#-looks at my very canon divergent version of Lilith-

[astriiformes]

Someone reblogged the Lilith playlist with a tag saying it had 2014 8tracks vibes (as a compliment, to be clear) and I'm having a bit of a moment about it

Because not only is that exactly the era I cut my teeth as a little baby fanmixer back in the day, but also, two of the very first playlists I ever posted on there were aro/ace Mako Mori and Newt Geiszler ones for Ace Week in October 2014 (one specifically on a day for making aro fanworks, because this was before the ace and aro awareness events had totally diverged). Long enough ago that one of them has the old black-and-grey-and-yellow-and-green aro flag on it, which at this point is even more of a relic than 8tracks itself.

And now I'm just thinking about like.... obviously I haven't stoppped making ace and aro fanworks based off headcanons, but back then, it was because I didn't have anything other than headcanons and couldn't have made one for a canon character if I'd wanted to (and I really, really wanted to).

I vividly remember reading the same two or three aro Pacific Rim headcanon fics over and over again around that same time, and one in particular that centered on my favorite character being in a queerplatonic relationship. I was just a little baby aro/ace back then, too, and had only just started identifying as both the year before. And of course being in high school there were a lot of things I couldn't envision about the future, but I knew I was still looking for some version of it in those stories, even though there weren't very many of them. To the point that I started saving them for the nights I was feeling the loneliest and saddest about my future, because I didn't want them to lose their impact. Except even with their help, it was still hard to picture ever finding someone who wanted the same sort of thing as me.

So now I'm sitting here feeling some kind of way about being 26 instead of 17, and the community history stretching between then and now and those playlists and this one (the new/current flag design, ASAW being a thing at all), and sitting on the couch last year listening to the TOH charity stream and shouting across the room at Scribe when they played the reading of Lilith's letter, and the handful of other aro/ace characters I get to hold onto these days, and also about living with Scribe at all -- years and years after I met her because she got excited about another playlist I posted to 8tracks.

[surveillance-0011]

My TBOI Aus:

Base HC interpretation: Currently nameless. My own way of looking at the game, mostly canon compliant but with an attempt to flesh out the basement and those within a little more. Gives backstories to most monsters and player characters, all Isaac’s concepts for his own creations pre-everything. Basically everyone is Isaac (or his father)‘s OCs and have these backstories to match. Meat boy and other games exist as games in universe. Extra emphasis on the Horsemen bc. You know me. The tainted characters and posthumous bosses are all from a bad (er, even worse) timeline set a couple years in the future and blend into the main world due to Dogma and Tainted Eden. Lots of symbolism and arbitrary design changes and rules etc etc etc. also includes Books of Enoch and Giants into the lore. Some mods are acknowledged, some are not, but most exist as “outside” content (other dnd manuals or stories isaac read or saw and never truly added to basement canon, but they exist for like. Fun. Sometimes)

Hypothetical Adult Au: Continuation of above where the kids get out of the basement and live ideal-ish lives. Not canon and just for speculation.

Isaac Lives: Isaac is saved from dying and manages to recover. The rest of his childhood proves rough and he is either placed into the care of another relative or foster care (or kept with one of his parents who tries to improve but. Uh). Now an adult, he navigates the world and tries to deal with his trauma and subpar family whilst working as an artist. He writes a comic that is basically what he experienced in the basement but without him, instead mainly from Maggie’s pov. Eden may or may not exist in real life.

B side AU: Made to allow for separate interpretations of the characters. Canon divergent. Isaac is a young teen struggling living with his Mom who he is convinced wants him dead. Very traumatized and depressed. He ends up discovering a twisted world of angels, demons and tormented souls through his basement. Stuck navigating between this world and “the next”, he wonders which he’d rather be in. Other kids exist separately from Isaac instead of being projections of himself. Lazarus and Cain are immortals, Eve and Judas are humans who became demonic after succumbing to demons’ influence, and everything is just kind of weird. Tainted characters do and do not exist, it’s a sort of pick-and-choose or fusion thing.

Splatoon Au: Barely exists atm but uh. Isaac is either a very young squid kid or a salmonid who ends up witnessing uh. A lot. Most of the kids are inklings with their own turf war teams and a few r octolings. Eve is an octoling who escaped pre OE and Lilith is this universe’s version of Agent 8. Eve is also stuck with a semi-permanent Kraken form, becoming one whenever emotions run high. Horsemen r salmonids Sins are a troupe of elite octos. Splatoon’s canon characters also exist, just the agents r all tboi characters and the story also changes somewhat bc Yknow. Etc etc etc very tentative needs to be actually be drawn and explored idk what I’m doing I’m waiting to see what side order brings into canon

Ena Au: This one is also basically just existing concept wise. Isaac as Ena basically, trying to figure out how to rid himself of the side of him he hates. Everyone else is in typical ena style and a few of the other kids r ena-like beings but most r more like the other characters. Very isaac centric. Also waiting for dream bbq to see what can be incorporated,,

[bxrningembers]

Canon Muses

Name: Prince Stolas Ars Goetia

Age: Adult

Gender: CIS Male

Brief Bio: Follows the canon of Helluva Boss. No current divergance from canon currently.

Name: Alastor

Title: The Radio Demon

Year of Death: 1933

Gender: CIS Male Brief

Bio: Alastor is a former serial killer and Radio host that was killed by a single gunshot to the head when he was mistaken for a deer by a hunter. He was hiding and burying a body at the time and his dying body was ravaged by hunting dogs leaving a strong dislike of the animals.

He is fond of few people that he deems intelligent and don’t wear their heart on their sleeves. Looking down on most others. He does not like to be touched but has no problem touching or invading the personal space of others.

In Hell, he gained a reputation as the radio demon for killing powerful and Overlord level demons and broadcast their screams and agony. He dislikes new technology and has a history with Vox. The two not getting along. He disappeared seven years before the start of the story and is under contract with someone powerful. He now helps Charlie Morningstar with the Happy Hazbin Hotel if only to see those trying for redemption fail miserably.

How it differs from canon: My Alastor was a cannibal prior to his death, having adopted the tribal ideology of only killing if you intend to eat what you kill. (This ideology finds that not doing so is appalling and wasteful.)

My Alastor will not be Aroace, however he will be extremely Demiromantic Demisexual. It will be very hard to ship with him. Mimzy are most likely, and possibly Rosie and in some cases Vox (usually in past) but even this will be highly selective! OC’s and people without a long past with him are unlikely unless your looking for a very long slow burn and even then he might not click with your muse.

One idea I would like to play with is him having a friendship or even relationship with Vox that fell apart as Alastor clung to old tech and Vox embraced new tech. Let’s just say I have ideas… Also I follow the concept that Alastor’s bargin is with Satan itself. Sorry to the “Lilith owns Alastor” peeps, no shade to you, I’m just not a fan of that one.

Name: Valantino Garcia

Alias: Valantino

Year of death: 1970s

Demon type: Moth Sinner demon.

Brief Bio: Valantino is an Overlord and one of the three Vees. He is a pimp and controls the porn industry in Hell. Angel Dust is one of his top actors and employees. Angel Dust also signed his soul to Valentino, likely to help feed his drug addictions. He is possessive, charming, manipulative and prone to moodswings. He does not like Charlie, the Hazbin Hotel or it’s staff.

How he differs from canon: I will not keep with the sexual assault or physical abuse of Valentino. I don’t care that it’s canon. I will however keep that Valentino is a toxic character and his relationship with Angel Dust is toxic and unhealthy. He is possessive of what is his and thinks Charlie is trying to take something that belongs to him. And being a demon, and owning Angel Dust soul by a contract that Angel Dust signed, he is a little justified(even if I, the mun, personally feel owning anyone is wrong).

Valentino has a big obsession problem when he likes someone but also isn’t completely unreasonable. Based on how I interpreted his behavior with Charlie initially when he offered her a chance to get into to a show of his before she declined.

From my perspective he seemed willing to discard any grudge or beef with her at that point, but when she refused he returned to seeing her as a threat. I picked him up as a muse because this aspect of his character fascinates me and so my version of him may not follow how awful he is in canon. If that bothers you, I’m sure there are plenty other muns that will do him more justice.

I also don’t know if he uses his real name canonically but I’m going with he does. Also I’m making him mixed Italian-Spanish so he will be multilingual and speak Italian as well.

Sir Pentious (Very Canon Divergent, Non fandom based.)

Human Name: Sir Elaphe Penthouse

Year of Death: 1888

Gender: CIS Male

How he diverges: My Sir Pentious Never joined the Hotel Crew. His is more cautious and still plots revenge on Angel Dust and Alastor but is wary of and respects Alastor’s power, knowing he is far more powerful than him. He also has no attraction to Cherri Bomb and if any thing feels he has a score to settle with her as well.

In his mainverse, He is with Nimue an OC by @cxncrie and they have a complicated and long history. He has also made a contract with Damien The Antichrist and is Overlord level in power just prior to the end of the first season. I don’t follow the canon that sinners can’t have children. I think they are rare and a demon must be strong enough to protect said children thus why most don’t. In his mainverse, Pentious and Nimue are expecting a child but through complicated means as she was pregnant with his child prior to her death.

Other verses are applicable but must be discussed with me prior or the mainverse will be the default.

Name: Viktor "Vuk" Saric

Alias: Vox

Gender: Male

Age: 31

Year of Death: 1953

Demon Type: TV demon, Sinner

Brief bio: Vox was once a man name Viktor Saric. born to Serbian immigrants to the United stated before World War II. Viktor grew up as the first of his family born in the US but integrated himself well into society. He was a sociable and charismatic child than made friends easily but had a bit of a hard time with his parents which were more traditional and old fashioned. Vox used to listen to Alastor's radio show as a boy before his passing and it was what inspired him to become a media personality.

As he grew older, He distanced himself more from his parents, dropped his accent and ended up as a salesmen before the war. He was drafted like many his age and it hardened and matured him. He was one of the lucker ones as he mostly ran radio transmissions. After the war he would earn his place as a TV personality, but mostly making commercials. However most of Viktor's products were scams, and even worse were dangerous and he knew it. He knowing put lives in danger with things like faulting wiring or toxic chemicals. Many people got hurt or sick, but the worst was a fire that killed a mother and her baby.

Viktor would meet his end when walking down the street one day. A married couple fight in an appartment two floors up would end up tossing a TV out the window that landed directly on top and over his head, killing him instantly.

Life in Hell, past with Alastor and the formation of the Vees will follow canon for now. But It is assumed that Vox and Alastor were once friends and even business partners before a falling out occurred. Everything else is verse dependent.

Name: Walter Blackwood

Alias: Zestial

Gender: Male

Age: 40

Year of Death: 1479

Demon Type: Scarecrow-spider demon, Sinner

Brief bio: Born to a well respected family that fell on hard times. Walter was well taught and educated but his family's wealth had pretty much dried up by his early teens. His family attempted to marry him off to another family, less respected but more wealthy. Meanwhile, Walter attempted to earn money on his own working fields in farms among those of lower status. 

Forced into marriage, Walter's family's poverty and his solution to the problem were discovered. His new in-laws weren't happy, nor was his new wife. Still Walter tried to make the best of his situation and his almost constantly angry and high maintenance wife. One day she pushed him too far. The two fought and he accidently pushed her down a flight of stairs, killing her. Terrified he attempted to hide the body, and her death. 

He went out to the farm plantation where he worked and strung her up as a scarecrow, disguising her as best he could. Unfortunately a few of the other workers saw him and though this more than an act of hiding a body. Walter was accused of witchcraft and murder. He was tided to a stake and left to bake in the sun for days before he was to be burned. Before he could be burned at the stake though he was bitten and killed by a venomous spider.

Might flesh this out more later. His time in hell and raise to power I'll leave ambiguous until more is revealed about him.

[gummybearzgocrazyagain]

MALEC FIC REC POST, vol.3

vol. 1

vol.2 

Media AU

Society Rules by @Tiger_Tiger_Burning_Bright [it is apparently based on films i’ve never heard of - The Philadelphia Story / High Society - which does not make it any less entertaining. malec are childhood friends, who had a falling out 5 years ago, and now Magnus is back from London to interrupt Lightwood wedding, aka the social event of the season]

Making my way to you by @asharee_arie [woah, what was that??? is the correct answer “a perfect fanfic”?? what a muthafuckin delight, where has this gem been hiding this whole time??? i was on the floor, rolling around and squealing like a newborn piglet. Intended as some kind of Office AU, this piece does not necessarily follow the outline, but who cares, when the story, and characters, and author’s style are all that perf??? i am in luv]

Mistletoe and Margaritas by @nevermetawolf [this is legendary, and i mean, muthafuckin epic - Office AU so authentic you’d feel it in yo old bones... author calls it a crack fic, although it was anything but!!! major must read for those, who’s ever loved office, allllllll the kudos]

Once Upon a Time in the Clouds by @Fatale (femme) [one of my all-time fav authors, every time i come by a piece i have not read yet, is like a huge YAY, what a talent. so this piece is an AU of something called “sky high”, which i have no idea about, but luved it nevertheless, Alec is born to a family of Supers, and is going to school for children with superpowers, but he himself is yet to manifest any.]

Quite Magical by @lorenzobane [Hogwarts AU, and what an adorable thing it was! granted, i’ve never actually read any of HP books, this was such a delight though... alec is bad at potions, and magnus has to tutor him *wink*]

Chef AU

the way to a chef’s heart by @lecrit [okay, the GIANT SMILE one’s face acquires when one finds out there is a new lecrit fic ≧◠‿◠≦ ≧◠‿◠≦ ≧◠‿◠≦ was reading it, and legitimately squealing like a feral piglet all the way through, cause i fucking luv every single word this woman writes, is like a tiny endorphin explosions in my brain. i know am a hopeless fangirl, but i’ll die on this hill. the way she gets malec, and every variation of them in her works just makes me go (❁´◡`❁) every. single. time.]

kids in the kitchen by @perpetual_journey [cuteness personified, malec are both chefs, and magnus is a single father of max and rafe, and go and read ittttttttt, its that soft content we all need in our lives sometimes]

Knives at the Ready by @harrysglasses [restaurant AU, that is supposed to be a malec rendition of Burnt (am guessing it’s a movie...?), and what a sweet treat it was! i liked author’s style, this is the kind of smooth, unproblematic content one would require to take repose from all the heart-clenching longing i’ve been reading lately... delightful piece to ease thy soul]

Single Parent AU

I Knew From the First Time by @KlaineJane [emmm, excuse you, dear author, who gave you the right to use Rafe and Max to get to my heart, and be generally so fucking cute??? Alec is a single dad of both rascals, that has a meeting with the High Warlock of Brooklyn, and Chairman meets new friends]

And Then I Met You by @everydayfandom [malec are single parents of max and rafe respectively, and alec gets called in to school about the accident max was involved in...who doesn’t luv them some gud ol’ sweet piece of kidfic? those are like a soothing baths for your soul, and lightwood-bane kids are incapable of being anything less than extremely adorable in any interpretation, so]

College AU

Don’t say goodnight by @alistoney [this the kinda lighthearted content i am always here for - College AU]

One year and a bottle of whiskey by @CryptidBane [yassssss, yet another version of the College AU, but with malec as both clueless and pining professors, this type of fic i can read endlessly]

All is Fair in Love and War by @LadyOxymoron [aaaaaaaa, what was this adorableness *major heart-eyes* what a piece, mashallah, college professors AU, where magnus is new in town, and malec is engaging in an elaborate prank war, which, undoubtedly, is nothing more than a prolonged foreplay (c), what a gem]

Canon Divergence

oh, i’ve waited for you by @manticoremoons [so, the fic is happening a little bit further in a timeline, than the books or the series, and Alec is around 30, and... married to Lydia. i know, i know, it almost stopped me from proceeding, and boi am i glad it hasn’t completely, cause it is a damn good piece!]

Hey There Demons, It’s Me (Your Dream Boyfriend) by @thealmostrhetoricalquestion [how many recs of this author can i make, without being deemed obsessed? cause y’all should go and read every single thing they wrote, stat. this adorableness is outta this world, literally - magnus’ summoning went sideways, and the loft ends up populated with the teenage ghost-demon, who is very clearly enamored with alexander... all kinds of fluff ensue]

Something Else verse by @CryptidBane (Impetus) [maybe it’s my fever talking, but i am such a sucker for memory loss AUs, and SH fandom has the richest canon base for those, yay! this time, it’s an AU verse after 3x10: rather than asking for his magic, Asmodeus curses magnus by taking away memories from everyone who’s ever loved him, in exchange for freeing jace from lilith’s thrall... oh, what a beautiful and delicious angst ensues]

Home by @otppurefuckingmagic [waaaaaaaaat... *sits with her mouth open* how did you....? how did he...? damnnnnnnnnn you authors in this fandom, stop being so talented!!!! this is uncannily brilliant]

I’ll hold on until you’re home by @alistoney [how dare you sir, right in the feels... the missing scene in the midst of 3x18/3x19, when magnus realizes what his idiot of a boyfriend has done, and confronts him about the Asmodeus deal]

First time for everything by @nebulein [“Nowhere in a Shadowhunters’ job description does it read ‘must look adorable while infatuated with the local High Warlock’.” - series of firsts written with such tenderness and adoration for characters, that it warms your heart while reading, - it shows how much the author cares for them. it is not finished, but whatever has already been written, is gold]

Fake dating AU

The Great Repression by @CryptidBane (Impetus) [although it might not be exactly my regular cup of tea, i still appreciate this author’s style so damn much, and the way they do malec dynamic overall, so it’s here. magnus is a camboy, and alec is hired to protect him from a stalker]

Friends to lovers

Family is Family by @hexicity [my brains are fried by the covid, so any coherent rec would be unlikely right about now, but the softness of this <333 alec sees an ad about a free room, and when he moves in, he finds way more, than he bargained for... gave me a bit of a “happy, shiny people everywhere” vibe, and that’s an automatic rec in my books, so]

Spinning Around In Circles by @lemonoclefox [my fav friends to lovers/mutual pining trope, here you are, and what a pretty pretty wrapper are you wearing - absolutely amazing interpretation of a trope, that seems to has been done to death, and yet here i am, never able to get enough of it <3]

If it walks like a duck by @thealmostrhetoricalquestion [this. i was reading this. and after every single word. all i wanted to do was get down on one knee and propose to this person. i dunno who the hell you is, but.... how did you do this? it was... another level of fanfiction.]

Neighbors AU

Meow 17:1 Love Thy Neighbor by @high-warlock-of-brooklyn [again, not a fan of drabbles, but who could resist such softness??? Neighbors AU, where Chairman takes some lessons he learnt from “Parent trap” to heart, and alec is a stumbling mess, but he gets shit done, kudossssssss]

Various AU mix

Solid courage by @thealmostrhetoricalquestion [how goddamn CUTE was dat???? answer - the cutest. mashallah people in this fandom can write]

Paper Love by @thealmostrhetoricalquestion [it would not be an exaggeration to admit i thoroughly fell in love with this author’s style, i mean, all and every version of their malec is all kinds of awesome. this one is no exception - catarina works in the library, and malec have to take madzie out to a coffee shop, cause their obnoxious flirting is too loud for the quaint environment of catarina’s workplace.... it’s tiny and so so sooooooo sweet]

make no bones by @ohfreckle [yaaaaaaaaay, what a cutie, tiny preciousness about magnus having an awful day and taking it out on a no-good useless building super, simply delightful]

Freud is a Dick by @sanctuary_for_all [Alec works in IT firm, and accidentally sends someone else’s dick pick to his boss, whom he has a crush on... do i need to say more]

shadows in moonlight by @kaeg [damnnnnnn, son, that was a ride!! something exquisitely soulful, tender and so, so poetic... young malec meet in summer vacation home, and it will take your breath away in the best way possible... warning, it is unfinished, but whatever was written, is absolute preciousness]

For the Love of the Game by @TicklemyPickle [Hockey AU, where malec were childhood friends, but had a falling out, and were not in touch for the last 7 years, until magnus gets traded in to alec’s team... i was somewhat unsure about reccing this, as some of the choices author made regarding their dynamic did not exactly resonate with me, but decided to go on, because, god as my witness, one thing this world definitely needs more of - is malec Hockey AUs, word upppp]

Love Is A Gamble by @la-muerta [i myself do not completely understand, why has it taken me so long to get to the “The importance of elsewhere” author’s most famous piece, but i finally have, it was amazeballs, like, the world-building...? off the charts. the language, the moral struggle, what a gem. alec is a grumpy and surely sheriff *duh!!!* of a tiny town, and magnus strolls in being all... well, magnus-y, and opens a gambling house, the potential!!! anyway, i highly doubt this piece needs recs, so imma zip it]

@ohprongs [this author has too many tiny pieces i like to name them individually, but as far as reccing goes, they should def be mentioned here for their effortless, seamless style, and clear love for the characters in all interpretations, that simply shines through all and any AUs they choose to put malec in]

special mention:

@theleftboobgrabber [i wasn’t aware that at this stage it was still possible to come by someone like this. the author, who’s style would impress me so. that unbelievably glorious Mafia AU, absolutely delightful and literally perfect My mama don’t like you series, and something that went straight to my top-5 - MI6 AU ohhhhh, that MI6 AU... i have no coherent words to express the depths of my appreciation, this is unbelievable fucking talent for writing malec]

[bigskydreaming]

I saw your version of the Titans (way back, I was playing with Search) and I was wondering, what would Tim be? Especially since Nightwing and Flamebird encapsulate what a phoenix is so well. Obviously now they correspond to the World Forger and the Anti-Monitor, but your thoughts on the third generation?

So I believe you’re talking about the posts I’ve made about Jason’s age-group of Titans and lineup in an AU - That’s from a series I’ve bee working on for ages, called “Kings of the Sky” (which refers to all the Batfamily, not just Dick and Jason or even just the boys. Title comes from a story I have Dick tell that his grandfather told him, about why before he was married and he and his wife became the original Flying Graysons, in this AU’s history, when he was a solo act, he was billed as “Daniel Grayson, the King of the Sky!’ Just lofty, pretentious-sounding showmanship on the surface, something the aristocrats he performed for were happy to introduce this lowly commoner as, laughing all the while, but Daniel as I’ve made him out to be, had a particular fascination with names for specific reasons, and everything they could mean and be while not being what they seemed. So even as they laughingly billed him as such, they never got the real joke, which was passed down as a kind of family tradition that only Daniel’s family, the Flying Graysons, all Kings of the Sky, and then from there Dick’s second family, were really the only ones to ever get the way he intended it. There’s no such thing as a King of the Sky, of course, that’s the joke….but at the same time there is, and that’s the secret, because just because someone else looks at the name and pictures it as something its not, and thus says it can never be, doesn’t mean that for those who use that name, it means something very different, and that they very much are.

This AU goes divergent from the moment Dick gets involved in the Garzonas situation and weighs in, so Jason doesn’t go to Ethiopia because he never even goes back to his old apartment, desperately seeking some feeling of family to connect to. He has no need to here. And the second installment is about the aftermath of the Brother Blood storyline and addressing Dick’s non-adopted status at the time, and various other things, and then by the third installment, it starts introducing Jason to other friends his own age and gathering together his future lineup of Titans, mentored by Dick’s and who will be a kind of mentors to Tim’s (and Duke’s) in time as well…..and also starts to delve into the ACTUAL AU storylines of this series, once its thoroughly departed from canon at that point and I’ve sorted out my issues with Bruce’s reaction/belief about Garzonas and Bruce’s non-presence during the BB story and aftermath and the adoption issues. 

So by the third installment, Bruce is no longer getting yelled at by his sons about how to parent the other one and is doing the actual Batdad parenting and things start up with Jason’s Titans and storylines and Dick slowly becoming aware of the Court of Owls and their involvement in his family history and their plans for him (and just how many of them or their children/future Court members have been around him in galas and parties and various encounters throughout his childhood in Gotham). As well as bringing in the other members of the Batfamily one by one (or two by two in Tim and Duke’s case in this AU).

BUT for the most part, aside from the individual storylines, this AU is about family history. And not just Dick’s, even though he’s my fave and primary focus - I have an obnoxious need to be THOROUGH (read: obsessive) and a disgusting need to be FAIR (read: YOU get a storyline and YOU get a storyline and EVERYBODY GETS A STORYLINE!) and also just anal.

So its about the Batfamily being an actual family instead of dysfunctional occasional roommates, but its also how that doesn’t take away from their original families or experiences or their importance in shaping them, just as none of them by virtue of being their ‘original’ families take away from the importance of their second found family. Its all one and the same, family is family, their families are their families all at the same time and there don’t need to be all these partitions. So Kings of the Sky has a particular relevance to that not just for Dick, but in that its secret meaning to Daniel and how it described him and his family, all the way down to Dick, also ends up describing Dick’s second family, and there’s nothing coincidental or by chance about this, because the point is family is CHOICE and names only mean what you choose them to mean, what YOU see them as meaning.

So this AU could just as easily have been titled something like Family History, even though almost all of the members of their first families that come into play here do so in flashbacks and stories the Batfam tell each other about their first families and that their families told them. So Daniel Grayson and the start of the Grayson family line is hugely relevant and delved into, and not just for its connection to the Court and their storyline. Dick’s paternal grandparents here lived well into their eighties, because why the hell not, did canon say they couldn’t? did I ask? no and no. So his grandmother died when he was like two, and his grandfather a few years later, but Dick does remember a little bit and so Daniel’s lifelong quest to find out where he really came from, who he really WAS, becomes Dick’s mystery to solve once and for all so he can finally put that to rest for his grandfather and find some closure with his first family and not feel like he’s forgotten or abandoned them just because he’s so fully embraced his second one as being his as well. 

Only instead of solving the mystery being for Daniel’s sake, its really about what he finds being for his own sake, because as Dick’s Grandpa used to tell him: “A man who knows himself knows his own name,” and as Dick finds that even without ever definitively getting his answers while alive, Daniel was actually born to a Crowne and named himself King and knew who he was all his life and lived his life truly, and that’s the real answer Dick needs to realize that Cobb and his words and intentions mean nothing to Dick because Dick is not a Cobb and would never choose to be, he’s a Grayson and the Graysons have all, always to the last one, been who they choose to be and not a damn thing else, certainly never what anyone else believes them to be.

And Dick is Nightwing throughout this of course, except for one pivotal storyline towards the end of the series, where he and Jason go deep undercover as supervillains for awhile, and during that part of the series, Dick uses War Shrike as his name, and for those wondering, yes this means Boone is around and hugely relevant to this series in specific ways. And of course, he goes back to being Nightwing after. 

And Jason never goes to Ethiopia because he never goes back to his apartment building that time, but that doesn’t mean he never finds out about Sheila and goes looking for her, but when he does he’s not 15 and desperate for family, he’s 19 and on a road trip with his BFF Grant Emerson aka Damage who has his own questions about his unknown real family, but both HAVE families by now and don’t NEED more, they just want to know who’s out there and potentially close the book on that one way or another, which is a very different thing and different story, but also, fuck Sheila, and all of that will still come into play but Jason’s not alone this time and not so lonely he can be crushed by her not being the mother he in Ethiopia thought he needed her to be. Also, Sheila comes from a family of her own, and just because fuck Sheila, doesn’t mean there aren’t more relatives out there that aren’t just The Worst. 

And Jason is Robin in the first few installments of this series and then becomes Flamebird and usually most likely teamed up with Dick when they’re not with their individual Titans, and thus neither are ultimately off doing solo acts elsewhere and being lonely loners who actually hate being lonely. Except of course for the undercover storyline, at which point Jason uses the name Gray Jay, a kind of bird usually known for or referenced as being thieving and unpredictable and unexpectedly dangerous despite its size (Jason never went into the Lazarus Pit here and so isn’t as huge as he is in canon, he’s on the smaller side due to his early life’s malnutrition. Living with Bruce helped him catch up enough that he’s not TINY tiny, but he’s still smaller enough that this particular mantle fits him a little better than it would his massive canon depiction). And then of course after that Jason goes back to being Flamebird. 

(And the eternal drama that is the years long gay love quadrangle of DOOOM that is Jason and Tom Bronson and Ray Terrill and Todd Rice all being young dumb and gay and not even actually sure which of the other three they actually LIKE they just know that its possibly more than one of them but its definitely not all of them which why they are NOT a fucking polecule, shut the fuck up Courtney - Courtney Mason aka Anima - and never WILL be but are definitely a love quadrangle instead and a very confusing one and also dont call it that Dick its not that its NOOOOOT.)

I still have no idea how this even came about, I didn’t plan it, Lilith just sort of accidentally (hah) instigated it via meddling slash deliberately plotting while bored and chaotic and it was just too much fun to stop so I just haven’t yet and possibly never will. Also, Dick and Cass have WAY too much fun with it as well, particularly Cass, since there is ammunition against Dick in the form of “Shut up and go suck face with your assassin boyfriend”/I DONT EVEN LIKE BOONE LIKE THAT, JASON, GOD, SHUT UP, HE’S MY NEMESIS, UGH DO YOU EVEN KNOW ANYTHING YOU’RE SUCH A LOSER UGGGGGH, but of course it wouldn’t be fair to NEVER get to retaliate against Cass, so they eventually catch wind of her tripping and falling on her face because she forgets how movement works when crushing on a certain heroine, no its not Steph, its more one of those things where the other one is older enough that its not endgame and more of a crushing on one of your older brother’s friends which means they’re always around and oh no what if they FIND OUT THAT WILL BE SO EMBARRASSING I MIGHT ACTUALLY DIE but also NOOOOOO DONT FIGHT WITH MY DUMBASS OLDER BROTHER THAT MEANS YOU MIGHT STOP COMING OVER ALL THE TIME AND I WONT SEE YOU ALL THE TIME AND I MIGHT ACTUALLY DIE.

The….unique form of sibling interaction shared by the three eldest Batkids here ratchets up a DEF-CON danger level at that point. They are all armed then, and just desperate enough to use that ammunition if you press them.

So yes, Cass ends up the third to enter this family here, and Lady Shiva and everything there will play out much differently and she’s still not Mother of the Year or even like, good, but she is MORE than she is in canon here, and like, there’s actual depth and HISTORY there and also, there’s not with David Cain though because fuck that guy, just kill him, who cares where he came from just drop him in a hole and assume its the one he crawled out of in the first place. Pttthb. Loser.

And here Babs still is crucial in mentoring her even if she ends up being brought into the family and adopted by Bruce much sooner than in canon and it being Dick and Jason and Cass for awhile as the three Batkids. So Cass is there when Jason is still Robin for a couple more years, only moving to Flamebird when he’s around eighteen, and so she becomes Batgirl as Babs becomes Oracle, and is pretty much Batgirl all the way until she ends up becoming Black Bat (and Steph takes her place as Batgirl after previously being Spoiler. Steph’s around fairly early too, and not actually a member of the immediate family as things get better with her and her mom, but she delights in referring to herself as ‘that chick from Full House who doesn’t live there but is always there anyway, whether CERTAIN PEOPLE like it or not, and no I don’t know her name Bruce, its not like I watched the show, I’m not EIGHTY, what does any of that have to do with anything?)

And also in between Batgirl and Black Bat, Cass also partakes in the undercover storyline, just showing up uninvited in a persona she’s crafted for the mission and calls Black Swan, and War Shrike and Gray Jay being so startled and obviously a little freaked by her unexpected arrival, and her being ticked at her brothers for leaving her behind, RUDE, and them being sufficiently cowed and guilted by her wrath, that it all adds up to the other villains as being evidence that clearly she is the boss and they are her advance minions. Which mollifies and satisfies Cass immensely, and leaves Jason grumpy that their mission was hijacked and also his sister is The Worst, and leaves Dick temporarily disgruntled because This Whole Thing Was His Idea DAMMIT but then five seconds later finding it hilarious because Dick is a chaos connoisseur and he has an appreciation for whimsy and the unexpected.

Snippet from that fic’s outline:

“I can’t believe you not only gate-crashed our extremely sensitive and delicate undercover operation, but you completely hijacked it as well! This is so typical,” Jason grouched.

Cass simply swept ahead of him and strode down the hallway with lethal grace. “Silence minion.”

Jason spluttered behind her and she grinned to herself. He really made it too easy sometimes.

And Tim’s debut is delayed by the non-death of Jason and happens very differently as do things with his first family, too much to get into, but all of that is very relevant to the Family History theme of things, and in this AU he and Duke are actually the same age because what is Tim’s age anyway, what has Tim’s age ever been anyway, does anyone anywhere at any time actually know Tim’s age because I swear it is a quantum anomaly that randomly fluctuates at any given moment and eats brain cells that dare try and pin a number on it. And Duke and Tim are both in different foster care placements and have never met when both decide to become Robin after Jason becomes Flamebird and Robin is seemingly gone from Gotham, and its just Batman and Batgirl having father-daughter-kicking-supervillains-asses bonding nights. 

Because its not like in canon, but still, its unsettling, its weird, all the kids Duke and Tim both know feel it just the same. There’s always been a Robin in Gotham for as long as any of them remember at this point, there’s SUPPOSED to be a Robin, Gotham NEEDS Robin just as much as it needs Batman, and they’re not surprised adults don’t get that, because adults have always had Batman and he’s THEIRS and even if he’s there for the kids too, Robin is FOR the kids, HE’S theirs, and look, there just needs to be a Robin, okay? 

So Duke and Tim both decide well if there’s not a Robin and there’s gotta be a Robin and nobody else seems to be doing anything about it, hey, here comes Robin! At the same time. And then drama and conflict and chaos happens, and Duke and Tim end up taken in by B doing as B does, and they both end up Robin and alternate patrols so one can have a life while the other has Batman-bonding-and-bad-guy-battling time. With Duke most often being the daytime Robin and Tim the night time Robin, though there’s rarely any confusion from them both being named Robin, because Duke’s costume is more yellow and Tim’s is more Red and people pretty much always know which they’re talking about and if further clarification is needed, they just refer to them as Red and Yellow. Not Red Robin or Yellow Robin, more like “Wait, which Robin did you say was there? Oh it was Red.”

And so they’re Robin, and are about ready to graduate from that when the undercover storyline happens, so they temporarily take on the older two boys’ mantles for them so as to keep anyone from being suspicious and wondering where the hell Nightwing and Flamebird are these days anyway. So Tim is Nightwing for awhile and Duke is Flamebird, but then Dick and Jason take back those mantles which Tim and Duke happily relinquish and replace with their new mantles, at which point Tim is Kingfisher (too much plot stuff and family history stuff has to happen before an explanation of this would make sense at this point) and Duke is something like Blue Heron, I’m still fidgeting with that one because it doesn’t quite fit but none of the other options I’ve gone through yet are better. But its definitely a Blue bird and not like a Bluejay or anything like that, it has to be something like a Crane or Heron or a bird with certain connotations along similar lines to theirs, because Duke’s family history is hugely relevant here too (and largely made up by me like Daniel Grayson’s, given the scarcity in canon) but if you look around you can probably find a bunch of meta about how I feel Duke’s powers COULD be linked to Blue Lanterns in a lot of very specific ways even if I don’t think canon is going there. 

And this isn’t to make Duke a Blue Lantern, but rather here is similar to Alan Scott being imbued by the Starheart in the 40s while in Gotham, and basically ending up just like a Green Lantern but unaffiliated, and having children who inherit similiar powers to him and wildly different powers than him at birth, due to how the Starheart changed him. So here, at the same time that happened to Alan, there was another similar object that crashed into Gotham that same night, and that imbued Duke’s maternal grandmother with all the same abilities as a Blue Lantern, but again, no affiliation to the not-yet-existing Corps. So Duke’s grandmother and her previously-unknown-even-to-him story has a lot to do with certain installments just like Daniel’s story has to do with Dick’s story, as well as the revelations about Duke’s mother Elaine having powers (like we at least have been told she does in canon) and thus where his own come from, even if by this point in the family lineage they’re not exactly like a Blue Lanterns and have their own distinct aspects as well.

And then Damian is there in time to take over as Robin after Tim and Duke, and he’s still Robin by the end of the series, so I don’t have anything firm for his later mantle.

ANYWAY, those are the names, if you want some excerpts from the series, included below are:

1) Snippet from the outline of the as-yet-unwritten story where Duke and Tim join the Batfam, which is basically kinda like my usual not!fic manner of writing, where its a bunch of scene snippets and dialogue that aren’t meant to be the final story or even likely to be in the final story, but rather serve as a placeholder for me to preserve my ‘feel’ of what I want a scene or dialogue or interaction to be like when it first pops into my head and I want to be able to recall it when I get around to actually wriitng it.

DUKE AND TIM (AND ALSO DICK AND JASON AND CASS BEING SIBLINGS WHO ARE WEIRD)

So they run into trouble eventually and then when running from trouble they run into each other and they’re like….huh. Awkward. And then they decide well, might as well both run from trouble in the same direction, I guess. So they do.

“Did you have a plan for dealing with these guys?” Tim yelled at Duke. The other boy looked back over his shoulder briefly and gave what would probably have been a half-shrug if he didn’t awkwardly try to barrel-roll over a car two seconds later.

“Umm, sorta?”

“How sorta are we talking about? Maybe the two of us together could fill in the gaps in the plan and come up with one full plan?”

“Uh yeah, no, its not that kinda sorta. I meant sorta in the sense that I thought I had a plan but it didn’t work and that’s why these guys are after me. Sooooo…”

“Not helpful, basically.”

“Yeah. Pretty much. And hey, I don’t hear you offering up a plan! Did you even have one at all?”

“Uh….I mean I kinda didn’t think I was likely going to need one because I sorta figured some kid running around in a mask basically making a nuisance of himself was the sorta thing that was bound to attract Batman and I was just pretty much running around until that happened, and then I’d make a case for how I obviously need training and Gotham needs Robin and if its not me its likely to be someone else trying eventually anywayso why not be me?”

“That’s a terrible plan.”

“I know, that’s why I never said it was a plan! It was mostly….more…idea-ish.”

“I’m just saying, I thought *I* was doing this wrong, but at least I had a plan! I mean yeah, it might have ended up with me accidentally busting in on what I thought was a bunch of Riddler’s henchmen setting up some kind of clue thing, only it was actually a bunch of Intergang type guys with alien space guns or some shit all dressed up as Riddler henchmen for some reason? Idk what they were trying to do honestly, but so yeah I might have ended up running away on foot from like twenty of them and some kind of hovercycle -”

“I’m going to cut you off there and say wherever this is going its probably not the superior vantage point I think you think you have.”

(Something like that.)

Meanwhile, Batman was not going to be coming because he’s off on a JLA mission. However, in his absence Dick and Jason are in town filling in, and they finished taking out the bad guys several blocks back and caught up to whomever was running from them, figured out the situation and are currently sitting on the edge of a rooftop watching them realize they’re totally lost and trying to figure out where to go from here. Mostly because Dick and Jason are incredibly amused listening to their back and forth and also just…this whole situation.

Dick justifies not piping up to let them know they’re safe now by saying this is good intel gathering so we can offer Bruce our assessment as to whether they’re gonna try and keep doing this whether we train them or not, and also how they handle this whole being lost situation. Not knowing they don’t have to run anymore isn’t going to hurt them and really, this is a good field exercise almost.

Jason justifies not piping up by saying this is fucking hilarious and I will hurt you if you end this any sooner than we have to, I deserve this, I had a rough week.

Which is right around the time that Cass pipes up from where she’s been lurking unnoticed behind them this whole time: “Oh no. Was it Tom? Or Ray? Or was it Todd?”

And she does it right in Jason’s ear so he kinda aborted-shrieks and almost falls off the roof except Cass is ready for that and grabs his arm to steady him.

“I hate when you do that!” Jason growls in an attempt to cover up how badly she got him and also because he hates when she does it which is why she does it a lot. Again, they don’t hate each other at all, but they do seem to act like it a lot, and neither of them is entirely sure why. They kinda just started doing it and have each been trying to get the other back ever since and ended up locked in an unending spiral of gotcha-gotchaback, except, y’know, Batfam style.

Dick occasionally picks sides just to muddy the waters. And then he randomly switches sides without warning, so neither of them ever wants to risk getting too peeved at him even when he’s helping the other, because that might push him fully over to the other side and leave them permanently outnumbered, so they’re kinda stuck, which is exactly as he likes it, lol.

“Why are you Satan,” Jason hisses dramatically as he gets up and stomps over to the other side of the roof to sulk, lest she almost knock him off again. Its not the almost falling part that bothers him, its that she’s the one that snatches him to safety each time. She’s like a freaking cat toying with a - yeah not going there, just blaming Selina. Knew them hanging out was going to be bad news for me SOMEHOW, he gripes.

Cass just shrugs and smoothly sits down cross-legged right where she is, grinning Cheshire-cat style at him from there. “Childhood trauma,” is her answer.

Except: “Great, and now you’re stealing my comeback on top of it?! Is nothing sacred to you?”

Another shrug. “Haven’t decided yet. Babs is still helping me explore my options. We’re going alphabetically and we’re only on  the E-religions.”

“God, you’re the worst. I can’t believe you ruined sisters for me.”

“You already used that same line last week when you came out of your room still half-asleep and she was just sitting directly across from your door waiting and staring unblinking and you yelped and dropped your laptop on your toe, and then cursed so loud that B came running around the hall thinking we were being invaded,” Dick reported idly, still perched in the same position he’d been in all along, and still watching the boys below them. “Just in case you thought no one noticed when you recycle.”

“I noticed too,” Cass added solemnly.

“I have no siblings,” Jason intoned. He threw up his hands dramatically and then loudly jumped down to the street below with a little help from the fire escape. It drew both Duke and Tim’s attention and they startled before realizing it was Flamebird. And that he’d landed on the street and was stalking past them while barely acknowledging them. And that that was Nightwing standing on the roof now with his hands on his hips yelling after him.

“Oh, reeeeeeal subtle. You’re not having fun anymore so you gotta make sure nobody else does either. Wow, the Brat-like behavior, just JUMPED out of the shadows with that one!”

And that was Flamebird not even turning around and just yelling back. “I HAVE NO SIBLINGS!”

And also they were both pretty sure that was Batgirl crouched on the roof next to Nightwing now, and she was…..sticking her tongue out at Flamebird’s back? No, Batgirl very much definitely was sticking out her tongue, that wasn’t in doubt, it was more just….very unexpected to see.

What was happening right now?

CUT TO:

Eventually Tim and Duke have inevitably worn down his resistance to training them by insisting they’re gonna keep doing this and if its not them its gonna be someone sooner or later anyway, because you guys may not know this but Gotham’s gotten used to Robins by now and it freaks people out not to see one and Robin’s as important as Batman really and there needs to be a Robin and its not just us that will think so like look at the fact that already two of us had the exact same idea, huh? And also, we’re gonna keep doing it anyway, sooooo….there’s that.

And then Cass vouches that they’re both 100% serious about that. 

And then Dick vouches that as a former determined daredevil kid that was absolutely going to keep doing the same thing no matter whether you’d helped me or not, B, I also am of the assessment that these two mean it all the way. 

And not to be left out and just to have something to contribute but also grumpy because his brother and sister are picking on him and he’s eighteen going on ten, Jason throws in: “And my assessment is that they both definitely seem dumb enough to keep doing this without help anyway and they definitely need help or they definitely will die, I’d give it a month, month and a half tops.”

And then Bruce dryly thanks his children for their contributions, their keen insights in this matter have been absolutely invaluable, he has no idea how he would make a decision here without it.

“Oooh, a rare sighting of Bat-snark in the wild. Someone call Nat-Geo quick, maybe he’ll do it again,” Dick says.

Bruce sighs. Duke and Tim look like they’re trying to decide if they’re allowed to be amused or if that’s also part of some weird Bat-test that they’re probably taking without even knowing it.

So Tim and Duke move in, start training together, and then also get sent to school together and it takes a month or so of settling in before they decide whether or not they actually are happy about this. There’s a period of deciding they’re supposed to be bitter rivals who snipe at each other back and forth across the dining table at every available opportunity, but that changes the first night Dick and Jason come back from the Tower since Tim and Duke have moved in and where Cass is also home instead of at the Clocktower with Babs. 

Since all three of the older Batkids, upon seeing Tim and Duke squabble at dinner, decide to obnoxiously coo about how adorable it is watching the kids play. Which pretty instantly cements Duke and Tim as realizing their best chance of surviving the sudden acquisition of three older superhero ninja foster siblings who all can be as obnoxious as they are dangerous but also as much as they are - Duke and Tim are convinced - all quite insane.

A belief further cemented the next morning, with all three of them having spent the night at the Manor as well. Treating Duke and Tim to their first Saturday morning episode of the Cass and Jason show. 

In this episode, Jason emerged from his bedroom in his pajamas still but warily peeking his head out first to look both ways down the hall before deciding it was clear…..and then makes it just almost to the end of the hallway leading to the stairs, when Cass drops down from where she’d been waiting perched above the other side of the door, in such a way as to suddenly fill the doorway just in front of him, hanging upside down suspending herself just with her feet wedged above the doorway, all while keeping her hands crossed her chest, a dead-eyed expression on her face, and with her tongue hanging out like she’s some kind of vampire hanging upside down in mid-slumber.

Jason shrieked and stumbled back a foot before catching himself and shoving two fingers in a cross shape in her direction. 

“Demon! DEMON! Goddammit, I abjure thee, that’s supposed to fucking do something about having a demon sister, now what the fuck does it take to banish you!?”

“Can’t be banished,” Cass informed him, still upside down. “Can be bought though.”

Jason halted. “What?”

“I’m really surprised you never figured it out,” Dick said from his room further down the hallway. He was leaning against the doorjamb, arms casually crossed. 

“Why did you think she never goes after me?”

Jason swiveled back and forth between his siblings suspiciously, trying to scry both their inscrutable (and in Cass’ case, still upside down) faces for signs they were telling the truth. “You’re telling me that Little Miss Monstrous has been a pain in my ass from day one and the reason she’s never so much as eked a single boo in your direction is you’ve been bribing her all this time?”

Dick shrugged. “Its all about getting in on the ground floor.”

Jason squinted, still unconvinced. “Nuh-uh. No way. You’re just fucking with me. Like if this is for real, what have you been buying her off with?”

Dick smiled beatifically. “Cuddles and hugs.”

“NO! NO! Bullshit! I am NOT falling for this crap again, you are not gonna get me this way this time. I call BS, fuck you, nuh uh, you’re lying out your ass and your ass-face.”

“Wait, what is this this I did before? What are you talking about?”

“You know damn well what I’m talking about.”

“Is this about the Care Bear you had when you were fifteen?”

“Shut upppppppppppppppp, I didn’t have a Care Bear then, you’re such a - “

“Oh, I dunno, I’m pretty sure there’s some holiday photos from that year that would say otherwise, pretty definitively in the form of you and your Care Bear….”

“That I only had because you literally just gave it to me as a present solely so that you could claim that I had a Care Bear when I was fifteen, you douchebag!”

“Just because I gave you the Care Bear didn’t mean you had to keep the Care Bear and hold the Care Bear and love the Care Bear, Jay. You chose to do all that.”

“I only kept the damn thing because you’re an asshole who lied about it being a family heirloom so I felt like I had to or I’d be a total jerk. Is nothing sacred to you?”

“I didn’t lie! It is a treasured family heirloom! Its the first Care Bear I gave to my little brother to teach him the important and valuable lesson that Care Bears - say it with me now - “

“Finish that sentence and they will never find your body.”

“CARE!” Cass shrieked from behind him before jumping on Jason’s back and bearing him down to the floor in an undignified tangle as she splayed atop him like a starfish and he stared up at the ceiling in a kind of strangled frozen fury, like there was so much emotion he wanted to process he’d overheated and now was stuck like that until he cooled down.

That was when Dick leaned over him and solemnly added one final thought, as though it was a crucial addition of the gravest importance:: “A lot.”

Jason’s eye twitched. 

Dick’s eyes went wide in response. “Uh oh. He went to the Danger Zone. Run Cass. We’ve unleashed the dogs of war!”

Cass was off and on her feet in a second, taking off down the hall like a rocket. “Not the dogs of war!” She yelled.

Dick was only seconds behind her when behind him, Jason rose like an eruption, growling wordlessly and sparks practically flashing from his suddenly flinty eyes. He charged after them like an enraged bull.

“Kenny Loggins wouldn’t want this!” Dick yelled over his shoulder as he rounded the doorway and vanished. Jason rounded it in hot pursuit.

“Poison Ivy won’t even be able to make compost from what’s left of you when I’m through!”

The yelling and running vanished into the distance. Duke and Tim finally looked at each other blankly.

“What?” Tim asked. Duke shrugged helplessly.

A door opened at the end of the hallway. Bruce stuck his head out. “Is it safe?”

Tim just stared at him.

“What?” Duke asked.

*****

2) Excerpt from the first installment, “Teachable Moments,” part of a story Dick retells as he remembers his grandfather and later his father telling it to him. 

Further context for this:

In my Grayson family backstory headcanons, Daniel has a lifelong strange fascination with names, that grew out of his personal unsolved mystery of where he came from. The only thing he ever knew was that he was left at the circus in a blanket with Daniel embroidered on it, and was taken into be raised there, and by the time he was old enough to ask questions about himself, he knew everyone at the circus had known him to be called Daniel Grayson since they first met him as a baby…..but what he could never find an answer for was who decided to name him that and why. Per canon, we saw his father William Cobb hand him to Haly’s grandfather to be raised, and he told Haly’s grandfather to call him Grayson. 

So I expanded on this and so in the context of this series, Daniel of course eventually wondered where Grayson came from if no one knew where he was from, and Haly’s grandfather claimed he didn’t name him that, and refused to elaborate further…..which left Daniel with the fact that he was left at the circus and introduced to the others there as baby Daniel Grayson by Haly’s grandfather, who then later denied to Daniel being the one to pick the name and give it to him, but also denied any knowledge of where he came from.

So Daniel always knew he had to be lying about ONE of those two things, with the lie most likely being the second thing….but he could never get him to admit it, or prove it, and that kinda always haunted him in a way. And so, his fixation with names grew out of never knowing where his came from or how he came to have it, and this line from something he said once kinda sums up his obsession with it:

He’d joke about how it was itchy, like it never felt like it fit him right, and Grandma would fondly scoff and say he just thought it was too boring and plain. But Grandpa being Grandpa, he’d just take that and spin it into an agreement, further evidence he was right.

“Grayson is what you’d name a man you thought should go unnoticed and be overlooked, he’d say. “And I am not that man.”

Because that was his real problem, the thing he could never shake….he didn’t care about the name itself, because as the below excerpt touches on, he found a way to make his name work for him, to feel like it did fit him and was part of who he was by choice, by intention. He defined his name, rather than let his name define him. Its the reason the Grayson family colors, as originally worn by him, are the brightest hues he could fit together, a deliberate attempt to make him, and by extension his family’s future generations….the exact OPPOSITE of what their name denoted. He didn’t mind being a Grayson, or regret it, AFTER he took ownership of his identity despite his lack of answers and seized it, put his own mark on it, made it his….because no matter the intention of whomever gave him that name, he didn’t have to be defined by it the way they meant him to.

BUT, the fact remained that even after making his own peace with his name and claiming it as his own, definitively, regardless of any one else’s view of it….he could never shake the feeling that given the vague circumstances of his arrival at the circus and mysteriousness of where he came from, that his name “Grayson” wasn’t just random choice and didn’t just get picked out of nowhere by someone, nor did he think it was actually his family name before him, given that everything else about his origins suggested an attempt to shroud where he came from, making it unlikely that they did all that just to have him still grow up with his actual family name. So from a pretty young age, he always had this feeling that the name Grayson was PICKED to be given to him, specifically, and that this was done with a reason, it was MEANT as something…..and gut feeling due to everything combined, was the quote above. He always believed someone named him that because he was meant to be unseen, unnoticed, slip through the cracks without anyone ever paying attention…..

And its not his name itself Daniel took issue with, it was someone thinking they could just DECIDE he and his life were meant to be lived unnoticed, nothing but gray. And so his whole life he kinda devoted it to defying that idea, even if he never knew for sure, and he basically pursued the spotlight to do the complete opposite of that. He trained to be an acrobat, sought out teachers on his own, so that he’d have a way to stand out rather than just help various acts backstage, and in time he became Daniel Grayson, the King of the Sky, Haly’s star solo act until he married and he and his wife became the Flying Graysons, and then John and Mary and finally Dick as well.

EXCERPT FROM “TEACHABLE MOMENTS:”

“But there is no King of the Sky, Dickie,” he’d said to me then with a wink. “That’s the joke, you see? No one can claim the sky as theirs, no one can own it. Send your armies to claim it in your name and all you’d see is legions of empty-handed fools all grasping at air! There’s no way to draw your borders, no foundation on which you could build any walls. And where would you even put your throne?”

“He’d laughed then, mischievous and wheezing, as he recalled all the courts the circus had entertained back in its glory days, when Europe’s nobility would always each host some circus or troupe or performers at various festivals. All the kings and queens for whom he’d performed his signature feats, who’d show him off to their most important guests afterwards. The ones who had been invited specifically so they’d see that this court held only the grandest of celebrations, that they and their guests were entertained by only the very best of the best. 

“Oh, but they were always so eager to introduce me by title,” he’d said, rheumy eyes still somehow keeping their sparkle. “There they were, kings and crown princes, pushing me forward and telling their guests to come greet me, this commoner they were all too glad to proclaim royalty no different to them. After all, any king can present his guests with an entertaining spectacle, but how much grander is the king who hosts the spectacle of being entertained by another king? Ah, but they were always more than happy to elevate me if but for the night…in doing so, they elevated themselves as well. Up we all went, all without feet ever leaving the floor!”

“Names can be such a funny thing, don’t you think?” He’d sort of mused that, stroking his chin like he was pondering some great mystery. “Meaning nothing and everything all at the same time. That’s a powerful trick. Useful too, if you can master it.” 

I know I started giggling then, just because as far back as I can remember, names were always kind of a…almost a passion of his, I guess you could say. It was just this thing he did, it was like he could never just let a name be. There was always some trick to a name, he’d insist. You just had to find it. Its why our family colors were red, yellow and green, as a matter of fact. All in only the brightest hues of each, combining to make us the complete opposite of the Gray in our name. 

‘The crowd comes in to see the acrobat named Grayson, what do they expect from just the name? Drab, unremarkable, likely to be lost in the shadows, from just the sound of him. But then he dives off the platform in a burst of colors impossible to miss and the crowd gasps, expectations shattered in an instant….and from there, they think, what more surprises might possibly await? And already you have them at the edge of their seat, eyes caught by the colors of a costume its impossible to lose sight of. You command their attention, you’re unencumbered by their assumptions, and they’re yours from that moment on….and all of that from just a pop of color, a warning that you are not what they thought….and a name. A Flying Grayson, up above as expected, yet unexpectedly the brightest thing in the sky. An inherent contradiction. An impossible sight you can’t help but to see.’

“Anyway, so there I was,” Dick said, straightening up and shaking his head with a slightly rueful smile, as if to physically pull himself out of the undertow of memories tugging him further away from where he’d begun. “Already giggling just from his little chin-stroking act as he started talking about names, because I knew he was bound to say something silly next, just from that. And he’d jumped a little, and turned in his armchair to face me directly and with his full focus, because Grandpa thrived off of an engaged audience like nothing else. 

“Yes, a powerful thing, a name,” he’d continued after a moment that was either a dramatic pause or me thinking anything longer than ten seconds might as well be the same as an hour, at that age. “But a tricky business, naming things, as you first have to know what a thing is, before you attempt to claim it by naming it what it is not. And being named can just as easily be a powerful trap, of course. If a man doesn’t know himself well enough to know he is not what a name claims, he can wind up stuck in a cage that’s not sized to fit him. Simply because he doesn’t know he has more than enough room to slip free of it if he tried.”

“Then he leaned down close enough to me to whisper, and looked around as if checking we were alone before dropping into a raspy whisper like we were conspiring. “But a man who knows what he wants and knows what he’s capable of, and can put the right name to both….that’s where the real magic is. Do you know what kind of power your name has?”

“Richard means lion-hearted,” I remember reporting after some thought. And that he blew a raspberry right after that like he was the five year old of the two of us, but then, Grandpa was just like that sometimes. “Yes, yes, true enough,” he said, making a face like he’d tasted something sour, “But I don’t mean the one your father picked most likely to spite me for naming him John in the first place. No matter how many times I tell him I had nothing to do with that, I lost the right to name him in a card game with your Grandmother. Although for the record, I still maintain I didn’t lose, she just cheated. But I still have no idea how she did it so I have to respect that, I suppose. But no. Not that name. The one your mother gave you.”

“And of course then I knew he meant Robin, and said so, and he asked what that meant to me. And I remember thinking long and hard about that one, because as I said, I knew even by that age what Grandpa was like on the subject of names, and so I was sure there was some kind of riddle or game in what he was asking, I just wasn’t sure where. So finally I just referred back to what my Mom always used to say, about me being born on the first day of spring, and being her little Robin. And he just nodded, and then he asked: And do you remember the first time you called yourself Robin to someone else, and why? What you said then?”

*************

But its mostly by the third installment of this series that things start simmering on the long-term Court of Owls storyline throughout this, which is where all the stuff with the Grayson backstory comes into play.

Because in finding out about Cobb and the Court of Owls and their connection to his family and intentions for him, and fighting all that and dealing with the implications, the thing is….in the process Dick of course ends up finding all the answers that his grandfather spent his whole life searching for.

So its about how the Court of Owls and Cobb’s actions and plans have affected Dick’s whole family through three whole generations, now that Dick is its endgame and he can see the full picture……which among other things, allows Dick a kind of closure for a lot of stuff with his first family. He’s finally able to solve the mystery Daniel was haunted by, and gain a big sense of validation from it, because in doing so he affirms that he and his family line aren’t really defined by their connection to Cobb, or even really the result of Cobb and his actions.

Because knowing Cobb’s intentions, knowing that HE named the Grayson family line and what it was supposed to mean….even though Daniel never got his answers while he was alive, Dick’s able to put all of that to rest in a lot of ways by realizing that his grandfather might not have ever gotten the specifics…..but he still got it right. Dick can now affirm that his grandfather guessed right as to what the person who named him Grayson meant for it to mean, meant for him to be. But Dick knows now too, that without even knowing that for sure, his grandfather managed to do all the right things in exactly the right ways to defy those intentions and spit in the face of what he was ‘supposed’ to be or do. As did John then, as well, and now as did Dick. 

And so Dick can say with full certainty that no matter where his family comes from originally, the Grayson name was never defined by what the Court interpreted it as….but as the Graysons defined it for themselves. They are what they made themselves to be, and Dick can see himself in that, his choices reflected in the ones his father and grandfather made before him, all without knowing just what exactly it was they were defying or anything like that….they did all that naturally, just by virtue of being who they were themselves, who they chose to be. And that ultimately, is what the name Grayson means to Dick….the same thing it always meant to his father, and what it always meant to his grandfather at the very beginning of their TRUE family line, the only one THEY actually claim NAME to.

The true history of Dick’s family, his first family, the true legacy of The Flying Graysons, the Kings of the Sky, is an entire century of every last one of them going “FUCK YOU, WE DO WHAT WE WANT” to ‘their ancestor’ William Cobb and the entire Court of Owls, every day of their lives.

3) UNEDITED SNIPPET, from the (as of now) eighth installment, “Its a Long, Long Way to Tipperary,” from a scene after Dick has found out everything there is to find out about Cobb and the Court’s history and how it involves his family. This is Dick talking to Jason and Cass, relaying one of his last memories with Daniel. Not edited, needs chopping, but general sentiment/idea is mostly finalized:

“Names have power,” Grandpa said to me, on one of the last days I remember with him before he passed away. We were sitting outside in folding chairs and watching the stars, until he got too cold and we had to go in. But while we were out there, so much of what he said…I didn’t really understand most of it at the time. Honestly, even what I thought I understood, I realized years later wasn’t really right. I could follow the words but so much of what he meant, I didn’t even begin to understand until I happened to look back to that night years later. 

Because even though I was mostly lost then and there, for months by then I’d heard my parents talking when they thought I couldn’t hear. I’d seen him doubled over coughing more and more frequently, how tightly he clutched a blanket around him when it wasn’t really all that cold. I may not have fully known what was coming but I knew on some level that something was coming to an end.

And I remember him talking so fast that night, words spilling out so quickly in a confusing mess like he couldn’t take the time to shape them properly and just had to get them out….I remember soaking it all in, as much as I could, knowing that it was important even if I didn’t know what it even was, or why. Like I was trying to just….absorb it, make it a part of me the way it almost felt like it was bleeding out of him. I don’t know that the thought, the image of him dying that summer, of soon being without him, I can’t say whether that actually ever occurred to me. I just know that I knew urgency, and I knew Grandpa was only urgent when it mattered, so I listened without understanding and somehow managed to store most of it away.

I could be crediting myself with too much intuition and I was just lucky, but….I don’t know why this so hard to describe. I don’t know why I’m trying to describe it, why that feels important, I just know that it does and it did. He wasn’t talking to me the way he normally did, when he’d always stop and make sure I was actually following him, asking me questions to make sure I understood what he was trying to say…..maybe that was what made the difference. Because it wasn’t just that he was talking fast, but without pausing, that’s what was the strange part. Not trying to make sure he was understood, or even caring….just trying to get it out of him, like what was most important was just that he said it and it was heard. Maybe just so he knew it wouldn’t die with him.

So I remember it all, or at least most of it, enough of it. I’d honestly gone years without even thinking of that night before I did remember it and finally try to think back to what he’d said and see if I could recall any of it, make any more sense of it now than then. And maybe that’s what baffles me. How I could have found all of it tucked away in the back of my mind somewhere when I’d forgotten I even put it there at all. It feels….it never made sense to me. That I remembered. I shouldn’t have been able to, not in so much detail, after so much time, not when there were so many other things I couldn’t even place. And yet there it all was, and right when I most needed to hear what he’d said to me that night. The things nobody else could have told me because nobody else knew the secret language of names that he seemed to speak, that he’d spent his whole life learning all so that maybe he could somehow in that find his own name.

“Names have power,” he said. “They can be magic in the right hands. A man who knows who he is knows his own name. And the things you can do with, the doors that can be unlocked…oh, Dickie, my boy. There’s a door to anywhere if you can speak the right name when asked for a key. But its not enough to just say them and throw them around, its not the sounds, the words, its what they are. You can’t pretend to know a thing, to know yourself. You have to really, truly know. But once you know….for a boy as bright as you, there’s no end to the possibilities.” 

“So here’s what you must always remember, the real trick of it all…..names have power. But the power isn’t in the name. The power is in what you decide it should be. You can’t claim a name and therein take its power, you see….because you have to be the one to put power in the name first. You have to look at it and see what you want it to be. And only then claim and make it yours, and everything that comes with it. Your father named you Richard, though he calls you Dickie, you were born a Flying Grayson and thus you always will be, and your mother named you her little Robin, born on the first day of spring. And all of these can be you, because no one is just one thing. And yet none of them are you unless you claim them to be. 

So if you are to be Robin, as your mother named you but is only you if you choose to say yes that is me…..before you claim it fully, before you truly make it yours, you have to look at Robin and what it will be when you choose to be Robin. You have to see Robin not as even your mother sees her Robin, but as you see your Robin. 

That’s the danger and that’s the trick.

You can’t claim Robin while seeing only what someone else sees, and think that by claiming it you’ve claimed its power….instead you’ve just claimed a trap, donned a self that doesn’t suit you because it is not you, only something someone else thought could be you. 

And by accepting that Robin, claiming that name and everything that comes with it….you will never be free to be more than whatever they thought you could be. There is no power in that, no potential, no freedom…..just the limitations you’ve accepted as your own, because someone thought you limited by such things, and yet you agreed that they were right when you claimed the name….but only the name as they shaped and imagined it to be, instead of you on your own.

So who is Robin? What power do you see in that name? Don’t reach out and seize it the moment someone sets it forth in front of you, assuming that is all it can be, when the truth is you will only ever then be as big or small as they imagine, and yet you can just as easily be as vast as you can dream. 

Never claim a name if you haven’t first looked at it as you first see it, and then imagine it bigger, and then imagine it deeper, and then imagine it greater, and keep going until you can’t imagine any more. And only then will you know what that name is…..when you say this name is who I truly want to be.

Robin is a bird, yes, Robin Red-Breast, a creature of spring, of the air, of new life. You can claim that and make it yours but first…..what else could Robin be?

Can not Robin just as easily be Robin Hood or Robin Goodfellow? Couldn’t you be? And why even be just one, when you can be all three? 

No man is ever just one thing, and any man who thinks that he is has more dreaming to do. Or else he’s already trapped by a name of someone else’s making, and all the confines that came with it.

Your mother named you her little bird, and maybe it fits you because you were born to fly, or maybe you were born to be Robin, and you simply chose to fly. Who can say? Who can say which Robin is the most you, other than you?

So be Robin, in as much as you imagine Robin to be. Be the bird that flies, or the champion of the poor, or the merry trickster whom even kings fear. Or be all of them in one….there’s power enough for all of that in just that one little name….so long as you put it there first.

Its that simple, and its that tricky. There is no in between. You are whatever name you claim as you. But you must know what it is as well, because it isn’t enough just to know yourself as you are…..when the name’s the thing, that which says who you WOULD be, the you that you WANT to be, that you claim THIS, this is me.

If you remember nothing else, Dickie, Richard, Robin times three or however many more Robins you might be…..

If someday you say I taught you nothing else, there’s nothing else I gave you, left for you to take with you wherever you go, hear me now, and remember this, even if only this:

No matter how well you might think it suits you at first, the name you claim because it fits you as you are, will never be more than a trap.

The power in names, the true power…..only comes from claiming the name that fits the you, that you would dream yourself to be.

Many kings of the earth have laughed as they introduced your family as Kings of the Sky throughout the years, but the jest they don’t get is for all their riches, they were the ones content to claim titles and riches that leave them trapped on the earth, confined within borders of their own makings, sealed behind walls they chose to erect between them and everything that was not theirs and thus would never be. But a King of the Sky soars above all of that, needing none of that…..because the sky has no end, and is so much vaster than any of that could ever be. 

If you would someday choose a crown, my little Prince of the Sky, never seek yours on the ground. Reach for one bigger than the ground could ever hold….only that could ever fit all that you might someday be.

[donebygirls]

RULES.

FIRST & FOREMOST: I expect all of my rules to be read, as this blog is highly divergent and primarily headcanon-based. When I follow someone, it is always after I have read their rules and about page. I expect the same etiquette to be followed in return. I will know if you do not read any of my pages and I will hard block those who show that they have not, with no warning and no hesitation.

DISCLAIMER: This is an independent writing blog for MAL, daughter of Maleficent. I do not own Mal, Descendants, Maleficent, or their original source materials/characters. Any headcanons or metas that you see on this blog are mine and mine alone. Mal’s main arc on the blog, beginning at the point of this portrayal’s canon divergence, are also mine. Please do not lift my content. I will notice.

GENERAL: Please do not hound me for replies or lack of online presence. Writing and roleplaying are hobbies and I will never treat it as anything less or more. Also, I am in grad school and work full time.

WRITING: This blog is mainly PLOT - BASED. I love world - building and creating complex dynamics between muses. I prefer writing in the third person. If there is ever something in my writing that you do not understand, please do not hesitate to ask me for clarification and I will gladly elaborate or edit my reply for better comprehension. My default verse for Mal is in her main arc where she is living in New York City, NY, as a contract mixed media artist. She lives with her boyfriend, Elias, and their infant daughter, Elodie, who will both often be mentioned in threads and other various posts as this is her main ship. Elias is an original NPC created by a friend of mine. He is a prolific music producer. They have two cats, Binx and Spoon.

Please check out my biography and verses pages for more information on her main arc. Her AU verses are a WIP, but basic ideas are present for a few universes. If your muse’s world is not present, and we are mutuals, I am absolutely willing to plot with you in their canon verse. Memes are best at getting my attention though.

I VERY RARELY FOLLOW other Descendants or Maleficent blogs, due to the canon divergence of this characterization and portrayal. I have a very particular way that I envision these characters, so if you wish to write with me, it will likely be based in my canon divergent Descendants AU.

PORTRAYAL: While the original story for this character comes from Disney’s Descendants movies based on Melisa de la Cruz’s novels, my Mal has been completely reworked in so much as removing her entirely from that canon. I do have a Descendants AU for her, but her main verse is based in a modern setting.

As is my M.O., this portrayal deals with past lives. Mal is the daughter of Margaret Goode, who previously had been alive as Maleficent. During those days, Mal had been known as Lilith. While Maleficent is her mother, their relationship is one based in hatred and abuse, and is not healthy in the slightest. In fact, since their lives as Maleficent and Lilith, Margaret has been set on murdering Mal in order to escape her fate: being defeated by her own daughter, as has been done time and time again.

This is not a dual blog, but I will from time to time write Margaret/Maleficent if requested and she will appear in metas, headcanons, and other posts pertaining to her relationship with Mal. I will also sometimes include the other three of the Rotten Core Four: Evie, Carlos, and Jay.

Growing up in her modern setting, Mal was heavily bullied by her peers. This, on top of the painful and tumultuous relationship with her mother, has left her severely hurt and difficult to get close to. She has trust issues, abysmal self-esteem, and a laundry list of mental illnesses. Her circle of friends is very small and tight-knit, and she is borderline unhealthily codependent on her partner. If you’re looking for a softer, Disney-friendly version of Mal, this is not the portrayal for you.

ON THE CONCEPT OF TRUE LOVE: Given the fairytale-based lore and concepts of this portrayal, I do recognize the notion of true loves, though the concept is more closely aligned with soulmate lore. Mal’s true love is Elias, who had previously been alive as Cassian during the time of Maleficent & Lilith. True love’s kiss lore is also prevalent here, where the press of one’s mouth to their true love with particular intentions can heal and even bring back from the dead. On top of this, Lilith and Cassian underwent a deeply binding ritual in their first lives together wherein they tied their hearts and souls together so thoroughly that they cannot survive without the other. And so when Cassian was killed by Maleficent all those lives ago, Lilith died with him.

CONDUCT: I am highly selective and mutually exclusive. It is up to my own discretion whether I follow you back or not. Do not guilt me or follow and unfollow a million times to get my attention; you will be hard blocked. Non-mutuals are welcome to send in meta questions and out of character asks, but my starter calls and in character interactions are open only to mutuals.

I WILL NOT FOLLOW YOU IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A RULES PAGE. Any blogs that do not list their mun name and age will be disregarded. I love OCs, but if you do not have an about page, I will likely not follow you.

I do not have any triggers myself. NSFW and triggers will be tagged “nsfw //” and “trigger //”. I do read my mutual’s rules pages and will tag as best as I can, but if I miss something, please tell me so immediately so that I can keep the dash comfortable for you.

Given the nature of some of the topics discussed here, this blog is 18+. Death, abuse, bullying, and various NSFW topics will be present. Mal was undiagnosed until she left her home and mother to go to college, but she has depression, anxiety, Bipolar disorder, and ADHD. I am intimately familiar with the first two; however, the third and fourth, I have done extensive research in, but if I ever represent either inappropriately, please do not hesitate in calling me out on it.

MUN: MY NAME IS RIONACH, OR RIO. This blog was previously known as malisent and rottcore. I am twenty six years old and an elementary school teacher. I am also in grad school. I'm sure you can imagine my busy schedule, so please have some patience with me. I will certainly extend the same to my writing partners. I can’t wait to write with you!

[shhiatusbang-blog]

Tier 2

All Tier 2 fics, below. 

A Universal Mishap ( Main Pairing: Alec/Magnus // Side Pairing(s): Clary/Jace, Isabelle/Simon, Luke/Maryse //  Mature )

WARNINGS:   Mature Content

Summary: Alternate Universe Malec are unexpectedly thrown into the main verse after a magical mishap. The issue is AU Magnus has still not told his Alec about being a warlock.

Special Requests: Must be 18+.

City of Stars ( Main Pairing: Alec/Personal Growth //  Side Pairing(s): Alec/Magnus, Aline/Helen  //  Teen and Up )

WARNINGS:  No Warnings Apply

Summary: S1 Canon Divergent Alec-Centric. 

When the punishment for their unsanctioned missions comes down in the form of a transfer to another institute, Alec must navigate a land far from everyone he knows and loves alone. 

Heaven is a Taste on Earth ( Main Pairing: Alec/Magnus // Side Pairing(s): Clary/Jace, Isabelle/Maia, Raphael/Simon //   Teen and Up )

WARNINGS:   (Past) Abusive Relationship (Cannot be endgame)

Summary: Making a birthday cake for the renowned chef Magnus Bane is a hard enough task – made harder still by the fact his girlfriend doesn’t seem to know Magnus’ likes or dislikes at all. Alec Lightwood, maker of some of the finest cakes in Brooklyn, is up to the challenge, even if he can’t take his eyes off the birthday boy. But as Alec and Magnus grow closer, could it be that the missing ingredient is true love?

Idris Troje( Main Pairing: Alec/Magnus // Side Pairing(s): Clary/Jace //   Explicit )

WARNINGS:  Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death, Mature Content

Summary: As a child, Magnus is cursed by his father Asmodeus. Cursed with foresight, with the knowledge of what the future will bring, and that no matter what he tries... no one will ever believe his warnings.  

Except one.    

Magnus sees fire and death brought by ships, sees years of war, a city in ruin, a people destroyed... But he never did see Alexander coming.  

***

AKA, the Iliad AU where Magnus is Cassandra/Andromache, Alec is Hector, and Idris is Troy.  

Not based on the movie, but inspired by the actual Iliad. Which means there's going to be a lot of character death, violence, tragedy and angst, and I genuinely can't guarantee a happy ending.    

Special Requests: For a beta I was really hoping for someone with a little knowledge of the Iliad and greek tragedy, and/or someone with experience or the motivation to tackle non-linear narratives, since that's so far out of my comfort zone (also I still can't believe I'm doing ANGST!) I'm ESL so I also commit a lot of crimes against comma's and tenses.

Special Requests: Must be 18+.

Magic [when I'm with you] ( Main Pairing: Multi // Side Pairing(s):  Alec/Magnus, Clary/Jace, Isabelle/Simon, Luke/Maryse, Maia/Simon  //  Gen )

WARNINGS:   (Past) Abusive Relationship (Cannot be endgame), Graphic Depictions of Violence, Suicide/Suicidal Thoughts

Summary: Alec is dying on the floor, Magnus can't save him, Clary is missing, Simon thinks he killed her, and Jace is stressed. What happens now? Or: a fic exploring what happens after the events of the 3A finale.

Marine Biology ( Main Pairing: Clary /Maia // Side Pairing(s): Alec/Magnus, Isabelle/Meliorn, Luke/Maryse //   Mature )

WARNINGS:   (Past) Abusive Relationship (Cannot be endgame)

Summary: When Marine Biologist Maia Roberts signs in the Blue Hotel to pursue her research on the bay’s wildlife, she has no idea that the pretty girl at the reception is the most interesting of wildlife: a mermaid. We follow her through her discovery of the town, its strange inhabitants, and her falling for mermaid Clary Fray. Main ship: Claia, side ships: Malec, Marcian, Melizzy

Orphan Alec ( Main Pairing: Alec/Magnus //  Side Pairing(s): N/A  //   Mature )

WARNINGS:  No Warnings Apply

Summary: As a teenager Alec woke up in an alley behind a Burger King, with no memory and nothing but a leather jacket to his name. Now, there are only three things he can be completely sure about: he can't fry an egg without burning it, he needs to walk around the block twice before turning in at night, and he can only depend on himself to get by.    

Two teenagers and a handsome business man are about to change all that.  

Or the one where I play around with Alec's relationships and literally no one knows who he is (yet).

Special Requests: Must be 18+.

Puppy Love( Main Pairing: Alec/Magnus //  Side Pairing(s): N/A  //  Gen )

WARNINGS:  No Warnings Apply

Summary: When his guardian Ragnor gets a position as a professor at the Shadowhunter Academy in Idris, Magnus has no choice but to follow along, being only four years old.  At the same time in New York, Maryse Lightwood comes to her senses and leaves her husband, taking a position as Headmistress of the Shadowhunter Academy.  Along with her were her two children, Alec who was three and Izzy who was still an infant.    ----   Over the years, everyone comments on the sweet relationship between Magnus and Alec, as the two grow up in the Academy in Idris.  "Puppy love" they called it.  ----   A 5+1 fic, the five times people referred to Magnus and Alec's relationship as puppy love and the one time they couldn't anymore.

Some Secret Histories ( Main Pairing: Alec/Magnus  // Side Pairing(s): Clary/Jace, Clary/Simon, Maia/Simon //   Mature )

WARNINGS:   Anti-LGBT+ Issues (in a non-supporting narrative), Mature Content

Summary: Magnus delights in broadening Alec's horizons, taking him to new places, showing him the world. So, when Alec asks, after one more globetrotting date, "When do I get to take you somewhere?", he's not really prepared for the question. The sharing of experiences is a two-way street, and some things can only be seen by looking close.  ---   Five times Magnus finds himself in Alec's spaces, and the little discoveries they both make there. Fluff, slow romance, and a dash of drama and smut.

Something Else  ( Main Pairing: Alec/Magnus // Side Pairing(s): Clary/Jace, May add others, currently any side pairings will be very vaguely mentioned/implied. //   Explicit )

WARNINGS:   Mature Content, Memory Erasure (amnesia)

Summary: Alec Lightwood doesn't understand why his mother always seems so sad when she looks at him. He also doesn't understand why the former High Warlock of Brooklyn saved his life and avoided him like the plague afterward

Asmodeus took away the Shadowhunters’ personal memories of Magnus as payment for his help. (Post 3x10 where instead of taking Magnus’ magic, Asmodeus is just making Magnus suffer.)   

Beginning premise/prologue: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1486841

The work won't interact with this fic directly. It will be a canon divergent version of events following Lilith's ritual.

Special Requests: Must be 18+.

The Only Good Guys You Get ( Main Pairing: Gen Fic/No Pairings // Side Pairing(s): Alec/Magnus, Clary/Isabelle //   Mature )

WARNINGS: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Summary: Former Interpol agent Luke Garroway has lost everything. Or so he thinks. An offer to turn his life around comes with just one catch: switching sides. Leading a team of hackers and thieves, Luke's biggest challenge might be making them all get along.

Special Requests: Must be 18+.

This Book is Great (Who's the Author?) ( Main Pairing: Gen Fic/No Pairings // Side Pairing(s): Alec/Magnus, Clary/Jace, Maia/Simon //  Gen )

WARNINGS:  No Warnings Apply

Summary: No one knew that Maia liked to write except for her boyfriend, Simon. 

And then she wrote a book. That got published. Under a pseudonym. That caught fire and acclaim in the publishing world. 

And now she’s in her book club, with her best friend Alec and her other friend Magnus, who she may or might of not based two of the more prominent characters off.  

And now Alec’s holding up her book - that no one knows she wrote - which, apparently, they’re going to study for this month’s book. 

Well.   

Crap. 

(A.k.a Maia wants Magnus and Alec to get together so badly that she wrote a book where they did.)

Unexpected (  Main Pairing: Alec/Magnus ,//  Side Pairing(s):N/A  //  Mature )

WARNINGS:  No Warnings Apply

Summary: A sort of enemies to lovers college au where Magnus is the drum major of the band and Alec is captain of the lacrosse team and they have a rivalry over who gets to use the field. Until one day, they end up having to share a table at a coffee shop to study and realize they might not hate each other all that much.

Special Requests: Must be 18+.