#anonymousalchemist

Have a peek at part of the pitch deck that @anonymousalchemist and I have been working on. The complete package is still in progress but will be queried out to agents (hopefully) later this month.

Right now, we need feedback! We've been scratching our heads for comparisons of existing media, so if there's anything recent or popular that this story reminds you of, feel free to shoot me an ask! (or just tell us if you like it :3)

Summary:

Emory Arrowgant thought he was safely dead. Then his psychopomp boyfriend, Isaac Yong, yanked him back to the land of the living. If only Isaac had been successful. Torn from the White City and stuck in the slipstream haze of the radio, Emory must help Isaac solve the mystery of his murder in order to be laid to rest. But Emory’s not the only thing that Isaac brought back. All sorts of undead horrors have slipped through the crack in reality created by Isaac’s rituals. And Isaac is honor-bound to hunt them down--if the Glassfall police don’t put him away first. What they’ll soon learn, though, is that the botched necromancy, the monsters, and Emory’s murder are all connected. After all, Isaac wasn’t the only necromancer in town that night. And Emory isn’t the only ghost.

“Tav,” Spider calls. “One moment.” 

Tav glances back. In the split second before Spider speaks, he wonders why Spider looks…almost sad. Conflicted. He’s holding something up. But he only gets a second, before—

“Mens retexere,” Spider says, and crushes a glass sphere in his hand. 

A bright flare of magic. 

Something crumples in Tav’s brain. Everything fragments.  

Fan art of @anonymousalchemist's fantastic BG3 fic like a bird, like a stone

I was genuinely getting into it in the last quarter because I dig the whole 'unpacking the aftermath of dramatic bullshit' routine but then we swerved into Father apologia and I'm mad about it. Although to be entirely fair just because Carolyn decided his behavior was reasonable does not mean readers should. More the opposite in fact.

This post is about All the Things You Prayed For by @marywhal and @anonymousalchemist and if you haven’t read it you should.

*****

Sorry I’m feeling emotional about these BOYS after Chapter 29, but I’m losing it over this au and I have been for two weeks, and I have some Thoughts.

What I’ve been thinking about the Most in the wake of the three flashback chapters is just how much closer Taako and Kravitz were than I expected from any of the Taakitz foreshadowing we received in the previous chapters. I mean, firstly, it’s such a testament to the writers that they managed to surprise me so much with that - fanfiction is a unique genre in that we are not expecting, and many times, don’t care to be surprised. It’s a genre built on knowledge that the reader already has. I went into this fic expecting Taakitz, because it was in the tags, because I know canon and fanon for these characters and I was expecting a super spy overlay. So the fact that after 26 chapters of buildup and foreshadowing, they still had secrets that I was shocked to find out is amazing.

Taako and Kravitz didn’t just have a fling, they were together. They weren’t just together, they were in love. To the point that they broke countless laws consuming American culture and staying on missions suspiciously long and idealizing running away, which is entirely antithetical to their training. To the point that the Winter Soldier refused to be put in cryo again and Kravitz was like 2 seconds away from fighting the technicians off if the Winter Soldier decided to.

So I wasn’t expecting that level of commitment between them to begin with.

But it’s amazing to me how, when viewed in the context of what we learned from chapters 27-29, Kravitz’s behavior for the rest of the fic makes so much more sense. And it shows so much of his character.

Kravitz has been able to remember his relationship with the Winter Soldier this Whole Time. For the last fifty some-odd years, Kravitz has been thinking about the Winter Soldier, running over all the details of their relationship over and over again in his head. I don’t remember exactly when in time he met the version of the Winter Soldier who shot him in the gut, but it happened somewhere in there.

So when Kravitz sees Lup trying to reason with a fully Winter Soldiered Taako, and is so convinced that it’s impossible to break the WS’s training with words, it’s not just that he’s had experience fighting the WS, it might be that he’s had experience trying to do the same damn thing.

He’s been where Lup is, looking at someone he loves under the WS programming, and wishing desperately to be recognized. And if the Winter Soldier didn’t break programming for him, why would he for Lup?

(It makes sense that Kravitz, who was raised without a family, wouldn’t fully comprehend Taako and Lup’s relationship, to be sure, but for me it goes deeper than that.)

I mean, Kravitz isn’t stupid. While Barry and Lup are fully convinced that Taako is somewhere in there, Kravitz holds onto the idea that he’s pretending for so much longer, long enough that on my first reading of the fic I genuinely was wondering what the hell was wrong with him. I felt it wasn’t like him to be so stubborn in that way.

But in light of the flashback, it makes so much sense. If we imagine that maybe, somewhere in Kravitz’s past, he tried to pull the Winter Soldier out of his programming with a sort of “remember me?” thing like Lup did, of course he held onto the idea that it couldn’t be done. He had more information than Lup did.

But I think, even if he doesn’t recognize it, all this time Kravitz doesn’t want to believe that the Winter Soldier can break out of his programming.

Sure, he does from a human standpoint; I’m sure he doesn’t like to see people as human killing machines. But he also, in the flashbacks, is so stuck in the idea that he’s nothing more than a toy to the soldier, than a reward for good behavior. And hell, he feels that way in the modern day, at least outwardly. But he recognizes the WS’s petnames for him. He can tell when the WS cares about him.

Kravitz misses the Soldier. He never got over him. He’s still in love with him, fifty years after their relationship. Of course Kravitz wouldn’t want to believe that the WS could pull himself from his training for someone he loved. Because he didn’t do it for Kravitz. I think it’s very likely that in Kravitz’s mind, the fact that Taako was able to break his cascade triggers for the sake of Lup in chapter 17, the fact that he was able to break his programming at all simply because she asked him to, is the final nail in Kravitz’s coffin, if you will. It means that the WS programming can be overriden if only Taako loves you enough.

And it didn’t break for Kravitz.

Of course it’s flawed logic, but Kravitz, who has been largely without love for the vast majority of his life, who we know compartmentalizes his emotions with “logic” and treats things more and more clinically the more emotional he is about them, would absolutely come to that conclusion, I think.

Wow this is many o: I was gonna skip the ones that other people had asked but I can give more than one answer for most of these sooo

C: What member do you identify with most?

I Like To Sprinkle My Projections Evenly Across All Characters, For Equality,,

Rly though probably just....... whoever’s pov I’m writing at the time? I guess? I like to get into characters’ heads while I’m writing them :v

F: Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

Technically already answered but I’m just gonna pick a different one! This part from echo is one of my favourite bits & was a real keystone scene for the whole fic, I rly liked the mood it hit & the fact that it’s getting a little meta w how ghost stories generally tend to function? Idk I just like it

~*FIC SPOILERS BELOW*~

"And I can see why you'd be curious,” he adds, more hushed than before, wrapping his arms around his knees again and turning his face away towards the window, “Really, I can, I just... I don't need pity for something I don't even remember. I don't want it. I don't want to be a story that needs finishing, or - or some kind of problem to be solved." His hands are still, now, clasped tightly together as he frowns down at them with laden eyes. "I don't exist in the past tense."

M: Got any premises on the back burner that you’d care to share?

Hrrmmm I think I’ve mentioned the practical magic au I want to do on here but I Really want to do it.......... once I’ve gotten through some other projects & properly planned it out I rly wanna get to it but!! I have other things to write!!

S: Any fandom tropes you can’t resist?

Is this taz fandom specific or like..... general tropes. If we’re going general, I really enjoy enemies to lovers (obviously, lol....)

U: Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

Three guesses who’s gonna be my first one THAT’S RIGHT IT’S ALLISON MARYWHALLISON @marywhal ADVENTUREZONE. I could gush abt allison’s writing all day but suffice to say her prose is fantastic, her story arcs are always poignant and satisfying and uplifting and she’s super nice to boot!! Honestly if anyone out there HASN’T read allison’s fic by now what are you doing. Go read it. It’s Excellent Fucking Content. I feel like a lot of people know bury the lead and all the things you prayed for but I really love these unfinished creatures and have very fond memories of waiting for update days and being so excited to see those emails pop up

I have so much love for @anonymousalchemist’s writing also!! Incredibly good for taking a concept that I wouldn’t have ever considered and making it impossible not to be invested in. Obviously all the things you prayed for is Amazing and I love that fic to pieces but also old man taako was I think one of the first taz fics I ever read and I maintain a big soft spot for it. Lich suit is also a BIG fave I still think about it a lot, also a prime example of how fucking hilarious iz’s writing is while at the same time hitting hard when it needs to o:

Thirdly idk if they have a tumblr but blueshine over on ao3 has some AMAZING stuff that I love so much. Lup Cons a Goddess Into Murdering Her Brother (For Fun and Profit) and See You Later are two of my all-time favourite fics (I still haven’t finished the latter bc it’s my Had A Bad Day fic and I’m saving the final chapter for when I rly need it), they hit all the right notes for me and dig into so many interesting relationship dynamics as well as being absolutely beautifully written. This might be an odd thing to pick out but I really like the way they show fights between couples and the process of working through them! It’s very honest and good and always ends with the couple being stronger for it and I’m v much here for it

All the Things You Prayed For (anonymousAlchemist and marywhal)

I’m really glad you brought this up, especially since I’m the same way when it comes to being suspicious of folks who aren’t immediately transparent about this sort of thing. You’d think I’d know better than to have some weird hangup about this stuff by now. But! Thank you and I’m glad you like this as a concept! I’ve updated the WWD to be more clearly an about page and added my ethnicity. Maybe in the future I’ll add a cute thing with selfies when we get mods? Who knows.

Anyways, I’m Gabe, I’m Filipino, and I’m currently the only mod. I’m looking for more people to help admin but it should be noted that anyone helping to run this blog must be a person of color (and for good reason) as well as anyone else featured on the blog.