#reckoner fic

[thisdivorce]

Chapter 21: Ink

Chapter Summary: Ian and Mickey adapt to new circumstances.

Summary: Ian Gallagher is married, stable, happy working as a Paramedic and trying to start a family, but a chance encounter with the foul-mouthed father of one of his patients—who has more ties to Ian than either of them know—threatens to blow it all up.

Length: 4.1k

Rating: Explicit

Read here from the beginning

thanks to my forever brilliant beta and friend  @gallawitchxx and to @callivich for making the banner

[markoftheasphodel]

⭐fic of your choice

Imma talk about “Reckoner” since that took FOREVER to write and I was thrilled to finally have it see the light of day last year.

So the idea was kicking around in my head from my very first PT of FE4 like, in 2013? Something like that. You encounter the village dude in Ch10 who says you gotta sacrifice somebody to Julius&Ishtar to pass and while you sure don’t if you have Forseti!Ced on your team, it got me thinking. This wasn’t so many years after the howls of fan fury over the “sacrifice” in FE11, and here was a beloved entry in the franchise urging the player to do exactly that!

I bounced some ideas off the Dreamwidth gang and the earliest draft began to take shape. It centered around Lester, Diarmuid, and Ulster and went to some pretty dark places:

“That’s something we don’t do.  Like torture– we don’t do it, and it separates us from the people we’re fighting against.”

“Well…”

“What, Del?”

“You mentioned torture.  Leif’s tactician in Thracia– August, you remember him?”

“The creepy old priest, yeah.  You mentioned him before.”

“He knew all about torture.  He’d done it.  He could teach it.”

Like that, yeah.

That was V 1.0 and I toyed with it until August of 2015, when I realized that the entire idea of the “blood sacrifice” required to get past Miletos worked much, much better in a subkiddy universe. So I started working with Deimne, Tristan, and Roddlevan (as he was then called) instead of the “canon” Tirnanog boys. That helped drive the narrative on the boys’ end– their feelings of uselessness and low self-worth, the friction between Tristan and Roddlevan that distracted from coming up with something better, the sense that the whole thing was a league above them anyway. The adults were a bit more of a problem, as while I felt comfortable enough in assigning Shannan the role of “Eff blood sacrifice let’s just go in there and seize Miletos,” who staked out what corner of the debate and how heated those arguments got was a real thornbush to navigate.

“And while we’re talking about that, don’t you think I’ve felt a share of responsibility all these years for advising those closest to me into a complete disaster?”

“You may as well send me in,” Prince Shannan interrupted.  “I’m the one who didn’t do a good job of guarding Deirdre and got us into this mess.”

“Shannan…”

“Well, if we’re going to pick over who did or didn’t do what twenty years ago…”  The prince flipped a strand of glossy dark hair over his shoulder.  “I still think we just need to send in the best we’ve got and take on Julius and his girl.  Even if we’re just talking holy weapons, there’s more of us.”

“If it only takes one life to pass, we can’t risk more than that number,” said Lord Oifey.

“Yeah, but if we take out Julius here and now–”

“Can it, all three of you,” said Lewyn, having clearly lost patience with the other men.  “We’ll have fate settle this.”  

Then FEH came to town and we got new names and, piece by piece, additional bits of characterization. And then AMC’s The Terror hit the airwaves and I was hooked (I’d been anticipating it for years) and suddenly my brain was immersed in this dated homosocial military world that was both under outside attack and rotting internally and something… clicked.

“No, you won’t,” Prince Shannan said to the both of them. The prince grasped Lord Oifey’s hand by the wrist and held it close to his own heart. “Send in the best we’ve got and let us take on Julius and his girl. Even if we’re just talking holy weapons, there’s more of us right now. Trust me. We are Crusaders. We were born for this.”

“Twelve of you were created for this,” said Oifey, very low and solemn. He didn’t take his hand back from Shannan. “And we have only three weapons now.”

At this, Shannan let go of Oifey and aimed a finger right at Lewyn.

“Then why doesn’t he take the Forseti tome out of its hiding place before sending one of you to die?”

So began draft 3.0, in which the impossible role of some poor wannabe knight like Tristan became more clear, in which the adults weren’t just frustrated with one another, they really cared about one another… maybe too much. While Version 1.0 presented Oifey and Lewyn as prospective in-laws thanks to Fee, V 3.0 hinted that the adults had aligned themselves along different axes entirely. Of course, I’d also had many more years of playing with these characters and other ‘fics had happened in the meantime.

“Shannan. If it only takes one life to pass, we can’t risk more than that number,” said Oifey, and now he took hold of Shannan’s shoulder. “And I’m not risking yours. You’re Isaach’s last hope.”

“Isaach got liberated without me. If we take out Julius here and now—”

“Lewyn, please…” And the other three turned to look at Finn, because talking over Prince Shannan wasn’t something he did. He sounded choked up, almost like this whole discussion was making him sick. “Pass your judgment. I trust you know which of us is essential, and which can be deployed.”

The tiny reflection of Lewyn in Deimne’s mirror looked angry, at least that’s what Deimne thought. The tactician was usually above all of them, almost like a god himself, and Deimne’d never seen an expression quite like that on Lewyn’s face. But maybe Deimne was seeing things, the way the blood churning in his ears now was making it harder to pay attention and his own stomach felt like it was roiling from the horror of listening to this conversation.

“We’ll have fate settle this,” Lewyn said. He held up one hand and Deimne caught a flash of gold between his fingers. Lewyn looked right at Prince Shannan and added, “This coin has only two sides.”

And suddenly the whole damn thing worked in a way it just hadn’t before, and I was able to publish it and finally get it off my chest. :D

[thisdivorce]

Chapter 19: Iron

Chapter Summary: Ian confronts Caleb.

Summary: Ian Gallagher is married, stable, happy working as a Paramedic and trying to start a family, but a chance encounter with the foul-mouthed father of one of his patients—who has more ties to Ian than either of them know—threatens to blow it all up.

Length: 4.2k

Rating: Explicit

Read here from the beginning

thanks to my forever brilliant beta and friend  @gallawitchxx and to @callivich for making the banner

[markoftheasphodel]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1 of 2 Fandom: Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu | Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Fire Emblem Series Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Major Character Death Characters: Deimne (Fire Emblem), Tristan (Fire Emblem), Dalvin, Levn | Lewyn, Aoife | Oifey, Finn (Fire Emblem), Shannan (Fire Emblem), Daisy (Fire Emblem) Additional Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, Subkiddy Universe, War is Bad for Children and Other Living Things, The Old Lie Summary:

Deimne, Dalvin, and Tristan get wind of a plan to capture the stronghold of Miletos with minimal casualties. The downside of this plan may be more than they're willing to live with. What will a trio of perfectly ordinary boys do at this turning point of a holy war? More specifically, what is a child ardent for some desperate glory to do with the chance given him?

[markoftheasphodel]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 2/3 Fandom: Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu | Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Fire Emblem Series Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Major Character Death Characters: Deimne (Fire Emblem), Tristan (Fire Emblem), Dalvin, Levn | Lewyn, Aoife | Oifey, Finn (Fire Emblem), Shannan (Fire Emblem), Daisy (Fire Emblem) Additional Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, Subkiddy Universe, War is Bad for Children and Other Living Things, The Old Lie, Tragedy Summary:

Deimne, Dalvin, and Tristan get wind of a plan to capture the stronghold of Miletos with minimal casualties. The downside of this plan may be more than they're willing to live with. What will a trio of perfectly ordinary boys do at this turning point of a holy war? More specifically, what is a child ardent for some desperate glory to do with the chance given him?

[thisdivorce]

Chapter 16: Skylight

Chapter Summary: Ian and Mickey receive visitors.

Summary: Ian Gallagher is married, stable, happy working as a Paramedic and trying to start a family, but a chance encounter with the foul-mouthed father of one of his patients—who has more ties to Ian than either of them know—threatens to blow it all up.

Length: 4.8k

Rating: Explicit

Read here from the beginning

thanks to my forever brilliant beta @gallawitchxx and to @callivich for making the banner

[thisdivorce]

Chapter 15: Seroquel

Chapter Summary: Ian turns to Mickey for help.

Summary: Ian Gallagher is married, stable, happy working as a Paramedic and trying to start a family, but a chance encounter with the foul-mouthed father of one of his patients—who has more ties to Ian than either of them know—threatens to blow it all up.

Length: 4.3k

Rating: Explicit

Read here from the beginning

thanks to my forever brilliant beta @gallawitchxx and to @callivich for making the banner

[thisdivorce]

Chapter 13: Plastic

Chapter Summary: Ian struggles at work.

Summary: Ian Gallagher is married, stable, happy working as a Paramedic and trying to start a family, but a chance encounter with the foul-mouthed father of one of his patients—who has more ties to Ian than either of them know—threatens to blow it all up.

Length: 6.6k

Rating: Explicit

I made a Reckoner playlist and forgot to post it last chapter - here it is.

thanks as always to my talented beta's @shameless-notashamed & @gallawitchxx. thanks to @ianandmickeygallavich for the banner! bunch of talented individuals!