Guys help where’s the jamilton fic where it’s a soulmate AU and they have the tattoos that they can communicate through by touching and Alex has a flower on the back of his neck and he and Jefferson are roommates at college I can’t find it on ao3 I’m freaking out man
HEY LOOK it’s an AU I’ve sat on for a couple years and never talked about! This is also probably the *weirdest* AU I’ve ever made. This AU focuses mainly on Alexander and Thomas reincarnating over the years, though other characters sometimes pop up as well. Details below the cut!
Making the photoset small so that it isn’t immediately obvious how rough these little sketches are. I did this in like an hour which is why it’s so sloppy.
Don’t expect anything else from this AU, I just wanted to get it out once.
As stated this is a really weird AU, so I’m going to summarize it in the cleanest way I possibly can.
World setup:
This world relies on three main concepts. The first is that souls have power, and the second is that this power is represented by colors, and the third is that soul magic leads the world.
Souls have power, and this power grows over time. As someone is reincarnated over the years, their soul will continue to grow more and more powerful and refined. Souls can change their power type (explained in the next concept) each time they’re reincarnated, but often trend towards keeping the same or similar power types as those they’ve had in previous lives, or a mix of them.
This power is represented by colors, particularly light or the lack thereof. Magic is defined as two types: white/light (and its components), or black/dark. Someone can not have both types of magic. Dark magic is organic magic, allowing the user to manipulate the natural world. Only a small subset of the population has this magic, and most go into careers related to naturalism or farming. Light magic is inorganic magic (making it essentially limitless), and is held by the vast, vast majority of the population. It is broken down in the color spectrum -- most light magicians aren’t considered as having light magic, but instead have red magic, or blue magic, or so on.
Soul magic leads the world in the form of the High God. As the power of souls grow over time, so does the power of the gods. The High God is little more than a web of scraps of magic, and builds up the basis of the universe and everything within it. Two Lesser Gods are also much later brought into being by this same force of magic, but where the High God is concerned with the cosmos, the Lesser Gods care for the beings within it. The Lesser Gods also pluck individual souls out of the cycle to act as servants and ambassadors who can actively visit humanity to guide it down the path of the Lesser God’s vision. The Lesser Gods can correspond with the High God, but there’s little to be heard by a being in such a grand scale above even the other gods.
Plot basics:
The storyline takes place over thousands of years, and several reincarnations of the cast, but the main focus is on three lives.
One of three: This life takes place while humanity is still only beginning to gain its footing. Magic is in its infancy, and is capable of very little -- and while some regions embrace the natural variation in magic, others detest it. The main cast lives in an area of the latter sort -- a small tribe identifying themselves with their “red” magic is clashing with the “blue” tribe over a small area of land that grows a particular herb that is highly nutritious and thought to have healing properties. The one thing the two tribes agree over is in a legend of people with every magic type, “light” magicians, who are incredibly powerful and are sent by fate to lead tribes to prosperity. Both tribes also identify their affiliations by painting stripes under their eyes with their color.
(There are other tribes in the area -- many of the other cast members live in the green tribe, and Lafayette is of the dark tribe to the south, but they don’t have much standing on the plot.)
Thomas is the son of a the blue tribe’s leader and is particularly gifted with magic to the point where some people claim his family must descend from a light magician. He hates the pressure put on him to step up and lead, or to use his powers to defeat the red tribe.
Alexander is from the red tribe, raised by his mother -- his father is unknown to him, though his mother claims she found his father one day while out foraging, brought him back to the village to tend to his wounds, and fell in love until the day he ran away again. Alexander is a typical red magician, but often will go out alone into the woods to attempt to push his powers to the limits, with the excuse that he forages while away. One day, Alexander leaves to forage, but becomes caught in a heavy thunderstorm. Disoriented, he stumbles through the underbrush until he comes to a messy trail and follows it.
Thomas is the one to find him collapsed on the trail, bunches of the herb Alexander collected in his small bag. The rain washed away Alexander’s paint -- not knowing who this stranger could be, Thomas hauls him back and takes the herb from Alexander’s back to give to the healers.
When Alexander wakes up -- indoors, clothes dry -- he’s approached by Thomas, who introduces himself. Alexander is at first terrified, knowing that a member of Thomas’ tribe wouldn’t hesitate to kill a member of the red tribe. But Thomas has been working on a plan: he doesn’t want all this pressure on him to do this and do that as the heir to the only family descending from a light magician; instead, he slyly mentions that he heard legend of light magicians appearing to aid those in need. Alexander jumps on the opportunity, claiming that of course he’s a light magician, and of course he’ll help Thomas’ community. Anything to stop them from stabbing him then and there, he supposes. Thomas thanks him, hands him a bowl of broth made from the healing herbs, and their relationship develops from there.
Alexander never does find out his father was a light magician.
But other folks find out he’s a red magician -- and before he can escape back to his own tribe, he’s killed.
Two of three: Thousands of years later, magic is no longer a faint power only a few can properly utilize. Instead, it’s well-known and spread through the population, which isn’t tribal any longer, but is instead a relatively highly-developed interlocked society spanning the globe.
No longer are people defined by a single color -- many people descend from a mixture of many colors, and instead are simply inclined towards one over the other, though some stronger than others. Light magic has also become far more common, though it’s rare to see someone who can naturally use it; instead, people with great magical affinity will be invited to schools of higher education where they are trained.
Thomas is in his second year studying with one such school. His parents both attended it, and are ecstatic for Thomas to join it as well, though he’s less interested. He’s initially invited to the school to study light magic, but during the first week of orientation he finds out: hey! He hates light magic and isn’t inclined towards it at all! And instead he runs off to study blue magic. It just...feels better.
Alexander comes into the school a year after Thomas on a full scholarship. He comes from a far more unfortunate background, but shows incredible magic potential. So, a light magician it is! Where the other magics at the school dress however they want, work on projects all over the common spaces, wander the halls...to be a light magician is to be perfect, and that’s exactly what he wants. He dresses in the perfect white uniform, he sticks his nose up at other magics, and his class -- only one, all day, every day -- is set with the other 99 students in his class in an auditorium.
Only...light magic isn’t all it’s cracked out to be. Light magic is no longer the raw force of power it was; instead, students are encouraged to refine and control it if they want to use it. Light magic is pulled from the soul and spun into a string, then woven on a loom into the desired shape. First-years are still learning how to weave, so they work on projects as a community -- each student of the 100 is brought up to a stage during class, spins a single string, then sets it on the loom and sits down. The lecturer then weaves them all together. Though first-years are forbidden from meeting with the upper years, rumor says upper years get to weave their own magic, and go on to work at the greatest government-run magi-tech facilities in the world.
But Alexander feels off. He doesn’t like the clothes, and he doesn’t like the culture. Within the first month, the lecture becomes dull: there’s no notes to take, every demonstration is slow, and he’s terrified that every time it’s his turn to come to the stage, he’ll mess up his weave. Not only that, but weaving doesn’t feel...right.
One day he runs into a group of blue students while going to the restroom during lecture. They’re encouraged not to leave during lecture, but he’s falling asleep and has to get out of that uncomfortable chair. And he realizes...the blue students are using their magic freely, and already doing amazing things with their powers, not spending all their days in that awful lecture hall.
And just like that, Thomas convinces him to leave the light magic program. Alexander becomes a red magician, but something never does sit right with him about what was happening in those lectures.
Until it comes out that weaving light magic requires depositing a bit of one’s soul along with it. Light-weaving magicians will all burn out eventually, and while the soul will regenerate come their next reincarnation, their magic is stolen from them in their current incarnation.
Chaos breaks out among the magicians of the school. A microcosm of revolution between those who are learned and powerful and those who are plentiful and ready to throw all they have at it.
Alexander is killed in the chaos.
Three of three: Another several thousand years pass. It’s by this time that the Lesser Gods have fully formed, and light-weaving technology has surpassed all else to the point where humanity is post-scarcity -- cities are rebuilt for beauty, natural spaces carved out, portals and magic commonly integrated. Everyone has everything they could want, they only need to find their place and personal happiness.
Thomas is plucked out of the reincarnation cycle by the Lesser Gods; he’s brought into being as an adult with a strictly light-blue uniform and a purpose. He mainly takes correspondence and delivers messages, seeks out additional souls that would be good to be made into a being such as himself (a ”unit”), as well as various other duties assigned at random, such as setting things up if another unit will be doing things down in the world.
He doesn’t personally recommend Alexander’s soul be pulled, but he doesn’t mind when he’s assigned to wake Alexander up. Alexander is another unit, but this time an enforcer with a pink uniform: or, white-red, to be specific. An enforcer is more than a passive messenger -- they’re powerful, strong, and are meant to cleanly eliminate those who would destroy the perfect society humanity has built.
He and Alexander work next to each other for a time while Alexander is awaiting orders. One day, Alexander is sent off on a mission: some random crazy person has been trying to build an artificial god. Of course, that won’t fly, so he’s off to eliminate them and destroy anything remaining of their project.
But in his absence, Thomas starts to realize that he’s...lonely. He’s excited when he’s given his next assignment to go to Earth for some silly routine work, and realizes that he doesn’t...really want to go back. James is the final nail in the coffin for him: finally, someone else who likes him! They just have to disappear and pop off elsewhere, ideally avoiding enforcers, and they’ll be off scott free!
Shame that Alexander finds him.
(The funny thing about Thomas being a servant is that he does have some powers -- ones that happen to counteract all of Alexander’s offensive abilities as an enforcer. Making it a very awkward sort of manhunt. Units were never made to hunt each other, or even defect at all!)
And with each escape, every thwarted plan, Alexander cracks a little more. And eventually, when Thomas extends a hand -- maybe out of pity, maybe out of love, maybe just because it’s what he’s always done in all their lives -- Alexander takes it.
And they run free.
And that’s it for this AU! I’m never writing for it ever again. Goodnight.
Tumblr sniped my previous update post, so let’s try this again, at 12 AM. I recently updated two fics:
Peppermint Perfume and Omegan Aromas
A Jamilton modern A/B/O fic! Thomas and Alexander head back to Thomas’ place after a fun outing, and things go just about how you’d expect.
Don’t Go Too Far
A Lams & Jeffmads modern AU fic! Thomas has a crisis on-screen, Alexander has a crisis off-screen, John is throwing out his best shot and James is very, very tired.
Thomas was not the most perceptive of men when it came to discerning the feelings of others. Of course there were those closest to him that he had come to know well enough over the years that all it took was the smallest pull of their lips and the tightness around their eyes for him to realize that something was horribly wrong. But for those who he had distanced himself from, knowing only in passing, it would take a figurative brick to the head for him to see that something was up.
And that exact brick hit him in the form of Alexander Hamilton running directly into him on the way out of the office, staring at him with wide eyes for several incredibly awkward seconds-
Before promptly bursting into tears.
If Thomas was not very perceptive towards emotions, he most certainly was not a licensed therapist, and as such was...a bit out of his realm of expertise in this exact situation. Add to that the fact that Thomas had been working late that night: it seemed like he and Alexander were the other two left in the office.
So, more confused than anything, he guided the smaller man outside with one hand across the other’s shoulders, sat him down on the bench by the entrance, and then took a seat beside him. At that hour, even the parking lot was nearly empty; they were alone. Awkwardly, Thomas dropped his arm away from the other man, folding his hands on his lap.
And they sat, Alexander clamping one hand across his mouth to stifle his hiccuping sobs, and Thomas fiddling with the hem of his shirt and wondering what, if anything he should say. It was only after some time that Alexander himself was the first to speak, albeit with whispered, stuttering words.
“I’m s- so sorry about this, you- you don’t need to stay.”
Thomas shifted where he sat, electing to stare intently at the armrest of the bench rather than at Alexander, focusing on the spots of rust that had slowly overtaken the metal over the years. “No, it’s...it’s fine.” Another pause, the silence punctuated by Alexander’s sniffling, and Thomas tried, “I didn’t mean to...set you off, or whatever. You wanna talk about it?”
“Not really,” was Alexander’s flat response; he stopped to rub at his eyes, and despite the relative darkness, Thomas could see that they seemed raw and ringed in red. “And it...it wasn’t your fault. I’ve just been having a rough...year? Decade? I don’t know. This has just been a real shit week and- and I guess- I-I really can’t explain my thought process, everything just- came together and-” His shoulders seemed to be quaking as he grabbed his arms and gasped, “I’m sorry. This is- horrifically unprofessional. But nothing feels real right now.”
Thomas chewed at his cheek for a few moments, mulling over his options, before settling on: “Well, so long as we’re being unprofessional...”
Alexander flinched when Thomas tugged one of his hands away from where it had been digging into his upper arm; Thomas squeezed Alexander’s hand tight.
He was not a very perceptive man, and whatever was going on now in Alexander’s life, despite all his time spent arguing and debating with the man, he hadn’t noticed a thing off, nor did he have any clue what had broken him like it did. But he could offer some support, if that was the only thing he had to give.
And Alexander took it, trembling, hair falling loose across his eyes.
They sat there for some time, the night’s cool air slowly sinking into Thomas’ skin, and eventually, Alexander whispered, “Thank you.”
Thomas dropped his hand, and after an awkward moment, clapped him on the back -- lightly, as it looked like the slightest wrong look would set him off again. “Come on. I’ll walk you to your car.”
Alexander nodded, lips tight; Thomas put out a hand, hauling Alexander to his feet a moment later.
They crossed the near-empty lot, Alexander pausing as he unlocked his car. Shifting awkwardly on his feet for a few moments, he eventually murmured, “Again...thank you. You don’t know how much this means to me...”
Thomas nodded, answering with a light, “Goodnight.” Almost feeling like that wasn’t nearly enough, he added, “I hope you get to feeling better soon, y’know. I get we aren’t friends or anything, but- maybe that’s a good thing? Someone who doesn’t really know you and doesn’t have any judgement to pass.” Recognizing that he was rambling, he swallowed back anything else, merely ending his statement with, “Just figured I’d put that out there as an option. If worse comes to worse.”
Alexander nodded, and Thomas waved to him before turning on his heels and walking off to his own vehicle.
-----------------------
Thanks for reading, y’all! Sorry this is short, unedited, and doesn’t have much going on -- I’ve been battling horrible depression/anxiety for some time now and no matter how much I try can’t get any words out on the page when I sit down to write. I’d like to say that there was a point to this, or even that it was cathartic to write, but I don’t even think that much is true. But it is the most I’ve been able to get out in months, so I’ll cling to it, and hopefully I can write again someday soon.
White Owl by Josh Garrels. The selkie bird story. Or the Clipped AU.
Selkie bird story 100000%, the lyrics fit so, so beautifully well with that one for some reasons that can be devised and some reasons that will soon become clear
I’m not actually planning to do anything with this, but wanted to throw the idea out there so it can stop living rent-free in my brain haha
Hamilton/Frankenstein AU. Details and a doodle under the cut!
For the most part, the AU sticks closely to the original story; at the moment I’d say it’s still set in Europe, but honestly it doesn’t matter too much. It’s mostly running with the story of the novel, though there were some changes made in the musical that I quite enjoyed, so I peppered them in here and there.
(Shipping is mostly ambiguous for this since things could get pretty questionable real quick for a multitude of reasons.)
Alexander fits pretty naturally as Victor -- ambitious, obsessed with his ideas, and ends up dying to his own hubris. His early life in this AU is far more luxurious, though lonely; he spends much of his time with Eliza, or running about causing trouble with John. After his mother dies, he heads off to university to begin his studies, delving into the realm of medicine. He’s a star student, but is haunted by the death of his mother, and after a few years of classes abandons his continued study in favor of attempting to reanimate the dead. The biggest problem with casting Alexander as Victor is that after creating the Creature, Victor goes and spends most of the rest of the novel doing fuck-all, though we can assume Alexander is so obsessed with what people would think of him and so overwhelmed that he just breaks. And if you take into context the musical for Frankenstein alongside the original book, several of the songs easily match up to the ones in Hamilton -- The Chase has a lot of overlap with the workshop version of Hurricane, for example.
Speaking of John, he similarly fits well into the role of Henry Clerval. Something of a dreamer, he cares more for ideals and free-flowing words than hard sciences; he’s far more preoccupied with the flaws of their world and putting them to paper. He also dabbles in the arts, appreciating the natural world for all it is. Shame he gets fucking murdered.
As for Eliza, she takes over the role of Elizabeth in the original story. The daughter of a noble family adopted into the Hamilton household. I’m not really sure how Angelica and Peggy would fit into the story -- I don’t know who would be Justine (the housekeeper/nanny for the Hamiltons), but it feels kind of sloppy to try and shove one of the other sisters into the role.
As previously mentioned, Alexander’s mother and father take the place of Caroline and Alphonse; nothing much here changes.
To round out the rest of the Frankenstein family, I was originally considering James Jr. and Edward as Ernest and William Frankenstein, but neither of them would really fit the roles well. Other options would have Phillip as William, the sweet little boy who’s strangled to death -- he would fit naturally into the role, though that still leaves Ernest. Though, eh, Ernest doesn’t do much, haha. another option would be sneaking Angelica/Peggy in here.
I think Burr best fits as Robert Walton. Perhaps instead of writing to his sister, he instead sends poor Theodosia 200 pages about the random man idiot frozen man (Alexander) he finds out on the ice of the arctic.
Finally, as for the Creature, we have Jefferson. I wasn’t originally sure who to put here, and played with a few options, but I think he fits the best. Eloquent and intimidating. If you want to play with a happy-ending AU instead of “RIP Alexander, motherfucker deserved it,” I couldn’t ever see Alexander and Thomas falling into a father/son creator/creation relationship, but they could end up as equals, more or less.
Pulling from the plot of the musical some more -- specifically the Amen song -- here’s a doodle of the condemned man himself before Alexander claims his corpse in the name of “science.” RIP Thomas. Also, a Creature. Wonder who Alexander got those eyes from...Thomas’ eyes were dark brown in life.
Since Frankenstein takes place around the same time frame as Hamilton, I didn’t bother drawing much of the cast -- they’d be in the same clothes for the most part, anyways. But since Thomas gets the most changes, he gets to be drawn.
Bonus suggestion: Jekyll and Hyde AU, of which I have put exactly zero thought into, I just think having Burr as the collected gentlemen Dr. Henry Jekyll and Alexander as Mr. Spirit of London New York Idiocy at Night would be hilarious.
bitches be like "i know an excellent tale with gay subtext of a young, college-age multilingual man set in the mid-late 1700s who is consumed by ambition and over the years becomes his own worst enemy as he hides his mistakes and progressively makes worse and worse decisions before dying due to his own awful choices" and you show up expecting hamilton but in reality it's frankenstein and he's about to commit a felony (i'm just joking about what youve been drawing lately, not a criticism!)
sobs I’m bitches
But yeah haha, I’ve been doing some various doodling lately since it’s easier to chill out in the evenings with sketches vs. sitting down for bigger projects.
All that said, I have one more week until Thanksgiving break and only a few more days of classes after that. I do have quite a few projects/tests and of course finals coming up since it’s the end of the semester, but once I’m not dying with schoolwork and have a moment to breathe I fully plan to do some more stuff. :)
Classes are really beating me up right now and I’m not really getting much actual writing done; instead I’ve mostly been playing around with plot lines and planning out chapters. The consequence of this is a lot of detailed write-ups for what I want to happen in one-shots and chapters and such, including a siren AU I’m working on.
(Let it be known the AU is very self-indulgent. It’s just people doing things and having fun in a world with sirens, essentially.) AU info below the cut! Keep in mind that this is just me playing around with magic, so while things in-universe are consistent, some stuff doesn’t make 100% sense and is just for fun.
Skip down four paragraphs to read about the actual characters; this first bit is just setting up what sirens *are.*
In this AU, sirens exist in the world, but are not known of by humanity. Sirens are creatures born with something called the Voice, which allows them to draw upon an inner magic to create beautifully haunting songs. Their Voice provides a few particular powers, namely: the ability to shapeshift between a merfolk form and a human form, to invoke particular emotions/thoughts/feelings in other beings, to communicate underwater, and to help keep themselves healthy (particularly boosting their immune systems and warding off parasites, though they can still succumb to particularly nasty diseases, physical injury, starvation, etc.). Their Voice also allows them to slowly acclimate to new environments -- while most sirens who often shift between their human/merfolk form remain in the shallows off the coast or in rivers/lakes, many for their own safety live in remote communities deep in the ocean or nearer to the poles and use their Voices to shift their bodies to accommodate such conditions. (Those born and living in such places also experience quite different cultures than those who often swap to their human forms!)
In their merfolk form, most sirens have a few similarities in their appearances -- slitted pupils, darkvision, sharp teeth, small claws, webbed fingers, pointed or frilled ears, and gills. If intending to remain in the water, their full transformation into their merfolk form includes replacing their lower body with a form similar to an aquatic creature’s, though their lower body can vary greatly between individuals and typically has color patterns unique to the individual. They’ll often have small patches of scales scattered on their upper body, as well. Their lower body form is often somewhat similar between family members as well, besides the color variations, which can sometimes also change of their own accord over time.
Sirens in their human forms are indistinguishable from a regular human, and a siren who has a child with a human and has their child while still in their human form will give birth to a child who looks human. If the child was born without a Voice, though, or if they’re never taught by another siren how to invoke their Voice, they’ll never be able to transform and will remain indistinguishable from a human. Theoretically a child born in their merfolk form could also never learn how to use their Voice, but since the Voice is used underwater to speak, it doesn’t really make sense for them to never be exposed to it (and thus never be able to use it on their own.)
Sirens often live in communities called schools which are essentially extended found-family groups composed of other sirens. Underwater, they often share communal dens (or live scattered around a small area), and stick together in established, larger ranges where they protect and look out for each other. This behavior even translates over if a school lives on land. That said, due to the comforts/additional options provided by living human lives, many shallow sirens may live on land for parts of their childhood, or even live as humans long-term.
Character info below! Mostly focusing on Alexander, since he’s the focus of the story as I’ve written it.
Alexander and his older brother James are both sirens, though they were raised on land as humans for the most part. Their mother (also a siren) never discouraged using their Voices, but intentionally homeschooled them and kept them from getting too involved with other folks while young so they couldn’t spread any secrets by accident. She showed them in secret how to transform and the basics of eating fish and kelp scavenged around their home, but emphasized that they had to hide while not humans.
After their mother died, Alexander and James are pushed to live with a relative. Said relative dies, and unable to get into contact with their father, James fears that they’ll be split up for foster care or taken away from where they’ve always lived. So, James grabs Alexander and says they’re going to transform and hide for a while.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to transition to living as a merfolk so suddenly, and James is still only a teenager and Alexander a kid -- they struggle, a lot, as a school of two. Eventually, Alexander starts skulking around the shore and docks to scavenge for more supplies and food, and ends up running into another boy his age, Edward. Ned realizes he’s a siren, but they quickly strike up a friendship, and it isn’t soon before Ned tells his parents that his new friend (not mentioning the siren part) and his friend’s brother are homeless and need help. So, Ned’s family offer to take the boys in, with Alexander and James shifting back into their human forms, only Ned being any the wiser.
The present storyline takes place years later, with Alexander being an adult still living as a human, almost never acknowledging his siren abilities; outside of living sashimi more than most people, he’s pretty normal. We’ve got the other siren cast -- namely Herc/Laf/John who live in a school together. Washington is a human here, but met the sirens while surveying coastal land, and was just curious and persistent enough to get into a good rap with them.
James/Thomas/Burr are all human and work for Washington’s company alongside Alexander, who was introduced to Washington after he ended up running into Herc/Laf/John and was given a job to get back on his feet. He’s in a pretty good position now, too.
The plot is essentially just “Thomas accidentally finds out that Alexander is a siren and is more impressed than anything, while Alexander has a complete panic attack over the idea that Thomas of all people knows,” the two of them gradually warming up to each other over their shared little secret.
Anywho, it’s a silly late hour so I’ll be off, but whether or not I actually write this story, it’s fun to imagine. :)
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Another short set in that magic AU I was talking about the other day. Alexander reflects on his relationship with Thomas, however one could refer to it -- their funny first meeting, the nights where everything is gentle and their days where they do nothing but argue, and all the things that go unsaid between them.
