21_days | 21 Days of Valdemar!

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21 Days of Valdemar!

Welcome to 21 Days of Valdemar!

Put on your party hats - it’s time for the Dead Vanyel Memorial Party! Vanyel is OFFICIALLY the Woobiest of the Woobies, and we celebrate in his honour!

WE'RE DONE.

No More Fills posted here! Post to AO3 or FF.Net and post the link here!

Discussion Post | Mod Call Post | Resources Post

Schedule

Day 1 -Aug. 9 - Prompts! You will have seven days to put as many prompts as you'd like on this post. And if you start writing them early, well that's just good planning!

Day 8 - Aug. 16 - Prompting ends, posting begins! You have 14 days to write, draw, and potentially diorama as many prompts as you can.

Day 19 - Aug. 27 - This is the cut-off day for prompters to reply to any questions about their prompt. Unanswered questions are considered enthusiastic agreement.

Day 21 - Aug. 29 - Last day of posting! All fills must be posted by 11:59 PM North American Mountain Time.
Day 22 - Aug. 30 - Party time! You now have the option of going unanon and reposting everything you've done to AO3 under our fancy AO3 Collection. Or unanoning in whatever manner you please.

(Click on the dates for countdowns; the fest is following MDT/Mountain Time)

Rules

For the purposes of this fest, the prompts themselves are warnings. If you have issues with this policy, we recommend either not participating or using Dreamwidth blocker.

Joining the 21_days community is optional for prompters, fillers, and all interested parties; we have some extra content for comm members, but this prompt/fill post, the discussion post, and the mod call post are open for everyone.

MOST IMPORTANT RULE: Posting unanon will be deleted. This doesn't mean you aren't welcome here! And if you'd like the content of your comment PMed to you, contact the MOD CALL post.

For Prompters and Readers

Subject lines should include the series, characters and/or pairing you want. Feel free to be as descriptive as you'd like. Warnings aren't required, but they also aren't banned.
You don't have to write or draw. It's anon, there's no IP-tracking, and we aren't going to stalk you.
Do not comment on other people's prompts to try and change pairings or characters. Post your own version with the characters you want instead.
If you fail to respond to a 'is this okay?' kind of question about any of your prompts by the 19th day, it'll be taken as an enthusiastic yes, no matter what the question is.
There are no subject bans. You may prompt anything you want.
If you don't want to answer any questions, you can say so, and that will work as blanket permission for anything people might want to do with your prompt.
Prompts for non-Valdemar Mercedes Lackey series are allowed.

For Artists and Writers

No claiming prompts, please, as multiple fills are welcome!
Minimum wordcount per fill is 100 words.
All content is allowed and all warnings are optional, but if you want to write or draw extreme kinks** for a prompt that doesn’t specifically request them, you have ask the prompter first.
If the artist requests it, the mods will repost art fills as an embedded picture in a reply to their comment. NSFW art will be labelled as such in the subject line by re-posting mods. Art involving underaged characters in porn situations will not be re-posted as an embed.
RPF of underage people is not allowed. We're not even sure if it's possible for Valdemar fic, but whatever. It's not allowed.

** "extreme kinks" for the purposes of this exchange include but are not necessarily limited to: extreme underage, major character death, scat/watersports/emetophilia, extreme gore, and bestiality. Please use reasonable discretion, and ask a mod if you have any questions!

For Everyone

This is a Choose Not to Warn fest. At no point will any comment be deleted for failure to warn of its content in the subject lines. They will be deleted for rampaging dickery and failure to follow the rules.

Unanon comments will be deleted.

Attempts at policing other people's fun will be deleted.

Prompts posted after the end of the 7th day will be deleted.

Links to off-meme posts posted prior to end of the 21st day will be deleted.

Concerns are to be directed to the MOD CALL post. If posted here, they will be deleted.

Fills that have spectacularly failed to fulfill the prompt/been posted to the wrong spot will be screened. You can request a copy of your work at the MOD CALL post.

The rules may change without warning in response to unforeseen circumstances, like us thinking of better ones.

Discussion Post | Mod Call Post | Resources Post

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The first few days back were rough for Vanyel, Tylendel was sure of that, and since he refused to go too far from Vanyel, that made them rough for him too. He tried not to let Vanyel's vacillating moods get to him. The boy was still dealing with the realization that he was free, hadn't been sold out. Even just adapting to being in a new environment would be hard after all this time.

Gala had let Tylendel know she'd explained things on the way in to Haven, that Savil and Kellan would make sure that they were prepared to receive them and get Vanyel the help that the situation deserved. What that ended up meaning was Lancir's aid, much to Tylendel's surprise. He'd known Vanyel was badly off, but hadn't expected them to pull in the Queen's Own for something like that. Perhaps it was just because Lancir was a personal acquaintance of Savil's; perhaps Lancir was just free at the time and willing to help. Tylendel didn't know, but there was no way that it could be a bad thing. Lancir had been there for Tylendel when he'd first come to Haven, only newly shielded and an emotional wreck from the two years prior.

But he also knew firsthand how long MindHealing took, and how much trauma and pain had to be brought to the surface and dealt with for someone to really start to recover from it. Vanyel's first session was a few days after his arrival. Tylendel had moved back into Savil's training suite quietly, pretending he'd never left for his proper rooms in the palace so that he could stay near to Vanyel, and waited in the main room for Vanyel to come back.

Sure enough, Vanyel returned from that session with red eyes, exhausted to the point of shaking. Despite trying to brace himself for Vanyel's feelings, the tiredness and pain washed over him, and Tylendel was on his feet in seconds, coming over and taking Vanyel's elbow.

"Tylendel...?"

It was the first time Vanyel had called his name, Tylendel realized with a shock, rather than just 'Herald' if he didn't avoid it entirely. He smiled as he helped lead Vanyel to a chair. "Sorry," he said. "You look like you're about to collapse."

"Mm..." Vanyel glanced up at him hesitantly, then sank down with gratitude. It looked for a second like he was going to say something else, but then he dropped his gaze, shoulders hunching.

It was something, though. Tylendel considered just leaving it at that, but...

"Are you hungry? I've got a cheese and meat platter here and there's more than I can manage."

"No—" Vanyel's stomach rumbled, and he looked abruptly abashed.

Tylendel smiled again. "How about I move it over to your table instead?"

"Yes. Thank you..." Again, that hesitation.

Tylendel moved the tray, then carefully stepped back from Vanyel, going back to his own chair and picking up the book he'd been reading before Vanyel came back. Keeping him company seemed best, letting him know he was here without making any kind of issue of it.

A few pages later, he heard again: "Tylendel?"

"Mm?" He looked up.

Vanyel wasn't meeting his gaze, looking down at a piece of cheese he had clutched between forefinger and thumb. "'Fey' is an insult, isn't it?"

That was hardly a question he'd been expecting. He didn't let the unexpected term jolt him, just exhaled slowly. "It is. It means feminine and strange, like some sort of spirit. Inhuman."

"There's another word you've been using?"

Despite himself, a sense of excitement curled in his chest. Vanyel was talking to him, really talking to him. It seemed like before all this, in the monastery, the only times Vanyel had spoken back to him was to shut him down, accuse him of things... "That's right! Shay'a'chern," he said. "It's a Tayledras term—do you know about the Hawkbrothers?"

Vanyel's brow furrowed. He still didn't look up from the cheese; he seemed to think it was the most fascinating thing in the world. "No... maybe," he said. "Outlanders...?"

"That's right! I'm sure you've seen the masks around this place. Savil's... friends with some of them, she brought those back and some language as well." It was one of Tylendel's favorite subjects, not the least because Savil had originally brought the word back and got people to start using it because of him, because he'd come to her as her student. He'd had no words for what he thought or felt that weren't rude.

Vanyel was waiting, so he continued. "In Valdemar, it's considered abnormal and unusual, a perversion. But to the Tayledras, it's just part of natural development. Humans are just really advanced animals, and all animals have a tendency for some subset of them to show desire within one's sex. So since it's natural, they have equivalent terms. Shay'a'chern means something like, 'one whose lovers are like oneself', specifically meaning gender—" He reigned in his desire to start talking linguistics. Vanyel's brow was still drawn down. Better to keep it simple. "There's no judgment in it, it's just a term, so I prefer to use it. One can hope it'll catch on."

"Shay'a'chern," Vanyel repeated.

Tylendel ached to ask more. When Vanyel had confronted him, it had sounded like he either thought he was shay'a'chern or had thought others believed it, but it had hardly seemed like Vanyel would have had any chance to know himself. It seemed to Tylendel that it probably didn't matter to Vanyel whether he was or wasn't, not so long as his father believed it of him. There was no way to know if Vanyel were asking because he wanted to speak more nicely about Tylendel, if he were asking for himself, or even asking simply because he wanted to know.

Tylendel wanted to ask and desperately weighed the pros and cons. He wanted to be good company: not 'the Herald' who had ordered Vanyel to come along, but a friend to this person he was starting to finally see. Not asking might seem like he wasn't interested to know about Vanyel, but asking too much would put him on the spot. Carefully, he said, "It's a nice thought to me. When I came here originally, I felt pretty broken. Learning that there are entire cultures that just acknowledge it as what it is, a person who grows up and finds their interests lie elsewhere? It really helped me feel less like a deviant, even when other people treated me like one. Like something I could hold close no matter what."

"Yeah... maybe," Vanyel murmured. He blinked down at the cheese, then put it in his mouth and closed his eyes. Tylendel watched for a little while, but when Vanyel didn't make any move to interact further, went back to his book.

Even with just that little, it felt like things were changing.

***

The sessions with Lancir were hard and strange. Vanyel never really knew what to expect when going in to talk to him, which he did twice a week. The first couple of weeks, he hadn't even talked much, but seemed to be left utterly exhausted at the end regardless. Lancir's questions alone took a lot out of him, and even the few words he'd use to try to answer would seem like Lancir knew too much, understood too much from them.

The weeks after that seemed to become easier and more difficult all at once. Lancir had spent the first sessions simply developing a core of understanding and nailing down what to talk about. In these later visits, he found all the questions that made Vanyel hurt. An energy came from Lancir that made Vanyel both want to talk more and want to listen more, like something about the man unknotted his tongue. But the subject matter didn't get any easier. There were tears more often than he liked. He'd call it embarrassing, unmanly, and cry harder when Lancir would quietly, curiously, ask him why it wasn't manly to cry.

They were hard enough that he needed his time outside them to be quiet and calming, and he received that.

Tylendel being back at Savil's helped. He seemed always to be there, relaxing. He said he was just killing time while waiting for his next mission, but whatever the reason was, Vanyel could always expect to see him there. He wasn't doing anything specific—sitting around reading, writing, always with food in one hand. But he was reliable.

Tylendel wasn't the only thing, though, that made him start to feel human again. There were others: Savil, blatantly an Ashkevron herself and supportive, helped him think his own name without feeling guilty about it. Seeing dark hair start to grow out on his scalp. Clothes of his own, comfortable and soft. Things were changing, and he wasn't entirely sure how to feel about it.

He tried to tell this to Tylendel one time when he came back from Lancir. He stumbled in with wet eyes, tired, but feeling somehow more alive. He didn't lead into it, couldn't figure out how. 'Lendel was sitting in an armchair with a meatbun hanging out of his mouth, dropping crumbs everywhere, and Vanyel found himself abruptly saying, "I can't hear myself think."

Tylendel blinked, then took the meatbun in one hand instead, chewing. "I—"

"I'm sorry," Vanyel said quickly, abruptly horrified at himself, embarrassed. That was the worst kind of non-sequitur, Tylendel was going to be confused, think he was stupid. "I didn't mean anything."

Slowly, Tylendel exhaled. "I've felt that way before," he said. "Like everything inside you is wrong and you're shouting to get out. But you can't, because it's impossible to get out of yourself."

Vanyel's mouth fell open. If he'd thought it was difficult to hear himself think before, it was worse now, a weird buzzing white noise in his head as he tried to conflate this, conflate Tylendel's cool calm Heraldic exterior with someone who could feel that way.

"I used to have to see Lancir too," Tylendel said, apologetically. He rubbed fingers through his hair, and Vanyel noticed he'd accidentally trailed crumbs in his curls. "I was... How to put this... My gifts woke up unexpectedly. I was also a lord's son, and ...mm. It was a mess. I had fits. Everyone thought I was insane and cursed, and I was throwing feelings everywhere and picking up what they were thinking, and I discovered I was shay'a'chern on top of that."

Something shifted uneasily inside Vanyel. Something hungry, and eager; Tylendel was reaching out, offering something of himself, and Vanyel wanted to take it. But at the same time, a weird sense of guilt came over him.

"That sounds... hard," Vanyel said slowly. "Worse than with me, I mean, you had to—"

"No," Tylendel said firmly. "Not worse. Different. I had my twin brother Staven with me; he believed in me the entire time. I relied on him so much, and he got me through it. You didn't have anyone; you were alone and had nothing to hope for or expect. See? If I put it that way, yours sounds way worse."

"That's—"

"But it's just different. I got better, and have a future. You'll get better and have a future too." Tylendel smiled at him, comforting. "I'm just sorry the getting there's hard."

A future...

The idea was almost too much. He still couldn't imagine anything after this, any kind of future. His father wouldn't give him one, that was for certain. He wasn't a Bard like he'd wanted to be, he wasn't a Herald like Tylendel was, he wouldn't be the Ashkevron heir.

But I'm not alone. If Tylendel said that he could have a future, he wanted to believe it.

Even as he found himself thinking it, he panicked. He swallowed around a sudden lump. "Excuse me," he said, and retreated toward his room; he paused in the doorway, glancing back. "...There's food in your hair," he said, hurriedly, and ducked into his room almost too fast to see Tylendel go red.

IT BEGINS

The pace you're setting is amazing! I love how raw Van comes across here, and I'm just falling more in love with this version of Tylendel.

Really liked the "fey vs shay'a'chern" talk and what's going on behind it too.

A!A

AND NOW COMES THE FALL. I'm so glad you're enjoying it and them, thank you! I've often thought about how recently Valdemar got a non-objectionable term, considering Savil brought it back. One of those little heart-wrenching details imo...

[Commenter who liked your Tylendel in an earlier response. Anon meme self-identification, so complicated!]

This is all terrific, writer. I'm glad you're getting Van some therapy -- the poor boy needs it badly! I look forward to continuing to watch as Vanyel makes his way into adulthood and finds Tylendel standing there.

I also liked all of your thoughts on Tylendel in your earlier response to me. It works. It works well.

A!A

That's the one downside of anon memes. And finding people who share your tastes but never knowing who they are! Two ships (sometimes 'ships) passing in the night...

I'm so glad you're enjoying it. I've often thought something TLHM needed just a smidgen more of was actual therapy so I admit I'm indulging a little in my own hopes and dreams here.

And I'm so glad, thank you so much ////

Just read parts 5 and 6 together, and I'm still in love! TBH, I don't usually like this kind of AU, but you have me completely hooked.

Go Savil!

A!A

Thank you so much! To be honest, this AU is so far outside the field of what I usually write that I'm flummoxed myself but I'm having so much fun and I'm so happy people are enjoying it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

21 Days of Valdemar!

FILL: Tylendel/Vanyel - Orders - 6/?

Re: FILL: Tylendel/Vanyel - Orders - 6/?

Re: FILL: Tylendel/Vanyel - Orders - 6/?

Re: FILL: Tylendel/Vanyel - Orders - 6/?

Re: FILL: Tylendel/Vanyel - Orders - 6/?

Re: FILL: Tylendel/Vanyel - Orders - 6/?

Re: FILL: Tylendel/Vanyel - Orders - 6/?