requiem

Project: requiem
Page: 0


My favorite method of falling asleep and/or waking up is with plot bunnies. I'll just let my mind wander. What I came up with this afternoon was definitely not typical. It's even got a name.

characters
Heather: 19 year old former gymnast. Her father and brother died in a car accident two years ago and her mother recently remarried. She's not convinced it was for love. She fights with her mogul step-father all the time and nearly destroyed herself just to spite him. She hates who she became. He told her no more gymnastics until she got her act together; she told him she wasn't graduating high school and would go crying to the media if he made her life hell. She had a gymnastics scholarship that she had to decline because of this. Her favorite events were floor and uneven bars. She refuses to let anyone get her on her back (literally) or see her with her hair down.

Ryan: I originally had him as an equestrian, but I think that was only because I dreamed about horses. Soccer player is sounding better. He hasn't made himself as clear as Heather has, but I really want to write Heather and her neuroses. He is not related to Heather by blood or marriage. Ryan became academically ineligible because he allowed his father to push him into taking too many classes while trying to juggle being a sophomore starter, and he failed. And--like Heather--without his sport he's drifting. He's a major control freak and can be a huge, huge asshole. Now he's being pushed into CLEPing out of everything he can since he wasted so much time. His original coping mechanism was a party lifestyle with the guys and obviously that wasn't the best idea.

Anne: Anne is Ryan's aunt by marriage and Heather's aunt by marriage. Heather's mother married Anne's brother and Ryan's mother is Anne's brother-in-law's sister. Or something similarly convoluted. She's a busy and successful real estate agent and is gone a lot, and she's got the family house. It's huge on its own acres of land, but it's not Secret Garden-type creepy or haunted or anything. Anyway, Anne: Anne cares a lot for her niece and nephew, but she's not around much, and she more or less leaves them to their own devices. She sees them at meals and some times throughout the day and reports Heather's weekly grades to her brother. She thinks they're old enough and smart enough that, once away from their bad influences, they can straighten out their own lives without incessant micromanaging from her. She has always had a special relationship with Ryan.

Ryan's parents: Sarah and Owen Dean
Heather's parents: Chloe and Noah Reid
Heather's brother: Luke
Heather's step-father: James Hayward

plot
LOL, plot. Heather and Ryan are independently sent to Anne's in hopes of an isolated environment wherein they will get so bored they have no choice but to study and get their GED and CLEP out of enough early classes. Heather carefully keeps herself on the pass/fail line and Ryan has a hard time motivating himself (he miiiight have an LD). They're both more preoccupied with their sports and trying to figure out each other (friends or conquests y/n?) It will only go through the summer and one of the high points will be when Heather finally lets herself grieve for her father/brother and Ryan lets himself quit being an asshole.

technicalities
Heather wants to tell the story, but I am not doing more first person. She can have third person limited. I want a fairly dark tone with lots and lots of adjectives, more formal sentence structure than I tend to use, and definitely more sentence variation.

theme/motif
Power/control. How to get it, how to stop it, what to do with it, when to use it, how to use it, how it corrupts, what it is. Also, you know, death. Thus 'Requiem.' Heather's brother and father died, she nearly died to herself, she has to kill her new self, she wants to control Ryan and at the same time kind of wants him to control her. Ryan's life spiraled out of his control so he's doing anything he can to make him feel like he's got some sort of power. He finds using his athlete status and looks to win girls to work for him, and he's lost himself in that. He wants to control Heather but at the same time loves that she strings him along. Ryan has to take control over his life and quit letting his dad govern him.


I'm... intrigued by this. It's very different for me, but still solidly lit fic. It probably will join the one-shot ranks of When No Really Means Yes, The Prodigal Oedipus, and the Ranger and the Princess. And that other one. Whatever it was. Provided, of course, that I finish it.

X-posted to racquelin.