#lbob

Hard to believe it's been a year of Simon making Wille take off his sunglasses and then regretting it.

Big thank you to everyone who commented on that fic and said anything you liked about it. Writing it was a huge labour of love and knowing some people enjoyed it really made such a difference for me.

Haha… no.. I didn’t make a new character just so I could make this tent 😰😰😰

Land Between Our Bodies, my wilmon exes fake dating fic hit a kudos milestone! I wanted to do something special but I got nothing but! Fun fact, I've cut about 25k words out of that fic so here's a deleted snippet (with apologies to @bigalockwood who helped me name this cat and then I cut it sorry)

🏴‍☠️ - for lbob? 🥇- for sliding doors? 🔮 - for be the place after wolf comes home? 🔍 - for any of them?!

bro ofc im going to answer all of these im always hoping someone wants to talk fic and like, i love an ask, so. thank u

🏴‍☠️ boy did they EVER. wilmon were always trying to pick a fight. A couple of key times, one was at that first party at Felix's Simon was very fighty and I had to write it like 3 or 4 times so they weren't fighting in the bathroom.

Also when Linda got upset about Wilhelm planning to move away, I had no idea that was going to happen, there wasn't going to be that subplot but then she super projected her experience of moving countries and being with Micke and that falling apart and how lonely and scary it was and i was like oh shit yeah

and then finally right at the end when Wilhelm is dissociating after the conversation with his mother I also had to write that like 3 or 4 times and I think I made a friend also read it because Wilhelm tried to pull away and then Simon felt rejected and it was a whole mess. Like at one point it was Felice and Wilhelm on the phone instead of Simon talking to Felice. There was a lot. When I say I cut 25k from lbob some of it is stuff like that which is the same scene but many times rewritten

🥇for sliding doors (grief timeloop fic) What scene were you most excited to write? Did it end up being the one you enjoyed writing the most?

I was most excited to write the scene where Kristina comes in and takes care of Wilhelm like he's little and it's such a powerful moment for Wilhelm who has gotten so used to being criticised for her. And like the little visual of him trying to roll out of bed and failing and feeling like he's become the sea floor.

I ended up most enjoying the scene where Wilhelm has the panic attack and ends up in the bathroom I've written a few panic attacks in my time and I liked that one felt especially sparkly, Wilhelm's brain just firing and then eventually locking in on the tactile sensation of the grout

🔮for be the place/wolf comes home Have you imagined what happens to [character(s)] in the future? Or does the story only exist to you as a moment in time?

ok wellllll for be the place I have imagined more of that in-between time, the cool artists circle that wilmon live in, the terrifying number of plants they keep and tend to. I did start the fic where they get married also.

For post wolf comes home that's murkier to me. I usually know exactly what happens right after the end but then after that it becomes very many possibilities much like Dune Paul Atreides had. I meddle in so many universes to create them.

One thing is that the consequence of the wolf comes home is that the dissolution of the Swedish monarchy unfortunately re-royalises Wilhelm a bit. When he was the only not royal, then there's a legit space to place the focus, but now like if you look at the tabloids they still talk about the Greek royal family fr ex even though there is no Greek monarchy. When they're all not-royal then they are all royal, if that makes sense. So there's a bit of wrestling with that increased attention, which they mostly mitigate by getting strict with their routine and going on vacations to controlled or isolated spots.

August and Kristina have the hardest time coming out of that and there's a lot of figuring out new boundaries for them. How much taking care of Kristina can Wilhelm be expected to do, and so on. She's still got private property and resources so she's fine, materially, but it's her whole life's purpose gone and that's a lot. A lot of people don't cope with retirement well and that's especially true for her who never expected it and did it involuntarily.

But wilmon have the foundations of their life that they've chosen and love. Wilhelm still has his lab job and coworkers who would never ask even if they're dying of curiosity, and Simon gets his chance to say his peace and then he controls what clients he works with, and he produces and writes his own music and releases it without label interference, and he performs at gigs and places on his own terms and doesn't need to leverage any fame. It was important with me for both of them that they had a lot of control. Also. Also v important for me to show that there are MANY WAYS to do music as a career that aren't popstar or teacher. SO MANY GUYS THERES A LOT. if it's ur dream you can have it!!!! message to the kids.

🔎 What detail(s) in the story are you particularly captivated with? Is there any behind the scenes info or backstory?

I'll take this one for a quick lbob because I think this is a detail that doesn't come across.

so in general lbob is about simon. We get into Wilhelm's journey inasmuch as it matters to how simon makes decisions. (which is a bit why it's sad when someone thinks im not fair to him because like. he is the protagonist of this fic? literally everything is in service to him feeling happy and good in himself and able to be who he wants to be)

So there's some Wilhelm backstory here going on and also this might be the most important moment in the fic in terms of them shifting out of their conflict dynamic and towards working together

Wilhelm offers something to Simon that he feels vulnerable about and cares about and is a way of showing care and Simon rejects him. If this was earlier in the fic, or before the fic, Wilhelm would have flipped out here and gotten upset and they would have had a BIG FIGHT. But that pause there is Wilhelm basically doing a little cbt on himself. He goes, Simon said I don't have to make sauce, not that he thinks my sauce will be bad or that he doesn't want it. He only says I don't have to. Ok. But I want to make sauce, it's a thing I want to do for me to feel good and to do something I love and to show Simon my love even if he doesn't understand it. I can do this without expecting reciprocity and still feel good about it. Ok. I will continue to make sauce.

you read sliding doors so you know that I used Wilhelm learning to cook in that one as a way of him developing a skill for himself that he can practice and fail at without feeling like a failure. And at the end it becomes a thing that he can do that reminds him that he's a person and not just a symbol of Sweden. It's a big deal to him. So him pausing and trying to explain that he had lessons is the what, but he doesn't actually say the 'why' of why he cooks which is that it makes him feel real. And he wants to be real with Simon.

Wilhelm POV on some scenes in Land Between Our Bodies

ch 1: the phone call where Simon asks Wilhelm to be his fake boyfriend

In one of his earliest memories, possibly his earliest memory, he is making Christmas cookies with Erik. Making is an overstatement, at his age what he was doing was mashing the cookie cutter down on the dough and having the cookie itself come out a bit misshapen. In his memory, he is surly and Erik cheers him up by playing with the cookie cutters. He makes a goat dance and Wilhelm laughs and declares that goats will always be his favourite cookie shape. The thing about this memory is that Wilhelm is so young he’s not sure if he really remembers it, or it’s that his mother has shown him the video of them doing it so many times, has told him how cute they were then. It’s a memory with two layers. In one layer, his brother is kind to him and makes him joyful and it’s a sweet family moment. In another layer, Wilhelm was four and already knew that when the cameras were out he wasn’t allowed to leave the room and go play with legos, even when he was bored and they’d been at it for ages. In this layer, Erik is doing the best a nine-year old can do to keep Wilhelm engaged so they could all go home. Now, did Erik do that because he’s an attentive big brother who wanted his little brother to be happy at Christmas, or did Erik do that because he was a Crown Prince with an awareness of what the expectations for him were? Some would say it doesn’t matter, that at the end of the day the video was cute and goat cookies are still Wilhelm’s favourite. But it does matter. It does.

This one is better actually cause no dialogue yay

Transcript below

Wilhelm holds the phone tight in his hand, listening as much as he can. He pulls it down slightly towards his mouth. He breathes into it, as loudly and clearly as he can, lion’s breath. He tightens the back of his throat, feeling the constriction as the air passes over it. He keeps doing it, trying to hear Simon, desperate to hear him. He looks around. Malin is watching him, alert and waiting. It’s not advantageous if they were attacked or approached, but the threat has never been on the outside.