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mark_asphodel So, according to this guy on Serenes Forest, if you go to Fire Emblem World and enter data on the MyUnit creation page, you can get this wallpaper of Catria. I dunno why MyUnit creation = sexy Catria pix and I maybe don't want to know the logic behind it, but it's already on MY desktop. Shoot, this is the first official full-body art of Cat since the card game stopped, isn't it?
Now, for 'fic.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
samuraiter , this one is for you. I'll remove the dedication if you don't like the shout-out, but your line of thinking definitely inspired this one.
Anyway, while I've been utterly stalled out on continuing any "serious" stories for Archanea thanks to FE12 and its overall wtf-ery, a little while ago I did embark on an appropriately wtf 'fic project, the first installations of which can be found here and here. I figured that, since I objected to a lot of the frothiness of FE12 (especially since most of the bleak character endings are totally unchanged), I would try to appease the 'fic demons with something appropriately frothy. Soapy. Soap-opera-y.
And this turns out to be the portentously titled "Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal," in which Lena has visions, Melissa pops back out of obscurity, and Michalis decides to take advantage of some dangling plot threads by tying them up to his satisfaction. It's crack and it's weird, but it's kind of fun to write. I've never explored Lena before, so writing her is different for me; she has a great and complex backstory but I've never had the compulsion to deal with her much until now. Melissa is... Melissa, and Michalis is a scheming, self-centered, but not completely heartless bastard, and Caeda turns up in Chapter Four in full-on politician mode. No, Chapter Four isn't out yet. I dunno when it will be as I appear to have closed without saving at some point and lost big chunks of the text. :/
The Prologue, from Lena's point of view, takes place at a hypothetical victory celebration in the Macedonian capital, right after the final defeat of Medeus and the rescue of the four priestesses. Basically, Michalis invited everyone home to party, in part to demonstrate his own wonderful generosity and to establish to everyone that hey, it's his country again. Lena's experiencing weird visual issues (she appears to be seeing auras, and might possibly be viewing a little outside the visual spectrum, like infrared rays) and is having a hard time convincing herself that this party featuring all these people who factored into her life at some point (Michalis, Melissa, guys from the Sable Order, comrades from War of Darkness) is even real. But it feels real enough when Melissa up and disappears in the middle of the night, leaving only a letter whose contents Lena isn't allowed to read...
Things pick up two years later, when King Michalis is making a full progress of Macedon to let his subjects know that he's alive and in charge. He and his knights come across a seemingly abandoned logging village, which turns out to be occupied by one runaway cleric. Michalis decides that he has a golden opportunity to make Lena indebted to him-- and to settle some other scores in the process-- and decides to take Melissa along for the ride. This chapter title, "The Girl in the Forest," is kind of poking fun at the meeting of Sigurd and Diadora, except Michalis ain't Sigurd and Melissa sure ain't Diadora.
This is actually a prequel to one of my other 'fics. See if you can figure out which one (it'll be clear by Chapter Eight... whenever that comes out).
Now, for 'fic.
samuraiter , this one is for you. I'll remove the dedication if you don't like the shout-out, but your line of thinking definitely inspired this one.Anyway, while I've been utterly stalled out on continuing any "serious" stories for Archanea thanks to FE12 and its overall wtf-ery, a little while ago I did embark on an appropriately wtf 'fic project, the first installations of which can be found here and here. I figured that, since I objected to a lot of the frothiness of FE12 (especially since most of the bleak character endings are totally unchanged), I would try to appease the 'fic demons with something appropriately frothy. Soapy. Soap-opera-y.
And this turns out to be the portentously titled "Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal," in which Lena has visions, Melissa pops back out of obscurity, and Michalis decides to take advantage of some dangling plot threads by tying them up to his satisfaction. It's crack and it's weird, but it's kind of fun to write. I've never explored Lena before, so writing her is different for me; she has a great and complex backstory but I've never had the compulsion to deal with her much until now. Melissa is... Melissa, and Michalis is a scheming, self-centered, but not completely heartless bastard, and Caeda turns up in Chapter Four in full-on politician mode. No, Chapter Four isn't out yet. I dunno when it will be as I appear to have closed without saving at some point and lost big chunks of the text. :/
The Prologue, from Lena's point of view, takes place at a hypothetical victory celebration in the Macedonian capital, right after the final defeat of Medeus and the rescue of the four priestesses. Basically, Michalis invited everyone home to party, in part to demonstrate his own wonderful generosity and to establish to everyone that hey, it's his country again. Lena's experiencing weird visual issues (she appears to be seeing auras, and might possibly be viewing a little outside the visual spectrum, like infrared rays) and is having a hard time convincing herself that this party featuring all these people who factored into her life at some point (Michalis, Melissa, guys from the Sable Order, comrades from War of Darkness) is even real. But it feels real enough when Melissa up and disappears in the middle of the night, leaving only a letter whose contents Lena isn't allowed to read...
Things pick up two years later, when King Michalis is making a full progress of Macedon to let his subjects know that he's alive and in charge. He and his knights come across a seemingly abandoned logging village, which turns out to be occupied by one runaway cleric. Michalis decides that he has a golden opportunity to make Lena indebted to him-- and to settle some other scores in the process-- and decides to take Melissa along for the ride. This chapter title, "The Girl in the Forest," is kind of poking fun at the meeting of Sigurd and Diadora, except Michalis ain't Sigurd and Melissa sure ain't Diadora.
This is actually a prequel to one of my other 'fics. See if you can figure out which one (it'll be clear by Chapter Eight... whenever that comes out).
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no subject
Date: 2010-09-19 08:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-19 06:36 pm (UTC)I've tried stuff like this a couple of time-- extended doses of crack written in a semi-serious manner-- but this is the first one I've bothered to post. I just kind of figure "why the hell not?"
Also I like the scenes with Caeda in them.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-19 08:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-19 11:16 pm (UTC)As for your line of thinking... your openness to stretching and flexing canon played a large part in my inspiration to write this one.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-20 12:58 am (UTC)*chuckles* Hey, if my demented approach to canon opens things up for another writer, I am all for it. :-) Glad that it was of use.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-20 12:39 am (UTC)And I like my current wallpaper more. :PI'll try to get a proper review for this fic up by tomorrow hopefully. I don't have the brain power for it tonight. :P Maybe tonight if I can pull my thoughts together some.
I definitely don't see Michalis/Melissa ending well, but it'll be interesting to read. I suppose that I'll find out as the story progresses. And Politician!Caeda makes me happy, but, to be fair, any depiction of Caeda that doesn't rip her character to pieces makes me happy.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-20 01:21 am (UTC)C'mon, this is one of my stories. How many of them end well? ;)