#also hey! i was re-reading he dreamless at 2am last night

[non-un-topo]

please give us a summary of summerwind and the tower!

Hello, my friend!! I would love to!

Summerwind is my big project that I'm most excited about currently. It's a canon-divergent au in which Yusuf and Nicolo were childhood friends (turned enemies, of course!). The amount of research and planning that has gone into this fic has made me really consider just writing an original book, but there are some major changes I'd have to make for that to happen. It's got a lot packed into it, and a lot of family ocs. I'm just obsessed with stories of two little friends who keep coming back to each other (or running in to each other by chance) despite the different directions their lives take, and all the strife and conflict they go through in their own lives and with each other, only to finally meet again in adulthood as enemies..... that's the good shit!!!

I've been hesitant to post it for a few reasons: The events lead up to the First Crusade, and so I'm worried about sensitivity. And, this might be stupid but, there is not a lot of romance. If there is any, it's one-sided. I know there must be some readers out there who don't mind non-romantic fics, but still lol. It's niche. There are also some moments that are quite dark, but I will include content warnings. I think I'm just really enjoying my Game of Thrones era.

Here's more of a summary for you: Yusuf's side of the story is mostly about his longing to chart his own path, to be adventurous, and most of all to serve justice. This starts with him witnessing an enslaved man being pulled by a horse as a child, and leads him to make some unfavourable decisions when he manages his own business. His story also has a lot to do with generational expectation (his grandfather leaves huge boots to fill, and his father struggles with this himself) and with his relationship to his mother, who is Indigenous. Nicolo's side of the story is very different, mostly because his family is much poorer than Yusuf's. He has six brothers all in one house, for example. There's a lot more to spoil from his side, but I can say that his close relationship to his uncle (who is his namesake), a seaman and soldier, and his later resentment of the world and the way his family is treated by the people around him all lead him to the Crusade. He's also not a priest in this fic -- I drew from the comics and mixed in my own hefty serving of headcanons lol. Instead, he wants to be a smith. His father, instead, was raised in the Church but left when he fell in love with Nicolo's mother. I've actually become so attached to both of the father ocs lol, Ibrahim and Lucio, but I've rambled enough.

I currently have the first two chapters completed, sort of stuck on part of the third but I'm making slow progress. I expect there will be around 11 chapters. I'll give you the names of the chapters, though, since I have those! And then I'll shut up. In order, with some of the dates included, they are:

Fledglings (1074-75)

Spring Thunder (1077-78)

The Free People (1083-84)

Midas (1085)

[as yet unnamed] (1086)

Spitfire (1087)

Interlude

Redwings

The Tide (1098-99)

To My Old Friend

Flight

The Tower is a tog and Annihilation hybrid I started in.... 2021 or 2022, I think? It's not technically an au. Instead I set it in the future, and from Nile's POV. All of the immortals are there except for Andy, whose death haunts Nile in flashbacks and dreams throughout the narrative. The old guard are tasked with a mission much like the one in Annihilation (book & movie), and things get very strange very fast. Without spoiling anything, I really wanted to explore what it might mean for immortals to enter Area X/the shimmer. I'm mostly following the events of the movie. As of right now, it's about 7.5 thousand words.

The title of the fic came from two things: It's in reference to the "tower" (inverted tower? tunnel thing?) that the biologist finds in the book. In the movie it's a lighthouse. The other reference is the Major Arcana card, which symbolizes danger, destruction, and unexpected change.