Fic: "Among Thieves"
Jul. 31st, 2013 08:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mark_asphodelSo, some time ago I posted a fragment of a WIP that featured a post-war Lester and Faval banging around Verdane and encountering an adult and thoroughly "embittered" Dew. My comment at the time was that aside from Faval being the Bad Cop to Lester's Good Cop, nothing actually happened in the story. It revolved around two "high concept" ideas: Adult!Dew and "LOL Lester looks like Lex." That ain't enough.
Well, I think I'm in the process of fixing that.
I always liked the premise of the story and really wanted to fix it, but at first I was afraid it was just inherently not a story. Lester made a suitable POV character of a "type" I prefer-- reasonably intelligent but not super-observant, not terribly quirky, pretty vanilla-- but didn't have much going on and Faval was just coming across as off-key and pissy more often than not. Dew was fun but that was it.
Then I ended up dumping the meta/headcanon content about about three other problematic WIPs into the framework of this one and hey, I think I like it a tons better.
1) Originally I had my "default" Lester, aka Midayle!Lester. This Lester got temporarily rattled when Dew questioned his parentage but there weren't really any stakes. I switched it to Claude!Lester (I know, ugh) because then there's some actual stakes involved if the heir of Edda... isn't.
2) The unreasonably petulant Faval got toned down considerably. He gets mad and hits things but he's not going around with a chip on his shoulder, and most of the time he kind of rolls with things.
3) I like the contrast between a rough-edged Faval who can adapt to the situation on the ground in Verdane and play by its rules and a more articulate and polished Lester who is out of his depth.
4) I also like the contrast between the attitudes of the kids re: the all-important family situation. Mama's boy Lester has this idea of his saintly mother and father that gets challenged by the stuff Dew starts telling him, whereas Faval, product of "the second-crappiest orphanage in Conote," is still pretty delighted at finding out he's special and has awesome alien powers and is able to take the family baggage without an OD of angst.
5) Highwayman Dew is still delightful to me.
Well, I think I'm in the process of fixing that.
I always liked the premise of the story and really wanted to fix it, but at first I was afraid it was just inherently not a story. Lester made a suitable POV character of a "type" I prefer-- reasonably intelligent but not super-observant, not terribly quirky, pretty vanilla-- but didn't have much going on and Faval was just coming across as off-key and pissy more often than not. Dew was fun but that was it.
Then I ended up dumping the meta/headcanon content about about three other problematic WIPs into the framework of this one and hey, I think I like it a tons better.
1) Originally I had my "default" Lester, aka Midayle!Lester. This Lester got temporarily rattled when Dew questioned his parentage but there weren't really any stakes. I switched it to Claude!Lester (I know, ugh) because then there's some actual stakes involved if the heir of Edda... isn't.
2) The unreasonably petulant Faval got toned down considerably. He gets mad and hits things but he's not going around with a chip on his shoulder, and most of the time he kind of rolls with things.
3) I like the contrast between a rough-edged Faval who can adapt to the situation on the ground in Verdane and play by its rules and a more articulate and polished Lester who is out of his depth.
4) I also like the contrast between the attitudes of the kids re: the all-important family situation. Mama's boy Lester has this idea of his saintly mother and father that gets challenged by the stuff Dew starts telling him, whereas Faval, product of "the second-crappiest orphanage in Conote," is still pretty delighted at finding out he's special and has awesome alien powers and is able to take the family baggage without an OD of angst.
5) Highwayman Dew is still delightful to me.
