FFXII Fic Annotations: Imprint (Vayne, Larsa, Penelo, Venat)

[mariagoner]

The trouble with writing a mystery is that sometimes half-way through telling a story... the central mystery itself mutates.

At least, this was just the sort of experience I had while I was writing Imprint, my first horror/mystery/whatever the hell this is. I knew there were certain things I wanted to play around with in this story: the

Comments

[cygna_hime]

See, now that I understand what's going on it's a lot more creepy. Before it was more confusing, creepy too, but...it's creepier when I understand exactly what's happening.

*was going to use her Larsa icon for this, but squicked at the last moment*

[mariagoner]

Oh god, I finally made someone squick at the thought of Larsa!

I don't know whether I should be more horrified or proud. ^_^

And it's interesting to see how some people find this story more disturbing when the facts are clear and how some find it less so. Maybe a Penelo POV story would clear that up...?

[mariagoner]

Heh. Thank you for reading and reviewing. ;)

[adore184]

Very nice. I guess for the most part I was on track in my mind about what was going on. lol. You know what? I actually thought about the Tale of Two Sisters when reading this!! XD Not because it was so alike, because it definitely wasn't, but it gave off the same vibes and for the aforementioned reasons you already spoke of.

Thanks for posting these notes up. It cleared up the foggy parts I was having trouble with. <3 Well done!

[mariagoner]

Ah, you watched Tale of Two Sisters as well?! Excellent! I've been longing to see the opinion of someone who watched that film. ♥

And hee, I'm glad you liked. It was sort of fun seeing the various theories people threw at me but seeing their reactions to the real plot is interesting as well!

This fic reminded me of this old icon. XD

[kilraaj]

I never caught the laughter thing, actually, because a "low" laugh and a "soft" laugh make me think of two different things. Like, a low laugh would be a deep one, but I think of a soft laugh as just being quiet, maybe done with mouth closed and only the air passing through the nose. ...Does Vayne laugh in game? I'm curious.

I didn't even think of Larsa being an invention of Vayne's--I kept thinking he was there in some way, although possibly twisted mentally (wrong brother, I guess XD)--but knowing that he's not there now, things make so much more sense. Although it's a little less creepy to me now, oddly enough. (I expect Vayne to be psycho, Larsa not-so-much? I dunno.)

The ending is really awesome though. Go, Penelo! ...and I would've totally liked the other ending, too, I bet, but this one is just oh-so-creepy in a good way.

Re: This fic reminded me of this old icon. XD

[mariagoner]

Huh... looking back, it seems as though Vayne never does laugh in canon, though Larsa does so once. (And in Penelo's presence, btw. My OTP lives on!) So it's nice to know that I'm allowed to take whatever liberties I please with his laughter. ;)

And looking back... having Larsa still exist but be twisted because of his brother slowly but surely taking over his body would have been an excellent twist as well. Perhaps some other enterprising person could pick that plot up next time...?

And one of these days, I should really go and write up that other 'Penelo triumphs' ending. It's marginally less bleak and hopeless than this one, after all...

[mimi_sardinia]

I guessed something near this, near the end - at the part where Penelo made her attempt to kill him I started to see that maybe Larsa hadn't been there at all and that Vayne had been delusional about his presence and maybe Penelo had been playing along because that was all she could do if she wanted to survive (since Venat was preventing her from killing herself) - but I never quite got the bit about Vayne wearing Larsa's body.

Very creepy.

[mariagoner]

I'm glad you find it so, since that was just what I was going for!

I'm not surprised about people getting a bit confused about the "Vayne in Larsa's hollow body" bit... looking back, the clues to that were a little too subtle. And poor Penelo. It's true what they say-- you always hurt the ones you love. She really needs to have her story told more, I suppose...