I'm still blushing from your very kind comments. Thank you very much for your exceedingly generous words; I'm gratified that you took the time to read these in their entirety back to back. I'll admit to being a fan of the rarepair and of teasing out long stories from short sentences and perhaps obscure comments in canon, and I'm quite pleased that these stories worked for you as they did. Interestingly, Vaysh hadn't jumped off the page for me during my first inhaling reading of the first trilogy, but then I started reading some fanfic and wondered how he'd passed me by... then I wanted to write his and Ashmael's history as I'm drawn to angst and how real life is so often bittersweet. So I'm pleased that you seem to have intuited how difficult it was for me not to allow them a happy ending, or even a hope for any kind of relationship other than acquaintances who used to know each other well in another world, literally. I'll admit that I sank into Vaysh's character with more emotional investment (or maybe he just called me there!) and I really struggled with wondering how he'd cope, but as I'd been writing, and tried to convey this from Ashmael's first perception of him in M + M, is that Vaysh is an incredibly strong character. He deals with untenable situation after another, and he doesn't break. He cracks and is remade, but he never succumbs to ultimate grief. That, to me, was what I wished ultimately to convey in these two stories. But also, I admit, once I got into it and my original characters had totally jumped off the page, then I'd had Grand Hopes™ of putting them in other stories. Perhaps I still shall.
Thank you again for your exceedingly flattering and gracious comments. I'm thrilled that my stories swept you away for a little while! I've written a couple of other, shorter, and guilt-free roon-tastic fics (Vaysh never got to enjoy his selected rooning moments in DtWW; it about killed me!) as I quite enjoy writing slash erotica. I'll probably write a few more focusing a bit more on character development, but the rooning is fun for me to write, too. :)
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inhalingreading of the first trilogy, but then I started reading some fanfic and wondered how he'd passed me by... then I wanted to write his and Ashmael's history as I'm drawn to angst and how real life is so often bittersweet. So I'm pleased that you seem to have intuited how difficult it was for me not to allow them a happy ending, or even a hope for any kind of relationship other than acquaintances who used to know each other well in another world, literally. I'll admit that I sank into Vaysh's character with more emotional investment (or maybe he just called me there!) and I really struggled with wondering how he'd cope, but as I'd been writing, and tried to convey this from Ashmael's first perception of him in M + M, is that Vaysh is an incredibly strong character. He deals with untenable situation after another, and he doesn't break. He cracks and is remade, but he never succumbs to ultimate grief. That, to me, was what I wished ultimately to convey in these two stories. But also, I admit, once I got into it and my original characters had totally jumped off the page, then I'd had Grand Hopes™ of putting them in other stories. Perhaps I still shall.Thank you again for your exceedingly flattering and gracious comments. I'm thrilled that my stories swept you away for a little while! I've written a couple of other, shorter, and guilt-free roon-tastic fics (Vaysh never got to enjoy his selected rooning moments in DtWW; it about killed me!) as I quite enjoy writing slash erotica. I'll probably write a few more focusing a bit more on character development, but the rooning is fun for me to write, too. :)