The EQ Alternaverse ((PART 2))

somehow i have difficulty picturing Haken as the type to be in a foursome. i mean he's not Pike or Skot. he didn't join with women except for reproduction sake until Chani. a threesome perhaps between Haken/Chani/Sylas, but definitely not Tamsin. she seems the type to believe in devotion to a single lifemate, judging from when she was thinking about recognition.

yeah but look at Sylas' reaction from merely eating and digestion! i can only imagine the horror of "oh god, one of my parts is changing because blood is flooding into it and it won't come back out, the blood won't circulate!!" and sweating and...oh lord ejaculation. XD

yeah, i was thinking a foursome would be super unlikely--chani also seems pretty devoted to one partner, and i believe she's only ever been with haken? i don't think she'd want to share him with anyone

tamsin's family would also make things harder i think, i mean sylas is a legit high one, but tamsin is the daughter of a wolfrider and considering the nasty history between wolfriders and gliders that wouldn't be a good thing (and it's also possible tamsin is related to haken and chani in some way, if tyldak is related to them) (i mean not that complicated family trees stop elves but still...)

omfg sylas has barely had time to adjust to anything remotely physical he's going to totally freak out about sex (bonus for tamsin also freaking out because let's face it she's not exactly the most experienced person here)

well i don't think her family would make things harder like that...Tyldak would be very supportive and encouraging...Dewshine might be the trouble. plus Sylas is actually not a glider, he's just...a lover to one. Sylas is completely unrelated to anyone in the current gene pool, so he could boink anyone freely.

Vaeri wrote:

yeah but look at Sylas' reaction from merely eating and digestion! i can only imagine the horror of "oh god, one of my parts is changing because blood is flooding into it and it won't come back out, the blood won't circulate!!" and sweating and...oh lord ejaculation. XD

You might have noticed the line about feedbroth being so great because "nothing is wasted." Yeah... Tamsin might not be so eager to try Sylas out on "real food" once she realizes she has to explain defecation...

oh no i mean haken would probably take issue with tamsin and tamsin's family (i'm guessing he'll at least be super snotty about tamsin in some way or another), and yeah i'm definitely bracing for dewshine's reaction but tbh i'm just kind of anticipating haken making everything harder for everyone because that's what he does XD

just imagine sylas getting a papercut for the first time, or dealing with inclement weather? poor dude is gonna have it super rough for a while (especially if tamsin wants to return to the world of two moons, when sylas clearly prefers homestead)

Finishing up the last scenes in part 2. Here's the now-obligatory teaser:

**It will be all right, Lree,** he sent.

**How can you know that?** Dewshine countered. **She’s Recognized a High One! A High One out of time – Timmorn’s blood, if Sunstream tells it true, the last time he opened his eyes, our kind had only just left the Homestar! He’s as… far removed from us as we are from… what?! What must he think of us? What must he think of her?**

**Perhaps the same thing I thought of you, when eyes first met eyes. Terror at this wild little soul before him… tempered with the dawning realization that this frightening… alien creature is exactly what his own soul has always needed.**

She looked at him thoughtfully. **You were repelled by the wolf in me. And I… I was afraid of the High One I saw in you. You seemed to be made of stars. And I knew how you saw me… small, corrupted, filthy… and I knew my only choices were to be as ashamed of my wolf-self as you were… or to fight… to fight back with every fiber of my being.**

**It was… difficult at first,** Tyldak admitted. **But I learned to love the wolf in you. I can still remember, when you asked Rain to remove your wolfblood, I so feared I would never see the beast in your eyes again. But it’s still there… only… with a little less fur.**

She was in no mood to be placated. **I fought. But Tamsin’s not a fighter. You know her – she likes everything gentle and soft. She chose the bow because she cannot bear to kill at close range. She’d show throat to a sparrow. So what will she think, if he looks at her the way you once looked at me? She already curses the world for being too harsh… will she curse herself for being too small?**

**We have done our best. We have raised her to be proud of all she is. Now we must trust in her choices.**

Dewshine nodded sadly. A pinch in her belly reminded that her she had not eaten since the night before. Perhaps that was the true cause of her headache.

“I think I’m ready to go back to the Palace.”

She climbed down from the tree, while Tyldak glided down to the ground. “You suppose they have meat in their larders?” Dewshine asked Tyldak. “Real meat, not that smoked and breaded stuff?”
“You mean raw meat? I’m sure there’s a cocoon or two we can raid.”

The Palace doors sat open and unattended, beckoning them in. Dewshine remembered her many visits to Oasis, when the Palace’s arrival would always draw an eager crowd of Sun Folk, crowding into the entryway to greet the newcomers. But she supposed the Palace had lost some of its luster to the elves of Haken’s new colony, now that they had their own starstone ship.

Tyldak let her go first across the threshold. She stepped inside the Palace… and froze at the sound of a bright, brittle laugh. The very laugh that had haunted her dreams off and on for ten thousand years.

No… no, she’s not supposed to be here! They didn’t tell me she’d be here!

oh dear, looks like the family reunion isn't going well !

(ok but if winnowill is here does this mean we'll see some interaction between her and sylas? because i just die for that high one drama)

Well, I'm really looking forward to reading the entire installment. I wonder if Winnowill even remembers Dewshine's soul name and how that's going to go down. My feeling is there's going to be some closure at least about that , hopefully... especially with so much active other drama going on. The bond with Haken and Sylas is something i'm dying to read more about... and seeing Tamsin and Chani's reactions is also something I'm really curious about. Can't wait to see more!

Also, Kaza... beautiful work as always! I just love, love, love your unique style!

PS - I got a flash about Sylas and Littlefire meeting for a second, and it was highly amusing. I wonder how those two would hit it off.

So, just a question. If Cutter were a girl, wouldn't she have just lifemated with Skywise and had cubs a long time ago? I mean, don't get me wrong. I love the outcome of Swift x Rayek and I honestly find them a lot more interesting and dynamic then whats canon, I'm just throwing the question out there.

Relena wrote:

So, just a question. If Cutter were a girl, wouldn't she have just lifemated with Skywise and had cubs a long time ago? I mean, don't get me wrong. I love the outcome of Swift x Rayek and I honestly find them a lot more interesting and dynamic then whats canon, I'm just throwing the question out there.

You got a few days? You need to read the whole story. What am I talking about a few days... you will need a week.

I read the first chapter but I'm not sure how much time I'll have to read the rest.

(thanks, zadzi! it makes me happy that people enjoy my stuff )

anyway relena, there's actually a story that covers swift and skywise's relationship! the story is called 'soulnames' and it details why skywise and swift know each other's soulnames but aren't recognized. essentially it's what i like to call 'platonic recognition'--basically two people recognize but don't have children, it's more like they're really close friends or maybe siblings. swift considers skywise her brother and skywise thinks of her as a sister

also if you've just discovered the alternaverse, i'd recommend checking out the timeline and reading the stories in chronological order--that's my favorite way to do it anyway

You're welcome, Kaza!

@Relena....yeah, you're going to have to read the whole thing. You're basically asking how this thing is possible but didn't finish the story and are asking for an explanation. The explanation is ... read the story lol. The whole story.

I finally got around to reading the Alternaverse stories, and I'm wondering, how often does Wingthing update the bios/family trees? They all look a little out of date, having heard a lot from Vaeri about recent Recognitions and generations. Is there a wikia or a WordPress site with character info like for the canon timeline on Elfquest.com?

I'd offer to do it myself if not, but I've got two AUs of my own and I don't want to cross the streams ^_^;;

Edit to add: Here's a sample of one of the family trees for my main AU, just so you have an idea what I'm talking about.

yeah, the family trees are a bit out of date, especially since the series started up again--it would be cool to have an updated version!

@relena: as Kaza said, the story "Soulnames" is the explanation you're looking for in-universe, it details how Swift and Skywise discovered each other's soulnames, and explains why they are not Recognized mates. It's a similar but not equivalent process that's happened to a few other pairs in the Alternaverse, sometimes with romantic results, sometimes without.

Out-of-universe, the explanation has more to do with when various plot points were revealed in canon. When the first Alternaverse story was written, all we knew about Cutter and Skywise was that they were soulbrothers who (apparently) had sex from time to time. In the Original Quest, our best guess was that they had exchanged soulnames like Redlance and Nightfall. When Rayek and Winnowill met and experienced "not-Recognition", we assumed they were the male-female equivalent of Skywise and Cutter, especially since they also used the terms soulbrother/soulsister occasionally. They never had a kid or seemed to consider it a possibility.

Then we have much much later developments. Until "Troll Games and Soulnames" we had no idea that Cutter and Skywise's "Recognition" was so Recognition-like. Not until Final Quest did Skywise start being referred to as Cutter's lifemate. So it never occurred to us to make Swift and Skywise's relationship a lifemate one. Also that wasn't the story we wanted to tell

Sun Girl is leaving out the part where she would have scalped me if my character had so much as looked in Skywise's direction.

And as a Christmas present, Part Two of Forgiveness is now up!

http://www.janesenese.com/swiftverse/forgiveness2.html

ok but haken needing to give sylas The Talk is hilarious to me

i liked how chani took this all in stride and how chani and haken both immediately decided tamsin was an extended family member, that was sweet

and oh me oh my, looks like the high ones are getting a teeny bit bent out of shape XD man is it just me or are all the high ones spoiling for a fight like, all the time? are there any high ones who have any chill at all?

(haken and sylas continue to have a fascinating relationship--quickly calling each other 'brother' tho openly admitting that if circumstances were different they would be lifemated. are we going to see any more high one bonds? those are very interesting to me)

(also passion and forethought--a good match!)

Yeah that was pretty awesome. It was perfect to have this to read and relax with after a massively long (14 hour!) drive to my family's place.

I like how Wingthing made the home planet and high ones embroiled in some heavy, calculating politics... it sort of makes sense to me. And how Adya turned out to be manipulative ...that was Timmain's 'bond' if I remember correctly, right?
Timmain with her cuticle gnawing totally creeped me out seriously...such massive denial for one who remembers, but isn't so good at the remembering thing actually! Aurek continues to grow on me, I love how diplomatic yet cutting and direct he can be, all at once. I think it's cool how Timmain sort of looks to him for reassurance and he calls her on her BS. But by god her denial is massive, isn't it.

I agree with Kaza, that the high ones constantly seem to be spoiling for a fight, like all kinds of things constantly keep setting them off. Weatherbird needs to start holding those group therapy sessions again

Kaza999 wrote:

and oh me oh my, looks like the high ones are getting a teeny bit bent out of shape XD man is it just me or are all the high ones spoiling for a fight like, all the time?  are there any high ones who have any chill at all?

They didn't last long after the crash . It was survival of the most paranoid and aggressive.

(I shouldn't say that. Mura was very chill when she wasn't trying in vain to warn the Circle about the trolls, and she lasted a pretty long time.)

But yeah, the Alternaverse High Ones were NOT the enlightened, 7 ft tall hippies of HY 6-7. Timmain might remember them like that, but it was a lot closer to Game of Thrones inside the Homeshell. Five million years of cabin fever will do that.

i just remember the scene in return to blue mountain where timmain and haken see each other and immediately start fighting with each other and their apparently 'more savage' descendants have to get them to quit it--it seems like high ones being hard fighting jackasses is a tradition throughout the ages XD

i'm pretty interested in this turn of events that has timmain as more of a villain--or else that's sylas and haken's perceptions of her, and everyone else is just 'can y'all please quit your fighting we have a crazy tree on the loose' because i feel like the evertree is the biggest threat at the moment

heeeey guys! remember how i was hinting a few months back my friend Amethyst was working on something awesome? well she finished that something awesome yesterday and now you get to see it. TADAAAAAH!!

WOW Adorable!

Wow!

Um, can anyone fill me in on who is who? I forget.

Whoa, that's amazing!!! SO GOOD, she's incredibly talented!

@Manga... I think it's Spar and Fenn/Door (sitting/standing in the center) with their 4 'kids' : Skylark & Wren , Meerkat, Kilspringer.