I think what really strikes a chord with me—well, less that and more, took root in my brain and wouldn't let go—about What Makes the Sky Blue is the relationship between someone and their creations. All creations are work, and all creation begin with love, but not all of them remains loved through the process. Sometimes the love is for the process, and sometimes only to what the finished work can be. And when you're done with it, your creations can still grow and change and even surpasses you.
All this is a little more literal in the story, what with the primal beasts being living sapient beings on their own, but I see it mirroring the creative journey in real life too. Creating things are hard; sometimes you can't help loving your creations, and sometimes hating it. Some creations are simply tools, and some creations, you project maybe a little too much of yourself into them. It can drain all the life out of you, making them, the same way they may be the reason you're still alive.
Is it also a little like having children? Ha, now that's a connection I'm not qualified to say yet. I suppose the primal beasts are halfway between creative works and children, seeing as they're designed and crafted, but then go on to have lives of their own, with all the rights of it.
Anyway, I'm writing a story about the main cast of WMTSB—Sandalphon, Lucilius, Belial, Lucifer, and another character, new, another archangel by Belial's hand this time—and it keeps striking me, again and again and again, how much they love each other, creators and creations. Love is inherent in the act of creation, and when you are loved you can't help loving back. Lucilius loves Lucifer—the way he created him to complete himself, the joy he had when he grew to be his equal, how he smiled in death, after Lucifer killed him—and Lucifer loved Sandalphon—"you are and always shall be my solace"—despite not understanding why he had to create him in the first place, despite his initial motivation for doing so was for Lucilius.
Belial loves Lucilius with the sort of divine reverence that somehow circles back to being painfully mortal. This story I'm writing started as a way to explore that, though it does become a little more than that. What if Lucilius had Belial make another angel? Why hadn't he done that? And what would this new creation be like? An archangel born in a world that doesn't need them anymore? I am very very fond of this basically Belial/Lucilius fankid I'm making but I guess no way to show that to all of you until I finish writing and editing this whole thing haha.
I don't think I've ever loved any of my original characters as much as I love this kiddo... Maybe he'll teach me to love my other characters too, enough to write for them too, and finish them, and show them to the world.
