Greetings, friends! Newt (or Bees), 30's, he/they, UK. Welcome to the disorganized pit where I throw every little thing that takes my fancy. Featuring fanfic, art and a mixed bag of fandoms. At this moment in time I'm mostly about Dead Boy Detectives. I try to add simple alt text descriptions when I post images myself but make no promises for images I reblog! Find the stuff I make in #my art and #my fanfic ^^ Ao3 is DontOffendTheBees 💖
Or, essentially, my 2024 Ao3 Wrapped because this show is all I've posted on main all year 😅 But it's nice to be back in the swing of writing and it's been such a rough year, so I'm gonna take a minute now to bask in the glow of my accomplishments 💛
(please note fic links are to Ao3, and most fics are locked to be visible to registered users only!)
Multichapter Fics:
never fade away (E, 66.3k, ch. 5/5, Charles/Edwin, past Cat King/Edwin, Complete)
My contribution to the 2025 Dead Boys Big Bang, a slow and sad All Of Us Strangers AU (movie knowledge not required!). Featuring gorgeous, achey art by @antichrists-plus1 💛
Art posts:
Poster | Ch. 3 | Ch. 4
A Heart’s A Heavy Burden (T, 41.7k, ch. 4/7, Cat King/Charles/Edwin, Ongoing), co-written with @dear-monday and @tw0-ravens
A whimsical, polyamorous Howl's Moving Castle AU, written in partnership with Hayley and Lucy and featuring SHOWSTOPPING art by @idliketobeatree!
Art posts:
Ch. 1 | Ch. 2 | Ch. 3 | Ch. 4 | Ch. 5 | Ch. 6 | Ch. 7
Oh, Lonely Bones, Have You Forgotten? (M, 31.9k, ch. 3/4, Charles/Edwin, Ongoing, Temporary Hiatus)
A haunting little odyssey of Edwin finding his earthly remains, and figuring out where the hell to go from there. Was hoping to finish this off before the year was out but pain and other projects sadly got in the way! Don't worry, she will be complete one day, I swear!
Somewhere Beyond the Sea (T, 26k, ch 3/6, Charles/Edwin, Ongoing)
A sweet and magical Payneland Ponyo AU, written originally as a Secret Santa gift and then ballooning WAY out of proportion! I'm so, so excited for how this one turns out! Now featuring adorable cover art by @honorarypines !
One-shots:
The Kind of Light That Means Just Love (When My Baby Smiles at Me) (T, 1.4k, Charles/Edwin)
Where it all began, a little ficlet I wrote based on a writing group prompt which made me realised how much fun the character voices were to play with. Short and sweet, Charles takes photos of Edwin and finds ways to be cheerful about it even when he doesn't show up in them.
Outside Looking In (T, 3.6k, Charles/Edwin)
Outsider POV fic in which Charles and Edwin are overhead having a very strange but sweet conversation while in their older disguises. While this was an early fic and there's probably some stuff I'd change about the dialogue if I wrote it now, I'm so fond of it and I'm touched by the response to it - ESPECIALLY in the form of Robin's incredible gifset! (this gifset MUST be reblogged by everyone, btw.)
The Scenic Route (T, 2.1k, Charles/Edwin)
A short, sweet little agency outing and Payneland get-together, written in large part to daydream of a better world of public transportation while I was stuck standing on a cross-country train for two hours.
No Rehearsing It, No Reversing It (T, 9.3k, Charles/Edwin)
Mandatory 'Charles massively overthinks getting together with Edwin' fic, a comedy of errors, featuring foiled kissing schemes, party games, flimsy excuses, and my first fateful foray into discovering how fun Cat King is to write.
’Cause You Cut Through All the Noise (M, 5.3k, Charles/Edwin)
First day of Payneland week, what a time! Edwin helps Charles calm down from a panic spiral with a healthy application of sweet, gently non-sexual dom/sub play, featuring sweet words and soothing games of cat's cradle.
Though We're Strangers 'Til Now (T, 4.7k, Charles/Edwin)
Payneland week day 2. One of my more out-there concepts; in the campy tradition of Saturday night British fantasy telly a la Merlin or Atlantis, Charles and Edwin take the mythological roles of Theseus and Ariadne. This fic exists in large part due to @every-moment-a-different-sound making me aware of Payneland week and asking me to collaborate, and once again, it is COMPULSORY that you go and reblog their GORGEOUS SHOWSTOPPING INCREDIBLE GIFS.
I Got Sunshine in a Bag (T, 1.2k, Charles/Edwin)
Payneland week day 3. The little script-format fic where (spoiler alert) Charles confesses his feelings to Edwin in the safe haven of his own magical bag of tricks. Sweet and silly!
Something I Can Turn To (T, 2.4k, Charles/Edwin)
Payneland week day 4. The AU where Charles and Edwin are alive in the same era, and helped each other survive the brutality of their teenage years. This one was so lovely to write and there's a little bittersweet hollow in my heart carved out for it. This fic also spawned this absolutely lovely art by @yasartmeme (GO REBLOG, GIVE IT LOVE) and a collection of related stories by several wonderful authors. Every time someone else dips their toe into this universe it warms my chilly little heart.
If the Shoe Fits, Then I Won’t Try It On (T, 2k, Charles/Edwin)
Payneland week day 5. Another outing with the disguises; pre-canon, Charles and Edwin on a case, getting used to their new magic disguises and constructing dubious backstories.
Spinning on That Dizzy Edge (M, 1k, Charles/Edwin)
Payneland week day 6. Short little flirty, steamy, fun date night with Charles and Edwin in a haunted pub, with a piano <3
Lived My Whole Life Before the First Light (M, 7.3k, Charles/Edwin)
Payneland week day 7. AKA the attic scene, as told in a soulmate AU. A few people who don't generally like soulmate AU's have told me this one plays with the concept in a way they found interesting and refreshing! Suffice it to say there's a happy ending, but not of the sort generally associated with the genre. And this one comes with yet another mandatory-reblog gifset, this one by @mellxncollie, which is SO beautiful and should be in an art gallery and truly such an honour to bestow upon my little words 💛
We Glimpse Each Other Out of Phase (T, 3.7k, Charles/Edwin)
Another little instalment in the Alive AU of Something I Can Turn To, this time a bittersweet domestic scene on a sleepless night in the kitchen.
Wise Men Build Their Houses on Rocks While the Rest of Us Settle for Skeletons (M, 2.2k, Cat King/Edwin)
First foray into Catwin! (or at least first on the main account 😉) Edwin digs through the Cat King's magical artifacts; and finds an ominous relic of his past lives.
Sink Your Teeth Right Through My Bones, Baby (M, 0.6k, Charles/Edwin)
First of the spotify wrapped inspired ficlets! A little glimpse into Edwin's mind as he and Charles cautiously approach a new dynamic in the bedroom.
Looks Like We’re In for Nasty Weather (T, 0.6k, Charles/Edwin)
Wrapped ficlet. Edwin and Charles brace themselves in the face of an ominous supernatural storm brewing.
Keep Me Warm, Love Me Long, Be My Sunlight (T, 1k, Cat King/Edwin/Charles)
Wrapped ficlet, and preview of the Ghostcat 1920s AU currently in the works by myself, @dear-monday and @tw0-ravens! In a sun-drenched loft in the last days of summer, Thomas contemplates what he has, and when he'll lose it.
Should I Cool It, or Should I Blow? (M, 1.9k, Cat King/Charles)
Wrapped ficlet. The Cat King confronts Charles after another little enemies-with-benefits hook-up for a little clarification on what, exactly, he's doing with his life.
And that about wraps it up for 2024! But I'll keep adding underneath this post when I inevitably write more -- so I'll be seeing you guys in '25! 🥰 Thank you thank you THANK YOU everyone who's shown me such incredible support over this year, this has been such an unbelievably fun fandom experience and I'm excited to sink my teeth into even more and longer fics next year 💛💛💛
My 2024 Writing Stats:
Works Published: 19
Word Count: 89,859
Top 3 fics (by kudos):
1. Outside Looking In
2. No Rehearsing It, No Reversing It
3. The Scenic Route
2025 One-Shots:
Third Contact of a Brief, yet Significant Eclipse (M, 4.2k, Cat King/Edwin)
A spin-off/prequel fic set in the universe of Wunderkammer by dear_monday and two_ravens! A bittersweet little scene at the tail end of museum curator!Edwin's dalliance with the Cat King; a torrid affair which lasted the duration of the 1960s.
Bet Was Made, I Kneeled and Prayed (and Went Off Like a Shotgun) (M, 2.5k, Cat King/Charles)
Wrapped fic, the last of them. Charles and the Cat King enjoy a bit of fun, fighty, no-strings messing around; and the Cat King comes away with more feelings than he bargained for.
Now featuring gorgeous and heartbreaking gifs courtesy of Olly, who simply never misses 💛💛💛💛💛
Darling, This Place is a Lover's Oasis (M, 1.4k, Cat King/Edwin)
Valentine's fic; Edwin gets some much-deserved pampering courtesy of Cat King and his ridiculous 1970s oversized bathtub.
Ain't That a Kick in the Head? (T, 2.3k, Charles/Edwin)
Anniversary fic, getting together: Edwin and Charles have some banter and a thumb war to decide the fate of the tiny office sofa.
Drop Dead Gorgeous (M, 3k, Charles/Edwin)
Short and silly morbid flirting fic between mortician Edwin and assistant Charles, based on Wooden Overcoats and written for my dear friend Ande's birthday 💛
ya being kafkaesque isn’t about turning into a bug it’s about how if you turned into a bug your boss would still be like “ok but we’re short staffed can u still come in”
while i understand that this is meant to be a joke about hellish capitalism, again, we cannot erase an important dimension to his work: franz kafka was a jew. he and his families were jews during a time period where traditional, religiously-based jew hatred was being replaced with a new pseudoscientific belief that jews were to be hated and oppressed because they were a subhuman race. this transition to race-based hatred of jews meant that even assimilated jews- who considered themselves citizens of states before they were ever jews- were now being irrationally targeted and hunted.
the term “anti-Semitism” was created specifically to name this new racial hatred of Jews. it was coined in 1879- 4 years before Kafka was born.
in “the metamorphosis”, Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a "monstrous vermin". in kafka’s real world, jews woke up one morning, in their country that they were told was now enlightened and accepting of all people, and found out that they were now considered “monstrous vermin”. and then 6 million jews of his generation were exterminated.
i am giving the simplest analysis to this right now, but we need to understand that you cannot just blanketly universalize his work. you cannot remove the context of kafka’s jewishness or that he lived at a time when antisemitism became fervently racial. yes, discuss how his work comments on capitalism, society, etc. but to only use ONLY these lenses and to ONLY universalize his work is dishonest, whitewashes his work and life, and further exhibits how little non-jews know or care about the jewish history and the how antisemitism has impacted jews for over 2000 years.
I love brown nipples, I love happy trails, I love hairy forearms, I love hairy armpits, I love hairy bush, I love big areolas, I love stretch marks, I love big noses, I love thick eyebrows, I could go on and on. Free yourself from overly curated (and often times white cis heteronormative) erotica
guys i’m so sorry to say this but exercising and indulging in hobbies rather than scrolling on your phone for 200 hours actually does improve your mood and overall mental health, this has deeply upset me more than anyone
"You simply cannot trust Louis, he's a completely unreliable narrator and every single thing he ever said should be put to question! It's so good that we finally have Lestat's version, which is obviously the only true one - so good to finally have a reliable narrator!"
Embarrassing fact about me is that it took me so so long to be able to tell Ross Bryant and Grant O'Brien apart. I'm sorry guys you're both tall white dudes with similar-sounding names and very very similar voices. I would just wait for the first sex joke or Shakespeare reference.
one reason we need to talk about JKR as a writer, is that Pottermore and her early twitter years have done irrevocable damage to 1) how people think authorial intent functions, 2) the relationship between creator/audience/art, and 3) general narrative literacy.
Creator FAQs are not inherently a problem, the problem is more in how they're handled by modern audiences and creators. I think any work where I am expected to follow the author on twitter for deeper/greater understanding of their work is weakly written. I think if it matters, you write it within the story; anything else is fluffy bullshit that I disregard.
I do think people take the "word of god" trope waaaaay too seriously and act like authors actually ARE deities of their worlds. I think death of the author has been deeply maligned by its misuse directed at JKR specifically. I believe anyone who is using tweets to insist that xyz is canon or not canon, rather than actual moments in the story, would have been a huge Pottermore fan in a different context.
#there are many contemporary artists who's work i have actually diminished my opinion of because they do this kind of thing#and then the fandom acts like you're fucking stupid for basing an analysis off of the story content itself#and not the artists tumblr/twitter/twitch streams providing supplementary details#and i simply should not have to look Outside The Story to understand the story.#i am not naming names but if you're thinking of a particular media you're probably right.
yeah exactly. I shouldn't be burdened with the responsibility of dedicating more time, more focus, more interaction with others just to "fully" enjoy an art piece. i don't like modern fandom. i don't like twitter and how it functions, i never have, even before it was a proper nazi pit. i don't like watching streams. and i don't particularly care to foster parasocial relationships with every single creator who makes a story i enjoy. if it hasn't been directly written into the story, be it through text or subtext or inference, then it doesn't matter to me.
My analysis comes from reading the actual story. Not from reading tweets. I'm not gonna make a fucking twitter or a twitch just so I can ~understand~ what should have already been written into the story. This is where Death of the Author comes in. I don't care about the author's intentions - the only function of these tweet FAQs is to overexplain the author's intention. Couldn't care less. You wrote what you wrote, the piece is what it is, and that is what I will be exploring.
got a crick in my neck and a frog in my throat and a chip on my shoulder and a stick up my ass and now you're gonna stand there puttin words in my mouth? haven't I been through enough?
knights reproduce by going on epic quests together and then when the evil is vanquished a treasure chest appears with a baby swaddled in full plate armor
