Presenting, for your viewing and reading pleasure: the final collection of this year's Terror Reverse Bang, a feast of gorgeous artwork, beautiful fic, friendship, laughter, tears, …some horny. OK, a lot of horny.
You can find the AO3 collection for the event here. Summaries and links to the artwork below the cut.
Thank you all for going on this fantastic journey with us.
Eat well and enjoy.
- ❤️, Charlie and Vio
amateur operator (T, hickey/irving tozer/irving, 10.5k)
artwork and concept by entangled_system
fic by pointyshades
At an isolated research station at the top of a warming world, in the most inhospitable place on Earth for communications, John Irving studies signal propagation - and studiously avoids the obvious metaphor. John’s had a lot of practice at ignoring the obvious, but when an improbable random contact with an amateur radio operator calling himself "EC" leads to even more improbable regular contact with the same operator, not even John can ignore the ridiculous reality: a growing relationship with someone he knows only by their call sign; a relationship conducted half in Morse code.
John's real-life connections aren't going half so well, and neither is his research: his radio equipment keeps suffering accidents, and he can't stop getting into arguments with Sergeant Tozer, the man assigned to help him fix it. Frustrated, he turns even further toward his relationship with EC - and finds himself being urged down a path of paranoia as to who is actually damaging his equipment.
an arcane kind of murder (M, fitzier, 7.5k)
artwork and concept by pretendingday
fic by shakespeares_girl
At the Baronet Franklin's annual tourney, a series of murders begins. Francis is pressed into investigating, with the help of James Fitzjames. But Lord Franklin won't cancel the tournament, and the murders are getting more and more violent.
as per my last email (E, joplittle, 67.2k)
artwork and concept by mitarashi8
fic by manicpixiedreamjop
Edward Little has lived his life the way he thought he was supposed to. He went to a good university, got a good job as the head of PR at Erebus men’s magazine, and bought a home. He blames the fact that he hans’t dated since university on the fact that he doesn’t have time and not the fact that it terrifies him, and spends what little free time he has trying to pretend he isn’t miserable.
His neighbour Thomas Jopson has lived his life the only way he knows how. He fought his way from a childhood in foster care into a degree and a career that he loves, spending his days doing social work and his evenings volunteering with a local nonprofit supporting queer youth in the foster system. He plans his days down to the second, hardly allowing himself time for anything outside of work and sleep, but he is, at least mostly, satisfied.
When Edward’s boss is quoted saying something homophobic, it’s Edward’s job to clean up the mess, which leads him to the nonprofit that Thomas volunteers with. This new connection has the potential to turn both Edward and Thomas’ lives upside down. If only the two of them actually liked each other.
barghest. (T, joplittle, 10.3k)
artwork and concept by oughtnots
fic by derry_rain
Edward Little is a humble accountant in the late 1920s, but he has lately become haunted by visions of death: his own death, in the form of a great black dog not unlike one that bit him as a child. When his endless visions of ice and snow and the black dog won't end, he finds himself turning to a paranormal private eye: Thomas Jopson.
be that my cue to crave you (E, little/le vesconte, 9.6k)
artwork and concept by bilgewater01
fic by orchis
“If I could eat anything right now—”
“Henry.”
“Anything at all, from all the dishes and delicacies I've ever stuffed my face with—”
“Henry.”
“I think I'd go for an apple,” he finishes. “How awfully pedestrian of me. Nothing fancy, just an apple, and I don't even have the strong teeth for it anymore.”
“Henry.”
He huffs. “I hear you,” he says, and Edward can imagine him frowning, lips pursed. He wishes he could see him in the dark. “Tell me what you'd have, then, and I'll shut up about it.”
As the dark winters of the Arctic stretch before him, Edward yearns and craves and waits.
dear john (T, hodgson/irving/little, 16.6k)
artwork and concept by turnofthesentry
fic by mxjopsonfan
When John receives an anonymous love letter he resolves immediately to find the culprit. Little does he know that he is about to go on a voyage of self-discovery, realisations of deep affection, and three of her Majesty's naval Lieutenants showing how incapable they are of being Normal About Feelings.
ice wine (M, fitzier, 19.9k)
artwork and concept by o-rchidae
fic by melismata
Sir John, English wine pioneer, has survived every crisis since the 70s. Surely three bad harvests and a global pandemic aren't such a big deal? Fortunately, everyone else at Parable Wines agrees the business urgently needs saving. Unfortunately, no-one agrees how.
iceblink luck (M, fitzier, 30.4k)
artwork and concept by marella-moon - x
fic by perenial
October, 1987. With the Thatcher government entering its third term, Defence minister Sir John Franklin looks to offload two of his dockside London properties: one, a successful dance school directed by celebrated principal danseur James Fitzjames, and the other, a century-old boxing gym helmed by former middleweight Olympic hopeful turned disgraced misanthrope Francis Crozier.
In a show of generosity, Franklin offers Crozier the chance to buy out the gym he's poured over a decade of work into. It should be the opportunity he's been waiting for – except Crozier's barely keeping the gym afloat as it is, and Franklin's asking price far exceeds his means. With only one month to cough up the funds or forfeit the gym, Crozier finds himself backed into a corner, fighting for a piece of history he refuses to let go and against a past that's just waiting for him to give in.
matching such unlikes (G, fitzier, 7.5k)
artwork and concept by asparklethatisblue
fic by acephalous
In which Sir John tries his hand at matchmaking: after all who could be a more perfect match for his dear niece than James Fitzjames?
our flag means mutiny (T, hickey/gibson, 8.5k)
artwork and concept by o-rchidae
fic by borderparasol
Cornelius Hickey, William Gibson, and Solomon Tozer have successfully pulled off a grand mutiny, stealing HMS Terror to sail on the open seas and live their life free from the shackles of the Empire, plundering and making their living as pirates!
So...now what? And does anybody know how to fish?
provenance (M, jopzier fitzier silna/goodsir, 7.7k)
artwork and concept by kaupaint
fic by hangingfire
Three relics of the lost Franklin Expedition.
“Don't you get it yet? It must act like a recording, fixed in the floor and the walls. Right in the substance of them, a trace of what happened in there. And we pick it up. We act as detectors, decoders, amplifiers … It would have to be in the stone.”
—The Stone Tape, Nigel Kneale, 1972
reform your behaviour (E, irving/jopson, 9.4k)
artwork and concept by royaielfroot
fic by somelikeitred (ringofboubt)
After finding Hickey and Gibson in a compromising position, Lieutenant Irving intends to inform the Captain immediately. But when he finds Jopson first the Captain's steward persuades him to be lenient.
“Is it necessary to condemn the men -," Jopson considered his words, searching for the phrasing least likely to spook the lieutenant, "-over a desire for companionship? Is it so unforgivable for a man to be lonely?”
John studied him carefully; unable to formulate any response. Surely, Jopson could not be arguing that such vices were acceptable.
sent to the sea (E, annfitzrossier, 10.4k)
artwork and concept by brainyraccoons
fic by swanfloatieknight
After James Ross rescued them, Francis and James return to London in 1848. Francis lives with the Rosses in married bliss.
If only he could stop thinking about James Fitzjames, the bond they shared in the Arctic, and the last letter he sent that Fitzjames never replied to.
sweet to tongue, sound to eye (T, hodgson/irving/little, 10.1k)
artwork and concept by brimstone-cowboy
fic by unnecessary
After an Admiralty party bidding them farewell, the lieutenants get lost in Hampstead Heath. But not all is as it seems...
those wretched beings (M, multiple characters, 7.8k)
artwork and concept by melisusthewee
fic by notinmylab
A very literal take on the idea that colonialism is an infectious disease and that English ships are the carriers. Or, a zombie AU where Something Else is on the ice with them.
unerring devotion (T, jopzier, 7.5k)
artwork and concept by awhbeans
fic by yellow
Everyone else called Francis Frank, but in the quiet of their tent Thomas called him Francis.
Francis wore his two identities awkwardly, like an ill-fitting suit he couldn’t take off. He slipped into old fashioned speech and complained that people thought it affected. But Thomas liked it, just like he liked that Francis still let him call him Francis, and didn’t insist they were different people now. Quite the opposite.
If anything, Thomas was the one who had taken his two lives and separated them neatly, folded them and put them away. With Francis he could take out Thomas and put it on, like crawling into another skin. It was worn and battered but Francis seemed to like it best, and Thomas was glad of it.
---
Thomas Jopson and Francis Crozier are reincarnated. They find each other, and then they set out to find their missing men.
unknown by name or rank (E, joplittle, 17.1k)
artwork and concept by mitarashi8
fic by hypallepse
Years after the Great War, in a tiny illegal pub in the British countryside, Thomas met an awkward veteran and Edward a mysterious war nurse. They almost crashed in their desire to get to know each other, they shared an evening like no other, before having their night cut short by a police raid. How to find the other back with no memory of each other’s name or address? Why even try?
Both of them will stumble in the dark, battling the remnants of the war, unaware of the secret they will unearth in their effort to get that new chance at life.