#towgd au

[vanderwoodlings]

Consider this an open invitation to expand on the topic of Georgina and religion 👀

Well, see, it’s less Georgina and religion and more the Sparks family and religion.

(And a note before we begin: to be clear, I’m not talking shit about any of these denominations as a whole, or about conversion as a whole, or Christianity as a whole. I’m talking about the experiences of characters who are clearly having not great times, and so I don’t focus on the good stuff, but Christianity does have lots of very, very good stuff in it. Unfortunately, it’s also got stuff like this.)

So here’s the thing. For Georgina to end up in her special little cult experience, her parents had to send her there. Which, like, I know we only get one scene of them but just personally I honestly would have pegged them for more like. Terrible Episcopalians than terrible Baptists

(My guess on the group Georgina was with’s background comes without having watched those episodes again, but A) focus on dressed down style, B) ‘no alcohol’ rule, and C) the whole thing with the tambourines.)

So. Georgina’s parents. They’d actually sent her to various rehabs pre-series, and other such things, and one of the more unfortunate habits of certain Christian denominations (especially your terrible Baptists) is their habit of hardcore proselytizing. Usually this functions to get their members rejected and to create a more defined in-group that feels a sense of persecution, but sometimes—especially when it happens to people under stress—it works.

I’d guess that this is happens sometime during season one.

Georgina’s relationship to religion after ‘the bitch is back’ goes a little all over the place—“i haven’t been this bored since I believed in Jesus” comes in between “Jesus and I have redefined our relationship” and “Jesus owes me one.” Probably because she’s doing a lot of redefining—she’s questioning, and she’s not sure how she feels about any of this stuff

And the thing is that Georgina, more than anything, just wants someone she loves to stay. Of course, wanting to burn everything down until she stops being bored is a very close second, but it happens. Still, one of the premises of Christianity—especially the kind you get on a worship retreat full of teenagers—is that Jesus loves the whole of humanity, unconditionally. And I figure that that’s why, despite her trouble with the whole ‘morals’ thing (and, like, all the legitimately fucked up shamed-based overly restrictive shit she probably got fed), Georgina can’t just decide she’s done.

I think that Milo probably grows up attending irregularly—Christmas and Easter with his grandparents, every year, but anything else depends on his mom. He doesn’t have a lot of positive associations with holidays—they’re high stress and he gets yelled at a lot—and spending an hour or two sitting in a pew (or a folding chair, seeing as these are Baptists) listening to some guy talk about salvation… doesn’t really help.

Someone probably asked about him getting baptized once he turned twelve, and didn’t take his uncomfortable shrug well, so he’s probably technically done that in a haze of fire and brimstone fear and adult talking loudly and aggressively obedience.

I think Dan’s somewhere on the line between agnostic and atheist—he’s a pretentious fucker, and if he thought religion mattered much at all to his life experience, we’d have heard about it. Serena isn’t really into the whole organized religion thing but she is a believer in spiritual somethings.

Dan probably kind of awkwardly brings it up when Milo first moves in, and Milo just says no, no, he’s good, and then again in December, and Milo hesitates a little more this time before deciding that he’d rather not. He keeps feeling weird about it for a good long time, though. It is what it is.

#georgina sparks #milo humphrey #georgina and milo #serena van der woodsen #dan humphrey #the sparks family #towgd au #asks #strideofpride #i also like. canon gives us secular xmas eps and thats. not my jam as someone for whom that’s a very religious holiday #so yknow. other reasons we’re doing new years instead #this is a meta tag

[vanderwoodlings]

Milo and Dan baking bread 💙💙💙

Dan and Milo baking bread!!!! ❤️❤️❤️

The thing is, like. Milo is fourteen. There’s so much of him ahead of himself. He doesn’t know how to handle it, sometimes

And he really isn’t all that good at using his words yet

Dan doesn’t want to push him, not when he’s sitting there with that look that is already so much more legible, more vulnerable, than anything he would’ve gotten just a few months ago. But he knows how to make bread

(And one of the great things about making bread, by the way, is that it has a concrete result. There is nothing intangible about it. You cannot not feel like you did something. I love baking and I think Dan does too)

And so he goes to the recipe box—old-fashioned, paper cards, the kind that he knows is a little piece of pretension but he likes anyway (the kind Serena likes because it’s so pointedly normal, so purposefully anchored in a sense of home)—and he rattles around a little too loudly

By now, Milo just. Arrives. In the kitchen. Just quietly goes for the pantry and starts getting out ingredients, agrees just enough when Dan tells him what else they need

Slowly, usually, he starts to talk—maybe over the dry ingredients, just about his day; maybe angrily as he kneads dough with force; once, carefully, as he first started washing his hands. Sometimes he doesn’t, just nods and says he can do what Dan’s asked him to and lets one of Dan’s playlists sound loud through the kitchen. (Once, when Dan had put on Def Leppard, they’d ended up laughing, dancing goofily, singing toneless and too loud to each other as they waited on the oven. That had been a good day.)

They tear off pieces, today, break through the crust with their fingers, dip it in fancy olive oil mixed with herbs from the cabinet because Vanessa had sent him a bottle and he just wants to use it so he can tell her. Milo laughs at him for it, but he likes the way it tastes

“‘s good,” he declares, mouth still half-full, so unselfconsciously happy that Dan’s heart aches

“It’s one of my favorite recipes,” he admits. Smiles. “We’ll have to make it again.”

#uh yeah. [jazz hands] bread #that fic is important to me you unlocked a thing when you pointed to that moment sorry #dan humphrey #milo humphrey #dan and milo #this is a writing tag #towgd au #asks #terrainofheartfelt #oh wait right #character death / #so deeply vaguely but yeah

[vanderwoodlings]

Milo called his grandfather.

Dan picks up the pieces.

(dan&milo, 1325 words, part of the one where georgina’s dead)

#dan humphrey #milo humphrey #dan and milo #dan and jenny #in its own way #this is a writing tag #original nonsense #towgd au

[vanderwoodlings]

It was something of a running joke that all of them were in love with Nate to some degree or another. It was mostly brought up to make him blush, and to emphasize that he was, in fact, someone worth loving.

Watching Milo interact with Nate, well…

Dan gave himself five seconds to hurt over Milo’s interactions with everything else, and then he put that down and embraced the fact that Milo was in the same boat as the rest of them.

(1260 words, fluff, part of the one where georgina’s dead)

#dan humphrey #milo humphrey #dan and milo #nate archibald #serena van der woodsen #this is a writing tag #towgd au #original nonsense

[vanderwoodlings]

Milo has never had a New Year’s Eve like this.

(milo&dan&serena&nate, 1001 words, part of the one where georgina’s dead)

#milo humphrey #is a good kid and deserves good things #dan humphrey #serena van der woodsen #nate archibald #this is a writing tag #original nonsense #towgd au #told you id finish by the end of march #dan and milo #dan and serena #nate and serena #milo and nate

[vanderwoodlings]

scrapped this bit from the upcoming towgd fic child of sorrow and of woe but i still like it so:

Jenny Humphrey arrived early on Saturday morning and laid claim to the guest room immediately. (At least this time, Milo wouldn’t be sleeping on the couch—everyone else staying overnight had booked a hotel.)

She was having coffee with Dan when he stumbled downstairs, bleach blonde hair sliding forward to cover her face as she tried to soak up all the mug’s warmth. He was laughing.

Milo considered the merits of getting dressed on his first impression, and saw that they were many. At least in terms of soothing his vague anxiety.

But Dan spotted him before he could turn around and go back upstairs. He smiled a little, with a twitch of his hand in an aborted wave of good morning.

The shift of her sibling’s attention was enough for Jenny to notice, and she turned to face him.

“Hey,” he said.

Jenny didn’t look much like Dan, even when she smiled, but she smiled like him. “Morning. Coffee?” A beat. She turned to Dan. “Is he allowed to drink coffee?”

Dan shrugged. “I… guess?”

“I don’t like it,” Milo said, carefully coming closer. He still felt awkward, with his too-long sleep pants that tried to catch under the heels of his bare feet as he walked.

Jenny, who looked not at all like someone who had just taken a redeye in from Spain, nodded. “Good. Caffeine’s addictive, and it stunts your growth.”

She said it like a joke, and Dan grinned, so Milo smiled too.

“Serena went for breakfast,” Dan told him. He stood and went to the kitchen anyway, barely pausing to lightly push Milo into his seat at the counter. “Doughnuts works for you, right?”

#towgd au #jenny humphrey #dan humphrey #milo humphrey #the humphreys #dan and jenny #jenny and milo #this is a writing tag #original nonsense

[vanderwoodlings]

In which it is Thanksgiving, and Dan and Milo talk about their feelings and family histories. (1781 words, dan&milo, part of the one where georgina’s dead)

#dan humphrey #milo humphrey #towgd au #gossip girl #this is a writing tag #dan and milo #the plan from here on out is to experiment with … actual happy feelings? #we’ll see how it goes

[vanderwoodlings]

do you have any headcanons for your "the one where georgina is dead" universe? I very much love the little families of qpr derena & milo and blairnessa & henry!

I do! I mean, we’re only about halfway through—the plan is to get back around to a year of them living together—so there’s some stuff like my plans re: Nate that are spoilery, but that aside:

Milo and Dan eventually start what’s… basically a book club, the summer after Milo’s sophomore year. He struggled a lot with English that year, and so it’s one part practice, one part family activity that trends more and more into a family activity as time goes on

Their first book is When The Bell Tolls, I think, because Hemingway is one of those people that Dan jams out on so hard that a teenage boy wouldn’t necessarily think of as being enjoyable, and it’s pretty short, too. (Serena joins in when they do Julius Caesar, and that one they read out loud and split the parts between the three of them and Milo is very surprised to find out that Shakespeare? Is fun???)

During his sophomore year, Milo also signs up for the track team—he needs the PE credit, and it’s just… easier. He gets to waking up early for running on the weekends and it re-orders things, in its own way, having that space to himself before the day. It’s settling

Dan and Serena are also Those Parents at every track meet. They’re cheering in the stands. They have snacks for everyone. They know all the kids’ names and their events

(They get an absolutely batshit reputation with the parent community because they are the most delightful bisexual disasters and very enthusiastic and. Like a decade younger than everyone else. The scandal and the delight are intense)

I don’t think I’m going to get around to this, at least not in the fashion I originally thought of it, but I love the idea of Dan being the one who makes the news now, and of him giving an interview during the early publicity for the book he’s working on at this point and very quietly explaining the Milo of it all, and just… the way that he is so delightfully proud and loving coming through with irrepressible clarity

#towgd au #serena van der woodsen #dan humphrey #milo humphrey #dan and milo #dan and serena #asks #terrainofheartfelt

[vanderwoodlings]

Milo has to stay home from school. With Dan busy, it becomes a day for him and Serena.

(1499 words, milo&serena, part of the one where georgina’s dead)

#milo humphrey #serena van der woodsen #dan humphrey #towgd au #this is a writing tag #milo and serena #dan and milo #original nonsense

[vanderwoodlings]

Realizing that since I made towgd a series and not a longfic I have to figure out what I meant by that line about Blair and Vanessa

#towgd au #easy route is that they just both happen to prefer the same guest room #but that’s also boring #so now i have to figure out how henry fits in. if he exists. fuck #i am a fool plagued by hubris #original nonsense #blair and vanessa #blair waldorf #vanessa abrams #henry bass

[vanderwoodlings]

 “A while back,” Dan said, quietly, “you told me it was strange to have a kid who came with a story.”

(1011 words, dan and vanessa talk about their kids, part of the one where georgina’s dead)

#dan humphrey #vanessa abrams #towgd au #this is a writing tag #dan and vanessa #dan and milo #henry and vanessa #blairnessa #original nonsense

[vanderwoodlings]

i love randomly googling new york state law even though i’ve never lived there (and god willing never will)

but on to the important part: changing a minors name requires written consent from the other parent if they aren’t there. do we think georgina just forged dan’s signature or that she actually got him to agree?

#its milofic hours again #personally i think she forged it and then asked #like if he says no it’s whatever but if he says yes at least it’s actually legal #and honestly either way she wins because it WILL destroy dans life for at least five to seven business days #original nonsense #dan and georgina #dan and milo #dan humphrey #georgina sparks #milo humphrey #towgd au

[vanderwoodlings]

wip wednesday, as tagged in by @strideofpride — thank you!

the last thing I wrote, from another twogd fic (that’s gonna be a while):

Milo flopped face down on the couch, and then slowly pulled his legs after him until he was half curled on his side. While he often looked a bit… vulnerable… he definitely seemed to be actually mopey at the moment.

“What’s up?” Dan asked, looking away from his computer.

“It’s nothing.” He promptly undercut this by tugging his backpack tight to his chest and staring out at the turned off television screen.

He did his best to keep his laugh from sounding sharp. “‘Nothing’ like ‘something but I don’t want to talk about it’ or ‘nothing’ like ‘something you need to ask twice about’?”

But it earned him a crooked smirk from Milo. “I dunno.”

Dan hit save one last time and shut the screen.

“I mean, like, I’m super ahead in math now, right?” Milo said. “So I’m with a bunch of juniors, so I have to go watch the stupid driver’s ed car crash presentation, and I just… I mentioned about my mom to this other guy and…”

He trailed off with a shrug.

Usually, Dan would’ve assumed that someone had said something shitty because Milo had gotten freaked by a fake car crash, but it was Georgina. “And…?”

i guess i’ll tag @mrs-nate-humphrey and anyone else who’d like to jump in

#this is a writing tag #tag games #dan humphrey #milo humphrey #dan and milo #georgina and milo #towgd au #original nonsense #character death /

[vanderwoodlings]

towgd is a dan & milo centered au, but I’m me, so here, have some serena ramblings in this au:

(warnings for discussions of (canon typical) past abuse and substance abuse, and (this au typical) off-screen character death)

Milo was terrifying.

Not Milo himself, exactly. He couldn’t even be called threatening, too quiet and small and sunken into giant clothes and fourteen years old to manage if he tried. And at the moment, curled around his phone in a tight ball at the end of the couch, he was definitely not trying.

But when Serena had been nineteen and seeing the way Dan held him for the first time, something had bent out of shape. It was the thing that sat between the fact that she loved him and the fact that she knew she would fuck a kid up.

It had twisted up more over the years, those selfish turns that came with Milo being gone and Dan being hurt enough that when she had confessed that she didn’t want children, he’d leaned his head against her shoulder and hummed sadly and agreed.

He’d let her tell him about what her parents had done, her lost adolescence, Georgina, about how some parts of her loved the idea but how she wouldn’t risk a kid’s wellbeing. He’d told her about his mom disappearing, said that parents should be in it as much as they could possibly be.

They were both twisted in the right ways to suit each other, he’d said.

She’d laughed.

Milo came pre-traumatized.

Serena knew Georgina, her whims and her possessiveness and her selfishness. She had a pretty good idea of what she had been like as a parent.

(It was probably wrong how genuinely relieved Serena was about her dying. That it didn’t hurt that her first girlfriend was dead. That it didn’t hurt that someone who used to mean smeared lipstick and sharp smiles, wild eyes and kisses so hard they felt like she would collapse under them, flasks tipped into her coffee and pills served with her drinks was reduced to a recitation of platitudes and an inheritance of shoplifted jewelry and a flash drive.

And she had already destroyed the flash drive.)

She didn’t know Milo.

(She had been a whirlwind with Georgina, had thrown herself into the game with the understanding that she could never back out and the opinion that there was very little to go back to anyway. Milo looked like he ran from it, like he tried to make himself a rock.

(Milo’s mother was dead; what could she tell about him that would be true any other day of his life?))

She didn’t know if somehow he would be bent in a way she could keep from breaking. She did know she was scared. She did know she didn't want to hurt him anymore, and that she didn’t trust either of them to avoid it.

She knew she trusted Dan, and that Dan was meant for this.

Serena had known that since she was nineteen and first saw the way he held Milo.

#original nonsense #serena van der woodsen #milo humphrey #dan and serena #georgina and serena #abuse / #character death / #towgd au

[vanderwoodlings]

As the first anniversary of Georgina’s death approaches, Dan, Milo, and Serena visit her grave.

[844 words. last part of the one where georgina’s dead]

#dan humphrey #milo humphrey #dan and milo #serena van der woodsen #georgina sparks #this is a writing tag #towgd au #original nonsense

[vanderwoodlings]

Honestly for someone with a low to average level of interest in Shakespeare. I sure title a lot of my fics from him

#next towgd fic comes from henry iv part ii act four scene four #you can feel free to guess as to the line or the content but really #i make these posts not because i think anyone cares but because they make me actually write #original nonsense #towgd au