[Team Dark] (the Eleventh Hour) Under Lock and Stone

[cloverfield]

Title: Under Lock and Stone
Prompt: The Eleventh Hour
Rating: M
Warnings: This fic contains strong violence, adult language, minor character death and dark themes. This fic may be triggering due to scenes that contain: claustrophobic implications, references to war, imprisonment, prisoners of war, execution, situational despair, and graphic injury. Please do not read this fic if you believe you may be triggered by any of the above; otherwise I am happy to discuss any themes before you read if you wish.

Read my fic @ AO3!

Thank you for reading! How did I do?
Please score my fic according to these guidelines:
1. How in-character was this fic? (1-10)
2. How well did this fic handle the prompt? (1-10)
3. How much did you enjoy this fic overall? (1-10)

Remember that you must provide some form of identification (a link to a blog or profile on another site will suffice) for your vote to be counted!

Comments

[farenmaddox]

We're still a little sparse on votes, so I hope it is okay with all the writers to have a moderator jumping in to vote as well!

1. How in-character was this fic? (9)

Honestly, it was just about perfect, but I never got to see Fai's humour and ability to be gentle, so it just felt like a little something was missing. What was there was spot-on.

2. How well did this fic handle the prompt? (10)

I give you a top rating for your ability to make it dark, tense, dramatic, and still allow for the relationship between the two characters to blossom while fulfilling both the letter and spirit of the law.

3. How much did you enjoy this fic overall? (9)

I would have liked to see just a handful of paragraphs to tell me that they bashed on the rocks, swam for their lives, bled and cried on cavernous riverbanks, and eventually washed up downstream and had one moment to agree to go look for the Nihongo army. Other than that, everything about this was perfect. I had no complaints about the pacing. It was building up to the climax at just the right tempo for me.

[cloverfield]

I honestly don't see any writers having problems with the mods voting - we've done it in years passed, so it should be fine :)

1. You're right in that Fai isn't as developed as Kurogane. I think part of this is because a) the fic is totally in Kuro-POV, and b) because there's the element of suspense, which means Fai's character isn't given as much development because Kurogane needs to be kept in the dark in some ways. Also, I couldn't exactly figure out how to make Fai as humorous in a dark situation, ahaha.

2. This was a hard fic to write [sweats] Like, seriously hard. It was so dark! I'm glad it worked though, but I think the next thing I write needs to be light and breezy, ahahah. I'm happy you thought it filled the prompt and theme!

3. AHAHAHA. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA. DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW CONFLICTED I AM ABOUT THE ENDING STILL. I would have liked to have gone into more detail, but I'm sorry to say the fic still would have ended unsatisfyingly - the extended ending features Fai trying to frantically heal a battered Kurogane in the depths of the forest (and possibly getting discovered by Nihon's forces). So cliffhanger it was, due to time and other such pressures. I'm super jazzed the pacing worked out though - pacing is a big worry for me, so I'm pleased as punch it worked.

Thanks for reading and voting and all of the excellent work you've done as mod to set this up, darling!