a bunch of fics, organised into semi-coherent categories (Pre-Canon, Canonverse and Post-Canon, Canon Divergence AUs, Alternate Universe, and specifically TOG2 Fics). I haven't included any purely super explicit fics bc that's not usually my jam, although some might contain a few smutty scenes. this took so long bc i reread quite a few of these instead of making this post so oops
🔒 = need an ao3 account
Pre-Canon
deo volente (lux aeterna) 🔒 by qqueenofhades, 65.5k, complete, a kaysanova backstory fic
lessons exquisitely crafted by kaydeefalls, 42.9k, complete, After escaping the fall of Jerusalem together, Yusuf walks away from Nicolò in order to return home and move on with his life. Fifteen years later, Nicolò shows up in his dreams of the two immortal women.
The Other Matter by Survivah, 15k, one shot, Falling in love with the only other immortal you know gets a bit complicated. AHHHHH
The Golden Horn by goldsaffron, 10.8k, one shot, About forty years into his relationship wit Nicky, Joe experiences jealousy.
Spring in Malta 🔒 by orphan_account, 7.2k, one shot, What happened in Malta.
forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit by historynut101, 6.1k, one shot, Joe and Nicky getting together
these moving walls by GreyMichaela, 5.7k, one shot, “He looks at you like you belong to him,” Sarwa says. Nicolo keeps eating, oblivious to what they’re saying. “I think he belongs to me too,” Yusuf whispers."
an astonishment of form by raedear, 3.8k, one shot, Nicky and Quynh's friendship <3
Salt and Harvest by hollybennett123, 3.1k, one shot, Bread fic! Bread bread bread.
as an ancient city by stonecarved, 2.6k, one shot, Joe and Nicky through the ages. Beautiful and poetic.
Future Days by maroon, 2.1k, one shot, Andy POV of kaysanova.
and i'll never leave by strangehighs, 2k, one shot, Andy and Quynh finding each other.
Canonverse and Post-Canon
If Never Again, If Every Day by gallifreyburning and takiki16, 178.6k, complete, 1099 Nicky and 2021 Nicky swap places somehow. Old and new challenges arise.
Twenty-Five Love Letters for a Priest by fishie_scribbles, 22.2k, complete, Nile finds an academic essay discussing letters found in an abbey from the early 16th century.
i'll lay my roots in fertile ground by itsmylifekay, 13k, one shot, Snapshots of Nile's first few years with the team.
Something Rich and Strange by cecilyjones, 6.7k, one shot, Booker learns to scuba dive for a job
Stracciatella by ScribeofArda, 4.8k, one shot, Their bodies might show no sign of scars and injuries, but they still remember. A look at the pseudo phantom-limb syndrome the immortals might experience.
or, the modern prometheus by liraels, 3.6k, one shot, Quynh and Andy's first meeting after the first movie, (written long before the sequel with more of the comic characterisation.) Interesting.
The Fine Line Between Romance and Embarrassment 🔒 by twoseas, 3.3k, one shot, Nile asks Joe and Nicky how they got together. Storytelling and feelings. Love it.
the problem with having two, thousand year old brothers 🔒 by SuchASeeweedBrain, 3k, one shot, Nile learning about the historical figures that Joe and Nicky met over the years and freaking out. Silly and fun.
Family Dinner by dadvans, 2.4k, one shot, slice of life
what you're really in for by squireofgeekdom, 2.1k, one shot, Booker and Nile talk about their shared dreams of Quynh.
Victory Is Sweet by Arkada, 1.8k, one shot, Nile comes up with an idea to help Nicky win the baklava challenge.
The Greatest Fiction Podcast On Stitcher (and wherever you listen to podcasts on iPhone, Android, or other devices) by ContreParry, 1.7k, one shot, Silly humour fic where Joe, and the rest of the Old Guard, started a podcast. Hilarious.
Canon Divergence
Missed You By a Few Minutes, a Few Centuries by just_another_tinker, 115.9k, complete, Nicky and Joe's second meeting was over 900 years too late. Different first meeting.
What God Gave You, He Gave To Me by LittleRedCosette, 99.4k, complete, Nicky has also been missing for years when Nile meets the team.
Saltwater Sonata 🔒 by pinstripedJackalope, 68.4k, complete, Nicky was in the iron maiden instead of Quynh.
Travellers from an Antique Land by kaydeefalls, 45.7k, complete, Andy was in the iron maiden, not Quynh. One of my all time favourite 'someone else is under the sea' fics.
built a lot of castles by basketofnovas, 12k, one shot, Quynh is rescued by a marine archaeologist in the eighties.
Shattered Pieces 🔒 by AraSigyrn, 8.6k, one shot, Their escape from the lab in TOG1 went a little different. Booker does his best to make amends in the wake of it.
the goddess finally sleeps, in the lap of her lover 🔒 by wrennette, 2k, one shot, Andy doesn't stop searching fic.
Alternate Universe
Technical Support 🔒 by linascribbles, F1 AU, 96.5k, Driver!Joe and Race Engineer!Nicky. Some found family vibes but mostly focused on the developing relationship between Joe and Nicky. Background Book of Nile if that's your jam (it is very much not mine), but it's easy to ignore if it’s not.
let not time deceive you (you cannot conquer time) by Draco_sollicitus, Academia AU, 85.7k, complete, Nicky is a PhD candidate, looking for someone to translate a famed love poem by a little known poet in an extinct dialect. See: Joe. Different meeting, academia, angst with a happy ending, a wild ride.
Iris by pinesboi, Wild West AU, 62.1k, complete, Yusuf leaves New York to put down roots as a blacksmith in the Idaho Territory. Nicky works on Andy's ranch just outside of town.
a love even time will lie down and be still for by gallifreyburning, Practical Magic AU, 57k, complete, Joe and Nile were raised by witches, namely Andy and Quynh. Nicky is a police officer looking for answers. If you know the movie you know how this goes, if you don't, still read this! Very sweet.
If You Abide With Me by alby_mangroves and ZairaA, Historical different first meeting, 33.7k, complete, Nicolò is a monk dedicated in service to God, when he is put in charge of the care of a stranger who washed up on the shores of his monastery.
To Make Him Glorious by pixie_rings, Pygmalion AU, 23.5k, complete, Joe has been commissioned for a statue by Steven Merrick, but another figure haunts his dreams. YES YES YES.
From Italy, with Love 🔒 by Watthefuckidk, Street Racing AU, 22.3k, complete with an incomplete additon to the series, Andy owns a specialty car shop, along with Joe, Nile, and Booker, and compete in illegal street racing on the side. A new racer on the scene challenges everything.
Peer Reviewed by ishandahalf, Academia AU, 20k, complete, Epistolatory fic in that its told in emails, as Joe and Nicky are each other's blind peer reviewers. I loved this so much.
In a kingdom by the sea 🔒 by Morvith, Royalty AU, 10.9k, complete, Nicky's sister searches for her long-lost brother across the Mediterranean.
what you seek is seeking you 🔒 by bankrobbery, Cafe AU, 9.5k, one shot, Nicky is a baker, Joe is a regular. Yup, yup, yup
you know my name by kaydeefalls, James Bond AU, 4.6k, one shot part of a series in this universe, Andy is 007, Quynh is Q. Its fun.
TOG 2 Fics and Fix-Its
this living starts to burn by biblionerd07, 20.3k, complete, Post-TOG2, Discord underestimates the team and their love for each other as she tries to torture and manipulate them.
I Cannot Change as Others Do by sheafrotherdon, 8.3k, one shot, Nicky POV, kinda a fix-it set after TOG2
By Alphabet's End 🔒 by Siria, 6k, one shot, Andy and Quynh finding their footing again after the events of TOG2.
Talk to Me by PunsAndRoses, 4.8k, Conversations from Trieste to Paris while Nile and Nicky follow Joe.
Four (missing) waypoints by Srin, 2.5k, one shot, Missing scene, Nicky and Nile following Joe.
the thread that untangled by captain_adolphus, 2.4k, one shot, Nile, Nicky, and Joe, and the fight from TOG2.
Shadow on the Backcloth by pixie_rings, 2.3k, one shot, Nicky has thoughts about who Joe is texting.
unburned, yours, snowfallen by moonfreeze, 1.1k, one shot, Quynh musings in the scene with her and Andy in the library.
safe and warm by taq, 1k, one shot, In the library, Andy and Quynh.
hello! I need ur help. Can you help me find a fic about joe and nicky in the train? I think they are both standing but joe is asleep on Nicky’s shoulders while also managing their luggages. And I think there was a queer character at the end who spoke with Nicky at the end. Thanks in advance!
i cant think of this off the top of my head, does anyone recognise this one?
sentencing an actively suicidal and lonely man into exile from his friends for a century and then having him return only to give up his immortality in order to find an "end ticket" that will give his life meaning again just to immediately sacrifice himself with a pointless death where andy could have easily helped him take care of the bad guys is such a boring ending for bookers character im bored
"im sad about it, but it was in character for booker to sacrifice his life at the end :(" booker's suicidal and foolish but he's not an idiot. he's been immortal and fighting with this team since the early 1800s so i think it's a) disrespectful to insinuate that this was a fight he couldn't win b) he could have simply left the door open so andy could help since the bad guys definitely couldn't have gotten past both of them c) ANDY LITERALLY CANNOT DIE SO WHO IS HE PROTECTING BY DOING THIS???? his death was utterly pointless. sacrificing his immortality was in character. sacrificing his life like that was NOT
I think it’s almost expected of us to think that Quynh would want to take revenge on humanity, ‘cause of comics canon and our own worldview if that makes sense?
But if you stop for a moment, I think it’s very obvious that she wouldn’t? Why would she?
It’s difficult for us to grasp but this woman is 3 millenia old. She’d seen civilizations rise and fall, history is cyclical, and for someone who’s immortal and actually lived through it, experienced it, even if memories fade that understanding would not.
Of course, she’d be furious and hurt at what happened to her, but it wouldn’t be the first time? Her joke with Andy in their last moment - I read it as exactly what it was - they’ve been in that position before where humanity hunted them, hurt them, but it’s water under bridge, because humans are children, and they don’t know any better. The only reason the Iron Maiden was different was the duration and the nature of the crime.
Quynh can be apathetic towards humans once she’s out where she just stops helping them altogether. Or at least until she deals with her anger (?) over what essentially is and was a hate crime committed against herself and Andy.
I actually don’t think Quynh would even be that angry with Andy over not finding her, 'cause at the end of the day even Quynh would realise that it was pretty much impossible. The search would have been hopeless centuries ago, the technology just wasn’t there.
But Quynh would be betrayed by Andy for losing her immortality. That to me is the ultimate betrayal. Because while Quynh persevered and didn’t give up even for a moment, hoping against all reason that either Andy will find her, or she’ll get out and find Andy, Andy gave up on their promise. Their promise is about them, not about humanity. You and me until the end is about them living and going through life together, amidst suffering and joy. Andy losing her healing is Andy giving up on Quynh, and that would hurt way more.
Just sleepless thoughts, what do you think?
Yeah I've said it before but I never liked the "revenge on humanity" direction. It's the type of character motivation that is appropriate for comic books and comic book conventions but in movies it comes off as pretty cartoonish and silly.
I still like the idea of Quynh being angry at Andy for abandoning her initially, however I do think that eventually she would come to look at it differently. This is something I was hoping the films would explore, and this is also why I would have liked a truly full arc dedicated to Quynh's response to learning Andy abandoned her. I would have liked to see it coming in stages, beginning with anger, and then transitioning toward acceptance (the way real life grief and pain works, lol) and I would have liked for it to not be a perfectly linear process (like life), and somewhere in there, I would have liked Andy pleading with her, trying to defend her choice, trying to explain to her what it was like to hopelessly search and search, and for Quynh to contemplate this, and maybe, depending on what stage in her grief/pain she's in, maybe even be able to see Andy's side. I guess ultimately 90% of my thoughts on this film always become me saying "I wish they had actually fully and realistically explored Quynh's pain, and Andy's guilt, and how both affect their relationship, which is, it seems evident to me, kind of the main story here."
I really like the idea of Quynh being irrationally angry at Andy for losing her immortality. I like the idea of her not even really being cognizant of this, and her directing anger at Andy for it without even knowing that's the source of the anger. I like the idea of Quynh realizing it, and fighting with Andy about it, and Andy logically pointing out that she can't help it, lololol, and Quynh, irrationally, maybe even hysterically, not caring, and still being angry, until finally it becomes clear that her anger is covering up really severe, bone-deep sadness and anger and despair that she lost five hundred years with Andy, only to resurface and have what to them feels like only a handful of years left. It's obviously an irrational anger, or at least an anger that isn't truly fair to point at Andy, but would subvert expectations to make this her greater anger than the anger over being abandoned, something undeniably Andy's fault, which is very interesting, and I also like what it kind of ends up saying...ultimately they were put in an extremely unfair situation, and Quynh's rage then is at the universe, at life for being unfair, more than anything, and I mean...that is not only rational, but thematically appropriate...and a truly universal pain. Everyone has been angry that life's unfair before. Most have probably taken this anger out on someone, since they can't take it out on the universe.
Anyway, very interesting thoughts! Thank you so much for sharing!
I could live a thousand years and still never get over how Nicky can not only shoot through two people in pitch black from a hundred plus yards away, but also catch and stash the shell casing with his bare hand without looking. I have to rewind it every single time bc i still can't believe it.
Everything @hazelnutrosewaterpomegranate said; i get that they may have left it open “on purpose” to have something to dwell on in the following movie - which is objectively a bad move because this is Netflix!! You have no way of knowing there will be a sequel!! - but. This is A FILM, not a tv series: you need to deal with the big revelations, you need to close characters arcs, you need to give closure to what you have opened!!
quynh being found out by discord is such a cop out when she could have been found by a bunch of marine archeologists. marine biologists. an illegal fishing vessel looking for off-season cod. a team of deep sea topography researchers andy has been financing since 1987. anyone else. russian submarine. titanic fanatics. the, i don't know, icelandic navy on a routine sweep. a sound artist chasing the perfect underwater whale song. maybe a sound artist chasing the perfect underwater whale song going by discord, even.
You know, Andromache, she walks 3,000 years alone before she found Quynh. But me and you, we were together from the start. I can't look at us and believe it is arbitrary. Things end. What I feel when I see you, when I see your heart...
That's truly immortal.
The sequel felt very very flat and the reason for that was the lack of character details. EVERY scene in the first movie is full of character details. I mean think how much mileage we got out of like a 30-second shot on the helicopter with no actual dialogue. And the way they all slept on the train. Even when Plot was happening (dream lore and finding out about Nile during the train scene, for example), we were still getting insights into who these characters are. Every scene is dynamic, because every character is part of the scene even when they’re not the focus.
The sequel…did not do that. So many scenes were just exposition. One or two characters infodumping and everyone else is just there. They’re just sitting in the background. Marwan and Luca seemed to do the most in the background but I think that was easier for them because their characters have their own separate dynamic going on, so occasionally you see Joe looking at Nicky and Nicky doesn’t look back or vice versa, so that fed into their fight/disagreement/whatever you want to call it. But for the majority of this movie, you could’ve replaced most of the actors with cardboard cutouts and it wouldn’t have made a difference. I can’t even remember Nile being IN half the movie because they gave her nothing.
This is not a knock on the actors! We know they can act! We know they have great chemistry! Because we’ve seen it!!! But this movie was so focused on plot and lore (both of which were ridiculous and nonsensical) and setting up a third movie (which is never happening) that it felt like they had a little character ball in each scene and no one gets to be a real character until they’re passed the ball. Cut half the plot (the stupid Discord half) and let the story fucking breathe for 2 minutes. They were sprinting from plot point to plot point and didn’t give their characters any time to actually feel like people.
