A Song for Two Voices - book 9

[swimmer963]

 This section is very rough draft, but I am nonetheless pretty happy because it contains: 

*STEF!!!!!!!!!! AND!!!!! VANYEL!!!!!!
*Although I am terrible at writing romance so I have no idea if it works at all
*This section is actually pretty upbeat (relatively speaking) and light on Bad Things Happen To Vanyel
*As well as containing some legit Good Things, like the aforementioned Stef 
*Stef needed to be Elsewhere for a bit, so he also has adventures! And meets some kyree! 
*Vanyel and Leareth have time to kill, and make some progress in their conversations 
*I guess there is one bad thing that happens to Vanyel, but Stef is there so it's all okay!
*Jisa does something that another character refers to as "the most Vanyel thing imaginable" 
*Some Jisa and Treven
*Really awkward drunken interactions at parties
*Vanyel makes the extremely dubious decision to go shout at a god again, and no one is surprised
*Melody doing relationship counselling, because frigg do they need it.

There were some rewrites on book 7 and 8 but they don't have a huge effect on the book 9 plot. 

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Comments

Vanyel on balconies...

[gildaurel]

SO. I have to start by saying that I absolutely LOVE the Van/Stef scenes from Stef's return onward; the way they look at each other and blush, the way Vanyel wants him but doesn't want, Stef's hero-worship slowly but surely turning into seeing Van as a person-- it's very well done, though you falsely say you are terrible at romance. The balcony scene almost killed me, I loved it so much. THAT was fabulous, and such a pleasure to read. I did find the apology in front of Medren afterwards a bit awkward; I'm not sure Van would have confessed his attraction in front of an audience.

The tension between the two of them and their increasingly close friendship is also VERY well paced-- once they find out they're lifebonded, though, I got a bit confused about their relationship-- you had shown their attraction fantastically well and how hard it was for Van to resist him, but then he gets hurt and is bedridden, so it seems as if the physical aspect loses its momentum a bit, and I wasn't sure if they had even consummated their relationship by the end of the fic? I felt like that portion needed some focus, since it was such a big deal to Van earlier on (and that tension, like I said, is SUCH a draw in and so important to keeping Van in character). Are they still in chaste lifebond mode? If not, when did they actually progress to touch?

Anyways, I loved this take on their relationship (you know that's what I really read for) and drunk!Vanyel at parties is a personal favorite of mine.

Re: Vanyel on balconies...

[swimmer963]

I definitely thought you would like the romance aspect of this section, but *wow* that was some fast reading!

And yep, you're right that I neglected/forgot the physical aspect of their relationship towards the end (guess that shows what *my* priorities are here, and the problem with ace people trying to write romance, e.g. forgetting sexual tension is a thing as soon as it's inconvenient – I think I can only write it at all by gluing a bunch of tropes together anyway). I'd been sort of intending to imply that they progressed to touch once they got to k'Treva, but then I was aaaa awkward about actually writing it.

I think the apology scene probably still works if Van doesn't confess attraction at all and basically just says he thinks Stef is neat and wants to hang out but *very much definitely* not in a romantic way thank you.