The Seahorse and Palace of the Brine: Final Thoughts.
So I managed to reply to all the Big Bang comments today! (Last year I waited waaaaay too long and it took FOREVER!) I am so insanely flattered by everyone's responses, so a general THANK YOU for slogging through all 41k of that. You should give yourselves COOKIES.
Some have you asked if there will be a sequel to it, implying that it would be my Big Bang for the next year. I need to nip this in the bud right now:
The short answer is: NO
The long answer is:
Palace of the Brine is the last long story I will write in this 'verse. If you were thinking the next chapter of the story was implied by this one? Then I don't know what to say other than I'm sorry I led you to think that. I really felt DONE when I wrote those last few words, and I'm not looking to revisit it anytime soon.
That's not to say I wouldn't write short little pieces for a timestamp meme or something. Any revisiting I would want to do would probably be in the form of interludes to further examine Chad and Misha's relationship, or to tell you about what happened when Jared met Tom.
(And yeah, there's a story there that I couldn't include in Palace of the Brine without doing a LOT of time-shifts. I really didn't want to write something that happens in-between the two stories that wouldn't have joined them properly.)
And well, this isn't so much of a thing you can convince me to do otherwise. I am flattered by the idea that anyone would want to read more about these characters, but I really am happy with how it ended.
I feel like I've told you all what happened. I told you how Jared and Jensen built their family together like the myth says, from mud and clay from the Nile. That's what I wanted to show you, they pieced together this (very, VERY) non-traditional family life with their friends and children and in a way, they're closer than some blood relations. I wanted a story that meant family can come in different ways, and it can sneak up on you.
What happens to them further down the line? Well, I can answer that:
Jared still teaches, part-time. He likes having the freedom to do his own art. But moreover, he likes raising his kids full-time. Jensen went into private practice with some colleagues. He wanted to be able to go home and be a Dad at the end of the day, and not deal with graveyard shifts anymore. Jared and Jensen stay together. Never legally married; but together in a way that marriage couldn't possibly make any stronger than it already is. Katie's still at Grace's Heart, but she's been taking classes on the weekends in order to become a certified midwife. Mike gets married. To a woman. Tom and Mike still have sex anyway. She probably knows but doesn't care because Mike looks the other way when she cheats too. Chad and Misha eventually get married. Misha buys him a scooter and they drive out to Burning Man for the honeymoon. Sophia remarries. The twins go to college out East, and luckily enough, both in Boston, where Misha's from. So he and Chad get to visit a lot and take them to Buffalo to see the relatives during holidays. Zac Cassidy (nee Efron) works at a really upscale restaurant as a server, and later becomes the maître d'. He can actually support Katie on his salary and tips because he's just that really, really, ridiculously good-looking.
As for the kids:
Callie takes to the arts like Jared, and does photography for travelogues and travel magazines; which keeps her out of the country most of the time. She sends her fathers lots of postcards, no matter where she is. Aaron takes more to a career like Jensen's, and specializes in internal medicine. Katie calls Jensen every day to tell him how he's doing. She also calls him Bambi because she always wanted to be like Carla on Scrubs. Eve becomes a surprisingly strict kindergarten teacher.
And well, this is the end of this crazy journey I went on. It started when I answered a prompt wendy made for some J2 mpreg, here. I challenged myself to write an mpreg fic that I would want to read, since I didn't really like mpreg to begin with.
I'm a little sad to say no and let go, but mostly I'm happy to move on with something else. Something I just spent a good chunk of the evening planning in my head.
We'll always have seaponies, kiddo. ♥
Some have you asked if there will be a sequel to it, implying that it would be my Big Bang for the next year. I need to nip this in the bud right now:
The short answer is: NO
The long answer is:
Palace of the Brine is the last long story I will write in this 'verse. If you were thinking the next chapter of the story was implied by this one? Then I don't know what to say other than I'm sorry I led you to think that. I really felt DONE when I wrote those last few words, and I'm not looking to revisit it anytime soon.
That's not to say I wouldn't write short little pieces for a timestamp meme or something. Any revisiting I would want to do would probably be in the form of interludes to further examine Chad and Misha's relationship, or to tell you about what happened when Jared met Tom.
(And yeah, there's a story there that I couldn't include in Palace of the Brine without doing a LOT of time-shifts. I really didn't want to write something that happens in-between the two stories that wouldn't have joined them properly.)
And well, this isn't so much of a thing you can convince me to do otherwise. I am flattered by the idea that anyone would want to read more about these characters, but I really am happy with how it ended.
I feel like I've told you all what happened. I told you how Jared and Jensen built their family together like the myth says, from mud and clay from the Nile. That's what I wanted to show you, they pieced together this (very, VERY) non-traditional family life with their friends and children and in a way, they're closer than some blood relations. I wanted a story that meant family can come in different ways, and it can sneak up on you.
What happens to them further down the line? Well, I can answer that:
As for the kids:
And well, this is the end of this crazy journey I went on. It started when I answered a prompt wendy made for some J2 mpreg, here. I challenged myself to write an mpreg fic that I would want to read, since I didn't really like mpreg to begin with.
I'm a little sad to say no and let go, but mostly I'm happy to move on with something else. Something I just spent a good chunk of the evening planning in my head.
We'll always have seaponies, kiddo. ♥