#lis crossover

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

this is it, son (end of the line)

not a pride drabble exactly, but posting it here along with ao3. urban fantasy au, warning for captivity and implied dehumanization.

"I'm not in the mood for making deals," Sean mutters, turning his head as far away as the fucking silver collar will let him. It should be easier to ignore people with an eye missing, but he's still far, far too aware of the fae's gaze burning into him.

"Are you in the mood for prison, then?" Chen--the only name they've let anyone here have--shoots back. "For letting that FBI bitch put a muzzle on you tomorrow and dragging you off on a leash?" They lean forward slightly, iron chains rattling. "For leaving your little witchling out on his own?"

He's a wolf, not a witchling, Sean wants to snap, even though that's stupid, even though Daniel's both, even though the point is moot because Chen is fucking right. He makes himself look back at them, the glint of their glasses, their unflinching stare. He wonders, not for the first time, what the exact fuck they're doing here.

(if the stare makes his breath move a little quicker sometimes, if it makes him feel seen in a way that no one has except since he woke up here, if he can't stop staring at their callused hands and they smirk when he does, that's no one's fucking business, but his own. he's got enough bullshit to deal with already)

"I can't trust you," he points out, to them or himself he's not sure.

"And I can't trust you either," Chen says easily, their lips quirking into a hungry little smile. "But neither of us has much of a choice, do we?"

They're right, of fucking course. Sean grits his teeth, filed-down fangs just starting to ache with new life, and reminds himself that there's probably no way he can somehow get even more fucked over. And even if there is, Daniel's worth it.

"What do you need," he grits out, and Chen's smile unfolds into a brilliant, full-toothed grin.

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

lis crossover ideas before I forget

Jefferson faking his death and assuming a new identity post-Storm, ends up getting hired by Universal Uprising to do photoshoots for their new angel

Gabe and Alex use Alex's powers to escape foster care/go on the run together and end up working on the Humboldt farm at the same time as the Diaz brothers

post-Bay Max working as a foreign correspondent in Mexico, crosses paths with Lone Wolf Daniel

Alex is stuck on Sacred Hope Hospital's psych ward and teams up with Sean to escape

listc happens before lis2 and Alex and Steph cross paths with Daniel immediately post-Humboldt like they do with that other kid in the comics (i.e. they almost run him over and he's a nonspeaking mess)

Karen actually maintains contact with her kids post-divorce, but also leaves them alone a bit too long with her creepy boyfriend Mark

the Diaz brothers accidentally climb into Alex's carefully selected railcar at the end of lis2 ep 2

Gabe kind of falls apart post jail and tracks down Alex from Haven Point, not Haven Springs, after getting hired as Lisbeth's new bodyguard

post-Bay Nathan goes looking for a hooker during his totally legally sound parole (Sean is the hooker)

listc takes place during lis2 and the Diaz brothers hide out in the abandoned mine; their less-than-calculated attempts to scare Ethan off just makes him more determined to confront the "monsters" apparently menacing his town

Alex drawn to Haven Point by all the carefully manufactured happy feelings there and crossing paths with the little "angel" who seems at the center of all the joy.

Karen meets Chloe drowning her sorrows post Rachel's disappearance and they make some very bad decisions.

Nicholas reorganizes Universal Uprising to view superpowered people as "demons" post Lisbeth's death and they get a foothold in Haven Springs during listc

Alex being homeless during a breakdown and ends up outside the Diaz brothers' winter cabin during a storm

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

happy pride to Sean and Daniel being canonically compared to another homicidal gay couple. love truly is love.

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

oranges

Ambiguous 'Alex At Haven Point' au

(csa mention, transphobia mention)

ao3

"So if you're not a boy or a girl, then..." Daniel swallows, citrus buzzing in his throat. He almost wants to ask what are you, but he remembers when Grandma asked him that, once, and he knows how much that question stings. "...where do you go?"

"All sorts of places," Alex says. She peels...they peel? another piece of orange, turning it over in guitar-calloused fingers. "In between, or outside of it all." She--they--shrug. "I'm quiet about it, though. No one else here knows."

"Not even Lisbeth?" Daniel takes the offered piece, chewing it doubtfully.

"She doesn't know have to know everything." Alex ruffles his shoulder-length hair--Lisbeth was going to cut it, but Alex talked her out of it, said it made him look more like Christ, then winked at Daniel when Lisbeth wasn't looking. "So I'd 'preciate it if you kept using she and her for me around everyone else, yeah? This is something I'd like to keep to myself."

"Okay." Daniel likes Alex, he doesn't want to make... them mad. "But if you want to keep it to yourself, why tell me?"

"Because some things you keep best when you've got other people help you keep them." Alex pulls off another piece, tossing the rind off into the grass. "You know, if you've got a secret you needed help keeping, I'd be happy to help, kiddo." They say it lightly, but their eyes are sharp.

"...maybe." The only thing he can think of, the only thing he's fairly sure Alex doesn't know, sounds like the soft creak of Lisbeth opening his bedroom door, the soft rise and fall of her prayers. He wonders how Alex would react, how he'd want them to react. "Maybe I will. Later."

Alex smiles at him and pops the orange piece into their mouth. Their teeth flash as they chew, bright and polished as blades in the setting sun, and Daniel can't help smiling back.

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

and my instinct is to say that Alex and Daniel would find it easier to get along than Gabe and Sean, they'd go off to plot a murder together no problem, but would they really? sure they have a lot more in common than Max in some ways, I've mentioned before how she--a white middle-class girl--was able to go until (legal) adulthood without discovering her abilities while Alex and Daniel were both children of color who were forced to develop their powers young in the face of violently oppressive systems that caged and hunted them. these abilities make them uniquely vulnerable to abuse from those around them (Max's powers harm her on a cosmic level, but also protect her from people like Jefferson, while Daniel and Alex are harmed by people like Lisbeth and Isaac because of how they are) and also make them uniquely equipped to defend themselves by harming the people around them instead, Daniel physically and Alex psychologically. the bothy know what it's like to clumsily wield these intimate kinds of violence that are in contrast to Max unleashing the time apocalypse on a more removed and widespread scale, and that sometimes catch the people they love most in the blast.

the thing is that Alex is everything Daniel is most terrified of being, a person who's lived her life as a lonely, unwanted freak. and Daniel has protection and guidance from his big brother that Alex never had when her abilities developed, Daniel had someone to tell him nothing is wrong with you years before Alex could hear the same, but he also got so many more opportunities to accidentally hurt Sean with what he could do, and Alex was devastated by just one accident with Gabe. Daniel's desperate to connect with people, his powers lift him up and away from everyone else, while Alex connects with people far too often, she's drowning in everyone's pain on top of her own. Alex's problem is that nobody believes she has powers, so they dismiss her, and Daniel's powers are blatantly, dangerously obvious to everyone who spends too much time around him, so they use him. not to mention that Alex is fairly good with kids, if Ethan is any indicator, but Daniel is alternately determined to not be treated as a kid and finds himself struggling to fit into the child role without quite managing anymore.

Alex would want to help Daniel, use her hard-earned knowledge about what's it like to life like his to provide some guidance, but she doesn't even know what that would look like, both because of what they don't have in common and what they do, what she would have to face about her own situation while dealing with his. and Daniel would probably zigzag between clinging to Alex as yet another mentor figure who can do everything Sean can't and want to reject her for the same reason, because every time he tries something like it ends in tragedy, and Alex can get into his head the way Lisbeth does, which makes her both more frightening and in a way more appealing, a chance for someone to really understand him the way Sean can't always. in a way killing someone might be the best way for them to learn to trust each other, Alex's finesse combining with Daniel's raw power to turn their mutual suffering into mutual effectiveness. Alex can't teach Daniel how to be normal, and Daniel is proof that even with a protective brother figure Alex was never going to be normal, but they can both agree on being dangerous freaks if they have to.

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

random hc that Alex would need, like, heavy-duty gloves to touch Sean's sketchbook because the sheer range and intensity of emotions soaked into that thing would be so overwhelming to her bare-handed. And when she looks at the pages she can hear the characters drawn there speaking and see them moving a little, twitching their animal ears and tails; she can hear the writing in Sean's voice and Daniel's comments in his. the pages that contain the worst memories sound like screaming to her.

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

i do feel that Max would be so incredibly horrified if she knew how young Alex and Daniel were when they got their powers, like she discovered her rewind as a legal adult if nothing else and it still devolved into a living nightmare so fast, I think it would devastate her to learn there were people out there who had to deal with the same thing at an even younger and more vulnerable age.

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

no but seriously. why the fuck is the cute little town from listc called haven springs when the homophobic child abuse death cult from lis2 is set at a place called haven point. is it sheer stupid coincidence. did they just not give a shit. is this supposed to be a deliberate callback. is this supposed to be making up for refusing to reference lis2 anywhere else. were they hoping not enough people played lis2 to notice. did they accidentally use the mib light thingie that was supposed to make everyone forget about lis2 on themselves. did the deck9 guys never even watch an lis2 playthrough on youtube. i am so fascinated by this.