[Fic] "Harvest: All We Know of Heaven" -- original, Ekanu

I've been picking at "Harvest" again (my epic story about how Ekanu and Denifar attempt romance and implode, plus way too many subplots). This time I am exploring ideas for the big emotional climax thing where, after a screaming argument, Ekanu and Denifar finally talk to each other straight on about their differing cultural assumptions about relationships and what they mean to each other. As usual, this monologue will not appear in the final story in this exact form, but the gist of it will most likely inform a dialogue scene.

( Harvest: All We Know of Heaven )

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On a completely different topic: Calormenes think their country is the center of the world, the only important country. To most of them, the northern lands are unimportant peripheral places. The nobles care a little, but that is because they are empire-builders. The ordinary citizens don't give a damn. Their attention is inward-focused. They know they are the most powerful people in the world. They know they are always in the right. (Ignore the fact that they are the 'bad guys' -- I am talking self-perception, not necessarily objective reality.)

They are, in other words, Americans. ;-P

*removes tongue from cheek*

More seriously, while Archenland may hate Calormen (with cause), Calormen does not return the animosity. This is, of course, because while Calormen may threaten Archenland, the reverse is absurd to contemplate, and everyone knows it. And Cor and Aravis, having grown up in Calormen, do not hate Archenland and don't quite see how people could hate Calormen just for being Calormen. They can understand hating aspects of Calormene politics and society, and they definitely understand hating the Tisroc and Rabadash, but hating Calormen-as-a-whole on whatever grounds -- ethnic, religious, historical military, economic, etcetera -- doesn't make emotional sense to them. They have no experience with hating other countries that way, because Calormenes don't hate other countries; they simply look down on them and bask in the knowledge that they are better in every way.

...

Shit, they totally are the worst stereotype of Americans, aren't they?

Oh well. If that is where my subconscious wants to go, I can work with that.

[Fic] "Ashes" ch. 1 fragment -- original

Years and years ago, I had a dream about a man and a woman (Geriam/Riam and Morgalen) going on an epic quest in a dark, fog-shrouded world to find the Bottomless Mists where they did something to A) save their world and B) redeem Morgalen's brother from darkness. But I didn't have any clear sense of who those two characters were, nor the rules of their world, nor much else. (Well, I knew it centered around the theme of self-sacrifice, that it was a tragedy, and that there were skeevy incestuous undertones to Morgalen's obsession with her brother, but that's not nearly enough to work with.)

I have taken stabs at writing the story every now and then, all of which have fallen flat for one reason or another -- mostly that I still did not have a grasp of Riam and Morgalen as people. A couple years ago I finally worked out the rules of magic for their world (and why it's post-apocalyptic, and what they have to do to fix it). Tonight at work, I finally figured out who they are.

And everything else began falling into place.

This is what I have so far (1,350 words):

( Ashes, Chapter One: The Last Living Kingdom )

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That's as far as I got tonight. But it is such a relief to finally know who Morgalen and Riam are. I have been chasing them off and on for over fifteen years now, and I was beginning to think this was one of those interesting ideas that would never quite get off the ground.

And that would have been a pity.