somethingdarker

Last updated in June of 2024.

This is mostly for Battleship, WDLF, and similar exchanges. If I've said "creator's choice," I meant it, but I know that some writers prefer to have some idea of what fandoms they have in common with the recipient.

All subdivisions are arbitrary about edge cases. Some things may be in more than one category, but other things that could fit more than one category may be only in one place.

Also, 'know well enough' in no way guarantees that I remember all details; proper nouns tend to slip out of my memory fairly quickly, for example. It also doesn't mean that the work is something I adore, just that I didn't dislike it. These are all fine.

For things I only know parts of, I really don't mind spoilers as long as I can understand what's going on.

( Children's books )

( Fantasy books )

General Fiction
Bengtsson, Frans G. The Long Ships
Bradshaw, Gillian. Histories published before about 2000
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre
Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities

Graves, Robert. Homer's Daughter
Graves, Robert. I, Claudius; Claudius the God
Guareschi, Giovannino. Don Camillo series

Malvern, Gladys. Behold Your Queen

Powell, Richard. Don Quixote, USA
Powell, Richard. Pioneer, Go Home!
Powell, Richard. The Soldier
Powell, Richard. Whom the Gods Would Destroy

Renault, Mary. The Mask of Apollo
Renault, Mary. The Praise Singer

Smith, Dodie. The New Moon with the Old

Stewart, Mary. Works (published up through the mid-1980s)

Twain, Mark. Tom Sawyer; Huckleberry Finn

Winters, Cat. The Cure for Dreaming

( Romance novels )

( Spy stories and mysteries (books) )

( Star Trek books )

( Science fiction books )

( Anime/Manga )

( Movies )

( TV )

Difficult to sort:
Arthurian Legend
Beatrix Potter books
Beowulf
Byzantine Empire RPF
El Cid (have read the epic and seen the movie)
Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen
The Eddas
English history RPF from the Conquest through Elizabeth I
Gilgamesh
Greek Mythology
Greek Tragedies
Icelandic Sagas
Late Roman Republic RPF
Roman Empire RPF
The Odyssey
Sentinels of the Multiverse card game
The Song of Roland
The Sundiata
The Volsung Saga

Any fairy tale that I can find quickly online
Any myth or religious story that I can find quickly online
Any RPF for people who died before 1900 CE and who I can find quickly online
Historical fiction for events before 1900 CE that I can find quickly online

( Comics/animated shows/animated movies )

( Plays )

( Superhero and Adjacent )

In a crib of black twigs and moss - Seth Abramson "The Woods in Concord"

Holed and cribbed with light - Joan Houllihan "RAG SMELL. FIRE"

The earth a broken crib - Maureen N. McLane "From A Book of Hours"

Weaves a crib for my heart - Naomi Shihab Nye "No One Thinks of Tegucigalpa"

From the dark cribs of doorways - Derek Walcott "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen Part II"

Navigation Links:
Go to C word index.
Go to Potential Titles: Furnishings/Furniture [category].
Go to author indices.
Go to word indices.
Go to category indices.

( General babbling about process )

( Major POV characters )

( Minor POV characters )

( Non-POV characters )

( Groups )

( Assumptions about Sky High )

Series: Not Ready to Swallow Oblivion.

This is a long exploration of what people do when all of their choices suck.

Intent on Its Angles - T rating. 7 chapters. 33044 words. Covers Homecoming (29 October 2005) through the end of the year. This is a separate, happier branch than the rest with the implicit ending of 'and then they all got lots and lots of therapy.'

Would Feed on Ashes - T to M rating. 5 chapters. 13161 words. Branches from "Intent on Its Angles" on 3 December 2005 (at the end of the chapter titled "Brave at the Shore") and goes in a darker direction. Covers December 2005 to January 2006.

Drilled Through Empty Spaces - M rating. 8 chapters. 25138 words. Follows "Would Feed on Ashes," picking up in February 2006 and ending in fall 2008. Non-explicit underage (all participants) dub-con, mostly just mentioned, but one chapter goes as far as two teens with their shirts off. Murder. Really, really unreliable narrators.

From the Chalice of Their Common Need - T rating. 4 chapters. 11591 words. What was happening elsewhere during events of "Would Feed on Ashes" and "Drilled Through Empty Spaces." Covers July 2006 through October 2006 with parts looking back from much later on (but probably not anything after "Who Have Waited for Water").

Who Have Waited for Water - T rating. 3 chapters. 11499 words. Starts and ends approximately 6 years after Homecoming.

Locked with a Twisted Key - M rating. Complete in one chapter. 4641 words. Diverges during "Who Have Waited for Water" in as much as Layla's father never visits Sky High. Set about 12 years after Homecoming. References to and discussion of offscreen rape.

A Ladder of Driftwood - T rating. 3414 words. Diverges between "From the Chalice of Their Common Need" and "Who Have Waited for Water." Set between four and five years after Homecoming. Will and Warren talking in a dingy hotel room.

You Cannot Fold a Flood - E rated. This one is full of potentially triggery things. I mean every tag and warning in the author's notes. 7 chapters and 22524 words. In the same branch as "Locked with a Twisted Key" but explicit about what happens with Warren. Set about twelve years after Homecoming.

Clearing the Soil of Stones - M rated. 3475 words. Warren POV. Set about one year after "You Cannot Fold a Flood." Nothing explicitly violent or sexual. There's a baby and care for said baby in the text.

DNW: child harm of any sort; explicit underage sex; cancer; snuff; suicide; completely tragic/hopeless endings; embarrassment/humiliation; mutilation; infidelity; forcible physical transformation; incest; mentor/protege pairings; isms not native to the setting; bestiality (xeno with intelligent beings is fine); setting change AUs; mundane AUs; mpreg; A/B/O; soulbonds; RPF involving modern characters; PWP; fluff; disrespect for real world religions

I've written all of these fandoms except Utena and have come up with some world building ideas for them. I am absolutely not wedded to a specific interpretation of the characters or the backstory or any of that. Most of the time, when I start poking at this sort of stuff, I get half a dozen ideas that all go at angles from each other, so other angles are welcome.

That said, I have a transformative works policy and am open to anyone yanking bits of world building, non-canonical backstory, etc. from my existing stories and doing whatever the hell they want with it, including proving why it couldn't possibly work that way.

( General )

( Chronicles of Amber )

( Two Narnia requests )

( Labyrinth (1986) )

( Phineas and Ferb )

( Shoujo Kakumei Utena )

( Sky High (2005) )

( Two Weiss Kreuz requests )

Canon: Luke traps Merlin in the blue crystal cave. Jasra comes to retrieve Merlin, and Merlin escapes.

Every single one of the stories below has-- at the very least-- references to rape.

Nothing False and Possible: Branches from canon. Luke comes back, and he and Merlin negotiate.

They Come Knocking Like Hearts Asking: Branches from canon. Jasra comes for Merlin and does not let him escape. Eventually they reach an understanding.

The Fruit of Your Intents: Branches from "They Come Knocking Like Hearts Asking." Luke comes home before Jasra and Merlin can reach their understanding, and things get much nastier for Merlin. Then things get nasty for Luke. Merlin POV. Explicit.

No Decisions to Master: In continuity with "The Fruit of Your Intents." Takes place midway between when Ghostwheel kidnapped Luke and when Martin came to visit. Totally not plot necessary. 1500 words of Merlin torturing Luke. Luke POV. Explicit.

Garden Our Shadows: Follows "The Fruit of Your Intents." Merlin's POV. WIP. Nothing posted. Possibly abandoned.

Less Than Dust: Follows "The Fruit of Your Intents." Overlaps "Garden Our Shadows." Luke's POV. Contains Martin/Luke.

We Are Where We Began: Follows "Less Than Dust." Heavy angst but a happier outcome than "Your Future Has a History" Luke gets. Luke's POV.

Your Future Has a History: Diverges after "Less Than Dust" and takes place about a year later. Incorporates elements of "Garden Our Shadows." Luke's POV. Probably the darkest outcome for Luke.

Trapped Between the Memory and the Moment: Direct sequel to "Your Future Has a History." Martin POV. Mostly him talking to Coral but a little bit of him interacting with Luke Reynard. Part of the underpinning for this branch is Martin interacting with Coral in the ways that Merlin did in canon, so warnings for the Pattern having made them do it (while she was unconscious) and for the resulting pregnancy.

At the Edge of Centuries: Diverges somewhere around "We Are Where We Began," incorporating some parts of that but not most of it. The branching point is that Ghostwheel says no to the idea of Merlin having more biological children. Set about ten years later. Luke and Merlin find a relative who is under a curse. Part Luke's POV, part Merlin's POV, and part Ghostwheel's POV.

Welcome and Unwelcome Both: In the same continuity with "We Are Where We Began" but set about thirty years later on. Luke talking to his and Merlin's second child. Gen and very short. Probably the fluffiest story in the arc so far. Which doesn't make it fluffy. Luke's POV.

Love Sold, Hope Dead, and Honour Broken: In Merlin's timeline, this is about eight years after the end of "The Fruit of Your Intents." From Dalt's point of view, Rinaldo and Jasra have only been missing a few months. This may end up chaptered, but chapter 1 stands more or less on its own and might fit with either "We Are Where We Began" or "At the Edge of Centuries." Ariyus exists in both continuities and has a similar origin in both. Dalt's POV.

Hold Nothing to Desire: Long PWP from Martin's POV. Martin/Merlin, explicit with lots of kink. Set in the "We Are Where We Began" branch but definitely not plot necessary for that. I'm pretty sure that reading the other stories in that branch isn't necessary for understanding it. Explicit. Possibly complete. Possibly not.

The Pedigree of Honey: M rated. Luke POV relatively early in the branch that leads to "At the Edge of Centuries." Martin/Luke with Martin giving Luke a little comfort and Luke desperate enough to take it. Approximately 6100 words. Stands alone but makes zero sense without the backstory from "The Fruit of Your Intents."

Surprised by the Hard Glass : M rated. Merlin's POV starting a decade or so after "Welcome and Unwelcome Both." Really, really won't make sense without that and the preceding stories in that branch.

I am pretty much always looking for first readers and/or beta readers. The difficulty is that I may take months or even years to finish something and actually need more help the longer something takes rather than less. I'm also looking for help with inconsistencies in characterization, with failures to fire Chekov's gun, with things that are perfectly clear to me but need elaboration, possibly major elaboration (adding two or three thousand words to fix one of those is not out of the question), with structural stuff like needing to start in a different place or to end in a different place or to actually show something I had off screen. SPaG isn't as much of a concern for me. It's definitely helpful, but if I don't get it, the story will likely be mostly all right anyway.

I write in a lot of different fandoms. I'm still writing a lot of Weiss Kreuz and Chronicles of Narnia. I've started writing several Chronicles of Amber stories. Most other fandoms, I write once and never go back, and I only tend to do really big fandoms for Remix.

I write gen, het, and m/m. I expect I'll get to f/f eventually. I just haven't at this point.

I write all ratings.

I write a fair amount of non-con in Weiss Kreuz and have started writing that in Amber, too. Other fandoms are much, much less likely to have that, but when I go for explicit sex, even if it's consensual, it's likely to be kind of messed up in terms of the participants not being able to relate in a healthy way because I'm more interested in psychological complications than in sex.

I have about eight novel length WIP, but I only tend to work on each of them sporadically. I'm more likely to work on something if I know that I have a first reader who wants to see what I come up with. Most of them are Weiss Kreuz, but there's a Harry Potter one and a Rurouni Kenshin story and a mish-mash DC universe one.