Cattonquick - Tumblr Posts

I saw some parallels and did a thing

Wasn’t sure what goes in the middle spot

thinking about cattonquick on valentines day.

i know some people would think felix is big into valentines, and oliver isnt but?? honestly i see kinda the opposite. felix cannot stand valentines day. it's the day where girls fawn over felix, and he's gotta turn them down, and it's tiring... its annoying. oliver would get jealous too!! it's his felix. not some snobby girls. oliver would try and be extra lovey on felix in private, but felix cannot stand the damn holiday

In a universe where the performance was good enough.

yes & no by natalie wee

Thought it'd be fun to do a little drabble soooo-

Cattonquick Oxford Days - the first cigarette

(This is based in the Maneater AU - unless I change my mind on details later - but can be read as in canon universe)

The lighter fails to catch the first couple of times Felix tries it. But after a final, despairing shake of the crappy thing, the flame sputters to life.

“Thank fuck,” he mumbles around the ciggie, and hurriedly brings the lighter up. April’s swung in with far too much chill, because fuck England, right? No spring for them, nooope. Just horrible grey rainy days, where even brief lulls like this evening are tarnished by cold winds.

He’s regretting not grabbing a jacket when he had chance to, and he eyes Oliver’s long-sleeves jealously. They’re on their way back from the pub, and it’s still early enough that most streetlights feel unnecessary. After a of couple hours there Felix realised he just wasn’t feeling it tonight, that stickiness of going through the motions and not enjoying himself like usual, where even a few pints couldn’t soften it up.

So when Oliver gave him a nudge, mentioned he has an essay he really needs to work on, Felix leapt at the chance to head out. He has his own pile of coursework to dive into before the Easter holidays start. Maybe speed through a chunk of it tonight, get that late night focus on, and then he can decide how much is usable tomorrow.

He’s glad he decided to stick it out at Oxford over the coming break. Originally it was more about keeping his word on staying at university all year, rather than nipping home every holiday - or even every other weekend, like some silly sods do. He went as far as to swear off a trip abroad this school year, fully committed to the uni life, which means no fluttering off to sunnier skies.

He aims a glower up at the dark clouds far above them. Curse thy existence.

“Felix?”

Felix’s head snaps down, and down, and he has to grin. Oliver is so short. Like, okay, so he’s not actually super-duper short. A bit below average, perhaps, and around the height of most girls. But he’s a lot shorter than Felix, which is what really matters.

It means he’s the perfect height - practically made for it - for Felix to sling an arm around his shoulders and drag him into his side. Oliver runs a bit cool, but he’s still a damn sight warmer than the nippy evening air.

“Yeah, mate?” Felix takes a pull from the ciggie, careful not to blow it all in Oliver’s face. Would be awfully rude. But that does get him thinking about how Oliver doesn’t smoke, and he frowns at him. “You know, I don’t think you ever said why you don’t smoke.”

Could it be something to do with his family? Cigarettes are a huge leap from heroin and meth and whatever else, but traumas can be multi-layered, can’t they? A full-on aversion to anything even related. But Oliver is clearly battling through it, going to the pub and clubs where alcohol abounds, not even flinching at all the casual drug use their group gets up to.

“Just not keen.” Oliver shrugs slightly, and it’s interesting to feel the motion of it under his arm. Makes him want to squeeze Oliver a bit. His hand slides down to cup Oliver’s bicep rather than hanging loosely, but he holds off on the full grabby. For now.

“So you’ve tried one before?”

Oliver hesitates, but shakes his head. He’s looking ahead rather than at Felix, and while he does have lovely thick hair, that isn’t quite the view Felix wants currently.

So he brings them to a stop, Oliver stumbling into him a bit and looking up questioningly. There it is. Christ, Oliver’s eyes seem to get bluer every time Felix catches a glimpse. Like, with each additional second he knows Oliver, he’s able to see more of him. Another droplet of paint on the colour palette, swirled in with patient brush strokes.

“If you’ve never tried it…” Felix puts the ciggie between his lips, just so he can flip his hand and pluck it out again. Holding it filter-first toward Oliver with an inviting smile. “How can you know you won’t like it?”

Now, Felix would never pressure anyone into doing something they don’t want to. That would be terrible manners. All he’s doing here is giving Oliver the chance to expand his horizons. Indulge in a little fun, like he’s clearly not had chance to- well, probably in his whole life.

Felix has been making up for that. He’s fully embraced showing Oliver the highlights of uni life, and it’s been an absolute blast so far. Letting Oliver have a go at smoking is just another part of that.

“I dunno, mate.” The corner of Oliver’s mouth ticks up as he looks from the ciggie to Felix. “They’re not great for your health, right?”

The little right? at the end softens what might’ve been an annoying admonishment, to something that makes Felix smirk. “All part of the appeal. If we only did what was healthy, we’d be a proper dull lot.” He raises his eyebrows and tips the cigarette closer to Oliver’s lips, his pinky finger grazing Oliver’s chin. “You’re not dull, are you, Ollie?”

He knows most of his friends think Oliver is boring. That he outlived any novelty within the first week; Felix’s unlikely saviour from a tutorial scolding, the scholarship boy with the funny accent. Farleigh has certainly made his opinion clear, his pissy attitude the real bore around here.

They just don’t get Oliver. None of them.

Nah, Felix is the only one who gets the real Ollie, the one Oliver trusts and opens up to. They’re already best mates, fitting together like two puzzle pieces. And the way Oliver looks at him - yeah, it can get a bit much at times, but it’s all part of Oliver’s charm, really. He’s completely genuine and clearly thinks the world of Felix, so obviously he can’t filter that intensity down. Felix would never ask him to. He accepts Oliver exactly as he is.

Oliver takes the cigarette, pinched between his thumb and forefinger as he eyes it like it might bite him. Or give him lung cancer.

Felix would give him a drumroll if he could. He settles for an encouraging shake and cheering, “Go oooooon, Oll-aaaaay!”

And Oliver does.

Not that there was ever any doubt. But it’s still satisfying in a warm, buzzy way to watch Oliver take a drag, lips pursed and the shadows on his cheeks deepening a little. Takes it like a pro, his Ollie, and it’s only once Oliver’s eyes close that Felix realises they’ve been locked in a staredown.

Then Oliver breathes out, and Felix is hit by a faceful of smoke.

The moment his coughing fit is done, he grabs a hastily apologising Oliver by the shoulder, snatches the ciggie back, and gets revenge.

Consider, if you will: Saltburn Groundhog Day AU, with Felix and Oliver both reliving Oliver's birthday over and over.

At first, neither of them realizes they're in a time loop, so they do establish mutual knowledge of the First Birthday Party together before they discover that they're stuck reliving the same day.

After that, they'd both absolutely get worse for a while. Oliver gets creative and excessive in each new murder plot, while Felix gets downright mean in his attempts to have Oliver kicked out of Saltburn before he can commit any murder, while also tying himself in knots attempting to avoid the embarrassment of his family finding out that he/they were conned by a liar.

Eventually, Felix starts enjoying putting actual effort into something and getting one over on Oliver by working for it instead of just being rich and expecting his privilege to get him through any mildly uncomfortable situations.

And then he has to come to terms with how he has used his privilege, up till now, to justify being an incredibly lazy, casually cruel, and frankly pretty shallow person.

Meanwhile Oliver starts to realize that he had apparently been building up a lot of repressed anger over his whole life of wanting to fit in and have friends and just getting bullied or ignored by his peers, and while it was kind of fun for a while taking out that anger in increasingly violent and absurd ways on the Cattons, Farleigh, and/or various party guests who came to his birthday party and didn't even know his name, he also really likes knowing that everyone will still be alive the next day and no one will stay hurt, because he kind of hates the thought of actually hurting or killing anyone for real.

And then he has to come to grips with how, on the First Birthday Party, he would have killed Felix for real if not for this time loop.

And thus Felix and Oliver start the long, slow slogs of their respective personal growth journeys, as their days in the loop slowly setting into them just talking and hanging out and becoming actual friends. Actual friends who aren't lying to or manipulating or using each other.

Culminating, of course, in the day that they accidentally finally end the time loop, by Felix planning and surprising Oliver with the kind of nice birthday trip that Oliver was daydreaming about that very first morning, before the disaster of Prescott and everything that followed. Felix actually does something genuinely nice for Oliver to make him happy on his birthday; Oliver has a genuinely nice day with his best friend, and he realizes that he can value himself just fine without a giant birthday party full of strangers who aren't even really there for him anyway.

And then Felix gets them a hotel room so they can fuck all night without worrying about getting walked in on by a maid or party guests, and they both agree it's been the best day either of them can remember having in a long time.

(It's a little awkward when they actually have to drive back to Saltburn the next morning and answer questions about where they'd been all night, but... worth it.)

Consider also:

Oliver and Felix's first genuine compromise/the start of them working together occurs after Felix gets frustrated enough to brave the embarrassment of just confessing to his family that Oliver lied to all of them about his family, and also Oliver is now dangerous and may try to kill someone.

It turns out that facing his family in the aftermath of Oliver's (admittedly violent, at this point) removal is not as bad as Felix expected... it is worse.

First he has to deal with probably the most uncomfortable conversation ever with his father, wherein Sir James makes it very clear that he is Very Disappointed in Felix for being so gullible and foolish and bringing a violent liar into the family home and then grounds Felix for the rest of summer like a child. Then, as if that conversation weren't bad enough, he has to deal with the extremely humiliating silent judgement from the rest of his family, who all now clearly think he's incredibly stupid and won't stop looking at him or seeking him out to ask him how he's doing and look, it's horrible, okay?

Frankly, he'd rather watch Oliver murder people and/or get murdered by Oliver over and over than deal with that, again.

So after that excruciatingly humiliating experience - and after Oliver murders him immediately the very next morning, in retribution - Felix calls for a compromise: Felix will not tell his family about Oliver's again as a way of getting Oliver kicked out of Saltburn, and in return Oliver will at least wait till his birthday party starts to begin any future murder attempts, so as to give Felix a fair shot at coming up with a plan to stop him each day from here out.

From there, of course, it's an inevitable slipperly slope to character growth, discovering the joy of a friendship based on mutual respect and honesty, and eventually falling in love.

Consider, if you will: Saltburn Groundhog Day AU, with Felix and Oliver both reliving Oliver's birthday over and over.

At first, neither of them realizes they're in a time loop, so they do establish mutual knowledge of the First Birthday Party together before they discover that they're stuck reliving the same day.

After that, they'd both absolutely get worse for a while. Oliver gets creative and excessive in each new murder plot, while Felix gets downright mean in his attempts to have Oliver kicked out of Saltburn before he can commit any murder, while also tying himself in knots attempting to avoid the embarrassment of his family finding out that he/they were conned by a liar.

Eventually, Felix starts enjoying putting actual effort into something and getting one over on Oliver by working for it instead of just being rich and expecting his privilege to get him through any mildly uncomfortable situations.

And then he has to come to terms with how he has used his privilege, up till now, to justify being an incredibly lazy, casually cruel, and frankly pretty shallow person.

Meanwhile Oliver starts to realize that he had apparently been building up a lot of repressed anger over his whole life of wanting to fit in and have friends and just getting bullied or ignored by his peers, and while it was kind of fun for a while taking out that anger in increasingly violent and absurd ways on the Cattons, Farleigh, and/or various party guests who came to his birthday party and didn't even know his name, he also really likes knowing that everyone will still be alive the next day and no one will stay hurt, because he kind of hates the thought of actually hurting or killing anyone for real.

And then he has to come to grips with how, on the First Birthday Party, he would have killed Felix for real if not for this time loop.

And thus Felix and Oliver start the long, slow slogs of their respective personal growth journeys, as their days in the loop slowly setting into them just talking and hanging out and becoming actual friends. Actual friends who aren't lying to or manipulating or using each other.

Culminating, of course, in the day that they accidentally finally end the time loop, by Felix planning and surprising Oliver with the kind of nice birthday trip that Oliver was daydreaming about that very first morning, before the disaster of Prescott and everything that followed. Felix actually does something genuinely nice for Oliver to make him happy on his birthday; Oliver has a genuinely nice day with his best friend, and he realizes that he can value himself just fine without a giant birthday party full of strangers who aren't even really there for him anyway.

And then Felix gets them a hotel room so they can fuck all night without worrying about getting walked in on by a maid or party guests, and they both agree it's been the best day either of them can remember having in a long time.

(It's a little awkward when they actually have to drive back to Saltburn the next morning and answer questions about where they'd been all night, but... worth it.)

One full outline and ~2k words of a first chapter into my Saltburn Groundhog Day AU. It has become a source of immense amusement to me, so probably worth sticking it out and finishing the thing even if it winds up being just me who is this endlessly amused by the shenanigans that Felix and Oliver will be getting up to...

So, ~600 word prologue to the Groundhog Day AU, to set up Felix's first night's experience with dying of an overdose: yes or no?

The pros: It could probably be posted tomorrow, after a last quick pass for editing.

The cons: It'd still be a bit longer on proper chapters, so it would be only a prologue for... probably another week at least?

Chapters: 1/5 Fandom: Saltburn (2023) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Felix Catton/Oliver Quick Characters: Felix Catton, Oliver Quick, Farleigh Start, Venetia Catton, Elspeth Catton, James Catton, Duncan (Saltburn) Additional Tags: Groundhog Day, Felix and Oliver being forced into character growth, through forced proximity, and a lack of long-term consequences, that somehow still translate into more consequences than Felix has ever had to face before, short-term major character death, due to Groundhog Day shenanigans, also likely some graphic violence, that has no long-term effects again due to Groundhog Day shenanigans, Oliver gets to do a lot of murder, as a treat, before he eventually learns to chill, and be grateful that the murder sprees reset each day, with no long-term permanent murder occurring Summary:

A Saltburn Groundhog Day AU, in which Felix and Oliver are forced to relive Oliver's birthday over and over until they can figure out how to get it right...

  ...together.

Chapters: 2/5 Fandom: Saltburn (2023) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Felix Catton/Oliver Quick Characters: Felix Catton, Oliver Quick, Farleigh Start, Venetia Catton, Elspeth Catton, James Catton, Duncan (Saltburn) Additional Tags: Groundhog Day, Felix and Oliver being forced into character growth, through forced proximity, and a lack of long-term consequences, that somehow still translate into more consequences than Felix has ever had to face before, short-term major character death, due to Groundhog Day shenanigans, also likely some graphic violence, that has no long-term effects again due to Groundhog Day shenanigans, Oliver gets to do a lot of murder, as a treat, before he eventually learns to chill, and be grateful that the murder sprees reset each day, with no long-term permanent murder occurring Summary:

A Saltburn Groundhog Day AU, in which Felix and Oliver are forced to relive Oliver's birthday over and over until they can figure out how to get it right...

  ...together.

Enter Night - Incubus AU

Cattonquick. Oxford Era. Explicit.

Chapter 8: Big Brown Baby Cow Eyes.

Felix (and Oliver) blur the lines.

Felix is invited.

Venetia invites herself.

Felix experiments with introspection.

Several new faces are each familiar, in some way or another.

Oliver makes a statement, without saying anything.

Update on the next chapter of the Groundhog Day AU:

Cut a big ol' chunk of the middle of the chapter, made some decent progress so far rewriting it to be much better, now, and am getting tentatively hopeful that the next update might even happen before the end of the week.

It is probably the chapter that merits the most tag warnings, but hopefully the dark humor lands again for other people.

Either way, though, I at least am having a delightful time with these losers and their quest to make each other miserable and become even worse people right now. Really gotta dig that hole deep before they start clawing their way back up, lol.

Next time I have Time To Write Things, I have a Groundhog Day AU to finish, but...

Does anyone else feel like there's an unfortunate imbalance in the number of non-human!Oliver cattonquick vs. non-human!Felix?

Is anyone else occasionally consumed with thoughts about Felix having fey blood through his mother's side, and part of the reason he liked Oliver's sob stories was because he's never quite fit in with other people, and he thinks it's because of his wealth (even though, really, his wealth is the only reason other people tolerate how weird and unsettling and frequently rude he is), and so he liked meeting another person who supposedly didn't know how to fit in with "normal" people because of the financial situation he grew up in?

And would anyone else find it extra hilarious if Felix didn't even know about this fey heritage until after Oliver tries to poison him, and instead of killing him it causes some kind of Fairy Nonsense to occur that Oliver then has to save them both from?

And then they can bond over both being just regular old weirdo losers who don't really know How To People, not because of how they were raised but just because of how they were born (with Oliver being autistic, obviouvsly, and bad at Social Things because of that).

Because this premise has maybe, possibly been on my mind for a while!

Slowly regaining some of that magical concept known as free time for writing, which means...

I'm finally making more progress on Chapter 2 of the Groundhog Day AU!

(Technically Ch. 3 according to ao3 labeling, but the first one was just a prologue and thus doesn't count in my head, haha.)

It's been a longer wait than I'd hoped for, but it's also turning into a long chapter. (The longest one so far, though Ch. 3 might give it a run for it's money based on the current outline.)

5k words into Ch. 2 so far, probably a few more to go, and then I'll finally be able to clean it up, do a last editing pass, and get it up on ao3!

The beginning of this chapter gave me endless trouble, but it also has one of my favorite scenes so far, and I am excited to finally be getting it close to posting-ready.

Hopefully someone has as much fun reading that bit as I had writing it, but it still makes me laugh either way. Given that amusing myself with Felix's inability to escape this Very Bad, Extremely Horrible Worst Day Ever is most of the reason I started writing this AU, this scene will stay one of my favorites regardless just for giving me motivation to keep working even as the beginning took approximately a zillion rewrites till I finally figured out the right way for it to go.

In the meantime, here's the current Ch. 2 summary in my notes for anyone interested:

--

Felix: Fine. Clearly, Oliver is getting his Saltburn party. Doesn't mean I can't ignore him all day, anyway, until this time loop ends! Oliver: Fine. Who cares about stupid Felix. We're in a time loop, Felix hates me forever, and apparently I've had a lot of repressed anger that I was trying to ignore... Guess I don't have to worry about repressing that anymore! Felix: Wait... Is ignoring this problem even harder, like, not going to solve it? Even though I don't want to deal with it?? What do you mean, I might have to talk to someone when I don't wanna??? Oliver: Oh. Oh. So, if I kill enough people, Felix eventually stops ignoring me and pays attention to me again. ...neat! Felix: Um, obviously I'm still going to ditch you forever and never speak to you again as soon as you stop killing people and we get out of this loop - no, wait, what are you doing, please put down the knife for the love of-

was it casual when you fell in love with me the second i let you borrow my bike? was it casual when you were the sun and everyone loved you but when we were together you only had eyes for me? was it casual when you invited me home with you for the summer? was it casual when you described me as handsome to your mother? was it casual when you got off thinking about me, knowing i was watching? was it casual when you couldn't stand the thought of me being with someone else? was it casual when you answered my phone for me? was it casual when you loved me so much you forced me to fix everything? was it casual when i broke your heart? was it casual when you said i don't know who you are but you make my fucking blood run cold? was it casual when i killed you?

Wait is that...over there, is that...

A new chapter of Maneater?

(feat. bathtub shenanigans and Felix being an impulsive treasure)

Just here after rereading the latest chapter of Maneater yet again, to say that I am Very Excited about that Oliver PoV chapter coming next! No pressure re writing time (writing takes as long as it takes, and anyway it would be terribly hypocritical of my slow ass to demand anyone else write faster!), just already commented on the chapter and wanted to come flail a bit more in your direction about how much I love your Felix and Oliver, and how feral I am gonna be over the next chapter <3

xD I am finally getting around to responding to comments today and Can Confirm that Felix will continue to lose gay chicken for...the rest of the fic basically. And be massive losers together. Tis their natural state.

I do have the next 6-7 chaps written from when I was speeding through writing, it's more the stalling out beyond that and *then* needing to edit before posting that slows me down lol, but I still love them. Waaay too much (wearing Oliver's watch while I write this lol).

I'm glad you like how I write them! They've definitely fallen into a specific interpretation that built up a lot as I wrote the fic (going in with a clear vision, who??), and Oliver especially only felt more 'solid' once I went into his POV, and even that's in a funny mood for him since he's very...peaceful yet predatory?

Here's a lil snippet!

Felix. Oh, Felix.

Even now, he can surprise Oliver more than anyone alive.

He wants to laugh. He’s already cried plenty. Felix is- He defies explanation, defies logic, emotional and reckless to the very end, and incapable of slamming the brakes on his own careening car. Felix can’t see himself as being able to crash, confident he could swerve out of the way the very last second - and quietly soothed by the certainty someone else will provide the cushioning if necessary, even if he doesn’t like to consciously think of it.

Oliver isn’t a cushion. He’s a cement blockade covered in fucking spikes, and he imagines pressing his cigarette on the soft, vulnerable skin at the back of Felix’s neck. Just for the smell of him when he burns.

He’d sooner stub it out on his own eye than hurt Felix. Grind it in, to form a better reminder.

Greedy, disgusting thing. A thing wanted by Felix Catton. The contradiction could drive a man to madness, and he already made his camp there years ago. The nature of what he is demands it.

How much more will I get?

It’s a question he’s been asking since he first decided to talk to Felix, rather than kill him like he felt he had to, the second Felix sent him a distracted smile through the window.

it kills me that I didn’t notice it earlier but this moment is literally where oliver starts becoming Felix after he’s eaten him whole and taken everything away from him (Venetia pointed it out with the aftershave and everything but it was later on)

I can’t with this movie and it’s Easter eggs 😭

Oliver + Felix's bathrobe

I'MMMM ACTUALLY NOT OKAY WITH SUCH A PROMPT.

so many ideas I should draw or write about it it's insane 🧎