Resolution (A Land of the Lustrous Fanfic)

Author's Note: Process of Writing, Inspirations & Gem Theories

If anyone managed to get through that huge stack of words and paragraphs and is reading this, thank you! I like experimenting with my writing style and this time, I put myself in a gem's shoes!

Writing sentient gems was so fun to write creatively. I made a point to avoid common comparisons to the human body (ie. skin, brain, heart, and warmth/coldness) and tried to generally avoid liquid comparisons because they don't have that sensation within their bodies. 

Also, breathing. So many times I had to backspace on the word "sigh". 

They also rely a lot on visual and verbal/aural means to receive and relay information. Somehow, this made me theorize that their eyeballs were probably provided and affixed by Adamant, since it was shown that they were born with two empty eye sockets. Therefore (or regardless), they probably don't act as a "window to the soul" as is often used in writing. It was a very new experience writing their interactions when they couldn't read each other's eyes as I often used in my other stories. 

I really tried to understand the characters that Haruko Ichikawa created but also, as always with me, litter it with fan-service (mainly for myself haha).  

What kick-started this 2-shot was the question: what would exchanging physical intimacy look and feel like for gems? 

I wanted to play with their ambiguous and non-solid concept of romantic love and who better to write than the complicated Diamond and Bort? That's a lie... Truthfully, shipping DiaBort was what made me consider everything else! 

From the anime and manga, it seems like the gems do understand that there are non-platonic feelings and probably experience it more often that I first thought, considering they have such close bonds with their partners. Because they don't have the bodily instinct to express love in intimate ways, all of it is expressed verbally or through strong passions like Rutile and Alexandrite. 

So, how does physical intimacy play a part in the story and to gems that don't require it? 

Diamond's continued inability to conquer hir feeling of envy inspired me to create a scenario that would give hir the extra push ze needed to confirm/reaffirm/clarify hir love for Bort. Fortunately, the Lunarians/Moon People are souls of humans so that made this entire concept plausible if only a tiny bit. 

For the gems, everything lies in the meaning behind a gesture. It is essentially the same as with human interactions sans the physical pleasure. Frankly, that made everything so much sweeter. 

While that was all fun to write, the actual difficulties were Diamond and Bort. Yep. I could hardly relate to them and it was certainly a trial getting to understand their thinking.

Diamond was especially difficult, even though everything revolves around hir. Thankfully, there were numerous cases of people in relationships with the same problem that a quick google search provided (haha). 

Also, considering Bort but not writing hir thoughts was also really difficult. Inwardly, Bort was probably comparing Diamond's gestures to Adamant's but ze didn't seem like the type who would say that out loud (aside from the fact that including it kind of interrupted the story flow). 

That's basically it. Wow, my author's note is another stack of words (even though I tried to cut down anything unnecessary). It just goes to show how whipped I am for Houseki no Kuni/Land of the Lustrous. 

As a reminder, this side story takes place in the same timeline and universe as the Houseki no Kuni manga, specifically between chapters 74 and 75. 

I also explain the use of gender neutral pronouns "ze/hir" in the description. Using they/them was confusing but using she/her didn't feel right officially so I found this alternative that I didn't know existed until now. Here's a link to the site explaining it: 
https://www.mypronouns.org/ze-hir/

Thanks for reading.

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My Playlist While Writing:

Breadcrumbs - Jacob Lee

I Belong To You - Jacob Lee

Demons - Jacob Lee

VOICES (Violin Ver.)  - Xperia ft. Ayasa

Diamonds (Rihanna cover) - Kurt Hugo Schneider ft. Kim Viera