Sorta!Fic - or, using my LJ as a sketch!pad for Starbuck.

[beccatoria]

Spamming because I'm bored. Also not real writing because it's not finished or beta'd or anything. It's just a draft, really, so no worries on comments or anything. Just a post-3.20 fragment. I'm toying with trying to make it into an actual story. I think I see the edges of a plot

Comments

[beccatoria]

Hmm - interesting ideas. Much more interesting than my own really. Her brother in this context is Sam - it's a reference to the fact he's a cylon - something I wanted to flag up in her references to the Chief as a sibling also. Part of the ongoing story is Starbuck's human/cylon status. It's not as simple as ZOMG she's a cylon, but a lot of the story is underpinned by the idea that the final five are much older than the first seven and are actively attempting to help humanity and have religious significance in the human's religion. And that Starbuck was taken by them and has returned changed. The Campbellian concept of being between two worlds. I want to contrast Starbuck and her final-five modifications with Laura and her first-seven modifications.

Again it may come back to the problem I'm having with her voice, I think. It's a very specific reading I get from her almost nervous, young, joyful greeting to Lee at the end of 3.20, and her own childhood self as an avatar in Maelstrom. She no longer remembers a lot of her previous life, although she knows it all, and the fact I can't communicate that idea properly is probably at least 50% of the voice problem I'm having. It's why I was trying to use a lot of not-quite-names - "The LSO, the Old Man, the Chief, her brother," instead of personal names. Except Lee because she already used that in 3.20 and because if she's going to remember anyone's name I think it might be his, and the Galactica (about which I'm ambivalent). She perceives the world through a very different lens now - one that's more based on nouns than personal names? And a lot of Kara's natural joy is freed because she's approaching everything with a clean slate. (Though the filling of that slate and the recovery of her old identity are things I would want to deal with).

So...I'm not trying to go on an anti-Sam/Kara jag here - and I'm a little worried about squicking people with pseudo-incest, but that's not what I'm gunning for at all. It's more an homage to the ancient greek gods who were all siblings or parents or something - the place of the final five in such a pantheon, and Starbuck's place herself.

It's also supposed to tie in with the "all of this has happened before and all of this has happened again," and the idea that Sam has been her brother before and will be again. That aspect is part of the more ambitious and possibly foolish desire I have to turn Laura's chamalla induced vision-cylon fest into an actual, literal AU. But I worry that would be too high concept and I couldn't ground it in the ongoing story. (Which is basically headed towards a Laura vs Kara showdown.)

In sum...your ideas about the "brother" significance are far more interesting; which is why I should always hash out ideas with people - it really helps to sharpen things, so thanks for offering your services as a "plot-sharpener"! :)

And no worries on spelling or grammar! Spelling I tend to leave to the spell-checker. Grammar? I figure I can pass it off as "artistic license"... :p

[nightxade]

Love your fanfic, btw. It's a lot like the way I write when I do something like this. Or used to, anyway.

Is the brother concept something you came up with? Or is that something online I have missed out on as usual? And Laura's modifications.. you mean from Hera's blood? Egads so much interestingness going on here! I am intrigued! How the hell did I miss so many of your posts? MORE!

Favourite: Chief's reaction and her description of it. Priceless.