Contact by myownspark | nr | 2483 A short story about two men navigating the wilderness.
Unto You by LadyLondonderry | T | 3671 Louis is a lamplighter celebrating the saturnalia season in his own way. Harry is heavily pregnant and new in the city. The holiday of Christmas is yet to be created.
Manifest Destiny by casuallyhl | E | 15210 Harry and Louis had fallen into bed together again that night, mouths greedy and hands needy. And now every time Louis stops at Fort Kearney, even if it’s weeks in between, he and Harry spend the night together. The nights are always filled with heat and passion, and it gives Louis something to think on fondly as he rides across the western territories carrying sacks of mail. They’ve never talked about it, and they’ve never kissed. Louis doesn’t know if he wants either of those things to change, but he knows that his presence in Harry’s life is sporadic at best. Probably best to leave things be. Or, Louis is a Pony Express rider and Harry runs a station along the trail.
Leave Your Damage Behind and Gone by QuickedWeen | T | 15673 It’s the spring of 1882 and Sir Louis Tomlinson is a simple man with simple needs. Money. Running an old estate and dairy farm costs money, and he would much rather focus on his science experiments than take a trip to the Exposició Universal de Barcelona to beg for funding especially when everyone there is English anyway. He’s taking a walk one night to clear his head when he comes upon something mysterious on the beach that may or may not change his life forever.
No One Like You by myownspark | M | 19924 Dear Niall, I was glad to have the chance to talk with you again at the AHA conference. Your idea that the Musee D’Orsay Tomlinson painting is in fact not a self-portrait is an intriguing one, and I may have discovered something that will have a bearing on that theory. Some background: as you may remember, I’ve been researching for a book I’m writing about Harry Styles. I’ve been in communication with Styles’ last living descendant, who is in possession of a trunk that her family believed to have belonged to Styles himself. It held some personal items she presumes to be his, including two unmounted paintings and a small collection of letters. Upon spending the last few days in Provins studying these items, I believe there to be a connection between Tomlinson and Styles, and I would very much like your opinion. Are you up for a trip to France? Sincerely, Liam Payne Where Liam and Niall are art historians discovering the truth about two nineteenth century painters on opposite sides of an artistic divide.
And down the long and silent street by whimsicule | M | 86090 The year is 1881 and if you’re alone in this world you might as well be dead, because starving dogs have no mercy. Or: Wherein Louis and Harry are on the opposite ends of the social ladder, but their paths still cross on the filthy streets Louis calls his home. The odds are staked against them from the beginning, and even more when Louis’ past finally catches up with him.
Coax the Cold by MediaWhore | M | 86440 England, 1897. English Professor Louis Tomlinson’s passion for the occult has been a source of mockery and derision for most of his life. When he hears whispers of a travelling freak show newly established in London claiming the existence of a monstrous sea hybrid, half-man, half-fish, Louis sees it as his ticket to credibility amongst his peers. The summer he spends undercover working on the show, however, gives him much more than that.
Victorian Boy by audreyhheart | E | 101209 Victorian AU. Harry the virgin Duke of Somerset knows little of love, while Louis the sly Duke of Warwick knows too much. When the two dukes come together for the Bilsdale fox hunt in York, Harry finds himself drawn into Louis’ bed. But when secrets from Louis’ dark past come to light, Harry fears that the fox isn’t the only one being hunted.
A Taste of Desire by casuallyhl | E | 104414 “As forward as I have been with you this evening, I am also aware this dinner party isn’t the place to conduct business.” Mr. Tomlinson chuckles quietly to himself, shooting a subtle glance across the table towards their hostess. “And besides, I am sure our hostess would be horribly disappointed to learn that we went away this evening with a business agreement and not a mating one.” Harry, who had been sipping his wine, coughs harshly at this. He splutters, unaccustomed to such blatant statements about mating. Mr. Tomlinson continues to laugh quietly, clearly pleased at Harry’s reaction. “Mrs. Humphreys promised that there was an alpha attending the dinner tonight that I would certainly get on well with,” Mr. Tomlinson continues, voice teasing. “She assured me that we would have much in common since we both work with mills.” Mr. Tomlinson glances at Harry, eyes flashing with mirth. “Little did she know that would be where our mutual interests began and ended.” Or, a Victorian ABO where Harry is the owner of the most successful cotton mill in Manchester, and Louis is an opinionated social activist about to disrupt Harry’s world.
Kevin Starr describes the debate over allowing California into the Union, as it hung on the issue of slavery, or the South’s “peculiar institution” (p73). This is a belittling way to describe slavery, as if it were peculiar to the South, or particular to the antebellum period. It is representative of a certain misconception that many continue to perpetuate, as described on the website for the modern non-profit anti-slavery group, TraffickFree.org:
“ there are more slaves now than ever before in human history - approximately 27 million around the world (….) “17,500 slaves are brought into the United States every year “
So in the least it is a poor choice of words on Starr’s part, but also seems to contradict information he admits to later in the chapter, albeit in a mitigated vocabulary:
“immigrants who arrived at Sutter’s Fort (…) contracted from him the labor (and sometimes it has been alleged, the sexual services) of Native Americans indentured to Sutter or otherwise under his control, many of them little better off than slaves.” [pp77-78]
I must wonder what he qualifies in their situation as being ‘not quite as bad as’ slavery-slavery.
Like the seats of a teeter-totter, the surge of outsiders into California during the Gold Rush brought with it a commensurate decline in the lives and cultures of Native Americans. In many ways this pattern copies the earlier interaction of Spanish colonials and Native’s in the first days of settlement and the introduction of the mission-system. For this reason, when Starr waxes poetically about the Gold Rush “…reprising the dreams of the Spanish conquistadores, explorers, and maritime adventurers…” or that “the quest for El Dorado was now being Americanized with its psychological and mythic hold as powerful as ever” [p.81], he belies the real pattern of greed and exploitation that was recurring.
With that being said, the Gold Rush must still be credited with bringing an unprecedented cultural diversity to the State, even at the expense of the indigenous cultural diversity that was supplanted in the process. This diversity would at least provide grounds for a cosmopolitan conversation on race and cultural diversity, even if it was rather immature in its early days. Truly people came from all over the world and became a part of this new conversation.
I sleep with an attitude of Manifest Destiny. I not only can, but am destined to, stretch the whole way from the east to the west side of the bed. But I don’t stop there. I also dominate from north to south.
