on the power of hope, the narrative, and the seattle mariners
[image details under the cut]
1: Rainbow over T-Mobile park, 11/9/2021. (Tyler Thompson on Twitter)
2: Ken Griffey Jr. hits his first major league home run, 4/10/1989. (source)
3: Cal Raleigh hits the walk-off home run against the Oakland Athletics that sends the Mariners to the postseason, 9/30/2022. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
4: Ichiro Suzuki gets his record-breaking 258th hit against the Texas Rangers, 10/1/2004. (Dan Levine/AFP via Getty Images)
5: Kyle Seager leaves his final game during the ninth inning against the Los Angeles Angels, 10/03/2021. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
6: Felix Hernandez is taken out of his last game with the Mariners in the sixth inning against the Oakland Athletics, 9/26/2019. (Lindsey Wasson/Getty Images)
7: Logan Gilbert pitches against the San Diego Padres during the fourth inning after recording his 600th career strikeout in the second inning, 7/9/2024. (Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images)
8: Bryce Miller pitches during his debut game against the Oakland Athletics, 5/2/2023. (Michael Zagaris/Getty Images)
9: Bryan Woo pitches against the Philadelphia Phillies for seven scoreless innings, 8/2/2024. (Ben VanHouten/Getty Images)
10: Julio Rodriguez hits his 30th home run of the season during the tenth inning against the Los Angeles Angels, putting him in the 30-30 club, 9/11/2023. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
11: J.P. Crawford hits a grand slam in the second inning against the Cleveland Guardians on his first Father's Day as a dad, 6/15/2025. (Mollie Handkins/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
12: Cole Young celebrates after walking off the Minnesota Twins in his major league debut, 5/31/2025. (Stephen Brashear/Getty Images)
13: The Mariners celebrate Cal Raleigh's postseason-clinching walk-off home run, 9/30/2022. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
14: Dylan Moore gets absolutely soaked by Jesse Winker and J.P. Crawford after walking off the Boston Red Sox, 6/11/2022. (Abbie Parr/Getty Images)
15: Ken Griffey Jr. scores the game-winning run on Edgar Martinez's double to win the ALDS, 10/8/1995. (source)
16: Cal Raleigh hits his first major league home run during the second inning against the Oakland Athletics, 7/23/2021. (Alika Jenner/Getty Images)
"We've entered another realm here, one that's far larger, and doesn't operate on the dead currency of winning and losing. Unless you let those limits go, you're an astronaut who brought your wallet." - Jon Bois, The History of the Seattle Mariners
Thanking @crystalmir for this month's theme as well (thank you for the different, they were all brilliant)! This time the theme is time-travel! The same rules apply as always, one fic per author, even though all of these authors have other brilliant fics you should be reading and if you want to add your own recs in the comments, tags, or reblogs please feel free to do so! 💜
Also, I have tagged the authors whose Tumblr account I know (aka found on their AO3 profile), but if you'd prefer I not tag you, please tell me! I don't want these to be annoying for the authors.
One-shots:
Time Loop by @Master of Unlocking: Alec is stuck in a time-loop and isn’t dealing well with it. One of my favourite fics when I need some angsty angst.
Warning for (not permanent) character death and suicide! This fic is very angsty even if it has a happy end, so you’re warned.
Summary:
Alec is done.
“You win,” he whispers as he sits down, his back against the wall of the crypt. He rubs his fingers together, trying to brush away the ash that covers them. He looks at the podium and the orb resting on it. Alec finds it hard to believe that such small thing can be the cause of such great grief.
“I’ve tried everything.” Alec looks down at his hands and in the past he would have cried, but he is already out of tears. They are all used up by now. “So you win.”
Your Name For A Capital by @theprophetlemonade: Magnus POV fic where he keeps meeting Alec in the past and it’s just so deliciously angsty and emotional in the best way!
Summary:
“I can’t wait another hundred years to see you again, Alexander.”
He hates it, he does. He hates the way Alec looks at him with a history they haven’t yet shared.
Alec’s fingers dig into his ribs. A moment of hesitation. “You won’t have to wait that long,” he murmurs, quiet enough to be a secret. “I promise.”
“You don’t know that.”
Alec stops, forcing Magnus to stop too. Magnus squints at him, seeing double, but Alec shakes his head. “Magnus, I do.”
“How?”
“Because,” says Alec, and once again, Magnus feels the tug of magic kneading at his skin, a string of fate that wraps around his bottom rib and leads beyond his chest and enters Alec’s in exactly the same place. “You and me, we always find our way back to each other. Whatever happens.”
To endure by @thisissirius: Alec is stuck in another time loop fic and forced to watch Magnus die over and over again. Another lovely fic with a happy end but does have some temporary MCD so beware.
Summary:
“I can’t watch you die again,” Alec blurts out. He rubs his hands against his knees, looks up at Magnus through his lashes. “I don’t want to do this anymore.”
a time loop threatens to confine alec to a lifetime of losing magnus.
Teach Them Well by @ellegy42: Magnus meeting his kids in the past. This fic is just adorable and reading it never fails to bring a smile to my face.
Summary:
When Magnus sees a Shadowhunter chasing a young warlock, he comes to the natural conclusion.
It just so happens to be entirely wrong.
belong by @starkguzman: A blueberry POV that is just sublime and I want to throw all of the praise in existence at this fic. All of it. Just yessssss. Also our favourite blueberry deserves a hug or twenty cuz I said so.
Summary:
He’d only been trying to portal home. He’s done it a million times before and he doesn’t know where he went wrong this time. He had ended up in the loft, but he knew something was horribly wrong from the very first second. Nothing looked the same, nothing felt familiar. The very air he breathed caused his whole body to itch, every instinct he had screaming at him that everything was wrong. It had only been when Magnus had found him that it had been confirmed. While his Papa was exactly the same as he had been the last time Max had seen him, it was so very clear to Max that he was not the same man. A hesitant “Papa?” had only cemented it.
He wasn’t home at all. He was as far from home as he could get.
Everything it has taken (everything it has given) by @lawsofchaos1: hauntingly and painfully devastating like all of Law’s fics. There is again some temporary MCD but if you can handle that then it’s so, so worth the read.
Summary:
The sensation of blood-soaked metallic dirt beneath his cheek is insubstantial and fleeting, overlaid and then replaced with the smooth slide of cheap cotton and Alec jerks back into being entangled in the rough weave of Institute-standard sheets, agony shrieking down his side.
In which the world burns the first time and Alec and Magnus break reality (to burn it down again the right way).
Multi-Chapters or Series
Across the Lonely Decades by @dreaming-marchling: If you haven’t read this yet then please stop whatever you’re doing and go read this (unless you’re working, of course I don’t want you to get fired). This fic is angsty and stunning like all of Marchlings fics are and I am obsessed.
Summary:
Alec, Magnus and their family work to investigate a series of murders that has rocked New York, trying to figure out who this mysterious warlock is that’s murdering people in elaborate and never seen before pentagrams. What the warlock is trying to do isn’t clear either.
Well, it isn’t clear until Alec accidentally activates the spell himself and finds out in literally the worst pay possible.
Beside me by d_aia: A Ragnor POV fic! Alec time travels to the past and meets a past Magnus and Ragnor. I’m pretty sure my love for time travel fics comes from this particular fic. And also, because it bears repeating, Ragnor POV!
Summary:
A portal opened between two trees, and an oddly dressed man came through. He landed on his back and, like a bug, was trying unsuccessfully to turn over. The portal winked closed immediately after.
The man was the tall sort, had a bow and arrow, a couple of blades, and a satchel. He had rune tattoos, which marked him a Shadowhunter. He was also currently writhing in pain and bleeding all over the place.
What was a Warlock to do with such a man?
*
Alec goes back in time. Then things get complicated but oddly sweet, and they stay that way. Ragnor is just along for the ride.
Flames to Embers by @notcrypticbutcoy: Have I already recced this fic? Yeah, pretty sure I have. Will I do so again? Undoubtedly!
Summary:
Jace froze. His parabatai rune burned white-hot, but he hardly felt it. It was easy to forget what people looked like, long ago, but the image of the boy in front of him was unmistakable, even with the emo fringe and the scowl. In fact, when combined with the defensive stance, hazel eyes, and still-healing cut through his left eyebrow, it made the whole thing more convincing.
“What the fuck.”
***
Teenage Alec is magically poofed into the time of his forty-year-old self, and what he finds is really quite overwhelming. Especially the really hot guy he’s apparently married to.
Or: in which Teen Alec is very grumpy, Magnus thinks he’s very cute, and Adult Alec is Tired™.
If My Heart Was A House You'd Be Home by magnusbicon: Max and Raphael do some more time travelling and create just a tickle of chaos (can you tell I adore those two beans).
Summary:
Prompt: Max and Rafe accidentally time travel to present day during a Downworld cabinet meeting.
it doesn’t matter (if it’s now or then) by @soveryaverageme: Soulmate AU meets time travel, what more could you want? 😁
Summary:
Alec’s words were branded across his right forearm, spiraling towards his shoulder. The phrase “I’m Magnus, I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced?” was stark across his skin, as bold as his own love. They were a comfort and a reminder every time he drew his bow back to fire another arrow. He knew every curve and bend of his words. He could trace them without looking.
He had never seen Magnus’ words, but he knew was that they weren’t his.
Thanking @crystalmir for this month's theme which is soulmate AU's! The same rules apply as always, one fic per author, even though all of these authors have other brilliant fics you should be reading and if you want to add your own recs in the comments, tags, or reblogs please feel free to do so! 💜
Also, I have tagged the authors whose Tumblr account I know (aka found on their AO3 profile), but if you'd prefer I not tag you, please tell me! I don't want these to be annoying for the authors.
One-shots:
Magnus, How Long Have You Been Twenty by @Master of Unlocking: A soulmate AU where you don't age past a certain age until you've met your soulmate!
Summary:
Soulmate AU where you age to about 18/21, and then you stay that age until you find your soulmate.
The Space Between by @gingersnapwolves: soulmate AU, the usual Clave being awful as well as some Alec and Magnus being badass. I don't know how often I've read and reread this fic by now.
Summary:
Every warlock has a soulmate. 98% of the time it’s another warlock, but sometimes it’s a mundane, a seelie, or even a Shadowhunter. Until their name appears on the warlock’s chest (and their corresponding soulmate’s), there’s no way to know.
Enter Alec Lightwood, who wakes up at fourteen with a warlock’s name on his chest. Horrified at what it means, he keeps it hidden. But five years later, Magnus Bane is captured by a team of Shadowhunters, and it’s only a matter of time before someone sees Alec’s name on his chest.
see me light up from the rooftops by @oh-la-fraise: Short and sweet and fluffy, just the way I like it.
Summary:
“Alec,” Magnus said, his face falling. “Short for Alexander, I assume?”
Alec frowned. “Yeah. Why do you look so disappointed? Are you more of an Alexi kind of guy?”
Magnus smiled for a second, and Alec cheered with victory internally. “No, I just. . .Oh, it’s so stupid, and not something I should be discussing on a first date. It was an Alexander that broke my heart in Paris.”
“Yeesh,” Alec winced. “Well I can promise you, not all of us are complete idiots. Which he would had to have been, to dump you.”
Magnus snorted. “That’s the even sadder part—he didn’t dump me. We never even met.”
Before the Day is Done by carmenlire: Ales as a Head of the Institute but also as an author! Magnus as his kind of pen pal, the High Warlock of Brooklyn and his unknowing fan.
Summary:
Alec reads the email twice through before letting out a breath. He feels anticipation thrumming through him at the invitation and it doesn’t vanish no matter how hard he tries to shove it down.
He’s looking forward to meeting Magnus in person. While there’s still some anxiety lurking underneath it all, it feels almost inevitable.
Truth be told, he’s always felt drawn to the High Warlock. Magnus had been the only downworlder to acknowledge the change in leadership first. He’d been surprising magnanimous in wishing Alec a successful tenure and providing his contact information if he ran into any problems.
Who are you really? by @skylar102 : The scene of Magnus pressing Alec's lost baby blanket to his face as he realizes he finally has a soulmate after 400 lonely years makes me slightly feral.
Summary:
When your soulmate loses something it gets sent to you and vice versa. For almost 400 years Magnus thought he would never have a soulmate until one day a pacifier shows up in his loft.
all these stumbles and falls by @echo-bleu evil on the feels-front like all of Echo's fics, but what else is new. (Love you, Echo <3)
Alec has always kept his male, warlock soulmate a secret. He knows he can never have what he wants. On the eve of his wedding to Lydia, he finds himself on a warlock’s doorstep to finally break the bond, and be free to complete his duty to the Clave and his family.
It will all be fine.
Except that his soulmate mark is desperately clutching at his chest, shaking like a leaf, and its large golden eyes are pooling with tears.
And that said mark looks exactly like a tiny version of the warlock who just answered his knock.
To Touch and Be Touched by TobytheWise: short 500-word ficlet, but still an adorable and enjoyable read nonetheless.
With a black handprint across his cheek, Alec always imagined meeting his soulmate for the first time would be a painful affair. When the day finally comes, Alec is pleasantly surprised.
Multi-chapter fics or series:
Making Memories With Mistletoe by @notcrypticbutcoy is another lovely fic by notcrypticbutcoy. There's a small amount of angst, but it's mostly a feel-good fic for me
Summary:
How was that even possible? How could Magnus’ soulmate be someone who didn’t believe in the concept? The universe had to be playing some kind of cosmic joke on him.
***
When a mysterious and very attractive stranger walks into Magnus’ magic shop three weeks before Christmas, he doesn’t expect it to be his soulmate. Nor does he expect his soulmate to deny the entire concept of such a thing.
Or: in which Magnus owns a magic shop, Alec doesn’t believe in soulmates, and the universe has a funny way of making things work out.
Machiavellian by @alxndrlightwoods: While a one-shot the fic is part of a series that I love even though it's dark and gory - or maybe just because? Warning (especially for the later parts) for Underage, Gore, and some very enthusiastic and graphic murder aka make sure you read the tags.
Summary:
He can see the thoughts whirling in Magnus’s brain. Magnus had managed to make it four hundred years, patiently waiting and keeping a weather eye on the Lightwood family for the majority of that. And his beautiful, perfect, wonderful soulmate hadn’t even managed to make it three years.
They were disgustingly perfect for each other.
The Gift of Choice by @tinylilemrys: Soulmate AU where you can choose whether to accept or reject a soulmate (something I'm personally a huge fan of) and it's just written so well.
Summary:
Neither Alec nor Magnus is particularly thrilled at the discovery of their soul marks. Alec because he knows that the design of it means that his soulmate is a Downworlder, something practically unheard of in Shadowhunter society. For Magnus, the idea of being permanently attached to a joyless demon-killer is hardly a thrill. Given that they can choose if they accept their soulmate or not, the decision seems like a no-brainer.
But when Alec finally meets the beautiful, other-worldly Magnus and Magnus meets the gorgeous, self-sacrificing Alec, it becomes clear that the decision might not be as easy as they thought it would.
it doesn't matter (if it's now or then) by @soveryaverageme: Alec knows Magnus is his soulmate. He also knows he isn't Magnus', but he's fine with it. Really.
Alec’s words were branded across his right forearm, spiraling towards his shoulder. The phrase “I’m Magnus, I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced?” was stark across his skin, as bold as his own love. They were a comfort and a reminder every time he drew his bow back to fire another arrow. He knew every curve and bend of his words. He could trace them without looking.
He had never seen Magnus’ words, but he knew was that they weren’t his.
Through a Glass, Darkly by SolarisRasa: Last but not least on this list, a fic that deserves more love in my opinion. Magnus creating a Veil between the Downworld and the Nephilim is such an interesting concept!
A century ago, Magnus Bane, sick of the struggles between the Downworld and the Clave, created a spell: The Veil. It separated the Downworld from the Nephilim, both sides blind to each other in the world.
A red-head with demands, a sharp spike in demons, a new Head of the New York Institute, and...gardening? Draws Magnus toward the Shadowhunters world again.
With his city slipping, the Clave bearing down, and the High Warlock's demand for better protection, Alec Lightwood seeks a more equal footing with the Downworld.
jacobvanloon
prguitarman
gummygunk
areudirty
yousharknotpass
dailybridgerton
