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>> timeless 2.5, back home
spent the last 6 hours of the day swinging between panic (for my overseas course application which is due at noon tomorrow and I am only just done with it), excitement (because 99 and 100 have been posted!!) and full out flailing (reading ![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
aritzen's fic and the last show for engeki and twitter mutual screaming about Karasuno Revival's dvd), so it's been a pretty wild day.
Here's what I thought about when I wrote Timeless 2.5, now officially Back Home.
I started off with a very simple motivation for writing Back Home: I wanted to write myself out of a writing rut... by writing fluff. The biggest challenge I faced was making it not overlap with the fluff I've already written in Catnaps and Cream, and even more importantly, not overlap with the domestic fluff that's already present in Ages.
Thematically they are very similar, but I wanted to make sure that Back Home was not mindless fluff and would contribute to my worldbuilding - for every fic in the Timeless series, I want to make it so that they all contribute bits and pieces of this puzzle that is the world I'm building the universe around. I also wanted to challenge myself on two things: writing a good kiss scene, and blending fluff with plot.
The biggest difference between Back Home and the domestic fluff scenes in Ages (i) - (iv) is the difference in their relationship status, tbh. In Ages, Kuroyaku are written as having a very ambiguous relationship - they are aware of their feelings of each other, they acknowledge them, but they haven't explicitly done anything about them. They're in that zone, I think, where they're "more than friends but less than lovers". That gets resolved in (iv), somewhat, and gives me leeway to set Back Home after they've already established an actual relationship.
I originally wanted to let Yaku rush home because he was reeling from the shock of finding out about Kageyama's death in Sunrise, but I decided against it because I have saved that plot thread for a Kenhina and I felt it wasn't a reaction befitting of Yaku's personality. So I went and reread Ages to look for any preexisting plot threads that I hadn't already filed away for a standalone fic and could blend into the storyline - and I remembered that I had brought up Yaku's scar in a Kuroo-pov monologue in scene (iii).
So, how do you bring that back into this story? I played with a number of ideas, before I hit on the idea of a reboot because... at some point, somewhere, history does have to repeat. Going by the very basis of time travel, every choice made by time travellers in their jumps will lead to a new parallel dimension being formed. This is the same idea that brought me to my plan for a multiverse fic in Timeless (I'm raring to write that but I'm holding it off for until I'm done with Timeless #6).
In that same train of thought - there are multiple parallel universes, and some of them might have similar outcomes. In the 32nd century, something might have happened that Yaku wasn't aware of, that caused the war to break out again.
Maybe it was an accident, maybe it was intentionally done by someone with less-than-good motives. Maybe it was unintentional - maybe it was Noya or Kai, or some other traveller, who changed the course of history and caused the future to change: because you never know what consequences your actions have. But those consequences leave very real scars (oops-) and Yaku's scar is proof of that. I'm sure Yaku is no stranger to events repeating - he's more than aware that people will always be their own worst enemy (as he says... I say? in Ages) - but for something that definitely left him more than just physically scarred to repeat, and for him to experience it again, was a good enough reason for him to freak out.
After all, he was young when he was first injured in that conflict - and he was unconscious for 1.5 months thanks to the injury. And even though he's older, wiser now, some things like fear still remain irrational. I wanted to explore how Yaku, someone who is hotheaded but at the core still a very no-nonsense person (ahem, Kuroo, ahem), lose his composure and how he would react to that. Obviously, by making him run to Kuroo, lol.
And the... well... kissing... lol. I honestly broke down a number of times while writing that, I was like *buries face in hands I'm dying here this is so gross* but I have to say that I was quite pleased with the end result! I wanted to go for something less... gentle... in the first scene, to emphasise the panicked state of mind that Yaku was in. I kind of imagined that he would be rougher with Kuroo in his desperate bid to reassure himself that he was safe, and therefore... yea. Whereas the second kiss, which led up to the reminder of his scar, was in contrast very tender and soft. Again, a practice, because I've only ever written them cuddling in bed in detail. LOL rip me.
The last one, while only a three word description - "chaste and light" - was to somewhat draw the distinction between all three kisses. One, hot and passionate; two, gentle and loving; three, somewhat more... platonic? I also wanted to bring out the idea that... at the base of it all, Kuroo and Yaku are still each other's best friends.
Here's what I thought about when I wrote Timeless 2.5, now officially Back Home.
I started off with a very simple motivation for writing Back Home: I wanted to write myself out of a writing rut... by writing fluff. The biggest challenge I faced was making it not overlap with the fluff I've already written in Catnaps and Cream, and even more importantly, not overlap with the domestic fluff that's already present in Ages.
Thematically they are very similar, but I wanted to make sure that Back Home was not mindless fluff and would contribute to my worldbuilding - for every fic in the Timeless series, I want to make it so that they all contribute bits and pieces of this puzzle that is the world I'm building the universe around. I also wanted to challenge myself on two things: writing a good kiss scene, and blending fluff with plot.
The biggest difference between Back Home and the domestic fluff scenes in Ages (i) - (iv) is the difference in their relationship status, tbh. In Ages, Kuroyaku are written as having a very ambiguous relationship - they are aware of their feelings of each other, they acknowledge them, but they haven't explicitly done anything about them. They're in that zone, I think, where they're "more than friends but less than lovers". That gets resolved in (iv), somewhat, and gives me leeway to set Back Home after they've already established an actual relationship.
I originally wanted to let Yaku rush home because he was reeling from the shock of finding out about Kageyama's death in Sunrise, but I decided against it because I have saved that plot thread for a Kenhina and I felt it wasn't a reaction befitting of Yaku's personality. So I went and reread Ages to look for any preexisting plot threads that I hadn't already filed away for a standalone fic and could blend into the storyline - and I remembered that I had brought up Yaku's scar in a Kuroo-pov monologue in scene (iii).
So, how do you bring that back into this story? I played with a number of ideas, before I hit on the idea of a reboot because... at some point, somewhere, history does have to repeat. Going by the very basis of time travel, every choice made by time travellers in their jumps will lead to a new parallel dimension being formed. This is the same idea that brought me to my plan for a multiverse fic in Timeless (I'm raring to write that but I'm holding it off for until I'm done with Timeless #6).
In that same train of thought - there are multiple parallel universes, and some of them might have similar outcomes. In the 32nd century, something might have happened that Yaku wasn't aware of, that caused the war to break out again.
Maybe it was an accident, maybe it was intentionally done by someone with less-than-good motives. Maybe it was unintentional - maybe it was Noya or Kai, or some other traveller, who changed the course of history and caused the future to change: because you never know what consequences your actions have. But those consequences leave very real scars (oops-) and Yaku's scar is proof of that. I'm sure Yaku is no stranger to events repeating - he's more than aware that people will always be their own worst enemy (as he says... I say? in Ages) - but for something that definitely left him more than just physically scarred to repeat, and for him to experience it again, was a good enough reason for him to freak out.
After all, he was young when he was first injured in that conflict - and he was unconscious for 1.5 months thanks to the injury. And even though he's older, wiser now, some things like fear still remain irrational. I wanted to explore how Yaku, someone who is hotheaded but at the core still a very no-nonsense person (ahem, Kuroo, ahem), lose his composure and how he would react to that. Obviously, by making him run to Kuroo, lol.
And the... well... kissing... lol. I honestly broke down a number of times while writing that, I was like *buries face in hands I'm dying here this is so gross* but I have to say that I was quite pleased with the end result! I wanted to go for something less... gentle... in the first scene, to emphasise the panicked state of mind that Yaku was in. I kind of imagined that he would be rougher with Kuroo in his desperate bid to reassure himself that he was safe, and therefore... yea. Whereas the second kiss, which led up to the reminder of his scar, was in contrast very tender and soft. Again, a practice, because I've only ever written them cuddling in bed in detail. LOL rip me.
The last one, while only a three word description - "chaste and light" - was to somewhat draw the distinction between all three kisses. One, hot and passionate; two, gentle and loving; three, somewhat more... platonic? I also wanted to bring out the idea that... at the base of it all, Kuroo and Yaku are still each other's best friends.