#bananonbinary

Thank u!!

Boy, this sure does leave enough time for the rest of the podcast to be a happy workplace comedy...

All listed fics are TMA fics! I posted about taz balance fun here.

I’ve spoken about Bound God AU here, so here’s another tidbit! Gerry’s quote-unquote “followers” draw power from him through relics; each of them carries a talisman of some kind that makes them gives them speed, strength, keen senses, or some other advantage depending on what it is. Most take locks of hair. Bolder initiates take blood. Julia, one of the most experienced hunters, wears a tiny vial around her neck that she swears contains tears. When Martin sneaks in, he’s eventually forced to hide when the hunters come back with a new initiate. Said initiate impresses the other hunters by being bold enough to take a tooth.

i’mma be real with you, this was made years ago and I honestly cant remember lmao I think it’s just gibberish made to look right

What a coincidence, I just nailed down how the backhalf of the story is going to go. Like a lot of stuff I tend to write with weird worldbuilding, it is structured a bit like

First Half: Exhaustively explain the Rules of how things work. Back Half: The audience shall now be quizzed on their understanding of the Rules, and be given a treat if they paid attention.

SO it is actually super important that you grok the rules.

In dustsceawung, humans tend to live under the watchful (hopefully benevolent) gaze of their local faerie court. Each court is different in its focus (and if we met a lot more, I think I would keep up the naming scheme) and has different values and they take tribute in different ways from their protectorate.

On top of that, humans can get mixed up with faerie debts pretty easily. When a faerie helps you, they collect a measure of influence over you that can later be cashed in for favors. Humans take to trying to manage these debts, but the problem is the ‘value’ of each favor varies from faerie to faerie based on their personality and what they consider worthwhile.

It’s kind of expected that mortals will get wrapped up in fae shit, but you can be careful and make it fairly equitable if you resist temptation and are very smart (see; Martin).

Faeries cannot lie but they don’t mind misleading. And yes, direct questions can be granted answers, with the understanding that the debt will rack up over time. Generally speaking, using statements instead of questions is smarter.

Faeries intrinsically know the ‘ledger’ they have with the humans around them, and often feel an urge to level the debts. This leads to them offering humans very bad deals (this is how sadly Martin lost his hair color) and humans not really having a choice but to accept, lest the next offer be worse.

Oh boy! Yes, gladly! :D 

So I actually think this could play out a couple of ways and one of them is Martin walks into the Archives and does a double take when he is met with three completely new archival assistants (because I’m realizing that he actually wouldn’t have met Melanie yet either. oops). Who also all look at him like “You're not supposed to be down here can we help you??”

But before Martin can explain himself or ask what's happening the door to Jon’s office flies open because Jon Knew Martin is here as soon as he set one foot in the Archives and they stare at each other for like this long, long moment before Jon just says his name but like so impossibly soft and Martin can’t remember if anyone has ever said his name like that. It’s all very gay and tender and Martin of course notices the scars and the fact that Jon radiates the energy of a trashheap twice warmed over and is a far cry form the propper and rude boss he knew but it’s him and Martin has a hundred questions.

But before he can ask them Jon, his voice still so so soft, asks “Where were you?” and he forgets to turn off the compulsion because this is a lot and he is feeling many things right now and so it’s statement time for Martin, which helps the Archive crew piece some stuff together. 

This is - I think - the point where Basira would very much insist they tell Martin as little as possible and also to find a way to fix the timeline.

Basira: Someone did this and it can’t be for a good reason. This could be a new attack on the archives so we should undo it. Jon: Maybe so, but you don’t have all the facts! Basira: Which are? Jon: I love him!

And I mean, Martin will of course learn big chunks of the truth eventually, starting with the fact that like three years have passed which I’m sure will be a fun thing to angst about. Closely followed by the fact that Tim and Sasha are dead because of course Martin would ask about them and Jon refuses to lie to Martin. 

And then there is also the whole angle of both of them having to adjust to this unfamiliar version of the other like Martin missed so much and this Jon is essentially a stranger but also Jon and Martin went through so much shit together in the original timeline and Jon still misses the version of Martin who remembers all of that.

You bring up such an excellent point with “Would Martin even trust Jon?” and I don’t have an answer but I’m loving the implication and potential suffering that could be going on!! Paranoia plot 2.0 - Martin Edition 

Jon definitely has a moment of “What if this is my only chance to get me and him out of here?” and proposes the blinding again and - as sad as that is - I think Martin would shut him down again because that is such a big thing to introduce into Martin’s “Jane Prentis is the most scary thing I know” Life. Also I feel like he too might think it’d be a good idea to get back to his own timeline so he can make it all better and save Tim and Sasha and Jon too from all the things that are gonna hurt him…

But also listen!! Jon and Martin late at night sitting on the floor and Jon asks Martin to tell him about Sasha because Martin still remembers the real Sasha and he can’t explain to Martin why he wants to know and Martin doesn’t ask and also doesn’t comment when Jon starts crying.

On a lighter note I also keep thinking about how baffled Martin would be by Jon’s and Daisy’s friendship like Jon, sitting at his desk and silently reading a statement: Daisy, unceremoniously draping herself over Jon’s desk: Do you think pigeons have feelings? Jon, completely unfazed: Sure Martin: ?????

Another thing that keeps bouncing around my head is what this means for the distortion. Like I imagine the actual time travel occurred in the House on Hilltop Road because that’s where the tear in reality is. In season 1 the distortion was still Micheal. Would he be left behind by the time travel or have I been handed a very good excuse to have Helen and Micheal distortion both at the same time? The answer is yes to the second thing because I want it. Would that be two distortions running around or would they suddenly have to share the hallways? A fun thing that could be explored when Melanie seeks out Helen to ask what the fuck is going on! :D

Not that Helen has answers.

Elias during all of this: curious >:3c