yuletide reveals, fashionably late

[darkrosaleen]

I wrote two fics this year, so not as prolific as last year. I struggled with one for about three frustrating weeks, and I wrote the other in five hours on Christmas eve and posted it an hour before the archive went live. Not in the order you'd expect, either.

Come Here, Rude Boy (Goon, Eva/Doug/Xavier)

So I had an open-ended prompt, a recipient who loved kinky fic, and major writer's block. I was running Thanksgiving errands when Rihanna's "Rude Boy" came on the radio, and I knew I had a divine mission to bring Xavier LaFlamme getting spanked into the world.

As it turns out, punishment is an incredibly hard kink to write, which I should've known because I never find depictions that hit the spot for me. Too much awful behavior from the sub and there are actual hurt feelings. Too little and it draws attention to the artificiality of the scenario. It can be somber and filled with intense guilt and emotional vulnerability (which I find interesting but not at all hot), or it can be so fun and positive and "safe" that you wonder why they're bothering with punishment at all. Goon is a movie about the joy of clobbering people, and Xavier is such a massive shitheel that everything he says crosses the line. The fic needed to hit that sweet/violent balance that the movie hits so well.

I did eventually get it done, and I was pretty happy with the result. I think it pulls together Doug and Xavier's contrasting submissive tendencies (which are totally there in the movie I swear), and Eva makes a great laid-back dom with enough of a testy streak to make things interesting. There's way more d/s potential that hasn't been tapped (like Doug being a service top and Eva ordering him to shove her or Xavier around, unf), but considering the time it took, I think it's a solid effort.

this is a secret proposition, lay your hands on me (Raven Cycle, Ronan Lynch/Declan Lynch)

Months ago, I promised _coal that I would write Lynchcest for anyone who gave it the green light in their letter, but with blockage and real life business, I was pretty sure I wouldn't get anything done. Then I remembered the line in The Dream Thieves that I bastardize for my summary, and it all came together--violence and tenderness both being intimate for Ronan and Declan, how being the only person allowed to beat up your brother also makes you the only person allowed to patch him up. I definitely got my kinks all over this one, to the point where I almost tagged it whump instead of hurt/comfort, but I think (I hope) it's in character enough to work. I also have a lot more to say about various Lynches, so keep an eye out.

Comments

[isis]

I am writing Niall! Tell me about Lynches.

[darkrosaleen]

I am so excited that you are writing Niall! It's honestly all about the daddy kink for me, whether that includes actual incest or not (I kind of like the idea of Niall/Gansey, because he has that Friend's Hot Dad quality to him, like you come downstairs after a sleepover and find him making breakfast shirtless and discover New Things about your sexuality).

On a less TMI note, I think Niall was charming more than actually good, but I do think he really loved Ronan, and I find it hard to believe he didn't love Declan at all (I doubt we'll get background on their relationship from Ronan's POV, but there has to be more than just Declan being the worst). We know Niall taught his sons to box when they were at most sixteen and seventeen, and I can see him introducing his kids to stuff like alcohol or porn (or, uh, other stuff) without considering whether they're old enough. He seems to lack impulse control, and I see him as a bit of a punk who never really had to grow up because he can literally have anything he wants. On the other hand, he seems to have been raised in Northern Ireland sometime between the sixties and the eighties, and I don't think boxing is associated with the higher classes in Ireland. He might be overindulgent because he wants his sons to have the comfort he didn't.

[isis]

Yeah, I agree with your second paragraph. I think of him as the archetype of the charming rogue. And lower social stratum, definitely; it wasn't until he developed his dream powers that he could get what he wanted, and that's exactly it, he wants his sons to have what he didn't.

He played Celtic music, we know that; what instrument(s) would you have him play? (Asking for Reasons.)

[darkrosaleen]

This is probably way more info than you want or need, but I have Strong Opinions on Niall and Irish music (and your recs are coming soon, promise!)

Short answer: something loud and flashy. Accordion is considered a bit old-fashioned and uncool, which leaves fiddle and uilleann pipes. Fiddle is fast, brash, and has devil at the crossroads connotations. The pipes are eerie and wailing and mostly used for airs and ballads, although people do play jigs and reels on them.

Long answer: I headcanon Niall being about forty when he died, which means he was born around 1970. There was an Irish music renaissance that rode the coattails of the sixties folk scene, and one of the big bands was The Chieftains, who feature the pipes as their main instrument. The Chieftains helped strip the corniness and big band pop inflections out of the music, and what they produced was haunting and wild and sounded ancient (contrast this with this).

I like the pipes for Niall because he's the right age for The Chieftains to be massively influential, and because they're the instrument Ronan listens to in the books, but also because they're archaic and ridiculous and kind of creepy. But fiddle is a lot more raw and energetic, so I think it could work too.

Growing up in the seventies and eighties, I think he would've gravitated first to The Dubliners, who've been described as the Stones to the Clancy Brothers' Beatles. He also would be the right age to get into U2, The Pogues, and various punk bands. I think he'd like the drama and the energy and the rowdiness of the pub band scene more than formal ceili bands or mellow folksy stuff. This is a pretty good documentary I just watched on the development of Irish folk music in the 20th century, which includes a lot of political and cultural background to different trends.

[isis]

Super, super helpful. (Also, I am essentially Niall's contemporary, which is a little weird to imagine. I wasn't into Celtic music to the level I am now, though I had friends in bands and used to go to the Dubliner in DC, but I definitely listened to U2, The Pogues, and various punk bands!)

Would it be rude to ask you to beta your own gift-fic? :-)

[darkrosaleen]

I don't think it's rude! I'm very eager to read it. :)

My dad's a bit older than you, and I know he was into the Chieftains and such in the seventies. But he grew up in Boston with step dancing sisters and Irish immigrant grandparents, so I imagine he got a bigger dose of it than most Americans did.