traincat

Just realised I've written two different fics within the past two months - Communication (Deltarune) and Common Ground (Star Trek DS9) - that conclude with an arrangement to play the piano between a person and the intangible, inescapable part of themselves they have a complicated relationship with. I know I have a tendency to revisit themes, but this is ridiculous.

Come to think of it, I've also got a couple of earlier fics that conclude with the protagonist deciding to play music, or reaching a point where they're able to play music again. I just like making characters play music when they're in a dark place! It feels like such a hopeful thing to me.

The piano's been on my mind lately; somehow I keep encountering it in fiction! Kris of Deltarune plays the piano. Verso of Clair Obscur plays the piano. I started watching Your Lie in April on a whim, knowing very little about it, and it turns out it's largely about the musical development of a young pianist. When I was writing my DS9 fic, I looked up Joran and went, Oh, he's a musician? Maybe I could use that in this fic. What does he play? Probably some sort of weird future instrument, right? ...no, he's a pianist, of course.

There are other canons I've experienced that involve the piano, of course! (Omori comes to mind. Omori always comes to mind. I cannot escape or forget Omori.) But I feel I've run into a real concentration within the last couple of months.

This is nice because it's got me playing the piano again, after neglecting it for a little while! I'm not a masterful player, largely because I rarely have the patience to learn a new piece - my repertoire mainly consists of songs I've been playing over and over again for a decade or two, with the occasional clumsy and simplified attempt to play by ear - but I do enjoy it. There's something so calming about sitting down and letting instinct and muscle memory carry you through a piece of music.

I wonder how Kris of Deltarune would react if, while controlling them, I played the piano in a way that made it clear to them that I actually know how to play. I wonder if that would change our relationship.

Is this piano rambling going anywhere? No. The rest of this post will be an account of my recent dreams.


( Assorted dreams over the summer. )


Last night, I dreamt I posted a fic to AO3 and tried to title it 'Little Talks' (you've used this title before, Riona!). I did not notice until the next day that I'd accidentally called it 'Coggled Sprogs', which I have at least not used before.

Ten years ago today, on 6 August 2015, I posted Visitors, a little Assassin's Creed oneshot inspired by Sense8. It was set in a universe in which Altaïr, Ezio, Edward, Haytham, Shay, Aveline, Connor and Desmond kept popping into each other's lives unpredictably. Eight scenes, one from the perspective of each character; 3,200 words. That was all it was ever intended to be.

A lot of the comments I got said that I should write more of this AU. Usually, as someone who mainly writes oneshots, I find 'write more!' requests a little frustrating. On this occasion, I couldn't help feeling that they were right.

So I wrote a little more. And a little more. And then I started posting a sequel. And then one of the fic's commenters, salanaland, began writing in the same universe; I was surprised and thrilled.

Meanwhile, I had received a comment on the fanfiction.net version of Visitors:

Read the fanfics "Unintended Consequences" and its sequel "Change my Mind" from Vampire-badger. They are just like this oneshot - only with much more humor, slightly different cast of time-travelling characters, and 214 chapters in total. You'll love them!

In retrospect, this comment is one of the best things that ever happened to me, but at the time I was slightly grumpy about it. Not a word on whether they'd actually enjoyed my story; just 'read these fics; they're like yours but better.'

As if that weren't bad enough, the commenter turned out to be absolutely right. I loved them. I was so annoyed.

I left VampireBadger a long and enthusiastic comment, she got in touch to say thanks, we chatted a bit back and forth, she read Visitors, and somehow she also ended up writing in my universe.

With me, salanaland and VampireBadger all working on it, the Vistorverse exploded into a vast, overcomplicated, magnificently confusing series. I woke up every day excited about this universe. The three of us were constantly plotting out new developments and ironing out timeline issues. It's the most ambitious fandom project I've ever been a part of.

There were new instalments almost every day; there were often multiple instalments per day. In the October of 2015, the three of us posted fifty-four(???) new chapters in total. There was always more to read, more to write, more ideas to discuss.

When the Visitorverse finally came to an end, in the spring of 2017, it was over 900,000 words long. (VampireBadger was personally responsible for over half of that wordcount; she is - and I mean this in the best possible way - an absolute maniac. My own contribution was only ('only') about 120,000 words.) But it hadn't quite finished. There was one fic - Revisiting Roots, a collection of scenes by all three of us in the style of the original Visitors - that hadn't yet wrapped up.

It finally wrapped up today. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Visitorverse - the tenth Visitorversary, so to speak - I've finished and posted the final chapter of Revisiting Roots, seven years after the last update. We wrote most of these scenes years and years ago; it's good to get them out into the fresh air at last!

I've been really pleasantly surprised by the comments! I wasn't sure whether anyone would remember the Visitorverse after all these years, but the update has had multiple comments from people who have fond feelings about it. I certainly do; writing in this universe was one of the best times of my fannish life. It's been really nice to revisit it, just for a moment.

This entry has no real point besides nostalgia! I just wanted to reflect on the anniversary of a fannish project I had an absolute blast with. I haven't touched an Assassin's Creed game in ages; maybe I should revisit the series at some point.