Fanfiction: Thank-You Note (Howl's Moving Castle / Castle in the Air)

[nebroadwe]

Title: Thank-You Note
Fandom: Howl's Moving Castle/Castle in the Air
Character(s): Howl, Sophie
Pairing(s): Howl/Sophie
Rating: G
Word Count: ~375
Warnings: Spoilers for the end of Howl's Moving Castle and several significant events in Castle in the Air.
A/N: The other day lyricnonsense took up this meme: "Leave a list of fictional characters in your journal that you would love to get a message from. It is your friend-list's mission, should they choose to accept it, to write you an in-character 'letter' from a character on that list. Then they post their own list in their journal and the process continues!" Howl Jenkins was number four on her list. Being as I am a long-term DWJ fan, I couldn't resist checking in on Howl and Sophie ... but, as you might expect, things never run smoothly for those two, not even letter-writing. Crossposted to dwj_fanfic and movingcastle.
Dedication: For lyricnonsense, of course. Does it work?

---

N.B. Make fair copy. Do NOT send draft.
September 22nd 25th 30th
October 12th
November 1st 5th 8th 9th

My dear Miss Ngalia,

      It is with great pains pleasure that I take pen in hand to thank you for the faun barn loam --

What am I thanking her for?
The list says a fa-- no, a bo-- oh, a basin. Goodness, Howl, your handwriting!
Yours is certainly more legible than mine.
Oh, no. I've written my share of the notes already.
No need to gloat.
basin.

Basin?
The large china one with the garland of primroses around the rim.
Oh, the garish thing you use for Morgan's baths.
Yes. But you needn't share that opinion with Miss Ngalia.
Trust me.
It is quite large nice a wonder -- a marvel cast in porcelain, a jewel of the ceramicist's art lovely. We find it indispensable for bathing Morgan when he consents to be bathed. Those weeks he spent as a kitten following his birth have without doubt affected his character; it is exactly the right size for a boy no larger than an ocelot.

By the time you've finished editing this note, Sophie, it will contain no information whatsoever.
Why, then, am I writing it?
It's customary to thank people for the gifts they send you.
It is?
YES.
How you would laugh to see him splashing water all over the floor and giggling at Calcifer's distress in the water, babbling happily the while.

Oh, God.
We expect his first word to be "No!" soon.

      Your confidence that Morgan will follow in his father's footsteps as a great wizard is natural flattering, but we must not anticipate matters. Rest assured, however, that when he summons his first demon casts his first spell, you shall hear of it. And if he's anything like his mother, so will all of Ingary.

Thanking you again for your thoughtful gift,
Believe me, Miss Ngalia,
Your most humble, most devoted, most obedient servant,
Howell Pendragon Jenkins

One down ... several thousand to go.
Eleven, you mean -- don't be such a baby. Shall I have a word with your pen so that you can dictate?
No, no, I'll soldier on.
Don't forget to make a fair copy to send.
Trust me.

---

[Acknowledgments: Howl's Moving Castle and Castle in the Sky were written by Diana Wynne Jones. Copyright for these works is held by Diana Wynne Jones. All rights reserved.]

---

ADDENDUM: Here's the "manuscript" version I composed. Creativity eats my life.

Comments

[ishte.livejournal.com]

Hee.. this is awesome. ^_^

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Blame lyricnonsense -- this is the second time she's prodded me into motion with a meme. :-) You can also blame LJ's strikethrough tag; things really got going when I realized I could do this as a draft-in-progress. :-)

[lyricnonsense.livejournal.com]

I have lost my Howl's Moving Castle icon, so I will use the <3 one to express how much I love this.

Thank you thank you, and I am dying of laughter here.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! It was great fun. I have a half-finished "handwritten" version on the computer, where all the side comments are presented as marginal notes. But then I decided this would be easier to read.

[caravalente.livejournal.com]

All I can say is awwwww :)

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

In response to which, all I can say is, "Thanks!" :-)

[kattahj.livejournal.com]

Hee! Very in character for both of them, and so amusing.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It's a trifle, but one I enjoyed putting together. (Except now I have this vague feeling that Howl's handwriting is described somewhere in HMC and may not be that messy. Argh. Must check ...)

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Funny, cute, totally IC, and the perfect length.

Thanks! Fortunately, thank-you notes are a self-limiting format: you describe the gift and whatever use you made of it, say thanks, and you're out. (Which was one reason I chose it -- I wanted to get this piece finished before the meme expired. I'm a very slow writer on lengthy stuff, which is one reason I'm so fond of drabbles and the like.)

[windfeathercat.livejournal.com]

I love this. -cackles merrily- Oh, you make me want to reread those books, I love DWJ.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

If I could grow up to be a writer, I'd want to be one just like DWJ. It's encouraging, too, to read through her books and discover that she keeps getting better. No sign of the Brain Eater yet, thank goodness.

[guttergoo.livejournal.com]

That's an adorable idea, too bad my friendslist is lacking in enough people for anything of the sort. xD; But that was cuuute~

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I giggled over it myself, but the acid test is reader-response. I'm not sure I'm going to do the meme, but if I did, I'd keep my list short. There are a lot of characters whose adventures I like to read about, but whom I wouldn't necessarily want to engage in correspondence with. (Not to mention any leftover bad feeling from putting them through angsty scenarios in my own fanfiction. :-)

[sophielou21.livejournal.com]

I read this somewhere else but it's even better here! I just love this story. It's just such a giggle.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I archived it over on FF.net, but they don't have a strikethrough tag (or the ability to link an image), so you miss the full effect of all the corrections. It was altogether too easy to imagine Sophie prodding a reluctant Howl in the matter of thank-you notes. :-)

[fallenwitch.livejournal.com]

OMG, this was fabulous. Sophie and Howl were so in character that I could hear them bickering back and forth in my head. And all of your attention to detail was the icing on the cake. Wonderful, wonderful job! This post made my day. I might have to give this a whirl with my f-list. Unfortunately for me, I'm the only HMC fan in the bunch. Pity. I would adore taking my hand to something like this. Thanks for sharing your lovely creativity. It sparkles!

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Well, [blush, shuffle]. Thanks much! Glad to have given your day a lift -- it's what DWJ does for me. :-)

[roseveare.livejournal.com]

I missed this on dwj_fanfic when it was originally posted, but I'm glad I came across it today. So funny and in character.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I enjoyed putting it together in all of its various permutations. Howl obliged to write thank-you notes was an irresistible idea, once it took hold of me. :-)

[darksylvia.livejournal.com]

This is very cute! I can just see them bickering happily over the thank you cards :D

[gruskek.livejournal.com]

It was lovely :) Only the picture doesn't work any more... reupload, please :)
Howl's handwriting indeed is messy, I'm not sure whether it was mentioned in HMC but in HoMW it definitely is :)

[367thday.livejournal.com]

hahah this is so amusing. :D I would've loved to see the pic.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I'll reupload it someday -- I still have it sitting around, I think, but the image-hosting server I stuck it on way back when has passed on into the ether long since ...