#chapter 1 isobel isn't herself

[lambourngb]

SANDERS AND SON! SON! I FEEL VINDICATED. DAD SANDERS FOR THE WIN! Ok, sorry for screaming, but this could at least give you the idea of the inhuman squeal I let out when I read it. My dog ran to me all worried and when I reassured him I was alright, he was *not convinced* and decided it was cuddle time! So picture this: big adorkable furball cuddling me while I read Sanders thinking /idiot/ at Alex and Michael freaking out in the back. Isn't this perfect. My dog and I stan dad!Sanders. Always <3

Dad!Sanders for the win indeed- best part of season 2, and he's only gotten better and better in season 3 and 4. Anyway, this story just hit 20k this morning, and in honor of such a sweet ask here's a peak at the end of chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2.

[make sure your dog is prepared] 💖 Previously here with links to the other parts

****

He flipped the sign on the door to ‘Sorry We’re Closed’ and scowled at Michael. “What the hell was that, kid?”

Michael used his telekinesis to flip it back to ‘We’re Open’ out of desperation to avoid the conversation. It was probably pointless, but he had to try. For a genius, he was a real dumbass. “I don’t know what you’re talking about-”

Walt glared and flipped it back, and then slapped his hand against the sign to keep it in place. “Do not make me get creative with that pollen. Or worse, I’ll call Miss Isobel here. Bet she’d be real interested in that whole scene. I got no qualms lettin’ her poke around my head and see for herself-” 

“Okay, okay, I’ll tell you, but I’m not doing it without a drink, and we finished off the bourbon here after that dumbass militia tried to commission us to make them super-special badges.” That had been a real shitshow, and while Michael wasn’t a snitch, he did pick up the phone to report that attempt to Max and the new Sheriff. Their shop windows were spray-painted for a few nights in retaliation, but it was a small price to pay for having a bunch of entitled rednecks playing at being police. The police themselves were already bad enough.

“You’ll buy, but I’ll drive.”

****

The sun was just beginning to set as Walt drove them home from the Wild Pony. The story of Alex had taken only two shots of whiskey, laid out over the battered green felt of the pool table and a game of nine-ball. Michael had kept his voice low to discourage eavesdroppers as he told Sanders every ugly detail, still mindful of Alex’s wishes for secrecy. 

He had spilled the story of the guitar and living in Alex’s shed as a senior in high school, brushing off Walt’s insistence he could have stayed more nights at the junkyard. Every night even. Then he had finally explained his hand, a story that he had only told once before. Max had tried over the years, and had actually gotten close to getting Michael to explain one night after Noah had trapped them both in his bunker, but Kyle and Liz had rescued them before the truth had come out.

Sanders had gripped his own pool cue tightly, as he watched Michael balance his stick with his ruined grip and touch of telekinesis, all thanks to Jesse Manes, before making a successful shot at the solid 3 ball. For a moment, Michael had thought the man would break his own cue, but he had just cussed creatively before pounding a shot of Jim Beam down and gesturing for Michael to continue. And Michael had.  

The summer of loss, of fights, of learning that university wasn’t going to be in the cards for him if he had any hope of keeping what had happened to Isobel from happening again.

“We’re aliens, Walt, I thought maybe my species murdered when we got triggered out of some sort of biological defense system, like there are ants who explode with poison when threatened, or like this toad spits blood out of its eyes. I had no one to ask! I just felt like if I went away to school, she’d get triggered again- and people would die.”

“What are you, a zoologist?”

Michael had rolled his eyes before Sanders had finished with a scathing observation, “That’s clearly horseshit because wouldn’t you have killed that sonuvabitch Manes a whole lot sooner if it were true?”

Hindsight about Noah was of course 20-20, but that hadn’t stopped the years of fear for Michael. The bitterness had rich, fertile ground to seed itself in after a life of being passed from one foster home to another and in between the pain in his hand and the difficulty of making ends meet after the financial crash of 2008, he acknowledged that he had done too much drinking and fighting back then. Enough to worry a boy from a house where ‘things sucked’ and had spoken fondly of homelessness in return. With shame in his eyes, Michael had explained how he had engineered his arrest the day Alex was due to leave for Basic Training. One last push to ensure Alex never looked back. He hadn’t felt worthy of love, of any soft touch, and he hadn’t trusted that it would last. He still had a hard time trusting it currently.

Walt had made a humming noise, and sank his target neatly, despite the eye patch. His next shot would have won, ending the game and maybe the story. Without even trying, he had scratched the cue ball and had turned over the table to Michael with ease. “So you wanted to make sure he left, but you also didn’t want him to leave? Yeah, that sounds like stupid teenager logic.”

[wearethewitches]

In first place!

✨Shadowheart, time travelling cleric of Selune; Shadowheart/Aylin/Isobel ✨

with 28.5%, or 100/350 votes!

Gosh, but isn't this such a surprise to me! I knew we had some ot3 lovers in the room, I just didn't know we were all this invested in getting more of them - or maybe it's just the time travel aspect.

As far as writing goes, I'll bump this one up in consideration for writing/updating a bit more often than I would have thought, but please keep your expectations reasonable 😂

In second place!

Jaheira/Karlach, "Hero Worship"

with 21.1%, or 74 votes!

Again - what a surprise!!! This isn't going to be a significantly long work, either, more in line with My Messy Lines, actually. Might include some epilogue and/or Jaheira's house shenanigans, but that's probably contingent on how much I can balance E-rated shit with T. Which. I was planning on doing with the sequel to MML, but considering this poll, will probably be better received with Jaheira/Karlach. Or I could do both? Food for thought.

In third place!

the next chapter of (Selûne, thou) with softest starglow.

with 10.6%, or 37 votes!

-which, of course, I was always working on. Am working on, between writing this post and chatting with friends on discord about spoilers, actually. That'll be something that, as I've said, you'll see nearer the end of February. Currently got 6.1k of a predicted 40k, so we're doing pretty good!

(Honourable mentions & stats below the readmore)

Honourary mentions:

"Colour Spray" Karlach feels with the tadfools, Karlach/Minthara endgame

with 9.1%, or 32 votes!

&

Shadowheart "adopts" Minsc post-House of Grief

with 8.9%, or 31 votes!

These two were nearly equal in votes, and while I expected the middling Karlach interest, Shadowheart "adopts" Minsc really surprised me when interest peaked halfway through the poll. I have early screenshots with Selune Thou in the lead, and some with zero votes at all, including the latter here^. Colour Spray used to be pretty far up the totem pole, as far as early interest went. I'll probably end up working on some shorter things, or a pseudo 5+1 that's more prompt themed (i.e. colours of the rainbow themed, yes, ik).

-

Statistics-wise for the rest, here ya go. And as a last note, I'll say that I am very surprised the Astarion girlies didn't pounce on the Twin Thing AU, tho me and a friend talked about it, and decided it's because the twinks and the lesbians are on very different ends of the fandom right now. I endeavour to change that, in the future.

Shadowheart, time travelling cleric of Selune; Shadowheart/Aylin/Isobel - 28.6% | 100/350

Jaheira/Karlach, "Hero Worship" - 21.1% | 74/350

the next chapter of (Selûne, thou) with softest starglow. - 10.6%| 37/350

"Colour Spray" Karlach feels with the tadfools, Karlach/Minthara endgame - 9.1% | 32/350

Shadowheart "adopts" Minsc post-House of Grief - 8.9% | 31/350

Astarion & Isobel: the twin thing au - 6.6% | 23/350

sequel to My Messy Lines, rated T-ish. Durge/Jaheira - 5.1% | 18/350

"Kleptoparasite" i.e. the consequences of Orin being herself, Minsc POV - 4.9% | 17/350

Z'Rell/Karlach, rated T - 2.9% | 10/350

a spin-off of (Selûne, thou) and/or an AU I have planned - 2.3% | 8/350

*I have multiple things for this one, so there'd be a single day poll if that was the most popular.

-

Just in general I'm going to be writing a fuck ton of BG3 stuff, so some of this might end up being posted in the meantime anyhow, but either way, I'd love to see the general interest levels at the moment.

I do also have other ideas in the work, but I'm using the "write down everyone's names and then copy-paste them into separate note pages, before applying said list to every character", so every so often I'm getting super inspired or the prompts are bleeding into each other. Like Colour Spray, that somehow started as Karlach/Gale and ended up as a solid idea surrounding bomb!Gale, granddad Withers & Karlach, and endgame Karlach/Minthara in Avernus.