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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!
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■ 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: Strange/Grant, 9/9
(Anonymous) 2015-08-11 02:01 am (UTC)(link)He and Strange both lay on their sides, Strange in front of him, fitted against his body. Grant had one arm wrapped around him quite tightly as if in his sleep he had feared that Strange might try to leave. In Grant's defence, this was exactly what Strange was going to do. Grant loosened his grip a little, and shifted to ease the stiffness in his limbs. As he moved he felt quite odd. It did not feel like inebriation, but he was also fairly sure he was not yet sober. It was a very thick and fuzzy sort of sensation, as if his mind had not at all prepared itself to be used at this hour.
Either Strange had been dozing very lightly or he had not been asleep, for at Grant's slight movement he moved too. Grant removed his arm so that Strange might make himself comfortable, and Strange turned over to face him. Then Grant rolled on to his back, and Strange on to his, and they listened to the rain.
"What are you going to do when you return to England?" Grant asked him, after a time.
"I shall eat an enormous quantity of food," said Strange's voice. "It will all be of my chusing and prepared in the manner one might expect. I will also retire at any time I wish to a very comfortable bed in a very well-heated house. Those will be my chief pursuits."
Grant laughed, quietly, tiredly. "Good," he said.
Then Strange said, "I might go north for a while. I do not know John Uskglass's country as well as I would like and I think I ought to do something about that. And perhaps I will spend some time in Shropshire too. But whatever I desire, I suppose I will be bound to remain principally in London. You will be in London, won't you?"
"I imagine so. I do not know where else I ought to go."
"I mean it very sincerely when I say I would value your companionship there," said Strange. He spoke slowly, not as one who is loathe to say what he is saying, but as one who is saying it very seriously. "I do not think things can ever be quite the same for me and for English magic as they were before. You are somebody I would be very grateful to have as a friend during this time. Do you think that is possible?"
Over the past few weeks, which had been quite surprizingly difficult, Grant had been considering the same question. But his profound sadness at Strange's leaving him for even so short a time as a month rather answered it for him. He thought he could manage the difficulty in the future if it meant he would not be entirely without Strange's company.
"Of course we will be friends," Grant said. He turned his head on the pillow to look at Strange. "What do you think we are now?"
Strange seemed to find this very funny. A slightly hysterical laugh escaped from him and he rubbed at his eyes with one hand. "I cannot say," he said. "I have not the slightest idea what this is. I suppose it is a peculiarity of the Iberian Peninsula."
This made a kind of sense. There was something wild and ragged about the country they had travelled together, ravaged as it was by Buonaparte, that was very different from the solemnity of England. After all the things Grant had read in Strange's book of the Raven King about the influence of the trees and the sky and the earth on the people who lived among them, it did not seem impossible that this had had something to do with the way they had behaved. Although if Grant had been able to express in any way what he thought they were to each other, this probably would not have been it.
Grant sat up in the bed, which made his head feel very odd and muggy, but after a moment of stillness it cleared a little. He knew at once that he would have to leave. This was not really because there was a great possibility of their being discovered, but more because if he went back to sleep and remained here for the night, he would certainly have to accompany Strange to his boat in the morning and see him off at the port. He found that this was something he could not bear to do. It seemed very important that his last memory of Strange on the continent was not one of him leaving it.
Strange did not say any thing as Grant swung his legs out from under the blanket, turning to face away from him into the room; neither did he say any thing as he got up and looked about for his underclothes. But as he put on his shirt Strange said, "Surely you will not go out in the rain."
The hint of petulance in his voice made Grant smile. "It will not be a great hardship," he said. In a way it was pleasing to think that Strange imagined that despite everything they had both endured, bad weather might have any impact on Grant's wellbeing. There was an Englishman alive and well in Strange yet.
Grant found and put on each item of his uniform until he was quite pieced back together. When he faced the mirror and ran a hand through his hair to put it in order, the man looking back at him appeared to be the same as ever. Then he looked a little to the side and met the eyes of Strange's reflection. He was sat naked and cross-legged on the bed, watching him. Grant turned around so that they faced each other, and let the absolute focus of Strange's gaze rest on him in a way he had often found disquieting before. He willed it now to seep somehow into his skin, to mark him indelibly, so that if Strange no longer looked at him like this when they were in England, he would not forget how it felt.
"I will see you very soon," Grant said.
"Yes," Strange said. "You have my address. Let me know as soon as you are in London. I can meet you where ever you wish, and of course if you want to visit…"
Strange stopt abruptly and seemed unsure if he ought to continue, but Grant said, "I would be glad to. I would very much like to make the acquaintance of Mrs Strange."
This was absolutely true. Grant did not imagine that the woman who had won the love of Jonathan Strange could be any thing other than extraordinary. Indeed on the few occasions that Strange had given accounts of her that invoked her spirit or personality – rather than simply giving voice to how terribly he missed her – Grant had had the sense that they might get on well.
"I would like that too," said Strange.
Grant breathed out very deeply. He wondered if he ought to leave without further ceremony in order to cause himself as little difficulty as possible. But in the end he crossed the few steps of the room to the bed. He leant down and Strange leant up and for a final time they kissed, very gently, as if they had never done such a thing before.
"Goodbye, Merlin," he said.
"Wait," Strange said, "Wait, just for a moment." Grant felt something in his chest constrict, but Strange had closed his eyes and dropt both his hands to his sides. He gripped hold of the blanket there and muttered something under his breath. Grant felt as though the air around them breathed in and then out again, and his skin prickled with the spell. For a moment he did not know what had changed. Then he noticed that the sound of the rain had ceased.
"There," Strange said.
"Thank you," said Grant. "Although I think I would probably have been all right."
"I know," said Strange. "It was my rain to begin with."
"I see," said Grant. He was not sure he trusted himself to speak further, so instead he took Strange's hand in his and held it very hard, and Strange gripped back with equal force. Then he let go, and went out of the room, and into the grey, waiting world.
--
(Enormous thanks to everybody who has been very patient and very kind while I've been writing this. If you like reading things in one go, you can also find it here on AO3:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/4546782)
Re: FILL: Strange/Grant, 9/9
(Anonymous) 2015-08-11 02:05 am (UTC)(link)LITERALLY FOREVER
NEVER CEASING TO SCREAM
Re: FILL: Strange/Grant, 9/9
(Anonymous) 2015-08-11 04:56 am (UTC)(link)I just loved the entire atmosphere of the fic and how it created such a beautiful melancholic tension.
It also helped that it hit all of my guilty kinks, including my guiltiest of kinks: really well written tragic characters.
I loved this final part especially because of so much was said unspoken by the characters. Grant's pining for Strange to do magic for him broke my heart, especially at the end. I just love how Strange casts the rain from what we can assume it more 'selfish pursuits' yet in the end he ends the spell and in a sad way is completing Grant's desire for him to do magic solely for him.
This is probably now one of my favorite fics of all time now. I am beyond thrilled it is AO3 so I can reread again. I am now thrilled to read your other writing as well. Just thank you so much.
Re: FILL: Strange/Grant, 9/9
(Anonymous) 2015-08-11 06:14 am (UTC)(link)Look I cannot even begin to tell you how much this fic just absolutely destroyed me in the best way. I'm off to A03 to scream at you some more WATCH OUT.
Re: FILL: Strange/Grant, 9/9
(Anonymous) 2015-08-11 07:47 am (UTC)(link)"Of course we will be friends," Grant said. He turned his head on the pillow to look at Strange. "What do you think we are now?"
Strange seemed to find this very funny. A slightly hysterical laugh escaped from him and he rubbed at his eyes with one hand. "I cannot say," he said. "I have not the slightest idea what this is. I suppose it is a peculiarity of the Iberian Peninsula."
<-- THIS IS the actual place where my heart's stopped working.
Re: FILL: Strange/Grant, 9/9
(Anonymous) 2015-08-11 09:25 pm (UTC)(link)Re: FILL: Strange/Grant, 9/9
(Anonymous) 2015-08-12 06:30 am (UTC)(link)