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queenluaDuring the march toward the Tower of Guidance, Micaiah contemplates the future: her own, Sothe's, and Daein's.
Naesala isn't helping.
~14k words.
Here at AO3.
I cannot begin to describe how ridiculous it is that this fic only started coming together when I introduced the horny falconry metaphor. If the fic police ever come to my house and arrest me I will 100% know why.
Okay, so backing up a bit: when I got a Sothe/Micaiah prompt, I was delighted. Micaiah's a longtime favorite of mine whom I've somehow never had much occasion to write, and Sothe always seemed like the kind of dude who would become really interesting if I thought about him more (which, in fact, turned out to be true!).
Fundamentally, what I like about Sothe/Micaiah is their blend of "absolute trust and loyalty" and "totally snippy calling-each-other-out-on-bullshit"-ness. Sothe gives Micaiah a wide berth, he gives her the final call in all the shots, and he'll tolerate a lot, but—when he thinks she's out of line, he gets petty, he gets angry. It only works because Micaiah stewards his trust in her so well—mostly.
"But what about a time when she doesn't do that?" I thought to myself, because I like characters to suffer. And, uh, apparently one of my favorite ways for characters to suffer is "self-destructive sleeping-around choices," and... look, I wasn't going out of my way to write a fic with Pelleas getting cucked and exhibitionist stuff and other quirky sex nonense, I just wound up here somehow while on a totally normal thought train; writing is nonsense.
ANYWAY. Enter Naesala, the convenient wedge for this inevitable disaster. I got nervous halfway through my rough draft, because it turns out Naesala will fucking dominate any story you put him in if you let him; the dude TALKS and TALKS and TALKS. And while I love the dude (obviously), it wasn't SUPPOSED to be his story. Oh god what if I am writing the exact wrong thing for Nagamas, I am already 6k words in I can't stop now, etc etc
Then I got a little stuck near the end, because I had a lot of scenes, but they felt like they weren't quite "hanging together," and it turns out... the thing I needed to complete my Sothe/Micaiah fic was... more Sothe/Micaiah scenes. Fuckin' shocker. (See also: my Nagamas fic from last year, where I managed to write almost the entirety of a "meet the parents" fic without... actually writing the part... where they meet the parents. Headdesk. I am not the world's cleverest writer.)
And honestly I was delighted with how things started coming together, once I found a way to weave more Sothe/Micaiah into the narrative, and their background and all that (see: aforementioned horny falconry metaphor), because it told me, hey, I actually *am* writing a Sothe/Micaiah fic after all, I'm not just deluding myself, probably, maybe, etc.
There's still a lot of Naesala, mind, but I hope the net result worked in the end. Er, I mean, I hope a lot of things worked out in the end? this was a very weird and experimental fic in a lot of ways and ALSO THE NAGAMAS DEADLINE CAME UP MUCH FASTER THAN EXPECTED so boy howdy I had to haul getting this in under the wire, but—at the very least, it sure was interesting.
Oh, also, other titles I considered for this:
* The Way the Light Falls
* Strike from Flight an Eagle
* Bitterroot
* Practical People
* open relationships can be cool but maybe not with Naesala
"Silent World" was meant to be a temporary title. Tragically I think it was the best of the lot. Truly I have played myself.
Also: prior to this, my longest complete fanfic was "Lights of Endangered Species" which clocked in at ~12.5k. Congrats to this for breaking the record, I guess, but also oh god ow my typing fingers hurt
Naesala isn't helping.
~14k words.
Here at AO3.
I cannot begin to describe how ridiculous it is that this fic only started coming together when I introduced the horny falconry metaphor. If the fic police ever come to my house and arrest me I will 100% know why.
Okay, so backing up a bit: when I got a Sothe/Micaiah prompt, I was delighted. Micaiah's a longtime favorite of mine whom I've somehow never had much occasion to write, and Sothe always seemed like the kind of dude who would become really interesting if I thought about him more (which, in fact, turned out to be true!).
Fundamentally, what I like about Sothe/Micaiah is their blend of "absolute trust and loyalty" and "totally snippy calling-each-other-out-on-bullshit"-ness. Sothe gives Micaiah a wide berth, he gives her the final call in all the shots, and he'll tolerate a lot, but—when he thinks she's out of line, he gets petty, he gets angry. It only works because Micaiah stewards his trust in her so well—mostly.
"But what about a time when she doesn't do that?" I thought to myself, because I like characters to suffer. And, uh, apparently one of my favorite ways for characters to suffer is "self-destructive sleeping-around choices," and... look, I wasn't going out of my way to write a fic with Pelleas getting cucked and exhibitionist stuff and other quirky sex nonense, I just wound up here somehow while on a totally normal thought train; writing is nonsense.
ANYWAY. Enter Naesala, the convenient wedge for this inevitable disaster. I got nervous halfway through my rough draft, because it turns out Naesala will fucking dominate any story you put him in if you let him; the dude TALKS and TALKS and TALKS. And while I love the dude (obviously), it wasn't SUPPOSED to be his story. Oh god what if I am writing the exact wrong thing for Nagamas, I am already 6k words in I can't stop now, etc etc
Then I got a little stuck near the end, because I had a lot of scenes, but they felt like they weren't quite "hanging together," and it turns out... the thing I needed to complete my Sothe/Micaiah fic was... more Sothe/Micaiah scenes. Fuckin' shocker. (See also: my Nagamas fic from last year, where I managed to write almost the entirety of a "meet the parents" fic without... actually writing the part... where they meet the parents. Headdesk. I am not the world's cleverest writer.)
And honestly I was delighted with how things started coming together, once I found a way to weave more Sothe/Micaiah into the narrative, and their background and all that (see: aforementioned horny falconry metaphor), because it told me, hey, I actually *am* writing a Sothe/Micaiah fic after all, I'm not just deluding myself, probably, maybe, etc.
There's still a lot of Naesala, mind, but I hope the net result worked in the end. Er, I mean, I hope a lot of things worked out in the end? this was a very weird and experimental fic in a lot of ways and ALSO THE NAGAMAS DEADLINE CAME UP MUCH FASTER THAN EXPECTED so boy howdy I had to haul getting this in under the wire, but—at the very least, it sure was interesting.
Oh, also, other titles I considered for this:
* The Way the Light Falls
* Strike from Flight an Eagle
* Bitterroot
* Practical People
* open relationships can be cool but maybe not with Naesala
"Silent World" was meant to be a temporary title. Tragically I think it was the best of the lot. Truly I have played myself.
Also: prior to this, my longest complete fanfic was "Lights of Endangered Species" which clocked in at ~12.5k. Congrats to this for breaking the record, I guess, but also oh god ow my typing fingers hurt
