Fic Update: Sleep of the Just Finale
Jul. 19th, 2010 08:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mark_asphodel Well, I promised I'd focus on non-Archanea works, didn't I?
So, the third and final installment of "Sleep of the Just" is posted here. Anyway, one reviewer noted that the previous chapter didn't have a lot of conflict for Innes-- basically he pieced his head back together, got laid, got married, and overall did very well for himself. Things get a lot more sticky in this one.
So, Innes realizes in due time that something is going very wrong with the Gradan reconstruction effort. Cash-strapped Ephraim has resorted to some "creative financing" to keep his part of the continent afloat, and once Innes sends his agent down south to do some snooping around, he learns that the Gradan economy (and, by extension, the economy of Renais) is enmeshed in a giant pyramid scheme. Even Innes can't maneuver his way out of this mess, so he hangs back, chewing his nails and attempting to lay contingency plans for when the whole house of cards comes tumbling down. It's not a question of making Ephraim look bad any longer; Innes has spent his entire adult life establishing himself as the shadowy, sinister counterpart to bright shining Ephraim. So Innes steps up and fully takes on the role he's been practicing since the War of the Stones ended....
[Spoilers for the overall story below]
I hate it when Innes is presented as an insane murderer, someone who's aiming to kill Seth so he can score with Eirika or who's willing to kill Ephraim Just Because. I think he's a perfectly sane murderer, thank you very much. Deliberate and justified, at least by his own lights. As I said last chapter, I'm going off High Renaissance standards here, and what Innes does is all perfectly in keeping with what a monarch needs to do in order to protect his throne and his people. Ephraim himself is the untouchable hero, but he's developed a reverse Midas touch and things are turning to crap in his hands. So Innes... does what he has to do.
People are going to think I hate Ephraim's guts. Seriously, he has a 100% fatality rate in my stories. I won't touch a hair on Alm's oddly-colored head, but Ephraim kicks the bucket every time. Mind you, I deep-six Rennac in this one (rather, Innes deep-sixes him), so it's not like I abuse characters I don't love. I just don't feel the temptation to have a giant spider tear Alm to shreds. I don't think Alm is set up so high on a pedestal that he has a giant spider coming. It's more fun to take down a colossus than it is to abuse the underdog, and Alm very definitely has the feel of the underdog about him in spite of his successes (he's being USED, after all). I like Ephraim a lot, but he's there, and he makes an splendid obstacle in need of removal.
[My motivations for screwing with Marth come from someplace different than my desire to beat up on Ephraim. It's a lot more complicated.]
Anyway, I had fun with this for all that it took the better part of a year. And now I'm out of FE8 plotbunnies aside from a Forde-themed thing that I will probably never write.
So, the third and final installment of "Sleep of the Just" is posted here. Anyway, one reviewer noted that the previous chapter didn't have a lot of conflict for Innes-- basically he pieced his head back together, got laid, got married, and overall did very well for himself. Things get a lot more sticky in this one.
So, Innes realizes in due time that something is going very wrong with the Gradan reconstruction effort. Cash-strapped Ephraim has resorted to some "creative financing" to keep his part of the continent afloat, and once Innes sends his agent down south to do some snooping around, he learns that the Gradan economy (and, by extension, the economy of Renais) is enmeshed in a giant pyramid scheme. Even Innes can't maneuver his way out of this mess, so he hangs back, chewing his nails and attempting to lay contingency plans for when the whole house of cards comes tumbling down. It's not a question of making Ephraim look bad any longer; Innes has spent his entire adult life establishing himself as the shadowy, sinister counterpart to bright shining Ephraim. So Innes steps up and fully takes on the role he's been practicing since the War of the Stones ended....
[Spoilers for the overall story below]
I hate it when Innes is presented as an insane murderer, someone who's aiming to kill Seth so he can score with Eirika or who's willing to kill Ephraim Just Because. I think he's a perfectly sane murderer, thank you very much. Deliberate and justified, at least by his own lights. As I said last chapter, I'm going off High Renaissance standards here, and what Innes does is all perfectly in keeping with what a monarch needs to do in order to protect his throne and his people. Ephraim himself is the untouchable hero, but he's developed a reverse Midas touch and things are turning to crap in his hands. So Innes... does what he has to do.
People are going to think I hate Ephraim's guts. Seriously, he has a 100% fatality rate in my stories. I won't touch a hair on Alm's oddly-colored head, but Ephraim kicks the bucket every time. Mind you, I deep-six Rennac in this one (rather, Innes deep-sixes him), so it's not like I abuse characters I don't love. I just don't feel the temptation to have a giant spider tear Alm to shreds. I don't think Alm is set up so high on a pedestal that he has a giant spider coming. It's more fun to take down a colossus than it is to abuse the underdog, and Alm very definitely has the feel of the underdog about him in spite of his successes (he's being USED, after all). I like Ephraim a lot, but he's there, and he makes an splendid obstacle in need of removal.
[My motivations for screwing with Marth come from someplace different than my desire to beat up on Ephraim. It's a lot more complicated.]
Anyway, I had fun with this for all that it took the better part of a year. And now I'm out of FE8 plotbunnies aside from a Forde-themed thing that I will probably never write.
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 01:04 am (UTC)You and I both seem to enjoy putting Marth through Hell. I wonder why that is?
no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 03:36 am (UTC)And it gets tons of prompts at yonder kink meme, too
Gotta check that out. The last prompt I answered was so old the original anon must have lost interest. :(
But FE8 is a suitable world for s-e-x, for whatever reason. It seems to come more naturally with the territory.
Innes makes for a good target, too, but he generally deserves it, considering his personality, his actions, etc. In another life, he might have been The Hardin ™.
Or a Michalis (no Darksphere required!). I really like Innes and I don't think he's a bad person, but I think he has it in him to be terrifying under the right... or wrong... set of circumstances. I really don't like it when fans cheap-shot him. There's a hell of a lot to work with in Innes, you just have to be willing to look past the facade. Hell, that's what his supports with Gerik are about. And the Desert Tiger wouldn't voluntarily hang out with a crazed loser, would he?
You and I both seem to enjoy putting Marth through Hell. I wonder why that is?
Like I said, it's complicated. FE3!Marth just fills me with frustration... he just seems inadequate to the task before him, plus there's an obvious vulnerability to him that's there for the exploiting. But the thing that drives me up the wall is probably his halo of Moral Authority. I want to pick him apart and make him dirty. It's part of the same impulse that makes me do bad things to Ephraim, only Eph is set up as such a paragon of physical and martial prowess that I want to break that envy-inducing body.
As for FE11!Marth... defense mechanisms shot through with emotional fault lines. What a wonderful toy to play with! I am so looking forward to what FE12 will give us. Hopefully I will not be disappointed.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 10:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 08:37 pm (UTC)It's a pretty fluffy world. I think you'd have to harken back to Valencia to find something as engagingly fluffy.