#fuselit

[tamedgod]

' the ends justify the means. ' p.i. verse let's go go go

the good place (accepting)

They had to be so careful — her and Xiao, that was. Meeting in private alleyways and backrooms, any crevasse they could share without the prying eyes of the public to see them, was the norm for their exchanges. Like rats. Haru was used to living this way, making her tall frame as small as possible, donning clothes she'd picked off a clearance rack, and being walked by without so much as a second look. It was easy to blend in when you were nothing — a nobody. That's what she was, and that was okay; it made her work easier. She was just a small independent private investigator, nary a client to her name... save for Xiao Long.

The second son and glittering star of Long Enterprises, Xiao was opposite to Haru in almost every way. Blending in was near impossible for the Fortune 500 poster child, statuesque and handsome as he was — not to mention flashy. These meetings were the closest anyone would ever see him looking to an average Joe, should they take a closer look. Beneath his beanie and large puffy jacket was a dark fitted tee and jeans, and he still looked like he could be modeling for some mid fashion company. Dark sunglasses covered his amber eyes as he cast a look around, before reaching into his pocket to pull out a large wad of cash and passing it to Haru.

' The ends justify the means. '

While Haru's head shoots around to catch sight of Wick at the end of the alley, Xiao casts him only a casual glance. She knew how it looked, being shacked up in the shadows with a member of the notorious Long family — and Xiao didn't help matters as he looked the other up and down, snickering lightly. He leaned over Haru, pulling his sunglasses down, a tangibly patronizing tone on his tongue.

" この人と仕事をしていますか ?" [ are you working with this guy? ]

Hastily shoving the money into her coat pocket, Haru frowned, breaking eye contact with Wick to glare sharply at her client. She gave him a sharp shove and he laughed, throwing his hands up in mock surrender, before strutting down the alley and straight past Wick. Pushing his sunglasses back up, Xiao stopped at the street to hail a cab, casting one last glance over his shoulder at the other man as a vehicle pulled up.

" あれ? 少なくとも彼はきれいだ. " [ oh? at least he's pretty. ]

He made a swift, flirtatious bite motion towards Wick, before chuckling and disappearing into the cab. Haru slinked out from the shadows as the car pulled away, cheeks tinged pink with... shame? Embarrassment? She huffed as she stuffed her hands deep into her coat pockets, stormy hues making contact with Wick's own. Her voice was stern, but there was a small shake to it, whether he could hear it or not.

"...I do what I have to do to get the job done."

@fuselit

[mxdam]

@fuselit​, continued from.

        “It’s only,” she says, “every feature should be an ornament to the face.”

        It’s something men really don’t seem to know. Imagine what a lovely world they’d live in, full of sculptural, stunning male creatures, if they would only take that principle to heart; if they would only try a little harder...

        Margarethe leans across the cluttered desk and swipes one thumb over his left eyebrow, smoothing the dark hairs. Yes, just as she suspected. Comb it out and it was nearly perfect; it just needed a little shaping. She’d give anyone the same advice--her daughters; her son, if she had a son. That grimly handsome look of his would be so improved, his brown eyes no longer quite so forbidding under such a heavy shelf of brow.

        Is he married? He’s the right age, but she doesn’t see a ring.

        “I know the most perfect salon,” she says. “Hold on. I have their card.” She begins to dig through her purse. “They’re dears at this place. I don’t suppose you’ve plucked your eyebrows before. You’ll hardly cry at all, here.”

[accustiv-archived]

@fuselit

the ink was stubbornly sticking to me as i awaited the inevitable, it had sunk into the grooves of my fingers, and i rubbed at it, vainly. i knew what would come back the moment they ran them, knew what that meant for me; an ex con caught at the scene of another crime? i was losing my touch, i had always been so careful; but i told myself that even if i could have foreseen what was going to happen, i couldn't have escaped, not in time, and that bothered me. there was always a way out, and yet i had ended up in cuffs anyway. it was almost enough to bother me… almost.

but a vice raid? that was beyond my remit. i'd been picked up outside the club, and the only saving grace i had was that i had been there to negotiate payment, and not pick up the forged passport i needed - at least they couldn't get me on that. it was a small mercy, though, because they had run my prints the moment i'd arrived at the station, then stuck me in a holding cell, probably for less time than they expected - my prints had come back quickly, as i knew they would. i hadn't even bothered to ask for a phone call.

the door swung open, and i looked up to see the detective who had arrested me. he was taller than me, though that wasn't hard, and had the familiar look of a detective who cared far too much about his job for my tastes. all the same, i shot him a winning smile, and straightened up in the chair.

“ right. my turn is it? i’m guessing everyone else has clammed up, waiting for lawyers, huh? ”

[doyl1st]

GO TO YOUR SPOTIFY REPEAT ON, PUT ON SHUFFLE AND LIST THE FIRST 10 SONGS !!

Bait - Seahaven

Denzel Curry's cover of Bulls on Parade

Grown Up - Danny Brown

Spaceman - The Killers

Almost (Sweet Music) - Hozier

I Want to Kill You - Citizen

Spillways - Ghost

Orville Peck's cover of Smalltown Boy

ONE OF ME - Lil Nas X & Elton John

Sleepyhead - Passion Pit

tagged by @colecassiidy tagging: @dxsole, @dngerzned, @gvllings, @bewitchingbaker, @escapedartgeek, @traveling-song, & @fuselit if y'all haven't done it already xoxoxo

[fuselit]

 [ . . . ] THEN SHOW ME one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy. and yet you act as if there is some ideal order in the world — as if there is some rightness in the universe BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

ㅤ#fuselit. an independent blog for detective cale "wick" wickham, an original character based in the crime & thriller genres, with inspiration taken from films such as se7en, zodiac & vertigo. 21+ only, please. heavy themes of depression, self - destruction & alcoholism are present. please follow at your own discretion. interrogated by cole.

ㅤa study in: busted knuckles. empty liquor bottles. justice at any cost, even that of your own life. reckless ambition and the hot - headed desire to do what you think is right, fists swinging and blood racing. sleepless nights, rimmed eyes, bar brawls. the knowledge that you have become your worst self and wondering if there was ever a better one.

  ᵒᶰᵉˑ carrd. — ᵗʷᵒˑ promo. — ᵗʰʳᵉᵉˑ multi.

graphics are by the incredibly talented @koiscarrds.

[vastiitas]

𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 ( 𝟓 ) 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐀𝐋𝐖𝐀𝐘𝐒 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐓𝐎 𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄.

Apple Pie - Rafferty

Belly of the Beast - Shawn James

Gun Street Girl - Tom Waits

Little Green Bag - George Baker

Chapter II: Hunger - Shawn James

lil bonus tracks for baby cole:

Sinister Kid - The Black Keys Vide Noir - Lord Huron

Tagged by: @redridcr <333 Tagging: @eritvita @doyl1st @quick-drawn @fuselit @otoutogoroshi @healingbrews

[lifesver]

URL  SONG  CHALLENGE .

make a playlist using the letters of your url ! 

L .    LANDSLIDE     —    fleetwood mac.

i took my love, i took it down, i climbed a mountain and i turned around / and i saw my reflection in the snow-covered hills, 'til the landslide brought me down / oh, mirror in the sky, what is love? can the child within my heart rise above? can i sail through the changin' ocean tides? can i handle the seasons of my life? / well i've been afraid of changin', 'cause i've built my life around you / but time makes you bolder, even children get older, and i'm getting older too.

I .    I'M A BELIEVER     —    the monkees.

i thought love was more or less a giving thing / seems the more i gave the less i got / what's the use in tryin', all you get is pain / when i needed sunshine, i got rain / then i saw her face, now i'm a believer.

F .    FREE BIRD    —    lynyrd skynyrd.

if i leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me? / but please don't take it so badly, 'cause lord knows, i'm to blame / lord help me, i can't change / won't you fly high, free bird.

E .    EASY WAY     —    for the foxes.

all the things we've done, it's like we're living on the run, we never took the easy way, we're moving like a hurricane / i don't know where the birds have flown, but i think we'll stay here, we'll call you out on the radio, so clear / the only place that i'll ever want to be is here.

S .    STAND BY ME    —    ben e. king.

when the night has come, and the land is dark, and the moon is the only light we'll see / no, i won't be afraid, oh, i won't be afraid / just as long as you stand, stand by me.

V .    (GOOD) VIBRATIONS     —    the beach boys.

i'm cheating for this one. it's about the beach boy vibes there are no meaningful lyrics here <3 we're picking up good vibrations

E .    EARTH ANGEL     —    the four seasons.

earth angel, earth angel, will you be mine? my darling dear, love you all the time / i'm just a fool, a fool in love with you.

R .    RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED FROM     —    maxine nightingale.

love is good, love can be strong, we gotta get right back to where we started from / do you remember the day (that sunny day), when you first came my way, i said, no one could take your place.

tagged by. thank u @fuselit mwah mwah

tagging. any besties who have yet to do it

[koiscarrds]

FUSELIT, CARRD COMMISSION.

[scarechords]

ㅤ𝑺𝑪𝑨𝑹𝑬𝑪𝑯𝑶𝑹𝑫  ( noun. )

ㅤㅤ1. a  sudden ,  sharp  sforzando  of  dissonance  or  sheer  noise  intended  to  make  viewers  jump  clean  out  of  their  seats.

ㅤㅤ2. a private & selective horror - based multimuse. sporadic to low activity. strictly 21+. a gruesome look into unpopular and often unethical decisions , lamenting who you once were , isolation as a result of trauma , learning to cope with blood on your hands , and the decision to live when death would be an easier , welcome choice. cole. 31. male.

interest tracker is mandatory for interactions.

carrd.

other blogs. @fuselit @carnby

[sisterforsaken]

‘ i need truth that i can trust in. ’  why's he gotten mixed up with a vampire? who knows.

in this moment 'mother' starters / accepting

@fuselit / The murder truly was a brilliant display. Welcoming her to her gallery that evening was a young woman she did not recognize, her body strung up in front of a series of blood red paintings. The paint was vibrant, enveloping her limp frame like a foaming sea. Real blood - hers - smeared her face and hands and soaked the white dress she’d been dressed in. Holding her up were two ropes, one attached to each wrist and anchored on the exposed venting in the ceiling. Rigormortis was beginning to set in and it made her look doll-like in the process. A play thing. And play her killer did - for she had no eyes and no tongue by the way her mouth gaped open, exposing a bloody mess of flesh. 

Mary would’ve taken credit, but this was not her doing. These types of gruesome displays were a part of her past, lost to the fading memory of time. Paint was her choice of medium these days and her meals were more often of the male variety. She hadn’t noticed any bite marks on the girl, though that didn’t leave out an Ekon as the culprit. After all, it had to be someone who knew her. It was all too deliberate. 

Her story for the police was different. There, she played the panicked gallery owner, horrified and confused by what had been done. And deliberate in repeating - oh, that poor girl. 

“So do I, detective,” she told him, her face stricken with grief, paled by the sight of the massacre - or so she hoped he’d assume. “As I told you - I came to my gallery to set up for tomorrow’s showing and there she was… just… hanging there.” To add to her act, she uttered a small, sharp gasp and covered her mouth as if she was holding back tears. 

[inflamearc]

what's peculiar about your soul ?

ㅤYOUR SOUL IS SPLINTERED. Somewhere along the way you've been harmed. Thin fractures wrap across your soul like ancient withered marble. Perhaps we will never find the cause of such harm... but what is important is that you are safe from it, now; preserved eternally. Examined closely, but never touched. The wounds hurt, but you do not tell. There is no salve in the world that could rid you of them. Not anymore.

tagged by. @fuselit tagging. steal it!

[viperslang]

children of corn(ucopia),

fuselit is open for submission. this is a brilliant writing mag, go forth in youth and glory etcetra.

the spur word for the issue is "fossil"

[fade-journal]

I would advise investigating the following:

Black & Blue (magazine)

Flipped Eye (publisher)

Fuselit (magazine)

Lazy Gramophone (publisher)

Neon (magazine)

Popshot (magazine)

[silkwormsink-blog]

Comics | Poetry | Interview with Jon Stone

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of interviewing the poet, editor and gentleman, Jon Stone on the topic of comic-books, poetry and 'The New Seriousness'. Enjoy.

Interview Conducted 17th October 2010

Phil Brown: Good evening Jon Stone, could you briefly introduce yourself to our readers and let us know what it is that you do?

Jon Stone: Hi, I'm Jon, and I'm a poet and editor. With fellow poet Kirsten Irving, I run the arts journal, Fuselit, and a relatively new poetry press called Sidekick Books, which publishes (thus far) themed micro-anthologies.

I have a pamphlet out called 'Scarecrows' with Happenstance Press, and I'm working on a full collection for Salt.

Phil Brown: We were lucky enough at Silkworms to put out a chapbook of your work earlier this year which was themed around comic books... what drew you towards that topic?

Jon Stone: I've been a comic reader since I was small, when comics were still stocked in most newsagents. I'm not a huge fanatic in the grand scale of things, but I certainly read them and get a lot out of the various sub-genres. Recently, with my writing, I've decided that I should be using it to engage with everything I think worth engaging with - ie. not writing things off as not really suitable for poetry - so comics is one of things I've been trying to engage with and explore.

Phil Brown: In terms of boiling down information and ideas into the smallest space available, do you feel that there is a relationship between the comic panel and the poetic line?

Jon Stone: Hm. There are parallels but I'm not sure the parallels are stronger than between, say, poetry and song or comics and film. But yes, poems use textual information in a similar way to how well written comics use visual information - getting rid of the 'noise' and trying to express something as clearly as possible in a tightly controlled space. There's the aspect of arrangement as well, of course.

Phil Brown: Can you think of a specific comic book that 'won you over' to the art form at a young age?

Jon Stone: At a young age, I was reading the UK Marvel Transformers comics and 2000AD. Both of those won me over, in that as well as being hooked on them, they struck me as much more powerful than, say, cartoons or Hardy Boys novels.

It was the kind of thing that you felt in some way you shouldn't be allowed to read. Both had a feeling of being 'adult'. (That may seem like a strange thing to say about Transformers, but they were ripping each others' heads off!)

Phil Brown: I certainly share that experience of comic books being a source of 'adult themes' in a medium which parents, often naively, see as being 'safe' for children to read.

Jon Stone: Yes, there was a sense of someone having found a loophole, a way to bypass the protection around children.

Phil Brown: 2000AD is certainly a series which gives its readers the chance to explore a whole mythology surrounding the characters... do you enjoy that element to the comic series?

Jon Stone: Yes, although it's also something of an albatross. Someone picking up 2000AD for the first time can easily get lost among these sprawling mythologies. I like the simplicity of Judge Dredd, in that although it has a mythology, it also still revolves around an extremely simple concept. The writers don't spend too much time dredging up characters from the past or getting lost in continuity.

That's actually something a lot of 2000AD strips have over, say, Marvel's output, which is far too tied up in its own increasingly complicated universe.

Phil Brown: You admire the Judge Dredd series for being able to stand alone, despite being part of a much wider universe. Do you feel that, on some level, this has informed your approach to writing poetry?

Jon Stone: I couldn't rule it out! If anything, I think that idea is even more crucial in poetry, where there's such a disparity in experience between different readers. And poems, of course, can be informed by so many different contexts. Ultimately, they do have to stand up on their own because you can't control the direction a reader is coming from.

Phil Brown: In one of my favourite poems of yours, you write a monologue from the point-of-view of a bob-a-job henchman from the Batman universe, currently in the employ of The Scarecrow. Is there a story behind how this poem came about?

Jon Stone: Not a very interesting one, I'm afraid! I wanted to write something about Scarecrow - he's my favourite villain from Batman. I wanted to articulate what it was that I liked about the character. When I get a hankering like this, I usually have to wait around for a while for an original angle. Eventually, one turned up while I was reading a Harley Quinn comic. One of the henchmen characters in it talked about having 'henched' for all the major villains, and I realised it never occurred to me that these faceless 'goon' characters could actually be moving around between bosses.

The form, incidentally, was supposed to be a French 'chanson' like the Song of Roland, but I misremembered the rules (which often happens!) There was supposed to be an ironic contrast between the heroic 'mode of telling' and the villainous subject matter.

Phil Brown: The Scarecrow is a character that forces all of his victims to come face to face with whatever they fear most. Do you think he would make a good creative writing tutor?

Jon Stone: Yes, up until the point where he murders his students. They won't learn anything from that.

Phil Brown: You mention that your poem 'Henching for Jonathan Crane' is a chanson of sorts... do you generate a lot of writing from experimenting with classical forms?

Jon Stone: I wouldn't say 'a lot' but definitely some. I sort of go through cycles - for a while, I'll be keen on reusing and adapting classical forms, of which there are many more than the usual suspects. Then I'll go through a phase of wanting to invent or use newer, weirder forms, which is something that really should be done more. Then I'll have a period of reacquainting myself with the delights of free verse.

Phil Brown: Have you invented any fixed forms of which you are particularly proud?

Jon Stone: There's one I've invented but which I haven't managed to use properly yet, which is the barbarelle. It's named after Barbarella. Just as Jane Fonda famously 'stripped in space', the idea of the barbarelle is that something be 'shed' each stanza, be it a line, a metric foot or otherwise. But the better ones generally don't have names - they're just rules that come up during the composition of the poem that I then stick to. Currently I'm writing a sequence of sonnets collaged out of 'fake' or counterfeit texts.

I am quite excited about something I am trying to pioneer at the moment called 'migrating rhyme'. I'm using it in a sequence of poems which all end with the word 'over'. The idea is that you alternately use consonant rhyme and vowel rhyme - maybe with some fuzzy rhyme - so that every line rhymes with the one before and after it, but that the actual sound of the rhyme changes continuously throughout the poem.

And I like the domino one we put in our 'Bard Games' book as well. It's two line stanzas, where the first line of each stanza is a homophone of the second line of the previous stanza. Like how you play dominoes.

Phil Brown: Your taste in forms seems to be geared towards making things play out for longer... to keep things progressing... do you feel that you would end up writing much shorter poems without the machine of form spurring you on?

Jon Stone: It's actually the opposite. Form is a confinement that generally keeps me from going on too long. It forces me to use greater economy. I have a tendency to go almost stream-of-consciousness with free verse poems (in 'Thra-koom', look at the length of 'Gambit' as opposed to, say, 'Dearest Wolverine')

I've actually been using a form invented by Roddy Lumsden recently, which specifically keeps you to eight lines.

Phil Brown: You mention Roddy Lumsden... he is just one of a massive list of poets who you have collaborated with on various projects... when did you begin engaging with poetry as a community?

Jon Stone: It was after we started putting events on in London when it really kicked in, I think. People came to our events and we went to theirs, and I just found there were a lot of writers whose work I was interested in. It almost seems unnatural to me, in this kind of environment, to not want to work together in some way. My whole lifestyle, in this regard, is very influenced by 'ensemble' fiction, as opposed to the Harry Potter narrative, where one guy is the best at everything.

I prefer to see myself as part of a team or group than as some sort of protagonist.

Phil Brown: You are perhaps one of the most collaboratively inclined people in the London scene at the moment... is this why you have so many poetry projects based on the internet?

Jon Stone: Partly, but the internet thing is also because I'm much better at quietly putting something together in my front room than socialising! I'd love to do more in the way of events and live collaboration but it's much more difficult for me.

The internet combines cheapness and semi-permanence, meaning you can experiment more freely and the results stick around for a while.

Phil Brown: You say that you would like to be seen as part of a team or group rather than as a protagonist... How do you feel about Todd Swift's recent article in which he describes you as part of what he refers to as 'The New Seriousness' movement?

Jon Stone: Well, I'm in good company, but I wonder if the word 'seriousness' is slightly intimidating to people and makes us look like we have ideas above our station! Obviously, I liked very much that he said we sound 'like the future', and in a way, he's right - I do have ideas above my station! I definitely take things quite seriously. Kirsty knows better than anyone how melodramatic I can be about poetry ...

Phil Brown: Looking at the other poets on that list, do you feel that there is an identifiable 'movement' between you?

Jon Stone: I'm not so sure about that. I think poets are far too individualistic to be grouped into any kind of movement at the moment - although that said, movements can be built around their own naming. If the idea of 'the new seriousness' takes off, or influences each of us, or people beyond us, it could well become realised. But James Brookes, for example, is a very different writer to me, I think, and although I have things in common with him, I also have things in common with many of the poets in the other groups Todd identified.

Phil Brown: Although it is an intrinsic part of modern behaviour, it seems that since the recent Bloodaxe anthology, 'Identity Parade', was released, there is a sluice of list-making and alternative generation-defining... Do you think it is possible to define a generation whilst you are still in the middle of it?

Jon Stone: Yes. I mean, definitions aren't necessarily right or wrong. They're an interpretation or a way of sorting. Your definitions and lists become 'right' if they successfully pervade people's consciousness - if people, in essence, adopt them - and I don't know how exactly that happens. People should continue trying to do it though, because if you do hit on a successful system of definition or categorization, that creates an entry point for a whole new audience.

Phil Brown: And movements always have a healthy way of spawning counter-movements... can you imagine what a poet would have to do if they were to try to write in the exact opposite way to you

Jon Stone: Interesting question! I guess they would try to write the same or similar poem every time and not read other poets for fear of being too influenced by them. They would avoid any sign of patterning in and between their poems and stick very tightly to the dominant poetic subjects.

They'd also write one poem at a time ...

... and never go back to a poem once it's written and discarded. Their writing would generally be directed towards producing only a few 'absolute best' poems out of hundreds of failed attempts, and the designated 'best' would be the ones that go down best with other people and peers.

Phil Brown: So, finally… Poetry is a world which often seems to have far more writers than readers... what do you think is the best motivation for trying to make the transition from 'someone who has written some poems' to getting your work out there and becoming part of Poetry-World?

Jon Stone: The best motivation? That's kind of asking for a moral judgement and I'm happy to make it! I think the best motivation is wanting to engage - not just with other people but with problems and with subject matter. So as an extension of wanting to talk to each other, wanting to talk and listen. In that way, poetry is one of things that enables us to become something other than a consumer, or slightly advanced computer, or other depressing terms that seem to define our limited purpose.

***

Phil Brown

Poetry Editor