#rollercoaster hsau

[certifiedwerewolf]

In which a group of teenagers find each other, and themselves, and learn to deal with everything their lives can throw at them by having each other's backs.

I made the final edits to Volume 1 of the Rollercoaster rewrite this weekend, which means it's finally ready to start posting! I'm going to give it a few days to marinate before I start posting but in the meantime I thought you guys might like the chance to read (or reread) the chapters that were already posted.

Even if you've read them before, I highly recommend reading them again; I made some changes to the chapters that were already posted a couple weeks ago and you'll likely need a refresher anyway.

[grifalinas]

directium replied to your post “So I spent the morning rereading a chunk of Rollercoaster so now it’s...”

Me!

OKAY SO

I just read through the Holiday Arc with Sarge’s parents so here’s Sarge’s full backstory re: Jenna, to the best of my memory

-Jenna Lopez was the younger sister of Francisco Lopez, Lopez’s father. As kids, she was “Frankie’s kid sister”, but she was only a few years younger than Sarge (he was actually closer to her age than Frankie’s). As they got older the couple years age difference shrunk significantly and they started hanging out more in their own right, but it was only after they grew up and Sarge enlisted and then came home from his first tour of duty that they actually started looking at each other in a romantic light.

-Verm and Lolo (Lopez’s grandfather) were both strongly against the relationship, so when they got married they eloped rather than deal with any family drama. Lolo got over himself early on rather than lose his daughter, though he never really warmed up to Sarge as his son-in-law; Verm never really came around and at most just sort of allowed it.

-Sarge and Jenna always wanted to have a big family so they bought a big house (I always said there was a reason Sarge lived alone in a house that size), but they struggled to get pregnant and the couple times they managed, the pregnancies were lost very early on. (Remember when Sheila was pregnant and I established that Lopez’s family had a history of miscarriages? And Lopez was really overprotective of her as a result?)

-However, they did eventually manage to get pregnant and it looked like this one was going to last to term. Unfortunately, late stage complications with Jenna’s health lost them their child only a couple months before he was due. Jenna blamed herself for this as a result, and some snide remarks from Verm were the final straw for Sarge- while he never actually directly said that it was Jenna’s fault, he did imply it if you were reading between the lines. This was the last time Sarge actually spoke to his father prior to his introduction in Rollercoaster.

-Jenna got sick after this- or rather, the loss was the start of her getting sick and a direct result. Her health declined pretty rapidly after that, so within the year, after losing the child they’d tried to have for so long, Sarge also buried his wife. This was around the time Lopez was born; Sarge took to his nephew immediately and doted on him, and it was pretty clear he was using the kid as a way of filling that hole left in his heart by not getting to be a father. However, he was also a really good uncle, so it was actually fine.

-Not too long after Jenna’s death, Sarge was stationed in Hawaii, where he met Kalani (Grif’s mother). Kalani was fully aware that their relationship was a mere fling and there was no emotional attachment between them beyond friendship; he was upfront about having recently buried his wife and she was happy enough to just have a physical relationship with someone who needed a bit of comfort but not romance.

-They had broken off and gone their separate ways before Kalani found out she was pregnant, but she still tracked him down and told him about being a father. A part of Sarge was thrilled, but a part of him was bitter and angry and resentful, of Kalani and of their unborn child but mostly of himself. Why was it so easy this time? He and Jenna spent most of their marriage trying to start a family, why was it so easy to just accidentally get this random stranger pregnant? In his grief and anger he lashed out and then left, but later on in his guilt he got back in contact with her. He wasn’t willing to be a part of his child’s life but he was willing to at least take responsibility and provide financial support.

-He and Kalani maintained a quiet, strained friendship over the next few years; they were on good enough terms that she told him when she was pregnant again; she wasn’t asking for anything, just sharing, but he just quietly started sending her more money anyway. It was for this reason she didn’t tell him when she got sick, because she was worried he’d do the same, and she didn’t want that.

-Jumping back to Iowa, a few years before the series started, Lopez’s parents died. Sarge had at this point lost his best friend and his wife, not to mention all the people he lost in the war, so losing his brother and sister in law broke something in him. He also took custody of Lopez around the same time; it wasn’t hard, since the Lopez’s had already lived with him due to a financial roadbump a few years prior. After their rent went up he invited them to come share his (much too large, much too empty) home with him, rather than try to find somewhere cheaper that wouldn’t be comfortable.

-And, of course, we’ve now hit the point that Kalani passed, and we know the rest.

Sarge’s backstory was actually locked into my head pretty early on and is one of the most complete; while I tweaked details to suit the story as it evolved, the meat of it was still there pretty much from the beginning.

Some of the foreshadowing at various points was meant to make it seem like Lopez was Sarge’s illegitimate son, and it seems by the comments that a lot of people fell for this! It was supposed to make it hit harder when Sarge dropped his bomb revealing the truth. :)

[mrs-steve-harrington]

Fics I enjoyed this year #3

In the order they appear in my bookmarks.

still turning out by scoutshonour

Fandom: Stranger Things

Summary:

   Steve knows senior year's supposed to be tough, but seriously?

   Not only does his dad want him to take over his business, but he lands himself into a fight with his best friend leaving him friendless and booted out of his inner-circle, gets stuck watching a bunch of kids after school because of a missing credit, has to repeat eleventh grade history, and, oh yeah. He has the minor issue of having no idea what he actually wants to do.

   But it's not all that bad: not the kids he has to watch, and certainly not Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan Byers, two friends from his history class. Friends. Just friends. Yeah, he and you both know that's bullshit.

   Steve's got a lot of figuring out to do.

   (or: HSAU Stoncy with Steve as a senior, doing his best)

My thoughts: So Steve whacks Tommy in the face. With a lunch tray. With Jonathan's lunch tray. And that is only the BEGINNING of so many beautiful moments in this fic. Steve helps The Party in DRAMA CLUB. He decides he wants to be a better person and it's glorious! He becomes friends with Nancy and Jonathan before anything else and it's just such a lovely story. I absolutely love it!

Mother, I Can Hear You by harringrovecryptid

Fandom: Stranger Things

Summary:

Arthur Harrington would do anything to make his wife happy. Even if it leads to other people suffering.

OR

Steve is really Joyce's son.

My thoughts: Ho boy, does this fic put you through an emotional ringer. I spent quite a few moments reading through my tears with this one. Steve and Jonathan's dads are the WORST. But Joyce is the freaking BEST and deserves so much love. Also Steve needs all the hugs and eventually gets the love he's been missing for so long. Great hurt/comfort, angst with a happy ending fic.

Common Cents by StrangerStars

Fandom: Stranger Things

Summary:

   Making a will at eighteen seems incredibly morbid. The lawyer stares at him long and hard the entire time. She acts like he's contagious, like she might catch her death from him or maybe he'll ruin her rug by dropping dead in her office. Steve figures she has nothing to worry about. If anything's going to kill him, it's probably going to be a monster from the Upside Down.

   -

   In which Steve hunts monsters, becomes a deputy, makes a will, and finds a family. Among other things.

My thoughts: Oh man, another emotional rollercoaster, this one. Takes Steve's parents never being around to the next level. It hurts so much, but it's so good. Because there is comfort to be had! It makes me just so happy that he happened to be there when Dustin came by because he needs those kids. Needs this family that he's found and made out of people who barely even knew him before. Also, a bit of deputy!Steve which is always a win, imo.

[lenalvthor]

Ayyyyy, so idk of this is the right blig, but if you wanted ideas for little mini fics relating to the hsau, I'd love to see how Sara and Ava's relationship was before the whole thing with Ava's coming out. Anyway, I love the fic and I hope you have a wonderful day!

hi!! 💛apologies for leaving this in my inbox for so long, this last week has been a ROLLERCOASTER but i promise you, i did see this and get very excited abt it and send it to rachel and we were both freaked out a bit abt getting prompts for the fic

so we have many, many ideas about pre-fic avalance in this au. like Many. many to the point that we don’t have the time to write an actual mini fic about it because the fic would be the furtherest thing from mini. also, bc it would be rlly weird to have to try and go back and write them before all of this, like we go back and read ‘don’t you like you’ and everything feels so strange bc we wrote it before we had this big detailed plan for everything that was gonna happen between them and it just feels crazy that they were in this place where they weren’t even friends let alone in love 

but what i am gonna do. is give you a fuckload of bullet headcanons instead. so i hope that suffices bc buckle up, there’s gonna be a few 🌈🌈

so ava and sara don’t go to the same elementary school. they’re both star city natives though so they kind of know of each other. sara did dance when she was little and was in layla’s dance class and ava was sometimes there when barbara came to pick her up etc etc. 

(ava’s school was a little nicer, was the fancier star city school that barbara teaches at. damien insisted nora went there bc of it’s good reputation and gary’s mom wanted the best possible start for her son, hence how the three of them ended up there and became friends) 

so by the time middle school comes around and they actually become a part of each other’s spheres, they know the other vaguely by name and the like 

in middle school, ava and sara meet and they don’t quite get along but they don’t rlly know each other so it’s not an issue - sara’s this reckless trouble maker that ava wants nothing to do with bc she wants to just do well and be liked and successful and normal while sara’s off getting into fights and sneaking out of school and never doing anything by the rules, so not interacting pretty much suits them both just fine

until in 8th grade, after spencer leaves to join the army and ava’s still trying to piece herself back together and he left around the time that she decides she was going to quit basketball after this season and she was scared she might be gay and starts vehemently ignoring any and all possibilities of that fact - that’s when sara lance comes out as bi

and sara doesn’t know why ava suddenly makes a point to argue with her more than usual, or call her out in her bullshit, or just be a general pain in the ass but she is, and what sara doesn’t realise is that ava’s angry that sara came out bc it put ava in a position where we had to actually confront herself abt her sexuality

sara has a quiet suspicion of why ava’s acting like this, and it would sort of make sense that ava would be gay (or bi, but sara thinks gay) but also she doesn’t wanna assume so she leaves it and just pushes ava’s buttons just as hard 

but it’s not all bad, bc the day nyssa and sara start dating, everyone at school is talking about it and ava knows her friends will be too and she’s terrified bc she doesn’t want to know if they think it’s weird, but kuasa just goes “whoa, no way” and lily whistles and says “damn, they’re probably the hottest couple at school” and gary doesn’t say anything but he’s got this look of curiosity and relief on his face and nora is looking at him carefully before she just glances over at sara and says “good for them” and ava doesn’t know if she wants to laugh or cry with relief

(and it’s still 2 and half years before she even tells nora - the first person she comes out to - but it’s a start at least) 

ava and sara get better for a bit in 8th grade, but then high school happens and suddenly they’re in the same homeroom and heaps of classes together and being partnered / grouped up for projects all the time and they both just get on each other’s nerves to no end

both of them are vying to be rip’s favourite in class and it makes ava furious and sara so smug because ava wanted to be the teachers pet bc she worked hard and did a load of extra curriculars and was always polite and on time and we’ll behaved, whereas rip just liked sara because she was entertaining and good at soccer and a little too cocky for her own good

and around this time, sara is slowly becoming friends with amaya and ray and jax and nate, is being less reckless and dangerous and unbearable as she was in middle school, starting to mellow a bit

but anyway; they’re at each other’s throats all of freshman year but their rivalry ends up being kind of fun bc arguing in class when it’s actually about school isn’t as frustrating for all the teachers and sara notices that ava actually makes her think, makes her feel smart, bc she can actually kind of keep up with the smartest girl in their entire grade, and ava meanwhile realises that sara is actually pretty smart, she’s actually kind of a genius and if she actually tried, she could probably give ava a run for her money and that both infuriates and pleasantly surprises ava 

but then early sophomore year, nyssa leaves. sara’s not at school for a few days and by the time she comes back, everyone Knows because it’s high school and nothing can stay secret for long, and everyone’s trying not to gossip bc sara’s slowly become quite popular around school but they can’t help it, they all wanna know what’s going on

and ava detests sara but she’s always admired her for coming out, for being so proud abt it and dating nyssa when there was like a grand total of 3 other lgbt people at school all of whom fit every single stereotype that ava wanted nothing to do with (and she’ll never admit it, but she had always felt kind of safe and comforted knowing nyssa and sara were dating bc it made her feel like she would be ok one day), so she can’t even imagine how sara feels especially if the rumours about why nyssa left are true 

sara’s heartbroken and angry and confused and she keeps pushing ava with jabs and mocking retorts and remarks that are lot harsher and more biting than usual but ava just smothers the urge to respond and rolls her eyes pointedly and ignores her bc she knows sara’s just lashing out

and at one point in gym, sara just drops her back and turns to face ava and demands “what the fuck is your problem sharpe?” and ava crosses her arms and goes “pretty sure you’re the once with the problem here, lance.” to that, sara glares and spits out “i’m not the one walking around with this fucking holier than thou attitude as if you’re better than me. can you at least argue back instead of rolling over like a doormat?” and ava literally wants to throw a dodgeball at her but she just holds her ground, doesn’t say anything, keeps sara’s gaze before biting her lip and looking away for the briefest of seconds. sara makes this smug huff of triumph, as though ava’s abt to fight back but ava just looks back at sara with an expression that’s too gentle, and says “i’m sorry about nyssa, sara.” and goes to join her dodgeball team

(amaya comes over to ask sara what it was about and sara can’t bring herself to answer, just shakes her head because she doesn’t quite know what just happened) 

things get better quickly, like. sara would never say it at the time but zari is this refreshing burst of fresh air who didn’t know nyssa the way all her other friends did and it’s so nice to have her around, even tho she’s still quite new. and then wally comes to star city and everything is fun and exciting w the legends and things aren’t perfect, definitely not bc oliver and laurel break up and sara and laurel have been fighting just usually like sisters do and dinahs been calling, on saras ass abt her slipping grades at school and sara just wants to piss them both off so she hooks up w oliver (and they’ve known each other for so long that they both feel guilty abt it and they try to make it a Thing bc they don’t want to admit that they both just used each other for different reasons)

it it’s sometime after that, after she and oliver collapsed under the very weak foundation their relationship was already built on, after laurel starts dating tommy, after amaya promises sara she’s not a bad person for what happened with oliver, it’s sometime then that ava makes that challenging retort abt sara even trying to get a better grade than her in french

and all sara can think of is laurel, the way laurel hadn’t been mad when she hooked up with oliver, the way laurel had just snuck into her room late at night and slipped under the covers and hugged sara close as sara broke down abt why their mom just didnt care abt all the good things sara was doing, the way laurel had softly murmured “you’re brilliant sara. you are, you’re so smart and so capable and if mom can’t see that, then she doesn’t deserve to.”

so sara does try. and she gets an a+. and the beam on laurel’s face when she sees it on sara’s desk, the pride on quentin’s when sara tells him - sara never looks back (and she also starts to look a bit more at ava, because maybe she’s not all horrible) 

gary comes out at the very end of sophomore year, sara goes over to give him a hug and she sees the expression on ava’s face - proud and protective and kind but also sort of hurt and definitely, definitely jealous, and sara suddenly remembers the way ava had acted towards her after sara had first come out and she remembers her vague, kind of unfounded assumption that maybe ava was gay, realises that ava’s never had a boyfriend, never said yes to any of the numerous attractive guys who have asked her out 

but also, sara’s known ava for like, 4 years by now and she knows what kind of family ava has and she feels this sudden ache in her chest bc ava must be in the most difficult position - sara doesn’t even know if ava is aware of it, so she doesn’t wanna say anything or offer support (also bc ava still grinds her gears to no end)

but she just keeps an eye out, checks ava’s facebook / instagram every once in a while to see if she’s posted anything abt it or added smth like a pride flag to her bio

and then on a sunday evening in october junior year, ava comes out on facebook. sara doesn’t see it first, in fact, she’s lying on the living room couch trying to not fall asleep reading her social studies text book when from the armchair, laurel lets out a quiet “huh” and both quentin and sara say “what?” at the same time and laurel goes “ava sharpe’s in your grade, right sara?” and sara nods and quentin’s like “is that the girl you did that chem assignment with earlier in the year?” and sara wrinkles her nose and goes “unfortunately. she’s a pain in my ass.” and laurel just hums and says “well, she just came out.”

sara almost falls off the couch, scrambling into a sitting position and snatching laurel’s phone and ignoring laurel’s protesting “hey!”

she reads the post through several times before she goes to comment and realises she’s on laurel’s phone, grabbing her own but then she hesitates, wanting to write something genuine but it feels too vulnerable so instead goes “ffs sharpe, on top of everything else, i now have to compete with you for hot girls too?”, but she opens messenger and goes “hey, just wanted to say congrats on coming out. i know it’s nowhere near easy to tell your family so like, hope that went okay. and i’m here if you wanna talk abt it at all.”

and the day after, as they’re clearing up microscopes and stuff in bio, ava quietly thanks her for her message and sara shrugs, goes “i get it.” and ava pauses before quietly admitting “you know i always admired you for being out. especially when we were so young back in middle school. i’d only just started thinking about it then and … i was a mess. seeing you being out and happy and just - the same person you’d always been … that helped more than you know.”

and it’s probably the most meaningful conversation they’ve ever had (or at least had in a Long time)

and 4 days later, ava shows up on sara’s doorstep after a fight with her mom at dinner and this entire fic began. 

also, for your own reading pleasure, some other random moments we thought of; 

sara only ever called ava ‘sharpe’ or ‘sharpie’ or any other variation of her name until they were both 15/16

ava used to roll her eyes every time sara got a a bad grade because she could be so much better if she tried, but she doesnt

sara nearly started a fight the first time she and ava had to work together on a project, and once they started it and it became clear they worked well together she was the Most Annoyed™️

back in middle school ava always scoffed and made some patronising comment every time she watched someone break up a fight sara had gotten into (except for the one time in the first few weeks of class when she had to stop sara throwing her second, or maybe third punch at a homophobic jerk in their class who’d cornered her on the way back from school - that time she shoved him away and watched him go before turning and cautiously asking if sara was okay, and sara glared at her and told her she’d had everything under control before storming off in the opposite direction)

there are probably many many headcanons for this part of the universe that we will think of but i hope this suffices for now, feel free to come yell about anything legends / fic related bc this was so much fun 💖💞

[grifcreates]

@wyomingsmustache I did itttttt!!! I drew Donut and Rookie. Fun fact: this is the first drawing in my new sketchbook.

[dandyraccoonbeast]

Finished the newest chapter and it will be up when I get home.

[certifiedwerewolf]

HEY GUYS it's the first new material posted for Rollercoaster since 2o17! You should go read it!

[certifiedwerewolf]

Readers of the original Rollercoaster HSAU may be delighted to learn that Church is going even more through it this time than the first time

[grifalinas]

It’s too bad I stopped writing Rollercoaster because Huggins would have been a great fill for the role of Grif’s roommate after he moved to Hawaii after graduation. I could never work out who I should put in that role and Huggins would have been PERFECT. She starts out annoying him and then gradually start bonding and become bros and it’s gr9.

[grifalinas]

Forgot I was going to do an early post so here’s the post at the regular time. Enjoy the chapter.

[grifalinas]

Whoa, look at that! There’s a new chapter up! Amazing!

[grifalinas]

Technically it’s still Wednesday.

[grifalinas]

Our Love Will Leave Us Battlescars (Rollercoaster HSAU Rewrite)

...coming to an ao3 near you.

Yeah, that’s right, y’all read that right. I’m rewriting Rollercoaster. From the beginning. And I’m gonna start posting it starting next Wednesday, May 17. I’ve got everything ready except the intermissions, and I’ll have those ready by then. New chapters will be dropped, for now, on Wednesdays; there’ll be a schedule change for the second arc, based on how much buffer I’ve got written by that point.

“Hey Theo, that’s super cool!”, I hear you say, “But I’ve already read Rollercoaster! What has the rewrite got to offer me, a longtime fan who already knows what’s going to happen?”

I’m glad you asked, hypothetical straw person! Basically, the rewrite isn’t just me cleaning up spag errors. I’m actually rewriting. Scenes that were too clunky before have been trimmed and smoothed out to work better, characterizations that were later retconned have been fixed, and characters who didn’t get focus until later are moving into the spotlight much, much sooner. 

Remember how the first arc everything was Grif and Donut’s point of view? I’ve added Church, Tucker, Simmons, and Carolina right from the beginning. South, Wash, and Caboose are moving in during the second arc. We get to see the story, and the things that happen to them, without needing to filter it through Grif and Donut’s point of view.

I’m also adding brand new material. Every chapter has at least one brand new scene added to it, and there may even be whole new chapters as we move along and I begin to expand more. I’m also changing the format to include a few mini-arcs in between long timeskips (two-four chapters; think the Christmas arc, which was only four chapters). There will be new intermission chapters to account for new character storylines.

And finally... it’s just going to be better all around. I’ve always said that the original was the first draft, that it was going to get rewritten eventually, and I realized after my fifth reread since January that the thing stopping me from getting back to it was the the original was... a mess. So I’m going to clean it up, and it’s going to be great, and I hope you guys will be there to enjoy the new and improved Rollercoaster HSAU.

...so get fucking hype, y’all.

[grifalinas]

Running gags I always enjoyed writing in Rollercoaster:

Church and Tucker having a “wait” moment when someone refers to “painting each other’s nails”

Wash getting stuck in trees

Tucker being aware of the fourth wall when he was sleep-deprived

York, Connie, and Stasney writing themselves into scenes I hadn’t planned for them and completely throwing out my plans for said scene

Nobody trusting Felix at all and calling him evil for the most innocuous things

Church randomly getting along with Gary and thinking his jokes are funny

The Vampire Mummy Werewolf series

Call of Modern Warcraft

[grifalinas]

Yooooo it’s a new chapter! With a surprise brand spanking new subplot introduced at the end!

[grifalinas]

The first chapter of the Rollercoaster rewrite just went live. Why not go check it out?

And again, if you guys could signal boost this, that’d be great! I’d love for people who enjoyed the fic but don’t still follow me to get the chance to read the rewrite if they’re so inclined. (And also because hey ego stroking.)