[Fic] "Harvest: All We Know of Heaven" -- original, Ekanu
I've been picking at "Harvest" again (my epic story about how Ekanu and Denifar attempt romance and implode, plus way too many subplots). This time I am exploring ideas for the big emotional climax thing where, after a screaming argument, Ekanu and Denifar finally talk to each other straight on about their differing cultural assumptions about relationships and what they mean to each other. As usual, this monologue will not appear in the final story in this exact form, but the gist of it will most likely inform a dialogue scene.
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Harvest: All We Know of Heaven
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Voa geme tin vav -- stars change and remain the same. This is a proverb of my people. Stars turn around the roof of heaven, where the rope of phantom fire connects the sky to the earth. The six wandering stars walk drunken paths through that great dance. The falling stars break the pattern further.
But there are always stars. They always turn and turn and turn. The wanderers retrace their steps too, in time, and for each star that falls to earth, another waits in deepest heaven to streak fire across the sky.
Everything returns again.
So I say to you, ral geme tin vav. Like the stars, we change and remain the same. I promise you, ral vavika idayoa, kamegin. We are heart-bound, now and forever.
I will not marry you. I will not stay with you. But we will never be parted.
The wind will whisper your words in my heart as I travel, and it will carry my love back to you. The sun will warm our eyes and hands, making our work seem light. The rain and snow will fall in our footsteps, reminding us to look forward instead of back.
The same stars will turn above us both.
And I will look upward as they change, and know that one day my path will lead me back to you.
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Inspired by the 3/29/10 15_minute_fic word #134: always
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On a completely different topic: Calormenes think their country is the center of the world, the only important country. To most of them, the northern lands are unimportant peripheral places. The nobles care a little, but that is because they are empire-builders. The ordinary citizens don't give a damn. Their attention is inward-focused. They know they are the most powerful people in the world. They know they are always in the right. (Ignore the fact that they are the 'bad guys' -- I am talking self-perception, not necessarily objective reality.)
They are, in other words, Americans. ;-P
*removes tongue from cheek*
More seriously, while Archenland may hate Calormen (with cause), Calormen does not return the animosity. This is, of course, because while Calormen may threaten Archenland, the reverse is absurd to contemplate, and everyone knows it. And Cor and Aravis, having grown up in Calormen, do not hate Archenland and don't quite see how people could hate Calormen just for being Calormen. They can understand hating aspects of Calormene politics and society, and they definitely understand hating the Tisroc and Rabadash, but hating Calormen-as-a-whole on whatever grounds -- ethnic, religious, historical military, economic, etcetera -- doesn't make emotional sense to them. They have no experience with hating other countries that way, because Calormenes don't hate other countries; they simply look down on them and bask in the knowledge that they are better in every way.
...
Shit, they totally are the worst stereotype of Americans, aren't they?
Oh well. If that is where my subconscious wants to go, I can work with that.
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comments)
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Harvest: All We Know of Heaven
---------------------------------------------
Voa geme tin vav -- stars change and remain the same. This is a proverb of my people. Stars turn around the roof of heaven, where the rope of phantom fire connects the sky to the earth. The six wandering stars walk drunken paths through that great dance. The falling stars break the pattern further.
But there are always stars. They always turn and turn and turn. The wanderers retrace their steps too, in time, and for each star that falls to earth, another waits in deepest heaven to streak fire across the sky.
Everything returns again.
So I say to you, ral geme tin vav. Like the stars, we change and remain the same. I promise you, ral vavika idayoa, kamegin. We are heart-bound, now and forever.
I will not marry you. I will not stay with you. But we will never be parted.
The wind will whisper your words in my heart as I travel, and it will carry my love back to you. The sun will warm our eyes and hands, making our work seem light. The rain and snow will fall in our footsteps, reminding us to look forward instead of back.
The same stars will turn above us both.
And I will look upward as they change, and know that one day my path will lead me back to you.
---------------------------------------------
Inspired by the 3/29/10 15_minute_fic word #134: always
---------------------------------------------
On a completely different topic: Calormenes think their country is the center of the world, the only important country. To most of them, the northern lands are unimportant peripheral places. The nobles care a little, but that is because they are empire-builders. The ordinary citizens don't give a damn. Their attention is inward-focused. They know they are the most powerful people in the world. They know they are always in the right. (Ignore the fact that they are the 'bad guys' -- I am talking self-perception, not necessarily objective reality.)
They are, in other words, Americans. ;-P
*removes tongue from cheek*
More seriously, while Archenland may hate Calormen (with cause), Calormen does not return the animosity. This is, of course, because while Calormen may threaten Archenland, the reverse is absurd to contemplate, and everyone knows it. And Cor and Aravis, having grown up in Calormen, do not hate Archenland and don't quite see how people could hate Calormen just for being Calormen. They can understand hating aspects of Calormene politics and society, and they definitely understand hating the Tisroc and Rabadash, but hating Calormen-as-a-whole on whatever grounds -- ethnic, religious, historical military, economic, etcetera -- doesn't make emotional sense to them. They have no experience with hating other countries that way, because Calormenes don't hate other countries; they simply look down on them and bask in the knowledge that they are better in every way.
...
Shit, they totally are the worst stereotype of Americans, aren't they?
Oh well. If that is where my subconscious wants to go, I can work with that.
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)