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sobriquett · 3 years

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Dear Trick or Treat Author

Dear Trick or Treat Author,

[WIP: 23:50 BST 19/09/21]

What a wonderful time of year! (Or is that Yuletime? Nearly there too!)

Hello! I am very easily pleased so please take this as a starting point if you need some ideas but otherwise write what makes you happy! I know horror tropes/genre are in my dislikes but if you want to write a scary trick, you do that, yes please! Just play within the canonical world (werewolves in Milton-Northern, vampires at Thornfield, ghosts at the White House) and I'll be a happy reader (but please still stay aware from my gore-related DNWs!).

My normal ramble about what I enjoy in fic isn't really relevant to a 300+ word exchange but you can find it in past letters, click the letter tag.

That said, things missing from my main signup include these:

Loves: exploration of power imbalances Likes: epistolary

My fandoms are in alphabetical order (ish), so here we go!

1. 16th Century CE RPF

Anne Boleyn Anne of Cleves Catherine of Aragon Catherine Parr Elizabeth I of England Henry VIII of England Margaret Pole Countess of Salisbury Robert Dudley 1st Earl of Leicester Thomas Seymour (1508 – 1549)

I've been on a bit of a Philippa Gregory kick this summer reading the Cousins' War series out of order. I'd love more stories about these figures – with some of them (Henry VIII in particular!) it's pretty easy to lean into the trick side of things, but there's treat potential too. Add more characters if you want; I've been reading histories and historical novels on this period for many, many years so if you drop in Maria de Salinas or Stephen Fisher or Kat Ashley or Thomas Cromwell or anyone I'm up for that, but I am also a laidback reader and this is a low-stress exchange, don't tie yourself in knots over accuracy. (Although I would, and I'd definitely recommend Ruth Goodman's How to be a Tudor if you haven't read it, even if you're not normally a non-fiction reader.)

What if [any utterly disastrous thing] didn't happen, or perhaps was somehow worse? Did Elizabeth and Dudley actually have some happiness in a romance, however brief? How did Anne of Cleves feel to retire as the King's beloved sister? What was Margaret Pole thinking on the morning of her execution? Is Henry VIII haunted by the ghosts of some of those he killed: friends and lovers and family? Did anything actually happen between Elizabeth I and Thomas Seymour (There's historical room for a secret pregnancy in the country…)

2. Downton Abbey

Mary Crawley Edith Crawley Sybil Crawley Matthew Crawley Tom Branson Robert Crawley Cora Crawley Violet Crawley Isobel Crawley Lavinia Swire Anna Bates Evelyn Napier Freda Dudley Ward Marigold Crawley George Crawley Ship: Tom Branson/Sybil Crawley

This is like my TV comfort blanket. I rewatched it this year and I am interested in just about every main character except, oddly, Thomas – who is the favourite fic character of most writers! Give me a missing moment, a look at the future, a glance at the past, a look from the outside – whatever. Any point in, before or after canon is cool with me, except I tend to skim a lot of S4 (ugh, that rape storyline, please don’t use that).

Do ghosts walk the halls of Downton Abbey? What is life like in Ireland for Tom and Sybil? Do any of the characters ever feel a moment of true despair? What if Matthew had died in the war? What does the future hold for these characters? How did Robert, Cora and Violet get on in the 1890s? What was Carson like with Mary/Edith/Sybil as children? Does it parallel his relationship with their children?

3. The Good Place

Eleanor Shellstrop Chidi Anagonye Tahani Al-Jamil Jason Mendoza Michael Janet

This is another show I can watch over and over and over. I think Chidi's my favourite but it's hard to be sure. I can tell you I absolutely sobbed during the S3 finale and I was a wreck for the S4 finale. Tug my heartstrings, make me laugh, make me cry, I don't care! I've studied philosophy and despised it so I'll take or leave what you include on that score, I just love the characters. Please include any or all other characters you'd like, but I definitely ship Eleanor/Chidi over Chidi/Simone! Although I'll take angst in that direction too! I don't know, I feel like a kid in a candy store writing this letter: hyper and having trouble deciding between all the possible wonders!

Existential dread? Moments from their human lives? Moments from the good place? Please tell me more about the time knife. Does Michael return to the good place when he dies? Does he reunite with Janet and/or Tahani?

4. Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre Edward Rochester Adele Varens Ship: Jane Eyre/Edward Rochester

This is my favourite classic novel, I reread it every couple of years, most recently in 2020 for Yuletide. My reading of it changes each time, and I increasingly believe that Rochester is more bad guy than good guy and that Jane Eyre lies as a narrator and is as prejudiced and superior as those she crititcises for the same qualities. But I still love her, and that she says she got a happy ending.

Is Rochester more of a villain? How? How does Adele find school, either the one Rochester sends her to, or the one Jane moves her to? Post-canon happiness? Post-canon unhappiness? A scene from the engagement? A missing moment between the non-wedding and Jane running away? What if the wedding wasn't interrupted? (Full disclosure: I'm writing this too.) Canon divergence for, well, anything? Is Adele separated from Sophie? How does that go, how does she manage?

5. Memoirs of a Geisha

Nitta Sayuri Mameha Nobu Toshikazu Ship: Nitta Sayuri/Nobu Toshikazu Ship: Mameha/Matsunaga Tsuneyoshi | The Baron

6. North and South

Margaret Hale John Thornton Hannah Thornton Bessy Higgins Ship: Margaret Hale/John Thornton

7. Stardew Valley

Female Player Sebastian Shane Harvey Robin Elliott Leah Marlon Ship: Shane/Female Player Ship: Sebastian/Female Player Ship: Lewis/Marnie

Do Sebastian and the farmer go on any more bike rides? How did Lewis and Marnie’s relationship start? Are they ever found out? Why does Lewis want to keep it secret? Why is he such an arsehole to Marnie? Tales of the purple shorts. Tell me more about Harvey’s nerdy hobbies or fear of heights? What happened with Robin and Sebastian’s dad? The horrors of the mines, or the skull cavern? Is Leah frightened by the things that go bump in the night near her home? Is Elliott? Some angst or h/c around a wounded farmer, being found/nursed? Or how about some angst/horror in which... they’re not? Fics about the war with the Gotoro Empire?

8. Star Trek: Voyager

Kathryn Janeway Chakotay Tuvok Kes Seven of Nine Naomi Wildman

I’ve been a J/C shipper since before I knew shipping was a thing (as a kid, I had all the two-parters, S5&6, and Resolutions on video. Pre-internet, how did I even know which episode Resolutions one? Shippy magic instinct, I guess?) So apart from that ship, or canonical relationships, I would prefer genfic please. I also don’t mind the other Voyager characters so they’re welcome to make an appearance, but these are the ones that interest me.

9. The West Wing

CJ Cregg Josh Lyman Sam Seaborn Abbey Bartlet Charlie Young Donna Moss Jed Bartlet Leo McGarry Toby Ziegler Zoey Bartlet

Happy writing!

Sobriquett

#dear author letter #16th century rpf #downton abbey #the good place #jane eyre #memoirs of a geisha #north and south #stardew valley #star trek voyager #the west wing #trick or treat exchange

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bittersoulmates · 4 years

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Just came across the mention notification for this, so thank you to @big-horsejy for tagging me ilu bunches

(to anyone that ever tags me in stuff: pls DM me if I don't acknowledge your post bc that means I didn't see it)

[top four ships]

I don't really engage with the shipping part of fandom anymore (at least beyond convos with people) so these are just couples I love in no particular order lmao

idgie threadgoode + ruth jamison

jake peralta + amy santiago

eleanor shellstrop + chidi anagonye

Dr. Lexi La Fleur + JT Brown

[last song I listened to]

gentle on my mind by johnny cash

[currently reading]

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Café by Ms. Fannie Flagg

[food craving]

could really go for a storm brew beer and some chocolate cake (not together but I've been thinking about both since I woke up this morning akshdj)

I'm tagging everyone that sees this! Tag me &/or shoot me a DM if you decide to post!!

#tag games #about me

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the-paris-of-people · 5 years

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I’m really, really tempted to write the backstory behind Chidi and Eleanor’s kiss at the train station, in a reboot where Chidi and Eleanor both have different soulmates.

Initially, they hate each other. Chidi thinks Eleanor’s crass and selfish and incapable of change, and Eleanor thinks Chidi is boring and rigid and unable to cut loose. But slowly, they develop this deep intimacy unmatched by either of their soulmates- they fall asleep on the couch after reading side-by-side, they binge-watch Keeping Up with the Kardashians while munching on popcorn shrimp, and they dangle their legs off the dock while they share their deepiest secrets, tweezed out of Eleanor by Chidi’s warm eyes, tumbling out of Chidi by Eleanor’s lifted eyebrows. Talking is so easy and natural, and the world grows more vibrant when they’re together. Eleanor’s rickety chairs sink like suede couches, and frozen yogurt melts like ice cream on their tongues, and the neighborhood air suddenly smells fresh and sweet and free. Slowly, they touch each other casually more and more- Chidi skims Eleanor’s arm to congratulate her on a well-written paper, and Eleanor seizes any excuse to hug Chidi, and soon, they realize they never want to leave each other’s side.

But it all befuddles Chidi. He’s not supposed to have feelings for Eleanor. She’s not even supposed to be here, and he’s her teacher, and he’s supposed to be in love with someone else- a beautiful woman named Maria with a penchant for deontology and an appreciation of maafe and a willingness to plan the romantic dates that Chidi’s always dreamed of. But even with her sweet disposition and her soft voice, Eleanor is the one Chidi can’t stop thinking about. He imagines weaving his fingers through her hair while they kiss, and waking up with her head tucked underneath his chin, and scolding her when she brushes her teeth too hastily and claims “it’s The Good Place, and cavities don’t exist.” He lets his longing spring to life only at night, and as he slips into tranquil sleep, he’s filled with joy as he remembers that, even though he has to bury his feelings way down deep, at least he gets to teach Eleanor tomorrow morning.

The six month anniversary party of the neighborhood rolls around and Chidi’s more nervous than ever- he has to somehow act cool in front of both Maria AND Eleanor, and at Tahani’s fancy mansion, too. He can’t handle it. He can barely lie about what he ate for breakfast, how can he make it through an entire night? He’s jumpy as he strolls in with Maria on his arm, grabbing a glass of white wine from Janet to ease his pain.

Then spots Eleanor across the room, and he loses it.

She doesn’t look much different from usual (aside from the red lipstick and the black dress), but she just illuminates the room. She’s confident and funny and brave and wonderful. She’s all Chidi can see and it makes him dizzy. Immediately, she strides towards him from across the room, winking and dishing out a bold compliment about his well-fitting suit. He mumbles incoherently, something about how nice she looks, and she spits back a joke that causes him to groan and laugh and ache all at once.

A Billie Holliday song spills over the grand floor, and Eleanor clears her throat.

“Well, um-” She tucks her hair behind her ears. “I better be getting back to Chris.”

“Oh, no!” Maria insists. “Friends should at least share one dance together. Chris and I will sit this one out. I’m sure he’ll be okay with it.”

Chidi stammers out an excuse as Maria walks towards the bar, but Eleanor rolls her eyes. She pulls Chidi towards her.

“What could one dance hurt?” she claims, swaying back and forth with him to the crooning voice.

Chidi should be anxious and frightened. He should be stiff, paralyzed from head to toe, soaked underneath his button down.

But being held in Eleanor’s arms, her hand pressed against his back, he’s filled with something he’s never felt before. He’s relaxed. He’s joyful. He’s calm. It’s funny, really, she was meant to strike chaos in his haven, then she brought light into it instead.

“So,” He begins. “You haven’t stolen any shrimp yet, or threatened to rob Tahani’s gold, or snatched my glass of wine from my hand...”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m such a good person,” Eleanor scoffs, then she perks up and exclaims, “Hey! I’m such a good person now! Suck on that, old Eleanor!”

Chidi shakes his head and chuckles.

“And, hey, buddy, you’re not sweating through your jacket,” She notices, affectionately rubbing her hands up and down his back. “Usually halfway through your first glass of wine, you’re soaked through your shirt.”

Chidi tilts his head at Eleanor. She remembered that about him? Eleanor Shellstrop, who forgot he was from Senegal, that he was a college professor, that he had two sisters, catalogued that he could barely make it through half a glass of wine without breaking into a sweat?

“Chidi?” She asks softly. “Are you okay?”

“I- um, I don’t, well you see- I just-” His mind clears as his eyes drop to her colored lips. “Eleanor, I just-”

The ground below them quakes.

“Earthquake!” Michael bellows. Chidi freezes with the trembling of the floor, but of course, Eleanor whisks him to safety. He follows her lead as she dashes behind the frozen yogurt shop. He clings to her as she strokes his back, waiting until the tremors grind to a halt.

“Hey, Chidi,” She takes his face in her hands and repeats herself. “Chidi? Are you okay?”

He drowns in her eyes, then snaps himself out of it. He’s not supposed to be here. He’s not supposed to be here. The laws of the universe were immutable, and this was just another reason rules weren’t supposed to be broken. They weren’t supposed to dance together and they did, and the ground below them TREMBLED. They literally caused a natural disaster with their bond. And he ran away from his soulmate because he was so focused on staying with Eleanor. What the actual fork was he doing?

“I have to go,” He murmurs without so much as a glance. “Goodbye, Eleanor.”

He knows her face is falling as he scampers off.

***

The next morning, Eleanor pulls him aside at the neighborhood meeting.

“Dude, something isn’t right,” She hisses. “We dance together as friends and a forking earthquake happens? Don’t you see what’s going on? Michael’s messing with us! Don’t worry, I have a plan.. I asked Janet and she called us a train to go-”

“Look, Eleanor,” Chidi cuts her off. His heart sinks as her eye take ahold of him. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think we can be friends anymore.”

“What?” Her smile drops. She folds her arms. “Are you forking kidding me, Chidi?”

“Listen, I’m sorry, but... I have to obey the onus I have to this community, to Maria... I can’t just abandon my code of morality to help you.”

“I thought your code of morality included keeping a promise?” Eleanor challenges. “What happened to what we owe to each other? Last time I checked, I kind of thought we told each other we were best friends.”

“Eleanor,” He steps forward to comfort her.

“Can it, Chidi,” She snaps, her eyes already red-rimmed. “I’ll just escape by myself. I don’t need you, anyway.”

***

He’s still heaving sighs when he gets to his apartment. Maria’s helping out with the damage, and he promised her he’d change and meet her there.

How could he hurt her like that? How could he watch her be hurt like that? He knew he had made other people in his life miserable with his indecision, but this, this ripped out his heart, watching her fight her tears. He loved her, and he hurt her.

He traces the copy of What We Each Other on the counter.

He loved her, and he hurt her.

What the hell was he doing?

It was always Eleanor. He loved Eleanor. It didn’t matter how or what or when or why, but he needed to get on that train with her. He needed to be with her.

He sweeps his clothes into a bag, scribbles a note to Maria, and runs down to the train station as fast as he possibly can.

She turns around to meet his eyes.

Eleanor.

He tosses his bag to the side and she drops hers and he rushes forward to show her how he feels. He cradles her face and places his lips gently on hers. Her lips are soft and sweet and gentle in return to his, and he can feel her, feel as she curls herself into his body, sighing into the kiss as if she’s dreamed about this as much as Chidi has.

They can’t stop gazing at each other after they pull away.

“Chidi,” Eleanor utters softly, sliding her hands across his back.

“Eleanor,” Chidi replies, drawing her closer to him.

He embraces her until the train pulls in.

Tagging @alys07 @ellascinders @cheleanorwhore @montygreen @chidi-anagonye @foreveranevilregal @opal-and-rust @shirbertbellarkeblythe @gordongordon because I thought you would enjoy!

#im sorry #cheleanor #cheleanorfic #tgpfic #the good place #sorry this ended up being so fucking long #i wanted to write a legit fic for this but whoops!#also im sure this is littered with grammatical and continuity errors buttttt #grace was too lazy to edit

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queenread · 6 years

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The Best Way to Get Over Someone...

Fandom: The Good Place

Ship: Eleanor x Tahani

Tags: Friends to Lovers, Canon Divergence AU when they’re on earth in the study group, let’s just make everything gay

Read on AO3 x

Eleanor Shellstrop was not one to develop “feelings”. Sure, she’d let someone hang around if they were minimally annoying and half decent in bed, but she didn’t actually care about them. She liked the convenience.

But for awhile, she’d been in love with one of her best friends: Chidi Anagonye. And yes, that was a bold statement. It’s probably more accurate to say she was obsessed with him. She thought about his stupid face all the time. She thought about how jacked he was. She thought about the long, boring talks they had about ethics. She pictured them together and how well they’d work as a couple. It was nauseating. She nauseated herself, and she definitely nauseated the random strangers she forced to listen to her talk about him. Even her friends who didn’t have a clue about her feelings had to listen to her talk about this thing Chidi said or Chidi’s opinion on that. It’s like she stopped being her own person and became Chidi’s number one fan. He was just a dumb nerd. And he had a girlfriend.

So that was a thing, and she dealt with it in her normal, unhealthy way. She was mean to him any chance she got. She slept with multiple people to get him out of her brain. She pictured killing both him and his perfect girlfriend in some sort of fire that could look like an accident. She even skipped class for a week to get some distance. She locked herself in her hotel room, drank everything in the mini fridge, and drilled into her head all the ways they would be bad together.

There were plenty of ways. He’s a boring nerd and she’s a fun hotty. She didn’t even like being in relationships, especially ones with real feelings. She’s independent and selfish and doesn’t think about other people enough for it to work. Not to mention he was currently in a goddamn relationship with a nice girl. All of this should’ve work in theory. There was no logical reason for Eleanor to be this hung up on him. But she was. And as much as she tried to push it away, the obsession was still there. Some people would call that love, but Eleanor called it idiotic.

All that was left to do was to drink like it was the end of the world. So she went out with her friends (which she had now) including Chidi and his lovely girlfriend. Flash forward three hours and Eleanor was piss drunk in a corner booth with Tahani of all people. Tahani was moaning about something and Eleanor was pretending to listen while thinking about Chidi’s surprisingly strong arms.

“We’re from different worlds, him and I,” said Tahani. “Really it makes no sense...but he’s so pretty I can’t stop thinking about him and his smile and his cheekbones…” she trailed off.

“What?” Said Eleanor, suddenly listening. “Who’s pretty?”

“Jason,” said Tahani.

“You like Jason???” she asked, her jaw dropping.

“Yes,” groaned Tahani. “I know it’s silly.”

“Yeah it is! I mean don’t get me wrong, he’s a total babe and I get it. But have you seen you?? You’re the most beautiful woman in the world!”

“Eleanor!”

“It’s true! You’re like a tan...statue of liberty. You can do so much better than Jason.”

“Thank you Eleanor, really. But it’s clearly not a logical thing. He once asked me if I went to Hogwarts. He’s just so sweet, and he’s always there. I can’t seem to get over him.”

Eleanor sighed. “I know what you mean,” she said.

“You do??” asked Tahani.

“Yeah...I may have some dumb feelings for Chidi.”

“Ahhh” said Tahani. “That’s a tough one.”

“Girlfriend,” said Eleanor.

“Girlfriend,” agreed Tahani.

“It’s so stupid. And so hopeless. And I thought I’d be over it by now. But like you said he’s just always around and I can’t shake this stupid feeling.”

“It is stupid,” said Tahani, nodding to herself. “I mean you’re quite beautiful, Eleanor. You’re like a blonde...kitty cat.”

“Thanks.”

“I mean it! Anyone would be lucky to have you.”

“You’re not wrong there.”

“Beautiful…”

“Ok, that’s enough for the statue.”

“You are beautiful...and I can drink as much as I please.”

“What are you drinking?” asked a tall, rather good looking man. “I’ll get you another.” He flashed his blindingly white teeth at Tahani and waited.

“Thank you, kind sir,” said Tahani. “But I am drinking with my lovely kitty cat here.” She stroked Eleanor’s hair.

“Hi, I’m Eleanor, the kitty cat,” she said, offering her hand. “Nice to meet you.” She caught Tahani’s eye and they both snickered. Eleanor had never noticed how big Tahani’s eyes were. You could get lost in them. You could take up a residence in those eyes. How long was she staring at her? Eleanor finally looked away.

The tall guy was gone. Tahani was still giggling to herself.

“Bartender?” said Eleanor suddenly. A waiter walked over.

“Yeah, what can I get you?” he asked.

“I’ve changed my mind,” she said. “Two shots of tequila please!”

“Yes!” shouted Tahani.

“And two for the lovely lady!”

“Oh my word.”

Shots in hand, Eleanor raised a toast. “To being hot! And forgetting about dumb boys!”

“Here here!”

The next morning, Eleanor woke up to a blinding headache. She groaned and covered her eyes to block out the sun. Turning away from the window, she saw none other than Tahani Al-Jamil next to her in bed. She was wide awake and completely naked.

“Good morning, Eleanor.”

#Eleanor x Tahani #The good place #elhani #Fanfic #tgp ff #mine #shut up sam #lesbian fanfic #let's go lesbians!!#tahani al jamil #eleanor shellstrop #friends to lovers #canon divergent au #wip #tgp spoilers

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disregardcanon · 6 years

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so..... raven cycle characters in the good place au? featuring pynch and chengsey but not in large doses

contains major spoilers for the good place if anyone hasn’t seen that and would like to go in unspoiled. for real, you don’t want to be spoiled for this show by a textpost version of an au

for those of you that have seen it, this only follows up to the end of s1 but i might continue that later. if that were to happen the chengsey would probably become sarchengsey

THIS IS MORE THAN 5K WHAT THE FORK

a very brief, approximate rundown of character roles

ronan as eleanor shellstrop with some hints of jason mendoza

henry as jason mendoza... in the jianyu way but not the jason way, really

gansey as chidi anagonye

adam parrish as tahani al-jamil

blue sargent as michael

noah czerny as mindy st. claire

“you, ronan lynch, are dead,” blue sargent tells him, “welcome to the good place.”

blue sargent is apparently the architect of the neighborhood and not human (who would name a real human baby blue sargent?) and not actually a tiny human woman with kinky hair and light brown skin and a face that goes from perky, service worker smile to resting bitch face at the drop of a hat. she gives him the rundown of being in the good place. she informs him that he was an avid environmentalist who used his personal fortune to help fund national parks, efforts to save endangered animals, and animal shelters across the country.

this, however, was not ronan lynch’s life... and he definitely isn’t supposed to be here. after his worthwhile life of blowing through his trust fund, spiting his brother for thinking that he’s better than ronan is and trying to control him, doing drugs in the back of kavinsky’s mitsubishi. and then setting off illegal fireworks and setting shit on fire and having angry hate sex with kavinsky and street racing with kavinsky. he died after stealing his brother’s car and wrapping it around a tree, half on purpose. so yeah, there’s no way that he’s supposed to be here in the good place and he knows it.

blue sargent, however, does not need to know that. so ronan lynch does something that he’s never done before, he lies.

“yeah, that was me,” he says. because really? if he’d done good things in his life, saving animals probably would have been one of them. that’s a life he could have led, if he were less of a shitbag. he always liked animals.

sargent brings him to a frozen yogurt place to meet his soulmate, and pretty much everything about that statement seems ridiculous and out there, but he’s in the afterlife, and it sure as fuck ain’t the pearly gates or the fire and brimstone his catholic raised ass was expecting, so he supposes that this is just his new normal.

“some soulmate pairings are romantic,” sargent says, “and some are platonic. yours is platonic. fated to be best friends- closer than brothers”

“great,” ronan says, which is not great at all because he was hoping that maybe there would be some sap on earth who was fated to fall in love with him, and not just be a dude he hated but couldn’t stop having sex with. since they have the wrong history for him, he can’t even complain about declan or talk about how no one would EVER be a better brother than matthew, who was ripped from the world far too young.

he hopes that matthew and his parents are in another neighborhood somewhere, living it up as happy as they could ever be. if anyone deserves to be in the good place, it’s his family, or at least the dead parts of it.

“ronan lynch, this is your soulmate, richard gansey the third” blue says with a wide smile. seeing him makes it even worse, because he’s handsome, but he’s off limits because it’s “platonic” and ronan wants to put his hand through the fucking wall.

“just call me gansey,” he says with a big, wide smile, “that’s what all my students called me.”

“students?”

“i was a professor of moral philosophy,” gansey says, “but i also taught a few courses on welsh mythology and history.”

“what a nerd,” ronan says before he can shut his god damn mouth. gansey smiles

“that’s the other thing that my students called me,” he says. ronan’s not sold yet, but ronan might not totally hate this guy. that would be a first since his family died.

they tour the neighborhood, sargent telling them all about how new and improved this place is over earth even though it just looks like suburbia. at least, somehow, the afterlife is environmentally friendly? that’s what sargent says, at least. ronan doesn’t know how that would even work.

sargent introduces them to another pair of soulmates about halfway through. the first is adam parrish, who was apparently a high powered lawyer back in life who helped like, the environment or some shit (suspiciously close to ronan’s fake backstory, ronan will have to be careful treading around that topic with him), and his soulmate jiyanu, a taiwanese monk who took a vow of silence.

at least ronan got someone who talks. he’d feel bad for parrish, if the dude weren’t so fucking pretentious that it makes him want to puke. parrish is also really attractive and has hands out of ronan’s dreams but like.... that’s not relevant. the point is that he’s a pretentious dick not that he’s an ATTRACTIVE ONE okay? okay.

ronan is probably pricklier than someone who’s actually good place bound would be, but parrish responds with exactly the level of passive aggressive that ronan would expect from a jerk back on earth, so ronan’s probably alright. if this dude deserves to be here, then ronan can at least match his level of passive aggression without people suspecting that he’s not supposed to be here.

no matter how little ronan wants to admit it, though, he always sort of enjoys talking to parrish. it’s nice to have a break from gansey’s overwhelming cheer or sargent’s “benevolent alien anthropologist” act. jiyanu doesn’t talk, so it’s harder to get to know him. or even care about getting to know him. he looks perpetually uncomfortable, though, which is a weird thing to look in paradise. ronan hopes that he doesn’t look that uncomfortable.

but then again, ronan’s a big, muscly guy with a full back tattoo and leather jacket and a shaved head in a neighborhood that looks like suburbia ate candyland and then shat this monstrosity out, so he was probably going to stand out no matter what.

he stands out a whole lot more the next morning when the good place malfunctions in a multitude of ways that tell him that HE’S the cause. so, he decides that he should probably talk to his ethics professor soulmate to figure out htf he’ll get to stay here.

“so, you’re my soulmate. soul friend?”

“best bud,” gansey suggests.

“and you would never do anything to hurt me, right?”

“yes?” and then ronan confesses that he doesn’t belong here and gansey’s like yup i guess this is my life now and it increases his anxiety tenfold but he promises to help if ronan promises to take ethics classes so that he can learn to be the person that deserves to be in the good place and ronan’s like okay, sure, i guess. books are stupid and learning is stupid but being tortured? is probably more stupid so he’ll deal with books and schools to not do that

he finds out that jiyanu doesn’t belong here pretty soon afterwards, after having a fucking heart attack that the guy was going to rat him out. it turns out that jiyanu isn’t even named jianyu. his name is henry cheng and he’s a drug dealing, backpacking dj from vancouver. his mother’s a mob boss. he’s sometimes involved in her business, sometimes not. he’s always a wayfaring stranger, or a hopeless wanderer, or a druggie bum from vancouver, one of those words that means he’s a traveling dude with no life prospects.

“i’m not even taiwanese, dude. i’m forking korean,” henry groans, and ronan feels like he’s found a kindred spirit in all of this shit. this is way easier to deal with than an actual monk knowing his secret. now they just get to be assholes together.

they meet up in henry’s “bud hole” which he definitely doesn’t call a bud hole, because he has some class. he calls it mr roboto because it’s his secret secret he’s got a secret. he actually says this aloud, singing and all, and ronan starts singing the murder squash song and a beautiful friendship is born.

friends. weird. ronan never had a lot of those. or any, if he’s being honest.

“not being able to talk? that’s the worst thing for me,” henry says, “do you know how much i like to talk?”

“i can guess,” ronan says.

“like, words don’t always work right for me, but i still love to talk,” henry reiterates

“yes, cheng, i get it,” ronan says, because he really would like for the silent monk to go back to being silent, please.

“it’s like torture, lynch, absolute torture. like, if i actually were in the bad place, they couldn’t have come up with a better way to torture me than that.” ronan thinks that’s a bit of stretch, when in the bad place they could literally pour lava over you for all of eternity, but the thought sends a bit of a shiver up his spine.

the good place isn’t so good.

he pushes the thought to the back of his mind. it probably means nothing. he and henry might be here and miserable, but they’re not supposed to be here. gansey? parrish? they might be assholes sometimes, but they did do legit good things. gansey was a fucking ethics professor, and it sounds like parrish took a lot of cases for charity and did all kinds of philanthropy. even though ronan and henry aren’t supposed to be here, those two still are.

---------

back on the topic of henry, henry cheng was a backpacker who dealt drugs and was working through a trust fund of his own and working through more romantic and sexual partners than ronan can even imagine. apparently, his mother was a crime lord from vancouver. he was kidnapped for ransom as a child, and his mother barely cared to get him back. the last thing that happened to him was when one of his former, scorned lovers kidnapped him and demanded ransom from his mother, she refused and that’s how henry cheng died. the scorned lover killing him part is a point of pride. the fact that his mother let them? not so much

---------

gansey finds out about henry soon afterwards. he agrees not to rat out henry either in exchange for even more ethics classes.

“gansey, you are a prince among men,” henry says. and gansey does not blush, he DOESN’T but ronan glares at the ground. the universe gave him a soulmate who’s actually into dudes but not into him? what the fuck, universe. what the fuck.

they take ethics classes, and they get better. and better, and better while feeling worse, and worse, and worse. the neighborhood deteriorates. it seems like everyone’s mental state deteriorates too, even the two that are supposed to be here.

sargent tries to find gansey a new hobby after ripping into the book he spent his life writing. parrish snoops around sargent’s office, and finds out that he had the lowest good person score out of anyone in the neighborhood. he tries as hard as he can to up his score, until he realizes that because he’s dead, he can’t. it eats away a little at him to know that he’s even below ronan lynch, even if the guy isn’t quite as bad as he first thought. at least he can TALK to him, unlike his soulmate monk-ey mcsilence

everything seem to be getting worse.

and then, sargent tries to take credit for all of it. the breakdowns- the tremors- all the things that ronan being here has caused, and tells them all that she will basically be brutally murdered for her failures- ronan’s failures. he hates that gansey made him grow a little bit of a conscience. ronan comes clean. he’s pretty sure that gansey’s disappointed face as he stares at henry is the only thing that gets henry to come clean with him.

parrish doesn’t seem delighted that ronan isn’t supposed to be here, but he does seem pleased- almost smug about it.

“all you rich kids had everything handed to you, and i had to work so hard to get where i got. even here, in the good place. you glided in here on a technicality.”

“you want them to send me to the bad place?” ronan asks, “that’s still a possibility, you know.” if parrish wanted him damned, he probably could make it happen. with lawyer powers and social clout combined, he could probably get it done.

“well, no,” parrish says, “i don’t.” and of course, no actual good person would want another person to be tortured to spite them. to be honest, ronan doesn’t really wish that on any other person, not even declan or kavinsky.

“plus, that gives me at least two people i’m better than here,” parrish says. ronan raises his eyebrow.

“points wise,” parrish says, like that explains everything. they have an in depth conversation about when he snuck into sargent’s office and searched through the scores and his existential crisis about how low his numbers were, and ronan can’t help but laugh. perfect parrish was the worst one here?

“hey,” parrish says, “at least i deserved to be here.” it might have been the least out of any of them, but he still got in on his own merits. ronan got here due to a clerical error.

“you probably had like, ten thousand more points than me if that helps,” ronan says. parrish tries to shrug it off, but ronan can tell that it does. gansey’s across the room, looking like he’s coaching henry on how to get through this situation, and ronan wonders if there wasn’t a clerical error with the soulmates too.

if any of them are soulmates, romantically, it certainly isn’t the pairings they’ve been assigned. gansey and henry might be soulmates, really. and well, looking at the way parrish smiles and the way that his hand curl and the way that he’s feeling- god- fuck- ronan thinks that they might have a possibility too.

adam and henry have a Talk which consists of

“sorry for not speaking for six months”

“i don’t really think i like what you have to say, anyways.”

“that’s fair. we’re definitely not soulmates, are we?”

“i’m not sure we’re even friends”

“ouch, parrish, harsh” and then eventually, they kill each other a million times in video games and decide that it’s alright, i guess. kind of. they’re not going to be friends, but they’re not going to hate each other either. not even enough for hate sex, don’t worry, henry checked.

they bring the person that ronan was apparently switched with up from the bad place. he’s a real environmental lawyer who’s also named ronan lynch, a clean cut Black man with a warm smile and no tattoos who seems liked someone who would have walked across hot coals to help a stranger.

by pretending to belong here, ronan condemned him to months of torture. he probably deserved it when people start calling the other one “real ronan” and him “fake ronan”. that doesn’t mean he likes, it, though. they could call them suit ronan and leather jacket ronan or something.

apparently, henry cheng was somehow switched with an actual taiwanese monk named jiaynu because they died at the same time. who knew?

there’s a whole big plot to try to keep ronan and henry here in the good place, spearheaded by parrish’s lawyer brain and gansey’s ethical heart, and maybe a lawyer heart and an ethical brain too. he thinks that both of them possess both organs, at least.

the bad place sends a demon named trevor to pick up him and henry. trevor reminds ronan too much of kavinsky for comfort. much more than any person should, really. it’s uncanny, and it sets off that same unpleasant feeling in his stomach as henry’s comment about not being able to talk did. the same way that he feels whenever sargent pulls gansey off to do something that gives him anxiety attacks.

gansey tries to balance his best friend energies very carefully between the two ronans, as to not play favorites when either one of them could be his soulmate, really? how are we supposed to know hahaha oh isn’t this gREAT. gansey’s anxiety is a fragile thing, always like a bottle of soda that’s been shaken to the point where if you open it, it WILL burst. people were always too difficult, which was why he avoided them most of the time. they were hard to put up with, harder still to please. gansey preferred his own company.

--------

gansey loves learning. that’s kind of always been his thing. he loves school. he loves knowing things. he loves sinking into a good book and trying to piece together what information from it is relevant. people? not so much. people are tricky. people involve interactions constantly, love and affection. he knows that he could, but that involves taking time away from whatever the obsession of the day is, and gansey never met someone who was interesting enough to detract from his obsession of the day back on earth, even his family.

his sister tried to get him to come to his mother’s congressional campaign events, even one. so did his father and his mother.

“yes, i’ll be there,” gansey promised absentmindedly, not really planning to. he did not come. he was reading through phillipa foot’s “moral beliefs”.

“your studies will always come first, won’t they?” his mother

“shit, dick. this is just- this is too much. can’t you do this one thing? fuck you” helen

helen didn’t call again. neither did either of his parents. gansey tried not to think much about the sting. learning was his thing. he was doing it. that’s all that matters.

he tries to grab the first copies of his dissertations and his copy of death and that original welsh manuscript he picked up a while ago and oh god, he can’t forget his laptop that has so much work on it and-

the flimsy remains of the roof collapse on him, and richard gansey iii burns to death in that building, along with his research.

---

gansey’s not decisive, and he’s not a big fan of people, but he cares about ronan and he cares about henry, and he goes to sargent to demand that they remain in the good place. which, for a boy whose indecision killed him, is a pretty big step. sargent is quite impressed, and decides to accept the request and do everything that she can to make it happen.

parrish suggests that they accrue points so that they can stay, which is an admirable suggestion but doesn’t work because they’re already dead. it’s the reason that he couldn’t move any further up the list to begin with. sargent calls in an impartial “undead judge” to hear the case to see if ronan and henry will get to stay in the good place.

ronan decides to say fuck it instead and and he and henry steal the dude’s train and hightail it somewhere no one can touch him. apparently, there’s a medium place where everything kind of sucks but no one gets tortured.

it has exactly one inhabitant, a guy named noah czerny. he was a cokehead skaterbro when he was alive, and the night before he died he came up with an idea to end world hunger and save a ton of kids: the most comprehensive idea for a charity ever, really. his best friend hit him over the head with a skateboard and stole it, but he started up the program that noah thought up. no one could decide whether or not noah should get the points, so they made him a place in the middle.

a sucky, medium place. like cincinnati. or being dead but not dead in the first place. it’s just a sub par house in the desert with warm beer and mediocre movies, but it’s better than eternal damnation.

at least, it would be if they didn’t get a message about a decision to send gansey and parrish to the bad place in their stead if they don’t come back. what the fuck is that? who decided that was fair.

“i guess we need to go back,” henry says sadly.

“yeah,” ronan says. they do need to go back. ronan doesn’t want to, but he knows they need to.

“you don’t if you don’t want to,” noah says, “you’re free to stay here.” but ronan grew a conscience back in the good place, and that conscience’s name is gansey. and gansey doesn’t deserve to go to the bad place, and frankly, neither does parrish. ronan’s not about to say that one out loud, though. just because the dude’s hot doesn’t mean that ronan wants to confess any sort of affection for him.

he’s not an affectionate sort of guy. he loved his dad, and his mom, and his little brother, but all of them are dead. after that, he told exactly two people i love you: stone cold steve austin and a guy in a dark club that he mistook for stone cold steve austin. so yeah, any sort of affection is foreign to him. his only long lasting relationship consisted solely of hate sex.

they get back to the good place, and they go see sargent. it seems that the problem has become worse since they left. or, maybe better. apparently, they aren’t demanding gansey and parrish specifically anymore, or even ronan and cheng. the immortal judge, apparently, doesn’t give a fuck who they decide to give him, as long as they send two people to the bad place.

the other ronan (good ronan, real ronan) offers to go, but that still leaves two spots to fill, one of which he is DEFINITELY taking.

exactly none of this ends well, with a combination of self sacrificing and pure selfishness as they shout at each other, like something out of the lord of the flies or some shit. it finally clicks in ronan’s brain why he’s had that feeling of wrongness.

“gansey and i are going to the bad place,” ronan says firmly.

“i didn’t agree to that,” gansey says.

“what about real ronan?” blue asks.

“nope,” ronan says, “gansey and i have this covered. call the train.”

“actually,” the judge says, “ronan and henry were the ones that were originally bad place bound-”

“nope,” ronan says, “you said any two of us. gansey and i are going.” bambajan bursts into the room with an enormous book open in his arms.

“i found a way to keep all of you in the good place!” bambajan says.

“shut up, bambajan,” ronan says. sargent’s eyes widen for a moment. she knows that he’s caught on to her throne of lies.

“ronan, what’s happening?” gansey asks.

“i just figured out what’s been wrong about this place the whole time. they can’t call us a train to the bad place, because we’re already here. this is the bad place” sargent seems shocked for a moment, but only a moment, before she regains her composure.

“I don’t know what you mean,” she says smoothly.

“bullshirt, sargent,” he says, “i’m right.” gansey laughs, nervously.

“this is a joke, right? please tell me it’s a joke,” he looks down at his hands, “my stomach hurts-”

“of course it is,” sargent says firmly. shit, this can’t be good. if sargent denies it and no one else believes him, then it won’t make any difference that he knows. it will all just go by the same way until she finally gets him to shut up about it.

“no,” henry says, “lynch is right- he’s got to be.” sargent sits down, and puts her head in her hands.

“you’re going to tell them they’re crazy, right?” parrish demands. sargent looks up, and lets out a maniacal laugh.

“five years of planning,” she says between laughs, “five years down the drain because ronan lynch grew a brain.”

“actually, i’d say i grew a heart,” ronan says smoothly.

“that’s a reference to something,” blue says, far too calmly for someone who just admitted to torturing them, “that musical about the green woman who’s in love with the pink one?”

“close enough,” ronan says. gansey looks like he’s going to die of his stomach ache.

“what is going ON?!?!”

“i’ve been torturing you,” blue says, “this is the bad place, do keep up.”

“what do you mean?” parrish asks, “that can’t be. it can’t be.” sure he was ambitious, but he never did anything wrong. maybe he didn’t do as much right as he could have, but he never did anything actively wrong.

he wasn’t corrupt- he was smart. he never did anything that was wrong, really, and he tried to do some good too. he belongs in the good place- he has to.

he worked his way up from nothing, less than nothing really, starting with a loveless, abusive upbringing, then onto a good college and a law degree in record time. he lived the american dream.

when he finished school, he started defending the highest bidder at any cost, in any case. and he took a few charitable cases, stuff that would make him look better.

blue sargent keeps on laughing.

“you rich boys, boys who never did anything to help anyone- the definition of idle wealth. all humans are awful, but the four of you?” blue laughs again, that harsh, strident laugh that cuts through the air directly into his soul, “you’re something else.”

“i wasn’t born rich,” adam says adamantly. he might have gotten there, but he wasn’t born into it like the other three. he had to climb a mountain of lava to get where the rest of them started.

“you weren’t,” blue says, “but did you do anything to help people who were still poor?” adam gets really quiet.

“you know, how ‘bout i just show you how you died. that’ll clear this all up.”

“no-” adam says, because he doesn’t remember how he died, but he doesn’t care to. dying has to be traumatic, right? he’s got enough traumatic memories from his lifetime, thank you. he doesn’t need to add deathtime memories onto the scars that his parents left him. apparently, blue doesn’t care what he wants, though, and he’s pulled into the memory.

---

he’s at a resort, somewhere tropical. he can’t quite remember where he’d decided to go, but it was tropical and set on a cliff side, only about a twenty minute drive from the beach. he always preferred the view from higher up. he could see above the tree tops and the resorts and then the beach and the ocean. swimming in a pool’s simpler than swimming on the beach anyway.

no sand in his toes or his hair or his ears or anywhere else he won’t be able to wash out for months. he’d tried to like the beach, he really had, because it’s supposed to be a rich leisure activity, but he just couldn’t force himself to. he spent enough of his life getting grimy, thank you very much. now he’ll just appreciate the pool and the view. it’s one of the many things that his high profile job can buy.

the job was a way to acquire status, same as smoothing over the accent and befriending celebrities and charity banquets and speeches and whatever else he did for his image.

he’s walking to the pool along a mountain path, beside a small wall separating him from the cliff side and the ocean far below. he’s wearing nothing but a soft t-shirt, a pair of swim trunks, and sandals that cost more than his entire high school wardrobe cost. life is good, at least until he meets up with another guest on the path.

“adam parrish,” the guy says, like it’s a curse word. adam hasn’t heard his name said that way in a long time. he can’t say that he misses it.

“yeah?” adam demands. who the fuck is this guy? what’s his problem? he seems familiar, but adam can’t quite place him. he’s known a lot of people in his life, and a lot of them he’s tried to forget.

“born in 1985 in henrietta virginia,” the guy rattles off, “grew up in a trailer.”

“i did,” adam says in his clipped off fake east coast accent, “i’m not ashamed of it.” he is, actually, that’s why it’s not public knowledge. he’s not about to let this guy know that, though.

“you know what you should be ashamed of? getting a murderer off the hook.”

“alleged,” adam says. there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him in the minds of the jury, so there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him in adam’s mind either. he’s just doing his job.

“yeah, well that “alleged” murderer killed my mother,” the guy spits.

“i’m sorry about your mom,” adam says.

“you aren’t yet,” the kid says, “but you will be.” he takes off his backpack, and then takes out a fucking scrapbook. then he shows it up for adam to see everything he’s ever been embarrassed by staring him back in the face.

every single incriminating to embarrassing thing that has ever happened to him- every case he’s ever taken that might make him look bad, familial information he’s hidden- ex boyfriends he’s buried for the sake of staying ostensibly straight for his career- every single thing he’s never wanted to come out confined to a single blackmail scrapbook. the craftsmanship is actually impressive. the kid’s dug up secrets that adam has forgotten about himself.

“what do you want for it?” adam says, handing the book back to him. he’s a little freaked out that the kid dug up this sort of dirt on him, angry to have it shoved in his face, but he’s mainly impressed. it’s the sort of thing that he could and would do.

“nothing,” the kid says.

“what?”

“you can’t have it. i’m taking it to the press.”

“then why the fuck did you show it to me?” adam says. you don’t pull a play like this without demanding the ransom. you can’t just rip the rug out from under them-

“i wanted to see the look on your face,” the kid says. then, he turns around to stomp off. adam reaches forward to grab him by the shoulder and turns him back around.

“you can’t do that,” adam says.

“yeah,” the boy says, “i can.” he breaks free of adam’s hold, and then grabs his book as he starts to walk away. adam feels rage boiling inside of him. he can’t just- just do that.

adam doesn’t know if this would be a career ender, but it could hurt him badly. badly enough that he can’t deal with it, not now not ever. he runs towards the guy, in between him and the edge, and grabs the book. the kid keeps his grip tight.

“let go,” he growls.

“you let go,” adam demands.

“fuck off,” the guy shouts as he tries to rip it back away from adam. adam’s more determined, though, and he clutches it as tightly as he can, digging his fingernails into the flimsy material. he has a stronger grasp on it, and then he throws his weight to the side- the side with the short wall over the cliff. he flies into the wall, and then he flies over the edge. he plummets directly down to the rocks below.

--------

“holy shirt,” adam says.

“yeah,” blue says, “wonderful, wasn’t it? you all had such entertaining deaths. i’ll need to figure out how to incorporate them better for the next try.”

“next try?” henry asks.

“oh yes,” blue says, “i’m going to clear your memories and then try again. really, this was such a learning experience. next time i’ll work all the bugs out.”

“you can just do this over?” henry asks, sounding horrified.

“of course,” blue says, “you’ll have your memories erased and we’re going to start again. can’t just leave you like this. it’s no fun torturing you this way if you already know what’s going on.” this explains so much about all of their experiences here in the good place. everything makes sense now.

“well, i’m a demon,” blue says, “comes with the territory.”

“a demon,” gansey says, like he still can’t believe what he’s hearing. gansey obviously isn’t present enough to figure out a way out of this mess, and parrish is still reeling from reliving his death. henry’s slightly more put together, but ronan doesn’t think he’s got any ideas for how to stop this either. that means that ronan has to figure out something to save them from this cycle.

blue did say that this happened because he grew a brain. maybe he can write himself a note or get another tattoo or-

“i promise after i fix this, you’ll all have long, unhappy lives,” blue sargent says with her widest service worker smile. she snaps her fingers, and then the world goes white.

bum bum BUMMMMMMMMMMMMM

if anyone’s interested in a continuation of this, i might do season 2. but the most important part of season 2 is the millions of reboots with different soulmates so here are a few examples

“gansey, this is your soulmate, the physical manifestation of henrietta virginia”

“jianyu, this is your soulmate, madonna”

“adam, this is your soulmate, ronan lynch”

“ronan, this is your soulmate, stone cold steve austin”

“this is your soulmate, a raven”

“this is your soulmate, orla,” blue says, gesturing to the woman. female person. not someone that ronan’s sexually attracted to in the least.

“this is the bad place, isn’t it?”

“ah fork it all,” blue curses. then, she snaps her fingers and the world resets.

#trc #trc aus #chengsey #pynch #the gangsey #ronan lynch #adam parrish #henry cheng #noah czerny #blue sargent #tgp #trc tgp au #jill don't look

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