I'm mostly active on Discord, not really on Bluesky, improbably, my Tumblr is still active! I would NOT have guessed back in 2009, when I started it to promote my artwork (a thing I have never done), I never would have expected that it would have lasted seventeen years. Here's to improbable survival!
I'm mostly active on Discord, not really on Bluesky, improbably, my Tumblr is still active! I would NOT have guessed back in 2009, when I started it to promote my artwork (a thing I have never done), I never would have expected that it would have lasted seventeen years. Here's to improbable survival!
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Anyway, let’s get to the letter.
General Likes:
- Epistolary formats -- especially the dialogic type.
- Porn (character driven or for the sake of itself)
- Porn likes: anal sex, interrupted oral, service tops, unexpectedly bratty bottoms, hand & finger kink, oral fixation, face-slapping, crying during sex, bad/funny sex, caning, contextual dubcon (due to mistaken identity, altered states such a sex pollen between already pining parties), forehead kisses, uniform kink.
- Canon-divergence AUS, missing scenes, historical periods other than canon (Victorian, interwar, WWI & II, fifties to sixties.)
- Loyalty kink, friends-to-lovers, enemies-to-lovers, complicated relationships.
- Ghost stories and supernatural elements, fairy tale lore, magic, subverted horror movie tropes
- Character death & bittersweet endings, general melancholia, coming back wrong but with feelings & memories of before.
- Emotional manipulation, the manipulator catching feelings
- grief & mourning, unexpected reprieves, fixits that break things further down the line.
- Alternative POVs and experimental styles (but a tight third is always welcome.) For mythical canons, retellings & reinventions that aren’t just straight modern AUs
- General Art Likes: strong compositions, pastel-like effects, strong chiaroscuro, big dicks, attention to costuming, expressions and tenderness, significant touches, emotions.
General Do Not Wants:
- Eye violence
- Non-con (exceptions noted in specific prompts)
- Violence/misogyny against women, child or animal harm (Obviously the 19th century RPF is the exception!)
- Pregnancy (either m or fpreg)
- Explicit sexual content involving characters under the age of 18
- Fic focusing on gender dysphoria, homophobia (external or internal), transphobia, self-care, or self-harm. (Again, the 19th century RPF is the exception.)
Anatomie d'une chute | Anatomy of a Fall (2023)
- Sandra Voyter
- Vincent Renzi
Vincent: I don't give a fuck about what is reality, okay? You... you need to start seeing yourself the way others are going to perceive you. A trial is not about 'the truth,' it's... it's about...
Or maybe there’s another case that causes Vincent and Sandra to fall into orbit again.
I adore Swann Arnaud’s beautiful yet weary vibe… that’s not relevant to this prompt, but it is true. He is truly lovely.
19th Century CE American Writers RPF
- Herman Melville (American Writers RPF)
- Nathaniel Hawthorne (American Writers RPF)
I get the feeling that Melville was maybe more into Hawthorne than Hawthorne was into Melville, which hurts my own lovelorn self, but it would probably be interesting to see Hawthorne's side of things. (Maybe he feels more than he lets on -- could a secret burned letter somehow clear things up?)
Tell me about how Nathaniel’s Puritan guilt complex mixed with Melville’s “hot Southern soul” (he was from New York.)
Kaos (TV 2024)
- Charon (Kaos TV 2024)
- Prometheus (Kaos TV 2024)
- Worldbuilding
Now that the show’s over, anything goes…
Worldbuilding — the worldbuilding for this show was so intriguing and I would love to see what you can do with it. I’m so interested in how the other Greek city states are like. I need to know what is the state of the minxy Athenian femboys in this world, also volcel Spartans ( and what if two of them … fell in love?) — also all the other gods that didn’t make it on the screen. Athena??? Artemis? Apollo would surely be a hot mess in this world.
- What are the gods in the Kaos universe? We know Ares is soft low contact with his parents, but what about everyone else? I would love to see Hephaestus in this universe, and of course, my girl Athena.
- More about the Trojans and their plight. What do they do after the events of the show?
- More about the Fates and their meddling. Who else has tried to defy them?
- Prometheus being such a big part of this show, it makes me wonder about the rest of his story. What's Pandora been up to? What would her box even be in this world?
Well, I guess I'll go back to editing now.
2.) The known world ended at the castle. I want the penthouse of your heart
3.) He grabs Thomas’ hand and pushes it into the still-fresh wound. thrust my hand into his side
4.) Suddenly, you are alone with Lestat. my blood is your mother’s milk
5.) It was loathsome, to watch Lestat hunt. but not for me
6.) Once Goncharov was dead, it was easy to take control. here on the darkling plain
7.) The children knew Heathcliff would gladly sacrifice them to the Devil, or whoever else, could grant his wish for Cathy’s return. my one dream, my only master
[Skipped over 100 words of horror since the first story was posted back in 2020.]
8.) Sing, O muse, of the irritation of Achilles, son of Peleus, that came across his noble brow once he had heard the tittle-tattle of the Achaean camp, where great men sat useless in their armor, and turned their malicious tongues upon him and his? exeunt omnes
9.) I got the call that my Grandpa Jim had passed a week into a new job. Alien Hitchhiker
10.) There was absolutely nothing good to be said about Serge Lambert. A Romance In Threes
8.)
Date: 2018
Director: Christophe Honoré
Starring: Vincent Lacoste, Pierre Deladonchamps, Denis Podalydès
Content Notes:
Availability: Streaming on Amazon Prime US
Review:
The original title of this movie, Plaire, aimer et courir vite, gives you a better idea of the contents of the movie than the English title. This movie is very much about gathering your rosebuds while ye may.
This movie begins with Jacques sitting alone at the cafe, sipping absinthe while he waits for his current lover to come, so he can break up with him.
Jacques is an author and an out gay man in 1993 Paris. It’s hard to get around the fact that this was thirty years ago, and the world was completely different. The movie absolutely makes hay of this vanished world. People meet spontaneously at a screening of The Piano, they connect without even meaning to, they leave a torrent of emotions on the voicemail, for anyone to hear, they pick up hitchhikers and it turns out OK for everyone. See? A vanished world. Spoilers ahead.
( Spoilery review )
→ Give me a title for a story I haven't written, and I will give you 1-3 sentences (or more) from or about it.
→ Give me 2-9 characters from any fandom(s) in my tags. I'll put my music on shuffle, and create a fic synopsis based on those characters and the first song that comes up.
- Unlike Rings of Power, which just slide out my mind like it was nothing, I have been completely captivated by AMC's Interview with The Vampire. Never expected that, since I've never vibed with Anne Rice's vampires all that much, after multiple attempts at reading The Vampire Lestat in middle school. But the show has done a few crucial changes that really changes the equation for me, specifically changing Louis and Claudia's race. And unlike a lot of colorblind casting that doesn't always take into consideration what it means for a character to go from white to black, this show really, really does. Louis is still, essentially, the sadsack of the books, but his sadness truly has new and interesting dimensions as black gay man living in the early 20th century. It's excellent. Fuck.
Needless to say, he is the blorbo. Lestat is the meow-meow. Claudia is the woobie. I love them all.
So, if you're even a little bit curious about the show, I would love you to watch it! It's all streaming on AMC+. Truly worth watching.
- Trick or Treat Exchange is live! I wrote two treats for this exchange, both OW.
I want the penthouse of your heart . OW, Teen, CNTW, Vampire Master of Castle/Gothic Heroine (OW), 741 words. Fairy Tale Elements, Vampires, Gothic. Nyssa is trapped in a gothic romance nightmare.
The Loneliest Time OW, Explicit, CNTW, Younger Sibling Who Came Back Wrong/Older Sibling Who Brought Them Back, 3937 words. Zombies, Ghouls, Comes Back Wrong, Sibling Incest, POV Second Person, Present Tense, Occult, Murder, Halloween. Cary comes back wrong.
Not associated with ToT, but I wrote a frankly unhinged Caravaggio ficlet. Normalize Jesus slash with people other than Judas!
I made a TikTok about it:
zenatroywrites It’s a classic gothic romance about a girl going through a hard time right now and a werepanther 🥹🐈⬛ #gothicromancebook #kindlevellaromance ♬ original sound - Zena Troy
The first three episodes are available to read (FOR FREE) on the Vella site.
I had a lot of fun writing this story!! Here's some random details:
- Kate’s last name was originally Keel, as a nod to the author of the Mothman Prophecies, John Keel.
- As in Keel’s book, the MIB does steal someone’s favorite pen.
- As a departure from Keel’s book, the MIB are hot dudes here.
- It goes without saying, but Pleasant Valley = Point Pleasant. But there is a lot of Pleasant Valleys out there. Just yesterday, I was listening to the radio and a story came on from Pleasant Valley, SD. Even though I deliberately choose a very common name for this location, I was still shook.
- Lynda and Agent Johns are having their own, rather different affair in the back.
- Marge knows more than she’s telling.
Dead Sidekick - The best sidekicks always comes back.
- Mister Big - Original Work, Original Alien Vampire Body Swapper. Mature. 1.7K. Relevant Tags: Bodyswap, Amorality, Vampires, Strippers & Strip Clubs, Murder, Horror.
For Summer of Horror:
- Cabin by the Lake - Original Work, Slasher/Final Girl. Explicit, CNTW. 6.6K. Relevant Tags: Cabins, Betrayal, Horror, Character Death, North Woods Gothic, POV Original Female Character, Explicit Sexual Content, Non-Pet Animal Death.
- Bloodlines Little Red Riding Hood (Fairy Tale), Mature, Graphic Depictions of Violence, Gen, 1K. Relevant Tags: Folk Horror, Werewolves, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Isolation, Archetypes.
For Nonconathon:
- The Night You Can't Remember (The Night I Can't Forget) The Great Gatsby, Nick Carroway/Jay Gatsby, Explicit, Noncon, 1.9K, Relevant Tag: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Jay Gatsby Lives, Rape/Non-con Elements, Canadian Shack.
If you like or somewhat like any of these stories, please let me know as I am
A couple of quick recs:
- Path of Ash - The Northman (2022), Gudrun & Amleth, Mature, 1.2K. The gods sent her a weapon in answer to her prayers, and the weapon they sent was her first-born son.
My lovely gift! Nicole Kidman absolutely killed it, playing Gudrun in The Northman and this story really digs into her fractured psyche.
- To All My Wives I Loved and Love - Bluebeard/His Wives, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con. Mature, 1.5K. I loved my wives. Camille, my first love. Julianne, my passionate lover. Odile, my kind angel. Chantal, my beautiful beloved. I loved them all.
Really hits Bluebeard as a serial killer head-on. Visceral and horrific.
- Candy and Chlorine - Jennifer's Body (2009), Jennifer/Needy, CNTW, Explicit, 1.8K. “You need to make up your mind,” Needy said, hating how her voice sounded reedy and weak, like she just wanted to throw her arms around Jennifer and never let go. “Seriously, are you a demon or a ghost? Because right now it’s like you’re just a kid who can’t decide on her Halloween costume.”
I am all for the critical reevaluation of Jennifer's Body, despite my ambivalence towards Diablo Cody. This is hot and fucked, which is how I prefer my f/f.
- Our Dinner Sweet, Twa Corbies/Norse Myth, CNTW, Teen, 320 words. The corbies feast well throughout the years.
Look, it makes sense to me.
I have two stories in the collection. If you guess one of them correctly, I'll write you a ficlet (OW, ballads, fairy tales) -- in the horror genre, natch.
If you really can't wait to read a horror story from me, please click over to my substack to read the following:
This House Is Literally Trying to Kill Me and Keep Me Mounted on a Pedestal As a Living Doll and Yet? My Normal Human Husband Is Worse?
This is a fictional story. Any similarity to actual dolls, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Sign up for SAD CLOWN EXPRESS, where I can guarantee that there are very few clowns. But not zero clowns. I cannot guarantee zero clowns. No one can. BUT. If you want to see random antiques and my musings on fandom, writing, weird fiction and other topics. All you need is a valid email address!
What a world, right? I hope this letter finds you well. I’m going to be absolutely delighted with whatever you come up with -- honestly, the entire concept of exchanges is a delight to me. Writing a gift for another person — it’s beautiful, man. You gotta appreciate it while you can. I’m very easy when it comes to horror. I get a real kick out of it all.
( Cut for length )
Chapters: 4/7
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Characters: Dead Sidekick Out For Revenge, Brooding Superhero, Budding Supervillain Who Could Go Either Way
Additional Tags: Superheroes, Worldbuilding, Crime Fighting, POV First Person, Trauma, Developing Relationship, 2000s, In-Universe True Crime, Sidekicks, Friendship, Temporary Character Death
Series: Part 1 of Dead Sidekick ‘Verse
Summary:
Peter Wyatt, an orphaned street urchin, decides the best way to survive and thrive in his city is to become a superhero. All he needs to do is convince the world, and more importantly -- the Protector -- to get on board.
Everyone wanted to get a look at the Protector, Eden City’s first — and so far only — superhero. He couldn’t fly like Starseed, and he hadn’t been around since the forties like Athena, but he was Eden City’s own. And when he beat up gangsters and left them in front of the police station, the kids would scramble out and grab anything that had been left on the table. Wallets, weed, even guns — anything before the police came and secured the scene.
I'm really enjoying writing this, especially all the superheroes.
The only problem is that you can't stop the show to go pee. This is the biggest thing going for watching movies at home.
Anyway, first, The Northman (2022) ( Spoilers, sweetie )
So, Firebird (2021) ( Let's put on Tchaikovsky and stifle our feelings! )
I know this is big Boss Baby vibes, but I did get some strong The Charioteer vibes from this -- but if Ralph and Andrew had a tragic romance and someone married the nurse character and made everyone very unhappy.
Anyway, it was a pretty mediocre gay romance BUT in a sea of mediocre straight romances, this is fine and good. I'd recommend it if you want strong visuals, sex scenes that are noticeably not awkward, and just y'know, getting exactly what you've come to expect.
Winner, 2004 Galvorn Awards: 1st place for "Worst Character Assasination"!
Nominee, 2007-8 Pushuruk Awards: Most Offensive Portrayal of a Canon Character (all).
I love the author's attitude of, uh, immortalizing what is essentially fanfic Razzies, but the thing is, I don't agree that this fic is character assassination. Fingon is a very interesting -- honestly, the most interesting character in this fic and I don't think it's a stretch that a person from his background and circumstances would in fact be a total monster. After all, abuse of power comes as no surprise. That wouldn't clash with his depiction in the Silmarilion, especially if the Silmarillion, in-universe, is a document compiled long after the ashes of the First Age has been swept away. The story is also presented from an Eagle's eye view of the events. And from the ground floor? Could be very different.
After reading this and finishing up my reading of the Silmarillion, I went on to write my own fic, also featuring Fingon (AO3 tells me I started posting in the summer of 2011), and my take of Fingon is much softer and sweeter, but I think my initial reading did leave deep impressions on me.
Also, I am really glad that I came around after fanfic awards went away. I'm too fragile for it.
(Someone also left a kudos yesterday on Finellach, which is still one of my favorite Silmfics, and honestly, it's a banger. (I am trying to be more positive about my own work.))
ANYWAY. First, I wrote:
Old Hamlet’s New Groove (1504 words) by havisham
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Hamlet - Shakespeare
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Claudius & Hamlet Sr., Hamlet & Hamlet Sr. (Hamlet), Claudius/Gertrude (Hamlet)
Characters: Hamlet Sr. (Hamlet), Hamlet (Hamlet), Claudius (Hamlet), Polonius (Hamlet)
Additional Tags: Animal Transformation, Fairy Tale Curses, Theatre, Father-Son Relationship, Kings & Queens, ANGRY REGAL HONKING
Summary:
It's a beautiful day in Elsinore and you are a horrible swan-king.
I've written for Hamlet before on Yuletide 2012 - it's funny that I wrote for it again in 2021. That's got to mean something, right? Initially, I chose this pinch hit because of the Penny Dreadful prompts (and at times between reveals, I sincerely wished I gone along with my first instinct...) Even so, Hamlet has been one of my favorite plays since I read it as young goth, age 12, and I still love it. So hey.
Second:
Semi-Splendid (1925 words) by havisham
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Catherine Earnshaw/Heathcliff
Characters: Catherine Earnshaw, Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights), Isabella Linton
Additional Tags: Half-Sibling Incest, Dysfunctional Relationships, Family Secrets, Forbidden Love
Summary:
Isn’t it you she seeks? And / If you blame her, know that she blames you for choosing
Not her, but me. Love is never fair. But do we — should we — care?
I've been rereading Wuthering Heights this fall, for firs time in a long time, and it hits different than most adaptations for it. Heathcliff is clearly a person of color who faced and was warped by constant abuse, the cycle of abuse really harmed everyone and Nelly Dean, low key, was the only one to get off with minimum psychological damage. (But she still got it, what with losing baby Hindley and all.)
Anyway, this is moorfreak4moorfreak with a dash of bodice-rippery romance, and I wish more people had liked it. But my recip did and that's what counts!
Happy Yule, everyone!
The Divine Image, Church Painter Who May Be The Devil/Village Priest, Original Works, M/M, Explicit, 10K, CNTW. Gideon Martlemass, a young priest, is pleased to learn that the long-whitewashed over painting in his church is set to be restored. He befriends Valentine, the church painter, who draws out holy pigments out from the past. The two find love and connection together.
But soon the wider world intrudes and Gideon must reckon with dark secrets about Valentine -- and his own past.
Amour Honestus, Rebel Hero Who Disappeared/His Husband Who Never Stopped Looking for Him, Original Works, M/M, Mature, 10K, CNTW. Revolutionaries and lovers, Veran and Mathias seem to be on the top of the world. But when Mathias suddenly disappears, Veran soon realizes that he would give up everything -- even his own life -- to bring his husband back.
Borrowed freely from the flist. I don't know if this was supposed to be all works, or just this year. Since I'm doing it for the first time, let's do it for all time.
Average word count: 3501
Average hits count: 1580
Average Kudos count: 114
Average no. of comment threads: 7
Average no. of Bookmarks: 18
( More! More! More! )
