#silkfic

[nessiopeia]

If you like it when things get a little fucked up in my silkfic, then boy howdy do I have good news for you 🥰😰

Death for the Deathless Chapter 3 out now

https://archiveofourown.org/works/81007866/chapters/217944341#main

[nessiopeia]

So it begins.

Chapter 1 of Death for the Deathless out now. Enjoy 🖤🖤🖤

https://archiveofourown.org/works/81007866/chapters/212849746

[nessiopeia]

Words fail for how good it feels to be back in the saddle writing in-fiction poetry as Trobbio.

Anyways, Death for the Deathless - Chapter 1: This Cradle of Us out tomorrow morning.

[nessiopeia]

How do you think Herrah and Vespa would think of Hornet’s friends from Pharloom if they were still alive?

So in Silksong during the red memory, Herrah’s lines of dialog to Hornet really stuck with me and inspired so much of my interpretation of their dynamic in in my fic. Specifically when she says:

“...Greater, grander... Weaver, guardian, queen... Those are their desires... not your own. Certainly not mine...”

L...Only if you resist them, you might see it, another hope... beyond...”

So my answer is both the same whether I’m talking about End, As All Good Songs Do or my interpretation of the canon itself: I feel like Herrah wants Hornet to overcome the desires put on her by her station, birth, and the world around her and become her own spider. And, I think that includes finding community that treats her differently than Weavers would.

Towards that I think Herrah would love to know she’s in good claws: bugs who would like the same for Hornet. Short answer: I think Herrah would love them!

For Vespa, I think her relationship with Hornet is much less predicated on her personal trauma and expectations for her own life, and more trying to raise a non-bee in the shadow of Herrah’s death. Vespa’s whole life is family, so I think her only hope for Hornet would be that she find her own hive while staying true to her spider-y nature. That’s more of my headcanon, however. Additionally, now I really want to write a fic about Vespa struggling to raise a teenage Hornet because of the conflict of Hornet isn’t a bee and isn’t a spider and how can Vespa provide her guidance and love and feel like she’s living up to her late lover, Herrah. Much to consider.

Short of it though is: both would be happy for Hornet, but I think the reasons would be different.

[nessiopeia]

In case anyone’s wondering what stage of deranged wannabe Tolkien world building I’m at with the sequel to AWCV, Death for the Deathless: uhhh ummm uhhhhhhh

Each node is like an at least 300 word summary if not an essay and my girlfriend and I made a fake language.

[nessiopeia]

On the topic of DFTD, have you thought about how it’s themes compliment or is in “conversation” if you will that have HK and Silksong? Obviously DFTD will have its own identity to it and that also is curious to see hwo the stories of New Hallow and its inhabitants contrast to that old Hallownest and Pharloom. Just curious if you thought about this yourself and how DFTD fits as a hypothetical (non canon) thematic ender to the “Hollow Knight trilogy.”

(Oh and on a less serious note, but I really love Rall the criminal bartender guy and I hope and his small gang get some screentime cause I love some morally complex criminal gangs à la Peaky Blinders, so I picture him with Nick Cave’s “Red Right Hand” playing in the background lmao. And it’s fun to imagine something like criminal gangs in HK to explore new concepts and character archetypes).

What a wonderful question!

I would probably conceive it more as a quadrilogy, as I see AWCV as its own story and prelude to DFTD. But I definitely have been thinking about themes throughout the two games and relating to them in my work.

If I had to settle on some big ones, I've always seen Hollow Knight as a story about Grief and Silksong as a story about Control. I think that it really comes through in their gameplay and narrative, where Ghost's journey through Hallownest is mired in being just a little too late to fix anything. Compare this to Hornet, whose journey I see as about how she is manipulated into acts by her trigger responses, specifically her lifelong struggle with her vengeful nature and the way bugs harness it (PK setting her up to be Hallownest's guardian, Phantom using her to kill themselves, Lace manipulating her to kill Mother Silk, the one thing she could not do, as well as various wishes, etc.) Hornet's sense of duty and her rage really feels like her curse, where Ghost's curse is that they are a spirit of death, visiting to put Hallownest to rest.

These stories are so mired in despair, and while I love them for that, that isn't necessarily my style as a writer. I am flattered to have my fanfic considered in the vein of these two masterpieces, but I also see my work as separate in tone because, though my work itself and its pretty consistent horror and misery might disagree with this, I am invested in a story that is about healing. AWCV is entirely about Lace healing from her abuse. It's a story about forgiveness and vulnerability most of all.

Death for the Deathless is about one thing most of all: death. It is about good deaths and bad deaths, it is about remembering the dead, wishing for death, giving death, and fearing it. Most of all it is about the ways our societies orient themselves around the fear and desire of that end. There is of course still heavy exploration of love, forgiveness, and vulnerability as the main cast goes through what they're about to endure, but my main focus is on all the meanings of dying, especially in the strange world Team Cherry gave to us. So excited to release chapter 4 and 5 because they both deal with this heavily. Soon!

Love some Rall love! I absolutely will confirm that he's a major character throughout, and that the criminal underbelly of the Edged City is a huge part of the first third of this story. Stoked to get into it!

[nessiopeia]

Finally done!

I spent the last month editing A Wish Cast Vain and I'm really proud of where I got it to. It was honestly a very incredible learning experience to dig into the way I construct sentences and flow and to strive to sharpen its blade even more.

Anyways if the spirit moves you:

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[nessiopeia]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/81007866/chapters/227991336

Death for the Deathless returns!

Good morning, Hornet. Please don’t freak out.