Aubrey and Maturin double drabble: "Purgation"

[kindkit]

I wrote this in March for the First Ever Dreamwidth Age of Sail Anonymous Kinkmeme, where I left it anonymous for over a month. But I thought there might be people who would enjoy it who didn't know/care about the kinkmeme

Comments

Purgation

[heliophile_oxon]

So sad. Seems true to the accepted beliefs of the period, afaik, though I'm not knowledgeable about that - and oh, so sad!

Re: Purgation

[kindkit]

Thank you! I tried to make Stephen's beliefs plausible given his medical training; there were a lot of doctors in the nineteenth century who believed masturbation caused insanity, but I decided Stephen would be too skeptical to accept that.

[mcicioni]

You do hopelessness so well, and your turn-of-the-century phrasing is so convincing. It's beautiful.

[kindkit]

Thank you! Much of Stephen's hopelessness is of his own making (both in the drabble and in canon); he's extremely good at making himself suffer.