[Meme/Fic] mini-ficlet random numbers meme
Gacked from askerian
Instructions:
1. Write down the names of 10 characters.
2. Write a fic of fifteen words or more for every prompt, using the characters determined by the numbers. DO NOT read the prompts before you do step 1.
...I feel like making extra work for myself (or indulging in crack, whichever), so I am going crossover-happy. *bright smile*
Characters:
1. Zuko (exiled prince of the Fire Nation; Avatar: The Last Airbender)
2. Sokka (companion of the Avatar; Avatar: The Last Airbender)
3. Mazikeen (Lucifer's lover and war leader of the Lillim; Lucifer)
4. Belial (chief among the seven Satans; Angel Sanctuary)
5. Kurai (princess and dragon master of the Evils; Angel Sanctuary)
6. Nyota Uhura (communications officer on the Enterprise; Star Trek: AOS)
7. Spock (first officer and science officer on the Enterprise; Star Trek: AOS)
8. Morwen (no-nonsense witch; The Enchanted Forest Chronicles)
9. Irrylath (prince of Avaric and former winged vampire; The Darkangel)
10. Kazul (king of the dragons; The Enchanted Forest Chronicles)
-----
Ficlets:
Collective Warnings: implied dubious consent, implied death, and implied dragons eating other sentient beings. Also a lot of crack.
-----
1. First Time, 4 and 6 (Belial and Uhura) [...this worked out surprisingly well, I think] (200 words)
"Mmm. So delicious, to wake another to the pleasures of the flesh. So brave, little star, to take what you want and damn the consequences." A bite, sharp and fierce at her collarbone, then a soft tongue to soothe it.
Nyota moaned. "Again. Please, again. More." She reached into the shadows, groping for the strange, beautiful foreigner she'd met in the park that evening, but strong hands caught her wrists and held her still against the bed.
"So beautiful, little star. But tonight, I feel generous. So I'll warn you: this fruit, once tasted, can never be forgotten. Are you willing to walk with strangeness all your days? Are you willing to bow to none but your own desires? Are you willing to defy the very laws of heaven to see your will be done?" The smoky voice trailed fire over Nyota's skin, pale, pale fingers following in its wake, and all her doubts were smoke and ash and unimportant.
Nyota lunged upward, catching the stranger's lips between her teeth. She bit down, tasted blood. "Yes," she said as she sank back down, the stranger's laughter weaving through the shadowed room. "Yes, and yes, and yes."
-----
2. Angst, 7 (Spock) [this is like shooting fish in a barrel] (150 words)
Over ninety-eight percent of the time, he dealt with the situation adequately. He accepted what had happened and locked the emotions away until he was alone and could safely channel them through ancient rituals of grief and cleansing, or, very occasionally, until he was with Nyota and they sat in silence together, passing their grief and love from skin to skin like an electric current.
But sometimes the color of a sunset sky, or the drape of alien clothes, or the scent of roses, or any of the small, personal tragedies the Enterprise sometimes failed to prevent, slipped through his defenses and stirred the shards of pain to a lacerating storm. Sometimes no discipline could shunt emotion aside.
Spock closed his eyes against the shimmer of heat pounding up from desert stones on a thousandth alien world and tried not to remember home.
-----
3. AU, 1 and 8 (Zuko and Morwen) [I had way too much fun with this one] (300 words)
"You seem like a nice young man, but I'm not looking for apprentices right now, and in any case, you're a fire witch. We don't use anything like the same sort of magic."
Zuko's hair burst into flames, but he counted to ten (then back to one, and then up to ten again), took a deep breath, and snuffed the fire before it could jump to the branch of the apple tree over his shoulder. "I know that," he said. "I'm not stupid. But my father and sister are fire witches too, and they're a lot better at it than I am. They've taken over the kingdom of Veritand and they're planning to conquer all the western foothills of the Mountains of Morning this fall. It's not right. I've been trying and trying to stop them, but I need something they won't expect."
Morwen seemed unimpressed. Zuko clenched his fists (and did not let them catch fire), and nodded politely, if a bit stiffly. "I'm sorry for wasting your time," he said, and turned to leave her garden.
A cat twined around his ankles and Zuko stumbled to a halt, only barely keeping his balance.
"Thank you, Quiz," Morwen said. "Stop jumping to conclusions. I said I wouldn't teach you. I didn't say I wouldn't help you."
Zuko turned, daring to hope--
"There's a group of rebels based out of the Caves of Fire and Night that I think could use your help," Morwen said, and Zuko's heart fell through the bottom of his shoes while the frustrated rage he'd been keeping so closely banked spiraled up and out of his tenuous control. "They're led by a magician who specializes in wind spells--"
Zuko set her garden on fire.
-----
4. Threesome, 3, 6, and 9 (Mazikeen, Uhura, and Irrylath) [aliens make them have sex?] (100 words exactly)
Nyota eyed the demon woman dubiously, wondering what she was hiding under her silver mask. Then she examined the young man with scars down his back like the remnants of wings. He shifted back on the bed, clutching a pillow and muttering what sounded like another woman's name. Useless; they wouldn't get out of here by wishing.
She looked back at the demon. The demon raised her single visible eyebrow as if to say, 'Make me an offer and we'll negotiate from there.'
"He's on the bottom," Nyota said. "Do you want to ride him or sit on his face?"
-----
5. Hurt/Comfort, 5 and 10 (Kurai and Kazul) [dragon and dragon master; what's not to like?] (250 words)
"But why didn't you save us?" Kurai asked, curled up in the crook of Kazul's forearm. "You have to come when I call, but can't you come on your own?"
"Not if we don't know something's wrong," Kazul said. Her long neck bent, and she rested her head beside Kurai. "There are a lot of worlds in the universe, Kurai, and I can't be everywhere at once."
Kurai scrubbed a hand over her eyes. She wouldn't cry. She was strong. She was going to be a warrior, just like Lady Alexiel, and warriors didn't cry.
Still. "Would you have come?"
"Of course," said Kazul. "We swore an oath of friendship to your ancestors, and angels make good eating." She sighed, a long rolling gust of smoky air. "I'm sorry we failed you. If your war goes badly and you need a place to retreat, call me, and I promise my people will bring all the Evils to our home. Not even the angels can follow you there, and you can stay as long as you need to."
"We're going to win," Kurai said firmly. "But thanks."
"You're welcome," Kazul said.
They sat in silence for a time.
"...can I come to your world even if I don't need to retreat?" Kurai asked. "Just to visit?"
Kazul laughed, trickling wisps of smoke from the sides of her mouth. "Of course. But not now -- I think Alexiel is looking for you." She shifted her forearm, pushing Kurai back to her feet. "Go be strong, princess. This time, we'll be watching."
-----
6. Crack, 1 (Zuko) [...don't ask] (50 words)
"An' then I went like this!" Smash. "An' he jumpeted-- jimpet-- jumped back an' said, 'The Dread Pirate Zuko! We meet at lasht!'" Crash. "An' I said--"
Iroh looked down at his teapot in betrayal. Clearly, dried cactus was not the way to go for a new secret ingredient.
-----
7. Horror, 10 (Kazul) [you know, I have always wondered why nobody was bothered by this in canon] (125 words)
Dragons eat wizards. Everybody knows that. Nobody minds; nobody in their right mind likes wizards, not since they started the war. Nobody knows much about wizards either -- like how many there really are, or how to distinguish the remnants of their robes from other scraps of fabric, or identify a former staff in the midst of a pool of char.
Kazul examines the clearing and breathes another gust of flame at the trees for verisimilitude as she mentally adjusts the casualty reports she'll pass on to Morwen and Telemain. It's always good to keep her allies on their toes, and nobody will miss another idiot prince and princess anyway.
She picks her teeth with a cracked shinbone and wonders how long she can keep the war from ending.
-----
8. Baby!fic, 5 and 9 (Kurai and Irrylath) [baby dragons are love] (175 words)
"There were dragons on the moon once, before the air thinned and Oriencor drove them away," the strange girl tells Irrylath. "Aeriel found the old records, and now that she's repairing the air factories, the dragons are willing to try again."
Irrylath peers doubtfully at the golden-green winged lizard curled around the girl's shoulders, and its silver-blue sibling nestled in her arms. These creatures are only a daymonth old, the girl says, and he is wary of anything with sharp teeth that will grow bigger than a lon.
But Aeriel wants them in this world.
"How do I care for them?" Irrylath asks.
"Just love them. They'll do the rest on their own," the girl tells him. "They're not stupid, you know." She notices the wariness he can't quite hide, and laughs. "Don't worry. You'll do fine." And she drops the silver-blue dragon into his arms.
When Sabr returns from the training grounds, she finds her husband drowsing on their bed with a dragon nestled trustingly on either side.
"A gift from Aeriel," he tells her.
Tentatively, Sabr smiles.
-----
9. Dark, 2 and 8 (Sokka and Morwen) [not nearly as dark as I meant it to be. Also, apparently this is part of the same story as the AU prompt with Zuko and Morwen. Don't ask me; I just write the damn things] (350 words)
Morwen stepped back with a sigh. "If it were just Azula's spell, I could undo this, but it's tangled with an older spell someone cast on you years ago, and that one's tied into your life. I can't even shift the spells to someone else without killing you."
Sokka gesticulated wildly with his new purple claws, slicing up several heads of lettuce and chopping a branch off the apple tree. Beside him, Katara blanched. "I-- I didn't mean--" she murmured.
Morwen pinned her with a glare. "I don't care how much you want to protect someone. There are reasons we put limits on our spells. I hope you've learned your lesson, even if it's too late for your brother."
Katara ran from the garden, crying. After a moment, Aang rushed after her, leaving only the squirrel, the winged buffalo, and Toph to comfort Sokka. He slumped to the ground, spiky black fur pressed flat in despair, and moaned low and hoarse in his inhuman throat.
"Stop it," Toph ordered, smacking one of his claws. "I don't care how tangled the magic is. There must be a way to reverse it." She twisted around to glare in Morwen's approximate direction. "You weren't lying when you said you couldn't change him back from being a nightshade. But you're not the only witch in the world. Do you know anyone who could?"
"A fire witch cast the spell. It's possible another fire witch could remove it," Morwen said reluctantly. "Sometimes they can burn through knots without having to unpick them. But Ozai and Azula have all the fire witches within five hundred leagues either working for them or turned to stone statues." She paused.
Sokka perked up and nudged Toph, nearly knocking her off her feet. "What did you just think of?" Toph asked. "And stop doing that, Snoozles! You're a lot bigger than you used to be."
"Well, there is one fire witch who isn't working for Azula and Ozai," Morwen said. "But I doubt Zuko--"
Sokka's roar sent a wave of cats running out of the garden in blind panic.
-----
10. Romance, 4 and 7 (Belial and Spock) [again, apparently a sequel to the previous fic with Uhura and Belial. I guess Belial is playing Uhura's fairy godparent?] (125 words)
"I confess, even after watching my parents, I fail to understand the concept," Spock said.
The peculiarly androgynous human smiled secretively. "You understand. You just aren't putting the pieces together the right way. Devotion. Attention. Unsolved mysteries. The comfort of a compatible mind. Culturally symbolic gestures." A pause. Then he (or she?) laughed. "But why am I using words to explain to a telepath? Look. Do you see that woman across the garden, under the tree?"
Spock looked. "Nyota Uhura," he said. "An exceptional student. We had many engaging and profitable discussions when she took my class in Vulcan phonology last year. This semester she is to be my teaching assistant."
"Really? Good," said the stranger.
Then he grabbed Spock's hand. "Watch her again, and feel."
-----
11. Deathfic, 2 and 3 (Sokka and Mazikeen) [seriously, what is up with all these Avatar crossovers veering into humor? Deathfic is not supposed to be silly!] (450 words)
"This is not the spirit world," Sokka said. He fixed his hands on his hips and stared around at the rocky, reddish wasteland. "Nope. Definitely not. There's a lot more bamboo in the spirit world." And not nearly so many distant screams floating to his ears on the faint, bone-dry wind.
Behind him, someone laughed.
Sokka spun around and nearly gagged. A half-naked woman -- really, he could see her-- her-- well, he could see a lot more than he was supposed to see of anyone besides Suki. But forget that; he could deal with that. What he couldn't deal with was the way half her skull was missing. Not caved in, not bleeding, just gone. And her brains were hanging out, and the whole left side of her face was just raw meat and tendons, and man, Sokka liked meat and he liked pretty women, but pretty women who looked like raw meat was not a good combination, thank you.
"Zherh harh morgh prashes in zhe shpirich vorshld zhan Hei Vhai forgesht, vhoy," the meat-woman said. The pretty side of her face was smiling. The other side... Sokka held up a hand in front of his right eye to block it out. What he couldn't see couldn't make him want to vomit.
"Yeah, okay, fair point," he said. Of course the spirit world was big; that's why people called it the spirit world, not the spirit bamboo stand. He knew that. "But what am I doing here at all? Crossing between the worlds is Aang's gig, not mine."
The meat-woman's smile widened. "Itsch efreevhunsh gigch shoonersh or ratersh, vhoy. Efreevhun diesh." She drew her fingers across her throat.
Sokka gaped. "But I'm not dead!" He couldn't be, could he? He hadn't been fighting or anything; he'd just felt kind of dizzy and his head ached where he'd knocked it on the dojo floor a couple days ago, so he'd lain down for a nap. People didn't die from headaches. And he couldn't die. He had to get up and make dinner like he'd promised Suki he would.
The meat-woman shrugged, her mocking smile shifting to a not totally unsympathetic neutrality. "Itsch harg forrh ush arlh atsh firsh. Vhut ish getsh vhescher."
She was so matter-of-fact that for a second Sokka believed her. But then sanity reasserted itself. "Yeah, maybe, but I'm not dead. Not yet, not for years. I need to get out of here before Suki goes nuts. Do you know somebody who can get me in touch with the Avatar?"
The meat-woman shrugged again. "Hyour fyoonurhurh," she said, and motioned for Sokka to follow her through the blasted red wasteland, toward the sound of distant screams.
-----
...I don't know about you, but I am slightly worried about my brain.
If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)
Instructions:
1. Write down the names of 10 characters.
2. Write a fic of fifteen words or more for every prompt, using the characters determined by the numbers. DO NOT read the prompts before you do step 1.
...I feel like making extra work for myself (or indulging in crack, whichever), so I am going crossover-happy. *bright smile*
Characters:
1. Zuko (exiled prince of the Fire Nation; Avatar: The Last Airbender)
2. Sokka (companion of the Avatar; Avatar: The Last Airbender)
3. Mazikeen (Lucifer's lover and war leader of the Lillim; Lucifer)
4. Belial (chief among the seven Satans; Angel Sanctuary)
5. Kurai (princess and dragon master of the Evils; Angel Sanctuary)
6. Nyota Uhura (communications officer on the Enterprise; Star Trek: AOS)
7. Spock (first officer and science officer on the Enterprise; Star Trek: AOS)
8. Morwen (no-nonsense witch; The Enchanted Forest Chronicles)
9. Irrylath (prince of Avaric and former winged vampire; The Darkangel)
10. Kazul (king of the dragons; The Enchanted Forest Chronicles)
-----
Ficlets:
Collective Warnings: implied dubious consent, implied death, and implied dragons eating other sentient beings. Also a lot of crack.
-----
1. First Time, 4 and 6 (Belial and Uhura) [...this worked out surprisingly well, I think] (200 words)
"Mmm. So delicious, to wake another to the pleasures of the flesh. So brave, little star, to take what you want and damn the consequences." A bite, sharp and fierce at her collarbone, then a soft tongue to soothe it.
Nyota moaned. "Again. Please, again. More." She reached into the shadows, groping for the strange, beautiful foreigner she'd met in the park that evening, but strong hands caught her wrists and held her still against the bed.
"So beautiful, little star. But tonight, I feel generous. So I'll warn you: this fruit, once tasted, can never be forgotten. Are you willing to walk with strangeness all your days? Are you willing to bow to none but your own desires? Are you willing to defy the very laws of heaven to see your will be done?" The smoky voice trailed fire over Nyota's skin, pale, pale fingers following in its wake, and all her doubts were smoke and ash and unimportant.
Nyota lunged upward, catching the stranger's lips between her teeth. She bit down, tasted blood. "Yes," she said as she sank back down, the stranger's laughter weaving through the shadowed room. "Yes, and yes, and yes."
-----
2. Angst, 7 (Spock) [this is like shooting fish in a barrel] (150 words)
Over ninety-eight percent of the time, he dealt with the situation adequately. He accepted what had happened and locked the emotions away until he was alone and could safely channel them through ancient rituals of grief and cleansing, or, very occasionally, until he was with Nyota and they sat in silence together, passing their grief and love from skin to skin like an electric current.
But sometimes the color of a sunset sky, or the drape of alien clothes, or the scent of roses, or any of the small, personal tragedies the Enterprise sometimes failed to prevent, slipped through his defenses and stirred the shards of pain to a lacerating storm. Sometimes no discipline could shunt emotion aside.
Spock closed his eyes against the shimmer of heat pounding up from desert stones on a thousandth alien world and tried not to remember home.
-----
3. AU, 1 and 8 (Zuko and Morwen) [I had way too much fun with this one] (300 words)
"You seem like a nice young man, but I'm not looking for apprentices right now, and in any case, you're a fire witch. We don't use anything like the same sort of magic."
Zuko's hair burst into flames, but he counted to ten (then back to one, and then up to ten again), took a deep breath, and snuffed the fire before it could jump to the branch of the apple tree over his shoulder. "I know that," he said. "I'm not stupid. But my father and sister are fire witches too, and they're a lot better at it than I am. They've taken over the kingdom of Veritand and they're planning to conquer all the western foothills of the Mountains of Morning this fall. It's not right. I've been trying and trying to stop them, but I need something they won't expect."
Morwen seemed unimpressed. Zuko clenched his fists (and did not let them catch fire), and nodded politely, if a bit stiffly. "I'm sorry for wasting your time," he said, and turned to leave her garden.
A cat twined around his ankles and Zuko stumbled to a halt, only barely keeping his balance.
"Thank you, Quiz," Morwen said. "Stop jumping to conclusions. I said I wouldn't teach you. I didn't say I wouldn't help you."
Zuko turned, daring to hope--
"There's a group of rebels based out of the Caves of Fire and Night that I think could use your help," Morwen said, and Zuko's heart fell through the bottom of his shoes while the frustrated rage he'd been keeping so closely banked spiraled up and out of his tenuous control. "They're led by a magician who specializes in wind spells--"
Zuko set her garden on fire.
-----
4. Threesome, 3, 6, and 9 (Mazikeen, Uhura, and Irrylath) [aliens make them have sex?] (100 words exactly)
Nyota eyed the demon woman dubiously, wondering what she was hiding under her silver mask. Then she examined the young man with scars down his back like the remnants of wings. He shifted back on the bed, clutching a pillow and muttering what sounded like another woman's name. Useless; they wouldn't get out of here by wishing.
She looked back at the demon. The demon raised her single visible eyebrow as if to say, 'Make me an offer and we'll negotiate from there.'
"He's on the bottom," Nyota said. "Do you want to ride him or sit on his face?"
-----
5. Hurt/Comfort, 5 and 10 (Kurai and Kazul) [dragon and dragon master; what's not to like?] (250 words)
"But why didn't you save us?" Kurai asked, curled up in the crook of Kazul's forearm. "You have to come when I call, but can't you come on your own?"
"Not if we don't know something's wrong," Kazul said. Her long neck bent, and she rested her head beside Kurai. "There are a lot of worlds in the universe, Kurai, and I can't be everywhere at once."
Kurai scrubbed a hand over her eyes. She wouldn't cry. She was strong. She was going to be a warrior, just like Lady Alexiel, and warriors didn't cry.
Still. "Would you have come?"
"Of course," said Kazul. "We swore an oath of friendship to your ancestors, and angels make good eating." She sighed, a long rolling gust of smoky air. "I'm sorry we failed you. If your war goes badly and you need a place to retreat, call me, and I promise my people will bring all the Evils to our home. Not even the angels can follow you there, and you can stay as long as you need to."
"We're going to win," Kurai said firmly. "But thanks."
"You're welcome," Kazul said.
They sat in silence for a time.
"...can I come to your world even if I don't need to retreat?" Kurai asked. "Just to visit?"
Kazul laughed, trickling wisps of smoke from the sides of her mouth. "Of course. But not now -- I think Alexiel is looking for you." She shifted her forearm, pushing Kurai back to her feet. "Go be strong, princess. This time, we'll be watching."
-----
6. Crack, 1 (Zuko) [...don't ask] (50 words)
"An' then I went like this!" Smash. "An' he jumpeted-- jimpet-- jumped back an' said, 'The Dread Pirate Zuko! We meet at lasht!'" Crash. "An' I said--"
Iroh looked down at his teapot in betrayal. Clearly, dried cactus was not the way to go for a new secret ingredient.
-----
7. Horror, 10 (Kazul) [you know, I have always wondered why nobody was bothered by this in canon] (125 words)
Dragons eat wizards. Everybody knows that. Nobody minds; nobody in their right mind likes wizards, not since they started the war. Nobody knows much about wizards either -- like how many there really are, or how to distinguish the remnants of their robes from other scraps of fabric, or identify a former staff in the midst of a pool of char.
Kazul examines the clearing and breathes another gust of flame at the trees for verisimilitude as she mentally adjusts the casualty reports she'll pass on to Morwen and Telemain. It's always good to keep her allies on their toes, and nobody will miss another idiot prince and princess anyway.
She picks her teeth with a cracked shinbone and wonders how long she can keep the war from ending.
-----
8. Baby!fic, 5 and 9 (Kurai and Irrylath) [baby dragons are love] (175 words)
"There were dragons on the moon once, before the air thinned and Oriencor drove them away," the strange girl tells Irrylath. "Aeriel found the old records, and now that she's repairing the air factories, the dragons are willing to try again."
Irrylath peers doubtfully at the golden-green winged lizard curled around the girl's shoulders, and its silver-blue sibling nestled in her arms. These creatures are only a daymonth old, the girl says, and he is wary of anything with sharp teeth that will grow bigger than a lon.
But Aeriel wants them in this world.
"How do I care for them?" Irrylath asks.
"Just love them. They'll do the rest on their own," the girl tells him. "They're not stupid, you know." She notices the wariness he can't quite hide, and laughs. "Don't worry. You'll do fine." And she drops the silver-blue dragon into his arms.
When Sabr returns from the training grounds, she finds her husband drowsing on their bed with a dragon nestled trustingly on either side.
"A gift from Aeriel," he tells her.
Tentatively, Sabr smiles.
-----
9. Dark, 2 and 8 (Sokka and Morwen) [not nearly as dark as I meant it to be. Also, apparently this is part of the same story as the AU prompt with Zuko and Morwen. Don't ask me; I just write the damn things] (350 words)
Morwen stepped back with a sigh. "If it were just Azula's spell, I could undo this, but it's tangled with an older spell someone cast on you years ago, and that one's tied into your life. I can't even shift the spells to someone else without killing you."
Sokka gesticulated wildly with his new purple claws, slicing up several heads of lettuce and chopping a branch off the apple tree. Beside him, Katara blanched. "I-- I didn't mean--" she murmured.
Morwen pinned her with a glare. "I don't care how much you want to protect someone. There are reasons we put limits on our spells. I hope you've learned your lesson, even if it's too late for your brother."
Katara ran from the garden, crying. After a moment, Aang rushed after her, leaving only the squirrel, the winged buffalo, and Toph to comfort Sokka. He slumped to the ground, spiky black fur pressed flat in despair, and moaned low and hoarse in his inhuman throat.
"Stop it," Toph ordered, smacking one of his claws. "I don't care how tangled the magic is. There must be a way to reverse it." She twisted around to glare in Morwen's approximate direction. "You weren't lying when you said you couldn't change him back from being a nightshade. But you're not the only witch in the world. Do you know anyone who could?"
"A fire witch cast the spell. It's possible another fire witch could remove it," Morwen said reluctantly. "Sometimes they can burn through knots without having to unpick them. But Ozai and Azula have all the fire witches within five hundred leagues either working for them or turned to stone statues." She paused.
Sokka perked up and nudged Toph, nearly knocking her off her feet. "What did you just think of?" Toph asked. "And stop doing that, Snoozles! You're a lot bigger than you used to be."
"Well, there is one fire witch who isn't working for Azula and Ozai," Morwen said. "But I doubt Zuko--"
Sokka's roar sent a wave of cats running out of the garden in blind panic.
-----
10. Romance, 4 and 7 (Belial and Spock) [again, apparently a sequel to the previous fic with Uhura and Belial. I guess Belial is playing Uhura's fairy godparent?] (125 words)
"I confess, even after watching my parents, I fail to understand the concept," Spock said.
The peculiarly androgynous human smiled secretively. "You understand. You just aren't putting the pieces together the right way. Devotion. Attention. Unsolved mysteries. The comfort of a compatible mind. Culturally symbolic gestures." A pause. Then he (or she?) laughed. "But why am I using words to explain to a telepath? Look. Do you see that woman across the garden, under the tree?"
Spock looked. "Nyota Uhura," he said. "An exceptional student. We had many engaging and profitable discussions when she took my class in Vulcan phonology last year. This semester she is to be my teaching assistant."
"Really? Good," said the stranger.
Then he grabbed Spock's hand. "Watch her again, and feel."
-----
11. Deathfic, 2 and 3 (Sokka and Mazikeen) [seriously, what is up with all these Avatar crossovers veering into humor? Deathfic is not supposed to be silly!] (450 words)
"This is not the spirit world," Sokka said. He fixed his hands on his hips and stared around at the rocky, reddish wasteland. "Nope. Definitely not. There's a lot more bamboo in the spirit world." And not nearly so many distant screams floating to his ears on the faint, bone-dry wind.
Behind him, someone laughed.
Sokka spun around and nearly gagged. A half-naked woman -- really, he could see her-- her-- well, he could see a lot more than he was supposed to see of anyone besides Suki. But forget that; he could deal with that. What he couldn't deal with was the way half her skull was missing. Not caved in, not bleeding, just gone. And her brains were hanging out, and the whole left side of her face was just raw meat and tendons, and man, Sokka liked meat and he liked pretty women, but pretty women who looked like raw meat was not a good combination, thank you.
"Zherh harh morgh prashes in zhe shpirich vorshld zhan Hei Vhai forgesht, vhoy," the meat-woman said. The pretty side of her face was smiling. The other side... Sokka held up a hand in front of his right eye to block it out. What he couldn't see couldn't make him want to vomit.
"Yeah, okay, fair point," he said. Of course the spirit world was big; that's why people called it the spirit world, not the spirit bamboo stand. He knew that. "But what am I doing here at all? Crossing between the worlds is Aang's gig, not mine."
The meat-woman's smile widened. "Itsch efreevhunsh gigch shoonersh or ratersh, vhoy. Efreevhun diesh." She drew her fingers across her throat.
Sokka gaped. "But I'm not dead!" He couldn't be, could he? He hadn't been fighting or anything; he'd just felt kind of dizzy and his head ached where he'd knocked it on the dojo floor a couple days ago, so he'd lain down for a nap. People didn't die from headaches. And he couldn't die. He had to get up and make dinner like he'd promised Suki he would.
The meat-woman shrugged, her mocking smile shifting to a not totally unsympathetic neutrality. "Itsch harg forrh ush arlh atsh firsh. Vhut ish getsh vhescher."
She was so matter-of-fact that for a second Sokka believed her. But then sanity reasserted itself. "Yeah, maybe, but I'm not dead. Not yet, not for years. I need to get out of here before Suki goes nuts. Do you know somebody who can get me in touch with the Avatar?"
The meat-woman shrugged again. "Hyour fyoonurhurh," she said, and motioned for Sokka to follow her through the blasted red wasteland, toward the sound of distant screams.
-----
...I don't know about you, but I am slightly worried about my brain.
If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)