mr-fairenheight

[mr-fairenheight]

DSA Chapters 2/3 authors notes.

Spoilers for the indicated chapters, but no further. You can read these at the same time as the fic, if you so choose, and you can find the fic here:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/65019811/chapters/167177776

These two chapters are just two halves of one chatlog, so no real use to splitting up the notes. These are also the MOST IMPORTANT CHAPTERS IN THE WHOLE FIC. It's where the plot starts and we catch the first glimpses of our full main cast. I suppose I'll split these notes into discussion of each of them, with some other topic thrown in.

VILARD

I feel kinda guilty introducing vil and then immediately having this conversation where he's mostly on the sidelines, but that's just kinda who he is. He has two more direct conversations right after this so it's no great loss. His failure to take a side here should help illustrate his character flaws further. My biggest fear writing him is that I might accidently convey him as a much better person than he actually is. (although he does have his good qualities, which I'm trying to show off aswell.)

DA

She by far has the most lines here i think. This is a big clue as to who she is. The shades of Aranea Serket are more than intentional. She is officially introduced in literally the next chapter so again, i wont say too much.

ER

I fear we maybe don't get much of who she is here, she simply has too much plot to move foreword. That, however, is actually a VERY good description of her overall character so who knows maybe this is actually super demonstrative. Her solo conversation with IA at the end is important. Not gonna say why, just pay attention to these two. (also, if you didn't notice, the link she sends is actually clickable! check it out if you haven't!)

DT

Admittedly, not much to say here. DT went through a huge rewrite very late in preproduction, so im kinda figuring him out as a write him. I changed him because he was initially too similar to vilard, and i fear that may still be true. Hopefully not.

IA

She might be my favorite. Karkat but even more tsundere and with none of the social skills or confidence? sign me up. she does have a bit more going on than that, namely because she develops in a VERY different direction. all of these characters are very dysfunctional, as individuals and especially as a group. that is essentially the conceit of the fanfic. IA is just not as subtle about it.

CS

oh man this fxcker. this dude. you might see him and think of equius and eridan, and he definetly does pull from them, but he actually has two other main points of inspiration. One of them is secret, but the other is actually Vast Errors Arcjec Voorat. A person who has lost most of their passion and interest for life is a VERY interesting starting point for a character, namley because you can get a lot of variety out of why, how and what they start to care about again. i may have said too much here but when his official intro rolls around there will be bigger fish to fry so, c'est la vie. i worry my portayl of him here strays a bit from the idea i have of him in my head, but ill just have to make up for it later i suppose.

Ok thats it. right now chapter 5 is out, with 6 in active development. ive been kinda slouching on these notes, hopefully ill have more time for tham soon. thanks for stopping by.

[mr-fairenheight]

DSA Chapter 1 authors notes.

Spoilers for the indicated chapter, but no further. You can read these at the same time as the fic, if you so choose, and you can find the fic here:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/65019811/chapters/167177776

OK first chapter. One of the most important, and also what will probably (hopefully) be the worst. Vilard is the focus of this chapter, so he’ll be the main focus of these notes too.

The primordial juices that would one day become Vilard first formed in my head while listening to “Bigger than Yours” by Will wood. A lot of Vilards final character comes from that album and Will's other work, specifically The normal album as well. (Yes this is what I'm referring to when I talk about the “chaotic jazz” that Vilard actually likes.)

A lot of Wills' songs, especially from TNA, paint an  image of a very backwards and barbaric high society, which definitely reminded me of Alternias Highblood backstabbing and politicking. However, I had a problem, the album cover for bigger than yours is a dark red color, which kinda led me to imagine the character in those hues. That's where the idea of a blueblood who… well there's no other way to say it, “appropriates” rustblood colors and cultural symbols, came from. Fun fact, he even wears his sign in red, along with most of his other articles of clothing. 

About the sign, I elected not to use the extended zodiac for the theoretical signs of the characters. I thought it was really cool how Vast Error (which predates the extended zodiac) used alchemical symbols to add, well, symbolism to its characters! So for the DSA signs, I decided to use Egyptian hieroglyphs! Vilards sign is S31, as indexed in this list here. The denizens will be named after Egyptian deities too. 

That sign, combined with some not-so-subtle hints in the chapter, will probably let you guess Vilards classpect, but I'll save discussion of that until it’s revealed officially.

I’m not sure when or why I originally decided to put Vil in the protagonist role, but he fits it very well. A lot of these characters are sort of… mashups of other characters from OG HS. Vilard is probably… one part Kankri, one part Jegbert, one part Karkat, and two parts my own design. Other characters will vary in how derivative they are, and none of them are completely original, but I’ve tried to make all of them fun twists on their inspirations.

My biggest fear with this chapter is that it’s a little on the nose. However I’m willing to let that slide because of how well I think it sets up Vilard and DA. DA is next up to be introduced so i wont say too much about her here, but she is very focused on, nearly as much as Vil.

That’s about it for now, thanks for stopping by, I plan to post this at the same time as chapter two, so if you haven't read that yet, check it out here!

Peace - MFH.

[mr-fairenheight]

HELLO!

The title really says it all, but what's the harm in adding more. My name (as indicated by the handy lil thing at the top there) is Mr.fairenheight! I'm an amateur writer, doing fics about homestuck, and maybe later UTDR, and maybe later some other fandoms, and hopefully later my own original stuff! As I'm writing this, I just posted my first work on ao3.com, the homestuck fan session "Dragonslayer architects" (linked below). It will be my main focus for the forseeable future. And also for the forseeable future, this blog will be hosting the authors notes for each chapter as I write them! I hope that all of the 2025 homestucks on this site will appreciate the extra morsels of content. I know I would.

Hope to be posting more here in the future, peace. - MFH.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/65019811/chapters/167177776