Strings Attached by Kalliopeia (Teen)
Title: Strings Attached
Fandom: Haven
Pairing: Duke Crocker/Nathan Wuornos, Audrey Parker/Nathan Wuornos
Categories: plot, adventure, casefile, slash, break-up, romance
Length: Epic, 59,632 words
Warnings: Break-up fic for the Audrey/Nathan pairing. A lot of supporting character deaths, some canonical, some happened-in-an-alternate-reality-Trouble. Violence. Author warns for brief depiction of a suicide attempt.
Author on Livejournal: n/a
Author Website: Kalliopeia on AO3 | Kalliopeia on fanfiction.net
Summary: A few weeks after the events of 5A, a Troubled man offers Nathan a gift. Audrey is thrown into an alternate reality in which the rules are different. With second chances and increasing danger, she must save the day a lot and make impossible decisions regarding life and death and destiny. Again.
Review: This novel-length fanfiction is, in a way, the Haven fanfiction I actually didn't know I'd resigned myself to never seeing. Post-5A Audrey falls into Another Alternate Reality, where Nathan's Trouble never came back in adulthood and Duke and Nathan are a solid item. They're happy. Nathan's happy. Audrey is increasingly realising that she and Nathan are not happy after all of the fallout since Mara came along, because of the changes and adjustments that demands in both of them. What's so particularly unusual is how the author has enough respect for the disintegrating canon relationship being portrayed, and investment in the characters either side of it, to tackle this question in a sensitive way with everyone being treated fairly in the equation. In this fandom, splitting the central canon 'ship is pretty divisive, and it tends to be solved via OT3 or shuffling around pretending it isn't there. From a start point of season 5 it's a pretty monumental task. As a whole in this fic I love this dynamic that someone has put the effort in to unpick those ties and do something really different.
Speaking of, this fic was written prior to 5B and features a version of Audrey that's more a personality merge than canon's interpretation going into the new (half-)season. It's a major contributor to some scenes that rely on maaaaybe a more Mara-esque solution to some problems than Audrey would like. And it's unquestionably Audrey's story, even if Nathan and Duke command the 'ship bracket. The alternate committedly-together-and-gay Duke and Nathan are, by the way, just the cutest pair of happy innocents who have no idea what happened to their universe from the end of season 3 onwards in the show's original reality, having lived in a world far less painful, and we do get to see plenty of their relationship as it struggles to survive the new ground and evolve.
There's some welcome attention here to Audrey's lost female friends - or potential friends - as Claire, Jordan and Charlotte also get in on the action, although this Charlotte is AU from her 5B character development. The minor character gallery also brings back a host of familiar faces otherwise.
It's also frequently hilarious! From tackling wise-cracking moose to Chris Brody's morosely Eeyore-like presence in the fight against rampant amped-up Troubles, the absurd little moments (that Troubles tend to bring) and the one-liners. Chapter 8 made me tear up and then laugh out loud within the space of a few paragraphs. A real roller-coaster of a fic.
Strings Attached (fanfiction.net mirror)
Fandom: Haven
Pairing: Duke Crocker/Nathan Wuornos, Audrey Parker/Nathan Wuornos
Categories: plot, adventure, casefile, slash, break-up, romance
Length: Epic, 59,632 words
Warnings: Break-up fic for the Audrey/Nathan pairing. A lot of supporting character deaths, some canonical, some happened-in-an-alternate-reality-Trouble. Violence. Author warns for brief depiction of a suicide attempt.
Author on Livejournal: n/a
Author Website: Kalliopeia on AO3 | Kalliopeia on fanfiction.net
Summary: A few weeks after the events of 5A, a Troubled man offers Nathan a gift. Audrey is thrown into an alternate reality in which the rules are different. With second chances and increasing danger, she must save the day a lot and make impossible decisions regarding life and death and destiny. Again.
Review: This novel-length fanfiction is, in a way, the Haven fanfiction I actually didn't know I'd resigned myself to never seeing. Post-5A Audrey falls into Another Alternate Reality, where Nathan's Trouble never came back in adulthood and Duke and Nathan are a solid item. They're happy. Nathan's happy. Audrey is increasingly realising that she and Nathan are not happy after all of the fallout since Mara came along, because of the changes and adjustments that demands in both of them. What's so particularly unusual is how the author has enough respect for the disintegrating canon relationship being portrayed, and investment in the characters either side of it, to tackle this question in a sensitive way with everyone being treated fairly in the equation. In this fandom, splitting the central canon 'ship is pretty divisive, and it tends to be solved via OT3 or shuffling around pretending it isn't there. From a start point of season 5 it's a pretty monumental task. As a whole in this fic I love this dynamic that someone has put the effort in to unpick those ties and do something really different.
Speaking of, this fic was written prior to 5B and features a version of Audrey that's more a personality merge than canon's interpretation going into the new (half-)season. It's a major contributor to some scenes that rely on maaaaybe a more Mara-esque solution to some problems than Audrey would like. And it's unquestionably Audrey's story, even if Nathan and Duke command the 'ship bracket. The alternate committedly-together-and-gay Duke and Nathan are, by the way, just the cutest pair of happy innocents who have no idea what happened to their universe from the end of season 3 onwards in the show's original reality, having lived in a world far less painful, and we do get to see plenty of their relationship as it struggles to survive the new ground and evolve.
There's some welcome attention here to Audrey's lost female friends - or potential friends - as Claire, Jordan and Charlotte also get in on the action, although this Charlotte is AU from her 5B character development. The minor character gallery also brings back a host of familiar faces otherwise.
It's also frequently hilarious! From tackling wise-cracking moose to Chris Brody's morosely Eeyore-like presence in the fight against rampant amped-up Troubles, the absurd little moments (that Troubles tend to bring) and the one-liners. Chapter 8 made me tear up and then laugh out loud within the space of a few paragraphs. A real roller-coaster of a fic.
Strings Attached (fanfiction.net mirror)