the-book-of-small-things

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Excerpt from 'Thasmin Miniature #11 - A Christmas Whisper'

Yaz blinks, struggling to keep up with the Doctor. It was ridiculous, of course. But then again, she reasoned, everything about the Doctor is ridiculous. ‘The Doctor is ridiculous’ was one of those sentences Yaz feels has always existed. As if after the Big Bang, as concepts and rational consequence emerged from the primordial ether, the next sequence of events went: Fire hot. Ice cold. The Doctor is ridiculous. Yaz makes a mental note to ask the Doctor if they can go back to the formation of the universe so she can check this hypothesis.

[the-book-of-small-things]

Excerpt from 'Swallowed Realms'

‘It could be a trap, my liege,’ said Halan as the Prince got to his feet and paced before his seat of power. Halan cast a queer glance down at the messenger standing below the dais. Gwyn followed his gaze, noting the unnatural stillness of the messenger; the absence of breath.

‘Aye,’ said Ricard. ‘Who can say what schemes these unnatural creatures may hatch? The dead have no honour.’

‘The dead have no need of honour,’ the messenger said, gazing at Ricard with its cloudy eyes. ‘Only vengeance.’

‘The only need of the dead is a hole deep enough to put them in,’ retorted Ricard.

[the-book-of-small-things]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who & Related Fandoms Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor/Yasmin Khan, Thirteenth Doctor & Yasmin Khan, The Doctor/Yasmin Khan, The Doctor & Yasmin Khan Characters: Thirteenth Doctor, The Doctor (Doctor Who), Yasmin Khan Additional Tags: thasmin, Angst with a Happy Ending, fuckin sobbing over here lads, Beaches Series: Part 15 of Thasmin Miniatures Summary:

Under the moonlight and colours of the Singing Aurora of Marsoldia, the Doctor and Yaz finally have their moment on the beach.

[the-book-of-small-things]

Excerpt from 'Thasmin Miniature #15 - Happy Ever After, Dear'

‘It’s just a silly dream,’ Yaz says, feeling her insides cringe and shrivel up in shame, ‘just a stupid, silly dream.’

‘When you have a dream, you should grab it with both hands and never let it go,’ the Doctor says, ‘especially if that dream is to have croissants for dinner. Raspberry croissants, doubly so.’

[the-book-of-small-things]

Excerpt from 'Swallowed Realms'

The daughters of the King rode and bore arms with the men, a practice considered queer by the rest of the Kingdoms. One of those knights spoke now, from the southern realms he came, from Pyrthorne. Proud as he was ignorant of the ways of the Kings of Salrathia.

‘The build of a warrior matters little,’ said Adelaine, shield-maiden of Salrathia, stepping forth, ‘only the depth of their cut.’

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Excerpt from 'Swallowed Realms'

Gwyn watched the company of soldiers pass through the gate. At the front were the crimson clad men from Vieilles; the first into the fight and the last to leave. They were men of great valour and renown. Their great deeds stretched back into the Elder Days. As a child, Gwyn had sat many a night on the floor of the inn and listened to all the songs the minstrels sang. They had been the first up the siege ladders at Gardham, and they had held the line at Emmotland. At the defeat at Harswell, they had been the last from the field as they shielded the King as his Grace retreated to safety. Their crimson banner and armour struck fear into the hearts of their enemies.

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Excerpt from 'Thasmin Miniature #15 - Happy Ever After, Dear'

‘I’ve been waiting,’ the Doctor says, hesitantly, glancing at Yaz, her eyes darting this way and that. ‘Waiting for the right moment. Waiting for the perfect time. But then, I realised something; I might be waiting forever. And then it would be too late. You’d be gone. I’d be gone. And then I’d get in my little blue box and run away again. Like I always do. That’s what I’ve been doing, Yaz; I’ve been running. My hearts, they’ve been stuck. Stuck flitting between love and fear.’

‘Doctor,’ Yaz says, but the Doctor silences her with a hand on hers.

‘I’m ready now, Yaz,’ the Doctor says, squeezing her hand and staring intently into her eyes. ‘Tell me what you want to know.’

Link to the series

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Excerpt from 'Swallowed Realms'

‘Have you withstood a charge from the cavalry of the undead, my lord?’ said Ricard.

‘I have not.’

‘There is no battle cry from the rider. There is no sound from the steed. There is no fear from either. Just silence, steel, and death. Even when you strike them down, they make no sound. They do not retreat. They do not surrender.'

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Excerpt from 'Swallowed Realms'

‘They say a necromancer lives in those hills,’ Halan said. ‘In the old stronghold of the Tourville lies an army of the dead.’

‘Forever restless,’ said Mathis, nodding. ‘Forever growing in number.’

‘I heard tell it was a woman,’ said Ivor. ‘Highborn and perilously fair to behold. Men and women see her and forget themselves. They turn their own blades upon themselves to join her ranks just for a chance to be at her side.’

‘I have heard the stories,’ the Prince said.

‘Dead men don’t claim vengeance,’ Ricard said.

‘The men, perhaps,’ said Halan. ‘But they say that the queen of the dead that rules the hills of Tourville will stop at nothing for it.’

‘The ancient Kingdom of Tourville fell to the necromancer and his hordes long ago, in the Elder Days,’ Ricard said in an aside to Gwyn. ‘Betrayed, some say, by its crown-prince. Its towns and cities put to the torch. Its people slaughtered or scattered. Only shadows live in the ruins now.’

‘Aye,’ said Ivor. ‘Shadows and creatures of darkness. They say the dead walk those lands. There are some shadows where even the foulest of beasts dare not tread.’

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Excerpt from 'Some Days Are Better Than Others'; Luke, Part 1

I turn back to the letter I am writing, yes, to you. Who else? Maybe they will help me feel better about myself?

Maybe you were upset when you heard? I meant to set things straight so many times. I wrote letters but I always tore them up. Always getting so far down the page only to stop and tear it up in disgust at how ill-ordered my thoughts seem to be. It is like with every attempt at everything I ever do; I start in the wrong place. My words and meaning twist themselves together becoming tangled. I use the wrong words. The result is I end up being more confused than when I started. It is as though if I could find the right place to start then everything else would fall into place.

I thought I had cut you loose. Buried the feelings.

Maybe that’s just how it goes. It begins with a quarrel and then time passes and neither person does anything to stop it.

Still, I have decided not to tell you the address. I think it is better for everyone that way. If you cared enough you could find it for yourself, but I think we both know the answer to that question.

This is Willowfind, where we search for meaning at the end of the world.

This is Willowfind, where a crew of burnouts attempt to scrape what’s left of themselves back together through fixations and repetition.

Okay, okay, I admit it; in my own way, this letter is payback.

[the-book-of-small-things]

Excerpt from 'Swallowed Realms'

‘My lord,’ Halan fell into step beside the Prince as he pushed through the gathered crowd. People were staring. Let them, the Prince thought, savagely. I’ll show them what happens to those who scorn me.

‘Assemble the men in the Varral,’ the Prince said to Halan. ‘We are leaving.’

‘Yes, my lord.’

‘For good,’ said the Prince. Ricard fell into step on his other side.

‘Understood, my lord.’

‘You have one hour. I mean to be gone ere the light fails.’

‘Where to, my lord?’

The Prince thought for a moment.

‘To the pass at Harromere,’ said he. ‘If the lands due to me are not to be given then they shall be taken by strength of arms.’

Halan glanced across the Prince at Ricard.

'The Langthorpes hold those lands,' Ricard said. 'They have ever been your lord father's loyal bannermen.'

‘We will head north,’ said the Prince. ‘There we may find allies to our cause.’

‘Their ways are strange,’ said Halan. ‘His Grace the King ever did say so.’

‘Remind me what they say of the northern clans, Ricard.’

‘“Two men and a pipe make a rebellion.”’

‘Then perhaps His Grace will understand.’

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Excerpt from 'Thasmin Miniature #15 - Happy Ever After, Dear'

It’s often the way, isn’t it? When someone loses something they love. Seeing others happy can be the last straw, can’t it?

Not you, Yaz thinks. You just became kind.

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current wips

'swallowed realms' - fantasy

'some days are better than others' - literary fiction (two versions; i) traditional story, ii) an oral history)

'it's never what it seems' - murder/mystery

'sons of the conqueror' - historical

'the rhythm of a dividing pair' - literary/romance

'thasmin miniatures' - fanfiction (doctor who) - COMPLETED

'october language' - assorted short stories

'untitled' - fanfiction/mystery (doctor who [thasmin])