Saiunkoku: The Age of Silver: The Color of the Phoenix's Tail - Part Three

[branchandroot]

Fic post from my archive.

The Color of the Phoenix's Tail: Part Three

Shuurei likes her life but wants it to be something more. Drama, I-3

"Shuurei?" Seiran came to stand beside her, leaving his own scrolls. "Is anything wrong?"

She mustered a smile for him; Seiran always worried so much when she was upset. "No, it's all right. I was just..." her voice wavered a little, despite everything she could do, "wishing I could be an official and do something good with all this."

Comments

[grey-damaskena.livejournal.com]

Huzzah for Shuurei-centric! Considering that the series is about her, I find that she gets alarmingly little attention. ;-) Of course I'm at fault as much as anyone else, given my own obsessions, but even so.

In any case I really like how you depicted Shuurei's restlessness and frustration. Certainly it makes sense to me that she wouldn't wait for the boys to come up with some way to help her out-- of course she'd go forward and try to better her situation on her own! It's Shuurei to a T.

It's going to be interesting to see her balancing her connection to the palace with her soon to be Real Job. I imagine Shouka's going to stop by once she's started and make the same request he did in-series? Is Seiran going to do the same? ::hides under the table and waves her crack-pairing flag::

Just out of curiosity, how old are the various members of the main cast at this point (Seien, Ryuuki, Shuurei)?

It's so nice having something to read every day, I thank you like woah. :-D

[branchandroot]

*hearts* I love Shuurei dearly. (Even when I think she needs to haul off and knee people in the nuts more often...) I especially love that she is so wonderfully independent, and yet it isn't because she's sparklingly perfect, it's because she's just as marked and scarred by life as everyone else, and this is how she lives with it.

*grins* Shouka will certainly stop by. I think Seiran will as well, which I will have to write at some point, because that will be his first meeting with Kouchou. Incognito, of course.

*thinks* Umm, I think Shuurei is just twelve, so Ryuuki is about fifteen and Seien would be twenty two.

My pleasure! *wry* In another week or so I'll have to slow down. I'm catching up with canon-start, and that makes things harder to integrate. I hope to at least get through Shuurei's appointment as an official before I have to wait for more canon, though. And, hey, maybe I'll be able to go back and catch all the little fill-in-the-blank bunnies, then.

[grey-damaskena.livejournal.com]

OMG SO YES. You have no idea how many times I was wishing she'd hit Mr. Grossg-- um, Sakujun-- where it hurt. She hits Ryuuki for a great deal less, why is it that she never hits Sakujun?

grrrrrrrr . . . .

Um, sorry. Getting carried away. ::sheepish::

I hope you don't slow down too much, in any case, because I want to read more. And filling-in-the-blanks is always good, there are loads of things I'd adore seeing from this AU. I shall wait, as patiently as I'm able.

[branchandroot]

You and me both! I suppose it makes a small amount of sense that she was in shock from his strong come-ons. Saku is a whole lot less ingenuous than Ryuuki. And I /know/ there are all sorts of cultural issues at work. But... argh!

[grey-damaskena.livejournal.com]

::sighs:: It's true, of course. Ryuuki tends to behave more childishly . . . more than that, I think, Shuurei feels safe around him, she doesn't have to worry about what he's going to do. Ryuuki will allow himself to be hit and yelled at and won't do a thing about it. Whereas with Sakujun there's no way Shuurei would feel comfortable doing that, even when he so richly deserves it. He wouldn't accept being hit or yelled at, and Shuurei is definately not comfortable around him.

And as Shuurei herself notes, Sakujun pushes. Ryuuki's always willing to give her a way out or back off when she's really uncomfortable, but Sakujun seems to delight in embarassing her and making her uncomfortable.

Shuurei says that the two are quite similar: I would agree, but rather say that they're opposite sides of the same thing.

. . . I'm rambling again, forgive me. ::sheepish:: As much as I dislike Sakujun and bristle like a cat every time he makes one of his smug appearances, I still find him very interesting. The thought of what it would be like if he and Ryuuki met is something I often think about (well, it kinda happens in the sidestory, but not exactly) . . .