Now with Chapter 3.
This is Ray and Nora and Behrad working through what even happened with Behrad’s sister and the timeline. No answers here, alas.
So many thanks to beta readers @purpleyin and @becauseitallmatters!
I first began posting this fic before some major life challenges hit. After much stress and heartache and integration, life is so much better now.
It’s chapter 3 that’s new here. Thanks to faithful betas @purpleyin and @becauseitallmatters.
I know it says Chapter 1 up there, but now there’s a Chapter 2.
In which Ray stares at a wall, Nora’s brain hurts because: time travel, Ray is nearly incoherent, and I’m still mad about the finale.
It's in the same universe as my other Legends of Tomorrow fics, and especially follows from the ones that focus on Ray and Zari's friendship, especially "Nice and Weird" and "To Feel the Way That Every Child Should" (the Phone Home one).
Thanks to @purpleyin, @becauseitallmatters, and @meganbagels for beta-reading!
Folks who might be interested: @actingroses, @rabnerd28, @superstitious19, @legendsoftomorrowfans, @mrsnorapalmer, @terrayoung
This fic is about me coping with the Season 4 finale--so, spoilers.
It's also in the same universe as my other Legends of Tomorrow fics, and especially follows from the ones that focus on Ray and Zari's friendship, especially "Nice and Weird" and "To Feel the Way That Every Child Should" (the Phone Home one).
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“I miss her. But—Behrad—he’s one of my closest friends, I can’t imagine—I can’t imagine my life without either one."
Many thanks to my beta-readers--it’s so much better thanks to their support and keen comments! @purpleyin, @becauseitallmatters, and @meganbagels.
Folks who might be interested: @lovevalley45, @sophiainspace, @serendipitouscontaminant, @kattahj, @princesstomaz, @timetravelingpalmer, @kendrasaunders, @firesoulstuff, @terrayoung, @agentmarymargaretskitz, @drnathanielheywood
Zari Tomaz--the one from the original timeline--has had an incredible impact on so many folks. This was my attempt to articulate some of what that was for Ray, and the season 4 finale makes me want to pull it out again and say--see? See how important she was?
Thanks to @becauseitallmatters for being there to talk about the ep right after, and to her and to @purpleyin for helping me write therapy fic about it.
Unfinished fragment from “Checking in on Sara” (DCTV Secret Santa story for ladysuperheros)
When @ladysuperheros made a request for DCTV Secret Santa, one wish was for a body swap fic. I was not able to figure out how to incorporate it into the story proper. For that (chapter 1 here) I kept my focus on the arc of Sara and Ray finally talking about grief, and I simply hand waved that happening (with a bit of encouragement from Nyssa--incorporating characters from other DCTV series was a part of the prompt I was able to manage).
However, in the process of attempting a body swap fic, this happened. It's gonna stay unfinished, but I hope you enjoy it anyway, ladysuperheros/sinceresapphire! Think of it as a stocking stuffer! :-)
Gift for @ladysuperheros--happy holidays!
Much gratitude to @purpleyin and @meganbagels for beta-reading and for being awesome human beings.
unwittingcatalyst reblogged
Legends of Tomorrow fic - Under The Surface (Rated T, 3/? - Nora Darhk)
Author: Purpleyin
Rating: T
Word count: 601
Summary: Fic collection for Nora Darhk character study one shots.
Chapter 3 - Her path has always been made by others; her agreement, her complicit actions mere echoes of what others set in motion.
Spoilers: Up to 3x23 for this chapter.
Warnings: Grief. A brief mention near the start that could be considered vague suicidal ideation.
Awesome character study of Nora Darhk!
The Legends watch _Doctor Who_, starting with the first episode of the 13th Doctor. Now with Chapter 2.
The Waverider crew--with focus on Zari and Ray and Nate, but then everybody else joins in--take a break to watch the first Doctor Who episode for the 13th Doctor.
Thanks to @becauseitallmatters and @timetravelingpalmer for awesome beta-ing!
unwittingcatalyst reblogged
Quick Thoughts - Arrowverse gen drabbles/shorts - 2/? T - Ray Palmer
Title: Quick Thoughts 2/?
Author: Purpleyin
Rating: Teen
Word count: 1200
Summary: Collection of drabbles (the oldschool definition of exactly 100 words), double drabbles and triple drabbles, for The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow (and briefly Arrow). Only gen/character/friendship, no shippy drabbles. A variety of characters will be included. Also taking prompts.
This chapter is primarily Ray drabbles/shorts, mostly early LoT S2 focused but with some other what if’s - includes much angst and some whump too.
Spoilers: Up to 2x05 for episode specifics.
I highly recommend these drabbles. The new ones have lovely, well-crafted, poignant insights into Ray Palmer.
Zari Tomaz Appreciation Week 2018 | Day 7: Free Day
Chapter Two now up: Zari dealing with the personal aftermath of the events of “Daddy Darhkest.”
Many thanks to Sophie (timetravelingpalmer), Stacey (by_heart on AO3, @becauseitallmatters here on Tumblr), and Hans (purpleyin) for fabulous beta-reading!
unwittingcatalyst reblogged
For Zari Tomaz Week 2018, Day 3: Favorite Relationship
This story is about several of Zari’s friendships on the Waverider, and also about the aftermath for her of the ep “Daddy Darhkest”:
In the days after she met young Nora Darhk, Zari found herself drifting into a closed-in space inside of herself, waking already on edge with little sense of having gotten real rest and with heavy darkness pushing her down into cramped spaces. Sometimes, she turned a corner in a corridor on the ship only to find her heart suddenly pounding, her head dizzy, her feet unsteady on the metal floor.
Maybe it was seeing the inside of a mental institution only a decade or so removed from her own time spent in a similar place. Maybe it was the despair in Nora Darhk’s eyes, or the knowledge that the girl had spent two more decades institutionalized and preyed upon by a monster before they met her and she tried to kill them. Maybe it was even the moment Zari had been about to be skewered with glass shards by the demon inside the girl, though that moment had been over before Zari had been able to begin to feel anything but numb disbelief.
But now, now she felt the panic, but not at that, so much. As though being wheeled around that asylum had unlocked something in her, Zari was feeling terrors she’d shut away for years.
Thanks to my beta readers @purpleyin, @becauseitallmatters, and @timetravelingpalmer!!!
For Zari Tomaz Week 2018, Day 3: Favorite Relationship
This story is about several of Zari’s friendships on the Waverider, and also about the aftermath for her of the ep “Daddy Darhkest”:
In the days after she met young Nora Darhk, Zari found herself drifting into a closed-in space inside of herself, waking already on edge with little sense of having gotten real rest and with heavy darkness pushing her down into cramped spaces. Sometimes, she turned a corner in a corridor on the ship only to find her heart suddenly pounding, her head dizzy, her feet unsteady on the metal floor.
Maybe it was seeing the inside of a mental institution only a decade or so removed from her own time spent in a similar place. Maybe it was the despair in Nora Darhk's eyes, or the knowledge that the girl had spent two more decades institutionalized and preyed upon by a monster before they met her and she tried to kill them. Maybe it was even the moment Zari had been about to be skewered with glass shards by the demon inside the girl, though that moment had been over before Zari had been able to begin to feel anything but numb disbelief.
But now, now she felt the panic, but not at that, so much. As though being wheeled around that asylum had unlocked something in her, Zari was feeling terrors she'd shut away for years.
Thanks to my beta readers @purpleyin, @becauseitallmatters, and @timetravelingpalmer!!!
For Zari Tomaz Week 2018, Day Two: Favorite Quote
It’s honestly hard for me to choose, Zari says so many awesome things, but here’s one, that I used to title this story about Zari and about her friendship with Ray.
unwittingcatalyst reblogged
So like, I was talking with a few friends and had a thought: if Went's never coming back, and they don't kill him off, do you think Mick will, once lenny leaves for good, ask the time bureau to erase his memory of Len?... Do you think Ray will ask them to do it against his will because he doesn't want Mick to be in pain anymore? It was said that Len's return was going to be traumatic for Mick.
Ooooh that’s a really interesting theory. I feel like maybe Ray trying to do what’s best for Mick might sit well in an atomwave fic? But Mick would have to suffer significant trauma for straightforward Ray to do something like that.
Canonically, I don’t think Mick’s been given room to deal with his traumas on the show itself: I mean, he got back from a place where he had been tortured for decades, if not longer, and all we got was ‘I thought about the team’ and that basically solved the problem, nobody thinking twice about what Mick went through and how it changed him or how he dealt with it all. Then Len’s death - okay, we got a few scenes where Ray acknowledges that loss, which is why I do think that maybe Ray really would be the most likely candidate to try and help Mick… but I see Ray as the ‘try and talk it through’ type, or maybe just trying to distract Mick somehow and be there for him. Ray strikes me more as the type of guy who would believe in remembering the good and the bad, because it made him stronger: I just finally got to watch the latest LoT ep, and what struck me as character-defining for Ray was that he never tried to tell his younger self ‘it gets better’. He never told little!Ray that he would get people in his life who would be there for him, he never said ‘you grow up strong and smart and capable and there will be people who will appreciate that.’
Now, of course, that could be read as Ray not really believing that even now, which would be understandable, because he would, and does, risk his life for the team, for any single member of that team, but maybe he doesn’t feel like the sentiment’s mutual. Maybe the trust exercises and bonding he was trying to work into their lives weren’t completely about Zari: maybe they were about Ray’s own desperate need for that connection and trust and mutual (platonic) love that he’s missing.
But I’m getting sidetracked - what I wanted to say that I choose to read Ray’s refusal to tell his younger self about his future is at least partly because Ray acknowledges that the loneliness in his life had a purpose, or at least shaped him in significant ways and made him who he is today. So I don’t really believe he would want to erase Len from Mick’s memory, because Len was (has been?) a similarly significant influence on Mick’s life. Ray would probably be all up in Mick’s face if he heard about Mick’s own plan to ask the Time Bureau for such erasure.
Which, incidentally, I don’t think Mick would do, at least not the Mick the way I see him: still significantly influenced and traumatized by the Time Masters’ meddling with his brain. We’ve seen Mick so scared when he though there was something wrong with his brain: with the hallucinations, with the zombie infection… so I don’t believe he’d let just anyone into his head, and definitely not Rip. Mick seems to nurse his traumas and water them with beer, so what I see realistically happening is Mick descending deeper into the alcoholic haze - I would love to see that addressed on the show as more than an off-key joke here and there.
Personally I still think that the Len we’ll be getting on LoT will be an anachronism: from the stills, it looks like he shows up in the Viking era? While it would be absolutely amazing and inspired/inspiring if Len really were allowed to come back for real, I think it will be just pre-Legends Len again. Which would still be traumatic for Mick, because in s02, it seemed to me like Mick was pretty upset about the way he’s changed and doesn’t really fit into Len’s world any longer. Although returning Len to his rightful era as a resolution of the episode would be a bit repetitive, so I’m curious about how they’ll handle that. Sorry for the long and chaotic answer, but your ask gave me so many ideas at once lol :D
Just ran across this lovely analysis again and so I’m reblogging.
Legends of Tomorrow and hugs--what’s not to love? This fabulous fic is by a person who’s been an awesome beta-reader to me. Her insights into the characters in this one are lovely.