I’ve talked off @theminiartblog ’s ear about this au (pls pls check out her amazing Flora AU pls) and I have three drabbles and an 80+ page fic in my google docs about this au but I have only explained it in scattered discord dms to one person who knows layton and two people who have the misfortune of being great listeners despite knowing jack about lost/unwound future
Also this is very much an AU rather than, like, my opinion on what actually happened in canon.
OKAY NOW TO GET INTO IT, major lost/unwound future spoilers under the cut!
I always found it. odd. how there were all these people in the Underground London yet we don’t get an explanation for the presence of anyone other than the scientists and organizers? I like to believe that Hawks’ actions pissed off way more people than just Clive and during his time as a reporter, he found more and more people who had been wronged by him in one way or another. There were 10 people killed in that explosion, if we take off Claire and Clive’s parents, that still leaves 7 other people whose deaths were covered up. Layton was hospitalized for his investigation, I would hazard a guess that not everyone who has investigated Hawks managed to do so and walk away with their lives. Not every future London resident was connected to that accident but it’s hardly a stretch to think that Hawks pissed off people in other ways. He was backed by a corporate sponsor so I could see him sabotaging businesses so his corporate sponsor could add new branches to their businesses and so on.
Now, it would be significantly harder to find a bunch of people who were super chill with the idea of tearing up London from the ground upwards. But with more people comes more money and connections so I believe the group as a whole bought up the area which was above the cavern where future London sat so no civilians would be harmed by the mobile fortress. Dimitri still didn’t know anything about it since he was one of the people who they were getting revenge on, Clive had planned to have Dimitri take the fall for the possession of weapons in the research lab but Clive always planned to take responsibility for his side of things as he is the only one in the group with the resources for the consequences of it, he didn’t want that falling on an average civilian.
Now it gets a little tricky because since I handwaved casualties and added accomplices, it starts to look like Clive is acting as a martyr but. well. no. He still destroyed an area of London which will be hell to rebuild and he kidnapped the prime minister, throwing the country into turmoil. He’s well aware of what he’s doing even if he believes it to be right, he knows there’s no 110% guarantee the evacuation will go perfectly, he knows there’s a chance people will die and the blood will be on his hands.
Now, going back to the residents of future London, Becky was my favorite as a kid and still is my favorite NPC so I put her in the role of Clive’s actual partner and accomplice since Dimitri was just a pawn both in this AU and in canon tbh. I think her levels of refusing to take nonsense and getting straight to the point would balance out Clive well, keep him from going a bit too self-sacrificial or elaborate. She wants to get revenge on Hawks originally for ruining her family’s business of several generations but that motivation grows stronger when she discovers people have died because of him. However, she wants everyone to get out of this as unscathed as possible.
Besides some of the people around his age who could be old classmates and former Dove family staff, he found most of the residents during his time as a reporter. He tried to use his position to find other victims of Hawks so they could work together to pool their evidence together but it kept failing. These repeated wasted efforts to hold Hawks accountable in a legal manner are what led to the desperation which fueled the construction of Future London.
Ok so they’re getting ready for the big ‘show’, maybe half a year before Lost Future happens, and Clive starts to wonder if he’s going too far. Cue Dimitri’s plan to bring Hershel into the story. There’s no great way to write this but basically Clive starts to wonder if he can gaslight Hershel into realizing what’s going on and helping him and the residents find another way to hold Hawks accountable publicly without causing mass panic. The Thames Arm reveal happens and Clive gives up on hoping the professor will help. Ending of Lost Future ensues.
After the events of Lost Future, Hawks is first arrested on embezzlement or something along those lines while Chelmey and Barton search for evidence from 10 years ago. The professor and Clive were a great help with that, as the professor remembered enough that he could fill in blanks from Clive’s gathered evidence and corroborate it.
Dimitri is arrested along with Clive, they’re the only people from Future London who are arrested, Clive always intended to make sure the rest of the group weren’t caught or found out. A handful of them came forward to lighten Clive’s sentence and Clive’s lawyer was able to keep them from receiving any sentences because their involvement was limited to stuff which weren’t crimes. The rest of the residents worked on assisting the professor with gathering evidence on Hawks.
Now Clive’s mask is gone, he cannot be left in a room with Dimitri without them arguing and bickering lol Clive always thought Dimitri’s motivation was stupid and hated the idea of a time machine but he had to pretend Dimitri was valid but now he gets to complain at him so now he’s a pain in Dimitri’s butt
Now there’s a gaping hole in London, Clive (under unpaid community service during his prison sentence) and a handful of other construction workers from Future London (under actual paid employment from the city) build an area called Undertown in the space where Future London was (there’s an underground city in the Wandering Castle book so there’s some other canon precedent for the idea!)
That’s all I’ve got for this post but I’ll make a tag to compile future posts under for this!
Finally did something with these two. THEY’RE IN LOVE, YOUR HONOR.
Did this pose for an art mentorship I did a while ago with Loid + Yor in mind and finished it up. The pose itself is based off of a reference picture online.
This’ll be available as a print some time next month! I’m slowly setting my shop up…please stay tuned!
“Ugh, alright.” Desmond rolled his eyes fondly. “To make up for my intense denseness, I’m gonna make you heart shaped pancakes for Valentine’s day.”
“Sap.” Shaun grasped his t-shirt with his free hand and pulled him in.
Desmond gave him another short kiss, “You haven’t seen anything yet.”
Which could have been a much sweeter moment, only if someone had manners.
“I need to go to a hardware store. Do you want any- Oh my God!”
Desmond jumped, probably at the shrill scream which the likes of he had never heard from Rebecca before. Shaun buried his head on Desmond’s shoulder to hide his blush. Rebecca already was going to needle him with I told you so, she didn’t need more material.
“We don’t want anything.” He mumbled into Desmond’s shoulder.
“I’m going to get you condoms.” She slammed the door closed.
