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scribblemynameThe current prompts are leaving me dull and uninspired. Seeking creative procrastination: ask me any question about how something works in a storyworld, a why that's been pestering you, or any backstory you just really want to know, and I'll commentfic it.
If that doesn't inspire you, how about a character (original or fandom) and something crazy you would dare them to do.
Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.
To Dance with a Dragon [1/2], Redux
Date: 2013-05-24 06:40 pm (UTC)Judge not what you do not know.
— a Rothanari proverb
“You look comfortable.” Etienne leaned against the entry arch of ancient gold stone leading into the family area. He was the oldest son of his Household and often took up that assessing, faintly skeptical stance.
Jhemet, the object of his scrutiny, glanced up at him from her book and grinned. She tucked her feet back up under her dress and snuggled a little deeper into the couch before the great family hearth at Household Calai, then took another sip of tea.
She was dressed as a daughter of Etienne’s house, in a dress of deep velvety blue flaring past her knees. Her hair was different, tucked up high instead of low. It shimmered black and framed the dark gold skin common to dragons and to other Households of Vardin, those of Britak or of Mereta perhaps. Etienne never could put his finger on what made her the same, what made her other. Jhemet, familiar with his scrutiny, said nothing.
"So." Etienne's speculative gaze roved over her one more time. Remarkably innocent gaze too, considering he dreamed decidely not innocent dreams of her in the night. "You're a dragon."
Jhemet grinned at the faint incredulous uncertainty running through his voice. From the time he had first seen her dancing in that waystation between the high mountains of Rothnarak she had once called home and the valleys and foothills of Vardin, his own land, she had enjoyed teasing him and playing coy. He had brought her home because he recognized her and she clearly had recognized him as well.
She almost laughed but managed to smother that beneath a smile. At last, she stated primly, "'Judge not what you do not know.'"
The translation was somewhat rough. She hadn't actually mastered the Vardin dialect, despite two years with their family. Etienne preferred the translation, Never assume anything.
He shook his head and sat down beside her. Despite all her friendly, almost childlike ways—and if he admitted, at only fifteen years old, she had a right to them—she was a dragon, born of the rogue houses he had fought and protected his people against all his life.
Another season until her sixteenth birthday, just a few short months and she would be considered a woman. It was getting harder to ignore his dream lover’s presence in his own home. "I know you," he grumbled. I know you and you act nothing like a dragon.
Re: To Dance with a Dragon [2/2], Redux
Date: 2013-05-24 06:41 pm (UTC)"I know dragons," he repeated, "and I know you." He stared at her intently, demanding an answer with that gaze. He wanted to understand this woman, love her if it was possible. Rothnen, the soulmates. They knew their own when they came of age.
A small frown troubled Jhemet’s mouth for a moment, but hesitation faltered into a smooth shrug, and she put down her book with a sigh and handed him her half-empty teacup. She stood, turned around, and threw her hair out of the way so he could see the butterfly burn peeking out atop her dress in the back, chemicals writ in a pattern to change the body beneath it.
"I locked it in," she admitted, the first she'd admitted as much to anyone.
Etienne reached out and brushed his fingers against the burn, startling her as their resonance flared and she felt the intensity of his touching her and that sensation slammed back into him through their shared bond. He had realized they were rothnen, but he had never felt it so intensely, never realized how deep the bond went. He could feel her inside even though they hadn’t yet chosen each other, hadn’t made the commitment that could make them one. His fingers fell away, quickly.
Before there had been a Queen to bind them, before his kind had even existed, before humans could breathe fire and be named dragon, before humans could touch and alter another’s genetic pattern and be called Template, before their parents had ever been born, there had been the bound. A pattern painted to constrain power or strength. When dragons and the gifted had come into being, Vardin’s houses had willingly allowed such bindings to temper their strength and the Queen’s hand to be able to stop them should they wish to destroy the world. But the Households of Rothnarak had remained rogue and unbound—until now.
"You're bound," he said softly, realizing it with his own startled wonder. She had not waited for acceptance or a Queen. She had painted her own pattern on her own skin to keep herself from causing harm.
He heard her breath catch and watched her turn to meet his gaze with troubled black eyes. He had always thought her beautiful. Perhaps she too had wondered whether they could ever really have common ground, her a dragon, him a guardian. Etienne handed her the teacup and she took it.
"Tomorrow we open dance," he reminded her.
Slowly, Jhemet nodded. It was summerlight. It was time for the great Houses to gather and dance and renew their acquaintances.
He realized she had not understood him and tried again. "I would open dance—with you." Rothnen were born for each other, thus bonded, but it took a dance, a time of testing and learning, to reach the point where they were willing to choose each other and be bound. She had been dancing when he met her, but she had been too young and he had barely been old enough himself.
She did not misunderstand him this time. Jhemet’s face lit with her brilliant smile, one he had found could take his breath away. She cradled her teacup against her and settled back on the couch beside him, tucking herself familiarly close. “Read.” She gestured imperiously at her book.
Etienne took that as a yes.
Re: To Dance with a Dragon [2/2], Redux
Date: 2013-05-25 12:09 am (UTC)All I could think after the first time I read this was how much more I hated Rhinnon's decision.
Then I reread it, picked up more of the history and the customs, and I'm thinking that the way I see soul mates is a huge part of my inability to understand Vardin. I always thought that if there was one person you were meant to be with, you want to be with them no matter what. Most of us, we don't get to find that in this world, but if we do, we hold onto it. Like Stone never giving up on Occie because he knew she was his other half. The idea of these people being born bonded and able to find their person and yet still somehow turn away from that... That I just don't get. I can't wrap my head around that logic. I want to say if they're soulmates, they're soulmates. End of story. I know it's not that simple, but if I were to make a story where soulmates knew that the other was out there somewhere, in my world, there's no way they'd have to deepen their bond. That bond was there from the beginning.
So... I'm starting to think I don't want to know more about the Rothnen. :(
Re: To Dance with a Dragon [2/2], Redux
Date: 2013-05-25 01:34 am (UTC)I believe in soulmates, and that they also need a relationship. And that's the balance the rothnen always have to find: a relationship, especially if only one half of the pair is rothnen. Can you imagine someone rothnen walking up to you and saying, I know you're my soulmate, and you don't know them from adam. Rothnen are cautious because while I have a list of rothnen characters, I only have a handful where both of a pairing are. One will recognize the other, and the other won't.
Another killer item for me: if my other was raised a nonChristian and wanted nothing to do with God, yeah, I wouldn't marry them. I just wouldn't marry anyone else either. That's what Etienne was worried about here: was Jhemet as bloodthirsty as her family? If she was, he would have been single the rest of his life. And I think that's fair. So feel free to skip Vardin, but that's the kind of question I personally want to explore. Often.
Re: To Dance with a Dragon [2/2], Redux
Date: 2013-05-25 02:13 am (UTC)This is one of those agree to disagree cases, and yes, I do think I will avoid Vardin from now on.
I didn't want to stop, wanted to like the stories, and I did enjoy prompting you.
Re: To Dance with a Dragon [2/2], Redux
Date: 2013-05-26 02:39 pm (UTC)Very few rothnen would consider marrying other than their rothnen, but I do write about humans, so they're not perfect and some make wrong decisions in the course of doing the best they can. In fact, I can only think of one case of a Vardin rothnen marrying other than their rothnen. They generally, once they find their other, see if it works out, then if it doesn't, do the whole single thing. I think if there were rothnen in America, that sort of problem would probably be a lot worse.
Sorry if I implied otherwise in this fic, but the implication was supposed to be that he was asking her to court her before making that final irrevocable decision. I included the line primarily to contrast bonded and bound. But ah well, there are other worlds and I never expected you to love all of my worlds, especially one that takes so long to draw the framework of.
Re: To Dance with a Dragon [2/2], Redux
Date: 2013-05-26 04:30 pm (UTC)What bothers me about the Rothnen can be boiled down to this principle: that anyone looking at a woman with passion already committed adultery with her in their heart. Since they do dream of the other in that way, I feel like they should be committed to each other. That's the bond that was already too strong to my mind. That's why if they did choose anyone else, it would be like cheating.
Then there's the way that they come of age at sixteen. It's a different world, yes, but the idea of them having those dreams when they're that young and younger... That bothers me as well. It's not that I don't think that people do have them at that age in our world, but for me, it's too young.
I do think it's better that most Rothnen do marry their rothnen or stay single.
I think, having gotten most of my exposure to Rothnen culture from Rhiannon first, my feelings toward her and her choice colored all the others. I didn't have enough background on what the bond was like, what the etiquette was, or how other couples found their way. Still, I keep going back to her, and it ruins my ability to read stories about Rothnen, and she's the exception. I just wish I'd not seen the exception before the rule, I guess.
Re: To Dance with a Dragon [2/2], Redux
Date: 2013-05-26 04:34 pm (UTC)And they do start dreaming at puberty, but they don't actually have the "explicit," to use your words, dreams until about late fifteen to mid-sixteen, which is part of the reason they tend to marry after 16 and 3 mos. the legal age in Vardin. Culture makes a difference there. In America that used to be common enough when kids were raised to BE adults at that age, and in Vardin, they are raised to BE adults at that age.
Re: To Dance with a Dragon [2/2], Redux
Date: 2013-05-26 05:22 pm (UTC)Oh. I don't think I quite got that there were more to the dreams than just... that. I realize that Etienne said something to that effect, but it just didn't stick out enough to me (I'd suggest a short flashback with one of the couples where one remembers a dream that's not explicit for the sake of clarity there, and it could go a long way toward helping understanding of the bond, too, maybe.)
I don't remember getting the sense that sixteen was maturity before the first version of To Dance, and so mixing it with the Rothnen dreams was... unsettling. (Jhemet's wanting Etienne the man to notice her made me uncomfortable, but then I didn't get until this one that he wasn't that much older than her.) If I'd read Akena's piece first, I might not have reacted the same way. She was different. She called herself a little girl, but she didn't act like one, which is my usual trouble with stories about teenagers: they lack the maturity to handle the situations they've been put in (or just every day life, depending on the author.)
Re: To Dance with a Dragon [2/2], Redux
Date: 2013-05-26 05:47 pm (UTC)Thanks for pointing these items out.You're right. They make a difference.
Story order makes such a difference too. I think that's why I stuck Gone Hunting at the end of the three and chose reverse chronological order, but I never thought of putting someone like Akena first. Making notes for when I really start pulling together this world big time.
And that's why I rewrote Jhemet's little piece. 1. I had written it too much like fanfic, not explaining everything. 2. I had written it from the outsider perspective and I needed the insider, so had to switch POV. Etienne's hesitance was best explained by Etienne.
Re: To Dance with a Dragon [2/2], Redux
Date: 2013-05-26 06:11 pm (UTC)You're welcome.
Akena does a lot to give insight not just into what it is to be a dragon but also to how one reaches maturity in Vardin, at least for me. She was important to understanding a lot of the world.
I had meant to tell you that I appreciated the historical details you'd worked into Etienne's version of the scene.
Re: To Dance with a Dragon [2/2], Redux
Date: 2013-05-26 02:40 pm (UTC)Re: To Dance with a Dragon [2/2], Redux
Date: 2013-05-26 04:38 pm (UTC)My brain is a mess.
Re: To Dance with a Dragon [2/2], Redux
Date: 2013-05-26 04:44 pm (UTC)Re: To Dance with a Dragon [2/2], Redux
Date: 2013-05-26 05:26 pm (UTC)