#the eelfinn stole my baby

[highladyluck]

The Finn stole my baby AU

ok FINE you can all have the Eelfinn Stole My Baby in outline form

I've never pinned down the details on this, because I think it would be most interesting as an installment in a larger series and a lot of the details would be determined by the needs of the overall storyline, but this is the vague outline:

1) Fortuona has just found out from Min that her kid's going to be a marath'damane. Because a) SOME IDIOT (maybe Mat, maybe Berelain if they're on speaking terms, there's some other options depending on the scenario) made the mistake of telling her about Sindhol in some way that makes her actually believe in it, b) she's a slut for prophecy and always has been, and c) she wants to explore all her options, she wants to go to Sindhol to get some answers from the Aelfinn. The questions she intends to ask vary by setting but it's something along the lines of how to survive the current situation/protect her marath'damane child/solve the sul'dam problem/ensure stability of the Empire in the westlands/how best to reconquer mainland Seanchan. You know! #FortuonaProblems. Mat eventually agrees to escort her; both to get in, since the only way in right now is the Tower of Ghenji, and to get out.

2) But because they're going in outside of treaty rules and Mat's there, the Eelfinn are the ones waiting for them and they won't let Fortuona go see the Aelfinn (maybe they say that they won't see Mat, but they will see her, if she agrees to be escorted alone. Mat's almost like "oh, over my dead body" but catches himself just in time.) Whatever deal Fortuona makes with the Eelfinn involves something she can use to solve her existing political problems (not sure what this is but it could be something horrible, like a better male a'dam), and something for Mat (maybe a magic replacement eye?). The third item is either something else for her, something else for Mat, or a very thoroughly rules-lawyered escape clause, depending on how confident Mat was/she is about being able to escape with the ashandarai. In exchange, they take her about-to-be-born-child, which she either explicitly names as the price, or is counting on them taking as the price.

3) At least they're not gonna eat the kid; the Eelfinn want a human child who can channel to build them new treaty doors someday, and if the human child is raised by them and therefore on their side, so much the better. They're also thrilled to get another piece of Mat. I figure the Eelfinn would want the savor of Mat and Tuon fighting about this, so while there's a possibility that the world's least hygenic c-section happens before Mat cottons on to what Tuon just bargained away, I think it would be more likely that they don't strike until the price is explicit or Mat has figured it out.

Tuon's like "I understand that you're upset but it's better this way. I came to solve a problem. It's not solved the way I intended, but it's solved and I got you an incredible boon in the bargain. We can always have more children."

Mat's like "Yeah, well, you aren't having them with me! You're a monster for unilaterally trading our child to my eldritch enemies."

She's like "If I'm a monster, so are you. As soon as you found out she would be marath'damane you began setting plans in motion to take her from her destiny. From the empire. From me. Don't think I haven't noticed. At least in this situation, I'm getting something out of it that benefits both of us."

4) I honestly don't entirely know what happens next, but it's bad. Unstoppable force (Mat's desire to rescue women & his love of Tuon) meets immovable object (said woman/Tuon just betrayed him and his innocent child to his worst enemies). Would he just leave Tuon there? (maybe?) Would he try to trade Tuon's life for the baby's? (I like this because I like pain and I think he might be deranged enough in the moment to do it) Would he try to trade his life for the baby's? (maybe, but they wouldn't accept it.) Would he try to kill all the Eelfinn? (yes, and they'd still take the baby.) Like how the fuck do you recover from any of that? And the worst part is you can like… sort of see where Tuon is coming from, if you enjoy women's wrongs? And she really just wanted to meet the Aelfinn and it's Mat's fault that it isn't going as planned?

5) If there's a sequel, it would be the fully grown child showing up in their world with a terrifying knowledge of esoteric ter'angreal construction and thoroughly socialized as a *Finn some improbably short amount of time later. Maybe when Elayne and Mat mount a rescue mission in a few months. Time runs differently in Sindhol if the *Finn need it to.

Bonus: I'm still debating adding a variant of this to the epilogue of The Fox That Makes The Ravens Fly- for one thing, I haven't decided yet if Tuon is pregnant, and if she is, by whom. If I do it'll be Rand who tells her about the Aelfinn & Thom who tells her about the Eelfinn, she'll go in with Thom and someone else (Elayne, I think, in exchange for access to the dice-ring ter'angreal that replicates Mat's luck, also Elayne would love to go on that field trip, although I could see Min being interested for the metaphysics of it all), and the ostensible point is to rescue Moiraine. I think instead of that, she negotiates getting Mat back, at the cost of leaving her baby with them, and resetting the timeline so Mat never died and the canon events where Moiraine gets rescued happen, but she remembers the old timeline. I have no idea if the *Finn actually get to keep her baby, who may or may not be a sparker in this scenario, or for that matter if they get to keep Moiraine, but I bet they'd take the bargain regardless because they invested a lot in Mat & also now Tuon has some weird fucking emotions about the entire life she didn't lead. Also they're the fae, the only thing they like more than bargain eyeballs is bargain babies.

#wheel of time #wot book spoilers #au ask game #the eelfinn stole my baby #anyboli #problematic fave tuon #an alternate dimension with incredible shopping #one thing about Tuon is she loves to shop and also create problems by her very existence

[highladyluck]

Min’s parting shot to Tuon as she peaces out of her grasp forever is “I see ravens entangled in your entrails, and darkness and madness coming to you at the height of your power,” and it’s actually just Ebony Darkness Madness Raven Paendrag showing up several months later, 17 years old and ready to take advantage of an alternate dimension with incredible shopping :)

#wheel of time #wot book spoilers #problematic fave Tuon #the eelfinn stole my baby #Ebony Dark’ness Madness Raven Paendrag #I’m all about intense tonal whiplash between different installments of the same story

[highladyluck]

Actually kind of in a mood to work on WIPs rn but now I can’t pick between all my deranged options 🙃

Do the equivalent of rock paper scissors with me so I can then ignore the outcome if I don’t like it & reveal to myself the WIP I truly want to work on!

#polls #too many wips #all my WIPs are about Tuon because I want to study her like a bug #also she’s a great plot catalyst

[highladyluck]

WIP ask meme

Tagged by @veliseraptor

rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! Then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

Daughter of Battles Wheel of Fortuona

Mat-Tuon military college Modern AU

The Eelfinn Stole My Baby

The Lost Girls

Tigraine Vignettes

Apparently I Really Will Ship Mat With Anyone

Not In Front Of My Salad

Trains Explode All The Time, Radnor

The Minotaur in the Labyrinth

A Few Kisses aka A Wild Understatement

Lay Down Your Crown and Sword

The Fox That Makes The Ravens Fly

Andoran Ter'angreal R&D Department Universe

Andoran Ter'angreal R&D Department Universe Sequel

Tagging... not as many people as I have wips lmao @gunkreads, @anyboli, @unmarkedcards, @pillowfriendly, @liesmyth, etc, I think Lise got some of the other people I would have tagged, anyone else who wants to do it!

#WIP ask meme

[highladyluck]

Picking one title among all yours was hard, but I gotta hear more about "The Eelfinn Stole My Baby".

The details of this one are very much in flux, but basically very pregnant Fortuona has just found out from Min that her kid's going to be a marath'damane. Because a) Mat made the mistake of telling her about Sindhol, b) she's a slut for prophecy and always has been, and c) she's a little bit desperate and wants to explore all her options, she wants to go to Sindhol to get some answers from the Aelfinn. Mat eventually agrees to escort her; both to get in, since the only way in right now is the Tower of Ghenji, and to get out.

But because they're going in outside of treaty rules and Mat's there, the Eelfinn are the ones waiting for them and they won't let Fortuona go see the Aelfinn (maybe they say that they won't see Mat, but they will see her, if she agrees to be escorted alone. Mat's almost like "oh, over my dead body" but catches himself just in time.)

Whatever deal Fortuona makes with the Eelfinn involves a very thoroughly rules-lawyered escape clause, something she can use to solve her existing problems (not sure what this is but it could be something horrible), and something for Mat (maybe a magic replacement eye?).

In exchange, they take her child, which she either explicitly names as the price or is counting on them taking as the price. At least they're not gonna eat the kid; the Eelfinn and Aelfinn want a human child who can channel to build them new treaty doors someday, and if the human child is raised by them and therefore on their side, so much the better. They're also thrilled to get another piece of Mat, probably.

Fortuona and Mat have an enormous fight about this, obviously. Tuon's like "I understand that you're upset but it's better this way. I came to solve a problem. It's not solved the way I intended, but it's solved and I got you a great gift. Besides, we can have more children."

Mat's like "Yeah well you aren't having them with me! You're a monster for unilaterally trading our child to my eldritch enemies."

She's like "If I'm a monster, so are you. As soon as you found out she would be marath'damane you began setting plans in motion to take her from her destiny. From the empire. From me. Don't think I haven't noticed. At least in this situation, I'm getting something out of it that benefits both of us."

Anyway I have no idea how this ends! But it sure is gonna be fucked up!

#wheel of time #fanfic ask game #ask game #ask meme #I put this under a cut because it gets... disturbing #an alternate dimension with incredible shopping

[highladyluck]

rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. send me an ask with the title that most intrigues you and i’ll post a little snippet of it or tell you something about it. and then tag as many people as you have WIPs

This is slightly updated from the last time I tried this! Also not going to tag as many people as I have WIPs, sorry...

A Few Kisses aka A Wild Understatement

Andoran Ter'angreal R&D Department Universe

Apparently I Really Will Ship Mat With Anyone

Lay Down Your Crown And Sword

Leilwin and Bayle Get Kinky

Not In Front of My Salad

The Eelfinn Stole My Baby

The Minotaur in the Labyrinth

Trains Explode All the Time, Radnor

the only people I can think to tag right now are @asha-mage and @testudoaubrei-blog since I’m beta-ing for y’all on a regular basis ^_^;;

#tag game #fanfic ask game #ask game