Writing Meme

[bitterfic]

From bradygirl_12

Choose a story of mine and I'll talk a little about it: what inspired me to write it, what research I did for it, whatever comes to mind! :)

Comments

[bitterfic]

 Girls and Ghosts is the culmination of a 20+ years fascination with the character of Illyana Rasputain. I started reading comics seriously and obsessively when I was about 16 years old, right when the Inferno storyline was happening in the Marvel universe. With rapt attention I followed Illyana's transformation into the demonic Darkchilde, her revelations of her troubled childhood in Limbo and her eventual return to childhood. Some of my earliest fan art is of Illyana and I was sufficiently hooked to look up back issues of New Mutants and X-Men that Illyana appeared in and even got hold of a copy of the Magik a mini-series by Chris Claremont that dealt with Illyana's lost years in Limbo.

Several months ago, I unearthed my old issues of Magik and re-read them. I found myself especially interested by Illyana's relationship with Kitty Pryde. There was a certain slashiness to the idea that they were devoted roommates and that Kitty was dating Illyana's older brother Peter. Behind this loomed the story of what had happened in Limbo, where Illyana was the friend and student of an older version of Kitty who eventually was transformed into a feline demon that Illyana killed.

I very much wanted to write a Kitty/Illyana fic and I took a stab at it when femslash100 used "comfort" as their weekly prompt. Based on memories of Illyana comforting Kitty after she'd broken up with Peter I wrote the drabble A Heart to be Broken. Within days of writing this, I happened to look over prompts at yuri_challenge and saw that there was one involving Kitty and Illyana. I immediately claimed it. Since the prompt was "first night" I decided to present a series of first nights spanning the characters relationship. Even though there have been developments with Kitty and Illyana's characters since I stopped reading comics regularly in the early 90's I decided to stick with the canon I was familiar with and end with Kitty as a member of Excaliber learning that Illyana has wiped out her existence in Limbo and reverted to childhood.

[flo_nelja]

Thanks again!

I started to read superheroes comics very recently and can't claim to be a long-time fan, but I adore Illyanna, and yeah, she's quite fascinating, and I see the femslashy vibes with Kitty, too...
As you read farther than me, has Illyanna ever had a canon romance?

I haven't read Inferno yet. I'm about in the 86-87 issues in my "catching back X-men and New Mutants" phase. ^^ But I already knew what happens.