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TIME IS AN ILLUSION, Dec. 8-16, 2025

Time Is an Illusion. It may be hard to believe, but this December marks the ten-year anniversary of the first episode of The Magicians. To celebrate that, we’re running a week-long event.

While the event is still months away, we want to start sharing some info with more details to follow.

Posting time will be Dec 8-16, 2025.

All forms of fan content (fic, art, vid, playlist, cosplay, etc.) are welcome. It can be a new work or a continuation of a WIP. There is no word limit for fic.

The themes for the 10-year celebration will be anniversary, 1x01-inspired, and/or time-related. Any or all of these themes are fine. They don't need to be the main focus of the work, but should be visible in some form.

Join us in celebration this December!

(Thank you to Sol, a member of our Discord, for the wonderful image design, and @lasouris-r for the great write-up and brilliant celebration concept!)

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WELCOME TO THE INAUGURAL PEACHES AND PLUMS BIG BANG EVENT!

What does that mean?  Well, the short answer is a Magician’s Big Bang.  The longer answer is probably best answered in our Rules and FAQ page.  That’s where you’ll find all the details on what a Big Bang means, at least in this context.  Other fandoms and events may have different interpretations, so please, really, check out the FAQ.

There, now that you’ve done that and have some idea what THIS Big Bang is about, in general terms, we can get into the smaller details.

For our opening we’ve decided to run a Reverse Bang.  There are several reasons for that, most of which fall on the modding side of things, but also because it’s a smaller commitment which makes it great for a starter.  What that actually means is that artists will sign up first.  They will submit between one and two new original works.  Each work will go into a list of works for the event, and then writers will sign up and submit a list of which works they would like to write a 10k+ work inspired by.  Artists and writers will then be paired up based on those selections.  Now, Artists, this doesn’t mean that you can’t submit more art for your writer's work, if you so choose, but it isn’t required.  Just the original work, which can be tweaked with the writer's work if so desired, but again, isn’t required.  You could technically be done once your art is submitted to the selection pool.  It is lovely community, though, to be around for your writer to at the very least toss some ideas at, or pick your brain about your artwork.  And just to chat with other creators in general.

Writers, your job, once you’ve been given a partner, is to create a fic inspired by that piece of art.  For a Reverse Bang we’ve lowered the required word count to a 10k minimum, which is a large part of why we decided to start with a Reverse Bang.  Something a little smaller to let everyone get the feel for the event.

We will set up lines of communication between each set of partners for this event, be that email or discord.  So please be prepared to offer up one if not both of those methods of communication for your partner.

And that’s about it.  As the FAQ says, if you have any other questions please reach out, either here on tumblr or by emailing the mods at peachesandplumsbigbang @ gmail.com .

(Below you will find the schedule for this year’s Peaches and Plums Reverse Bang)

Artist sign-ups open - May 5 2025 (Monday)

Author sign-ups open - June 2 2025 (Monday)

Artist sign-ups close - June 30 2025 (Monday)

Art drafts due - July 2 2025 (Wednesday)

Art drafts available for preview - July 9 2025 (Wednesday)

Author sign-ups close - July 14 2025 (Monday)

Claims open - July 16 2025 (Wednesday)

Check-in 1, 50% of fic complete - September 1 2025 (Monday)

Check-in 2, 80% of fic complete - September 29 2025 (Monday)

Final Due Date - October 13 2025 (Monday)

Posting period - October 20 2025 (Monday) until out of works

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This post from @spiders-hth-is-an-outlier making it as good a time as any for a The Magicians brain dump I guess: like the post says the Qualice reunion scene is a weird and weirdly perfunctory scene, and honestly who knows what the writers were smoking for those last two episodes, but. in the secretly good show in my head, the scene is perfunctory and not particularly romantic because it's not really supposed to be, or at least the main purpose of the scene is not exactly Quentin and Alice's romance. To me the narrative problem/tension of Qualice at this point in the show is not whether they love each other. They do. They've said it and shown it in multiple ways, there's not really any need for romantic declarations. In fact Alice made a romantic declaration at the end of s3 on the muntjac, saying that Quentin was the one she loved etc. And then still destroyed the keys in Blackspire, which Quentin clearly takes as a personal betrayal, why he can't trust her. In s3 Alice loves Quentin but she doesn't trust him, not with her feelings, or with her secret plans. Which is where the many many parallels of Alice and Eliot in s4 begin! If the plot of s3 (magic gone and fairy takeover) is mostly the consequences of Quentin and Margo's choices in s2, the plot of s4 (the monster and the library) is mostly the consequences of Alice and Eliot's choices at the end of s3 (with help from Fogg). In s4 Alice and Eliot are both prisoners, and they both escape their prisons, in different ways. And a lot of the tension of this scene for me, which is linked also with the flower scene, is - can Quentin escape his prison? He's repeating the same story he told himself in pilot episode, that false dichotomy: there is the escapist dream of Fillory/fantasy/magic where Quentin finally finds the secret door and becomes someone he wants to be, where his life becomes something he wants it to be, which is childish and must be left behind for the cold hard wasteland of the adult world, of harsh reality, and you just have to suck it up and deal with it. I don't think this scene feels particularly romantic because it's not supposed to be: Quentin says he can forgive Alice, can change his notions, his expectations, but he's still trapped. He can't see the third option yet, in the garden he says: isn't the idea of Fillory enough, but does he see it yet? It's not the idea of Fillory, it's his idea of Fillory, Quentin's idea, when it says in the magicians books that the world might be a wasteland but we are not, we're the source, there's no oasis out there waiting, we create the oasis ourselves.

Tldr this scene has Quentin and Alice getting back together but it's not actually about them, it's about Quentin's fucked-up-ness. Does the show actually know this? could not tell you if you paid me.

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was really evil when quentin learned his discipline was minor mendings and described the process as “helping it wake up and remember what it was before”. sorry if im an IDIOT but this is exactly what their mission was in recovering eliot. helping eliot’s body wake up and remember what it was before. i wouldnt fixate on the line if it wasnt so obviously important (ending the episode, the culmination of q’s self-discovery, etc).

So. The Fact quentin not only has little part in putting eliot back together (as foretold not only by this line but also his whole entire story in season 4 up til this episode (IT DOESNT SAVE ELIOT!!!)) BUT ALSO is completely emotionally absent during the saving scene AND this line turns out to be his method of KILLING HIMSELF? WHAT IS THE CONNECTION? HOW DID HE HELP THE GODDAMN RIFT WAKE UP AND REMEMEBRRWHO IT WAS KILL YOURSELF!!!!! sorry

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The Magicians, Escape from the Happy Place, 4x05 // Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh BOOK I. ET IN ARCADIA EGO, Chapter 4:

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absolutely obsessed with this. quentin's put upon expression. the fact that he is the perfect height for being held to eliot's chest. the weird one armed hug because he's both miserable for outside reasons and possibly a little jealous? how he has to go up on his grumpy lil tippy toes for a kiss. eliot's absolute ease with embracing his friend/long term crush both romantically and like he is soothing a toddler for nap time. exquisite 10/10

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Height gap romance except the shorter one is frequently depicted in situations where they are contextually taller. The taller one sitting while the shorter one looms over them. Both of them lying in bed with the taller one’s head pressed to the shorter one’s chest. The shorter one straddling the taller one’s lap and leaning down for a kiss. The taller one on their knees as the shorter one tilts their head up. Please, it makes me go feral

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what if quentin and eliot had solved the mosaic early?

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@magicianschallenges magicians settings week (2023) | day 3: the muntjac or baba yaga’s penthouse

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You ever think about how the last time Quentin and Eliot actually spoke to each other (besides the 20 second peaches-and-plums-motherfucker-I’m-alive-in-here exchange) was at the end of season 3?

Like, Quentin spoke to the monster in Eliot’s body. Eliot spoke to memory-Quentin. But in reality, they went into the castle at the end of the world and pretty much never never saw each other again.

Anyway I’m going to chew glass.

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i love them sm

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HERE’S MY QUESTION, THO.

We all agree that Quentin had been psyching himself up for this kiss, right, all Tonight’s the Night, Coldwater, Don’t Blow it, Coldwater – right?  And when Eliot turns away, you can see him kind of steel his spine, because this is it, this is it, now or never.  Like, this is Known.

Here’s my question: when Eliot looks back at him, Quentin starts to like, conversate about this, with his little “Hey, hey, I…” before he gives up and Does The Thing, Finally.

So, since this was clearly planned in advance, was there like, a speech?  Has Quentin spent the last two weeks lying awake, staring at the ceiling/stars, writing and rewriting his elevator pitch in his head?  Does the phrase “why the fuck not?” figure into it at any point?  Is there math?  What the actual fuck did he think he was going to say to talk Eliot into this, before he just threw up his hands like fuuuuuck this, I’m just gonna kiss him?

Was it a good speech or nah?  Did he discard it because in that instant he realized it was not, in fact, a good speech, or because he panicked and his mind went completely blank?

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We’re a family. The Magicians | S03E02: Heroes and Morons (2018)

And we had a family. The Magicians | S03E05: A Life in the Day (2018)

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penny / alice was special to me

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looking at some reddit posts on the s4 finale. amazing how people will take the story they are told and accept that it is a good story. on the simple basis that it was a story and it was told. no accounting other factors. as if the existence of 1, 2 beats account for the 1-2-3-4 1-2-3-4 rhythm. some people should not be talking about television

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something in the scene in which quentin asks to be the one to throw the monsters in the seam vs the scene in which quentin volunteers himself as the monster’s jailer

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was really evil when quentin learned his discipline was minor mendings and described the process as “helping it wake up and remember what it was before”. sorry if im an IDIOT but this is exactly what their mission was in recovering eliot. helping eliot’s body wake up and remember what it was before. i wouldnt fixate on the line if it wasnt so obviously important (ending the episode, the culmination of q’s self-discovery, etc).

So. The Fact quentin not only has little part in putting eliot back together (as foretold not only by this line but also his whole entire story in season 4 up til this episode (IT DOESNT SAVE ELIOT!!!)) BUT ALSO is completely emotionally absent during the saving scene AND this line turns out to be his method of KILLING HIMSELF? WHAT IS THE CONNECTION? HOW DID HE HELP THE GODDAMN RIFT WAKE UP AND REMEMEBRRWHO IT WAS KILL YOURSELF!!!!! sorry