(And that is why your post a couple weeks back about stress leading to fanfic was so relatable! This was a very fun thing to be immersed in when work was being Irritating.)
I am finding it so very therapeutic at the moment! Work is, I hope, going to calm down from next week, which sounds a bit famous-last-words-ish but fingers crossed. This week was equally busy but better than the previous one in that I didn't actively feel like I was failing at it. And I have literally been writing down fic ideas in Google Docs on my phone on my train commute, just to get my head out of work mode!
ANYWAY I am sort of back in normal human functioning mode now, I think.
that pesky bit where Delenn doesn't tell him that she's going to stay in the Starfire Wheel -- I mean, of course she wouldn't
lol yes, and she also wouldn't see any conflict between "yes of course we're working together behind the scenes on a shared plan that relies both of us to have incredible levels of trust in each other" and still not telling him, I bet. In my (scrappy bits-and-pieces will probably never be finished but still I love it) AU, she doesn't tell him and he works it out and stops it - I will go and get it and post it on here :)
I had a lot of moments where I really wanted to talk to you about it
Ahahaha I know the feeling - I had to really fight the temptation to say something on here about the one I wrote for you, when I was trying to think through the backstory out loud. (I couldn't tell if I was getting early/pre-S1 Delenn feeling right, or whether I was letting later Delenn cloud how she canonically was earlier. I think it worked out ok?)
I really love Minbari worldbuilding in large part because we don't get all that much detail about how it works as a society, and there's lots of points where it seems to contradict itself - like JUST HOW does Lennier have Warrior caste relatives in the same clan/clan equivalent, just a few episodes after Sheridan makes a whole point about how any Religious and Warrior caste people talking to each other must obviously be on the Grey Council because otherwise they don't mix? How does this WORK? Hence I have this whole headcanon that there are the main castes and clans, and then there are ones from areas that were more geographically or culturally remote and got sort of bolted on to the system later and don't quite match up, and that's where he's from. (And is also why Delenn chose him as her aide, because he's grown up quite isolated from whatever's currently going on in Minbari society.)
But also! The idea that they've had space travel for over a thousand years (at least, if they were capable of fighting the Shadows a thousand years previously), I love imagining what that would be like. It ends up being a sort of futuristic Age of Sail in some of my stuff I think.
And also yes, the role of ritual! I meant to say re: your reply on the fic you wrote for me, I really found that point about just how much the actual words matter quite relatable - there was an incident in my own religion a couple of years ago where a priest had been baptising babies using a slightly incorrect version of the proper words (he said 'we' rather than 'I' I think), entirely unintentionally, and then his diocese announced that thousands of baptisms over many many years were therefore invalid and would have to be redone because of that. And it's the kind of thing that sounds absolutely barking mad to e.g. every non-religious person I heard comment on it, and I can simultaneously see their point and also think "but... it does matter..."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2022-11-12 09:10 pm (UTC)I am finding it so very therapeutic at the moment! Work is, I hope, going to calm down from next week, which sounds a bit famous-last-words-ish but fingers crossed. This week was equally busy but better than the previous one in that I didn't actively feel like I was failing at it. And I have literally been writing down fic ideas in Google Docs on my phone on my train commute, just to get my head out of work mode!
ANYWAY I am sort of back in normal human functioning mode now, I think.
that pesky bit where Delenn doesn't tell him that she's going to stay in the Starfire Wheel -- I mean, of course she wouldn't
lol yes, and she also wouldn't see any conflict between "yes of course we're working together behind the scenes on a shared plan that relies both of us to have incredible levels of trust in each other" and still not telling him, I bet. In my (scrappy bits-and-pieces will probably never be finished but still I love it) AU, she doesn't tell him and he works it out and stops it - I will go and get it and post it on here :)
I had a lot of moments where I really wanted to talk to you about it
Ahahaha I know the feeling - I had to really fight the temptation to say something on here about the one I wrote for you, when I was trying to think through the backstory out loud. (I couldn't tell if I was getting early/pre-S1 Delenn feeling right, or whether I was letting later Delenn cloud how she canonically was earlier. I think it worked out ok?)
I really love Minbari worldbuilding in large part because we don't get all that much detail about how it works as a society, and there's lots of points where it seems to contradict itself - like JUST HOW does Lennier have Warrior caste relatives in the same clan/clan equivalent, just a few episodes after Sheridan makes a whole point about how any Religious and Warrior caste people talking to each other must obviously be on the Grey Council because otherwise they don't mix? How does this WORK? Hence I have this whole headcanon that there are the main castes and clans, and then there are ones from areas that were more geographically or culturally remote and got sort of bolted on to the system later and don't quite match up, and that's where he's from. (And is also why Delenn chose him as her aide, because he's grown up quite isolated from whatever's currently going on in Minbari society.)
But also! The idea that they've had space travel for over a thousand years (at least, if they were capable of fighting the Shadows a thousand years previously), I love imagining what that would be like. It ends up being a sort of futuristic Age of Sail in some of my stuff I think.
And also yes, the role of ritual! I meant to say re: your reply on the fic you wrote for me, I really found that point about just how much the actual words matter quite relatable - there was an incident in my own religion a couple of years ago where a priest had been baptising babies using a slightly incorrect version of the proper words (he said 'we' rather than 'I' I think), entirely unintentionally, and then his diocese announced that thousands of baptisms over many many years were therefore invalid and would have to be redone because of that. And it's the kind of thing that sounds absolutely barking mad to e.g. every non-religious person I heard comment on it, and I can simultaneously see their point and also think "but... it does matter..."