#macy ty for your service sorry for.... this

[gardenerian]

26 [Ukrainian/Irish AU] + 64 [Guns/Crime] 😌🍀🔫

not me asking you to send this one to me so i can talk about this AU that's been living in my notes app for weeks haha whaaaaat no way what a weird thing to do 👀🇮🇪🇺🇦

right, so picture this lads:

it's the year 1920 in rural county cork, ireland. the war of independence is a ragin'. brits out, come out ye black and tans, etc etc etc

cork is known as the rebel county bc of how batshit insane they went during the war of independence (actually, it comes from henry vii… they’ve been batshit about independence for THAT LONG)

ian gallagher serves as the local doctor - he’s in high demand, what with all the poverty and disease and starvation and the black & tans beating everybody up 😒

he earns a place in an english hospital to get Super Sophisticated medical training. he’s kinda conflicted bc fuck the english and all that, but he also feels like this is a chance to pull his family out of poverty

meanwhile lip is a rising leader in the IRA and he’s disappointed in ian for leaving when ireland is in such a critical point in the war for independence - and he’s all ah ian you’re not a real irishman how could you leave us now like?

and ian’s like bleedin jesus i’m just one small sort lip you don’t need me BUT when he’s about to leave, a local game of hurling is broken up by the black and tans (technically "group gatherings" weren’t allowed) and carl is very hurt

ian tends to him and realizes he can’t leave ireland now, so he joins lip in the IRA

fiona is definitely in cumman na mban (the women's wing of the IRA) and she brings messages to lip and ian while they’re in training 🥺 they speak irish together to protect themselves

irish war for independence was guerrilla war so it was a lot of ambushes and assassinations - lots of holding up british barracks and stealing guns, etc. ian is feeling more comfortable with his decision as the IRA is gaining some ground, WHICH LEADS US TO…

mikhailo milkovich is part of the mass migration that takes place in the wake of world war i - ukraine did not exist as an actual nation at this point, and ukrainian people were split between the russian and austro-hungarian armies. mikhailo fights for the russians bc he kinda has to, but dips as soon as the civil war in russia breaks out - he’s not about to get involved in that mess. he gets interested in the nationalist movement, bc fuck those overlords, but his land is in shambles, his family has scattered, and he has no home to go back to - this feels like a sign for a new life?

he wanders around europe for a bit, and eventually he finds himself in london, where he gets further radicalized by the anti-colonial/left wing revolutionaries living there. he hears of the cork soviet and the war for independence, and he decides to head over and stir shit up. the irish are kicking ass and taking names, and he wants to see what he can learn from them. the goal is to go back to ukraine and continue Stirring Shit Up 

so he makes his way to cork, easily worming his way in with the trouble makers there. they bring him to lip and the higher ups, thinking mikhailo could be useful. he’s a good shot, he learned a lot from those guys in london, and he has connections to get them loaded up with arms and ammunition 

the lads are suspicious of him, except for ian who is immediately like 👀 ian teaches him some irish, some medical training, mickey drops some socialist knowledge on him, they bond over these struggles for freedom and what life could be like for them once it’s attained 🥺 

the lads get used to mickey, as they now call him, but they’re still reluctant to let him in fully. but he proves himself incredibly useful in organizing raids, and ian obviously finds that super hot - cue the sexual tension re: ian and mickey in flat caps, covered in dirt and/or blood, holding rifles, and hiding in the irish hills 😌 they start to get...... close 👀

but! after one of their raids on british barracks, the group is rounded up and arrested. there’s a spy in their midst ⚠️ everyone suspects mickey, but ian stands up for him - if it were mickey, they wouldn’t have arrested him too. some of the leaders of the group (lip included) are tortured for information, but the brits! get! NOTHING! 

ian tries to tend to lip and the others, but it’s not looking good - everyone is in danger of being straight up executed. mickey sees ian panicking and orchestrates their escape - don’t ask me how, idk yet - and they all flee into the hills 

everyone is fully on board with mickey now, very thankful so they are. ian and mickey have a Passionate Moment™️ once they are safe and flooded with relief

AND THEN! THE WAR IS OVER! celebrations! mickey and ian plan to stay in ireland while things get settled and then head to ukraine to start fucking shit up over there 

but.......... the irish civil war begins almost immediately. the treaty does not give ireland full freedom and ian is not about that! the gallaghers are split - lip defends the treaty as a basis for freedom but ian says he didn’t get involved in this war for partial freedom for ireland. mickey backs him up, but this war is devastating for the family and the country. brother against brother, literally 💔

so the civil war rages on in extreme violence - ian and mickey are holed up in the mountains with the other anti-treaty soldiers, fighting against the very people they stood beside just weeks ago. they’re starting to wonder what this is all for, if the world they want can really be achieved this way... ian is getting especially depressed bc he’d wanted to be a healer, and now he’s a trained killer on the run from his brother and best friend 

it all comes to a head when ian and mickey are captured while patrolling. lip, who is running the new free state troops in cork, begs ian to give up information on their activity - if not, he’ll be shot at dawn

ian refuses, and lip is beside himself. they spend hours fighting and crying and trying to convince each other to see reason, but they’re both so convinced that they’re on the right side. ian is ready to die for it, but lip pulls his last card - is he ready to let mickey die for it? 

and he’s not, but he can’t betray his comrades like that. he won’t give anybody up. dawn is fast approaching and lip can’t fucking take it - he sneaks ian and mickey out of their cells and tells them to get the fuck out of ireland. there will be hell to pay for lip, but he’s not about to have ian’s blood on his hands. they have a gut-wrenching goodbye before lip shoos them away 😭

mickey and ian are reluctant to go, but they don’t want to risk each other anymore. plus, ian refuses to pick up a gun again after seeing his family and his country torn apart. so.... they go 

now: where to do they go? maybe up north, where the war hasn’t reached. they work and organize labor and send money down to the gallaghers. maybe to london, where they find immigrant communities to thrive in? or perhaps america? the nationalist movement has largely gone dormant in ukraine by this point, and mickey doesn’t want to subject ian to another armed struggle anyways. and they’re not about to take on the fuckin ussr. but they move on and heal and study and keep organizing for freedom elsewhere - maybe they go to new york and start fucking shit up in the labor unions?

but one day they’ll go back to a free ireland and reunite with the gallaghers and they’ll be at peace 🥲 

........ an deireadh

#yall ever seen the wind that shakes the barley #that movie..... whew baby #but i refuse to have that same ending no sir not on my watch #this is unhinged #i've been thinking about this for a bit skajdfhajks can you tell #the rest of these will not be .... like this #but !!!!!!! can you imagine!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #macy ty for your service sorry for.... this #fic mashup #tumblr writing #i guess