#jasper's posts

okay one thing not necessarily about the actual au itself but about writing it that i think is really interesting is the difference in how to portray the story of saf through the different mediums, most notably with mike (curts) queerness. in spies are forever, the play format means you dont get the inner monologue, so you have curt and tatiana almost get into a relationship before its spring on you the surprise that curts gay, versus in writing the story, where it has to be clear from the beginning that mikes gay because your hearing (reading) all his thoughts

ive been thinking about it a lot bc ive been think about mike and els (tatiana) relationship and how to write it versus how curt and tatiana, and how i want eh fic version of doing this and everything before to go down. also for saf it makes sense that tatiana and curt "flirt" (retrieving the bomb, the casino) because of the whole russian femme fatal main character love interest architype that tatiana originally plays into (and also, looking at her from more a character standpoint she almost certainly had to use seduction for her job previously), but in els case, it doesn't really make sense for her

she, while having much more experience of the real world that el in the show, was still raised in a lab, and has relied on her powers more than acting/seduction throughout her time on missions. its this spot of not stranger things el, but not close to tatiana either. i haven't gotten to writing her yet, but im close to it, and im still not exactly sure how to write her well, but i really hope i can nail it --her and mikes relationship is very important, and i also want her to be her own character outside of playing the catalyst in mikes own character arc

also, this version of the lab/upside down???? oh my godd its making me insane

the ud and dr brennors lab still exist but its different. they already have access to the ud and are actively using it and creating contact with the mindflayer/shadow creature that roams. by doing experiments on the mf, they discovered they could harness some of its power very briefly before it like fizzles out idk (just pretend this all make sense), but its also very dangerous, as the mf is a creature that just wants to consume all it can, and all its meetings with humans/lab people had always been very destructive. they get a system down where they bring in human scarifies basically as bait for the mf to come and drain they life force (in the same way that vecna in the show flays people kinda) while they extract some energy, and try and force it into people, which is where all the lab kids come in.

els one of the few that not only lived past the initial power injection thing, but also didn't die later on from complications (theres been one or two before and after that have different powers and aren't important at all to the story but they do exist + are still doing it. especially when one prisoner of war human bait comes in circa 1957 already pretty physically weak but instead of draining the life force out of him the mindflayer instead projects into the guy possessing him and making him basically a human vessel for its wants hint hint nudge nudge)

which is also why the deadliest man alive is actually called the mindflayer in this because hegot his name from like vecna-ing some of his victims (they don't call it that but the broken limbs bleeding white eyes you know) instead of just killing a bunch of people

AND instead of the whole potlitcal side plot its all about the ud and theres this guy henry (the baron) whose CONVICED hes seen visions of his other world and wants to do whatever it takes to reach it and also has influence in politics because of his family or something and who knows maybe dr brennor hears word of this and sends two of his top agents to work with him and use henry as a way and maybe they just happen to run into a newly returned agent while staging stealing a bomb who knows