#continuing our fine fandom tradition of nonsense aus

[twofoursixohjuan]

June of Jesper 2023 Part IV

(cheating a little here perhaps)

Enigma (It's The Repent Harlequin AU!)

@brotherbandarchive

wherein my Heron Dance Troupe AU blends with the short story I read a while back and my bizarre instinct for stage adaptation...continue at own risk

Here's the link to the short story, Repent, Harlequin, Said The Ticktockman, if you're interested:

And: casting!

Jesper as Everett C. Marm AKA the Harlequin, a clownish rebel. As Jesper is the best dancer in the troupe, it makes sense that he has the lead dance role. The style is best described as acrobatic street ballet.

Ingvar as the Ticktockman, the time-obsessed government agent and villain. Ingvar's eyesight gives him trouble dancing, so the Herons work in roles that let him use his acting skills/intimidating presence without too much movement. The Ticktockman moves in straight lines while the chorus dance around him.

Hal as Chorus / the Minee, the Ticktockman's assistant. To be honest, this is mostly a size thing. He practically orbits Ingvar.

Stefan as Chorus / Pretty Alice, the Harlequin's lover and betrayer. This is a nice hefty character role Stefan can get his acting teeth into. He may get a song.

Lydia as Chorus / Marshall Delahunty, the man who tries to escape the Ticktockman's reach. Come on, don't you want to see Lydia perform a desperate tumbling obstacle-course escape across the stage only to have a dramatic death scene at the end? She'd kill it.

Edvin as Chorus / Georgette Delahunty, Marshall's wife. Another nice character piece with plenty of room for face acting.

Wulf as Chorus / Raoul Mitgong. A walk-on comic role. He doesn't help much.

Ulf and Stig as the Chorus — along with the other Chorus-marked cast, playing Scientists, Minees, Workers, Coventry Guards etc. Ulf and Stig are good dancers but not the strongest actors in the crew. The chorus wear very basic costumes and switch characters quickly.

Thorn is their coach and AV tech, of course.

I may do some set/costume sketches later. I may talk to a choreographer and see if I could someday stage this later NOPE NOPE TOO MANY PROJECTS

...unless...

[novantinuum]

Jen’s mega list of plans:

Written and posted here purely to keep me accountable, and also bc it’s easier to archive posts than find anything in my thousands of documents on my phone. These are all fan projects, basically.

Gravity Falls

-Draw kiki-kit’s precious flame Mabel, (from the graphic novel), and perhaps a flame Pines Family to go with it. Love her design. It seriously just... is precious <3

-Draw graphic novel like “covers” for @the-ill-doctor and I’s RPs to commemorate our 1 yr anniversary of starting the first RP

-While speaking of RP, push past editing road blocks on The Time We Lost, the Time We Mended so we can finally post TateGate™ (pardon the unintelligible inside joke)

-I genuinely want to continue working on the AU comic I’d churned out a few pages for, and test my ability there more. The graphic novel has inspired me.

-I really want to make a print of that nice piece with three eras of Stan and all the Stan related objects floating over them for myself and hang it on my wall. Simple task, but I know I’ll forget so here I am posting a note to myself. JEN YOU KNUCKLEHEAD, get it done :O

-Just, generally? I want to get more comfortable sketching quick and fast. In traditional. I want to fill up a sketchbook with dynamic poses and expressions and random bullshit and get comfortable getting messy with my art.

-AMVs. Once my brother helps me rip the boxset, I have a special commission to make for @eregyrn-falls , and then after that I had a great, emotional idea for the song Unity by Shinedown.

Trollhunters

-I had a fic I started that I REALLY want to get back into, Death and All That Follows. I just have so many crazy projects rumbling through my head that this is easier said than done XD

-There’s a bunch of dynamic Jim and Toby pieces I have half finished that I’ll prob come back to one day if I’m bored...

-My cosplay prop amulet. Need to get glue and get it all together, plus resin/glow in the dark stuff for the crystal, and maybe paint for some touch up pizzaz.

-Not to mention, if I’m going to cosplay Jim? I need to actually order shoes, a wig, and the jacket. I have a stretch goal for colored contact lenses, but eh if I don’t get there that’s fine.

-I can never draw enough troll Jim, to be perfectly honest.

-I promised @inktheblot that I’d draw Toby in the trollhunter armor at some point and I still aim to do that. I actually kinda have an AU for it too?? So I could prob just make a bunch of sketches for that...

-I also promised myself once that I’d make big two or three inch amulet pins. Mostly one just for myself. But if I had the money to do a small bulk batch, excellent.

-Also mostly just for myself, unless I threw it on like... redbubble or something, I wanted to make a custom Trollhunters shirt with the amulet and some crystals and a quote and shit. Because I’m salty that the only Trollhunters shirts that officially exist are for small children.

AU crossover nonsense

-Write more of A Tale of Two Trollhunters. Probably a given, but I’m behind where I wanted to be. Also, I have a bunch of half sketched out future scene ideas I want to post as one shot snippets bc we all know I’ll never actually get there going chronologically ;D;

-Design troll forms for my changeling Dipper and Mabel

-While we’re at it, make designs for Alex and Gina Pines, my OC Dip and Mab parents who feature in the future stuff for this story.

Other

-Just, in general... develop my OCs more. Make MORE OCs. Challenge myself to just MAKE characters.

-Speaking of that, I kiiiinda wanna make a GF dating sim persona I kiiiinda really do, is it too late for that? XD

So. Anyways. As you might tell from all this insanity, I have a whole hell of a lot I would. Conceptually like to do? I really really love making fandom content y’all, it’s what keeps me going honestly. It’s my one creative outlet in between the stress of trying to pursue a degree in biochemistry, of all the hellishly complicated things I could’ve decided to find fascinating. And there’s genuinely some points where I’m like? What the hell Jen. What the fresh hell, why on earth do you have to give yourself so many project ideas to tackle? Why did you decide to draw AND write AND edit, why can’t you just pick ONE? And I’ve no idea dudes not a s i n g l e fuck. My attention bounces so fast from one idea to the next that sometimes I genuinely marvel how on earth I’ve gotten anything done in the past two years, but eh no matter. Anyways, now I’m just rambling so?

Future Jen. Step your game the fuck up my man. Get some cool fan content done! Stop disappointing your far-too-cool mutuals and followers with a lack of fan content and make something you can be proud of! Be cool, dude.

Be cool.

[thatsmygvn]

title: in each generation [ao3] fandom: shadowhunters (tv) ship: magnus bane/alec lightwood characters: magnus bane, alec lightwood, izzy lightwood, jace wayland, clary fray, simon lewis, luke garroway, & raphael santiago notes: 1,854 words; based LOOSELY in the buffyverse, mostly during s4 of btvs, but no actual buffy characters exist in this au. clary is the slayer, the shadowhunters/the clave are the gi joes/the initiative, and magnus is less of a traditional warlock than he is an actual half-demon.

“All the legends are true,” they said at the exact same time.

Alec edged near the doorway, hand poised over his bow. Jace and Clary stared one another down, disbelief on both of their faces.

“What are you talking about?” Jace insisted.

“I’m -- what do you know about it?” she countered.

A few feet away, Izzy rolled her eyes at them. She tried to divert her attention towards her newly-turned vampire friend, though he paid more mind to his best friend and the third Lightwood than her.

Jace interrupted Clary with a defiant, “I’m a Shadowhunter,” and he lifted his blade as if simply showing her the inlaid filigree she would suddenly understand.

“I’m the Slayer,” she said at the same time, pulling from her jacket sleeve a wooden stake.

Alec tuned the sounds of their voices out, instead focusing on the lair Clary based herself in -- though, he supposed “lair” was not quite the right word.

It was her family’s home, Izzy told him, but when her mother disappeared on the evening she found out about her destiny they turned it into their HQ. With the aid of some downworlders, they placed as many safeguards and wards on the building as they possibly could.

He rolled his eyes over the second exit, where Luke Garroway stood. Detective by day and werewolf by night, Luke acted as Clary’s pseudo-father, though legally he had no ties to her. Alec could see in his build and his body a specific sort of military training, though, and he knew -- even aside from the man’s lycanthropy -- that Luke was not the sort of man to be tested.

A rustle near the rafters brought Alec’s gaze towards the ceiling, and when he met a pair of deep russet eyes, he took a steadying breath. “That’s Raphael,” Izzy whispered in his ear.

The man jumped down and took his place in the far corner of the room, hiding in its shadows as if it were second nature. He looked twenty years old, but Alec could see the years in his eyes, betraying his otherwise youthful appearance. He had to have several decades on him at least, Alec deduced, as his skin still maintained a marble-like quality and not the powdery texture old vampires carried.

Simon Lewis looked back and forth between Clary and Jace, Izzy and Raphael, Luke, and Alec. He, Alec could tell, was only a fledgling. He was too jumpy, too slow, too anxious about the situation to have any experience with the supernatural world. His eyes lingered on Raphael, who, Alec noticed, ignored Simon much like he ignored the fly buzzing around the room or Clary’s rising decibels.

“If you, and your family, and your ancestors have all trained and operated as these… Shadowhunters,” Clary argued, her face as red as the hair framing it, “then how come I’ve never heard of you, huh?”

It wasn’t Jace who answered her, though he opened his mouth and was ready to reply; it was Luke, stepping forward and resting his hand on her shoulder with a somber expression on his face. “We didn’t want you finding out about them,” he said. “Your mother and I went AWOL when you were just a baby and we heard there was a chance you could become the next Slayer.”

Alec appraised Luke again, and he could see it: the way Luke moved without making a sound, the way he was proficient with every weapon he laid his hands on and had a plan as soon as he walked into a room.

“Did you leave before or after you turned?” Alec asked him.

Luke looked over Clary’s shoulder at Alec. “Even if I hadn’t turned, I was going to leave with Jocelyn. I couldn’t stand by and tolerate how the Hunters treated Downworlders any longer. The fact that I turned only cemented that I wasn’t one of them anymore.”

Jace’s eyebrows knit together and he was quick to argue. “What do you mean, how we treat Downworlders? Everything we do is to protect them!”

It was Izzy who replied. “Protect them, Jace?” she repeated. “Sure, yeah, the Shadowhunters protect the Downworlders. They also keep a brick wall around themselves and wards around the Institute to alert them to any Downworlder presence. They had us hunting Downworlders, but they told us it was to protect the humans, or they told us they were just demons.”

Raphael scoffed from his corner. “We may be part demon, but we’re part human, too. Most of us anyway.” Simon, now standing next to Clary, nodded vehemently.

“Don’t tell me you don’t see it,” Izzy pleaded. “Don’t tell me you can’t see how Mom and Dad look at Downworlders. Alec?”

All six pairs of eyes suddenly turned towards Alec. Carefully, he tightened the cross of his arms over his chest. “You know I’ve seen it, Iz,” he told her, “but that doesn’t excuse us for going along with it for so long.”

-

They continued meeting against Alec’s best wishes. It started with Izzy texting her location and an SOS -- nights when Luke had to make himself scarce, nights when Raphael and Simon had to search for Simon’s sire, nights when they simple didn’t have the resources to go around.

It was a strange relationship Alec managed to nurse. He quickly decided he could care less for Clary; it was her “destiny” that roped Izzy into her crusade to find her mother and ensnare Jace as well. If not for her desperate pleas they could have left them alone and left the Institute of their own accord, but instead they risked high treason and a fate worse than death if caught with the rebels.

But Luke he did linger towards. His past as an ex-Shadowhunter sparked an interest in Alec he didn’t know he had. He had the chance to find out first-hand what a fully trained Shadowhunter was capable of, but he also had the chance to learn about the prejudices he had been raised to believe from someone who lived on both sides of the coin.

Even Raphael caught Alec’s interest, though the man was as cool and aloof as any stereotype. Raphael, at nearly eighty years old, had his own share of stories to tell regarding his encounters with the Shadowhunters. His no-nonsense attitude clicked instantly with Alec’s intolerance of bullshit, and the two -- when offered the opportunity to interact --  found themselves talking more and more.

He thought the arrangement might even be an okay thing until Jace insisted on answering Clary’s SOS on his own and nearly killed himself in the process.

It was Izzy who gave Alec the address of one of Clary’s friends, someone who she promised was an excellent healer. She swore Jace would be fine and this man -- Magnus Bane, she called him -- was the best at what he did.

Alec stepped inside the building, punching the top-most floor of the elevator, nervousness welling underneath his skin as each second ticked by. Finally, the double doors slid open, and he nearly froze at the sight before him.

Luke, Izzy, Clary, Simon, Raphael, and a sixth unfamiliar man hovered over a table where Alec could just barely recognise Jace’s messy blonde hair, stained through with mud and blood where it should’ve been as light as sunshine.

He surged forward, taking Jace’s hand in his own. Underneath him, Jace groaned. “Alec, I’m fine --”

But it was not Alec or even Izzy who shushed him; it was Magnus, whose hands emitted an inhuman glow and hovered over Jace’s middle. “Don’t make a liar out of yourself,” he said.

“Where’s your faith?” Jace asked him, but he winced and groaned in pain as Magnus’s magic worked deeper into his body.

Magnus, in turn, shook his head and began kneading the air above Jace, his magic mimicking his movements precisely. “Keep talking and I’ll knock you out myself. Everyone else --” he glanced up, and for a second Alec thought he caught a flash of golden irises before they were gone, replaced by a warm tawny -- “I need space.”

Clary and Simon stepped away with Luke and Izzy following suit, but Alec remained by his side, hand still clenched tight around Jace’s. Magnus followed his hand, eyes trailing over the runes adorning his skin, up the length of Alec’s neck before settling on his eyes, and he heaved a deep sigh.

“I’m not going to let him die, so if you’re worried about trusting a lowly Downworlder with his life, don’t. Who are you, anyway? I believe I’ve told everyone to clear out.”

“I’m Alec Lightwood,” he replied, a scowl beginning to set on his face.

Magnus scoffed. “Ah, yes, I know your family. Maryse and Robert, correct?” he asked. Before Alec could answer, Magnus continued: “Your mother is such a pleasant woman, isn’t she? I’ve known her for most of her life, and never once has she referred to me by my given name.”

Jace squeezed Alec’s hand. “Just because we’re Lightwoods doesn’t mean we are our parents,” he defended.

Under his breath, Alec caught Magnus mumbling, “Yeah, I get that. So -- brothers? Best friends? Partners?” He gestured towards Alec and Jace’s linked hands.

Jace laughed, the south cutting off to give way to a wince at the motion. “Brothers,” he answered through a wince.

Magnus’s hands stilled over Jace. With a slightly apologetic expression, he waved his fingers over Jace’s head. Seconds later, Jace’s eyes drooped shut and his breathing evened out. The hand inside Alec’s slacked; Magnus met Alec’s look with a shrug. “He doesn’t take well to sitting still. He’ll wake up in an hour or so.”

Alec nodded shortly. He lifted his hand slowly and pushed Jace’s hair out of his face, much preferring to ignore the way Magnus watched his every move with a look that said he could see through him.

“We’re Parabatai,” Alec explained. “Closer than brothers -- if anything were to happen to him….”

Magnus hummed in response. “Correct me if I’m wrong,” he began, “but is it not forbidden to fall in love with your Parabatai?”

At the way Alec froze, Magnus shook his head. He stilled his hands completely and stood up straight, though he remained several inches shorter than Alec. “I wonder -- is it because he’s your brother, your Parabatai, or another man that you hide it?” he asked, but then he shook his head. “Anyway, who am I to tell you, a Lightwood, the Shadowhunter law?” He paused, and at Alec’s stony expression he offered a tender, “There’s nothing to be ashamed of, Alec.”

Alec looked down at Jace’s unconscious form, withdrawing his hands from where he still held them near Jace’s head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Magnus stepped around the table, pausing at Alec’s side. “You will,” he said.

Alec watched Magnus walk away from the corner of his eye. He saw Clary and Simon step up to him with concern clear in their eyes, Raphael and Luke watching with idle curiosity. Izzy, though, joined Alec in the center of the loft. She opened her mouth to speak, but Alec waved her off. “Don’t,” he pleaded. “Just… don’t.”

[owlways-and-forever]

Hello, it’s your CS Secret Santa! I hope you’ve been having a pleasant few weeks and that all this Tumblr uproar hasn’t been too depressing! Don’t worry, you’ll still be getting your Secret Santa fic from me, even if I have to snail mail it to you! :D I’m with you on favorite types of fanfiction: it really depends on my mood. I also enjoy unplanned pregnancy fics! 1/7

I think it’s seeing Killian and Emma interact in the situation and the way that Killian always is able to break down her walls and convince her that he will be there for her and the baby that just makes me melt inside! I think my favorites are multi-chapter canon divergence AUs. I like seeing how all the different writers in the fandom think things could have gone differently based on one or two small changes to canon. I love writing AUs too! 2/7

I still haven’t really hit my stride with consistently writing fanfic, but I keep hoping that practice makes perfect. What other fandoms are you a part of ? I’m going to have to go read all your fics now! 😉 Are there any other tropes that you would prefer I steer clear of? Or any tropes that you just absolutely love and I should try to include? I will tell you upfront that I’m not personally comfortable writing smut, so I’m sorry but I’ll probably leave that part to your imagination. 😉 3/7

My family has always had a tradition of putting up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, so that kind of marks the beginning of Christmas music and movies and general festivities for us! And it is nice to get a whole month of Christmas joyfulness to help with the greyness of winter. Ick! Unless you like winter, which in that case, more power to ya! You’ll have to tell me more about your family traditions after all the secrecy is over! 4/7

My husband is third generation Czech so his family also does some traditional recipes around the holidays (mainly desserts!) and I’ve always been envious of families who have held onto their special roots like that! I love cooking and baking too, so I’d love to eventually hear what kinds of food you usually make! Does your family usually do big parties/get-togethers for the holidays? Or do you tend to be more laid back and kind of low-key?I would love including some Aladdin and Jasmine! 5/7

They were honestly one of the only good parts of season six in my mind! I just wasn’t a big fan of the overall writing by the point. Which was sad, but what can you do… Did you watch the whole show or was there a point where you stopped? I stopped watching live after the first half of season 5 and then just watched on Netflix. And I never watched season 7. Did you have a favorite season and least favorite season? Haha, I know exactly what you mean about Snow and Charming. 6/7

Actually, I still consider them two of my favorite characters, but their actions and characterization in the back half of the show is just… yeesh. You also perfectly put into words exactly what I’ve felt about their idealistic look on relationships! I’ve never been able to express that very well before, but just yes to all of what you said!I hope you got all those asks and Tumblr didn’t screw it all up!!! But either way, talk to you again soon! 7/7

Hello Santa! I’ve missed you! I’ve been having an alright week, nothing terribly exciting going on. I’m not too worried about the tumblr nonsense. I mean, I don’t like it and I don’t agree with it by any means, but I understand what they’re trying to do, and how difficult it can be to execute. I know there will be mistakes and it will be a bother, and I totally understand people wanting to leave, but I’m sticking around, at least for a while. But I’ve been on ao3 and ff.net for a while, so I’ll be keeping those up, and I’ll probably explore some additional accounts at some point. We’ll see.

Ugh, I’m totally with you! Killian convincing Emma that he wants to be around and be there for both of them is just too cute! It makes me all mushy. Also, I love seeing all the different names people come up with for their kids - names totally fascinate me in like a super nerdy way. Especially middle names. I think I’m very much in the minority of the fandom though with not liking Hope. Also, I see so much in fandom about their kids always being blonde and looking like Emma and just like… statistically speaking its not likely, and as a statistics person, that always bugs me. Like it’s fine if its just one kid, goodness knows that happens (both my parents have darker hair and I was white blonde as a baby and then blonde until I was an adult #towheadsunite). But when its like four kids and they’re all blonde the stats person in me gets very ruffled. I’m not sure I’ve read any mc canon divergence fics, but I always find them interesting. Mostly because I just find it’s not really a type of writing that I’m good at. The fun thing about AUs for me is that you get to world build, taking snippets from canon and snippets from the AU you’re fitting it into and make it this whole new thing. Say you’re writing a Pride & Prejudice AU, you get to pick parts of the plot that you like and twist them so it’s slightly different, and maybe you throw in some magic and see how that changes it. You get to choose what parts of Elizabeth Bennet’s personality Emma has, and what traits she brings over from canon Emma. And that’s just so much fun to me, to be able to create that way, and fit things just how you like them. But I find that when I’ve tried to write canon divergence I get too bogged down in the details - canonically, who was there and what had already happened and who knew what, and what magical abilities are there - and the story somehow gets lost in my brain. But I admire people who can write it, I think it shows phenomenal creativity to take a story and then run away with it and see how if you just change something small it can ripple out into the whole story. What are some of your favourite canon divergence stories?

I’m not consistent either. I try to at least write a little bit every day, but it always depends on what’s going on and how inspired I feel. I do have this excel thing where I keep track of how much I write for each of my WIPs each day, which I like. It helps me visually see the progress I’m making, and I’m definitely a visual person. The only other fandom I really write for is Harry Potter, but I like Doctor Who, West Wing, Downton Abbey. I think DW is really the only fandom of those. Honestly I watch way more shows than it ought to. I can’t think of any other specific tropes right now, either to include or avoid. Sorry, I know that’s not very helpful. I don’t mind not having any smut, I’m also not very comfortable writing it, and only selectively comfortable reading it.

Oooh, that’s a nice tradition! We always put our tree up kind of whenever we feel like it. I don’t know if my mom’s done hers yet, and my dad insists on waiting until the 12th so it’s the twelve days of christmas, no matter how many times I tell him that that’s not what that means. My roommate and I put our tree up last weekend though, so it’s all decorated now. We’re actually going to do a little “family photo” with the two of us and our pets tomorrow, which should be a riot. Haha, I do like winter! I love the cold bite in the air and the fairy lights everywhere and bundling up. And I especially love snow. It’s my favourite. But I’m also a January birthday, so I dont think I had much choice in liking winter.Oh my goodness, we do huge get togethers. Mostly just because our family is big. My mom has 8 siblings, and all but 2 are married, and then I have somewhere around 15 cousins, plus partners, so a normal holiday dinner for us is usually over 30 people. Thanksgiving is usually the biggest holiday for us, because somehow it’s worked out that that’s what most people can make it for. Christmas is still big, but less people travel for that, and I think it’ll probably continue to dwindle as cousins get married and stuff. This year will actually [probably] be the first year that I haven’t spent Christmas with my family, so it’s going to be a little weird for me. Boxing Day we typically go to my dad’s brother’s house, and I see his side of the family because they’re English. It’s always fun, and its usually the only time all year that I get to see them, but it’s also strange because I’m the only girl. It’s a more low-key day though, so generally if I need some quiet time I just grab a book and find a cozy spot. Last year was really nice though and two of my cousins and I stayed up super late and told stories and bonded. What kind of food is traditional for Czech christmases? I wonder if it’s similar to Polish food…

I definitely stopped watching live at some point in grad school, but I couldn’t tell you exactly when. It wasn’t really a conscious choice so much as just having a ton going on and not always being around to watch. I never watched s7 though. Once Emma and Killian were gone… well, I gave it a try, but I only got like 3 episodes in or something before I decided it wasn’t for me. Maybe one day I’ll go back and watch it, but I haven’t done a OUAT rewatch for a few years.I know that’s their fairytale story and everything and that’s kind of the point of them to some degree, to be that “ideal true love” but idk. I guess it just seems a bit garrish in the way that the other relationships really have to work for their happy ending. And snowing hits their bumps too, but… they kind of iron themselves out? One of the things that I liked about OUAT was that it was still fairytales, it was still fantastical, but it was realistic when it came to characters. They were broken, complicated, imperfect. The people themselves weren’t fairytale versions of anything. Except snowing. And from the perspective of being that fairytale ideal, they’re done well, of course, and I think that’s why people like them. But it’s so different from everyone else on the show.Anyway, that was a lot, but it was so wonderful talking to you! I hope we get to chat again soon! (Also sorry for not really asking any questions, but it’s nearly 1am now and WAY past my bedtime so I’m going to get some shut eye and then post this when I wake up.) Cheers!