21 Days of Valdemar!
Jul. 17th, 2015 06:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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21_daysWelcome 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)
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- No claiming prompts, please, as multiple fills are welcome!
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** "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!
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FILL: Tylendel/Vanyel - Orders - 5/?
Date: 2015-08-24 06:25 am (UTC)But he did. There was no doubt about that. He'd tried to apologize, to relax again when they were away, to say that they could get help for Vanyel now—
Vanyel had just stared at him with hard, cold eyes. He wasn't withdrawn in any way. No, he was radiating his distress, but that distress had congealed into bitterness again, a bitterness Tylendel couldn't penetrate.
:Gala, did I do the right thing?:
:Well, if I were you, I'd have fought more with magic and less with Fetching,: Gala said, consideringly. :But with the number of bystanders and your own distraction in your pain, I think you made it work fairly well. Especially given that you weren't sure he even was to blame until he attacked you.:
Tylendel sighed aloud. :Not what I meant, love.: Not that he didn't appreciate the feedback, but... :Should I have left him there?:
There was a pause, Gala picking her words carefully before sending them to him. :No, you did the right thing, I believe. Leaving him would have been like giving up on him. You did your best to salvage his reputation in how you approached it, and you know for a fact that he needs help. Some things just have no perfect solution. It's all right if things are unpleasant now if it means it can help him later, isn't it?:
:Mm. You're right, my darling.:
They stopped that night later than he or Gala would like. Dealing with the pain from his injury was taking up too much of his attention and the last thing they needed was another attack on the road in that state. But they also couldn't drag the trip out too many days, not with Vanyel like this.
Once they got back to the room, though, he sighed. He'd changed back into his already-damaged uniform on the first stop with the hopes of somehow salvaging his dress whites despite the enormous blood stain on the thigh, but he just felt dirty and uncomfortable. He headed down to the baths and showered the best he could, head dunked under the pump, wiping his body down with a cloth rather than letting the wound bleed into public water. Then he rebound the injury a bit clumsily, unable to make it as fully secure on the back as he'd like but unwilling to ask Vanyel for help again.
Back upstairs, he found Vanyel already curled on the bed, facing away, and cleared his throat. Vanyel didn't respond, but did tense up. Still awake, then.
"The bath's still available," Tylendel said. "I didn't use the water so I wouldn't dirty it on you, I used the pump."
He didn't expect a response, and was genuinely surprised when Vanyel shifted, one eye flicking back at him. "...Why?" Vanyel asked.
"I thought you'd feel better if you were clean? You should go before it gets cold."
Vanyel still didn't move. "Trying to make me more presentable for when you hand me over to my Father's judgment?"
"I can't imagine why he'd be at Haven, so no. Trying to make you more comfortable—"
"So you can have me?"
Tylendel felt the anger flare up, strangled it before he could let it out and before Gala could comment on it. "Vanyel, if you think that's the worst anyone's ever said to me to try to upset me, you're wrong." He lowered himself to sit on his bed with a wince, then gave up on fully containing himself behind his calm Heraldic role. "Ow! Lady's tits, that smarts!"
Surprised, Vanyel sat up, blinking owlishly at him.
Tylendel waved a hand. "Don't bathe if you'd rather be unclean," he said, a bit snappish despite himself. "It's paid for whether or not you use it. I, for one, am tired and sore and a good day's ride from the Healers still and I'm going to get some sleep."
"...What if I run away?" Vanyel asked.
"Please don't," Tylendel said, feelingly. "You could get yourself set on by bandits or worse. And I'd really rather get back to Haven and my own bed sooner rather than later."
He didn't open his eyes as he heard Vanyel rise. Footsteps hesitated, then the door closed.
:Think he'll run away, love?: he asked Gala, anger fading into exhaustion.
:Where's he to go? But I'll keep an eye open, 'Lendel. You get yours closed.:
:I'll do that, Gala. Thanks as always.:
***
Vanyel huddled in the bath, arms wrapped around his knees, the warmth of the scented water getting to him despite his reticence to relax.
He couldn't make any sense of it.
He was sure, sure that Tylendel was taking him to Forst Reach. There was no reason behind it; there was just no reason behind anything any more. All of this had been leading up to his father's judgment of him one way or another, and the idea that might not be happening...
He didn't feel like he could even grasp it.
The logical part of him pointed out how unlikely it was, for the very reasons that Tylendel had argued earlier. Tylendel was—that word he kept using, the one that meant that he was like Vanyel, that he liked boys. He had no reason to want someone else to get hurt for that. If he kept his chin up over worse things than the one Vanyel had just said, he wouldn't want to see anyone else get told worse. Beyond that, a Herald had said, in official capacity, that he was taking him to Haven. Why wouldn't they be going there?
But despite that, the feeling of upcoming catastrophe kept hanging over him with practiced surety. He could only leave the monastery if his father judged him. The only place he could go after there was back to Forst Reach, to become the person his father had expected him to be. And yet, as the person he was now, the person he was aware of being, there was no way his father would approve of him. Leaving with a beautiful Herald, a Herald who liked men... that just guaranteed it. His father would think the worst. That he'd sold himself to Tylendel for his freedom, that he'd been seduced by a pretty face. Something like that.
They weren't going to Forst Reach, half his brain argued. Tylendel said, with a Herald's authority, that they were going to Haven.
They were going to Forst Reach, the other half said, flatly. There was no leaving except for his father's judgment. There was nowhere else for him to go.
Frustrated, aching, Vanyel flung his hands over his ears as if that would help make things quieter inside his head. He sank back under the water, holding his breath, letting the pressure surround him and weigh him down until he thought his lungs would burst, and then leaned back up, gasping for air, hot water streaming down his body.
Eventually, the water began to cool, and for lack of anything else to do, he got out and dressed again in his coarse robes. They felt odd against his skin, too rough, wrong. The oils in the warm water had softened his skin, he thought, an old pleasure he must have had back when he was a lord's son but had lost experience with. As a monk, he'd been accustomed to bathing under a cold tap.
Slowly, he returned back upstairs. Despite his question to Tylendel, he didn't have any plans to run away. There was nowhere for him to go. Tylendel would take him to Haven as a Herald, or to his father as a judge. One way or another, he had nothing to do but rely on Tylendel.
Tylendel was already asleep by the time he got there, lying facing into the room so his injury wasn't pressed to the mattress. His face had softened even more in sleep, curls spread out on his cheek and the pillow. He looked young, Vanyel thought. Tylendel was a little older than him, but right now, he looked even younger.
In his sleep, as if noticing Vanyel looking at him, Tylendel shifted with a little sound and Vanyel stiffened. He was a Herald; who knew what strange Gifts he had? Certainly he'd been able to fling things around with his mind.
Better not watch him too closely. He might be able to feel it somehow.
Vanyel went to bed, and eventually he slept. The next day, they were up early, and he tried to maintain his stony front, but he couldn't. It had given over to anxiety, and he watched Tylendel closely as they saddled up and began to ride again. He still avoided Tylendel's questions, but it was less out of a deep resentment now and more out of nerves, a tight knot of uncertainty blocking words in his throat.
The road went on, and eventually, to his own shock and confusion, they arrived at Haven. It was loud, and big, a huge noisy city, and as he himself became more and more overwhelmed by the number of people glancing at them, getting out of their way, calling out a good-day to "M'lord Herald-Mage", Tylendel seemed to relax. He chatted back, easy-going, leading the way.
We didn't go to Forst Reach, Vanyel thought, just to make himself think it.
Still, there was no knowing what to expect, and he kept repeating that to himself, trying to keep his walls up, keep himself safe, keep himself from feeling anything that might let him hurt when it turned out he was betrayed.
And so, as they approached the palace, he had no idea what to feel beyond utter confusion when a hatchet-nosed, severe older woman ran out, grabbed Tylendel by his ear, and pulled him off his Companion. Tylendel went down with a laugh and a curse, just barely managing to land on his good leg and hop; his Companion Gala let out a snort and shuffled to the side.
"Savil! Savil, please, my poor leg—"
"I am going to have your hide," the old woman said, and the two just looked at each other for a moment, smiling and warm, as if sharing some silent communication that Vanyel wasn't party to. It lasted long enough for his confusion to fade again into uncertain alarm, discomfort—
And then she wheeled, reaching to help Vanyel down. He came down stiff and confused, heart pounding in panic, clinging to his mare's saddle to try to have something to hold on to. He felt like he was waiting for some blow, like she would deliver him some judgment, punishment. Tell him that his father was waiting inside, tell him that his father never wished to see him again; it was her brother, they had to be alike, had to view things the same way. She'd judge him. She'd reject him in Lord Withen's place and he'd never even have the closure of his own father's final word on the matter—
Aunt Savil put her hands on his shoulders and squeezed. "I am going to have so many words with your father for doing this to you, lad," she said, and there was kindness in her voice, and a brisk, firm sympathy, enough that he had to start blinking rapidly to try to keep his composure at all. "For now, let's get you in and get you some rest. You can see Lancir after you've had a good meal in you."
None of it made any sense.
Re: FILL: Tylendel/Vanyel - Orders - 5/?
Date: 2015-08-24 07:21 am (UTC)Looking forward to more, anon. And loving how fast you update, not gonna lie!
Re: FILL: Tylendel/Vanyel - Orders - 5/?
Date: 2015-08-25 07:00 am (UTC)Savil is the real hero of TLHM let's be real about that. And yep, no peacock for Vanyel. He's coming from the opposite extreme in some ways. How does he even adjust to physical comforts let alone luxuries??
Thank you, I'm so glad you enjoyed! I've got the whole draft complete, it's just about how fast I can get edits done and each part together. I think if I can keep going at the rate we should be at the end by Wednesday!
Re: FILL: Tylendel/Vanyel - Orders - 5/?
Date: 2015-08-24 06:44 pm (UTC):3
...leg.
:(
Seriously though, I'm in love with this one. Perfect "afraid to hope" feel going on with Vanyel here. :)
Re: FILL: Tylendel/Vanyel - Orders - 5/?
Date: 2015-08-25 07:00 am (UTC)His leg, if you take my meaning.
Haha so glad you're enjoying it!