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Post by devilinthedetails on Jul 10, 2020 11:36:34 GMT 10
Series: Gift of Joy
Title: A Rainbow of Color
Rating: PG
Event: Wicked in Winter-Spice up Your Life
Words: 200
Summary: Thayet reminds Jon there is a rainbow of color.
A Rainbow of Color
“A spot of color to spice up your life and your wardrobe.” Thayet slipped a scarf—golden as the harvest grain that hadn’t come this year because he had used the Dominion Jewel, his bedrock determination, and the blue threads of his magic to knit the land together through the giant earthquake his cousin had made—about Jon’s neck and tightened it like a hangman’s noose.
“I’d forgotten that there were bright colors to wear in the world.” Jon had been wearing colors of mourning—dark browns and blacks—for months now. First in honor of his mother. Then in memory of his father. Now to appear appropriately sober as famine rocked his realm.
“I know.” Thayet smiled at him, full lips a rich robin-red. “That’s why I’ve taken it as my solemn mission to remind you that there is a whole rainbow of colors out there for you to wear.”
A rainbow. It had been a long time since Jon had thought about anything as beautiful as a rainbow. He laughed deeply, body shaking like the earth at his cursed coronation, and understood a scarf hadn’t been her only gift. She’d also given him laughter and a rainbow.
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Post by mistrali on Jul 10, 2020 14:57:03 GMT 10
Very elegant writing. Reading about Jon’s parents’ death in SOTL was heartbreaking. I’m glad he gets to experience some peace. And I adore Thayet, so any fic about her and Jon is always welcome.
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Post by Rosie on Jul 10, 2020 20:18:20 GMT 10
Ahh, I really like pieces which consider the famine Tortall went through. Also the intimacy between Jon and Thayet (is this set around their engagement?).
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Post by devilinthedetails on Jul 11, 2020 0:51:21 GMT 10
mistrali , thank you so much for commenting, and I'm so flattered that you found this to be such elegant writing. I think the short nature of the piece (only 200 words) made me really focus on trying to craft every word in a beautiful, meaningful way because in a piece so short ideally every word will be able to carry some significant weight. There can't be deadweight words when there are only 200 words... I agree that reading about the deaths of Jon's parents, especially since they happened in such swift succession, leaving Jon little time to mourn between them, was extremely heartbreaking, and I always think of that period where he lost his parents yet still had to find a way to be strong enough to rule his country through tough times as the era that really shapes and defines Jon as a man and as a leader, which is why I tend to explore it a lot in relation to Jon. It's really a moment where I can reconnect and relate to Jon after feeling increasingly distant and frustrated with him in Woman Who Rides Like a Man and In the Hand of the Goddess. Adult Jon as a whole is a deeper, more interesting character to me than young Jon. So I mostly write about adult Jon. In my head, Jon can find a lot of peace with Thayet because both of them understand grief and loss very well from painful personal experience, so that's why I had Jon finding some peace and comfort in Thayet in this story. I like to picture Thayet knowing how to tease joy out of Jon when he gets too serious and brooding, so that's how I tried to write her in this fic. I also am a fan of Thayet and her relationship with Jon, and I think of her as being a big part of Jon's life, so you'll probably see another Thayet appearance in these Jon stories. Rosie, thank you so much for commenting! I think the famine that Tortall went through is a fascinating, painful period of Tortallan history, and that there is relatively little known about it in canon except that it was caused by Jon's use of the Dominion Jewel to hold the realm together, and I can't help but think that would be a haunting, formative event for Jon and his early reign. How hard it must have been to have a famine in the first years of his reign when he is trying to establish himself and the legitimacy of his authority, and even more so if he has to live with guilt at "causing" the famine even if the famine is the price of saving his kingdom from destruction. So much potential for inner conflict and turmoil there, and I just can never resist internal conflict and turmoil. I'm glad that you like the intimacy of Jon and Thayet in this story, and, yes, I was picturing this to take place sometime during their engagement
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