Ficlet O'Clock: Bring ye commentfic requests!

[scribblemyname]

A meme I did once a long time ago from the incomparable xenokattz:

Give me
a) a fandom/original world
b) a character/pairing

Then add any (or all) of the following
1) an image
2) a quote (but not in the same fandom)
3) Your battle cry
4) a recipe

First 10 prompts will get a strict drabble commentfic; that is, a 100 words very brief fic. No promises after 10 although I'll do my bestest.

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

Comments

[pygmymuse.livejournal.com]

I was reminded of Vardin because of all the hunting. Bows go with hunting, but if it doesn't work, it doesn't work.

The Way of the Hunt

[scribblemyname]

Josh's study partner spoke English, American English, even though she was a bona fide Vardin native with a clear penchant for French. "I'm a hunter," Rachel added by way of explanation.

"Oh." He didn't really get the connection, but his family had hunted for as long as he could remember. It was nice to find something in common with a member of this mysterious people who were always sizing him up as if deciding whether he were a threat. "So do you use a gun or bow and arrow?" he asked. While Josh preferred firearms himself, his sister had always preferred archery.

Rachel blinked at him, then looked back through the microscope for a moment and jotted down her observation. She was a normal intern for the Vardin Council of Medicine and Science. He was one of the first two outsiders ever allowed a position.

"I'm not sure I understand," she said after a long moment. "I don't hunt animals."

Josh looked up from his own microscope. He thought about that, then finally asked, slowly, "What is a hunter then?"

"It isn't a perfect translation, I suppose." She looked thoughtful and shook her head. "Hunting means pursuit of a purpose or for a purpose, changing something, or acquiring something. It is in contrast to householding which is establishing and guarding what already is. Hunters go outside the Barrier when it is necessary."

Which explained her knowledge of languages. She had perhaps been to America. Josh considered that."So offense versus defense?"

"Kind of," she cautioned. "It is pursuit versus guardianship."

"I thought you were all guardians," he asked softly, drawing a soft laugh in return.

Rachel shrugged in a classic French shrug, simple and uncaring. "Perhaps you'll understand with time." She returned her focus to their exercise.

Josh watched her for a long moment while she pointedly ignored his doing so. He had wondered why he was called plain, outsider, hunter—all such different ways of saying he came from America and didn't belong here—and he was here in the pursuit of knowledge and understanding.

"I shall enjoy the hunt," he said in a language that, by her startled expression, she did not misunderstand.

#

Re: The Way of the Hunt

[pygmymuse.livejournal.com]

I think that I had the same misunderstanding of the Vardin concept of hunt as he did.

Re: The Way of the Hunt

[scribblemyname]

That's what I realized with your comment, which worked to get a piece pulled together. The stories that really get into hunting are "Gone Hunting," "Portrait of a Butterfly," and "Crossing the Barrier." They are also currently my longest finished pieces in the world. I don't shoehorn in as much worldbuilding details in flash fic.

Re: The Way of the Hunt

[pygmymuse.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I read most if not all of those when they were posted before (and were it not for this craziness with the garnishment and me having lost my wallet, I'd have bought the one book already just because) so I'm not sure why I have such a different view of Vardin than you do, but I swear, it's nothing like what yours is. :(

Re: The Way of the Hunt

[scribblemyname]

I don’t know either then. In “Gone Hunting,” it’s a hunter’s job to silence John Henry before he can tell about what a healer can do. In “Crossing the Barrier,” hunters hire themselves out to protect outsider merchants’ goods. In “Portrait of a Butterfly,” the first hunting team is on a hunt to guard a Russian meeting house against Russian operatives and any violence and the second team’s hunt is to clean up the fallout from the first team’s hunt gone awry and ensure that no one finds out they’re gifted.

But… And I don’t know if this figures in, but these aren’t all written in chronological order, far from it, so that might be it.

En brief, hunters acquire wealth for their Households, handle all international affairs outside the Barrier that Vardin has to get involved in, and work in intelligence and extraction for Vardin. Hope that helps.

Re: The Way of the Hunt

[pygmymuse.livejournal.com]

It is, I'm afraid, not the first time I've misunderstood Vardin.

I definitely don't remember all of that being in the butterfly one that I read. Maybe I missed the other parts of it, because there was just one girl and she was dropping into a room, and that was about all I remember of that one.

There was one with the Queen's will being bound into someone, and that one I remember being confused by because it seemed so discordant from the butterfly one I did read, and so I got lost there.

I remember one with a boat and a girl and opening the barrier and her wanting to hunt, too.

My thought would be that because it wasn't in chronological order and I was confused, I filled in the pieces with what I would have done, and that is why I'm still not understanding things because it works until it conflicts with what I filled in. :(

It does clarify things for me a lot. Thank you.

Re: The Way of the Hunt

[scribblemyname]

Ah! I expanded Portrait significantly a good while back, and it's a lot more detailed about what hunting means than either of the others. www.lianamir.com/portrait-of-a-butterfly

The other ones have details, but they're snuck in there as I'm wont to do.