#please do that if you like gay urban fantasy | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

girlfriendsofthegalaxy · 25 days

Text

tuesday again 4/30/2024

most annoying book i've read so far this year under the jump

listening

a lovely polyrhythmic instrumental piece with previously-featured tuesdaysong artist, terrifying master of the cello, abel selaocoe. this is very textured and kind of scrubs at the inside of my skull in a pleasing way. like the kind of back scrubber you can buy with a bamboo handle and the long soft bristles. popped up on my recent releases playlist from spotify.

youtube

reading

really fucking pissed about this book and i am not able to be reasonable about it. i was really thrown, much like the fantasy prince's mother from her carriage as she was being chased by regency gossip reporters, that this was a prince harry/meghan markle RPF AU. i am a bit uncomfy about the fact that our female lead, the fantasy AU meghan markle, is some flavor of fantasy Gaelic instead of fantasy mixed-race. now, i have no particular moral or physical beef with RPF but i don't typically seek it out. but/also/and, much like works about marilyn monroe, i think works with the specter of princess diana are in poor taste. can we leave these women alone maybe

i got about halfway through the book before this revelation and didn't really feel like it succeeded at much of anything it was trying to do. oddly informal and choppy, like it was originally intended as a contemporary romance with some urban magic and changed to regency in a late draft. this is combined with some fairly weak prose: more simple sentence structure than i would expect in a book for young adults, far too many proper nouns, and a lack of interest in showing not telling.

i straight up don't understand why the leads are attracted to each other if she keeps making very public mistakes and he's a rude cunt. i have read other books (most recently the t kingfisher books) where someone grows to love a very gruff or taciturn man, but it takes time and mutual trust and an effort on both sides, none of which happen here. the core conflict is duty to family in all its various forms vs the heart wants what the heart wants. the conflict is not much of a conflict, though, because characters come to realizations within three sentences of confronting them and then vocalize them with therapyspeak. someone literally pats someone else's hand and goes, "It's hard, I know." the author mercifully did not describe the sad little pursed sympathy mouth but i'm sure it was there.

i'm also deeply annoyed with how this author chose to go about characterization. while the character concepts are people i would love to meet in a ttrpg, it feels very concerned about Good Representation and it makes everyone feel very wooden. i think when you put together characters from a list of various oppressions and disabilities it starts feeling like a grownup version of a children’s ensemble show meant to sell little blind box figurines. here is the Chronically Ill one, and her color is pink! here is the Addicted one, and his color is green! here is the Goth and Depressed one, and her color is black with some bones! here is the Gay one who was once badly hurt by the Addicted one, and we don’t care enough about him to give him a color! here is the superficially fantasy-Jewish one, and we don’t care enough about her to give her a color or an action figure either!

while normally i would love to read a book with two! TWO! canonically bisexual leads of different genders! this book is written for the "folx" spectrum of gays instead of the "fags" part of the spectrum and it strays very close to a modern morality tale for me.

this popped up on a list of books with bi leads i think, but if it was here or on libby i cannot remember.

anyway! fucking hated this one.

pleasantly surprised these came in back to back off my holds lists, bc they are about the perfumer Grace and Grace's former landlord, the spy Marguerite. my favorite of these Saint of Steel series is still the one with the werebear nun. i have nothing to complain about these books and not much to say about them either. they were such a delightful and competent change of pace after the annoyance of the previously discussed book.

oh i loved these. oh i LOOOOOOVED these. how the fuck does novik do it. she is so good at capturing the very specific feel of a grandpa military historical novel. except with dragons. i love these in the same way i know i will love the patrick o'brien books if i ever get around to reading them. i was a navy brat and unfortunately this is fucking catnip to me. truly i have inherited all my father's tastes

watching

largely fallow week. i don't have anything particularly great to say about The Bad Batch, but when have i ever. have not caught up with dunmeishi bc my siblings have once again inadvertently locked me out of the netflix account i pay for. considering a vpn for many reasons but watching netflix and watching porn (the state of texas does not want me or anyone else to watch porn within her borders) are the two big reasons for. idk. cashing out the paltry cash-back credit card rewards and coughing them up for a vpn. vpn opinions welcomed, i know most of them are straight garbage

playing

i straight up ran out of money in genshin, which is pretty hard to do since they're pretty generous with it? i have spent several million in-game currency on leveling up neuvilette (i am so so so happy to not have to collect any fucking starfish mats for him anymore [mats are different materials you have to collect or buy in-game in order to level up a character. very grindy most of the time]). anyway i am now scrabbling around for the last couple chests and puzzles i marked on my map in fontaine. i haven't bothered with grinding for his specific boosting artifacts or leveling up his talents all the way yet but this is really not shabby. i have the bad habit of completely levelling up all my 5-stars and then ignoring them until i need them for a specific fight or a specific level of the monthly..battle royale puzzle? i don't really know how to describe the abyss. anyway when i do eventually need his pretty intense water AOE attacks i will frantically grind for his talent mats. right now we're grinding for other things thanks

this latest update contains both the best and worst new areas so far. the underwater lost city of Remuria is a fuckin banger. gorgeous. incredible puzzles. very fun music-based quest line with new abilities and giant whale. however, im kind of disappointed by the new coastline area in the map: there is pretty much nothing there. almost no interactable plants to harvest, very few enemies, almost no chests. i get that they are focusing their time and attention on the new underwater area everyone will be focusing on (killer, btw, super dense and great use of vertical space). very lore-heavy expansion, sort of what if atlantis was a bit roman-inspired and also. hold on. wait a second.

sorry this has just occurred to me at 10:21 PM on Monday night as im drafting this but oh my god are the fucking fontanians the Sea Peoples of the bronze age collapse. this is hysterically funny lore if true. im going to have to go back and reread a lot of the environmental storytelling notes but oh my GOD that's extremely funny if true. genshin has some of the most batshit lore of any game ive ever played and im so sad that so few game journos are focusing on it.

where was i. leveling up characters in legally-not-france who may or may not be descendants of the sea peoples. i often find myself leveling up characters in genshin not based on how useful they are to the party but by how fun the bosses i need to fight for their mats are? for example: neuvilette is a water-based AOE character with not a lot of on-field time. however this big electric seahorse, whose antlers i need to level him up, is really fun to fight and i can knock it out in about thirty seconds.

making

my sister's birthday is tomorrow! my birthday package to her was kind of heavy on stupid little trinkets and art books and not very much like. homemade? so i cranked out a little sampler. it's framed i promise i simply forgot to take a picture of it framed. about 3"x3", slightly adapted from a piece in Julie Jackson's Subversive Cross Stitch. i do think the F and C turned out way better (or at least the backstitching stands out way more) but hey. sometimes you need to hastily stitch a gift with the limited colors you have on hand

#tuesday again #tuesday again no problem

42 notes · View notes

glam-pir · 11 months

Text

- introduction to writeblr -

p e r s o n a l i n f o

hi !! i'm em, i'm 18, almost 19, and i use she/they pronouns. writing's always been part of my life, i've just never actually believed i could do it. so, here i am, yada yada yada more cheesy shit. anyways, i'm in college so my activity levels are all over the place, i'm hoping having a blog to even myself out and make myself stay consistent will actually work. i love all things dark, gloomy, scary, and puzzle-ey, which goes without saying that my hobbies follow the same tragectory. i've been playing piano since i was four years old and i love writing music, solving puzzles, writing and reading (goes without saying frankly).

a b o u t m y w r i t i n g

let’s get into it, shall we? i really like a blether, and by that i mean i’m indecisive beyond words. my most common genres in the overarching sense is urban fantasy combined with cosmic horror, and high fantasy. i love worldbuilding don’t come for me i’m sensitive.

but in terms of smaller little motifs and themes, i love delving into folklore (slavic and north african, gotta stick to my roots), low fantasy and surrealism, political intrigue, dark romanticism, gothic horror, monster girls, lesbians, a good ole butch/femme dynamic, dead people, ghosts, generational stories, and of course, anything you could listen to depeche mode while reading.

w i p i n f o

jesus it’s uh, um, it’s a mess in here, please ignore the state of my mind rn, all titles are subject to change, for now i'll be titling them by vibe and vibe alone, these will probably be their tags for the forseeable future, also they're all gay

no guts, all gory

a story of suspicious internships, monsterous girls, the desire for knowledge, dead people, things man was not mean to see, and lunch dates with your coworkers. [ low fantasy / surrealism / cosmic horror ]

baba yaga's moving castle

a story of matriarchies, political intrigue, slavic folklore. [ high fantasy / multiple povs ]

gas station prophecies

a story of gas station prophets, things in the fog, shadows in the woods, spooky towns and liminal spaces, odd summer vacations, and some very important realizations. [ low fantasy / surrealism / gothic horror / coming of age ]

saints of nothing at all

a story of secret societies that are worse than they seem, culty schools, ✨cunty✨outfits, mean girls, meaner lesbians, himbos, ballroom dancing, and just a little bit of a roll in the uncanny valley. [ surrealism / hauntings / gothic horror / academia ]

#writeblr #writing #creative writing #writer #my writing #original writing #fiction #writeblr things #writeblr intro #writeblr introduction #writeblr community #fantasy #surrealism #cosmic horror #gothic horror #low fantasy #high fantasy

177 notes · View notes

hermitfic-ao3 · 5 months

Note

smalletho,,,,,,, AUs / canon divergent! thanks a lot guys!!

oooh a challenge, i like that!

here’s some smalletho AUs/canon divergent fics i have bookmarked <3

Don’t just watch me go, you fool

Rating: T

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Summary: Etho and Joel are hesitant to leave each other for their new soulbounds after the reroll, but they do it anyway, hopeful they'll still be friends, only to be obliviously unaware that they still are soulmates.

this is a AU where the double life cast rerolls their soulmates, and this is etho/joel’s thoughts on it :)

Tightrope by BlueInkScribe (this is a private fic on AO3, you need an account to read!)

Rating: M

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply (Please heed specific AO3 tags)

Chapters: 4/?

Summary: "I can't tell anymore. I fell so much into the act that I can't tell apart anymore who I am. I can't tell if I'm him, that character I played, or me. I don't. I just don't know."

Ever since Double Life, Joel has been struggling to separate himself from the character he played. He tries to distance himself from Etho to sort out his emotions, but after that doesn't seem to help, one night, he caves in and calls, and they talk until he falls asleep.

Joel is walking a tightrope between what he wants and what he needs. On the other side is Etho, just as unsure about where they stand.

Seems like double life messed them both up quite a bit...

like comets, we intertwine by flowerboy (series)

Rating: Shifts between T and E

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply (heed AO3 tags)

Series Summary: Smalletho. Boat Boys, College AU. Many Boat Boys and the Life Series people too. And they're basically all gay.

this is a smalletho college AU! i personally haven’t read it but the reviews for it are pretty good. please be mindful of the explicit tag on a few of the fics and heed the archiveofourown tags :)

Birb’s Deep Dive of Smalletho (series) by FoolhardyBirb

Rating: G to T

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence (on one of the works)

Summary: Author FoolhardyBirb takes a deep dive into studying the intricacies of Boat Boys in several different settings and AU’s (college, urban fantasy, etc.)

i’ve actually read this one! i enjoyed it a lot and i usually am not one to enjoy aus all too much!

anyways, if you want more recommendations just let us know and we’ll gather some more for you <3

#ethoslab #smallishbeans #smalletho #trafficshipping

18 notes · View notes

garglyswoof · 8 months

Text

Tagged by @jinxedwood and @austennerdita2533 for my fave books, I'm going with the wordy jinxedwood version bc yes, friends, you know me by now. I am what one calls a verbose bitch.

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER and this list may not be accurate but it's accurate tonight.

East of Eden - John Steinbeck The humanity of this book is what got to me. I couldn't imagine reading another book when I finished this one, I felt bereft and that odd sense of loss that comes at the conclusion of a story with characters you deeply love. Not to mention that the Kathy angle made sections feel straight out of a modern day thriller.

H is for Hawk - Helen MacDonald.. to intertwine a memoir of grief and loss with a th white biography and a large measure of birding knowledge is quite the feat. But that sounds too pat an answer. I'll quote my goodreads review for this: This book felt like me sharing something that lurks so deep inside my heart, so carefully protected, so strewn with feelings like vines and bits of moss that shake off as I hold it out. It felt like sharing that something and absolutely, 100%, knowing that the recipient understood, with every fiber of their being.

Survival in Auschwitz - Primo Levi. Please, this isnt just what you think it is. It is that and more. Levi's words will leave you spellbound and aching and hopeful and everything in between.

Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury. As with most of my favorites, this is sublime writing that makes me long for a time i am too young to have experienced. Utterly gorgeous.

Provinces of Night - William Gay. This was my first William Gay novel and I am slowly making through them all. Southern Gothic with such elegant prose. I want to write like him. A negative review called Gay's work "novels with poems scattered about weak plots" and frankly? that's what i love? so good job you sold me

Microserfs - Douglas Coupland The author of my 20s. His stuff opened me up to fiction about real people with real feelings thinking the things you do in your head. The unbearable loneliness of the human condition and the wondrousness that is friendship. I am not a rereader but ive read this book at least five times. I have no idea if it has aged well, i do not care.

The Chronicles of Amber - Roger Zelazny. Something about this urban? fantasy grabbed me in a chokehold and never let go. I first read this at the beach, paging through dog-eared paperbacks a friend urged me to read. I barely left the deck that week. The traveling into Amber, the walking of the Pattern - these things will never leave me.

Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry Look yes it's a western but it's The Western for a reason. Characters that seep into your bones. The image of lightning dancing across a steer's horns remains as vivid as when i read the book 3+ years ago.

Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel Something about how this post-pandemic story is paced, something about the stakes of it and how they will differ from any other post-apocalyptic book you've ever read, stuck with me. There was a simple beauty here that I never want to let go of.

Honorable mentions Les Mis, War and Peace, To be Taught if Fortunate, and i feel like i need a separate list for fave fun books? like romance and paranormal romance and ya that i love but dont come close to the above's impact

tagging @purplesigebert im curious! @ninzied cmon wax poetic with me about books @carry-the-sky i almost put the things they carried on here bc you made me read it but i can only do 9 @it-may-be-dull-but-im-determined i just feel like you'd have some cool thoughts and books to share

ok im tagged out

#tag games #fave books

14 notes · View notes

earth2068 · 2 years

Note

Do you have any webcomic recommendations?

DO I????

alright, these are all the comics i actively read at the moment which EVERYONE should read because theyre GOOD AS HELL

phantomarine is a fantasy webcomic about a ghost princess outsmarting the god of death to get her life back. the quasi-lineless style is gorgeous and really makes the colors pop, and the panel composition is really creative!

never satisfied is another fantasy webcomic about lucy marlowe, a (nonbinary!) magician's apprentice in a contest of whom the winner will take on an important governmental position. LOTS of character drama, comedy, and cool magic effects!

the anacrine complex is a superhero webcomic about people with superpowers going on a road trip to save a friend in a rad hospital heist! it can get very goofy AND very dramatic, the best of both worlds. and the art is fantastic! ive never read a comic with such effective use of colors and textures

clover and cutlass is a D&D-based fantasy webcomic about the daughter of an evil family and the cleric in an adventuring party falling in love with each other! the art is adorable and every scene has a distinct color scheme, which i love. its also REALLY funny

wychwood is a... hm. its kind of fantasy-ish but more on the sci-fi side of things? its about a girl with pyrokinetic powers and her best friend being taken in by a morally dubious organization dedicated to fighting magical aliens. its definitely a lot more serious than the others ive recommended, and it hits HARD. also just LOOK at these magic effects!!!

sleepless domain is a magical girl webcomic about a team of magical girls in an academy that teaches them how to protect the city from the monsters that spawn at night. theres a BIG plot twist towards the beginning of the story that i wouldnt DARE spoil, so please read it yourself and find out! it gets pretty dark at times with in-depth discussions of trauma, but its tone is much lighter most of the time and is mainly about recovery and friendship!

paranatural is an urban fantasy webcomic about a bunch of middle schoolers with superpowered magical objects that they use to fight ghosts! its VERY funny and is famous for its cartoonishly exaggerated expressions. due to the creators wrist pain, the comic recently changed to illustrated prose, but im still reading it and so should you. the fight scenes are immaculately choreographed, and there are a lot of great characters to get invested in!

the order of the stick is a D&D-based comedy webcomic thats been ongoing for almost 20 years at this point. its art style is very simplistic, using stick figures for the characters, which really just serves to heighten the comedy, which is the whole point of the comic. there is NO fourth wall in order of the stick, and it is HILARIOUS.

AJ & Magnus is a slice of life comedy webcomic about a kid, his dog, their two dads, and the found family they collect along the way! this comic is SO sweet, and doesnt pull its punches when talking about real-life lgbt issues. its like calvin and hobbes with gay dads, whats not to love??

I HIT THE IMAGE LIMIT BUT I HAVE ONE MORE SO GIMME A SECOND

#earth 2068 #webcomics #asks #phantomarine #never satisfied #the anacrine complex #paranatural #sleepless domain #wychwood #aj & magnus #the order of the stick #clover and cutlass

227 notes · View notes

ajbrooks-writes · 1 year

Text

Hello Writeblr :) a tentative (re)intro

I've been here for a while, a 'lurker' as some might say. For those of you more active in the community, who is keen for another intro with references to urban and high fantasy? My current works in progress are within the following vibes:

Victorian steampunk witch elemental magic and found family;

Shapeshifting royals with slow burn romance and found family;

Contemporary gay vampire trying to write a novel with a little romance and a lot of found family;

No story is complete without found family.

I need some encouragement, and I'm hoping I can get a little push in this incredible community.

I'm also hoping to be more active again so if you're a fantasy writer or just like the sound of these stories, please let me know! Like many writers, I'm always keen to share more about my characters and stories.

Maybe we can egg each other on :)

For now here's a short excerpt from Ethereals, if you like ^.^

The apartment was small, but there were shoes and coats by the door for two people of different sizes. A short hall opened to a neat living room where the man moved in darkness, despite the accessible electric lamps. Freyja lit one now, the door of the contraption squeaking as it closed, and the man froze, straightening. “Claude?” he asked in their general direction. “No,” Vic stepped forward. “I am Vic, and this is Freyja.” They gestured to her, but the man didn’t adjust where he looked. Freyja moved into the room and watched him closely, until she saw his eyes, and his actions made sense. “He’s blind,” she breathed. One of his eyes was clouded, the other seemed half so. The man swallowed. “What are you doing here?” he asked, his voice a little shaky. He was nearly looking directly at Freyja now, as she had moved into his ‘sight’ line. “What’s your name?” Vic asked. The man frowned. His lack of movement toward a speaker was strange to her but natural to him. “Eckhart,” he responded after a while. “Why are you here?” “You died three days ago, didn’t you.” Vic’s words were matter-of-fact. Freyja, who had experienced the same terrifying event, squeezed her eyes shut to control the flash of pressure in her chest. As she opened them Vic was laying a hand on her shoulder, but she flinched away. Eckhart turned his head toward the noise she made as she pushed through his living room. “It was a dream.” He clenched his hands tight and released, repeating the action until Freyja spoke. “It wasn’t a dream. You couldn’t breathe.” She did so now. “The air felt like water, and the light flashed…” Eckhart smiled as she stopped awkwardly. “Flashed behind my eyes,” he finished, then his smile faded. “I could see that.” Eckhart stood quietly in the lounge before them and tilted his head, his face turned to somewhere between his visitors. Freyja released a breath quickly and felt Vic’s eyes on her, but didn’t respond. “Vic and the others have a community of people like us, Eckhart. They have answers.”

And that's me :)

#writers on tumblr #writeblr #fantasy writing #writeblr intro #writeblr introduction #bed time for me it is very late #ethereals: blood guardian

26 notes · View notes

writingforevren · 2 years

Photo

Hi there, I'm Evren or Ren or Ev- or whatever you wanna call me, honestly totally down for funky nicknames haha. This is my writeblr intro and here's some random stuff about me and the things that I do so you can decide whether you hate me or like me. I’ve been on writeblr since 2020 but just moved across the country this year for the first time so I was inactive for awhile. This is the blog for you if you’re LGBT+, A Writer, or Neurodivergent (or maybe all of the above)

About Me:

I’m chaotic af so please don’t expect regular posts my mental health is unpredictable

I’m 17 at the time of writing this.

I'm here, and I'm Queer, Asexual, Gay, Gender-flux, Transmasc, Grey-romantic, probably among others, I'm trying to collect all of the letters and colors of the rainbow if you couldn't tell.

I'm on the autism spectrum, also ADHD so yeah my brain is a bit of a cluttered but organized mess, this is also why I may disappear from the internet for months at a time and why this is the only social media I can somewhat keep up with.

I play & DM dnd games, I mostly dm comedy/horror stories that I’ve written- haven’t played for a bit though because creating a consistent group is nearly impossible.

Also very much into witchy shit, a tarot card a day keeps the depression away and crystals keep me sane.

I'm totally down for tag games

I enjoy writing fiction although I tend to get burned out easily after writing long projects, you'll see some of my writing posted on here, no clue how often. I also occasionally write fanfiction and poetry though not much.

The genres I generally tend to write have themes of LGBTQ+, mental health, romance, urban fantasy, dark imagery, comedy, horror, coming of age, mind-bending, dreamy, etc.

I also hate plot twists- PLOT TWIST I love them and you will see plenty of them in any and all of my writing.

I love reading others works and if you do too I have a seperate blog dedicated to reblogging other works of fiction @original-writing

My ask box is always open to anyone if you have a question or just wanna chat.

My Writing:

I had more WIPS but have broken this down to the ones that are active. I try to keep the descriptions vague because I don't want to give much away, it's more of a vibe if you will. I am going to be redoing all of the WIP intros so that’s why there aren’t any links currently. Also the writing posted in the tags is a bit outdated since I’ve updated a lot of the stories but I didn’t want delete old posts. I’ll hopefully try to drown it out with new writing. For now here’s a new tag for writing I’ll do from now on If you’d like to be added to the taglist for any of these projects let me know.

Rainclouds

Rain clouds, y'know those little thoughts that seem to pester you mind when you try to convince yourself that everything is fine? yeah that's what this story is about. LGBT+ students in a small town of britain dealing with that voice coming to life as a shadow in their minds. Bittersweet and full of twists and turns. Dark imagery meets slow-burn romance that's seemingly destined for failure. Shattered glass, shattered thoughts, but maybe there is a way to clear the rain, to let someone in. But what if letting them in is what leads to the bridge collapse?

Intro | Playlist | Writing Tag

Stormclouds

Another side of the rainclouds story. A darker side of the story. A friendship lost throughout time but one side still painfully obsessed with the idea of that coming back. Putting on a fake smile to fend off the storm that has already overtaken them, the world that has already decided it doesn't want them there. Full of wonderful fantasies and ideas but those fantasies turning into nightmares as everything seems to go wrong in every way. The mirror never matched, the stories never finished, and worst of all the lights were starting to flicker.

Intro | Writing Tag

Rainy Grove

A forest full of secrets, a place where the sun never seems to come out even in the dead of summer. Haunted perhaps? Who's to know what resides deep in those woods that everyone is warned not to wander into. Once you go in you never come out. But when one bored girl decides it would be fun to take her friend on a hike into the woods to see what really lays beneath. They come to realize that it's not ghosts at all rather seemingly friendly people with very sharp teeth. Full of twists and turns, dark imagery, and characters that turn out not to be black and white as originally believed.

Intro | Writing Tag

Dissociated

It was normal to experience voices in your head, giving you advice, telling you what's right and what's wrong right? At least that's what he'd believed most of his life, even as a child the one thing he remembered was a friend, a friend who didn't actually exist but rather hugged him from the inside and gave him words of hope. But now he was in University where the things that used to only happen sometimes had gotten much worse. The memory blanks, the coming to in places he didn't even remember going, friends talking about conversations they'd had when he hadn't seen them for weeks. It was all getting out of hand, racing through the endless maze in his own head had gotten so much worse. He needed to find a way out, Just a door, something, something that could tell him what was wrong with him.

Intro | Writing Tag

Eldenstow Creek

A drive through the empty roads of the countryside, along the edge of the woods and away from everything they'd once known. Sounds nice right? well not when you're running from something, something far more sinister than what they were about to encounter. The world was not as it seemed, there was another side, a side where strangeness & evil resided. Circuses popping out of seemingly nowhere, pools of mystical water trying to pull them in, unintended consequences after trying to fight this higher power. Everything had seemed normal but then they’d made one mistake, messed with the wrong person, spilled the blood of something they never should've. So yeah. They were in the same car and driving along the edge of the woods. Nothing to it.

Intro | Playlist | Writing Tag

Fanfiction | My Ao3

Skull Rock (Stranger Things Steddie Fanfic) | Read Full On Ao3

Even after everything Steve Harrington was still obsessing over the idea of Nancy Wheeler. Robin kept trying to match him with other girls but it was never right, no matter who he went out with it didn’t work. It didn’t click. But then the dead man walking, Eddie Munson stepped into his life again. Someone he could just talk to, someone who shared the same experiences, Someone who felt just as alone as he did- Well maybe more considering Eddie wasn’t really able to go outside since he was still a ‘serial killer’

In Conclusion

If you made it this far I’m impressed, If you wanna see more from me feel free to give me a follow, if you’re a writer I’d love to be mutuals and I’ll see you sometime soon. This post will continue to be edited and updated as I work on updating my blog. I probably won’t post too much but we’ll see.

#writeblr #writeblr intro #writing #lgbt #neurodivergent #ace #original writing #fiction #fanfic #asexual #lgbtq+#adhd #autism

43 notes · View notes

rowanmgrey-author · 10 months

Text

What should I work on?

@dyrewrites tagged me in this cool poll thing. It looks fun honestly, and I could use the motivation tbh

I am giving you a week to tell me, no rush at all.

Gently tagging literally anyone who wants to do this. I have been tagging the same people too much, so please join in if you want to. No pressure.

#writeblr #writing community #writing #writer #author #tag game #poll tag

8 notes · View notes

indigoinka · 8 months

Text

Hi! I’m finally getting around to that intro post I promised months ago, and honestly, you could be here for some time.

I’m squatting on a whole bunch of social media accounts, but this is the only place I feel safe anymore, though I do have a little reader group on the Meta-hole (🤢). I wish I could get my AuDHD head around Discord, but it feels like the old Yahoo boards mated with a speeding train, and I'm just too tired for that.

Wherever you look, I’ll be indigoinka or Inka York there.

This is me:

About me, then:

I love tea. Would I even be British if I didn’t?

I love cake. British.

And cider. British.

Yeah, and pie.

Food. I like food.

Please rec queer TV shows to me because I don’t watch as much as I should, and sometimes I just need to refill my crusty old well.

I love supporting indie authors, and rarely read trad stuff these days unless the blurb and sample are god tier.

Feel free to ask questions and tag me in writing games, or whatever shenanigans you get up to around here.

What do I write?

I write queer books, mostly urban fantasy, and usually set in the same storyworld. I also write contemporary gay romance, sometimes with an alien twist. And I’m wide with my books, so you can find them at all the major online retailers and in library catalogues.

I write what I like to read, which sometimes includes problematic tropes, but mostly includes wholesome shit like twin stories, sibling banter, ride or die friendships, a hearty mix of fluff and angst, found families, annoying ghosts, salty supernaturals, cinnamon rolls with knives, and sentient vehicles. Oh, and goats. I love me a judgemental goat.

My favourite tropes

Well, it started as a love triangle/square/dodecahedron, but now everybody's fucking (I don't know what this trope is actually called)

Forced proximity/only one bed (or coffin, in my case)

Friends to lovers (AKA idiots who took too long to notice how perfect they are)

Grumpy/Sunshine

Secret twins

Rivals to lovers

Hurt/comfort

My storyworlds

Cascade Apocrypha (queer paranormal/urban fantasy in many subgenres from pirate adventures to cosy mysteries to paranormal romance)

Feverish (contemporary gay romance)

Dracate System (AKA Gay Space Bridgerton)

My books

My first series, Not the Same River, is urban fantasy, upper YA/crossover, set in the Cascade Apocrypha storyworld. It features angels, demons, vamps, vaewolves, goats, succubus nuns, and villains to cry over. Book five is out this month, and the final book is out in February. This is the story of my heart, and the one that spurred a thousand spin-offs that I'll never have time to write.

The first book in that series, A Storm of Paper Starlings, is complete on Wattpad and Inkitt. I was gonna put it on AO3, but it feels weird because I tore all my Potter fics down when JKR started flashing her arse at the entire world, and everything I had on there felt dirty. Anyway, I digress. I might go back. Talk me into it.

I also have two other books updating on Wattpad:

🩷 Victorian Vampire Daddy (MM historical romantic suspense/Cascade Apocrypha)

🩷 My Ex & His Boyfriend (MMM/Feverish storyworld)

My other current series, Tales from the Noctuary (Cascade Apocrypha), has two books out at the retailers:

🩷 Secrets at the Door (historical mystery/suspense with lesbian romance): fat, beekeeping lesbian vampire, queer well-demon with a bad haircut, nonbinary treasure who sometimes makes bad decisions, everybody be gay.

🩷 Puddles in the Pavement (historical mystery and outright shenanigans): queer archangel brother detectives, a perky butler, an escort of indeterminate gender with the worst singing voice in the known world, a vampire duke with terrible table manners, and a Home Secretary with an unasked for appendage (let's hope that doesn't get around).

I have two more books written for this series so far, which will likely debut in my subscription.

Getting to that...

My subscription

13 Club: After Dark is hosted at Ream Stories, the only subscription platform designed specifically for authors and readers, and it is amazing.

You just click on the book cover you want, and the app will drop you into the social e-reader right where you left off, so you can comment right there inside the story. It’s like Patreon + Wattpad + a community board + extra sauce.

Honestly, I could gush about it all week.

This is also me:

So, what’s there?

Well, first, you can follow me there (which is free, obvs) and get access to:

The Weakest Link (Not the Same River #0): features the series MC’s twin sister and the coven she grew up in.

The Cursed Bones of Sergeant Boom!: a contemporary paranormal mystery involving a ghost who gatecrashed a funeral and got followed home by a necromantified corgi (as one does).

Pride’s Treasure: a series of mini adventures with characters from all the stories above, where all the chaos is your fault, because the MC of this story is YOU!

In the paid tiers, there’s 8 weeks early access to the two stories updating on Wattpad, the whole Not the Same River series so far (book 5 is updating now, before it hits the retailers at the end of October 2023). There’s also a 13 Club exclusive story called Earth Render, which is MMMMF (but not reverse harem), again set in the Cascade Apocrypha storyworld. That one features a witch with no beginning, a raven shifter with the best taste in pets, a vampire with memory issues, a vaewolf who can’t control his wolfism, and a nephilim with a huge secret. I promise not to give the Archangel Gabriel a horse penis in this story 👀

There are also physical welcome packs for some of the tiers, and all members are rewarded with After Darkling points, which they can save up each month for sweet treats, like a personalised drabble, or a one-shot featuring their favourite character, or some mystery merch. I love my After Darklings and my little club so much.

My main WIPs at the moment are:

Earth Render serial (mentioned above)

The Dryad's Curse: Pirates of Siorai trilogy (paranormal pirate adventure with romance/Cascade Apocrypha)

Gay Space Bridgerton (space fantasy romance with interplanetary political intrigue and hapless humans/Dracate System)

Almost done... maybe

That was a whole lot of intro (mate, do I love the word shenanigans), but I’m a busy goblin, and though my days are only marginally more comfortable than my painful nights, I still feel grateful that I get to do this every day.

I’d love to chat with you here, on Wattpad, in my FB group (same name as my sub) or over at 13 Club: After Dark. My subscription is what keeps me and my writing going, so if you’re here because you already love my stories, and you have the means, I’d love to see you over there. Your support would mean the world to me, whether it’s a follow or more. I love in-story comments more than life.

I’d love more friends on here, though. So if you’re into queer media and love reading, feel free to follow and I'll follow back.

That’s it from me. I’m finally shutting the fuck up.

Come chat with me whenever you want.

Stay safe!

❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜

6 notes · View notes

ajibooks · 1 year

Text

Do you like Jim/Oluwande, the canon OFMD ship? Do you have no idea who those people are? Either way, maybe you're a fan of the trope called "the grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one." Here are some published romance novels you might enjoy. Asterisk indicates there is not on-page sex.

Be aware that (as with Jim) this trope often involves bad experiences in one or both characters' pasts, so please take a look at content warnings, if you usually do. My messages & ask box are always open for any book questions! These are all books I really loved, and I recommend them with enthusiasm.

The Soldier's Scoundrel by Cat Sebastian - M/m romance between two gay men set in Regency England. Lots of gentle humor and a light mystery plot. This author has written this trope often.

Honey and Pepper by AJ Demas - M/m romance between two young gay men set in a fantasy world based on the ancient Mediterranean (specifically Rome, in this novel). The grumpy one is a little softer in this one than in some of the others.

*Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell - M/m romance between two men, with a sci-fi mystery adventure plot. Also features the arranged marriage and only one bed (tent) tropes. It's both very plotty and very romance-y.

*Magic in Manhattan series by Allie Therin - M/m romance between a gay man and a bi man, set in Prohibition-era NYC and other cities, with an urban fantasy action-adventure plot. Lots of fun. The first book does not end on a cliffhanger, but there's a continuing plot throughout the trilogy.

*The Heartbreak Handshake by JR Hart - M/nb romance set in a fictional contemporary town. Both characters are neurodivergent and asexual. The male character is much more cheerful than his love interest, a nonbinary crafter. Also features the fake dating trope (extremely clever title for it, too). Disclaimer: I beta-read this book. It stands alone and is only loosely linked to the other books in the series.

Wild Rain by Beverly Jenkins - M/f (cishet) romance between a man and woman set in the Old West. This author is one of the greatest romance novelists, and she writes Black romance, mainly historical. The female character here is the grumpy one, an accomplished horse-tamer. The author writes this trope often. Night Hawk is the book of hers I usually see recommended, and I loved it too; it has a grumpy male lead and sunshine-y female lead.

Her Big City Neighbor by Jackie Lau - M/f (cishet) romance between a white woman and an Asian man set in contemporary Toronto. The man is the grumpy one and the woman is exceptionally cheerful. This author loves to write detailed food descriptions!

Proper English by KJ Charles - F/f romance between two women set in early 20th century England, with a murder mystery plot. Both characters have hidden depths, which is part of the romance, but I'd loosely categorize the book this way.

Shake Things Up by Skye Kilaen - Polyamorous romance, bi characters, contemporary setting (starts in Austin and the characters take a road trip to Colorado). One of the female leads is grumpy by nature, and both of her partners (m and f) are pretty sunshine-y. Disclaimer: I beta-read this book. This author has written this trope a few times as well.

#queer romance #books #lgbtq books #romance novels #my book lists

10 notes · View notes

jonathanbiers · 2 years

Note

longtime reader first time anon! in regards to the "steve doesn't know what a bisexual is" thing, I'm honestly going back and forth about whether ANYONE in a small town in the mid-eighties would be super familar with the concept — as a bisexual myself I am wondering. researching it hasn't come up with much, because while we know bisexuality was definitely developing as its own movement in queer urban spaces, how much of that permeated middle america?

hi, first of all i’m??? so flattered that you’ve read my stuff and stuck around to read more but anyway, getting to the subject of the discussion,

i mean i live in a small town but it’s not the 80s anymore and i was not alive then, so my perspective is still limited. but it’s definitely feasible to me that he’d be aware of the concept of bisexuality, whether or not he had the vocabulary for it.

but correct me if i’m wrong, we have evidence of him having an idea of the concept of bisexuality in the show when he reassures robin that vickie could still be interested, even if she had a boyfriend? and that smile at the end of vol 2 when he sees them interacting. that’s a “go best friend” smile if i’ve ever seen one, he sees her hitting it off. he knows she has a chance, even after they saw her kissing a guy

and if that’s not enough, david bowie was huge at the time and also known for liking both. this would definitely be talked about in a small town like that, even if it’s just to be derogatory(which lets be real it would) which makes it very hard for me to believe he’s never been exposed to the concept even if he’s repressed his own feelings, which is basically what you’re talking about in the third ask. i hope you don’t mind me condensing them all into one post btw jajdhjdnf

also speaking of your third ask, i’ve lived that too!! this discussion is not about me but i wanted to throw it in there. and my experience is obviously different, but. i spent a good chunk of my self discovery journey identifying as a lesbian when i was, in fact, a transmasc dealing with comphet all along. i repressed the fuck out of my attraction to guys even when i didn’t yet realize i was one. that’s a very very real thing. even while doing things that were (for me) a very obvious sign of attraction. also, if you’re a longtime enough reader to have been around before i abandoned the multi chapter steddie fic that i just haven’t deleted yet, that’s pretty much where i was going to go with that just for the record. him realizing he felt the attraction all along and just repressed it because of (he wouldn’t know the vocabulary but) comphet. not some weird “what do you mean, both?” robin handfeeding him the dictionary definition of bisexual thing that happens way to often in fics to even be funny anymore

which brings me to your second ask. who decided that robin “trips and stutters around pretty girls” buckley and eddie “super super senior dnd nerd plays his guitar so much he learns master of puppets in a couple of weeks” munson are the experts on queer history and would be the ones to explain to poor little dumb baby steve that he’s attracted to both like he’s not a big boy with more emotional intelligence and depth than A LOT of main male characters out there, and who can figure shit out his damn self? please. robin is…robin, we love her, but she’s not giving me “goes to gay bars in indianapolis” vibes. who’s taking her to these, anyway? she can’t drive. she’s underage. definitely not giving me “has a fake id” vibes, either. try and convince me robin “or rather my mouth moves faster than my brain” buckley could get past a club bouncer. and eddie, bless his heart(affectionate), whether you’re a virgin eddie truther or not, is not some sex god who knows everything about being gay and swoops in to share this privileged knowledge with steve. those fanfics, while a fun fantasy at first, are something i’m sick and tired of seeing at this point. and yet the damage is seemingly done, the fandom has just come to that consensus at this point.

#anonymous #i’m sorry i got carried away and rambled at you #please don’t be shy to talk to me thoooo #i love talking to y’all and (as evidenced here) i do not shut up

15 notes · View notes

innytoes · 1 year

Text

I posted 7,680 times in 2022

That's 631 more posts than 2021!

382 posts created (5%)

7,298 posts reblogged (95%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@fiddlepickdouglas

@bostonbakeddeans

@invisibleraven

@curvesomesunsets

@bearfeathers

I tagged 7,490 of my posts in 2022

Only 2% of my posts had no tags

#julie and the phantoms - 2,652 posts

#fanfic - 955 posts

#many lols - 940 posts

#art - 758 posts

#alex mercer - 492 posts

#leverage - 490 posts

#reggie peters - 487 posts

#willex - 439 posts

#right in the feels - 426 posts

#willie throckmorton - 377 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#the world pretended to unite for half a week and then it was too much work and we blew up each other before the aliens could blow up the sun

My Top Posts in 2022:

Chaotic Writing Prompts

Did you seriously eat all my Oreos?

Can I pet your dog?

We do not need that many tiny pumpkins.

Want to help egg my ex’ house?

Can I get a kid’s menu and a rum and coke, please?

At least your hair still looks good.

I’m a real adult, just last week I bought a vegetable.

What do you mean, ‘whoops’?

Get in the fucking blanket fort.

Please stop talking about how you want to bang my dad.

If it helps, this isn’t actually my cat.

This was supposed to be a date?

I have such soft hair and nobody is playing with it!

I’m sorry, what were you saying? I saw a dog and I stopped listening.

I want to sit on their lap and feed them grapes.

Go step on a lego.

Sorry your crotch is bleeding.

Be gay, do crime.

Why am I in your phone as ‘himbo number two’?

Oh no, she’s hot.

Go take a nap and maybe you’ll feel better.

He’s such a nerd.

That’s not a cat it’s an opossum.

Are you crying about dogs on the internet again?

For the love of all that is holy, please go to sleep.

I’m sorry my cat keeps stealing your underwear.

It’s my emotional support Furby.

Why are we running?

Sorry isn’t going to bring back the last slice of cheesecake.

See the full post

295 notes - Posted July 8, 2022

Between Reggie hanging out and commenting on Ray’s photography and Reggie being delighted with and commenting on that lady at Eats&Beats taking pictures of her food, I have concluded that Reggie would be the one to take all the cute Behind The Scenes footage for the Julie and the Phantoms social media pages Flynn runs. And yes he will go full Instagram Boyfriend and lay down on the floor to get the perfect shot of Julie looking like a rockstar or Alex looking all heart-eyed at Willie.

And yes Flynn starts letting him write captions which is why you’ve got things like ‘the way Alex looks at Willie is the same way Luke looks at a shiny new guitar (sorry Julie)’ and ‘I think Julie Molina should be president maybe’.

304 notes - Posted April 18, 2022

Leverage OT3, urban fantasy, for the three sentence fic

"So let me get this straight," Hardison said, crossing his arms and staring at the chinchilla on the table. "The emerald Parker stole turned Nate into that?"

The animal on the table was nibbling on a seed, glaring at the four of them, which wasn't very effective because, you know, it was a tiny fluffy chinchilla.

"I'm going to make him so many tiny hats," Parker whispered, eyes big.

312 notes - Posted April 16, 2022

Finland is wearing a raincoat to protect himself from all the body glitter backstage.

325 notes - Posted May 14, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

New Leverage Redemption trailer really went like ‘we don’t have Hardison for all the episodes but when we do he is the sexiest motherfucker alive’, huh.

591 notes - Posted September 29, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #personal waffling #shocking alex is above Reggie in the tags but also he is very much a mood #many lols

4 notes · View notes

pagesandpothos · 2 months

Text

March Reading Recap

I have read so many great books this year and March really added to those numbers. Here's what I read in March and what I thought about each:

Evocation by S.T. Gibson 🌈 I read early thanks to NetGalley. This is an incredible start to a series filled with great, diverse, and layered characters. The growth of all three characters and their relationship throughout the novel was fantastic! Please take a look at my full review.

🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕

Listen For The Life by Amy Tintera One of the best thrillers that I've read in ages! It's smart, darkly funny, and even emotional at times. It's also a well-crafted, well-paced mystery with many shocking twists and turns. Please take a look at my full review.

🌕🌕🌕🌕

Lord of Eternal Night by Ben Alderson 🌈 Beauty and the Beast, but make it gay. Honestly, I had a blast reading this. It gave me exactly what I want from the romantasy genre. It's fun, smutty, queer, and has an interesting mystery plot that kept me turning the pages long after my bedtime.

🌕🌕🌕🌗

Murder Road by Simone St. James Another great paranormal thriller by Simone St. James. I enjoyed that it was set in the 1990s and I really liked the urban legend style plot.

🌕🌕🌕🌕

Immortal Pleasures by V. Castro I normally don't DNF books (I'm very stubborn) but I could not get into this and it was putting me into a reading slump, so I gave up at around the 50% mark. I liked the anti-colonialist and feminist messages, but the romances and sex scenes in this were not for me.

No Rating - DNF

Whisper Wells by Ali Woods 🌈 An ARC I read through BookSirens. This is an independently published Achillean romantasy that releases on April 3rd. It's a cozy fantasy romance about a Fae and a Human/Shifter who fall in love and journey into dangerous woods to search for a loved one. It's cute and very spicy! Please take a look at my full review.

🌕🌕🌕🌕

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett Sometimes you start a book and within a few pages, you just know that it will be a 5-star read. That was my experience with Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries. I loved it from the opening chapters and my love only grew as I continued. Emily is a very relatable character to me with her social struggles and single-minded fixation on her research. Bambleby, her exact opposite, is charming and funny. Both main characters and their relationship (and everything about this book) are completely endearing! This is a new all-time favorite!

🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson I read The Haunting of Hill House a few months ago and loved it, so I decided to grab this and give it a go. I think this is now my favorite Shirley Jackson novel! It's incredible, eerie, and so layered. This is one I will definitely be rereading!

🌕🌕🌕🌕🌔

The Little Prince I never read this as a kid but I'm very glad I decided to finally pick it up. It's lovely and surprisingly emotional.

🌕🌕🌕🌕

How did I do with my reading goals?

I read two new Book of the Month books (Listen For The Lie & Murder Road).

I read every day in March and read a total of 2620 pages.

I continued one series ("Shades of Magic") that I’m in the middle of (I've not yet finished this, so it will be in April's recap).

Most of the books (75%) that I read this month were over 300 pages.

I read one classic (We Have Always Lived In The Castle).

I finished two books (Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries & Murder Road) from my 2024 Priority TBR!

Note: 🌈 notes books with major queer themes, characters, or relationships. I read a lot of queer books and I want to highlight these for anyone else who wants to find more diverse books.

#books #monthly recap

0 notes

reviewsthatburn · 8 months

Text

THE WINTER KNIGHT is an Arthurian murder mystery told through several narrators, primarily through a Valkyrie (Hildie) and the current incarnation of Sir Gawain (Wayne). One of my favorite things about Arthurian retellings is that due to the elasticity of their cannon, they absorb and except the existence of other entries in a way that retellings of other stories often would be harder pressed to do. One such case is Vera’s identity as a professor who discusses, among other things, Guinevere's place in the Arthurian cannon, all whilst her students are unaware that she is the current incarnation of that queen.

Full review at link.

#BookReviews #Audiobook #Fantasy #Mystery #Recommended #Thriller #the winter knight #jes battis

0 notes

btranwrites · 9 months

Text

Hall Business

a Liam An short

a gay urban fantasy short story

Things are well on the Glacial front, but the Hall comes calling. There is trouble afoot that needs the Reaper's attention. ...Jamie softened. "That's the only almost-common denominator, yes. Can you handle this?" "Of course," Liam stands up. "It's Marion Square. If the Reaper can't defend his origin, then he may as well hand in his badge."

"What is so difficult for you to grasp, Mr. An, about the fact that you simply cannot involve yourself in matters of other companies!"

Liam flicked off a reply on his phone, and laid it down on the desk. The screen lit up again immediately; Elizabeth pinged back a thumbs-up emoji and 'coming right in'. He smiled, and kept smiling as he returned his gaze to one fuming Paul Thompson standing arms-crossed before Liam's desk, the chair he offered the man untouched.

He wanted to kick back so bad. Hands behind his head, a spa mask on with a glass of wine, and just savour the rage that was flooding from this man. Cold and biting, like frost. Weak prickling heat, like stale pepper. The man was old, sixty-seven, sixty-eight maybe, and yet so loose with temper. So unpoised. All these years lived and yet still… unseasoned . An exotic mishmash.

"I do understand boundaries, Mr. Thompson," Liam said. "And I understand subsidiary autonomy. I also understand intra-portfolio cohesion for the Group, and surely you understand our role as Ms. Chauhan's advisory body is to provide timely counsel and executive intervention."

Paul all but bellowed. "Counsel which I was to provide! Strategy resources that I appointed, executive bodies that I maintained, and you simply cannot… butt in and seat yourself wherever and whenever you see fit!"

Like cinnamon. Ooh, maybe even star anise? "The Neopac situation impacts a significant portion of the Group portfolio, Mr. Thompson. And it was an extraordinary situation. Ms. Chauhan saw it fit for my involvement, and I am simply seeing my work through."

"Stand. Back." Paul jabbed his finger at the oak desk, each thud heavy, reverberating with anger. God, this was delicious. Paul continued, "Neopac is dealt with. This is my turf. You are intruding."

"This is Glacial, Paul," Liam grinned. "There are no turfs but the Group. We are on the same side."

It was just a touch of taunting, yet Paul caught it immediately. His face burned beet red, and—

A knock on the door; just in time. Liam called out immediately. "Please come in!"

Lee Manik opened the door, as fine as ever, this time in a burgundy blazer, and stepped in. He stopped short as he saw Paul in front of Liam's desk. "Oh, my apologies; I didn't mean to intrude. I–"

"Don't worry," Liam said, leaning back on his chair with eyes still fixed on Paul, smiling. "Mr. Thompson is just leaving."

Paul glared at him, fists curling into white-knuckled balls. But the other executive left, all but slamming the door.

Lee, precious Lee, looked back at Liam with a slight frown. "Is everything alright?"

"Everything is splendid!" Liam exclaimed. "We were just having a passionate discussion is all, don't you worry. Now," he gestured at the empty chair opposite him, "what gave me the pleasure of seeing you here?"

Lee took the seat. Just as Liam asked him to. His grin grew wider.

"I just wanted to say thank you for your help with Enstern," Lee said. "You showed up, joined a few meetings, made some phone calls, and somehow they changed their mind."

"Ah, I'm sure you already had almost everything under control! And I just stepped in right at the tail end of your work."

"It was quite a mess before you stepped in, Mr. An—"

"Please. Call me Liam."

"Yes. Um. Liam. Uh. Right. Enstern was struggling not in an insignificant way, with Neopac being a major partner for our operation. And mere weeks after your involvement, all the roadblocks simply vanish. Things turn out too well, too smoothly for all of this to be simple coincidence."

"Then we must appreciate these rare bouts of good luck more often!"

Now Lee smiled. "You are very charming." The man caught himself, eyes wide as Liam's grin stretched to its max. "I mean, you are very charismatic. Um."

He could watch Lee squirm for the next hour, but that would risk the man never speaking to him again. Liam said, "That is what I'm good for, Mr. Manik."

"Lee."

Lovely. "That is what I'm good for, Lee." And without missing a beat, Liam leaned in, just ever slightly, "a pleasure to serve you."

Lee, too, turned beet red. "Um. Right. Thank you. My pleasure. You have a good day now." The director excused himself and left, the door clicking close behind him.

Liam looked at the closed door, and the emptied chair before him, and sighed with content. This was going to be a long dance, and he would relish every drop.

II.

"People are missing memories, Shard Reaper. We collect them totally confused, disoriented, like they were very, very drunk. They could not remember anything they did the night before, except being very, very certain that they were utterly terrified. Was it you?"

Liam flipped through the pages Jamie placed before him, frowning in the guest chair. It was a thin stack in the folio, but a stack with more sheets than he wanted to see. "No, and I do not know these people. Well," he flipped back over the pages. "I fucked this guy twice, and… this girl's husband, ex-husband now, and…" Liam kept flipping as Jamie audibly sighed. "And a few more of these, but I did not kidnap or terrorise them. That's only to incapacitate confirmed targets to be brought back to the Hall or police. Where was this?"

Jamie leaned a shoulder against the window, looking out. They weren't on the top floors of the International Hall of Heroes headquarters; high enough to see the streets of Neon City, but not enough to see the skyline. "The last one was at Marion Square."

Liam frowned, and went back to flipping through the pages.

His handler continued. "This happened all over the City, and their paths on the nights of attack all crossed alleyways…" Jamie sighed again, and sat down behind the desk before Liam. "Should I escalate this to the B-rank—"

"No, there's no need," Liam cut in. "This involves my domain. A lot of these people have at least one substance in them when they were attacked. Not all, but a majority."

Jamie softened. "That's the only almost-common denominator, yes. Can you handle this?"

"Of course," Liam stands up. "It's Marion Square. If the Reaper can't defend his origin, then he may as well hand in his badge."

Jamie leaned back in his chair, nodding. "Good. I would rather not involve the B's, they are stretched as it is. And absolutely not the tops."

"I wonder if you understand what that sentence reads like in a different context."

"What? What does it read like?"

"All good, you're too straight." Liam said, standing up as he put on his mask, black with red eye caps. It flushed seamless with the rest of his skin-tight uniform, his body a mass of matte obsidian, accented only with the red of his claws and the stylised glass shard on his chest.

He grabbed for the files, and the red glowed into angry crimson fire. To Jamie's right, the innocuous mirror on the wall sunk into sudden darkness as he closed in, and when his burning touch connected they collapsed into a swirling obsidian void, a darkness that surrendered no reflection.

"Please have your watch on during missions, Liam."

The Shard Reaper turned his burning eyes back at his handler. "No promises," he said, his voice the sound of glass scraping concrete. Jamie sighed for the third time today, and the Reaper disappeared into the vortex.

III.

The Reaper floated through an expanse, lightless except for cracks and fractures suspended in the space itself, gently swaying to an unknown current. Some of them hung in the void like wounds within which even deeper darkness festered. From others streamed in the weak light of various happenstances unfolding in front of reflections and shadows across Neon City, blurred as if behind a fogged up bathroom vanity. A barista drying cups in front of a decorative mirror. A day drinker throwing up next to a dumpster in front of an alleyway. An old couple feeding ducks next to a manmade pond. Two guys fucking in a darkened toilet stall. Business lady refreshing makeup. Secretary rehearsing a difficult conversation in a closet.

It was especially tough freshly after his coming into power: these images and sounds and smells he did not ask for assaulted him like torrential deluge, day and night until he could get the Mist to hold them back. Now they were like puppet shows behind stained glasses: the Mist obscured the details here in his demesne, the Glasslit Void, but he could still gauge the outlines where his attention landed. These days, what was a deluge was now more a pleasant trickling stream, screaming marches now more like gentle chatter from patrons in a restaurant.

His eyes and ears were everywhere in Neon City. If it reflected or rejected light, the Reaper was there. Sure, the higher ranked superheroes from the Hall handled the flashier cases, and he shared the underbelly of the City with other C-rankers. But that underbelly could be his domain. The City could be his domain; he just needed patience. It took him years to get to where he was at Glacial. Power demanded time.

It was not a good look for him, however, to have let whatever this… kidnapping thing happen right under his nose. Enstern, and admittedly a rather attractive director, was taking a bit too much of his headspace lately. He even let a few Man in the Mirror calls rang unanswered. But now that this was threatening Marion Square, he could not let it slide. No one touched a super's birthplace without expecting at least some reaction.

The Reaper landed in front of a black mirror. His touch rippled it into light, and Liam walked out of the Glasslit Void from the body-length mirror in his apartment's living room. The sun was setting, young dusk casting a gentle fire from expansive windows set next to the sofa set and high-definition TV. He put Jamie's files down on the white-marbled kitchen counter and poured himself a glass of water.

He had the view of the cityscape from here on the inside, while the Mist-obscured glass panes protected his privacy from outsiders with illusions of Liam being just another ordinary bachelor instead of a member of the Hall. The apartment was clean, modernist in its tactful colour palette of oak, dark juniper, and expensive Scandinavian décor.

Next was to get a skyline view with the outline of the landmark International Hall of Heroes tower in sight.

He peeled off the Reaper mask and set it down next to the files of victims. These people were… fine? They were missing, forgot a few things, and got a little scare, but they didn't have anything worse done to them. What was not acceptable was how this was done in his domain.

He tapped on his phone and dialled a contact. The line connected. Liam said, "Liz, has Enstern added any media coverage west of the City?"

Keyboards typed and mice clicked. After a beat, Elizabeth said, "there's a social media campaign targeting that region, yes."

Liam waited. Keyboards kept typing and mice kept clicking.

He sighed. "And nothing else, right. Let me guess, it's on Gamma as well."

"Liam, there's like two twenty-somethings on their social media team and they're juniors. The rest of them know nothing but Gamma."

"Yeah, tracks with them coming up with the name Enstern. A Gamma campaign for a region with major demographics using every other platform but Gamma."

"What do you suggest?"

Liam kept his gaze on the cityscape outside his balcony: a vista of pristine wood panelling, manicured decorative foliage, and meticulously spotless windows showcasing more expensive décor inside. "They need to know how to speak to ordinary working people. People with grunge and sweat and middle fingers to the establishment. Enstern looks very establishment right now, and Westside prefers something more to their level."

"Is this Hall business?"

"You know me too well, Liz. It is Hall business."

"Right. What are we doing?"

Whoever the perpetrators were, they expected the Reaper. But they didn't expect Liam.

"Drag night. The Trench, Marion Square."

#writeblr #original writing #my writing #short story #gay fiction #urban fantasy #queer sff #liam an

0 notes