[Fanfiction] Still Waters
Title: Still Waters [Part One]
Characters: Juan Luna, Jose Rizal, F!Philippines, and F!Spain.
Warnings: Unbeta’d, as always. Technically Nyotalia, except for Salazar. My F!Philippine’s first appearance.
Summary: Juan Luna has painted Juliana dela Cruz three times - once, on penitent morning, and twice, as the sun pressed against the white of her ( Read more... )
Apparently, a terrible temper was something completely normal in the Luna family. I mean, I looked through a lot of their history (I feel like a stalker, to be honest), and discovered that nearly everyone raged over something at one point. Now that's a family that needs some anger management.
And I suppose that's what brought on the idea of passion, combined with the exquisite details (see: effing dedication) on his paintings. The burn-outs were something I came up with myself, as it seems to be the completely normal thing to feel after investing so much in something, don't you think?
I did my job in making a scary!Spain, then. I wanted a Spain that was subtly dangerous: I mean, she is an effing empire, after all. My idea of an empire is someone who will always be somewhat intimidating, no matter how light they're being about certain matters.
[She had to be drop-dead gorgeous, of course. Because she's Spain. And because it wouldn't have worked otherwise.]
I can imagine Salazar just screwing the fencing swords and pulling out a gun to shoot their brains out at the mere idea of them trying to take Juliana after she's been clearly labeled: OFF LIMITS.
Yes, Juliana is Basilio's girlfriend. I haven't actually read the whole of El Filibusterismo, to be honest, but the name stuck with me because I adore the way it sounds, along with its meaning ("young" or "youthful": is Spain trying to make a joke here?) and the fact that it's rather easy to make embarrassing nicknames out of, which is very Pinoy :)
I quite liked the idea itself. I knew I could probably pull her off as the model for Maria Clara, but early on, I had no idea of the existence of the España y Filipinas painting until I did my research. After that, I squealed and just had to do it.
I'm very excited about writing for Juli as well! She's been kicking my ass with characterization, but it's been very fulfilling, writing for her.
As for headcanon, well... did you notice that she never said a word this whole time? I think she can certainly speak now, but back then? It's complicated. No worries though: it will definitely come up in the next parts.
Also, because both she and Spain are women, Juli has ended up becoming Victoria's companion to and from the Philippines, so she's definitely travelled more than my little chiquito Juan, but still isn't as well-learned. Aside from every single dialect in the archipelago, she understands a narrow range of Spanish.
Asdfghjkl, a Nyotalia doujin sounds spectacular! But yes, finishing up your cross-over first does sound like a good idea: I'll be supporting you all the way!
[Though I will be kind of invisible because I don't watch Tiger and Bunny... yet.
/adds to summer list.]
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I've always wanted to write fem!Spain in my Nyotalia, but I could never get a hold of how I'm supposed to write her. I see her as a nurturing, motherly figure...who will also personally bring you to hell if you do not give her what she wants. Sort of like a tiger mother, really a perfectionist and stuff, but more than that because, like you said, she's an Empire for crying out loud.
Oh! I've actually noticed that, but I thought that it was a sign of the times, so I paid it no more heed. It's always the older ladies who are chatting boisterously, and the young girls who keep mum and speak little. But then again, as someone who wrote the PH+fem!US censorship fic, this should not have been a neglected detail of mine...o_o
I want to see Salazar scare the hell out of Juliana's suitors, now! Such an outburst would be so in character, and I would love to see him being all protective and stuff around his beloved fiancee. <33 (While said fiancee sits demurely in the background, silently cheering him on...)
And I so understand those burn-outs. The sudden bursts of...of nothingness that you get after random spurts of inspiration. I understand how a hot-blooded man like Luna would act about those kinds of days...I'd be pretty irritated with my former Muse for leaving me, as well. 8D
Here I was thinking that having short heights run in the family was a bad thing. Anger management is definitely a very big problem of this family, if my historical memory serves me right. I got a good laugh at hearing about some of Luna's lesser-known tantrums...up until the part where he shot his wife, well, there was nothing I could deem funny about that, other than the fact that if the wife was going to hide in a room, she'd better stay far away from the door...especially if her husband on the other side happened to have a gun. orz
I had to read El Fili for fourth year HS, but our lessons could only go on for so long...I, however, read the whole thing, practically devoured it, even with my meager hold on the Filipino language. When I first read it, I thought that I won't like it better than Noli, but right now I could say that I like them both equally. It's the kind of inevitable trainwreck that you can't move away and stop looking at.
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Fem!Spain is pretty difficult to write when you don't have a clear idea of what you want her to be like, though that's mainly because I feel that personality has to be evident in every single aspect of the character, down to the clothes, the movement, and the words chosen for the purpose of speaking.
The idea of a tiger mother in Spain came up, though. I can see her being completely sweet one minute and ready to kick ass the next. The thought of her being a complete bitch came up too, but was nearly instantly trashed.
I won't have the opportunity to explore here anymore though, because the plot doesn't concern her much after this. Meh, I'll save it for another time.
That's completely all right. I suppose I should have stressed her silence a bit more instead of turning Juli into eye candy. Well, at least I know it was still natural, and Luna being completely surprised in the next part should make sense :)
Salazar will definitely put on a bit of a show, though he won't lower himself to actually threatening Luna to his face and will instead make it very clear that he and Juli are to be married.
[Spoiler alert: she's not going to just roll with that.]
Burn-outs. We all have them. It's a reality of life. Of course it would be worse for Luna, considering his temper...
If I'm not mistaken, eiher he or Antonio had this enemy in Europe, who he'd nicknamed "Shit" in some language. One day, he stormed up to the cafe the man was eating in and flipped a table, challenging him to a duel.
[Man never did challenge him. With good reason, of course. Luna was reputed to be the best at fencing among the Ilustrados in Europe.]
Oh yes, Luna murdering his wife and his mother-in-law isn't funny at all... and the not-amusing details I've been able to gather will be discussed in the next part. We're going to time-skip quite a bit.
In my school, we read both Noli and El Fili in third year, so I'm about halfway through the novel (I'm cheating and reading it in English). I'm enjoying it so far, mainly because the mentions of previous characters excites me, not to mention the dark humor in the book.
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