Of masks and dances - Chapter 20: The art of letter writing
Of masks and dances
Chapter 20: The art of letter writing
Now that Lumine had explored every corner of Inazuma over and underground, she was left with no other choice than facing the thing weighting on her heart for so many months. She stared at a blank sheet of paper, the paper stared back.
There is very little explanation as to why it took me so long to write this, but if you want one example, catch me spending about 4 hours to come up with Diluc's verses. These here:
I'm even happy with them, as they do what they were supposed to: sound a bit juvenile, express angst, have meter and rhyme, get a bit lost on imagery. Yes, yes, I know, it should have been easier to manage "not very good" when you're trying to write poetry, but it turned out being as hard as writing something I'd actually admit to calling my own.
Damn Diluc. If only his type of bad poetry lined up with mine, this would have taken all of five minutes.
Now, you might have noticed that I took a perfectly good Traveler and gave her PTSD. This came as a shock to me, because it just showed up while I was writing chapter 21, so I had to come back and edit 20 to include some signs (which is why I ended up redoing most of the chapter. I can't trust myself to "just add a quick scene").
It's weird, now that I think about it, how little Traveler angst re: Inazuma is there in this fandom. People are very happy to angst about We Will Be Reunited, people will comment how the Teppei questline absolutely wreaked their hearts, but no angst? Yeah, I'm on it chief.
This chapter is missing Kaeya's second letter, his response to Lumine's, which I thought would take away from the chapter flow. Maybe it goes into 21, maybe I'll decide to leave 21 all in the same night (it's mostly in the same night. Big night, much happening). If I do, then I might make some sort of bonus just to drop his answer. It's quite heartfelt, I liked writing it.
What else? Oh, our guest stars. We have the Kamisatos for today. I love the Kamisatos' dynamics. There's something soothing about writing siblings that love and support each other after so much time writing Diluc & Kaeya. Ayaka is sweet and pure (even too pure in my opinion) and Ayato? Do not get me started on Ayato. I really wish I had reason to write them supporting each other in a fight scene, that would be awesome (alas, I can't scrounge a plot for that right now).
The last part of the sweet family is Thoma, my lovely boy. I enjoy writing him far much more than I enjoy playing him (I did build Thoma. Do not recommend). I actually have a draft of this filthy smut fic that's mostly Childe/Thoma, not sure if it'll ever see the light of day, but that's how I learned Thoma is the best.
Will they show up again? Most probably no.
Chapter 20: The art of letter writing
Now that Lumine had explored every corner of Inazuma over and underground, she was left with no other choice than facing the thing weighting on her heart for so many months. She stared at a blank sheet of paper, the paper stared back.
There is very little explanation as to why it took me so long to write this, but if you want one example, catch me spending about 4 hours to come up with Diluc's verses. These here:
Maybe love's not fate but destination
At the crossroads, shelter, simple and stark
Does the star that cuts night knows of morning?
Is it closer, then, respite from the dark?
Pale starlight traces the road I follow
My heart, and only burden, bears your mark
I'm even happy with them, as they do what they were supposed to: sound a bit juvenile, express angst, have meter and rhyme, get a bit lost on imagery. Yes, yes, I know, it should have been easier to manage "not very good" when you're trying to write poetry, but it turned out being as hard as writing something I'd actually admit to calling my own.
Damn Diluc. If only his type of bad poetry lined up with mine, this would have taken all of five minutes.
Now, you might have noticed that I took a perfectly good Traveler and gave her PTSD. This came as a shock to me, because it just showed up while I was writing chapter 21, so I had to come back and edit 20 to include some signs (which is why I ended up redoing most of the chapter. I can't trust myself to "just add a quick scene").
It's weird, now that I think about it, how little Traveler angst re: Inazuma is there in this fandom. People are very happy to angst about We Will Be Reunited, people will comment how the Teppei questline absolutely wreaked their hearts, but no angst? Yeah, I'm on it chief.
This chapter is missing Kaeya's second letter, his response to Lumine's, which I thought would take away from the chapter flow. Maybe it goes into 21, maybe I'll decide to leave 21 all in the same night (it's mostly in the same night. Big night, much happening). If I do, then I might make some sort of bonus just to drop his answer. It's quite heartfelt, I liked writing it.
What else? Oh, our guest stars. We have the Kamisatos for today. I love the Kamisatos' dynamics. There's something soothing about writing siblings that love and support each other after so much time writing Diluc & Kaeya. Ayaka is sweet and pure (even too pure in my opinion) and Ayato? Do not get me started on Ayato. I really wish I had reason to write them supporting each other in a fight scene, that would be awesome (alas, I can't scrounge a plot for that right now).
The last part of the sweet family is Thoma, my lovely boy. I enjoy writing him far much more than I enjoy playing him (I did build Thoma. Do not recommend). I actually have a draft of this filthy smut fic that's mostly Childe/Thoma, not sure if it'll ever see the light of day, but that's how I learned Thoma is the best.
Will they show up again? Most probably no.