I bashed out a short fic featuring Alston. It needs some cleaning and a few added details but once I do that and make some people read it for child behavior analysis then I’ll probably post.
To be clear on this: I don’t know how much I will do with Al. He’s a nice addition to the post war stuff, but my main focus has always been the war and it’s effects on the MIC characters. I’m not as familiar with post war/civilian life coping strategies (and neither are the characters tbh). There’s also a LOT of behind the scenes fretting over writing proper child behavior and development, while also trying to create an entirely new yet reasonable set of milestones for a half-elf child. This, of course, would require a set of developmental milestones for both human children (have that, with a lot of help from one of my awesome readers and friends!) AND elf children (which we very much do not have and have to science the shit out of with what scraps Paolini gave us). So essentially making two whole new behavioral and developmental milestones guides. This is not something I ever thought I’d be researching.
There’s also the more nitty-gritty science of how elf and human genetics and traits would mash up and how they would present or be removed/buried. That’s more my speed. If I continue writing stories about Al it can give me a chance to introduce the more science-y explanation stuff I’ve been cultivating over the years regarding how elves work physically, ie bone strength to resist their natural enhanced strength, why eating meat isn’t just an ethical choice for a majority of elves, the more draconic traits that were passed down via the bond, and other fantasy-and-magic-meets-somewhat-plausible-explanation stuff. These things have long been a part of why I wrote MIC and why I keep coming back to it.
So. Anyway. I’ve sort of forgotten why I was writing this. On mobile and have a bloody wicked headache and don’t want to scroll up. Al is a new canon addition to the MIC post-war, but once I get the short fic out don’t come clamoring asking for more. You can always ask me general questions about Al, but some things I want to reveal via story rather than exposition, so some things won’t get a straight answer.
Looking forward to getting the short out soon! I also do commencement/walk for graduation this coming Saturday, and I finished my (hopefully) last final exam as an undergrad today. So. More time for tumblr, writing and research for writing 😁 ask me questions!! Not just about Al but about anything MIC! And I’ll actually have time to answer!
Cheers mates!