"Take This Oath"--Author's Commentary

[ailis_fictive]

So I've decided that I get to do an author's commentary post on anything I write, because otherwise I'll end up posting author's notes that are longer than the fics, and that's just tacky. Read or ignore at your whim; I do this as much for my own longer-term reference as to inform my Gentle Reader.

"Take This Oath" was the first fic I wrote when my writer-brain came back (there will be a post about that soon, that I'll link to as soon as I write), and it happened almost by accident. I was reading my way through the Vorkosigan fanfic on AO3,and hit "In This Stranger World" by lannamichaels and fell head over heels in love with the summary line: "Take this oath and press it between your palms." Then I read the fic.

Now, it's a gorgeous piece, and I love it, and I'm probably going to podfic it as soon as I get a microphone because I keep going back to read it out loud to myself. It's great. It just wasn't anything like the shape in my head that the summary line had started to form. If you've ever taken a sip of the amber liquid in the glass expecting hard cider, and gotten single malt scotch instead? Like that. Still good, possibly even better, but there's a moment where your eyes bug and you have to reboot your brain.

That seems to be a productive state of mind for me, because that half-formed shape in my head wouldn't go away. I finally sat down and wrote this just to give it some form. I have a well-established THING about fealty oaths, and loyalty, so it's probably not at all surprising that this is the first thing I've written and the first thing I posted.

(Timing notes: first draft, 10/11/12. Revised 10/26/12. Revised to post 11/23/12. Commentary written 11/23/12)

Comments

[philomytha]

This is an excellent fandom in which to have a THING about oaths and fealty; I certainly do :-).

[ailis_fictive]

...I, erm, have noticed that. :) We had a similar exchange in the comments on "Black Ice" over on Ao3, where I was just "Ailis".

Like the rest of the fandom, I am poking at Aral/Simon post-Escobar, because the universe needs more of that. Ahem. With, of course, the implied "Aral Vorkosigan's Dog" back-story, diverging at their arrival back on Barrayar. You did the actual Escobar bits so well that I can't really see anything else to do with them, but I think there's a few more...facets to work through, if you will, in the time on Barrayar, even if I've had to bend the universe a teesy bit to get there. (Not an actual AU, just an "I don't care if this assignment is not entirely plausible, it gives me my story, darn it." I can make the argument that it works, I'm just not sure I've even convinced myself.)

Ah, which is to say: thank you. You're someone whose work I value highly.

[philomytha]

This is me being very happy at the thought of more Aral/Simon post-Escobar! AVD wanted to be how it was, but I did suffer from occasional frustration that it could only go one way - I'd love to see some others. Also, I am suffering from the same 'this plot is not quite 100% plausible but it's the way to get the story' issue at present, and am trying to dance as lightly as possible over the awkward bits.

And, per your comment below, it does also appear to be a communicable disease: I've had more than one comment on my fics to the tune of 'I didn't know I had a Thing for oaths and loyalty before I read this, but now I definitely do'.

[ailis_fictive]

Oh, good! It's odd that there seems to be so much to say about a stretch of story that is mostly "And now we wait for Cordelia to show up and Fix Everything" (one of the things I'm currently cursing about is what *was* Ezar's plan if the Convenient Galactic Wife did not appear, since he makes such a point of the fact that the Regent should be happily married...) but...it's a neat thing to play with.

>a communicable disease

That's cool! (and a very neat compliment to get...) It's pretty much always been a thing for me...blame Howard Pyle. The first story I became truly obsessive about--in second grade--was Robin Hood, and the moment I've always loved the most was King Richard's arrival. I get very grumpy at Robin Hood stories that don't give me a King Richard (or relevant king-for-timeline, if the story's been shifted.)

[lannamichaels]

I am so happy the fic inspired you! As philomytha said, this is a good fandom for having things about oaths and loyalty. :)

[ailis_fictive]

Quite!

I wonder how much it's self-reinforcing? I mean, there's a lot in the books to work from--but we write the things that interest us, and people are drawn to the fandom because that's what they want to read, and in turn inspired to write. It certainly worked for me...

[lannamichaels]

Oh, definitely. Especially in a fandom this small. If you consider fic from the point of view of it being a conversation, there are definitely things going on there that are sort of seperate, in some ways, from canon. (And then CVA showed up as a YAY SIMON book, which amuses the hell out of me. Canon talking back?)

Of course this has the unintended effect that the fic self-reinforces, leaving certain aspects not covered. I don't know what's going on in the Russian language fandom, or on other places, but there isn't much Dendarii fic being posted to AO3. It might exist elsewhere, but the AO3 fandom is heavily Barrayar-focused. YAY SIMON, indeed. ;)

[ailis_fictive]

>the AO3 fandom is heavily Barrayar-focused.

Which was all to the good, from my point of view. I've never disliked the more Dendarii-focused books (oddly, the one I warmed to the slowest was _Shards of Honor_, though I did hit it at an age when I was suffering from a violent allergy to romance), but...ACC and Barrayar are my two favorites, with ACC usually out by a nose. In TWA, my favorite bit is the treason trial. In TVG, I focus on Gregor. I've never entirely forgiven the omnibus reprints for stealing the Miles-Simon conversations framing _Borders of Infinity_. Etc. I don't think I'd be *writing* in a Dendarii-focused fandom.