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thevoidscreams · 8 months ago

Note

If you're still taking requests, I have one you might like. Primarchs admitting to their new wives that they've never had sex before. Let's see the boys and nervous virgins >:3c

Day four of Mating Press March

I'm picking Vulkan, Sanguinius, Magnus, and Ferrus for this. I hope that selection pleases.

Warnings for mentions of first times sex and blushy primarchs

Paring: primarchs x reader

"So, I'm all yours now. How would you like to have me?" You asked, smiling lovingly up at your towering husband.

Vulkan:

He swallowed hard as you crawled up his body to rest on his chest. He averted his firey red gaze, embarrassed by what he had to tell you.

"I..well I am unsure." He told you.

"Wait, have you never..?" You let the question hang in the air unfinished. Letting him decide if he wanted to finish it.

"I have not been with another, no. It was not for lack of interest, especially with you, my flame." He sighed. "But there was never a good time or opportunity. And as I grew and I became responsible for my sons." He voice trailed off and your hands cupped his cheeks. You were only a bit surprised by this. He was such a busy man.

"Well then, I would happily be your first." You kissed his nose and he wrapped his arms around you.

"Thank you. I would have you be my first and only one, though."

Your heart melted faster than a snowball on Nocturn. "Well, duh. I'm your wife now. I'd sure hope I'd be your only." His smile could have lit up half of Nostromos for how brilliant it was.

"How right you are, my flame. Please, will you guide me. I do not wish you hurt you, especially not on the night of our wedding." He appealed, and you were happy to oblige. How could you not for your beloved lord of drakes.

Sanguinius:

He turned away as you asked him. He was trying to figure out how to answer without leaving you hanging.

You hardly noticed as your angel looked so perfect as he shed his armor for you for the first time. He'd look nothing short of divine in his ceremonial armor. You could hardly pull your eyes away from him.

The celebration after had also been an absolute pleasure, and many of your new 'sons' had come to congratulate you and Sanguinius on your nuptials.

Your eyes trailed up his sculpted naked form. He was perfect. As much as any person could be, you thought. But your eyes stopped on his face. He looked distracted and even nervous.

Your hand reached for his taking it and holding it close to your chest. "What troubles you, my angel?"

He took a deep breath, his cheeks reddening as he searched for the words. "I am.." He took a moment before continuing. "I am well versed in many things. But this is not one of them, my dove."

He kneeled on the bed, still a good deal taller than you. "Well, I don't have much experience either. But between the two of us, I am sure we can combine what we know to figure it out." You offered sweetly.

Sanguinius swallowed down his nervousness. His eyes trailing over your form and the bridal lingerie you'd chosen for the evening 'conclusion'. And he felt excitement flowing through his veins. A hunger like he'd never had before.

He raised your hand to his lips, placing a kiss on them. "What I mean to say, my dove, is that I've never.. I've never been with anyone in this way."

The realization dawned on you and you felt a bit silly.

"Well, if you want, I take what little I know, and we can work it out as we go."

He nodded. "Yes, I would like that very much. Thank you." You opened your arms to him, and he hugged you close. Wrapping you up in his wings.

It didn't take you all night to figure it out. Sanguinius was a quick learner, and you were more than ready to take a trip to heaven with your angel.

Magnus:

You set your brush aside and ran your fingers through Magnus’s bountiful red locks. "There, all smooth and brushed."

A bath had been quite necessary after your wedding. After you and your newly we'd husband had been the target of piece of cake, courtesy of his brother Leman. But it'd all been in good fun and your dress wasn't ruined, which you were grateful for.

Magnus sighed and turned to face you. His single eye shone brighter as he saw you. "Thank you it is always better when you brush it."

"You cupped his cheeks as you slid into his lap. He was smaller than he'd been earlier, just a bit larger than the average human man. At least it would make things a bit easier. His lips met yours, pouring as much love as he could into the gesture. You melted against him. Delighting in your first proper kiss since the ceremony.

Several minutes passed in that sense of bliss until you had to pull away for a breath, your face flushed, and you bit your lip. Quietly, you asked him, excited to consummate your marriage. Magnus also flushed, but unlike you, his blush seemed to be one of embarrassment.

He rested his chin atop your head and hugged you. His twin hearts beating faster.

"I-I do not know." He stammered.

You pulled away quickly, looking up at his face, and saw a deep sense of uncertainty.

"I'm sorry, I mean, we don't have to if you're not interested. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

Magnus quickly took your face in his large hands and gasped out an urgent but sincere "No."

That gave you pause, and you felt confused. "No?"

"What I meant," Magnus quickly amended, "is I don't know what I would like."

Still you were partly confused as you tried to piece things together in your mind. "We've talked about some things in the past. Things involving bedroom activities."

You felt stumped as your large and immensely powerful husband fidgeted.

"Magnus, please just tell me what's up."

He looked down at you and felt as well as saw the shift in your aura from arousal and excitement to worry and fear. His hearts clenched, knowing he'd caused you those feelings, and he figured if he couldn't put his pride aside for you, then he wasn't worthy of calling himself your husband.

"I'm a virgin." He blurted out. You looked at him dumbfounded. "My knowledge of sex has been, up till now, purely academic. And I was worried to tell you because I did not want you to think lesser or incapable."

Your opinion of him really did matter yo Jim more than he cared to admit. He was startled when a light chuckle broke from your lips.

"Oh Maggy, no, why would I ever think less of you for that? I mean, I am a bit surprised, though." He wrapped your arms around his shoulders and kissed his cheek.

"Why would you be surprised? I'm not like most men after all."

You gave him a shrug. "Exactly. I mean, look at you. You're the most amazingly beautiful man I've ever seen, and you're smart on top of that. You're incredible. I'm shocked you haven't, up until now."

Magnus smiled and nuzzled his nose against yours. "Maybe I was just waiting for my perfect match."

You felt warmth surge in your chest and sighed. "Would you like to just start slow and see where that takes us?"

Magnus nodded, pulling the ties holding your robe in place until he could slip it off. "Yes, I would like that very much."

Ferrus:

The bathroom door creaked open softly as Ferrus stepped out, garbed in nothing but a towel. He'd insisted on rinsing away the sweat of the day so he could be fresh for you before you spent your first night together as husband and wife.

In truth, Ferrus was gathering himself. Collecting his thoughts and trying to calm his pounding hearts. He saw you laid out on the bed and was uncharacteristically uncertain. His gleaming metallic hands held the towel even more firmly. You were a vision, the women he loved and the one he wished to bear his blooded sons.

Stepping up to the bed, Ferrus watched you raise your hands to invite him to join you. Your voice carried up to him, saccharine and warm.

"There is something I must confess." He admitted m, not allowing himself to hide the truth any longer.

His normally pale cheeks colored ever so slightly.

"What is it?" You asked. Ferrus sat on the edge of the bed.

"I have never been intimate with anyone before. I have had opportunities in the past. But I did not."

You took his words in and nodded. Not so much surprised but curious you asked. "Why not?"

Ferrus met your eyes and lifted one hand to tilt your chin up, his fingers so big compared to yours, and you placed a hand on his wrist.

"I have never wanted to before. You are the only one I have ever found to make me feel otherwise."

Your lips curled up in a gentle smile. "You're the only one I want to be with as well."

Ferrus nodded, and a rare ghost of a smile graced his lips.

"I will do my best to be as gentle as I can."

"I know. I trust you, and we'll figure this out together." You freed your chin from his hand and crawled into his lap to kiss him.

His lips were bigger than yours, but you made it work. And you would always make it work. Because he was worth it.

#warhammer 40k #warhammer #primarch x reader #40k #my writing #primarchs #primarch #vulkan x reader #vulkan #sanguinius x reader #sanguinius #magnus the red #magnus x reader #warhammer 40k x reader #ferrus manus x reader #ferrus manus #Mating Press March

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coffeeandcalligraphy · 2 years ago

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HARRISON YEARNS FOR A PASTURE TO DO WHAT NOW IN

Harrison looks to his hands that now cradle Lonan’s skull against the cabinet. He feels strange, like an invisible man feeling matter for the first time. Water from the overflowing sink wets Lonan’s hair, drips down his chin, then off Harrison’s wrist—a sensation within a sensation within a sensation.

Like this, Lonan’s eyes raw as sockeye salmon and wide as plates, Harrison understands that just like Cael, Lonan is so young and so hurt. His stare, usually an abundant reel of pacific, is now hollow like a walnut dislodged of its fruit. His bones are fawny, face meek as a lamb’s under the polite knife of slaughter. He’s more motherless than Harrison’s even considered himself. The woman who raised him dead in the Midwest, the other who created him unwilling to remember his middle name. How unfair this all is, these wounded boys.

Now, suffering is a part of Lonan’s serenest face—stitched like gold into his eyebrows, twitching his lip. Tufts of his hacked hair poke into Harrison’s palm, and others are too short to reach. Harrison imagines how it got like that—truly imagines. Hands gripping strands by the root. A rusted pair of scissors, or maybe a knife, biting into the ends. How did Lonan feel, then? What words did he speak, and did he speak them to God? Cael had said something to Harrison in that dank church. My beloved is mine, and I am his; he grazes among the lilies. Somehow, somewhere, Harrison yearns for a pasture to love someone in.

I'm sorry but WHAT in the world IS THIS

From Feeding Habits (patched together from 2020-2022)

#sometimes I post things at midnight & forget I posted the LMAO #THIS IS SUCH A GEM #the way I took that bible verse (the lilies line) about husbands and wives #and said hold on let me just… *makes homoerotic*#Im really tempted to Not do my school work & comb FH for the rewritten bible verses in loner’s POV #soooo good lol

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fishhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh · 2 months ago

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CAN WE PLEASE TALK ABOUT HOW THE UNRAVELLING BY THE CRANE WIVES FITS THE ALBATRIO PERFECTLY?!?!?!

youtube

The song talks about four lovers and the service they provided to the singer to keep them fit and healthy. each of the alba-trio had one person that meant everything to them and took care of them before being taken from them before they could finish their mentoring.

if you use your imagination and imply that the love the song describes is familial and platonic then i think it creates a really nice story that fits the characters well.

Verse One -

I once loved a tailor who took eager care of me Sewed together my loose ends with stitches neat and clean But now my love is gone And I am left unravelling. Unravelling

I think of this verse as referring to Jay and her older sister Ava.

[Art Credits to Lanladesu on Twitter]

Ava took care of Jay when they were little and when Ava was old enough to join, she was killed in a Navy fight against a group of pirates. Jay being a few years younger wasn't of age to join and was left to finish growing up dealing with grief and without her older sister to guide her.

Also the image of Tween Ava helping Child Jay up after a fall and stitching the torn knees of her trousers with colourful thread while Jay cleans up is something i need in my life

Verse Two -

I once loved a gardener with his dirt-smudged face and hands Trimmed my weeds and gave me room to grow my flowers again But now my love is gone And I am left here withering Withering

This verse to me is representative of Chip and Arlin.

[Art Credits to Skywerse on Tumblr]

Arlin picked up a small orphan boy with no real future outside the dirty streets and took him under his wing. He gave Chip a chance to blossom and grow as a person. Before he could give Chip all the skills and time he would need to have the best chance in life, he was lost to the sea. The events of the Hole in the Sea left Chip alone and stunted in life.

The end of the verse describing the singer as withering is ESPECIALLY relevant in Chips case due to the whole undead thing. His search for Arlin literally left him Withering

Verse three -

I once loved a carpenter who carved a smile for me. Sanded my rough edges, crafted new and lovely things But now my love is gone And I can’t help the fracturing

Gillion had many many people mentoring him in his time in the undersea but i think this works best with Finn.

[Credits to Boilingheart on Tumblr]

Gillion was being Carved into the perfect warrior. he was taught to fight hard and be ruthless. Finn however taught gillion about literature and culture. Finn was the only mentor Gillion had that seemed to care about him past what he's worth. Finn left for the oversea without notice or warning leaving Gillion without a single person to genuinely care for him. Between loosing Finn and then being exiled causing him to loose everything else, Gillions discipline and sense of morals took a few hard hits.

When gillion looses his high maintenance lifestyle he begins breaking like a rusty sword and fracturing like a wooden statue left to the elements.

Verse Four -

I once loved a man who kissed me once before he left Tied me up in knots and said he’d soon return again But now my love is gone And I am left unraveling Unraveling Unraveling

This verse is true of each duo. Their Mentor left too early, before each of the Riptide Pirates had time to fully grow and now they are left mentally in the past without the guidance of the most important people in their individual lives who never got to finish teaching them.

AAAAAAA THEY ARE JUST LITTLE FUCKED UP FREAKS WHO NEVER GOT ENOUGH LOVEEEEEEEBFEIU CGBVFUAGEUKF TUMBLR DO YOU HEAR MEEE?!?!?!?!

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queens-of-spirits · 1 month ago

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The Poolverine Playlist

So as I mentioned in the latest chapter of my fic, I have a Poolverine Playlist. I had some people say they were interested so here it is! Please let me know if you have additions or edits to these songs to share! It’s under read more because it is loooooong. I was going to add links but tumblr will not let me add that many.

Like a Prayer by Madonna (3 versions). You know why this is here, I know why this is here, no explanation needed, it is their song

The Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News. It’s the song that plays while Wade is searching for his dream man a wolverine

You’re the One that I want - From Grease. The Honda Odyssey song!!! The thing that, combined with the come hither motions, the taunting, the belt grab, and literally ever other part of this scene, makes it clear that there was a little more than fighting going on in that car.

If I Could Turn Back Time by Cher. I know this one is more from the second movie, but the themes of time travelling to undo past mistakes (specifically of cruel worlds like those initially shared between them) really fits their story

The Masochism Tango by Tom Lehrer. My personal alternative soundtrack to the Honda Odyssey scene. They both were enjoying stabbing each other a biiiiit to much for this not to be fair game.

Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) by Edison Lighthouse. I can’t stop imagining this playing over a series of domestic vignettes post-movie where Logan realizes he’s in love. Also, there is hand-holding imagery, you’ll see a lot of that in this list.

Problems by Mother Mother. Particularly the first few verses. The whole finding love in a strange place while locked up in a cage is very them (“Not all of you was asleep,” anyone?) and that first bit about the singer believing that the subject is good enough for heaven but they aren’t? I can see the edits in my mind’s eye. The best part? It works no matter who you imagine as the singer.

Wrecking Ball by Mother Mother. This could be either of them, but I just can’t help by see Logan dealing with his anger and violence and idea that he ruined his worlds and then the two coming together to be fucked up and break shit together.

Curses by The Crane Wives. This is so Worst Wolverine. His world is destroyed and it’s his fault, but then Wade comes along and makes it all easier somehow.

Tongue’s & Teeth by The Crane Wives. Again, so Logan it HURTS. Feeling like a monster that hurts or destroys every good thing and will ruin Wade too, but willing to accept the fact that Wade seems to know this, but doesn’t care.

Predator by The Crane Wives (I really like their music lol). It’s on their latest albums and again. It really embodies the character of Logan to me. Tim’s hard to describe without just showing you guys the lyrics, so honestly go listen to it guys.

Sticks and Stones by The Pierces. This one is hard to describe, so please trust me and listen to it with Poolverine in mind

Iris by The Goo Goo Dolls. Okay, if I had to pick another song for the hand holding to Madonna scene, it’s this one. The vibes are immaculate, the theme talking about not being understood but finding someone who sees you are perfect, but that’s not why it’s here. It’s here because if two lines that are so much like Logan in that moment where he rushes in to save Wade. One: “you’re the closest to heaven that I’ll ever be/And I don’t want to go home right now.” This one is Logan finding something in Wade he’d thought he’d lost and realizing, perhaps even in that moment, that he doesn’t want to go back to a fixed world. Two: the very first line “and I’d give up forever to touch you.” Logan believes that if he goes in that chamber he will die, but he breaks down the door anyway. He’s literally giving up his effectively immortal lifespan (forever) to touch Wade because he’d rather die with him that live in a universe where he doesn’t exist.

Too Sweet by Hozier. This one is so Logan falling in love with Wade post-movie. Logan having another chance at life and Wade trying to pull him out of his most self-destructive habits while Logan can’t think of anything but how Wade is too good, too sweet for him.

This is Love by Air Traffic Controller. I love these boys but they are a liiiiittle toxic. This is that (plus the knife and gun imagery)

The Red Means I Love You by Madds Buckley. Remember that scene where Wade bled into Logan’s mouth and he had that feral ass grin and laughed? Yeah.

I WANNA BE YOUR SLAVE by Måneskin. You say rough sex I say Poolverine.

Big Bang Theory Man by Clare Fader and The Vaudevillians. It’s another toxic romance vibes song. This one has guns lol

Somebody to Love by Queen. I think this really exemplifies their lives before they find each other. They’re both lost, both put down by life and the world. They don’t know it yet, but they’re just looking for somebody to love.

You Give Love a Bad Name by Bon Jovi. A little more toxicity for the boys. Logan singing this about Wade works well. Like with the idea that Logan played his part in Wade’s game and got sent to the void. Plus comparing Wade to a loaded gun? Yes. Just yes

You Make My Dreams (Come True) by Daryl Hall & John Oates. I like to believe that they both made each other’s dreams come true. Wade got to team up with Wolverine and Logan got a second chance.

The Other Side from the Greatest Showman soundtrack. Look I know Hugh is the one singing here, but I can’t help but draw comparisons from this song to Wade dragging Logan away from the bar where he’s content to waste away.

I Don’t Care if You’re Contagious by Pierce the Veil. My beta reader (crypticanid here on tumblr) recommended this one so it’s here.

The Chain by Fleetwood Mac. The chain is them holding hands to save the world :-)

Dancing in the Dark by Bruce Springsteen. Here for dad rock energy and because it fits pre-movie Logan.

Shackled And Drawn by Bruce Springsteen. See above (Springsteen is peak dad rock to me)

Angel Eyes & Basketball by Foot Ox. Look at these opening eyes and tell it isn’t Logan “There are flowers growing all around a massive animal inside of me/And it's so ugly/And I'm so broken/And I'm so ugly/And it's so broken”

Heaven’s Gate by Amélie Farren. This is so Worst Wolverine pre-movie. He’s lost and helpless and blames himself for ruining his world. Also, the bit about “I was told that I was vital in the plan to save my life” is giving Logan agreeing to help Wade so the TVA can fix his world. And not believing in Wade and always running away before finally deciding to stay and follow? So represented in this song. Also! “‘Cause I didn’t deserve heaven, but I’m standing at its gate”? That is so Logan when he sees the start of his life with Wade stretch out before him.

Creepy Old Guy from the Beetlejuice musical soundtrack. This is one of the silly ones, but I find the idea of Wade singing this about Logan, who remember is over 200, really funny. He’s Logan’s controversially young girlfriend.

November by Sparkbird. It’s a song about travelling grouch parallel universes and the vibes are very Poolverine. Plenty of knife imagery.

Loser, Baby from the Hazbin Hotel soundtrack. Look I know this one is a little off the wall, but c’mon, it’s a song where an animal themed alcoholic and a hyper sexual gun-lover who are heavily implied to have feelings for each other sing about how life sucks and they’re both losers, but at least they have each other. It’s one the nose (I would actually cry if someone did artwork of them dancing in front of that billboard like in the show)

#poolverine #deadpool #deadpool & wolverine #logan howlett #wade wilson #wolverine #shipping #ship #ship playlist #playlist #Poolverine playlist #deadclaws #deadpool and wolverine #deadpool 3 #deadclaws playlist #music #idk what my music taste even is #Spotify

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anghraine · 1 month ago

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Academia update: unusually, I'm loving the class I'm teaching (Shakespeare!) and my students continue to be (mostly) fantastic.

They're starting work on their group performances—which isn't about how good they are as actors, but what their groups can bring to the scene they choose to perform or, alternatively, what they can pull out of the original scene (essentially, what do they have to say about it and what approach are they taking in order to say that?). A group that's always especially enthusiastic in class paused from a discussion of puppet designs for their group's performance (I am very curious, and delighted, about their Puppet Macbeth plan) to ask if the limited modern language they can add for clarification can include expletives. They very obviously lit up when I said "yes, they can be part of your group's artistic vision" and were like, "this class rules."

(One of them has stayed after a couple of times to excitedly tell me that this is their FAVORITE class and they are NEVER going to miss a day unless they get the PLAGUE, despite struggling with Shakespeare's language. <3)

Today, attendance was fairly low because of some local event, and quite a few students left early, which is always disappointing, though at least they waited until the lecture introducing Othello was over. But five stayed to the very end; when they realized it was just them, I laughed and said they were truly the merry band of brothers of the class, and one of them was like, "Obviously we're the true Shakespeare lovers." However, one of them actually is not into the actual plays, and asked if the remaining quintet could pause their in-class work to have an impromptu discussion about how Shakespeare was relevant to their lives in 2024, since she couldn't see it but clearly the others could. And she did want to see it.

I thought that was an awesome idea, actually, since she wasn't being an asshole about it, and while she was asking me, she was also interested in what the others thought. Before I said anything except "sure, that sounds interesting" the other students started taking turns explaining what they found relevant and engaging about Shakespeare's plays thus far. They had pretty wildly different perspectives—one was interested in Shakespeare primarily because she's a poet and really fascinated by all the ways he uses verse and prose and form in general to both obscure and evoke deeper meanings that can at first be hidden or mysterious. She's part of a group of poets that's actually currently trying to write Shakespearean sonnets with other poet friends to stretch their artistic muscles. Another one thinks that there's basically something to be gained or learned about people from almost any text, no matter how remote it seems from our own experiences, and Shakespeare in particular shows a lot of very familiar dynamics in terms of people even though the language is hard and the culture strange. Someone else talked about the importance of history in understanding the present and how intertwined literature of the past is with the past itself.

Later on, I ended up talking about how, while culture has changed a lot since Shakespeare's time (mostly for the better, in some ways for the worse), and while culture has a powerful effect on us—people are still people. Understanding people is always valuable. Shakespeare's characters are very human in ways that can be very recognizable despite the different contexts. They feel a lot of the same things we do and they deal with similar problems, although they might express their feelings, relationships, and concerns in different terms than people do now.

The jokes men make about other men growing horns, for instance, show up all the time when male characters are having masculinity issues in early modern drama or challenging other men's masculinity. This was a reference to a trope about men developing horns if their wives cheated on them—it's a barely euphemistic way to accuse other men of being cuckolds. And like, men playing masculinity games by calling other men cucks and fixating on their sexual prowess and irresistible allure and claims over women are not unfamiliar behaviors at all.

We also talked about how modern people don't always express their racism in the exact same ways that characters do in Othello (though sometimes not all that differently!), but honestly there's plenty of overlap between the ways Iago, Roderigo etc work to frame him as bestial and how many people today, esp white people, conceptualize Black men and particularly relationships between Black men and white women. There's a lot of pointed emphasis on Desdemona's whiteness and how Othello must have bewitched her by witchcraft!!! only for the truth to be revealed that she fell in love with him because she genuinely likes him and finds him far more interesting and cool and endearing than Roderigo, and Shakespeare works overtime to humanize Othello and make him compelling and intriguing. (We'd talked a bit about how Shakespeare substantially alters his source material with regard to Othello's characterization and the general takeaway from his marriage to Desdemona.)

We talked about Viola in Twelfth Night as well—there's this idea that genderfuckery (not the term I used lol) is some brand new invention and yet the first few years of the 1600s produce Genderfuckery: The Play in which even those who feel most intensely about one twin or the other cannot tell them apart when gender is "supposed" to be an absolute clearly visible binary.

We also ended up talking about the relevance of aspects of Shakespeare's plays that may not be directly present in our everyday lives, but which influenced more familiar tropes or social issues.

Anyway, though this was initially a bit dispiriting, it ended up being a really cool impromptu conversation and I still came away thinking, hey, teaching Shakespeare is super awesome. Grad school had kind of convinced me that I don't like teaching and am not at all good at it, but not being eternally stuck in composition hell makes a big difference.

#anghraine babbles #long post #early modern blogging #william shakespeare #ivory tower blogging #nice things people say to me #cw racism #gender blogging

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theholmwoodfoundation · 9 days ago

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THE HOLMWOOD FOUNDATION SEASON ONE SUPPORTING CAST

BASIL WAITE - THOMAS VAN HELSING

Basil is a puppeteer and puppet builder, who currently lives by the sea in rainy South Wales. He is well-versed in performing without being seen, as he’s usually under a table or behind a desk, so this project will be a lot more comfortable…! When he’s not making creatures from fleece or doing silly voices, he’s usually listening to an audio book or podcast, so he’s thrilled to be involved with this amazing project!”

MICHELLE KELLY - HENRI MARTIN

Michelle Kelly is an actor, voice actor and TTRPG performer based in Yorkshire, UK. You can hear her as Niyathi in The Secret of St Kilda, as Alexandria in Tales From the Fringes of Reality, and as multiple characters in The Silt Verses, Folxlore and Shadows at the Door. Find out more about her work at https://michellekellyperformance.carrd.co

JACKIE CALISTAHHH - ELENA

Jackie Calistahhh is an actress and seductress. She works in SFW and NSFW productions alike: Commercials, videogames, erotica. She loves immersing herself in different characters and worlds.

ROBYN HOLDAWAY - CAM

Robyn is a non-binary actor best known for their work as Layla in Netflix's 'Sex Education'. Their credits also include: AMC's 'Moonhaven', BBC's 'Strike: Lethal White', and various other stage and screen roles. Their audiobook work includes the award winning 'Our Wives Under the Sea', as well as critically acclaimed 'Sistersong', 'How To Understand Your Gender', and 'Skin'. Robyn can be heard in the audiodrama 'Camlann' and in the upcoming video game 'Eternal Strands'. They are an active member of the LGBTQ community, and they are passionate about bringing this diversity into the mainstream both as an artist and as an activist

DAVID AULT - DR TIMOTHY LAKE

David has played major roles for many productions, including his 'Best Actor' award-winning portrayal of Byron in The Byron Chronicles. He can also be heard at the No Sleep Podcast, Shadows at the Door and Colonial Radio Theatre, amongst others.

KARIM KRONFLI - DAVE

Karim has been a professional performer for over 30 years originally working as a juggler and firebreather. Trained as a Director and Voice Actor at City Lit in London he started doing voice work in 2010. Specialising in audio drama he has appeared in over 100 productions including Re: Dracula, The Magnus Archives, London After Midnight, SCP Archives, Dr Who: Redacted and many more.

CANDACE MCAFEE - MAGDALENA SWIFT

Candace the Magnificent (they/she) is an actor, TTRPG performer, and writer based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They love bringing their unique voice to a wide variety of projects, from commercials and animation to improv and audiodramas. You can hear more of their work in the upcoming video game Monaco 2, the cosmic horror audio drama Partial Veil, the actual play podcasts 3 Black Halflings and Frequencies, and many more. Learn more about her here: https://candacemcafee.carrd.co.

ANDREW BISS - JONATHAN HARKER 3RD

Andrew is an actor, voice actor and playwright, with an extensive background in theatre and film. Recent credits include the audio dramas ‘Station 151,’ ‘Vampire: The Masquerade Port Saga’ and the newly released ‘Clawmoor Heights’ as well as narrating the documentary series ‘Building Icons’ for Warner Bros. Discovery. He is the author of the best-selling book ‘Monologues They’ll Remember You By’ and is a graduate of the University of the Arts London and a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Inc. More at: andrewbiss.com and adbvoiceover.com.

As always, you can listen to our pilot episode now for free at the link below. And please donate to our Kickstarter for Season One, if you're able!

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jon-withnoh · 8 months ago

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Give me the hot Elisabeth and Rebecca takes!

Sure thing! (Oh boy this turned out long.)

Elisabeth disclaimer: this is purely based on vibes. I have some knowledge of the historical background, but it’s not really my field of study.

Rebecca disclaimer: this is my field of study and I have very strong opinions on it, though I do not claim that I am always correct. I do however maintain that I could back up many of my claims if I had the time to do proper textual analysis and read secondary sources.

I genuinely think Elisabeth (the musical as it was written) is a masterpiece. The framing device, the way certain melodies mirror each other to foreshadow events or indicate character development — it’s amazing! Plus, the music is ridiculously good. 100/10. I love this musical.

Most stagings/recordings of Elisabeth since 2012 though? More than questionable. Levay/Kunze musicals in general appear to be following a pattern where the original production and a maybe one or two productions after it are full of nuance and complexity, only to have that complexity broken down and reduced over time. That is no fault of the musical itself, but a worrying trend of not trusting audience to be able to handle nuance and trying to make every element of a production more palatable and easier to handle. I hate it. Both the 1992 and the 2005 Wien productions have so much to recommend them (I can’t speak for the German productions but would humbly turn over the questions to more Elisabeth-versed mutuals like @fitzrove), but it all seems to be going downhill.

HOT TAKE: I think bringing on more and more “Broadway-sounding” performers to do both Elisabeth and Rebecca is a mistake. For me, Levay/Kunze shows have a very specific sound to them, a sound that fits into European musical theatre and makes sense for when and where they were created. Hiring almost exclusively people with a way more modern, belt-y sound is not a direction I personally like for these shows. Don’t get me wrong, this is not about any specific performers, it’s about trying to change the sound of these shows into something more akin to a big Broadway musical and that really doesn’t work for me. Both Elisabeth and Rebecca are so idiosyncratic in how they sound and how they’re written, trying to make them fit into a mould they don’t belong in does them a disservice. (Looking at you, VBW.)

Maybe not a hot take: but I love the 2005 Wien production of Elisabeth so much. It was my first exposure to the musical and remains my go-to cast album. It certainly has faults and I totally understand why people might gravitate towards different productions, but since I haven’t listened to the full 1992 Wien and 2001 Essen (?) productions yet, I can only compare it to 2012.

REBECCA HOT TAKE: Michael Kunze has stated that he views Rebecca as first and foremost a love story and I think he is WRONG. Daphne du Maurier herself would probably think he was wrong (seeing as she hated the story being described as a romance). This is a core problem with Rebecca das Musical. There are many things to love (Danny, Danny, Beatrice, and did I mention Danny?), but in my opinion, the whole “this is a great love story” angle does it a huge disservice. Let’s make it weirder! Let’s make it as bleak as it fucking is! (Probably not a crowd pleaser but let me have my fun).

Rebecca the musical could have done with some serious editing.

The Magdeburg production of Rebecca, which I am aware was not very accessible to a lot of people, might be one of the best productions of Rebecca ever. Kerstin Ibald absolutely knocked it out of the park with her Mrs Danvers and gave her all the nuance and emotion we so desperately crave. Her Danny is so broken, so lost. Patrick Stanke’s Maxim strikes the perfect balance between the haughty upperclass Englishman who takes kind of a fatherly tone with his young wive, and the haunted, jealous husband who absolutely did murder his first wife. Also in this production Maxim and Ich finally have some chemistry! This production’s Ich (Sibylle Lambrecht, I think) has such a great character arc and it is completely believable that she is into Maxim, even (or especially??) after his confession. Plus, the set design was amazing!!!

More Rebecca hot takes that I’ve definitely brought up before: I know we all like to write Ich as a repressed queer woman who ends up not being all that into Maxim, but honestly, she probably is very attracted to him. We can speculate about the why, but like, it is strongly implied that they have sex for the first time shortly after Maxim’s confession. She wants him.

I maintain and will die on this hill that making Danny sing “Ich liebte sie, doch sie hat mich verraten” is a mistake. I mean, yes please let Danny tell us she loved Rebecca, but come on. Danny doesn’t lose her faith in Rebecca. She doesn’t stop idolising Rebecca. Whatever her reasons for setting Manderley on fire may be it’s not that she thinks Rebecca betrayed her. I don’t even think Danny thinks highly enough of herself to even consider feeling betrayed by Rebecca. Rebecca is god to her.

I definitely have more, but this post is really long and I’m running out of steam… Hope you enjoyed!

#rebecca das musical #Elisabeth das musical #hot takes #really these are hot takes #these are my strong strong opinions #doesn’t mean they’re objectively correct or anything #I just strongly believe in them #thank you

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sexilydrawn · 1 year ago

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Always wondered why whenever Dorian gets hit once Max is like HELP DORIAN, but when Max's arm almost got randomly blown off in Jaws it was Blackwall who said you ok fam? So I was like what if Dorian just got paralyzed with fear every time and can't even say anything. Max verse Dorian's a panicky boy anyway so it works out nicely this way. I also put him in a funk which he needed to come out of.

Wanted to do stuff with the Trevelyan wives eventually. Max verse Trevelyan parents arrange their childrens marriages carefully. Mothers pick wives for their sons, fathers husbands for their daughters.

#dragon age #inquisition #dragon age inquisition #inquisitor trevelyan #dorian pavus #pavelyan

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xxgoblin-dumplingxx · 1 year ago

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Arranged verse, I want to see more Batman and Mrs.Wayne😔

There was a ridge that gave you a perfect view of the bridge. The juxtapositon of the edge of a stand of trees that had once been woods and swamp with the sprawl of the city and the harbor... it was a challenge, capturing that. But.

You liked a challenge sometimes. It gave you a way to fill the time. Not that anyone was going to care about your silly little paintings. But that was fine. It was nice to have something that was yours.

"It's dangerous out here," Batman said, frowning when you didn't turn.

"I don't think anyone would care very much if I went missing," you say practically. "The only reason it would matter is if my father wanted to get rid of someone else."

"Not even your husband-"

"I doubt it," you snort. There's no bitterness. Or sadness. It's all said as blandly as you'd point out that the sun rises in the east. The sun rises in the east, gravity is real, and no one would miss me. "I still don't know anything-"

"Do you want to know?"

"No."

Of course you don't, Bruce thought. If you know things you might have to do something about-

"I'm already in danger every time I step out my door. It would be easy for any of the families to use me- my death, maiming, or kidnapping, as a way to start a war. If I don't know anything they can't get information either."

Bruce stopped and peered over your shoulder. Letting your words penetrate. "How-"

"There are a set of rules," you explain. "Codes of conduct. Gentleman's agreements that are meant to keep people from behaving like complete animals." You do half turn then, "Just telling you these things exist could get me killed."

"What are they?"

"Wives are left out. Wives, daughters, and any son who isn't inheriting things. Thats first-

"Your husband isn't-"

"His family went legit, sure. But that doesn't mean there isn't dirty money in the vault still."

"Hn."

"I spent my summers working on preservation projects," you explain. "You can find a lot of things in Archives. Half the art in the manor was either stolen cheated for." You snort in spite of yourself. Not that it mattered, really but- there was something satisfying about knowing your husband didn't know that.

#Bruce Wayne #Bruce Wayne x reader #arranged!verse 2.0 #ask answered #minors dni #reader insert

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its-not-a-pen · 2 years ago

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1460th day as the prime minister of han and you are the enemy general at my mercy. since your absolute loser of a liege lord is MIA you agree to work for me until he returns and in exchange i agree not to raze your city to the ground and put every rebel to the sword. i hope this magnanimous gesture will convince you of my good intentions.

1461st day as the prime minister of han in order to knock you down a few pegs i try to sabotage your integrity by making you share a room with your loser liege lord's two wives but you just stand outside the door all night with a candle and aren't tempted at all. (i am honestly baffled, as far as i'm concerned other people's wives are utterly irresistible.)

1462nd day as the prime minister of han, my advisor tells me it's easier to catch flies with honey so i begin plying you gifts and pretty serving girls but you keep sending them to your loser liege lord's wives. instead of passing the evening with me engaged in gentlemanly conversation, you spend long hours drying their tears and reassuring them their loser husband is safe. i can't say i'm not annoyed by the snub but your filial piety is commendable

1463rd day as the prime minister of han and even with my considerable intellect, i cannot understand why a man of your skills would chose to serve such an unworthy master. that sanctimonious sandal-weaver has lost nearly every battle he's fought (most of them against me), yet heroes still flock to his cause and peasants aid him at every turn. how does he inspire such loyalty?

1464th day as the prime minister of han, i definitely will not be throwing you an extravagant banquet every day because that's just desperate! i'm only throwing them every fifth day and small ones every third day. do you not like the silk-and-gold robes i've been sending you? you can speak plainly, general, i wont be offended. do they not fit? i must see for myself, please disrobe--

1465th day as the prime minister of han and you finally join me for a drink. i've forgotten how nice this is, in between fighting bandits, quashing rebellions and running 1/3 of a country i've not had much time to myself. the wine loosens your tongue and you talk about brotherhood, sacrifise and sacred oaths in a peach garden, things i've heard about but never seen, like the qilin and other such fantastical beasts but you're so sincere i can't even bring myself to scoff at you. i've lived my entire life looking over my shoulder; better to betray than be betrayed, that's my motto. i've never known anything else.

1466th day as the prime minister of han and i give you a silk bag to protect your long, handsome beard after you made an offhand comment about the whiskers getting brittle in winter. the emperor himself remarked upon it and even though you were humble and self-effacing as always, i preened. it pleases me that you look so well under my patronage, yet your eyes are so troubled. i must not be doing enough, time to consult my advisor again...

1467th day as the prime minister of han i noticed your green battle-coat was threadbare so I fashioned a replacement made of the rarest brocade but you only ever wear it under the old coat loser liege lord gave you because having a piece of him around eases your heart. i don't even have a clever quip for that. although in hindsight i should have expected this turn of events given your utter indifference to that loser's wives and my pretty serving girls.

1468th day as the prime minister of han, i give you the fastest horse in the world and to my surprise you're elated, bowing and thanking me profusely. then you go and ruin the moment by telling me how grateful you are because it means you will be able to travel quickly to your loser liege lord when you discover his location and now i wish i'd turned that damn beast into glue. this is the first time i've ever seen you smile.

1469th day as the prime minister of han, a verse came to me during our walk through the woods; "the magpie flies south and circles the tree three times. where shall he rest?" i want you to stay. i want you to be mine. lead my armies and help me bring order to the realm, i'll raise you monuments and immortalise your name. alas, the bitter irony is not lost on me, i want you for your loyalty but your loyalty is the reason you cannot stay. if you could have been persuaded i would have lost my respect for you.

1470th day as the prime minister of han and news arrives that your loser liege lord is alive. my advisor tells me that you won't leave until you've repaid my kindness. i guess i better keep you away from the action and hope the next few months are boring and uneventful. in the meantime why don't you try on this new robe! no, i don't mind you undressing here--

1471th day as the prime minister of han and my city is under attack. you single-handedly break the siege and bring me the enemy leader's head. hospitality repaid, you ride off without a backwards glance and i watched the horizon long after you have disappeared.

4391th day as the prime minister of han. I trust you've been well, general, since we last met. I often dreamed that you would return to me, we'd sit under the trees and drink a toast for old times sake. As far as reunions go, the middle of an ambush is not very auspicious. Our roles are reversed, I am the bleeding hart and you are the faithful hound. by rights you should have delivered me straight to your master but instead you let me limp away. why did you do it my beautiful, foolish, loyal general? you know i will only cause you grief. this war will not end as long as i draw breath. this country cannot have three kingdoms any more than a single mountain can have three tigers.

-epilogue-

last year as the king of wei and i trust you've been well, general, since we last met...

notes under the cut:

It's a truth universally acknowledged that any funny joke on tumblr.com will be run into the ground.

this is a spoof of the 2nd Century Warlord by @romanceyourdemons

1/ Events are based on the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, supplemented by historical events.

2/ In 196 AD, Warlord Cao Cao moves the capital of China to his territory of Xu City with the Emperor as his puppet. His offical title is the General-in-Chief (大將軍) although I've gone with the more recognisable "Prime Minister". In 200 AD, Cao Cao captured General Guan Yu, who was serving under Liu Bei.

3/Book!Cao Cao is portrayed as a villain and his name is literally synonymous with the devil in Chinese culture. IRL Cao Cao was considered to be a wise and capable ruler. I've decided to bridge the gap a little.

4/ Cao Cao (and sons) were very influential poets, the line "the magpie flies south" is a passage from the Unnamed Magpie Poem, after consolidating power, Cao Cao encourages all the best and brightest in his kingdom to flock to his court.

5/ "I dreamt of you, general" monologue taken verbatim from the 2010 tv show. People in the han dynasty were battling demons and that demon is bisexuality.

6/ Book!Cao Cao does not actually think Liu Bei is a loser, he considers him to be "one of the only two heroes in the world". but my god, you can pry that alliteration out of my cold, dead hands.

#chinese history #ancient china #romance of the three kingdoms #san guo yan yi #history meme #cao cao #liu bei #guan yu #second century warlord adjacent i guess #i realise it's an incredibly bold move to spoof a popular post when the op is literally ur mutual #do you like stories that are 7/10 history and 3/10 conjecture and 10/10 batshit crazy? read romance of the three kingdoms!#the moss translation none of the other ones

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11queensupreme11 · 10 months ago

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So, that’s two out of five suitors that now know the truth (and out of them it just had to be Loki huh? Wonder what price he will demand from Percy to buy his silence on the matter 🤐 😳 ). I have no idea which Yandere is going to find out next (my money’s on Creepy Uncle H) but I hope that Poseidon will be the last.

And by that I mean literally the last one to receive the memo.

The whole Greek Pantheon, from the irritating little brother Zeus to Hermit/Exiled Adamas to Heracles, the oblivious lovable fool, everyone will be in the secret and working together to keep him in the dark out of fear that he’s gonna skewer Percy if he finds out. Needless to say, he does find out and the man is furious. He’s foaming at the mouth. Ready to kill a bitch - not, as some would think, because Percy’s been lying to him this whole time (as far as Daddyseidon’s concerned, that’s his daughter right there and if his alternate self wanted to claim her he shouldn’t have left her out of his sight - finder’s keepers and all that; he’s certainly not making that mistake), but by the fact that his daughter(-future wife) let literally everyone else know before him. Even other Pantheons knew!! Shiva and his wives are right there beside half the Norse Pantheon - and is that Anubis?? BUDDHA TOO?!? By the seas, even the humans knew?!

That’s it. His daughter(-future wife) is grounded for the next decade at least. What ~ terrible ~ and ~ excruciating ~ punishment will Daddyseidon visit upon his naughty daughter I wonder 😈

WAIT STOP LMFAOOOOO

I LOVE THIS

poseidon being the most CONSTANT presence in percy's life (he's her daddy and they literally LIVE TOGETHER) and yet he's the very LAST person in all of valhalla and the atlantean empire to fucking know 😭😭😭😭😭😭

also, everyone working together to keep percy's secret out of fear of losing her to poseidon is just SOOOOOOOOO 😭💖💖💖💖💖💖💖 honestly, i love them. they're so sweet, they love their lil dumb princess loser so much 🥺🥺🥺🥺 i can totally imagine the more stronger gods and the einjerhars squaring up to shield percy from poseidon once he finds out hasduafvhgv

luckily for them! poseidon loves her too much to kill her! they probably take a huge sigh of relief once they realize he doesn't wanna hurt her, and now that EVERYONE knows, they'll probably try to find a way to the pjo verse to take vengeance even tho percy's begging them in the background to leave the pjo verse alone 💀

daddyseidon would totally drag percy back into the bedroom once things calm down. she's been lying to him for years, its only right for him to punish his naughty daughter after all~ 😏

(she's not leaving the bedroom in the next few weeks and when she does, she won't even be able to walk or swim 💀💀)

#👸🏻| asks #👸🏻| arsenic blues

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noxturnalnymph · 1 year ago

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PLENTY OF TIME

(HB x Tommy) (3.8K of new story)

CrackFic based on the @gracieispunk HBF!Joel series (that I am FUCKING OBSESSED with). HB (reader's husband) x Tommy Miller

**CHECK OUT THE NEWEST STORY IN THE HBF-VERSE FAKE BLOOD**

The moodboard represents MY head-canons and ONLY MY head-canons. Picture HB however you want!! (not you @strang3lov3 or @sr-lrn)

A/N & Warnings: I have some more of my own personal head-canons at the bottom of this fic. You can read them before, or after, or not at all. Please be aware this is MLM (Unprotected PinA, Oral M to M, come swallowing). If that isn’t your thing don’t read. I have never written MLM before so please be gentle with me. I appreciate your kindness.

Approved (and encouraged by) Gracie, but this IS NOT CANON

….(yet)

So this sordid little tale takes place during JEALOUS (please read that first). I’m not sure if Gracie meant to leave HB and Tommy alone in that hotel room for HOURS….. But somewhere deep inside her mind palace (lurking along the back corridors of the White Lotus)...... HB made sure that’s exactly what happened.

TEXT IN PINK IS PART OF JEALOUS - WRITTEN BY @gracieispunk

Your husband -HB- took Joel, Tommy, and all the guys, on a business trip for an architecture seminar.

Of course they didn’t have to come, but he insisted.

He who currently stands at the bar with Tommy, absolutely shit faced.

Joel’s other work friends hover around with the women they brought with them on the trip. Whether it’s their wives, girlfriends, or someone they met last week. Everyone is relaxed, despite the music thumping loud. Chatting and casually drinking beers, none of them as drunk as HB - who’s the only one who has to be up in less than 6 hours.

You stand in a short floral dress, your elbow perched on the table you’re seated at, your head in your hand. You pout as you sip your beer, because you rather be up in your hotel room with your book.

You try not to pout more as you watch Joel grind into another woman while they dance.

HB had drunkenly kissed you earlier and Joel wasn’t happy to witness that. Finding his revenge in one of the wives friends, who had supposedly been brought just for him.

He put the moves on her fast, laughing, and winking - and making you extremely jealous over a man that was indeed not your husband.

Joel looks over at you as he dances with her, raising his brows as his hands wander up the sides of her thighs like they do yours. You watch his hands and you can almost feel him on your legs instead.

It makes your stomach turn but you can’t stop watching. That is until Tommy gets your attention. He’s lugging a drunk HB over his shoulder.

“Think I’m gonna tuck this one in,” Tommy yells over the music.

You smile and nod before turning to HB who can’t even keep his eyes from rolling. You hold his face in your hand and completely miss the look of contempt Joel gives you, when he sees.

You lightly smack HB’s face and there’s hardly any response. You nod to Tommy to take him away and put him to bed.

Tommy drags HB into the elevator, the young couples already in it making room for them at the back. The other couples get off on the 3rd floor and Tommy shuffles HB off his shoulder for the remainder of the ride. HB stands up straight and stretches his back, all pretense gone, popping his neck and lowly groaning in the process.

“Took you long enough,” Tommy mutters. “Thought we were gonna be down there all fuckin’ night.” He crosses his arms, clearly pissed off.

“Relax, would ya?” HB reaches his hand to squeeze Tommy’s shoulder, lingering his touch. “Had to wait for the right time to get outta there.”

Tommy scoffs as the elevator dings, signaling the top floor arrival. HB squeezes Tommy’s shoulder harder and uses the grip to guide him out of the elevator and down the hall towards his room.

Once inside, HB stops just outside the bathroom and toes off his shoes. Tommy walks further into the large suite and sits down on the bed, shuffling off his shoes and socks and then moving quickly to unbutton his shirt. HB approaches him and grabs his hands, stalling his movements.

“Quit rushin’. I promise we’ve got time.”

“How can you be so sure?” Tommy looks up at him, brow still furrowed in frustration. HB runs his thumb across Tommy’s chin, sliding his palm across his stubbled-cheek and back into the hair on the side of his head, tugging lightly as he drags his fingers through it.

HB places his palms on top of Tommy’s thighs and lowers himself between the other man’s spread legs. Once on his knees he continues the slow unbuttoning of Tommy’s shirt, leaning forward to intermittently place gentle kisses on the edge of Tommy’s jaw. Tommy closes his eyes and breathes deeply, tension in his shoulders visibly relaxing.

“Everyone’s pretty preoccupied,” he hums, not revealing any of his secrets. He knows Tommy was expecting more alone time together tonight, but he had to put the work in to make sure they would remain uninterrupted. He also knows that the kisses he laid all over his beautiful young wife’s face hours ago began a chain reaction.

He sat back and watched the dominoes fall, planted at the bar with Tommy all night pretending to get drunker and drunker. Watching Joel grope his little date (that HB had insisted be invited), and observing the way his own wife’s mood grew more and more sour. Finally, when she and Joel couldn’t keep their eyes off each other, he knew that he and Tommy wouldn’t be missed.

His buttons undone, Tommy pushes the shirt off his shoulders and yanks the cuffs over his hands, tossing the shirt towards the foot of the bed. Impatiently, he grabs at his undershirt with one hand and it joins the other clothes on the floor. He reaches for HB’s already-loosened tie but his hand is slapped away.

HB pushes his hand flat on Tommy’s chest, guiding him to lay back on the mattress. He reaches for Tommy’s belt and in one fluid motion the buckle is undone, a swift jerk releases it from the loops on Tommy’s khakis. Tommy groans in anticipation, making HB smirk.

Tommy bucks his hips off the bed in anticipation, reaching down in his impatience to undo his own button and fly. They don’t get as much time like this together as they want, so they're often both eager, rushing to make each other come as quickly as possible with hands and mouths.

Not tonight. Tonight HB wants to take his time.

He runs his hands up Tommy’s torso and then back down to his hips, curling his hands into his trousers and pulling down. Tommy plants his feet on the ground and pushes his pelvis to the sky, allowing more freedom for HB to remove his pants and underwear together. As HB pulls them down Tommy’s legs he hooks his fingers in his socks as well, leaving Tommy completely bare.

Tommy throws his arm over his face, groaning again as the cold air from the room hits his flushed, leaking cock. Wasting no more time, HB leans forward, grabbing Tommy’s dick firmly at the base, and begins swirling his tongue around the foreskin-covered head.

After a few circles with his tongue he closes his lips around it, suckling gently and bobbing his head very slightly up and down. He begins to firmly but slowly pump his hand up and down the shaft, his grip gliding smoothly as Tommy’s velvety skin slides up and down underneath his fist.

Ignoring Tommy’s increasing mewls of pleasure, HB returns to running his tongue along the head, slipping his tongue under the skin. He glides it around the ridge and swipes it across the slit, licking up the precome steadily leaking out. Tommy seems to grow even harder under his attention, his cock now dark red and straining towards the sky.

HB gently pulls his fist down the shaft, dragging on the skin to reveal more of the head. The sensitive underside of Tommy’s cock now exposed, HB sticks his tongue out of his mouth and gently taps that part of Tommy’s cock against it. The soft, wet slapping noises are barely audible over Tommy’s whines.

HB shifts his body, ignoring his own painfully hardening cock in favor of paying attention to the gorgeous man laid out in front of him. Still gripping the shaft, he alternates rubbing the frenulum side to side with his tongue, and taking him into his mouth and closing his lips around him. Each time he takes Tommy into his mouth he swallows him down further.

With his free hand HB guides Tommy’s one thigh up, resting his foot on the edge of the bed. Tommy moves his other leg up on his own, opening himself up wide for HB between his legs. Not stopping what his right hand and mouth are doing, HB cups Tommy’s balls with his left hand, gently rolling them, applying light pressure to them, and tugging them ever so slightly.

Tommy’s arm is still laid across his face, working to muffle his moans. HB reaches up with his left hand and pushes Tommy’s arm off his face. He stretches to touch Tommy’s face, dragging his fingers down over his nose and slipping his index finger into Tommy’s mouth. Tommy begins to suck on HB’s finger, mimicking the rolling tongue movements he feels being done to him.

When Tommy releases HB’s finger he brings it back down to the apex of Tommy’s legs. HB removes his mouth from Tommy’s cock and lowers his mouth to his balls. He begins to lick each one thoroughly before beginning to gently suckle at them, alternating back and forth. Eventually he takes one at a time into his mouth, rolling his tongue over them and letting them bob around gently inside.

When Tommy’s balls are in HB’s mouth, lifted and out of the way, HB takes his spit-slicked finger and begins sliding it along the space behind Tommy’s balls. Tommy scrabbles to grab a pillow and covers his face with it just as a loud, wanton moan releases from his mouth. HB lets a low moan out himself, vibrating Tommy’s balls in his mouth, sending him further into ecstasy.

HB continues his ministrations, moving his finger back just a bit further and pressing against the tight ring of muscle. He dips his head down and begins to lap his tongue wetly along the area he just trailed his finger, letting Tommy’s noises guide him. Lazily pumping his fist over Tommy’s dick, he draws swirls and circles with the tip of his tongue along Tommy’s perineum and over his puckered hole.

Tommy is now incoherently babbling into the pillow nonstop as HB flicks his tongue back and forth, up and down. HB is waiting and he knows he won’t have to wait much longer. Almost as if on cue, Tommy throws the pillow off his face and keens the word please, his eyes scrunched closed and his face contorted as if in pain.

HB raises his face up and grips Tommy’s cock extra firm, making Tommy sit up on his elbows and suck a breath through his teeth. His eyes meet HB’s and then HB growls out just loud enough for Tommy to hear over his own panting breaths.

“Give it to me.”

Tommy’s head lolls back.

“I wanna taste it,” HB adds before he opens wide and swallows Tommy’s cock down to the base.

Tommy’s hand immediately flies to the back of HB’s head, threading through his silver hair. HB pushes his finger against Tommy’s tight hole, inserting his finger to the halfway point. HB begins to swallow, knowing the sensations on Tommy’s over-sensitive cockhead are going to send him over the edge.

He can feel Tommy’s balls tighten up and he pushes his finger in knuckle deep as Tommy’s cock begins to throb, releasing his hot spend down HB’s throat. HB can hear Tommy’s muffled groans as he swallows down everything Tommy is giving him. HB hums, coaxing him through it all until Tommy stops convulsing and then he gently pulls his finger out from Tommy’s clamping grip.

He pulls his mouth off Tommy’s softening dick, and wipes his mouth and chin with the back of his arm, still fully clothed. He stands up, his tall figure towering over the bed.

Tommy sits up and begins to hastily undo HB’s trousers, once the zipper is unzipped he quickly moves on and begins to pluck the buttons undone going up his shirt. HB clutches Tommy’s hands in his own once again, stopping him. He shakes his head slightly, releasing Tommy’s hands before stepping back and resuming the unbuttoning himself, but slower.

“I already told ya, we got plenty of time.”

Now he draws it out on purpose, lazily drawing his tie down his chest, letting the skinny end pull from the knot, tugging it from his neck. He delicately eases his now open shirt off his shoulders, dragging it down his toned arms. Plucking the cuffs over his fists he walks over to the chair in the corner, making a show of gently laying the shirt and tie over the back of the seat. His trousers follow, folded over the chair as well.

Tommy rolls his eyes but HB isn’t finished, as he walks around the room in only his underwear and socks, bending over to retrieve Tommy’s discarded clothes one by one. He gives them the same treatment, shaking them out and folding them over the back of the chair with his own.

He goes back to Tommy, sitting at the edge of the bed again, and shuffles in close between the man’s legs, pressing his covered erection up against Tommy’s cheek. Tommy wraps his hands around the back of HB’s thighs, squeezing the flesh there and pulling him tighter to his face.

Tommy reaches down and takes HB’s socks off one by one, discarding them where he stands. Then he reaches up to the waistband of HB’s boxer briefs and hooks his fingers in, pulling them down torturously slowly, while tilting his head back and keeping eye contact with a grinning HB. Tommy leaves them to pool at HB’s feet and turns his attention back to HB’s cock in his face.

HB watches Tommy’s face, always so expressive when he looks at his cock. HB is significantly longer than average, not overly girthy, but proportional. He keeps his pubic hair trimmed short and his balls and ass waxed clean. He’s been told by several lovers how impressive it all looks, including by Tommy (and by his wife back when they started dating).

Tommy grips HB’s ass and pushes him forward, mouth open to receive his huge straining erection. HB would love to push it deep into Tommy’s warm, wet, waiting mouth. But instead he stills his forward movement, pushing back against Tommy’s gripping hands. Tommy looks up immediately, concern etched across his face.

“I have something else in mind,” HB whispers, taking Tommy’s face in his hands.

Tommy’s brows knit together. HB reaches over to the nightstand and opens the drawer, pulling out a small bottle of Astroglide. Tommy’s eyes widen when they land on the small, purple-capped bottle. He scrunches his brows and groans.

“I don’t think we have-”

Shhh Shhhhhh, HB silences him with a finger over his lips. “Don’t you worry about anyone but us.”

HB grabs one of Tommy’s hands off his bare ass and squirts some of the lube into his palm. He guides Tommy’s hand to him and lets him spread it over his shaft, smoothly jerking his long-ignored cock. His eyes close and his head falls forward at the sensation of finally having attention paid to him, dark and dripping, straining for relief.

HB revels in the attention for a moment. He lets Tommy tug firmly on him, plant kisses along his hip, grab handfuls of his ass with his other hand. He spends so much time in his own head, so much time on pleasing his clients, so much time planning his next project. When he does get to blow off steam he tends to do so in a selfish, spectacular, explosive fashion.

This trip was supposed to be just him, attending a conference as the keynote speaker. He would have been making and watching presentations all day, schmoozing with bigger firms at the hotel bar, and answering the same goddamn questions over and over. His wife, who he knew was proud of him, asked to come along and help celebrate him. Maybe part of her was trying to rekindle their long-lost closeness.

But once the idea was in his head to make this trip more personal than professional, he couldn’t help himself. He wanted to invite Tommy, only a little ashamed to admit that he would rather have him there than his wife. Once Tommy was on the guest list he knew he had to bring his wife, and of course, his wife’s ‘secret’ boyfriend - his best friend Joel. And then, knowing it couldn’t be just this awkward little foursome, he invited the rest of Joel’s crew and their partners along as well.

Why not? He had the fuckin’ money to pay for it all. When he told his wife he invited everyone she actually looked almost disappointed for a moment, a little wave of hurt flashing across her face. But he shrugged it off, knowing that having Joel there would be a comfort to her. Although he did feel a tiny pang of guilt when he told the other guys to have their wives bring a girl for Joel, especially knowing Joel really only had eyes for one girl - his girl.

But he needed the distraction. He needed attention paid elsewhere. He needed this.

This time alone with Tommy, time that they never got back home.

HB opens his eyes and guides Tommy to lay down on the bed again, this time laying over him, kissing his mouth, wet and wanting. They make out like that for a bit, rough stubble scraping against each other’s chins, Tommy’s one hand still moving up and down HB’s cock, HB’s hands tugging and pulling at Tommy’s shoulders and hips, fighting to pull him closer.

When HB pulls back they’re both panting and Tommy’s pupils are blown wide, desire painted on his face.

“Have you done this a lot?” Tommy whispers, breathless. He swallows past the lump in his throat, visibly nervous. They both know this is his first time.

“No,” HB lies. “Not a lot.”

It had been years, since before he got married, that he’d been with a man in this way. And he’d never fucked his wife like this, even though he thinks she might have wanted him to at one point. So he doesn’t feel like a complete shit when he tells Tommy this lie. The lie will soothe him. The lie will put him at ease. The lie will get him in faster.

HB stands up and encourages Tommy’s legs up on the bed again, spreading him open further with a gentle push on his knees. He grabs the bottle and dribbles lube onto Tommy’s dick, which is getting hard again already, watching it drip down his balls and towards his ass crack.

Tommy lifts his feet and moves his knees towards his head to open himself up even more, breathing deeply and holding back whines. Tossing the bottle aside, HB begins to massage the back of Tommy’s thighs, smoothing his hands over Tommy’s hips, pelvis, and cock, which hardens further under his touch. Gathering the lube, he massages Tommy’s balls, his ass, and dips his digits towards his end-goal.

Making sure his thumb is lubed up, he presses against Tommy’s taut hole once again, rubbing circles around it in tandem. He grabs at Tommy’s hands, encouraging the man to jerk his own dick while HB continues his attention lower.

“How does this feel?” HB asks, already aware of the answer.

Tommy manages a feeble whine in response, something that sounds like a drawn out yeah.

“Are you okay?”

Tommy’s head nods quickly, eyes clamped shut.

HB pushes his thumb in slowly, feeling Tommy try to relax and enjoy the sensation. HB begins to ease his thumb in and out while he slowly rolls the fingers of his other hand around the crown of his own cock. Watching Tommy laid out like a buffet, jerking his own dick with both hands and getting finger-fucked has HB ready to come just like this.

But he has plans to follow through on.

HB takes his thumb out and moves forward, replacing it at Tommy’s entrance with his cock. He meets Tommy’s eyes and sees his look of apprehension.

“Are you good?”

“Yeah. Just… N-nervous,” Tommy stutters out.

“We’ll go slow,” HB affirms, bending down to plant kisses on Tommy’s knees in the air.

HB guides himself forward, pushing on one of Tommy’s cheeks with his free hand to spread him, watching as the head enters him. Tommy makes an effort to breathe slowly and relax his body. They’ve talked about how good this can feel and Tommy has put his trust in HB for this moment.

HB stops with just the tip in and takes some deep breaths himself. He wants to make this last.

“Can you take more?” HB asks. Tommy nods in response. “Hey, talk to me.”

“Yeah,” Tommy pants. He continues brokenly, “It feels… good… keep going… please.”

HB rocks his hips forward genty, pushing himself in another couple inches. Before Tommy has ample time to react HB pulls back, watching the other man’s changing facial expressions. He slowly eases himself in and out, one hand still on his dick, the other now resting on Tommy’s knee, pushing it gently down towards his chest.

HB is quiet, much less vocal than he usually is, and Tommy is quieter beneath him than he was during the blow job. Thank god for that, HB thinks, because if Tommy was moaning like that now it would be over for him. HB is clutching tight to his own resolve, trying so desperately not to end this early. He’s been waiting for this moment for months and it feels so fucking good, he wants it to last forever.

“Keep touching yourself,” HB orders, “I wanna feel you come again.”

Tommy lets a low whine escape from his lips. HB watches Tommy’s movements over his own cock increase in tempo and vigor. Tommy loves it when HB takes control, loves it when he uses his vast experience to show him new pleasures, loves it when he talks dirty.

HB continues to gently saw in and out, both hands now on Tommy’s knees, careful to limit himself to only thrusting about a third of his length inside. He doesn’t want to hurt Tommy and he knows this is enough, this is hitting Tommy in all the right places. Tommy is going to come from this, and then - finally - he can come.

He’s selfish in a lot of ways, but he’s never been called a selfish lover.

“Fuuuuuuuuuuck,” HB moans out, “Feels like this tight little hole was made just for me.”

That’s apparently all Tommy needed because HB can feel it before Tommy has a chance to even announce it. Tommy cries out and clamps down on HB, who pushes himself in as far as he dares to. Tommy’s cock begins to release ropes of come, hitting both of their chests and one spurt reaching up to stick to HB’s chin.

HB can’t hold on any longer, he grabs his dick in his fist to stop himself from pushing forward into Tommy’s tense opening. He groans loudly as he comes, filling Tommy up, listening to him sigh as he feels HB’s hot release. When HB has finished, he slowly pulls out, watching his spend leak out of Tommy onto the sheets.

It doesn’t matter if the sheets are dirty, he’s sure his wife won’t be coming back here to sleep on them tonight.

He pulls Tommy up and drags him to the shower where they both spend a long time under the hot spray of water, washing each other, kissing, and laughing. At one point Tommy gets nervous that they’re going to be interrupted, trying to speed up the shower so he can leave. HB shushes him once again.

“Aren’t you worried she’s gonna come in here and catch us?”

HB chuckles. The thought of his wife catching him, given her own activities, doesn’t worry him at all. But Tommy doesn’t know about what she’s been up to with Joel. He actually wonders if part of her would be relieved to see it, if it would make her feel justified in her own infidelity. Would she leave him? Would he want her to?

“You don’t think they’re gonna notice I’ve been up here so long?” Tommy asks, still nervous.

“I don’t think they noticed,” HB soothes him. Unable to tell him why, he makes up a lie. “I bet everyone is so drunk right now they’re all passed out in their rooms.”

“But this is her room-”

HB interrupts Tommy with a tongue in his mouth, grabbing his face with both hands and kissing the breath out of him.

Finally, just over two hours after they came into the room, Tommy is fully dressed, adjusting his belt, and kissing HB goodbye as he heads out the door. It’s almost 2am and HB has to be up in less than four hours for tomorrow’s schedule. He doesn’t mind, he can pound coffee all day if he needs to, maybe sneak in a nap.

It was worth it.

You spend more hours making small talk with the women and watching Joel dance with one of them. Aggressively getting bolder with each song. At one point he lowers himself behind her and runs his mouth along her bare legs, all while holding eye contact with you.

Your stomach burns and you raise yourself from the table. Paying your tab at the bar and wandering out into the empty halls of the hotel

You’re walking away with your arms crossed, when you hear running footsteps on the shitty abstract carpet.

“Heading to bed so early?” He huffs.

You don’t turn around. You know he was pissed at you for a kiss, to the man whom you’re married to, that you couldn’t control.

His eyes meet yours and you blink up at him. Your mind wanting to stay furious with him for turning this into a huge joke and your body wanting to give into him - like always.

You open your mouth and go to speak, but the elevator doors open and Tommy goes to step out, before getting startled.

“Oh, shit,” he huffs on impulse, and you can’t help but step farther away from Joel.

Joel, who only pivots on his heel towards Tommy and furrows his brows.

“Y’put that old fart to bed?” He asks.

Tommy steps out and around you both. Giving you a suspicious look, before his eyes flicker back to Joel’s

“Uh, yeah - m’headin’…” he points with his thumb, back down the hall, towards the bar.

“Back in there,” his sentence trails off and Joel slaps his arm twice with an over exaggerated smile, before following you into the elevator.

“Great, just gonna make sure this one gets to her room okay.”

Tommy gives you both another strange look as the elevator doors close. You don’t bother looking him in the eye.

After the elevator doors have fully closed and he sees the box of light begin to lift off the floor, Tommy huffs a loud sigh of relief. He thought for sure he just got caught. He thinks both of them must have been quite drunk to not realize how long he’d been gone, just like HB said. He runs a hand through his still-wet hair, then nervously adjusts his belt again before he heads back to the bar to close out his tab.

This was a labor of love and I had lots of help along the way. I want to thank @gracieispunk for her permission and encouragement first and foremost. (I really do love you girl.) This was SO fun to write and I hope I did her characters justice because I love them so much and her writing means A LOT to me. I also want to thank everyone who offered me advice and support in the writing of this piece, which I took way too seriously lolol. This is the smuttiest thing I’ve ever written (BY FAR) and it’s the first time I’ve ever written mlm. I am nervous and I really hope I did it some justice but I apologize if I didn’t do it well. BIG thank you to @not-a-unique-snowflake-blog who gave me the idea to mimic some of the scenes that hbf and his reader have done. And thank yous to the following creative people for helping me with beta reading and workshoping various parts of this absolute cock-fest: @theywhowriteandknowthings @bonezone44 @hiddenbabynyc @ramblers-lets-get-ramblin @clawdee @ievutebebe

My own personal head-canons (not based on facts or encouraged by anyone - just some background I had in my head while I wrote this non-canon story) *not required reading - only read if you’re interested.

I head-canon HB as Timothy Olyphant. In my mind reader is 28/29, Tommy is 34/35, Joel is 39/40, HB is 48/49. Reader & HB have been married about 5 years.

I don’t think that HB knows everything that goes on, but I do like to think that - being an architect-bro and a pretty high-tech dude, he has cameras in the house - potentially ones that his wife doesn’t know about. So, he knows 100% for sure that she and Joel have their thing going on. He’s not really upset about it.

HB refuses to pin himself down with a label, sexually, but in my mind his appetite is varied and he goes through phases (His wife thinks he's straight). When they met he thought she was beautiful, smart, and kind. They had a fun relationship, good sex, and she was impressed by him, made him feel good. Most importantly, his mother liked her, and since his mother was ill at the time, he proposed and married her after a whirlwind romance. His mother has since passed away.

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) for his wife - after the first couple years of their marriage he started to lose interest (sexually). It's kind of a sugar daddy vibe going on and since he's pretty self-absorbed, he has no qualms about keeping a pretty young thing on his arm. He’s not a serial cheater by any means but he is currently having a secret fling with his best friend’s brother - Tommy Miller (who is newly bi). This is relatively new and it’s not the reason why he’s doing it - but he justifies this affair with the knowledge that she and Joel were fucking each other first.

He likes his wife, cares about her, finds her attractive, and enjoys fucking her from time to time (he's certainly not gonna say no to getting off if she initiates). He’s not a bad guy, but he’s definitely selfish and prefers to remain emotionally unavailable. He doesn’t treat her badly but he very rarely treats her with the care and attention she deserves (I didn't say he was a good guy, but he could be worse).

Part of him is unaware of all the selfish ways he acts (narcissist) , but the part of him that does know how shitty he’s acting is soothed by the fact that he knows his best friend is taking care of her. Not even just in a sexual sense, part of him knows that Joel cares about her and looks out for her (aka is obsessed with her).

#HB x Tommy Miller #hbf!joel #hbf!joel universe #gracieispunk #so much ass #mlm

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warrioreowynofrohan · 4 months ago

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Elizabeth Gaskell - Mary Barton, North and South, and Wives and Daughters

Over the past year I’ve read Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton, North and South, and Wives and Daughters, and I wanted to try to pull together some of my thoughts about these books and how they relate to each other.

Elizabeth Gaskell was a rough contemporary of the Brontës (and a friend and biographer of Charlotte Brontë), but outlived them all. These three novels were published in 1848, 1855, and 1866 respectively; Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre were published in 1847.

The three novels follow, in my opinion, a rough trajectory of decreasing radicalism, but (in some respects) increasing skill as a writer. Mary Barton is the most intensely socially conscious, and in my opinion Gaskell does a better job of writing a engaging novel on the behalf of the working class than Dickens often does - the writing is tighter and more engaging, and the working-class characters more nuanced and textured. (For context, all the Dickens I’ve read is A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, and Great Expectations.) The book is scattered throughout with caveats - for example, that factory-owners feasting while workers starve may not be a fact, but that it is something workers can understandably feel to be true - that show how aware Gaskell was that it would be controversial. It was written before - but published during - the Revolutions of 1848 in Europe, and Gaskell even goes so far as the reference the revolutions in her preface to the book:

“To myself the idea which I have formed of the state of feeling among too many of the factory-people in Manchester, and which I endeavoured to represent in this tale (completed above a year ago), has received some confirmation from the events which have so recently occurred among a similar class on the Continent.

OCTOBER, 1848

(Charlotte Brontë appears to have been affected by the revolutions of 1848 in a very different way; her novel Shirley, published in 1849, is fairly strongly anti-worker and pro-factory-owner, portraying anyone who protests against the treatment of workers as a drunk or a troublemaker.)

While it has its meldoramatic elements, Mary Barton is on the whole a sympathetic depiction of a Manchester working-class family and their friends. In the opening chapters, some of the arguments of conservatives are dealt with deftly rather than by direct assault. The depiction of the two central families in comparatively better times shows what ‘luxuries’ were to working-class people - some slices of ham, a bit of butter, a bit of sugar, a dinner-party between friends, a handful of pretty objects around the house - in a way that undermines conservative claims that poverty was due to overspending in good times rather than saving for bad. There’s a varied cast of characters - some more idealized or archetypal in typical Victorian style, but most of them three-dimensional, human, and engaging. (Some of them - including both developed ones and archetypal ones - made me wonder if Gaskell ever read Les Misérables, and if so what she thought of it.)

This makes some elements of North and South frustrating by comparison. While working-class women in Mary Barton (at least some of them) are living, breathing people, the sole working-class woman in North and South is a Victorian archetype, a chronically ill girl who speaks in Bible verses and dies to prompt the redemption arcs of other characters. It’s evident that Gaskell got blowback for Mary Barton and was pressured to provide a more ‘balanced’ perspective in North and South - it’s telling that being ‘balanced’ meant reducing the humanity and complexity of working-class characters.

I will be blunt: I do not like John Thornton. He talks too much like a Calgary oilman resenting big government for daring to impose basic environmental and working standards. He makes a template of conservative arguments that endure to this day - that he’s a self-made-man and any working-class person could do what he did, if they had the grit and gumption. He’d rather go bankrupt than allow his workers to unionize. And he does not undergo a ‘redemption arc’ or change of heart on this - rather, the worker who supports unionization undergoes a ‘redemption arc’ to realize that unions are bad! What John Thornton does learn is that 1) using inexperienced imported scab workers rather than experienced and knowledgeable workers gets you a crappy product and 2) he can talk to his workers and plan out some basic reforms to improve their lives a little.

That said, one major improvement in North and South is that the relationship between Margaret Hale and John Thornton is much better written than the relationship of the title character in Mary Barton. Mary’s involves her abruptly (and unconvincingly) realizing she’s in love with a man who has been pursuing her throughout the book and whom she has been doing her utmost to discourage, and has never shown any interest in. Margaret and John’s is developed over time and with more complexity, and in a way that is far more compelling and convincing - probably what makes North and South more popular than the others.

Wives and Daughters is another sort of book entirely - gentler and less melodramatic (and with fewer major character deaths - though there’s a notable death toll among side characters), set in the countryside and in the past, and more a social comedy/dramedy with a side of romance. The class commentary as regards the working class is almost gone - the main characters are a combi ation of middle-class people and lower-level gentry. It is, in a sense, more Austenian in its gentle satire of the foibles of its cast of characters, interspersed with some more dramatic moments; or more like some of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s books that combine romance with poking gentle fun at the various characters of small-town life. But the characters are more nuanced and less archetypal, and the moral lessons mostly less pointed, than in the two previous books, and the main character’s challenges and struggles are of a more grounded nature. (There’s a side character, Cynthia, who particularly interests me and whom I might do a separate post on.) You can see the improvement in Gaskell’s writing; you can also see that she’s stepped away from politics. (The romance isn’t as good as North and South though.) The main theme that could be considered political is that good, solid, practical knowledge, hard work, courage, and honesty are preferable to any amount of upper-class ‘refinement’. The worst crime any major character commits is to be shallow and annoying.

Here’s one interesting case of a contrast between Wives and Daughters and Gaskell’s earlier work. In Mary Barton, Mary is pursued by - and actively interested in - a factory-owner’s son, a man outside of her own social class, and this is portrayed as a serious moral fault that precipitates some of the book’s major events. In Wives and Daughters, there is a much more socially unequal marriage between two side characters, and the lower-class woman is not treated as bad or faulty for it, but the plot gets into some of the complications of the match (the husband is afraid of disinheritance if he reveals the marriage to his father, and in that case would have no ability to support his wife abd child due to being gentry with no useful skills; the husband dies; there’s some personality and culture clash between the wife and his family in the aftermath, but ultimately it works out). In the more melodramatic Mary Barton, a woman accepting attentions from a mich higher-ranking man is a major issue of moral character; in the more grounded Wives and Daughters, it’s a matter of practical challenges entailed by the match.

(Gaskell died before finishing Wives and Daughters, but it’s close enough to finished that you can easily see the briad strokes of how everything’s going to wrap up.)

I’d recommend all the of the books; they’re all worth reading if you like 1800s literature. Though, being from the 1800s, they do all have some moments and sentiments that are jarring to the 21st-century reader.

#elizabeth gaskell #north and south #mary barton #wives and daughters

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