Comment on On the Nature of Wind

  1. daraoakwise on Chapter 26 Wed 11 Oct 2023 09:13PM UTC

    And we come to it. Atmospherically, the Grey creeps up. (I love that Scotty was able to crack the tricorder, because of course he was.)

    The two of them sitting in silence, not quite sure of what to say. That it still feels like they are in the water. (For all I eyeroll these boys and their age-appropriate stupidity—they need what’s next, as much as they needed what was before.) But right now Corry is feeling lost and angry, and shaken.

    I appreciate his question, and his musing. He has run into real trouble only twice. Aaron’s injury, which will he acknowledges he went about the wrong way. At least he felt like he was doing something. And the fire where what needed done was an apology and being better. But here this could have gone so wrong that he couldn’t have fixed it. It didn’t—but for the first time it really could have. For the first time maybe there was nothing he would’ve been able to do except find a way to live with it. And he has no idea how he could have done that.

    (And oh his anger.)

    The boarding, a brawl. (Scotty, good at it but—not wanting to. That is really interesting. And very much him, even if he is only just learning that about himself. You are more gentle than you know.) It really is still fun and games, honestly. Still joking, still just payback, even if edged with anger. The work they did on the jammer impressive and interesting.

    Scotty, considering Corry. Realizing something about his best friend. Corrywould give up pieces of himself, even very important pieces of himself, to protect Scotty. That is quite the realization. It’s sobering. (bighearted, funny Corry who hasn’t had to live with his fists up. But who you and I know has that deep streak of ferocity.)

    And then it’s not fun and games at all because Harrison has a phaser, and desperation. Scotty, level headed, although to die like this when he is just figuring out how to live…..

    And then Corry. We’ve discussed before what Cor is capable of. Of the two of them he seems kinder, but there is something in him—that streak to protect at all costs, even at the cost of himself. I love what Scotty has learned here. When to jump, when to give in. When to fight again. (When to stop Corry.)

    “I want to,” Corry says. And Scotty knows that. He’s seen it before, in his own life. He is faced it in other people.

     

    He’s found it in himself, about to put his fist in Corry’s face those months ago. So s Scotty tell him—I know you want to, which is why you can’t, because the part of yourself that you have to give away to do this is not worth it.

    I love how they both realize they are still in the water

    And finally, the answer. Cory asking—what if I couldn’t have saved you??? How would I have lived with it???

    And the answer: you already saved me. What an answer. What a brilliant, gorgeous answer and end to this story (not done yet, but this right here is the crescendo.)

    I just about don’t have words for how much I love this chapter. For what it is for the two of them individually and together for the rest of their lives. Saving each other. Literally. Figuratively. Coming in after each other, always. This is a gorgeous chapter. Tense. Heartfelt. And at the end here very much like your head coming above the surface for breath of air.

    Comment Actions

    1. SLWalker on Chapter 26 Thu 12 Oct 2023 02:10AM UTC

      Back waaaay back in-- idk, back when I wrote the first draft and shared it seeking advice, my friend Kay (one of the best RP partners I ever had, and a woman whose writing I admired and still do to this day) told me that I'd sort of covered Scotty's moment of truth, but had not yet really looked at what all this had done and would do to Cor. And that was how this chapter went from being more light to what it is here.

      It's funny looking back over the evolution of it; what scenes I added originally and what scene I added back recently, and how it finally looks, I think, like it should.

      You are more gentle than you know. It is super interesting. He hates fighting, at least this kind of fighting, but until now, he's pretty much always had to in some fashion or another. If not always physically. And not always straight-forwardly.

      But here he is post-rescue (the one before this, anyway) and he's still trying to wrap his brain around what's changed. Because he feels it, he knows it, but it's so much. And so deep. So, he's in that still-place after until he needs to take up metaphorical arms again, protecting Cor, even maybe from Cor himself.

      Oh man, that last scene. The reckoning. And the sort of-- permanent setting of some things between them. Within them, too. The themes of light in the darkness. And that sometimes it does mean something to snarl back at the universe that otherwise doesn't care about you one whit.

      Thank you so much for the kind and insightful comment.

      Comment Actions