ATKM FIC: Fire Sermon

Part of the All the King's Men Universe.
Set after Mutiny and Retribution.


If you've read no ATKM, you might want to read the letterfics first . That should provide enough context to be going on with.

Explicit Sexuality. Chronological Skullduggery.

Thanks to: The Usual Supects, and I love them: damned_colonial, fairestcat, black_hound, ataniell93. Readers, cheerleaders, editors, arse kickers, co-conspirators, history geeks, madwomen, beloved friends.

A good beta is beyond rubies. Mine are beyond diamonds: wemyss, sjkasabi, farjdrako.


Respectfully dedicated to the men shot at dawn, and to the men who have died shamefully because they did not consider that their sexual preference excused them from serving their country. Someday there will perhaps be an Article XXIX memorial.



By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept...
Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song,
Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long.
But at my back in a cold blast I hear
The rattle of the bones, and chuckle spread from ear to ear.


( The Naval Gazette, March 1802 )

ATKM FIC: Fire Sermon, Part Two

Back to Part One.

These fragments I have shored against my ruins...

( Bush choked on his brandy, and reached unsteadily for more. )

The end of the heat wave...

I'm cold.

I'm hungry.

And I have NO IDEA WHERE MY CLOTHES ARE.

*goes to look for clothes that will, like, COVER ME*

Why I get my fashion and beauty news via the Guardian

Because if I'm going to be shallow, I want to be amused while I do it.


And speaking of these ladies, nothing will put you off plastic surgery faster than a couture fashion show. Not since the day George Michael came out have I seen a group of women who should have known better look so surprised for so long.


In its way, the shorter programme is more demanding than the application of Dr Perricone's face cream, since it requires the face-liftee to drink neither coffee nor alcohol and eat virtually nothing but the doctor's cure-all: wild salmon. "It's true: you are what you eat," says Dr Perricone in his diet book. So if you want to look like a large migrating fish - and I believe they have their admirers - then this is the diet for you.


Leaf and Rusher Active Serum, 30ml, £88
Tried this for two weeks and saw no difference, in spite of rather exciting warnings and my own daydreams.
2 stars


As an editor of a fashion magazine, I'm not really supposed to say this, but ... skinny jeans are awful


No one ever sees socks, so they don't have to match or be entirely free of holes. People will tell you that attending to unseen details is a mark of discipline and self-esteem. They are wrong. It is the first sign of madness.


There comes a point in every little girl's life when she realises that she isn't quite as perfect as mummy and daddy claimed and, in fact, she will never resemble Bernadette Peters in full-on Stephen Sondheim musical mode. This epiphany can result in a lifetime of self-loathing, which keeps the women's magazine industry happy as a pig in mud.