Chapter Text
Holy shit, it’s done. It’s taken ten months, 184,615 words, 299 pages on GoogleDocs, and my literal blood, sweat, and tears, but it’s finally, finally finished. What started as a twitter thread making half-baked comparisons between Therese Belivet and Adam Faulkner-Stanheight has turned into a fucking novel-length fanfiction that I’m more proud of than any other creative endeavor in my life. Is that kind of pathetic? Maybe. Are you also here, 34 chapters into the sixth-longest fic on the Saw (Movies) tag on ao3, reading these words? Yeah, you are, so don’t look at me like that.
Some brief housekeeping: this final semi-chapter is broken into three parts: Fanart, Bibliography, and Special Thanks. ← You can use these links to navigate since each section is pretty long (an early thanks to The Fic Writer's Guide to Formatting (An AO3 Repository) by AnisaAnisa for guiding me on how to format all of this!). Without further ado, let’s get into it!
Fanart
I’ve been lucky enough to have a number of incredibly talented artists create works depicting scenes from or generally inspired by Till the Road and Sky Align. Below is a full gallery of all the fanart that I’m aware of– if you want to be featured, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me on here, on tumblr, or on twitter! Clicking on the image itself will take you to its original post, and I’ve listed each artist’s social media handle next to their username. Please go follow every single artist whose work you see here, they are all enormously skilled and I cannot express enough thanks to them for gracing us with their amazing art!
From Chapter 1:
Artwork by motherdanger (tumblr, twitter)
Artwork by nxcromantik (tumblr, twitter)
Artwork by scaryjojos (twitter)
From Chapter 12:
Artwork by turnipoddity (tumblr, twitter)
From Chapter 13:
Artwork by planetarymoth (twitter)
From Chapter 14:
Artwork by turnipoddity (tumblr, twitter)
From Chapters 17 and 19:
Artwork by scaryjojos (twitter)
From Chapter 33:
Artwork by sparrow-sage (tumblr)
Other/general:
Artwork by motherdanger (tumblr, twitter)
Artwork by p3ggysus (twitter)
Artwork by planetarymoth (twitter)
Bibliography/supplemental materials
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First things first, I have a few playlists for you guys! Here is the official playlist for Till the Road and Sky Align, curated by me and put onto spotify by the incredible Sarah (it’s in chronological order and contains thematic spoilers, so if you’re somehow reading this before you’ve finished the fic itself, you’ve been warned), here is a playlist of all the songs whose lyrics I used for chapter titles, and here is the playlist of all the songs either explicitly mentioned or implied as being listened to on the road trip, with songs partially curated by Adam and supplemented by the music Lawrence already had in his car (in the case of entire albums, I’ve included songs that were either explicitly mentioned or those that are thematically relevant to the scene in which they were played). There’s some very wide overlap between the three, but I figured they’d work on their own as individual playlists. At some point I might also make the actual playlist of songs that Adam made, but honestly, my taste in music differs a lot from his so I don’t think I’d be a very good curator of his personal taste.
I also created a spreadsheet of all the expenses by Lawrence over the course of the trip, as well as a roadtrip itinerary and map. Most hotels, restaurants, and tourist attractions are listed by name and address there, if you’re interested in checking them out (for those that still exist; remember, this fic is very much a 2004 period piece).
Over the course of writing this fic, I consulted a number of guidebooks and other resources to make sure that every location was depicted with care and attention, as well as accuracy to the time period in which the story was set. Below are a few of the sources I used; regrettably, it’s not a complete list, since there were a few titles I neglected to write down, and I don’t have a list of the online sources I used. Apologies! I’m forever indebted to the Wayback Machine for allowing me to essentially time travel when it came to accurately depicting the menus at certain restaurants, the pricing and layouts of different hotels and tourist attractions, and the names and addresses of places that either don’t exist anymore or have different names. There’s also a few books listed whose resources were relevant to specific characters, dynamics, or experiences outside of my own, so I’ve included them as well.
Avashia, Neema. Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place. Tantor Media, Inc., 2022.
Bryson, Bill. The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-town America. AudioGO, 2015.
Dunham, Jessica. The Open Road: 50 Best Road Trips in the USA : From Weekend Getaways to Cross-country Adventures. Avalon Travel, Hachette Book Group, 2020.
Fodor's Washington, D.C. Fodor's Modern Guides, 1983.
Frommer's Chicago. Prentice Hall Trade Division, 1991.
Granneman, Jenn. Sensitive: The Hidden Power of the Highly Sensitive Person in a Loud, Fast, Too-much World. Harmony, 2023.
Hayhoe, Simon. Accessible Vacations: An Insider's Guide to 10 National Parks. Rowman & Littlefield, 2022.
Hood, Ann. Creating Character Emotions. Story Press, 1998.
Isay, Richard A. Becoming Gay: The Journey to Self-acceptance. Pantheon Books, 1996.
Keel, John A. The Mothman Prophecies. Tor, 1975.
Kurczy, Stephen. The Quiet Zone: Unraveling the Mystery of a Town Suspended in Silence. Dey St., an imprint of William Morrow, 2021.
Nadal, Kevin L. Queering Law and Order: LGBTQ Communities and the Criminal Justice System. Lexington Books, 2020.
Ocker, J. W. The United States of Cryptids: A Tour of American Myths and Monsters. Quirk Books, 2023.
Off the Beaten Path: Maryland and Delaware. Globe Pequot Press,
Potter-Efron, Ronald T. The Emotional Affair: How to Recognize Emotional Infidelity and What to Do About It. New Harbinger Publications, 2008.
The Insiders' Guide to Baltimore. Insiders' Pub, 1998.
The Unofficial Guide to Washington, D.C. Prentice Hall Travel, 1994.
Toker, Franklin. Fallingwater Rising: Frank Lloyd Wright, E.J. Kaufmann, and America's Most Extraordinary House. A.A. Knopf, 2003.
Williams, John Alexander. West Virginia, a History. W.W. Norton, 1984.
Special Thanks and Acknowledgements
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First of all, if you are reading this, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you for coming along with me, Lawrence, and Adam on this journey. I cannot express how grateful I am that you’ve stuck with it for so long; this fic has been an absolute blast to write and the fact that you’re here reading this now, at the end, means that you’ve (hopefully) read the entirety of the piece of fiction I’m the most proud of in my life. The response to this has been…my god, it’s the most touching thing in the world. Every comment is permanently lodged in my heart. Every kudos is like a warm hug. Every recommendation, every liveblog on tumblr and twitter, every iota of love for this fic you guys have put into the world– I’ve felt all of it, and I cannot possibly express my gratitude.
To my twitter, tumblr, and discord friends– I won’t be naming all of you, because holy shit, y’all are fucking legion. Thank you for putting up with my apologizing, my self-promoting, my apologizing for self-promoting, and all the other mayhem and shenanigans I’ve subjected you all to over the course of writing this beast. You guys are the sweetest, most supportive friends I could ever ask for, and this fic wouldn’t be what it is without your love and enthusiasm. Adam’s journey towards realizing he was worthy of a better life and better thoughts about himself was entirely inspired by the ceaseless love and support this fandom has provided me with, and I couldn’t be more grateful to you all. I love you guys so much.
To my real life friends and family– if you’re reading this on ao3, something has gone terribly, terribly awry. (Unless you’re one of the select few who I trust with my literal, actual life; you know who you are, and I’m waving at you frantically from behind this screen many miles away. Thank you for texting me at ungodly hours with your reactions after I post new chapters, and for putting up with me breathlessly infodumping and brainstorming to you. You’re an absolute angel, one of my oldest and dearest friends, and I’m so honored that you’ve stuck with this thing for so long. To quote Castiel: I love you; to quote Dean Winchester: I still like your shoelaces.)
Some very special thanks are in order, too.
To Sarah, my lifeboat– holy shit, man. I’m being so fucking serious when I say that this fic would not exist without you. You’ve always been this story’s number one cheerleader; you were there for me from the start, and I’m so grateful that you’re here for the finish. The worries that I’ve so often subjected you to about me being a bad writer are about to come true, because at this moment, my words are failing me. I’ll leave it at this: you’re a fantastic writer, you’re a wonderful proofreader, but mostly, you are such an incredible friend. You’ve been there for me in my darkest moments, and I cannot possibly express how much you mean to me. You’re the Amanda to my Adam (the road&sky versions not the saw iii versions THE ROAD&SKY VERSIONS NOT THE SAW III VERSIONS), and I’m so fucking glad to know you.
To Ginny, my anchor– I admire you so fucking much; not just as a writer, but as a person. You inspire me to look at my writing in a new light, to look at myself in a new light. Your insight has been so unbelievably valuable, and I’m so fucking excited to see how we’ll continue to inspire each other. You’re so incredibly brilliant and I’m honored to have you in my life– not just as a collaborator and a writer whose work I so fervently admire, but as a dear, dear friend.
Finally: to Von, my shore. I was worried when I first began to write this story that the whole falling-in-love-at-first sight thing was cheesy and unrealistic and totally unbelievable. Then, on February 15th, I saw you for the first time, spoke to you for barely a minute, and realized that I had completely undersold what it feels like. I was completely swept away by you, effortlessly charmed by your openness, your optimism, your beauty, your curiosity, your enthusiasm, your wisdom, your charm– and, like Lawrence told Adam in one of the many monologues that’s absolutely secretly about you, those were all the things I loved about you only then, at the beginning of us, when I barely had time to know you. I’ve only loved you more and more with each passing moment, and I’m so, so grateful that the universe brought me to you. Thank you for not being completely scared off when I told you on our second date that I was really– like, really, really– into the Saw movies. Thank you for your ceaseless support, thank you for your willingness to postpone our date nights for hours or even a whole day because I was really on a roll with the chapter I was writing, thank you for your hugs, your kisses, your laughter, your smile, your unceasing ability to make me feel seen and treasured in ways that I can only hope to convey a fraction of through my words. Over the course of writing this story, there have been 253 instances of the word “love”; they’ve all belonged to you indirectly, but I want the very last one to be completely yours: I love you, Von.
And that’s it. I’m aware of how melodramatic I’m being with all of this postamble, but if you’ll indulge me for a moment: this fic has meant so, so much to me, and it’s hard to let it go. This story and the audience it’s grown has helped me through some truly dark times, and I can honestly say that I’ve changed for the better over the course of crafting this fic. Thank you for joining me, thank you for reading, thank you for everything. You can find me on tumblr and on twitter, and I’ll see you again soon. (Oh, and one last thing– if you want a physical copy of Till the Road and Sky Align, you can make that happen here.)