Entry tags:

fic:a cold wind rising, writing:ficgeneral

A Cold Wind Rising - Story Particulars & Table of Contents
A Cold Wind Rising - Story Particulars & Table of Contents

The Spring Challenge, entitled Light from Dark, for tm_challenge has some difficult points to it. For one thing: Character death! And, for another thing: If you write in a pairing, the character who dies must be one member of the pairing! Fun, huh!? But I love a good challenge! The hardest part was finishing it in time!

So this is the story I wrote. These are the details you may want to know when/if you read it.




Yeilynlie is the Element of Air... "The Light Exists Within All Elements" ...banner made 5V2008

Story Particulars

Fandom
Tin Man

Summary
In Glitch's words: 'Did we tell you about the RIP...? Well, it’s a giant canyon that goes from one end of the O.Z. to the other end of the O.Z. From Sperry’s Port in Inkersling all the way to Tillenbrock in Roatlet. It’s a jaw-dropping amount of spans, coast to coast. Nothing was there before... not a thing. Until two duelling kings got it in their heads that they were more powerful than gods. So they decided to race around the galaxy using travel storms. That was the first time anyone had ever called on magic that fierce and potent. The two storms had enough energy to crack a hole in good old terra firma. And in either direction the crack grew and grew, a span a second, so legend claims... They say the crack never stops growing. Every day, it gets a little deeper. And when it gets deep enough, the world will split in two. And that will be the end of the O.Z. Forever.'

Two travel storms are summoned at the same time. One leaves a scattering of eclipse witnesses in a field of scrub grass, injured and dead among them. The other storm, too enormous to control, disappears from view. It is soon revealed that those who were not left behind have been transported into another dimension—perhaps even another time.

Rating
R: adult themes, adult situations, and amorous persuasion - all of it light, but I like an "R" rating for this

Characters
The Tin Man Cast
Longcoat Original Characters: Malcolm Erdmyss & Timaeus Wallace
Other Original Characters: Sophie Birch, Warren Birch, Mr Thundercrow, and some minor ones here and there

Pairings
Azkadellia/Yeilynlie (Airofday)
Zero/Erdmyss - Happens later on in the story. But I knew ages ago one of them was going to die. This seemed a convenient way to do that.
Dammit, if I didn't write slash I wouldn't have to ruin it for you! Sorry, them's the rules... But there just might be a little bit of happy het at the very end, ahem.

Warnings
Femslash, slash, invented language, slightly AU but nothing to make your head spin - and, of course CHARACTER DEATHS.

Plea
Please oh please don't let the idea of femslash keep you from reading this! The story is really so much more than that! Give the first four chapters a try. Please?! *clings desperately to your ankles* Pretty please?

Disclaimer
Tin Man, and all related characters, are property of Genius Products, RHI/Imagiquest Entertainment. No piece of this written work, A Cold Wind Rising, and all subsequent artistic associations present or forthcoming in release of said work, is intended to infringe upon, devalue, or otherwise jeopardize the original copyright held by the above corporations.

Notes
While working on A Cold Wind Rising, a variation of my typical way of writing a multi-chapter tale had to be found. Editing is a huge part of my writing process - more than half of what I do! But, due to time constraints, I wasn't able to do as much editing with this as I would normally. Instead relying on traditional methods, I edited this while I wrote it. What I usually do is just let the characters ramble on and take me on their journey, and then I go back and cut things out. Couldn't do that. This really taught me a lot, and I'm thankful for that. On the other hand, I'm sorry if parts of this seem choppy. Sometimes new things don't work so well.

Also, I never had a beta reader. All mistakes are my own. Again, my apologies, particularly for typos that can be a bit jarring! Oops...

Story Notes
Most story notes appear at the end of the chapters, as needed. But here are a few that just don't fit anywhere else.

Carazdran - the most-used invented language in ACWR. It is spoken by Malcolm Erdmyss, Yeilynlie of Carazdra, and Zero. It's phonetically written in the story, as it seems to be a runic language. Because it's very, very old. The characters talk about it sometimes, so I won't give a background history here. The funny thing about writing it into the story is that all the sudden the characters would be talking in gibberish. And I'd be like 'Huh, what's that mean?' A couple of phrases still lack translations. Hopefully I'll figure those out!

Years/Annuals - Four characters of the O.Z. say years instead of annuals: Mal, Lyn, Vy-Sor and DG. I chose to write 'annuals' in the prose to lower confusion.

Ranks of the Longcoats - Are as follows, greatest to least:
General
Lieutenant (the proper title being Lieutenant-Colonel)
Captain
Sergeant
Second Aspirant
Aspirant

Geography - is a huge part of this tale, although mostly made up and doesn't really follow canon. So... Map!



My Thanks To...

moony_blues - for patiently answering all my queries and concerns about this challenge!
lionille - for patiently listening to all my gripes and complaints in our diurnal e-mails. You are so totally my BFF! *hugs*
dalliann - for always supporting my writing, so I threw something in at the end of this for ya, doll.
aldebaran8423 - for all the late-night convos and all the support little humble me could ever ask for. You. Are. Awesome.
lash_larue - You still amaze me, for reading my Tin Man fic even though you've never seen it. That's super support, right there.
Everyone out there who reads this! It's no little ficlet, it takes time to read, so THANK YOU!

Big thanks to Amethystium, not that I know you or anything, but for making an album that I turned on every time I sat down and started writing. Only later did I realise the appropriate title of the first track: "Shadow & Light".



Table of Contents
Story Status: Complete
Date Started: 26 March 2008
Date Finished: 2 May 2008
Total Chapters: 45
Total Word Count (as of 9 May 08, final batch release): 95,200


First Batch - Chapters 0 to 15

Prologue

Chapter 1 - 'A slow death or a quick one?'

Chapter 2 - 'You running things around here?'

Chapters 3 & 4 - 'When we found you, you were in a tin box.'

Chapters 5 & 6 - 'I'll send my best men down to lay charges.'

Chapters 7 & 8 - 'I am the victim of some type of natural disaster!'

Chapter 9 - 'There is something so familiar about this.'

Chapters 10 & 11 - 'Last time: complications. This time: problems.'

Chapters 12 & 13 - 'Hey, you weren't so hot on first glance either, honey.'

Chapters 14 & 15 - 'To love and protect you like you were our own.'

---

Second Batch - Chapters 16 to 30

- 'Heard you tossing and turning again last night.'

- 'Then why are you here, talking to me?'

- 'What the hell?'

- 'He was there for me.'

- 'Not while there's still a breath in my body.'

- 'The power to bring either light or darkness to the O.Z.'

- 'I care about you more than anyone else in the whole wide world.'

---

Third Batch - Chapters 31 to 45

- 'It just worked out like that.'

- 'Barometer's falling. Winds are rising. And I can't get this new turbine to throw a watt.'

- 'Think you can handle a little restraint, Zero?'

- 'Everything's okay, now you're here.'

- 'Becomes merely a flicker in the light in the storm.'

- 'We both knew something drastic had to be done.'

- 'Fierce and beautiful and unfiltered.'

- 'Your light must brighten a place that is dark.'

- 'Tripping over her pigtails as she wanders in circles.'

- 'That's the O.Z. I remember.'




Voting Results - Link


  


And what moony_blues said, because it just makes me feel good...

koslorollo: OMG, you wrote an epic! The sheer length of your story and the obvious effort you put into it alone qualify you for the Mod's Pick for this challenge. But, on top of that, your use of original characters in the Tin Man universe absolutely floors me. I must confess I haven't had the opportunity to finish reading, but what I've read so far compels me to stand in awe of your talent.




... and then I made some dolls of the cast.