Prompt Me Some Fiction at Ficlet O’Clock

[scribblemyname]

So, it’s that time again. I have a hankering to write some ficlets, and my current docket seems too overwhelming.

1. Give me a number between 1 and 10.
2. Name a storyworld, fandom, or character.
3. Ask a question.

I will answer your question in a ficlet of the number of sentences specified in #1.

The Number of Fear {Divergent}

for lithiumlaughter

He must stay brave to keep the name.

Revelation {Avengers/X-Men Movieverse}

for xenokattz

That wasn’t anger in Natasha’s eyes, but betrayal.

 

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Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[lithiumlaughter.livejournal.com]

1) 7
2) Dealer's choice: Avengers, or Divergent.
3) If Avengers: What are mornings like at the Avengers Tower?
If Divergent: The words "fear God alone" are painted in Four's room. What's the story there?
If both: Percy is a happy fangirl.

The Number of Fear

[scribblemyname]

"You're a little scary, Four."

"Do me a favor and don't call me that."

"What should I call you then."

"Nothing. Yet."

2

My eyes move upward to the painted words on the plain white wall of his room. "What does that mean?"

He freezes, muscles tensing suddenly. He does not even have to glance over his shoulder to know exactly what I'm talking about. He quirks his mouth. "Are you afraid of them?"

I stare at him, breath caught for a moment, realizing that I'm not, he's not—but something dark hides behind his question, something he doesn't want to tell me, so I shrug and answer simply, "No."

1

Four stares down at the body on the tracks. His mind refuses to process that this is his mentor, his friend, Amar, but everything he is refuses to allow his mind that recoil. He stands where he can see and force himself to understand what just happened. No one is safe, no one immune.

When he gets back to his room, he sits down on his bed and stares at a blank white wall. Four fears and yet today, a fifth threatens—Amar warned him that what they were was dangerous.

A pause, a breath, and Four is up and pulling out some paint he had previously planned for something different. Fear God Alone.

0

Tobias was genuinely startled when the fearscape faded around him, and it hit him, like a smack in the gut. Four fears. Nobody has only four fears.

Then it starts.

He does not understand when they first clap him on the back and name him, but when he does understand, he takes it, owns it, smiles faintly at the approving grin Amar sends him.

With one word, he is a new person, separate from Abnegation and his father and all that has gone before, and he knows he must stay brave to keep the name. Four.

Re: The Number of Fear

[lithiumlaughter.livejournal.com]

OH SWEET MERCY.

YES.

This is beautiful. I love the tie-in of Amar, I love how subtle all the connections and history are here, I love the structure, and I absolutely LOVE that last little bit: ...he knows he must stay brave to keep the name. Four.
YESYESYESYESYESYES.

21 lines, sure. 21 lines that are TOTALLY WORTH IT.

Thanks so much for this, luv. It's wonderful!

Re: The Number of Fear

[scribblemyname]

I finally delivered on the Amar fascination we share. :grins: So glad you liked. This one was totally for you.

[scribblemyname]

So technically, that's 21 lines, but each bit is distinct. :grins:

7 at the Tower

[scribblemyname]

A/N: I can't believe I actually finished this.

---

1. Pepper Potts was not so sanguine as her employer/boyfriend regarding the transformation of his formerly welcoming Stark Tower into something terribly remniscent of a post-college dorm and its consequent retitling of "Avengers Tower"—though she refused to consider herself snobbish over the matter: sporadic but frequent national catastrophe before she had even tumbled out of bed, perpetual unavailability of breakfast, and threat of exposure to half-asleep males and their bonding experiences as regards bathroom, kitchens, etc. rendered her negative opinion of the entire arrangement quite and emphatically permanent.

2. If Pepper Potts were to make allowance for any member of that so-called Avengers initiative as being a positive addition to her morning, it was the Black Widow, Natasha Romanova, and the only other female resident—said allowance accepted at about 7 o'clock on a fine Tuesday morning when Natasha interrupted Pepper shouting at Thor to stop the storm he had started outside in his jovial execution of a dare by Clint.

3. Natasha trained her disapproving glare on her partner, Clint Barton, until he began to squirm and finally told Thor, "Never mind," mumbling it like a school boy, and both men scurried from the room, quite intimidated.

4. Thus freed of the encumbrance of questionable male encumbrance, the two women sized each other up—briefly—before Natasha moved on to the freezer for ice cream and Peppper to the refrigerator, then the two of them settled in at the kitchen table together, spooning out their treats slowly and giving Tony the exact same glare when he walked in demanding who ate his favorite breakfast (which just happened to be Thor's as well).

5. Tony stared back and forth between them, them demanded even less amiably, "Pepper, I do not approve of this friendship," instantly prompting a lifted eyebrow from his girlfriend, an amused sniff from the Black Widow, and with that, the friendship was sealed.

6. Bruce interjected with a polite request for one of Pepper's yogurts, and Pepper waved him over to the refrigerator with a sigh and an "If you must, you must."

7. Tony went out, nursing his bruised manly pride, made the wrong remark to Steve, who was on his way in, and both women rolled their eyes, picked up their food, and betook themselves elsewhere than the formerly welcoming Stark Tower turned Avengers Tower and terribly reminiscent of a post-college dorm.

Re: 7 at the Tower

[lithiumlaughter.livejournal.com]

PEPPER!

OH SWEET MERCY PEPPER! AND AWESOME NATASHA! LOUDMOUTH MEN HERDERS!

How much do I love Pepper's voice? So much. And how much do I love you for writing this? SO. MUCH. MORE. A happy fangirl indeed over here.

Re: 7 at the Tower

[scribblemyname]

She liked it, she liked it! :hugs:

[xenokattz.livejournal.com]

- 9
- Avengers/X-men movie crossover ;)
- Who is secretly a mutant?

Revelation

[scribblemyname]

Rogue hadn't meant to brush into the man walking down the street at the exact moment she was pulling off her glove to adjust it (sometimes, a glove was an obnoxious, impudent thing with a mind of its own), and she certainly hadn't meant to find herself standing slack-jawed over said man lying passed out in the middle of the street, too jarred by his mutation to drop immediately to his side in consideration of his well-being. Which is, of course, how she found herself waking up who knows how much later in a bed with very expensive, high-quality sheets with a raging headache and still able to see at a level that should have been impossible and hear everything around her, down to the faint breaths of a woman maybe three feet away.

"This is worse than Wolverine on a good day," Rogue muttered then forced herself to sit up and look in the woman's direction. Forget bleary-eyed, the detail was astounding. "Tasha?" she asked, then frowned and nearly slapped herself. "Sorry."

Natasha studies her for a long moment before firing off rapidly, "Rogue Marie D'ancanto, recently graduated X-Men with the ability to absorb and utilize mutant powers via touch, thus rendering victims unconscious, right?"

Rogue was torn between disbelief and the mutant Hawkeye's laughter in her head and opened her mouth to say something before slapping it closed for real this time and wondering how in the freaking world she got into these things. That wasn't anger in Natasha's eyes, but betrayal, because she had already figured out what Hawkeye was warning Rogue desperately not to say: he was a mutant and he'd never told his partner.

Re: Revelation

[lithiumlaughter.livejournal.com]

A) Your icon collection never ceases to amaze me.

B) You're not the only one who theorizes that Clint's a mutant too. It could be xenokattz who somehow got it in my head (somewhere, at some point, she wrote a ficlit about it,if I'nm not mistaken), but the idea that his heightened senses of sight and hearing are a mutation FITS. I like him as a badass normal, but Clint as mutant is a delicious idea.
And poor Tasha. The fact that Rogue uses Clint's name for Natasha is a shot to the gut. An even harder one is that last sentence. NRGH.

Re: Revelation

[scribblemyname]

A) Be Compromised comm. I check out the new sets and occasionally swipe one that really delights me.
B) I admit, I'd never thought about the issue before the prompt, but then I went for the one who could be unconscious and still pack a whollop somehow. I do love the ambiguity and intense relationship between Clint and Natasha, regardless of whether it's platonic or romantic, and I was hoping it would come across there.

Re: Revelation

[xenokattz.livejournal.com]

*LOVES ALL OVER IT*

That wasn't anger in Natasha's eyes, but betrayal, because she had already figured out what Hawkeye was warning Rogue desperately not to say: he was a mutant and he'd never told his partner.
-- Right in the pheeeeeeeeeeels. Movie!Clint & Natasha have such an intense relationship it doesn't matter if you read it as romantic, sibling, or platonic. It's just THERE, & it's solid. I love how the fact that Clint doesn't tell Tasha about his mutation is even more PHEEEEEEEEEEEELS than the fact that Rogue is now privy to many of their secrets.

Re: Revelation

[scribblemyname]

:hugs: So glad you liked it. And yes, on Clint+Natasha. That. I love relationships with meat to them, that aren't about sex or lust or romance or any of that, just real relationships between real people.