Fic: Servant of the Sun [TVXQ RPS | AU]
Title: Servant of the Sun
Fandom: TVXQ
Pairing: Yunho/Changmin
Rating: PG13
Summary: Fourteenth Prince Changmin is sent to serve as an attendant at the shrine of the Sun. He must remain pure and chaste for a full year. He didn’t expect to fall in love.
Notes: AU. For light_on_oceans, who requested a royalty AU with Changmin as a prince. I am behind on my New Year ( Read more... )
Fandom: TVXQ
Pairing: Yunho/Changmin
Rating: PG13
Summary: Fourteenth Prince Changmin is sent to serve as an attendant at the shrine of the Sun. He must remain pure and chaste for a full year. He didn’t expect to fall in love.
Notes: AU. For light_on_oceans, who requested a royalty AU with Changmin as a prince. I am behind on my New Year ( Read more... )
i love how at the beginning, Changmin is so insecure of himself (He doesn't know if he's beautiful or not.) but by the end he's bold and knows exactly what he wants ("I love you. I will not be denied..."). eh, maybe not bold but instead safe in the knowledge of his requited love for Yunho and secure in the confidence that Yunho encourages from him.
what i found a little strange in the context of this story - but in no way unwelcome because Changmin is like this in real life i mean seriously - was that most of Changmin's insecurity stems from his perception of his looks. not only does he constantly ask himself and people around him if he's beautiful, the first thing he notices about Yunho after that dazzling smile of course is how handsome Yunho is, and Yunho's physical attractiveness is constantly present in Changmin's love for him.
the difference in rank/status/familial background between Yunho and Changmin, or lack thereof, is an interesting backdrop to their romance. Yunho bows to the ground in front of Changmin, guards him through storm and shine, yet touches Changmin freely (which if i'm not mistaken was not quite acceptable for a Heian prince and his commoner of a servant, correct?)and speaks plainly to him with no attempt at hiding his true emotions and more specifically his feelings for Changmin. speaking of cryptic speech and straight-forward speech, Changmin's little poem was adorable. oh maknae xD
your descriptions, as usual, were breathtaking. it made the whole story seem somehow even more real, for example with the older guard laughing and then having to cough, or with the bell-cricket falling silent when Changmin pushes the screen aside. first two things i saw when randomly scrolling back through the story :P those kinds of trivialities are things that a lot of authors overlook and that a lot of readers also forget about, but their mere presence adds another layer to the story, almost like a sixth sense in a way.
i liked how you used the cycle of the seasons to measure how they're slowly but surely coming closer, and of course, the culture was a nice thread woven through the plot. it wasn't as prominent as it was in Children of Dust, or maybe i just didn't notice it because East Asian culture is more familiar to me than Byzantine/Ottoman culture, but it was there nonetheless with the cherry blossoms and the fans used as love letters and the subtlety of it all was enjoyable. like a gentle caress reminding you where you are and who you're with, if you'll pardon my probably horrible and definitely cheesy analogy
now that i think about it, the title was rather clever because Changmin is a servant at the shrine of the Sun, but in a way he's also a servant to his man-at-arms, his own personal sun. pardon me again, it's late and i should be working on my own story but spinning praises for you is nice too
all in all, i am still so (happily) shocked that you actually wrote this (for me!!!) and this was so much more...perfect and wonderful and simply more than i ever expected. best wishes for your New Year and may luck follow you wherever you venture <3
Reply
About the thing with his looks, I was thinking that since he's such an unimportant son then he's been overlooked even by his own family so instead of getting lots of flattery then he's just been teased by his brothers or ignored, so he's not even aware that he might be beautiful until he overhears the old solder say it. And then it sticks in his mind as maybe he *is* something to be valued even if it's only for his beauty, and he notices how attractive Yunho is as a complement to that, so in a way I guess recognising beauty is a way for him to find freedom. IDK I wasn't trying to be wildly profound in such a short space of time so I guess any interpretation is valid!
Yunho isn't technically a commoner, that's just Changmin's haughty assumption XD Yunho is senior fifth rank, which makes him a noble, but since Changmin is imperial even removed from succession then he's still too far above Yunho even though the difference in rank is not insurmountable. But yes Yunho is very plain-spoken and he should be a lot more respectful really! Bad boy XD
The seasons are such a Heian thing. I wish I'd had more time, I wanted them to have a proper Mid-Autumn festival poetry battle, but that would have been another story entirely. But I'd been longing to write Heian HoMin for a good six months now so I'm happy that I was able to do so - even though I was intending to write a medieval European castle AU! This happened instead and I'm glad it did, it has a gentleness to it that I probably needed at the end of the year.
Happy New Year!
Reply
Leave a comment