you may call me Housemaster Wilkes, for administrative reasons. any pronouns you feel moved to assign me in the moment are fine. use your heart.
i welcome you to read my original works of queer fiction, Ashcombe — a 90s boarding school romance featuring first love, repression, rugby mud, terrible british weather, emotional damage, and one american boy having an absolutely normal time in england. by which i mean: not at all, and it's sequel, Westray, a second chance love story mixed with idiot old man yaoi.
Ashcombe: [link here]
Westray: [link here]
there is also a cursed third child, East Works [link], where I dump my one-shots, and then there might be a fantasy novel chewing the bars of its enclosure in my brain (but worldbuilding is scary, boo).
this blog contains writing updates, playlists, ao3 nonsense, character brainrot, and me maintaining the legal fiction that my own fictional boys have not personally attacked me and left me with trauma.
i usually have no idea what i’m writing about until i hyperfixate my way into learning a subject in alarming detail, at which point it becomes everyone else’s problem.
Ashcombe and Westray were beta-read by two cats sitting on the keyboard and my own aggression at 1:53 AM. Now I have had other sets of gorgeous eyes helping me as well.
please also feel extremely free to come chat with me about Overwatch, Dungeons & Dragons/tabletop RPGs, Warhammer 40k, N.K. Jemisin books, World of Warcraft, religious metaphors, Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, cats, good tea, cardamom coffee, and worldbuilding.
Ashcombe extras and playlists will be tagged #ashcombe extras and #ashcombe playlists for anyone who wants to browse the emotional damage in a more organised fashion.
asks and message box are open and very welcomed. i will cherish every single comment like a tiny dragon sitting on a hoard of emotional support gold.
links:
Ashcombe: [link here]
Westray: [link here]
East Works: [link here]
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
boarding schools, LONGFICS with sequels, first love, religious repression, rugby boys, dorm room yearning, institutional menace, 90s music, funny teenage idiots, devastating intimacy, and the horror of being watched by adults who think they know what’s best for you...
try ASHCOMBE by housemasterwilkes on AO3
169k words (+ sequel available) / completed / explicit / 1993, one gay Mormon disaster boy, one boarding school, one short rugby-obsessed roommate, infinite yearning and institutional horror
If you liked Young Royals for the institution, secrecy, class tension, and awful adults: try Ashcombe.
If you liked Heartstopper but thought, “what if everyone was worse, needed therapy and the school had worse heating?” try Ashcombe.
And, if you fall in love, there is a sequel to Ashcombe as well. Same idiots, better wardrobes, worse coping skills.
Ashcombe asks: who am I, if I’m not what they made me?
Westray asks: what did I become when I had to survive without you?
Gorgeous character art is by @cursedartistnelari - go get a commission!
It's that time of day my darlings! Tell us some wonderful little details for your original writing project or work in progress my dears! (No fanfiction please- it's a wonderful medium but not the focus of this blog post.)
TODAY'S QUESTION:
Let us now speak of one of my favorite things! Archetypes! Next let's do The Myers-Briggs "Squad" Tropes, my loves. Which suits an any of your characters?
OHH, this is gonna be fun, thanks for the idea @orangelizardtattoo. I don’t buy the science behind Myers-Briggs character tropes, BUT I do think they’re an extremely fun tool of analysis. A bit like tarot cards!
Izzy is my obvious performer: fast mouth, big feelings, dramatic exits, jokes as smoke bombs, emotional intelligence used mostly as a weapon against himself. He has the ENFP/ENTP-ish disaster energy of someone who can read a room instantly, charm half of it, offend the other half, and then go home to overthink one sentence for six hours.
Robbie looks simpler on the outside: practical, grounded, quiet, stubborn, physical, loyal, deeply allergic to naming feelings out loud. Very ISTP/ISFP/ISTJ in the trope sense: a man of acts of service, fixed routines, and emotional repression installed at factory settings.
But the real squad trope is this: Izzy is the chaos strategist pretending he has no needs. Robbie is the reluctant protector pretending he has no feelings.
Together they are “the mouthy one who wants to be known but is terrified of being seen” and “the quiet one who sees everything and would rather die than say so directly.”
Which is why they are so awful and so fun to write!! Izzy sets emotional fires because silence feels unsafe. Robbie puts them out, sometimes in a very rude manner.
ASHCOMBE - the haunted 1990s boarding school novel
WESTRAY - the 2010s second chance at love of the same idiots
both explicit + by housemasterwilkes on AO3
boarding schools, LONGFICS with sequels, first love, religious repression, rugby boys, dorm room yearning, institutional menace, 90s music, funny teenage idiots, devastating intimacy, and the horror of being watched by adults who think they know what’s best for you...
try ASHCOMBE by housemasterwilkes on AO3
169k words (+ sequel available) / completed / explicit / 1993, one gay Mormon disaster boy, one boarding school, one short rugby-obsessed roommate, infinite yearning and institutional horror
If you liked Young Royals for the institution, secrecy, class tension, and awful adults: try Ashcombe.
If you liked Heartstopper but thought, “what if everyone was worse, needed therapy and the school had worse heating?” try Ashcombe.
And, if you fall in love, there is a sequel to Ashcombe as well. Same idiots, better wardrobes, worse coping skills.
Ashcombe asks: who am I, if I’m not what they made me?
Westray asks: what did I become when I had to survive without you?
Gorgeous character art is by @cursedartistnelari - go get a commission!
Hello from the evil-doing author-slash-villain’s lair!
I have been editing instead of writing new content, which means the update machine is clanking ominously in the basement. Today’s offerings are Westray chapter 17 and its mystical, hidden, forbidden counterpart over in East Works.
Which is, naturally, explicit again. SURPRISE!!!
Updated 20 July 2026:
❤️🩹 WESTRAY — Chapter 17
A second-chance queer love novel about Robbie and Izzy finding their way back to each other after several lives, many terrible coping mechanisms, and excessive amounts of unresolved yearning.
🫀 EAST WORKS — Chapter 6
The forbidden archive opens again. This time: Isaiah’s New York prodigal-son years, the hot finance daddy who almost made him stay, and the terrible inconvenience of being wanted by someone patient.
Explicit, long, emotionally inadvisable. Please read the warnings before entering the premises.
And, of course, nothing new today but always relevant:
❤️ ASHCOMBE
Completed on AO3. An explicit M/M original boarding school novel about first love, repression, rugby, yearning, terrible teenagers, and the spiritually hazardous experience of falling hard for your roommate in 1993.
At this point, I should probably attempt to get a sponsorship from Monster Energy. These chapters are practically being birthed with the assistance of Monster Energy Ultra Peachy Keen, except I still have to pay for the cans with my own hard-earned pocket money, which feels unjust.
Monster, please reach out if you need an anonymous yaoi author for anything. I could give you the gayest advertisement campaign mankind has ever witnessed.
Come read. Amuse the author goblin.
Character art by gorgeous @cursedartistnelari ♥ Go order a commission!
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
"i don't comment on ao3 because i don't wanna be annoying or weird" skill issue + you greatly underestimate the power dynamic here, writing multi paragraph comments is like feeding a bunch of deeply insane and possibly starved ducks at the park and watch them go completely mad over having received a piece of bread
Guess what? As a writer, there is truly no better feeling than this.
I got happily SWATted by a reader who had apparently been reading Ashcombe in silence and then suddenly surprise-commented on the final chapters like a beautiful emotional flashbang through my AO3 inbox.
Made my whole day. Possibly my whole week. I have been so pleased with myself that I am now unbearable to be around, which is unfortunate for my household, but wonderful for the local author goblin.
Anyway! Author updates attached to the same happy little post, because everyone loves a multitasker.
❤️🩹 WESTRAY chapter 16 is out on AO3.
Second chances! Adult feelings! Old damage in better clothes! Two grown men continuing their brave campaign against saying anything directly!
🫀 EAST WORKS has also been updated on AO3.
There are now 10k words of Chelsea, Izzy, and Robbie making questionable decisions while naked. Please read the warnings before proceeding. The forbidden archive is forbidden for a reason, and that reason is 99% me.
❤️ ASHCOMBE has nothing new today, because it is already completed on AO3, but the emotional trauma, terrible teenagers, rugby, yearning, and boarding school atmosphere remain available for all your checking-yourself-into-fictional-institution needs.
And, if I have time and brain juice tomorrow, I may officially start drafting Ashcombe universe book #3.
More on that later. The goblin is stirring. The Google Docs are looking at me with their beady little eyes.
Bernie tells the truth here: comment on your local author goblin’s works. Throw enrichment into their enclosure.
Hello from the evil-doing author-slash-villain’s lair!
I have been editing instead of writing new content, which means the update machine is clanking ominously in the basement. Today’s offerings are Westray chapter 17 and its mystical, hidden, forbidden counterpart over in East Works.
Which is, naturally, explicit again. SURPRISE!!!
Updated 20 July 2026:
❤️🩹 WESTRAY — Chapter 17
A second-chance queer love novel about Robbie and Izzy finding their way back to each other after several lives, many terrible coping mechanisms, and excessive amounts of unresolved yearning.
🫀 EAST WORKS — Chapter 6
The forbidden archive opens again. This time: Isaiah’s New York prodigal-son years, the hot finance daddy who almost made him stay, and the terrible inconvenience of being wanted by someone patient.
Explicit, long, emotionally inadvisable. Please read the warnings before entering the premises.
And, of course, nothing new today but always relevant:
❤️ ASHCOMBE
Completed on AO3. An explicit M/M original boarding school novel about first love, repression, rugby, yearning, terrible teenagers, and the spiritually hazardous experience of falling hard for your roommate in 1993.
At this point, I should probably attempt to get a sponsorship from Monster Energy. These chapters are practically being birthed with the assistance of Monster Energy Ultra Peachy Keen, except I still have to pay for the cans with my own hard-earned pocket money, which feels unjust.
Monster, please reach out if you need an anonymous yaoi author for anything. I could give you the gayest advertisement campaign mankind has ever witnessed.
Come read. Amuse the author goblin.
Character art by gorgeous @cursedartistnelari ♥ Go order a commission!
Guess what? As a writer, there is truly no better feeling than this.
I got happily SWATted by a reader who had apparently been reading Ashcombe in silence and then suddenly surprise-commented on the final chapters like a beautiful emotional flashbang through my AO3 inbox.
Made my whole day. Possibly my whole week. I have been so pleased with myself that I am now unbearable to be around, which is unfortunate for my household, but wonderful for the local author goblin.
Anyway! Author updates attached to the same happy little post, because everyone loves a multitasker.
❤️🩹 WESTRAY chapter 16 is out on AO3.
Second chances! Adult feelings! Old damage in better clothes! Two grown men continuing their brave campaign against saying anything directly!
🫀 EAST WORKS has also been updated on AO3.
There are now 10k words of Chelsea, Izzy, and Robbie making questionable decisions while naked. Please read the warnings before proceeding. The forbidden archive is forbidden for a reason, and that reason is 99% me.
❤️ ASHCOMBE has nothing new today, because it is already completed on AO3, but the emotional trauma, terrible teenagers, rugby, yearning, and boarding school atmosphere remain available for all your checking-yourself-into-fictional-institution needs.
And, if I have time and brain juice tomorrow, I may officially start drafting Ashcombe universe book #3.
More on that later. The goblin is stirring. The Google Docs are looking at me with their beady little eyes.
Bernie tells the truth here: comment on your local author goblin’s works. Throw enrichment into their enclosure.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Have you ever wanted to bring home a terrible teenager?
Come read ASHCOMBE on AO3: completed on AO3 / explicit original work boarding school m/m romance novel / 169k / terrible teenagers seeking loving readers.
Good news! Ashcombe Hall is opening its doors for one day only, and our current residents are seeking patient, loving homes with strong nerves and a high tolerance for rugby talk, yearning, emotional repression, and teenagers who communicate primarily through bad decisions.
All cast members come with age-appropriate baggage and at least one scene where they should absolutely have known better.
Please adopt responsibly.
Come read ASHCOMBE on AO3.
Completed / explicit / original m/m boarding school romance / 169k words / first love, rugby, yearning, terrible teenagers, and the emotional hazards of being sixteen / ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN
Prequel of WESTRAY (queer second chance at love)
Also to be read: EAST WORKS (the collection of AUs and one-shots for Ashcombe universe)
All teenagers come non-microchipped, emotionally under-socialised, and with varying degrees of trauma.
Descriptions of our adoptables under the "keep reading" line.
ROBBIE MCALLISTER
Small but sturdy working breed. Responds poorly to sudden affection and direct questions. Excellent recall on a rugby pitch, terrible recall when asked to name an emotion. May growl when frightened but is secretly very loyal. Best placed in a patient home with access to tea and one dramatic American boy to herd.
ISAIAH “IZZY” WALKER
Imported long-limbed show creature. Nervous, clever, decorative, and prone to theatrical displays. Not suitable for households with strict religious doctrine or poor cassette storage. Will bond intensely with a emotionally unavailable rugby player and make this everyone’s problem.
JAMIE SINGH
Quiet observation animal. Low-maintenance on the surface, and excellent with secrets, poor with nonsense, may stare directly into your soul if you lie. Best kept in a calm environment with occasional access to chaos for enrichment.
TOM FLETCHER
Large friendly golden retriever: cheerful, loud, physically affectionate, and good with most people. May attempt to solve complex problems by grinning or clapping someone roughly on the shoulder.
ELLIE CARTER
Tiny fox-terrier gremlin. Highly intelligent, food-motivated, and not to be trusted near gossip or unattended secrets. Will steal your snacks, heart, dignity, and potentially your legal arguments. Requires firm boundaries, which she will promptly ignore.
CHELSEA TURNER
Sleek black cat in eyeliner. Independent, sharp, affectionate on her own terms, and capable of drawing blood with one look. Not a starter pet. Best suited to homes that respect her intelligence and do not waste her fucking time. May adopt confused queer boys against her better judgment.
FREDDY BRUDENELL-FITZWILLIAM
Expensive pedigree bastard. Beautiful coat, questionable instincts, may become smug if praised. Requires socialisation, finer things in life, and possibly a bell around his neck so working-class scholarship boys can hear him coming.
HANNAH CLARKE
Practical working dog with excellent posture. Capable, dry, and not impressed by your nonsense. Good in emergencies. Best suited to people who understand that affection can look like telling you to stop being a twat.
SOPHIE LANE
Soft-looking but not actually soft. Elegant house cat with excellent earrings and quiet judgment. May appear gentle until provoked, at which point you will discover she has claws and a detailed memory. Good with girls, gossip, and emotional triage.
All adoptions are final. Ashcombe Hall accepts no responsibility for sudden attachment to fictional teenagers, rugby-related yearning, or the discovery that your favourite character is, in fact, a small feral imaginary creature in school uniform.
Come read ASHCOMBE on AO3.
Completed / explicit / original m/m boarding school romance / 169k words / first love, rugby, yearning, terrible teenagers, and the emotional hazards of being sixteen / ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN
Prequel of WESTRAY (queer second chance at love)
Also to be read: EAST WORKS (the collection of AUs and one-shots for ASHCOMBE universe)
❗❗ Art potraits generated at Picrew, either with makowka OC maker or makowka character maker II - if you fall into this rabbit hole, please be prepared to spend an hour or three.❗❗
Have you ever wanted to bring home a terrible teenager?
Come read ASHCOMBE on AO3: completed on AO3 / explicit original work boarding school m/m romance novel / 169k / terrible teenagers seeking loving readers.
Good news! Ashcombe Hall is opening its doors for one day only, and our current residents are seeking patient, loving homes with strong nerves and a high tolerance for rugby talk, yearning, emotional repression, and teenagers who communicate primarily through bad decisions.
All cast members come with age-appropriate baggage and at least one scene where they should absolutely have known better.
Please adopt responsibly.
Come read ASHCOMBE on AO3.
Completed / explicit / original m/m boarding school romance / 169k words / first love, rugby, yearning, terrible teenagers, and the emotional hazards of being sixteen / ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN
Prequel of WESTRAY (queer second chance at love)
Also to be read: EAST WORKS (the collection of AUs and one-shots for Ashcombe universe)
All teenagers come non-microchipped, emotionally under-socialised, and with varying degrees of trauma.
Descriptions of our adoptables under the "keep reading" line.
ROBBIE MCALLISTER
Small but sturdy working breed. Responds poorly to sudden affection and direct questions. Excellent recall on a rugby pitch, terrible recall when asked to name an emotion. May growl when frightened but is secretly very loyal. Best placed in a patient home with access to tea and one dramatic American boy to herd.
ISAIAH “IZZY” WALKER
Imported long-limbed show creature. Nervous, clever, decorative, and prone to theatrical displays. Not suitable for households with strict religious doctrine or poor cassette storage. Will bond intensely with a emotionally unavailable rugby player and make this everyone’s problem.
JAMIE SINGH
Quiet observation animal. Low-maintenance on the surface, and excellent with secrets, poor with nonsense, may stare directly into your soul if you lie. Best kept in a calm environment with occasional access to chaos for enrichment.
TOM FLETCHER
Large friendly golden retriever: cheerful, loud, physically affectionate, and good with most people. May attempt to solve complex problems by grinning or clapping someone roughly on the shoulder.
ELLIE CARTER
Tiny fox-terrier gremlin. Highly intelligent, food-motivated, and not to be trusted near gossip or unattended secrets. Will steal your snacks, heart, dignity, and potentially your legal arguments. Requires firm boundaries, which she will promptly ignore.
CHELSEA TURNER
Sleek black cat in eyeliner. Independent, sharp, affectionate on her own terms, and capable of drawing blood with one look. Not a starter pet. Best suited to homes that respect her intelligence and do not waste her fucking time. May adopt confused queer boys against her better judgment.
FREDDY BRUDENELL-FITZWILLIAM
Expensive pedigree bastard. Beautiful coat, questionable instincts, may become smug if praised. Requires socialisation, finer things in life, and possibly a bell around his neck so working-class scholarship boys can hear him coming.
HANNAH CLARKE
Practical working dog with excellent posture. Capable, dry, and not impressed by your nonsense. Good in emergencies. Best suited to people who understand that affection can look like telling you to stop being a twat.
SOPHIE LANE
Soft-looking but not actually soft. Elegant house cat with excellent earrings and quiet judgment. May appear gentle until provoked, at which point you will discover she has claws and a detailed memory. Good with girls, gossip, and emotional triage.
All adoptions are final. Ashcombe Hall accepts no responsibility for sudden attachment to fictional teenagers, rugby-related yearning, or the discovery that your favourite character is, in fact, a small feral imaginary creature in school uniform.
Come read ASHCOMBE on AO3.
Completed / explicit / original m/m boarding school romance / 169k words / first love, rugby, yearning, terrible teenagers, and the emotional hazards of being sixteen / ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN
Prequel of WESTRAY (queer second chance at love)
Also to be read: EAST WORKS (the collection of AUs and one-shots for ASHCOMBE universe)
❗❗ Art potraits generated at Picrew, either with makowka OC maker or makowka character maker II - if you fall into this rabbit hole, please be prepared to spend an hour or three.❗❗
This week’s chapter features the true trial by fire for any developing relationship: unnamed blue-and-yellow furniture hell.
Flatpack purgatory, liminal warehouse spaces, tiny pencils, and a possible sphinx at the entrance asking riddles before you are allowed to collect your wardrobe from aisle 27, bin 14, and discover that one essential screw is missing.
Come read two grown men enter the furniture maze and somehow still fail to admit that they would very much like to kiss each other stupid.
❤️ ASHCOMBE / completed / m/m boarding school romance / explicit / 169k words / rugby, yearning, first love, idiots in love / AO3
❤️🩹 WESTRAY / WIP / m/m second chance at love / explicit / same idiots, more life experience, equally terrible communication skills / AO3
🫀 EAST WORKS / one-shot archive for both novels / AUs, bad decisions, emotional non-wellbeing, and screaming / AO3
The Westray header by amazing, talented and kind @rocksaltandroll
Good morning! The students of Ashcombe Hall have been hard at work in the child labour department, producing more imaginary boarding school merch for our imaginary school store. This time: badges!
We have models for Ashcombe survivors, people with strong opinions about Izzy’s family (we see you, and we appreciate the rage), Tom & Jamie fans (also Tom/Jamie fans; I don’t judge, I see the vision), and budding connoisseurs of Westray.
One of these has also been handcrafted with love for a very special hate club president. Wear it with pride, love.
The merch can be purchased at the low, low cost of your emotional well-being and/or leaving a comment on one of these silly little gay novels.
Come read?
❤️ ASHCOMBE / completed / m/m boarding school romance / explicit / 169k words / rugby, yearning, first love, idiots in love / AO3
❤️🩹 WESTRAY / WIP / m/m second chance at love / explicit / same idiots, more life experience, equally terrible communication skills / AO3
🫀 EAST WORKS / one-shot archive for both novels / AUs, bad decisions, emotional non-wellbeing, and screaming / AO3
Old pins included too, for fun and memory-refreshing purposes!
New week, new reblog, same emotional damage buffet!!
WESTRAY has now been updated up to chapter 12/45 on AO3, and the Wattpad version of ASHCOMBE is up to chapter 27/38. The AO3 version of ASHCOMBE has been completed for a while now, so anyone wishing to fling themselves bodily into the full boarding school experience may do so without waiting for updates.
WESTRAY has also started to gain a little more traction lately, which makes me ridiculously happy. It is a good novel, sir. It has adults! It has renovations! It has old damage in better clothes! It has second chances, yearning, smartphones, and two men who are technically grown but still capable of not communicating!
EAST WORKS will also get something new later, once Westray catches up to one very specific chapter it needs first. (Which means that, at some point, I will be updating Westray and East Works at the same time. YAY!! Forbidden archives doing forbidden archives things once again.)
Also, the goblin has been sitting on my shoulder whispering cursed little bonus content ideas into my ear, so that bodes extremely well for everyone’s peace and well-being, I am sure.
Come hang out and read! We have scones, jam, clotted cream, and the crisps we confiscated from Ellie Carter while she was meant to be quiet in the library.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
That ‘comment on your a03 work’ email hits like a line of cocaine every time. unmatched dopamine increase. shoutout to everyone who leaves a comment on fics. you deserve the world
