Treebark Week 2024
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Summary
It wasn’t Cleo who made him cry, anyway. Not even Ren and Big B. It was Sweet Home, all those bright-eyed adventurers with too much money and time on their hands, who settled in abandoned villages and haunted manors and turned them into places to live. Here is the house we built, here our herb garden that sustains us. Here our first wooden pickaxes hang over the mantel. The village streets once desolate will bustle with trade again.
Martyn couldn’t fathom it, the thought of putting up bits of his history on the walls for anyone to see. And why, why did it make his eyes well up, watching TV on an acquaintance’s couch at three in the morning, sleepless because Cleo didn’t love him and Ren still did—the garden, the pickaxes, the final panoramic shot of the house at sundown, all its windows bathed in light?
Martyn learns domesticity, with some help from a TV show.
Series
- Part 1 of Treebark Week 2024
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Odd that, when Ren looked at him, Martyn was the one who felt naked. He was glad to settle himself on the footstool behind the tub, out of sight; glad that all the mirrors in the room were broken or fogged. Ren tipped his head back and let his long hair spill into Martyn’s hands. Martyn filled the jug and sluiced water over his head, careful not to let it run into his eyes, and Ren sighed. “Feels nice.”
It's one of the bad days, and the Hand washes his king's hair.
Series
- Part 2 of Treebark Week 2024
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Apropos of nothing, Ren remembered the strange night he’d spent at the old community centre, when the glyphs on the walls had deciphered themselves before his eyes, and he’d felt otherworldly breath on the nape of his neck. “Er—have you mentioned your name—?”
“Oh, what a heathen I am,” said the man. “It’s Martyn. With a Y, make sure you get that right.” As Ren watched, he popped another strawberry into his mouth and chewed, all grinning recalcitrance. “And you’re Ren, the new farmer. Of course I know. Everyone’s talking about you.”
Ren's just moved to the Valley, and the farm he inherited is a mess. Fortunately, he's got a not-quite-human farmhand to help out.
Series
- Part 3 of Treebark Week 2024
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The Man You Love Is Real (And Other Maxims) by enemyofrome
Fandoms: 3rd Life | Last Life SMP Series
11 Jun 2024
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Here’s the kicker: Ren has lived with him all autumn and half of winter, and part of Martyn still doesn’t believe he’s real.
This part of him watches Ren like a predator, waiting for him to slip up. This part of him watches Ren with wide gazelle eyes. This part of him (small, ugly, scared) sets Ren next to the impostor that wore his face and pores over their contrasts with a taxidermist’s obsessive care.
Maxim #1, it recites. The Watcher-creature does not bleed.
Martyn has the real Ren back now. There's an adjustment period.
Series
- Part 3 of Monsters Nearby
- Part 4 of Treebark Week 2024