reason I am still stuck as a Hyur and have not changed back into my true Miqo’te body.  He had my parent kidnapped a while back, but we rescued them.  And now, with my life starting to get on track with my business, Aelisa, and the monkhood giving me peace of mind and happiness, he has exposed himself.  His plan to break me is now failing, and he’s ready to end things once and for all.  Once his brother informed me of this, he appeared and murdered him right in front of me.  To him, a person who speaks to the enemy is no family of his.”

“With this threat now rearing it’s ugly head, I started recruiting for more help.  I also needed to place those close to me in safe places, away from harm.  Liefhun has been delivered to the Agents, and they are watching over and protecting her.  My parents are staying in another secure location.  However, I have not seen Brytt in the last few days.  I realized why later on, unfortunately.”

“I managed to do some recon around the Amalj’aa areas of operation and found out that Brytt had been taken from his home.  He was being held captive.  My mission became two fold then.  I had to strike quickly before the warchief had a chance, meaning some planning had to be sacrificed.  I managed to get six people to assist me, as well as my old friend from the U tribe, U’nalia.  Berrod, Edward, Alexandyr, Rana, Eligor, Kodaro, and myself managed to rescue Brytt and have him taken back to the U tribe.  Due to my vow to never take any more lives in battle, I was glad to have picked the squad that I did.  They were all vicious on the battlefield, including Kodaro.  We found out a strange experiment with fire crystals were being conducted; an army of aetheric clones of giant elite Amalj’aa were being created.”

“It has been a long time since I’ve led a mission, or even donned any heavy armor and used an axe. Felt like old times.  I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel alive leading men on the field of battle.  I also remember a monstrous Amalj’aa, much larger than all of the others.  It has a similar molten glow to the spines and scales growing from it’s hide like the Ifrit powered warchief.  I remember... my memory is hazy.  I remember getting hit.  I had to get up.  I had to fight with the others.  And then... nothing.  I remember nothing else.  Just floating, as I am now.  Floating... I see blue... I feel nothing, and yet I feel something different and familiar.  Wait, blue.  I can see now.  My hands... my body... my... tail? What the... this isn’t right!  ...Is it?”

@onyamitnu @cfs-melkire @berrodtherapscallion