note - Meres and writing

I didn't realize going into it how awkward it was going to be for Kimber and Meres to be talking together.  She sounds SO lame and silly and...well, dumb, actually, compared to his much more elaborate and elegant speech.  (Made even worse once I went back and re-read some of Amaranthus again for awhile to get his voice into my head - the entire story is in the voices of my Grigori, which is... a very different voice from a normal person in the present day!)

...is that fact that I am 43902 kinds of in love with Meres showing much? lol. Inevitable. But I hope... I recently read Grounded by Heather Ordover (of the Craftlit podcast fame), and I fell completely in love with one of her characters.  And as I was reading it, I was paying more attention to the writing than I often do (because I could relate a lot to her style and content, so was trying to pay attention to how she made things work).  And I could tell by the way she wrote the character, that she's completely in love with him too - so in reading it, I couldn't help but feel the same way.

At least I think so.  Either that or she and I are just both suckers for mysterious boys with unexpectedly sweet/humorous sides and floppy brown hair.  Which is also entirely possible.  (I might still tweaking some fanart of Casey.)

Anyway.  Meres.  <3  It surprised me, actually, how light and sweet and happy he is here - there's a brightness that I hadn't expected him to have found.  But I know he's happy in this little world he's created with Celestine...and I'm happy to see him that way.

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That said: I've been battling in my own mind about the possible conflicting timelines between this story and Amaranthus.  (Obviously, they don't HAVE to actually work together, but I kind of want them to.  I could have the characters be someone else, but... I don't want to lol.)  I think I'm going to have to go back and change some dates in the editing anyway, the kids' birth years and Celestine's death aren't going to line up right currently.  I'd originally thought this story took place after Amaranthus, but I don't think it does - I think it's actually before.  And it's the sorrow and frustration and everything that Meres and Azal have here that eventually sends them back to hang out with their cohorts in London.  Azal takes a break back in the desert for awhile first.  I'm not sure how I'm going to rationalize the fact that they'll be friends again in Amaranthus - in re-reading, it's clear that they're on very good terms - but despite their selfishness, deep down, these characters have a lot of sympathy for each other, and Meres especially.  Puny humans? No forgiveness, no mercy.  But among each other?  What they've gone through is so infinitely much worse than anything they could do to each other, it just slides away like water.  Not only do these things pale in comparison, but their history excuses just about anything they do - as a result of the fear, or the loneliness, or in avoiding the pain, or distraction, or some seemingly innocuous thing triggering a deeper memory...