Fluff, Relationships, and Traditions

Sep. 22nd, 2013 07:54 pm
scribblemyname: (raining story and song)
[personal profile] scribblemyname
This entry is part 52 of 52 in the series 365 Challenge

So characters have habits, ways they interact with certain people and situations, things they do and like to do, stories and histories together. I've known a lot of my characters' for a long time but getting them all into fic is interesting, particularly for the ones I don't know that for.

I've got about five novelettes I want to turn out plus a short story, created out of the 5 Things Meme and then the whole Pieter/Ashen dynamic that originally played in my head before I even wrote that first Ashen drabble (and it is awesome to me, but got sidelined drastically with a deluge of other prompts), but, but, but...

I'm on day 265 of my challenge and story count 157 and I'm still plying angles and there's all those little things above that I'm itching to nibble at. Want to help a girl out?

Particularly of interest to me are things like where does Wesley work (not sure actually), and then relationship things that I haven't gotten to like how Justus always recognizes Shift regardless of her current form or demeanor, friendships, sibling relationships, Ilsa and her husband, etc.

Calling for prompts, as promised:

  1. character(s) and/or canon/fandom
  2. random word, quote, or other prompt

Oh, and I'll try to keep it short and fluffy or sweet. Try is the operative word. :grins:

Prompts

Ficlets

Seven Days

Kingdoms and Thorn

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

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Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Price of Reconciliation

Date: 2013-10-18 12:22 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thecatisacritic.livejournal.com
Poor Whisper not being able to laugh anymore. And her family abandoning her.

I feel bad for Wolf, since his memory is completely gone.

I want to believe she'd still love the man that he was, just as he would have liked her. I was thinking about AU Shift/Kilter and what that would be like (I blame the whole Lovemark thing for starting me down that thought process and a bit of this because I was wondering what Wolf was like in it and if he would have met Whisper and a lot of other things, like how Shift and others might be, too.)

And I do have to ask... would Red be okay with who he was and who he is?

Also thinking... My ideas defy science/logic again, at least in what Recall does (wait... in what Fracture does, too,) but I did have more thoughts on the idea of her interacting with people from K&T, a few lines that were almost impossible to rid my head of, though I should say that an impossible AU crossover is better than thinking about parts of Fracture's life I'd never write about.

Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Price of Reconciliation

Date: 2013-10-18 04:15 pm (UTC)
scribblemyname: (Default)
From: [personal profile] scribblemyname
Well, she laughs, just not freely and unfettered anymore. Her entire emotional self became far more reserved after she lost the Christian. Technically, her father left her mother (for quite good reasons), but unfortunately, her mother got custody and had been the neglectful parent in the first place.

I feel bad for him too, and I haven't really sat down and dealt with the fact that his wipe was so complete specifically because of Storm's instruction to medical. Eventually, I'll have to dig through that mess I suppose. Maybe.

They would have been smitten and head over heels, provided they met. Snippet from Lovemark:

Dreamer sat down at table five on the last day of winter while you waited impatiently trying to appear patient at the counter while I leaned over the table to wipe it for her.

"This isn't real," she said suddenly.

I didn’t pause what I was doing. I kept wiping down the table, tucking the rag away, and flipping open my pad to take down her order. “You dreamed it?” I asked as I scribbled. I knew everybody’s usual, even operatives that had not belonged to my team, that had not waited for the rebellion to escape. Dreamer's was latte with extra cream on the side.

Dreamer started to shake her head, then nodded. “I’m dreaming it.”

My stomach clenched. This wasn’t real. You weren’t real. Nothing I was living was the one world, the one timeline that was real. I put away my pencil and looked at quiet, unassuming Dreamer with her soft ash blonde hair floating around her shoulders, her soft grey eyes apologizing to me. The girl who dreamed reality.

I took a breath, then asked softly, "Couldn't you make this world the real one?"

"No, I couldn't," she said as softly. "You'll have him either way."

There were others then affected by the particular change this timeline contained. "Who won't?" I asked, selfish enough to compare.

Dreamer replied simply, "Quite a few." She hesitated, then went on slowly, "I looked because I wanted to know if Justus was right, when he said there had to be some good out of what happened to him."

My heart felt cold for a moment. I bit out harshly, "What happens to him?"

But she smiled that enigmatic smile at me and I thought of you and what had she done to you, but she answered, "Nothing. Here."

That was the point. She had looked in here because somewhere in the world that was real, you had been hurt and here you hadn't. I looked back at you and you seemed to catch my discomfort. Concern flitted into your eyes.

Dreamer's hand brushed mine. "Don't worry. I'll keep dreaming," she whispered.

You were mine either way, she said, but you didn't seem like mine at all.


I guess I should've said excerpt!

Truthfully, no. He would not be able to reconcile the two sides of himself without a LOT of work and probably years and therapy. Justus named it right when he said "Forgetfulness is its own absolution." He never reached out to tell Red Wolf about who had been, even after they both realized Justus could, more as a mercy than anything else.

I like your ideas. It's more an alternate science. In this world, this is how things work. And I know I want to read more, which is why I bounced this back.

Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Price of Reconciliation

Date: 2013-10-18 06:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thecatisacritic.livejournal.com
So now there needs to be a part where someone gets Whisper to laugh freely like she used to... one of her kids, probably.

Does she ever meet up with her father again?

Would it anger him, knowing what Storm did?

Hmm. It's a bit sad knowing that Lovemark is just a dreamed reality. That means none of it is real. :(

I like the idea of seeing them as they might have been not as operatives, and I suppose it wouldn't be real no matter what, but it's still a bit... sad.

Ouch. Poor Wolf. I guess I don't know enough of who he was before, but I was hoping since he was still a good guy that he'd be able to. He's probably not the best candidate for what Recall can do, then, either.

I did write down the dialogue that was bugging me, and I did some more mental percolating with Recall's side of it.

Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Price of Reconciliation

Date: 2013-10-18 06:39 pm (UTC)
scribblemyname: (Default)
From: [personal profile] scribblemyname
She does meet up with her dad.

I have no idea. Depends, probably, on how he found out.

I might exclude the scene, I might not, but since the whole thing was AU anyway, I needed to make it canon and one of the weird factoids of Dreamer's ability is that it IS real—but only WHILE she's dreaming it.

That bit is interesting to me because while Whisper and Wolf would make a good nonoperative couple, I can't see them meeting each other if she were an operative and he were not, so it would require a more complete AU.

He is still a good guy, but... :ponders this: His differences were more fundamental. Justus' behavior changed radically to put it mildly; Wolf got to literally live a whole new life. His personality is different, his thinking is different, his moral choices are different, his world is wholly different. It's not so much knowing as being unable to turn two different people into one. The underlying person is the same, but not in a way that would be easy for him to work with.

That's half the beauty of fanfic though. You can explore the questions. And if Recall doesn't bring it back in a way that makes it all HIS, if it's just piecemeal memory, then it might be fine.

Care to share?

Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Price of Reconciliation

Date: 2013-10-18 07:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thecatisacritic.livejournal.com
I think I want to see where she does meet up with her dad.

It would be interesting to see how that played out, though painful, too.

It's hard to know out of context, but it would be hard for anyone who knew about the dreaming to cope with knowing it was only real while she dreamt it.

That would be an issue. I don't know how they'd meet, either, but they need to meet because they need each other. Though I suppose... She'd be happy if her first love lived, and the other Wolf might not need her the same way.

Yeah, that would be very difficult to come to terms with. Poor Wolf.

It might work in just pieces. She can do that. It's what she does with Fracture.

Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Price of Reconciliation

Date: 2013-10-18 07:51 pm (UTC)
scribblemyname: (Default)
From: [personal profile] scribblemyname
Adds interesting prompts to list.

It depends. Some mind a lot and some don't mind at all because if Dreamer chooses not wake up, that's the reality. It's not a dream in the "it was all a dream" sense; it's a dream in the "let's shift reality for the time being." So I might omit the scene or I might not, but I needed to know how it could/would work to make myself happy writing what is little more than a novel's worth of glorified fanfic of my own work. :le sigh:

I think he's going to do well overall with reconciling with his family. He doesn't have the weight on his conscience that Justus' does.

Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Price of Reconciliation

Date: 2013-10-18 08:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thecatisacritic.livejournal.com
Hmm.

One of the first things I did after writing Nickel and Dime was write a crossover with a tv show I used to watch. I also plotted crossovers with my own stuff. It was fun, though most of them haven't materialized to more than a few scenes. In my mind, though, most of my characters meet and are good friends with each other despite their supposedly separate worlds.

I figured eventually I might throw them in as bonus stories in the books or something, so I was okay with writing them.

That's good, though. Wolf could use his family, though they might have a hard time at first, knowing how different he is.

Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Shattered by Night [1/2]

Date: 2013-10-23 06:08 pm (UTC)
scribblemyname: (feeling thoughty)
From: [personal profile] scribblemyname
Whisper kept one hand on Wolf to anchor herself as she looked around the jet, considering. Maker was holding onto Wolf, making sure they didn't lose him; silvery grey dimensional matter slid in and out of reality on Wolf.

Storm leaned down into the hold from the small galley between hold and cockpit. "You figured out where we're taking him?" he asked dryly. In Wolf's absence, Storm would be team leader.

It almost startled Whisper into shattering something—she was too tense, holding too much air around them taut—when she realized he was treating her as second where he was third. She looked in his dark, determined eyes and knew they were both committed. Wolf had to make it.

Her mind flitted through possibilities, picking them up and discarding them with the rapidity of necessity. She found one and hesitated to let it go. She nodded sharply and gave him the coordinates quietly.

Storm looked at her oddly.

"Let me go in first," she said, sotto voice. She held a little more tightly to Wolf, then let him go and slid forward into the cockpit behind Storm. It was time for her to lead.



A dark, quiet neighborhood appeared out of the night. Storm's jaw was tight as he landed the jet in a field barely big enough to contain. Maker's dimension shimmered around them, cushioning the landing and acting as the silencer on a gun.

Whisper inhaled gently. She could hear the crickets singing outside in the tall grass. She unbuckled and headed down the ramp.

She had always been a tracer. Almost before she had heard of the courses, she threw herself headlong into learning how to control and manipulate computers, security systems, surveillance, networks, and government databases. She had known for years now what had become of her family, her parents, her illegitimate sister; there had simply been nothing she could really do with that knowledge. Until now.

Storm shadowed her out of the jet. He would soon be needed elsewhere to help head up this rebellion she had ordered into existence, but for right now, he could walk with her down the streets of what could have been her childhood and wait down on the walk as she stepped up to a homey door and knocked lightly.

It was late, but there was light in the window. Her father had been a military man before she was born. He had always kept long hours, early and late.

Harold "Harry" Lewis. He was good people, as they said in the business. Always had been.

Had it been anyone less patient than Whisper, she would have knocked again, but it wasn't, so she waited quietly in the shadow of the eave over the front porch, pressure taut between her open hands, with only a whisper to warn of how deadly she could be.

The door creaked open and there was Harry framed in the doorway, looking exactly the way she'd always remembered him, perhaps a little more tired, a little greyer around the edges. His eyes narrowed slightly in disbelieving recognition. "Sierra?"

"Hi, Daddy," she said softly, almost a whisper but not. "I need your help."



Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Shattered by Night [2/2]

Date: 2013-10-23 06:08 pm (UTC)
scribblemyname: (dangerous)
From: [personal profile] scribblemyname
Storm helped her settle Red Wolf on the couch, looked at her with all the intense affection in his gaze as if she had really been his sister, then left with Maker. Whisper settled down in a chair Harry had put by the couch and traced one hand over his cheek.

"Your husband?" he asked in that soft, rough voice of his.

She turned, keeping contact with Wolf, but accepting the cup of hot spice tea he handed her. Her ability to speak openly was rusty at best. "Common law," she finally managed. If the administration had ever found out, both of them would have been dead. Her eyes flicked up to meet her father's gaze.

He sat down beside the fire in a shabby, but comfortable old chair. "You could have come sooner," he said quietly, pained.

Her mother had been a negligent alcoholic, but somehow she had managed to get custody and take away his right to see her when the two divorced. But she was too negligent. Nobody had even known when one day, her daughter Sierra Lewis simply disappeared.

Whisper knew because she had been that daughter. She shook her head sadly and answered, "I couldn't." She sipped her tea and turned back to Wolf. "I wish I could have," she murmured, low enough that she didn't know if her father would hear.

She was here now. Wolf was alive. For a brief moment, that was all that mattered.

#

Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Shattered by Night [2/2]

Date: 2013-10-23 06:24 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thecatisacritic.livejournal.com
Her father helped her keep Wolf safe. That's so... awesome. I'm not sure why, since the circumstances were terrible, but he was there for her when she needed him.

That's good.

I'm glad he could help her, that she could finally have her father back again when she needed him.

Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Shattered by Night [2/2]

Date: 2013-10-25 03:54 am (UTC)
scribblemyname: (Default)
From: [personal profile] scribblemyname
I really liked how this one turned out, I admit. Yeah, the circumstances were terrible, but he was there and she knew she could count on him.

Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Price of Reconciliation

Date: 2013-10-18 06:42 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thecatisacritic.livejournal.com
A/N: So this doesn't go into a lot of the science, since Recall doesn't do science, as she says, and there is some dialogue that didn't come into this where she offers to learn who he is first and then only give him certain memories, but that didn't fit in this. Still, she can pick and choose memories to give, so... she would. A part of me has this thought about her only getting one good memory for Wolf, but he might not even be the one in this scene. He doesn't have to be.



“You weren’t on a team.”

“Never had a team. Just a partner,” the woman said, closing her eyes. “Gone now.”

“Can you actually do this?”

She uncurled herself from the reports and rolled her shoulders, then her neck. “I don’t know. Science was never something I understood or wanted to understand. Vules didn’t make himself very welcome when he was testing me, so when he explained things, I didn’t like to listen. He said something once about Fracture actually rearranging his brain when he fractured—he rewrites his genetics to be whatever he needs to be and genetics supposedly includes the mind—so that was why he never remembered anything when he was done, but if he rewrote his brain, his memories shouldn’t be there like a normal person’s. Then again, taking memories from Fracture always hurt a lot more than it did with others—my theory being that his were ones I had to work harder for because they’re not where they’re expected to be. Looking over what they used to do this stuff to you, I’m thinking—”

“That you can’t?”

“I might get something. I might get nothing. The only thing I can guarantee is that it will hurt.”

“Hurt?”

“Mostly me, though I’m told it stings sometimes when I give people memories.” She let out a breath. “I can do this if you want me to try. If you don’t, I’ll go. I’ll find something else to do.”

“How do we know you can do any of what you’ve said you can do?”

“I can prove it if you want, but that still means me having access to someone’s memories.”

“You won’t like what you see.”

“I have the memories of a man who stopped a nuclear holocaust on his own in my head. I have murderers, rapists, and terrorists in there. There isn’t much I haven’t seen and processed already. I’m not afraid of what I might see—and I’m already insane, so that’s not an issue, either.”

“Child soldiers?”

She met his gaze, neither confirming or denying anything, and in the end, he held out his hand. “Here.”

Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Price of Reconciliation

Date: 2013-10-18 06:54 pm (UTC)
scribblemyname: (Default)
From: [personal profile] scribblemyname
Ooooh. Considering the AU nature of fanfic, you mind if I speculate Recall-ward in my replyfic?

Re: Kingdoms and Thorn Ficlet: Price of Reconciliation

Date: 2013-10-18 07:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thecatisacritic.livejournal.com
I admit, I am curious to see what you might want to speculate on. Sure.

Kingdoms and Thorn/Fracture & Recall Crossover: It's a Start Anyway

Date: 2013-10-18 07:33 pm (UTC)
scribblemyname: (rogue mind)
From: [personal profile] scribblemyname
A/N: It made me think about where would he put his memories? what kind of memories? There are always general this-is-that memory (learning) and information storage (not episodic), such as faces, presidents, etc. But this made me think of what about the deja vu moments, where episodic memory gets concreted into something else? What if you could piece together all the muscle memory and nonepisodes and actually get a memory minus certain details like words? Just thoughts. Anyway, this doesn't quite get that far... At all.



Sting was a rather nice way of putting it. Wolf gritted his teeth as he felt the energy transfer of what she was doing and wondered if she had a clue how much it messed with his own sense of the energy streams underlying the use of most special abilities. He doubted he could knot up or suppress this one. Her ability seemed to work by tying it down herself, bringing his mental energy flow and hers into such tight proximity that she could read what she needed.

For the first time since Whisper told him he was a wolf, he understood why that was significant. He'd never had that sort of power used on him before, and he couldn't say he liked it.

And there was a memory he knew coming back at him.

"Qiqeret."

Hot, feverish, agonizing pain screaming through his body as he coughed. Damp air, cement floor, and that soft touch on his skin as a woman held his chin and looked into his eyes with her own warm brown ones and said, low enough to be a whisper, "You will live."

Recall pulled away, frowning.

It was also rather nice to say that there were obvious holes in his history. That wasn't really the case. There was nothing, and then there was Red, who became Red Wolf and Alpha. He didn't even remember processing, only its aftermath—something apparently rare.

"So it worked," he said cautiously, referring to the memory transfer more than whether she had found what she was looking for.

She waited. It wasn't like she needed the proof she could do it.

He considered what he knew, what resources he had, whether he wanted to even try this, but it hadn't overwhelmed him. It was living the memory, but it wasn't quite what he expected. It came attached with what he knew and felt then rather than now. He nodded shortly. "Did you get anything?"

"I'll need to process it before I can share much," she said.

She did look like she'd been affected. He'd seen plenty of varying reactions to the way using an ability could drain somebody.

"Shall I see you in a day or two?" he asked quietly.

"I should have something for you by then."

Red Wolf breathed in, deliberately smoothing it out from his automatic reaction. She had gotten something. "Where does your friend keep his memories?"

Her grimace turned to a bittersweet smile. "Like I said, I'm not into the science."

#

Re: Kingdoms and Thorn/Fracture & Recall Crossover: It's a Start Anyway

Date: 2013-10-18 08:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thecatisacritic.livejournal.com
I had some thoughts on the memory thing myself, because I thought about her being about to pull up things from places other than episodic memory, that she could draw off muscle memory and other things as well, that she manages to pull from multiple sources when she does it, but I think we were having similar thoughts regarding Recall.

I like the glimpse into what Wolf can do, how he does it, and his reaction to what she does and what he feels as she does it.

And the last bit...

I love it.

She's where he keeps his memories, but that's not something she'd admit.

Re: Kingdoms and Thorn/Fracture & Recall Crossover: It's a Start Anyway

Date: 2013-10-18 08:29 pm (UTC)
scribblemyname: (Default)
From: [personal profile] scribblemyname
Of course she wouldn't! :grins:

When possible, I do like to step into how their abilities feel to them. It's a lot different than just, well, normal.

Re: Kingdoms and Thorn/Fracture & Recall Crossover: It's a Start Anyway

Date: 2013-10-18 08:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thecatisacritic.livejournal.com
:)

It's a good way of knowing who they are and how it is for them.

With Recall, that first scene where she likens it to lots of knives stabbing her, it was easier to understand how she felt when she used her ability, but Fracture was harder to get because he is different, because he has varying reactions to what he's doing and how much of it he understands, but there's pain involved in what he does, too, and so... yeah, I do my usual shying away from it. :/

Kingdoms and Thorn/Fracture & Recall Crossover: Selfish or Selfless

Date: 2013-10-18 09:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thecatisacritic.livejournal.com
A/N: So Recall threw me for a huge loop on this one. I didn't intend to go this way, but she got... um, noble? I guess that's what she did. Maybe. I'm still trying to figure this one out myself.


He could have stopped me, Recall thought, still shaken by the meeting she’d had with the man now known as Red Wolf. She could call him by other names—she knew enough of him to know almost all of them, even without the old memories that she’d tempted him into reclaiming.

She turned onto her side, curling up against herself. She hadn’t processed this much in a long time, having most of Fracture’s memories except the most recent ones, and she hadn’t hurt this much, either. She almost welcomed this kind of pain, though. She would rather be lost in someone else’s memories than her own than remember what was missing, than acknowledge the gaping hole that would never be filled.

She should have found someone else, someone besides Wolf. He was dangerous in more than one sense. He was a former operative—she had known that before she approached him—and that should frighten her, but she had lived with Fracture long enough to be immune to fear, only what she had forgotten was that she was weak. The idea of someone besides Fracture stopping what she could do—she wanted that.

She also had a terrible feeling that she’d break him if she gave him back all of his memories, just like a fracture she’d given too much to in the past. What she had gotten—Wolf was two different men, not like Fracture, not the same.

Did his wife know? Recall hadn't sorted through everything yet, so she had to wonder if he had told Whisper he was going to do this. He might not have—there was a chance that it wouldn’t work at all—and he might not have said anything until he knew that it had. Recall didn’t doubt the man’s devotion to his wife, but she did understand his fears, probably better than most because she could get thoughts and feelings from what she processed. Memories were full of many things, more than people realized, and she had his.

She forced herself up off the bed, crossing to the phone. One way or another, she’d need someone else’s cooperation. She would hate herself a little more for this, but she knew what had to be done. “I need you to back me up when I lie to him.”

“What?”

“He needs to believe that I didn’t get much from him—and that you love him regardless of who he was in the past.” Recall leaned over the desk, fighting the pain. “Please. I made the offer with good intentions, and I know when not to give too much. This is one of those times. When I tell him there is nothing beyond what I give him, help him to accept that. I thought I was helping, but I’m not. I was being selfish.”

“I see.”

The words were quiet, and Recall didn’t miss their significance. “He already knows he likes music. No harm in showing him that, and when I have, I’ll be gone. No more interference. I promise. I just... needed to be sure someone would be there for the fallout.”

The silence was condemning, but she didn’t expect anything else—what she’d done was wrong, even if she thought she was doing right when she made the offer. She went to end the call, losing her grip on the desk and consciousness first.

Kingdoms and Thorn/Fracture & Recall Crossover: The Right Question

Date: 2013-10-20 02:43 am (UTC)
scribblemyname: (abyss: rogue)
From: [personal profile] scribblemyname
Whisper put the phone down and glanced over at her husband, already half-asleep himself on the bed. She wondered briefly how much of what the woman said was from herself and how much overflow from his own uncertainty. Nevertheless, it told her that Recall hadn't finished processing his memories. Whisper would never lie to him.

Gently, she settled on the bed beside him, tracing one finger faintly over his cheek. He didn't move. He rarely did anymore when it was her, just as her own reflexes were beginning to take into account that she trusted him.

"What did you ask her?" she whispered to herself in Alaric. She knew he was going to find out what was possible, but when he left, he hadn't really decided how much he was willing to actually test.

Whisper had long suspected Red Wolf's past was best learned about from the outside in, due to Justus' long silence on the matter, but she wasn't entirely sure how different he had been. Wolf was an alpha, harsh when necessary, and an extremely competent operative who did what needed to be done. The impression she received from the information they were only now beginning to dig into was that as a young man, he'd been a fundamental Christian, good guy next door, and an enthusiastic bluegrass fiddler. Perhaps the difference was as wide as the gulf between her own childhood and what she had become, but it was hardly one worth losing love over.

She flicked a wave of tight pressure over his shoulder.

He tensed instantly, then sat up slowly as he realized it was her that had woken him. "Whisper?" He was keeping the grumpiness out of his voice and it made her smile.

"You're always a grouch at night," she commented softly, thoroughly amused.

He groused but leaned against the backboard and tucked her under his arm. "What'd you need?" he asked somewhat more amiably.

She hummed thoughtfully as she got comfortable, then, "What did you ask her?"

He blinked, then caught on to her topic. "I asked her to prove it," he said slowly.

"Which she did..."

"Which she did." Wolf looked at her carefully, scrutinizing this odd frame of mind. "She got something from before. I'm not sure how much."

"Did you want to see it?" Whisper asked. He hadn't decided and maybe he still hadn't and this was all moot. She craned her neck to meet his gaze better. He could have asked her for his records for years. He had always known she was a tracer. It was only in the last few months that they had walked down that path.

Wolf shrugged. "Some of it," he said softly, tucked his chin against her hair. "I'd like to feel like a brother."

She thought about that, hummed softly under her breath, then traced over his jaw with one hand. "Ask her for that then."

He breathed out a sigh.

She waited a moment, listening until the silence held acceptance, then slipped under the covers and drew him down with her toward sleep.

#
Edited Date: 2013-10-20 02:51 am (UTC)

Re: Kingdoms and Thorn/Fracture & Recall Crossover: The Right Question

Date: 2013-10-20 03:07 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thecatisacritic.livejournal.com
I wasn't really sure how Recall's awkward almost change of heart would go over, but I'm glad it wasn't too terrible.

I like seeing Whisper's reaction to it, the way she chose to support him and all she already knows, her loyalty to him, all of that.

They are an awesome couple because of these quiet moments where they strengthen each other.

I have another part where he does see Recall again, and it would take a bit of tweaking to fit with this, if that's okay.

Kingdoms and Thorn/Fracture & Recall Crossover: Trying to Give Back

Date: 2013-10-20 04:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thecatisacritic.livejournal.com
Okay. :)

A/N: So... Not quite sure about Wolf's dialogue here, and I hope the tweaks make it fit okay even if his comments are a bit... off.



“Have you ever lost the one thing you were ever a part of, the one thing that is so much a part of you that you are... nothing without it?” Recall didn’t look up from her hands. She should know the answer to that question, but she didn’t want to hunt it down in his memories. “I don’t expect forgiveness. I shouldn’t have asked. I just... needed a purpose again, and I thought I’d found it. I thought only of myself, not what it would mean for anyone else.”

“Your offer wasn’t a crime.”

“Doesn’t make the disappointment any less devastating. Haven’t you suffered enough already? Why should I torment you with a promise I can’t fulfill?”

“You didn’t promise anything more than pain, remember?”

“You can stop me. I’d like it if you did, though I don’t deserve favors.”

“No one said it worked that way.”

“Idizo. It should.” She closed her eyes, wrapping her arms around her body. “I am supposed to be stronger than this. I didn’t realize how broken I was. I don’t even know why I keep talking like this. I am supposed to give you back what I got.”

“You made it sound like you didn’t get back anything.”

“Habit. That’s the lie I give Sukut all the time. I got a few pieces. It’s not much. It’s what you already knew, but... it’s yours, so you may as well have it,” she said, holding out her hand. She’d give him a few disconnected memories of learning to play, nothing that could hurt too much or disagreed too sharply with the man he was now, and hope he didn’t realize she’d been lying. She knew now that she’d processed more that the wife wouldn’t lie. She knew that Recall knew more, and it was somewhat of a surprise that she wasn’t with him—though she knew that Whisper trusted her husband’s strength and his judgment. She would let him see what he wanted, what he felt he needed.

“How much did you see?”

“It’s always too much. The memories aren’t mine, after all.” She saw his look, knew that she couldn’t leave it at what she’d already said. “I like your kids. They’re sweethearts—mostly. I admire your wife. She’s a better woman than I am. I envy you your family—and I don’t just mean the ones that live with you. And you played beautifully.”

There. Sharp intake. He was waiting for that. He might not have expected her to get something past the processing—though she supposed that he probably knew she’d gotten something, she’d never been good at hiding it—and she shouldn’t have it according to their science, but she wasn’t like them. She hadn’t been made and controlled. She was an anomaly born from trauma, imprisoned by her body, her mind lost years ago.

“You know all that?”

“I can get lifetimes in seconds, and I was looking for something specific for you, something before the processing. I got a little. It’s yours.”

“Anything about my birth family? About... About me as a brother?”

She’d been prepared to give him only memories about his music, but she could give him a few of those memories, too. “I told you—what little I got is yours.”

He watched her, and she didn’t know that he believed her, but he would have been right not to if he didn’t. She almost wanted to feel a just punishment for all she’d done, though she did not think he would hurt her. She reached for his hand, wanting this done, and she passed as much to him as she dared, unwilling to do more damage than she already had. “There. Now if you will excuse me—bizh.”

She flailed, trying to find something to grab that wasn’t him before she went down. She hadn’t accounted for how much it would take to pass memories to a man like him, and she wasn’t done processing, so going down afterward was only to be expected. Still, she cursed herself for being such an idiot even as she kind of hoped she’d pushed it too far and wouldn’t get back up this time.
Edited Date: 2013-10-20 04:03 am (UTC)

Re: Kingdoms and Thorn/Fracture & Recall Crossover: The Right Question

Date: 2013-10-21 03:35 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thecatisacritic.livejournal.com
A/N: And so this is probably so far from canon I should never have touched it, but I got stuck on Recall's canon story thanks to Fracture, again, and this was bothering me, so I put it on paper and decided to share anyway. Sorry?


Recall wrapped her arms around her legs and looked up, wary. “Are you worried that I’ll tell him the reason you won’t ever forgive him?”

The man’s eyes darkened, and she knew that she could probably use that. She could prod at an old, painful wound, dig in and make it hurt enough to get the backlash she had some insane idea of wanting. She didn’t need to provoke him, not when he hadn’t wanted what he became, not when he hated himself for it, not when he was half-destroyed from the guilt of choosing to survive. She would not hurt him even though she could, easily. She knew too much.

She shook her head. “I won’t. He can’t ever be who he was, but he would still blame himself for it when it isn’t his fault any more than it was yours.”

“I chose it.”

She nodded. “I know a few things about that.”

“Do you?”

She chose not to elaborate. “He had no way of knowing they were coming for him. And he knew he owed you for what you tried to do. One of the last things he thought about before they put him through processing—no, I won’t tell you. I’ll show you.”

He moved to dodge her, but she was faster than he realized, and even his training couldn’t stop her. Yes, her wrist was likely broken, but she’d gotten her hand on him anyway, and that was all she needed. He let go as he assimilated the memory.

Ben tugged on his bonds again, shaking his head as he did. No amount of pulling would get him free, and he had to get free. This was all his fault. They’d been after him, and if Justus hadn’t tried to help him, he’d be free right now. He’d be home with his family. Ben didn’t know how he’d make it up to him, but he swore he would someday. He just had to get free first.

“You didn’t have to do that.”

She moved her wrist against her stomach. “Maybe not. Maybe it won’t do anything, change anything, maybe it’s—”

“Did you get his whole life?”

“You always had the answers. You could have given them to him.”

“And you wonder why I didn’t?”

“I know why you didn’t.”

“So why did you?”

“I didn’t. I gave him a few pieces.”

“Just a few?”

“That’s all I got.”

“You’re lying.”

She almost smiled. “I’d taunt you into doing something about that, but I don’t want to add another scar on your conscience. You don’t need it, and as much as I seem incapable of dealing with my fate on my own, I won’t make it your problem. Go home.”

“You are—”

“I think they could forgive you,” Recall said, knowing that she hadn’t processed enough to assume anything. “And she loves you, so go home.”

Re: Kingdoms and Thorn/Fracture & Recall Crossover: The Right Question

Date: 2013-10-20 03:17 am (UTC)
scribblemyname: (Default)
From: [personal profile] scribblemyname
I wasn't sure how Whisper would feel about it at first; I think she was tempted to feel insulted at being asked to lie, then she realized how easy it was to second guess oneself and have second thoughts with something like someone else's mind. Seriously. So she went for her other natural reaction: intel. Maybe Wolf wasn't hoping for the level of memories that would cause a problem. If she has time to think before acting, she usually does.

I love their quiet moments too. They're good for each other and I love that about them.
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