These are side stories, more like bonus scenes or character studies, about the characters of The Crew of Esher Hill, Efe and Darius, and The Unnatural Philosophy of Kit March, posted as extras for my website/Tumblr followers. This is a chance for me to post little (or maybe not-so-little) one-off pieces about various references and occurrences that don’t work as a full story.
Please know that these may not (and often won’t) stand well on their own as a first introduction to the wider Marchverse.
I started writing these as an exercise in not being quite so perfectionistic in how I work, so they’re not as polished as the other Marchverse pieces, but I hope you’ll enjoy these little detours anyway.
A Gift of Naming
A Gift of Naming takes place approximately a hundred years before Tes arrives at the College.
If one’s parents provide a shirt that tears when tugged over their child’s shoulders, isn’t it cruelty to force the wearing of it, however well-intended the gift?
Even in the best of circumstances, it’s no easy thing to tell the parent who named you that your name no longer fits.
Contains: A genderless gardener wishing for a name that better describes hir and the trans mother who knows that such gifts should never become obligations.
Note: A stand-alone short story about a brand-new character.
Ringbound
Ringbound takes place two years before Old Fashioned, three months before The Crew of Esher Hill, and forty-two years before Tes arrives at the College.
Kit can’t find anything unfair about the contract or the man, so why is the ring so heavy?
Kit March is a signature away from marrying the man who loves him. He should be delighted, but for reasons he doesn’t understand and can’t explain, his future with Lauri weighs upon him. What is a magician to do when no script extant has words for the confusion he feels?
Contains: A gay, transgender, aromantic autistic struggling with the difficulty of wedding the gay, cis man who loves him.
Sequel works: The Crew of Esher Hill, Old Fashioned
The Skin Game
The Skin Game takes place a couple of hours after One Strange Man and five days before The Adventurer King, seven years before Tes arrives at the College.
Yes or no, he can’t speak either.
Celebrating the retrieving of Akash’s necklace shouldn’t be a difficulty for Darius Liviu, but even in the company of friends who accept his aromanticism, he can’t avoid one unrelenting truth: sex is complicated.
Contains: A trans, abrosexual, aromantic autistic struggling with the expectations of intimacy; and a queer trans man and a pansexual, aromantic genderqueer willing to help him on the road to figuring it out.
Links: forthcoming
Prequel works: Certain Eldritch Artefacts, One Strange Man
Sequel works: The Adventurer King
