I mean, it's 2011-era writing, so...

[Interlude] Dinner at Nakamura's by Lily Winterwood on 2022-05-30 14:28:51 UTC Writing Plug Reply

The direct follow-up to "Rose of the Dark Abyss", where Christianne and Eledhwen invite their friends to dinner at Nakamura-zushi... and mayhem ensues. Takes place, like the mission preceding it, in May 2021.

Edit: Things added to continuity: fleshing out the interior of Nakamura-zushi, including its various sushi offerings; referencing the current state of Jacques and Jenni's relationship (since "Attachments" et al take place in 2013); referencing the current state of Dawn McKenna's family; allusions to the kinds of homework that Digory Kirke Elementary assigns.

Edit: Now crossposted to Archive of Our Own.

Also, a doodle of the dinner in a nutshell, also drawn around last year:

Hope you enjoy! Thank you to doctorlit, Neshomeh, and Zingenmir for beta-reading (and Zing for co-writing/line tweaking)!

This was a fun read! by Tomash on 2022-06-05 21:50:43 UTC Reply

I don't have too many specific thoughts, but I can say I liked the general friendly fluff of people hanging out.

I'm glad! by Lily Winterwood on 2022-06-06 01:01:03 UTC Reply

I hope following the ensemble cast wasn't too difficult!

Also, while I'm at it: the last 2 chapters of "And So My World Awoke"! by Lily Winterwood on 2022-06-01 12:13:13 UTC Edited Reply
Particularly since hS dropped his new Multiversal Atlas, which had some mentions of the 2012 invasion of the Prime Multiverse's International Academy of Hetalia Fanfiction by its Mirror Multiverse counterpart. Part Three covers Christianne and Eledhwen's actions during IAHF2, when this was all developing, and Part Four covers, very quickly, how IAHF2 should've ended had I not gotten distracted by other fandoms. :P

Adding to continuity (at least, my corner of it):
- Collapsing Word Worlds return to a null-space, void-like state of being. This was also seen in Rosie and Nenya's mission "The Dark of the Moon", and briefly alluded to by Jay in "Lady of the Fellowship" when she mentioned getting stuck in a "timeless abyss" if they get lost between dimensions.
- The Division of Applied-and-theoretical Multiversal Physics in HST 2012 was in a storage closet in the DMSE&R labs.
- There is a very old couch in the DMSE&R labs that Christianne thinks could've been around since the late seventies, but since that predates even Makes-Things arriving in HQ (and is, in fact, probably during the Civil War on Origin), she's probably exaggerating.
- Dr Horatio Graves is one of the first members of DAMP. I picture him looking a bit like the dad from Jordan Peele's Us, which makes him getting stuffed into a tiny storage closet (Winston Duke is 6'5") even funnier.
- Confirmation that Christianne and Eledhwen have, in fact, been getting therapy! With Jenni Robinson and Mirrad, respectively! Thanks, Nesh, for looking over their lines and helping me work out those scenes.
- There's a variant of Witness Protection offered, presumably, to people like OFU Course Coordinators on the run. Its acronyms are, funnily enough, CPP. They have absolutely no relation to the other CPP. I think.
- Agents Baklava, Jam, and Meringue from IAHF2 have names! Baklava is Melody Hearth, cousin of Nurse Carleton Hearth, Jam is James Abadie, and Meringue is Hannah Rothberg.
- ...And Part 4 talks very briefly about how that Merge between the IAHFs was averted. Turns out in 2012 I was aware of the parodies and stuff of IAHF and was planning to use them in the Grand Finale! Yeah.
So that's pretty much what Eledhwen and Christianne were up to before they started specialising in BBC Sherlock and defeating meatloaf monsters. I'm going to continue going through unfinished missions and finishing them up, too, so I guess this isn't the last time you'll hear from E and C.

Re: flashback tie-up story by doctorlit on 2022-06-09 13:16:31 UTC Reply

(Sorry I took so long to read this; my computer is dead and I've been quite busy!)

Oh, my gosh! I'm sorry you had lost interest in completing "Bled Times," but I'm glad you came back to wrap it up. This has been an immensely enjoyable story, both for Christianne and Eledhwen's relationship, and for the multiversal war drama. I love me complex plot that crosses the PPC over with an OFU and another multiverse, while involving time travel and underground resistance! E+C were very cute, watching them slowly get closer to each other over time, although that also made the fight at the end of part three hurt all the more. The repetitiveness of all the solo missions Christianne went through really got across the monotony of her life while Eledhwen was absent. (Excellent and funny usage for your older fics, too!)

The mental block in chat speak form was really clever (and you'd better believe I caught those Cascada lyrics!), and it's interesting that the chat dialogue seemed to be shipping E+C? Was it pulling from Eledhwen's subconscious, or channeling her mirror self's feelings, since m!E was apparently already in love with m!C? Either way, seeing their mirror counterparts was cool and unexpected at the end there, though I feel like I should have seen it coming, especially after the doppelgangers at Mr. Allen's place. (For some reason I assumed they were random Suvians in disguise? Feels pretty dumb in hindsight!) Oh, and Melody and Hannah seem pretty cool too. They have very strong personalities, for how little page time they have; it really makes them feel like whole people who have been active in the background all along!

Some maybe errors?
"Eledhwen sighed, before finally moving aside a box to reveal something that looks suspiciously like dried blood."
"Looked" to match the tense?

"'You keep moving back and forth between two Word Worlds in two multiverses, and they might stop becoming two separate things altogether.'"
I think either "become" or "stop being" are more what you're trying to say here?

"'I felt as though my fae was wandering through the dark, beset in dreams and in waking by Lilith’s cruelty.'"
I don't speak Sindarin, but Eledhwen used the word "fea" in an earlier chapter, and I think that's what got autocorrected here?

—doctorlit very much enjoyed!

Thanks!! by Lily Winterwood on 2022-06-09 14:48:31 UTC Reply

To be fair, the disinterest in completing IAHF2 was because I moved to BBC Sherlock fandom, which was when I really got going on writing PPC missions, so... was it that much of a shame? ;P

Re: chatspeak mental block -- IAHF2 had an April Fool's-esque chapter where the writer of Imogene's story "hacked" IAHF and made everyone speak in bad grammar, and Eledhwen had been in that chapter, hence her returning to HQ with badfic-induced aphasia. But yeah, in-universe it could be some Mirror Multiverse channelling, since the Imogene story is meant to take place in Mirror!IAHF.

I'm glad you like Melody and Hannah! They showed up as Baklava and Meringue in Imogene's story and IAHF2, but now they get to be proper characters with proper names. They'll be showing up again, at least in the StWWX mission!

Fixed the first two errors -- first one's kinda aaaaaugh because I have been writing a lot of my non-PPC fic in present tense (I blame screenplay writing for getting me in the habit). So of course I didn't catch that one. The last one, IIRC "fea" is Quenya, whereas "fae" is Sindarin, so if I had Eledhwen saying fea earlier, that would be the mistake. :P

Can't find the other "fea" now, not sure what I was thinking. Sorry! by doctorlit on 2022-06-09 19:46:30 UTC Reply

Sounds like I need to read some of your fans' stories to get the full picture!

—doctorlit on lunch break

I mean, it's 2011-era writing, so... by Lily Winterwood on 2022-06-13 01:03:51 UTC Edited Reply

It's pretty early Tumblr-y. I personally cringe a bit at IAHF, but that's me :P

Incidentally, I went digging and I found an MST I did back in 2008 of one of my fics that got sporked in ASMWA part 4. ~~I can't believe Christianne's crush on Dafydd was just straight up written out back then. Oh god she's had a thing for Noldos all along.~~

Also, RE "fea": I think I realised where it was, went back, and fixed it. So thanks for bringing it up anyway!

Fun fun. by Huinesoron on 2022-05-30 21:08:40 UTC Reply

I fully admit I got basically none of the byplay, but I was happy to just let the story wash over me. The food descriptions were good for that, actually - makes it feel much more slice-of-life. Ditto the many and varied forms of names; it makes it feel like I don't have to try to follow, it will happen regardless.

I am not at all sure how Agent hS managed to get a foodstuff named after him, though. O.o

hS

The Huinesorollon is 100% for the pun. by Lily Winterwood on 2022-05-30 21:38:00 UTC Reply

Something tells me agent!hS's DAS colleagues had a hand in getting a sushi roll named after him...