A Darker Path main links

[sylph_fics]

Sorry to all that have seen this before, but I needed this on my own LJ.

"A Darker Path" is now the official title for what's been called the Slade Family or Wilson Family AU series here on my lj, merfilly's lj, and on all_dc_related.
Blanket Disclaimer: If merfilly and I were in any way involved with DC's staff, things would be very radically different. They're not ours, and all you would get from us are dust-balls and pocket lint, we're not profitting off this.

The initial idea for this series can be found in coldfiredragon's two fics:
Forever is an Awful Long Time (Dick/Slade)
Rating: M
Summary: during Renegade arc, AU Slade/Dick slash, Dick is asked by Slade to choose.
Pieces of a Puzzle(Dick/Slade)
Rating: T+
As is obvious from the summary, the basic premise of these two fics was to take the Renegade arc and make it work, then twist it up a little (okay, a lot). She created too much fun to resist, in an utterly evil way.

Because of her and a kinkfic challenge I'm in, this was written:
Broken Past, Darker Futures(Dick/Roy)
Rating: NC-17+, darkly themed, explicit sex, warnings in link.
Continuity: In my own little reality, the 'Renegade' arc happens before the Outsiders blow the HQ, and Dick never came back after the "I quit" scene in #25. And Infinite Crisis is only barely beginning.
Summary: When Slade's contracted to take out the Outsiders, he pays Dick a fee to make it easy... .and Roy's world is only just starting to fall apart with that contract.

Then the next day I realized she'd created a monster and I'd made it soo much worse, which led to:
Negotiations (Dick/Slade)
Rating: PG
Summary: Surprising Slade is never wise, Dick. Or, the lengths he'll go to.
Changing The Rules (Slade)
Rating: G
Summary: Slade never makes less than the best of any contract. Or any opportunity.
Fresh Start (Dick/Roy, Lian, Rose)
Rating: R, language, etc.
Summary: After the events of 'Broken Pasts', Roy's hurt and scared and pretty screwed up, Dick's trying to explain things and make it better, and there's a five year old that's been pretty worried about her daddy. Oh, and a far too amusing Rose Wilson.
and Reclamation (Slade/Dick)
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Dick can have whatever he wants, so long as he remembers whose he is.
Confrontations... and Reluctant Understandings (Roy, Slade)
Rating: G
Summary: Roy'd known Slade's absence wouldn't last forever, but the confrontation doesn't go quite the way he thought.

and then come merfilly's:
A Bird in the Hand(Dinah, Slade)
Rating: PG
Summary: Sometimes, Slade's too cunning for anyone's good.
Hints and Whispers (Huntress, Oracle, Batman, Kyle, Connor, various others)
Rating: PG
Summary: Slade's still holding all the cards... and no-one on the outside knows it.

My Heavier Than A Mountain" (Hero ensemble), slots in here.
Rating: PG
Summary: Batman races the clock to beat the media to the families of his fallen.
Note: Jefferson Pierce and Oliver Queen written by Merfilly.

Filly took on the CSI angle, and the JSA, in Quest for Answers (Hero ensemble)
Rating: G
Summary: The investigations and reactions continue.

We jump back to me for Shared Grief (Titans)
Rating: PG
Summary: "Calling all Titans, this is Cyborg. All members, come home as soon as you can."
The end of Quest for answers actually comes after this one, but that's okay, Quest starts first.

Then back to Filly for Failing Diplomacy (Dinah, Slade, Dick, Roy, Lian, Rose)
Rating: PG
Summary: Deathstroke and Black Canary never have seen eye to eye, and he's holding too many cards for her to do anything reckless.

And to me again for Nightmares and Pancakes (Dick, Rose)
Rating: G
Summary: "What does it make me, Rose, that I'd do it again?"
Notes: Rose by Merfilly

I know, I know, I said we'd quit timejumping. I lied. merfilly and I co-wrote
Picking Up Pieces (Hero ensemble)
Rating: PG
Summary: Like the title says, the heroes are starting to pick up the pieces.

Also mine is Crossed Lines and Revelations
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Old shames and old lies are never as far away as their holders hope, and the truth always hurts like hell when it comes out.
Notes: wrote Dinah and Slade, and Rose. I wrote Dick and Roy, as seems to be the standard.

Mostly mine, too is The Face Value of Decisions
Rating: R
Summary: Two drastically different missions cause two equally radical changes in the dynamic of Deathstroke's little clan.

Co-written:
Requiem"
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Fractured Lines
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Just when things looked like they might start going back to "normal"...

After it crashes
Rating: PG-13
Summary: As all parties see planning is better than reacting...

Moving Forward
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Things keep escalating, but they manage to steal moments...

As the world Falls Down
Rating: PG-13
Summary: buildup

Pre-emptive Strikes
Rating: Pg-13
Summary: Buildup

Final Blows
Rating: Pg-13
Summary: the end of it all

(39,379, 48,409, 55,727 72,282 too damned many words thus far)

Comments

[nycshelly.livejournal.com]

While I enjoy writing about and reading about gay characters, I've never been a big fan of slash when I see the characters are purely heterosexual. That said, I've found this series to be compulsive reading and I'm disappointed when I don't find a new chapter to read before bed.

[ilyena_sylph]

*grins at you* Well, I could cite a lot of evidence to make a case for Roy and Dick's canonical bisexuality, if that helps any?

It delights me beyond compare that you've found it to be "compulsive reading"! Thank you so much!

I wish I could get parts out every day, but between classes and grad school, that's just... more than I manage. I hope what I do get to you makes up for in quality what it lacks in frequency?

[nycshelly.livejournal.com]

Oh, I suppose any characters can be shown to have bi tendencies. There's a wonderful uTube vid that shows where Kirk/Spock slash came from, very well done.

But after nearly 47 years of seeing Roy and Dick one way, I can't change my mindset. Which doesn't mean I can't enjoy AUs. ;)

And yes, I loved the latest installment, the informing loved ones, the worry, the angst....

So how long do we have to wait for the next chapter? heh But yeah, the quality makes up for the lack of daily postings.

A friend and I created a whole original series based on spy shows like Man from UNCLE and others so we could have our own gay characters to play with. We write them fanfic style, with a couple of other friends and publish them zine-style and use faces of actors we like. And because they're ours, we get to create the canon. But that doesn't mean I don't enjoy fanfic, too.

[ilyena_sylph]

K/S is so not my thing (yeah, i know, that's heresy or something for a slash gal, but *shrug*), but I'll have to find that.

"47 years"? Wow... yeah, I'd be pretty entrenched by that point, too. *G* Isn't AU just a lovely, lovely label?

Oh, thank you! *happiness* I'm glad you loved.

Other than telling you that the next part is already up on Filly's lj, I refuse to answer on grounds that I might incriminate myself. Perjure, maybe?

Ooh, nifty! That's very cool, and is probably a ton of fun.

[nycshelly.livejournal.com]

I started reading comics when I was 7 (I'm currently 53), way before the idea of slash was heard (I didn't know about gay people til another 7 or 8 years or so). Knew plenty of them by the time I was in college.

Another chapter is up? I need to get to bed. argh. ;)

[ilyena_sylph]

Wow. I'm... yeah. less than half that. Cool, though, that you think we're doing well.

http://merfilly.livejournal.com/239792.html#cutid1 Yup. but only 1415 words... quick little thing.

[nycshelly.livejournal.com]

I just friended merfilly so I won't have to wait for you to list her chapters.

What I really love is how many females now read and love comics, especially superhero ones. When I was growing up, romance and Archies were fine, but when I pulled out a Batman or Superman title, my friends didn't want to be seen with me. I love how that's changed, mostly.

[senmut]

My mom connected to me over comics once, showing me some romance comics she had managed to save from her teen years. I think I was scared, because, outside of Harvey and Archie comics, I thought all Comics were 'boy'-ish. And I was so think into being a tomboy, those Harlequins-in-art-style were the devil incarnate.

[nycshelly.livejournal.com]

I was no tomboy (that was my younger sister), but I have always loved action and adventure. In reading, on TV.... I learned early on that lust objects really added to my enjoyment of something. Superhero comics gave me female role models -- Supergirl, Batwoman and Batgirl, Lois Lane -- and plenty of lust objects -- Dick Grayson, Roy Harper, Element Lad...

I discovered superhero comics in the dentists office. And it helped that both my parents appreciated them. My father was the Superman fan while my mother read Batman when she was a teen in the '40s.

In the '70s and '80s, I was one of the few women going into the comics shops here in NYC. Now, it's almost half female clientele and many of the staff are women.

[senmut]

Hmm...I get 58,328 words in it.

*yes, I did just copy/paste the whole thing into a 125 page document...*

[ilyena_sylph]

*grins* I pulled all the headers and everything, even the titles. that miiight make the diff...

[senmut]

I did too...nothing but bare bones stories. the difference between our numbers looks funny, but ehh...just can't believe we have so much written and yet so far still to go.

[ilyena_sylph]

I wonder what I missed/left out?

[senmut]

Need to update the link message.

[ilyena_sylph]

Yup. I know. I'll work on that tonight.

[(Anonymous)]

Isn't there a Darker Path somebody did with all three of them, all smutty-like?

[ilyena_sylph]

http://ilyena-sylph.livejournal.com/81559.html#cutid1 You mean this?

It's not continuity, which is why it's not linked here.