#Thank you to the wiki for ideas on Salamander field funeral practices

[ghostinthegallery]

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Also if you ever want to do this unprompted please go nuts, I love reading behind the scenes thoughts!

Ooh, free space! Hmmm, which fic to talk about?

I'd actually love to talk a little bit about Memories in Wisps of Smoke, which I think kind of went under the radar! Since it was for a holiday exchange, I don't think it ever posted to the main AO3 40K page.

This was an interesting one for me. I am shockingly rough on space marine lore, so this was an "open every tab on the wiki" type of fic. The process of training/making a marine, specifics of Salamanders and Nocturne, if there was any info about Sa'kan, the main character for this fic (there is very little and some of it is contradictory in true 40K fashion).

I knew I wanted a follow up to the animated Pariah Nexus show because I loved the characters. I just didn’t know exactly what to write. Barging in and punching Szeras in the robot kidney would have been fun, but didn’t feel right given the prompts and also how much time I had. I knew it had to be smaller and more character focused.

Then I remembered a moment early in the show where as the Salamanders’ transport is being shot down, a guy falls when the hull is ripped open. I genuinely thought this was going to be our protag, sole survivor as everyone else died in the crash. But no, we just never see that guy again. That unlocked the story for me. “Find an ally” was a much more manageable story goal than “defeat one of the worst people in this galaxy.” I gave that rando a name, and it was off to the races.

It was fun getting to write with a focus on a different faction. Although there were similarities. I based a lot of the developing friendship between Sa’kan and the Deathmark around their shared roles as tools of war. Shaped by masters who don’t care if they live or die. Then added in an OC to act as a foil to Sa’kan. Giving him two arcs (present with the Deathmark and flashbacks with Kal’en) challenging his initial impressions of both those people, so on and so on boom character development! (With some kissing because I have no impulse control)

Gotta say though my favorite scene was the one with Sa’kan and his family. The fact that Salamanders maintain those relationships is one of my favorite things about them. And tossing a crying baby at an Astartes is hilarious to me. “Brother! The codex has not prepared me for this. Why is it so small?” D:

Thanks to @two-reflections for the prompt that gave me an excuse to write this!