#have I ever slammed reblog that fast?#I mean this show gave me back writing I was having panic attacks everytime I tried to write and the love of this show got me out of that#Sanctuary just inspires me I haven’t been this obsessed with something in years and it’s a good feeling#I am so very grateful

The first prompt of that Teslen appreciation week is “Teslen Throughout History”which made me remember the Sanctuary MerMay fic I still haven’t posted. It’s written (I finished it in May) but I’m planning on an illustration for it. I was without the PC for 3 weeks and so I haven’t made any progress obviously in that time.

Anyway, The Tragic Tail is Helen/James ship, with some references to her past with John. However, the only real interaction with the Helen of 1912 is with Nikola. It’s Nikola who holds her when she first breaks down from the horror of what happened. It’s Nikola who sees when the ‘last Titanic survivor’ dies and calls Helen so she can talk with someone who understands. Ever since I wrote it my intent has been to tag it with something like “Nikola is a good friend” because he really was.

My observation of shippers generally (I’ve been writing fanfic for over 20 years now) is that generally “opposition ships” are ignored, or maligned, generally torn down to make ‘your ship’ seem the undisputed best. I’m trying to think if I’ve ever been guilty of that and I think if I have, it’s only when the “opposition ship” was a complete NoTP that I had a real antipathy for. Generally speaking I’m ship and let ship. If I dislike something it’s on it’s own merits (or rather negatives), not just because it’s the opposition to something I like.

I’m not threatened by Teslen. I ship Helen/John/James as an OT3 because it just screamed at me. There was not much choice involved. I saw Revelations and boom – I was done for. But I have eyes and so I can’t deny Nikola’s importance, nor would I ever want to do that.

I freely admit in season 4 the show seemed to be leaning to making Helen/Nikola canon. I can definitely see how their friendship could turn romantic. I don’t object to the pairing, I just don’t see it as a ‘great love’ I guess. To me their interaction seems far more platonic. They are very close, I would definitely say Helen treats Nikola like family. However exasperated she gets with him, there’s always a bit of fondness there and they will always be friends. I’ve always seen Nikola’s flirting with her to be more like banter as there never seems to be any expectation of it going beyond flirting.

I kinda headcanon actually that Nikola started being outrageous soon after The Five met as a way of testing her. Helen never took offense because she liked that she wasn’t being treated like a porcelain doll. I think Helen would always have bristled at being treated like a delicate lady. So Nikola being outrageous, without any intent to go further, was just like a way of affirming her independence.

Man I’m not sure what this rambling is. Thoughts on Teslen I guess. I still don’t know if I will actually do anything for appreciation week. Maybe I’ll do a series of headcanon/meta posts about their friendship. Maybe I’ll make a gifset or two. I don’t know.

I still can’t stop thinking about that OT3 roles gifset I just made.

I totally get why James should have been Person C but it’s like the fanfic I’m writing.

I planned out that soulmark AU the other day and in my planning there was a lot of comparison between “canon” and “this AU” in how the characters reacted to the same event. For instance a big one was John and James getting together. Now we NEVER see that in canon so everything about that is just my headcanons anyway.

However, in ‘canon’ I pegged John as the one that took the initiative on that. He’s rebellious against his father, he’s strong and used to pushing back. He’s daring and willing to do a lot of things everyone says he shouldn’t. Whereas James was infinitely more restrained at first. Oh James is perfectly willing to buck society but he wanted to think it all through first and be 100% sure John felt the same way before he did anything. So it’s a good job John made the first move as James would probably never have done so.

But in this AU their upbringing was slightly different. James’ mother made an extra effort to let James know that his differences didn’t matter to her and that she loved him no matter what. He still had to hide them from society at large but he had the certainty that his mother gave him, that it wasn’t anything to personally be ashamed about. Whereas John’s mother crushed his rebellious spirit out of her fear that if John ever did pushback against his father, that William might discover his secret. So John isn’t as strong, his first instinct is to back down (as opposed to canon where he uses his height to intimidate). Even in canon John was quiet but in the AU he’s more subdued and a lot more conflicted.

So these OT3 roles are the same. In canon James probably is mostly Person C because John is cursed and off the rails (and Helen is Person A no matter what) and so it falls to James to try and rein them both in. However, I guess I’ve been thinking so much about their happier days (as I’ve been planning this Oxford-era soulmark fic) and James loves the mystery. James can’t be the voice of reason too much because Helen can convince him in seconds, she just pricks his curiosity and then he has to know.

I guess I just don’t see John having quite the same fascination with abnormals and science as Helen and James. I mean I think John has to have some interest – all of The Five were scientists – but I don’t think it was his passion. I think John’s passion is Helen and James. He loves science because he loves them.  I view John as the follower I guess, that’s why he’s Person C.

I mean James “pretending he’s too sensible for crazy bullshit” does kinda line up with him making token protests, being the voice of caution, and then just jumping in anyway. Practically speaking what is the difference between Person B and C? I think it’s whether they get into messes on their own. Cursed John is Person B and James is C. Not cursed it’s how I put it with James’ curiosity getting him into trouble, so he’s Person B and John is person C.

misscrazyfangirl321:

Okay, so let’s talk about the labyrinth test at the end of Season One of Sanctuary, shall we? 

I have two issues with it, one small-scale and one large-scale. 

1. So these tests were supposed to be incredibly difficult and intense, designed to push each of them to their limits, right? Well, then, why was Nigel Griffin’s so easy? 

Don’t get me wrong: that test nearly doomed them all, but that was because Nigel Griffin wasn’t there to take it. Clara had spent her whole life hating her abilities, and fighting against who and what she was, so having to place all her faith in those abilities knowing that lives hung in the balance? Incredibly difficult. 

But assuming Nigel Griffin was as comfortable with his abilities as the rest of the 5 seem to be with theirs, his test would have been the easiest by far. Walking into that room invisible would probably have been the default, frankly. 

And unless Helen’s father knew something he shouldn’t have, the test should have been designed for Nigel, not Clara. 

2. Then we have the major issue: for a labyrinth that was supposed to be so specialized that only the 5, using their powers, could have completed it…. Two of them alone could have done it. 

Specifically, John and Helen could have. At most they might have needed James for the Latin, but unless I’m mistaken, Helen’s fairly proficient in Latin herself, right?  And she’s familiar with her father’s thought processes. The two of them could have handled John’s, James’, and Helen’s tests with ease. 

As for Nikola’s, unless there was some sort of force field or something we didn’t know about, John could have just teleported in there, gotten the key, and teleported out. 

Then, he would have just had to teleport into Nigel’s room, get the key, and get out. Sure, it would have triggered the collapse, but Clara did that anyway, and frankly, the light would have hit John for less time. Thus, the collapse wouldn’t have gotten as far along.

Maybe they all had to turn the keys at the same time, so they could have needed three more people, but any three other people could have turned the keys. 

In conclusion, that test was really weird. Or else Tesla was wrong, and Helen’s father simply preferred Helen and John as a couple. 

I hope it’s ok to add to this? If it’s not I apologise.

I really liked everything you said! I agree completely. The labyrinth was no challenge at all for The Five – but I don’t think it was supposed to be. If it was supposed to keep them out, then it wouldn’t have been tailored to their abilities. I think it was more to keep out everyone else BUT The Five.

As Helen said (paraphrased) “I know how my father thought, if he anticipated one of us wouldn’t have made it, he would have allowed for another of us to complete the task” – she said something like that in reference to Nikola’s test but as you’ve pointed out it could have worked for all of them in a variety of ways.

Plus re: your point about Helen and John. When Gregory set up the tests they were engaged as it was before John was cursed. Making it so his daughter and son-in-law (family in other words) could complete all tasks just makes sense. He would trust them above the others.

However the biggest issue for me with the labyrinth is that it’s the 21st century. I love Nikola I do but he clearly had a failure of imagination re: getting the blood. If he’d done some x-raying imaging of the walls he’d have located the blood where that turning concrete pillar thing was and then a plasma torch could have cut a nice hole around it.

And yes I have thought way too much about this haha. This is probably my favourite episode 🙂

You know how I said Normandy wrecked my headcanon for James and Helen’s relationship? I’d put in Our Darkest Hour that they’d split, as Helen couldn’t live with James’ pain and her own. They’d obviously stayed best friends but that was why they weren’t living together in present day – they weren’t together together.

But Normandy put a spanner in that because James and Helen were definitely together romantically then. So why weren’t they together together? If they loved each other it made zero sense to me why Helen lived in Old City, James was head of house in London and they saw each other maybe once a year and barely talked otherwise.

However, this morning I woke up and it just came to me.

I still have 2 episodes of season 3 to watch but I’m not completely spoiler free I know season 4 has time travel. Helen goes back to the past and has to live a century over again. Well James knows about future!Helen (I know that much) and Helen doesn’t want to disrupt the timeline so she can’t do much, has to hide a lot of the time. Her past!self is living her life, so everyone she knows and cares about is off-limits pretty much – apart from James who knows.

Now James can’t have a relationship with current/past!Helen and future!Helen at the same time. He can’t tell current/past!Helen the truth, so her logical conclusion at his secrecy would be an affair. However, he can’t leave future!Helen to face the century totally alone. She doesn’t have anyone else.

Therefore that’s the reason for the distance between them. James probably made some excuse about politics, needing to stay in London etc. when Helen moved to Old City. I’m sure he would try and leave her in no doubt as to his feelings (and they certainly seemed to be on good terms in Revelations) but they don’t live together, as he needs to be there for future!Helen. If he was living with Helen, and sneaking off to see future!Helen, as I said the current/past!Helen would surely conclude an affair.

New headcanon! 🙂

I like this one. Current/past!Helen might be a bit confused, and never have totally understood why they aren’t together together. Then she has her time travel trip and suddenly it all makes sense.

Now I just need to concoct some way that James could theoretically have survived in Revelations (while appearing to die) so post-time travel shenanigans he can come back to life and be with Helen completely (as she’d merged with herself so to speak). Also it did just occur to me that I heard (but I’ve not seen so I don’t know if it’s true) that John disappears post-time travel event. I know there’s some kind of scheming going on so Helen doesn’t admit to her time travel adventure for ages, so that could be why James couldn’t come back to life, but then after Helen went back to her life he would be the one left alone unless John went to keep him company.

I’m going to have to write this aren’t I? This has got to be a thing.

I just watched Normandy.

Way to wreck my headcanons haha.

Oh and James looked super weird without any kind of facial hair. He had the goatee in Revelations and of course the full beard in the flashback in For King and Country. I didn’t like it, he didn’t look like himself, but then the actor did play that villain in Stargate and he was clean-shaven like that so maybe that’s part of the problem.

Ok the backstory I set up in Our Darkest Hour isn’t potentially canon anymore but never mind. So new facts! James and Helen were never involved pre-Whitechapel based on John’s comments. If they’d all been together back then (how I wrote it) then John wouldn’t have said this:

You’re with her now. Aren’t you? I know you, old friend. Your passion… your passion for her, it just comes off you like a bad smell.

Unless … I mean there could be more than one way of reading it. The inference I got from watching was a bit of jealousy on John’s part, and it just felt like James and Helen’s relationship must be a new thing. I think I get that from the “bad smell” part and also the “with her NOW” as in ‘not then’. BUT John might well be jealous not because he didn’t know about James and Helen but because he’s no longer part of it – he lost them both. So it’s more bitterness and the ‘now’ could be a bit like ‘still, even though I’m not’.

Yeeeeah I know I’m twisting it but it’s not impossible.

Hang on I’m rambling too much (cut for length)

I’ve just finished putting together all the pictures and quotes for Calendar 2021. It is Sanctuary (sorry Bering and Wells 😉)

What just struck me though is anyone unfamiliar with the show would be forgiven for thinking the main characters are: Helen, John, James and Nikola as there is barely a mention of anyone else (a couple of quotes to Will and Henry, and I think Henry is in one group shot).

When in actual fact Nikola was in about a third of the episodes, John as himself perhaps about the same (I’ve not counted) and James was only in four.

What can I say. When you don’t have much, you make it count. Screen time might have been limited but impact was huge. Gotta love The Five 🙂

I finished that little fluffy wedding oneshot yay! 🙂

Opened AO3 as I had an idea for a title but I had a vague thought I’d used it before (it’s ok I hadn’t) and then I noticed the date I last posted … Dec 23rd 2018!

Almost two years.

Like I knew I hadn’t done much writing but wow. I hadn’t realised it had been radio silent for quite that long. To be fair I think 2020 just didn’t exist, I mean it did because it sucked, but did anyone manage anything really? Singularly most awful of years.

Now I just need to decide when I post this fluffy nonsense.

I think I need to preface it with a “yes I did research.” “yes I might have done too much research as in places I feel like some parts are a bit of an information dump” but also “this is probably not accurate” because I’m fairly certain there was more to the wedding service than the vows but oh well.

So do I post this fluffy nonsense before or after my epic slow burn reconciliation fic? During I’m thinking during. So I drop a few chapters and then drop this oneshot and then drop a few more chapters.

Anyway, now I need a new thing to write. I’m not quite sure what. I’m a tiny bit tempted to continue this fluffy AU. I have headcanons for it, building on some of the canon holes I filled in Our Darkest Hour. Only they are pretty much just headcanons, I’m not sure how I’d spin it into any kind of fic.

I will think on it 🙂