Thud! Oh, no. This is the last chapter. (I have so looked forward to every new posting of this and sad there won’t be another for a while.) You realize you shouldn’t stop here. Although, I must congratulate your good judgment and taste at choosing this as a logical breaking-off point before deciding where to go next. I surely hope that your engagement with the character of Vaysh will force you to write more.
This is a difficult and interesting chapter to write and read. You stick very close to canon but explode the reader’s understanding of Vaysh (and Pellaz as well) by writing it from the different POV. The thing I think I love the most about what you have done with this story is that Vaysh is written as a survivor and not just a nutcase, which would be a trap that would be so easy to fall into. His grief and broken heart are so well developed without turning the story into an unmitigated (and, therefore, not very sympathetic) angst fest. The description of his first encounter with Ashmael is heartbreaking (the physical description of how he sees Ashmael in particular). Yet you make me believe that Vaysh has a backbone. Would love to see his impressions and commentary on continuing parts of the story. The account of his taking aruna with Pellaz is lovely, because you write it as not just a drunken accident or semi-non-consensual. Once again you avoid the usual fanfic pitfalls when faced with this type of a plotline and give us a character we can care about and not just a sorry mess.
P.S. Forgive me again for continuing to correct typos.
no subject
This is a difficult and interesting chapter to write and read. You stick very close to canon but explode the reader’s understanding of Vaysh (and Pellaz as well) by writing it from the different POV. The thing I think I love the most about what you have done with this story is that Vaysh is written as a survivor and not just a nutcase, which would be a trap that would be so easy to fall into. His grief and broken heart are so well developed without turning the story into an unmitigated (and, therefore, not very sympathetic) angst fest. The description of his first encounter with Ashmael is heartbreaking (the physical description of how he sees Ashmael in particular). Yet you make me believe that Vaysh has a backbone. Would love to see his impressions and commentary on continuing parts of the story. The account of his taking aruna with Pellaz is lovely, because you write it as not just a drunken accident or semi-non-consensual. Once again you avoid the usual fanfic pitfalls when faced with this type of a plotline and give us a character we can care about and not just a sorry mess.
P.S. Forgive me again for continuing to correct typos.