(no subject)

[brigdh]

Stolen from threewalls.
Works in Progress Meme: post a single sentence from each WIP you have (or as many as you want to pick). No context, no explanations. No more than one sentence!


1. January and Rose danced while Hannibal played for them, waltzes mostly, to fit the tiny room.

2. Inspiration struck, and he took Rose's hand, bent down all her fingers except for the first two, and sucked them into his mouth.

3. But January had accidentally interrupted them once, to see them sitting close together, shoulders and knees almost touching; Hannibal had been speaking in a slow and quiet voice unlike his usual quicksilver chatter, and Rose had been listening, her face open and unguarded.

4. But that knowledge had never quite been real until that moment, sitting in a kitchen lit by a dying hearth fire, the smell of coffee and stewed tomatoes in the air, made real by the slight pause when Hannibal said, “He has very gentle hands.”

5. “I am so sorry,” he said, and January could hear the pain in his voice.

6. January dropped his things by the door, shrugging off his jacket, and came to stand just behind Hannibal, stroking a thumb over the nape of his neck, kissing the sharp point of his shoulder, the t-shirt soft and worn beneath his lips.

7. His expression never altered, with the same small smile he always seemed to have, but he didn't try to touch Alec again.

8. According to the records the Gushoshin had pulled up, only two people had checked out The Nihon Ryōiki of the Monk Eisai from the Kyushu University library in the last ten years.

Comments

[egelantier.livejournal.com]

5) tell meeeee what is it.
6) ...is it a modern au i spy?
7) swordspoint what, swordspoint how, IS THAT RICHARD
8) HEY IS IT YAMI NO MATSUEI FIC TELL ME MORE.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

5) Ahahaha. Speaking of drawerfic that is never going to be finished... This is a dumb id-fic where Hannibal, while high, severely offends Ben, and then they don't speak for a while, and then Hannibal comes by to apologize (which is the scene where that sentence is from) and they make up.

6) It is a modern AU, but it is also totally a PWP so I don't really know what the point of setting it in an AU is, but SOMEHOW THAT HAPPENED.

7) Yes, Swordspoint! Despite having written approximately 5 million Swordspoint fics, I have never written a first-time story, which is what this is. Or would be, if I finished it.

8) IT IS. Actually, it's a YnM/Swordspoint crossover where Alec is a college student in modern Japan and someone is summoning ghosts and Richard is, I dunno, a necromancer or something, I haven't figured that part out yet.

[egelantier.livejournal.com]

...OKAY POINT EIGHT BETTER NOT BE A DRAWERFIC BECAUSE I WANT IT LIKE RIGHT NOW. LIKE CHOP CHOP OMG.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I intend to finish it! But, uh, at the moment there is only 150 words of it and I haven't worked on it since April. But someday!

[somebraveapollo.livejournal.com]

THIS IS SO AWESOME AND I AM DOING THIS.

2. is awesome
3. is awesome
6. is ashsahuashshsahusahsahsahsauashusasa
7. OH MY GOD IS THAT RICHARD?

actually can I just summarise that it is all awesome and I love it forever PARTICULARLY THE FOCUSON ALL THE HANDS.

[somebraveapollo.livejournal.com]

... um. Any similarity between my comment and alina's is purely coincidental. (or rather is a result of the fact that she is a very influential kind of person)

But anyway I'm so glad you're writing Swordspoint fic AND ALSO AHHH HOW DID HANNIBAL OFFEND BEN AND HOW DID BEN FORGIVE HIM?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

THIS STORY IS SO DUMB SERIOUSLY I'M NEVER FINISHING IT. But anyway, Hannibal is very drunk and also out of money/laudanum/whatever, and wandering around on the streets at night when he runs into Ben. And they're talking, and he's trying to ask Ben for a loan, but Ben is just kinda like, "sigh, go home, Hannibal, I'll see you tomorrow" and then Hannibal manages to imply he will sleep with Ben in exchange for money. And Ben is VERY OFFENDED and all OMG I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS I THOUGHT YOU HAD SEX WITH ME BECAUSE YOU LIKED ME I CAN'T DEAL WITH THIS and snaps something hurt at Hannibal and stalks off. And then they avoid each other for a few days until Hannibal seeks him out and makes an apology that is basically "I didn't mean it! I was wrong! I love you please forgive me but I understand if you don't because I'm terrible but also again I love you!" and Ben does.

(Also looking at all these, god, I totally do have some thing for hands what is up with that?)

ALSO YES YES DO IT.

[somebraveapollo.livejournal.com]

AHUASSHUSAHUSHUSA THIS IS AWESOME AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH AND AAAAAH poor Ben. Poor Hannibal. I imagine Ben would be particularly distressed by the idea of faked affection / non-negotiated sex work. And Hannibal would definitely think of something like that - but he'd the most repentant grovelling person afterward. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah! There's a line in one of the books, something like "After knowing Hannibal, January had learned not to take offense at something one said while under the influence of opium", so I wanted to know what Hannibal had said that could be so bad. Because when someone is drunk/high, they don't say things that are entirely out of character, just that they might repress otherwise. And I don't think Hannibal is harboring secret slave-owning desires or anything like that.

But something like this situation, Hannibal would see as not a big deal- you do me a favor, I do you a favor- while Ben values sex in a very different way, and so would be horrified and rethinking all of his interactions with Hannibal (and wondering if race is playing into this) and feeling betrayed and used. And once Hannibal sobers up, he of course feels totally guilty and terrified of losing Ben's friendship, but it takes him a while to get up the courage to go apologize and not just, like, slink off forever in shame. But he does, and Ben is like you hurt my feelings DON'T DO IT AGAIN and Hannibal convinces him that he does very much value their friendship and isn't spending time with him for any sort of not-fondness-related reasons. And then they go and do something to show they've made up. Not sex–not the right moment- but they have lunch or something.

[somebraveapollo.livejournal.com]

Ohhh that line drove me crazy - as you say, what in-character yet insulting thing might Hannibal have said (that Ben learned not to take offense over, moreover)! It's not like he's particularly constrained when he's sober.

I think my canon guess is that he gets very vocal both about his atheism (which Ben quickly decided not to mind) and about his self-hatred/self-destructiveness. Of course it's all wrapped in quotes and allusions, but Benjamin gets it and is like "um?". But later convinces himself it's just a drug-enhanced Irish tendency toward the morbid or something [because it's not like he can do anything to help and he just can't worry about that on top of everything (where 'everything' includes Hannibal chances of starving/coughing/being beaten to death)]

anyway EVERYTHING ABOUT YOUR MINI-STORY IS DELIGHTFUL. Poor dignified Ben and slow-sober-realisation Hannibal. Mmmmm and then a sex-free period! I imagine Ben would have to initiate - which is good, because, like, probably this was in the beginning of their relationship? And I somehow think Hannibal was the more active sex-starter back then.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like your theory! That works really well. Ben often has a sort of uneasy awareness, where he's figured out more than Hannibal has explicitly told him, and doesn't quite know what to do with that information.

(Also, in the world of fic that needs to exist: Hannibal getting beaten up/thrown through a window and coming to have Ben patch him up.)

Thank you! (Yeah, this all has to be set pretty early on to work right. I hadn't decided exactly when, but possibly even before Ben met Rose.) In general I think Hannibal would do a lot of flirting and double entendres and sort of "so what're you doing tonight? :DDD" but leaves it open for Ben to make the actual first move. But in this case, yeah, he would leave even making the suggestion up to Ben.

[lavode.livejournal.com]

I think my canon guess is that he gets very vocal both about his atheism (which Ben quickly decided not to mind)

He's so open-minded about people who are less or differently religious than he is, even though his religion is so important to him. It's really impressive.

and about his self-hatred/self-destructiveness.

Another awesome thing about Our Hero: his refusal to help Hannibal feel sorry for himself. He never responds with "no you're great!" when Hannibal starts with his self-hate talk, he deflects it with a joke instead.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

He does, it is awesome. I almost want Ben to make a church-going buddy, because nearly everyone in his life is not particularly religious (or, yes, differently religious), and he shouldn't have to go to Mass alone all the time.

his refusal to help Hannibal feel sorry for himself

Yesss, that's such the right way to put it. Because (in my experience) trying to do the "no, you're great!" thing actually tends to make the situation worse and does nothing to cheer the person in question. Whereas joking actually is effective. And while of course people are individuals, and there probably are people out there who respond well to "no, you're great!", the joking seems to work for Hannibal, at least.

[lavode.livejournal.com]

This is a beautiful idea! The urge to write idfic is so hard to resist.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

It isssss. Which is why I have written out part of the story, despite never intending to publish it.

[lynndyre.livejournal.com]

Hooray, yamific! ^.^

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Though it is a long way from finished.

[lynndyre.livejournal.com]

Borrowed this meme- also fixed the broken links on two of the Halloween songs, sorry!