chicago manual of vile

Personal blog. Literary editor, leftist redneck, activist press organizer. Horsegirl, sword-liker, feral cat rehabber.

[rednightmare18]

REDNIGHTMARE KCD FICS MASTERPOST

All fics are completed unless otherwise noted, listed by date. Fics are standalone, but designed to complement & enhance each other.

Continuity Note: I have been writing for this fandom since 2018, so some older fics don't perfectly reflect KCD2 canon. I'm slowly fixing this where it is prudent and possible to do so. (Thanks for being patient with those Pebbles pronouns!)

*my faves; IMO the best examples of my work

Hansry / Hans Capon x Henry

One-Shots

Up the Slope, Love, of This High Mountain | Explicit | 17k *

In These Small Dark Places | Explicit | 9.5k *

The Long Edge of Heaven | Mature | 16k

The Silence After Suchdol | Mature | 4.5k

by a heel | Teen | 4k

Prayer Before Morning | Teen | 5k

With Horn and Leash | Teen | 15k

In Caes of Disastur | G | 1k

Lost in the Trees | Explicit | 30k *

Without Home | Mature | 9k

In Spring | Mature | 17k

Multi-Chapter Fics

The Gold God’s Bones | Explicit – Release TBA

The Virtue of Courage | Explicit | 34k – WIP; undergoing major KCD2-enabling rewrite

A Strange Hunt | Mature | 21k * - Where it all started! I was a much younger writer, but still feel affection for this piece; I think it was the first kcd fic on ao3.

Other

The Kindest Kill | Teen | 3k | Pairing: Theresa & Bianca

Humble Medicine | Teen | 3.5k

[rednightmare18]

This fic is getting so gargantuan and stupid and only gets more so every time I replot it. I cannot WAIT to unleash Charlotte Balfour/Archibald MacGregor into the Single Entry Tags hall of ao3 fame. Hot girl summer of all time. We're doing The King and I but evil. We are drowning planters brats

[rednightmare18]

kind of dismal to realize the racists in the kcd fandom didn't actually leave; they just transformed from the kind that shat razor blades on reddit over Musa of Mali to the kind that shits out fan content like "Henry ran his dark brutish hands over Hans's delicate, flawless pale skin"

[manatiemtesun]

Rather long reblog, I sadly feel like part of this is just due heteronormativity and how intersectionality it intersects with racism.

Persuming that the demographic of the people who write Hansry mirrors the general demograpic of people who write romantic fanfic between two men, then the majority of this population are white women, who most likely haven't had any experience being in a queer relationship.

Additionally, multiple studies have shown that the majority of these women writing mlm romance fics mainly write, not because they are interested inactually writing about the experience of queer men, but because they actually want to write/read about a romantic relationship without sexism (plus the fetishization, but that is another story).

This means that, because the lack of understanding/experience of queer romance and the lack of interest/desire to investigate how sex & gender interact with romance, they don't actually write a gay romance. They write a straight romance, where both of the characters are of the same sex.

But in doing so, they inject a lot of heteronormative values and fantasies into these romantic dynamics. And these heteronormative ideas are, due to the intersectionality of bigotry, ripe with abelism, racism, orientalism, classism and, ironically, sexism.

And the bad part is, that most people don't seem to realise this. We think that when we write ideas based on our fantasies and desires (cause that is at the core of romance stories), that these are only our own. But we forget that those fantasies and desires are shaped by the society and systems we live in.

So maybe, when writing a romantic fic, examine your fantasies and choices you make. Where do they come from? Isn't it weird how you always make the blond chraracter submissive, even tho in canon they show they aren't? Why do you always make one person in the pairing more physically imposing than the other?

the solution to not needing to read about sexism isn't by writing queer relationships in ways that make them more straight. It's by writing straight relationships in ways that make them more queer.

[rednightmare18]

I appreciate the great commentary! <3

Not to preach to the choir, and I may be more of a hardliner when I propose: Since these heteronormative values are only normalized because they serve the power structures we live in, we are not writing a "straight romance" when we do this, but a noxious cookie-cutter formula of a patriarchal romance operating through the lens of a white master-class. The sexism, racism, essentialism are all still present and accounted for in the depiction of two men; it still relies on the belief that traits associated with women are inferior and passive and white femininity represents the epitome of romantic desirability. We don't actually escape reading/writing about sexism; the sexism is simply obfuscated by the male body so we can pretend we don't see it, even while we enact and continue to worship at its altar! But it's a poor smokescreen.

From a craft perspective and a human one, I'm less convinced of the existence of a gay romance type and a straight romance type --especially in historical fiction, where our understanding of these designations is centuries removed from the characters in question; and because the existence of these type-classes necessitates the belief that there is a "correct" way to write gay couples (i.e., a standard way gay couples love that is inherently different from the way straight couples do, which in and of itself often relies on an existentialist belief about how men are v. how women are) and a "correct" way to write straight couples, and that this would be fixed if we chose the right type rather than reconceptualized our understanding of what relationships are. I tend to think that what we're witnessing is an effect of the universal depersonalization created by the power structures we all live in: a belief that romantic love exists first as a formulaic organizational block of society with inflexible roles that must be served (woman/man, master/servant) instead of a personal dynamic that is unique to two individuals.

[cansu-m]

[pansylair]

Some ceramic trinket dishes from last month!

These are slightly curved inwards to help contain items from teabags to jewellery. :)

I have unsold work from my last market so the remainder of these dishes will be available via my online store along with plenty of other functional and sculptural wares, 3pm est tomorrow!

[bvckbiter]

“is this character good or bad” “is this ship unproblematic or not” “is this arc deserving of redemption or not” girl…

[tsalala]

A young melanistic leopard in Kali Tiger Reserve, India. Photographed by Mithun Hunugund.

[frostedmagnolias]

House of Worth Gown

c. 1880

silk, metal, glass

New Canaan Museum & Historical Society

[discreetwithabellyring-deactiva]

https://thenewinquiry.com/blog/social-media-is-not-self-expression/

[whatthekoi-deactivated20260510]

“can’t believe women fought to work!! i don’t wanna work!!” women have Been Working they fought to get Paid you know that right ?

[buron]

Picnic in the Bluebells (xxix)

©sydburon - May ‘18

[oohyuck]

Oh, right. The poison. The poison for Kuzco, the poison chosen especially to kill Kuzco, Kuzco's poison. That poison?

[important-animal-images]

[moniquill]

'Borrowing the Tiger's Majesty' by Yuzu Kato

[mikesstt]

late night talks with your lovely sir

[armthearmour]

A fabulous blackened and gilt Gorget bearing the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece made for King Philip II of Spain, attributed to Kolman Helmschmid,

Weight: 2.9 lbs/1310 g

Augsburg, Germany, ca. 1549-1553, housed at the Real Armería, Madrid.

[expressions-of-nature]

by Syadza Salsabyla

[thetursithan]

First time at the seaside....