#fuck i KNEW i'd casually pursue this as a little spinoff from happy little bluebirds but damn look what u did theo

[partyinthemysterymachine]

So THAT is why someone was in tha a&s tags on my blog. Sneaky 👁

ANYWAYS. GIVE ME SOME RANDOM AU LORE. DRAG IT FROM THE DEPTHS BC I WANT IT. now 🔫

(Also dw. Yr in no rush, I'm having the time of my life editing my replies in the docs bit by bit (which i haven't done, actually, im a liar <3))

REACHES AND DRAGS HANDS DOWN UR FACE

theo i love u and always will. a&s is A Place

ngl tho side-eyeing that last a&s post. i'm narrowing my eyes...........

(oh my god goomt pLEASE just write your own library arc im DYING)

chinhands

hey so remember this fun little ditty i wrote a while back--

If Happy Little Bluebirds Fly

--that was actually the pitch of @adreamingofguns but i latched my nasty little teeth into it and ran off into the landfill sunset slobbering and flailing my head around???

??

i do that a lot actually huh. give me an inch and i'll take the Titanic

anyway so i don't remember exactly how much of the pitch was Nick's doing but the point is that i grabbed it and ran lmfao and thus, If Happy Little Bluebirds Fly

i actually re-read my own fics a lot, especially when i'm stuck. i've always been REALLY PLEASED and PROUD of how i wrote If Happy Little Bluebirds Fly so i'll go back to that and try to siphon The Juice from it. well, i was reading it recently (and i tweaked a name in the third chapter for fun Suggestion - can u find it?) and i was ho-humming at the end of the fic.

i'm not really sure if readers understood entirely what happened at the end there, and i never did anything with it - and honestly, i'd never planned to. .. not really, at least. the idea was there. i thought maybe it'd be a fun thing to pursue sometime after GOOMT but hEHh,

so

i'm like. well. what IF, indeed. and ofc this is another AU that'll probably never see the light of day outside my vivid hallucinating while trying to go to sleep or staring into the wild pale yonder (very disco of me tbh), BUT LET'S WORKSHOP IT TOGETHER EH

anyway uh if you haven't read the fic that's chill idk if anyone cares about the ~spoiler~ but SHRUG

RUNDOWN of the fic (in 3 easy chapters i pwommy) is that Harry and James initially meet waaay back in the day when James takes Mary to go see Mary's favorite pianist in concert. (that pianist? Jodi Mason. really makes u think) James and Harry literally run into each other during intermission, small chat, hi Mary! then they go back in. after the show, while James and Mary are waiting for the elevator, the Masons show up to ruin lives and the snowball keeps rolling down the hill.

James and Harry meet in SH and together, bring Heather home. they raise her together, though their relationship is extremely tumultuous, rly kinda toxic lmao, really just. riddled. with Bruh and love and it's disgusting. they love each other and their daughter but there is A Lot that's suggested. ends with them celebrating their anniversary (which is, coincidentally, Heather's birthday!!!)

>:)

but i gave a peek into Mary and James's relationship (and touched Jodi and Harry's relationship on the nose) and that was a lot of fun :3

SO! that's that one pls read and enjoy it it's def a favorite of mine lmao

spoiler: heather gets kidnapped at the end of the fic when everyone's just trying to have a nice fucking day god can't anyone mind their business around here

naturally the au takes place when James and Harry figure this out. 'Silent Hill Is On Its Bullshit' Senses Tingling.

now, quick note is that neither of them were IN Silent Hill the first time for very long at all. their time there overlapped and it was and wasn't meant to be intentional by the town. i don't think it knew what to do with the timing. it was great but also hhhhhhhh in its "eyes" but anyway, point is, James's got a Leave ending with Harry and baby Heather, he didn't get any conduit nonsense going on, he was probably in the town upwards of a week and a shake before he met up with Harry.

Harry, on the other hand, was probably in SH for a little over a week before he met up with James. James hadn't even really.. "finished" his arc..? which is important when they realize what the fuck just happened and oh god DAMMIT they gotta go to SH to get their fucking daughter back

i'll admit, this AU is certainly Dark. like, a&s is dark, but if you take into account what this one entails, oh buddy MAN is this one gonna be a rough fucking ride LOL like look

these two love each other to their depths but their relationship was havoc at times. i alluded to it, but there was a suicide attempt that Heather unfortunately got to see, and was probably dug up in therapy at some point. they argued and Heather remembers James not coming home some nights, or weeks, or months, and yeah, there was cheating from both James and Harry, they did NOT learn how to cope lmfao and did NOT process their wives' deaths very well, ESPECIALLY YOU, JAMES--

-- since he didn't get to have that closure like at the end of SH2. his and Harry's plots got mashed together, and Harry's took all importance with the Alessa/Order problem. as you can imagine, James has a LOT of unfinished business in SH.

they DID, though, see a lot of each others' SH and baggage, which is super important ofc to how they lived out their lives, and their lives together as a family and as fathers. stuff to keep in mind too, there are A LOT of unresolved problems between the two of them and a LOT of things repressed; and it's really just sad how much Heather actually remembers from her childhood that she'd've preferred remained stomped doooown down in the ground

Harry's Jeep is still crashed and fuckin pwnt in SH, and James's Pontiac is still at the observatory. they actually try to go in through South Vale i think to the observatory but ARE BLOCKED (!!!!!) on the road

by

:)

a trucker

:)

unfortunate business really :( this guy, this poor trucker's got his trailer in the middle of the road, taking up both lanes, looks like there was a minor accident here :( he apologizes to them and says that he's trying to get a hold of someone to help him with this, awful sorry. he redirects them instead: they can head in via Central Silent Hill, or they can go in via Shepherd's Glen. ur choice.

the trucker's a really sweet dude this Travis Grady, what a darling, obviously from Alabama, he's good humored and all but man. man there's something about him that's just. hrm.

well they decide to try to get in through Central Silent Hill though it means they'd have to go AAAALLL he way around the lake again (fuckin Toluca Lake) and ignore that Shepherd's Glen is closer, but agree that Travis had Weird Vibes and that the blockage seemed intentional which Great. Love That. Super Duper.

I ALSO DON'T THINK CYBIL WAS THERE THE FIRST TIME AROUND

ACTUALLY,

i think she's going to show up THIS time instead. which DOES mean older lady cop Cybil B) ur so welcome for that

SHE'S probably in SH herself looking for someone, or following a lead. not sure. something tells me it has to do with Alex? they might pass each other on the drive, so they see/pass Cybil's car heading in and take the exit towards Shepherd's Glen and she saw them on passing ofc.

things are TENSE the entire time bc i think that the discovery of Heather's kidnapping really was just a Bad Feeling and so they got up from the piano and went to her room and 404 DAUGHTER NOT FOUND

her phone was still on the bed tho, and the call was still active. Harry goes to pick it up and listen to the line and ask who the fuck's there and just hears someone sigh on the other end and hang up

(later, Harry's like, that situation was very Liam Neeson in Taken wasn't it lmfao wish i had the monologue memorized and James is like yeah now that you mention it. holy fuck lmaooo)

after that, Heather's phone bricks/locks itself up good and tight and useless to them. while they're really starting to panic, a radio turns on!

.. in the garage!

...... it's coming from the car!!!

they only hear it bc it's otherwise dead silent (ha) while they're up in Heather's room and just BARELY hear it so they'd have to go downstairs and into the garage and naturally it's really not THAT loud but w/e, spookiness

:)

guess what's playing :)

guess what's playing guess

ok you'll never guess so i'll tell you it's Somewhere Over The Rainbow but naturally it's the very recording that Jodi played and recorded and the one that Mary listened to all the time <3 (maybe whispering lyrics on it? mary? who knows! is it even the right time for that bit of joy fun times or would a better place for it be when they arrive in SH? probably that tbh.. so when they arrive it could ~fittingly end~ when they come up to park and just have dead air after, hmmmMM isn't workshopping whatever i find in my ass FUN

bc ALSO there's the possibility of having it play continuously for the drive and even Travis comments on it like lol you guys sure like that song huh and they look TIRED lmfao; harry's like yeah sure but this yellow brick road sucks, i prefer elton john's and travis is like LOL yeah not much of a musicals person myself or elton john for that matter but i vibe, better than copperhead road i suppose.....

James........... squints at that wonders why it sounds familiar, it pings a bell for Harry too but he has no idea, but anyway)

(they'll figure that one out later :3c)

anyway they're about to have a horrible horrible near future lmfao bc wELL

they BOTH knew that there was a high high chance that they weren't done with the Order and all that bullshit but still like :\ come ON

Douglas does show up here - but was he involved with Heather's kidnapping? mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

mmmmMMMMMMMMMm

......... sure :) you know? sure. especially since he and the Sunderland-Masons (reversed -adjacent name asldfhaog -adjacent are the Mason-Sunderlands, gotta tell the AU's apart at least a LITTLE bit i mean like. The Connotations. that are only understood by me i guess skldf) have known each other for uhhhh

glances at watch-less wrist

maybe four years at this point bc Douglas is James's AA sponsor (spoiler for what i changed in ch3! LOL) so they're familiar to say the least! a family friend :)

:) Ruh Roh :)

ANYWAY I'LL STOP HERE thank u for coming to my impromptu ted talk and causing problems, ILU THEO AND I LOVE A&S LIKE BURNIIINNNGGG