Giving Day at Black Keep, Chapter 2

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2

The lord mayor had picked out some nice rooms for his friends on the same floor as the guest quarters Celice usually stayed in, and he and Celice enjoyed watching them admire the décor.

“Wow, this is so neat,” Terra said as she inspected the plush bedding in her room. “It’s like we’re staying in a castle!”

“And the floating crystal centrepieces in the sitting rooms are a nice touch,” Pharazon said from outside the bedroom, leaning over the table to inspect one of said centrepieces.

“That was my idea,” Celice said as Blynn reached out to poke one of the violet crystals. It bobbed slightly and then went back to its stable position. “Flowers don’t quite seem to fit the theme of this place.”

“Unless you used dark thorn vines and dragonbuds,” Pharazon said.

Kass chuckled. “True,” he said, “but I was going more for ‘darkly elegant’, not ‘unnervingly macabre’. I’m a Draconian, after all, not a Haunted Woods Neopet.”

 

Giving Day at Black Keep, Chapter 1

This story came about because I just had so much fun writing The Spirit of Black Keep that I wanted to revisit Kass and Black Keep and see how they were getting on. It was also the holiday season and I just wanted to write something festive and fun about a group of friends simply enjoying each other's company. 

In fact, this story was originally conceptualized as just what ended up being the first chapter. But as I introduced Celice's dysfunctional family and had Kass tease the prospect of them interacting with Terra's quirky clan, I realized I couldn't just talk about the possibility of that happening and not deliver; hence, the story ended up being about three times as long as I had expected. Not that I'm mad.

I had a lot of fun writing Black Keep as an actual functional castle; I imagine it's actually a rather nice place to live when it's not being utilized as a video game dungeon. Plus, with Celice and her interactions with her family, I wanted to send a message about the importance of putting up boundaries and communicating clearly, and not assuming that your relationships with those closest to you don't need any work just because you've known them all your life.

I had way too much fun writing Celice's terrifying nieces and nephews. Kids are wonderful and unsettling all at once. Also, I'd teased at Celice being a member of the nobility since her first appearance where she introduces herself as "Lady Celice Anfel", so I thought now would be an opportune time to really explore that and show where she was coming from in Draik Expectations, and how family pressures molded her into a workaholic.

Just made a few minor edits to this one from the version that got into the Neopian Times; mostly some prose fixes, as well as a few tweaks to the characterization to better get the story across and make sure it was all consistent with the updated versions of previous fics.

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2

“This is fantastic, Kass, just fantastic!” Celice Anfel the white Lupe said to her Darigan Eyrie friend as they strolled down the wintry, holly-bedecked streets of Market Town, laden with bags of groceries.

Lord Kass looked over at her and smiled. Her tail was high and there was a spring in her step as her boots splashed through piles of slush on the cobblestones. Although the sorceress had a penchant for sarcasm, he could detect none of it now.

“I must say,” he said, “I didn’t take you as one to enjoy Giving Day.” Shifting the weight of the groceries in his arms, he adjusted the striped scarf around his neck—an important gift from an important friend. The heavy aroma of warm mince pies wafted up from one of the bags, making his mouth water.

 

 I mean, really, it's a bit uncanny that this 1500-year-old Unown script perfectly correlates to the modern English alphabet.

Also kinda weird that no researcher seems to have noticed this, but the 10-year-old player character can figure it out. #videogamelogic #maincharactervibes

 Also, I found a 1500-year-old Berry in a secret room, so I went ahead and fed it to my Pokémon. Shouldn't be a problem, right?

 I have a lot of questions about the way the Ruins of Alph are handled as an ancient archaeological site. Methinks it's time for an audit.

Fall From Grace

I always thought Xandra from the Faeries' Ruin plot was a really compelling villain. She's not all "muwahaha gonna take over everything because EVIL" like Dr. Sloth, or avaricious like Captain Scarblade; rather, Xandra is on a twisted social justice crusade. She used to be the faeries' best student, but something happened to turn her against them, and I found myself wondering what that might have been.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to lay out some ideas I'd been tossing around, actually since Worth Fighting For, concerning the ancient history of the faeries and why there are old faerie weapons scattered around Neopia but nobody seems to know why. So, even though this story about Xandra on the surface doesn't seem to be at all related to the adventures of my main Neopets cast, it contains some important lore that plays a role in those stories. That's why I decided to include it here.

There are some important questions raised in this story that I think are even more relevant now than they were when I wrote this, about the ethics of digging up dirt on someone just for the sake of knowing the truth, and about not forgiving people, even when they're trying to fix things. Nobody is perfect - not even very good people - and I think it's wrong to pass permanent judgment on people based solely on their mistakes, especially if they've tried to make things better. (Astute readers will also notice that Fyora never actually did anything wrong and has always been a benevolent ruler, but Xandra decided to detest her because she was a faerie and therefore had to be evil in Xandra's mind.)

This story is also about the dangers of deciding you're a special snowflake who is above the rules. Xandra didn't have any reason to go snooping around the faeries' private business except to satisfy her own curiosity and nurse her wounded pride, both of which are very bad reasons to go sticking your nose where it doesn't belong. Xandra claims the faeries betrayed her trust, but she is an unreliable narrator--if one reads between the lines, Xandra's really the one who betrayed the faeries. Of course, she's completely unable to see it that way because she's so convinced she's right and they're wrong. Hence, the title of the story is a double entendre--while ostensibly the narrative is about the faeries falling from Xandra's high opinion of them, the subtext is that Xandra herself has fallen from being a friend of the faeries.

As to whether it was right for Fyora to cover up the faerie wars, I'll leave that to the reader to think about. Contrary to what Xandra claims in the narrative, Fyora never lied to her or to anyone, but there are certainly subjects she's not comfortable discussing and wishes to remain in the past. I imagine the faerie wars were traumatic for everyone involved, including the faeries, and it's something they don't like to be reminded of (they can't forget the wars, though, for reasons I elaborate on in a future fic). So it's questionable for Xandra to assert that the faeries shouldn't hide anything from Neopets (or, more specifically, terribly clever Neopets like her) if there's sensitive information that isn't actually necessary for them to share.

Lots to think about with this one. That's why I enjoyed writing it.

Also, I know in canon the Library Faerie has been named Seshatia. I wrote this years before her canon name was revealed, and I don't even play the website anymore so I don't feel like changing it. I'm sure there's lots in my writing that contradicts more recent canon material, but I don't feel like trying to make it fit. These fics are kind of an ode to the way Neopets used to be and I don't feel like muddling that with newer franchise lore.

Also, I'm annoyed that recent content shows the Library Faerie using a wheelchair or crutches. It's not that I have anything against characters with disabilities, but a faerie, of all things, really? Aren't they supposed to be magical? And can fly? It's one of my fantasy and sci-fi pet peeves when characters have physical disabilities in a universe where the technology/magic clearly exists to either fix or adequately compensate for those those disabilities. If Neopia has potions that can instantly restore hundreds of health points to a Neopet, imported Virtupets technology that far surpasses that of modern Earth, and a sizeable community of highly skilled magicians, why in the world is someone using an ordinary wheelchair to get around?

It's not that I don't want people with disabilities to feel seen and included in the media, but it's really important that fiction writers keep in mind what would make sense according to the state of technology, fantasy/sci-fi elements, and overall rules of a universe. Think of how much it would break suspension of disbelief if, for example, there was a smallpox outbreak in the Star Wars universe, or Thor broke his leg and spent an entire Marvel film hobbling around in a cast. I think one of the reasons why imaginary worlds appeal so much to people is because they're places where we can temporarily escape from a lot of our real-world problems and let our spirits run free. I don't see anything wrong with a fantasy world where nobody is disabled because the technology and magic exists to fix those disabilities. 

(As a former huge Star Wars geek, I learned that the franchise is very intentional about not having anybody wear glasses in the Star Wars universe because it's implied that the technology to fix vision problems has existed for thousands of years and is ubiquitous throughout the galaxy. And as cute as glasses can make somebody [shameless plug], I have to say that it would be nice to go through life not having to rely on two pieces of glass perched on my nose for the world not to be blurry. It doesn't offend me or make me feel excluded that nobody in Star Wars wears glasses. That's just the way their universe works.)

I'm also just not a fan of the idea of faeries being susceptible to mortal frailties. I liked them better when site lore portrayed them as extremely powerful, mystical, and immortal entities, pretty much akin to demigoddesses, not just sparkly women wearing nightgowns (with wings that only exist for show, apparently). It's one of many examples of things I dislike about the direction the newer creative team has been taking the franchise and why I stepped away from it. It really bothers me when a new generation of writers and artists steps in to take over from the team that built a fictional universe, and proceeds to completely misunderstand what made that universe interesting and fun to begin with. I've been seeing Pokémon kinda struggle with the same things lately and it's worrisome.

“Good morning, Xandra,” said the Library Faerie to the speckled Xweetok who’d just walked through the doors of the royal libraries of Faerieland. The brown-haired, bespectacled Faerie placed one last book on the volumes she was sorting and then smiled over at the young witch.

“Good morning, Sybella,” Xandra said, returning her smile as the Xweetok adjusted her own spectacles. Her arms were full of books, as usual. “I’ve come to return these and check out more.”

Sybella’s eyes widened. “More? But you just checked those out last week!”

“I read too quickly,” Xandra said with a sigh as she placed the books on the front desk.

 

 I feel like kids in the Pokémon world take on an unusual amount of responsibility.

Which, when you're a kid is a dream come true because you're like "oh yeah, I'm ready to ADULT" but then as an adult you're more like "oh no honey, let me do everything for you until you're 30". (Except the moms in the Pokémon world seem strangely eager for their kids to take off on their Trainer journeys already.)