Story Title: Awakening

Fandom: Glee & Goncharov crossover

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43246185/chapters/108699384

Summary: Fruit, desire, and truth--will sharing an apple lead to carnal knowledge? Mormon missionary Blaine Anderson is in love with his mission companion, Kurt Hummel, but afraid to express his secret desires. Witnessing Katya Goncharova and Sofia Ambrosini at the fruit stand sparks him to act.

Warnings: Could be considered blasphemous depending on your religious beliefs.

Characters: Blaine Anderson, Kurt Hummel (major characters); Katya Goncharova, Sofia Ambrosini, Massimo Troisi (minor characters)

Pairings: Blaine Anderson/Kurt Hummel (main pairing); Katya/Sofia (minor but plot-important pairing)

When I Started: November 2022

How I Lost My Shit: I had a lot of other things I was working on, including huge WIP that took precedence over this one (and that I’m still working toward finishing sigh). Also just general life stuff.

How I Finished My Shit: I see the posts for the mini-bang every year. This year, I finally decided to participate. I sat down, reread that first chapter I had posted, tried to get back into its mood of Goncharovesque purple prose, and did my best. (And thank you for the compilers of the Goncharov summary Google Doc https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Fbcn96MKyc1Bky6c0Ffex4APtar9iNht8ytfZHPpSss/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.72oyeg8j1ma2, which helped me reacquaint myself with a lot of the lore.)

When his school choir goes to sing at a competition in Lima, Ohio, he becomes friends with some of the members and starts exploring the small city and its gay bar, Scandals. For the first time, he has friends who are openly gay. As he enters adulthood, he explores the possibility of leaving his community so he can have romantic relationships as a gay man. But he can't quite leave his Mennonite-i-ness behind.

Based on a rough draft also on AO3 that's described as "A Glee WIP about a gay guy from the Mennonite group that competed against the New Directions at the 2012 Sectionals. In which Lima is some people’s Hell and other people’s Salvation."

mypopculturesum