#(and it's this post au that i reveal my headcanon name for widdershins. i might make another post to explain why)

[afterthegreatunknown]

asoue au where gregor anwhistle is alive and the stepfather of fernald and fiona, part one:

in a ripple effect that can't be explain, the mother of fernald and fiona -frigga- still in the process of a divorce with her husband thursday, despite it seemingly confirming the so-call rumor she cheated on thursday with gregor and said rumor ruined her marriage, frigga decides to go after gregor.

gregor is a handsome man that while not frigga's personal taste, is still eye-catching. and gregor is an intelligent man she gets along with well, as work associates and regular associate. and her children (well, fernald at least) knows him, as well as like him. or at least has no complaints with him.

of course, the problem at hand is that frigga doesn't know if gregor thinks of her other than a work associate. so it surprises her when gregor agrees to go on a date with her one afternoon, and then another a few days later in the evening.

it was the second date that has frigga finally popping the question of them becoming a couple. gregor agrees with no hesitation.

gregor, despite having feelings for a certain no hesitating submarine captain, knows that his feelings will never be return. gregor knows that widdershins doesn't and will never, see him in a romantic light.

so gregor figures, if he has to spend the rest of his life with someone, frigga would do. she's someone who his mother would approve of, ignoring the small age difference. and frigga is someone he does gets along with well, as a work associate and as a regular associate.

with frigga and thursday's divorce finally settled, frigga and gregor go on several more dates, before deciding to get marry. it was in the papers, for the anwhistle name is quite well-known, and it is a family in the organization that is old and such has lots of respect.

and such respect has the organization willingly to be more accepting of the volatile fungus deportation project. it was a project that had a couple of great intelligent working on that is thought of to be grand. it would the thing that ends the schism once and for all!

but it didn't. it instead created a schism within a schism. some of gregor and frigga's associates thought it dangerous. that the couple was playing with fire, and would destroy everything.

associates like kit snicket. associates like widdershins.

kit and widdershins and others of gregor's generation came together, and agree that the anwhistle couple must be stop. after a long time planing, with the help from one of gregor's brother who was going to be leaving the city and relocated to a village in the hinterlands, widdershins and another associate was able to sneak into anwhistle aquatic late one night, ready to destroy the fungus.

said other associate was a vfd superior of frigga's generation: ishmael. kit and widdershins and everyone else in the know were wary of his presence. he was vocal about his his dislike for the volatile fungus deportation project, but never he tried to go persuading his associates to turn against the idea.

still, having one associate of frigga's generation gave the group the confidence they need to sneak into anwhistle aquatic.

but gregor and frigga knew of the plan. or at least, suspected it. gregor's other brother and his wife, while disagreeing with the idea of the mycelium, didn't like the idea of losing family, especially in a violent matter. they told gregor about the possibility of someone going after him and his wife, and told them to be careful.

gregor and frigga didn't want to lose their lives' work, especially to those they thought they could trust. such perspective betrayal had the confrontation between the four ending in fire and death.

ishmael barely escaped with his life due to finding the one working bathyscaphe that the marine research center and rhetorical advice service had. not before setting a fire without mercy, wanting to spite gregor for what he had done, to the organization, and himself.

gregor escaped the fire by stealing the queequeg, crying his eyes out for the betrayal and lost of the one person he truly loved. while never having proper submarine training, he did had a few lessons underneath his belt due to widdershins' teaching him.

frigga was injured by ishmael via gunshots, for ishmael brought a revolver. the blood loss had her dying before the fire. but she would have perished in the fire anyway if she wasn't shot, risking her life to save her research, forgetting about her children at home.

as for widdershins, gregor in the confrontation grabbed a sample of an prototype fungus on his desk, and shoved it into widdershins' mouth, forcing the man to swallow it. then, gregor pushed him out the top window. if the fall didn't kill widdershins, the mycelium did.

despite having a surname that is associated with being unlucky, widdershins got all the luck in the world that night.

gregor's brother hector, the one who helped kit and widdershins and others, had a feeling something would go wrong. on the night he was suppose to leave, hector instead stole a boat, and went to anwhistle aquatic, just in time to see the flames engulfing the center in the early morning. in the distance, he sees a floating body.

the body floating by, is widdershins. hector rushes to bring the man aboard, and in his horror, sees widdershins is infected not just by the fungus, but the prototype, which is more volatile. it's growing out of his mouth, trying to take over his entire body.

it's a lucky thing that hector came prepare with a jar of grated horseradish. hector was able to cure widdershins of the prototype, though he now has 'scars' on his neck, his chest and stomach, and almost all of his left arm.

hector eventually does as he was told. he relocate to the village of fowl devotee, and he takes widdershins. hector asked widdershins upon their return back to hector's soon-to-be-former apartment, if he wants to leave with him, and widdershins agrees with no hesitation. he feels no loyalty and love to the organization that saved him, even to the man he calls father. the two go to the village, after some careful paper work that has widdershins going back to his biological name. widdershins is no longer v. widdershins.

widdershins is now back to veasna heng. most people refer to him as heng, for they can't pronounce his first name. well, except hector. and hector has the honor of still being able to call widdershins 'widdershins', at least when alone together. hector had fears the other man wouldn't like to be call by his old surname, but widdershins told hector that he can be the exception.

the village had initial objections to hector bringing in an outsider they weren't inform of, but they accepted the outsider after they got him on the platform, and questioned him nonstop to learn anything about him. hector was quite worry the elders would reject widdershins, or that widdershins would get himself into trouble and burn at stake.

with the elders accepting widdershins, hector can finally take his place as the handyman, with widdershins as his assistant.

hector quite likes living far away from the city, and the ocean. most importantly, hector likes having the company of widdershins. with widdershins around, hector has something to talk to, to vent to. hector realizes that he has someone to comfort him when thinking of past that has hector feeling close to tears. having widdershins around has hector realizing his dream of living in his self-sustaining hot air mobile home would be incomplete without company.

widdershins dislikes the hinterlands, for it's far from his element of the water, and it rarely rains. when it rains, it's short or too long and muddy. being around hector though, widdershins can forget his element, and the pain it caused. widdershins feels while not a different person, feels better than he had in years. being around hector has widdershins realizing that there's more to life than he once thought, and that he doesn't want it to disappear.

one day hector does a grand proposal; if hector has to spend his life with one person, it would be widdershins, flaws and all.

and widdershins didn't hesitate to say yes; if widdershins has to spend his life with one person, it would be hector, faults and all.

with their decision made, the two soon spend their days repairing and taking care of the village, as well as building the self-sustaining hot air mobile home, ready to escape and be free of the past, ready to start a new life together.

at least until three orphans decided that the village of fowl devotee be their new home. at least until another familiar face shows up, with hector and widdershins doing their best to defend the three children who were accused of killing said familiar face, and failing.

hector and widdershins realize as they escape the village with duncan and isadora quagmire, force to leave the baudelaires on land, that they can't escape the vfd. they see it's catching up to with them, and it reveals itself at open sea where it all began.

(it's always the ocean.)