Wondering if I should stick all of my w359 postcanon fics in a series to organize them because we're approaching Vorkosigan saga-level discrepancies between publication order and chronological order
Ok without rereading everything to make sure I think I have them all in order now. All together it's almost long enough to qualify as a NaNoWriMo novel lol
Chapters: 6/6 Fandom: Wolf 359 (Radio) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Isabel Lovelace & Renée Minkowski, Doug Eiffel & Hera, Hera & Miranda Pryce Characters: Renée Minkowski, Doug Eiffel, Isabel Lovelace, Hera (Wolf 359), Daniel Jacobi, Miranda Pryce Additional Tags: Post-Canon, original ai character - Freeform, Canon-typical long time coming dramatic confrontations, Past Mind Control, discussion of suicide Summary:
When the Hephaestus survivors take a detour to the USS Hermes station, a confrontation with the station’s mother program forces them all to face the consequences of their actions. Plus, wash day, grabby robot arms, the clipshow from hell, and seeing yourself in someone else’s face.
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It’s finished! Well, sort of. I’m not sure there’s enough closure at the end, and I’m toying with following the grand Wolf 359 tradition of conversations with dead people and adding an epilogue between Persephone and imaginary!Officer Jordan. It’s just that I have to make almost all of both their personalities out of whole cloth, which is a bit of a pain. I may still do that, but for now it is provisionally finished. I figured I kept everyone waiting long enough.
A very short epilogue, I said... Well, here it is, and I can finally wash my hands of The Percy Saga. What's going to happen to her next? IDK, it's going to be rough, but she has $40 to lose.
Chapters: 6/6 Fandom: Wolf 359 (Radio) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Isabel Lovelace & Renée Minkowski, Doug Eiffel & Hera, Hera & Miranda Pryce Characters: Renée Minkowski, Doug Eiffel, Isabel Lovelace, Hera (Wolf 359), Daniel Jacobi, Miranda Pryce Additional Tags: Post-Canon, original ai character - Freeform, Canon-typical long time coming dramatic confrontations, Past Mind Control, discussion of suicide Summary:
When the Hephaestus survivors take a detour to the USS Hermes station, a confrontation with the station's mother program forces them all to face the consequences of their actions. Plus, wash day, grabby robot arms, the clipshow from hell, and seeing yourself in someone else's face.
***
It’s finished! Well, sort of. I’m not sure there’s enough closure at the end, and I’m toying with following the grand Wolf 359 tradition of conversations with dead people and adding an epilogue between Persephone and imaginary!Officer Jordan. It’s just that I have to make almost all of both their personalities out of whole cloth, which is a bit of a pain. I may still do that, but for now it is provisionally finished. I figured I kept everyone waiting long enough.
Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Hi Nay (Podcast) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Evelyn Wai Additional Tags: Listserv format Summary:
Evelyn had to find all those primary sources somewhere.
***
Sliding in at the very end of Podcast Girls Week because the idea of Evelyn Wai lurking cultural heritage institution listservs in order to get all the cool primary sources she talks about in the show charmed me so much. This is incredibly niche.
Chapters: 1/6 Fandom: Wolf 359 (Radio) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Doug Eiffel & Renée Minkowski, Doug Eiffel & Hera, Hera & Renée Minkowski Characters: Doug Eiffel, Renée Minkowski, Hera (Wolf 359) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Hephaestus crew as SI5, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Heist Summary:
Major Renée Minkowski of Goddard Futuristics' Strategic Intelligence division just wants to get this data retrieval mission over and done with. Unfortunately, between her regular partner and the new experimental product she's stuck babysitting, her job is going to be anything but easy.
***
I didn’t have anything prepped for Free Space Day so I dug into my folders and pulled out an AU I wrote for a gift 2 years ago. It is very silly.
Also I understated things, the lore I was given was 210 pages in Google docs.
Chapters: 2/6 Fandom: Wolf 359 (Radio) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Isabel Lovelace & Renée Minkowski, Doug Eiffel & Hera, Hera & Miranda Pryce Characters: Renée Minkowski, Doug Eiffel, Isabel Lovelace, Hera (Wolf 359), Daniel Jacobi, Miranda Pryce Additional Tags: Post-Canon, original ai character - Freeform, Canon-typical long time coming dramatic confrontations, Past Mind Control Summary:
When the Hephaestus survivors take a detour to the USS Hermes station, a confrontation with the station's mother program forces them all to face the consequences of their actions. Plus, wash day, grabby robot arms, the clipshow from hell, and seeing yourself in someone else's face.
***
Don’t think it’s letting me share to chapter 2, but anyway, Encore is updated! Not featuring a woman’s POV this time so it’s not going in the PGW tag, but it does include an unrealized dream of Gabriel Urbina’s.
Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Greater Boston (Podcast) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Mallory (Greater Boston), Death (Discworld) Additional Tags: Spoilers for Greater Boston season 4, Discussion of Assisted Suicide, Dialogue Format Summary:
Mallory fills a mysterious stranger in on the unusual life and death(s) of Leon Stamatis.
Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Hi Nay (Podcast) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Evelyn Wai Additional Tags: Essay format Summary:
Evelyn Wai tries honesty while applying to grad school.
Chapters: 1/6 Fandom: Wolf 359 (Radio) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Isabel Lovelace & Renée Minkowski, Doug Eiffel & Hera, Hera & Miranda Pryce Characters: Renée Minkowski, Doug Eiffel, Isabel Lovelace, Hera (Wolf 359), Daniel Jacobi, Miranda Pryce Additional Tags: Post-Canon, original ai character - Freeform, Canon-typical long time coming dramatic confrontations, Past Mind Control Summary:
When the Hephaestus survivors take a detour to the USS Hermes station, a confrontation with the station's mother program forces them all to face the consequences of their actions. Plus, wash day, grabby robot arms, the clipshow from hell, and seeing yourself in someone else's face.
Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Pasithea Powder (Podcast) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Jane Gonzalez, George Moreau, Sophie Green Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Fake research abstract, discussion of medical procedures, overly honest research methods Summary:
Jane and George draft an abstract for their latest publication. Sophie helps. Or, overly honest research methods comes to The Pasithea Powder.
Chapters: 2/2 Fandom: Wolf 359 (Radio) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Doug Eiffel & Miranda Pryce Characters: Doug Eiffel, Miranda Pryce Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Memory Loss, internalized ableism, Terrible space facts Summary:
Two amnesiacs enemies killers victims friends people walk into a laboratory.
Or, Doug and Miranda keep a secret.
***
Back on more familiar bullshit for relationships day!
I just finished wolf 359 (and I am heartbroken and everything, but that’s for another time) and I am looking for fic recs! Please!
preferably: post canon exploration of doug that doesn’t have Eiffel/Jacobi (why are all the interesting fics eiffel/jacobi)
Please And Thank You
I love thinking about this So Much. Post canon… what happens to them all…
time for a FIC REC LIST. Post-Canon Wolf 359 fic that I love that emphasizes Doug Eiffel Memory Loss exploration!
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“The Doug Eiffel Reunion Tour” by deliverusfromsburb
Gen, G, No Archive Warnings, 6300 words. “ It’s a few weeks into their trip back to Earth, and Doug Eiffel is remembering things. He wishes that he wasn’t.”
GOLD STANDARD imo. Takes place on the Urania a few weeks after the finale, when everything’s still weird and everyone’s still raw and trying to figure out what their relationships are now. The BEST one imo. Kat can WRITE. Her more Lovelace-centric post-canon fics dealing with Lovelace’s new identity issues (and they certainly intersect with Eiffel’s) are fantastic too; “Everyone Ready?” (Gen, G, 4500 words) can be read as a follow-up, as the Urania survivors are on approach to Earth and afraid of what this means for their lives changing, again. “An alien, an AI, and an amnesiac contemplate their futures on Earth.” So, SO good. (“Door Number Three” (6400 words, trauma and references to canon gun violence) is ALSO such fantastic Lovelace post-canon Urania trip angst and unpacking identity issues, again in ways that certainly intersect with Eiffel’s.) Kat writes these characters with the perfect balance of snark, bravado, fear, reluctance to talk about feelings ever, and genuine love.
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“Still” by Wackd
Gen, G, No Archive Warnings, 1900 words. “Renée tries to adjust to the new normal. Doug tries to take a walk.”
Contemplative, sweet, and wistful. Several weeks back on Earth, Eiffel tries to decide what he wants to keep and what he doesn’t, and Eiffel and Minkowski are navigating what they are to each other now. (This one focuses on Eiffel & Minkowski; Wackd has two additional ones about Hera & Pryce and Lovelace & Jacobi that are all post-canon character interactions.)
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“For the Living” and “Hera’s Words” by hephaestuscrew
For the Living: Gen, G, No Archive Warnings, 4500 words. “When Doug suggests holding a funeral for his old self, he inadvertently raises some very difficult questions for the ex-crew of the Hephaestus.”
Hera’s Words: Gen, G, No Archive Warnings, 9000 words. “Hera has never told anyone that she writes poetry. That is, until an unexpected letter arrives, prompting new experiences and complicated emotions for all of the ex-crew of the Hephaestus.”
Listing these together because they’re partially about Doug’s experience of living on Earth again with three friends and no memories, and what it means to consider himself a fundamentally distinct person from the man he was before; but on a deeper level they’re about the relationships he has with the other Hephaestus survivors, and what this new future means. Set on Earth several months after the crew’s return. “For the Living” is more Minkowski & Eiffel-centric, “Hera’s Words” is Hera-centric, and both of them have “dealing with the loss of their friend Doug Eiffel even when he’s right there, and even though he loves them he feels uncomfortable and awkward about it” as central running themes. Sad, gentle, sweet, and fascinating, definitely digging into the complicated feelings in these friendships now. Also, “Hera’s Words” has some genuinely great poetry, and a powerful future where Hera gets to claim her selfhood and personhood in the very strange and precarious legal space she’s left in.
(Also it’s in the notes and I don’t want to be repetitive, but “A man of many fears” (Gen, G, 1400 words) is a character study about the ways Eiffel has changed and the ways he hasn’t, what he kept and what he didn’t and what’s new to the him-he-is-now, that’s done VERY well.) (“Ground Beneath Our Feet” is also a really excellent ficlet about the Urania survivors’ return and first few moments back on Earth. okay I need to stop just recc’ing all of Beth’s work, but like Kat, she has done so much cool post-canon character exploration–)
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“The Staple of Space Movies” by NewTimelineNewMe
Gen, G, No Archive Warnings, 715 words. “Doug watches Star Wars and has some thoughts. Unfortunately, they don’t match with Officer Eiffel’s.“
Sad and interesting ficlet about Doug watching Star Wars again for the first time.
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“My Friends Have Always Been the Best of Me” by captainoflifeandlemons
Gen, G, No Archive Warnings, 2700 words. A Wolf 359/Ars Paradoxica crossover. “Back on Earth, Doug’s quest to make things right with Kate and Anne lands him in a Waxahachie coffee shop where he meets a woman named Dr. Sally Grissom. Friendship-building shenanigans inevitably ensue.”
SO GOOD. So well-done. SO CUTE and SWEET and NICE and then it went and TORE MY HEART OUT. Doug Eiffel, home from Earth, makes a new friend in Dr. Sally Grissom, someone who didn’t know him before and has no expectations of him now. Their friendship is really nice, the character interactions are very fun, it’s only a little sad until the inevitable tragedy of what you know is going to happen hits.
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(Also self-promotion, but one of my top 5 fics I’m proudest of all time of is “We’re All a Work in Progress,” which takes place on Christmas / on Hanukkah / on Eiffel’s birthday a few weeks after the crew returns home. Everyone is confronting feelings they’d rather keep avoiding, and everyone is uncomfortable about it. Found family but bittersweet and awkward even though they are trying their best. Gen, G, No Archive Warnings, 8100 words.)
for ur ask meme... the clocks are all zeroes? it's been a little while since i read it so i don't have a specific chapter to narrow it down to for you, but in general?
Haha so I went back to revisit the fic and ended up... rereading it. And you know what? It still holds up imo. So that was fun.
Anyway, in a fic this long it’s hard to pick one favorite line, so I grabbed... a bunch that I remember really liking when I wrote them. Under the cut they go. If the read more works properly.
Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Wolf 359 (Radio) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Hera & Renée Minkowski, Hera & Isabel Lovelace, Isabel Lovelace & Renée Minkowski Characters: Isabel Lovelace, Renée Minkowski, Hera (Wolf 359) Additional Tags: Post-Finale, Drinking, Screenplay/Script Format, Grief/Mourning, minlace if you squint - Freeform, we named the Hermes crew because they deserve it, Podcast Girls Week Summary:
Minkowski, Hera, and Lovelace toast to the memories of dead friends, and dead enemies.
*****
The group chat routinely gets into long back and forth conversations that later find their way into fanworks (I see you, sandwich or salad game :P ) and earlier this week we were partway through one and decided it would be a great girls week entry. So, with 2 hours to spare for angst day, here you go!
Never say never, but I’m not planning any more HS fic. (Note: I wasn’t planning either HTST or Breaking Mirrors, so take this with a grain of salt. Still, I feel pretty wrung out.) So I’m taking a moment to admire my rankings. I got in this game for Jade and I followed through.
[Image description: An Ao3 list of characters, with the corresponding number of works next to them. Jade Harley is ranked first with 24.]
Also it’s still funny to me that I made it all this way and never wrote any second person narrative fic from the perspective of the alpha timeline Dave Strider. Davesprite? Yes. Other doomed Daves? Yes. Dave? No. Sorry bro.
Way back in 2016 once I knew how TLC was going to end, I wrote a... send-off of sorts. Like anything else postgame, this is compliant rather than canon to that ‘verse, but I thought I might as well share in the spirit of posting a lot of ancient stuff out of my Dropbox recently.
went ahead and posted Saving Face on ao3 to remind everyone that, spiritually, they are all locked in here with me
