Rarelywritten, With Union-Alliance Meta

[sprocket]

Oh right, rarelywritten doesn't have an anon period.

For rarelywritten I received ASTRID FIC. Astrid is so often a supporting character in Fringe canon and fanfic I am always thrilled when she gets the spotlight. kerithwyn delivered, writing the first chapter of "The Secret Life of Astrid Farnsworth", covering Astrid's experiences during the Fringe pilot. I'm still thinking about the title: on the one hand, her work life is a secret from the rest of her life. On the other hand, her personal life is something that very rarely is touched on in canon, so in some senses that's the "secret" life. Either way, I'm pleased to see this fic in the world, and excited to see what kerithwyn does with upcoming chapters (and would be happy to beta, cough).

I got minutia_r's request for Elene Quen, with a request for OT3.

After hemming and hawing and tearing up several drafts, including the thing which kicked off with three plot arcs and four named OCs in the first thousand words, I wrote OT3. "2379" is 1,900 words Damon/Elene/Josh setup, because I have all these feelings and meta on this topic.

In Cherryh's novels there is this recurring character triad. Character A has a romantic connection with Character B, who is in a kin relationship with Character C, who has a deep platonic (usually) relationship with A. All legs of these relationships have the intense emotional connections that fandom often translates into shippiness. Brotherhood is a really loaded concept in the Union-Alliance novels.

This characterization trio isn't present in all of Cherryh's fiction (1), but it's such an unusual and consistent dynamic it's notable. Unfortunately it's vanishingly rare for this to spill over into functional, healthy OT3 (2), which has stopped fandom, oh, never.

Happily, Damon, Elene and Josh fit this pattern really well. Elene and Damon have a superficially straightforward "boy meets girl" relationship, complicated by the cultural differences between People Who Stay In One Place and People Who Are Not Your Angel In The Home, Thanks Much. I could make an argument that Damon is the girl in this relationship, because Damon is also the person who insists they talk through their difficulties and share their feelings. Meanwhile, basically the first time Damon and Josh meet, Damon has all these feelings about Josh, as a person and a representation of the events unfolding on Pell, and their relationship gets tighter from there as Damon keeps an eye on Josh during and after the Adjustment process, and then Josh saves Damon's life the day Angelo Konstantin is assassinated, and then Damon and Josh figure out how to be partners in surviving the Battle of Pell. Brotherhood: still a loaded concept! Canon closes the circle with that bit where Josh (a spacer) understands Elene's (spacer) jokes and Damon (a stationer) doesn't. It doesn't help that Damon spends the novel thinking, wow, Josh is really attractive. Okay, not in so many words, but the subtext is there if you'd like to use it.

It helps that Damon and Elene have an established, fairly healthy relationship through most of Downbelow Station, plus or minus being separated but still committed to each other during a big chunk of the novel. This almost never happens in the U-A 'verse: meeting someone with the intent of staying together and having kids is just not a big thing in these novels. Kids are a problem: the question of how to make a person is why Cyteen is a big fat epic.

My one regret is that I couldn't figure out how to pace the stories between 2352 and 2379 that get everyone from the end of the War to the end of Elene's (first?) period as Stationmaster. But see "three plot arcs and four named OCs".

(1) Off the top of my head: The Faded Sun trilogy, yes; Fortress series, yes; Heavy Time / Hellburner, no; Morgaine series, yes; Chanur series... no. Cyteen is tricky. Justin/Grant&Ari sort of fits, but Ari/Florian&Caitlin (or Caitlin/Florian&Ari) is at least as plausible an interpretation. But then, Cyteen is all about blurred identities and mirrors and variations, so it makes sense the relationships would also be doubled and blurred.

(2) "Healthy relationship", "Ari Emory", "Justin Warrick": pick two, and even that may be pushing your luck.

Fringe fans, if you're reading any of this and applying it to adventures in multiverse multi-timeline identity issues... yep. It's difficult to do a straight up Cherryh/Fringe crossover, because the timelines don't align well, but thematically, or as a fusion? The possibilities are terrifying awesome no actually they're terrifying, imagine Ari and Walter cutting deals between Reseune and Defense, and that one deal for Peter Bishop PR, or better yet don't.

Comments

[kerithwyn]

Thank you again. I'm polishing chapter 2 and well into chapter 3, so I might take you up on that offer. (I'm also planning to space these out with the intention of not posting a chapter until the following one is done, so...this pace might not last. :p)

[sprocket]

It's a big project! It would not be a surprise if there were some breaks. Hit me up when you're ready for beta and we can talk about what you'd like a beta read to focus on (canon compliance, plot holes, flow, SPAG, etc).

[raspberryhunter]

sprocket is the most awesome beta ever! :) My writing has gotten so much better since sprocket started betaing my stuff :)

[raspberryhunter]

So when are those three plot arcs between 2352 and 2379 going to get written?? I want them! :)

[sprocket]

I would not mind them either! :-) Check in after I draft "Fear Death By Water". YW voice and Union-Alliance voice aren't quite diametrically opposite, but they might be orthogonal.

(And Water might need another title, but it's such a good title for a Fringe/YW crossover. Hmmm.)