5 Things Meme—of the Ficlet Variety
Aug. 4th, 2013 01:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scribblemynameGacked from penknife:
You post a topic, list, category, whatever, in comments. (examples: "Five SG-1 Mission Reports That Were Less Than Entirely Truthful", or "Five Times Bruce Banner Lost His Toothbrush," or "Five Ways Nikola Tesla Failed to Take Over the World"). I'll answer with a list of five things.
Ideally fandoms that I know something about, unless you want me to guess, which could be entertaining but probably not the way you want. Or (and preferably) original fiction. All storyworlds on the table, i.e. Seven Days, Kingdoms and Thorn, the Alliance, Vardin, etc.
Completed Ficlets & Scenes
Kingdoms and Thorn:
- Rachelle + Justus – Without a Reason
- Shift + Justus + Red Wolf – It's Own Absolution
- Rachelle + Justus – It Came Up
- Rachelle/Justus – Simply Because
- Rachelle + Justus – Defining Love
- Rachelle + Shift + Meld – Playing with Knives
- Killinger + Special Unit ensemble – Technicalities
- Killinger + Special Unit ensemble – Call Me If You Need Me
- Killinger + Special Unit ensemble – Element of Uncertainty
- Marc + Cate – A Simple Question
- Marc + Cate – The Nameless Below
- Killinger + Special Unit ensemble – Tracing Trouble
Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Element of Uncertainty [2/2]
Date: 2013-09-16 02:05 am (UTC)"It smells," Marc told her bluntly as they went over their reports later. "Whoever did this knows treaty law, knows who is on the Special Unit, and knows how to block out every single one of us. We need to bring in somebody he doesn't know."
Cate rubbed her temples as if nursing a large headache.
Ilsa felt like imitating the gesture. "You think it was a setup?"
"I think," Marc replied, "that Myers wants to collect liability insurance."
"I know a couple people I could call," Cate offered.
Ilsa acknowledged that with a look. "Your most versatile?"
"That would be Rachelle, hands down." Cate smiled tightly. "DNA doesn't lie."
It was tempting, so tempting, but Ilsa looked away. The view from the Special Unit's office was not a particularly good one, but enough sky was visible through the window to give Ilsa room to think. As Marc so directly pointed out, this whole situation 'smelled.'
"Everything from the cyberpathic end checks out," Jarod admitted. "I commandeered the tapes and they aren't showing any tampering, just a fuzzy spot."
"Alibis?" Ilsa asked automatically, glancing at Marc.
"Phillips claims he was working at his desk and saw and heard nothing," Marc answered. "He also claims he didn't do it."
"No surprise there," Cate commented.
Nobody answered that.
Cate leaned back in her chair. "Look, if you don't know it already, most specials have more than one ability."
That got everyone's attention.
Marc was the first to speak with a harsh, irritated, "That's not what's been told."
Cate gave him an amused glance. "How were teams supposed to plan their escape if they didn't keep secrets?" She blew out a sigh, all serious again, and locked gazes with Ilsa. "I've got nothing valuable here, but point is, regenerative's always have something different than straight-up self-healing. All we've got to do is hold up this case until the possical analysis comes back and tells us exactly what his genes are packing. I'm with Rede. It's a setup."
"He'd also get a wrist-slap for registration fraud," Jarod pointed out.
Ilsa nodded. "Get Cate a warrant for a telepathic questioning of the two parties, then tie up this case until then."
Jarod saluted. "Ma'am, yes, ma'am."
Cate shook her head at him.
Marc flipped through his notes and handed Cate what she would need to know.
Ilsa noticed Jarod go over later to quietly ask Cate something. She deliberately stayed out of hearing range but had little doubt he was wondering how many abilities he had and didn't know about.
"Immune."
Ilsa was not sure what to make of that, but Marc was scowling darkly at the file in the middle of the conference room table.
Cate tossed her hair in disgust. "Wouldn't have mattered if we brought in Rachelle or anyone else with that ability."
"Never heard of that before." Jarod furrowed his brow. "Is it even possible?"
"Possible or not, we're dealing with it," Marc pointed out.
Cate shook her head. "I'd never heard of it, but the genes work." She tacked on under her breath, "Apparently."
Ilsa took a deep breath. "This doesn't cover the matter of the cameras."
Jarod snapped out of his trance. "We've questioned all the security guards."
"But not when they'd been quarantined from Mr. Immune," Cate said heatedly. "I'd say we need to put him in holding for three days then run our interviews again."
Ilsa raised her eyebrows. "That might be difficult in light of the law."
"No." Cate's face went unreadable, then lawyerly thoughtful. It still seemed disconcerting how much control Cate had over her facial expressions. "There's an applicable law for a holding warrant to prevent contamination of evidence. I'll pull the clauses for Jarod."
Marc stared at Cate as if trying to read how in their work Cate knew law the way she did, but Ilsa simply nodded.
"Thank you, Cate."
"Great," Jarod griped. "More work for me."
"It's your job," Cate pointed out, rolling her eyes. "Get used to it."
They got back to work.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Element of Uncertainty [2/2]
Date: 2013-09-16 02:24 am (UTC)I wonder how betrayed Marc feels about learning there are secondary abilities he doesn't know about with the people he works with.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Element of Uncertainty [2/2]
Date: 2013-09-16 02:42 am (UTC)Now, that's an interesting question. I must put it to Marc.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Element of Uncertainty [2/2]
Date: 2013-09-16 02:46 am (UTC):) Ha ha. More prompts.
Kingdoms and Thorns Ficlet: A Simple Question
Date: 2013-09-16 08:49 pm (UTC)Her motion arrested. She took the stack and set it down on her desk without watching as she did so. She was staring into Rede’s stormy grey eyes. She liked that about him, the rumbling hum of storm clouds over his mind. She never delved in deeper than that, though as a telepath, she could.
Cate ran over the events of the day in her head, sorted out one case from the other, and tilted her head with interest when she hit the bombshell. “You never asked.”
His expression remained unchanged. “I didn’t know to.”
Cate chewed over the taste of that, nodded, as she lifted the papers and files with one hand and settled into her chair. She gestured at the counter and he surprised her by actually leaning against it, arms crossed, to wait for her answer.
She flipped open the first report to enter the important details into her computer. “That answer goes both ways.” She said it simply, with as little provocation as possible, glancing at him as she did so and weighing his response.
You never asked. I never answered. Neither of us thought of the question once, not once.
“Your other ability?” he asked abruptly. The storm broke into a low growl, his usual start toward a grudging acceptance. Emphasis on the grudging.
She smiled up at him as she leaned back in the chair, couldn’t say why it was so easy to be pleased when she knew he would not understand her pleasure. Exasperation and incomprehension chased each other in Rede’s eyes, but she ignored it (or smiled wider and who could call her on it?) and responded, “Blending. You’ve seen me do it, use someone else’s power with my own.” She gestured in that fluid wrist motion that accompanied most forms of telekinesis. He recognized it. Then she leaned forward teasingly, “You never asked.”
“Catherine.” He couldn’t deny the charge, but she had no reason to rub his nose in it.
Cate had never particularly needed a reason. “Was there something else?” She grinned at him.
“This isn’t simple,” he said, still troubled by all this and who could blame him? She was not unaware that the world had changed while Rede had not even known to be looking.
So soberly, she nodded her own ungrudging simple acceptance and told him, “I know.”
Re: Kingdoms and Thorns Ficlet: A Simple Question
Date: 2013-09-17 01:27 am (UTC)It's like when Shift handled that moment when Justus met Red Wolf. It's not bad, I liked the story. It's an interesting perspective and dynamic, but I still didn't see the thoughts of the person I was expecting. I get Cate's thoughts, not Marc's. I still know nothing about him. And for some reason, I came off not liking Cate very much after this.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorns Ficlet: A Simple Question
Date: 2013-09-17 01:31 am (UTC)Hadn't really thought about you wanting into his head. Hm... Well, let's try 'er again.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorns Ficlet: A Simple Question
Date: 2013-09-17 01:55 am (UTC)I admit, I'm not sure I want in his head, but I would think the reaction needs to come from him.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorns Ficlet: A Simple Question
Date: 2013-09-22 03:32 pm (UTC)I will say this about it (because this sort of thing crops up in my work often): if he's asking specifically about more than one ability and he's SEEN her use more than one, then I do think her teasing was appropriate, especially when she's pointing out that he should have noticed.
Though that was more obvious in his version, it was certainly present in this one.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorns Ficlet: A Simple Question
Date: 2013-09-22 04:23 pm (UTC)This one I read it the second time after getting off a bad day at work and my overwhelming reaction to it was a very frustrated, "why am I getting Cate's thoughts on this when I asked what Marc felt? This was supposed to be how he felt about that world changer, and I didn't see that at all."
Exaggeration, of course, because if I look in there, it's there, but I had to go back and look for it.
Add in my lack of familiarity with these two, not understanding them or their dynamic, I had thought learning something like that would be a much greater betrayal than it seemed to be. Her teasing him in that case would have been inappropriate, and I also felt like the part when she was watching his eyes was rather school girlish and out of place, too.
We discussed how I tend to feel about people who use smiles/laughter as coping mechanisms, and I think it is a very thin line for me between when they are using that and when they come off as jerks and liars. It's a personal bias, going back to me always thinking it was a lie if I said I was okay when I was depressed.
*sigh*
Because of all that, her teasing in the first one seemed smug, maybe even... bitchy. She read to me like she didn't care what she'd done in disrupting his world. The way she was just like "you already knew" rubbed me the wrong way.
With the second one, he wasn't subtle about explaining her reactions. I understood her teasing him in the second one. I saw him react, and he expected that from her. It still wasn't what I expected as a sense of betrayal, but that wasn't what it was to him, just what I expected it to be.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorns Ficlet: A Simple Question
Date: 2013-09-22 05:31 pm (UTC)And there is the big kicker. :smacks forehead: I tend toward subtlety and you tend to like characters who are striving toward understanding. Duh. Should have caught that sooner. And that's a real blind spot I sometimes have on picking POV, especially en media res of a longstanding relationship. Going to keep this in mind.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorns Ficlet: A Simple Question
Date: 2013-09-22 05:42 pm (UTC)Re: Kingdoms and Thorns Ficlet: A Simple Question
Date: 2013-09-22 07:21 pm (UTC)Re: Kingdoms and Thorns Ficlet: A Simple Question
Date: 2013-09-22 07:53 pm (UTC)How many times do I ask for clarification on a given piece or part of the story world?
Re: Kingdoms and Thorns Ficlet: A Simple Question
Date: 2013-09-23 12:10 am (UTC)Re: Kingdoms and Thorns Ficlet: A Simple Question
Date: 2013-09-23 12:42 am (UTC)Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: The Nameless Below [1/2]
Date: 2013-09-17 02:24 am (UTC)Marc took his time processing the different events of the day, the continual upending of his understanding of the world. He filled out reports and watched Jarod quietly intercept Cate around midafternoon to ask a quiet question, doubtless on the same topic troubling Marc.
Marc never liked to pry too deeply into Catherine Elena April's knowledge of all things related to special-type humans. It went deeper than that of Jarod, a born cyberpath, or even the reserved Ilsa Killinger who headed up the Special Unit. Cate's knowledge could bring quicksilver agony into her eyes that flashed back out again with that brilliant smile that could knock anyone for a loop. Cate's knowledge showed like shivers of iceberg where she kept kicking the bulk back under the water.
Finally, he found this new revelation—more than one power, more than one ability—too disconcerting to keep inside him and, restless, gathered up his stack of reports to slide into Cate's hand for her to enter into their computer system.
"You could have said something," he said softly.
She paused, chin slowly tucking inward, questions pinpricks in her eyes. She took the stack and set it down on her desk, never losing his gaze. Her hazel eyes unfocused as she withdrew into her mind, then burned clearly into him again with a startling suddenness. That soft hitch in breath he always watched for, some sign she was letting down some of her infinite layers upon layers of barriers. "You never asked," she said simply.
As if this was simple. Perhaps that is what really bothered him: that laws and devastating histories and the foundations of science and humanity itself was kept from the average person and that was simple to her, the world she had always known. Perhaps it was his idea that trust was built on common understanding and her idea that common understanding could only be gained after trust.
He wanted to lean forward, press the point, but made himself hold steady and keep this neutral as he stated the obvious she had missed. "I didn't know to."
Cate's seemed to chew over that, nodding thoughtfully as she lifted the papers and files with one hand and settled into her chair. She gestured toward the counter beside her desk, a clear invitation, and he surprised himself by actually leaning against it, arms crossed, to wait for her answer.
Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: The Nameless Below [2/2]
Date: 2013-09-17 02:24 am (UTC)She flipped open the first report without looking at him, lips mouthing the words before they tasted right enough to say, then, “That answer goes both ways.” She said it simply, neutrally, clearly trying to keep this from becoming an argument. She glanced up at him, but kept typing.
You never asked. I never answered. Neither of us ever thought about the question because this is my world, this is your world. We never knew any different.
He looked away, jaw tight. We never knew any different. She was right to say it, but it bothered him all the same because they should have known differently. They should have known they were playing by different rule books.
Trust was built on common understanding, so Marc did lean in closer this time and find her gaze again. “Your other ability?” he asked quietly, determined to bridge this gap, put it behind them.
Cate finished typing in the first report and set it aside, then leaned back in her chair, looking up into his eyes and clearly liking what she read there, she gave him that brilliant smile she often did when he least expected it. This wasn't the smile she gave everyone; it was the one she aimed at him when he had somehow been exactly what she had hoped.
“Blending," she said. "You’ve seen me do it, use someone else’s power with my own.”
She gestured in that fluid wrist motion that accompanied most forms of telekinesis. He recognized it from all the times she had been angry and taking it out on a punching bag or her coffee cup or the computer with powers and abilities he knew were not hers but hadn't asked about.
She leaned forward teasingly and called him on it. “You never asked.”
“Catherine.” He couldn’t deny the charge, but she had no reason to rub his nose in it.
Cate had never particularly needed a reason. “Was there something else?” She grinned at him.
“This isn’t simple,” he denied, exasperated, not comprehending her, how she could want it to be simple and simply... accepted.
She sobered instantly, that nameless agony flashing through greenish hazel eyes. “I know.”
A/N: So typos. Can't edit the ones in part 1.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: The Nameless Below [2/2]
Date: 2013-09-17 03:01 am (UTC)It managed to give his thoughts and also show depth to her as well.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: The Nameless Below [2/2]
Date: 2013-09-17 03:13 am (UTC)It's often easier to delve into something new from the perspective of the one it's new to. Often. For me, it often isn't, but I'm glad you tilted my muse's axis on this one because I seriously like this side better.
As a writer, I saw all that under the surface from Cate's perspective and because she's a telepath, I captured more information by writing it from her first. But the picture came so much more into focus from his. :plunks chin on hands: An accidental, but delightful exercise. Thanks.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: The Nameless Below [2/2]
Date: 2013-09-17 03:44 am (UTC)I think I tend toward putting it in the perspective of the new person. I have been told before that while I know all that's behind the story, the characters and the world, that I share too little of it, so I leave people filling in the blanks, and then they lose track of the story because it's not how they imagined it. So I try and find some angle that gives the explanation, and if there is an outsider who needs it, I jump at the chance for that.
I'm glad this one worked and came together for you and that it was... worth tilting because I said something.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Element of Uncertainty [2/2]
Date: 2013-09-17 06:41 am (UTC)I have to say that this might be my favorite world of yours as a reader. You know why? You're not afraid to delve into it headlong and take as long as you need to make sense of it. Sure, it's other-worldly, but it's an orderly yet gripping world. As an author you seem to know it with this finesse and intimacy and as a reader, I appreciate that so much.
I got it about the immunity, by the way.
Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Element of Uncertainty [2/2]
Date: 2013-09-17 02:47 pm (UTC)Kingdoms and Thorn and Vardin are the two worlds I've carried in my head since childhood, and K&T definitely benefited from my initial push to learn how to get those stories on paper: Crossing the Barrier, Gone Hunting, Portrait of a Butterfly. And the questions. I had hoped
Thank you for all your lovely comments. And I'm glad to know I wasn't too spare with the immunity thing, though I'll definitely make it a wee clearer when I finalize this one.