Cheer Me Up, Please!

[scribblemyname]

Icon memery. Comment and I will commentfic for you based on your icon. Additional fandom and/or pairing request allowed.

Comments

[pygmymuse.livejournal.com]

Perhaps an icon that's... too easy?

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

Let's see. What can I possibly offer you. Guess it's my old standby favorite.

[lithiumlaughter.livejournal.com]

Aaaaaand go!

...not really sure what you're going to do with it, but hey. Have fun.

Also, you're in my prayers. Take care, doll.

Seeing Red

[scribblemyname]

Story Arc: Broken
Story Title: Seeing Red
Summary: All in a night's work. Highly AU
Warnings: assassination implied

She considers it ironic sometimes: he's the ace of spades, but she's the harbinger of death. At least with Le Diable Blanc, you get a little warning, but with La Femme Fatale...

A touch of silken skin, red lips curving into a smile...

Say your prayers tonight, 'cause the angel of death ain't no better than Diable.

N'Orleans, la belle city, lies open before her. Night has perched upon her throne. Thieves and Assassins have taken the rooftops. The city lies drunk before the Guilds. And La Femme Fatale is on the hunt.

~ o ~

He watches her progress with interest. It has been ages, he thinks, since he has seen her, much less at work for either Guild she belongs to. She's changed. No longer the lanky preteen Diable remembers, she hunts with a feral grace that only comes with Assassin training and a Mercenary father named Wolverine.

La Femme Fatale slips through the night like a melting shadow. He follows her, simply because he can, and because ten years ago when they were still young, still children of the Guilds instead of mutants and Masters, she would have let him.

He watches her slip past the guards of a walled, upper-class home and enter through an upstairs window, and then he sits back on the garden wall to wait. It bothers him in some way he hates to define. Nightshade and Fatale mean more to Diable than he'll ever admit, but this... This is something they do that he cannot.

Just a touch, a stolen breath... Sugah, dream sweet 'cause you'll never wake again.

~ o ~

She feels him watching her; it's a small thing to angle her landing just a shade to the left, a little harder—fist slamming into gut, rolling with the punches, hissing when he yanks her arm too hard—and send them both tumbling off the wall onto the roof. It's rough and gasp and try to breathe and then she's pinned him and he lets her, smirking up beneath those blazing devil eyes.

"Diable," she bites out sharply.

"Fatale." His voice is smooth and steady, ever the charmer. But his gaze is keen. She knows he sees the blood against her cheek. "De mark put up a fight?" he asks, oh so casually.

La Femme Fatale glares at him and steps off. She brushes at the streak of red on her cheek with the back of her bare hand. She flashes a grin, all teeth. "Not much o' one, cher."

A small sound of disgust in the back of his throat.

It irks her. "Y're one t' talk."

He cannot answer that. "Anna—"

A growl starts low in her throat and she cuts him off harshly by plowing her fist toward him, expecting the dodge that keeps him smoothly out of her way. But then he's touching her, one hand stopping her curled knuckles and she flinches away.

"Fatale," he breathes.

Too close. She snatches back her hand and flies into a running leap to the next rooftop. One last glance back. A flash of demon eyes and burning red.

The Book of the Nameless

[scribblemyname]

Author's Note: Inspired by Valle Soleada period, but without a definitive canon to go with it. Rogue is currently powerless. Storm gets injured. I might expand this later.

~ o ~


She feels like soft edges and forgotten vulnerabilities. Sometimes she can't decide if she's supposed to be like that young innocent that died sometime 'round Carol or the jaded, fiery Rogue the team has come to expect. And now, now, staring at her fallen teammate, without any powers to help, she feels like a hollow vessel, nameless, faceless, without even her mutant skin to define who she is supposed to be.

Gambit reaches for her then, gently, without even thinking, just wrapping his arm around her in comfort while Wolverine surveys the damage and informs them Storm is going to be okay.

"'S okay, chére," the Cajun whispers in her ear. "I got y'."

Who's me? she wants to ask.

That night she talks to Sage.

[scribblemyname]

this one's getting long... coming soon.

ish.

[scribblemyname]

Thank you for the prayers!

Re: Seeing Red

[lithiumlaughter.livejournal.com]

Lord a'mighty woman, you do know how to hit all my sweet spots.

You are a master of atmosphere. You need to know this. There's this dark sort of shroud that hangs over the story, much like some darker memories hang over the characters themselves. It's almost funerary, actually, and that's perfectly suited to what you're doing here.

I think the characters are especially amazing. In a few short clips of dialogue, you've created memorable, unique personalities for them that fit this sort of alternate universe but stay true to the source characters. They're laden with baggage we don't see in this short, but can feel. You do this fantastic cat and mouse thing with them, and what makes it work is that you're never quite sure who's the cat and who's the mouse, and as soon as you think you do, it switches. That's awesome for such a short little piece.

The throwaway reference to Wolverine as Anna's father made me smile. Thanks for that. What's going to stick with me though is that final image of 'Fatale' throwing a punch that's caught by 'Diable'. Holy crap. It's a couple sentences, but that's such a potent moment that's well captured.

In short? This was beautiful, wonderful, and thank you.

Re: The Book of the Nameless

[whipsy.livejournal.com]

I like this!

Re: Seeing Red

[whipsy.livejournal.com]

So good! *applauds*

[whipsy.livejournal.com]

=D

Re: The Book of the Nameless

[scribblemyname]

Thank you! :sighs with relief:

Re: Seeing Red

[scribblemyname]

I could kiss you. Every single thing I was going for, you commented on. Makes me want to get Queen of Thieves pulled together. :eyes docket speculatively:

Re: Seeing Red

[scribblemyname]

:hugs: Thank you!

Re: Seeing Red

[lithiumlaughter.livejournal.com]

Heh. That reaction on your part to my little run down just speaks to how good a writer you are. If I can get out of it what you've intended to put in, then you're doing it right. Thanks again for writing it!

*eyes docket along with you, and then looks to hers* Hoooooboy.