scribblemyname | Brain is Musty...: Ficlet O'Clock Truth or Dare

From:

pygmymuse.livejournal.com

Hmm.

Closest thing I can get to those things is wanting to see a rothnen pair that's happy with each other/glad to find the one from their dreams.

Most of my other thoughts were more angsty lyrics that I refused to touch because I was already depressed, so... I'm with you. Out of prompts. :(

From:

scribblemyname

Technically, Llereya and Cayden weren't too bad. :grins: Do both need to be rothnen or just one? I've got a long list of characters you have or haven't glimpsed yet. And some of them end up beautifully happy together even if, to quote Renaiven, "She gave me a merry chase."

From:

pygmymuse.livejournal.com

If you leave out the angst of her being short-lived compared to him, sure.

I was kind of hoping for an actual Rothnen pair that didn't have an issue with being rothnen unlike Rhinannon. I'd like to see it being a positive thing for people for a change.

From:

scribblemyname

Yes, I know. I write too much angst, even with the ones that do see it as a positive. I've got just the couple, but it means I've got finish this story I've managed to procrastinate on for 2 years. Let's see what I can do.

From:

pygmymuse.livejournal.com

Okay.

From:

scribblemyname

I've actually a long list of happy rothnen couples. I'm thinking I'm going to pick a different spot in this one's history. The story still doesn't like me.

From:

pygmymuse.livejournal.com

Whatever works best is fine.

From:

scribblemyname

"So." Etienne's speculative gaze roved over her one more time. Remarkably innocent gaze too. "You're a dragon."

Jhemet grinned at the faint incredulous uncertainty running through his voice. 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 and took another sip of tea. 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 in the nation.

Etienne's incredulity increased. He shook his head at her and sat down next to her.

Jhemet had come down out of the mountains of Rothnarak two years ago when she was thirteen years old in search of her dream lover. He was inconveniently older than her by several years and she was thoroughly enjoying him finally taking some real notice of her. She was almost considered a woman now—another season 'til her sixteenth birthday, and he was a man, to say nothing of the fact that both of them were rothnen so she knew without doubt that he dreamed nightly of her the same way she dreamed of him.

"I know you," he grumbled.

She just shook her head and then froze as he reached out and brushed a lock of silky black hair behind her ear. He almost never touched her.

"I know dragons," he repeated, "and I know you." His green eyes were intense as he stared at her, demanding an answer with that gaze.

Jhemet wanted to laugh it off—it was her wont, but she found she could not. Instead, she sighed, put down her book, and handed him her teacup. Then 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.

"I locked it in," she admitted, the first time 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. But he didn't hold on long, just touched the burn and pulled his hand away. It was an old practice, using clomen plants to set the beat in their human blood.

"You're bound," he said softly.

She caught her breath and turned, realizing finally what it was that had made him hesitate around her. One of their kind, the gifteds, were considered rogue if there was none to bind them, and her people of Rothnarak had long denied the right of any to hinder their free usage of gifts. They were dragons—unmitigated and unapologetic fire. Except for her.

Etienne handed her the teacup and she took it. She could see the decisive set of his jaw and wondered what he was going to say.

"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 raised his eyebrows, clearly assuming she should have understood him. "I would open dance with you."

A shy girl would have caught her breath at the words. Jhemet could befriend a butterfly. She cradled her teacup closer and gave him her brightest laugh and smile. Then she settled back beside him, handed him her book, and commanded, "Read."

He shook his head at her but obeyed.

#

From:

pygmymuse.livejournal.com

Okay, I'm thinking I probably need some clarity on what it means to be a dragon in Vardin and on the different types of bonds, too.

Also not sure where these two fit into what I've read other than I recognize the name Calai.

And how would one say her name?

Yay, I feel so smart tonight. :P

From:

scribblemyname

For dragons, Rathor in http://lianamir.com/the-caller-and-the-dragon, Rohth in http://lianamir.com/portrait-of-a-butterfly, or Jhemet's own take on it: http://lianamir.com/a-lady-in-the-dragons-court.

Dragon is a giftset that usually involves radiant fire, but always fire. It's especially common in the Houses of Rothnarak because they bred for it. If you want to see the mindset of Rothnarak and why they are generally at odds with Vardin, then read "The Caller and the Dragon." This is, unfortunately, a rather typical interchange. Rothnarak felt that after kahtchen came into existence, baseline humans didn't really need to exist.

Etienne is the second child of Vilarach and Renaiven and the older brother of Rachel, Jean, and Lenee. His grandparents are Llereya and Cayden.

JH and ZH are variant standard spellings for the sound in Asia or the French J.

From:

scribblemyname

Missed one. The bonds. You've encountered three kinds.

1. There is the Queen's bond, which can be made by anyone. It hooks into the kahtchen nervous system and enables her to exert her will over their power. To a point. This is the sort of bond that makes the Vardin people feel safe. They know the Queen is also plain and will protect their interests. Guardians are bound once they have mastered their gifts sufficiently to be useful or thereabouts. Casal for example wanted to become a hunter before the Queen bound her because she wanted to be considered a hunter, not a householder.

2. Rothnen bonds. Bonds is a concept in addition to a link, so the word gets thrown about a bit, but rothnen are born resonant and can sense each other, can't not, so they are considered bonded but not bound until they choose each other and go through the whole process that changes the bond from desire and attention to oneness.

3. Gift bonds. Healers often create a temporary bond with the one they are healing, linking mind to mind or body to body in order to heal. Llereya has pathways from her mind to others and can simply follow a bond to physically find someone. It's her gift bond that enabled Cayden to find her on her birthday, not their resonance. Gifts all vary, so there are many, many variations on how these kinds of bonds work.

From:

pygmymuse.livejournal.com

Ah, yes. I keep trying to see it as a real dragon or shapeshifting. *sigh*

Rothnarak are almost like Magneto and the brotherhood, then?

Okay. Good to know.

Right. I've seen Zh pronounced J, and I kind of figured that it was more J, but I wanted to be sure.

From:

pygmymuse.livejournal.com

Huh. Queen's bond seems creepy to me. I wouldn't find it reassuring, but then... I'm not from Vardin.

I think I understand the gift bonds the best.

From:

scribblemyname

Reassuring to the mãenet, not particularly the kahtchen. It would be like knowing that Magneto could be stopped by someone if he decided to turn on you and kill you because you weren't special. That's reassuring to their plain because all of the great wars of the gods were over that—kahtchen wanting to kill or protect mãenet. But that gets heavily into history.

The rothnen bond at birth can be considered like a gift bond: it's a way two people are linked together. Being bound means being consciously tied to someone else in an irrevocable way. When rothnen solidify their bond and create a mental bond over the physical resonance, they're considered bound.

Jhemet is not bound to the Queen's will at this point, so that would normally make her a dangerous rogue who could do terrible things to the plain, but she bound herself by essentially surpressing the part of her gift that could hurt others.

Edited Date: 2013-05-22 03:02 pm (UTC)

From:

pygmymuse.livejournal.com

I don't know. I'm starting to think I should stick to Kingdoms and Thorn because that at least I understand, but there's so much history and lore and terminology that trips me up in Vardin, and what I think I understand I don't understand.

From:

scribblemyname

It's cause I've been bad and haven't written books yet and commentfic, let's face it, it's tough to plunk a bunch of detail in. I figure I just try to make each standalone story make sense on its own, even if it's all tip of the iceberg. I have deliberately avoided getting too deep into how rothnen works as yet because it's going to be such a doozy when I do.

From:

scribblemyname

I'm actually working on a pretty big piece with you and

in_the_blue in mind, called Remembrance, and I'm hoping to dig into the sweep of Vardin's history and mindset and somehow not confuse the mess out of anyone who reads it.

I tend to write from insiders, and that's no help at all half the time.

From:

scribblemyname

Prompt: what it means to be a dragon in Vardin
A/N: Hope this helps. Will be happy to keep expounding. :grins:

Akena was a slender, black-haired shadow slipping through the House of Britak, down stone passageways and through the book-walled rooms of their Household's seat. She was sixteen years old and unbound. She had mastered not even one of her gifts and sometimes a tiny flame of wonder burned in her whether her parents felt shame at the fact.

Sixteen years to make a woman from a child. Sixteen years and she should have been a guardian. Sixteen years and she should have lowered her neck beneath the Queen's hand and be bound to service of her nation, Vardin.

Dusk made the House quiet. It suited Akena's purpose, for though she moved with grace and silence, there were others in the great families who needed no ears or eyes to sense her passage, for she was of the kahtchen, those gifted with various abilities: to see with their minds, to hear thought, to sense the passage of another kahtchen, to exert their will over common elements, to pass through time or space, to bring forth fire and not burn.

She paused above the corridor overlooking the training courts but did not step into it. Instead, she reached out with her kahtchen senses and felt the flicker of clomen, that element of giftedness, burning within a single body. One. Akena licked her lips in concentration, reached again—straining. Her father. Her father who was fire, who had bound himself under the name Burn, and who had named her born of flame.

She stepped out into the corridor, but turned out of it to a small side door leading to the stairs that went below. She would join him.

~

Burn, as every other guardian, trained with and without his gifts. He trained with fire, burning and leaving unburnt the things he wished. He trained with staff, sword, and his own hands as weapons in the dances which taught a guardian how to protect the plain.

Akena stayed in the shadow of an awning, where garden vine flowers trailed up the side of the House and she could watch her father before letting him know her presence. She had heard the stories since she was a little girl—stories of how the dragon households of the mountains of Rothnarak were once brothers in arms of the households of the valleys of Vardin and stories of the great wars fought between them over who had the right to live: those who could kill a plain human with a thought or those who were the untainted creation of God. And in between stood the guardians, the gifted kahtchen who had promised to keep both alive by sacrificing their own freedom to do so.

But Akena wasn’t bound. She was still a little girl for all she was a woman.

Like a shadow, she flew out from under the awning and her father met her, stroke for stroke. She lost herself in the training, in the idea that she too might one day be a guardian.

He broke off when she stumbled t he third time. She didn’t look up from the ground at him, kept her eyes on the rapidly darkening ground and heard her own breath ragged in her ears.

“Akena.”

Akena. A command. She scrabbled herself to a standing position, ignoring the pain of overworked muscles and screaming bruises. She brushed the shimmering black hair from her eyes and stood before her father. His own eyes stared back, almost hurt within them as he tried to read her.

From:

scribblemyname

“You’ve been quiet lately,” he finally said then looked away and hung his staff on the wall in its place. He held out his hand and she took it to go in beside him. His fingers flicked up unconsciously. The torches in the stone stairway lit.

She could not do as little, to burn only what was needed. Her hand clenched on his before she could stop herself.

He turned to her in surprise and realizing the futility of saying nothing, she went on while she was still brave.

“I’m a dragon, father,” she said, chin lifted, daring him to deny her. He was so very Vardin with his dark blonde hair, his mastery of his normal gifts, and she looked like her mother, Shaina, who was powerful enough to claim abstention, the right to simply abstain from using her gifts unless life and blood were at stake. Akena looked like a daughter of the mountains with her golden skin and black hair inherited from Shaina. She breathed fire. She felt the burning rolling out from under here skin whenever she felt anger, joy, anything. She sensed clomen as another heard sound. She was a dragon like the dragons of the mountains and unbound. By law, that made her rogue.

Her father’s eyes seemed to burn into her, even in this shadowed passageway. He reached out and brushed her long hair from her face himself, hand lingering gently. “You are my daughter,” he said at last. “You are a daughter of Britak.” He shook his head. “Even Alyón has dragons.” His birth House and one which produced the guardians most favored for national service by the Queen.

It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough to be told that he too breathed fire when he was not feared by the very people he had sworn to protect. It wasn’t enough.

She shook her head, opened her mouth to speak and—

Voice sharpened, he silenced her. “Not all dragons are rogue.” He turned his back and continued on.

After a moment, she followed.

~

Mother found her in the morning. Akena stood leaning over her sword, palm pressed against the hilt, hilt pressed into the warm earth on the hill looking up toward the mountains. Akena did not have to turn to see Shaina Casal out of Britak, the most powerful kahtchen they had ever known, approach behind her. She could feel that hum of power reaching out to embrace her. They called her mother Universe, for she could destroy one.

“Mother,” Akena said softly, staring into the swirling sigils etched into her steel. “Am I wrong?”

Silence stretched. She had expected as much. Shaina never answered before thought. Akena had long practice in patience and she exercised it now, waiting until at last her mother came and settled on the ground beside her, traced one finger lightly over the symbols on her sword.

“When I was four, I glimmered,” Shaina began.

Akena turned sharply to listen, for her mother had never spoken of how she gained her gifts or control of them.

“Sometimes, the most powerful gifteds glimpse their power before it is theirs,” Shaina went on. “I did that. I touched my mother and she grew very pale and very sick. When I was older, I learned I could never touch anyone again without taking away their life.”

Akena knew it. She had touched her mother and been amazed at the strangeness of how it felt to be healed and drained at the same time.

“But—” Shaina stood, taking up the sword out of the earth and wielding it knowledgeably. “I also learned that mastery, hard won, is worth much.”

From:

scribblemyname

Akena watched her mother take up the dance where Burn had left it the night before, watched as her mother put her sword back into her hand and bid Akena continue it again. So Akena did, until her muscles ached and her bones were weary enough for the sun to be sinking in the sky, though it was not yet noon. She questioned Shaina with her eyes for she had no words left to ask.

“I am also a dragon, daughter,” Shaina said.

It took Akena aback, but could hardly be denied. Shaina may have been born with one gift, the gift to use another’s life and strength and power, but it had granted her all else. Shaina was all gifts, even the dragons, and though she was the Abstention Line, she too guarded their Household and their nation. She had taught their sons and their daughters to guard, taught them the histories, taught her own daughter the laws of the Households of Vardin.

Akena lowered her eyes, accepting her mother’s word. She raised them again and stared into dragon fire in her mother’s eyes. She would guard, no matter who looked into her eyes and saw the enemy.

#

From:

pygmymuse.livejournal.com

Shaina is Casal?

No... but maybe related somehow? Reread Crossing the Barrier, but still didn't know for sure.

She sounds a lot like... Rogue. Yet... she has mastery so that she doesn't kill.

She also sounds a bit like Ashen.

And everyone is afraid of the dragons?

I admit my brain's not with me again. Is this an earlier piece? Where does it fall in the timeline?

From:

pygmymuse.livejournal.com

Whenever I can, I sneak in someone who doesn't know what's going on so that I can have the explanation come out if I can't figure out a way to ease the details into the story itself.

Then again, I have others where the explanation just refuses to come.

From:

scribblemyname

Shaina's last name is Casal and she was a member of one of the hunting teams in Crossing the Barrier, but she went as back hand. Her gift is a mixture of Rogue/Ashen/the Database: she absorbs like Rogue, but keeps entries permanently, and can put life into people as well. She uses a borrowed healing power when she touches people (which she does rarely) to keep them alive.

Later in the timeline, sometime immediately before or after the Opening of the Barrier to outsiders. Nobody really trusts the dragons. Mãenet usually are afraid of them.

From:

scribblemyname

The problem for me with outsiders is they pretty much don't know what's going on and aren't going to because insiders usually keep their mouths shut and their brain going. I keep mucking around in closed cultures, alas. But there are ways, and I keep using them. The problem I think you're running into most of all is that you've read everything so you can mix together hints from multiple stories that would normally mean little and little confusion by themselves, but together, they require a good bit of gap-filling. Going to write you some comment answers as soon as I get some spare moments.

From:

pygmymuse.livejournal.com

The kids get educated about the past and their roles, though, so that might be a possibility, having a parent/teacher/tutor explaining it to someone else.

(Now I must admit... I did that with the Memory Collector when I realized there was too much unexplained history.)

Yeah, that's probably it. I've filled in the blanks for myself a few times, and I usually guess wrong.

From:

pygmymuse.livejournal.com

Oh. I didn't realize she was on one of the other teams, even after rereading it. I guess I didn't pay enough attention.

Ah, like the supercharged Rogue, only a bit different. Cool.

The sword thing threw me off. I was thinking it must be earlier.

So... Dragons are kind of... outcasts even among the kahtchen?

From:

scribblemyname

The sword's traditional.

Let's just say they can have personal relationships and respect, but the prejudice hasn't been all stamped out. Aysha's reaction to Rohth under pressure wasn't pretty. It's because they fight Rothnari all the time who bred for dragon. It's become common to call Rothnari dragons and that's when dragons began to be a perjorative.

From:

pygmymuse.livejournal.com

Okay.

From:

scribblemyname

Alivyenekh havrishevekh.
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.

From:

scribblemyname

She just shook her head at him, disagreement, and it shook loose a snatch of that silky black hair. He dared to reach out and brush it back behind her ear. She froze and blinked at him. He almost never touched her. Her gift was fire, but his was touch.

"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.

#

Edited Date: 2013-05-24 06:45 pm (UTC)

From:

pygmymuse.livejournal.com

I think I have figured out a huge part of my problem. We have different views on soulmates.

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. :(

From:

scribblemyname

Fair enough. But my take on soulmates is related to the fact that I do believe in soulmates. I believe that people are made for each other and often choose otherwise. But really, if I were to sit down and simply know who my other was, that doesn't mean I know them, just that they're mine. I'd want to get to know them and learn trust and being trusted and all that before getting married. It would be like saying, I dreamed about this person and see their face and therefore, I know I should marry them and immediately marrying them blind.

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.

Edited Date: 2013-05-25 01:37 am (UTC)

From:

pygmymuse.livejournal.com

I'm sorry. I guess I shouldn't have tried to clarify things there. I still wasn't clear, and I almost tried to do it in this reply, but I stopped myself.

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.

Edited Date: 2013-05-25 02:22 am (UTC)

From:

scribblemyname

I was really responding your statement that the bond does not need strengthening, it's just there. Physical bond, yes. Really knowing each other, no. They have to build that like everyone else.

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.

From:

scribblemyname

Well, thank you and feel free to prompt other worlds or, if you do like anything Vardin at all, nonrothnen stories. Rothnen are hugely in the minority, even among kahtchen.

From:

pygmymuse.livejournal.com

And that's why I said I wasn't clear. The dumb thing is that I do believe people need time to know each other. I don't really believe in first sight. Like, maybe, but not love.

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.

From:

scribblemyname

Makes sense. And I think I've started to realize that too. That's why I never meant to write her story, but when I was just trying to finish stories, any stories, that one came out. Hm.

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.

From:

pygmymuse.livejournal.com

I've got nothing in the way of prompts at the moment.

My brain is a mess.

From:

scribblemyname

I meant when you felt like it. Right now, I admit, it sound like you need a break, though I could be wrong.

From:

pygmymuse.livejournal.com

Sometimes we can't help the stories that come out. Some just refuse to be ignored even if they're not the ones we want to write or even that we should write. *sigh*

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.)

From:

pygmymuse.livejournal.com

I am sort of on a break. It's weird not to write, but I don't know how I can right now. Everything is tainted, and I just don't think I should write.

From:

scribblemyname

You see. This is why I wish I ran my commentfic through betas. I think I've covered all the huge gamut of implications brought up and miss some. :shakes head at self: Will clarify some things before posting these on my site.

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.

From:

pygmymuse.livejournal.com

Well, I think even with betas we miss things. It goes back to everyone being different and coming in with different perspectives. Other readers will point out things me and my betas never saw.

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.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31

The wonderful? muse of scribblemyname...

Brain is Musty...: Ficlet O'Clock Truth or Dare

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