21 Days of Valdemar!
Jul. 17th, 2015 06:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mornelithe_falconsbane posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
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)
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.
FILL: Vanyel/the Shadow-Lover, "Little Deaths"
Date: 2015-08-17 03:51 am (UTC)*****************
Vanyel lifts his head from that comforting embrace, has cried himself out, and finds the Shadow-Lover's head bowed over his; his lips touch Vanyel's. The longing that sinks into him is so deep and shaking that he realizes he hasn't felt it since the last time 'Lendel was alive; since he was kissing someone he was lifebonded to.
The thought is sobering, but the feeling is undeniable; he kisses back, sliding fingers into those thick curls, closing his eyes to the brilliant, depthless eyes looking into his. It feels almost impossible to resist. He thinks, with some amusement, that it's, perhaps, how things must be with this particular Power.
The kiss breaks, and Death strokes his cheek again, gentle. "Beloved," Death murmurs to him, and there's a slight tremble to his voice. "My heart aches for you."
Even as he says it, Vanyel knows it's true. Death wouldn't lie. Just that nearly starts the tears all over again. That Death hurts for him, sympathizes...
But it makes sense, just like the strange sensation of being lifebonded does.
For twelve years, he's belonged to death but has been living regardless. His other half died and he himself was saved from the brink of death over and over. Vanyel looks into those searing, gentle eyes, and thinks of the number of times the Shadow-Lover must have been holding a hand out to him, waiting. Observing the agony Vanyel went through to live, to keep living, to continue on despite it all. Thinks of those times, when he was younger, when he felt like there was no hope in life. Now, there's hope again. Friends, family, his Companion, people who rely on him, things to live for and the desire to live up to all of that. But under all that, the emptiness of loss still, the loneliness.
Perhaps he's never been alone. Death has always been at his side.
"Should I have made a different choice?" Vanyel whispers to him.
Death shakes his head slowly, smiling softly, hair swaying around his shadowed face. "The choices you make are who you are," he says.
Vanyel kisses him again, and Death meets him eagerly. It takes a strange sort of courage to start to undo the fastenings to Death's Heraldic whites, to spread hands against a perfectly unmarked chest, but the Shadow-Lover doesn't rebuff him. Instead, he's met with a brilliantly bright smile, relieved and pleased, as though Death himself had been longing for Vanyel and only holding himself back because Vanyel hasn't wanted him.
Vanyel thinks of the life he's lived and thinks it must be true.
They kiss again, and Vanyel pulls at Death's arms, his hands, helps Death embrace him; moves up against him demandingly until Death laughs and lays him back. He hasn't felt so relaxed, so comfortable, since 'Lendel; the weight and warmth of Death on top of him feels like coming home, like finally finding his equilibrium after all these years.
"I love you," Vanyel whispers to Death, and Death's incandescent eyes gaze at him with a sense of what really looks like awe. It's a humbling thought, that Death might be awed by his love. Loving Death has been the simplest thing to him.
(But perhaps most people's love for Death isn't so intense, so devoted, so forbidden, so star-crossed, he thinks. Maybe it tends to be less healthy—not that he can truly think of this as healthy; he's not sure he's ever had a good image of that. But he wants Death's happiness more than he wants an end to his own suffering, and wants Death's understanding more than that.)
"I love you too," Death says, and cups his cheek.
They make love there, close, kissing throughout. Vanyel holds Death to him like a lifeline, relaxed under him, opening to him, feeling Death inside him, Death on top of him, Death around him, feeling Death moving in him until he clutches Death tightly, desperately, reaching a sharp point of pleasure where nothing matters but this: him and Death and this feeling of being one—
And then he comes down from it, and is just Vanyel again, ready to keep trying. He doesn't know if Death came as well or not; can't feel that. But he can Feel Death's satiation. Death radiates relaxation and contentment, lying against him, stroking his cheek, kissing his neck. So he must have.
Vanyel rests on Death's shoulder, and prepares to live again.
Re: FILL: Vanyel/the Shadow-Lover, "Little Deaths"
Date: 2015-08-17 05:00 am (UTC)"Loving Death has been the simplest thing to him."
/not OP, but I've been watching this prompt very hopefully since it went up :D
Re: FILL: Vanyel/the Shadow-Lover, "Little Deaths"
Date: 2015-08-21 05:42 am (UTC)Re: FILL: Vanyel/the Shadow-Lover, "Little Deaths"
Date: 2015-08-18 12:17 am (UTC)Re: FILL: Vanyel/the Shadow-Lover, "Little Deaths"
Date: 2015-08-21 05:43 am (UTC)Re: FILL: Vanyel/the Shadow-Lover, "Little Deaths"
Date: 2015-08-19 02:14 am (UTC)OP: *SHRIEK* This is amazing. Vanyel: ACTUALLY in love with Death. Totally, totally canon. Thank you so much, writer.
Re: FILL: Vanyel/the Shadow-Lover, "Little Deaths"
Date: 2015-08-21 05:47 am (UTC)