omg omg OMG!!!! Christine!! This is masterful! I came here happily expecting crack-adjacent, but this is beautiful and moving. Somehow you've managed to merge these two universes perfectly - I snorfled at how Deniz's imagined soap drama world is preferable to reality, but you worked in the premise of the Rising as canon and make it so real and achy! I am in awe at how you've captured this atmosphere of broken-but-hopeful that In the Flesh had and brought the AWZ characters into it. I LOVE Marc as mediator - so inobtrusive but supportive, and Deniz's slow recovery was great. YES, HAMBURG FTW! Such a gorgeous hint at a possible future. Also, "Deniz had expected Essen to be one of the worst hit, if only because everything happened bigger there" - hah, meta win!
This is beautiful, darling. So much better than anything CCS could ever have offered! <333333333333333