#atfo

Sorry for those waiting on Hq at Hogwarts, but in fairness, Department of Mysteries got updated two months ago and ATFO got updated...um, like two years ago (wow, I can't believe I accidentally let's it be that long).

Hmm, i probably can't be exact on which day of the week but, I'd say...

Next week: next Hq at Hogwarts chapter (truthfully i kinda of didnt realize it had been that long until a week or so ago I looked and was like "wait it's been HOW LONG since I updated" sorry for the long wait on that one). In general for this one, my New Year resolution is to get back to a regular update schedule so there's not weird gaps in time between chapters.

After that, I'm working on posting the next chapter of After the Fall of Olympus which I'm hoping is by the end of the month

These two are my main goals, once I get these two back on track, I'll start working on my other projects in between. But my priority right now is getting things back to a routine schedule so people know when to expect updates.

Hey, everyone! Happy Holidays!

So, a bit of a life update along with what I'm working on with my writing schedule coming up. For life, I'm in my final PhD year (yay!) which means I've been working on finishing my dissertation (much more stressed yay!) which is why my writing schedule these past few months has been a lot more spread out.

The good news: My data is pretty much collected and my first draft is near complete so I'm hoping I can get back to my more regular updates

The less good news: My diss still has to be my priority rn and sometimes things come up unepectedly that I have to handle urgently so it might still be screwing up the schedule some. I really always and continually appreciate all of your support/patience when the schedule gets behind.

My overall plans for the upcoming year is to work on finishing Keiji Akaashi and the Department of Mysteries, (hopefully) finishing Past is a Mirror, and finish up the current chapter arc (Death in the Family) in After the Fall of Olympus and start on the next one. These are my priorities; my "in the wing/next-up" expected writing projects are likely to be a Flash Facts short story, the next Cards story, another Investigations Inc story, and a new story in the Dr. Stone fandom. All of those are currently taking a back-seat to my mentioned current onging fics; but, I'm hoping I get to add one or two of those going next year while still keeping a regular update schedule.

For the near future, I'm working on fixing something up outline-wise with HqHp so I'm expecting an update schedule to look like....

#1 ATFO Ch. 23 (last in Year 9: Death in the Family arc)

#2 Department of Mysteries Ch. 12

#3 Past is a Mirror Ch. 4

I mean it makes sense as they both originally came from post-apocalyptic time lines but Comic!Bart was put in a VR simulation most of his childhood so he avoided the worst of it. ATFO!Bart on the other hand though? He LIVED through it for better or worst.

Not to mention, the different type of relationship they had with Wally. Do you think ATFO!Bart would be a bit jealous of the other Bart? That HIS Wally was still around but they just... don't have as close of a relationship? Or do you think he'd encourage him to listen to him more often and try to form a stronger bond?

Heck- what is Comic!Bart's thoughts on ATFO!Bart's general "everything"? Would he be a bit weirded out by his dimensional counterpart? Heh, sorry about the large question dump. I just love your story so much I'm just... a bit excited to hear your take on them lol.

Wow, I really enjoy this ask, thank you!

Sooo, I guess this gets more into first how I consider the comic!Bart who I really enjoy but honestly I feel like it's really hard to get a writer who does him completely right (imo). You either get ones who lean way too much into the goofball nature to the point that they want to make him the token "stupid" member rather than just a person who fundamentally was raised in a different world. Or you get people who lean too much into the angst and we get the better-to-forget Flash!Bart or that weird New52 run when he was a future terrorist or something, idek.

Oof, I had to dig back way in my comics for this...but, actually I feel like the truly best bit of Bart characterization comes from Impulse #1 way back in 1995.

I'm cutting this down a lot since it's a lot of pages; but, these bits in particular:

I feel like this is the essence of Bart Allen.

He is the perpetual stranger in a strange land (only no one else realizes it's strange but him). He has to learn a lot of completely new things very, very quickly and--for the most part--he does it so well that people kinda ignore the fact that that's a huge thing to ask. In all worlds, he basically had to raise himself from early in his own life (and honestly, I feel like the 90s comics really ignore how objectively horrifying it would be to constantly live in a video game...like we have multiple animes on how that's basically a horror scenario. Like that was his life, he did live through it). Despite this, he has family who he dearly loves and admires....who he nonetheless feels very disconnected from and possibly even unwanted due to how different he is from them.

But, despite all of this, Bart doesn't really complain. Like, sure, in comics he'll complain or pout about minor things from Max or teenage stuff...but, the major things like adjusting to an entirely new life, it's almost as if Bart doesn't even notice how crazy that is because really is life is just that crazy (it's the norm). Even his dialogue here, which unusually blunt compared to how he normally is written, isn't speaking of any of this stuff as any great tragedy...it's just his life.

And I think the most heartbreaking thing is the crossed out line about his Grandma Iris that implies that there's the only person he ever felt really cared for him (whether that's true or not doesn't matter, it's currently what he beleives)...and he couldn't keep her.

So back to the question at hand, I definitely went with a more mature take to ATFO!Bart because his world was more grim (with Comic!Bart the videogame consequences were presumably constantly eraased which is a different kind of existential crises). But, despite this, I think the two Barts still share a lot of similarities that would make them get along fairly well. Similarly, I think Grandma Iris is to Comics!Bart what Wally is to ATFO!Bart so I think they'd understand each other fairly well. ATFO!BArt would still enjoy seeing a Wally even if I don't think he'd be particularly hurt by that Wally not being close to his Bart since I think ATFO!BArt really does fully understand how much the difference in timelines affects people and knows it's not his Wally.

Put another way, I also don't really think Bart has an expectation of people being close to him (in any form) so isn't really surprised about Wally and Comics!Bart. Bart really does view himself apart as a norm--partly since it's so hard to connect to people when he's literally living at a different speed than them. He likes people a lot and deeply loves his friends/family; but, I think he does often stuggle to connect to them. I think this is likely true for all Barts.

Oooh I love this ask, thank you!

Let's see, I don't know if these are my favorite but they're lines that come to mind a lot that I'm specifically proud of (tbh I tend to forget lines until I'm re-reading one of my stories and see it and go "oh yeah, that one")

I'll try to do one per series. I can't really pick one from Past is a Mirror or Call Me Your Home At Night yet, I'll have to wait until they're more done:

ATFO:

Oof somehow this is the hardest series to choose just one line from. That said, it's a super dark line for a dark chapter but I really love the use of homophones in this one.

Dick tilts his head up to the sky and laughs.

Laughs until it hurts and it does, it hurts so much, and that just makes him laugh more--throwing his arms out like he can fly on the ground and turning in a circle in a dirt covered Gotham alley that even the morning can’t erase.

Because Robin always smiles when it’s dark. Until it’s morning again.

Or mourning again.

….Dick’s laugh fades out.

Cards:

And, eight years old and with a bone deep gravity too heavy for his small body, Kuroo Tetsuro quietly made a vow even if Kozume Kenma would never hear it.

I’m going to build a kingdom around you.

(Not a line but Tsuki and Hinata's final conversation in Shufling the Deck is what really sold me on writing that sequel)

Walking With My Eyes Open/ In Spite of Ourselves:

Honestly for short stories this series has some of my favorite conversations; but, a couple of favorite lines are these two.

But, human shoulders weren’t meant to bear the expectations of divinity.

and

A riddle, Schrodinger’s long lost love letter. Gen had proof he fell in love--was dying to try even--yet still couldn’t quite believe it. So, which was the lie?

Hq at Hogwarts:

I really love the prologue for Department of Mysteries; I wrote it waaaay before I posted it and was excited about posting it for awhile. I think the end just eally says everything about how long and how deeply Akaashi does love Bokuto.

He was bright and happy and so deeply good in a way that was everything Akaashi wanted that he fell in love by the time he took the hand.

“I’m Keiji.”

Investigators Inc.:

Truthfully, my favorite of my humorous stories; I like this exchange a lot from when their van breaks down. It just eels like it really fits all of them.

“I’m looking up directions,” Suga said, already pulling out his phone.

“But….but, map !” Oikawa held it up even as it drooped around him.

“Great,” Kuroo said, “we can use it for shelter when we’re stuck out here and have to take up foraging.”

Bokuto brightened. “Ooh, I’ve got a pocket knife!”

“Yay, we’ll need it to fight off the wolves,” Kuroo said.

“I don’t think it’s that dire,” Suga said, showing them the screen. “There’s a town pretty close by. Can’t find a taxi or a towing service, though. We may have to walk if Iwaizumi can’t fix it. It’s about an hour.”

Kuroo shrugged. “Honestly, Iwaizumi can probably fix it. He’s like the machine whisperer or something.”

“Iwaizumi cannot fix it,” Iwaizumi said from right beside the passenger window and Oikawa jumped. “The transmission’s out.”

“Then, put it back in,” Bokuto suggested.

Iwaizumi stared. “I’m seriously having all of you read a car manual one of these days."

i will always be thankful for reading it <3

Thank you...honestly that's one of my personal favorites of my short stories so that means a lot :) I keep meaning to get back to the next chapter of that one when I have time.

Since I didn't quite make the weekend deadline. Here's the first (undedited) scene which also happens to be something of a flashback.

Word count for the chapter at large is looking like around 7k-8k words. This chapter is also kinda a rough one, so forewarning and please keep mental health in mind when reading.

------

It’s funny how lazy afternoons can matter the most. 

In the moment, they’re so…forgettable--like the tick of a clock, indistinguishable from one moment to the next as they all blend together.  But, sometimes, even years later and those lazy little moments stick in his head as soft and as tough as silk.

“This is stupid.”

Warm sun’s shining down through the library windows and Jason’s toes are curled along the window seat. He’s glaring down at the book with a dark look that’s near comical on a fifteen year old face that hasn’t fully caught up to his ears.

(He will. And that glare will turn into something that sends minor thugs cowering. But this is still Jason at fifteen. Not sixteen and growing. Not seventeen and catching up too fast. Not eighteen.)

Dick grins. “Pretty sure nearly a century of scholars would fight you on that. Don’t worry, though, I think you can take ‘em.”

“Scholars don’t know shit.” Jason tosses the book down with a vengeance--still careful with the pages, Dick notes with amusement, because Jason’s a nerd even with books he hates. “What the fuck does she want me to write about anyway? This whole assignment’s bullshit.”

“Alfred really is going to wash your mouth with soap one day.”

Jason’s pacing now. “She wants us to talk about why it’s a tragedy? It’s not a tragedy! It’s just a bunch of people making dumbass choices!” He huffs. “Real tragedies are shit like, I don’t know, Oedipus Rex or Prometheus Bound. You know, people who at least tried to do the right thing but were doomed before they even began. ‘Cause it’s fate. That’s the stuff that’s terrifying.”

“How so,” Dick asks.

Jason makes a face. “Nothing’s worse than being helpless.”

(He wonders if maybe that’s the reason this memory sticks out the most. But no. When it comes down to it, everybody makes a choice.)

“But, this?” Jason thumps the book. “How am I supposed to talk about tragedy with this? There’s nothing like destiny, it’s not a secret. The guy in this knows what’ll happen if he doesn’t say anything, but he does it anyway.”  He collapses back on his seat. “I don’t get it.”

“But, that’s why,” Dick says. “There’s no fate about it, only human nature. It’s the sadness of knowing what’s going to happen and walking towards it instead of away.”

Jason frowns. “Then, why would anyone do it? Why make the same choice if you already know how it’ll end?”

Dick smiles and answers…

Whelp, was definitely wrong about the 7k-8k thing. Ended up being over 10k.

NEW CHAPTER OF AFTER THE FALL OF OLYMPUS IS FINALLY UP!