Tropes meme

[tj_dragonblade]

Pick a trope from this list and provide a fandom/pairing and I’ll tell you something about the story I’d write for that combination (i.e. write a snippet from the story or write !fic or tell you the title and summary for the story I would write). I'm going to qualify this as probably writing a sentence or two using that trope as a prompt, because I know myself and my limitations. ^_^; Feel free to pick a few, if you like. Past and present fandoms are all fair game.

1. genderswap
2. bodyswap
3. drunk!fic
4. huddling for warmth
5. pretending to be married
6. secretly a virgin
7. amnesia
8. cross-dressing
9. forced to share a bed
10. truth or dare
11. historical AU
12. accidental-baby-acquisition
13. apocalypse fic
14. telepathy
15. High School / College AU

Comments

[tessercat]

I'mma go with Goujun/Tenpou and telepathy. For reasons. ;)

[tj_dragonblade]

Agh, my Goujun-voice is sadly rusty. T_T This veers closer to 'schmoopy' than I wanted it to, and kinda meanders all over the place too. ^_^; Turned out longer than I meant it, but hopefully it's relatively cohesive in the end.

~~~***~~~
"So, then," Tenpou begins normally, but finishes silently in demonstration, unexpected onset of telepathy is a normal occurence among dragons?

"Only in our oldest histories," Goujun answers, speaking aloud, unable to simply accept this jarring development so easily as Tenpou appears to. "I had thought it a legend, a folktale, a mere fable. I...did not expect--" It's difficult to articulate the turmoil in which he finds himself. He is a very private person, preferring to carefully control what parts of himself he allows any others to see; Tenpou...Tenpou is very dear to him, but Tenpou is no great respecter of privacy.

"Ah, well. I suppose my curiousity does seem a bit nosy, at times," Tenpou says, and Goujun is both frustrated and chagrined that Tenpou (of course!) heard that as well. He does not want Tenpou poking about among his private thoughts and feelings; no one should be that open, that exposed, that vulnerable--

"I'm not poking, Sir; you're projecting."

"I assure you, it's not intentional."

Tenpou sighs and tilts his head, eyes questioning. Can you not hear my private thoughts, as well? Am I not just as vulnerable as you?

It's true, Goujun realizes, of course it's true: the bond goes both ways. He can 'hear' Tenpou trying to control and corral his thoughts, but there are things slipping past all the same; Tenpou is suppressing a quiet panic at the idea of having everything shared between them this way.

That calm, controlled distress in his subordinate, his lover, brings Goujun's instinct to guide-protect-reassure to the fore despite his own disquiet. "It is not meant to be a curse," he offers, trying to focus his mind in an orderly fashion so that whatever Tenpou gleans from it will at least be dignified. "The legends--they say--" He still finds it difficult to put into words, because it betrays his greatest weakness, but his thoughts tumble ahead even when his tongue stops, recalling the ancient lore he had read as a child. The thought-bond happens only rarely, only between the most closely-bonded of pairs, the most deeply-attached of lovers. It facilitates their oneness of spirit. It seals their bond for eternity, through every life they may live.

"...So, then." Tenpou blinks, and his thought-voice picks up the conversation. I am your life-mate, your-- and Goujun can clearly detect the quirk of Tenpou's amusement --'soulmate'? Underneath the amusement at the term, he's both pleased and frightened by the idea, and Goujun can't--doesn't know how to--filter or hold back the tide of truth rising to spill through their new telepathic link.

Yes-- It's the only clear word; the rest is a jumbled rush of fierce emotion. Tenpou is his, is more important--dear--precious to him than anyone, anything; he would kill for Tenpou, die for Tenpou, live for Tenpou, and it frightens him to feel this way. Bonds this deep make one vulnerable, amount to weakness, liability; in court, in politics, it is unwise in the extreme to allow oneself this level of attachment. There are always those who will use it against one, and Goujun is well aware that many in Tenkai resent the position he holds, find him unsuitable for it, find him and his nature unseemly--objectionable--no matter how strictly he adheres to Kami ways while duty dictates that he dwell among them. He should never have allowed himself this involvement with Tenpou, but it has always felt beyond his control and now clearly it is too late; if the thought-bond has happened there can never be any turning back--

[tj_dragonblade]

--I see-- Tenpou's words lance through the chaotic tumble of Goujun's mind, and Tenpou's thoughts come sliding helplessly after--how non-attachment is the Kami way but Tenpou is hardly like the rest--Tenpou's concern that their involvement endangers Goujun--how Goujun and his distinctly un-kami personality breathe interest, meaning into an otherwise tedious existence--and then, very clearly, I cannot bear the thought of being without him--

"Tenpou," Goujun says, aloud, and it is almost jarring to break the outer silence. The thought-bond is terribly intimate; glimpsing these private inner workings of his young Kami has left Goujun somewhat shaken--because Tenpou never displays any hint of vulnerability or raw emotion this way--and yet warmly pleased all the same to feel how deeply he matters to Tenpou.

"Do you regret being with me?" Tenpou asks then, straightforward and serious.

He doesn't have to ponder that at all. "No," he asserts, forcefully; it may be a foolish and inadvisable risk but even should time wind backward and afford him the chance to ride a different wind regarding Tenpou, he knows he would heed the urgings of his soul all over again.

Then I suggest we learn to 'block and knock', and make the best of this, Tenpou projects, determined bemusement overriding the unsettled emotions deeper down. With a bit more control, it might even be fun.

Goujun blinks. Fun? Already, conversing without speaking has begun to feel somewhat natural.

Tenpou adjusts his glasses primly, but there's a quirk of mischief in his smile, in the cant of his thoughts. "Just imagine the private conversations we can have during those stuffy meetings we suffer through each month," he sighs, with transparently-false innocence, and Goujun realizes--with equal parts foreboding and anticipation--that nothing will ever be quite the same again.

~*~
In another life, at another time, a young white dragon comes under the care of a youkai who used to be human and neither of them thinks it the least bit odd that somehow they can communicate, can understand one another, without the slightest difficulty.

[tessercat]

<3

Sounds good to me. (And hey, we can all be forgiven for being a little rusty writing Saiyuki. *cough* Have you seen the ficlets on my LJ version of this meme? ^_^; )

[tj_dragonblade]

I had not! Thanks for mentioning them; the pretending-to-be-married idea sounds about right and the huddling-for-warmth snippet is wonderfully sweet. ^_^