comment_fic 1054 - 1058: Shane, Marvel movies, Leverage, Despciable Me, original
Title: pacifism
Fandom: Shane
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: post-book, implied violence
Pairings: Joe/Marian
Rating: PG
Wordcount:
Point of view: third
Prompt: any book. any. I am a pacifist / and I will be a pacifist until I die / or someone threatens my mother
When he is eighteen, Bob puts to use the advice Shane had given him about shooting. Father had hurt himself mending the fence and Mother was home alone when Kennon's boys came by. Nothing happened except them threatening her, but that --
Father had raged and refused to leave the house for three days, just in case they came back. And Bob, Bob practiced in the barn, trying to remember every single thing Shane had said.
He could wait for Kennon to strike again, or he could take the fight to Kennon. He knew which Shane would choose, but... they frightened Mother. They frightened Mother, which terrified Father, and Bob can do something about that.
He doesn't tell his parents goodbye.
Title: a leftover rage I cannot undo
Fandom: Marvel movies
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Anne Sexton
Warnings: violence; references to the Winter Soldier’s backstory
Pairings: past Steve/Bucky
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 390
Point of view: third
Prompt: MCU, Steve/Bucky, Bucky wants the whole world to bleed, but for Steve's sake he only aims at HYDRA
What he never says is that he remembers everything. What he doesn't say is that he's remembered before and they wiped him. Over and over and over -- if he was out for longer than 12 hours, he got a wipe. Because he remembered quickly, who the enemy was. He remembered, and he fought, and he got wiped.
All told, he was out of the ice for less than six months. They'd wiped him a lot in the early days, back when they were still 'training' him, trying to kill the man and keep only the reflexes.
For almost a week, they thought they'd succeeded.
Steve finds him sitting on the dirt and watching a training facility burn. Steve talks to him the way they used to talk to feral cats and prisoners they liberated in Europe. Steve tells him they were friends, best friends, and teammates and everything in the world to each other. Steve tells him that his name is James Buchanan Barnes but he preferred Bucky. Steve tells him that it was Hydra, not him.
He remembers everything from when he was awake and scattered flashes of dreams from when he wasn’t. He’s even looked through the data the Black Widow uploaded - he’s not mentioned in it. There was no recoverable footage of the Winter Soldier from the attack on Project Insight or the fight prior to it. What’s left of SHIELD has neither the time nor capabilities for capturing him, should they wish to.
He remembers everything, but it has been a long journey for him, and he is not the man Steve knew. He wants his vengeance, and he wants it bloody and burnt into the face of the earth because he has shaped it and it is his to destroy.
He is not the man Steve remembers; he says it to Steve but once. He says it but once because Steve’s face crumples and he reaches, and his grip is strong and gentle and he whispers, “I love you anyway.”
He wants everything to bleed for what he has survived. He is a ghost and he wants to haunt the world.
For Steve, he limits his wrath to Hydra.
He remembers everything. (He doesn’t think of what will happen when Hydra is bled dry and ground into the dirt, or what he’ll bleed next.)
Title: in another life
Fandom: Leverage
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: references to violence; mostly pre-pilot
Pairings: Eliot/Damien Moreau, Maggie/Nate
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 500
Point of view: third
Prompt: Leverage, any, they're all gender-swapped
Sebastian retires after his fortieth birthday (the one nobody knows is his). It’s still fun but there’s no one he trusts enough at his back anymore. He still keeps up with the old crowd and the chatter, and he finds a nice quiet city in the States and goes back to his roots: theatre. He tries to put aside all of his masks and become - well, that’s the thing, isn’t it?
He barely remembers who Laurence was, that stupid boy. Sebastian is better at just about everything, but sometimes… sometimes, he does miss Laurence so much.
…
Eliot’s favorite thing is when the goons underestimate her. Not only is she a woman, she’s also kinda small. That’s two strikes against her.
She loves it.
See, the thing is, she’s quick and precise, and she smirks as they go down, one after the other. If they’d rushed her all at once, then maybe - but of course they didn’t.
“I love watching you work,” Damien says, leaning against the wall.
Eliot grins at him, wiping blood off her cheek.
…
Parker knows there’s a lot of things he doesn’t know. But there’s also things no one knows better than he does. He likes shiny things, and hard-to-get-to things, and things other people have. He also likes money.
Archie gave him a home all to himself and trained him on safes and lasers and alarms, and when Parker was about eighteen (they guessed) Archie said, “Well, I’ve taught you all I can.” Parker thinks he might’ve been angry and hurt but he’s not sure, and anyway, Archie had already given him more than anyone else ever had.
It’s been ten years since then and Parker still has a home all to himself, and it’s full of stuff that’s his and also money. Sometimes, he even steals things to prove he can and then puts them back just because he can do that, too.
…
“Oh, Nana would be furious,” Alecia mutters, deftly sidestepping a trap in the code. Nana had told her there was a whole world waiting for girls as good at computers as Alecia, and, yeah, she was right about that. But Alecia is pretty damn sure this is not what Nana meant.
“I got you now,” she tells all of the pretty little bits of information. The CIA ain’t nothing compared to her.
…
When Sam dies, Natalie feels part of her die, too. Mark is heartbroken but he doesn’t know that Sam could’ve been saved, and Jim is hurting for them, Natalie can tell, but he doesn’t know either, and after the funeral, after Sammy is in the ground where she can never hold him again - the pain and the despair begin to harden into something that Natalie Ford hasn’t felt in a long time.
She drinks to hide it, to dampen it, to ignore it.
And then Dubenich uses her son. For the first time in years, Natalie’s rage has a target and she focuses in.
The bastard really should’ve just paid them.
continues here
Title: a sunrise which was to put out all the stars
Fandom: Despicable Me
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: future!fic; the sequel never happened
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 625
Point of view: third
Prompt: Despicable Me; Agnes + everybody; It was the best day ever.
Follows this
Agnes is turning eight tomorrow and every time anybody has asked what she wanted, she's said, "A unicorn." It's what she's said for every single birthday, and she's gotten unicorn shirts and shorts and pants and dresses and shoes and toys and books and posters and movies and five different plushies. She knows everyone is tired of the unicorns, but she loves them so much.
Agnes is turning eight tomorrow and before she goes to sleep, she prays, “Thank you God for Gru and Margo and Edith and Granma Gru and the minions and Dr. Nefario. Please give me a real live unicorn for my birthday. Thank you for listening, God. Love, Agnes.”
Edith mutters, “Always with the unciorns. They’re not real, nimrod.”
Margo says, “That was lovely, Agnes.”
Agnes calls, “Night, Margo and Edith,” wraps her arms around Princess Buttercup the Yellow (because there’s also Princess Buttercup the Blue and Princess Buttercup the Rose), and dreams of unicorns.
.
In the morning, Gru makes unicorn-shaped pancakes and then Agnes opens her presents. The minions each designed a new unicorn figurine for her, and Dr. Nefario created a new kind of bubble where it’ll always take unicorn shape when you blow it and Margo got her a new book and Edith a sketchpad and Granma Gru weekly horseback riding lessons at a barn and then Agnes looks at Gru.
He’s smiling nervously. “My present is outside,” he says, wringing his hands. “Come, see.”
Agnes carefully slips out of her chair, setting everything back in its place, and follows Gru through the kitchen to the backyard.
“It, it was nothing,” Gru says. “If you do not like, is no problem.” He takes a deep breath and steps aside.
There is a unicorn standing in the backyard. With wings. “Oh, my,” Agnes breathes, unable to look away.
“Is just a baby now,” Gru says. A minion comes around the corner and waves at them, but Agnes is focused entirely on the unicorn.
The unicorn is black, with black wings and a black mane and tail and a black horn, and he’s pawing at the grass with one of his front hooves, and just as Agnes goes to step forward, the unicorn sneezes and a ball of fire envelops one of the bushes. The minion pulls out a fire extinguisher to douse the flames.
“He will learn as he grows,” Gru assures her as the unicorn’s head droops.
“You made me a unicorn,” Agnes says, “with wings. That breathes fire.”
“… yes,” Gru says. Fred the minion pats the unicorn’s shoulder. His wings flutter. His tail swishes.
Agnes throws her arms around Gru to give him a big hug and then she carefully approaches the unicorn. “Hi!” she says, holding out her hand for the unicorn to sniff. “I’m Agnes. Do you have a name yet?”
The unicorn nudges her hand and gently lips at it; she laughs because it tickles. “I’ll come up with the best name ever for you, I promise,” she says, petting the unicorn’s ears and shoulder and trying to move as slowly as possible because she doesn’t want to scare him.
She spends the day in the yard with the unicorn.
.
That night, Margo drags her away from the yard. The unicorn apparently has a little house back there, and Fred the minion to take care of him, and Granma Gru’s horseback riding lessons will cover how to care for and feed a horse, which will mostly fit with how to care for and feed a unicorn, and Agnes hugs Margo and Edith and Granma Gru and Dr. Nefiaro and Kyle and every minion she sees and Gru, and after her bath and dinner, Agnes throws herself onto her bed shouting, "Best day EVER!"
Title: Heaven or Hell
PG, 158 words
Prompt: Any fandoms, any, the characters you least expected to see here in Hell
What they don't tell you, when you're scrabbling for a place on the planet and searching for meaning where none exists, is that in the after, you go where you think you deserve to. Hell and Heaven, they're nothing more than names. There's no pearly gates, no lake of fire -- it's all just space in a big fathomless nothing, and what you get is what you believe you're worth. It’s a con, sweetheart. It’s the biggest con of all.
Unfair, too. Because you get it now, don’t you? In your heart of hearts, you always knew you were damned. Well, guess what? Now you are. And those fuckers who always just knew they’d get to go upstairs and walk on these golden streets because they did God’s work in God’s name - that’s where they are.
Don’t worry, though. There’s a plan, see, me and a few others.
There’s a system, sweetheart. And any system can be worked.
Fandom: Shane
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: post-book, implied violence
Pairings: Joe/Marian
Rating: PG
Wordcount:
Point of view: third
Prompt: any book. any. I am a pacifist / and I will be a pacifist until I die / or someone threatens my mother
When he is eighteen, Bob puts to use the advice Shane had given him about shooting. Father had hurt himself mending the fence and Mother was home alone when Kennon's boys came by. Nothing happened except them threatening her, but that --
Father had raged and refused to leave the house for three days, just in case they came back. And Bob, Bob practiced in the barn, trying to remember every single thing Shane had said.
He could wait for Kennon to strike again, or he could take the fight to Kennon. He knew which Shane would choose, but... they frightened Mother. They frightened Mother, which terrified Father, and Bob can do something about that.
He doesn't tell his parents goodbye.
Title: a leftover rage I cannot undo
Fandom: Marvel movies
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Anne Sexton
Warnings: violence; references to the Winter Soldier’s backstory
Pairings: past Steve/Bucky
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 390
Point of view: third
Prompt: MCU, Steve/Bucky, Bucky wants the whole world to bleed, but for Steve's sake he only aims at HYDRA
What he never says is that he remembers everything. What he doesn't say is that he's remembered before and they wiped him. Over and over and over -- if he was out for longer than 12 hours, he got a wipe. Because he remembered quickly, who the enemy was. He remembered, and he fought, and he got wiped.
All told, he was out of the ice for less than six months. They'd wiped him a lot in the early days, back when they were still 'training' him, trying to kill the man and keep only the reflexes.
For almost a week, they thought they'd succeeded.
Steve finds him sitting on the dirt and watching a training facility burn. Steve talks to him the way they used to talk to feral cats and prisoners they liberated in Europe. Steve tells him they were friends, best friends, and teammates and everything in the world to each other. Steve tells him that his name is James Buchanan Barnes but he preferred Bucky. Steve tells him that it was Hydra, not him.
He remembers everything from when he was awake and scattered flashes of dreams from when he wasn’t. He’s even looked through the data the Black Widow uploaded - he’s not mentioned in it. There was no recoverable footage of the Winter Soldier from the attack on Project Insight or the fight prior to it. What’s left of SHIELD has neither the time nor capabilities for capturing him, should they wish to.
He remembers everything, but it has been a long journey for him, and he is not the man Steve knew. He wants his vengeance, and he wants it bloody and burnt into the face of the earth because he has shaped it and it is his to destroy.
He is not the man Steve remembers; he says it to Steve but once. He says it but once because Steve’s face crumples and he reaches, and his grip is strong and gentle and he whispers, “I love you anyway.”
He wants everything to bleed for what he has survived. He is a ghost and he wants to haunt the world.
For Steve, he limits his wrath to Hydra.
He remembers everything. (He doesn’t think of what will happen when Hydra is bled dry and ground into the dirt, or what he’ll bleed next.)
Title: in another life
Fandom: Leverage
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: references to violence; mostly pre-pilot
Pairings: Eliot/Damien Moreau, Maggie/Nate
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 500
Point of view: third
Prompt: Leverage, any, they're all gender-swapped
Sebastian retires after his fortieth birthday (the one nobody knows is his). It’s still fun but there’s no one he trusts enough at his back anymore. He still keeps up with the old crowd and the chatter, and he finds a nice quiet city in the States and goes back to his roots: theatre. He tries to put aside all of his masks and become - well, that’s the thing, isn’t it?
He barely remembers who Laurence was, that stupid boy. Sebastian is better at just about everything, but sometimes… sometimes, he does miss Laurence so much.
…
Eliot’s favorite thing is when the goons underestimate her. Not only is she a woman, she’s also kinda small. That’s two strikes against her.
She loves it.
See, the thing is, she’s quick and precise, and she smirks as they go down, one after the other. If they’d rushed her all at once, then maybe - but of course they didn’t.
“I love watching you work,” Damien says, leaning against the wall.
Eliot grins at him, wiping blood off her cheek.
…
Parker knows there’s a lot of things he doesn’t know. But there’s also things no one knows better than he does. He likes shiny things, and hard-to-get-to things, and things other people have. He also likes money.
Archie gave him a home all to himself and trained him on safes and lasers and alarms, and when Parker was about eighteen (they guessed) Archie said, “Well, I’ve taught you all I can.” Parker thinks he might’ve been angry and hurt but he’s not sure, and anyway, Archie had already given him more than anyone else ever had.
It’s been ten years since then and Parker still has a home all to himself, and it’s full of stuff that’s his and also money. Sometimes, he even steals things to prove he can and then puts them back just because he can do that, too.
…
“Oh, Nana would be furious,” Alecia mutters, deftly sidestepping a trap in the code. Nana had told her there was a whole world waiting for girls as good at computers as Alecia, and, yeah, she was right about that. But Alecia is pretty damn sure this is not what Nana meant.
“I got you now,” she tells all of the pretty little bits of information. The CIA ain’t nothing compared to her.
…
When Sam dies, Natalie feels part of her die, too. Mark is heartbroken but he doesn’t know that Sam could’ve been saved, and Jim is hurting for them, Natalie can tell, but he doesn’t know either, and after the funeral, after Sammy is in the ground where she can never hold him again - the pain and the despair begin to harden into something that Natalie Ford hasn’t felt in a long time.
She drinks to hide it, to dampen it, to ignore it.
And then Dubenich uses her son. For the first time in years, Natalie’s rage has a target and she focuses in.
The bastard really should’ve just paid them.
continues here
Title: a sunrise which was to put out all the stars
Fandom: Despicable Me
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: future!fic; the sequel never happened
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 625
Point of view: third
Prompt: Despicable Me; Agnes + everybody; It was the best day ever.
Follows this
Agnes is turning eight tomorrow and every time anybody has asked what she wanted, she's said, "A unicorn." It's what she's said for every single birthday, and she's gotten unicorn shirts and shorts and pants and dresses and shoes and toys and books and posters and movies and five different plushies. She knows everyone is tired of the unicorns, but she loves them so much.
Agnes is turning eight tomorrow and before she goes to sleep, she prays, “Thank you God for Gru and Margo and Edith and Granma Gru and the minions and Dr. Nefario. Please give me a real live unicorn for my birthday. Thank you for listening, God. Love, Agnes.”
Edith mutters, “Always with the unciorns. They’re not real, nimrod.”
Margo says, “That was lovely, Agnes.”
Agnes calls, “Night, Margo and Edith,” wraps her arms around Princess Buttercup the Yellow (because there’s also Princess Buttercup the Blue and Princess Buttercup the Rose), and dreams of unicorns.
.
In the morning, Gru makes unicorn-shaped pancakes and then Agnes opens her presents. The minions each designed a new unicorn figurine for her, and Dr. Nefario created a new kind of bubble where it’ll always take unicorn shape when you blow it and Margo got her a new book and Edith a sketchpad and Granma Gru weekly horseback riding lessons at a barn and then Agnes looks at Gru.
He’s smiling nervously. “My present is outside,” he says, wringing his hands. “Come, see.”
Agnes carefully slips out of her chair, setting everything back in its place, and follows Gru through the kitchen to the backyard.
“It, it was nothing,” Gru says. “If you do not like, is no problem.” He takes a deep breath and steps aside.
There is a unicorn standing in the backyard. With wings. “Oh, my,” Agnes breathes, unable to look away.
“Is just a baby now,” Gru says. A minion comes around the corner and waves at them, but Agnes is focused entirely on the unicorn.
The unicorn is black, with black wings and a black mane and tail and a black horn, and he’s pawing at the grass with one of his front hooves, and just as Agnes goes to step forward, the unicorn sneezes and a ball of fire envelops one of the bushes. The minion pulls out a fire extinguisher to douse the flames.
“He will learn as he grows,” Gru assures her as the unicorn’s head droops.
“You made me a unicorn,” Agnes says, “with wings. That breathes fire.”
“… yes,” Gru says. Fred the minion pats the unicorn’s shoulder. His wings flutter. His tail swishes.
Agnes throws her arms around Gru to give him a big hug and then she carefully approaches the unicorn. “Hi!” she says, holding out her hand for the unicorn to sniff. “I’m Agnes. Do you have a name yet?”
The unicorn nudges her hand and gently lips at it; she laughs because it tickles. “I’ll come up with the best name ever for you, I promise,” she says, petting the unicorn’s ears and shoulder and trying to move as slowly as possible because she doesn’t want to scare him.
She spends the day in the yard with the unicorn.
.
That night, Margo drags her away from the yard. The unicorn apparently has a little house back there, and Fred the minion to take care of him, and Granma Gru’s horseback riding lessons will cover how to care for and feed a horse, which will mostly fit with how to care for and feed a unicorn, and Agnes hugs Margo and Edith and Granma Gru and Dr. Nefiaro and Kyle and every minion she sees and Gru, and after her bath and dinner, Agnes throws herself onto her bed shouting, "Best day EVER!"
Title: Heaven or Hell
PG, 158 words
Prompt: Any fandoms, any, the characters you least expected to see here in Hell
What they don't tell you, when you're scrabbling for a place on the planet and searching for meaning where none exists, is that in the after, you go where you think you deserve to. Hell and Heaven, they're nothing more than names. There's no pearly gates, no lake of fire -- it's all just space in a big fathomless nothing, and what you get is what you believe you're worth. It’s a con, sweetheart. It’s the biggest con of all.
Unfair, too. Because you get it now, don’t you? In your heart of hearts, you always knew you were damned. Well, guess what? Now you are. And those fuckers who always just knew they’d get to go upstairs and walk on these golden streets because they did God’s work in God’s name - that’s where they are.
Don’t worry, though. There’s a plan, see, me and a few others.
There’s a system, sweetheart. And any system can be worked.