the act is beginning / the audience waiting

we're down to our final two chapters. thank you so much for following along and being so supportive, i truly can't articulate how grateful i am that you chose to read this and tell me that you laughed and binged and shared it with your friends. i spent the entire weekend holed up in my apartment to bring this to you on november 3rd (kinda) so i'm a bit out of it rn but i'll do a proper post about my thoughts when the reality of it all has sunk in.

for now!! stats, as always!! chapter 15 was 5335 words pre-coding and currently 7988 words post-coding!

both chapters 15 and 16 are pretty short, considering i've written chapters upwards of +10k words before, but i didn't find it necessary to pile on more stuff, now that we're at the end.

stats-wise, this chapter was 6682 words pre-coding and 9858 words after, which brings the official total word count of 'and history remembered.' up to 144,128 words. insanity. i have never written so many words in my life.

i hope you enjoy them. working on this fic has been so much fun.

💌 two years from tomorrow 💌

by firenati0n on ao3

T | 30k fully written, updates every thursday

one | two | three | four | five | six | epilogue

tags: au—the lake house (2006) fusion, epistolary, love letters, strangers to friends to lovers, writer henry, lawyer alex, au—magical realism, timeline shenanigans, fluff, angst with a happy ending, no mcd, mutual pining and yearning, endless number of persuasion references

Dear Alex, Wrapping my head around this phenomenon continues to be quite difficult. You’re a man living two years ahead, in my home, using my mailbox? Somehow, inexplicably, we occupy the same corner of space, but not at the same time. Somehow, inexplicably, I believe you.

Or, Alex and Henry both know they've found their right person. If only they weren't in the wrong timelines.

+

chapter one: skeptically, alex // sincerely, henry

xoxo roop

+ tags / a sentimental note:

hello friends :) last time i did one of these was november oops so I'm happy to get to share some words :) i have been through some SHIT the last few months, but slowly making my way back into my body. thanks for your patience! <3

here's a snip from my upcoming multichap, two years from tomorrow! it is an au of the sandra bullock x keanu reeves early 2000s romantic drama The Lake House. if you have never seen it and want to read this, DON'T GOOGLE IT JADSFJLASDF stay ignorant! if you HAVE seen it, don't worry—i have made some changes. :) my second multichap just HAD to be another sandra movie...except this time, unlike ice queen henry in the proposal au, sandra is ALEX. because everyone deserves to be sandra bullock at least once.

been a HOT MINUTE since i wrote a multichap BUT i am going to fully write before i post. i promise.

here's a split pov taken from diff points in the chapter...roommates with a twist...

january, alex:

Alex Claremont-Diaz deserves some fucking peace and quiet and rest, and this lake house is moving him one step closer to outrunning law-related burnout of epic proportions. Or at least, that’s what he hopes; he’s not quite sure yet what this house will hold for him. Year after year of relentless caseloads and emotionally draining yet fulfilling clients will do that to a person—fills them up, but at a steep personal cost. And Alex’s wellbeing is here to fucking collect. Luna was pretty clear about the whole thing: “A three month sabbatical, kid. No arguments. Better not see your ass darkening Luna & Associates’ fuckin’ doors until April.” So. Lake it is. Peace and quiet. No stress. His lease was up anyway, so he crashed at June’s and diligently searched for housing near but not in Chicago. He’s going for serene, here. Goodbye, high rises and pavement. Hello, waterfront views and enlightenment. 

january, henry:

Henry Fox-Mountchristen is bloody terrified of moving into this place, with its memories and sadness and joy attached, and this lake house is forcing him one step closer to confronting a final piece of the grief puzzle he’s been avoiding for years.   Or at least, that’s what he’s afraid of; he’s not quite sure yet what this house will hold for him.  The past was full of laughter echoing in the halls, late night sketching at the threadbare dinner table, secrets and fears whispered into the nooks and crannies. The present, however, is full of running. From his fears, from his demons, from laughter and sketching and secrets.  But Henry’s tired. Year after year of agonizing pain and subsequent expensive therapy will do that to a person—drains them, builds them up, then drains them again. Rinse and repeat, hope eternally on the horizon, fears loitering on his doorstep. And those aforementioned demons have finally caught up and are knocking rather insistently. 

xoxo roop

+ open tag and tagging back folks who got me over the last few months! thank you so much <3

WIP Wednesday

AAAAAHHHH! Thank you @cha-melodius and @sherryvalli for the tags :) reading and writing has been difficult for me lately BUT I have been rekindling my love for knitting! For those interested, I do not have pictures at the moment but I am more than halfway through a burnt orange-ish brown hood scarf :)

But anywho, here are some words from the messy shiva baby/age gap/sugar daddy wip!

Zahra gets Shaan's attention and smiles. A real, hand on his heart, honest to god smile.

“These terrors are my kids,” she says and gestures to them.

June smiles sweetly, Alex scoffs at the insult, and Nora smirks and unsubtly checks Shaan out.

Shaan shakes their hands. “Thank you for coming. She speaks fondly of you three. It's a pleasure to finally meet.”

Zahra clears her throat. “No compliments, Srivastava. Alex's ego is already fucking massive.”

Nora laughs too loudly at that one. “Half of her job is keeping Alex in check, Shaan, otherwise he'd wreck Ellen's approval rating in a week.”

“Um, excuse you. Rachel Maddow has retweeted me twice.”

“June was on a panel with her. What's your fucking point?”

“See, this is why I sat you in the back,” Zahra deadpans.

Alex calls her bluff. “No, you didn't. The threats on my life are how you show affection. You fucking love us. Shaan just said so.”

“At most, I said she was ‘fond’,” Shaan interjects.

STONE THE CROWS I've actually written some stuff? Thank you for the tags, @sherryvalli and @cha-melodius!

The Princess Diaries AU continues. We're at 22k words. I don't want to post any of it until all of it is done.

Pez returned and said we were shooting. I went from right to left as Alex hammed up his speech to the camera, holding weird jars full of things that I think were meant to be organs but were very clearly painted Pokemon figurines. Later, in the same scene, I went from left to right to switch on a hologram (which Pez says he’ll fix in post) that would show the hero at the gates. After we were done, three takes later (Alex making bolder and bolder choices til he was chewing the scenery so hard he’s probably going to get indigestion), Pez said we should set up for the next scene. I wasn’t in it, so I started groping at the back of my own head to get the mask off. “Woah, woah - I’ve got it,” Alex said, and I felt his deft fingers first slide the surgical cap off, and then gently untangle and undo the double knots. By the time I was free, my face was on fire. “You okay, Henry?” Alex asked as I turned to thank him. He looked a little concerned, and guided me to a seat, practically bumping June off hers in his eagerness to sit me down. “Nora, can you get Henry some water?”

they’re sharing

it’s a key difference in perception. fic isn’t given. it’s shared. it’s part of a fandom community— in which readers are also an integral part.

it’s probably inevitable mission creep from the increasingly transactional nature of the internet and fandom-as-consumerism, which was always gonna happen after corps worked out how much bank there is to make from those weirdo fan people

Hello! Shockingly, I have words to share, so thank you to @sherryvalli and @cha-melodius for tagging me at an appropriate time ❤️

More P&P AU!

“Indeed,” Henry says softly, and when he looks at Alex, a shock of something electric goes up his spine. “I think, perhaps, I have been guilty of misjudging the country in the past.”

Alex can barely breathe. “Perhaps the country is simply a little more welcoming on this occasion, Mr Fox?” he suggests, and hopes he doesn’t sound like his lungs are struggling or anything. That would be deeply embarrassing.

“Perhaps,” Henry says with a gracious intensity, like a very sharp knife with an ornate handle that is, incidentally, pointing directly at Alex’s heart. He thinks, a little vaguely, that Henry could do him a great deal of damage, and he’s not sure why that doesn’t scare him; he thinks maybe it makes him feel something much more damning instead.

Oscar clears his throat and Alex realises with a jolt that he’d been leaning into Henry’s space like a sunflower towards a gap in the clouds. He straightens up as inconspicuously as possible, and hopes against hope that his father doesn’t ever say anything about this as long as they both live.

a world without trans people has never existed and never will

Thanks for the tags today @pippinoftheshire, @justabigoldnerd, and @thosegayoldmen. I posted some (but not all) of this on twt/bsky yesterday, so here's a little expanded version for tumblr.

“Some people look at horses like Jasper and think they’re hard to handle, that they won’t listen,” Henry says. “But they’re the ones who aren’t listening. Those horses, they’re not acting out for no reason, and they’ll tell you if you bother paying attention.” He runs a hand down Jasper’s flank. “I just listened to what he was saying.” Alex doesn’t respond immediately, and when Henry looks over he finds Alex staring up at him with a hard to read look on his face, the brush in his hand all but forgotten.“How are you even real?” Henry frowns. “What?” “Nothing,” Alex says with a soft huff as he shakes his head. He lifts the brush and smooths it over Jasper’s withers. “You’re right, by the way. The people I bought him from told me he would never be a rodeo horse. Too energetic, too unfocused. Too anxious. But that’s what they said about me, too.” He delivers this statement without inflection, almost as an aside, and Henry would very much like to know more—who they were, and how they could be so wrong—but Alex forges on without leaving even the smallest pause. “Most people don’t understand him. I’ll admit, I was curious how you would do.” Fine. If they’re going to pretend they’re still talking about Jasper, Henry can play that game. “So it was a test,” he says, letting one corner of his mouth tug upward. Alex grins back at him. “More or less.” “Did I pass?” “Top scores on horsemanship and communication. Points deducted for your stiff-ass seat and torturing me with these ridiculous breeches all day,” Alex says. He hooks a finger in one of Henry’s belt loops and gives a little tug, pulling them somehow closer together. He’s staring at Henry’s mouth when he murmurs, “But yeah, you passed.”