eee #️⃣🕰🃏 for Willthan slowburn pleeeasseee
#️⃣What's the most oddly specific AO3 tag you could use for this story?
My first thought was "William Brandt is a little bitch," but honestly I feel like that's a tag that could be used in a lot of fics. So more specific would be "Ethan Hunt's voyeuristic tendencies" or "when you'd rather be a total sex pervert than address your feelings in any reasonable manner." Or maybe "William Brandt has the highest body count in the IMF...in bed." Slut!Will my beloved.
🕰️What's the timeline of the story?
The timeline starts in the nebulous area fandom has established between "Ghost Protocol" and "Rogue Nation," where most Ethan, Will, Jane and Benji mission fics are set. It briefly touches on RN and some bad feelings from that, then has a scene between RN and "Fallout," and the body of it all takes places after FO - which was the last movie when I started writing this back in 2021 (hahahaaaaaaaah). Since I hated DR beyond time, I saw no reason to add it/involve it in any way, so now it's a canon-divergent story. And Ilsa is still alive (and will remain that way).
🃏Wildcard: Answer the question you wish someone would ask you, or share a background detail, or a snippet or line!
I guess the question I wish someone would ask is "Do you want to talk about Hollis "Hal" Watney?" And the answer is yes, I do, but I recognize she's an OC and technically one of the villains of the situation, so not a lot of people would necessarily want to engage with her.
But I love her. Which is honestly strange for me, because I make OCs extremely rarely and even rarer still is me feeling like I haven't just xeroxed too much of myself onto them in some way. I'm really proud of Hal, though. She's named after my fascination with the name "Hollis," and Mark Watney from "The Martian," one of my favorite movies. I didn't even go in intending for her to be nicknamed "Hal," it just kind of happened and worked out great since she loves malicious computers. I like that she's more than a little crazy but she's also incredibly intelligent, forward, and willing to get her hands dirty. She kind of ended up writing herself that way, which was a lot of fun.
She was a great way to indulge my fixation with Prague's "Astronomical Clock," too, which was a lot of fun:
Hal's faceclaim is Amy Adams, who I've adored on since "Junebug" and "Catch Me If You Can."
Maybe that's where I got into trouble, because I ended up liking Hal and her interactions with Will SO MUCH that she's come very close to becoming Ms. Steal-yo-fic-and-yo-man.
Let's be honest, though, Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner are amazing in "Arrival" and just beautiful together; I can only blame myself.
@genfilst drew me fanart of her, and honestly it's one of the most amazing things I've ever gotten, because before she did it, no one (not even me) had ever drawn Hal, or even loved her enough to try. I'm so grateful for that. Whatever happens with her and Will in the end of the story, I really love what I was able to do with her and what she's brought to the story (even if she's Ethan's least favorite person in it).
And if I ever finish this damn thing, I want to get a necklace that matches Hal's. :)
Thank you so much always for indulging me!!















