I think I've finally selected the fanfic I want to write over the holidays 👏🏽

Which is funny, 'cause I had the Goat fanfic all mapped out, but I honestly wasn't feeling the emotion in that. It was just a completely random idea that possessed me for two days to see if I could spin a plot out of it - and I could! And I'll come back later to explain what the outline was for posterity.

 

But I'm gonna write another friendship fic about Rohan and Angus, 'cause episode 36 gave me yet another dot to connect on my red string conspiracy board. 👀

 

Second place was that Sun and Moon fic with Cathbad's thoughts on having Angus as like... a side-apprentice, I guess. But I can't quite get the framing figured out for it yet, and I'm so tired from work that I can only hype the idea up so much before I start my vacation. 😞 So that one's still on the list, but the Fairy fic has been on my mind for a lot longer, and it's more of the tone of the 'hearth' story I wrote: Rohan and Angus growing up, and Rohan recontexualizing a lot of stuff that he's never thought about before. Only this time, it's because he's purposely tried not to think about it, and I'm gonna make an effort to let Angus be more of the dumb one this time. I just wanna make sure I don't overcompensate by having Angus always presented as the reasonable one or the 'mature one', like he's only friends with Rohan out of obligation.

I basically want the spiritual equivalent to that idea I had with Rohan digging holes, and Angus not only getting it, but actively jumping in to help. 🥰 They're buddies, they're both dumb, and I wanna play around with that.

I mean - it's not like I have Angus being a wise single mom to Rohan. But I do make him lean towards that, and I think it's about time I just let them be brothers and act like people who really only have a year separating them.

 

As a palette cleanser. :3

 

For in-between now and when I inevitably go back to shipping them, 'cause I don't care HOW MUCH I agree that Rohan/Deirdre logically make more sense: I can't turn off the "Rohan's introduced to an abrupt or dawning understanding of how he feels or doesn't feel, and with that, learns he likes the idea of Deirdre more than he likes girls at all, but oh wow, hasn't Angus always been a cozy home for him hey wait a minute that's how he was supposed to feel about Deirdre" plots that are tormenting me. (⁠ʘ⁠ᴗ⁠ʘ⁠✿⁠)

The fact I have a Cathbad fic in mind is the only proof I've got that I'm still not digging Rohan for the sake of Rohan. In all of these concepts, I'm like, "Ooooh, how's he gonna make himself a problem for Angus now? 👀" And you can definitely get that by just having them be BFFs-who-are-basically-brothers. But if you ship them, you get a whole other world of drama, and depending on how much ef a problem Rohan makes everything, Angus is either super chill or super trapped or super guilty or super 'Oh, that makes sense'.

 

But before I go into that, I just wanna enjoy some more of 'em as Best Fwends :3

 

'Cause shipping them is also so much work. I gotta do the whole, "Well, how does everyone else react to that? Are they chill about it? Were they kinda all suspecting it anyway? Is someone offended? Do I have to do a whole thing where I justify it? Is everyone so chill that I have to justify that?"

🫠

Whereas having as them as best friends is playing on easy mode. They already are. No justification required. Some justification for them being brothers, but thankfully the show handles some of that for me too, so it's just a matter of, "Do they have an unspoken understanding of it, or are they doing the show's early awkward thing where Rohan never calls Angus his family because they're not blood related, even though Angus and him have literally grown up together as orphans on their own, and it's gonna be a whole 'thing' if I call attention to it?" And then I just pick the version of it being an unspoken understanding. :3

 

The Goat fic was making too much of a thing out of it 😒

I wasn't even shipping them, so any walking-on-eggshells just felt wasted 😒

It's only funny making them uncomfortable about it if that's the main plot. If it's a side plot, it's just annoyingly in the way.

And that's why I don't like episode where Rohan finally calls everyone his family (😒), but am obsessed with the episode where Rohan finally says his friendship with Angus is very important to him (🥰)