#if i were liz and kyle were right there?

[andrea-lyn]

Roswell New Mexico - Master Fic Rec Post

See under the cut for thirty-four total recs, predominantly Malex. There's also 10 additional in the "Recs Less Travelled" project here.

a few drinks and some conversation by @christchex

Michael Guerin makes a friend who isn’t his sibling, an ex, or a sibling’s ex.

Astriferous Sea by hrhbrittany, Sismyn

Alex has always been the baby among the sirens in the Dead Sea. Michael is performing beard services for his sister. Communication is a little wishy-washy.

This AU came out of nowhere and smacked me right with the ‘I’ve always wanted this and I just never knew’. It has sirens and rescues and bad guys and false relationships and real marriages and rings and drama and romance. It honestly reminds me (in the best way) of an exciting romance novel and I’m so jazzed there’s still one part left to it.

The Bachelor by Sweetgirl2019

After the events of high school, Michael, Isobel & Max moved to California while Liz, Maria & Kyle stayed in Roswell and Alex went to war overseas. Once his enlistment period ends, Alex gets thrown into something that brings him and Michael back together again.

So I think this might be my favourite to see updated right now. It should be a run-of-the-mill fluffy AU, yet the author threw this incredible curveball by using the alien background in a canon divergence to turn The Bachelor into both a romantic dramedy for the boys, but also keeping the looming threat of people finding out about aliens in the background. Also, I think this is top tier pining that you will actively feel in your own chest, that’s how good it is. 

blink back to let me know by haloud - Roswell New Mexico

Alex doesn’t have important conversations over the phone when he can avoid them. It feels too much like going in blind. But in some ways, the phone makes it easier–it’s easier to break when no one’s looking.

It’s Mylex and the 5th in a series, and every part is worth reading, but I definitely re-read parts 4 and 5 a lot. It’s so well written and the dynamic is mwah and I love how Kyle fits into this. One of my favourite pieces in this is how Kyle reacts to his father in relation to Michael & Caulfield and it’s an amazing read.

built this house on memories by @villanellve

He wakes up eight years in the future, and everything is strange, but Alex is there.

YOU GUYS. If you were to write a list of tropes I adore, this would be way up there at the top because of how much I love it. I am a sucker for a character having to be removed from their situation to learn (whether it’s an alternate universe or the future or the past), but this one is so achingly painful and perfect and hopeful. I love the callout that the situation is almost too hard for Alex, I love the resolution at the end on Michael’s part, and you could just soak in the happiness and comfort of their future lives if you let yourself.

Can’t Get No by one_flying_ace

“They’re on round two already,” he says, tilting his head towards the truck again, “or maybe three.” Guerin grimaces, and that’s fair; it’s his brother, after all. “You know how they’re feeling. Could I handle it, if you stopped-” being in control, he doesn’t say, but Guerin shudders. “I’m good, Alex. Just keep the hell away.” (Or: alien sex rocks don’t make them do it, but they sure do help.)

Sex pollen/sex-or-die fics are pretty much a requirement, but this is my absolute favourite and I have re-read it more times than I can tell you (let’s put it at six or seven?) The restraint that Michael has in this is amazing, but the mental images of it are incredible as well. I loved Max and Liz’s secondary presence as well and how each character was tonally perfect down to the little things (like Max not noticing Michael’s sex marks). What a good. What a hot. What amazing.

Constant as the Northern Star by celzmccelz

Michael stares at Kyle. “But I’m a guy! How can I be pregnant?” Kyle looks embarrassed. “Well, you appear to have a fully functioning set of female reproductive organs—or, I mean, like, the kind of reproductive organs that are associated with a double X-chromosome in humans, so I’d assume that you probably became pregnant when semen was introduced into your reproductive tract—” “Jesus Christ, Kyle!” says Michael. He could have happily lived the rest of his life without ever hearing Kyle Valenti say the words “semen” and “reproductive tract.” Kyle’s eyes widen. “Have you been having unprotected sex?” “Oh my God, I am not having this conversation with you!”

Yes, going in, there are some warnings to be cognizant of. It’s mpreg, there’s a lot of medical stuff to go through, but I think this is my absolute favourite of the mpregs I’ve read and it actually comes down to Michael’s support system outside of Alex, namely in Kyle. There’s no sudden BFF bracelets being given, but that morality that makes Kyle Valenti who he is, that’s right there. Also, given that this is an mpreg fic, it delves into family and plot in a way that I haven’t often seen. Plus, you get the ‘getting back together’ Malex that I so deeply crave.

Contigo me encontré by beautifulcheat (Katalyst), ladynox

The Lockhart House was once a home, although it was never a happy one. Steeped in tragedy, it still stands today, in the heart of Old Town Roswell, attracting ghost hunters and those seeking to catch a peak of something from beyond the veil.

Contrary to popular myth, it wasn’t currently haunted (except by one paranormally talented docent). It was Michael’s favorite job and the best part of his summer home from UNM. Or at least was until Alex Manes was hired to man the gift shop, complicating an otherwise fun and easy job.

everywhere on earth you go - @evepolastried

Across the room, he can still see how Michael Guerin is looking at him. And that’s something different, something new, something so very familiar. The thrill of nerves, of guilt, of want. Alex smiles, and he starts to sing. (OR: Alex Manes grabs his guitar and gets the hell out of Roswell in 2008, and he leaves behind a letter. Here’s what happens ten years later)

I love this. This one has something incredible, and it’s something I called out, but it has this amazing work with pace. There’s a frantic moment at the bar and it’s chaos, and you feel it. It’s rushed and wild and crazy, but then everything slows down and it gets perfect. There’s Michael, there’s Alex, there’s music, and it’s such a great ride.

Family Matters by @bestillmyslashyheart

Isobel is telepathic. Most of the time she ignores it. She used to pick up on other’s people’s emotions but she’s long since learned to tune that out. Until one night she can’t. Someone, somewhere is in such a state that it’s spilling over and she’s left to deal with the brunt of it. Or, Michael keeps things close to the vest until he can’t. The night after Alex leaves him at the drive-in, everything he’s feeling bubbles up inside until it spills over onto Isobel. Suddenly he’s left with no other choice but to open up.

This is an early fandom piece, but I still think it’s held up to an immensely amazing rate. Not only that, but I love how it delves into powers, Michael and Isobel’s relationship, and the incredible idea of spillover, which I still actively wish would become canon because of this fic. I think it’s so IC, especially with Michael’s active wish not to talk about it that he screws himself over in his sleep and seriously, it’s such a good read for both Isobel & Michael stuff, but also Michael & Alex.

the first who ever did - nostaljinks

Five times Michael saves Alex + 1 time Alex saves Michael back.

I feel like there aren’t enough words that I can heap onto this of praise. This fic is well-written, well-plotted, well-thought out, well-everything. It’s a beautiful emotional roller coaster and will make you ACHE, but in a great way. It also is the right amount of long that you want more, but you also get it, and it’s just as quality as the rest. ABSOLUTE must read.

fish bowl by @sabrinachill

Alex makes a series of phone calls and bad choices that lead him directly here — an Airstream on the edge of a junkyard with a distractingly attractive mechanic showing him how the dining table converts into a bed that he can sleep on for just $75 a week. It is, of course, completely absurd. But there’s something cozy about the fuzzy yellow blanket on the bed/table and the sparkling sunlight streaming through the mostly-clean windows, in the smell of leather and motor oil and aftershave and summer storms, in the hopeful half-smile on Michael’s face. That’s his name — Michael. Alex’s potential new roommate and landlord. (AKA An AU About Quarantined Roommates Who Fall in Love)

I highly recommend anything by @sabrinachill, but this fic is a really clear argument about why. It’s an AU that involves quarantine, and you might think ‘oh, I’ve read that before’, but then it will take you down the unexpected road that you didn’t expect to go down, but as soon as you take that twist, you instantly realize how much better it is that way. Hats off to the clever plotting not just in Fish Bowl, but other fics! 

Funny How Things Never Change - @waroftheposes​

“What can I do for you?” Michael asks, turning to face Alex. Alex can tell the moment that Michael’s mind registers who he’s addressing, because the polite smile drops from his face and the hat falls from his hand. He stands there, eyes wide and unbelieving, looking at Alex. Alex takes a deep breath, willing his racing heart to settle. “Well,” he begins and is his voice shaking? “For starters you can get your stubborn ass over here and give me a divorce.” – (A Sweet Home Alabama AU)

Yooooo, guess who was bereft when she thought she lost this link. It was absolutely me. This AU makes me happy in so many ways, especially the storms in the desert motif that keeps coming back around, and also that it’s messy. I like that it’s not cut and dry, that it goes right up until the wedding, and that it takes some real talk for them to get back together. I love fics where they all get to be human and this one is just so good. 

I Know Nothing Stays The Same by aewriting

“Alex doesn’t believe in miracles until one happens to him. His father has a hammer in one hand and Alex’s throat in the other. As Alex’s consciousness fades, he’s dimly aware of movement. His father’s about to swing the hammer, and this is how Alex will die.” When an unexplainable force puts a stop to Jesse’s attack in the shed, Alex and Michael are forced to go on the run. Leaving Roswell is an easy decision, but navigating the consequences of that choice months and even years later proves to be much more complicated.

I think this one became a must read very early on, but then it’s continued to deliver. There’s been a few stories that delve into the characters getting therapy, but there’s a whole chapter here where it genuinely feels cathartic as we go through the process with Alex. This fic also is an excellent and long version of an AU I think that we’ve all wondered, about what would happen if they ran away, and it’s so well written and so real that I know I will be re-reading this a ton. Like many of the others, why I love it is because it’s not perfection, but it’s the kind of real where I want to wrap myself up in it. 

i won’t go, i can’t do it on my own by @queersirius

alex tries to let go by giving back the pieces of michael he’s kept

Millie has a bunch of AMAZING AUs (guys, the 10 Things I Hate About You is something I never thought I’d get, especially from a favourite author), but i think this one is actually my favourite, especially when it comes to the ship piece that Alex has. Again, when I talk about ‘fics that make me want to be better’, this one was one. The writing is engaging, the characterization is fabulous, and the emotions are so honest and real. Then there’s this line, like a gut punch:  “Because it’s the last thing I have of you,” he admits. “The last piece of you I have to let go of.” which I love because it’s still Alex’s journey, an honest attempt to offer closure (if closure is wanted). 

in some other life - @spaceskam​

michael tries to build a time machine, but ends up in a different reality all together

There are a lot of these that have been written and they are all quality, but I love this one especially because of how we get into Alex in the other universe, get the glimpse of this unknown Michael, but also the scene that strikes this one out for me is that Alex doesn’t want to let him go. I love that Alex gets to be selfish, that he begs for him to stay, and that we don’t get the automatic happy ending in that, but there’s still the hope for it. Also, Alex the Angel, unf. 

intimate encounters of the third kind by @alexmanes

Three years after Antar and its people take Earth under their wings, Roswell becomes the epicenter for human-alien relations between both planets. It doesn’t take very long for Alex Manes to find himself embroiled in a scandal that threatens this intergalactic partnership, all thanks to a beautiful man named Michael Guerin who is not nearly as human as he claims to be.

Okay, so, if you like No Love Like Your Love, the truth is that you have this fic to thank. This was my first introduction in RNM fandom as to what a really amazing fic could be that incorporated the royalty elements into the pairing. Once 1x12 aired and we met Michael’s mother, it was pretty much a done deal that I wanted to do something that played with that, but this is the actual inspiration. It’s well plotted, it has a great ensemble cast, and plays with the kind of care that it takes to know your plot inside and out, but also to leave breadcrumbs that guide the reader along. It’s very methodical in the sense that nothing is by accident and it has you on the edge of your seat.

It’s a long road back to you by @magsthemagical

Michael finds out that Alex is dating Forrest and he’s okay with it, until he’s not. Maria suggests a double date to show they can all hang out as friends. But they can’t… not really. [OR the one where Michael & Alex realize that they belong together and so they say goodbye to their respective relationships and start anew]

Honest truth time - in terms of ‘ships, while I always love people to ship and let ship, my personal preference for both Michael and Alex is one another, so both Maria/Michael and Forrest/Alex aren’t things that I usually seek out when trawling Ao3. This fic is so good to all parties involved. No one is a villain and I appreciate that they get to talk about things like Alex’s reticence to do certain things in public, but also being aware that Alex deserves to have something new as much as Michael.

Last Stop: This Town by @ubiestcaelum

Someone asked what it would have been like if Michael had gone home with the Evan’s and I couldn’t let it go.

Am I cheating because I requested this? idk, maybe, because another one I requested will end up here too. I am addicted to the idea of Michael getting the support system he needs, but THIS FIC takes it to the most impossibly amazing level and fleshes out the Evans parents in such an incredible way. I love that it’s not super sunshine and rainbows, but it’s an honest telling of raising kids (and maybe too many kids versus what you expected). I know this is only in progress (several today will be), but even as it is, it’s worth reading multiple times, because I know I have.

let me count the ways by @queersirius

liz ortecho isn’t allowed to date until her snarky, determined-not-to-date brother, alex ortecho, does. luckily, one of her suitors has a plan. well, max goes to isobel for a plan, which involves getting their brother, michael, to woo alex. or, the 10 things i hate about you AU

Obviously this needs to be here as I desperately pleaded for it to exist, but it’s so beyond what it might be as a mini tumblr ficlet and has become a whole world. It’s not just a great Malex story, it’s an amazing story for all the characters and really fleshes out a world, but weaves in the RNM characters perfectly, but also gives me a dynamic I want more of, in Alex being an Ortecho. It’s not quite finished yet, but Millie has never steered us wrong and I can’t wait for more.

Loathly by @aewriting

When King Manes and his sons are caught illegally hunting on Antarian lands, King Noah gives King Manes a choice - correctly answer a riddle or accept death. A year-long search for the correct answer ensues, leading the youngest son of the king, Alex, to strike a bargain with a mysterious woman who claims to know the answer. This is an AU of the Arthurian legend “Sir Gawain and the Dame Ragnell.”

Love at First Sass - @daffietjuh

Taking a class of 30 high school kids on a school trip to an Air Force base was about as exhausting as it sounds, luckily, the Captain giving them the tour is perfectly capable of handling a group of rowdy teenagers. Michael may be slightly in love Okay, so first of all, if you haven’t read any of the author’s other work, you should. The AUs are fantastic and the hockey one is still one of my favourites ever, but this one also just was exactly what I needed. It was sexy and flirty and fun, but also fit their personalities perfectly!

Everything in the Michael Sanders AU, by prouvaireafterdark which is a fantastic series that gives us what we all wanted, which is Walt Sanders giving Michael the home he deserved (and getting one right back).

My love is a life taker by @jocarthage

By the time he turned 15, Captain Alex Manes had been to every war zone and unofficial conflict the United States of America was involved in. It wasn’t regular practice, or even heard of, for a Colonel to bring his son along on combat missions; the exception was if the child had been identified as Time Aware, able to travel in time along their own timeline using stolen alien technology. So here Alex Manes was, 28, and ducking bombs, killing who he’s told to. On his way back from a mission, Alex slips into another timestream. It should be impossible. But he can hear a child crying and he heads towards the sound. This is the story of how Alex saved Michael and Michael saved Alex, with lots of time travel shenanigans and angst.

This story is incredible for so many reasons and one of them I continue to praise is the balance. It’s an Alex driven story, but you can break his life down into friends, mission, family, and Michael, and often those elements combine, but there’s never any update that doesn’t give you enough (imo). It’s excellent writing with engaging OCs and wonderful plot, and the most incredible love story.

not in this world (or the next) by @hannah-writes

It isn’t until he realises he can’t find the keys for his fucking truck anywhere and that there’s mail on the table addressed to Mr M Evans that Noah called him ‘Evans’, too. He fumbles inside the wallet that he’d managed to locate and pulls out a New Mexico licence with his picture on it; he doesn’t have a black eye and a split lip in this one, his hair’s tamed and he doesn’t look like he’s gone three days without showering. His date of birth is stamped, clear and correct, but then where his name should read ‘Michael Guerin’, it reads “Michael Evans’ and the address registered on the license is that of Max and Isobel’s childhood home. Noah had also said ‘your mom’s’. Not ‘Mrs Evans’. It feels like a bucket of ice water’s dumped over his head as he finally accepts that something is very, very wrong. (aka, the fic spawned from a tumblr prompt about Michael waking up in a parallel reality.)

This one, guys. This is an absolute beast of angst and love and a really well plotted story, but also is really amazing for how it creates Mikey, but also creates motive behind what drives both Michael and Mikey in ways that are the same, but also different. Genuinely, this fic is a great read because you get so much attention to the characters while also driving along the relationships, and who they are. 

nursery sharks by christchex

Six firsts in the Sanders household and a second.

Otherwise Engaged by JustAsSweet

Alex Manes was perfectly happy with his job at Colden Records but when his visa is rejected and deportation looms, marrying his assistant Michael Evans is his only option. And when they make a trip to Alaska to see Michael’s family, everything becomes a lot more complicated.

AKA: The Proposal AU that no one asked for but I wrote anyway.

Shadow Work - @myrmidryad

After his discharge from the Air Force, Alex Manes is working as a shade - a professional ghost hunter - when Michael Guerin tracks him down. Alex left Roswell thirteen years ago and never went back, but overnight Michael’s family has vanished and the supernatural activity in Roswell has exploded, and he wants Alex’s help. Featuring: ghosts, more ghosts, metaphorical ghosts, and a lot of sex without talking about feelings. Also missing family members, government conspiracies, and gratuitous worldbuilding.

No, YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND. I can’t rec this enough. Literally, this is a novel-type rec. If this were a book on a shelf, I would be shouting that you need to go read it, because it is literally good enough to be a published work on a best-selling list. It’s so fucking good. Every time you think it can’t get better, it does. It has nuance and plot and world-building and it is So. Fucking. Good. I could sit here and sing praises all day and it still wouldn’t be enough. Please give yourself a holiday treat and read it.

The World Forgetting, By The World Forgot by Anonymous

Michael and Alex erase each other from their memories. It does not go according to plan. [Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Roswell style]

I mean, I could rec anything by Anonymous and it would be worth your read. They’re so good and so in character,  but this one is my favourite. It’s angsty as fuck, don’t get me wrong, but it plays with the movie plot in such a Roswell-specific way that makes sense that I honestly never even compared or contrasted it to the movie past the first few beats. The pain is visceral, and the memory loss segment is incredible, but also delivers on a positive ending. 

To Trust Love by @laughsalot3412 

The prisoner’s voice sounded like home. He could have been raised in Roswell, the way his accent stretched his vowels. He definitely hadn’t been. Alex would have remembered eyes like those. (AU where Alex Manes goes on an undercover rescue mission in Caulfield Prison and forms a bond with one of the prisoners in the process.)

I don’t have enough words in the English language to praise this one. Honestly, I don’t. For one, the pace and the length is perfect. That we got the parts as quickly as we did was honestly such a treat, but then every part was just as high quality as the last. There are chapters in this one that made me go, “holy shit, this would’ve been a novel I read”, and then there are little emotional impacts where the tone shifts, but it works so well. It’s SO HOT, and the AU is so perfect, and also helped inspire the one that I wrote last night with the “genie”. 

Unwind Me - delgay

“Think you can manage that? Sitting next to me, without picking a fight?” Michael challenged. “Can you?” Alex returned. “No idea,” Michael admitted with a sideways grin that never failed to make Alex’s stomach turn over, “But I’m eager to find out.” Alex is avoiding everyone, but he can’t seem to escape Michael.

This whole fic is intensely amazing, but it got on my rec list for the absolutely electric scene with the dancing that was absolutely beyond incredible. You also get Michael courting Alex, which is something he utterly deserves and I love the way Michael goes about it. 

we feel so american by thepredatorywasp

“Papa’s on the spaceship again?” River asks, his bright green eyes welling with tears and his face growing red. “Comin’ back?” “Of course he is,” Alex says, smoothing down the son’s hair and adjusting the Mickey ears atop his head. “Always.” There is no easy way to explain to your three year-old that not only is he an alien, but his Papa is an alien and that apparently, Michael loves leaning hard into irony because he has gone on Space Mountain approximately ten times over the course of four days.

LOOK. I LOVE A SWEET KID FIC. The next rec will prove this, but this one will melt your fucking heart. I love it because it’s not perfect and easy. There’s difficulties, there are issues, but it’s Michael and Alex and their baby boy in Disney and if you do not come away feeling warmer from this, then I just don’t know. 

We’re Waking Up Slow by myrmyriad

“I think need a little time to process all of this. Um. Storm’s getting closer and I don’t really wanna get snowed in here, so…let’s just talk later, okay?” What if the storm that blew in during S01E10 came in a lot faster and heavier, and Alex was snowed in at the junkyard?

Again, fic that makes me wish that I could write as well as this. This one makes you feel it all. You’ll feel the cold, the wet, the storm, the pain, the hope, the healing. You feel the connection between Michael and Alex, and you’ll be left wishing at the end that this had been how canon went, but also that it’s justifiably not that far off from how it could have, had they taken a different tack, because of how well it’s written. 

What’s Up, Pregnant? by Marie_L

Michael Guerin is broke, practically homeless, and a knocked up secret alien. What now?

Speaking of kid fics, this mpreg is one that I really like, because if nothing else, it introduced the concept of mpreg using pods to me in the fandom, and I kind of went, “YES, of course”. I love that it’s got everyone rallying, but I mostly love the psychic connection between Michael and his baby, and the softness of loving sugar and Alex. 

With Love Overflowing by Nestra

"We both agree that this is not the place we belong, right? Please say yes."

Michael tossed his hat on the coffee table and dropped onto the couch. "If you mean that your dad's been dead since CrashCon and some kind of crazy shit is going on, then yeah, I agree."

(This one was for me for Secret Santa, it is just THAT GOOD that I want everyone in the world to read it)

x marks the spot (where we fell apart) by catching_paper_moons, preciousthings

“Don’t write it off,” Alex says, and Liz is so relieved someone is coming to her defense, even if it’s someone who already knew beforehand. “Liz and Kyle have ideas, and there are people in this room with literal superpowers. It’s pretty much our only option.” “Our only option?” Isobel scoffs. “What are we, Ocean’s Eleven?”

[kimberly-stocks]

HI. I read that you're looking for writing advice. I would love to read your "fix it" about what happened in Kyle's room. I love your writing.

You want it, we got it 😎 maybe it's not exactly what you pictured, but it sort of just came into my head for some reason.

Kyle's bedroom fix-it

"I don't know what I did," Rory turned to leave, but Jess caught her right before she managed to turn the doorknob.

"You didn't do anything, Rory, I'm sorry, could you just wait?" He grabbed her wrist and turned her to look at him. There were tears in her eyes and it broke his heart how hurt she looked.

"What is going on, Jess? And if you say nothing I swear to God, I'm gonna walk out of this room and never come back. Just for once in your life tell me what's going on with you?"

He took a ragged breath, let go of her arm and took a few steps back, pacing, running his fingers through his hair. He looked like a caged animal, and it scared her. There was clearly something wrong, and she didn't know what it was.

"Can you sit for a second?" He looked at her with wild eyes, with a desperate look she's never seen before. So she went past him and sat in the chair. The idea of sitting on that bed made her stomach twist. Not because she was afraid of him, but she didn't want any distractions from what he had to say.

He took a shaddering breath, his throat closed up, so when he finally spoke it sounded more like a sob than anything else. "Rory... I fucked up."

"What do you mean?"

"I ... I can't take you to prom," he exhaled harshly.

"Oh..." Tears well up in her eyes again. The one thing she asked of him, the one thing she wanted so much, and he couldn't do that. "Why?"

He was heaving, his chest rising and falling rapidly, he never stopped pacing, like if he stopped he would die or something. And then the words just fell out of his mouth, unstoppable, everything he kept inside bottled up just spilled all over the place.

"Turns out I flunked out. I wanted to take you to prom I promise, but when I went to get tickets, they called me to the principal's office and he said tickets are only for those who graduate, which I don't. I'm not gonna graduate. I missed too many days. I thought I had it under control, I swear I had it under control. I was going enough! I had a schedule mapped out and everything. I don't know how that happened. And Luke doesn't know, and he's gonna kick me out now because that was the deal between us when I came back after the accident. That I can only stay with him if I graduate. And now that I'm not graduating I'll have to leave Stars Hollow, and I don't know where I'm gonna go. My car is stolen, so I'm gonna have to take a bus, which is not cheap, and I don't know if I should go back to New York, it's expensive to live there on my own, and Liz is probably long gone now, so I wouldn't have a place to crash in the long run. Fuck! I'm sorry, Rory. I'm so fucking sorry." He plopped on the bed leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, burying his hands in his hair.

Rory was silent for a minute digesting everything he just said. Jess flunked out of school. He can't take her to prom. He's not going to graduate. His entire future is screwed up. But after a few moments when the fog of being upset cleared a bit, an analytical part of her brain kicked in, the journalist in her started processing all the facts he laid before her. He missed too many days. Luke doesn't know. That can't be happening. In Chilton her mom was contacted when she missed one day of school to go to New York. Sure, Stars Hollow High was no Chilton, but they still have to have the policy about missing school. Something wasn't adding up.

"Luke is not gonna kick you out," she said calmly. Jess raised his head to look at her, she had a concentrated look on her face, her brows furrowed and her lips pursed. "If you were missing so many days, the school was supposed to contact your legal guardian to notify him about it, so that he could rectify the situation. If Luke doesn't know, they didn't contact him at all, which I'm assuming is true, because he would've gone on another one of his rants and not only you, but the whole diner would know about it. The school failed you. They were supposed to take action before it was too late, but they didn't. And it's against the rules, I'm pretty sure there has to be some sort of code of conduct for the school or something. I can find it, and I'm gonna go to Luke and talk to him, he's gonna get mad, and it's better if I talk to him, not you. Because he's just gonna fly off the handle if it's you. But he can't yell at me. So I'm gonna talk to Luke, he's not gonna kick you out. Which, by the way, is messed up in its own right. You're his family, and you should have the right to stay with him with no stings attached. And we're gonna go to your school, and make them reconsider their decision. Because what they did is wrong, and biased and unfair. They failed you. THEY did it. Sure, you could've gone a little more, but it was their responsibility to take action and help you if you struggled. I'm not gonna sit around and watch them screw up your entire future, just because some stupid secretary didn't do their job." She stood up to pace. "I am going to call some local TV channel or something to shed light on the biased treatment of a student, so that principal Murton would have an interesting call from the authorities, I can ask Paris if she can help, and she's like a pitbull, they don't want to mess with her, trust me. I am going to ask my grandpa if he knows some lawyer or someone who can help me sue their asses or at least threaten them with it, or something! But I'm gonna fight for you! I'm sure Luke and I can do something to rectify that, we can file a complaint, make them have an internal investigation or something. Maybe you would have to take some summer classes or do some assignments or whatever, but they can't just kick you out like that. They failed you. And I am not gonna sit around and watch them do stuff like that to you, I am just simply not gonna do that. They can't ruin your future like that, let you lose your diploma on a technicality. Not if I have anything to say about it." She stopped pacing and turned to him abruptly, fire in her eyes. He was looking at her with something akin to pure awe, speechless, thunderstruck. She looked like a goddess of justice, gorgeous in her righteous anger, eyes flashing, back straight, hands clenched into fists, a force of nature, a force to be reckoned with. A true Gilmore.

"I don't deserve you," he finally managed to say.

"I'm not a gold medal to be deserved," she huffed. "I'm just a girl who loves her boyfriend and wants him to have a fair treatment." Both of them were stunned for a moment, staring at each other, they never said the L-word out loud. But the more she looked at him, the more right it felt. She really did love him. And she wanted to protect him, to do anything in her power to help and let him have the life he deserved. A better life, the best life, something he's never had. If fighting for someone wasn't love than Rory didn't know what was.

A/N: someone here on Tumblr posted about it being weird Jess missed so many days without Luke knowing and without anyone trying to figure out what was going on and help him. I'm not an American, so I wouldn't know how that actually works. But let's just assume that person on Tumblr was right. Because that inspired me to write this fix-it this way.

[pastelwitchling]

Hi :) Would you (or did you already) write a fic where we get to see Kyle fussing over Alex when he takes him to Deep Sky after rescuing him from the pocket dimension?

***

“If you say you’re fine, Manes, I swear to God—”

“I’m not going to say I’m fine,” Alex chuckled, and even then the sound was choked with pain. Alex tried to smile, but the dark veins over his heart had spread too far up his neck and almost to one elbow. He looked pale and sickly and—Kyle couldn’t help but think it—wrong.

Alex Manes didn’t look sick and weak. Alex Manes didn’t lie on a hospital bed without the strength it took to hold Michael’s hand as his gripped the bedside railing with enough strength to bend it.

“You can fix this, right?” Michael demanded, his other hand surprisingly gentle as it brushed Alex’s bangs back and brushed the shell of his ear. “You can—you can fix it?”

Even with his eyes fluttering and his breaths quiet and shallow, Alex blindly reached up to cover Michael’s hand with his own. Michael gripped it with no small amount of relief.

“Fix radiation poisoning?” Kyle demanded. He was lucky they were in Deep Sky’s headquarters, or his answer would’ve been a determined but very delusional “Hell, yeah!” As it stood, he knew there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t try for his best friend, and this place was the place to try anything, which was why he was already pulling on his surgical gloves and prepping the tools he’d need for what was sure to be a long few hours. “Damn right I can.”

“Brave,” Alex grinned wearily. “I like that.”

“You’re brave,” Kyle argued. “I’m desperate.” He heaved a frustrated sigh as he pulled down Alex’s shirt collar. The damage was far worse than he’d imagined, and he hoped his face didn’t show it. But Alex chuckled.

“Just say it,” he murmured. “I know it’s bad.”

“It’s not bad,” he said at once. “It’s just not great.” He shut his eyes, his frustration mounting the longer Alex calmly laid there like he was suffering no more than a fever. It was driving Kyle crazy. “Why . . . Alex, you . . .”

Alex studied him carefully with half-lidded eyes, and even in his dazed state, he managed to see right through him because he told Michael, “Guerin, leave the room, please.”

Michael clenched his jaw. “Not a chance in hell, Alex.”

Alex sighed. “I don’t think you want to hear whatever Kyle has to say. Please, just go.”

“I’m not leaving you,” he glared.

“Better late than never,” Kyle said before he could help himself.

Michael glared, but looked unsurprised. Apparently, he’d seen the anger brewing on Kyle’s face for a while, too. “Spit it out, Valenti. I need you focused on healing Alex, so whatever’s in the way, get it out now.”

“Fine,” Kyle said, gripping the railing if only to keep from grabbing Michael and shaking him. “Where was this care and attention when Alex actually needed it? He’s only this far gone because you took your sweet time getting to him, so why wasn’t he more important when it mattered?!”

“Kyle,” Alex tried.

“No, Alex, no,” he cut him off. “No more damn excuses! You were stuck in a hole and where was your boyfriend? Playing super spy with the other aliens! Oh, but it’s okay, because he felt really bad about not realizing that it was weird you never checked in or called or answered his texts. And when we found out where you were, was that finally enough to get him to care? No, because one word from Max or Maria or Liz, and he was happy waiting on the damn sidelines for you to find your own way out, right? You were trapped in another world because everyone knew how important you were to him, and he was having a beer with Maria in front of a fire! You could’ve been dying for all anyone knew and”—he barked a humorless laugh—“hell, you were! And he still wanted to wait it out!”

He turned his tear-filled glare on Michael, every ounce of grief for his friend shining in the shake of his voice as he pointed at him with a trembling finger and said, “I won’t let him die, I won’t let anything happen to him, but when he comes out of this unscathed, it sure as hell won’t be because of you.”

Alex couldn’t seem to look at him, and Michael couldn’t seem to look away. But where Alex’s expression was tired and weak, Michael’s was furious and . . . miserable. He opened and closed his mouth several times like the words refused to leave him. “Feel better?”

His voice was so broken that Alex frowned, but Kyle thought it was only fair. At least he was now the one who was suffering under the weight of what he’d done to the man he loved.

“Not yet,” he heaved. Then, “I know you love Alex. But I stand by what I said before this whole mess. Alex has been trying and trying to reach out to you long before he ever got lost, and this was when he needed you to try back, and you didn’t. He is in here because you didn’t care enough to try. And I hope this moment haunts you for the rest of your life, Guerin, because if that’s what it takes for you to actually show how you feel about my best friend, then I’ll take it.

“There,” he huffed. “Now I feel better.”

Michael nodded and finally tore his gaze away and as he did, a tear rolled down his cheek, silencing Kyle at once. He brushed back Alex’s bangs and pressed a trembling kiss to his forehead. “I’m going to go catch the son of a bitch that did this, okay? I’ll be right back.”

“Guerin?” Alex tried, but was too weak to lift his head.

Michael pressed another kiss to his cheek, then his knuckles, before he gently set his hand down on the bed. “I’ll be right back, Private.”

He kept his eyes on Alex as long as he could, and then he turned and was out the door. Alex sighed, eyes shut. “Kyle, this wasn’t Michael’s fault.”

                Kyle shook his head, pulling the overhead light closer. Alex would need to go under soon, and Kyle kept telling himself that he would wake back up.

                “You get to expect bad things from bad people, Manes,” he said simply. “That doesn’t apply to the man you love. Now look at me, count back from ten, and try to relax.”

                *

                Michael had been careful about not venturing too far from Deep Sky during Alex’s surgery, in case he was needed. Not five minutes after he’d gotten the text from Kyle that the operation had gone well was Michael bursting through the automatic doors faster than they could open, his shoulder slamming into the glass and making it rattle.

                “Where is he?” he demanded at once to Kyle when he found him the hall. “How is he? Can I see him? He’s fine, right? He’s fine?”

                Kyle sighed, the relief coloring his voice as he said, “He’s fine,” he confirmed, and tilted his head at the door a few feet behind him. “He’s still asleep. You can see him, and he’ll be in pain for a few days, but the prototype serum worked. He’s clean.”

                Michael moved past him to the door, stopped, and without turning to face him said, “I love him more than anything, you know.”

                “I know,” he confirmed, and put his hands in his pockets, smirking faintly. “And he knows. He still deserves to see it.”

                Michael swallowed, not knowing what to say to that, and went into Alex’s room to find him fast asleep, head turned to the side and hair splayed against his pillow. Alex still looked tired, his brows pinched in pain, but the heaviness of the radiation poisoning was gone from his expression, and the sickly yellow of his face had faded.

                Now that Michael was in front of him, his steps slowed. He couldn’t help but think about his Alex and the time he’d spent in the liminal space. How many nights, how many hours or minutes or however much time he dared, not knowing if he would wake up again, did he sleep just like this? Terrified and knowing he couldn’t let it take over? Clinging to the hope that Michael was doing whatever it took to get him back? To save him? When had he started giving that hope up?

                “You plan on staring at me all day?” Alex murmured, and opened his eyes. A small smile tugged at his lips, and the way he looked at Michael loosened something in his chest. Michael released a breath he didn’t know he was holding and closed the distance between them in under a second, taking Alex’s face in his hands and smothering his cheeks and eyes and forehead and nose and lips with kisses.

                “Mmh—Guerin,” Alex tried, his voice colored with tired laughter, the only sign that Michael at least wasn’t hurting him. “I’m okay.”

                Michael pressed his forehead to Alex’s temple, heaving a long, shaky breath. “You’re okay,” he whispered, reminding himself, one hand on Alex’s arm, the other on his head, holding on with a bruising grip. “Y-You’re okay. You’re okay, baby.”

                “You’re okay, too,” Alex chuckled. “Breathe.”

                Michael swallowed, unwilling to move away from Alex’s cool touch, his vanilla scent. One of Alex’s hands was on his hip, his thumb brushing his waist as if to calm him. Like Michael was the one who’d spent endless weeks alone, fighting every day with nothing but wit and bare strength to stay alive, and then almost dying in a strange place anyway.

                Michael pulled back just far enough to drag a chair in as close to Alex’s bed as he could manage and sat down, both his hands gripping one of Alex’s tightly, his lips brushing Alex’s knuckles.

                “Let’s get married,” he said. “Right now. I can call Dallas, Isobel and Max could be here in under ten minutes, Gregory will make it to the afterparty and—”

                “Gregory’s caught up at the reservation,” Alex grinned into his pillow, “and I think your brother needs at least a minute to breathe after everything.”

                “I want to marry you,” Michael said, and winced at how much it sounded like an argument to his own ears. But he really didn’t care. “I want to marry you right now. I want you to be mine—”

                “I already am.”

                “—and I want to be yours—”

                “There was never any question of that.”

                He clenched his jaw. “This isn’t funny, Alex,” he said, his eyes burning. “I almost lost you, don’t you get that?”

                “And you think us getting married this very second is going to keep us safe from the reality of our own lives?” he scoffed. “Good luck with that.”

                “Would you stop?” Michael demanded, the tears falling in big fat drops before he could process them. “Stop acting like what happened to you was okay.”

                Alex shut his eyes. “It wasn’t okay, Michael, but I’m used to near-death experiences, it’s hardly anything new.”

                “I don’t want your life with me to be another near-death experience!” he snapped, and silence fell over their heads. Michael stared Alex down, fury and desperation surging through every inch of him, and yet when he tried to speak again, his voice came out as no louder than a breath.

                “I should’ve known something was wrong,” he said. “I should’ve known that you’d check in that first night or—or that you’d at least text me. I should’ve known you’d answer my calls and want to hear my voice, and I ignored all the warning signs because I didn’t want anything to be wrong.”

                He huffed, wiping his face roughly with his forearm. “I was such a coward . . . I was so scared about—about chasing you away again or . . . realizing that you just didn’t care enough to talk to me . . . that it wasn’t bothering you being away like it was bothering me . . . that I left you to die.” He grit his teeth. “So, please, don’t laugh it off, don’t pretend I didn’t hurt you, don’t tell me that it’s fine, Alex, because it’s not fine.”

                Alex considered him. Then he smiled softly, and said, “I spent every minute . . . of every day . . . waiting for you.” Michael tensed. “When I couldn’t walk anymore, I prayed I’d wake up to your face. I was so sure that you knew I was missing that first hour I didn’t check in.” He chuckled miserably. “I hoped you missed me the minute I left and tried to call me. And when I found out how long it had taken till you even knew . . . and then how much longer afterward? It broke my heart.”

                He inhaled shakily, his smile dimming as a single tear rolled down the bridge of his nose. “The worst part of it was that in that truck, when we were together . . . I figured that after everything I’d done to you . . . I deserved to be abandoned for a while. Get a taste of my own medicine.”

                “Alex,” Michael stood at once, and with such force that his chair fell backwards.

                “I know,” Alex shut his eyes. “Guerin, I know. But I knew I was dying and that my time with you was on the clock, and you have to let me get a little morbid. Even if, looking back at it now, I know it was stupid.”

                “Beyond stupid!” he argued. “Unbelievably stupid!” Against his better judgement, he climbed onto the bed and hovered over Alex, pinning his wrists to the bed. “Doubt whatever you want, Private, but never me. Never how I feel for you.” He cupped Alex’s jaw, his heart expanding painfully in his chest as Alex’s eyes fluttered at his touch and he turned into his palm. “I love you, and I’m going to spend the rest of our lives showing you. No more doubt, no more fear, no more anything against what we want for either of us. Not ever again, Manes.”

                The sparkle in Alex’s eyes was like lightning to Michael’s heart. “Guerin,” he breathed, reaching up to wrap his arms around Michael’s neck and pulling him down to kiss him. Their lips were inches apart, a breath—

                “HEY!” Kyle snapped. “Get off my patient!”

                Michael, ignoring Kyle, rested his body over Alex’s and hugged him tightly, nuzzling his neck. Against Alex’s collarbone, he said, “He wants me to kiss him, leave us alone.”

                “Guerin, he’s recovering!” Kyle argued, running up to Michael and yanking uselessly on his arm. The benefits of alien powers. “Oh my—your horny ass is not my problem, you insane alien cowboy freak, GET OFF HIM!”

***

Happy Malex Monday ❤

[jule1122]

Malex Thanksgiving Ficlet

Just a little holiday fluff.

Read it on AO3

When Michael decided he wanted to host Thanksgiving, he imagined a table covered in delicious, picture perfect food, with their friends and family gathered around it, smiling and laughing.  It was nothing like that.

Michael was so worried about undercooking the turkey that it was quite possibly the driest thing any of them had ever tasted.  Alex had underestimated the amount of time it would take the mashed potatoes to boil so by the time he finished them, the sweet potatoes were cold and had to be reheated.  The crock pot blew a fuse, and Michael cut his hand opening the green beans and bled into the casserole so they had to start it again.

But Maria brought Mimi’s famous cornbread stuffing, and Greg had taken up baking during the pandemic and made rolls that rivaled any bakeries.  The turkey wasn’t bad if you poured enough gravy on it, and no one was more surprised than Alex when his mashed potatoes were deemed worth the wait.

Michael - exhausted from getting up at 3am to start the turkey - fell asleep during Dallas’s blessing.  But Dallas made Max cry so everyone was too busy teasing him to notice Alex nudge Michael awake.  Kyle keeps checking the football scores on his phone, and Bonnie and Rosa get into a loud debate about some band only the two of them have ever heard of.

Liz forgot the pies, but Isobel brought double the wine requested and that seems to make up for it.  After Isobel breaks three glasses trying to clear the table with telekinesis, Kyle takes over and cleans the kitchen to surgical precision.  Alex makes popcorn everyone is too full to eat, and Kyle finally gets to watch the late game.

Alex and Michael fall asleep on the couch while Max and Dallas are bringing the tree in from the garage.  When they wake up the house is empty and quiet, the tree is up, the lights strung, and the ornament boxes stacked neatly next to it.

Alex yawns and hugs Michael to him.  “Wow, that was. . .”

“A disaster.”

“Perfect.”

They say at the same time.

“Best Thanksgiving of my life,” Alex tells him sincerely.

“Mine too,” Michael agrees.  “But we’re not doing it again, right.”

“Hell no,” Alex says, then catches the way Michael winces. “You already invited them for Christmas, didn’t you?”

“I love you,” is Michael’s only reply.

“I love you too,” Alex sighs. “There’s always catering.”

“Or a Christmas miracle.”

[lesbianmaxevans]

MAX EVANS WEEKEND 2023 September 22 - Latent Hero ➤ refusal of self/powers

[Image Description: Five stacked gifs from Roswell, New Mexico.

First: Two scenes -- Max cries as he sets Rosa's car on fire and Rosa's dead body in the car. There is a transition overlay that slowly reveals the shot of Rosa in the car. There is text on the gif that reads, "Maybe you can figure out a way to end all this. Make us normal. You were right earlier. Isobel's dangerous. We all are." Second: The gif is split vertically into two scenes. On the left, Max says, "If Liz won't stop, then you have to do it. Go to the pod, pull me out, and walk away. You won't be killing me, Rosa. I'm already dead." On the right, Kyle (offscreen) says, "You could've at least given me a fighting chance at saving you." Max, exasperated, responds, "I'm not asking you to save me!" Third: The gif is split diagonally into four triangles, with a pinkish-purple cutout shape of a hand directly in the center of the gif. On the top and right triangles, Noah says, "You're the savior. Now that you're all grown up they'll come." Max responds, "You've got it all wrong. I'm no savior." On the left and bottom triangles, Tezca says, "You're wasting your potential trying to save one small town when there's a whole planet that needs saving." Max responds, "That is not my responsibility." Fourth: The gif is split vertically into two scenes. On the left, Max says, "Saving people destroys me, but killing Noah? That felt good. I was high. And whenever I think about what he did to you, I wanna chase that high." On the right, Max says, "I ran to him as a kid. I chose him. And no matter how many awful things Jones does, I’m still drawn to him." Fifth: Two scenes -- Max accidentally burns Liz as he touches her and Max kissing Bonnie. There is a transition overlay that slowly reveals the scene of Max and Bonnie kissing. There is text on the gif that reads, "When I tried to propose to Liz, she told me that she was worried about when the next alien threat would come knocking on her door, when the next shoe would drop. And I don't know how to tell her that I think I'm the shoe."]

[notsowrites]

i'll save you a seat

Summary: Alex has something important to tell Maria about Michael.

A/N: more from my "in a sky built before us" verse, which is basically my re-imagined S3/S4 and everything going forward.

[Read on AO3]

----------

“What was so important we needed to meet up here?” Maria asks as she approaches where he's sitting on the steps of the gazebo in the middle of town.

Alex doesn't reply right away, just pats the space next to him, and waits for her to sit.

“Alex-” she whines, glancing around before finally relenting, and falling into the spot next to him.

“I asked Michael to marry me.”

He knows he's dropping a bombshell on her, because they've technically only just started dating officially and publicly for the first time ever. No one really knows about the years of back and forth between them, and how hard they'd been trying to get to a place to be together. And Alex knows that part of that is his own fault, for keeping Michael his own closely guarded secret.

But he's never going to regret the things he's done to keep Michael safe.

He doesn't know what to expect in regards to a reaction from her, so the initial shock that crosses her face isn't a surprise.But as the words sink in, she hits him on the arm, her shock quickly morphing into something else.

“When?”

“While I was stuck in that alternate dimension.”

Her eyes narrow ever so slightly, and he immediately wonders if she's doing the math.

“That was weeks ago!”

And she's right, it was weeks ago. During that fit of desperation where for a moment Alex believed he wasn't going to survive whatever health issues the alternate dimension was causing him. It had been a dying wish at the time, to make sure he got to at least ask Michael to marry him before he died.

But as the black fractals burns receded, eventually disappearing completely, Alex had understood what an emotional and rash decision it had been. It wasn't that he wanted to take it back - he refused to see a downside in being engaged to Michael - but at least now they had time.

Time to date, properly. Time to do all the things they'd never gotten a chance before.

“It wasn't important with all that other stuff going on-”

“Yes it was!”

“-but I wanted you to know because I have a favor to ask.”

“I don't know,” Maria immediately replies, turning away from him. “I'm kinda mad at you right now.”

He knows she's lying.

“We want to get married here,” he continues, motioning around to the gazebo and the town square, “and have the reception at the Pony.”

She finally looks back at him, as if considering. “Did you talk to Isobel? She's the one with all the town events planning background.”

“Michael's telling her.”

Alex can't remember what made them decide today, of all days, was the one they were going to start telling people about the engagement and their plans for the wedding. There's been weeks now of dates to the Crashdown, and Planet 7, and even to the Pony. They've taken walks around town together, holding hands and letting everyone see. He's even pushed Michael against the bricks on the side of the Crashdown to kiss him when he's been overcome with the urge to feel his lips.

And then there's been watching Michael slowly move into the house. The way it was clear that he'd been trying in those days Alex had been trapped in the alternate dimension, but clearly still had trouble with moving completely out of the junkyard. It'd been slow - some clothes first, Alex making space in the closet and letting Michael choose which side he wanted. The slow appearance of Michael's textbooks and research materials from his trailer had Alex reconsidering the set up in the study. Quiet mornings waking up together, having breakfast on the terrace together or long showers after a round of slow morning sex. 

But in the end, Michael agreed to break the news to Isobel, and Max. And Alex got Maria, Liz, and Kyle. 

He knew Isobel would be the tougher work, because Michael would have to reel in her attempts at planning some big fancy event. Neither of them wanted it, they'd talked a bit about it already - Michael agreeing that small and simple was enough for them. He'd even made a comment that if Isobel wants to plan a big wedding, she can do it for Liz, or Maria - or even her own.

“I'm so happy for you,” Maria finally replies, leaning forward and wrapping him in her arms. Alex immediately relaxes into her embrace, feeling the tension that has settled into his shoulders earlier melt away. He can't explain why he was nervous to tell her, only that he worried she'd say it was too soon. 

A fear that he knows is mostly unfounded - Maria has always been, and still is, one of his biggest supporters in life.

When she pulls back, he watches as she glances around, as if taking the gazebo in with a new perspective, turning back to look at him. “You really meant it, didn't you? That you wanted to get married here.”

Of course she remembered that day between them, Alex doesn't know why he's surprised. 

“You know I didn't like to dream too hard about things,” he replies, knowing she understands his old good enough dreams, “but everything feels different now.”

She nods along as he speaks, taking hold of his hands, her attention turning to his fingers.

“No ring?”

Alex laughs at that, because it hadn't really crossed his mind that they'd need any sort of engagement rings. It's such a normative tradition - but then again, there is something that perhaps could mean the same thing.

Freeing one of his hands, Alex reaches up and pulls out the alien glass pendant necklace from where it's tucked beneath his shirt, holding it out for Maria to see.

“Michael gave me this, right before I left on the trip with Forrest,” he explains, holding the pendant in between his fingers. “I almost lost it in that other dimension, but Michael found it.”

Maria smiles, rolling her eyes just a bit. “Guerin really just became a jewelry maker overnight, didn't he?”

The question makes him realize she's not wearing her bracelet, which means the injections of the cure that Liz developed seem to be holding. He's heard Kyle talk about how there's been some small changes to her brain scans, perhaps an effect of the protein being reintroduced into her system.

But it means that he's not going to have to watch her slip away. That she's not going to become lost, like Mimi has. 

“No more bracelet?” He asks, sliding his hand down to her wrist.

She shakes her head in response. “Doesn't seem to be a point now.”

He supposes that's true as well.

“So,” Maria says after a moment, smiling back at him. “Are we going to be strong arming Arturo to cook for this thing?”

Alex smiles back, because that's the next order of business today. But telling her, making sure she was the first one to find out, that mattered most to him.

[turquoiseorchid]

what is roswell about? i've never seen anyone else post about it but you've got me intrigued

Ooh, join us! Roswell New Mexico has 4 seasons (2019-2022) with 13ish eps each; it was on the CW and is available on Netflix. (It’s a remake of a 90s or early 00s show just called Roswell. That one’s on Hulu and I’ve only seen a few episodes.) Overall, it’s about aliens living in Roswell and their human friends/love interests, plus a few alien-related mysteries. Most of my summary will be about season one and I’ll leave the rest for you to see for yourself.

Liz (human) comes back to Roswell ten years after high school, discovers her high school crush is an alien, and then finds out her sister had been killed by aliens. This and other developments lead to their whole social circle getting in on the secret and there’s a bunch of love triangles.

If I knew who you were, dear anon, I’d tailor this to what fandoms we’ve already got in common but to cover some of the likely options and their high level comparisons: If you like Leverage, this has found family and the love triangles can easily be shipped as throuples/polycules. If you like The Magicians then same as leverage plus canon queer characters and magic(technically science) powers. If you like Supernatural, there can be a lot of overlap between malex and destiel (for better and worse). If you’re still here from my Torchwood days, again queer characters with messy relationships and a lot of snark.

Let’s introduce some of the characters!

In the Pod Squad (the three main aliens), we’ve got Isobel, Max, and Michael (left to right in gif). Max and Isobel were adopted together and grew up as the Evans twins while Michael was a foster kid but all three are inseparable. Isobel starts off the series as someone whose identity is mainly focused on wife/sister/volunteer but breaks down her walls and grows into a total badass. Often portrayed in fanon as “the woman with the brain cell” for better or worse. Max is a writer-turned-cop and total romantic who has been pining for his high school crush (Liz) for over a decade and risks his family secret in order to save her and struggles with choosing between her safety and his family’s. Michael is an angsty bisexual mechanic with a troubled past and became many people’s blorbo on sight. He too has a high school sweetheart (Alex) who he’s never gotten over but grows enough to find healthy relationships and let people in. They all have various powers including telekinesis, healing, and mind control/influencing.

And now for Team Human! Liz is a scientist who left town after graduation because her sister died from (apparently) drunk driving and gets shot an hour after she returns. The lack of being dead causes her to investigate/confront her crush (Max) and learns about aliens, leading to the realization that her sister was killed by an alien and the crash was a coverup. The first person who she brings in is her ex-boyfriend, Kyle, a jock-turned-surgeon with a strong moral compass who tries to rein in the mad scientist tendencies of his ex-girlfriend (who he still has feelings for).

Next in on the whole alien thing is Alex, a gay emo who had a secret thing with Michael in high school before leaving to join the Air Force. He’s back in town (minus a leg) and has his plate full with finding out that his abusive homophobic dad runs a secret military team hunting aliens and oh hey, his high school boyfriend turns out to be an alien! He’s best friends with Maria, a psychic who runs the local bar. Besides bartending, she splits her time between fortune telling as a side hustle, encouraging Alex about his old flame (secretly Michael), and nursing a crush on the local barfly/mechanic (also Michael).

(Fun fact: I have no idea how to use tumblr’s gif search so both of the human gifs were found through their respective throuple ship tags.)

There are plenty of ships around depending on your preference but the most prevalent is malex (Michael/Alex), it’s nearly inescapable. Echo is Max/Liz and generally well liked. Isobel starts off with a husband (Noah) but also gets other love interests. The two main throuples are malexa (malex plus Maria) and kaliz (echo plus Kyle).

Anyone else please feel free to add why Anon should watch RNM!

[aydann-runs]

Growing up, Michael had tried so hard to be good.  Good enough to be wanted, kept.  For a long time, he thought that meant keeping his head down, working hard at school.  Staying out of trouble.  Sacrificing so that the people he cared about wouldn't have to.

But it hadn't been enough.  It had backfired so spectacularly that even Max, who knew the truth, had found it so easy to see the worst in him when he’d started living down to everyone's expectations.  Isobel had pitied him.  And Alex, he'd given Alex plenty of reasons to keep walking away.

So for a long time, he'd given up trying to be good, whatever that even meant.  There were bar fights and stays in the drunk tank.  One night stands with tourists blowing through town and lonely Roswell housewives alike.  Sanders putting up with his hangovers and surly attitude for far longer than Michael had deserved.

And then Alex had come back to Roswell, and Michael had desperately wanted to be worth sticking around for.  But he'd learned the hard way that hope only hurt, and so he'd hidden behind his macho cowboy swagger, and they'd danced around each other, fucking and fighting, until Michael just couldn't anymore.

I want to be good for somebody, he'd said before walking away.

He'd tried to be good for Maria, and he liked to think he was.  He'd loved her and done his best to make her happy, to take care of her.  But Maria had needed to find her own way, and Michael was set adrift again.

It would have been easy to say Fuck it, I tried, and go back to being the town drunk.  But Michael still wanted to be good.  To feel like he deserved Isobel's love, to keep rebuilding his relationship with Max.  To be someone his friends could rely on.

To be the person Alex would stick around for.

When Alex had gotten back to town, they'd had a rocky start, and it would have been easy to give up then, too.  But Michael had come too far to throw it all away, and so he pushed through, until eventually he and Alex had gotten it right.

And now, Michael gets to fall asleep every night with Alex beside him, and ease out of bed in the morning to make coffee so it's ready when Alex wakes up.  They spend lazy Sundays on the couch watching Netflix, or driving out to the desert just because, or having family dinner at the Crashdown with Iz and Kyle, Max and Liz.

And if Michael ever doubts whether he's good and wanted and kept, Alex reassures him with the weight of his body as he pins Michael to the bed, with the press of his lips on Michael's skin, with his deliberate care as he takes Michael apart and then puts him back together.

With Alex, Michael always knows he's good.

[ashieldingdrive]

Continued

@iwannabewooed

Kyle knew he had the track record of being the man that messed up. Of being the guy that lets you down, probably the main reason why Liz and I didn’t work out. Was I proud of who I was in high school? No I was a total jerk. I didn’t care about other people. I had been the guy that purposely humiliated you, I was the guy that picked on the losers, I had no path. Until I took my head out of the gutter, until I got my act together. Lydia had been the constant, my best friend and last night the way I left the hospital, the fight between us reminded me of the guy I fought so hard to stray from. 

I was angry yes, I was mad that she never felt i had the right to know how she felt. I was mad at myself for not picking up on the cues. She was my best friend and I never wondered if she felt that way about me. I never felt that way; probably because I never felt that spark. I was focused on Liz at the time, but now I was a doctor. I had my life planned out in front of me. I cared for other people daily, I saved lives and now although I wasn’t the blonde’s doctor. I did in fact stand by her side. I didn’t leave her hospital room until last night. But I suppose it helped give me the clarity I needed. It didn’t help I had my mouth on a beer bottle most of the night. But Sometimes we feel passionately when we drink, our truths come roaring out. Plus Matt and even Maria and Liz spelled it out to me. 

I promised not to utter the words Lydia was in town, or that she was in a car wreck, so I didn’t I was vague about my question, and I got the information I wanted. I was the blinded fool in High School. But now I wanted to be smart, Lydia once she was finished with the wedding she was heading back to where she lived? Which honestly I didn’t know. I didn’t want to put my heart on the line unless she gave me the reason to. And I felt it the thought of never seeing her face again, the thought of walking away it scared me, but also brought on that sense of sadness I wanted the blonde in my life. I didn’t want to wonder if i was making the right choice, for once I stopped thinking despite the banging headache i had from the night before. 

I had the words framed out in my mind as I stood there, Luckily I didn’t fumble as I spoke. That would’ve been an epic fail. I stood at the doorward because just in case this speech went south; the male wanted to be prepared, but he saw it. The thoughtful look on her face, the way she nodded and waited a minute after his lips closed to speak. He had this speech in the bag; he wanted to get to know Lydia now, not try to remake what we could’ve been in High school. I definitely was the better version of myself now. 

A curve of a smile tugged at the corners of my lips as Slowly stepped further into the room. Feelings find you; to be brave to leap forward was another story. “ Well, I did always save the best speeches for those that will remember them.” A tickle in his throat as he held the lilies behind his back. Us trying? We could always start at the wedding; plus he could just imagine Matt’s I told you so face if he were to show up with Lydia on his arm. She kept uttering how she loved him, and he felt that flutter the knots forming in his stomach. He wondered how? He hated who he was back then, so he felt himself uttering his own thoughts. “ “ I have to ask how? How did you love me back then? I was a jerk, I didn’t care about anyone?” The disbelief in his voice as he inched closer until his knees had brushed against the rim of the bed she laid in. 

“ I couldn’t come empty handed especially after I was a jerk last night.” A guilt glance flashed over his features but barely. He soon extended the set of lilies out to the blonde. “ Plus just in case my speech failed I needed a plan B.” A plan B let’s just say that only went as far as the flowers; he only had one shot and it appeared he succeeded.

[pendragonsandbuckleys]

do you see the light (at the end of the tunnel)

Summary: Guerin was incredibly lucky not to have short circuited his own heart in his attempt at restarting Alex’s – something Kyle had admonished him for repeatedly since then.

-

Follow up to I can hear the sound of your barely beating heart

Word Count: 2,612

[Also on AO3]

Guerin was incredibly lucky not to have short circuited his own heart in his attempt at restarting Alex’s – something Kyle had admonished him for repeatedly since then.

He had succeeded in passing out in a rather dramatic fashion at Liz’s feet, scaring the life out of Isobel and leaving Kyle with yet another patient to deal with. But, he supposed, it was much better than the alternative. And after feeling rough for a day – regardless of the gallon of acetone he had chugged – he had soon been back to his normal self.

Not that Kyle was complaining (for once). He couldn’t imagine what Alex would do to him if he found out that his boyfriend had sacrificed his life in order to raise him from the dead. 

Kyle was definitely taking partial credit for that by the way. Guerin may have used his magical glowy hand, but the tests they had run since then revealed that his and Liz’s serum had fused to Alex’s cells, the handprint had just given it the jump start it needed.

It was still crazy to think about. The feat they had achieved with only a few science nerds and some alien DNA. He and Liz had literally pulled off the impossible, bringing a human being— bringing their best friend back to life. 

They wouldn’t have pulled any of it off without his uncle’s powerful, pro-alien organisation, of course. The tech at Deep Sky had been invaluable not to mention the private space they had been afforded. All employees were very serious about their oath to secrecy regarding what they worked on and witnessed within that building, but it was still nice to know they didn’t have to worry about any ex-boyfriends sneaking around trying to scoop out their scientific discoveries. 

He understood why his uncle had been wary when he and Alex had first started to bring everyone into the fold. Eduardo had employed them not their friends. And that was only after extensive background checks. (Yes, even on his own nephew). 

This time, he’d welcomed them with open arms if it meant finding a cure for Alex.

Not that it should ever have been needed.

Alex should never have ended up in that situation. 

He had been so close to leaving the Air Force. So close to getting out. And he’d told Kyle as much over a beer at the Wild Pony some weeks before his death. He had only stayed in order to investigate the last vestiges of Project Shepard that he suspected was still active but he’d promised Kyle – he’d promised himself – that his next mission would be his last. 

Oh, how right he was.

When he’d bumped into Kyle on the morning of his last assignment, he’d mentioned his certainty that his father still had a hold on a small corner of the military and that the mission he was being sent on could very well prove the connection he’d been looking for.

He’d made Kyle promise not to tell Michael – that his boyfriend would just worry endlessly until he returned. Not that Kyle would have blamed him. 

When the call came in about Alex’s death, he knew his friend’s suspicions had been true. And he wished beyond anything that he had stopped him from going. 

Getting the news had been like a hundred punches to the stomach, winding him instantly. In fact, it felt like he had been holding his breath ever since Isobel had called. His lungs closing in on themselves, refusing to take in any air until his friend could do the same, as if it was the least they could do.

But there was time to unpack his guilt later. For now, he was more than happy to focus on the miracle of a fact that Alex Manes was alive. 

There was just the minor issue of him not having woken up yet.

Entering the Deep Sky infirmary, he was unsurprised to see that the familiar scene before him was unchanged since his last check in. Alex was reclined on the bed, eyes closed in a seemingly endless sleep, the few screens surrounding him beeping steadily. 

The EKG leads snaking under the collar of his loose-fitting t-shirt were just a precaution, a way for Kyle to monitor his condition easily and put his mind at ease for when he wasn’t in the room. For all intents and purposes, Alex seemed to be okay, his recent brush with death having left no ill effects on his body.

Glued to his side, Guerin didn’t look to have moved an inch in the hour that Kyle was out of the room. He’d been waiting patiently, diligently, (relentlessly) since Alex had taken his first breath a few days ago and lack of sleep was definitely going to catch up with him at some point. Kyle had tried to make him take a break, but if there was one thing Michael Guerin wasn’t going to do, it was listen to a Valenti. 

He was looking better though, in a way. Still tired, but less dishevelled. Less of a wreck. The past month had been hard on all of them but none more than Michael. For a rough, tough cowboy, always eager to put up a front, he hadn’t been far off from completely breaking apart. And even Kyle had to admit, that had been difficult to witness.

But the hardest part was over now, Alex was alive and that was their only focus.

Guerin didn’t react as Kyle entered the room, one hand propping up his chin whilst the other rested gently atop Alex’s, his thumb lazily tracing the grooves of his boyfriend’s knuckles. His gaze only wandered away from Alex’s lax features once Kyle was close enough to survey the monitors, but he had a feeling Guerin was paying more attention to the up and down of the waveform than he was to the doctor reading them.

It was a common sight at the hospital – relatives not wanting to stray too far from their loved ones for fear of the worst. Sometimes they would stare at the screens for hours without really knowing what the flashing numbers meant, just on the lookout for the first warning sign that something was wrong. Anything to feel useful.

It was a horrible responsibility for someone to put on themselves, but he was kind of glad Alex had someone in his life that would do the same for him.

He’d seen the connection between the two of them for some time, even back in high school when he’d secretly kept track on Alex in between his macho need to torment him. He had to thank teenage Kyle for having a modicum of sense back then and not sabotaging Alex’s life entirely.

Since they’d reconciled, he’d seen how cheerful Alex had been. The way he got all sappy when he talked about Guerin, blush creeping up his cheeks as if Kyle wasn’t aware of how absolutely head over heels he was.

And honestly, it made Kyle so damn happy. 

He glanced up from Alex’s chart, pen hovering above the paper mid-update, and over to Guerin with a look that obviously had the man spiralling into instant panic. 

“What’s wrong?” Guerin asked, eyes widening as his brow pulled down low. Kyle chose not to comment on the way he gripped Alex’s hand a little tighter.

“What’s wrong is that you’re still sitting here. I thought I told you to go home and rest.”

“Yeah, and I told you that I’m not going anywhere, Valenti.” His attempt at being disdainful failed, his usual level of snark muted drastically by the clear exhaustion hanging over him.

Kyle held back the exasperated sigh as he continued jotting down notes. He knew better than to argue against Guerin when he was like this. His first attempts at getting him to leave had ended with raised voices and more accidentally exploded light bulbs and he couldn’t imagine Eduardo would be best pleased with more of his property being destroyed. 

He could feel Guerin’s eyes on him, watching him carefully as he wrote, so obvious in his concern.

“Is something wrong?” Guerin asked him gingerly as he placed the clipboard on the table, and he forced himself to hold back another sigh for a completely different reason.

“No.” He replied, the gentle tone saved for soothing fearful relatives coming through. “Everything still looks okay. There doesn’t seem to be any lasting effects, his vitals are still normal… We just need to give him time.”

Guerin nodded, roughly wiping at a stray tear that escaped so quickly it had rolled off his chin before he could stop it. Kyle hadn’t thought it possible for him to look even more deflated but the way his gaze shifted back to Alex showed his disappointment at the answer.

They could pretend that it was good news all they wanted, taking solace in that fact that Alex wasn’t suddenly getting worse, but the longer it took for him to wake up, the harder it was to see any positives.  

“Does he know that we’re here? Can he— like, is he hearing us, without being able to—?”

And if that wasn’t the age-old coma question. 

“Honestly Guerin, I don’t know.”

Michael nodded again absentmindedly, biting his lip so hard Kyle was surprised he didn’t draw blood. There was little else he could do for now and as Guerin laced his fingers with Alex’s, bringing his hand up to kiss softly at his knuckles, he took that as his cue to leave.

Before he could fully close the door behind him, he heard Guerin whisper gently to a blissfully unaware Alex. 

“You take as long as you need. We’ll all be here when you’re ready.”

 —

 Kyle didn’t stray far.

As had often been the case during the past few days.

He had taken emergency leave at the hospital shortly after beginning their search for a cure. Every minute spent not in the lab had felt like a waste of precious time and he had found it increasingly more difficult to concentrate on the patients in front of him when his mind kept wandering to the one waiting for him in stasis.

He had yet to return to work, despite successfully pulling off the small medical miracle of conquering death and resurrecting his childhood best friend. They were in untested waters here with no real clue of the consequences to their actions and he wasn’t going to leave until he knew for certain that Alex would be okay. 

Bringing him back didn’t come with any guarantees, despite what he had been reassuring Guerin. But then, sometimes loved ones needed that little bit of hope to hold onto.

He kept himself busy in the lab – Deep Sky having an abundance of fascinating work to dive into – until it was time to check in on Alex again. 

The door opened quietly as he turned the handle, the soft click of the hinges doing little to disturb the occupants of the room, and the softly spoken words floating out from inside left him reluctant to enter. As he lingered in the doorway, he could hear Guerin talking to Alex again, gentle encouragements for him to open his eyes or squeeze his hand again. 

He could see Alex from where he stood and it was only as he noticed the tiny furrow of his brow that had been absent for so long, that he registered Guerin’s words.

Again.

Kyle felt his heart in his throat as he realised what he was watching. The scrunch of his nose, the ever so slightly pursed lips. Was Alex really, finally waking up?

He stepped further into the room, eager to be ready in case his patient needed him but found himself pausing before he got too close. His heart was racing now in anticipation but a small part of him – the part that had witnessed this exact situation so many times at the hospital over the years – begged him not to get his hopes up. 

That begged him to tell Guerin not to get his hopes up.

It had been so long since they had brought a deceased Alex back to Roswell, a small part of him had never really believed that their end goal would be achieved. That this had been the best they were ever going to get. But it seemed the universe had actually answered their prayers.

Alex’s eyes opened slowly, his unfocused gaze lazily searching the ceiling above him before drifting to the right to land on Guerin. For a moment, there was no sign of recognition, just two dark eyes staring at a stranger in front of him and then— Alex smiled. A frail, pitiful excuse for a smile, the corners of his lips turning up just a fraction. But honestly, it was the most beautiful thing in the world.

Guerin was too caught up in the moment to notice Kyle’s intrusion. He was standing now, one hand still wrapped around Alex’s as he squeezed it tight, beaming grin on his face as he let the tears freely stain his skin. His other ran soothingly through Alex’s hair, and he bent forward to press wet and teary kisses against his temple, whispering grateful reassurances too low for Kyle to make out.

Alex could barely keep his eyes open as he tried to accept the sudden outpouring of love, but his smile couldn’t help but grow. His hand lifted from the bed but, lacking the strength to get far enough to reach Guerin, it came to rest weakly on his chest and Kyle wondered if maybe the physical touches weren’t the only thing he was feeling.

He watched as Alex slowly ran his thumb back and forth over the spot at the centre of his ribs — the spot where an alien handprint had been etched into his skin a few days prior – and wondered if maybe he could feel Guerin’s very soul crying out in relief. If the celestial bond that Guerin had been desperate to feel had finally snapped into place.  

He had been trying to ignite it since he resurrected Alex, questioning Liz and Max on how it worked for them— how he could use it to bring Alex back to them. But each time he tried, there had been nothing. A dark emptiness where a rush of emotions should be. He’d beaten himself up about that, convinced he had done something wrong. Convinced that he had failed Alex.

But Kyle had never believed that. 

It had been hard to see Alex so lifeless for so damn long, flashes of a future without him spurring them on and pushing them to the limit. But watching him now, him and Guerin, Kyle’s heart was almost bursting with relief.

On the darker days when it had been too much for Guerin, when the outcome they’d longed for had been but an impossible notion and he had struggled to see even the dimmest light at the end of the tunnel, Kyle had tried his best to keep the hope alive. For Guerin. For Alex. For all of them. 

But watching them now, foreheads touching and fingers intertwined, he didn’t need to cling onto that hope anymore.

The doctor in him was desperate to check on his patient but he forced himself to hold back. This precious moment was the least they deserved and it would do neither of them any good for him to break it.

So he let them hold each other for a minute longer. And as he watched on with a full heart and teary eyes, he finally let himself take a breath.

[gaymasonjar]

Will You Meet Me In The Middle?

Sneak Peak of Chapter 2: Keep You Safe

 Two days had dragged by and Alex was still doing research for Liz. She knew she was going to need more help to defeat Clyde. After her encounter with the mist, her brain was still not back up to speed. So, that is why Alex tracked down Allie Myers for her. When Alex explained everything that was going on and that Liz Ortecha needed her help, she agreed to come to Roswell. He was still busy trying to find any leads on Rosa and Clyde.

 “Didn’t I tell you to take a break from that?” Kyle walked in, not wearing his white coat. He cocked a brow at his friend questioningly. While he knew Alex was going stir-crazy, his recovery was a higher priority than doing work.

 “You did”, Alex’s eyes never left the screen. “Doesn’t mean I listened.”

 “Ya know, as a military guy, I would’ve assumed you were great at taking orders”, Kyle closed the laptop and took it.

 “Well, there is a reason I quit.”

 “I want you to rest today.”

 Sighing, Alex leaned back reluctantly. He hated that he couldn’t do more than sit and wait. Kyle patted his shoulder gently before checking his vital readings. A feeding tube had been run into Alex’s stomach through his nose after spending the past few days unable to stomach even water. It was important to keep up with hydration and nutrition.

 “How’s the dizziness?”

 “Better.”

“Good.  Means treatment is starting to work.”

 “You’re still worried”, Alex pointed out.

 “This is just a weird case, Alex. I’ve seen patients that had a fraction of the radiation you were exposed to for a much shorter amount of time die within a week of the initial exposure. But you were soaked in it for so long. It’s honestly mind-blowing.”

 “I’m not one to go down without a fight.”

 Kyle snorted and shook his head. “Whatever you say, Manes. I’ll come back to check on you in a while. Rest. I mean it.”

 Alex rubbed his eyes tiredly and considered taking a nap to pass the time. Kyle left, taking Alex’s laptop with him. Maria was waiting in another examination room down the hallway. There was a file in her hand that she was reading from. She looked up when Kyle entered the room.

  “Hey”, she greeted with a smile. “How’s Alex doing?”

 “Well, I caught him doing some Dark Web Rolodexing for Liz. He’s responding to treatment but I don’t think he’s out of the woods yet” Kyle cleared his throat, “Seeing as you’re here, I’m assuming you ditched Shivani’s goons?”

 “Yeah. Sonya had a hidden tracker on her, The moment things got a little dicey with Team Senovative, a whole caravan of Deep Sky’s finest pulled up to the party.”

 “Well, us Valentis can be an intrepid bunch.”

 “Is that why my sister planted a kiss on you before she jumped through liminal space?”

 “It could have been an ‘in case I die’ kiss”, Kyle insisted.

 “Really”, Maria gave him a look.

 “Yeah.”

 “Is that what it felt like?”

 Kyle sighed deeply before he gave Maria a shy smile, “No. It felt like the answer to the question I asked her down in Mexico.”

 “You’re the answer she deserves.”

 “Then I have to say thank you. For using your astral projection gift to save her life.”

  Maria cleared her throat and looked back down at the file in her hands. “Yeah.”

 “You think it could work to help try and find Rosa?”

 “So far, my alien third eye is only seeing one person”, she admitted.

 “Who?”

 “A certain spaceman of the cloth.”

 Kyle nodded with a thoughtful expression. “So, what is it about him that allowed you to cross the space-time continuum into Theo’s upside down?”

 “Dallas makes me feel safe.”

 “Could be something to build on.” Kyle explained further, “If he’s standing right beside you, maybe you could focus your sight elsewhere.”

 Maria pursed her lips in thought. Before she could comment on that line of thinking, something started beeping. Kyle pulled a pager out of his pocket hurriedly. His face dropped as he read the short message.

 “What is it?”

 “It’s Alex.” Kyle ran past her for the door. Maria left her file on the table to follow him. They ran down the hallway to the room Alex was staying in. He was in full convulsion on the floor beside the bed. While he had been leaning forward to massage his leg, a seizure came on suddenly. He hit the floor head first off the bed and ripped off all the monitors in the process. Blood was seeping onto the floor from the wound left by the IV needle tearing out of his hand. Kyle kneeled as he pulled Alex into a recovery position.

 “Oh god”, Maria breathed before joining Kyle on the floor. “What do we do?”

 “Keep him steady- hold his head.”

 Maria did as asked and pulled Alex’s head into her lap as he continued to seize. While it felt like an eternity, Alex finally stilled after another two minutes had passed. Maria was on the verge of tears as she ran her fingers through his hair. Kyle checked his pupils and pulse.

 “What’s happening to him?”

 “Acute Radiation Syndrome”, Kyle clenched his jaw. “This is only the beginning.”

 “What? Isn’t there anything we can do?”

 “His body is trying to fight off the radiation but it’s being constantly weakened by it”, Kyle picked up Alex and laid him back in the bed before hooking him back up to the monitors. “It’s going to take a long time to heal if he even can.”

 Maria felt like her world was turned upside down, “He’s dying.”

 Kyle didn’t respond. He patched up the wound on Alex’s hand before inserting a new IV line in the crook of his arm. Alex was breathing shallowly while he slept. Maria grabbed his hand tightly.

 “To be honest”, Kyle muttered. “The only thing that could save him is a miracle.”

Continue reading on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45325099/chapters/114179551

[crepuscularqueens]

on my gosh please tell me about rnm cap quartet??

omg thank you!!! this was such a strange little project i never quite cracked because i kind of... skewed it a whole bunch but it was so fun to tinker with

June 8th, 2012. Three teenage girls die in a horrible car accident, reported to be the result of drinking and drugs. The sleepy desert town of Roswell, New Mexico is never quite the same after losing Margaret Carter, Sarah Wilson, and Claire Temple. Families left grieving and broken, a town divided and those with anger in them pointing it in all the wrong directions.

steve - max nat - isobel bucky - michael sam - somewhere between alex and liz. sarah died in a crash when he was a senior in high school. he and bucky had a relationship they weren't ready to go public with, bucky had his left arm severely injured when they were caught together. Sam’s father all but forced him to enlist after Sarah's death, Sam took the escape from the small town even though it was never what he wanted. riley - kyle valenti. he and sam had grown up together, their friendship growing strained in high school joaquin - crashdown, his grandmother runs it. his cousin was claire temple, died in the crash with Sarah. Sam spent a lot of downtime there in high school,  something of a haven from his family and peers, but him and joaquin fell apart after the crash when sam enlisted.misty - maria, runs wild pony, good friends with Sam Clint - steve’s partner at the sheriff’s department the last couple years, on again off again kinda deal that’s ultimately unsustainable sharon - cop, (somewhat fill in for jenna/liz) gets transferred to town after 10 years away, originally left because her cousin (peggy) was in the crash

(so the problem is that both clint and sharon are jenna but sharon is also kinda liz BUT joaquin and sam are also. kinda liz. except that sam was definitely alex. i was having fun though)

“Of all the people to up and resurrect, you chose Joaquin Torres and Sharon Carter?” Natasha threw the words at him, viciously, full of accusation, “You know, I heard Sam Wilson was back in town, too. Why didn’t you just make it a three for one special? Just in time for the reunion, we can be hauled off by the government! We’ve been keeping this secret for ten years, Steve, what the hell is wrong with you?” “You're making it sound like a choice, Natasha, the alternative was letting the both of them bleed out on the floor in front of me! I can’t do that, not after what happened.” Bucky was standing now, hands wrapped around the bars of the holding cell as he glared out at Steve, “You call for an ambulance, Steve! How are they different from anyone else that gets shot in front of you while you're on duty?” “You know what makes them different! How could you ask me that?” Steve shot right back, “After what we did?” "I can't believe you would do this to us- do this to Natasha? That's your family, Steve," Bucky's voice was full of accusation, the implication wasn't at all lost on Steve. The self-righteous act sure as hell didn't sit right on Bucky, and Steve was sick of it.

[pastelwitchling]

Alex Manes Appreciation Week (5/5)

                Michael hated everything about this.

                He hated watching Alex push himself out of bed at an ungodly hour Friday morning, ridiculously assuming that he would be making the drive to Texas on his own. He hated watching Alex walk into a flower shop on the way and buy a bouquet of wildflowers (“Scott’s favorite,” he said) and unwilling to let them go for the rest of the way. He hated watching Alex come to a gravesite where a blonde woman Michael didn’t know—Scott’s younger sister, Katie, he would later find out—jumped into his arms, her face streaked with tears.

                “Where’s Hannah?”

                “She’s on her way,” Katie said, clinging to Alex’s side. “Grandma called, I left while they were still talking.”

                Michael hated watching Alex with these people he didn’t know, from a world he’d never been part of, smiling at Alex like he was a son that Roswell had stolen away. Michael hated it worse that standing back and watching was all he could do. Alex didn’t need him here, he’d come for his own sake, he’d known that. And yet knowing it and seeing it were two completely different things.

                So caught up in how much he felt like an outsider, Michael almost missed Alex introducing him. “This is my husband, Michael Guerin.”

                “Hi,” Katie smiled warmly. “I’m Katie Mason.”

                “Oh, Alex, he’s gorgeous,” Hannah, Scott’s mother, told Alex, and in their kindness, Michael could see why Alex had warmed up to the family so quickly. They treated him the way his own family always should’ve and never had. And Michael hadn’t even known that they existed until a few days ago.

                But he smiled and he was polite and rubbed Alex’s back as he silently cried at Scott’s gravestone through a clenched jaw.

                It wasn’t until Alex bid them a fond goodbye and they were back in Michael’s truck on their way home that Michael shook his head and said, “I don’t deserve you.”

                “Hm?” Alex blinked. “What?”

                “You have this whole other life you could’ve escaped to,” Michael said, “and you stayed in Roswell to fight a battle that wasn’t even yours. Why?”

                Alex seemed to understand right away, and hummed, rested his head back against the headrest. “I love you. Where else would I be?”

                “Alex, you had a real family.”

                “You’re my real family,” Alex said, offended that Michael could imply anything else. “And—and so is Kyle, and Isobel, and Max, and Dallas, and Liz, and my brothers—I have a family in Roswell.”

                “But . . .” he swallowed. “These people . . .”

                Alex’s eyes softened. “Guerin, my men and their families . . . they’re just part of my life. Not all of it. I told you, you’re my everything, no one else.”

                Michael exhaled shakily, not knowing how afraid he’d been that Alex would agree that he deserved better until he refused it. “You sure you won’t wish you’d married someone else?”

                Alex chuckled and took Michael’s hand in both of his own. “I think even Scott would’ve said that I was ruined for anyone but you.”

                Michael squeezed his hand tighter at the mention of his army buddy, and he said, “I’m sorry about your friend.”

                A pause. “Me, too.”

                Neither of them said nothing for a long time, Michael’s hand clasped between Alex’s, and then finally Michael said, “Okay, Private, we’ve got a long drive back to New Mexico, so would you please get some sleep now?” Silence. “Alex?”

                Michael looked over and his lips quirked. Curled up on his seat, Alex lay there fast asleep, his expression one of a peace he hadn’t known in too long. Michael used his powers to lean the seat back, but Alex’s grip on his hand never loosened, like even in sleep he needed Michael close.

                “I know how that feels, baby,” Michael murmured, smiling against Alex’s brow before he pressed a soft kiss there. “I know.”

***

@alexmanesappreciation

I don't know where to start. Most people have gone inactive since the show ended, and it breaks my heart to go onto tumblr and rarely see an update in the tags anymore. I kind of saw it coming because even during hiatuses, the fandom turned really quiet, so this just makes a grim sort of sense.

Personally, I hope I never stop writing malex. I hope I'm posting fics on malex Monday years from now, I hope new projects keep coming, and until no one is reading anymore, I hope I don't stop. I understand others not finding the point, but I physically and emotionally need Alex Manes and malex, and I can't give them up. If I can last a year-long hiatus, I should be able to do this, right? At least for a little longer. And at least for my favorite airman.

So my beautiful Alex Manes, my magical Tyler Blackburn, my love, this is all for you ❤

[thepunkmuppet]

roswell new mexico were such fucking cowards WHY out of all characters would they put alex and michael together when kyle and max are RIGHT HERE

fr though the potential for a love triangle where you think it revolves around liz but it actually revolves around max is SO there and I want to write it as a fic so bad because I’m deranged and delusional

[maeglinthebold]

AO3 Wrapped

From this ask game.

How many words have you written this year?

438,169 posted to AO3, and though this is artificially inflated by a good portion of it being RP and continued works from 2021, I also wrote way more than that besides (isolated scenes, pure wank material, stuff that will never see the light of day, etc.)

I’d like to thank a new fandom getting its hooks in me (OFMD) and the ending of Roswell New Mexico being so inspiringly bad for those high numbers, up from 166k in 2021 and getting me almost up to my 2020 levels (514k). 

2. How many works did you publish this year?

69 - LMAO that was NOT on purpose.

(That's an average of 6.3k per fic.)

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

I really enjoyed writing Hell of a Night: it was angsty and dramatic, but I liked making Stede and Ed fight a literal Kraken before they could get back together.

4. What work of yours has the most hits?

World Enough and Time - OFMD, rated E, published at a sweet spot for people interested in reading Stede/Ed. I was proud of the use of contemporary poetry, though, and very proud of the goofy sex those old men got up to in that. 

5. What work of yours got more feedback than you expected?

Start Where You Are (and Change the Ending) had some great conversations in the comments I feel like, mostly about Izzy. I wanted to get the antagonist thing right and not make him cartoonish. I feel I did that, but it’s way more work than I want to put into his character in the future, as I just don't care for him personally. Anyway, good conversations were had in the comments here, and that’s what I consider to be good feedback.

6. Favorite title you used

How the Mighty Fall (They Fall in Love) I suppose!

7. If you use song lyrics, which artist's songs did you pull from the most?

I think I saved myself from being a Fall Out Boy bitch by being a Halsey bitch first and foremost. Am I mad I used “The Lighthouse” lyrics for RNM fics before I started writing OFMD fics? Yes. Still mad. 

8. Pairing you wrote the most for this year?

Malexa with 28, followed by Blackbonnet at 16

9. Favorite pairing you wrote for this year?

Definitely those two, Malexa and Blackbonnet. I not only can't choose between them but I'll add Kyle/Max/Liz, Michael & Liz, and Maria/Kyle as honorable mentions. 

10. What work was the quickest to write?

That’s not an entirely fair question because I have so many short works that I banged out in one sitting. Also I usually have no problem getting words down once I have an idea and I have the time: it’s why I love prompts. 

11. What work took you the longest to write?

What We've Built probably took the longest by word count ratio because I kept crying during the writing of it. 

12. How many WIP's do you have in your docs for next year?

Shhhhhh. If I don’t promise anything I don’t disappoint anyone (including myself).

13. What's your longest work of the year?

With @haloud, and also continued from 2020: I Was Just An Only Child of the Universe (And Then I Found You) (117,908 words)  

With @singerofsongs: Ask for forgiveness, never permission (41,989 words)

Solo, but also a continuation from 2021: Never Let You Go (40,800 words)

14. What's your shortest work of the year?

I had quite a few double-drabbles all coming in at 200 words (by Google Doc’s count, if not AO3’s): 

Deep

Hautdesert

Watching

Adrenaline

Aftermath

Reading

15. What WIP are you taking into next year with you?

All of them. I have 17 works marked as incomplete and I will always consider them on my to-do list. Updates could happen at any time. You don’t know.

16. What's your most common "Additional Tags" tag?

Established relationship, Hurt/Comfort, Polyamory, and Humor. 

I made an effort to add “Humor” to my tags this year because it’s something I consider myself good at and thought I should advertise. 

17. Your favorite character to write this year?

By the numbers, Maria DeLuca, and that’s as it should be lol.

As far as an interesting new challenge, I’d say Stede Bonnet: it’s hard to reconcile him sounding fancy half the time and using scientific names for moths and yet also coming up with “Mr. Wavy-Blade.”  

18. The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

Alex Manes. Missing from most of season 4. Missing in our hearts since season 1. The version in my head is cool, it just kept getting harder and harder to reconcile him with canon. 

Also Izzy Hands, for reasons mentioned above. 

19. What's one pairing you want to explore next year?

I don’t know what new ones will grab me, otherwise more of the same! 

20. Which work of yours have you reread the most?

Probably How the Mighty Fall (They Fall in Love)

21. How many kudos in total did you get this year?

5,792

22. Which work has the most comments?

I Was Just An Only Child of the Universe (And Then I Found You) but again, that one’s been going since 2020!

23. Did you do any collaborative works this year?

Yes, loads! It’s the best part about writing fic! Thanks to my rp partners: 

@haloud: Without Question, foolish men have tried, but only you have shown me how to love being alive, stranger in a strange land, Even If It's Just in Your Wildest Dreams, love and life lines, I Was Just An Only Child of the Universe (And Then I Found You), there is a lighthouse in the middle of the deep end, You Make Me a Believer, From Roswell with Love, Kiss Me Like Your Ex Is in the Room, 

@a-singer-of-songs: Ask for forgiveness, never permission, Tell me all your thoughts on God / Cause I'm on my way to see her

@lizzy-leo: Sinking in your Eyes, Chasing Golden Nights

24. Did you write any gifts this year?

Yes! In addition to my birthday ficlet gifts (Maeg's Hobbit Birthday Gift Ficlets 2022), I wrote a few other fics I gifted to people this year: 

The E-Word for @dr-lemurr

Embedded for @haloud

Oh, she's sweet but a psycho for @primalmusic

If You Really Loved Me You Would Share Him for @haloud

Drawn for @haloud

25. Did you receive any gifts this year?

Yes! I got some lovely ones this year: 

You Bring Me Hope by @tasyfa

ours by @infp-obsessing-over-everything

i sleep to dream (the trail beneath your feet) by @haloud

26. What's your most common category?

“Multi” (the tag I use to indicate a poly ship) is my top category! 

27. What do you listen to while writing?

I like to watch video game playthroughs actually. Shoutout to @nyssaismyrealname for endless hours of HZD, HFW, AND GOW:R to have on in the background while I write.

28. Favorite work you wrote this year?

Though it’s still a WIP, I’m really loving Dangerous. Miluca Witch/Werewolf who have caught Hunter Alex and will probably fall in love with him knowing me. Turned Alex into a bunny rabbit so what’s not to love?

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

“And a stake to the heart kills you?” [Michael asked.]

“Doesn’t it kill everybody?” Alex chuckled. 

“Yes,” Maria said. “Though I don’t know about—what the limits are of blood healing us? Haven't had much opportunity to test it, luckily. But I’ve definitely killed a vampire with wood through the heart.” 

“Any kind of wood?” 

“Heh,” Alex interjected. 

“This isn’t Supernatural, Michael. It doesn’t need to be a holly branch or something.” 

“Wow, you…” Michael grinned. “You had that right there, didn’t you? For someone who claims her life is nothing like hit CW series Supernatural.” 

“Shut up.” 

Michael grinned. “Okay. Okay, how about garlic?” 

“No worse than any other human food.” 

Michael nodded thoughtfully. He would really miss eating if he became a vampire. Not like these Civil War vets who could only miss hard tack and gruel. “If I drop a bag of marbles…”

“I would be pissed that you dropped a tripping hazard in front of a disabled veteran,” Alex said sternly, but Maria laughed before Michael had a chance to worry he was serious. Alex smiled. “No counting compulsion.”

(From “Drawn.” It made me laugh.)

30. Biggest surprise while writing this year?

I had no idea I wrote quite that much! 🙃 Probably a cry for help.

[popentertainment-moviereviews]

BLINK TWICE (2024)

Starring Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Kyle MacLachlan, Haley Joel Osment, Geena Davis, Alia Shawkat, Levon Hawke, Liz Caribel, Trew Mullen, Cris Costa, María Elena Olivares, Saul Williams, Tiffany Persons,      Aaron Himelstein, Ben Jacobson, Caroline Forsythe, Garret Levitz, Regina Guerrero and Zoë Kravitz.

Screenplay by Zoë Kravitz and E.T. Feigenbaum.

Directed by Zoë Kravitz.

Distributed by Amazon MGM Studios. 102 minutes. Rated R.

Blink Twice takes its name from an old joke – or is it really a joke? – “Blink twice if you are in danger.” This statement suggests that someone is in a situation under duress, and they may not be able to actually say out loud that they are not safe. The joke part is that the person is usually not in danger, because in a really dangerous situation would someone really be able to say that to them?

But what if they were? And what if they didn’t realize they were in danger? What if they thought they were in a good situation until something turned dark on them?

This is the basic idea behind this thriller – the writing and directing debut of actor/singer Zoë Kravitz – daughter of singer Lenny Kravitz and actor Lisa Bonet. (Kravitz also has a small role in the film as a flight attendant.)

The concept seems simple, but of course becomes much more complex than originally expected. Two best friends Frida and Jess (Naomi Ackie and Alia Shawkat) are invited to the luxurious private island of a mysterious bad-boy billionaire Slater King (played by the director’s fiancé Channing Tatum.)

They end up on the island on a whim, with three other women guests and about five or six guys – all of which they barely or don’t know. They are slathered in creature comforts, fine cuisine, expensive alcohol and drugs. They are having a wild, amazing time, until they start to notice some odd lapses in memory and some strange bruises on their bodies which they cannot explain.

What is really happening to the women on the island is the mystery of Blink Twice, and as a filmmaker Kravitz shows a deft eye for smart characterizations and chilling contradictions. She obviously has a real talent for making slick potboilers for mass consumption.

If the eventual climax doesn’t exactly make sense – well it kind of makes sense in the film’s universe but raises some serious questions looking at it from the real world – Blink Twice is still a fun ride. If you can sort of turn off your mind (maybe like some of the characters – see what I did there?), there is a lot of fun to be had in watching the film.

Blink Twice is definitely a provocative film, one meant to inspire some serious debate about gender relations. (To give you an idea, Kravitz has said that the original title was going to be Pussy Island, but it was changed due to push back in polls.) One could argue that most of the guys turn out to be almost cartoonishly evil and flawed, and at least a few of the women are shallow misogynists, but that would be kind of missing the point. Blink Twice is not supposed to be taken literally, I believe, but more figuratively.

Or maybe I’m imparting too much psychological and sociological baggage on Blink Twice. Maybe it’s just a b-level thriller with a particularly challenging point of view. The fact that it mostly works in both ways is an impressive trick.

It will be interesting to see what Zoë Kravitz does next.

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2024 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: August 23, 2024.