This got me thinking.

Subject: This got me thinking.
Author: Huinesoron
Posted on: 2023-04-18 08:35:55 UTC

There are many things I would change if I were creating Tales from DOGA from scratch, because you can see a lot of the workings in what's there. For instance, Dafydd wasn't originally written as an elf! I'm pretty sure that only happened because I was one-upping Selene's vampire reveal. The fact that Raven took so long to write "Echoes of the Narbeleth" meant that the Maglor reveal ended up happening before the Elf reveal, which is bizarre nonsense (particularly since the original "Two Worlds United" mentioned elvish hearing before anything was revealed).

What I realised on thinking about your post is that I might be able to fix the timeline up a bit. By switching "Narbeleth" and "Blood of Those Betrayed" around, Constance becomes Dafydd's backup partner after Vemi leaves, but before Selene is allowed back. Then "Narbeleth" is Selene's first mission back, and the elf reveal turns into "I'll tell you something, but not as much as I did Connie". Then he runs into Constance again months later, under a table, and they realise quite how well they hit it off.

I think that's what I'll do (and it'll push me to fixing up "Narbeleth" anyway). No deadline or anything, but Watch This Space.

I think you're closer with "a bit scrambled" than "play-acting". Dafydd - actually, Maglor - seems to have a pathological need to be under light mind-control. First there was the Oath and the Silmarils. Then (much later) he acquired an evil harp. Then he joined the PPC, still under the destroyed harp's influence, and started a cult to GreyLadyBast. Then he acquired a Suvian ring that eventually drove him to blow himself up.

Both Selene and Vemi also tried to control him, mostly through threats of violence. As a Stokerverse vampire, Selene also has mesmeric powers - there's no evidence of her ever using them, but maybe Upstairs figured being a mind-control veteran would give Dafydd resistance if she acted out. Constance is the only person he spends a lot of time around who doesn't do that, which goes a long way to explaining their relationship.

Ultimately, I suspect the thing that stabilised him wasn't the harp Takua got him (though that helped as far as it went), but Ilwion the bronze fire-lizard. Having an actual benign mental influence finally gave him a chance to heal, and I doubt it's coincidence that D&C got their fire-lizards right before the birth of their first child.

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PLUG: New DOGA mission (& some rereleases) by Huinesoron on 2023-04-16 08:47:27 UTC Writing Plug Reply

For far too many years there has been a hole in the story of Dafydd Illian and Constance Sims. They met, went on a couple of missions, kissed for the first time... and then a year and a half later Dafydd sacrificed himself for Constance and they went off to get married. Their actual relationship happened entirely off-page.

No more. It may be 19 year late, but I've finally officially gotten them together.

First up, since it has been two decades, some context. The full Tales from DOGA spinoff can be found here, but Dafydd and Constance's story specifically is told in two missions that were... not super great. I've taken the opportunity to patch them up a bit, so this is the immediate context of the new mission:

Background: In 2004, Dafydd Illian founds the Department of Geographical Aberrations. His partner is Selene Windflower, but after an incident involving her setting Agent Penny on fire, she is benched for a few months while Dafydd works with Penny's partner, Vemi. Vemi and Penny then leave the PPC, leaving Dafydd slightly at loose ends.
June 2004: Two Worlds United (revised 2023) - Dafydd gets sent on his first mission with... Constant Sims? Something like that. (Labyrinth)
July 2004: The Blood of Those Betrayed (revised 2023) - Dafydd and Constance have a second mission. (LotR)
January 2005: Interlude 2 (unrevised; I think it holds up) - Dafydd and Constance run into each other avoiding a party.

And now the actual point of this post:

February 14th, 2005: The Heir of Feanor

With a title like that, you know Dafydd's gonna kick up a fuss, and Constance is going to be right in there with him.

Have read. Have liked by Tomash on 2023-05-01 04:03:11 UTC Reply
Seeing the Dafydd and Constance romance move along was nice

And it was a solid mission too
- Tonash would have more detailed thoughts if allergy season weren't happening to him right now
Linstar reviews late! by Linstar on 2023-04-20 21:29:06 UTC Edited Reply

I really liked this, and it reminds me--I really should read all of Dafydd's missions, I don't think I've read them all.

Seeing Dafydd struggle with modern slang was just hilarious. I don't actually remember enough Tolkien to actually ascertain the badness of that fic for myself, but, well, that's what the mission is for. Though it was interesting to see the legendary red wolf and "A Boarder" in the comments.

-Ls

It's okay, this is not late. :) by Huinesoron on 2023-04-20 22:26:05 UTC Reply

It's still the second thread on the Board! You can't call it late until it's at least halfway down.

Glad you enjoyed it! I'm going to try and patch up Dafydd's entire run like I did the earlier two here, so you might want to hold off on pushing through the early ones.

Haha, I'd forgotten that the fic made the Board in 2005. I was probably in that thread! Sadly it's not in the archives, but it's hilarious anyway.

hS

Can't wait for the rest of the patch-up! (nm) by Linstar on 2023-04-20 23:10:21 UTC Reply

re: stories by doctorlit on 2023-04-19 03:34:59 UTC Reply

I’m sure I’ve read the older works at some point, but since I wasn’t present when they were first posted, I’m just treating all of these as new releases, and I read through them all in one sitting. (Well, there may have been an eight-hour sleep in the middle there.) Looking at the overall romance arc as presented across the stories, I liked how there were little signs of interest from both Dafydd and Constance that slipped out almost unconsciously during their earlier missions: him creating the nickname “Connie” so quickly, and her finding opportunities to pat his back or touch his arm. The interlude was cute, too; nothing says, “I prefer to spend time with you” than mutually hiding under a table during an awkward party! Despite being ace/aro, I can definitely sympathize with wanting to monopolize a close friend while surrounded by people I don’t know as well . . . And lastly, in the new mission, I enjoyed watching Constance more or less have to coach Dafydd through how relationships function, and work him past the asocial habits he had developed after centuries of isolation. It’s a nice, calm romance, overall!

Some more story-specific notes:

“Two Worlds United”
Excellent opportunity to pit Dafydd against a cultural appropriator of Welsh things! And appropriator of all of Wales, to boot! I particularly liked the line in the pre-mission: “This train of thought wasn't getting him anywhere, except… stopping in front of a random door.” I love the double meaning of the phrase “getting anywhere,” while playing with the consciousness element in HQ, to boot. “Train of thought” . . . there’s a joke to be made there, I just know it . . . Oh, when Constance commented that the wraith “didn’t look like that in training,” I have to know . . . Since it’s in Labyrinth, was that a muppet ghost? Like, literally one of these guys?

One typo:
She looked at the wall contemplatively, then slid her backpack off her shoulder, and prepared to swing itl.

“The Blood of Those Betrayed”
Yeah, you’ve had a talent for finding fics that would directly frustrate Dafydd, haven’t you? One typo here:
He knelt down and rooted through his back, checking his weapons.
“Pack” or “backpack” I hope, I know elf physiology is different from mine, but uuuuhhhh

“Interlude 2”
Guess I mostly covered these middle stories in the opening section. Just a typo:
As they walked, with no clear destination in mind, they completely ignoring the numerous possible destinations . . .

“The Heir of Feanor”
I’m amused by the line about most of Dafydd’s reports never being written to begin with, explaining both why this one “appeared” so much later, and why portions of Dafydd’s time in HQ seem absent from the narrative! I hope Terri gets all those reports in . . . someday . . . (I mean heck, she’s been ridiculously patient up to this point!) It was fun getting a little hint of Naergondir’s existence before he joined the PPC, as well.

Oh, wow! An actual scene inside the Temple, and not just during investigative journalism! It’s fun for me to get a peek of it during its operating years, since I wasn’t around while it was “active.” I was also enjoying watching Dafydd slip back into Tolkien-style dialogue to talk to Celebrimbor, partly because it’s fun seeing him in his “native habitat” and recognized by a canon character, and partly because I had forgotten who “Lord Annatar” was . . . Once Constance gave his other name, it did change the tone of the conversation a bit, yeah!

Hrm. Selene casts a reflection in the console screen? Shouldn’t she . . . not that, as a Stoker vampire? I’m sorry if this has been explained before, but I’m not remembering . . .

—doctorlit adds Kushiel’s Legacy to the required reading list

Typos fixed. by Huinesoron on 2023-04-19 08:23:00 UTC Reply

One per story isn't a bad tally, even if one of them has been in there since 2005. ^_^; I've also eliminated Selene's reflection, though I had to check first whether that's from Dracula itself. (It is, and apparently she also doesn't cast a shadow. And shouldn't be able to transform in the day except at dawn, dusk, and noon, so there may be errors buried in some other stories; eh.)

I am happy to assume the wraith was a spectral Muppet; there's certainly enough options about! I admit that line was just thrown in because I needed to replace the original "Well, that was odd..." which didn't quite work. There's a lot of that around. ^_^

I can confirm that Kaitlyn and I were (...are...) the kind of people to hide under a table at parties if we could get away with it, and are much happier holing up with the person we know best rather than, ugh, socialising. There's a lot of autobiography in my PPC stuff. :D I'll also note that, other than possibly a Smiting Ceremony by Araeph, I think this is the first appearance of the Temple of GreyLadyBast in actual narrative. She's waited long enough!

Current DOGA plans include one new story, at least one revision, and one... well, it's a sort of new/old story that I'm going to bring in properly. So there's more on the way!

hS

Nice! by Neshomeh on 2023-04-17 19:07:51 UTC Reply

There's something very satisfying about seeing gaps being filled in like this. Goes to show it's never too late, I guess, which is encouraging for anyone (read: me) who has a sliiiight tendency to take ages to finish anything. ^_^

I enjoyed the story. Dafydd is such a strange combination of old and inexperienced, it's often a little surprising what he doesn't know and what he just accepts. Like... going from "I panicked because the prospect of marriage was imminent after a single make-out" and "What's a date?" to "Sure, that sounds nice."

I guess I would expect elves in general to take courtship more seriously, and certainly not fool around with a human woman under a cafeteria table. And maybe he would have been appalled at such a thought when he was still Maglor. But since he's also a badfic character with certain select "passing as a human" experiences, plus the insane life of a PPC agent post-recruitment, his brain is a bit scrambled. And I mean that in an affectionate way. {= )

To be more generous, maybe "Dafydd" is more of a cloak that he wears to keep the strange weather of human life from touching him. He goes along with the general silly behavior around him and plays "charmingly befuddled" as a sleight of hand to keep people from looking too closely, seeing his real thoughts. But with Constance, we see the cloak pull back just a little, revealing the confusion of his existence as very real.

Or I'm reading into it way too much and I should really just relax.

Either way, I'm with Constance: I expect their date to have at least three different kinds of Shenanigans. ^_^

~Neshomeh

This got me thinking. by Huinesoron on 2023-04-18 08:35:55 UTC Reply

There are many things I would change if I were creating Tales from DOGA from scratch, because you can see a lot of the workings in what's there. For instance, Dafydd wasn't originally written as an elf! I'm pretty sure that only happened because I was one-upping Selene's vampire reveal. The fact that Raven took so long to write "Echoes of the Narbeleth" meant that the Maglor reveal ended up happening before the Elf reveal, which is bizarre nonsense (particularly since the original "Two Worlds United" mentioned elvish hearing before anything was revealed).

What I realised on thinking about your post is that I might be able to fix the timeline up a bit. By switching "Narbeleth" and "Blood of Those Betrayed" around, Constance becomes Dafydd's backup partner after Vemi leaves, but before Selene is allowed back. Then "Narbeleth" is Selene's first mission back, and the elf reveal turns into "I'll tell you something, but not as much as I did Connie". Then he runs into Constance again months later, under a table, and they realise quite how well they hit it off.

I think that's what I'll do (and it'll push me to fixing up "Narbeleth" anyway). No deadline or anything, but Watch This Space.

~

I think you're closer with "a bit scrambled" than "play-acting". Dafydd - actually, Maglor - seems to have a pathological need to be under light mind-control. First there was the Oath and the Silmarils. Then (much later) he acquired an evil harp. Then he joined the PPC, still under the destroyed harp's influence, and started a cult to GreyLadyBast. Then he acquired a Suvian ring that eventually drove him to blow himself up.

Both Selene and Vemi also tried to control him, mostly through threats of violence. As a Stokerverse vampire, Selene also has mesmeric powers - there's no evidence of her ever using them, but maybe Upstairs figured being a mind-control veteran would give Dafydd resistance if she acted out. Constance is the only person he spends a lot of time around who doesn't do that, which goes a long way to explaining their relationship.

Ultimately, I suspect the thing that stabilised him wasn't the harp Takua got him (though that helped as far as it went), but Ilwion the bronze fire-lizard. Having an actual benign mental influence finally gave him a chance to heal, and I doubt it's coincidence that D&C got their fire-lizards right before the birth of their first child.

hS

This was hilariously fun. by Zingenmir on 2023-04-16 19:52:15 UTC Reply

I mean, it really has everything, doesn't it? Maglor moments from Dafydd, character development, Constance and Dafydd getting used to each other, bits of misunderstandings, very well-timed "what" "what" "WHAT" reactions, hilarious moments for the minis...it ties into my memories of Dafydd's missions very well, with all the benefits of having been written with many more years of writing experience. I had a lot of fun reading.

~Z, making peace with some repetitive phrasing in exchange for a finished, posted little review.