...The Turn-out Of This Poll Surprised Me. I Did Not Realize That I'd Get This Much Interest, So Thank

...The turn-out of this poll surprised me. I did not realize that I'd get this much interest, so thank you for voting everyone. It seems we have a nearly unanimous consensus. Thus...

I will let Rafal degrade himself in the name of the greater "Good."

(Assuming I end up finishing the draft. It's something under 3,000 words at this point.)

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In fact, I've made some interesting observations about my fics, regarding word counts:

The complete AU premise took > 10,000 words.

A happier resolution to canon took about 4,000 words, to "fix" things.

Yet, breaking things seems to require fewer words, which appears to have some semblance of coherent logic to it, in my mind. As people say: "It takes years to build up trust and only seconds to destroy it."

So, as a general trend, fratricides seem to take over 3,000 words.

(Actually, I remember "THE ONE AND HIS BROTHER" taking more thought than the fratricide fics did to write. I had to think of all the loose ends I wanted to tie up.)

Lastly, the experimental, singular-concept or character-study type of fics seem to be the shortest of them all. (And, if I finish my WIPs, there will be more strange alternate ending or "concept" fics in the future, like my "pirate" Rafal draft, for instance.)

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Also, if anyone ever wants to send in fic-related asks, I'd gladly answer them!

Look, I know this is practically the antithesis of Rafal's character (with his whole "pirates are pests and subpar villain material" ideas and pirates being the opposite of his "orderly civilization" line of thought) but...

If I haven't convinced anyone based on premise alone, here's a drafted excerpt for the heck of it:

The iron stench of blood clung thick in the air, clung to Rafal’s new garments.

Craning his neck upwards at the barque, Rhian could’ve sworn his brother’s clothes smelt of blood, but he couldn’t see a trace of blood on him. Just, streaks of—blue—a strange, deep, sapphire blue on his clothes, tinging the edges of his hair, a spray of an inky substance speckling his jawline and the side of his face, and smears of blue on the… Night Crawlers assembled behind him.

And by the Storian’s grace, were those real Night Crawlers? He’d never seen them outside of storybooks. It was like Rafal had dredged himself out of a storybook, out of the deep undersea, like a myth among myths.

Rhian would have concluded it was blood, but it couldn’t be, could it?

Thoughts?

You look SO COOL, Rafal! But can you live up to that incredible outfit, or are you still a stick-in-the-mud?

was this an excuse to draw rafal in a cool outift? yes. will i make this a series? great question. might do a poll

Trial run prompt thing: Does anyone get what I mean (in the way that I'm describing it or similarly) or does this sound strange?

It's nice to see someone articulate this actually, hence the fact that is is a reblog, of course.

(The thoughts of substance are in the tags, this time.)

does anyone feel the layer of plexiglass between themselves and the rest of the world or is that just a me thing

This was inspired by other dialogue I've seen, so the concept isn't entirely original. Also, as a warning: this contains mentions of sex.

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Texting in a Modern AU:

Aladdin: What's your body count?

James: ??

Midas: 0? How should I interpret the question?

Rafal: Hold on. Let me think.

Aladdin: Betcha it's 0. lol

Rafal: ...I've lost count.

Rafal: Although, I never cared enough to know all their names to begin with.

Aladdin: Wow. That's a lot of chicks.

Rafal: Most of them were mortal men.

James: They WERE? 😳

Rafal: I wouldn't endanger my own Stymphs' broods.

Aladdin: Endanger? Wait, what? Are you a sadist?

Rafal: Yes. I thought everyone knew.

Midas: 😬

Midas: Oh. Wait. Nevermind. I think I know where this is going...

Rafal: Why would you think it was Stymphs though?

Aladdin: Man, I really didn't think YOU of all people were a sex fiend. You don't need to feel ashamed for sleeping with a lotta people tho. Most guys would be impressed.

Rafal: What do you mean "sex"? I thought we were discussing murder.

Midas: Yep. Called it.

Midas: That tracks.

James: Ditto. :/

CONSIDER: Shadows and Light

The Symbolism Surrounding Rhian, Rafal, and the Pan

Fun fact: Under certain conditions, a flame will not cast a shadow.

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As we saw in Rise, Rhian could turn into a golden glow, turn into light, his non-human form, just as Rafal could turn into a shadow.

And those facts bring me to how the Pan subplot and the brothers' main plot might parallel each other more than we may think.

That Hook had to kill the Pan’s shadow was probably no accident. It likely couldn't have been a coincidence—it has to be a casual quality of the magic system in SGE and Peter Pan lore in general, no doubt.

So, we have: killing the shadow (the Pan's or symbolically, Rafal himself).

Rhian killed the shadow to his light.

And besides, an excess of light eradicates all shadows, and fire, specifically, can cast very distorted shadows because it's always in motion, and therefore, it's restless. This could mean fire as a light source could affect the shadow's "power," its appearance, just as Rhian, like a fairy-tale Nemesis (perhaps?), might have weakened Rafal as Rhian became stronger, and that Rhian had been a force that changed or warped Rafal as a person, while also becoming colder himself. Meanwhile, Rafal's hair curled slightly and he gained more color and warmth to his complexion towards the climax of their tale.

I wonder if, in getting his magic back from Hook when it was released, Rhian had been further corrupted or overpowered enough, to overpower Rafal (while, all the while, the Storian had been stripping Rafal of the magic he held) because it didn’t dissipate by itself, with the loss of his immortality(?). Hook could have been acting like a temporary storage unit for that magic, until it returned, meaning the Storian may not have been able to rescind it from Rhian directly.

(And did Kyma release Rhian's magic when it was transferred to her? Or did it just disappear/dissolve without returning to its owner?)

Then, we can ask ourselves: what was the only move that could kill Pan? Somehow, magically killing his shadow. His life source. The apparent source of his immortality.

And, Rhian killing the source of his former immortality (his brother, and as a result, their bond along with Rafal's death)? Well, that’s killing a shadow, too.

Thus, the two plots line up exactly.

Rafal was once Rhian's shadow, in a sense, the person who stayed by him, who saved him again and again. Thus, Rhian destroyed himself, to an extent, by killing that shadow. He not only killed his life source, the love that kept him alive, by severing the twins' bond, but lost a part of his identity when he killed Rafal. Thus, he ages. Like the Pan as he died, Rhian was no longer a perpetual youth, no longer a young "lost boy."

And sometimes, Rhian's shadow strayed too far and left him (Rafal deserting the School at the start), just as Pan’s shadow isn’t always right by the Pan himself. The Pan's shadow had a life and will of its own, seemingly, like Rafal did.

Rafal getting his own life, by venturing out, beyond the School, was one step away from having his identity always tied to Rhian. Maybe, just maybe, Rafal wasn't inseparable, inconceivable without Rhian (the light source), his other half. But, Rafal always did revolve around Rhian (when Rafal had his few, less selfish moments). Because, he simply can’t be brought up or thought of alone, at least not in the tales, in their world. One brother's presence always summons the other's to mind, when you talk about them. That’s how locked together, how insoluble their combined identity was, or plural roles were. The shadow was tethered to his object. They can’t be torn apart, not even in memory, which makes the nature of the tales themselves all the more reductive, dehumanizing, even.

Absolutely fabulous observations, OP! What a gut punch!

Despite Rhian being both Evelyn and Rafal’s favorite, Japeth is actually the one who’s most like them.

He killed his brother and then stole his identity, all to raise his lover from the dead, a lover who never loved him at all.

They loved Rhian because he was what they wanted to be. Good.

They hated Japeth because he was what they were. Evil.