Fanfiction Fridays: (i’ll go) wherever you will go by fadeoutin

Here at Lady Geek Girl and Friends, we address just about every social issue you could shake a stick at; however, in terms of fandom and fanfiction, the issue that speaks directly to my heart is the lack of fics starring a female couple in a romantic relationship. I’ve already made mention of this in an earlier Fanfiction Fridays of mine, but this time I decided to approach it from a different angle. Rather than hoping that some author would kindly decide to extrapolate on the relationship between two ladies already present in canon, I wanted to see if game series that focus on making a customizable main character might be more evenly divided between the types of slash fic—if not evenly divided, at least an easier task to find actual femslash fic.

Before plunging myself into the depths of fanfiction created by Bioware titles—I could lose days sorting through all that fic-y goodness—I wanted to start with a fandom that is a little more reserved in its output. Or at least it seems like it from this side of the ocean.

Fire Emblem: Awakening is the newest addition to the Fire Emblem series of turn-based strategy games. Its plot deals with a huge multi-continent war, a legion of the undead—named ‘the risen’—coming to wreak havoc on everyone and everything, memory loss, doppelgangers, and time travel, just to name a few things. I know, it sounds like standard fare for a JRPG, but what this has over a typical JRPG is a mechanic in which fighting alongside certain members of your army unlocks new conversations with them, and even marriage later on. It’s a shipper’s dream, and the fanbase loves it. However, and perhaps unsurprisingly, there are no homosexual relationships available for the player character to pursue. This is disappointing especially considering that there’s a pairing that’s so hinted at it may as well be canon (at least in terms of being available for the final, ‘marriage-tier’ conversation).

I had thought that finding a fic based on the seemingly forbidden relationship between the player character and a member of the same gender would have been the easiest path to tread (since self-insert fic is a long-lasting love of any canon), but once more I was surprised: a fic on the front page staring two characters that I hadn’t even thought of together caught my eye. And it was femslash? Be still my beating heart.

Spoilers for Fire Emblem: Awakening under the cut.

(i’ll go) wherever you will go by fadeoutin takes a look at the budding relationship between Lucina and Severa as Severa’s feelings blossom on the battlefield. This is where things get a little complicated, at least in terms of the characters’ psyche. Lucina is the daughter of Chrom, the new exalt (see: royalty), who has traveled back in time to prevent the death of her father and the destruction of the world. Severa also has traveled back in time, but maybe from a different point in time than Lucina (and the twelve other children that also traveled back in time). This disparity between the life she knew and the life she’s fighting for in the present-past seems to hit Severa the hardest—even though the fic is from Severa’s point of view, the game corroborates that she specifically has a hard time adjusting in the past.

With the memories of her destroyed future in the forefront of her mind, Severa has hidden her heart from most relationships underneath a shield of bitter brashness and an unwillingness to compromise. She won’t allow herself to forge a relationship with the past version of her mother because the wounds from her mother’s death in the future are still fresh—she won’t even let herself consider the two versions the same person. Ostensibly alone, Severa devotes all of her time making sure Lucina, her headstrong queen, doesn’t get killed because of her own soft heart. Of course, even with all the attention she devotes, Severa cannot be in every place at once, and eventually Lucina is struck down. The most powerful line of this fic comes in when Severa is watching over Lucina, her friend and love, as the young exalt is recovering from her wounds.

“I know we’re not in our time. I know here, right now, Chrom is the exalt, but. You are my exalt,” she whispers, her eyes bright and burning. “You just—you can’t die. I forbid it.”

For me, this shows everything their relationship is; it exposes Severa’s hidden heart, burning only for the woman she’d die to protect. If that doesn’t make you feel anything, I don’t know what to tell you.

Coming in at just over 3,000 words, (i’ll go) wherever you will go is not a long fic by any means, but fadeoutin packs so much into those words that it feels much longer. (In a good way.) Even if you’re unfamiliar with the series, you can sit down and enjoy it as it stands up pretty well on its own. And hey, who doesn’t love a story about warrior ladies kicking ass and falling in love?