How does it feel to have inspired such a huge trend in dimension 20 fandom? Do you have any more headcannons for your modern AU?
In reference to this post:
SOMEONE please write the Neverafter modern au fanfic where Gerard impulsively becomes a foster parent for Pinocchio and Ylfa after he and El
Firstly, I do want to shoutout all the people who have made AUs based around the concept. All of them are so good and I can't believe that they exist because of my post. Obviously at this point everyone writing for this AU has their own ideas and versions of events, but here's the extended version of my version of the AU
Also fanart!!!: https://www.tumblr.com/mylovelyfools/709107455283593216/i-dont-have-my-tablet-rn-but-my-brain-is-moving
LMK If I missed any!
Various headcanons and plot beneath the cut
So starting with backstories:
Gerard was born into a wealthy family, and at a young age was kidnapped
Luckily he escaped, as he had always been a slippery little kid.
Unluckily, by that point his family had already had him publicly declared as dead, so no one believed him when he claimed to be Gerard Greenleigh
He lived on the streets for a while, and befriended Elody, and the two fell in love
It was only when he'd already grown into an adult that Gerard was able to prove his identity and gain access to the family fortune.
From there, familiar territory. He acted vain, petty, immature, etc., he and Elody separated, which brings us to when he adopted two kids
Ylfa is autistic, and she has particularly bad meltdowns and anger management issues. Her mother didn't handle her well and would frequently send her away to stay with Ylfa's grandmother
Eventually, she decided to just leave Ylfa there permanently
What she didn't know is that only a few days into this new arrangement, the grandmother would die of natural causes. Ylfa. Did not handle this well
She froze in place, not wanting to move forward. If she just didn't move, then she wouldn't have to deal with what came next. If she just stayed still, then there's a chance everything could go back to normal
Fortunately, Mr. Wolf the child welfare caseworker had already been looking for her as one of the mother's neighbors noticed the missing child
Unfortunately, it was still two days of her standing there, frozen and terrified, before he found her
The first thing Mr. Wolf did was take her to get some fast food, that she devoured ravenously
(She would throw up most of that food in the backseat of his car a few minutes later)
She ended up in the foster care system after that, as her mother was deemed unfit to parent her
(IDK how child welfare stuff actually works so I'm just taking my best guesses here. Apologies if I get anything wrong)
Pinocchio has chronic pain, and some days he can get by with a cane but other times he needs a wheelchair
His father was a loving, if demanding parent who, along with his kindergarten teacher, were very strict about morals and particularly lying
Eventually, a strange woman approaches him as he's about to walk home and she starts asking him increasingly personal questions about who his parent is, where he lives, how he gets home, etc.
Pinocchio cottons on that she's acting weird and lies, saying his dad will pick him up soon
Teacher Turquina hears this, and goes to give Pinocchio an earful about lying, telling the woman the truth
Geppetto goes missing soon after
Pinocchio is taken care of by his stepmother (his actual stepmother, in this AU), but eventually the way she's been emotionally and sometimes physically abusing him is noticed and he is put into the system
(The stepmother was particularly fond of locking Pinocchio in a closet for hours at a time. He still remembers the way it looked when she would open the door, the only light coming from behind her)
He has complicated feelings about his stuffed animals Spinocchio and Pinocchicrow, given the stepmother is the one who gave them to him. Eventually Pib mauls Pinocchicrow, and given how relieved Pinocchio seems, Gerard quietly moves Spinocchio into storage
Rosamund's backstory probably gets the most major overhaul
Rosamund was 16 and in love when she and her boyfriend (if you want to be particularly on the nose he could have the last name of briar or thorn or something) got into a bad car crash
She woke up from a coma 2 years later
Her boyfriend, who had been released from the hospital just a couple months after the accident, had already moved on, hence her current distaste for romance
Her parents tried to keep her inside all the time, obsessively overprotective after the accident, and she couldn't stand it
She eventually ran away, and given that Cousin Gerard has been one of the few tolerable people to be around (He had been kind and funny when she was growing up; after the accident he was empathetic in a way no one else was. It wasn't exactly the same, but he knew what it was like feeling like you've lost years of your life) and eventually she made her way to an address he'd written down for her saying if she ever needed to talk, she has an open invite
Her parents don't look for her under the belief that eventually she'll realize they were right all along and come home
(that isn't what happens)
Gerard was initially going to just take in Pinocchio, as he felt like since they'd shared experiences with kidnapping he could be helpful, and he could help Pinocchio deal with any issues the way he had
(He has not actually dealt with those issues)
Then he met Ylfa totally by accident, not at all arranged by Mr. Wolf in the hope that maybe this man would finally provide a home for two kids who so many felt were too high-maintenance to foster or adopt
So he ended up with two kids
Pib is a cat
He was originally a stray, taken in by Tomas, put in a shelter when Tomas died and then adopted by Timothy
Timothy has his husband, his menace of a son Jack, and inexplicable beef with a gander from the local park. He wants it dead, and the feeling is mutual
From here it's just general headcanons and little scenes
The non-Elody princesses are Rosamund's friends from an etiquette class that all of their terrible parents made them attend. None of them go to the class anymore but they still hang out
They are...maybe not the best influences. They regularly commit petty acts of vandalism and were maybe responsible for that time the school's library almost burned down
At some point one of Rosamund's friends/classmates says that Gerard is kind of hot in a pathetic way, and her first thought it "gross, that's my dad." She then has a minor crisis over when her goofy cousin became her dad
Gerard still exercises, but since it's his first time not working with a personal trainer he cannot figure out why he's getting stronger but not more "muscular." (not defined) Lifting more weight should be better, right?
This does mean he is strong enough to carry all three of his kids at the same time (because yes, Rosamund is his kid, even if not legally), and has carried them all to bed at once without waking them up before
Ylfa goes over the shoulders, as her grip is strong even asleep. Pinocchio is fully baby cradled in one arm, and Rosamund is carried in the other, her face tucked into this shoulder. Pib got Ylfa's back at some point without Gerard noticing, so actually it's three kids and a cat
Pib knows exactly one trick that he'll do on command, and that trick is "attack," where he runs up and smacks whoever without unsheathing his claws
For unknown reasons, he only does this trick for Gerard. Timothy is definitely not jealous
At one point Mr. Wolf was trying to talk to Pinocchio about setting goals and future careers, and Pinocchio panicked and said stand-up comedian
When Mr. Wolf tried to prompt him to set goals, he said he could come up with a good joke in a year. Mr. Wolf tried to hint that maybe that's a little too long. Pinocchio misunderstood and made it a year and a day
Pinocchio: I think that if I don't tell a good joke in a year and a day he's going to kill me
Ylfa, whose life was saved by Mr. Wolf and has known him for much longer: (100% earnestly) yeah, maybe.
Gerard tries to take the gang fishing. It goes badly. Gerard punches a fish
Ylfa has a dorky middle schooler crush on all of Rosamund's friends, especially Snow White. They think its cute and harmless enough not to discourage, much to Rosamund's chagrin
The princesses are also consistently accidentally mean to Gerard (a la "she's married?") They actually think he's a pretty good guy and by far the best parent any of them have, so they feel bad whenever it happens
Gerard does have minor Gilear energy in this au. Sorry bud.
Gerard and Elody's reuniting
For Elody and Gerard reuniting, IDK what leads to it but eventually Elody agrees to one date after starting to realize how much Gerard's changed
Gerard is very excited and spends nearly the entire day preparing for their dinner date
Unfortunately, the power goes out about midway through the day. At first it's kind of fun and everything's fine, date still set to happen
Then it gets dark and suddenly things aren't so fine anymore
Ylfa remembers the nights she stood, starving, staring at the body of her grandmother, trying desperately to pretend that nothing's changed, even as she becomes too dehydrated to cry
Pinocchio remembers that darkness of the closet, the silhouette of his stepmother, the way he could only ever catch glimpses of her sneering face as the door closed once again
Rosamund remembers the weeks of consciousness before she was able to even open her eyes, trapped in darkness by her own uncooperative body, aware yet unable to do anything, to save herself
Gerard might've asked Timothy to help out, but he'd left earlier that day to go on a camping trip with Henry and Jack, so it's up to Gerard to help his kids
So he does the one thing he's ever been good at. He tells them stories.
Some of them are old stories he's known since childhood, but some of them are new
He tells them stories of a brave little girl who was strong enough to survive despite everything, and a clever little boy who knows that sometimes you need to break the rules, and a bold princess who was able to free herself from the prison others had made for her
He does not tell them the story of a cowardly prince, too unlovable to be wanted by his parents or his wife, who has no one to blame for how things turned out but himself
Instead, his kids tell him a story
They tell him the story of a funny, smart, kind king who was beloved by all his subjects. Who never, ever got mad, and was super strong, and would accept any who would seek refuge in his kingdom. The three (four, counting Pib, who Timothy asked them to watch while they were gone) immediately decide it's their favorite
"How can that be your favorite story? That's barely a story at all, it just a list of character traits."
"Too bad, it's our favorite now, so we're gonna tell it every night."
They pass the night with stories and candles until eventually all his kids are happily asleep, and Gerard crashes onto his couch.
He, unfortunately, could not text Elody about this change of plans as his phone died before he could (his phone hasn't been fully charged since he got kids)
Elody shows up the next morning to be like "Why'd you ditch me and also are you still alive because I can't think of anything short of death that would've kept you from showing up"
She is greeted by a very tired Gerard in his pajamas, who asks if she wants to come inside for breakfast
Elody is very confused to be sitting around a table with three kids and a cat while her husband cooks breakfast (when did he learn how to cook?)
The neighbor pops in to say hi and ends up staying for breakfast as well, and Elody is quickly realizing just how much of a life Gerard has made since they separated
It's not a great breakfast. The eggs are kind of rubbery and the bacon is burnt on the edges, but it's far better than she ever imagined Gerard capable of
She...kind of wants to learn what else has changed about Gerard
She also wants to know when, where, and why he acquired these kids
Anyway, that's all I got. Maybe I'll make a continuation if I have any other ideas
im possibly thinking about parallels between the stepmother and the blue fairy with regards to the concept of narrative.... the blue fairy demands obedience, she promises conditional humanity and safety - a rigid definition of what a "real boy" is (someone who doesnt lie, someone who doesnt cuss). and ultimately who will callously and cruelly take away that humanity when those arbitrary rules are broken. - i think the stepmother might serve as the twisted inverse to this... like the extension of the core ideology of pinocchio's fairytale beyond his happily ever after. like the blue fairy, she promises to make pinocchio a real boy in exchange for his obedience and servitude. and when he fails, he is coldly, cruelly and unjustly punished....
i think it all links back to the meta ideas of control and narrative!! like: who is writing your story, who controls what is good and bad and what deserves to be punished. do you have autonomy in your own story? its so fitting for pinocchio to be a marionette, manipulated exploited and puppeteered as he is by these two fairies that dangle his own personhood just out of reach.
