Weekly Update 28/02/2022
Good evening!
It's the end of February, coming into March, and I'm so excited for what I want to work on the next little while. Happy St David's Day for the 1st of March, if you celebrate, Cymru am byth!
The past week I've been playing Samurai Warriors 4, and to my delight it's even more homoerotic than Samurai Warriors 2 which I grew up with, with a lot more complexity to the characters and a lot of new characters and character angles too, so I'm really enjoying it. If you like that sort of hack-and-slash game, I definitely do recommend it, and I shall almost certainly be playing SW5 at some point.
I'm currently watching Halston, which is on Netflix and is a miniseries about the gay fashion designer, played by Ewan McGregor, which I definitely recommend if you want something a bit mindless to put on - it's trashy and it's fun, and while it's not very deep and doesn't do anything interesting with any of its characters, I've really been enjoying having it on in the background. Some other gems I've enjoyed this week are:
SHUDŌ (2015, dir. To-Anh Bach, Charles Badiller, and Hugo Weiss) - This is a short film, it's literally only a couple of minutes long, and it's about two samurai, once lovers, fighting to the death. Such a lot of emotion and heart packed into such a tiny little piece, and I can't recommend it enough.
The Wretched (2019, dir. Brett Pierce & Drew T. Pierce) - This is a teen horror flick that does some fun stuff with the conventions of monstrous witches, mind control, and some interesting character stuff. I really enjoyed the twist, and I really liked how real a lot of the characters feel - the protagonist in particular is flawed in ways I appreciated, and I liked that a lot.
They Live In The Grey (2022, dir. Abel Vang & Burlee Vang) - This is a new Shudder release, and I really liked it. It's quite slow-paced, so definitely put some time aside to really watch and digest it if you give it a go, but it did so much interesting work with trauma and the isolation of not being able to voice or verbalise that trauma, especially because you feel insecure about communicating it or don't know how to word it. I love what it does with ghosts and haunting, and all the dialogue and character interaction feels so real, to the point of being really quite painful.
The Silenced (2011, dir. Hwang Dong-hyuk) - This one is fucking heavy, but it's a drama based on real life, starring Gong Yoo as a teacher who comes to a school for Deaf children and uncovers several cases of CSA. It's primarily about the court case and the ways in which the process is unjust and corrupt, on top of being in various ways retraumatising for the victims - it's so well done, and Gong Yoo really does just. Nail the role, as is his wont.
Some other stuff from this week that I enjoyed were The Ice King, Nobody Knows I'm Here, District 9, Splinter, and The Hole.
New Works Published
Slice-of-life/Romance Short: Whisper to the Bees
A journalist goes out to do a small piece on everyday farmlife, and ends up meeting an old acquaintance from school.
4.3k, M/M, rated T. Just a light-hearted little window into two men’s lives, introducing Melodious King and Calumellus Renn. Please note warnings for self-harm, references to attempted suicide, mental illness including chronophobia, and bullying and homophobia.
On Patreon / / On Medium
Erotic Short: Warm Welcome Home
Jude comes home to his boyfriend, and is welcomed back with open legs.
2k, rated E, M/M. More Jude Jupp and Richard Chastain — featuring anal, dirty talk, teasing, kissing, and some mild D/s and fantasy around the housewife power dynamic.
Rich and Jude first appeared in Saint Jude's Kitchen.
On Patreon / / On Medium
Erotic Short: Two Artists
A watercolour artist who lives in a country village is faced with the young man who tried and failed at seducing him a decade back.
Just under 3k, cis M/M, rated E. Age difference, anal, orgasm denial, D/s, some pinning and manhandling, a lot of dirty talk, some begging. References made throughout to past fantasies as a teenager.
On Patreon / / On Medium
Serial Update: Rescue Dogs
Cecil and Valorous talk about their childhoods, and then they go on a hike.
Content warnings in this chapter include obsessive tendencies, paedophilia, child abuse, reference to CSA and sexual abuse, alcoholism, manipulation, self-harm, panic attacks, self-esteem issues, identity issues, some emotional numbness from Valorous’ POV, references to dog bites and infection, as well as references to child death.