Little Boxes

[seer_of_spots]

Title: Little Boxes
Author: seer_of_spots
Rating & Warnings: G; pretty tame.
Prompts: Advent calendar and "I have had to fight, almost every night/ Down through these centuries./ That is when I say, oh yes yet again,/ ...Wish I could be dancing now/ In the arms of the girl I love." - Stop the Cavalry, Jona Lewie.
Word Count: 2550
Summary: A hoarse voice split

Comments

[mrstater]

Oh, I love this!

First off I think it's just a super use of your prompts, especially the Advent Calendar as somehow I got to thinking of it in terms of how whimsical wizarding Advent Calendars would be so I never thought of it in this very primitive way. I can just imagine Remus sitting slumped on a log, drawing in the dirt with a twig and trying to keep himself sane in the midst of domination and rights and blood and guilt and duty (love the reputation of that throughout, btw) by tying himself to home. (Him singing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" really got me, too.) And I can see him touching the other werewolves -- especially the younger ones -- in ways like this, not even realizing that even these little glimpses of the life he's known change them and give them hope.

Christopher is a wonderful little OC, as well. He's such a neat combination of a rough boy who's grown up without love and in a poverty-stricken, cruel environment, and yet he's so open and vulnerable for all his bravado -- the details of his starved body at the start really establish that hunger he has for what Remus has to offer. Your dialogue between him and Remus just crackles; I love how one minute it can be light, darkly humorous, and then the next just ring with real emotional resonance.

I really love what you've done with the color imagery. Starting it out with all the shades of blackness, and Remus not even being able to tell the color of Christopher's hair, ties in so neatly with the end and all Tonks' colors. And speaking of the end -- wow. I could just hear the rawness of Remus' voice, see so clearly what Christopher saw, of Remus being swept away by her. You so deftly in very few words got his love for her across, and Tonks was somehow very present in the story through the mere utterance of her name. And I adored this line: "He wasn’t too old for stories, he realised, he was far too young."

It's lovely how there's a sense of eternity about this, as well. We can think of it in terms of canon with these colorful spirits, or there could also be a happily ever after feel, if you're in denial about canon like me, lol.

Really, this is a wonderful story, which I will save to memories to read again! Thank you for writing it! I hope we see more R/T from you!

[seer_of_spots]

I'm so flattered by everything you've said - so much detail, so much analysing (you got everything, by the way ;) ).

I'm suffering from a bit of a Praise Overload, which is, admittedly, very nice :).

Thank you for taking the time to read and the time to comment, and, of course, for moderating such an excellent challenge! It was a lot of fun, so I'm glad you enjoyed it.