#no country verse my beloved i rotate it in my brain.

[voidandradiance]

once again i am thinking about that scene from feasting/dancing

There's laughter from the group of them, all crowded around each other and a firepit. Foxx is setting marshmallows on fire, and Jericho is rummaging through a basket for what Spark would put equal odds on being either drinks or explosives, and Andor-

Well. Andor has his arm around someone else, laughing hard enough that he pitches sideways and nearly knocks them both over. That particular someone happens to have a long, dark braid, the dandelions woven in stark against his hair. It's not quite the traditional choice of flower, but from what Spark's heard, very little about him is. A symbol of endurance is as good as any for a celebration of coming home, especially after this long.

[voidandradiance]

here's the thing, right?

spark and jordan look a lot alike. they don't look the same. they're the same height, roughly, and the similarities in their facial structure can get uncanny- the jaw, the brow, the cheekbones. their eyes aren't the same color, but they have a fairly similar shape. their hair curls in just about the same way, and from a distance it's not that hard to mistake them for one another. if you know one but not the other, meeting the second is disorienting. if you're only working off of a vague description and have never met either, it gets even more confusing.

but andor, andor who is always looking desperately for connection, andor who grasps at whatever ghosts he can- he looks at his goddess in this world, now, and she feels more real than she ever has before. oh, his grandmother existed, had children and grandchildren and lovers and enemies, but she was more of a hope and a memory than anything else. but this goddess, here, has the same nose as jordan does, and it wrinkles up when she laughs just like his does, and she talks with her hands in a way that is only slightly more elegant than jordan's enthusiastic waving. (she talks with her hands in wide, sweeping gestures, and almost never brings her wrists together, but that's familiar in an entirely different way.) ianite is a tangible, visible presence in this realm, so like her champion, so eager to ask about her boy, so invested in his safety-

and the realization comes out of nowhere, abruptly, that jordan probably has ianite's nose and ianite's laugh for a reason.

[voidandradiance]

count this as a preview because it's gonna take months for the fic to get posted. that heartache sure does pale in comparison to love tho

[voidandradiance]

okay karma/no country andor time. alternate outfits and design notes under the cut

the jacket was steve's, once upon a time - it's my replacement for the Jesus Robes, something that andor ended up in after the inertia and never gave back

the lip scar will be explained Soon.

sibling braids got explained here, but i'm pretty sure that i haven't actually used them in k/nc yet. they are there, though.

the colored lines are tr and martha's eye levels with good posture, not their full heights or normal level. jordan shrimp posture.

i was gonna base the angel ring off of a bird that makes more sense for andor's character arc but then the barn owl just kinda happened and jordan made it mid-s2 anyway so. i will just do whatever i want forever

immediately after getting back from the inertia, everyone scrambles to find smth for andor to wear. Green Fucking Shorts who i only know Green Fucking Sweats

[voidandradiance]

where the hell is the karma / no country could be sweeter masterpost

the extensive guide to the fic that ate my brain

basics:

both karma and no country take place in the same timeline. where the heart is acts as the end of karma, and the beginning of no country.

there are prequel/midquel fics that take place during the five-year timespan covered by where the heart is. these are in the subseries somewhere up the road.

karma is largely canon-complicit through the main series: there is one major shift that directly alters canon, but the rest does not contradict it. no country is the post-canon continuation, and plays faster and looser with isles.

karma is a finished series - its story is complete, and it is unlikely that i will update it further.

far side of the universe, the core subseries within no country, is a finished subseries - that portion of the story is complete, and it is unlikely that i will alter it.

somewhere up the road, the midquel/prequel subseries of no country, is ongoing: i may or may not update it.

heartache, the sequel subseries of no country, is ongoing and will occassionaly be updated.

timeline:

this is the best format i have to try and explain this mess.

adjacent fics:

not everything that i write is in the same universe. there are, however, other fics of mine that are adjacent to karma/no country and can be taken as happening in the same framework. these fics are not inherently canon to karma/no country, but they could be. the tone of these works is sometimes darker, so mind the tags.

*** = almost made part of the series, ** = very similar, * = could be but not intended

a few things, maybe several things***

in a blanket of smoke (this got out of hand)*

too many war wounds (not enough wars)**

and the punchline to the joke (is asking)*

folded neat and tidy (so that you know i'm out of hiding)*

these additions produce a timeline that looks like this:

tumblr tags:

no country tag

where the heart is

patron saint

somebody sometime

[voidandradiance]

yknow in no country i think it's easy to focus on jordan being a Hot Fucking Mess and everyone else trying to look after him but lest we forget. they are all also on fucking fire. tucker has spent two years obsessing over a funerary shroud. sonja broke her godbond and instead has been doing mad science with gaines and ianite. andor has spent the last five years handling a whole lot of grief pretty terribly and either chasing ghosts or running from them. tom also just got out of isles. even if they've learned to cook, nobody here is well-adjusted

[voidandradiance]

what type of loom did you have in mind while writing he asked me to pray (to a god he doesn't believe in)?

i very much pictured tucker working with a larger floor loom - he is absolutely a fiber arts girlie, and though his loom is kinda taken up by the Breakdown Not-Shroud for a good long while there, it's versatile equipment that can handle a lot of different uses. and is better for dramatic anguished leans. and makes it very hard to hide from people who are actually paying attention,

[voidandradiance]

Hot mess time hot mess time: i maintain that Andor goes through a crisis of faith. He had his mom and sister killed by Ianite and stayed loyal, was tortured in her name: she gave him nothing. She couldn't or wouldn't help him. Now he's watching Season 1 Ianite, a fundamentally different goddess, grieve and struggle and try to pry Jordan back at any cost. He can't just go from being an Ianitee in world 2 to an Ianitee in world 1 because they mean fundamentally different things--and if he ever does become the latter, he has to lose the former first. So yeah Jordan is a disaster but lets not forget Andor

see, that's the thing, isn't it? because on one hand, he's spent all these years holding onto s2 ianite and thinking that the way she acted was perfectly fine, thinking that it was normal. and to some extent, it was normal! almost none of the gods care to intervene directly in the lives of mortal devotees who aren't their acolyte or champion. s1 mianite barely even gives his acolyte the time of day. s2 dianite is a major exception to that rule. andor might have hoped and prayed that she send a sign or strength or some other person, but he never expected her to intervene directly.

and yet, at the same time, s2 ianite actively avoids him in canon. we start to see that kind of crisis when he's traveling, the realization that she's spending plenty of time around tr and martha, that she's helping them directly. and he is startled! he is bitter! when she dies, andor is clearly adrift and upset, but there's a hell of a lot of mixed feelings there. and you're right that meeting s1 ianite exacerbates that.

but the thing is, s2 ianite is dead. he spent his life asking her to help, to send a shield or a sword, and now she is dead. and he has been given half of her quintessence.

because that is the central conceit of karma! it's about docks duo being the ones to split that divine inheritance, not martha. the very first fic written in the series, the first posted, is about how badly they're both coping with that. jordan is devastated, homesick and hollow, but andor- andor is angry, because he has spent a decade trying to hold things together until his goddess finally sent help, and instead she has told him to look at his own hands.

all of this to get to two points;

one, that he does indeed come to follow s1 ianite, and that it means something for the goddess of reciprocity and vengeance to be fueled by a fragment of divinity.

two, that he does have a crisis of faith, but before no country actually begins - in a strange, fractured way that means he loses confidence in his grandmother, and yet comes to put a hell of a lot more trust in the "ianite" that survived ruxomar.

it's all about inheritance and absence and haunting, babey!

[voidandradiance]

"fern why do you make sonja and andor weird besties in no country" well on one hand its the sword in the inertia and the time he knew she wasnt loyal to mianite and their conversations during the retrieval mission and all of their late-season interactions. on the other hand its this.

[voidandradiance]

cannot fucking stop thinking abt andor seeing the temple in ianarea for the first time. god. fuck. redbeard gets back somehow so there's gotta be a stable way to and from it, i can handwave that bc Holy Shit. the temple is old and beautiful and the houses below it are lived-in and loved and there is a beautiful open dome in the center with ichor staining the floor. and there are stairs up the cliff. there are stairs up the cliff and they are worn they are used there were people here before him there were so many people here before him there are footsteps carved out in the stairs and there is an old enchanted guardian at the gate but it is open wide and then. And Then.

[voidandradiance]

lucky number 13!

lucky lucky 13 you get a scrap of no country

"Oh, good," Jericho says from somewhere behind him, and he twists around in the sand towards the sound of his voice. Opening his eyes would probably be a good idea, if not for the sand everywhere, and the slow crawl of sweat down the back of his neck. It's hot, wherever they are, and bright even with his eyes closed. "We were getting worried that nobody else was going to show up." "What the fuck," Andor says, trying to wipe the sand off of his hands well enough to wipe the sand off of his face. It doesn't work particularly well. Cold water hits his leg after a few seconds, and he reaches for it on instinct, lets it wash his hands clean. He manages to get most of the grit off his fingertips, manages to squint up at Jericho without any sand in his eyes. "Where are we?" The man grins, hands shoved in his pockets, rocking on his heels. "Home," he says simply, giddily. "Sonja and I landed about a week ago. You're the next one who's shown up, as far as we can tell. Ianite thinks it's probably fine." He sounds a bit too much like he's trying to reassure himself. Andor does not particularly care. "She-" "The one here," Jericho adds hastily, and holds out a hand like it's an apology. Andor takes it anyway, pulls himself upright. It's so fucking bright here. He can see why Jordan started wearing the sunglasses, if he had to deal with this all of the time. "The one that, uh. The one that Jordan… found."

[voidandradiance]

jordan, looking at andor no longer trying to sink into the floor at all times: i think. i forgot. how tall you are.

andor, looking at jordan be so perpetually tense that he's retracted into himself like a pillbug: you make a worse armrest now. i think you got shorter. How.

[voidandradiance]

spark: MY FAMILY? MY DAUGHTER AND ELDEST GRANDCHILD-

andor: grandson. also, only.

spark: huh okay MY DAUGHTER AND ONLY(?) GRANDSON. YOU'RE HERE WHAT THE FUCK. WHY

andor: ruxomar's dead

spark: HUH?

andor: i said ruxomar's dead.

spark:

andor: fortunately, so is your bitchass son?

spark: what.

andor: ....unfortunately, so is your wife?

spark: WHAT.

[voidandradiance]

tucker's house looks cluttered but everything has a very specific exacting spot where it belongs. sonja's workshop seems incredibly well-organized and mostly is, except for the part where she keeps putting shit down and running to stop something else from exploding. wag is genuinely organized. andor is sometimes literally throwing stuff at the wall to see what'll stick, and has a bit of a hoarding problem. tom is tom.

jordan.

[voidandradiance]

i have GOT to put together an actual timeline for no country bc its the funniest fucking thing. there is so much blocking necessary with too large of a cast but the contrast between jordan crying on his goddess in tucker's basement and andor [redacted] is just so fuckin funny

[voidandradiance]

add this to the list of shit i need to work into the actual fics but. jordan comes home and is immediately hit with the full beam of Several arts and crafts types who now have a new target person who will appreciate mass quantities of handmade gifts. they keep giving him shit. tucker is like three sweaters deep at this point. wag keeps breaking and entering to interior decorate the fucking basement strip club. andor keeps producing trinkets and little carvings and also probably just hands him shiny rocks. (you may think that sonja is the normal one here. she is not. she is busy doing trigonometry for the biggest craft project of all.)