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jsmn_kinkmeme2015-06-06 08:02 pm
jsmn_kink) wrote in jsmn_kinkmeme2015-06-06 08:02 pm
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☆ Round One!
Welcome to the first round of the Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Kink Meme at jsmn_kinkmeme!
Below are some basic guidelines to get started. Please make sure you also check out our complete Rules & Guidelines to minimise any confusion.
Guidelines:
■ Anonymously comment with your request – a character/pairing/nthsome, and a kink or prompt.
■ Only one prompt per post.
■ Fillers please link your fills in the Fills Post!
■ Have fun! :)
Keep in mind:
■ Any kinks welcomed!
■ The fill/request does not need to be sexual or porny.
■ Multiple fills are allowed.
■ Fills can be any sort of creative work: fic, art, song, photomanip, etc.
■ Beware of spoilers! Prompters and requesters are encouraged to warn for spoilers, but this rule is not enforced.
■ Warning for non-con, dub-con, abuse, slurs/language, and other potentially disturbing subjects is encouraged but be aware we do not enforce this.
Links:
☆ Current Prompt Post
☆ Mod Post
☆ Fills Post
☆ Discussion Post
☆ Misfire deletion requests
jsmn_kinkmeme!Below are some basic guidelines to get started. Please make sure you also check out our complete Rules & Guidelines to minimise any confusion.
Guidelines:
■ Anonymously comment with your request – a character/pairing/nthsome, and a kink or prompt.
■ Only one prompt per post.
■ Fillers please link your fills in the Fills Post!
■ Have fun! :)
Keep in mind:
■ Any kinks welcomed!
■ The fill/request does not need to be sexual or porny.
■ Multiple fills are allowed.
■ Fills can be any sort of creative work: fic, art, song, photomanip, etc.
■ Beware of spoilers! Prompters and requesters are encouraged to warn for spoilers, but this rule is not enforced.
■ Warning for non-con, dub-con, abuse, slurs/language, and other potentially disturbing subjects is encouraged but be aware we do not enforce this.
Links:
☆ Current Prompt Post
☆ Mod Post
☆ Fills Post
☆ Discussion Post
☆ Misfire deletion requests
FILL: 'Through Fire and Water' - 4/4
(Anonymous) 2015-08-06 05:03 am (UTC)(link)Childermass opened his mouth to speak, then closed it and shook his head. "Mr. Norrell --"
"Please, Childermass." Norrell put his hand up briefly to forestall him. "There are several things that I -- that I wish I had had a chance to say before -- before this. And -- and one of them -- the first among them -- is that -- I am sorry. I am sorry that I did not give you my permission to take the box to Lady Pole. I am sorry that I listened to Lascelles instead of to you. He was an unscrupulous man, Childermass -- and I did not like him, or trust him, not really. It was just that I was so uncertain of myself in London, and he was useful for a time --" Norrell had dropped his gaze again and was staring at Childermass's boots; through the curtain of rain Childermass could see a pink flush overspreading the older man’s cheeks. "I do not know what possessed me to listen to his counsel over yours, when your counsel had always served me so well --"
"It does not matter now, Mr. Norrell," Childermass said. "It is forgotten."
"But I have not forgotten," Norrell replied quickly, looking up into Childermass's eyes. "And I regret, with all my heart, that I did not confide in you about -- about the fairy, about Lady Pole's enchantment. I should have told you immediately, I should have sought your help, but -- I was afraid."
Childermass smiled softly. "I thank you, sir. But it is no matter now. She is free of her enchantment, as is Mrs. Strange. Please -- do not continue to be troubled by what is past. And as for what I said, that day as I was leaving --"
“No, please.” Norrell shook his head. “You were right. You were always right, and I was so very frequently wrong. I see that now. Childermass." Norrell spoke his name very softly and held his gaze, perhaps longer than Childermass had ever known him to do before. "I -- I am so very grateful to you."
"For what, sir?"
"For everything. For your service to me. For your loyalty. For your companionship." He made a small gesture with his hands, as if indicating the library of Hurtfew that remained invisible to Childermass's sight, lost behind the shimmer of the magical rain. "Being here with Mr. Strange, it has reminded me -- it has made me realize how very lonely I might have been, all those years spent in study, but for your presence. I don't think I ever thanked you for it."
Childermass smirked. "You paid me for it, sir, and that was all the thanks I ever expected."
"Well, it was not enough. You should have expected thanks and I should have given them. I don't know how this spell has affected everything of mine, whether it has spirited away all my assets and possessions, but -- if anything is left, Childermass, and if you can get to it -- it is yours. I wish you to have it, all that was mine. I never made a last will and testament, you know. I suppose I thought... I suppose I thought there would be time enough for that --"
"There will be yet, sir," Childermass said, his tone hard as if he were reprimanding an errant footman. "I'm certain of it."
"Well..." Norrell gave a small smile and a helpless little lift of his hands, then fell silent once more.
"Mr. Norrell." Childermass took one step closer to the sheet of rain. He could feel a slight mist lifting off of it, brushing the tip of his nose. "Was there something more you wished to say to me?"
Norrell's eyes were large but steady, held by Childermass's gaze. "I -- yes. Yes, Childermass. But now that I’ve come to it, I -- I don’t quite know how to say it...”
“You don’t need to say it, Mr. Norrell,” Childermass said, and it seemed to him that his throat had become oddly constricted and his tongue transmuted into a slab of lead. “I understand.”
Norrell’s eyes sparkled through the rain as if reflecting some light Childermass could not see. “Childermass. You have no idea -- you cannot know how glad I am to see you again!”
“And I you, sir.”
The sheet of rain did an odd thing, then: it seemed to twist, to compress itself and coil like a rope, warping the image of Norrell for a moment before straightening itself out again. The distortion was accompanied by a low sound or, rather, a reverberation just beneath the range of human hearing. It made Childermass feel unsteady on his feet and some pigeons that had been roosting on one of the buttresses of the Minister rose up into the air in a body and flew noisily away.
“Sir?”
“It is the spell,” Norrell said, a strained note in his voice. “It cannot be sustained much longer. It takes so much of Mr. Strange’s strength, and mine, to achieve it and I do not think Mr. Strange is sufficiently recovered from his ordeal in Italy to support it for any great length of time. I must leave you soon, Childermass --”
“Wait! Mr. Norrell --” Childermass drew a deep breath. “I promise you, sir. I will find a way to end this enchantment. Even if I must walk every road behind every mirror in the land, and find John Uskglass and fall upon my knees before him and beg -- I will find a way to bring you and Mr. Strange home.”
Norrell smiled. “I am sure of it. I believe in you, John.”
It was the first time Childermass could remember Norrell ever calling him by his Christian name. The sound of it, coming through the silent rain, seemed to pierce him like a sharpened blade. He did not know how the feeling might have transformed his countenance, but Norrell was staring at him with an expression in which embarrassment and pleasure were mingled together, a rose on each of his cheeks.
“Will you -- will you do one thing for me, John?” Norrell asked.
“Anything, sir.”
“Will you -- will you say my name? My given name?”
It took Childermass a moment to speak. “I am still your servant, Gilbert. I always will be your servant.”
“Dearest John,” Norrell said, and he tried to smile but his lips were quivering. “You are, and always have been, much more than that.”
For a time they simply stood, facing each other through the rain, memorizing the image of one another’s face. Then the sheet of water began to twist again and at the same moment, instinctively, they both reached for each other through the veil of illusion.
“John --”
“Gilbert --”
Childermass stuck his hand through the rain, towards the hand that Norrell had thrown out and, for just one moment, his fingertips made contact: not with cold water or colder stones, but with flesh, Norrell’s flesh. Norrell made a sound of surprise and his fingers curled around Childermass’s.
“John, I --”
“I know, Gilbert,” Childermass said, gripping him. “I know.”
And then the rain coiled itself, tighter and tighter, until it was no more than the circumference of a ribbon and Norrell’s image vanished in the middle of the spinning tendril of water. Smaller and smaller it grew until it disappeared entirely and Childermass stood alone in the corner of the Close, the toes of his boots wet with vanished rain, his eardrums throbbing with the unheard sound of magic.
“I’ve never failed you in the performance of my duties,” Childermass whispered to the damp stones and the shadows. “I don’t intend to start now.”
He laid his hand for a moment against the wet stones, then - clearing his throat, for the chilly evening air seemed to have caught in his chest a bit - Childermass turned his back on York Minster and resumed his walk toward Vinculus and the warm fireside of The Black King’s Arms.
***
As soon as the spell dissolved itself, Norrell found he no longer had the strength to remain standing. He collapsed into the chair behind his desk and sat, staring at his hands. His skin was damp and his fingers trembled.
After a few minutes the door to the library opened and Strange came back inside. He did not speak, but walked slowly over to where Norrell sat, shaking, and watched the older man closely.
Then he reached down and took one of Norrell’s hands in his own.
Norrell could not look into Strange’s face, so after many minutes of silence in which he tried to still the chattering of his teeth and calm the hurricane that seemed to be raging behind his eyes, leaking out saltwater stirred up the storm, he addressed his words to Strange’s knees instead. “He -- he said that he shall take care of your wife.”
Strange nodded. “And I shall take care of you.”
Norrell looked up at last, not caring if Strange saw his tears. Strange offered him a smile.
“And so we will pass the time in contentment, sir. Until we are reunited again with -- with the ones we love.”
Norrell found he could not speak, so he simply squeezed Strange’s hand a little harder.
Re: FILL: 'Through Fire and Water' - 4/4
(Anonymous) 2015-08-06 05:26 am (UTC)(link)Re: FILL: 'Through Fire and Water' - 4/4
(Anonymous) 2015-08-06 07:14 am (UTC)(link)Re: FILL: 'Through Fire and Water' - 4/4
(Anonymous) 2015-08-06 01:28 pm (UTC)(link)And I love the Strange & Norrell friendship--Norrell's tenderness for Strange's feelings when he's seen Arabella, and Strange's matter-of-fact acceptance that of course Norrell is in love with Childermass.
And the reaching for each other through the rain.
And the apologies (I've written Norrell apologising to Childermass in one of my stories as well).
I love the way the spell is described.
So melt. Very love. Much feels. Wow.
Re: FILL: 'Through Fire and Water' - 4/4
(Anonymous) 2015-08-06 08:16 pm (UTC)(link)Re: FILL: 'Through Fire and Water' - 4/4
(Anonymous) 2015-08-06 08:57 pm (UTC)(link)Re: FILL: 'Through Fire and Water' - 4/4
(Anonymous) 2015-08-08 09:35 am (UTC)(link)Re: FILL: 'Through Fire and Water' - 4/4
(Anonymous) 2015-08-08 11:59 pm (UTC)(link)