#ask pericula

[periculaludus]

you're fic is disturbed and disgusting. you should be ashamed tricking people into reading it with the musketers fest!!

First of all, thank you for reading my work! I’m sorry tohear you disliked it so much. You have apparently not come across one of themost important rules of fanfic yet. It’s called “dl,dr” or “don’t like, don’tread”. As I understand that nuclear warfare is a very difficult subject, thefirst sentence of my summary clearly states that The Letter of Last Resortdeals with this. Appropriate tags have been used on AO3. After a warning likethat, please feel free to skip content that you find “disturbed anddisgusting”— don’t like, don’t read!

The Reason I submitted this fic to The Musketeers Fest was never to trick people into reading it, butbecause I wanted to explore the relationship between two of my favouritecharacters when confronted with one of the most difficult decisions anyonecould ever have to make.

In the series, the musketeers are frequently facing issueswhere what is legally right and what is morally right are not identical. It’san aspect of the show I particularly admire as I find it very thoughtprovoking, which I enjoy greatly. The musketeers use their own judgement overorders more than once when confronted with political, military, and ethicaldecisions. I wanted to translate that into a modern military environment. Atthis point in time, I consider nuclear launches to be the decisions with thegreatest political, military, and ethical impact.

I hope The MusketeersFest brings you lots of fanart and fanfic that you enjoy more than myoffering. All the best to you!

[periculaludus]

20, 24 + 27?

20. favoritecharacter to write

Will probably forever remain Bofurbecause I get to hum and bounce up and down in my seat when I’m writing him.Followed closely by Nori because I can snarl at people and generally be verycreepy while I write him. There might be a petition going among the trainpassengers to keep me from writing him while I’m out and about.In the Musketeers fandom it’s got to bePorthos. That man is just good. It’s like a holiday to be in his head; it’scalm in there, settled, comfortable, but never boring. He’s a pretty down toearth guy, confident, principled, and while he has his issues, he doesn’t havethe frantic mind of many of my usual characters. I’ve only written one littleficlet from his point of view, but that was a fantastic experience that I reallywant to repeat.

24. favoritescene you’ve ever written27. bestreview you ever gotAnswered both of those already. Try again andask me something interesting! No pressure… but pick good ones!

All of yous, please provide me some lightrelief and ask me a question or five about fic writing. Much appreciated!

[periculaludus]

Let's see...how about 1, 11, 24, & 27? Hope this helps you tread water.

1. thingsthat inspire youOh dear, what doesn’t inspire me?! I love newplaces, new experiences, and those influence my writing immensely. Credit mustgo to my students for the whole “groups of young guys interacting” thing, theyjust provide endless inspiration for that. 17th century soldiers, 21stcentury university lads… the dynamics really haven’t changed all that much. Iwill frequently note down a little scene or a sentence that I overheard. Forthe medical stuff, I usually follow one or more sets of actual case notes tomake things realistic. Yes, academic papers for creative writing inspiration, Iknow I’m odd. Finally, I google obsessively. Following up on little details andtrying to make them historically accurate usually leads me to more interestingfacts and figures that I then add into my writing. Finally, there’s the oddlittle bits and bobs. I decided very early on that SP&SR would have Frenchchapter titles, more precisely regimental mottos. Well, I found ten that Iliked, so that settled the chapter number. Yes, genuinely, my approach is thatsophisticated. What really amazed me is that the chapters have developed toreally fit the titles. Such a strange bit of inspiration!

11. doyou listen to music when writing?Yes, definitely! It’s the only way tokeep me from listening in on people and getting more random inspiration. I havean incredibly varied musical taste, so at any point in time there might be classicalmusic, heavy metal, a movie soundtrack, Celtic folk music… take your pick.Recently, the Musketeers soundtrack has been playing, but I’ve also had a fairbit of Schindler’s List on, which might explain some of the worse bits ofSP&SR!

24. favoritescene you’ve ever writtenUmmmm… this is the point at which mymind goes completely and utterly blank and I don’t remember anything I haveever written. There are some favourite scenes of mine in my Hobbit writing. Adeath, a dance, an evening of music, and a chat with a young child come tomind. But for the Musketeers… you wouldn’t think this was so difficult,seeing as I haven’t written much… I’m terribly fond of Vigile Pascale which is just Porthos being amazing in a very quietway. Oh, and I still quite enjoy thesparring scene in Chapter 1 of SP&SR — love me a bit of banter betweenfriends! It’s such a simple scene, but it combines a light-hearted look attheir friendship with that growing unease knowing that Athos is absolutely notwell at all. I love scenes where there is more going on than what meets theeye!

27. bestreview you ever gotAny review is fantastic! Especially theones that tell me what people liked or didn’t like. The only reviews that makeme grumble are the ones that just say “update soon”. I genuinely cannot pickone best review, but I certainly have the best reviewer ever on ff.net, Meysun ( @mahizli ). Honestly, have a look at any one of her reviews, they are moreinteresting than the chapters she is reviewing and usually just about as long.There’s linguistics in there, a critical eye cast upon my fumbling attempts atmedicine and religion, and some amazing character insights which are even morestunning once you realise she hasn’t watched the series. Honestly, I haveprinted out some of her reviews just so I can enjoy them again and again, theyare that good. It’s too funny knowing that some of my readers actually wait forher reviews because they enjoy them as well.

Thank you for asking! Sorry for the late reply, the internet on the island was down all day!

[periculaludus]

Sans Peur & Sans Reproche

Thank you so much for asking! Ah, I love talking about my fics. Actually, I have put quite a few of my little thoughts into author’s notes for this one, but there’s always more!

This was supposed to be a relatively simple and straight-forward hurt&comfort fic. I started my research almost a year ago, had it completely outlined in early January, and just needed to write it. So far, so easy.

Then I started to explore the characters and their reactions in a bit more detail… and since then this fic has grown completely out of proportion. The story line has stayed exactly the same, but I have added so much background over these months. In SP&SR it only shows in some tiny little details and off-hand remarks that probably go completely unnoticed, but there is a complete universe in my head covering Porthos’ time in the infantry, him joining the musketeers and meeting Aramis, Aramis’ recovery after Savoy, Porthos’ role in that, how Athos eventually joined them and they all became friends… Honestly, it’s ridiculous, I’ve come up with pretty detailed accounts of years of their friendship, Aramis’ family, and his friendship with Father Jean-Jacques… It’s a whole universe and I certainly wasn’t expecting that when I started to read up on tetanus!

[periculaludus]

sans peur et sans reproche (because I should be privy to all it's secrets!)?

Ahh, one should not post these thingies when one knows that one’s beta reader and person who one bounces all the ideas off is likely to ask a question… 

I have scoured our skype history and I believe even you don’t know this bit, my dear Beth!

I have toyed with the idea of giving Constance a role in this fic. While she might denounce the idea of being with d’Artagnan at that moment, the musketeers have hardly ceased to exist for her. She has some relationship with all of them and would certainly be horrified by Athos’ illness. I particularly like her relationship with Aramis (not just slapping him, but I admit that is pretty nice) and thought about letting Aramis escape to her place. Ultimately, I decided against that since allowing him to go to the church felt more natural, and I had also come to adore dear Father Jean-Jacques. Furthermore, adding Constance into the mix would have had repercussions throughout the plot, adding an extra layer of complexity that I didn’t really want to squeeze into those ten chapters. I am, after all, a great fan of a very limited cast of characters that I get to explore more fully.

[periculaludus]

Heckling incident?? OMG!!! What happened??

Incident is really too strong a word. It was honestly a bit ridiculous.

During yesterday’s matinee show of King John, to be more precise during Philip the Bastard’s wonderful first soliloquy (”A foot of honour better than I was, but many a many foot of land the worse…”), there was a sudden voice from the back “Excuse me, could you speak up a bit!”

Howard Charles handled it beautifully and stayed in character the whole time. I’m not sure about the wording he used, but it was something along the lines of “Ah dissent, I like it well, good sir.” then went seamlessly back to the regular lines. During the interval I noticed that quite a few people in the audience thought it was part of the play.

I certainly learned something. My students don’t often tell me to speak up (usually the opposite), but I filed this brilliant reaction away for inspiration the next time it happens!

[periculaludus]

Just dropping in to spread some love. Hope you're well.

Thank you very much! Sending that love right back to you! Much needed here tonight as I’m doing a late PhD writing shift after work. Finishing up a chapter and have spent the last two hours getting the reference list in order, so my mood has honestly been better!

[periculaludus]

Ahhh you seem like a really cool person I wish I could have you as my professor!

They all say that before I mark their essays…

Joking aside, thank you for your kind words! I guess as far as profs go, I’m reasonably cool (the standards aren’t that high after all), but I’m sure you’ll find pretty cool profs wherever you go. Most of us hide it behind social awkwardness, but there’s a cool person inside there somewhere…

Well, and if there’s ever anything I can do or answer — my ask box is always open!