#tfot

here are, respectively, the first three (coherent) paragraphs of

1. Hacker, Hater, Hero, Spy (HHHS) (soon. seriously this is like. 87% written, i just need to find a way to move them to a different location. you know how that can be. and also it hasn’t earned its intended M-rating yet);

2. Space Uber AU (i see it completely in my head i just haven’t been able to write most of it down in a way that makes sense to people other than myself. also i need to familiarize myself with the enemies to lovers genre and figure out how i can keep these two firmly in-character while NOT having them fall head over heels from the first);

3. White House Press Secretary AU (all of this is notes & rough draft stuff because this setting is unfortunately very differently loaded now than when i first started writing it so in its current form it’s mostly a lot of quippy dialogue between Lena & Kara, a White House correspondents dinner and then pages and pages of fragmented smut lmao. have you ever gone down a research rabbit hole because you were afraid you wouldn’t do the romantic climax justice? because this was a first for me);

4. Cowboy Kara AU (TFOT) (i know i’ve been talking about this one since before i started publishing The Shape of Soup & i STILL feel like i’m not quite in the proper place yet to write it the way it wants to be written);

and 5. Modern Royalty AU (TP&TP) (i discovered this week that i have SO MUCH WRITTEN FOR THIS ONE ALREADY and i FORGOT. i don’t understand how these things happen. i need to get back on this one it’s so fun & so far removed from what i’ve been doing);

The Family of Theseus came about in the dumbest way possible, basically I was taking a philosophy 101 class and got to thinking about the ship of theseus. Basically, if ever board in a ship is replaced over time, once they've all been replaced, is it still the same ship?

Then, like any good writer I was like oh wow that’d be a great horror concept. Slowly your house changes until it becomes something unrecognizable. But what if it were people? Your family slowly gets replaced by imposters, lookalikes, and you don’t know how long they’ve been there. Was it your sister who made up elaborate stories to get you to fall asleep every night? Did your dad walk you to school every day? Did your mom help you finish the school project you forgot about?

Does it even matter?

I mean, the impostors love you don’t they? They stuck around for whatever reason, they raised you, made sure you had a good childhood. How conflicting must that be?

Then of course, make is SBI.

The original idea was that Phil, Wilbur and Techno would all be different kinds of shapeshifters, individually stumbling across the little cottage and killing one of Tommy's family members before taking their place, unknown to each other.

Wilbur would've been a Silkie or something? The sea creatures that have coats or whatever. He would've drowned one of the brothers. Techno was going to be some kind of boar thing and kill the second brother by impaling him on his tusks because the bother tried to hunt him. And I think Phil was going to be a fae, I can't remember how he was going to kill the dad.

But that was a little too much so I had them all be fae. Despite not knowing much about fae aus.

The other thing was the original family, in the end I think I made them too shitty, I wanted the story to be ambiguous, and it is, but I feel like them being so shitty makes Tommy's decision to follow Techno, Wilbur and Phil into the fae realm easier.

I could go on and on about how I'dd rewrite the fic but that can be for another day, time to talk about a detail I really like.

Namely, Names. Not only Tommy giving up his name so easily to Phil, he's never been told of the fae, to not give his name so freely, but also that's his father, why would he hide his name from his dad?

Then of course are Phil, Wilbur and Techno giving Tommy their names so easily. He still doesn't understand the significance of it, how willingly they all tell him their Names. He doesn't understand the power even during the rare times Phil uses that power on him. Getting him to put down the gun, getting him to get down so he can be shown the contract.

What I also like is the ambiguity of how Phil acquired Wilbur and Techno. Specifically for Techno, because I don't think I write how Phil got Wilbur and if I did have an idea as to how I don't remember it. Techno was the runt of his pack, cast out and told that if he could return he'd be allowed to stay.

But Phil found him first, created an impassable sphere that Techno couldn't escape, or get hurt in. He tried to swim in a lava lake to get out but couldn't pass the barrier and didn't get burnt at all. And he stayed there until he got used to Phil and agreed to be his son. He says it's ok, Phil saved him, he wouldn't've been able to make it back to his pack anyway. But we don't know that for sure, maybe he could've made it back, but he wasn't able to because of Phil.

Phil who found him alone and practically abandoned then made it impossible for Techno to run away until he was sure Techno wouldn't run away from him.

Which he then did to Wilbur, finding him in a similarly vulnerable spot.

And he could've done to Tommy, except something went wrong, he didn't know Tommy was there. The point was to go on vacation, relax and pretend to be humans for a week or so. But then they found Tommy, looking like his family and the choices were to leave him, all alone in the middle of the forest far from civilization or to keep pretending. They chose to keep pretending.

But, if Tommy hadn't found the bones of his real family, would they have ever told him the truth? Could they tell him the truth?