Day 6 - Fic: Team Remus: Inferno

[rsgamesmods]

Team: Team Remus
Title: Inferno
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Deals with dark subject matters, including death and torture. Mild but graphic descriptions of Hell.
Word Count: ~3800
Summary: Hell comes in many forms for Remus Lupin, and for some reason, he always volunteers to go in.
Notes: Inspired by Dante's Inferno, with a few quotes from the book and

Comments

[bearshorty]

This was brilliant! I don't think there are enough words to say how brilliant.

I love Inferno and you've done it justice - a great adaptation here. I was looking forward to your piece and it did not disappoint. Everything worked so well from James as a guide to levels and people in them.

I also really liked the italics and Remus' journey in his life intersected with his journey through actual Hell. It fit so well and made me feel for him. To have italics be reality and the regular font be a recurring dream gave this work a quality above, like you reversed the usual pattern - like that dream was more Remus' reality until he died than his actual life.

And by the end, I was tearing up.

[phiso_kun]

Ah you flatter me. >////< <3~

I was very nervous about my interpretation of the prompt, to be honest. I chose to take it very literally, and as I am by no means a Dante expert, I was worried I would end up butchering the original work. I was also worried no one would be interested by it, so it makes me glad to hear that you were looking forward to it. :D

Oh good, that worked for you. XD I was worried it wouldn't be obvious and would thus just take away from it.

And guuuh, the ending...caused me much trouble. XD

But thank you for the amazing comment! <3 I'm glad you enjoyed it. :D

[epithalamium]

Oh my, but this was lovely! I love the way you use language, actually, dialogue bleeding into the narrative and Remus's thoughts bleeding into everything else. The beauty of this is that you made it work, the dreamlike nightmare quality of Hell and Remus's confusion was just perfect! And you know, normally I'm allergic to italicised words, but they worked so well I could really take the piss.

Also, the ending was heartbreaking. Lovely all around.

[phiso_kun]

Ahh thank you so much! Everything was bleeding all over everything else, really, so I'm glad you didn't think it wasn't confusing or annoying. And I'm glad my italics didn't cause an allergic reaction in you. XD

Thanks again. <3 <3 <3

[epithalamium]

but they worked so well I could really take the piss.

*facepalm* You know I meant I really COULDN'T take the piss, right?

[phiso_kun]

I got what you meant. XD <3

[phiso_kun]

Oh, thank you so much. <3 It was definitely a disturbing thing to write, but I'm glad it wasn't just that. And hurray for Barty appreciation! I'm unusually fond of him, so it's nice to hear that he didn't sound like he was a useless addition.

Thank you again. <3

[bookgrrrl2006]

despite being extraordinarily depressing, i liked this story. you used dante and his universe very well and it felt very true to his vision. but poor sirius and remus! how awful for them! however terrible it made me feel, it was a very thoughtful and well written story. i liked your observations about slughorn and how people judged remus twice. that made a lot of sense to me.

there was one part that almost made me cry though. that was this paragraph about sirius. Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger - they pass through these four levels with dread, Remus both trying to avoid watching the punishments of the damned and yet trying to spot Sirius's face at the same time. With each circle, another instance of Sirius's flawed character flashes in Remus's mind - his sexual appetite, his love of good food and things, his clingy nature, his dangerous temper - and Remus finds himself nauseated by thought of Sirius being tortured like the souls around him. Sirius does not deserve that. that just about broke my heart.

[phiso_kun]

Oh, thank you! I was really worried about attempting Dante and then royally screwing it up, so I'm glad that it worked for you. I'm sorry it made you feel terrible, though D: Though it's not like...it could have done much else...[._.];

And yeah, that paragraph made me sad too. :< It kind of reflected me trying to figure out where to put Sirius, because he really could have gone in any of those circles, but I wanted the story to continue, so I had to keep going deeper. And it just made everybody sad in the end. :C

But yes, thank you so much for the wonderful comment. <3

[nerak_rose]

This was something quite different and to be honest I don't quite know what to say about it. It was intriguing as all hell (no pun intended) and I thought it was rather telling how the italicised bits were the actual reality and not vice versa; it says a lot about what's real for Remus and what isn't and especially how his inner hell is more real to him than the reality, which is a different hell altogether.

I loved your use of James here. ♥

[phiso_kun]

Yeaaah I don't know what to say about it either. ^^; It was an idea that got caught in my head that was fun to think out and write down in its own way, but I was hesitant about it. There wasn't much of a resolution outside of death, there was no grand truth imparted, it was just a study of how Remus may have seen his reality in book 6 and a part of book 7, so I was kind of...worried about how it would be received. I did want to use it as a chance to try something different, though, so I'm glad that that, at least, showed through.

And ooh, James, I loved writing him. <3

Thanks for reading and for the comment! :D

[nerak_rose]

It did show :) and yeah, i think that what threw me off is that i wasn't expecting a character study and the lack of resolution was sort of...uncomfortable. poor remus.

james is precious ♥ one of my favourite characters to write. :D

You're welcome. :D

[phiso_kun]

That's the thing, though. It was an uncomfortable time period (to put it nicely), so how could it end well? The worst part of a personal Hell is never knowing when it ends. I tried my best to not make it TOO depressing with him finally getting out of the nightmare's cycle, but ultimately...I don't know. It's an interesting ending for me, because it literally came out of the blue, and it wasn't until later that I realized how many different ways it affected the narrative.

Blah. It seems as though I accidentally wrote something that requires my own analysis after the fact, which really makes me put more stock in this "death of the author" thing since I just did it to myself. XD