Our Fanfiction who art on the Internet, hallowed be thy Authors; thy Genres come; Thy character appreciation be done in words as thy be in art. Give us this day our daily tropes, and forgive us our angsty stories, as we forgive those who hate on our ships, and lead us not into writer’s block, but deliver us from canon. For thine is the fandom, and the imagination, and the glorious comments, for ever and ever. Amen.
WALKING DEAD LIST
Just a list of some of my favorite stories. I’m gonna act like I remember how to link stuff it will be great. Pairings are going to be Daryl/Glenn and Daryl/Jesus. Maybe a Daryl/Rick thrown in IDK .
This work is COMPLETE!
Written in response to a prompt on The Walking Dead kink meme:
Rick & Co. are finding it increasingly difficult to deal with Daryl’s outbursts, his racist remarks, and easily-ignitable temper. They are in fact, considering just cutting their losses and telling him he has to leave when they come across another group of survivors…one of whom is very, very special to Daryl.
AU in which Glenn and Daryl have been in a relationship for a few years before the ZA, and were separated when Atlanta was overrun. Each think the other is dead, and Glenn ended up with a different group of survivors while Daryl ended up in the quarry camp. Story also assumes Merle would’ve turned his back on Daryl for getting involved with Glenn, so they parted ways long ago.
Action , Adventure, Love , Suspense,Sadness,Longing, Its just everything you want from a fic. Word count 100,538. Pairing Daryl/Glenn
Seasons 1 and 2, as seen through Glenn’s diary.
This is so funny I love it! I wish I could make a podfic for it like whoa.
Word count 4,938. Pairing Daryl/Glenn
Daryl sees the dead. Not the walkers, the twice-dead once they become ghosts. It started since the turn and he assumes it’s his body’s reaction to the walker infection they all carry. One by one he experiences losses of loved ones and each of them come to visit him. And they all seem to be guiding him to Rick.
This was really good but also really sad to me. Mind the tags so you don’t read something upsetting . Word count 6,422. Pairing Daryl/Rick
When Rick works night duty while recovering from the shooting, he becomes friends with Daryl, the young guy working community service as a janitor in lieu of prison time.
“If you found an animal in an alley and it was raining and you approached it, it would try to bite you. But if you could get it inside and feed it and take it somewhere warm, it would follow you forever. He’s got that kind of vibe to him.” -Norman Reedus on Daryl Dixon
This one is cute but also makes me feel sad even though it’s not sad.
Word count 21,161. Pairing Daryl/Rick
They were supposed to have ten days to dispute the quickie wedding they’d had the night they’d been drunk. The world went to shit three days later. Part 1 of a series re-write focusing on Glenn, Daryl, Merle, and Maggie as what it means to be ‘Family’ is stretched, twisted, and redefined by circumstances no one should have to live through. Covers Seasons 1 and 2 and mostly follows the canon storyline.
This is hands down 100% my absolute favorite walking dead fic. It is so good I have read it so many times now. I seriously can not get enough of it.
Word count 48,284. Pairing Daryl/Glenn , Glenn/Maggie , Daryl/Maggie , Daryl/Glenn/Maggie.
It’s the end of the world. You can be anyone you choose to be.“ Daryl Dixon, at the end of the world.
I am not sure what it is about this story that makes me love it so much! I am working on a podfic for it right now so at some point I’ll have a link up for that.
Word Count 24,769. Gen no Paring.
“I am done with dating. And I mean it this time.”
Glenn is sick of his friends setting him up. He’s sick of going on bad dates and he’s sick of getting his hopes up and never hearing anything back. In all the time he spends not going on dates, he can do things that he actually enjoys, like sleeping or marathoning a television show or trying to find a better job.
He is done with dating. Seriously.
At least, that’s what he says before he meets Daryl.
This is so cute and awkward I love Glenn’s bad luck.
Word Count 4,549. Pairing Daryl/Glenn
AU. Glenn is a struggling student neck-deep in debts. One day while trying to earn some money he gets himself in serious trouble. An anonymous benefactor offers him help in return for weekly emails describing events of his life. Jean Webster’s "Daddy-long-legs”/TWD fusion. COMPLETE.
This is really good I dont know why I want to say human disaster Glenn but im gonna. I think its cause it references marvel hawkeye but also Glenn kind of is.
Word Count 20,552. Pairing Daryl/Glenn.
Daryl Dixon sat on the steps of his porch, elbows resting on knees as he sharpened his knife. Katydids called around him in a chorus of chirping crickets, the sound only interrupted by the rhythmic scratch of metal on stone. The heavy air—a sure sign rain was coming, Daryl predicted—felt moist and honeyed against his bare arms. The evening was calm. Peaceful, even.
Peaceful, that was, until Jesus appeared.
AU after 6x11. Slow burn.
Super cute .Super fluff.
Word Count 64,037 . Pairing Daryl/Jesus
Paul had no clue what was going on. It seemed as if every time he turned a corner he would find Daryl on his knees with someone different from the community. He didn’t know what to make of it, what to even think but he did wonder how to get on it himself.
This was just really funny to me. Instead of talking I’m gonna make sure you catch me blowing the town.
Word Count 7,702. Pairing Daryl/Jesus
After escaping Terminus, Rick’s family is at their strength’s end. When the walls of yet another community loom over their heads, they must decide if they take the risk to seek refuge in this new community. They are met with a strange tradition that they are still willing to follow through for the sake of their family’s well-being. Soon enough, they realize that they found a place that they could call home again. But the peace is treacherous and yet again they have to fight for their freedom and the lifes of the people they love.
Unexpectedly, Daryl is the one that has to fight for more than just his family.
So very good and sweet and sad and Gregory is a nut sac but you already knew that. Also I fucking love arranged marriage fics.
Word Count 108,454. Pairing Daryl/Jesus.
For Daryl Dixon the world ended days before it did for almost everyone else, and it was heralded with a prerecorded phone message instead of a bang.
An AU fic where Daryl met Paul several years before the apocalypse.
Kind of sad but with a happy ending.
Word Count 200,540. Pairing Daryl/Jesus.
Daryl finds himself wrapping his fingers around Paul’s wrist before a bandage can be pulled from the tattered box. And Paul peers at him when their skin touches, fierce eye to fierce eye, with… with such veneration. Daryl wouldn’t know that feeling if he saw it, he thinks he’s seeing it now and he can’t believe it, but he can sure as hell feel it; rolling off his hippie ninja in waves, seeping into Daryl’s soul. A gasoline soaked rag, simply waiting to be set aflame. That’s what he’s become. He swallows the foreign emotions that suddenly make him feel too big for his body.
So very good and kind of sad worth the read for sure!
Word Count 204,186. Pairing Daryl/Paul
Jesus came to Alexandria to do trade and to see a certain grumpy hunter. However, he didn’t see said hunter; instead, just outside the walls of Alexandria he found a black cat – wait, was that really a cat?!
I found this so funny!
Word Count 10,148 . Pairing Daryl/Jesus
Daryl Dixon of all people turns out to have the Ancient gene.
Go figure.
Or: The unlikely tale of a redneck from Earth and a Runner from the Pegasus Galaxy, and how they fell in love.
I fucking love Stargate Atlantis Crossovers and this was amazing !!!!
Word Count 16,454. Pairing Daryl/Jesus
Daryl Dixon hasn’t believed that he deserved to be who he really is. He hasn’t ever felt safe enough. Is the reason that so many of the people he loves are dead. And then, suddenly there is a man named Jesus. And he likes to call Daryl “Dixie”
Cute,cute, cute I love it!!
Word Count 22,618. Pairing Daryl/Jesus
It’s not like Daryl hates the guy. It’s exactly the opposite.
Very cute. Be mindful of the tags daryl gets outed without his permission.
Word Count 36,343. Pairing Daryl/Jesus
Misunderstanding. [mis-uhn-der-stan-ding]
Noun 1. Failure to understand correctly; mistake as to meaning or intent
Warning: Does not mix well with love and may lead to heartbreak
Dude like super sad face for like half of this but it gets less sad .
Word Count 18,614 Pairing Daryl/Jesus.
Daryl’s life seems to follow a cycle of pain and violence. So when he starts falling for his new roommate, he’s more than wary about what it might mean.
But sometimes breaking a cycle means making a choice.
So very cute a little sad also be mindful of the tags.
Word Count 7,416 . Pairing Daryl/Jesus
It’s more than two years after the end of the world and six months after the war with the Saviors when Daryl Dixon returns to Alexandria.
This is just so good holy crap and glenn lives which makes it even better!!
Word Count 91,918. Pairing Daryl/Jesus
Jesus tilted his head to the side. “If I tried to kiss you right now, would you kick my ass?”
“Yes,” Daryl answered, way too quickly.
This is funny and gives me extreme second hand embarrassment.
Word Count 6,395. Pairing Daryl/Jesus
When Deanna asks Daryl to leave Alexandria, he meets Paul on the road a little earlier.
I would like to say cute-meet . lol its very good and very cute.
Word Count 11,563 . Pairing Daryl/Jesus
There is also a podfic for this.
Length 1hr 7 mins
Aaron and Daryl discover Hilltop on one of their scouting trips and find that the community has an interesting throwback custom for establishing alliances: marriage.
I LOVE ARRANGED MARRIAGE AND THIS IS THE BEST ONE!
Word Count 11,686. Pairing Daryl/Jesus
What if Daryl was the one in charge? How would things be different? And what secret is he hiding?
Supernatural elements you know besides the zombies .
Word Count 9,950. Pairing Daryl/Jesus
By the time the song starts drilling into his head worse than the headache, he’s come to the conclusion that he can’t do much. There’s no way to get out unless someone unlocks the door, and even if he could, he has no idea where he’d go once he’s out anyway. Nor has he any idea who has him. Or why. Or where. Or where home is. Or—Basically, he doesn’t know anything, and even the things he does know are mostly instinct and completely unverifiable anyway.He’s contemplating sitting back down again — he’ll have to do it at some point, if only to preserve his strength, but the cold, and the dirt, and he’s naked, his skin crawls at the mere thought — when the song shuts off abruptly.
Or: The Saviors’ latest prisoner isn’t quite what he seems.
Its just like everything you ever wanted out of Jesus in the show. So good a tiny bit sad.
Word Count 6,894. Pairing Daryl/Jesus
There is a podfic for this.
Length 45 minutes.
I love you for sharing this! Thank you so much!
I don't know where exactly this beautiful quote originated from, but I have seen it quite a bit recently and it tugs at my heartstrings every time.
"You can't love someone else before you learn to love yourself."
"... Bullshit."
I have never loved myself. But you. Oh god. I loved you so much, I forgot what hating myself felt like.
Characters I believe would suit this perfectly:
Wade Wilson (Marvel)
Tony Stark (Marvel)
Daryl Dixon (The Walking Dead)
Eliot Waugh (The Magicians)
- to their respective partners.
So, my friend wrote a fanfic for The Walking Dead. A kind of retelling of events, but with one very specific change to one of the main characters. And even though I haven’t seen the show, she wanted me to read it and tell her my opinion.
And, look, I haven’t seen the show, but my friend is the type of person that calls you after an episode that was either especially great, or especially upsetting, to rant to you about it. We all have that friend.
Anyway, due to those conversations, I knew that there were things and scenes and character developments in the show she didn’t like, that she wished had gone differently.
So, when I read her fic, I was pretty surprised that she kept those things in. And, I guess I don’t have to tell anyone who has watched The Walking Dead, that this is a pretty gruesome, devastating, depressing show at times.
And, again, I knew that my friend hadn’t liked a lot of the things that happened in the show.
So when I asked her why she wrote it like this, she kinda shrugged and said: “Well, it’s how it happened in canon.”
When I then told her that, okay, if you want to keep things like they happened in canon, that’s fine. But, you know you don’t have to, right?
She looked at me like she was a little lost in that moment. Probably how I look when I can’t find my fucking shoes, every morning!
We talked for a long while after that, and I can’t possibly repeat our conversation verbatim (my memory has never been and will never be that good).
But let me check off the highlights here.
- Canon is important, but it doesn’t have to matter. A Tv series, movie, book, comic, video game, whatever you want, is the doorway into a world full of characters and circumstances that you get to discover and fall in love with. However, the feelings you develop for these characters, are your own. Canon has no hold over those.
- Canon, (unless you are reading or seeing a documentary), itself is fiction. It is a fantasy dreamed up by one or more individuals, and brought to life in different forms of media. It’s makers (writers, actors, producers, etc) do deserve our respect and gratitude. But that does not mean you have to adhere to their vision completely, or at all.
- Canon can give you characters and worlds you adore. It can give you deeply intricate and developed nuances for both of those. And it can lead those characters and worlds in directions you don’t want to see them take. And you don’t have to be okay with that.
- Fanfiction is a way for fans to feel closer to their beloved characters and worlds. It can shine the light on things that aren’t focused on in canon, and can develop characters and relationships that canon doesn’t explore.
- Fanfiction is a way for fans to live and breathe and share their love for these characters and worlds with others. It can be a welcome handshake, or a long embrace. Or sometimes just an easy smile. It can give you a sense of camaraderie and belonging. It can be a plot point explored, or a dynamic exploited, or a different route taken. It can be that constant, burning question, that every fan has at some point in time, in the back of their mind: What if?
- What if that character did that? What if that hadn’t happened? What if things were different?
- Canon is for everyone, but fanfiction is for you and you alone. It is your creative outlet. It is every piece and plotbunny you ever dreamed of. It is your passion given life in the written word. You are the King and the Queen and the God of your story. In your fanfiction, these characters and these worlds are yours. And you should use them, to tell the story you want to tell.
- Fanfiction is self-indulgent. Each and every one. It is supposed to be. Because TV-series and books and movies and everything else is for entertainment and profit. But fanfiction is for you.
So you are the one who calls the shots in your fanfiction. If you want to follow the canon story line, with only some minor differences or added dialog, then that is what you do.
But if you don’t want that. If what happened in canon doesn’t sit well with you. If you wished it had gone differently. If you wished you could change it. Then you can. Then that is what you do.
It is your desire. Your passion. Your story. It is your effort put into writing it down, fleshing out plot, developing characters and relationships.
And you do it for you, because it makes you happy.
My friend wasn’t happy with canon. And she wasn’t really happy with her story. After our talk, she scrapped it. Started anew, went back to the beginning, got things rolling, and then completely derailed from canon. She has texted me about all the changes she has done, and still wants to do. All the things that will be different, and the things that now won’t work anymore the way they did in canon, and how she has to find ways around that, or think of something completely different from it now.
And this story probably isn’t gonna be some kind of master piece when she is done. From what I can tell, it gets a little out of character at times, and some of her resolutions in the plot seem a little too easy and perfect, and not at all in line with the general tone of the show.
But you know what? It doesn’t matter one fucking bit. Because I can hear her enthusiasm and joy for her story in every text and every phone call. Writing this story makes her happy. She is the goddess of her story, she calls the shots, and she made canon her little bitch.
Canon is for everyone, but fanfiction is for you.
Same goes for the Queliot fandom. Just because Canon killed Q, doesn’t mean we have to accept that. ;-)
He is strong. It’s just not the kind of strengths that can easily be seen.
In a world where the next world-ending catastrophe is not waiting just around the corner for our favorite group of Magicians, most of the excitement is to had by guessing when Eliot and Quentin will finally realize that they are in a relationship.
Julia: “Okay, they just went out on a date. Which means I win because I picked July and that’s closer than any of you.”
Alice: “No, sorry. Q just wants to go to that library in Manhattan, and Eliot tagged along because he said he liked the coffee from one of the pastry shops near there. That doesn’t count as a date. It’s gonna happen at the Halloween party this year, so my October is going to win the pot.”
Josh: “Are we sure that them cuddling and falling asleep together on the couch while watching that rom-com last week doesn’t count? Because that would have been totally my win.”
Margo: “You are all wrong. It’s going to happen on Christmas. There will be mistletoe everywhere. Sooner or later one of them is gonna get trapped under one of those with someone else, and then the other one is gonna be jealous and make some kind of public claim. They are both idiots, and that’s the kind of thing that has to happen for them to stop being idiots. So it will be December and the pot will be mine.”
Kady: “I still think you are all cheating me out of my win. Quentin called Eliot ‘Honey’ in May. Eliot handed him a glass of wine and Q said ‘Thanks, Honey.’ And then they were making heart-eyes at each other for like a minute. I won.”
Margo: “That didn’t count. The use of petnames is not conclusive evidence of them tuning into the program and acknowledging that they are a couple.”
Penny: “... Why the hell am I friends with you people?”
“We test to discern your Discipline. Your area of concentration. It is what you are, and with the right guidance, you may safely rise to unknowable heights.”
So, keeping Fogg’s words in mind, have you ever thought about what those ‘unknowable heights’, might mean?
Eliot’s discipline is telekinesis, right? So maybe for him, this might mean that he would be able to manipulate more and heavier and bigger objects. Or that he would be able to use his telekinesis on more than just ‘objects’. Maybe he could control things as fleeting as gasses, or fluids. Things as volatile as fire, for example, or pressure. Maybe he could control a field of effect. Contain an explosion, or keep an area stable during an earthquake. Or many more possibilities.
If I use the same kind of thinking for Quentin’s discipline, what heights could his ‘repair of small objects’ reach? Or ‘minor mending’. The most logical conclusion seems the upgrade from ‘minor’ to ‘major’ mending. The repair of ‘small’ objects, to the repair of ‘big’ objects. But there could be even more.
We could take out the ‘objects’ part. Repairing and mending ‘objects’, upgraded to repairing and mending ‘living beings’. Mend a wound. Repair a broken bone.
It seems likely that mending a person (or animal), would be harder than mending an object, right? And therefore, something that Q has to study and practice his way up to. (At least it does to me)
And I gotta say, just thinking of those possibilities, opens up SO many ways in which writers could take their fanfics. Really, sky is the limit.
@eliotandquentinsittinginatree great minds, and all that— may i respectfully suggest on of my own stories, “your body (your heart) in his hands,” in which both Quentin and Eliot have developed magical specialties that significantly advance what is possible in their disciplines? There is also a follow-up fic to that one that does something similar with Julia’s magic. (And now I’m thinking about Margo, and what she might do with her discipline, of which we’ve never seen nearly enough.)
I love it when i find elements in a Magicians story that expand the magical world– there is so much possibility there. Off the top of my head, I’ve read fix-its and future-fics by @eidetictelekinetic (panboleyn on ao3) and @orchardsinsnow that feature creative advances in magic and magical theory; they are both excellent writers and I highly recommend their work (if you want specific recs pm me and I’ll find them.) If you come across any others that explore advances or mutations in discliplinary magic, please let me know, I love it!
@allegria23 THANK YOU so much for the rec! I’m gonna go right on reading! And I will inform you of any future fics I might find that go into more details on disciplinary magic and stuff!
I know the mosaic episode of The Magicians is supposed to represent living a long full life as the “beauty of the world”
but my main take-away is that the Beauty of the World is just:
and I think that is also valid
In honor of this most valid interpretation:
"We test to discern your Discipline. Your area of concentration. It is what you are, and with the right guidance, you may safely rise to unknowable heights."
So, keeping Fogg’s words in mind, have you ever thought about what those ‘unknowable heights’, might mean?
Eliot’s discipline is telekinesis, right? So maybe for him, this might mean that he would be able to manipulate more and heavier and bigger objects. Or that he would be able to use his telekinesis on more than just ‘objects’. Maybe he could control things as fleeting as gasses, or fluids. Things as volatile as fire, for example, or pressure. Maybe he could control a field of effect. Contain an explosion, or keep an area stable during an earthquake. Or many more possibilities.
If I use the same kind of thinking for Quentin’s discipline, what heights could his ‘repair of small objects’ reach? Or ‘minor mending’. The most logical conclusion seems the upgrade from ‘minor’ to ‘major’ mending. The repair of ‘small’ objects, to the repair of ‘big’ objects. But there could be even more.
We could take out the ‘objects’ part. Repairing and mending ‘objects’, upgraded to repairing and mending ‘living beings’. Mend a wound. Repair a broken bone.
It seems likely that mending a person (or animal), would be harder than mending an object, right? And therefore, something that Q has to study and practice his way up to. (At least it does to me)
And I gotta say, just thinking of those possibilities, opens up SO many ways in which writers could take their fanfics. Really, sky is the limit.
We worked with the amazing @ambiguouspenny who wrote this beautiful poem when she heard the show had been canceled
I found Fillory
After years of wishful thinking
it was nothing
like I’d hoped
But I watched you
Find a home here
And by some chance
I found my heart in you
and then
I suppose i found
My home here too
Amazing
Eliot finds among Jane Chatwin’s things perhaps a way to bring back Quentin - but it comes at an emormous personal cost: during the ritual, Eliot is stripped of his shade completely. Violently ripping the reigning “dark king” from the throne, Eliot assumes the mantle of dark high king - a truly malevolent force who will do anything to get Quentin back.
Even if it means he becomes somebody the man he loves won’t recognize when he Eliot rescues Quentin from the underworld. By any means necessary.
au || dark king eliot for @richletozier
Oooooooooh, that sounds interesting!
Lovely GIF set
You know, on a first glance, it is so very easy to dismiss Q as someone fragile.
He has clinical depression. We see him sad and despondent so very often. We know he tried to kill himself before. He doesn’t strike you as a fighter. He doesn’t seem like a leader. He isn’t the most powerful. He isn’t the smartest. He doesn’t appear to be the most resourceful.
And yet.
Three times.
There have been three people who he loves wholeheartedly, who had been turned against him.
Niffin Alice. Who he didn’t let go of, who he refused to let be banished. Who tormented him.
Shadeless Julia. Who used him. Who was ready to sacrifice him to Reynard without a second thought.
Monster Eliot. Weeks of trauma, physical and psychological.
“A monster with his face and his hands.”
Three times.
Three people he truly loved.
And he kept going, kept fighting, kept believing in them. Through all the doubts and fear and pain and tears and heartache. Despite the hopelessness, and the broken brain, and being so god damn fucking tired.
He did this three times.
Quentin Coldwater was the fucking strongest.
You could love this boy with all your heart.
Richard Siken
It kinda baffles me, that sometimes, when one writer takes inspiration from another writer’s story, and puts their own ideas and twists into it, this particular plot becomes a trope. And then other times, when one writer takes inspiration from another writer’s story, and puts their own ideas and twists into it, they get attacked for stealing/copying the idea.
I genuinely don’t get this. (Well, no, actually I get it a little bit. Authors put a lot of work and love into their stories and it’s only right to have that work be acknowledged.)
Look, let me explain.
I write about things I like, right?
I center my stories around the characters I like the most and create situations that I find exciting or appealing or enjoyable. (Or sometimes even sad or scary when I’m in a particular mood.)
Point of the matter is: I write what I want to read.
Which, to me, translates that I want others to get inspiration from my stories.
I want people to read my stuff and say: “I liked that. I’m gonna write something like that!”, or: “This was a nice conclusion, but this story could have played out very differently. I would like to explore an alternate event.”, or: “There was this one thing in this story that I would like to put into a different context.”, or even: “Well, the idea itself was nice enough, but I don’t think it was very well executed here. I would like to try my hand on this.”
Because all of this, would afford me with a wide variety of stories to read that I would likely enjoy. (Not even to mention the great honor and ginormous ego-boost I would feel knowing that something I wrote somehow inspired someone else.)
So, with having explained my stand on this matter, please see this as blanket permission from me, to make use of anything written in my works of fanfiction you want.
Any prompt, plot bunny, vague idea, characteristics explored, circumstances written, or full on story of mine that has been published here;
- if you want to write something with the same premise, but different development
- if you want to write something completely different, but want to use one aspect or characteristic featured in the stories
- if you can find any inspiration from any of my works at all
PLEASE use whatever you need or want from them.
I really hope this fandom doesn’t die out, with the cancellation of the show. I have seen it happen with other fandoms of cancelled series. I would feel a great loss if the incredibly talented writers I have found in this fandom, were to grow disenchanted because of it.
Please, dear wonderful Queliot content providers. Know that I love you and need you in my life!
Okay, level with me here. When Jane Chatwin set the timeloops, it was at a time when our heroes were young adults and attending (or about to attend) Brakebills.
However, her brother had been going to the wellspring to drink from it every day since he found it, and with every one of those drinks, he grew more powerful. So by the time the group is in place to fight him, he has already become very powerful.
So what if, in one of the timelines where Jane changes one thing to see if this one works, she calls upon Quentin sooner? Like, teen aged Quentin, sooner?
14/15 year old Quentin Coldwater becomes the youngest student to attend Brakebills ever (there is some heavy magic involved with getting his father to sign off on this, or something). However, it’s only Quentin, Fogg and Jane can’t get the rest of the gang as well, for various reasons.
So Q has to face the Beast with a different group of Brakebills students. Most of which don’t matter, because they die fighting Martin (which absolutely adds to Quentin’s trauma, by the way). But three of which are Josh Hoberman, Marina Andrieski, and Charlie Quinn. (I’m messing with the ages of these characters a little, because Charlie wasn’t that much older than Alice as he would need to be here.) And Viktoria (the traveler that Martin held in his dungeon and who was together with Josh)
Josh becomes the High King of Fillory. Due to the age difference, he kinda views Q like a little brother.
Even Marina has a bit of a soft spot for Quentin, even if she doesn’t want to admit it.
Charlie, probably due to Quentin being the same age as his little sister, becomes the most protective, and tries to take the beast on himself, to shield Q from this kind of responsibility. Like Alice when she fought Martin, the magic becomes too much for Charlie, and he niffin’s out. Again, like Alice, Niffin Charlie then kills the beast, When Charlie tries to kill the others, Victoria manages to travel everyone to safety, but is fatally wounded and dies shortly after.
So, anyway, Niffin Charlie is in the wind, Josh stays in Fillory to be High King with his wife Fen, and Marina and Quentin return to earth. (Maybe all this contributes to Marina hating Brakebills and Fogg in particular so much, and becoming the top bitch of New Yorks covens.)
The experience has left a deep fucking mark on a far too young for this Quentin, and he turns his back on Brakebills and Fillory and Magic as much as he can.
Now, forward a few years to the time when the others are all in Brakebills finally. (Julia too. Because there is no longer a reason not to admit her) (Julia is also curious if she can find some kind of magic to hopefully find out what happened to her childhood friend Quentin, who had just fucking vanished one day and never come back. The police just filed him as a run away. No even his father knows what happened to him, it’s all very mysterious...)
Alice, just like in the series, is there in the hopes to find out what happened to her brother.
Anyway, the group encounters some kind of problem, because of course they do. (Reynard, some other godly being, magic becoming unstable, or something that looks like the beast, but that can’t be because Martin is dead!!, just some kind of fuckery that they have to deal with)
And of course the answer to the problem lies in Fillory. Unfortunately, the only people who know how to get to Fillory, are the ones who have been there before. (And, technically Jane should know too, but maybe she wants to try to make things up to Quentin, and hopes that if the group has to work with him on this, that they can help him find his love and passion for magic and Fillory once more) - or maybe she just fucked off after Martin was killed.
Fogg, who does not want to burden Quentin any more than they have already done, seeks out Marina first. But she absolutely refuses to help. Fogg even tries appealing to her soft spot for Q, reminding her that if she doesn’t tell them how to get to Fillory, then they have to rope ‘him’ into this. However, turns out you need a royal key to open the portal to Fillory. Which Josh gave to Quentin, hoping the kid would come back to visit and let Josh and Fen help him through all the bad experiences.
Marina only very reluctantly tells them where to go (she was the one who helped Quentin vanish from his old life in the first place, faked a new identity for him or something. Brian? - They have stayed in contact)
So, when Quentin Coldwater one day opens his door to the sight of Dean Henry Fogg and five people approximately his age, plus his once best friend Julia, the real story begins.
(also, when they do get to Fillory, Josh doesn’t need to have aged too much. Fillory and earth are not always on the same timeline, after all. ;-) )
The one time that Todd asks Quentin to help him with making dinner for every one, he is nearly deafened by everyone around shouting “NO!”.
Josh looks completely horrified remembering the time when Q offered to peel the potatoes. “There was so much blood...”
Margo shudders and takes a drink of her wine, thinking about the time her and Quentin tried to make a cake for Eliot’s birthday. “... it melted... and then it exploded... “
Julia just shakes her head, fond resignation. “He made me toast once. Somehow one was burned to a crisp, and the other soft and soggy. Also, the toaster burned down.”
Penny just shruggs. “I’m not entering the ktichen when he is in. The nerd is always singing some Taylor Swift song in his head when he is in there.”
Quentin looks up at Eliot, from where the two are cuddled together on the love seat. “Hey, I’m a decent cook, right?”
Eliot smiled at him, all indulgence and love. “You are cute when you are in denial.”
