#rdr2 timewarp au

[verdemoun]

modern au but the gang waking up in modern day in the order they died with memories of their lives as outlaws:

bessie motherfucking matthews being the one that rounds them up. she's a professor at a university teaching women's history and owns a little cottage on the outskirts of town, and uses newspaper articles to try and plot out who/where someone will 'wake up'

sean was the first VDL she successfully found. davey and mac somehow found each other and got themselves incarcerated for armed robbery before she got them.

sean adapts almost instantly and loves the chaos of modern day cities: car horns, fluorescent lights, night clubs, television (fuck you lenny reading is for nerds!!). he steals a bike he calls ennis II and gets a job delivering pizzas

she finds hosea and lenny next. it's a very emotional reunion. she starts calling lenny her son. hosea spends at least a week refusing to let his wife out of his sight because he has to be dreaming, kisses and adores her at every opportunity. their dates are her teaching him to drive a car

lenny takes less than a day to figure out computers and takes over the locate the VDLs project. he has what is effectively a murder wall of colored yarn and push pins trying to figure out when and where the next person will appear. manages to cyber-stalk down jenny, who being as breathtakingly clever as she is figured out the present all by herself and works in a diner. she comes over for dinner twice a week

retracing the gang's steps they find kieran, who is doing fabulously not well. he's been homeless for a month, got hit by a car and is very, very distraught by not only the memories of his torture after being taken by o'driscolls but the fact he betrayed the gang by talking. bessie matthews, mother to all, introduces him to noise cancelling headphones, gardening, and horse girl movies.

lenny: hey i've been doing some research and i think most of us have this thing called ptsd????

when hosea and bessie want to have a nice, quiet romantic dinner by themselves they put sensory videos on the tv and all the boys just sit there silently

#rdr2 modern au #bessie matthews #hosea matthews #sean macguire #lenny summers #kieran duffy #rdr2 timewarp au

[verdemoun]

time warp au shitpost but bessie forcing them to go to a library as an outing because lord do these cowboys need something to do other than re-traumatise themselves, drink and sit in the dark staring at walls. after the initial pushback (kieran terrified to leave the house duffy, sean god gave me the ability not to read macguire) they would absolutely love it

okay lenny loves reading so much he would read the ingredients on a shampoo bottle. he's systematically working his way through non-fiction and is the only one who actually gets in trouble because he forgets they're not his own books and sometimes annotates them

sean initially only agreed to go for the crappy outdated gaming console but he would happen across a comic book, flick through a few of those, then graduate to graphic novels and manga. cut to lenny smiling warmly as he's reading something about astrophysics while sean is trying to excitedly explain the most violent, fucked up thing to happen in a comic based solely on the images

there's a reading/emotional support dog that immediately gravitates to kieran. he really enjoys the general quietness of libraries and the smell of books. give me kieran sitting in a bean bag listening to audiobooks patting a golden retriever with its head plopped on his lap.

haha kieran and horse books no fuck you mary-beth lived to 104 and is revered as one of america's best female writers all her novels are classics and kieran is so happy one of his only friends actually got out of the VDLs and lived a good life he's slowly listening his way through her expansive works occasionally giggling at lines that feel like inside jokes

bessie and hosea peacefully reading academic journals and poetry under a big sunny window. hosea quietly reading aloud a few lines of poetry that reminds him of his incredible wife. bessie reading particularly bad takes in peer-reviewed essays so they can both be annoyed.

side tangent even though bessie has been in modern era for a good 15-20 years she never quite got slang but still uses it, which hosea also picks up. lenny: dutch shot and killed leviticus cornwall bessie: cringe hosea, nodding in thoughtful agreement: that was not very girlboss

#rdr2 modern au #though i will now be tagging this as #rdr2 timewarp au #because i have too many ideas please feel free to ask #hosea matthews #bessie matthews #kieran duffy #lenny summers #sean macguire

[verdemoun]

timewarp au shitpost while i put off working on my essays: found family roadtrip

lenny has to sit in the middle because sean does not have the spatial awareness for the responsibility of sitting in the middle seat.

sean properly hates being in the car for any amount of time. it's too hot, the radio sucks, he can't stretch. fidgeting quickly devolves into nearly punching lenny as he tries to adjust and find something resembling comfortable

hosea is too busy admiring how calm and amazing and beautiful bessie is (she has to drive, obviously) to parent despite a brawl being about to begin in the backseat.

kieran quietly points out every horse he sees and immediately the back seat is silent as they all lean forward to look. hosea looks too because they all miss horses from time to time. if it's a quiet stretch of road bessie will pull over as a little reward and they can try to pat the horse.

lenny stays in the car for 5 minutes of peace while sean, in an awkwardly protective/supportive way, tries to warn kieran there's an electric fence which he knows from personal experience are not fun to touch

((they're actually going to a trail riding place as a surprise.)) bessie tried to warn the supervising instructor but they are still unprepared for the sheer chaos of a group of horse starved outlaws adjusting their own tack before taking off into the woods without a guide. bessie quietly offers the poor woman her phone, revealing she hid an air tag in sean's pocket and promises that lenny will probably not let him do anything stupid. they still don't follow the guide but bessie and hosea go on a little romantic trail ride through the forests.

kieran was following them for 10 minutes before vanishing. they start to genuinely worry they're going to need to call search and rescue but turns out after a very lazy slow plod around for an hour he found his way back to the ranch and is brushing and tending to all the horses they have. by the end of the day he has all the names, breeds and histories memorized. the ranch owner says 'your adult son clearly has some neurological wonk but feel free to drop him in here the tack has never been so clean'

the trip back is much more peaceful as lenny and sean immediately fall asleep on each other with the exhaustion of using muscles they haven't even thought about in months riding horses.

kieran infodumps about the horses they were riding while hosea happily asks questions because kieran talking about anything is still a very big deal. he still points out every horse they pass on the way home.

#rdr2 timewarp au #kieran duffy #sean macguire #lenny summers #bessie matthews #hosea matthews

[verdemoun]

he did not commit murder he did however bite sean on one occasion for touching it.

#rdr2 timewarp au #kieran duffy

[verdemoun]

some time warp au before work just classifying some ships and shitposts.

charthur. Thank you, thank you, hold your applause.

However they weren’t actually together before Arthur’s death. Arthur was diagnosed with TB before either one had the confidence to act on the obvious attraction and flirting. Arthur telling Charles he had TB was a devastating confession of 'I can't be around you because I don't want you to get sick - which is more difficult than I care to admit because you're the only person I want to be around'

Charles ended up dying of illness in Canada in 1908. He was willing to try to move on and have a family like Marston but in reality he spent 8 years missing Arthur, wondering what they could have had if Arthur didn't get sick, if the gang didn't fall apart.

Isaac grew up hearing his father's voice soften telling stories about the gang but specifically Mr Smith and shipped it. Eliza and Arthur were never going to have that relationship (Isaac has always accepted this) and he was really happy for his dad to have someone who made him happy.

Isaac is not immune to being a little shit and would use modern lingo Arthur had no way of contextualising. 'Feeling gay today, sir?' 'Heh, gay indeed'

Second Charles woke up in the timewarp, Arthur and Charles both saw it as a second chance and gave uhaul lesbians a run for their money when it came to 'how fast can we move in together and capture the dynamic of being married for 10 years'

Isaac loves both his dads and he calls Charles his cooler dad. Charles was at first shocked Arthur never mentioned having a (deceased) son and then just annoyed about how much it explained about why Arthur is the way he is.

Isaac lowkey idolises Charles because they have a lot of similiarities like both are happy just chilling in peace and quiet but also capable of being incredibly goofy and silly when they feel like it. Board game nights include alcohol and usually end in Isaac trying to prove he can lift up Charles meanwhile Charles can throw Isaac over his shoulder like a sack of grain.

If Isaac gets into enough trouble for Charles to pull out the 'I'm not mad I'm disappointed' Isaac will cry.

If Arthur ever says no to something eg borrowing the truck for crime, Isaac will look him dead in the eye while calling out 'hey cool dad can I borrow the truck' and Charles will say yes. Mostly because he knows Isaac does know how to hotwire a car and will take it anyway but also he does go a little soft being called dad let alone cool dad.

#rdr2 timewarp au #charthur #arthur morgan #charles smith #isaac morgan

[verdemoun]

timewarp at the bar on a friday night because i am being forced to leave the house against my will

it is always sean's idea and it's not just because alcohol he would just genuinely love the vibe and struggle to understand how people don't

sean buys the most expensive cocktails everywhere and thinks it's amazing alcohol can taste like fruit juice but lenny is a beer and whiskey purist as much as sean tries to get him to admit that sex on the beach is tasty (and maybe a good idea for later)

lenny never grows out of his loud silly drunk persona and is actually the life of the party he'll be standing on a table while staff scream at him but crowds are cheering as he balances a glass on a glass on his forehead. he has so many dumb party tricks like catching food in his mouth sean throws at him across the room and close up magic he learned from trelawney.

kieran shocks everyone by not hating going out. he has a sixth sense for finding the shes theys and sapphos and will get adopted before he's had two drinks. alcohol very much soothes his anxiety and he radiates so much genderchaotic the girlies drag him into the bathroom to be their hype squad while they fix their hair and makeup. he's just sitting on the sink merrily telling them they're pretty/handsome and they give him snacks

arthur never quite figured out not dressing like an outlaw or looking like he was sent to kill somebody but by the end of the night he'll have made a new friend like it was a side quest. he's the country boy version of a manic pixie dream girl the gays everywhere are left staring in awe as arthur casually 'welp better mosey on' and they never see him again

at least once isaac snuck into the bar with a fake id got caught by arthur who gave him a very firm lecture but then admittedly had a beer with his son before telling him he was grounded.

kieran sometimes gets to the classic wanders off/runs away for no reason level of drunk and the gang have come to speculate that's how the o'driscolls got him at jack's party. :c this is further supported by the fact he can get really panicky and disorientated when he's running. the positive is seeing almost any of the gang very quickly calms him down and he goes straight back to being giggly talkative drunk kieran.

arthur having caught kieran and trying to carry him home while kieran is giggling 'hey remember when you did this in colter' 'yes kieran i remember colter' 'i love you guys so much' 'you ain't so bad yourself' *delighted squee*

arthur, very drunk, trying to herd a very drunk kieran, sean and lenny home is hell. there's already buckets and towels spread out in the living room because none of them are making it to bed they're just sprawled out on the floor like there's been a shoot out hosea calmly steps over them to make his coffee the next morning.

#rdr2 timewarp au #kieran duffy #sean macguire #lenny summers #arthur morgan

[verdemoun]

when you hyperfixate so bad it starts infecting your friend's dreams btw this is canon

#rdr2 modern au #rdr2 timewarp au #kieran duffy #arthur morgan

[verdemoun]

Dutch Motherfucking Van Der Linde in timewarp au.

@themodernpr0metheus because this is your fault be warned it's 1400+ words

so much to process. every single damned character in timewarp is affected by the very idea what became of Dutch Van Der Linde again let alone how they're meant to handle it when Dutch comes back. also gentle reminder that in the report the bureau wrote that John shot and killed Dutch so that's a whole other conflict they're going to have to deal with

also for the 1899 gang it's been 12 years. honestly for most of them it's been 12 years the only person who really interacted with dutch after 1899 was Micah and Dutch fucking shot him. Micah is still salty about it. look at that rat man you know he can hold a grudge.

12 years, no Dutch. Hosea's nearing his 70s, he has his wife and a house. Lenny, Jenny, Karen and Sean aren't kids anymore they're well into adulthood with legitimate jobs. Arthur and Charles are the new curious couple with Isaac their unruly son. Kieran doesn't jump or flinch anymore when people try to talk to him. Hosea really got everything he wanted - they're out of the gang, they're safe and happy.

Also Dutch isn't the only one coming back in a relatively short time period. They have to go all the way to Mexico to get Javier and Bill. They have to get John!! John, who was shot at the house Charles and Uncle helped him build for Abigail, who stared down a firing squad because it gave Abigail and Jack time to escape. They absolutely have to be there for John.

Hosea thinks long and hard. Dutch: who left Lenny to bleed out alone, who was willing to leave John to be executed in prison, and left Arthur to die alone, and abandoned Javier and Bill. Dutch: who formed another gang and killed innocents, used Muriel Scranton as a human shield before shooting her IT WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE OF A DISTRACTION TO LET HER GO ALIVE DUTCH. Is it everything he feared would happen to Dutch? Is it the Dutch he started to see glimpses of after Blackwater or did he know, deep down, this is what Dutch was always capable of?

What's the pettiest, bitchest thing he can do? Absolutely nothing. Hosea Matthews sits down with the gang trying to prepare for the 1911 returns and says that he is not going to get Dutch Van Der Linde. He is not going to see Dutch, talk to Dutch or help Dutch. Dutch is not welcome in his home or near his family and he doesn't expect nor want any of them to afford him the luxury of coming into their lives.

Annabelle is the one who goes to collect Dutch from the base of a cliff. The last time Annabelle saw Dutch, he was young and idealistic, and she had to read about Blackwater and everything that came after it right up to his death. She needs to see him so she can understand how someone she did genuinely love became something so evil that the people who did love him had to sit down and seriously ask themselves if he could be redeemed.

And Dutch Van Der Linde hits her with the 'you're as beautiful as the day I lost you'

She so nearly, nearly faulters. God as much as she hates him she wants to believe there is a reason, a sound, logical reason how Dutch abandoned so much of the ideals that made him Dutch. It's a tremendous burden only people who have loved Dutch know but deep down there's always a part of you that will love Dutch, as much as you try to kill it. She desperately wanted to believe she as the oldest, the most separated from Dutch, she was over it - but it's there. That awful demon is clawing its way back into her mind as she wonders if she can fix him, if she can save him and make him something recognizable again.

She knows damn well this is why Hosea knew he couldn't be the one to get Dutch.

Remembering why she has to be the one to get Dutch, to protect the gang she is now part of again and cares so much about from falling into the very real, intoxicating charm of Dutch, she holds her ground. Pulls away and tells him to get in the back seat of the car.

She takes him to a very nice, private, well-researched, pre-booked and thoroughly inspected in-patient mental health ward. the gang themselves have argued whether or not Dutch did the things he did because he was mentally ill or hit his head too many times or if he would've become a monster regardless but they do agree something is not right with Dutch and frankly 24 hour medical supervision is probably something he needs regardless because no one wants to just… bring him into the homes and lives they've tried to hard to build in modern era.

i promise, dutch is thriving. the d in dsm-5 might stand for dutch once the doctors are through with him but he's getting diagnosed with A lot.

they're paid to listen to him so he's going on so many rants and giving speeches and they're sitting there listening and nodding and asking questions (as they frantically write notes) and he's just basking in the attention. -> this. this is dutch's life

also dutch getting to finally admit to and work through his grief over what happened to the gang. he saw the old guard die. he lost so many people he cared about. he lost john. john left. john would've moved on completely after micah's death if not for the bureau. and the gang did lose faith in him, even before then. he felt it, he knew it. they did betray him (in his warped sense of betrayal)

also just dutch getting into intense philosophical and ethical debates with both his doctors and other patients. his doctors knowing they are absolutely not meant to engage when dutch is on a rant but it's just so fun debating with him

medication does help get Dutch back to something closer to 'old Dutch' he's still very grandiose but he's calmed down to the point he isn't reckless he can recognize when his behavior is crossing into outlandish

it's inevitable the gang do reach out to him and find it personally terrifying how close they can get to forgiving him before they remember all the shit they went through as a direct result of Dutch's actions

occasionally take him out on day trips but he is not getting to the point where he can be left to roam freely. Dutch always was and always will be a dangerous person when he can morally justify it to himself.

Dutch reuniting with Hosea hits so hard. hosea can only avoid him so long and dutch is old and tired and pulls hosea into a hug on the verge of tears and hosea cannot stop himself from hugging dutch back he still loves him god damnit he loves his wife but he will always love dutch and seeing dutch get help and try to become his old self again would hurt so much in such a positive way

his doctors (who have searched dutch van der linde and now think Dutch has delusional disorder and only thinks he is the Dutch Van Der Linde) do not think he has actually committed murder but the gang know he is very, very capable of murder

dutch is an avid triple mango vape enthusiast. no one knows how he keeps getting them.

he still thinks everything would be fine if they just went to tahiti

he is the #1 evelyn miller fan and thinks evelyn miller's death is further proof of his brilliance. during supervised computer time he will be on the evelyn miller subreddit and sometimes needs to be forcibly removed from the computer because he becomes so enraged at bad takes

the gang are all very protective of their kids being around dutch when he is there (including micah who does not want his stupid annoying pain in the ass grand-nephew kai to become Dutch-ified) but somehow they managed to raise well-rounded young people who just shrug and go 'lmao dutch is talking again'

dutch goes on volunteering excursions for habitat for humanity (under annabelle's supervision) and thoroughly enjoys it. he gradually becomes less 'fight the system for the good of all man' and more 'focus on the good i can do in one (second-chance) lifetime'. all i want is aged dutch in the modern version of his 1911 outfit kneeling in muck and smiling because he's Actually helping people again and he didn't know how much he missed it

#rdr2 timewarp au #dutch van der linde #hosea matthews #annabelle rdr2

[verdemoun]

i can just imagine drunk sean dropping the most fucked up reform school lore like its nothing and not knowing how to respond to the horrified looks hes getting

tw institutional child physical abuse

sean's reform school days were hell nothing in life had prepared him for it like imagine a traumatized boy who witnessed the murder of his father being sent to reform school darragh never raised a hand against sean in his life then one of his first nights there he woke up panicking because of flashbacks and got lashed with a belt for being awake past lights out. the future cleets and joes of the world would've made fun of him for crying in pain over getting the belt like for them it wasn't a big deal so sean wouldn't have ever thought about like how fucked reform school was because the other kids treated it like it was normal. darragh was really remarkable for the time period for never using corporeal punishment and both other kids and staff at the reform school would've made sean feel like he was the weird one for not having been abused and being 'weak' enough to cry over it.

so sean never talked about his reform school days in detail. like the first time it came up was like he was jumping off the bar and winced and when lenny was like 'are you okay' 'yeah landed weird on my ankle just the old chain playing up' 'the what' 'oh it was so funny back at reform school cus i was always trying to run off they kept me in leg irons *laughs* i was such a shit they kept them on that long that the shackles cut my ankle down to the bone and when they finally had to take 'em off it healed wonky *laughs harder* they called me gimp macguire for years' 'sean i'm so sorry that's awful' 'why aren't you laughing please laugh'

#rdr2 timewarp au #sean macguire

[verdemoun]

How's timewarp Javier doing? I just know bro spawns and is absolutely and has no idea what the hell is happening. One moment he's in Mexico being hung and then the next he's spawned in the middle of a busy road. Feel like he'd be extremely happy to know the gang was mostly all back together cause I feel the fall hit him really hard (Dutch got some serious explaining to do). Maybe he even starts picking playing guitar back up.

Feel like he'd be enamored by YouTube aswell. Learned about it and the family tv's YouTube acc is filled with the most crazy recommended videos. Maybe he even starts making his own videos, maybe mostly about fishing, maybe a bit of blog style shit. Finds dude perfect and gets everyone else into it. (Let this man bottle flip)

TIMEWARP JAVIER MY BELOVED

☺

I am so sorry but in timewarp canon john was the one who killed javier. he was captured alive but through all the insults and forced laughter to hide the fact he was almost crying john would realise that shooting javier himself was kinder than handing him to the bureau alive to be tortured and executed in an american prison. and javier was terrified of being handed over to the us governemnt alive. when john turned the gun on him he was pretty much at peace with it (For each man kills the thing he loves)

going from being in a cell in el presidio to laying on the ground in the middle of a bustling market would have been more frightening than realising john was about to shoot him but before he can even look around arthur's there offering him a hand

the impact on javier bless. looking around and seeing the gang waiting for him but they've aged arthur's starting to go gray and sean and lenny are in their 30s javier would've immediately started bawling and hugging them all

unlike most of the rdr1 gang javier is extremely willing to just block out everything that happened after 1899 because it was a really dark time for him he just wants his gang back. he's genuinely sorry for not siding with arthur in beaver hollow because of course turned out arthur was right dutch went so far off the deep end even though javier still valued loyalty dutch didn't anymore

he would be pretty self conscious about his appearance for a bit because everyone else seems to have got a modern day glow up meanwhile he's been cutting his hair with blunt scissors for years and neglecting himself a lot

his love affair with youtube starts hair care and skin care routines he will buy every product beautiful men promote on their channels. he grows his hair back out and is much more interested in fashion than the rest of the boys give him a month and he's roasting arthur for walking around in ratty oversized shirts covered in motor oil

kieran and javier sprawled on the couch doomscrolling through youtube with exfoliating face masks on. dark media iceberg specialists but also tiktok compilations.

when he gets his first phone javier opens an account on every social media and his content is just a mess sometimes it's memey bottle flip and rube goldberg ping pong ball videos sometimes it's self care stuff sometimes it's just a clip of him ranting in spanish about 'authentic' mexican food or really awkward 'look at this fish i caught' photos and he jumps between socials so sporadically he doesn't really have a following but molly would like all his stuff

javier getting a guitar again would be such a big deal but also so understated like one of the gang would've just got him one because it's javier of course he needs a guitar and javier just holds it for a second because it's the first time he'd held a guitar since beaver hollow. he lost his guitar in the raid and never had a reason to play so he didn't get another one. but it would feel so right to be sitting in the living room with a guitar in his hands while sean excitedly asks him to play something he'd just laugh and start back with old campfire songs and everyone gets to sing along like the proper good old days. processing trauma through symbolism speedrun

javier and kieran would be the two that never move out of the matthews' house or get jobs. kieran just wasn't built for living alone but for javier it's like he just got the gang back he still desperately needs that connection. he's also a notorious couch surfer he will rock up at someone's place and stay for a few days because just he missed them and he's always welcome. he also somehow gets the title of go-to babysitter kids love him like yay tio javier is here we're gonna paint his nails

#rdr2 timewarp au #javier escuella

[verdemoun]

rdr2 timewarp au, general gang antics at department stores:

hosea running through why they are going to walmart like it is a mission. do not steal anything, stay with the group. all they need is bedsheets. they are going in for one item. do not wander off.

he looks back to the gang after a very well delivered speech and they're already fucking gone. arthur has vanished. there's a monkey backpack on the ground that sean has somehow yanked off without undoing any of the buckles. lenny went after sean but he was texting jenny so he could probably walk right past sean and not realize.

bessie gently puts her hand on her husband's shoulder and says she'll go try to find arthur, who is usually the only 6'2 man built like a brick wall in the craft section and therefore easiest to locate.

hosea knows the only reason kieran didn't wander off is because he likes pushing the trolley (he may be easily overstimulated by the modern era and only semi-verbal thanks to trauma but he still wants to be helpful however he can!!) but that doesn't stop kieran from being his favorite son for the remainder of the trip.

linen acquired but they still haven't found the rest of the gang so kieran's allowed to pick out one item as a thank you for not running off and letting hosea cling to a shred of sanity. the funny part is kieran has exactly 5 interests and hosea can usually guess what he's going to buy. kieran gets an off-brand oodie (falls under interest no.4 sub-section b - comfort items: oversized clothes)

bessie is too soft on arthur who will always be her baby boy she's known him since he was an angsty teenager and she lets him buy a massive a2 sheet of 300gsm watercolor paper which he absolutely refuses to crease or fold while carrying through the store

sean and lenny are okay not getting anything because they ate an entire tray of free samples while the girl meant to be supervising the stall was too nervous to say anything.

hosea swears he's never taking any of them anywhere again.

#rdr2 timewarp au

[verdemoun]

I think about your timewarp Dutch au every day since you posted it can I pretty please get more detail on Hosea seeing Dutch again for the first time *holding my hands out like a Victorian boy begging for food*

hosea tries to ignore it for so long. dutch is back and that doesn't need to affect him. he can carry on with his life knowing dutch is tucked away somewhere they did ensure was nice and he'll be fine. dutch being back doesn't mean they didn't go seperate ways years ago, and should have years before that again. hell, he spends most of his days thinking about how little he needs to be thinking about dutch

bessie only asking how dutch is going because she knows her husband is listening. she knows him too well, she's always known he loves dutch and almost has to inexplicitly tell him it's okay. she fell in love with him knowing he was always going to love dutch too (frankly all they'd needed was a label on what was happening between them and she would've been undeniably a homewrecker)

annabelle having to pause, and think about it. how do you explain he's dutch? he's just… dutch - again. he speaks with the same obnoxious conviction of someone who always thinks he's right. he's almost calm, constant calm, that self-assuredness that things will turn out his way is back. not quick to anger like the stories she'd heard after blackwater. she's fully aware of all the awful things he's done but he seems so much more like the dutch she knew than that monster. no one's explained the timewarp to him, he just knows annabelle is there in whatever strange new world he's in but he still talks about the gang, the old days of the gang, fondly.

hosea knew he was going to have to see him eventually. probably wouldn't have been able to physically stop himself from seeing him, eventually.

it isn't a hotel he can't just walk in. he's having to listen to staff echo things he knew. things he'd doubted he knew. dutch is smart, so many of his criticisms of society are valid just too grand for a single action to challenge. there are absolutely moments where he's only pretending to care about something better than a shakespearean actor but he also has so much genuine empathy for the people he does cares about. dutch is forming meaningful relationships with people and hosea still being in denial. there's no way not after how much he changed not after everything he's done.

but there's dutch. hair growing out again, not the hacked short mess of his 1911 mugshot, long streaks of silver slicked back all the same in what now seems like a horrendously outdated style. when he sees hosea, looks at him, that sparkle is still in his eyes but it's tired. he's tired, it's all over dutch's face how tiresome the last 12 years have been. but dutch knows it's him, instantaneously, grin spreading over his face with the same confident strides of his younger years gone.

pulls him into a hug so tight still with typical bloke slaps on the back as he laughs in sheer joy

you haven't changed a bit, old girl

how dreadful of you to suggest i've always looked like this

nonsense. though i suspect my days of looking good are long over, too

hug doesn't release. hosea hears the single, shaky breath in his ear and knows all those arguments he's imagined screaming at dutch for what happened back in canon aren't going to happen. at least not today, not when he's finally just getting to hug dutch again and hear the almost broken tone in his voice as he says 'i missed you, hosea.'

it's almost frustrating how quickly they can fall back into that comfort with one another, old men older than they ever got to be bickering like a married couple. offering to go for a drive just to get out for a bit and dutch making some tasteless joke about it not ending so well last time he was in a car. least not for the driver. hosea trying so hard not to laugh because you really shouldn't joke about murdering people for christ's sake but dutch knows damn well he was going to.

catching dutch up on how the gang are doing because dutch always did care about them, he just lost himself somewhere and hearing dutch acknowledge that he went too far. hosea knowing that so much of the gang are still holding onto and processing that grief, and might not ever be ready or willing to see him. dutch accepting that too, acknowledging aloud how grateful he is hosea even gave him a chance.

still getting annoyed at him in that almost endearing way. he has always gotten annoyed with dutch sometimes. the correct response to young jack marston grew up to kill edgar ross was not 'good for him!'

#rdr2 timewarp au #dutch van der linde #hosea matthews

[verdemoun]

how the flip does arthur cope with no dutch?? for the first time in so so so long there is no dutch??

oh ouch thank you for reminding me what a question. this is high honor helped john escape arthur. an arthur who died alone because dutch walked away but he died holding onto the relief that dutch didn't go with micah. maybe dutch had a chance, maybe dutch could save himself

hosea and bessie silently agree they need to protect him from that knowledge for as long as possible and for just barely long enough arthur isn't curious. they've gotten pretty decent at helping people adjust to the timewarp! you don't start with btw we're in the future we know about everything that happens to the gang and it's awful.

they focus on the happy things like hey we're okay, we're all together and we're here. things are really different there's a lot of noises and smells and things to get used to like cars are mainstream. going outside means the constant noise of engines instead of horses. sometimes you can hear electricity humming and that is a really weird noise but look how easy it is to make toast! so many foods that were like insanely difficult/risky to get like milk are just parts of life. you can put milk in coffee without it instantly coagulating it's okay that the milk been in the fridge for four days it tastes the same as when we opened it

arthur jumps like a cat for at least 2 weeks every time the toaster pops but if there's one routine he picks up insanely fast it's the simple joy of waking up and having warm toast with coffee in the morning. arthur morgan figuring out what he likes on toast. the first weekend where bessie is home and he wakes up to the smell of bacon and eggs and pancakes (not because bessie is a homemaker but because the gang are yet to prove themselves capable of using a gas stove (hosea will take over one day and be too passionate about the perfect fried egg)) i'm so sorry i'm getting off topic but the sheer joy he would get out of the smallest simple modern pleasures

arthur wanted to get out of the gang, in the end. he wanted to rest and it literally took him dying to get it because he was so loyal to dutch. it's a relief to rest even if he isn't physically drained and sore because of tb anymore but that mental fatigue is still there. he went through so much and now he gets to rest knowing that the people he had to mourn are there. he gets to sleep in a bed every night instead of it being something he pays for the luxury of. it's comforting dutch isn't there because it means dutch is still alive somewhere

but it's innevitable. hosea, bessie, annabelle, even lenny and sean, waiting in dreadful anticipation for the day arthur connects the dots that they aren't in an alternate universe they are in the gang's future and they know what happens to them. and dutch-

hosea has to be the one to tell him. knowing arthur tried, remembering the relief in arthur's face literally days after processing his own death as arthur explains at least dutch didn't go with micah because arthur tried and he thought dutch had a chance of becoming himself again. it's the worst conversation in his life - explaining to his unruly son that dutch did change but he went back to micah. he got the blackwater money. he started a new gang that were almost a parody of the o'driscolls and killed innocents like muriel scranton just for a chance to escape. that eagle flies's death meant so little to dutch that he went out of his way to continue exploiting the anger of displaced young native americans to make up his new gang. that a professor that worked with john wrote about the night dutch van der linde jovially told john that he was going to kill him for 'i don't know, sport, i guess?' and dutch died in 1911 reportedly killed by john himself (according to the bureau's reports)

god fellas would it be enough to make arthur cry? christ i still don't think he would be able to let himself cry in front of hosea and tries to be dismissive like well we all saw what he was becoming after blackwater. reminds me of something rains fall said about people not changing, just becoming more of who they always were. guess we (john and I) were right in the end, maybe we hadn't really known dutch at all and we were never who we thought we were (who dutch told us we were, we were never idealists, we were killers from the damned start)

but he does cry. alone. in the bedroom that sometimes felt so comfortably private but suddenly feels like more of a box than his wagon back at camp. the fact he still thinks of back at camp, like it's something he can go back to. he still misses dutch. old dutch. he misses camp before blackwater and they made a goddamn mess of everything and he cries because he misses it. he still can't doesn't want to believe that dutch, old dutch who still cared and believed in things before he started making bad choices and plans went wrong, was the same dutch that went back to micah after arthur tried so hard to convince him. his last words were still pleading for dutch to realize he changed and to change back into the infallable, god-like man he admired. finding out he wasted his breath.

#rdr2 timewarp au #arthur morgan #dutch van der linde #hosea matthews #good afternoon america can i interest you in some emotional devastation

[verdemoun]

how's that essay going verdemoun shut up have some timewarp fluff

sean and kieran end up just being genuine brothers. kieran may be older but sean has the classic 'no one is allowed to bully my sibling but me' vibe going on. he will make sure his little bro who is almost a decade older than him gets extra ketchup

it is discovered that sean is insanely good at financial maths. like the second something is put in the context of money he can work it out in his head faster than the gang can check answers in the calculator. still refuses to learn to read beyond a 2nd grade level but all the school-aged babies go to uncle sean for maths homework

lenny goes to college and has a really positive mentor relationship with his professor who is physically and ideologically uncannily similar to his father. everyone expects lenny to go on to a six figure career but he has chronic professional student syndrome and just keeps studying things he finds interesting. man's on his 4th undergraduate degree. he has nightmares about student loans and is seriously considering going back to bank robbing

kieran cares so much about his found family and his hypervigilance means he is absolutely always the first to notice when someone is in a mood. he will catch someone's breathing change for a second and be worried they're having a bad day. except his biggest comfort is a weighted blanket so if someone's sad he will just. lay on top of them. or crush them in an appropriately strong bear hug.

no one knows if it's because deep pressure therapy or if it's just the sheer ridiculousness of the former o'driscoll flopping over like a great dane that thinks it's a lap dog but it works every time. he only does it with people he's comfortable with and it still scares the shit of them the first time it happens.

#rdr2 timewarp au #kieran duffy #sean macguire #lenny summers

[verdemoun]

modern au but the gang waking up in modern day in the order they died with memories of their lives as outlaws pt2:

arthur is of course the next death big enough to make the papers so they know exactly when and where to find him. the whole gang camp out to greet him. most of the grizzlies became nature preserves. arthur hugs everyone and will never admit he teared up seeing bessie + hosea again. he does, however, get terrible motion sickness on the drive back to home

lenny moves in with jenny because a) murder wall getting too big b) he appreciates arthur is used to having his own space. sean lost house privileges after the 4th time they found moldy food in sean and lenny's shared room. he bought a rusty trailer with his pizza money and lives on the front lawn (rip bessie matthews' garden)

arthur definitely doesn't get used to modernity as quick as the lads. he really struggles with the lack of things he has to do and complains constantly about dumb modern things. why don't people ride horses?? why the fuck are we paying $9 for eggs?? but his innate curiosity wins in the end: he wants to know how everything works. it's like going somewhere with a four year old. watches docuseries and reads for dummies books like crack.

seriously he's repairing a car, has one of those ages 8+ build your own robot kits, experimenting with charcoal, water colors, oil painting, made a flip motion of a horse running. he gets confused by the strangest stuff. television? pssh he's been to moving pictures before they just put the projector behind the screen somehow. light bulb? he spent 3 hours flipping the switch before bessie intervened.

they find susan the second arthur's settled enough to explain what happened after hosea and lenny's deaths. susan grimshaw is more than happy to let bessie keep being the one who keeps the VDLs in line and lives with annabelle instead. being used to a certain amount of chaos, she gets a job at a bar and is promoted to assistant manager by the end of the month. her and annabelle chain smoke on the balcony of their comfy apartment and talk shit about dutch at 2am

at first they think maybe molly o'shea didn't get sent to present because they appear where they're buried and she wasn't exactly laid to rest but sean finds her on instagram. she's living her absolute best life, and is in therapy. posts constantly: self-care, make up tutorials, poetry reviews, body-positivity, aesthetic self-defense weapons and how to use them, angry strong independent woman break up songs. goes on live and talks about things that happened in the gang days and people accept it as a really elaborate roleplay. her fanbase is entirely lesbians

#rdr2 modern au #rdr2 timewarp au

[verdemoun]

rdr2 timewarp au: the intervention

lenny catches sean cracking open a beer at 8am in the morning while still in bed and officially decides to confiscate all liquor

results in screaming match of 'it's 12 o'clock somewhere!' 'the saying is it's 5 o'clock somewhere you have a fucking problem sean'

sean sitting on the couch cussing lenny out under his breath. kieran gently suggests he try his coffee protein shake (bessie got kieran onto protein shakes because he still usually only eats dinner and she was worried about how underweight he was)

sean begrudgingly accepts because last thing he needs is lenny giving him shit for being mean to the o'driscoll duffy. because he died first he didn't go through the gang admitting kieran was one of them following his death and is still iffy about him.

there's two shots of whiskey in it

kieran's been mixing whiskey with his creamer for months

he is deeply amused by sean's shock. just because he doesn't like leaving the house by himself doesn't mean he's incapable of sneaking to a liquor store in the quiet of early morning and hiding a few bottles in his room

lenny is super pleased by the end of the week sean is not only starting his morning healthier but sean has started joining in kieran's morning routine of drinking a protein shake on the couch while watching my little pony

hosea is fully aware that kieran's been mixing whiskey into the creamer and as much as he would like to tell lenny a) it would mean admitting knowing kieran's been stealing from sean's wallet to buy alcohol and b) dealing with bessie's fury for not doing anything about the stealing or drinking

they're getting along it's probably fine

#rdr2 timewarp au