Fic: What You Are (Leviathan)
Title: What You Are
Fandom: Leviathan/Behemoth
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Through Behemoth
Summary: The big reveal... with a little twist.
Chapter One: sometimes it hurts
I started writing this about 2 days after Behemoth came out. I was soooooo hoping that the reveal would happen in Behemoth, but of course it didn't - *shakes fist at Scott Westerfeld* - and anyway I got to thinking, "Well, what if Deryn just up and kissed Alek? Like, before he finds out."
Because she's seriously painted herself into a mental corner by the end of the second book, and I can't see her keeping a lid on her emotions much longer. Something's gonna give, and why not in the most painfully awkward way possible?
So I wrote this, intending it to be a one-shot. But it was just so deliciously evil that I couldn't let it go, so I decided to expand it to three chapters.
...and then five chapters. And then six. And then seven. And now it's eight (seven plus an epilogue).
Yay for inflation? I guess?
The song was not a random choice; it was informing the story from the very beginning. I love "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" and how peppy and upbeat the tune despite being, essentially, a break-up song. Also, even though I saw somewhere that Scott Westerfeld is pretty sure he never actually said, in any of the three books, what color Deryn's eyes are... all the fans know they're blue.
(I wanna pause here and say: WHAT. Because there are extensive references to Alek's eye color, like, all over the flippin' place. And I would have bet money that somewhere in Leviathan it says her eyes are blue.)
Ironically, the one line I really wanted to use - Something inside is telling me/ That I've got your secret - turned out to have no place in the finished fic. Neither did Asking me, said she's so free/ How can you catch the sparrow? but perhaps that's just as well, seeing as how "sparrow" in my personal fanon now means "prostitute". LOL
I'll have more to say in Chapter Two!
On a note unrelated to this fic, but related to the novels: I have been vastly amused by the media coverage of Prince William's engagement. Marrying a commoner! What! 1914 is posthumously scandalized! And somewhere, Deryn is fuming that she was born 100 years too early. :P