Chapter Text
NEE NAW! This is not the beginning of the fic!
Ello! It is I, Boogle Boot, coming to you once more from the canonical timeline as it stands after Fateheart. This one is set a few years after the events of that big old leviathan of a fic, but you can totes read this without being familiar. All you need to know is new Harbour, Zachary and Dorian are married now, time has passed, blah blah blah-
Oh, and Dorian runs the Parliament of Owls. This is a chapter rather than a starting note so that I can add here the eponymous painting by Salvador Dalí for you to see:
Dream, Caused by the Flight of a Bee (around a Pomegranate, One Second before Waking Up) - Salvador Dalí, 1944
I will be adding the two paintings for each chapter at the top of each, in the main body of the text. If they aren't showing up for some reason, do drop me a comment and I'll try to fix it. Having the images will enrich this story for you (hopefully).
This fic was born from two places. The first was when I was scrolling through a web collection of Magritte paintings, wondering which ones Zachary Ezra Rawlins had had up in his dorm room in Vermont. The paintings struck me then as fitting well into the role Mirabel gives to the tarot in The Starless Sea: pieces of a story that can be shuffled into any order. From that moment I had the zany idea to write a fic which took the form of a series of Magritte paintings in dialogue with each other. But much as I love a structural gimmick (and I am a SLUT for a structural gimmick), I had no story to tell.
Some time later in our fabulous Starless Sea discord (JOIN US: https://discord.gg/5bAc23ax) my lovely friend Zing had an idea: an Inigo Montoya fic - Dorian's past coming back to look him in the eye. She very generously said "uhh yeah sure, go for it" when I started frothing at the mouth over writing this idea, and for that I give her the greatest thanks. One wet smack for u, Zing, ily.
I cannot remember when these two points of inspiration found each other. It may have been when I was, for no reason at all, considering the Dalí painting which gives its name to this fic whether it consents to it or not, pictured above.
Shoutout to Roo for the 'these pomegranates are a metaphor' bit. It's from a tiktok, I think.
This fic is dedicated to Zing. Friend, I cannot tell you how much I value your constant support and enthusiasm for my writing. I was genuinely despairing of ever getting this one done - it has been percolating for so long now. But the genuine excitement you showed each time I expressed I was working on it has got me across the finish line. I hope it delivers on the splendour of your original vision - sorry for turning it into yet another op-ed on the parliament of owls lol. Look at our little Inigo Montoya go!! This one is for you x