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Round VI Excerpt from The One True School Master of Vault 41
I just think this one is funny and luckily, it's non-spoilery.
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Immediately, Agatha began to sift through memories in the name of espionage. As she flicked through the black crystals, she was only mildly surprised by what she saw:
Happy, blond man.
Stymphs.
The same blond man but distressed.
Smug, blond man.
Pirate.
Blushing, blond man.
Pirate.
Vampires?
Pirate.
Glass castle.
Blushing, blond man.
An enormous taxidermied bat?
Pirate.
Blood spatters in his field of vision and a brief darkness.
Man-Wolf.
Students being tortured.
Stymphs.
Moat.
Torture.
Torture—again?
Torture.
Agatha rolled her eyes.
Torture.
Torture.
Anxious, blond man.
Sobbing, blond man on the shoreside.
Torture.
Torture.
Torture.
Torture.
Evelyn.
Torture.
Stymphs.
Sophie.
Dead, red butterflies.
Sophie.
The Old Villains.
Sophie.
Sophie.
Sophie.
Sophie.
Torture.
Brig.
Sophie in a crown.
Blood again.
Sophie.
A whirlwind of ashes.
Flashes of golden hair. Sophie?
Well... this had been fruitless.
A Little, Non-Spoilery Ranking of Who Suffers the Most in TOTSMOV41:
1. Rafal
2. Agatha/Japeth (Not sure yet who has it worse.)
3. Tedros
4. Sophie (Her suffering is… how shall I put it? Less material and more psychological in nature.)
As usual, this may be subject to change as I get further in the writing process. Rhian is not on the list because his guest appearances (more like cameos) are too minor too count. If he were on the list, he'd probably tie with Agatha and Japeth.
TOTSMOV41 Word Ask Game
If anyone's interested—send me some random words through my asks, and if I've used the word(s), you will receive at least one line from the draft containing those word(s).
With certain words, I may not be able to answer, if there are spoilers involved.
And, other asks about the fic are always welcome! (Although I may not answer them, if there are spoilers involved.)
MASTERPOST for The One True School Master of Vault 41
This is a continually updating table of contents to help with navigating my posts about TOTSMOV41, my WIP longfic.
The fic's premise: Sophie joins forces with a resurrected, former lover in the midst of trying to get Tedros back onto Camelot's throne, but that's not even half the uphill battle: rogue psyches and distrust abound and threaten to shatter the present state of the Woods as everyone knows it.
or
In which Rafal is resurrected during the events of One True King and things go horribly, disproportionately wrong!
Also, the fic will not be published for a very long time, so don't expect to see it anytime soon. I'm still on draft zero/the outline/script.
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—Table of Contents—[Pre-Publication of Fic]
1. Title reveal and associated music
2. Round I of Excerpts
3. Apparently, the tag "otk" is banned from tumblr.
4. The misleading trope hint
5. Round II Excerpt
6. Visual ref. 1
7. Facts about the fic
8. Reblog #1
9. Aesthetic for one of the first scenes (and flower trivia in the comments)
10. A Peek at My Outline Process
11. Reblog #2, dialogue, and reference to suicide
12. Round III of Excerpts
13. Sketch - Rafal got punched in the face.
14. Screenshots of my Pinterest board for the fic
15. Update, more facts about the fic, and its references to philosophic concepts
16. Round IV Excerpt
17. Cover Reveal
18. Reblog #3
19. Reblog #4
20. Reblog #5
21. Hypothetical Non-Excerpt
22. The Recurring Japeth Punchline
23. Reblog #6
24. Reblog #7
25. Three "Fun" (Incongruous) Facts
26. Thanatos drive reference mentioned
27. Reblog #8
28. Reblog #9
29. Reblog #10
30. Ask containing minor fic trivia
31. Update and Round V of Excerpts
32. Which wizard is this? (a.k.a. The Tedros Insanity Poll)
33. Reblog #11
34. Reblog #12
35. Reblog #13 and Fic Tags
36. Round VI Excerpt
37. The Suffering Scale
38. Word Ask Game
39. Word Ask #1
40. Word Ask #2
41. Word Ask #3
42. Results of the Tedros Poll
43. Round VII of Excerpts
44. Guess the Last Verb/Noun
45. Minor Spoilers
46. Reblog #14
47. Reblog #15
48. Reblog #16
49. Visual ref. 2
50. Reblog #17
51. Slightly Cursed Thought?
52. Aesthetic
53. Round VIII of Excerpts
54. Scrapped Hypothetical Scene
55. Reblog #18
56. Visual ref. 3
57. Reblog #19
58. Reblog #20
59. Deliberate or Not Deliberate?
60. Update and Another Ask Game
61. Page Number Ask #1
62. Page Number Ask #2
63. Visual ref. 4
64. Visual ref. 5
65. Reblog #21
66. Reblog #22
67. Reblog #23
68. Reblog #24
69. Reblog #25
70. Verbing Nouns
71. Reblog #26
72. Reblog #27
73. A Little News
—The Story— [Links TBA after publication.]
Part I: Of Solipsism, Sophistry, and Storians.
Part II: Great Mistake II, Great Mistake III, and Verisimilitude
Part III: Phantoms, Prescience, and the Pen
Deleted Scene
Meta post
Fic Analysis, Commentary & Trivia
Propaganda
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Need-to-Knows (a.k.a How I'm meddling with canon):
This fic will involve Rafal being resurrected, and lead up to an alternate continuity of plot events, all set during One True King. Thus, its title will be: The One True School Master of Vault 41. However, the title may or may not be a bit of a misnomer, so I might just end up subverting your expectations after all.
There will be a form of "psyche travel," or an approximation of time travel, using Dovey's crystal ball like in ACOT, the arson of a certain Wizard Tree to look forward to, and some offbeat, unprecedented action taken by the Storian. Of course, Agatha and Rafal will bicker a lot while Sophie plays the role of mediator. And, oh, Rafal will be tortured, slightly…
Additionally, there's a couple things to note about the premise and the changes I've made to canon, for context:
1. The fic will disregard Fall as canon, yet will acknowledge Rise.
2. There are several canon elements I'm not using. The Rafal is the fic is him from Rise, and also from TLEA. I decided to only acknowledge Rise but not Fall because I didn't want to work with the identity-swap twist. So Rafal is Rafal is Rafal in this case. I will draw from both his Rise characterization and his TLEA characterization.
3. Later in the fic, Rise Rhian only has minor appearances, and is present in Rafal's psyche, but he will not actually be a character until I write a possible sequel, if I ever do reach that point. So, you can assume Rhian was moderately Good to grey on the morality scale, and that Rafal was the one who ultimately committed the fratricide for the purposes of this fic.
4. I've decided not to acknowledge the OTK parentage twist. To clarify, Rafal will have no relation to Japeth, simply because it felt out of character for him to have children with a woman he seemed to loathe, even if it may have been less out of character for the canon Rhian falsely disguised as "Rafal." I personally thought it contradicted Rafal's characterization, so Japeth's placeholder father, who probably won't even be mentioned in the story, will be the Green Knight, to explain his magical prowess as the Snake.
Otherwise, for the most part, this fic is alternate continuity "canon," and diverges at some point during OTK.
I've tried to set the stage, eradicate confusion, and mediate potential disappointment as best as I could above, but if anyone would like me to demystify anything about the fic, my writing process, or ask anything else at all, feel free to send questions to me! Yet, I might not be able to answer everything, for various reasons, including limiting excessive spoilers, so please keep that in mind.
Shard
Agatha begrudgingly handed the crystal over to Rafal, and Sophie leaned forward to watch.
Like a doctor performing a check-up, he pressed his palm to it, as if he could sense something magically off about it due to his sorcerer’s blood.
The crystal throbbed and pulsed from within, like a calcified, living heart, the glass feeling more brittle and splintering away more by the minute. Small shards fell away from his hand to the floor and came away in his hand, as he peeled it back from the crystal’s surface. He gazed at its roiling innards—a haze of colors and refracted light and warped reflections of the three in it, and swept his hand across its surface, slick and glassy like a Wish Fish egg, or an all-seeing eye.
This is for your word game for TOTSMOV41! My word is "Snake".
An arrow whizzed by, and tore through the hem of her dress, causing it to fragment into dead, red butterflies that were crushed underfoot.
“That Snake!” Sophie screeched, puffing from the exertion of running in heels. “If he keeps this up, I won't have much of a dress left!”
Both Agatha and Rafal reddened for vastly different reasons.
Glass
"This is my class now." From the center, Rafal blasted everyone back to the walls of the rotunda.
The students’ faces contorted in rage, but he held them back with his magic as they struggled against their binds, class and professor alike bound to the walls with streaks of black magic.
He shot a petrification spell at Sheeks, and addressed the students, a few of which had gone glassy-eyed in numb terror.
Several other students glared at him, murderous and embittered.
"I'll take it gladly if you hate me. Magic follows emotion. Therefore, your hatred and fear will fuel your villainous purposes."
The venomous looks dropped off of some of the Nevers' faces as they took in his words, and Rafal grinned to himself, his eyes still watering profusely with unshed tears as he soldiered on through the scalding pain of his own punishment, and delivered the rest of his speech.
And the answer is:
RAFAL
If you selected "Japeth" or "Multiple of them," you receive partial credit!
Japeth causes blood loss that sends Tedros into a not-quite-lucid state, and Rafal is specifically responsible for the provocation that sets Tedros off.
Also, I was surprised by the spread of the responses. Did most people see "fowl" and immediately think "Rafal?"
If anyone wants to sate my curiosity, what was your reasoning for other choices/your thought process in general? I also had Tedros' head turn to be intentionally misleading, as if he were addressing two people instead of one—did anyone latch onto that?
Wizard Guessing Game
Somebody sent Tedros to the insane asylum (not literally) in TOTSMOV41. Guess who.
I'm sure you've all heard of: "Which witch is which?" Well, this is: Which wizard is this? Feel free to write out your reasoning. I'm curious.
Tedros’ head lolled to the side. “'Tis ungodly, my hears. Ears. Myne eyen hear. 's the Evil wizard, foul, foul." He laughed to himself as if he had witnessed a joke no one else was privy to. His head snapped to the other side sharply, his gaze unfocused. "No—foul fowl!” he burbled in a daze, approaching incoherence.
Round VII of Excerpts from The One True School Master of Vault 41
Someone has “revenge” on the brain. I thought the first excerpt might be funny and could stand on its own out of context. The actual context makes it funnier, in my opinion, but I unfortunately can’t spoil it because it involves possibly the most insane shock in the entire fic.
Admittedly, I’m slightly proud of myself for managing to not burst and to hold back on revealing the plot twists, particularly with major events #2, #3, and #4. Otherwise, there'd likely be zero surprises left.
Though, plot twist #1 is sort of foundational to the premise, so I gave it away! (Sophie is nominated for the position of School Master.)
Also, a strange observation about my own plot occurred to me: contrary to what I or others might think, the plot is actually quite simple. Or, at least, from my view at the moment, it is. I’d originally thought it was complicated, but no. Actually, it’s simple masquerading as complex because there are complications thrown into the story, like wrenches, via a few different elements/events. So, that’s something, I guess?
If I could summarize the plot in one sentence, it would be: three souls enter a crystal ball, and some of them emerged scathed, changed, or both at once.
That’s probably the easiest way to put it, without spoilers.
Anyway, here are the excerpts (from two entirely different sections of the fic):
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That was it. To say it irked her was to put it mildly.
Assuming they were both alive by the end of it, the first moment she got after all these crises were over with, she was taking him for a haircut, whether he liked it or not!
She would march him directly over to the finest salon she could find in the Woods, posthaste, like a prisoner if he resisted—all for the sake of a nice, neat trim.
So be it if it ended up botched. His Doom Room had done the same to her. So what did it matter?
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Rafal glared at Agatha as if to signal: don’t let on that you’re hurt.
“Why are you both limping?”
Agatha stole a quick glance at Rafal who found himself turning to stare intently at a Stymph on high.
He shook his head with the slightest motion. She couldn’t know what it had cost them, or she would intervene.
The movement caught Sophie’s eye, and she turned her attention to Agatha for the truth.
Agatha shrugged wordlessly.
Sophie narrowed her eyes. “Well, it certainly wasn’t bird-watching, that much I can gather.”
Agatha shuffled, and Rafal observed her shove one foot behind her other ankle, but in her gaping, oversized clumps, one sock slid down to reveal an inflamed, red welt.
Unfortunately, Sophie traced his sightline to Agatha's foot. “Agatha? What happened?”
I've had the last few lines of TOTSMOV41 in mind for a long time, so I thought that if anyone would like to humor me and play along:
I will give you a very minor spoiler that hints at something significant/symbolic if you squint at it, if you can guess the last verb of the fic.
If anyone can guess the last common noun (not a proper noun or a pronoun), then I will give a different minor spoiler.
If anyone comes close with their guesses, I'll still probably reveal both slightly spoilery things. This is really just an excuse to entertain myself with this game, (or alternatively, to shock you with?)
(And, unless anything changes massively, the lines will likely remain similar to their current iterations by the end of the writing process.)
Minor TOTSMOV41 Spoilers
This post references this post.
Spoiler #1: Someone, perhaps two someones, ought to land in hot water for this:
Kiko nearly dropped dead at the shock of Good’s shining spires terraforming, blackening, as if a sinister plague had spread from Evil, up its towers, across Dean Sophie’s breezeways and catwalks, creeping up the base of Good’s glass castle to its highest turrets, toxic, emerald green fog choking the atmosphere around the Schools, the Blue Forest drained of its signature hue, until… the rot receded, just as quickly as it had emerged.
“Praise the Storian!” she cried, relieved that her bare arms were absolutely featherless, thudding to the floor in a faint.
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Spoiler #2: There will be an unorthodox murder weapon that harkens back to the prequels. (It is not a letter opener.)
Slightly Cursed TOTSMOV41 Thought?
The other day, I had a horrible yet probably true thought about Rafal in TOTSMOV41. He technically punishes himself. Ok, yes, the Storian is responsible for the red-hot iron shoes, but it happens inside the crystal, which I failed to consider, and that means that Sophie, Agatha, and himself (their collective, error-prone memories) are the forces punishing him. It's unconscious on all their parts, but it just seemed weird enough to mention.
In my conceptualization of it, the crystal will work like an alternate reality of a kind, a reality but also a simulation or unreality, where true and false intersect because I'm trying to match the TCY themes and so, there are both real and false elements and real and "false" injuries.
But, I'm kind of at a loss as to whether this works. Seeing as I don't have a complete explanation, I don't think this will change in the final draft, but it's certainly a... feature.
Basically, I'm not sure how well this works because the version of Rafal in the fic is the one from TLEA who isn't supposed to have a guilty conscience, so why would he be punishing himself, even unconsciously? And really, I'll have to blame it on Sophie, Agatha, and Rafal's memory of the Storian itself, leaving a painful impression on them in some way or another because it would make less sense for Sophie, Agatha, and Rafal himself to be subconsciously punishing him.
This is kind of a knee-jerk reaction at my attempt to find a reason for everything I can possibly conceive of. It probably shouldn't be taken that seriously, and at the moment, it doesn't seem to be a plot hole?
Any reactions or ideas, anyone?
To amuse myself, I made another aesthetic based on TOTSMOV41, and I'll even drop a "fun" line because why not!
If all else failed, he would call down one of his own Stymphs to end him quickly.
There may two biers in this, but the fic will only have one. Corpse not included.
Round VIII of Excerpts from The One True School Master of Vault 41
I'm only dropping a few short snippets from the draft (currently at around 178 pages—I haven't been doing much with it lately since the last update) because they connect in a very incorrect, misleading way, which I find funny, even if I already know the context with the redacted parts. Sorry (or not sorry)! Things aren't what they appear to be, and that's all I can say for now.
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[When I re-read this part, it occurred to me that I had possibly written an unintentional but legitimate burn.]
[...]
Rafal stared at her in the mask. “What are you wearing that for?”
“I-I felt strange, looking in the mirror. And well, the mask makes me feel less like you…”
[...]
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Rafal had made up his mind. He would execute his plan, no matter the consequences.
[...]
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[...] Sophie really was timely. Or perhaps, she was watching him [...] The thought almost made him laugh.
[...]
"Death to the School Master!" He raised a fist, and led them to class.
"DEATH TO THE SCHOOL MASTER!" They chanted in unison.
All according to plan.
A Hypothetical TOTSMOV41 Scene I've Talked Myself out of Writing
There's a scene in the draft of TOTSMOV41 in which Tedros punches Rafal in the face while wearing heavy, wide band, royal rings (I did a little sketch of the results here), and I'm soo tempted to have Rafal's first, instinctual thought be: how ineffective. And I could have him mock Tedros for the punch in such a condescending way that he'd just be asking to be punched again at that point. The subtext would drip with: look at me and what a fine target my perfect jawline would be—
Rafal would be evaluating the effectiveness and the actual impact of the punch, as if Tedros were one of his ineffectual Never students, thinking to himself that brass knuckles would've been better than mere rings. Should restock those in Evil's arsenal. Hmm... as if he weren't just punched in the face. Like, how non-reactive would that be?! It would not be immediate rage, but he would be operating on autopilot, due to all the other terrible things the narrative had subjected him to by that point, like he's blatantly apathetic.
The whole thing could be an absolutely scathing review of Tedros' punch, which he just finds pitiful, running through his mind, and besides, this pain is nothing in comparison to everything else that's happened to him as of late, so the pain doesn't even really register, at first, and he has a high pain tolerance anyway and he hasn't had a decent night's sleep in weeks, so what?
Thus, he just. Defaults to Evil professor mode. He's going on about the wind-up or the velocity of the act, and everyone's staring at him like he's grown a second head, and then, partway through, he realizes. He's instructing his sworn, mortal enemy. He's literally giving this young idiot pointers!
The idea strikes me as funny because it poses the question: what if Rafal were in teacher mode at the time? Alas, the whole thing is just so unlikely that I think I'll have to scrap the idea.
Unless—he's in a disoriented and dazed enough state for this type of thought process to occur, which could very well be true, considering the previous, slightly horrific things that happened to him. And yet, I think he's the type to always be alert, to land on his feet, to hit the ground running, etc., which again, wouldn't work too well for his character, unfortunately. And, well, there's probably enough humor in that scene already (depending on how potential future readers will take it?) so nevermind.
I want to maintain the integrity of his characterization, but the comedy potential to be had here could be such fun to exploit (and he is sort of known for being under-responsive/unfazed)! So, instead of all this, which could potentially detrimentally slow down the pacing, Rafal will likely just get an awful, sardonic remark, as per usual. Ah well.
It could've been great otherwise, but this Rafal-lecturing-Tedros scene might not work for the greater purposes of the story. Rafal is probably too self-aware and not quite "absent-minded professor" enough, and this scene wouldn't have fit the tone, so that's why I'm scrapping the idea and posting it here instead. (If I can manage to have it both ways, with the sardonic comment and his lecture, I may put it in, but the current outline/draft as it is will likely not use this at all.)
If I were to address Rafal after part II of TOTSMOV41, I'd say: "Ok... that’s too much bathtub in one day for you, sir. Time to get out—"
Then again, there's something odd I'm trying to puzzle out: did he do that one Particular Spoilery Thing deliberately or not? Even I haven't decided yet and I can't quite decide, so I might leave it ambiguous. Basically, he comes across more sympathetically if The Thing is not deliberate, and he comes across as clever if The Thing is deliberate. This is a bit of a conundrum. And at the same time, The Thing is not from his pov at that time of the story, so it probably doesn't matter, knowing or not knowing. Ergo, whichever way the truth goes (and I suppose it could be both), Sophie and Agatha (in their povs) can think whatever they'd like, if either awards him the benefit of the doubt.
@discjude Ohh, so that's where that point came from, the book itself! Also, there’s a few things here I don’t remember, and when I started to draft this response, I didn't have my books with me, so I don't exactly have that good of an answer to everything right now. What was his talk with Sophie about?
Arpeth sounds far better! Don't know why the common name ended up being Jaric. "Warpath" evokes "path to war," which certainly describes Japeth's becoming the Snake well, so I've no notes and you get a standing ovation for the pun, even if it was unintentional.
Do you mean "happy," as in reunited with Aric's soul, by death? Or being freed of the burden of the throne? And could the Storian have fated Japeth to die because it was the easiest way out for him? Versus, a potentially lesser chance at a happy life?
Again, I don't remember the specifics of the F+B dialogue. What did Tedros-as-Aric say?
Against my better judgment, I think it'd be nice if the Storian had pitied him, but it feels unlikely.
Now, I wonder if the Pen specifically likes the blood of Mistrals because it impales the OG prequel Rafal twice, and has acquired a "taste" for it?
Random point: I think the irony of Agatha becoming Camelot's queen and Sophie not getting what she wanted was a great ending. The TSY ending fit practically all the characters (or at least Sophie) much better than did TCY ones. Sophie getting a supposed True Love in Hort went against all the earlier messaging, even if they could probably also qualify as Evil's love. (Honestly, I don't like Hort, but Aladdin is still the worse of the two, and sometimes, Hort has sympathetic moments.)
I think I've seen the flanderization, yeah. It seems to happen to a lot of love interests in general, even Tedros, who isn't actually an absolute idiot.
Which plot point? The reason why I hate Aladdin is because he caused the first quarrel between Rhian and Rafal (his removal from the plot = no conflict—at the same time, I want conflict, so it's a double-bind, having him or not), and his narration/thought process/actions just struck me as annoying. Also, yes! I was expecting some kind of ending for him, where he becomes the Sultan, probably an awful one, just because of the set-up about Pasha Dunes and Reena his granddaughter, but I wonder if this Aladdin is only an Aladdin with the same name as the main series one, like James Hook versus TLEA undead Hook?
Ooh, a Sader brother could've been interesting!
Yes! Thank you for the validation of "Evil can love"! (I intentionally decided to use Sophie and Agatha, platonically, because I think they're the example that would've been met with the least resistance since Sophie and Rafal could've had potentially insincere love, depending on interpretation, and Hester and Anadil were not exactly canon for a while.)
Yes, I thought it was either close to being canon or I've heard it often enough, that Aric was grappling with That Internalized Trait. (And even Tedros did, in resisting his attraction to Filip, so I think you're right. It must be common in their world.)
I think I can guess what the Rhian II theory is. Would you mind if I asked about it?
That's funny because the inverse happened to me with you! I saw Japeth as the Snake Guy from TCY, who's just another Evil sorcerer and Rafal's "copycat," but they're both nuanced characters in their own right. So, I can't complain. I was just delusional because I believed in Sophie and Agatha's povs thinking Japeth was Rafal when he was first introduced, and got a bit miffed that he wasn't. But I can't fairly or reasonably blame him for the imaginary "sin" of: Not Being Rafal. That'd be insane, haha. Also, I still love the QFG near-hanging scene inexplicably. That was one of Japeth's best moments, I thought, even if it later turned out to be staged for Rhian's good PR.
Oh. Good point. I do see it as sweet, from his side, if not Aric's. Happy Pride Month to you!
Oof, poor Japeth, if that's the case around the things to be "cured," in either sense. But, it's interesting nonetheless—the next time I read TCY, I'll have to look out for that belief in Rhian II. It could possibly explain his distancing himself from Kei, aside from the betrayal and Sophie's involvement.
I am really curious to see your take on Aric and Japeth's relationship. I mean, the beloved author and creator of the series have addressed this issue with 'in their own sick wicked way they had loved' so yeah it's cannon cool. But I feel like the further implications of this? We saw evil 'unable to love'/ 'only ever have true love'. From what I remember Japeth mentioned Aric more than once, how they would write letters to each other how Aric 'begged' for Japeth to come to him but Japeth never did so and then bro spent the last of his life trying to bring Aric back to life. There are so many implications, the dynamics, the context, everything, but I love how you theorise and explore all sorts of ideas so I can't help but wonder how you view all of this :D.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and have a great day/afternoon/evening/night!
Sorry to disappoint, but I should probably start off with the fact that I don't ship Japeth and Aric. While I like Japeth, partly in thanks to @discjude winning me over, and further recognizing the tragedy surrounding him, his relationship to Aric never canonically does him any favors. And, with Aric, I think I'm apathetic enough towards him that I don't actively hate him; I just don't care about him. In truth, if not for Aladdin's pitiful existence actively hammering on my nerves, Aric would probably be my least favorite character.
The first thing I want to address is that Evil being "unable to love" or "only Evers have True Love" is actually false, despite the many times the series puts forth this claim. Yes, we are explicitly told this "fact" in book 1, but the book's point was to subvert/deconstruct the myth.
First, by the end, with her self-sacrifice, Sophie proved Evil's capacity to love, meaning: Evil being unable to love is just a commonly-held belief in the Woods, not the absolute, be-all, end-all truth.
(And the belief could've been perpetuated by "Rafal's"/Rafal's way of running his institution that literally shapes the Wood's perceptions and the future. Alongside this claim about love, consider the existence of the Doom Room, created to punish a singular mutinous class of first-years, based on a now-revised philosophy about Nevers' learning from harsh treatment and (probably) disproportionate retribution that an excessively stubborn dead man already too entrenched in his old ways never had the chance to change because he died—and this is all aside from the fact proven by the display at the very first Circus of Talents, that Rafal's students did indeed learn better when he finally listened to them and mentored them as an equal in their position (as Fala). In addition, the statement: "Nevers learn from deprivation" similarly reveals how the Woods really do generalize about Nevers—until Sophie, the "exception" and iconoclast, comes along.)
Second, Sophie's non-romantic True Love at some point was said to be Agatha, and I think this established fact is consistently maintained throughout the series, even if other elements overshadow it, so not only Evers can have True Love.
My take on Japeth and Aric is that Japeth's love for Aric, however twisted or sincere it was, drove him to become the Snake, follow along with Rhian's Camelot ambitions and initial staging-terrorism-and-hostage-scenarios plot, and commit all his other, duplicitous, villainous acts throughout TCY, later by his own will, which is a motive I find fascinating (and contradictory about the nature of the Woods' Good and Evil souls, whenever Japeth is set next to the rather grey Rhian).
So, while Japeth's devotion to Aric could be viewed as romantic, it's just not appealing to me, personally, due to the relationship's ambiguous one-sidedness in particular. And, I think I once may've read something about Japeth as a Never fighting for True Love (or his perception of "True Love") and Rhian as an Ever fighting for power (the Nevers' ideal fairy-tale ending) being ironic or inverted in some way. That's also some world-building fodder to consider, or even just another point that could overturn the Rules as we know them, yet again. I'm not surprised by that subversion honestly. Japeth is very much like his parents. Nearly every SGE villain Soman has ever written has been motivated by the pursuit of love, or by the overwhelming force of their own (often obsessive) infatuations (with the exception of somewhat flatter, less-developed, secondary villains, like Aric, Vulcan, Marialena, and Peter Pan).
Also, thanks for the compliment!
Update and Another Ask Game
I've finally been moving all of my disjointed, separate scene notes for TOTSMOV41 into one document, into mostly chronological order. Draft 0 is at something less than 226 pages and counting now... I don't know what I expected. (Though, a lot of material has to be cut/consolidated/formatted, and part of the document is just notes for myself/thoughts.) So, I think the actual fic should be shorter. I'll have to remember to compare the lengths of Draft 0 and the final draft.
If you give me a word or phrase, I might be able to give you a screenshot of a page (or the closest adjacent page as long as it doesn't contain a spoiler) containing that word or phrase. Or, you could send me a page number instead.
page two?
This page is actually page 10 because the fic doesn't actually start until page 9 of the document. Also, this page is very messy and unwritten at the moment (I'm still playing with the wording and sequencing a lot), so hopefully, it's comprehensible. For context: Sophie is having a nightmare.
Page 16
This is actually page 17 of the fic, not the document itself. (16 was a page I might cut a lot from or rework, so that's the reason why I didn't want to include it.) Again, this screenshot happens to be another messy and unwritten page in outline form, but it is interesting that your number landed close to this scene since this is scene 1 of 3 involving this tapestry, detailing a flashback I invented, set before QFG.
