#melanielocke

[yunuen]

I really like the "hextech gets invented in other timelines too and causes problems there" interpretation in Jellyfish's last chapter, because I think this makes a lot of sense (when convincing Mel to help them, Jayce does claim hextech will be invented either way and they should be the ones to do it first), and it also explains why Viktor keeps saving Jayce no matter what it leads to.

I really don't believe Mage Viktor would doom countless timelines for a chance to save Jayce, it just doesn't fit thematically with what Mage Viktor is supposed to convey. So I really like the explanation that the problem will always emerge, and only with Jayce can it also be stopped.

That also really makes Ekko's timeline a huge outlier, since it's one where Mage Viktor does interfere, but a random event somehow throws the timeline onto an entirely different trajectory. (Possibly no oppression of Zaun means no hextech rather than the other way around? This universe's Powder is fine leaving the hexcrystals in her drawer)

“I really don't believe Mage Viktor would doom countless timelines for a chance to save Jayce, it just doesn't fit thematically with what Mage Viktor is supposed to convey. “ YES EXACTLY I know many people have that hc which is a very romantic notion but imo Viktor would prioritize the world at that point, if he had to. Which is why I added their conversation about the mage letting Jayce die (which I thought would get some pushback on but thankfully everyone that’s commented seems on board) AND ACTUALLY there’s a theory that Ekko’s timeline is NOT saved: Vi died, Jayce was either exiled or killed himself, Hextech was not invented..... YET. The way it showed with Powder revealing she had saved the fragments of Jayce’s gems, imo framing it as a foreboding moment, does signal that the timeline might be fucked as well. Hextech would always pop up, and it would always twist into something else due to ambitions, corruption or ignorance. I kinda wanted it to be a Dr. Strange, 1 in 14 million possibilities of winning kinda shit. So there’s MANY ways it can go wrong but not many it can go right, and after some trial and error mageVik realizes the solution hinges on Jayce and him at the very end (well, and on Ekko being the MVP really). So in a way he’s also dooming every version of Viktor to go through this experience too! Because in other timelines he's not the one to become the Herald, but only in the timelines where he DOES, they come close to stopping the end of the world. DOOMED COSMIC YAOI

[fahye]

Hi!

I'm rereading a Marvellous Light and was wondering if Edwin was intended to be autistic? I always love seeing autistic characters and especially queer autistic characters!

hello! I've had questions about this before and my answer is here, but I'll c&p it below as well for ease of reading, because I think I have a few new followers since then:

yes, I deliberately wrote edwin with some autistic characteristics (and maud with some traits of ADHD, in book 2). it was always a part of how I envisaged their characters.

unlike with the characters’ sexualities, I’ve been reluctant to go around blowing a CANON REPRESENTATION!! trumpet in regards to neurodiversity, because they’re never explicitly described as such on page – both because of the historical setting, and because I wasn’t ever sitting down to map them one-to-one onto strict diagnostic criteria. I figured that some people would connect with and identify with those characteristics, and others wouldn’t, and I was happy either way!

[alastaircarstairsdefenselawyer]

A Better Man or the Last Time please

I'm not great at choosing, so if you feel the inspiration you can do both but otherwise pick whichever you like better.

thanks so much for the ask!! I did both & I think I might also use the second letter (or a version of it) in a one-shot I've been stuck on so thank you!!

The First Last Letter

4 November 1902

Dear Charles,

With my family's return to England, so will I. I hope this distance will give you clarity in what you desire in life and with me.

Tell me, where am I on your list of priorities? Am I included? It is beginning to feel like there will never be room for us in your ambitions.

I do not wish to be with someone who only wants me when he is bored or lonely. I will not say this again: if I am important to you, act like it.

I will depart Paris tomorrow evening.

Alastair

The Last Last Letter

24 January 1904

Charles,

Stop writing me. I will not read nor respond to any letter from you henceforth.

You may call me a coward, but the bravest thing I've ever done is leave you. I will always wonder we could have been had you been a better man, but you are not, and I have moved forward.

Looking back on all of the hurt you caused me, I wonder how you did it, but it never crossed your mind that I would leave you, did it? Perhaps my pride is not the problem.

This is my final goodbye.

Alastair

begin again | anti-hero

send me a song from red (TV) and I'll write a drabble!

[iloveallmyocs]

Alastair for the 50 words thing?

"Do you really love me?" asked Alastair, tears spilling down his face.

He didn't wait for an answer though, he was sure that he wouldn't want to hear it.

No twelve year old boy would want to hear his own father tell him that he was never loved.

(Send me the name of your favourite fictional character in my ask box and I will give you angst in less than 50 words.)

[princesafilomena]

Thomas F5 for the drawing

Seems like his face if he were looking at Alastair

he is indeed looking at Alastair!! hope you like this!

from this art challenge

[brightwoods]

Do you have a snippet of Charles getting what he deserves?

I won’t give it all away, but I’ll give you this little taste that shows he’s going to get in trouble next chapter

Cordelia stormed over to Charles at his lunch table.

“Get up,” she said.

“I’ll pass,” he said.

“Get up,” she repeated. “Unless you want me to have this conversation in front of everyone.”

[fahye]

I'm really curious how Ross' (very justified) dislike of nobility and rich people is going to play out in APU because so far the other characters were all at least somewhat rich and similar in standing (except Hawthorn who is way richer I think), because as much as I love romanticized fictional nobility it's good to have that criticism too

Also thank you for recommending Some Desperate Glory, I read it this weekend and am obsessed (especially with Avi)

yes; obviously I am Doing A Romance and Creating A Found Family, but I didn't want to smooth things over too quickly or make ross abandon his principles in any way. class differences are complicated! feelings are messy! I hope I got the balance right in the final product.

and OH I'M GLAD. I feel like SDG has not found the audience it so richly deserves - partially because chonky military-ish SF just never does as well as fantasy, alas, but partially because perhaps I have not yelled with sufficient urgency about how good and smart and queer and wonderful it is!! so thank you for picking it up.

[iloveallmyocs]

Lightwood family for the ranking thing? As Magnus used to say, there's too many of them

I don't really have any strong feelings (negative or positive) for the lightwoods, except for Anna, I cannot tolerate her.

I will be excluding lightwoods by marriage and unimportant ones (like Robert, Benedict etc)

so here it is:

Christopher > Gideon > Thomas > Izzy = Gabriel > Alec > Anna

Believe me, even I didn't think Gideon would be so high in the list, but he is part of one of tsc's most underrated ships, so I'm giving him some representation. (more of you should be obsessing over sophiegideon) 

I think Izzy is pretty cool, but I didn't like the way she was written in the first few tmi books. She and Gabriel are on the same level, I never knew what to make of Gabriel bc we were always told to hate him but the reasons were never convincing enough for me (I would do the same thing he did if some random kid read my younger sibling’s diary out loud) 

pls don’t kill me due to Alec’s ranking, I don’t have anything against him, I just think he’s meh, a very signature early 2000s token diversity character *hides*. He gets better in tda though, but he isn’t a main in tda so not counting that. Also I haven’t read tec, so keep that in mind.

I’m not even going to start about Anna, my queen Kamala deserves better than her. Maybe I should set her up with my oc