#counterfactual

[sidelit]

Mistake

Summary: Greta attends Quirrell’s funeral. Lockhart knows what to do. WC: 1k Tags: Angst, character study, grief Notes: Day 1 of Angstpril, 'Mistake'. Hosted by @chaos-company

Quirinus couldn't be dead.

He'd written Greta a fortnight before, close to a discovery, he'd said.

This grave, this service, was all a mistake.

Any moment, an owl would arrive, saying he was alive and well in Borneo, or some exotic place. Then this farce could end.

Near a stone marker, the Headmaster spoke, though Greta's attention drifted.

“Professor Quirrell was a man of remarkable curiosity," Dumbledore said. "He sought knowledge not only in books, but in the wider world, and returned to us changed by what he had seen."

Greta heard Quirinus's mother sob, and instinctively turned to help. His parents looked diminished, as if they might somehow embody their son's suffering.

Beside her, Gilderoy placed a gentle hand against Greta's back, neither pushing nor grasping, only to brace.

She'd not seen him in years, not even heard from him. But he'd appeared for this, handsome in black, not a camera in sight.

In the lush grass, the stone marker read:

QUIRINUS QUIRRELL 26 SEPTEMBER 1963 4 JUNE 1992 His nameless, unremembered acts

It was so small, almost dismissive. As if Quirinus had done nothing worth remembering. He worked with children, pressed flowers, and enjoyed magical creatures.

Now he was gone.

Tears burned Greta's eyes, and she lowered her head. None fell.

Gilderoy's hand moved, she thought to rub her back. Thankfully, he withdrew it. He might've been absent for a decade, but he hadn't forgotten her temperament.

Dumbledore continued speaking, and Greta dragged her attention to him.

"It is not always given to us to know the full measure of another’s burdens, nor the trials they face beyond our sight.

Let us remember him not for the manner of his passing, but for the quiet dedication he showed in his work, and the questions he was never afraid to ask.”

The trials they face beyond our sight.

When Greta saw Quirinus six months prior, he'd been a shadow of himself physically and emotionally. Bent on proving he was good enough for the job, she'd thought at the time.

Did this mean Dumbledore had noticed too?

Dumbledore caught her gaze, a gentle smile lifting one corner of his mouth.

Greta looked away. She'd cried each day leading up to this, but seemed to have no tears left.

Professor McGonagall had spoken earlier. Quirinus's dad tried, but erupted into tears instead.

The little service wound down. Both McGonagall and Dumbledore took a moment to comfort Quirinus's parents.

Greta watched, then glanced at Gilderoy, who'd said nothing thus far. She couldn't think of a time he'd been silent this long.

"So, you decided to show up," she said. "I didn't think we'd see you."

"His father owled me. I cancelled all my appearances and came." Gilderoy paused, jaw set, a line between his brows. When he spoke again, the words came slowly, as though he measured each. "It's the least I can do."

Greta stared at him.

"Well, there's no denying that. It really was the least you could do."

Pink tinged his cheeks, and he glanced away, watching Mister and Missus Quirrell.

Greta saw Quirinus's mum, Violet, grasping Professor McGonagall's hands, weeping.

"I'm sorry," Gilderoy said, voice uncharacteristically quiet. He looked back at Greta, still blushing, but careful to meet her eyes. "I had no idea anything was wrong."

"How could you know?" Greta snapped. "You never wrote to us."

Gilderoy took a deep breath, line returning between his brows.

"To be fair, you didn't write me either. I'd have come if you'd asked." His voice was quieter still. "I was quite busy. As we were all, I imagine."

Try as she might, Greta couldn't recall a time when Gilderoy truly lost his temper. Occasionally, he had dramatic outbursts, but that was loud, nothing like this increasing quiet.

They looked at one another a moment longer, then Greta slowly reached up to hug his neck. Gilderoy wasn't the person to be angry with. She was the one who'd seen Quirinus, even slept in his bed, only a few months before. She was the trained Healer, Quirinus's best friend.

Gilderoy hugged her back hard enough that Greta's breath caught, then stood back and nodded at the Quirrells.

"I should go see them a moment," he said. "I'll be right back."

She'd never seen Gilderoy so serious before. Perhaps she’d misjudged him.

Greta watched him approach Quirinus's parents, both several inches shorter than he was. He extended a hand to Safiro first, who shook it and patted Gilderoy on the arm.

She followed in time to hear Gilderoy saying, "I'm so glad you invited me. I know it's been ages, I kept meaning to reach out. Quirinus was one of those people who just makes one feel like oneself."

"I understand, lad. Your mother was my classmate, I always mean to owl her but I never seem to make the time," Safiro said. "I suppose I should."

Gilderoy started to reply, leaning down to hug Violet simultaneously. She burst into tears anew, and he shifted his attention.

"I know. I know," he said, patting her back.

He spoke to them as though grief were something that could be handled, if only he were careful enough.

Safiro gently separated Violet and hugged her close with one arm.

"I'm sorry to see you both under these circumstances," Safiro said quietly. "I wish we'd seen you sooner. How have you both been?"

Gilderoy glanced at Greta, offering room for her to answer first.

She wanted to tell Quirinus's dad he didn't need to act brave. Her throat worked, but no sound came.

"We're still the same, mostly," Gilderoy said. He leaned towards Greta as if to pull her against his side, but seemed to think better of it. "Quirinus would probably have something to say about that."

"I'm so sorry," Greta finally managed. It was heavy and awkward, nothing like Gilderoy's tone. "For you both."

This was the most miserable day of her life.

Tag: @greenvillainredemption

[grayrazor]

Going against the grain of alternate history stories by writing an indulgent counterfactual where Hitler, Goring, Goebbels, Himmler, etc. were all beaten to death by a socialist street gang in like 1920, WWII never happened, and by 1970 the world is a bountiful paradise and we’re colonizing Mars and Venus too.

Also in this timeline Roosevelt and Stalin were gay lovers and I will be offering no explanation as to why or how.

[jotun-philosopher]

What might evil!Aziraphale be like?

My first meta! Woo! Mostly just trying to articulate some of my brain's particularly weird recent wiggles, but still!

So I was re-reading Neverwhere recently, and something about the way the Angel Islington is portrayed reminded me of That Smile In The Credits and got me wondering... What might Aziraphale be like if he turned evil? (I do mean legitimately *evil* -- Falling in the GO verse has nothing to do with the subject's morality)

I know, Crowley, it's a scary and depressing thought! It's also never going to happen -- I feel quite confident about that -- but exploring counterfactual scenarios can help get a different perspective on things, maybe even illuminate what's likely to happen in the future! (as well as being dang interesting in their own right)

So, then, on with the motley! (caution: big ol' spoilers for both Neverwhere and Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell below the cut)

Now, it's always possible to turn 'good' characters 'evil' by having them act out a set of generically 'evil' traits, but that'd be boring and liable to be out of character. A more interesting route would be to simply turn up the dial(s) on one or more of a character's traits (especially their flaws) and see what happens!

Even the most die-hard Aziraphale fan has got to admit that our favourite fluffy bookseller has a bit of a problem with self-righteousness, so that seems like a good place to start. Notch the dial up to max, and what do we get?

Very likely, something similar to this:

(Peter Capaldi as the Angel Islington, Neverwhere, 1996)

The Angel Islington! Unshakably self-righteous to the point of insanity? Oh yes -- to the point of justifying committing genocide by screaming that "THEY DESERVED IT!!!" for not providing the proper worship, and generally so being utterly convinced of its own rightness that traditional morality is discarded as irrelevant (quoth Mr Croup, "He's travelled so far beyond right and wrong he couldn't see them with a telescope on a nice clear night.").

There're other parallels between Islington and Aziraphale, too -- primarily the proliferation of light/pale colours in their costuming and having a mild, kindly, soft-spoken manner (genuine with Aziraphale, a mere veneer with Islington) but also their (planning to) return to Heaven. In Islington's case, it was cast out as punishment for annihilating Atlantis and seeks to return and enact a hostile takeover and become a new God; in Azzy's case, of course, he was railroaded into returning against his will (and may or may not be plotting Undercover Shenanigans to Save The World, but that's a bit beyond the scope of this meta). Nevertheless, the parallels are there, noticeable enough to make me think that Islington represents what Aziraphale might become in the worst of all possible worst-case scenarios (especially where his religious trauma and Heaven's fanaticism and propaganda are concerned).

(As a side note, this whole idea of (self-)righteousness leading to great evil is also reminiscent of why Gandalf flatly refused to take custody of the One Ring -- fear of doing great evil while attempting to enact great good.)

So that's the self-righteousness angle, but maybe there're other angles -- perhaps we could leave the SR dial alone and instead see what happens if we dial Azzy's hedonistic tendencies and one or two others up to eleven!

I hear pipes and drums and dancing, endless faerie balls within the brugh...

(Marc Warren as The Gentleman With Thistledown Hair, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, 2015 (BBC adaptation))

Behold, the ruler of Lost-hope, this faerie gentleman with hair the colour of thistle-down! He's the most significant antagonistic force in Susanna Clarke's 2005 novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and has a few interesting parallels with Aziraphale.

First and most obviously, there's the hair colour! Secondly, we have the fact that they're incalculably old immortal beings with considerable magical/mystical power, as well as notions of morality, ethics etc that are to some degree orthogonal to human understanding of such matters. There's also the hedonistic tendencies -- Aziraphale's are comparatively subtle, mainly revolving around appreciating Earthly pleasures like food, drink and music, but if exaggerated could easily end up like the Gentleman's tendency to focus on his own fun/amusement, regardless of the cost to others.

Which ties in to one of the most noticeable parallels, something that you might have worked out already if you've come this far and/or are already familiar with JS&MN -- the Gentleman spends a good amount of time abducting or planning to abduct beautiful humans to be enchanted to dance forever in endless balls within his kingdom of Lost-hope. Doesn't that sound uncomfortably similar to the Shopkeepers' Association Ball in S2E5? The parallel certainly gave me a moment of the shivering heebie-jeebies when I spotted it -- regardless of Aziraphale's motivation there, he absolutely comes off almost like one of the Fair Folk (likely even in-universe!); it's very easy to imagine that he could get like the Gentleman if he 'takes the brakes off', so to speak.

So there we have it -- an evil!Aziraphale would likely be similar to the Angel Islington, the Gentleman With Thistledown Hair or possibly some terrifying and unholy hybrid of the two.

Or something else entirely that I can't find adequate words for!

Now, I must emphasise that just because I've put a good deal of thought into exploring the 'evil!Aziraphale' idea, it doesn't mean I think it'll happen; on the contrary, I'm convinced that it never will. For one thing, regardless of the parallels noted above, Aziraphale is far more fundamentally benevolent than either Islington or the Gentleman. Despite his flaws, he is at heart a genuinely good, kind, decent, compassionate person. Some folks, the Metatron among them, are going to interpret this as weakness or stupidity, which is wholly incorrect -- Azzy is very intelligent (while also being a bit of a dumbass, granted -- the two are not mutually exclusive) and has a steel core of courage, protectiveness and badassery (comparisons to Magrat Garlick would be entirely valid here). He understands the concept of 'guardian angel' better, I'd wager, than the whole of the rest of the Heavenly Host (or at least the leadership thereof). And in underestimating him, railroading him back to Heaven and trying to force him to actively plan the destruction of everything he holds dear (sheer sadism probably being at least part of the MT's motivation there), the Metatron has (on a silver platter) handed our adorable fluffy little tartan murder hornet the means, motive and opportunity to Seriously Fuck Shit Up for Heaven >:D

Plus, we were promised a South Downs cottage. SOUTH DOWNS COTTAGE!!! THE SETS ARE STILL STANDING IN BATHGATE!!!!!

*ahem*

As a palate cleanser, a bit of food for thought: given that demons tend to have animal motifs, in the unlikely event of Azzy capital-F Falling, would he be an angora rabbit or a big fluffy cat?

[necarion]

Alternate history where the formula for guncotton (nitrocellulose, also smokeless powder) was discovered in the early Renaissance. It is a decent amount more explosive than gunpowder, in that it has about 30% more energy and burns way more cleanly. It was also possible given technology of the time.

What would be interesting is that it would allow significantly higher charges than the metallurgy would be able to handle. Even at the time, overcharging the cannons (and handguns) would lead to explosions (and petard hoisting), so having an even better explosion wouldn't make for stronger cannons than was possible at the time. It might allow riffling earlier because of reduced fouling, but mostly just makes the guns easier to use.

What would change? I think you might get explosive shells earlier, although as I understand it, getting high explosive shells to not be shock sensitive in the initial firing was a considerable challenge that folks may not have been up to pre-19th century. More likely, you'd get increased use of mines, barrel charges, and grenades earlier.

But there would also be an expanded civilian use, I think. Gunpowder was used in metal mining, but it isn't all that great. But Nobel invented dynamite because of its civilian uses. So I could see there being enhanced infrastructure, like clearing of cataracts, earlier in history than we ended up with. (Funny result: some of the cataracts that were great for water-power of mills are cleaned up, so Lowell Massachusetts doesn't end up a textile center). You might also have a higher access to metal ore than in the counterfactual.

Ultimately, not much would change, though, I think.

[zanmor]

top 5 roman deaths that could have changed the world

5. quintus fabius maximus verrucosus

hannibal is rampaging across italy, destroying every army the romans raise against him in humiliating defeats. fabian becomes dictator and proceeds to do... nothing. but it works and just keeping a roman army in the field without leading them all to their deaths is important. other commanders adopt his strategy of not engaging unless victory is certain. probably he's why rome survives the second punic war and eventually is able to go on to win it. what if instead he had been assassinated for his 'cowardice' or 'treason' in refusing to confront hannibal head on. what if instead the roman empire had died in the cradle and the carthaginian empire had been born, having conquered its greatest rival.

4. marcus licinius crassus

imagine the dude kicks the bucket on the eve of his debacle in parthia. instead of leading these men and his son to their deaths in the desert sands, the army is mustered and ready to march off but he dies and his son takes over instead. would he have made the same disastrous mistakes as his father or would he have returned to rome a conquering hero greater than gaius julius?

3. constantine the great

diocletian had all his ducks in a row with the previous emperors retiring and their caesars rising to the rank of co-augusti. but constantine (and others who felt their right to inherit the empire was being unduly ignored, but constantine was most successful) is here to fuck all that up. suppose instead he gets trounced at the milvian bridge and even dies or is captured (and then executed). maybe diocletian's succession sticks and becomes a precedent where every 10 years the augusti step down and their caesars step up. and more importantly, maybe the empire never becomes christian.

2. irene of athens

what if instead of blinding her own son and damning her line she had instead kicked the bucket and let the seemingly capable emperor take full control? this period is so wild and so scant for sources that it's even harder to imagine how this counterfactual might play out than any of the others but certainly blinding and killing your only heir isn't a strong play.

antoninus pius

he was supposed to keep the seat warm after hadrian died until marcus aurelis could take over as a capable and long-reigning man. but the 54-year-old kept on kicking for another 23 years, keeping marcus bottled up in the capital with him. even assuming shit still hits the fan upon his death and rome is attacked by those who had been peaceful under the capable emperors hadrian and antoninus pius, rome might have been better able to fend it off a decade earlier. because a decade later a plague was making fighting a war and keeping the army supplied and manned a debilitating task, especially for a man who spend 23 years essentially bookkeeping alongside the emperor.

[hayleylovesjessica]

Also, I just had a weird but funny idea: If I were a man and had daughters who were Swifties and we were going to see Taylor on tour, I’d totally let them put me in Tom Hiddleston’s “I ❤️ T. S.” tanktop for the show. I can only imagine the reaction from all the kids. 

[aswithasunbeam]

I loved your latest fic with Hamilton surviving the duel! I especially was intrigued by your work with the subtle mentions of Hamilton's health- we know he wasn't the healthiest before the duel, how do you think that'd change if he survived?

Thank you so much! Hamilton’s father lived into his eighties, so he may have lived a pretty long life, but at the same time his health was so poor in his later years that I imagine he would have died fairly young regardless of the duel. In “The Trial of the Century,” though, I imagined the duel happened exactly as it had, but Hamilton managed to pull through. As a result, he would have had damage to his internal organs as well as a broken spine that would have left him permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Had he lived, he would have been confined to a wheelchair at a time when handicap access wasn’t a high priority, thus the difficulty getting the chair through the narrow halls, and the peek at Hamilton’s frustration coming through in the scene with Eliza. The damage the bullet really did to Hamilton was extensive and heartbreaking; David Hosack couldn’t even determine whether it was Hamilton’s first or second lumbar vertebra that was hit during his autopsy because his spine was so splintered (see Hosack to Coleman, 17 August 1804).

[sorcerersskull]

A cover that never existed--on this Earth! The Atom, the Nuclear-Powered Hero, vs. Gargantus