True Grit - "With No Lodestar In Sight", Mattie/LaBoeuf, T

[lindentree]

Title: With No Lodestar In Sight - 8/12
Author: lindentree
Rating: T
Character(s): Mattie Ross/LaBoeuf, Rooster Cogburn
Word Count: 6,087
Summary: Five years after her adventure in the Choctaw Nation, Mattie Ross runs afoul of a fugitive. She soon finds herself in familiar company, if not familiar territory.
Notes: I have agonized over this chapter for weeks

Comments

[1001cranes]

oh, the sound I made when I saw you had updated this.

it's wonderful, and the line you took from Cold Mountain is perfect.

Ruby Thewes is what would happen if Rooster and Mattie procreated and their daughter was allowed to raise herself in the hills of Appalachia. Picture it.

my brain is broken, quite properly.

[lindentree]

Thanks! I don't normally lift lines like that from other things, but once I had done some reading and discovered that it's (or was) actually something of a saying in parts of the South, I thought it might be okay. Plus it was just such a Rooster thing to say in that moment that I couldn't help myself. I'm only human! :)

Thank you for reading and commenting! Glad to hear you're enjoying it so much. There will be more very soon!

[theonlytwin]

You have to know, I don't like romance. I don't like the will-they-won't-they missed moments nonsense so common to romance.

You make me like it. I have enjoyed every inch of this story and wait patiently on more.

[lindentree]

I'll warn you now - there are going to be a few will-they-won't-they type misunderstandings through the last few chapters now that the main plot is being resolved. I hope they will fall more on the side of enjoyable than tedious, but I guess we'll have to wait and see! :)

Thanks for reading & commenting!

[rj_anderson]

Normally a warning about "sexual violence" would be like telling me, "This is not the fic you are looking for." But as in the first section, you handled it so well, without stringing it out too long or going into needlessly explicit details, and Mattie's reaction is so entirely in keeping with her character, that I had no problems with it at all.

And I also did not expect to smile and nearly laugh as many times as I did. "What I suppose were wicked intentions" -- oh, Mattie. Also, "I knew fear" -- *swoon*

[lindentree]

Thank you. I'm not comfortable using sexual violence as a plot device, but I did set up Cunningham as a rapist in the prologue (purely because the whole fic was inspired by a murder ballad about a woman killing her would-be rapist) and so I think it would have been a cop-out not to follow through with that at least somewhat. But I wasn't going to put Mattie through that for dramatic purposes, you know? Anyway, it's a challenging thing to write, so I'm glad it came across all right. It's important to me to be as responsible as possible about it.

Even during the dramatic bits, it's hard for Mattie's natural (and completely unintentional) hilariousness not to come through. She's just so unperturbed by everything. It's great fun to write!

Thanks so much for reading and for commenting! Detailed feedback makes my day, every time. :)

[lindentree]

Yes, I promise it's (ultimately) more light-hearted. There are a few bumps in the road yet, but nothing too dreadful, I swear! :)

Thanks. It was important to me that LaBoeuf not swoop in and rescue her, romance hero-style. Or at least not singlehandedly rescue her! We can't have Mattie swooning in anyone's arms, after all!

Thanks for reading and commenting! I love the feedback. :)

[papagayo]

Oi, I completely missed your update (I don't know how that happened, since I'm checking in on you fairly often. Apparently I need glasses or something.) It was the best resolution all around - somewhere in the back of my mind I wanted Mattie to be the one to, well, punish Cunningham, but I also like the parallel with the movie: she's headstrong and stubborn, and doesn't believe that she *needs* anybody, but we all do, you know? She needs to *learn* that. (I mean, otherwise this fic won't end anywhere close to what I hope it will ;))

My favourite part of this chapter is weirdly enough not the whole-embrace-thingy, but this bit:

“What do you think I will have to give up for this? Do you think it will be something so dear as before? Dearer, perhaps

[lindentree]

Wow, thank you so much! I'm really pleased that you liked this chapter and that certain things stood out to you. That's really rewarding - thank you for taking the time to let me know. :)