1. Tumblr is lately giving me a hard time about tagging. To activate thirty tags it take over 15 minutes and it’s harassing. I’m absolutely okay with it for people who are reading the series. So, starting tomorrow, I’ll be removing the URLs of people who haven’t liked, commented or reblogged for the last eight chapter assuming that you aren’t reading the series anymore.
It’ll save me the disappointment of hopeful expectations and save you the bother of an unnecessary tag in your notifications. If you want me to still keep tagging you, please drop me an ASK.
I’m not gonna remove any of the regulars. You know who you are!
2. I’ll also be removing the inactive tags.
3. For everyone else, THANK YOU for the yelling love on the last chapter. I was expecting an overwhelming response and y’all still blew my mind away. You guys are the BEST. This is a heads up that for the next few chapters the story might progress just a bit slowly, but you’ll get what you want, the answer to the question: “What happened to them?” ;)
I was meaning to post the chapters with less of a gap between them, but I have my final exams starting in a couple of weeks, so I won’t get any time to actually write :( Even then, I’ll make sure to post on the regular schedule of every six days. Please bear with me!
@dancing-the-hellfire-rumba reblogged your post and added:
OH MY GOSH. NO. ABSOLUTELY HECKIN NOT. NUH UH. NO WAY.
I didn't expect this AT ALL. WHAT THE HELL?!
I can't describe to you how much I disagree with Sam's logic here! I mean I understand, of course, but I completely disagree! Chirp was a WHOLE OTHER KID. A WHOLE OTHER PERSON to y/n with a completely different relationship. Her refusing or hesitating to consciously merge the idea of Chirp and Max has NOTHING to do with whether or not she sees him as her kid and EVERYTHING to do with the memories and the pain associated with Chirp. It sucks ass that she's going through that- that they both are. But making such a grave decision because of THAT is so rushed and bad!
Max couldn't possibly know what he just asked, he couldn't POSSIBLY understand how emotionally taxing it was. And Sam is wrong to have the same logic as him. Max doesn't know who chirp is, after all he's just a kid, of course he could be hurt by the lack of response. Sam does though. He knows what she went through, what they both went through. It's not fair of him to believe that y/n is not capable of being a mother to Max just because she was shocked! As a matter of fact, the fact that she's been unconsciously calling Max Chirp, all the times she's taken care of him, those should all point to the other direction! But he can't ask of her to merge the two kids in her head that way, it's just not fair!
Once again, I understand he's trying to do what he thinks is best, but decisions like that shouldn't be made at such emotionally charged moments. And anyways, legally, she is still Max's guardian. It has to be more complicated than just drafting divorce papers.
I'm sure they'll sort it out. I'm just baffled at this turn of events. I literally did not expect this at all. Holy shit.
It is incredible however how Sam is willing to divorce her after so many challenges and years, just for the sake of his kid. I'm happy everything was sorted with their college. I hope their personal life is sorted as well.
Okay... I made a whole other post for this cause I want you to have the option to reply without us sabotaging the notes of the original chapter. But I don’t think Sam wants her to coincide the image of the two kids. If anything it’s the opposite for him. We know from earlier chapters that he wasn’t exactly too happy about her calling Max ‘Chirp’ from the get go. It’s the reader who is subconsciously confusing them. He does not want his kid to have to replace the one that they lost. So, I think when he asked her the question, he was hoping for her answer to be ‘I think of Max differently from the baby that we lost, but I love him equally. I will think of Max as my son.’ Instead he got no answer at all!
This is not me defending Sam’s choices or decisions in any way. If you think it’s a douche move, it’s a douche move; just things to consider:
1. Sam’s never been around for all of Reader-Max moments that actually mattered. Their initial bonding, the babysitting times, Max showing her his house, or when he’s over at reader’s place. He wasn’t even around to see the reader take care of a sick Max. Sam’s only seen them together a few times. All his perception is based on very little interaction that he’s witnessed and hence, is skewed. What he has seen is Max’s too deep attachment, and very little of it from the reader.
He knows she’s a good person. Would she have jumped in the water to say save Jack or Kevin? Yes. Would she have stayed up to take care of them when they were sick and helpless? Also yes. Sam doesn’t have any proof that she wants Max for her kid. Just her silence.
2. The sooner he realised she’s not willing to commit, the sooner he wanted the papers out there. Because as per his conversation with Max in chapter 39, Max is EXTREMELY confident that she’ll come back. The longer Sam drags it, the harder it will break his heart.
3. Everyone has a snapping point. Everyone. Sam’s been keeping it together in front of the reader since the accident seven years ago. He never cried then because she shouldn’t have to see it. He didn’t cry when she cried all night long after the pool accident. He’s never let anyone in with regards to losing his child, then his wife. Just been strong each time she faltered. But being the only strong one has to take a toll at some point. He has so much unaddressed pain that only comes out in the form of information that others provide- how he doesn’t touch the piano and how he became stone-hearted in the middle years. All that pent up pain is going to burst out. That one small trigger of watching her not respond to his child was it for him.
There’s a fourth very big factor that comes into play, but I’m not putting it here cause it’s slightly spoilery. Wouldn’t want to spoil the next chapter for you ;)
I mean, if she agrees to the divorce, she might as well agree to giving up the custody, yeah? They’re both lawyers. As complicated as the paperwork gets, between them, if they really want to separate, they can always work out the kinks.
Is any of this fair to the reader? Absolutely NOT. But, quoting Sam from chapter 28: After all, when had fate ever been kind to them?
Thank you so much for reading, babe, and for commenting! I love getting to see the story from a non-biased perspective. You aspire me to become a better writer <3
I read both TTT AND ALLU and by GOD do I love both of them! There are of course some similarities in the story. Were they intentional? I was curious about it.
Thank you for your sweet words! I am so glad you liked both the stories :) About the similarities, the ones that I can think of are:
1. In TTT, Sam thinks he's cursed, but I drew that from SPN canon, where a lot of his lovers tend to die, as did in TTT with Jess. With ALLU, it was never intentional, but with the natural progression of her story, the reader was bound to think that she's jinxed. I know I would have, but that totally wasn't intentional.
2. The second similarity is that both the readers end up in a hospital with life-threatening injuries at one point, albeit because of completely different causes and with opposite results. I knew going into ALLU that it might be a similarity, but the scenes were vastly different in tone and everything.
3. The found family trope. A lot more assimilated and prominent in ALLU, but it's a thing with most of my series.
4. A strong sisterly presence/bond, again more prominent in ALLU than TTT. Also, subconscious.
Happy Holi, my love! Wish you a very colourful day.
In other news I started rereading ALLU cause I'm in a terrible writing block, and it's not at all how I remember the early chapters to be? I thought they'd be depressing cause you know... The obvious? But they're weirdly hopeful and funny. And each time Sam and the reader interact even a little bit, with looks and a couple of words, I'm just rooting for them in the background. Is that weird? Since I know exactly what happens?
Wonder how it must feel to read the story with fresh eyes.
Heya I've just seen that tumblr wouldn't let you post a lot like us last part. Did it show any particular reason for it? I haven't read the series yet, it's in my reading list thou 😅
Yeah, it’s not posting. The whole post just disappears once I hit ‘post.’ And it’s frustrating cause I gotta load the gif again and italicize the words again which is time-consuming and painful. Plus it's over 6.6k words long. Maybe that’s the reason.
I’m gonna try with a stronger wi-fi, maybe that’s the problem cause I’ve posted 7k long stuff before and it was never a issue.
Awww... I so hope you like it, nonnie! I’ve had some time to think about it, and I personally think ALLU is my best work to date. I shall keep my fingers crossed <3
Sorry for bringing this back but you said that you've become more subtle in writing for a lot like us. Please dont misintrepret this. I like all your work and was curious
SPOILERS FOR ALLU!
Sorry, I just had to put it out there for the sake of the last chapter and the whole series in general. But why you saying sorry, nonnie. That’s a perfectly reasonable question. I do remember saying that but don’t remember when.
To give you an example, take the symbolism of rain.
In Stroke of luck which I wrote about 4 years ago, rain is mentioned in one of the chapters. Where Dean finds the reader in the rain, crying over the death of her father and then she says she’s going to hate the rain forever. He promises her that he’ll make sure she loves the rain again. This happens in the memory. In the present timeline for the series, we find that when it starts raining, the reader and her daughter actually go out, get drenched and have fun. It’s direct and straight forward that this could happen because of Dean that she can enjoy rain now. One chapter and that’s that.
In A lot like ‘Us’ however, it’s drawn out and nothing is laid out in front of you. I think it’s a smooth parallel that the first time it was raining (in the flashback) she ran to Sam in the rain with the news of her acceptance and they did it for the first time. I think he said ‘I love you’ for the first time as well. And in the end, she ran again to him in the rain, to tell him she ‘loved him, too’ and that she wanted them to be a family. And they did it again ;)
There’s enough gap between both events to not make it obvious. The other time rain is mentioned was when she had the accident. She couldn’t look at the window in the hospital. So it basically goes from... Happiness.---> Extreme sadness ---> extreme happiness.
Rain’s also a recurring theme in the sense of the weekly bets they keep having. The reader is terrified of getting wet the first time it is mentioned in like chapter 3 or 4(?) and ends up doing it anyway in the end. I tried to put in multiple parallels but Idk if it worked.
I am trying to be a better writer, I guess. I don’t know if it’s working 🙈
💚💚(Ana! I know I yell at you a lot, usually good things but I can't with this part of allu, I mean it started so good, I was happy for them, hell I squealed in joy when she said she wanted to go home but seriously, I'm so disappointed with Sam, I understand to put the kids well being before everything else but this is wrong, she was still in shock and he send her home like that? No! You make her tea and ask her how she fels about that, hell she needs time to think about it! It's not that easy at all. I admire Chase restrain because I'm sure he will have punched Sam in the face. Gosh, this got me crying 'till 4 am, this series is officially the one who made me cry the most😭)💚💚
I think I chewed off your ear already on this, but since I’m answering this publicly, I’m still gonna put a tl;dr for anyone who reads the series ;)
TL;DR: About time Sam snapped. He’s given and given and given for the sake of the reader. He’s literally never shared his pain with her or anyone, just been there for her when she’s broken down. He’s never even cried in front of her, He’s been the strong one since she lost the baby. So, well... everyone’s brain has a limit.
I’m not saying that’s what happened. It’s more complicated than that... why he made the decision. But more on that in the next chapter ;)
BUT I am soooo sorry I made you cry omg. You know I love youuuu
I just realized that the reader in ALLU doesn't drive anymore. She asked Alex to drive her and Max in the last chapter and doesn't own a car??? Fuck she is traumatized by that accident. Am I just making this up in my head or is this really happening to her
It’s really happening to her! I didn’t explicitly mention it in the series cause some things should be left blank for people to fill in. There’s one other thing that she doesn’t do... she only ever takes a shower, never has a bath (the reason is pretty obvious)
Congrats on being the second person to figure that out. @caughtaghostsomehow guessed it a while ago ;)
You are an EXTREMELY smart cookie, nonnie! I don’t know if I’ll mention both of those things in the epilogue... but realizing that is indeed very VERY difficult. I wish I was smart like you ;)
