Saiunkoku: The Age of Silver: Dragon's Whisker

[branchandroot]

Fic post from my archive.

Dragon's Whisker

Civil war erupts, and Seien returns. Drama with Angst, I-4

There were screams in the roar of voices, now, and Shuurei flinched from the sound, drawing closer against Seiran, looking up at them both with wide eyes. "Is it..." she had to stop and swallow, "is it really going to be all right?"

Comments

[grey-damaskena.livejournal.com]

So things are well and truly on their way . . . very much happiness on my part to see this installment, with so much going on. You dealt sparingly with Senka, which I think was a very good choice, although I'm somewhat surprised that Shou wasn't aware of Seien's return (but then, I have some sort of bizarre idea that Shou knows most everything when it comes to the royal family, one that is certainly not proven. I may well give him too much credit).

I see, too, that you've changed the timeline a bit . . . I'm guessing one year with the Satsujinzoku, does that mean that Seien's spent four years living with the Kou Family of Cuteness, then? So Seien is currently . . . 17, 18? And Ryuuki's 10 or 11, and Shuurei's 7 or 8?

At least Shou is taking care of putting things back together again. I really like the silent communication between him and Senka. Senka, it seems, trusts Shou a great deal more than his sons end up trusting Shou. ;-) Long familiarity, perhaps, but one has to wonder how Shou's going to manage to re-establish himself at court when all's said and done . . . well, I'll leave that to him, anyway.

Seien's return, how exciting! I can't wait to see the reunion between him and Ryuuki. More time has passed than I originally thought while reading your stories (I thought in the beginning that you were starting right after Seien's return with the Kou family from Sa Province. Or was this in fact true and that stories since then have spanned a number of years?); I imagine it must have been very disorienting for Seien to see Ryuuki grown older. That's actually something I wonder about from the series: Seiran's first look at a mostly-grown-up Ryuuki, and his feelings at that moment . . . looks like I'll never find out, though, more's the pity.

Once again have rambled on far too much, my apologies. Looking forward to the next installment!

[branchandroot]

Oh no, feel free to ramble! It's great to have ideas to bounce off.

Yeah, Senka shows up twice, so far; short but sharp seems to be the hallmark of his stories. He's more than a little unnerving, even to me! *snickers* Shou, by contrast, gets frequent apperances, riling up the princes as he likes to do. I think Seien will accept him eventually, but he'll probably never /like/ the old fox.

*chews lip* Mm, I /think/ I'm sticking pretty close to canon timeline. One year with the Satsujinzoku, yes, and then four with the Kou, and the civil war eight years before Canon Start. So yeah, those ages. Shadow's timeline is what I'm going off of.

The first couple stories do span a few years, and I'm still working on when, exactly, I think each one happened. ^_^; The first one is probably within the first year Seien is with the family, the next three... I'm not quite sure, really. *wry* That's why I was cagey about giving any time markers much earlier than this. I think I'm going to have to figure that out by the time I do final revisions on those.

I would pay money to get inside Seiran's head the first time he sees Ryuuki as Emperor! I mean, he must have come to intellectual terms with the fact that his baby brother is the Emperor, but to actually /see/ him...

*bunny pops up and waggles its ears*

Not until this arc is done! *shoos it back into the corral*

[grey-damaskena.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I hope you will allow this bunny out in due time. It's one I'd very much like to see, since that subject is one I think about often . . . another one of those poignant moments that makes my chest hurt in a most delicious way, so I've been hoping someone will attempt it. I don't feel equal to the task, myself.

[branchandroot]

Well, the bunny hasn't vanished overnight, so it may be a keeper. *considers* I think it would have to start with the moment Shou suggests that both Seiran and Shuurei come to the palace, because it seems like that would bring a whole lot of things he's done his best to more or less ignore and forget roaring back to the surface.

[grey-damaskena.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed. Ryuuki comments on how every corner of the palace just brings up bad memories for him; as soon as he walks onto the grounds Seiran's not going to be able to avoid remembering things. The good (Ryuuki), and a whole lot of the bad . . .