Weekly Update 22/03/2022
Good evening, good evening, good evening!
Firstly, I've changed my website over, and it should now be a good deal easier to navigate because it's my custom domain but it's Tumblr, which means my Directory of Work is finally available straight on there. Check it out at johannestevans.com, if you please! Onto some stuff I've enjoyed this week - firstly, I've been watching Chicago Med, which isn't particularly well-written as a show, but a lot of the characters are really good, and I'm enjoying it a lot.
Some recommendations:
Graduation, by ManicMoth - Smut. 7k. A Disabled professor and his carer/general-purpose manservant have a day of graduations to handle, and the good professor needs something to keep him occupied. I really enjoyed this! It's fun and nasty and sexy and plays so much with elements of disability and power dynamics within relationships, also the dynamic with service and employment. It's very hot, and it's the GOOD trans smut.
The End of Victorious by QuintonReviews - More of Quinton breaking down Victorious! It's an 8hr video and it's great. It's very funny, it's very complex and in-depth, and I totally recommend it.
Inside A Cult: Gender Criticals Part 2, by Caelan Conrad - Another analytical video, this one is Caelan Conrad breaking down gendercritical recruitment tactics and the ways in which the cult functions to support and enfranchise the abuse of transgender children on a broader scale, grooming parents into methods as to how to harm their children most effectively and most viciously. It's really good work into how these people think and the specific ways they work to do harm, and knowing how they do what they do can be super helpful in deradicalising them but also protecting the people that actually matter - trans people.
Master (2022, dir. Mariama Diallo) - This is hard-hitting horror from the POV of Black women, and it's so fucking well done - there's so many layers here of power dynamics in so many situations, the navigation of them whilst retaining safety without sacrificing identity, but also the constant, everpresent thrum of anti-Black racism on university campuses (and everywhere). It loses a little of its punch in the third act, I think overwhelming itself with too many disparate ideas, but despite that it's still so well done, and I'm definitely hype to see more of this director's work.
Belfast (2021, dir. Kenneth Brannagh) - I really loved this to pieces and enjoyed it a lot - it's an extremely sentimental film, and I've no doubts that part of the reason I enjoyed it so much was because of similarities to my own family in Belfast etc, but I still recommend it nonetheless! Ciarán Hinds and Judi Dench particularly put forward the most incredible performance, the one cishet couple I love and respect.
And Then There Were None (2015, dir. Craig Viveiros) - I watched this because I'm horny for Charles Dance this week, and boy did it fucking deliver. This is a great three-part adaptation of Christie's And Then There Were None, amazing cast, some phenomenal performances and a real constant sense of oppressive place. It's excellent, and I very much recommend it. As far as my boner for Mr Dance, I do also recommend Last Action Hero, it's a real trip.
Some other movies I enjoyed this week were Red Rocket (2021, dir. Sean Baker), Detachment (2011, dir. Tony Kaye), Hail, Caesar! (2016, dir. the Coen brothers), and Set It Up (2018, dir. Claire Scanlon).
One of the pieces linked below is a fanfic for The Arcane, the Netflix animated series that's part of the League of Legends universe - I have written fanfic for it and I obviously feel very strongly about some of the characters (most notably, Silco, Jinx, and Viktor), but I just want to note that quite unequivocally I do not recommend the show. It's got some painfully bad writing and some of the most embarrassing centrist politics that just makes it very difficult to watch, especially because so many of the characters are so loathsome - I recommend Silco, Jinx, and Viktor, as characters, but please don't take the fact that I wrote fanfic for them as me saying the show is worth watching for its own merits.
New Works Published
Fantasy/Crime Short: Lashton Sounds
Gellert Osgodby is beginning to settle into his position as Lucien Pike’s secretary, but nothing in Lashton ever stays the same for long.
8.5k, rated M. Gellert Osgodby doing his thing, as is Lucien Pike — also with appearances from Oidhche and Dai Laithe, Cosmo and Damien Pike, Margaretta Renn and Bran Sorrel, and Courageous King.
Read on Medium / / Read on Patreon
Erotic Short: Financial Security
A trans man tending bar is asked to go up and wait personally on a local mob boss.
3.8k, M/M between a cis man and a trans man, rated E. Fingering, size difference, vaginal play and a bit of anal play, kissing, huge power imbalance, age difference. Big dubious consent in this situation — the trans guy is always into it, but it’s a very dangerous situation with a lot of financial coercion and implied violence, lots of banter, very insecure positions, with implied stalking.
Read on Medium / / Read on Patreon
The Arcane Fanfic: Institution of Boundaries
15k, rated M. Silco & Jinx with one-sided, obsessive Silco/Jinx from Jinx's side. Jinx doesn't know for how long, exactly, she's had these... feelings for Silco. When she begins to mount her seduction, it doesn't occur to her that he simply might not reciprocate.
Gay Silco, Silco is trying desperately to be a good dad, Jinx has a lot of sexual feelings mixed with obsessive tendencies that she just can't get a handle on, and the two of them are navigating it as best they know how.
Disco Elysium Fanfic: Positions
Rated E, 400 words. Harry is very good for Kim.
Erotic Short: Neighbour's Charm
A man invites his neighbour around one morning and loses it.
Rated E, cis M/M, 3.7k. Big fat sexy neighbour, MC is a bit of a gymshark — rimming, some biting and bruising, age difference, lots of teasing and a bit of humour, coming too quickly, casual sex.