Laura: NSFW or minors or anyone really, writes Death Note fanfic and non-DN things, certified 'pretty good wife material' by a stranger, Jack of all trades and a master of none. RRMS but managing it quite well. Only mentioning it because sometimes I have to disappear for a while. Then again, everyone has to sometimes don't they? NB: I post most asks publicly unless asked not to, in which case I'll reply privately. Please feel free to send anonymously.
Endgame Part 1 of the very long fic with a very long name has finally been published, and I can't tell you how happy I am to get that off my working google docs folder after 7 years of it hanging around like a dark cloud. Just the 2nd part left and then the main plot of Those is effectively done! It's 18+, mostly for violence and language reasons. Tread carefully.
Also, actually managing to post it to ao3 from my phone was some kind of torture. Since I post so sporadically (like twice a year maybe?), 30k seems fair in a novella sort of way, but apologies anyway. 😆 It's mad. It'll make sense by the end, I promise.
AO3 linky dink
FFN is very grumpy at the moment, but I'll update it when possible.
Spotify playlist is especially good if you support the Chicago Bulls, probably.
Thanks to everyone who reads it, but especially Jess for being the bestest beta and friend. Any typos or silliness will be my fault through either missing a comment or formatting issues.
Disclaimer and blah under the cut. Spoilers and whatnot.
Laura moans about formatting and the trials of life.
As said, I've been writing this damn endgame thing for about 6 or 7 years on various phones, tablets, and computers, and using different fonts and keyboards, so some of the quotation marks are the wrong type. The straight ones. They should all be curly and whimsy. Does anyone care? No. It's just an annoying formatting issue and formatting isn't a strength of mine. Neither is punctuation, but I've embraced that through basically making up my own way of dealing with long monologues and dialogue generally. My beta, Jess, helped A LOT with everything! ♥️ There are horizontal breaks regularly, which in my mind are 'tea break time and live life opportunities' for any poor soul reading it. Please take every opportunity or you may well go a bit nutty.
Any translations are hopefully correct, but since I'm essentially a monolingual "Where is the bathroom, please?" sort of useful touristy stuff + random insults and slang person, I'd appreciate any corrections. Many thanks to Bleu for the Japanese and French check.
Now, The Temple of Lies is a real place (!) and that's what it really is known as now. It was also called 'Bra Temple' but not so much now. Urban explorers might be aware of it, but there was a big fraud scandal and the site was abandoned in the early 2000s. I changed the location to Gunma Prefecture because they're very cagey about the actual location, since they don't want arseholes visiting it and settling fire to it and just being weird leaving bras and dolls everywhere. So, I initially had trouble finding the location, and by the time I did, I'd already plopped it in Gunma because I have no patience.
One of the main buildings where Light hears noises and sees the figure is sadly no more now due to arson since I wrote this. The insane steps, red lanterns, barbie dolls, and bras are also a feature of this place, and there are videos of it by urban explorers on YouTube, if you're interested in it. It's pretty cool. You can't imagine how excited I was to read about it, because I needed a setting, preferably a real one. Yes, I am that nerdy.
In a way, I'd like to preserve it, because that particular shrine building probably won't be around much longer, it's so delapidated now.
Anyway, disclaimer, Gunma is apparently beautiful (it looks beautiful), and a lot of people visit it. Ignore Light.
I have a lot of photos of the actual site, and as I find them I'll post them here. The building the main action happens in is a lot bigger than it is in real life. Artistic licence all over it, dude, but you can see the basics and get the idea.
Translations, etc.
1st Song: Yo soy aquel - Raphael (should have won Eurovision way back when imo).
Yo soy aquél que cada noche te persigue
Yo soy aquél que, por quererte, ya no vive
(Translation:
I am the one who follows you every night/I am the one who, because he loves you, no longer lives.)
Yo estoy aquí, aquí para decirte
Que, como yo, nadie te amó
(Translation:
I am here, here just to say to you/That no one has ever loved you the way I have.)
2nd Song- Happy Heart - (preferably) Andy Williams (it's so damn happy it's frightening. Also thanks to the Shallow Grave film because using this song it messed me up for life and this is the resulting tribute?)
3rd Song - Les feuilles mortes - Yves Montand
Toi tu m'aimais, et je t'aimais, nous vivions tous les deux ensemble.
(Translation: You loved me/and I loved you/we lived together/just the two of us.)
"Quiero un jamón ibérico de bellota entero con un jamonero para llevar."
(Translation: 'I want a whole acorn-fed Iberian ham with a ham holder to take away.')
"Je suis immunisé contre tes petites magouilles de narcissique, pauvre connard pathétique."
(Translation: "I'm immune to your petty, narcissistic schemes, you pathetic bastard."
Note: "a thrush in a bush is worth two in a paddock" is a nonsense proverb I made up and it's a family favourite.
“L’avenir appartient à ceux qui se lèvent tôt."
(Translation - "The future belongs to those who get up early.")
Traditional French Proverb.
"Tu es tellement beau à mes yeux je vais devoir te tuer."
(Translation - "You are so beautiful in my eyes, I’m going to have to kill you.")
Gaijin hunter/gaijin hantā/外人ハンター
a Japanese person who targets foreigners for whatever reason.
Gaikokujin aite no danshō / 外国人相手の男娼
Lit. Male prostitute who services foreigners
‘La plus belle des ruses du diable est de vous persuader qu'il n'existe pas.’
(Translation: 'The devil's greatest trick is convincing you he doesn't exist.')
"Juste ferme ta putain de gueule."
(Translation: "Just shut your fucking mouth.")
Notes
Light vaguely references the Jonestown massacre, and not for the first time.
Ok, so the thing with Those!B is that he's a truthteller but also mad. That's good to keep in mind
The “concrete block” monologue is a critique of British tabloid fear-mongering and true-crime mythologising, with a vague reference to the murder of Lucie Blackman and an extremely abstract reference to serial killer Dennis Nielsen. Of course the media exploited both cases massively, and the monologue is deliberately inaccurate, exaggerated, and rooted in how crime narratives become distorted, so the victims become lost in sensationalism. The result of the media effectively 'choosing' stories to cover is influenced by systemic bias, societal prejudices, and the devaluation of certain lives. B takes it up to 11.
"Ambushed by a cake" is slightly tweaked but based on something said during the Partygate scandal in the UK in January 2022. It was leaked that there was a party in Downing Street in June 2020 during the height of Covid and its strict restrictions, which were enforced by arrests and fines on everyone apart from politicians and other so-called 'elites', apparently. People were very annoyed about it, understandably. An MP defended Boris Johnson (Prime Minister of the UK at the time), saying that Johnson had been “ambushed with a cake” for his birthday, implying that people simply surprised him with a cake and he just happened to be there, it wasn't his fault that they were breaking the rules, etc., blah, blah, political twaddle.
The "Oh, hi Mark" is hopefully recognisable dialogue from Tommy Wiseau's masterpiece which is The Room.
Lots of call backs in this one because the plot demands it and I'm a sucker for a circle back. There's the alleyway scene in Chapter 8 and the signing of Light's candidacy papers for PM scene. Quite a lot of call-backs to chapter 10 and the first arc in particular, but a bit of everything. I'll try to catch them all like Pokémon but sometimes I can't remember which chapter they're from exactly.
Harold Holt was indeed an Australian PM in the late 60s (I'm think 1969 but please don't quote me, and I'm too lazy to check) who disappeared while swimming, assumed drowned, never found his body. My Aussie friends here will know all about it, for sure. 😄
I think that's it? I'll add more if I missed anything. Thank you to anyone who actually read this. It's more a disclaimer-ish sort of thing so I cover references like a thesis. 😭
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Just read the hinterland doctrine (those who stand for nothing fall for everything) and I am feeling very urgent and stressed, I might require sedation. or something
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one of my favoritest scenes ever from the hinterland doctrine (quote under cut)
"This is grim. Look at me breaking all the rules and stinking the place out. I'll be lucky if I'm not completely naked by Thursday. I have my passport and my wallet and I have me. I'll be fine."
"L, I'm just pointing out that you should put this off until tomorrow and pack like a normal person."
"I'll buy new clothes when I get there."
"You'll buy awful clothes. You'll wear tweed three-piece suits and mustard coloured ties with pink shirts, I know it. Everyone there wears fucking tweed!"
"Oh, Light," he laughs.
"What?"
"Nothing. I just love you, that's all."
Hey! Ever since I stumbled across your story five years ago, I've been hooked.
I won't even attempt to start praising the story and your writing, because it would probably spiral into total emotional chaos.😅
I did want to ask a couple of things:
1)Is there any chance we could ever see an excerpt from Light's book? I'm dying to know what he wrote.
2)Are there any scenes where you wanted to show how L truly felt in the moment, but couldn't because of the first-person POV and because the boy is such a liar?
3)Have you ever considered writing a spin-off about L's university years?
I think that's all for now!
Again, I absolutely love your story. Ever since I read the first chapters on New Year's Day while I had the flu, not a day has passed without me thinking about these two idiots in love.
Thank you for sharing it, and I sincerely wish you all the best.
Hello lovely! Thank you so much for taking the time to write this ask to me and for reading the seemingly never ending saga of the shitheads (it is ending, I swear) and for being so nice. I really, really appreciate it. It cheers me up no end, especially when I know it's given people a break from flu (on NYD too? Wtf, that should be illegal and viruses forced to comply. No one should spend the first day of a new year suffering from anything more than a slight hangover, if of age, ofc, allegedly, imo) or other crap in their lives for a little while. Wishing you all the very best too, and thank you again. ♥️
1. I don't think that's on the cards. I quite like the theory someone had (apologies for forgetting who, my brain is compromised) that the fic was actually his book. Maybe an unpublished manuscript.
2. All the time!!!! I don't think I could pick one scene in particular. In a way though, I think he works better being quite an unknown quantity. It's just infuriating, but one of my favourite ways around it was in idk which chapter (I'm thinking Light signing his papers for candidacy?), but L grips Light's hair quite aggressively, bordering point of pain level because he's so upset with him. His personality is such that it's difficult to express how he's feeling sometimes apart from through actions. You can't trust what he says, so he's restricted to throwing out snide remarks or Light thinking he's reading his body language or thinking 'ooh his eyes are slightly glossy and there's water coming out of them, what could that possibly mean? Must be hay fever.' Obviously Light's POV is a horror to work with, but often L can be read through actions or if he's OTT in a certain way. He usually reverts to anger because he often feels like expressing himself properly would be unreciprocated, wasted or mocked.
3. It's crossed my mind! The closest I got to it was The Judge spin-off, which was also more of an insight into the B/L dynamic and how crushed L was post-chapter 10. Third person POV was my friend. I have some edited out and unfinished bits and bobs of that because I can't stop writing at least 2 things at the same time, but there was a lot of legal stuff I'd have to cross-check with my legal eagle friend Claudia to make it sound accessible, completely unreasonable, but winnable. I really wanted to write David though. He's this mythic character of an actual good human being to me, and I think he'd be brilliant.
Hi Laura! I see there are some references to the beatles across your works, curious about your thoughts about the band, if you have any preferences or opinions? I adore the Beatles and also love the McLennon lore so it is always so fun to see it especially in reference to the hinterland doctrine!
Ooh great question yay!
Well, I happen to be have been born and raised in the Liverpool area (across the water plazzy scouser), so I was basically born wearing a Beatles t-shirt and 90% of who I am is my Dad's record collection. Totally brainwashed. It's a joy to me that there's been a fandom renaissance. No one cared about obscure Beatles trivia about the origin story of Bungalow Bill or She Said She Said. Who was the girl in Norwegian Wood? Was And Your Bird Can Sing really about Frank Sinatra's penis? These are the questions that kept me up at night. They were sad, dark times, but now everyone can geek out about them together!
Here's a nice photo I found recently which Imma blab about at the end of the post because it's been a hot topic in my circle.
Everyone should love The Beatles but as a concession to those who don't, here's a cut, because geekout!!!!
They're in Those a bit because I purposefully didn't want to know who L was when I started writing Those so he could build himself. I just thought it would work better for a 1st person narrative. A completely blank slate is difficult though, so one of the few things I gave him (apart from him being British, because I guess that's canon-ish? and a few other things) was The Beatles so I had something to connect to. Those!Light hates music, obviously, so Those!L had to be the opposite, otherwise it would be completely unbearable for me as a music nerd. Ergo, Those!L loves The Beatles, his favourite song is Julia, and that's how I could crowbar a lot of mentions and songs onto the playlists. He's particularly fond of The White Album. I'm more of an Abbey Road girl, myself. B just likes This Boy on repeat. Go figure. Light doesn't like anything, but I put a mashup of Run For Your Life on a playlist for him. 🤣
Yes, talk to me about The Beatles! Who's your favourite Beatle? What's your favourite album or song? Please choose the equivalent to a favourite child!
I wish I could get on the McLennon train, but I haven't really looked into it and always saw them as (sadly) just bezzie mates with amazing chemistry, and I listen to absolutely nothing that Yoko says. There's a handler if ever there was one. Did you hear about what May Pang said about Yoko pestering John to see her hypnotherapist so he could quit smoking, and when he came back he was all dozy saying "I have to go back to Yoko"? Wild.
I'm not anti-McLennon by any means though. I can see the appeal. Lennon and Stuart Sutcliffe, or Lennon and Brian Epstein are ships I could get on board with. I just personally find it a bit uncomfortable to ship real-life people, but that's my loss. I'd love to write a oneshot or something, but I'd feel like I was putting words into their mouths, even though I could write the best Scouse dialogue that'd make them proud. 🤣
Anyway, let's look at the nice photo which I'm actually kind of sure was taken in my old haunting ground of New Brighton, because I recognise the railings. I myself have unwisely sat on those very railings on both sides of the Mersey! My best friend who's still up there thinks it was taken in Liverpool though, because the view is a bit rubbish. She's probably right. It's just nice seeing photos of The Beatles on The Wirral, so it's probably wishful thinking on my part. Look at their amazing shoes! Isn't Paul tiny smol?
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Hi. I just wanted to say how much I love your fanfiction. I read it a long time ago, and I still love rereading it. It’s such a comfort story for me, and it’s actually the reason I got into fanfiction again after thinking I had grown out of it, so thank you for writing it. I also wanted to mention how much I love your B lol. He’s such a delight to read. Were you inspired by a certain character or situation while writing him?
Thank you so much! I'm glad it's got that comfy cosy element for you. I read over the early chapters for reasons recently and it was so cosy it warmed my heart a little. Maybe it's just in comparison to what happens later, which is straight up horror and psychological turmoil 🤣, but it was practically coffee shop cute at times, I was surprised. @deathnoting and I were talking about fanfiction as an art form and how it's getting some deserved respect now, because there are some bloody amazing writers out there across different fandoms. I really think it's where a lot of future writers go to cut their teeth these days. There's a freedom to it that you can't get anywhere else, and a comfort blanket quality to something known you can play with and learn through, don't you think?
Oh Those!B, no, he emerged fully formed from whatever pit of hell he came from. You know sometimes you meet someone who might just be very stressed or socially extremely anxious so they speak rapidly? Or maybe they're just like that. This won't be specific to bookshops, but when I worked in a bookshop, the paper and that musty old book smell must draw these people in like catnip, and a lot of customers talk at you, you don't reply, you nod even though you might not agree or understand. They never buy anything. You are a captive flesh wall for them to talk at.
I mean, I'm stressed and socially anxious, and if I need to do public speaking I totally can do this, so I know it well from both sides. People have to wear protective gear for the burst of g-force if I do any public speaking (sorry to school kids I read the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone to once). But I wanted that, and a stream of consciousness, so ultimately it's quite overwhelming? And that was going to be his 'technique' because it would actually be like a deployed weapon. Early on in Those, Light had a short stream of consciousness paragraph, and I really liked how the lack of grammar could convey this immersion into discombobulation. Love that word. So that's where B came from. Part truthteller, part madman. Vicious and a little Uriah Heep from David Copperfield-ish, because he is terrified of Those!L and of losing him. He's become more complex as time went on, but there was always this basic formula of a clever but poor working class lad who attaches himself to this rich brat (Those!L).
hello! i've been reading your legendary work, The Hinterland Doctrine, and i'm already in the second book. it's so fascinating and it altered my perceptions about many things in such a good way. i've been thinking if you considered B's character, which is having the shinigami eyes specifically, and writing a counterpart of that as him being a psychiatrist who has a hauntingly accurate analysis of other characters' psychological state, like he's seeing through them with a special pair of eyes like the shinigami eyes.
Oooh interesting idea!!! That'd be a great fic concept! Are you going to write it? It'd be a great tv series tbh. Not Those!B maybe because he destroys his patients regardless and is actually good at diagnosing, he just doesn't treat people very well. 🤣 But the idea of a doctor or psychiatrist with Shinigami Eyes which lets him see the root cause of problems sounds so cool af!
hello! just wanted to let you know i’ve devoured the entirety of the hinterland doctrine over the past couple weeks and i think i’m different forever now? it’s genuinely the best fic i have ever read in my life and i’m absolutely obsessed with these maniacs. you’ve done such a fantastic job creating a violent world of intrigue while maintaining the characters and dynamics in such a brilliant and heartbreaking and powerful way. i LOVE light’s narration and it fits him so well, and L is just incredible and the ways that they hurt each other and need each other are painful and captivating and just everything. all this to say i’m utterly in love with and enraptured by your writing. thank you for putting so much time and heart into it! as i said, i’m different now. they’re in my head forever and i’ll never be the same. thank you for writing it!
Thank you so much for your message. It's really lovely to come back once in a blue moon and find such sweet messages. 🫂♥️
whenever anyone talks about some fanfics being better than published novels, your writing is always the first i think of. genuinely, i’m not exaggerating even a little bit when i say that i think the hinterland doctrine should be considered a literary classic one day- like its insanely good. you’re like a writing god
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