Liner Notes: Silent Partner
Jan. 8th, 2019 07:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ezrablueI've decided to try to use this space as something other than a placeholder for possibly joining story exchanges. Tumblr's nice for short posts and photos of my dog, but not really good for long reads. So, away we go with some personal thoughts and trivia about my latest complete fic work.
Let me first say that getting to write for Opalmatrix/Chomiji is always a gift. The things they likes to read are very much the things I like to write. The real challenge is writing something that I think is up to snuff, because they're one of my favorite writers in their own right, so it's basically like being asked to give cupcakes to the baker who wrote my cookbooks.
Cho made some interesting requests, and really got my creative juices pumping on all cylinders. I could have written one of five different stories based on the prompts she gave me. First I couldn't decide which, then tried synthesizing them, then I finally picked the one I thought I had the best chance of getting some good work out of and tried to incorporate as many elements of the others into it as possible, along with some of the more specific elements she cited.
I picked an AU, since I love writing AUs. I love building the world and working in the details, I love recreating the characters, and I love being able to tell my own story, just using the characters I love. I also picked an urban fantasy AU because that is exactly the sort of thing I love. The notion of the mundane being mixed with the supernatural has always fascinated me, and I've got just enough base knowledge of magick from a few different cultures to cobble together a simple plot.
I've also had some fascination lately with new ways to rewrite or re-imagine the Hakkai/Kanan story. Silphium is my "what if she lived" AU, with a close rewrite of the canon. I wrote an AU of "what if Hakkai was Kanan" in Beach Body, with a transman Hakkai who was born Kanan but still struggles with being himself. I decided to address it another way here, with, basically, "but what if Venom?"
Okay, not exactly "but what if Venom," but more, "what if she was part of him in a more supernatural way?" I remember reading a fic once, The Sea of Samsara, where Goujun was meeting with Tenpou across reincarnations, but Tenpou was tiring of reincarnation and living new lives, so he was planning to divide his soul into two. I liked that notion, especially considering that, in my opinion, Tenpou is the one who changed most between his Gaiden incarnation and his current incarnation as Hakkai, so a fundamental shift of what his soul was reads well to me. I've used imagery of Hakkai feeling incomplete without Kanan and using Gojyo as his new "other half," though this can be either platonic or romantic, but he is a complete person, albeit a broken one. I wanted to explore him here as someone who is a jagged edge, but this time, he's rounded out with a new side of himself that is just as monstrous as the demon he became in canon.
The original title for this story was "Half Jack." This actually comes from a Dresden Dolls song of the same name. It's very much about struggling with the dualities and self-contradictions of being oneself. The general feeling of the song, that grit and menace, were what I built the mood around. The song tied back to both Hakkai being combined with the demon Naamah, as well as Gojyo being half-fairy, and that both of them live on the edge of another world beyond that which we see. Each of them struggles with their other half in a different way, with Hakkai resisting the urge to use the powers he has in order to maintain his new life with Gojyo, along with the synthesis in and of itself, while Gojyo hides his true nature, and almost loses his life because of it. The story itself is half-present and half-flashback. I even specifically mentioned that Gojyo was struck with a jack knife, and the half of it that was broken off was the actual cause of the turmoil in the present tense events in the story. I did change the title to "Silent Partner" as reflection of Hakkai's position in Gojyo's life, as well as a nod towards the phrase "silent but deadly." I meant to change it again, but then I never did.
I also got to write Zakuro again! I love to hate Zakuro, and I do hate him, but gosh do I love writing him! He's such a gloriously annoying jerk! It's hard to make the characters you like act like a jerk, but with him, it's just so easy. I recognize that I tend to write Gojyo's sweeter side. I tried to write some of his more sour sides here, showing him being slovenly, drinking alone (and too much), making implications about his sexual promiscuity, and being a little bit short with Hakkai at first (and a lot short with Sanzo ... forever). Something Cho herself said made me think that maybe I need to step that up next time I do another take on pre-Hakkai Gojyo.
Sanzo and Goku were sadly neglected in this story. If I had more time, I likely would have tried to incorporate more of each of them, especially because in retrospect, I realize they were really underdeveloped and I kept having ideas for more things I could do with them. However, time constraints being what they were, I had to focus on the major storylines telling Hakkai and Gojyo's story.
My approach was to establish how the main guys got to where they were and how it reflects on where they stand now. I didn't just want to rehash the "Be There" arc, but paralleling the development of their relationship with their current struggle felt like a good twist. The story progresses in terms of agency from chapter to chapter, with Gojyo clearly having the most power at the start and Hakkai clearly being the driving force by the end. I tried to balance the flashbacks with the current events; however, I feel like the flashback side was the stronger one. Even so, I'm really satisfied with how this came together.
A few chapter by chapter notes:
1: The general approach to the magic in this universe is "all gods are real and every religion is right," so Gojyo uses a mix of magic and the creatures that appear come from a variety of cultures. On reflection, I do regret not bringing in or even making nods to African and East Asian folklore. Gojyo's magic is mostly inspired by Wicca, though he's made efforts to make it portable. His chant to seal Zakuro is Arabic, however, and roughly translates to something along the lines of "sleep, sleep here until you are called, sleep until you are needed, in the name of God." Hakkai asking Gojyo to give him cross streets is ironic as well as appropriate, since American folk lore features multiple stories of demons meeting people in cross streets as liminal spaces, but also just because that'd be the fastest way to locate someone on a map.
2: The introductory scene where Hakkai meets Gojyo went through a few rewrites. I admit, I worry that a few things may have gotten lost in the editing process, and not all of what we see of Hakkai's introduction lines up as neatly as I'd like with the truth of his situation. It's alright, but given another day to work, I'd likely go over the scene one more time with a closer magnifying glass. The stone, herbs and flowers Hakkai is using to clean Gojyo's wound are all meant to induce calm and sleep: Hakkai is trying to keep Gojyo asleep in hopes that it will be less painful than being awake with his injury. The flashback in this chapter also shows the first evidence of the twist in chapter 4: Gojyo explicitly cannot lie to Sanzo. Instead, he got around it by not actually answering the question ("You checked for survivors?” “You think I'm stupid?”) However, he does tell a mistruth when he tells Sanzo there were no witnesses, as Hakkai was not a witness, but a victim (or so he thought).
3: The scene with Goku calling was added in during a later editing run. Originally, it was just narration that Gojyo got a call from Sanzo, but I wanted to introduce Goku before his big moment in chapter 5. I explicitly noted that Gojyo was being summoned to deal with Lilims, a hail to the Judeochristian demon housed in Hakkai. It also gave me a chance to set up the additional "I can't lie to Sanzo" line; I meant to imply that Sanzo ensures that anyone who works for him is unable to lie to him, with just the one notable exception by the end of the story.
4: I made explicit mention of Hakkai feeding Gojyo honey here, and he was offering him sweet wine and honeybuns before (and later in the chapter, I mention Gojyo having a stockpile of Poptarts, which look remarkably like the Australian treat fairy toast aka buttered bread with sprinkles), implying Gojyo's sweet tooth. I feel like I fell short on this particular trail of breadcrumbs overall, honestly, and didn't drop quite enough hints about Gojyo's true nature. On to positives, I do love Gojyo and Sanzo's interactions here. Whether being on his deathbed or in coitus interruptus, Gojyo is still maximum sass with his employer. Also of note, Hakkai is the exception to the "can't lie to Sanzo" rule here. He can and does explicitly lie to Sanzo, despite promising (in the flashback in chapter 5) that he wouldn't. I've always thought that Sanzo related to Hakkai as well as he did because he knows he can't completely trust him, and to paraphrase Jack Sparrow in the best Pirates of the Caribbean movie, "... a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest ... It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly... stupid.” He likely just knows that Hakkai will only betray him when he thinks it's genuinely important.
As for the latter half of the chapter, Hakkai's showing his growing understanding of Gojyo, as Gojyo inadvertently charms him. I wanted their growing bond to be sort of an exchange, of Gojyo coming into his own and finding himself fascinated with Hakkai, and Hakkai finding Gojyo's company extraordinarily pleasant. It had to come naturally. As ever, I still wonder if I quite pulled it off. Also as ever, I wondered if I needed to include the lovemaking bit. And then I gave in and did it, not because I thought it was necessary, but I realized I could use that particular vulgar exchange between Sanzo and Gojyo about the precise location of Gojyo's genitalia and it would be hilarious and then super, super serious. If I have the option to include something that is both funny and Very, Very Important, then I will absolutely go for it. I also just really, really wanted Gojyo getting on his knees out of reverence for Hakkai, and then Hakkai bottoming from the top. (Also Cho made a request for the stronger one of the two submitting to the other, but how much that actually is what happened here is up to dispute. I think I got the hair-stroking and play, though.)
5: Describing Goku's physical form here was fun. Every time I write him in another universe, I make clear that he's something extraordinary in one way or another. I wanted his duality to shine, and to show, indubitably, that he's perfectly at peace being both. His rejection of Gojyo's offer of a favor is profound: Fey don't take promises of favors lightly, as they are very much bound to their words, and even though Gojyo is half-Fey, he's talented enough with magic to accomplish quite a lot. Goku rejects it even when he could take advantage of him, because he's a good kid. This is probably the most mature Goku I've written: he's really perceptive, takes a lot of responsibility for his friends, and even though he still teases Gojyo a little and he's got a relatively simplistic take on things, he's overall a dependable, good guy with a lot of power. It's him, Hakkai, and Gojyo together that actually put together what it is that injured Gojyo: Gojyo needed to see the knife, Hakkai was the first to think Gojyo's half-fey nature was the big problem, and Goku dove right in to find out.
Interestingly enough, pure iron is actually quite brittle! I had planned on having Zakuro just make the knife have fracture points to break off, but no, a knife made of pure iron would likely break easily enough on his own. I had meant to sneak in a few hints that Gojyo's not a fan of metal, such as, when first cooking for him, Hakkai mentioning that Gojyo owns nice porcelain cookware despite not seeming to use it much, and a lack of metal in the house. However, I couldn't slip it in as neatly as I would have liked, so it didn't quite happen.
The confrontation between the guys was a fun put together. This part took the longest, because as I wrote it, I kept going back to earlier parts to make sure they lined up. My outline for this story was really bare-bones for how much I wanted to put together, but I charged ahead anyway, haha... There really is a demon known as Naamah, mentioned specifically in the Zohar as a demoness who, along with her friend Lilith, seduced Adam when he temporarily separated from Eve after Cain's murder of Abel, and she and Lilith birthed the Plagues of Mankind. She was also known for seducing two angels, Ouza and Azael. I had Naamah introduce herself as being from Canaan, the valley famed for being home to Abraham in the formative years of Judaism, both as a nod to just how very old she was, an indicator of her origin for those who aren't going to Google her, and also because it sounds like Kanan. Mostly the last one. I do think it funny that though Hakkai was very much all for ending Sanzo as soon as Sanzo began threatening and roughing Gojyo up, Goku pulled rank on him very easily. The part of this I doubted myself on the most was the following paragraph, Sanzo asking Hakkai if he's Naamah possessing Cho Hakkai:
“No. I am Cho Hakkai as much as I am Naamah.” Hakkai drew his fist close to his heart. “We are one. I have complete memories of both of our lives. Our body is his, but our spirit is composite.” He linked his fingers again and squeezed tight. “We are one. Most of the time, I can no longer delineate between the two of us anymore.”
I had the exact right line of dialogue in mind, but somewhere along the line, I forgot it. I hope it had the impact it needed.
Gojyo also revealing just how powerful he is, or how powerful a Fey agreement is, by controlling Naamah with the ownership of her name, did hit pretty hard, or so I thought. I had to include that Gojyo was able to use it on Goku, too, albeit in a funnier context. Gojyo could be much more powerful than he was if he were willing to ut The reveal that Hakkai is essentially a prisoner in Gojyo's home, however, is probably the saddest part. It may have been for his own good, but even knowing that Hakkai is happy just being with Gojyo doesn't make up for it.
Hakkai and Goku are both somewhat djinn in lamps, kept close by their respective holders, but they each recognize how dangerous they could be if they weren't restricted. Which brings us to...
6: Look. Just. Don't mess with Hakkai's man. Do not. Hakkai's revenge on Zakuro was a LOT of fun too, though I admit I had a hard time deciding how even he would kill a djinn. Hakkai absolutely lied to Sanzo in order to hold onto the lamp, ensuring he could exact whatever he needed out of Zakuro once he found out precisely what it was he needed. I couldn't find any mythological mentions for how one might end a djinn's existence, but then I realized that Hakkai's intelligence was his real weapon here, and he could turn Zakuro's abilities against him. Hakkai is also ruthless enough to wish Zakuro human and send him somewhere to immolate, and it also happily subverts the "wishing a djinn free" trope. One fun characterization note for Zakuro: he's so self-absorbed that he failed to realize he was dealing with something non-human in both Gojyo and Hakkai until it was almost too late in the case of the former and after it was too late with the latter. On the bright side, I got to kill Zakuro again! I need to write more AUs where Zakuro dies, haha. I kid. I'm not going to kill him just because I love to hate him, a named character death needs to have impact outside of "eff this character." Zakuro died here because he pushed Hakkai too far, and Hakkai showed exactly why he's not to be messed with.
I specify Hakkai. Hakkai is just as dangerous as any demons he might harbor, exactly as dangerous as he wants to be. Hakkai, pre-possession in this story, did charge in to what he believed to be a kidnapping ring without calling for backup, and when he saw what they were doing, he claims he went mad with anger and set upon them. However, we all know Hakkai can and does lie when it suits him. Bottom line, while there is some tragedy in Hakkai's imprisonment, there's a reason Sanzo wants to be able to control him, even if his demon half is likely the less dangerous part of him.
The important thing at the end, though, was the hope both Gojyo and Hakkai had after surviving this encounter, and the hope they share in one another. I hope that though the ending was bittersweet and loaded with unfulfilled promises, I did convey that there was hope in the long run, and that our guys did have a happily ever after in their fairy story somewhere down the line.
Let me first say that getting to write for Opalmatrix/Chomiji is always a gift. The things they likes to read are very much the things I like to write. The real challenge is writing something that I think is up to snuff, because they're one of my favorite writers in their own right, so it's basically like being asked to give cupcakes to the baker who wrote my cookbooks.
Cho made some interesting requests, and really got my creative juices pumping on all cylinders. I could have written one of five different stories based on the prompts she gave me. First I couldn't decide which, then tried synthesizing them, then I finally picked the one I thought I had the best chance of getting some good work out of and tried to incorporate as many elements of the others into it as possible, along with some of the more specific elements she cited.
I picked an AU, since I love writing AUs. I love building the world and working in the details, I love recreating the characters, and I love being able to tell my own story, just using the characters I love. I also picked an urban fantasy AU because that is exactly the sort of thing I love. The notion of the mundane being mixed with the supernatural has always fascinated me, and I've got just enough base knowledge of magick from a few different cultures to cobble together a simple plot.
I've also had some fascination lately with new ways to rewrite or re-imagine the Hakkai/Kanan story. Silphium is my "what if she lived" AU, with a close rewrite of the canon. I wrote an AU of "what if Hakkai was Kanan" in Beach Body, with a transman Hakkai who was born Kanan but still struggles with being himself. I decided to address it another way here, with, basically, "but what if Venom?"
Okay, not exactly "but what if Venom," but more, "what if she was part of him in a more supernatural way?" I remember reading a fic once, The Sea of Samsara, where Goujun was meeting with Tenpou across reincarnations, but Tenpou was tiring of reincarnation and living new lives, so he was planning to divide his soul into two. I liked that notion, especially considering that, in my opinion, Tenpou is the one who changed most between his Gaiden incarnation and his current incarnation as Hakkai, so a fundamental shift of what his soul was reads well to me. I've used imagery of Hakkai feeling incomplete without Kanan and using Gojyo as his new "other half," though this can be either platonic or romantic, but he is a complete person, albeit a broken one. I wanted to explore him here as someone who is a jagged edge, but this time, he's rounded out with a new side of himself that is just as monstrous as the demon he became in canon.
The original title for this story was "Half Jack." This actually comes from a Dresden Dolls song of the same name. It's very much about struggling with the dualities and self-contradictions of being oneself. The general feeling of the song, that grit and menace, were what I built the mood around. The song tied back to both Hakkai being combined with the demon Naamah, as well as Gojyo being half-fairy, and that both of them live on the edge of another world beyond that which we see. Each of them struggles with their other half in a different way, with Hakkai resisting the urge to use the powers he has in order to maintain his new life with Gojyo, along with the synthesis in and of itself, while Gojyo hides his true nature, and almost loses his life because of it. The story itself is half-present and half-flashback. I even specifically mentioned that Gojyo was struck with a jack knife, and the half of it that was broken off was the actual cause of the turmoil in the present tense events in the story. I did change the title to "Silent Partner" as reflection of Hakkai's position in Gojyo's life, as well as a nod towards the phrase "silent but deadly." I meant to change it again, but then I never did.
I also got to write Zakuro again! I love to hate Zakuro, and I do hate him, but gosh do I love writing him! He's such a gloriously annoying jerk! It's hard to make the characters you like act like a jerk, but with him, it's just so easy. I recognize that I tend to write Gojyo's sweeter side. I tried to write some of his more sour sides here, showing him being slovenly, drinking alone (and too much), making implications about his sexual promiscuity, and being a little bit short with Hakkai at first (and a lot short with Sanzo ... forever). Something Cho herself said made me think that maybe I need to step that up next time I do another take on pre-Hakkai Gojyo.
Sanzo and Goku were sadly neglected in this story. If I had more time, I likely would have tried to incorporate more of each of them, especially because in retrospect, I realize they were really underdeveloped and I kept having ideas for more things I could do with them. However, time constraints being what they were, I had to focus on the major storylines telling Hakkai and Gojyo's story.
My approach was to establish how the main guys got to where they were and how it reflects on where they stand now. I didn't just want to rehash the "Be There" arc, but paralleling the development of their relationship with their current struggle felt like a good twist. The story progresses in terms of agency from chapter to chapter, with Gojyo clearly having the most power at the start and Hakkai clearly being the driving force by the end. I tried to balance the flashbacks with the current events; however, I feel like the flashback side was the stronger one. Even so, I'm really satisfied with how this came together.
A few chapter by chapter notes:
1: The general approach to the magic in this universe is "all gods are real and every religion is right," so Gojyo uses a mix of magic and the creatures that appear come from a variety of cultures. On reflection, I do regret not bringing in or even making nods to African and East Asian folklore. Gojyo's magic is mostly inspired by Wicca, though he's made efforts to make it portable. His chant to seal Zakuro is Arabic, however, and roughly translates to something along the lines of "sleep, sleep here until you are called, sleep until you are needed, in the name of God." Hakkai asking Gojyo to give him cross streets is ironic as well as appropriate, since American folk lore features multiple stories of demons meeting people in cross streets as liminal spaces, but also just because that'd be the fastest way to locate someone on a map.
2: The introductory scene where Hakkai meets Gojyo went through a few rewrites. I admit, I worry that a few things may have gotten lost in the editing process, and not all of what we see of Hakkai's introduction lines up as neatly as I'd like with the truth of his situation. It's alright, but given another day to work, I'd likely go over the scene one more time with a closer magnifying glass. The stone, herbs and flowers Hakkai is using to clean Gojyo's wound are all meant to induce calm and sleep: Hakkai is trying to keep Gojyo asleep in hopes that it will be less painful than being awake with his injury. The flashback in this chapter also shows the first evidence of the twist in chapter 4: Gojyo explicitly cannot lie to Sanzo. Instead, he got around it by not actually answering the question ("You checked for survivors?” “You think I'm stupid?”) However, he does tell a mistruth when he tells Sanzo there were no witnesses, as Hakkai was not a witness, but a victim (or so he thought).
3: The scene with Goku calling was added in during a later editing run. Originally, it was just narration that Gojyo got a call from Sanzo, but I wanted to introduce Goku before his big moment in chapter 5. I explicitly noted that Gojyo was being summoned to deal with Lilims, a hail to the Judeochristian demon housed in Hakkai. It also gave me a chance to set up the additional "I can't lie to Sanzo" line; I meant to imply that Sanzo ensures that anyone who works for him is unable to lie to him, with just the one notable exception by the end of the story.
4: I made explicit mention of Hakkai feeding Gojyo honey here, and he was offering him sweet wine and honeybuns before (and later in the chapter, I mention Gojyo having a stockpile of Poptarts, which look remarkably like the Australian treat fairy toast aka buttered bread with sprinkles), implying Gojyo's sweet tooth. I feel like I fell short on this particular trail of breadcrumbs overall, honestly, and didn't drop quite enough hints about Gojyo's true nature. On to positives, I do love Gojyo and Sanzo's interactions here. Whether being on his deathbed or in coitus interruptus, Gojyo is still maximum sass with his employer. Also of note, Hakkai is the exception to the "can't lie to Sanzo" rule here. He can and does explicitly lie to Sanzo, despite promising (in the flashback in chapter 5) that he wouldn't. I've always thought that Sanzo related to Hakkai as well as he did because he knows he can't completely trust him, and to paraphrase Jack Sparrow in the best Pirates of the Caribbean movie, "... a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest ... It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly... stupid.” He likely just knows that Hakkai will only betray him when he thinks it's genuinely important.
As for the latter half of the chapter, Hakkai's showing his growing understanding of Gojyo, as Gojyo inadvertently charms him. I wanted their growing bond to be sort of an exchange, of Gojyo coming into his own and finding himself fascinated with Hakkai, and Hakkai finding Gojyo's company extraordinarily pleasant. It had to come naturally. As ever, I still wonder if I quite pulled it off. Also as ever, I wondered if I needed to include the lovemaking bit. And then I gave in and did it, not because I thought it was necessary, but I realized I could use that particular vulgar exchange between Sanzo and Gojyo about the precise location of Gojyo's genitalia and it would be hilarious and then super, super serious. If I have the option to include something that is both funny and Very, Very Important, then I will absolutely go for it. I also just really, really wanted Gojyo getting on his knees out of reverence for Hakkai, and then Hakkai bottoming from the top. (Also Cho made a request for the stronger one of the two submitting to the other, but how much that actually is what happened here is up to dispute. I think I got the hair-stroking and play, though.)
5: Describing Goku's physical form here was fun. Every time I write him in another universe, I make clear that he's something extraordinary in one way or another. I wanted his duality to shine, and to show, indubitably, that he's perfectly at peace being both. His rejection of Gojyo's offer of a favor is profound: Fey don't take promises of favors lightly, as they are very much bound to their words, and even though Gojyo is half-Fey, he's talented enough with magic to accomplish quite a lot. Goku rejects it even when he could take advantage of him, because he's a good kid. This is probably the most mature Goku I've written: he's really perceptive, takes a lot of responsibility for his friends, and even though he still teases Gojyo a little and he's got a relatively simplistic take on things, he's overall a dependable, good guy with a lot of power. It's him, Hakkai, and Gojyo together that actually put together what it is that injured Gojyo: Gojyo needed to see the knife, Hakkai was the first to think Gojyo's half-fey nature was the big problem, and Goku dove right in to find out.
Interestingly enough, pure iron is actually quite brittle! I had planned on having Zakuro just make the knife have fracture points to break off, but no, a knife made of pure iron would likely break easily enough on his own. I had meant to sneak in a few hints that Gojyo's not a fan of metal, such as, when first cooking for him, Hakkai mentioning that Gojyo owns nice porcelain cookware despite not seeming to use it much, and a lack of metal in the house. However, I couldn't slip it in as neatly as I would have liked, so it didn't quite happen.
The confrontation between the guys was a fun put together. This part took the longest, because as I wrote it, I kept going back to earlier parts to make sure they lined up. My outline for this story was really bare-bones for how much I wanted to put together, but I charged ahead anyway, haha... There really is a demon known as Naamah, mentioned specifically in the Zohar as a demoness who, along with her friend Lilith, seduced Adam when he temporarily separated from Eve after Cain's murder of Abel, and she and Lilith birthed the Plagues of Mankind. She was also known for seducing two angels, Ouza and Azael. I had Naamah introduce herself as being from Canaan, the valley famed for being home to Abraham in the formative years of Judaism, both as a nod to just how very old she was, an indicator of her origin for those who aren't going to Google her, and also because it sounds like Kanan. Mostly the last one. I do think it funny that though Hakkai was very much all for ending Sanzo as soon as Sanzo began threatening and roughing Gojyo up, Goku pulled rank on him very easily. The part of this I doubted myself on the most was the following paragraph, Sanzo asking Hakkai if he's Naamah possessing Cho Hakkai:
“No. I am Cho Hakkai as much as I am Naamah.” Hakkai drew his fist close to his heart. “We are one. I have complete memories of both of our lives. Our body is his, but our spirit is composite.” He linked his fingers again and squeezed tight. “We are one. Most of the time, I can no longer delineate between the two of us anymore.”
I had the exact right line of dialogue in mind, but somewhere along the line, I forgot it. I hope it had the impact it needed.
Gojyo also revealing just how powerful he is, or how powerful a Fey agreement is, by controlling Naamah with the ownership of her name, did hit pretty hard, or so I thought. I had to include that Gojyo was able to use it on Goku, too, albeit in a funnier context. Gojyo could be much more powerful than he was if he were willing to ut The reveal that Hakkai is essentially a prisoner in Gojyo's home, however, is probably the saddest part. It may have been for his own good, but even knowing that Hakkai is happy just being with Gojyo doesn't make up for it.
Hakkai and Goku are both somewhat djinn in lamps, kept close by their respective holders, but they each recognize how dangerous they could be if they weren't restricted. Which brings us to...
6: Look. Just. Don't mess with Hakkai's man. Do not. Hakkai's revenge on Zakuro was a LOT of fun too, though I admit I had a hard time deciding how even he would kill a djinn. Hakkai absolutely lied to Sanzo in order to hold onto the lamp, ensuring he could exact whatever he needed out of Zakuro once he found out precisely what it was he needed. I couldn't find any mythological mentions for how one might end a djinn's existence, but then I realized that Hakkai's intelligence was his real weapon here, and he could turn Zakuro's abilities against him. Hakkai is also ruthless enough to wish Zakuro human and send him somewhere to immolate, and it also happily subverts the "wishing a djinn free" trope. One fun characterization note for Zakuro: he's so self-absorbed that he failed to realize he was dealing with something non-human in both Gojyo and Hakkai until it was almost too late in the case of the former and after it was too late with the latter. On the bright side, I got to kill Zakuro again! I need to write more AUs where Zakuro dies, haha. I kid. I'm not going to kill him just because I love to hate him, a named character death needs to have impact outside of "eff this character." Zakuro died here because he pushed Hakkai too far, and Hakkai showed exactly why he's not to be messed with.
I specify Hakkai. Hakkai is just as dangerous as any demons he might harbor, exactly as dangerous as he wants to be. Hakkai, pre-possession in this story, did charge in to what he believed to be a kidnapping ring without calling for backup, and when he saw what they were doing, he claims he went mad with anger and set upon them. However, we all know Hakkai can and does lie when it suits him. Bottom line, while there is some tragedy in Hakkai's imprisonment, there's a reason Sanzo wants to be able to control him, even if his demon half is likely the less dangerous part of him.
The important thing at the end, though, was the hope both Gojyo and Hakkai had after surviving this encounter, and the hope they share in one another. I hope that though the ending was bittersweet and loaded with unfulfilled promises, I did convey that there was hope in the long run, and that our guys did have a happily ever after in their fairy story somewhere down the line.
