Planting Seeds in Vanquished Soil (9/11) (Haymitch/Beetee - R)

[millarific]

Title: Planting Seeds in Vanquished Soil
Author: millari
Characters: Haymitch Abernathy, Mags, Beetee, Chaff, President Snow, Haymitch's Dad, Haymitch's Girl, OCs
Pairing: Haymitch/Beetee
Rating: R
Beta: The incomparable trovia
Warnings: Implied references to forced prostitution, canonical character deaths
Summary: On his victory tour, Haymitch soon finds out

Comments

[millarific]

I also hope that I am not being too annoying if I say that I would really love to see the rest of this. It's a crime that more people haven't commented on it -- I think I saw a bit more interest on Tumblr, and I will continue pimping it

Oh wow, are you the explanation for my random readers I've gotten every now and then? Thank you! And no, how could it be annoying for someone to say that they want to see more of my writing? I never understand that attitude among authors. If anything, I feel a bit bad for letting this story hang uncompleted for so long.

I've made a career shift in the last year, and it's made me super busy and as I've been learning how to do things, I've been letting it take over my life a bit (in a mostly good way, but Trovia keeps reminding me that I will burn out eventually, so I really should learn to draw better boundaries and put my hobbies back into my life). But on my birthday, I posted the penultimate part, thanks to the inspiration of Trovia's birthday present. It had just been sitting on my hard drive, beta'd; it was a travesty I hadn't posted it really. And I started writing the final epilogue in a notebook on my birthday too, and I've decided that it's going to be the thing I do in the evenings to deliberate put an end to the work day. So I really do think I'll have it finished soon.

As for your questions about Haymitch and Beetee's relationship, I'm flattered that you want to know. And I'm going to do some more thinking about that before I reply, because I think Beetee has a really priveleged and tragic backstory in my head, both before and after this story took place, culminating with his connection with Wiress, which in my mind really did change him to the Beetee we know today.

I think his friendship with Haymitch had to have been central in how he navigated those changes. So if I ever want to write that story, I need to do some thinking about Haymitch-Beetee BFFs. I've always wanted to write about Haymitch's long stint with Lincoln Benford (another story's backstory, LOL), so it might be possible to combine both, I don't know. It would be super fun and hard to write, all at the same time.

All of which to say, let me get back to you on that. :) It'll be soon, though. And thanks again for all your gleeful support of my writing and this fic. You probably have no idea how much it means to me to have someone besides my girlfriend be so enthusiastic about it.

[roguedemon]

Oh wow, I just re-read your comments and realized you'd posted the next chapter! Thank you! I am probably the only person who regularly checks LJ for fic updates (and other things), I still have friends active here. I am not the person randomly reading AO3, I re-read this fic here. I rarely check the Haymitch tag anymore because it's all Hayffie and crappy Everlark fic featuring poorly written Haymitch in a supporting role. Thus I almost missed it. I will leave you more feedback at the site when I have more time, but I loved the chapter. I think my favorite thing was just how we got to see more of the man underneath Beetee's mask. His cockiness slipped and we got to see dark hints of what his life is really like, the pain he's going through -- Just really nice character work. He and Haymitch are so cute together, I really need to see more of their friendship in the Capitol. And gah, poor Haymitch in this chapter, being confronted with his painful future, just seeing all those dead tributes spooling out in front of him. And he hasn't even had Snow tell him he's going to be sold yet. I'm very much looking forward to the rest!

[millari]

Hey, six months too late, but I don't think I ever saw this!

I just replied to you on AO3 in much more depth, but just wanted to give you hugs for such encouraging comments and such thoughtful insight into my story.

It's amazing to me that I ever balked at writing Haymitch/Beetee when Trovia suggested it. Honestly, I took it on at first because I love the challenge of WTF pairings. But the more I thought about it, the more I could see how they actually had some crucial commonalities that would make them simpatico, and some complementary differences that would really serve a friendship between them well. The thing I did not expect was to fall in love with Beetee as a character, nor to have the in-depth backstory for him I ended up having in my head. My Beetee has had both a very privileged and very tumultuous life before he ever met Haymitch, and I find it all fascinating, even though yeah, I made it up. ;-) There is darkness underneath that mask, for sure.

Random thank-you comment posted! *runs off*