#RoadmapRoadtrip

[infinitethree]

OOC:: Welcome to a discussion of my current sub-hyperfixation, aka Daz's Backstory, aka Blood & Gold (or Gilded; Guilted, the previous/placeholder title), aka me gleefully planning to emotionally bludgeon my readers with a baseball bat I hammered nails into.

I'm not even going to pretend I won't need a cut here.

Fun fact: Innit is new. Innit is the manifestation of a metaphor that decided to grows its own goddamned legs and start sprinting.

It's...it exists somewhere in between the space between an alter and not an alter? Daz is just a special snowflake who accidentally made the right conditions for his admin side to manifest as more or less its own entity.

It's not evil, just deeply traumatized in Several Ways. The hoodie color is more a stubborn refusal to stop wearing red + wanting to be different from the existing color it had worn. And calling it a monster, its not-quite-right appearance, and its pronouns are...for some complicated reasons that boil down to 'admins are Built A Little Different and what's good for a normal ass person is VERY bad for an admin'.

I did not consider that OOPS it looks kinda like I'm demonizing alters! Which 1. isn't the intent and 2. Innit isn't entirely one of those. It's...closer to an extreme version of a common trait of improperly raised admins. Dream has a much more mild and not self-aware version.

I'm going to be trying to toe the line between explaining enough to be interesting but not so much there's no point in reading. Even if you DO know how it ends, there should ideally be at least SOME curiosity about what the fuck happened to make Daz so...aggressively Daz.

The biggest problem will be on if my muse can manage to chew on this fast enough to outpace Daz's rapidly approaching introduction in Three to the Infinite.

Though, to be fair, that might just raise a lot MORE interest.

Anyway, I'd like to take a moment to share my lovely organizational methods.

So here is (most) of the key. And this is part of what it looks like in use:

Checkmark means that this chapter is, at this point in time, more or less done. I don't need to worry about it other than checking details against things later on. The ! means that there's an outline of the broad strokes of the chapter done. The books mean that this chapter has two POVs, Tommy and Dream. Then is the outline. And after that, not pictured, is...something a little special. The one on the first chapter is this:

The curtains rise; the book falls open.

It’s familiar and yet…not.

Or maybe it is. Who are we to tell you what you’ve seen before?

AKA I'm going to be ominous and meta on main and nobody can stop me. These are the Ominous Asides in the chapter summaries! There's one for every chapter.

I'm going to be tagging the fic with Deux Ex Machina because, well. Obviously the T3 show up. That's kind of a given at this point. But people who aren't familiar with my bullshit are NOT going to be expecting that and it feels rude to make them wait and then spring that on them without warning.

Oh, yeah, also--this will be fully written, ideally actually beta'd, and scheduled to go live on a consistent basis until it's all up. This has already saved my ass because I cannot emphasize how much Innit did not exist like three weeks ago! Innit is brand fucking new and sort of important now!

I would also like to emphasize that the bits of that were written at the very VERY start, aka mid December...are now almost entirely being scrapped. Some turns of phrase might be re-used but, uh...currently something like 13k is left in the discard bin.

My stated goal with this is to make people cry. I want incoherent keyboard smashing and "NOOOOOO WHY"'s in the comments. I want to build up something beautiful and then set it on fire so that everyone screams because YOU STUPID BASTARD YOU COULD HAVE HAD IT ALL AND INSTEAD. INSTEAD YOU DO THIS?!

Some (but nowhere near all) of the tags that will be used are: Mutually Possessive, Protege Tommy, Tragedy, Major Character Death, Amoral Tommy, Administrator Dream, & Administrator Tommy. And did I mention there's extreme fluff? That I'll be using to cause maximum pain? And EXTREME foreshadowing?? For the same reason??

Eagle-eyed readers of this askblog will be able to spot the seemingly minor thing that Dream does that heavily contributes to everything going sideways in the way it does. I very much hope someone catches it and calls me out on it.

Hmm. Maybe I should make a note to give a prize if anyone can figure that out. That could be interesting.

#cocochaos #roadmaproadtrip #Blood&Gold hypetrain

[infinitethree]

OOC::

I DIDN'T FORGET THIS TIME!

Chapters three AND four now up, rip Quackity, you pissed off the wrong people.

and because I'm not sure if I'll be able to work it in elsewhere; the chapter title that got yeeted was "A Crown of Eranthis". Erantis symbolizes hope, new beginnings, and rebirth.

It would be the next chapter chronologically, but uh...things got shuffled because of tone issues. So A Fistful of Petunias (one of my absolute FAVORITE titles) got shifted to be the first chapter of the next fic.

...Though, ngl, I could still have A Crown of Eranthis be the second chapter. Eeh. Depends on how the tone shakes out, and if I need to split things up again.

There are a LOT of words after the cut, largely about overall plans.

In other news, I have a decent chunk of the next chapter of Chaos, Fitting In, and Sibling Acceptance Rituals done. Shenanigans happen.

I hope everyone is ready for Caper and Spark, the time looping Tommy and Dream. And if his majesty decides to grace us with his fucking presence, Ranboo Prime!

++ I have a lose plan for how things will shake out from there. This plan is roughly:

2-4 chapters left for Chaos, Fitting In, and Sibling Acceptance Rituals. At minimum there will be the Prank Guild and a chapter wrapping it all up. A Path As Unlikely As It Is Inevitable: somewhere in the ballpark of 5-6 chapters. Interspersed multiverse travel & slice of life segments. Progress is a Relative Thing (as is Okay): Adjustments. You'll understand what that means when we get there. Unclear number of chapters. Swords, Shields, and a Beating Heart: 4+ chapters. Take a wild guess who shows their faces! Bastard lad is introduced for the (chronological) first time. There's a solid chance this will only be more confusing for people, but that's fine! That's what his whole goddamned backstory fic exists for.

...But the Stars Shine Brightest at Night: 2+ chapters. Setup is paid off, Daz is shown to be a terrifying fucker, etc etc.

And that's the current plan. Will things change? Probably, yeah! Do I know how? Fuck no, my muse is a chaotic bitch who just decided that tonight was the night to finish A Grave Tactical Error for no fucking reason.

Speaking of which, for those curious about the plans on THAT end of the timeline:

Quiet Strengths, Often Overlooked: 2 chapters. Reformation Team is formed. You get to see it this time! Favorite chapter title is "A Fistful of Petunias".

Plans and Revelations: 5 chapters. Reactions. Favorite chapter title is "Jaisone Choked by Columbine". It only slightly wins out over my second favorite.

Begrudgingly Accepted Assistance: 3 chapters. A visit. Technically, these are all done already. However, they were written before All Things Being Equal was started. There are definitely some major alterations that will need to be made. Favorite chapter title is "Azaela-scented Hope".

Fifty-Two Cards, Twenty Questions: 2 chapters. Healing and information. Favorite chapter title is "Is the Path Lined with Asphodel, or Mock Oranges?".

Something Close to Freedom: 2 chapters. An unexpected result. This is the final part of the reformation arc. While others might take place in that time frame, this is all that's currently planned. Favorite chapter title is "Solidago Hanging by the Door".

After that, things get a little murkier. I think I want to do something a bit more slice of life to fill things in and be a bit of a breather. This is where you might see ones like "To He Who Holds the World" or "An Undead Ex-President" be rewritten to adhere to the new timeline/events.

And then we have the BIG rewrites. These titles are, very obviously, placeholder ones. No idea how long they'll be, but there are mmmmm a few changes already becoming clear. :)

Visions 2: Electric Boogaloo (tentative title: The Past that Haunts): I have no fucking clue if Vio will remain the primary POV character or if Day will grab that from him again! I'm so torn, because on one hand...the glory of Vio realizing that Day knows about this reality because he lived through it. On the other, Day! Day POV!! I might start with Vio and swap to Day. Even so, that might mean losing out on the 'what the fuck am I experiencing right now' confusion of Day waking up in canonland. Some extra elements are in play that will alter things significantly. minor fun fact: Visions has the highest number of kudos by a notable margin! People really, REALLY like Day apparently! I can't blame them, he's so good. Vacation: The Revengence: The least-planned one. We're gonna get some fun interactions this time. Does this mean Theo spotting Niki and wordlessly radiating 'get near my family and fucking DIE' energy? Yes. Yes it does. That also might happen in the last one, again, still unsure. Dee and Tubbo still get along like a house on fire, and might even light a literal house on fire. Them being weird uncles to Michael will almost certainly be dropped, I'm sorry to the possible one person who liked it. Also likely to be dropped is the visit with Dream and Techno. I will absolutely find another use for the 'you're a garbage man with garbage words trying to build a throne from your TRASH' line from Orph because it's one of my favorites. Heavy Handed 2: 2 Heavy, 2 Handed (tentative title: Dies, Died, Will Die; Lives, Lived, Will Live): The current chapters will still more or less be there, just...redone. There's also two new chapters planned--Day talking w/ Sapnap, George, Ant, and Bad, and then Day, Vio, and Sam. Those are both FRAUGHT conversations that Theo isn't going to be present for for. Obvious reasons. Like, one is deeply personal due to feelings of abandonment and betrayal (which Theo would ABSOLUTELY resent them for) and the other is personal due to the literal torture that Sam condoned (which Theo would try to murder Sam for and tbh might STILL try and murder him for). There are a few other changes planned. Ones that maybe impact a few things. :) Still probably no actual fight though lmao. In all honesty, I would seriously consider throwing that element, and consequently this entire fic, out if it hadn't been referenced several times already later on. Day has a solid reason to want to move over (Atlas can't leave the SMPza due to admin bullshit, they're effectively all trapped there due to being unwilling to leave him behind) and Vio has a good reason to want to force Day to tell the truth about his past (if/when it got uncovered later nobody will ever trust him again + he would NOT want the angry, resentful immortal who went through horrible torture to skip out on therapy). But since it was, it's staying in. Aaand that's about it! I'll be using the tag RoadmapRoadtrip for any further talk of future plans.

We're...going to save the things going on with Blood & Gold (Daz's backstory, tentative title.) for another time. Bastard lad deserves his own post and also this one is getting LONG.

#CocoChaos #FicUpdates #RoadmapRoadtrip #go me I remembered to post it here for once! #Hero my beloved #Hero now has a way to talk and this is BAD NEWS for everyone #fun fact Blood & Gold's working title has been Gilded; Guilted #but it doesn't really make sense for a stand alone fic #it is now 2 am. Time marches on.