#potion!au

[llondonfog]

On one hand it would be so interesting if potion!au was also a MelanorLives!au, on the other, if potion!au was also a MelanorLives!au, potion!au would be over in 3 minues and andrei would be a pile of ash before even getting the potion to silver.

the way this ask felt like a blast from the past!!! i think the potion!au fics were some of the first twst pieces i wrote on this account way back in 2023 and it's crazy to me that they still make the rounds every so often, it always makes me happy to know that there's some longevity to those silly drabbles :')

but yes, anon, i completely agree. here at lettie llondonfog, we believe in godmother mel supremacy and no one is allowed to torment the vanrouge family (which unfortunately includes that beastly little human she is absolutely in no manner fond of) but herself!! she's using andrei's bones as a toothpick while we speak<3

[llondonfog]

Do you think you’ll ever post more about that potion!au? Sorry I’m just very invested in that au 😅😅

omg no, never be sorry— i'm so honored and delighted to hear that you really connected with that au!! that was one of the first posts on my blog that really took off, and it always will have a special place in my heart <3

it honestly just comes down to my interest and energy level. i don't want to make any promises and disappoint you, because i might get inspired by a prompt and dabble in that universe again. i also feel a little bad saying you can always send a scenario or asks about it when i have quite a few prompts in my inbox that i've not gotten around to for some time, but i do mean it that i'm always open to hearing your thoughts or specific scenes that you're interested in— if you are willing to be patient with me :')

but truly, thank you for interacting with my work. it means so much to me to hear that someone is still thinking about that au <3

[llondonfog]

since it’s now canon silver was originally blonde, do you think maybe he would have blonde hair in potion!au?

THE WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES THIS OPENS.....the horrible notion of andrei trying to remove lilia's blessing on silver to have his hair return to its original golden color....

we already know andrei's days are numbered from all the suffering he's caused but I like to think this shortens his time in this au even further when lilia sees his blessing, his claim, so callously removed from his son in such a blatant assault upon their bond together.....oh, his rage will rival the lightning fury of the late princess herself

[llondonfog]

Hii it’s me again for the meme fic ask what about a scenario for the potion!au where Lilia learns Silver is missing and is just blasting Crowley’s office door down demanding how this happened

[✐meme] three sentence fic meme

by the time that crowley had been old enough to know anything, the general had already become something of a folklore legend, a lone phantom who had taken his leave into the dark, protective shield of the briar valley forests, never to emerge again. to fae far and wide, it would have been impossible in those days to have graduated through a very lengthy childhood without one time or another pretending to be the nightmare general of briar valley and his stalwart companions, driving back the poison taint that threatened their ancient existence— to imagine what horrendous foes and wicked creatures they had to overcome in their desperate, cursed bid to save the queen.

it is something much more frightening than the stories of the old general that bursts into his office like a vengeful whirlwind, doors cracking in protest against the stone wall as they tremble meekly against their hinges, and his poor desk is seized within the crushing grip of a rigid pair of clawed, white-knuckled hands.

(not the maple top, he mourns, a near tear glinting behind his mask as the glossy wood creaks ominously)

"where is my son," lilia vanrouge snarls at him with all the fury and fear of a panicked father, and crowley quails miserably behind his rapidly splintering desk. "what have you allowed to happen, where is my son?!"

oh, sevens above, how was he to explain this?

[llondonfog]

Ever since the newest update and your recent potion au post I’m thinking

“Hey let’s make it worse and have Silver take the potion that snatches away CONSENTINGLY because he thinks maybe his father just. Won’t ever find out. After he departs from the school. And then Lilia sending letters to Silver, not getting a reply and he accepts it because he’s thinking ‘my son is mad at me, I kind of deserve that’ but then Sebek and Malleus message back like ‘Uhm. We can’t. Find him.’”

Cue Lilia practically screaming in his new residence.

(ok first anon, you've touched on one of my dear weaknesses— silver being the one thing that would bring lilia back aaaaaaaaaaa!!!!)

GOD!!! ok the circumstances that would lead to silver drinking the potion willingly,,,,, going with the theory that his family was directly involved in the war against briar valley/had a hand in the deaths of malleus' parents? holy shit, what a soul-crushing blow. i touched on this a little in my previous ask but it really is astounding to me how we're finally seeing the fractures and crumbles in what was once a rock solid foundation of silver's conviction regarding his place in the world at malleus' side, as lilia's son, and his life within briar valley. now EVERYTHING about that is being thrown into question as a result of seeing lilia's memories, and if it were true that his family directly harmed malleus in such an unforgiveable way? the pain and suffering that they've cursed a nation to know, the grief that malleus was born into and grew up wearing like a shroud, the loss that his own father must carry with him for the rest of his life— how could they look at him again and not feel the keen sting of that pain lancing them open every single time? (how could they say his name and not feel their tongue split open with hate, how could they forget the very soldiers that bear his title?)

he sees it as the only kindness he can do for them, to disappear from their lives; he's merely occupied a space within their multitudes of years for less than a decade, surely it will not take long to forget him. andrei doesn't even have to manipulate him into drinking it, he does of his own free will to grant his beloved family the only peace of mind that he can, to fade into their obscurity forever— for who will be left to mourn the loss of a boy secluded in the woods, no last name to even claim as his own?

and of course this is a dumb fucking decision because it couldn't be further from the truth!! malleus, lilia, sebek— they love silver like the moon to the tides, unconditional and unceasing. he is not his family, no matter how terrible he thinks his past may be stained, because that isn't the past that matters; playing tag and hide-and-seek in the woods, laughing with glee at malleus-sama's sparkling 'fireflies', falling asleep in his father's arms to a death metal lullaby— these are the things that color the fabric of his life. so when lilia gets a frantic missive from sebek and malleus that silver is gone in the wake of the emotional turmoil that they've all just gone through.....

you can be certain that lilia doesn't need magic to blast through crowley's door and demand just what in the seven hells has happened to his darling son.

[llondonfog]

Book 7 Spoilers but consider: If potion!au somehow took place after book 7, MC would definitely be helping rescue Silver. He saved them in the dream world so I can’t imagine MC wouldn’t be at least a little loyal to him. Also they’ve experienced brainwashing courtesy of Jamil, I doubt they’d let anyone suffer under that, let alone someone they care for. With Silver kidnapped their friend, Malleus, and his guards are miserable.

And really, after book 7 no one would expect the magicless human to be helping the Briar Prince and the Dread General. MC can play the kidnapped by fae and treated terribly card thanks to Crowley and OB!Malleus, which may soften Andrei to them slightly. Who better to keep Silver away from his family than a poor child who suffered the same fate? This allows MC to befriend Silver. Meanwhile MC is reporting everything they see back to Diasomnia, and also trying to subtly jog Silver’s memory. If Andrei catches on it would look really bad for him to attack the kidnapped, defenseless friend of ‘his’ ward. In the meantime, poor Silver is confused about why a talking mouse is fretting over him in his dreams, and why that mouse FaceTimes his magicless friend through a mirror.

IDK. I just want MC to be able to thank Silver for protecting Grim and them from Malleus and his Lotus-Eater machine. I blame this brain rot on your delicious angst and that promotional line where Silver says he feels as though he has met the MC before.

TLDR: Silver is best boy so Prefect joins the save Silver team and uses their magiclessness to help him.

Thank you for listening to my ramblings, and have a great day!

(ok first things first, thank you so much for enjoying my little au??? so much so that you took the time to provide all of these wonderful thoughts and divergent possibilities??? i was so giddy when i saw this come in while i was on my work trip this week, i couldn't wait to answer it <3)

oh my goodness— i've never really considered a 'timeline' for when the potion!au would take place, but the way it would be even more heartbreaking after the events of chapter 7, ESPECIALLY with these hints that are being built up about silver's ancestors and their potential relation to lilia and malleus' own unhappy pasts??? could you imagine how raw it would feel to have silver be stolen away from them by the guards of his royal family, after he had sacrificed and suffered through so much just to bring the diasomnia family back together?? how fresh the memories of loss must be for malleus and lilia regarding the humans that they were fighting against in briar valley and the devastation and destruction they caused both to their land and to the royal family— now they must contend with the fact that silver is possibly descended from that same family, and they've all of a sudden emerged to whisk him away from the very fae that love him for who he is, not what he represents? aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

but to your point about MC!!!! so you may notice that my fics don't really address the mc/yuu, and that's mainly because i really don't feel personally involved when i play the game, i'm mostly invested for the characters— but you bring up an excellent perspective that i've never considered! based on their journey together so far in ch7 and what we can expect to continue, i definitely think that yuu grows very close and extremely fond of silver, especially once they understand his relationship to the diasomnia clan and being part of how that plays out in real time over lilia's decision to leave their side. and i fully agree that they'd probably be one of the first to catch on to what's happened to silver, that something about him has been deliberately altered by an external force, because there's simply no way he'd abandon his family after all that he went through to protect them.

i love the idea of yuu using andrei's perception of the situation against him in order to regain silver's trust and confidence— it's beginning to play out so very similarly to how silver had to wake everyone up in the dreamworld, only this time, the tables have been drastically turned. and oh, how it hurts yuu to see him this way, to know how desperate and impassioned he was to save his father and sebek from such similar fates in malleus' dreamworld. they would certainly do anything and everything in their power to jog his memory, even trying their best to convince him to stop taking the potion that's suppressing his true memories from returning.

silver truly is Best Boy and he really does deserve a true friend in yuu after ch7 is over— who would have guessed that they would face such trials together, and bond as two humans out of place and time, struggling to realize their role in the world that they've found themselves in?

[llondonfog]

ONG WAIT I LOVE THE IDEA OF SILVER SLOWLY REGAINING HIS MEMORY IN POTION AU😭😭😭 LIKE IMAGINE SOMETIMES HE’LL RANDOMLY REMEMBER A FACT THAT ONLY HE AND LILIA WOULD KNOW AND GETS CONFUSED

I IMMEDIATELY thought of Andrei (backstory for new followers; the royal guard to Silver's deceased parents in this au, has kidnapped and altered Silver's memories via a potion) practicing swordsmanship with Silver, and of course he'd be big on traditional, proper knight footwork and handling of the sword, right? And while I'm certain that Lilia did teach and train Silver on all the basic sword fighting techniques, I genuinely cannot see General Vanrouge having the patience for 'genteel' fighting on the battlefield, or any kind of respectable, honorable warfare— to me, Lilia personifies strategy over strength, and I'd like to think he passes that on to his son. So while Silver probably wouldn't think of it as 'cheating', his father most likely taught him that a fair win is any win that properly bests your opponent and ends in your triumph over them.

Andrei on the other hand would have none of that. So when they're practicing, Silver is initially obediently following all of the moves and stances that he requests, dutifully following through each slash and swing of his sword to parry against his guard. But in the heat of the moment, as they're sparring and Silver's sinking deeper and deeper into the adrenaline-laced thrill, he sees it. There's an opening, a vulnerability that if he just positions the hilt of his blade just so, he can throw the other man off balance and gain momentum over him. It's a move however that his guard would frown upon, and he hesitates, the opportunity winking away with every frozen millisecond until he hears a voice whispering in his ear, fair play, dear boy, and it's as if his body simply moves on it's own after that.

In the space of two breaths, he's standing over his guard, the man flat on his back and disarmed, with Silver's own practice sword tucked neatly against his throat. They both stare at each other, wide-eyed, gazes a reflection of disbelief, until Andrei's grey eyes narrow, the ominous grey of storm clouds rolling in.

"That's not a move that I've taught you," he states in a flat, measured tone that promises the maddening repetition of a thousand practice drills.

"No, it isn't," Silver agrees, feeling small and out of sorts as his hand flexes weakly around the leather grip, reaching for the voice that has long since disappeared like smoke from his mind.

Just who had that voice been?

[llondonfog]

More TWST potion au brain rot except it’s where Silver’s RSA friends are often used as pillows and have admitted to being worried when he sleeps because he doesn’t look like he’s dreaming well.

Whenever they ask him what he dreams about he can only shrug.

.. but when he somehow sleeps post match with an NRC student, he accidentally uses the green haired students shoulder as a pillow. The stark difference is surprising bc he looks like he’s sleeping so peacefully.

anonnnnnn this thought has arrested me, I ADORE CONTRASTING IMAGERY SO MUCH!!!!!!

like. just imagining that he's fallen asleep on one of his rsa friends and they can see him furrowing his brow, the pained dip of his mouth, the way his fingers flex upon his knee as if in an aborted manner to reach out to something that's locked away only in his mind, the strange whisper of 'father—' that seems to carry the weight of all the grief in the world—

(and that's when they finally realize what he reminds them of; it's not exhaustion, or apathy. silver looks like the saddest man in all of twisted wonderland, and not even he can figure out why.)

but of course when he wakes, he can't remember any of that, and when his friends gently query as to why he was dreaming of his father, he can only shrug and murmur that it must have been about the night they were taken from him by the fae who had come to decimate their kingdom.

AND THEN!!

when he happens to fall asleep on the green-haired student's shoulder (Zigvolt, his teammates murmur amongst each other, that was his name, wasn't it?), his expression has entirely changed. he breathes in the forest wild and dreams of cloudy skies, a sagging cottage held up by love and laughter, a hand gentle upon his head that practically overwhelms him with the feeling of being wanted. of being loved.

it's a peaceful dream, and yet when he wakes, the ache inside of his chest seems to have deepen tenfold, dropping into fathomless depths of a great, black sea.

they can see it on Zigvolt's face too, the recognition and reflection of sorrow as he gazes down upon the young man blinking blearily about himself, as if at a loss with his own surroundings. but they don't know what he does, they don't know that he's staring down at that helpless expression and thinking like father, like son.

if silver is the saddest man in all of twisted wonderland, then lilia vanrouge is the second.