#auexpansion

AU Expansion: The Rift — your voices shaped this art✨

This piece was born from the recent poll — your choice shaped the vision. And so, I give you Gaster, standing at the edge of the rift, watching the worlds drift apart… (...)

What if the world of UnderStillTale is not limited to familiar places? What if during the split of time and space, entire "islands of memories" were formed - fragments of locations hanging in the void?

In this art, Gaster stands with his back to us, with a notebook in his hands, and enthusiastically records each fragment. Above him are pieces of the world: Grillby's bar, a snowy forest, a waterfall, dark clouds. All this floats in the unknown, as if inviting us to explore what is left.

🌌 But what will he find in these worlds? Answers - or even more questions?

the pressure of dealing with this amazing au ok here we go

so alec is probably the deaf one because i feel like that just fits the story i have in my head better

he wasn’t born deaf so he can more or less still talk perfectly well, but that obviously doesn’t make up for the fact he can’t hear

in fact, the only people alec actually talks around are izzy and jace, because if he tries to actually talk to anyone else, they start to talk back and it all gets very complicated from there on out

alec has been trying to lip read from the moment he lost his hearing, but it’s hard sometimes and getting things wrong and being completely unable to correct them without resorting to written words drives him crazy

(i’m no expert on deafness so i don’t want to make too many crazy claims without doing some proper research, but i figure he maybe lost it as a teen thanks to some viral thing, so learning sign language has been a bit of a process for him along with everyone else)

actually on that note, he, izzy and jace communicate through sign language more than speech these days, because they all learned together and it doesn’t cut anyone out of the conversation

maryse and robert are terrible at it but alec doesn’t see much of them anymore anyway, since they disapprove so highly of his gay agenda lifestyle

anyway magnus and alec take the same college elective together - maybe mythology???

it’s a small class, and there’s a lot of group discussions and things, but alec mostly hides up the back and does his best to lip read - he gets extra notes from the lecturer after to double check he didn’t miss anything

all magnus sees is this super handsome guy who just… hides quietly at the back all the time

he tries to talk to alec this one time but alec flees the scene as fast as possible

magnus, not to be put off, starts systematically asking everyone he knows about the cute, mysterious guy, until raphael finally sighs exasperatedly and declares he’s deaf, you idiot

and at that point magnus kind of realises it’s probably not rudeness but just a lack of an easy way to communicate

and so he does a little homework into forms of sign language (why are there different types?!?!?!!) and learns a quick ‘hello, how are you?’ as an experiment

and when he goes to class and shows alec, it’s a bit sloppy and the expressions aren’t quite right, but the way magnus moves his hands is magical and alec just flushes and replies quickly in sign language

which of course, magnus gets nothing of, but he apologises and then basically spends every spare night looking up new phrases in sign language

and every day he comes in to show them to alec who smiles just a little wider because of it

eventually they go for coffee and alec starts to talk to him verbally, instead of the note passing and use of messenger they’ve been going on

but as magnus picks up more and more sign language he drops the words and uses his hands instead

eventually alec asks magnus why he’s bothering to go to the effort

and magnus just smiles and signs that it’s because he wants alec to date him and how else would he be able to communicate his deep love and affection if it’s not in a language that alec can actually fully understand

alec falls in love pretty much on the spot, as if he wasn’t already

jace and izzy are all ready with the shovel talk until they walk in and find magnus and alec chattering away in sign language like it’s nothing

they pretty much sign their approval right then and there, and izzy starts quietly planning an engagement party

her and jace have a bet going on about how soon they’ll get married - izzy wins, because izzy wins everything

jace gets to be best man though, so he’s not too sore

they say their vows in sign language, because that’s the language they started this relationship with, so magnus insists on sealing it with it too

and then they’re unbearably cute forever the end

it is never too much to ask!!!!

but look here’s the thing - has magnus ever been able to keep much secret when it comes to how amazing he is?

anyway, i feel like this would be less a case of “magnus deliberately keeps it from alec that he models” and more of a “wait i thought you knew???”

i feel like izzy probably knows magnus models

but magnus is a cool amazing best fashion designer ever, so when they start dating, alec doesn’t really question that there’s more to his career

his boyfriend is talented and famous for that and that makes sense to him, so he doesn’t question too far

and if he sees magnus working he’s always designing something, not posing in a mirror

so the fact that there could be more to it never really occurs to him???

not until izzy takes a picture of magnus’ cover shoot and sends it to alec all “your man is very good”

and alec basically dies on the spot, but is then like wait magnus is on the cover of this magazine???

and sure there’s an article on his boyfriend, which he ends up reading

he’s never really read any before because he feels like it’s an invasion of privacy, and unfair

after all magnus can’t google alec if he wants to know things, so alec tries to keep the playing field level

but then he reads, and he gets curious so he does some internet searches and he finds all these photoshoots and then he really does have a heart attack

when magnus gets home alec is still looking, and he basically slams his laptop shut in horror, which gets magnus all alert

alec just stutters out the truth, and magnus laughs

“you didn’t know?? i thought you’d have looked it up”

and then alec explains his feelings on googling his boyfriend, and magnus just smiles softly and leans in to kiss him all “you’re very sweet alexander”

“which was your favourite though?”

which alec can’t answer because... all.. of.... them?

and then magnus starts taking his shirt off and reminds alec that he doesn’t need to look at a photoshoot when he can have the real thing

they get real busy soon after that

( there’s one time where magnus takes alec in for a couples shoot, and it’s magnus who nearly passes out on the spot because he never realised how good alec could look at these things )