persuasion
Dec. 14th, 2018 12:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7via https://ift.tt/2PCx1QP
So it was a busy day at work but it being online work, I was at my desk, and had a lot of those moments where I have to click a thing, wait for it to respond, then change a number, and wait for it to take, and then click another thing, so.
I read an ebook of Jane Austen’s Persuasion that I had checked out of my library using the Libby app, which I recommend to everyone. (it’s amazing how much reading you can get done with a Kindle just lying on your desk while you’re working on bullshit that doesn’t take much attention. I should do this more, but somehow I usually fritter it away on trying to write something, which, well, it’s harder.)
Yes, somehow I had made it through two different extremely competitive high schools and a bachelor’s degree in literature and also 39 years of life without ever having read Persuasion, and since I’ve only watched like ten movies in my life, I hadn’t seen any adaptations of it, but a while back somebody had a gifset from some movie-or-TV adaptation of it (i’m sorry, I don’t know which), and someone had commented that it would be really well-suited to the Raksura books, the way their colonies work with a whole court structure, etc., and I like, got it, but I didn’t get it get it, so I read it today and oh now I definitely get it get it.
So, I don’t have time to write it either, but. I’m going to self-indulgently and in too much detail outline it, since I won’t get to write it.
Of course Raksura have more than two genders really (though Wells only uses male and female pronouns, clearly there are at least three or four genders given their physical castes; she lightly touches on this in the short story Adaptation when Chime mysteriously changes from Arbora to Aeriat– his biological sex changes, from fertile Arbora male to infertile warrior male, as surely as his status in the court changes). But, roughly, as described in Persuasion, a consort is very much like a Regency-era noblewoman, in that their travel is highly circumscribed, and they’re very tied to their birthcourt.
I could see it being a good future story for Frost, actually– Frost would be Wentworth, in this. Her status would be uncertain, in Indigo Cloud, should Moon and Jade, and also Pearl and Ember, produce royal clutches of their own– and we do see Moon and Jade do so, in The Dark Earth Below, and clearly Pearl is working up to doing so with Ember– so while she remains the third-oldest queen in the entire court, she would by no means be guaranteed any particular place. Now, Indigo Cloud is a small enough court, and closely-enough knit (especially once Moon’s place is secure, and he is extremely protective of Frost and her brothers) that there’s no way she wouldn’t become a sister queen as soon as she was old enough– and yet, because of Moon, Indigo Cloud’s alliance to Opal Night makes them important all out of proportion to their actual size, so Frost would be pretty well sought-after, but–
it’s not that there’s no scandal or hint of insecurity in her past, especially from the perspective of someone not that familiar with Indigo Cloud’s inner workings, and one could project a story wherein she visited a distantly-allied court and was struck by a young consort there and took it upon herself to court him, and he was struck by her in return and responded favorably, but some protective older relative objected to the match (probably on the grounds that Frost was too young, too hot-headed, and not guaranteed any particular place within her court, being an adopted survivor instead of born there) and he was obliged to turn her down. And it’s easy enough to imagine how much this would wound the pride of any hot-blooded Raksuran queen, especially one as volatile as Frost. (I think much of her characterization is actually from the extras on Patreon, but she has been fleshed out quite a bit as a hot-headed but reasonably intelligent and amenable to reason young person who takes her role within the court as seriously as can be expected for one of her age. Her propensity for drama is more benign than Pearl’s, and born largely out of trauma.)
And so, turns pass, and perhaps she takes another consort, and our unnamed protagonist who plays the role of Anne in this adaptation resigns himself to his fate and turns away the few other queens who notice him, and then at some future juncture they are thrown into contact again. And Frost is older, fully-mature, maybe she has a clutch with this other consort she took in the meantime (ah, but remember, Raksura are poly; though, to smooth the story for the sensibilities of human readers, we could give that consort a story like Ember’s sire’s, where he was short-lived and taken mostly out of pity to keep his bloodline)– and she has an important place in her colony, perhaps she visits on important business, she is not much concerned with flirting or social nonsense, but is cool and competent and beautiful. And our protagonist has faded into the background of his colony, untaken and mostly useful for diplomacy, childcare, teaching the youngsters etiquette and such, seeing to interior matters of the colony, and much taken for granted by everyone.
She sees him, and he her, and each of them is awkward, cool, trying to be self-possessed and perhaps overcompensating. They avoid one another; he withdraws, various of the other, perhaps younger and prettier consorts of the court are eager enough to be noticed by her, and perhaps she notices them; Anne-the-consort is dutiful, pained, nobly-retiring, and manages to avoid ever being too close to her.
Perhaps some small calamity befalls, and they are forced into proximity to deal with it. (It could be something like a faction splitting off from a large court and going elsewhere to settle, and Anne-the-consort is among those left behind, but some larger drama is unfolding within the Reaches that Frost is involved in dealing with. I imagine that Indigo Cloud would remain unable to be uninvolved in ongoing drama, it’s not in their nature.)
And Frost catches his scent, and realizes he’s unmarked, untaken. It quite throws her out of what equanimity she’s managed to attain– and he notices her noticing it, and is in an agony of simultaneous embarrassment and excitement. Of course she had felt herself wronged, spurned, all those turns before, but to find that he clearly hadn’t just been waiting for a better offer– but surely, it is too late, he has lost his chance.
More plot happens, of course, and Frost is much in the company of others, especially one of the young pretty consorts. Somehow the plot contrives that another small calamity befalls, and said young pretty consort is injured, and Frost rescues him, and Anne-the-consort is helpful post-rescue but makes himself scarce to get out of the way– perhaps he has to go to the new split-off sister colony, and reluctantly makes his home there, among the wider-unfolding drama. And of course the small colony affords more prominence to him, and a queen is, perhaps, courting him now, and he is being encouraged to it by the same helpful older relative that, turns ago, put him off Frost. But he also reconnects with an old friend who now lives in the new colony, and is not well-placed there, and after some time he manages to coax the old friend into revealing some terrible history of the queen courting him, that she terribly mistreated another consort some time ago, that she has done some thing that has gone against the colony’s interests to improve her own standing, and the old friend has been kept ostracized by it in some obscure way.
Anne-the-consort sets his heart against this queen, but dares not speak out, dares not openly reject her, for it would be too rash and would upset the fragile colony. Into all of this, Frost comes, again, ostensibly on a visit to seek alliance, surely not to see Anne-the-consort, and yet, see him she does, always in fleeting little meetings, an agony of hope and a torment of interest, but no one can speak out. Frost least of all; she believes him to be interested in the rival queen’s suit, and does not want to upset the fragile balance of this delicate new colony.
Into the midst of this, I somehow want Moon to show up and be Admiral Croft, though probably it can’t be Moon and would have to be Ember– Ember, who actually understands court etiquette, and actually understands diplomacy, and wouldn’t just cause a huge fight. Ember, who understands and loves Frost, and is going to have to have been the one to teach her most of her manners, because Moon straight-up doesn’t know them.
And Ember is talking to Anne-the-consort in Frost’s hearing, as Frost is engaged in writing a letter for him, to help resolve the main plot issue, and Ember skillfully draws Anne-the-consort out in talking about the constancy of affection and the different ways of making a match, perhaps Ember is coyly arguing that all matches should be arranged, and Anne is arguing that sometimes it is better to remain forever unattached than to make an inferior match, which is precisely what Ember hoped to goad him into saying in Frost’s hearing. And– it’s a test of Frost’s temperament, or really a display, since Ember knows already how capable she is– she drops the pen, but picks it up, and keeps writing, and takes the letter with her but leaves one behind, and Anne-the-consort sees that it is addressed to him.
So we get to have the beautiful written confession, and Anne-the-consort must contrive some way to get to talk to Frost without the entire court overhearing, and there’s a bumbling but well-meaning relative intruding but of course an unattached consort can’t be left unchaperoned with an unrelated queen, and then something comes up and the well-meaning relative must dash off– but Frost, you know Anne, surely you can see him safely back to the other side of the colony, and Frost is of course solicitious– and then they finally get to have a frank conversation in private, and all is finally, finally resolved.
I can’t really believe I’ve spent quite this long summarizing this but it is very painful to me that I can’t actually devote the time to writing it, so. Here y’all go.
(For bonus excitement, some of the underlying drama is related to Consolation’s flight getting a tree of their own, and Frost is probably one of the people who dedicates herself to seeing that through, because Indigo Cloud is going to (not really reluctantly) be involved, and as a survivor of a Fell-destroyed colony, Frost is sort of unimpeachably invested, and much of her reputation has been gained in standing up to much older and more powerful queens who are being bigots about it and throwing her entire bloodline’s demise in their faces and asking why they get to be more upset about it than she is, and such. She’s gained a reputation for being both very brave and very steady, and surely Malachite has offered some example, if not tutelage, in how to be the stone-coldest of badasses at all turns. Frost has gone from uncertain nobody to being extremely well-respected. This could be an entire novel, and one that would be lovely to write, but I quite simply don’t have the time, I’m sorry y’all.)
(Your picture was not posted)
So it was a busy day at work but it being online work, I was at my desk, and had a lot of those moments where I have to click a thing, wait for it to respond, then change a number, and wait for it to take, and then click another thing, so.
I read an ebook of Jane Austen’s Persuasion that I had checked out of my library using the Libby app, which I recommend to everyone. (it’s amazing how much reading you can get done with a Kindle just lying on your desk while you’re working on bullshit that doesn’t take much attention. I should do this more, but somehow I usually fritter it away on trying to write something, which, well, it’s harder.)
Yes, somehow I had made it through two different extremely competitive high schools and a bachelor’s degree in literature and also 39 years of life without ever having read Persuasion, and since I’ve only watched like ten movies in my life, I hadn’t seen any adaptations of it, but a while back somebody had a gifset from some movie-or-TV adaptation of it (i’m sorry, I don’t know which), and someone had commented that it would be really well-suited to the Raksura books, the way their colonies work with a whole court structure, etc., and I like, got it, but I didn’t get it get it, so I read it today and oh now I definitely get it get it.
So, I don’t have time to write it either, but. I’m going to self-indulgently and in too much detail outline it, since I won’t get to write it.
Of course Raksura have more than two genders really (though Wells only uses male and female pronouns, clearly there are at least three or four genders given their physical castes; she lightly touches on this in the short story Adaptation when Chime mysteriously changes from Arbora to Aeriat– his biological sex changes, from fertile Arbora male to infertile warrior male, as surely as his status in the court changes). But, roughly, as described in Persuasion, a consort is very much like a Regency-era noblewoman, in that their travel is highly circumscribed, and they’re very tied to their birthcourt.
I could see it being a good future story for Frost, actually– Frost would be Wentworth, in this. Her status would be uncertain, in Indigo Cloud, should Moon and Jade, and also Pearl and Ember, produce royal clutches of their own– and we do see Moon and Jade do so, in The Dark Earth Below, and clearly Pearl is working up to doing so with Ember– so while she remains the third-oldest queen in the entire court, she would by no means be guaranteed any particular place. Now, Indigo Cloud is a small enough court, and closely-enough knit (especially once Moon’s place is secure, and he is extremely protective of Frost and her brothers) that there’s no way she wouldn’t become a sister queen as soon as she was old enough– and yet, because of Moon, Indigo Cloud’s alliance to Opal Night makes them important all out of proportion to their actual size, so Frost would be pretty well sought-after, but–
it’s not that there’s no scandal or hint of insecurity in her past, especially from the perspective of someone not that familiar with Indigo Cloud’s inner workings, and one could project a story wherein she visited a distantly-allied court and was struck by a young consort there and took it upon herself to court him, and he was struck by her in return and responded favorably, but some protective older relative objected to the match (probably on the grounds that Frost was too young, too hot-headed, and not guaranteed any particular place within her court, being an adopted survivor instead of born there) and he was obliged to turn her down. And it’s easy enough to imagine how much this would wound the pride of any hot-blooded Raksuran queen, especially one as volatile as Frost. (I think much of her characterization is actually from the extras on Patreon, but she has been fleshed out quite a bit as a hot-headed but reasonably intelligent and amenable to reason young person who takes her role within the court as seriously as can be expected for one of her age. Her propensity for drama is more benign than Pearl’s, and born largely out of trauma.)
And so, turns pass, and perhaps she takes another consort, and our unnamed protagonist who plays the role of Anne in this adaptation resigns himself to his fate and turns away the few other queens who notice him, and then at some future juncture they are thrown into contact again. And Frost is older, fully-mature, maybe she has a clutch with this other consort she took in the meantime (ah, but remember, Raksura are poly; though, to smooth the story for the sensibilities of human readers, we could give that consort a story like Ember’s sire’s, where he was short-lived and taken mostly out of pity to keep his bloodline)– and she has an important place in her colony, perhaps she visits on important business, she is not much concerned with flirting or social nonsense, but is cool and competent and beautiful. And our protagonist has faded into the background of his colony, untaken and mostly useful for diplomacy, childcare, teaching the youngsters etiquette and such, seeing to interior matters of the colony, and much taken for granted by everyone.
She sees him, and he her, and each of them is awkward, cool, trying to be self-possessed and perhaps overcompensating. They avoid one another; he withdraws, various of the other, perhaps younger and prettier consorts of the court are eager enough to be noticed by her, and perhaps she notices them; Anne-the-consort is dutiful, pained, nobly-retiring, and manages to avoid ever being too close to her.
Perhaps some small calamity befalls, and they are forced into proximity to deal with it. (It could be something like a faction splitting off from a large court and going elsewhere to settle, and Anne-the-consort is among those left behind, but some larger drama is unfolding within the Reaches that Frost is involved in dealing with. I imagine that Indigo Cloud would remain unable to be uninvolved in ongoing drama, it’s not in their nature.)
And Frost catches his scent, and realizes he’s unmarked, untaken. It quite throws her out of what equanimity she’s managed to attain– and he notices her noticing it, and is in an agony of simultaneous embarrassment and excitement. Of course she had felt herself wronged, spurned, all those turns before, but to find that he clearly hadn’t just been waiting for a better offer– but surely, it is too late, he has lost his chance.
More plot happens, of course, and Frost is much in the company of others, especially one of the young pretty consorts. Somehow the plot contrives that another small calamity befalls, and said young pretty consort is injured, and Frost rescues him, and Anne-the-consort is helpful post-rescue but makes himself scarce to get out of the way– perhaps he has to go to the new split-off sister colony, and reluctantly makes his home there, among the wider-unfolding drama. And of course the small colony affords more prominence to him, and a queen is, perhaps, courting him now, and he is being encouraged to it by the same helpful older relative that, turns ago, put him off Frost. But he also reconnects with an old friend who now lives in the new colony, and is not well-placed there, and after some time he manages to coax the old friend into revealing some terrible history of the queen courting him, that she terribly mistreated another consort some time ago, that she has done some thing that has gone against the colony’s interests to improve her own standing, and the old friend has been kept ostracized by it in some obscure way.
Anne-the-consort sets his heart against this queen, but dares not speak out, dares not openly reject her, for it would be too rash and would upset the fragile colony. Into all of this, Frost comes, again, ostensibly on a visit to seek alliance, surely not to see Anne-the-consort, and yet, see him she does, always in fleeting little meetings, an agony of hope and a torment of interest, but no one can speak out. Frost least of all; she believes him to be interested in the rival queen’s suit, and does not want to upset the fragile balance of this delicate new colony.
Into the midst of this, I somehow want Moon to show up and be Admiral Croft, though probably it can’t be Moon and would have to be Ember– Ember, who actually understands court etiquette, and actually understands diplomacy, and wouldn’t just cause a huge fight. Ember, who understands and loves Frost, and is going to have to have been the one to teach her most of her manners, because Moon straight-up doesn’t know them.
And Ember is talking to Anne-the-consort in Frost’s hearing, as Frost is engaged in writing a letter for him, to help resolve the main plot issue, and Ember skillfully draws Anne-the-consort out in talking about the constancy of affection and the different ways of making a match, perhaps Ember is coyly arguing that all matches should be arranged, and Anne is arguing that sometimes it is better to remain forever unattached than to make an inferior match, which is precisely what Ember hoped to goad him into saying in Frost’s hearing. And– it’s a test of Frost’s temperament, or really a display, since Ember knows already how capable she is– she drops the pen, but picks it up, and keeps writing, and takes the letter with her but leaves one behind, and Anne-the-consort sees that it is addressed to him.
So we get to have the beautiful written confession, and Anne-the-consort must contrive some way to get to talk to Frost without the entire court overhearing, and there’s a bumbling but well-meaning relative intruding but of course an unattached consort can’t be left unchaperoned with an unrelated queen, and then something comes up and the well-meaning relative must dash off– but Frost, you know Anne, surely you can see him safely back to the other side of the colony, and Frost is of course solicitious– and then they finally get to have a frank conversation in private, and all is finally, finally resolved.
I can’t really believe I’ve spent quite this long summarizing this but it is very painful to me that I can’t actually devote the time to writing it, so. Here y’all go.
(For bonus excitement, some of the underlying drama is related to Consolation’s flight getting a tree of their own, and Frost is probably one of the people who dedicates herself to seeing that through, because Indigo Cloud is going to (not really reluctantly) be involved, and as a survivor of a Fell-destroyed colony, Frost is sort of unimpeachably invested, and much of her reputation has been gained in standing up to much older and more powerful queens who are being bigots about it and throwing her entire bloodline’s demise in their faces and asking why they get to be more upset about it than she is, and such. She’s gained a reputation for being both very brave and very steady, and surely Malachite has offered some example, if not tutelage, in how to be the stone-coldest of badasses at all turns. Frost has gone from uncertain nobody to being extremely well-respected. This could be an entire novel, and one that would be lovely to write, but I quite simply don’t have the time, I’m sorry y’all.)
(Your picture was not posted)
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Date: 2018-12-14 01:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-14 08:28 pm (UTC)