Afterword.
It's amazing to think that this story has been a major focus of my free time when I had it. In the past year, so much has happened, yet it all seemed to happen so quickly.
When this story began, I just wanted to build a simple story critiquing objectivity and subjectivity and how people liked to keep them seperate in study. Yet, as I read a large number of books on the subject, I realized that the various things that were introduced had to really tie into that bigger point. The observer becoming part of the experiment was a major theme I played with as Rowan developed. Yet that posed its own problems that had essentially brought the story to a halt for a while.
It was only after reading transcripts for the apollo 1 disaster that I finally managed to come up with a possible solution. 3 days of frantic writing resulted in chapters 23 and 24. Many more days of modifications, notes, and thoughts resulted in the backstories for side characters and the inclusion of an additional theme.
When it came to the characters, Aria was the only one with any solid personality defined at first. She was meant to serve as the counterbalance to early Rowan, and help to offer perspective. The original plot was meant to have a sort of crisis in which they would find themselves together while the observation turned to hell due to Amelias interference in trying to keep herself and Rowan from being observed.
One initial draft actually had Aria dying by Amelia. That version quickly got discarded, but I saw an opportunity in how Amelia reacted to Rowans devestation that his budding love interest died. That attitude she had was thus incorperated, then became a rather important side plot. Her realization of how wrong she was drove her to helping Rowan because she realized that her viewpoints were wrong. From that arose the opportunity to examine an aspect of elitism that pokemon X and Y only hinted at in the form of Lysandre. That turned into the seed for arcs 2 and 3 which have little bits of scattered plot points drawn up as of this writing.
In the completion of this arc though, I feel a need to give everyone a little break. And so, I'm adding an arc 1.5 in which Rowan gets to meet his biological father, and build a connection which will be used extensively in Arc 3. Plus, I wanted to give him at least 1 proper parent he can form an attachment.
The importance of this story comes in the end from the desire to create an aspect of the world of pokemon where the hot button topics are touched on, but also gently chastised for how absurd they can be. The Gardevoir fandom is as much a target of this chastisement as any other. While I consider myself something of a Gardevoir fangirl, I also wanted to gently poke fun at a lot of tropes associated with Gardevoir. A number of decisions were very intentional. Such as not writing a sex scene, of having them reach new heights of affection without it being sexual in nature, yet then playing their off screen antics for laughs, as that one morning they wake up in the tent after a night of drunken escapades.
The biggest thing though, was how Gardevoir end up getting portrayed when they are seen as an object of affection. So, I decided to turn the entire thing around a little. Rowan became Arias target of affection, and she was the one who led him into it. Instead of him coming to her rescue, she comes to his. A common element in Gardevoir fanfiction can be played out as follows:
Gardevoir is abused or suffering.
guy (or girl) trainer white knights it.
Gardevoir becomes hopelessly loyal
Ends up being seen more as the macguffin, a thing to be won.
Happy day.
This is not universal though, and whenever I stumble across one that does not have this play out, I tend to hold it in higher regard. In fact, the gift of the protector series kind of exemplifies a rather perfect 2 way relationship in which they both end up saving each other more often than not.
Ultimately though, the chastisement is gentle. Part of being in any fandom is being able to critique it and offer improvement.
Onto a few other aspects that were very important.
The concept of culture figured heavily into how this story wound up being shaped. When I began writing, and Rowans observations began noting the cultural aspect, I realised that this needed to be MAJOR. As much as this story is of anything else, it is also my take on what a Gardevoir culture would look like if such a thing existed. I wanted to see just how interactions would be modified and affected by emotion, so the concept of emotion figured heavily into the role of culture and also formed the basis of a grand god like entity which is only suggested and could very well be their own way to understand their interaction with emotion as a concept and how it affects and is shaped by causality.
When this took shape, I briefly toyed with using the gardevoir word as the base, and that showed up. If I could, I'd revise away that very brief usage and would replace it with their language from the get go. However, it is stuck and it will remain an oddity that I consider a mistake in my own work. From a few titles, has grown an entire sort of dictionary, where the structure and words each have their own meaning and are ultimately inventions to add tot he cultural dynamic of the Gardevoir. It is one of the more important pieces of innovation I see in this story for me. It is one of the good things for me to come out of this story.
When I began devising side characters, or minor characters, or even mentions, I wanted to have a wide diversity of names and backrounds. Freeman began essentially as a nod to the half life series as well as to Ross, the voice of Freeman in the game video series Freemans mind. However, the name of him and the name of his lab are just that, nods. They wound up not resembling the original sources at all. Even Maurice and Katia Krafft. When it came to some of Rowans heros, I wanted them to be good examples. Yet passing in nature. Mentors who seemed larger than life when seen through the lens of idalism, but ultimately just humans. People who live and die and have to get by on their own, with their own problems and their own way of dealing with the oddities that life throws at them.
So, here are the ones based on real people:
Rick Hoblit, famous Volcanologist and the subject of the book "Volcano cowboys, the evolution of a dangerous science" - I first heard about him during Pinatubos eruption. He was the calm under fire kind of geologist who was as much a hero as an inspiration.
Maurice and Katia Krafft: Two volcanologists who died during the eruption of Mount unzen. If you have ever seen dramatic pictures of past volcanic eruptions, chances are they shot it. They brought the concept of awe and beauty to volcanoes and helped the public to see them as the objects of beauty they are.
Aria: An aspect of myself actually. The feeling and highly emotional side who sees beauty in the natural world. Who lives because she understands just how precious life is. She is easy going over all, and feels great attachment to others. Yet she also is clingy to those she loves and can become jealous easily if she feels like someone would try and take what she cherishes the most. She gives Rowan support and guidance, yet gains perspective and a sense of purpose that transcends just her obligations. She sees her obligations in proper context near the end, helping her to step up and assume a role of leadership.
Rowan: Actually not entirely based upon me. The observant, intelligent type is a little based upon myself, but is also a blank slate from the get go. I wanted him to be seen as callow and rather blunt from the beginning, yet growing to become entirely selfless and spontaneously loving. He gives Aria her sense of perspective about the bigger world, but also gains from her the ability to see the beauty in the world.
Yet the story is never complete without the fact that this story also is about myself in a way... About changing ones own perspective, of stepping out from behind safe abstractions and moving beyond comfort zones. Of lapsing into moments of pure emotion and inspiration that they coalesce into a concentrated effort.
Getting out of my comfort zone a lot more over the last year has been a major focus on my part to put to rest my own past. This opening story was as much about putting aside the past as it was about learning to see the world through emotion, and to develop a greater appreciation for the bonds we form. A lot of the impetuous for that change over time came as I dealt with my own recovery efforts from the earthquake and tsunami back in 2011. When I returned to the states in 2012... I was an emotional wreck. Yet I posessed no way of really dealing with that manifold of emotion. As time continued, and life pressed on, it became as important to deal with the effects as it did moving on and not letting myself get caught up too much in the past.
The story helped me to put into words the most important lesson I have learned from it all: This world is too big, and our lives too short. If we don't keep in mind how amazing all of this planet is, we will simply march along to our graves, living half lives, too afraid to do anything beyond what we feel comfortable.
This story is done, and many more may yet follow... Aria and Rowan and even Shii feel like more than characters to me. They feel like people.
But enough about that, I'm going fishing.
Dani 19 July 2015.