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About this story

The Wages is in many places a story about trauma and its aftermath. Brandy Cinnamon Wages is a berieved mother, and this is explored in detail in the story. As her tale progresses, she also encounters, fights against, and contributes to numerous injustices. There are many episodes of trauma that are both fictional and references to real historical events, and they are often not resolved in any conclusive manner. 


Content warnings by Chapter:


The Wages, Set One: Setting The Stage

1. Confessional Poetry

2. Murder Ballad

3. All of the Things That We Are Given

4. Radio Play

5. Evangeline and Eve

6. An Old Soldier

7. Can’t Touch a Dream (But You Can Feel It)

8. Double Dear Dreams

9. Answers to Prayers

10. Cold Super-Strikes


The Wages, Set Two: Story Songs

11. Masterstroke: Sexism and harrasment, emotional isolation and anxiety, coarse language, adult situations, compulsive behaviour, religious trauma, red flags that imply spousal emotional abuse

12. Mudslingers

13. A Marked Woman

14. Crystal’s Clarity

15. Angela’s December

16. The Flooded Hotel

17. The Room Where They Tell You

18. Watch Yourself

19. The Stream of Tears

20. Captured and Categorized


The Wages, Set Three: The Finale

21. Pictures of Purpose

22. Battle Fires: Murder, incarceration, war, dismemberment, death by fire, genocide

23. Songs and Parables: Homophobic harassment, sexual harassment, sexual assault, homophobic violence, conversion therapy, alcohol abuse, risk of choking, childhood terminal illness, death of a child, grief, depression, suicidal ideation, coarse language

25. Changes in the Body

26. The Lone Sister

27. When Daughters Become Angels

28. The Long Song of Finding

29. The Void Aviatrix

30. The Wages


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