Greetings and salutations!
If you have not noticed yet, this first section is a note from the author- if you are uninterested desist reading here and continue to the next section, I promise not to be offended.
This piece of fanfiction was inspired by my love of Trisinna Chandler and her determination to be a useful, commonplace mage. The first scene I ever conceived (but never really made it in) goes something like this:
)O(
Tris walked into class as if nothing ever happened, as if she hadn't just manipulated the power of the elements yesterday and no one knew that she was, in fact, one of those four. Of course, the room did not reflect her attitude; she had barely taken her seat in the uncanny hush before the professor spoke.
"Trisana Chandler. How good of you to grace us with your presence." Master Clearwater said sarcastically.
"I believe the name on my accreditation will be Ana, Master Clearwater." Tris channeled Sandry vehemently.
"I find myself wondering why such an acclaimed Mage," he said the word clearly stating what he thought of sixteen year old girls with such a title, "would be in my class."
"Perhaps to learn charms?" Tris was getting annoyed.
"You can blow a hole in a pirate armada!"
"That has little to do with charms," She still had a headache and didn't want to deal with him.
"PIRATE ARMADA!" Clearwater had stomped to her desk and loomed over her. What need did she have of a charm in a bowl when she could explode a fleet of bloodthirsty men?
"Oh sure," Tris was now upset, she hated people who loomed. "I can kill thousands and feel like overcooked noodles for a week, but I still can't put a simple purity charm in a good-for-nothing bowl." Tris had gotten to her feet and shoved the bowl into the professor's chest, Clearwater looked mildly surprised. "Tell me professor, if you had a choice to create charms, potions and such to help people" Tris poked his chest, Sparks flying in her hair as she finally let go of all of her pent up anger, "or to facilitate natural disasters, to kill hundreds of people, and be haunted by their bodies- which would you choose?" The professor stood stunned, scowling at the bowl he still held to his chest, "Well, Master Clearwater?"
Clearwater finally looked the intimidating sixteen year old in the eyes and was finally struck by the fact that this small frumpy girl had blown a hole in a pirate armada at thirteen. Thirteen. At thirteen he was complaining about mathematics homework to his mother. He cleared his throat.
"Well, if you have any hopes of mastering a purity charm you'll have to hang on to your bowl." He placed the bowl on her desk and walked back to his place at the front of the room. "Do keep a better hold on your tools, Ana, I would hate for lack of supplies to hinder your education." Looking back at the girl he saw what could only be considered a satisfied smirk on her face as she once again took her seat.
)O(
Ah Tris, I write you so poorly. I'm afraid my Tris will have developed a sarcastic streak from "Kethlun's bad influence", shall we say. Anyways, I love the thought of strange little Tris defending her decision to become a "common" mage to all those who wish they had her sheer power. I think Doctor Who says it best when he noted, "Do you know, in nine hundred years of time and space I've never met anyone who wasn't important before."
Speaking of quotes, Tamora Pierce once wrote, "As for reading fanfics, I must abstain, politely. There's the time factor, for one, as in, I don't have any. More importantly, though, sometimes in the heat of the battle with a book, we grab any idea that surfaces, without necessarily knowing where it came from. I've since gone back to find things I've fitted to my use in books and movies I read years ago. I can't take the chance that someone else's ideas might enter the stew where my creativity happens, to surface years later: that's how writers get sued for copyright infringement/theft. It's nothing against fanfics or their writers, and everything to do with me covering my behind."
On that note, Pierce is very wise. I have read a few circle fanfictions, and by my estimates, I have read almost all the Tris-at-Lightsbridge fanfiction. Considering I am horrible with naming characters, I may make blatant, unintentional references. *sorry* if I know I'm stealing something, I'll at least try to direct people to your story. If you don't like it, message me and I'll rework the infringement.
Alas, onwards and upwards!
~Durante~