Better To Give by GaPJaxie · 2:42pm Jan 8th, 2021
Better To Give by GaPJaxie
Smolder didn’t used to like Hearth’s Warming. Until she realized she could win.
Note: while not a complete spoiler, this goes pretty in-depth into events in the story,. If you haven't read this yet, please read it first before you lose the shock factor of a first read.
This is some fine tuned comedy. Everything in this story is like an interconnected web of jokes that lead into each other.
Everything that comes out of Smolder's mouth is absolute gold. Her sarcastic nature works great as the central figure for the story. Not to mention the amazing description that is just perfect for this story. Winning a holiday sounds absurd, but competition can go far wheneft unchecked.
Gallus is where things get interesting. The gift he gives to Smolder is completely in character, and I'll bet that holiday wars have been started over things like this before. The thing that interested me was how Gallus actually sounded broken up about how things went, displaying a lot of signs of anxiety, which is a subtle thing that blends with all the comedic tangents so well you'll probably not notice immediately.
Silverstream shows up and I can't help but feel like she sounds like a know-it-all mother. Seriously, read the scene in question and try to picture her knitting something and it fits perfectly. Out of the Student Six, she's probably the one who is least relevant, but she's a nice break from the other characters that works well.
I haven't mentioned this yet, but plot device that is Trixie typing out the conversations makes for a hilarious expectation subversion when it turns out she and Smolder are partners in crime. In general, the intro where Starlight and Trixie enters the room is surprisingly intimidating for how silly this story is.
Ocellus. Ocellus is by far my favorite part of this story. Her moments are brief, but effective. She's portrayed as being very proud of her heritage as a changeling, so when Smolder tries to abuse her shapeshifting abilities to get one up on Gallus, she has a meltdown. It's absolutely brilliant and a joy to read. Speaking of which, Smolder goes a little too far when trying to get back at Gallus, and decides heartbreak is a good way to do that. It gets better when while Ocellus is talking to Gallus as a gryphon, Smolder barges into the conversation saying Thorax needs her and that she has to drop the facade, right in front of Gallus. I can not describe how hard I laughed when I read this for the first time.
So far, behind the constant jokes, there has been a very strong moral. Teasing friends is all well and good, but there are limits, and it's important to notice those limits before they get crossed. It's noticeable that the pranks are hitting Gallus much harder than you'd really expect from him. Much like the mace he swings at Smolder in retaliation. No, I'm not joking, he actually does and Smolder says it was a great gift that reminded her of home.
By now, we are at the third year of the prank war. When I first read this, I had assumed that this was around the point that the hard feelings evaporated and it was all fun and games. Keep this in mind because I'll bring it up later. Anyways, Gallus tells Sandbar he's going to get Ocellus to impersonate a dragon to try and woo Smolder. Sandbar, being the good samaritan that he is, decides to report this information back to Smolder. What Gallus didn't tell him was that he never got Ocellus to change into that dragon, so when an ambassador from the dragon lands shows up, who happens to be the real version of the dragon Smolder was told was going to be fake, you can guess how that goes. Smolder gives him a hard time until he eventually cracks and humiliates her. Even worse, he brings the story back with him, resulting in her getting mercilessly teased back home about it.
The story reaches a point when Ocellus gets two of her friends to tell both Smolder and Gallus respectively that she is going to disguise herself as them and try to romance them. Which leads to both of them being overly accepting of it to try and throw Ocellus off their trails, and when they both keep it up, all of the negative emotions over the years comes to a boil. Smolder mentions her horrible home life when she was young and how she was forced to act like a boy by all her brothers so they'd leave her alone. She mentions how she hates dragons for that reason and Gallus takes that as Ocellus insulting Smolder which just builds the fight more. Long story short, they end up making out and getting a public indecency notice.
The pacing is great, every joke hits, the personalities are unique but also fit the Student Six, little to no grammar issues; this was a great first story to start off the reviews with. Definitely reccommend.
Oh god I didn't intend that, but now I'm picturing it and it does fit perfectly.
Typewriters make things very serious.
I'm so glad you liked it. It's been awhile since I wrote anything, and Better to Give got me back into the groove. It's not my deepest story, but it's fun and cute, and I think there's a decent moral buried under all those jokes.