(August 23, 2018 – 1:43 AM)Ophelia Devine Wrote:  On the note of people who write posts in their head when they're doing unrelated things... I don't so much write posts in my head (occasionally but tbh if I'm really that into it I'll probably just stop whatever I'm doing and go get my computer and write it for real) but I do sketch out plotlines. Sometimes for developments that haven't happened yet.

The Zelfred baby/no-baby issue was unresolved for long enough that I probably have like seven "alternative endings" floating around in my head, because I kept thinking about what Alfred (and Brannon) would do if things played out like this, if things played out like that, etc etc.

If Zelda told Alfred she was pregnant his plan probably would have been to propose they marry immediately upon his return, relocate to somewhere exotic and then not move back to England until like 3-5 years later and just consistently lie about their child's age. Hopefully people would've stopped keeping track by the time the Hogwarts letter issue came up. In most versions of this reality I don't think he manages to coherently convey this plan to Zelda and instead starts making arrangements while she's largely in the dark.

Brannon, meanwhile, would have been very suspicious if he got a 'I'd like to marry your daughter' letter via mail from someone he'd never met though lbr he would have been suspicious of anyone who wanted to marry Zelda in the first place and would have brought it up faux-casually to watch Zelda's reaction and try to figure out what was going on. I've imagined how that family dinner might go in just about every iteration.

If she ended up being pregnant and the truth came out to Brannon, his solution would have been to use some complicated illusion charms to make Zelda look like she wasn't pregnant, negotiate with/bribe Astrid to give her an "away assignment" to cover the week leading up to/after the baby, and then made everyone pretend the new baby was another one of Katia's spawn. Once you've already got eight it's not like the ninth is much of an inconvenience, he reasons. Also Zelda would never be allowed to go to any social event ever again.

This conversation also probably happened at some point on that AU path:
Brannon: Can you find a reason to arrest him?
Ross: ... You know I can't just arrest someone without a reason.
Brannon: Of course. But... we can find a reason, right?

---

— Aldous walks with a cane and pronounced limp as the result of a splinching accident. —

— graphics by lady ❤ —