I rarely watch TV, and I got utterly sucked into the Great British Bake-Off when it last aired. No regrets. (Also why is Thomas the Tank Engine the show that keeps repeating on me? My little brother used to love it, now the neighbor's kid has to show me ALL HIS THOMAS THE TANK ENGINES every time I go to visit)
I am so ridiculously excited about the new season of BakeOff coming it is almost shameful. It’s just so fucking charming I cannot even help it.
I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT IS ABOUT THOMAS THAT FOLLOWS PEOPLE EVERYWHERE, IT IS INSIDIOUS. The good news is it’s one of the shows my kids love that does not make me want to stab myself in the face with a nail file.
This one is all @barkpretty‘s fault, namely because of this conversation about Geoff Curnow and Slackjaw and all it could imply. I would’ve just added this ficlet to that particular thread, but I figured this was long enough as it is. So! A page of the as-yet-unwritten Slackjaw/Geoff Curnow story, about favors owed and lines that shouldn’t be crossed and complications
--
“I believe I’ll be calling in that favor now.”
They’re standing so close he could count Curnow’s eyelashes if he had a mind to. Muscles tight in Curnow’s jaw, his long, lean body so stiff Slackjaw could bounce a coin off him. He doesn’t move as Slackjaw inches closer. Merely breathes, short and sharp through his nose, and his throat bobs hard as he swallows.
“Oh?” The casual ease in Curnow’s voice would put the best theater girl to shame. If Slackjaw didn’t have other things on his mind, he might very well offer the man a round of applause.
“Indeed.” He circles, close enough to feel the faint shudder of Curnow’s breath, not so close they actually touch. “Slackjaw’s been thinking on it a while now. What a man like you might do, given the proper...motivation.”
That earns him an honest, actual flinch. In a low, flat voice, Curnow says, “What do you want, Slackjaw?”
One of the lamps has sputtered out. The shadows cast by the room’s remaining lamps are strange, shifting things, and it smells like oilsmoke and whiskey, like the sweat he can see beading Curnow’s hairline. The dark hair at his temples is shot through with early grey, and Slackjaw wonders what it cost him to claw his way up through the ranks as he did, so young and so hungry and with so much to lose.
What it costs him to stay there, when just about everyone above him would rather see him dead or ruined.
Abruptly, this game he’s playing ceases to be the least bit entertaining.
Slackjaw steps back, putting a healthy amount of distance between them. “Seven percent increase on the cost of elixir,” he says brusquely, ignoring the bewildered surprise that blooms in Curnow’s expression. “Up to eight percent at my discretion, depending on the cost of base materials. And I want patrols on Myrtle Street dropped to twice a week instead of three, with the understanding that if one of my boys is stupid enough to get picked up, it’s at your lads’ discretion whether or not a palmed coin or two will be enough to change their minds.”
Curnow’s staring at him. Slackjaw just shoots him a wolfish grin, and tries not to remember the way he’d flinched just moments earlier. “Problem, Curnow? I should think my terms are precious fair, given the circumstances.”
“You--you bastard,” Curnow rasps, “I’d thought--” and before Slackjaw can bristle at the slight to his parentage, Curnow’s hands are fisted in his shirt and the man’s mouth is hot on his and the protest dies before it ever hits his tongue.
gahhhhhh I LOVE GEOFF CURNOW, HE’S SO FUCKING INTERESTING WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT ALL THE THINGS THE HEART DIALOGUE IMPLIES ABOUT HIM
so, of course, I have to ship him with like half the dudes in the cast, including several he’s never met in canon because I 100% do not give a fuck
(seriously, though, I would give my left hand for a story about Geoff and Slackjaw doing this weird little cops-and-robbers song and dance with each other where they just keep puuuushing each others’ buttons while the lines between them get blurrier and blurrier and then they sort of accidentally fall in love with each other w h o o p s. I WANT THIS STORY SO MUCH AND NO ONE’S WRITTEN IT YET. IT KILLS ME)
3. list your fandoms and one character from each that you identify with.
My main fandom at the moment is Star Wars, and I guess the character that I most identify with... well, it’d be easy to say Kylo Ren, but honestly I don’t identify with him all THAT much. I mean, I do a bit, but in terms of characters I actually share traits with, I’d like to think I’m more like Finn (given to panicking but trying my best and hoping that’s good enough).
12. dog person or cat person?
Cats. Always and forever and one hundred per cent CATS CATS CATS.
15. five most influential books over your lifetime.
Off the top of my head: The Lives of Christopher Chant, American Gods, The City & The City, Age of Wonder, The Tombs of Atuan.
@barkpretty I have yet to figure out how to reply to replies on mobile, but I just want to say that in just about every universe where there’s a Reynolds, he is represented by a Murder by Death song or a Tom Waits one. EVERY. SINGLE. REYNOLDS
13. What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever come across?
Write the story you want to read, not the story you think other people want you to write. Every paragraph should work to move the story forward in some way. Prune ruthlessly. READ EVERYTHING YOU WRITE OUT LOUD.
28. Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.
@notbecauseofvictories - beautiful and evocative language, achingly good at ripping the reader’s heart out in a very short amount of time, awesome at straddling that very fine line between humor and tragedy
resonant - SUPER INFLUENTIAL on my early writing. excellently written sex scenes that are funny and awkward and tender and messy, and absolutely fantastic dialogue
@youreusingcoconuts - really really REALLY good at long-form stories, which is something I struggle with and love seeing, excellently written sex scenes that are scorching hot and often deeply emotional in some way, SUPER GOOD at worldbuilding and specific sensory details
37. Talk about your current wips.
another punnett square story, this one about Eli and Tyros, set in Serkonos well after the aftermath of the game
that monster Martin/Pendleton fic that I somehow incepted myself into writing
a Jack Cabot/Edward Deegan thing that I started mostly because I really wanted to READ stories about them and I’ve yet to find any I really loved
another Frank/Karen story, this one apparently set before they go on their weird road trip of...whatever it is they’re doing, idk
Plus original stuff, but this meme was for fanfic mostly, so
@rottenappleheart replied to your post “@voidandsalt replied to your post “books books books”ahhhh baru...”
As someone who has finished Baru Cormorant let me just hahahahahahagshsfsfd.
OH GOD IS THIS A GOOD THING OR A BAD THING OR????
this book is very intense and I have a lot of intense emotions about it ahhhhhh
@rottenappleheart replied to your post “books books books”
I got nothing yet but I will throw GARGOYLES at you soon so!!!
@therenegadegabbai replied to your post “books books books”
I don't know if you're looking for recs, but just given what you enjoy about these, have you read The Sparrow? Jesuits in space but also linguistics and religion and possibly it will tear your heart out and put it back together :)
@barkpretty replied to your post “books books books”
I'm reading 'The Palace Job' by Patrick Weekes, who is one of the writers on Dragon Age. It's really, really, REALLY good, and I'm already pretty sure it's going to be my favourite book of the year /o\
Have I mentioned yet how happy I am to have replies back? Because I am SO HAPPY TO HAVE REPLIES BACK
I’ve already read The Sparrow (several times, destroyed me every single time, one of my favorite books ever written e v e r ), and I’m very curious to know more about the others, because book recs from people I already know and whose taste is pretty dang quality are absolute GOLD in my book
For the WIP meme, any one of these: smile, run, or cold.
Eli isn’t looking for Tyros (consciously, at least) but finds him anyway, sitting loose-limbed and easy on the splintered bench behind the shed and doing something complicated with a basket of wool and a spinny bit of wood. He’s concentrating on the task with the sort of lazy intensity he reserves for most things; that is, he somehow manages to convey both single-minded focus and casual, competent ease at the very same time. His posture is relaxed, his eyes hooded. His hair even now endeavors to escape from the messy bun he’d trapped it in. But the movements of his fingers are quick and sure and his rhythm never falters, not even, Eli realizes with a start, when he glances up to flash Eli a wide, white smile.
