#She loves Guo so much she loves her family ofc

[sammydem0n64]

OKAY ALSOOOOOO failure, ghost, and secret for Gleo Jksjkdjs

Born to be a badass bitch, force to wipe or smth idk FGHJKL

Failure:

This is such a FOUL question because ultimately you know what I'm going to say; the way she raised Guo and treats others around her.

On one hand, she basically raised her son to be a weapon for the mafia, partially knowing what she was doing. She loves Guo. She loves her babyboy so much. But that idea that someone loves her back this uncondtionally, that they'll step in and do anything for her, starting with mauling her shitty ex? It got to her. She was the middle child, largely emotionally neglected in favor of her prodigy siblings (which was entirely purposeful on her parents' part, they wanted to make her as much as a weapon as Donna and Melphis are), so having someone she didn't hold resentment towards and who gave her all the affection and attention she had always wanted... well, she jumped at the opportunity. It just so happened that she used this to make him fight her battles, and it isn't until the very end that Guo realizes that he was a child. He shouldn't have been the one to pick up the bat and smack Zeo around like a baseball. He shouldn't have that burden put on him and he shouldn't have been raised to believe he needed to protect Gleo at every waking moment, because she can fend for herself. He should've been the one being protected, not her.

And also just in general she. Pushes people away with her behavior. Her lax nature and refusal to tell Carot things leads to their relationship breaking, because. Erm. Flirting with people IN YOUR BOYFRIEND'S RESTURANT- even if it's a ploy to get them in a private location to kill them- is not a good thing! He'd be fine if you told him first but no, now he's reliving the cheating trauma!!! And there's also how she treats every interaction with her siblings like a joke which includes insulting Melphis constantly. I bet she insults Donna too for the bit! She's just playing around but has never stopped to consider that she's hurting her family, and that maybe she reveals in treating them like ass because deep down she still holds a small semblance of resentment towards them for stealing attention away from her. It's just so, so messy

She never meant to harm her family and loved ones directly but... her she is!

Ghost:

I DO think her relationship with Zeo haunts her in a way. She married a man who turned out to be very shitty towards her, trying to be controlling and basically only treating her like an object for his pleasure so he'd feel good about himself. And that man went on to harass both her and their son for years until he finally got the memo to stop showing up on their lawn.

That is obviously very traumatizing! Especially since her family never did anything to stop it! Under the guise that Firo would be angry if they got the police involved with their family Zeo got to roam free. And now she's being harassed constantly, her son is being harassed and traumatized by his father, and OH SHIT GUO JUST BONKED THAT MAN!! HE'S BRUTALIZING HIM OH MY GOD!! ...Looks like the police don't have to get involved after all!

She could care less about him nowadays, but learning that he's hot on her and Guo's tails out of spite is... not pleasing. Oh how she needs to deal with this pest who briefly ruined her life. Or better yet, how Guo needs to play exterminator!

Secret:

Aside from the criminal career...

that she stopped her family from intervening with the Zeo situation once Guo started beating him up. She repeated the rhetoric of not wanting to get Firo on their asses, and eventually claimed that now everything was fine. She let Guo continue to harm Zeo for two more years, let him defend her and stick it to their shared nusance. If Zeo didn't finally stop showing up who knows how long it would've gone on for. Who knows how many more times she'd announce to her son that his dad is back on the lawn and hand him the bat to deal with the issue.

She doesn't know one person knows, and they're the reason Zeo finally stopped coming to their home. Oh well!

[artlessictoan]

Also, Smoke Into The Sand w/ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15! OoO As a side-note I haven't read this yet (SHAME ON ME BC I WANNA) and i'm SUPER interested in it!

asdfjskdjskdjfsk this is gonna get long fukc

What inspired you to write the fic this way?

my main goal with sits was to make it read like an old myth or storybook, an old tale that would be passed down for generations, the majority of the fic is written in that style exactly, but the overall story definitely is (and it does come through a bit more in how the backstory is told and some of the more important scenes)

that said, the main narrative is written much more slice-of-life-y, one of my biggest inspirations for this fic is the manga monogatari (bride’s story), it’s a really nice series that explores the daily life of people in various areas along the silk road, it has that simple, everyday life feel that i love and really wanted to write into sits! that’s where the random details about desert living and the tribe’s lifestyle come in (warning for anyone who might want to check out mono though: it does have an arranged marriage between a 20 yr old woman and a 12 yr old boy, it’s being played as a more platonic/familial relationship thus far but i can totally understand why it would put people off, so just a heads-up before anyone jumps in)

What scene did you first put down?

the first scene i actually started writing was the very first scene! but the very first scene, the one that spawned this entire fic i haven’t actually gotten to yet, it’s gonna be v near the end and i’m dying to finally reveal it because it’s gonna be Big.. but i shalln’t spoil it here, just something for my readers to look forwards to

What’s your favorite line of narration?

ok so like i said i’m shit at remembering any of what i write and it’s a bit more than just a line but fuck it:

Gaara froze, in fact, everything did. The soft whistling ofthe wind cut off into eerie silence, the constantly shifting sand stopped witha suddenness that was entirely unnatural, Naruto glanced away for a second andsaw that some grains were being held in the air, perfectly still. He turned hisgaze back to the spirit before him, his expression hadn’t changed at all, hewas still glaring, but his eyes were unfocussed, like they weren’t reallylooking at him.

Naruto was too scared to move, to speak; hecould only stare and pray that he hadn’t just sealed his own death warrant.

What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

again, not a line, but i really love this exchange between nart and ameno so effing much:

“So mature… You’re growing up too fast, how am I ever goingto keep up?” she asked, mostly to herself judging from the distant look on herface.

He slowly drew his hand back once her face wasdry and gave her a confused look. “You won’t have to; I’ll just carry you withme.

What part was hardest to write?

well i might just be saying this cause it’s the most recent struggle i faced (among many) but the chapter six reALLY killed me. trying to find the right way to describe the exhaustion and constant fear took many, many weeks and i’m still not sure i really nailed it (hopefully something i’ll be able to fix in the next chap)

What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

other than being the first multi-chap fic i’ve ever written, this is actually one of my oldest fic ideas ever, seriously it’s been kicking around in my head for a good five years or so now so there’s that

it also happens to contain basically All of my Special Interests; naruto, deserts, nomadic culture, boring minutia, swords.... honestly the only thing it’s missing is cats (though i’m sure i can find some way to work them in too..)

and, honestly, this is kinda my magnum opus? or at least that’s how i’ve always thought of it, i had actually planned to not start writing it until i’d already done a few other fics because i wanted to make sure my writing skill was at its best before starting such an ambitious fic.. yeah that didn’t happen, but i think that’s actually worked out alright, jumping in with a harder fic right at the start of my writing ‘career’ has been a bit of a crash-course and taught me a heck of a lot, i still think it’s gonna be one of the best things i ever write though. it just has a very special place in my heart

Where did the title come from?

well tbh i’m kinda shit at titles, so i usually just hunt through the first chap looking for any particularly poetic-sounding line that would work (though in this case it does have a nice little easter egg, since in arab folklore jinn are made of smoke!)

Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?

hmm not really? the whole thing is meant to be very fantastical and unreal (despite all the slice-of-life stuff), the only real-world insp comes from my research into bedouin lifestyle and such

What do you like best about this fic?

gaara! i mean ofc i like him in anything but this version of gaa - silent, detached, barely human, incredibly complex - is one of my faves and he’s really fun to write, we’ll be finding out more about him as the fic goes on and when we do it’ll make his actions before now both more understandable and less at the same time (he’s quite the paradox)

What do you like least about this fic?

the inconsistency. i feel like i must’ve gone through about ten different writing styles throughout the course of it and it bothers me that i haven’t quite got that storybook feel i was always aiming for, i’ll probably do a rewrite when i’ve got more experience under my belt and try to make the whole thing a bit more cohesive

What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

as with btc, i mostly listen to soundtracks, since songs with lyrics really distract me when writing, since i like to try and match the music i listen to to the setting/tone of what i’m writing i try to listen to classical middle-eastern music (though i’ve had a hard time finding many albums of just instrumental stuff, if anyone has any recs i’d love you forever!)

in addition to that there’s the soundtracks of Journey, Bastion, Dreamfall Chapters and the Prince of Persia games and for instrumental artists i really like Break of Reality and Tina Guo for sits insp!

Is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?What did you learn from writing this fic?

hmm, well i’d love it if people learned a bit more about the cultures i’m writing about (and i’d like to learn more of that too tbh, i’m still finding out new things that i actually got wrong earlier on in the fic), maybe even get interested enough to go looking for more info themselves, because there’s a lot of stuff that i simply won’t be able to go into much detail about

as for myself, well ^that and also it’s just been a rEALLY good experience in so many small ways - writing longer fics, writing in general, character interaction, introspection, action, plotting, description, suspense, mystery..... i could go on but yeah, basically it’s helped me grow as an author in Every Single Way and i’m sure it’ll help ever more before it’s done!