Fic: 50 Sentences that Ate Anna's Brain, various fandoms
Title: 50 Sentences that Ate Anna's Brain
Fandom: Avatar, Firefly, Deltora Quest, Harry Potter, Battlestar Gallactica, Leven Thumps
Word Count: ~4000
Mal/River - Firefly
6. bourgeois
a member of the middle class.
a person whose political, economic, and social opinions are believed to be determined mainly by concern for property values and conventional respectability.
a shopkeeper or merchant.
They get hailed over the cortex and River stops talking to the dinosaurs and blinks like she's affronted at the interuption, and she lets Mal take the call and then the job, and he gives her one of those dare-me grins and tells her that damned if they aren't going to spend their lives finagling under the feds' brown little noses and he'll need her help on this one, and she smirks because she's River; she smites destiny and destroys the barrier between classes.
7. cynosure
something that strongly attracts attention by its brilliance, interest, etc.
something serving for guidance or direction.
"Are you even with us today, girl?" Mal demanded roughly, and she smiles at him vaguely, eyes fixed on something he couldn't see (but what else in the gorram verse was new?), and just when he's about to give up and find the local sheirff and kindly borrow his tracking dogs, she lifts a finger and points, "Zoe went that way."
11. milieu
surroundings, esp. of a social or cultural nature
While he sleeps, one hairy arm draped across her (she doesn't have the heart to remove it), she listens to Serenity; everyone listens to Serenity, whether they intend to or not, and Serenity talks back and that's the way it should be.
15. bedizen
to dress or adorn in a showy, gaudy, or tasteless manner.
Mal had to kill the artisan on Athena for big, tough, manly reasons, and while he was off doing that River made dozens of macaroni necklaces with the artisan's kid, and later they sat together with their feet propped up on the controls and crunched their way through them, laughing at the image they made; strings of macaroni dangling from their mouths.
33. coalesce
to grow together or into one body
to unite so as to form one mass, community, etc.
to blend or come together
The first thing she does is go straight to the infirmary without passing Go or stopping to collection $200 (or her underwear) and she throws the bottle against the wall so that the pills rain down like confetti, and she moves to destroy the rest of it when the brand new thing inside her stomach reaches sixteen cells big, and she stops, and she tilts her head, and she listens.
Gauis/Six - Battlestar Gallactica
5. archetype
the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype.
(in Jungian psychology) a collectively inherited unconscious idea, pattern of thought, image, etc., universally present in individual psyches.
He lets his fingers glide over every bare curve, every patch of skin exposed to the sunlight, then he presses a kiss to the center of her stomach and calls her Eve, she lifts an apple to his lips and calls him Adam.
8. obloquy
censure, blame, or abusive language aimed at a person or thing, esp. by numerous persons or by the general public.
discredit, disgrace, or bad repute resulting from public blame, abuse, or denunciation.
They would discover his secret immediately if they really wanted to try; all they had to do was tilt their heads against his chest and his heart would tell them everything, beating out, if-only-you-knew.
22. insipid
without distinctive, interesting, or stimulating qualities; vapid
without sufficient taste to be pleasing, as food or drink; bland
The rations turn to ashes in his mouth and after awhile he stops eating, and the younger cadets elbow each other and whisper knowingly; his head rings with the sound of her laughing, and his throat becomes too dry to swallow.
40. fealty
fidelity to a lord.
the obligation or the engagement to be faithful to a lord, usually sworn to by a vassal.
"If you know something, Gauis, then it's your duty to tell me," says Laura without looking up from her paperwork, and Gauis opens his mouth ("if you had any faith at all, Gauis, you would lie here in the den of serpents and keep your silence," she murmurs against his mouth) and then closes it again and says, "Yes, Lady President."
43. vitiate
to impair the quality of; make faulty; spoil.
to impair or weaken the effectiveness of.
to debase; corrupt; pervert.
to make legally defective or invalid; invalidate
"You're going to ruin me," he says, and can't look her in the eyes as he leaves a trail of kisses over her hip bone, and she laughs at him and then gasps when he puts his mouth between her legs and the blush starts at the hollow of her throat and spreads from there, and her breath is jilted when she replies, "You did that well enough on your own a long time ago."
Yue - Avatar: The Last Airbender
13. dichotomy
division into two parts, kinds, etc.; subdivision into halves or pairs.
division into two mutually exclusive, opposed, or contradictory groups: a dichotomy between thought and action.
Botany. a mode of branching by constant forking, as in some stems, in veins of leaves, etc.
Astronomy. the phase of the moon or of an inferior planet when half of its disk is visible.
She feels the pull of the worlds, of balance, of clarity and ideal beauty; she feels the pull of night and the pull of day, the pull of the tide and the land and the fire pulsing beneath the crust, and worst of all, she feels the pull of life and death and the latter is winning, and when she reels back, Sokka catches her, Iroh's talking, and her eyes are still spinning.
16. didactic
intended for instruction; instructive: didactic poetry.
inclined to teach or lecture others too much: a boring, didactic speaker.
teaching or intending to teach a moral lesson.
She could make a list of all the arguments for the naught in her sleep, could write them upside down in the ice or mirror them on a mirror; she knew them inside out and backwards and she could even image how they would sound buzzing around in her father's mouth, and she goes and has a good time with Sokka anyway, because what's meant to be is boring.
37. jocose
given to or characterized by joking; jesting; humorous; playful
There are a thousand places she could have been, a thousand things a princess should do, and here she is, sitting with Sokka in a cave while Appa slobbers on both of them, making crude shadow figures on the wall.
42. limn
to represent in drawing or painting.
to portray in words; describe.
The gift comes from a village several boatrides to the east, and her father has it placed in the front lobby of the palace, and the first time Yue sees it she stops dead in her tracks, tiny gloved hand reaching for her nanny's, and she looks at the Moon Goddess's sculpted face and says, "I know her."
46. dolorous
full of, expressing, or causing pain or sorrow; grievous; mournful
Her mother cried, her father's shoulders trembled, and Sokka yelled and threw things, but really, Yue didn't mind; she had been dying from the moment she was born.
Lilly - Leven Thumps
1. patrician
a person of noble or high rank; aristocrat.
a person of very good background, education, and refinement.
a member of the original senatorial aristocracy in ancient Rome.
(under the later Roman and Byzantine empires) a title or dignity conferred by the emperor.
a member of a hereditary ruling class in certain medieval German, Swiss, and Italian free cities.
She thinks sycophants are more like lithens than they realize; they let some other grand force guide them, and even now, watching Geth die with Antsel standing over him, they just let things act upon them, and how can they expect him, Geth, the lithen-who-is-now-a-seed, to save the world when he can't do anything by his own power?
2. sycophant
a self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite.
At first she thinks they're rats, swarming up her legs and shrieking in shrill little voices, and she screams because she's just a little girl so very lost and she tries to run, but they're holding her down and she squeezes her eyes shut and starts to cry, and when she feels the soft press of a handerchief against her cheek she opens them again, and through the blur she can make out a face, soft and delicate and white, so very very soft and white and the eyes blink, large and watery and she says, "Lilly," and the cat-like thing says, "That's a pretty name."
12. germane
closely or significantly related; relevant; pertinent
The instant she recognizes him she grabs him and shakes him and then she dares to ask about Winter, and Clover doesn't look away fast enough to hide the apology in his eyes.
18. nugatory
of no real value; trifling; worthless.
of no force or effect; ineffective; futile; vain.
not valid.
Lilly had grown so used to being the most important thing in Winter's life that the sight of them, that golden-eyed Leven Thumps lifting her up and spinning her around so that her hair flashed alabaster and her face shone with delight and pride, dug so deep into Lilly's heart that she almost felt herself fall apart at the seams, and she threw a pout at them for spite's sake.
25. fetid
having an offensive odor; stinking.
Winter claps her hands to her nose ("that is absolutely awful!") and Lilly looks at her, at the delicate arcs of her wrist bones and the way her dark cinnamon hair curled around her ten-year-old face and most at the sheer wonder in her evergreen eyes, and offers her a piece ("welcome to Foo, Winter; the food doesn't taste bad unless you want it to!")
Harry/Luna - Harry Potter
19. fulminate
to explode with a loud noise; detonate.
to issue denunciations or the like (usually fol. by against): The minister fulminated against legalized vice.
to cause to explode.
to issue or pronounce with vehement denunciation, condemnation, or the like.
The memory wakes her, and the smell of gunpowder and magic is stark at the back of her throat and the image of her mother, spread-eagled on the kitchen floor, is burned on the back of her eyelids, and she reaches out, but no, Harry's safe beside her, still alive.
23. onus
a difficult or disagreeable obligation, task, burden, etc.
burden of proof
blame or responsibility
He doesn't tell her that he really might not be coming home this time, and when he leaves he takes the garbage out and puts it on the curb because it's Tuesday; she doesn't tell him that he has to come home this time, and when he leaves she goes to the bathroom and throws up.
39. decree
a formal and authoritative order, esp. one having the force of law: a presidential decree.
Law. a judicial decision or order.
Theology. one of the eternal purposes of God, by which events are foreordained.
The first time Luna Lovegood actually noticed Harry Potter was during the first DA meeting; when he clenched his fists she could see the faint white lines of a scar trailing across the back of his hand, and they looked eerily like words -- Luna took them as a silent order never to ask, so she didn't (but the thought of leaving his side after that seemed like a sin.)
47. bivouac
a military encampment made with tents or improvised shelters, usually without shelter or protection from enemy fire.
the place used for such an encampment.
to rest or assemble in such an area; encamp.
Before he left, Luna had given him her bottlecap necklace, and since she seemed to think it was important he said thanks and kept it; they were three days into the war before he lost it in Godric's Hollow, and now here he sits, his neck bare, and from the crest of the hill they can see the Death Eaters bent over a map of some tiny wizarding village; Harry finishes his butterbeer and pockets the cap.
49. salutary
favorable to or promoting health; healthful.
promoting or conducive to some beneficial purpose; wholesome.
Everyone agrees that it will be good for him (secretly, they all think he can do a lot better) and when Harry kisses Luna it really does feel like flying.
Aang/Katara - Avatar: The Last Airbender
3. propinquity
nearness in place; proximity.
nearness of relation; kinship.
affinity of nature; similarity.
nearness in time.
"Do you think there are any other airbenders out there?" he asks, and she knows he's thinking of how everybody meets him and calls him the last of his kind, of the branch of waterbenders they found in the swamp, and how Air Nomads are, well, nomads and surely not all of them had been at their respective temples when the Fire Nation invaded -- children went to different nations to visit their friends, old grandpas fell asleep at the hot springs, lovers met midair and watched the destruction and looked for a new cloud to live on -- some of them must have escaped and their children had to be out there, and Katara reaches over and laces her fingers with his and lies through her teeth.
28. concatenation
the act of concatenating.
the state of being concatenated; connection, as in a chain.
a series of interconnected or interdependent things or events.
Fire turns water to steam, steam floats to the air until it freezes and falls as rain into the earth before starting the whole thing over again; she thinks about explaining this to Aang, but from the way he gets desperate and sad whenever somebody starts talking about how much they hate firebenders, she thinks he gets it all too well.
30. abnegate
to refuse or deny oneself (some rights, conveniences, etc.); reject; renounce.
to relinquish; give up.
She yells something, she doesn't know what -- probably the usual selfless stuff, "Don't worry about me, go save yourself, I was always meant to die in battle no matter what that fortuneteller said, oh, and tell Sokka that he owes me a half-dozen jerky strips" -- but his eyes -- the last of their kind, the last grey eyes on the planet (Toph's don't count) -- flicker and he says, "I've done it once, I can't do it again; let her go," and surrenders.
32. morbid (Aang/Katara)
suggesting an unhealthy mental state or attitude; unwholesomely gloomy, sensitive, extreme, etc.: a morbid interest in death.
affected by, caused by, causing, or characteristic of disease.
pertaining to diseased parts: morbid anatomy.
gruesome; grisly.
The third day after Ba Seng Se falls, he shakes her awake and moans, "Katara, something's wrong, something's missing, like somebody died," and she replies, "Well, Aang, you kind of died while you were in the Avatar State," and his eyes go wide and then they go empty -- and then he changes, and becomes an Aang who can't fall back on his past lives, an Aang who has to save the world on his own, by his own power (but not really, because she and Sokka and Toph will never leave his side, and maybe she's still naive enough to believe that has its own power.)
50. itinerary
a detailed plan for a journey, esp. a list of places to visit; plan of travel.
a line of travel; route.
an account of a journey; record of travel.
a book describing a route or routes of travel with information helpful to travelers; guidebook for travelers.
They have so much to do before summer's end -- save the world, win back the Earth Kingdom, figure out if Toph's going to stay with them now that Aang's mastered earthbending or if she's going to be advisor to the king, get Sokka some new shoes and some grief counseling, teach Aang firebending, find that recipe she lost -- and when Aang pulls her to him and kisses her like he's lost, she thinks they definitely don't have time for this, and when he does it again like he's in love, he pulls her onto the hospital cot with him and she thinks there will never be enough time for this.
Verity - Deltora Quest
10. laudable
deserving praise; praiseworthy; commendable
She was sure they had written the song with good intention, and she knew her father had sung it with tears in his eyes at her funeral, but towards the latter half of the third century it had become a tavern drinking song; Verity rolled her eyes and went back to haunting Laughing Jack; he, at least, didn't talk about her bosom.
14. antediluvian
of or belonging to the period before the Flood. Gen. 7, 8.
very old, old-fashioned, or out of date; antiquated; primitive: antediluvian ideas.
a person who lived before the Flood.
a very old or old-fashioned person or thing.
There was a time before the Shadow Lord, before Laughing Jack and Bone Point Light going out and before truth bound her; a time when she tried to stay up past curfew and didn't want to comb her hair, a time when eating her vegetables was a chore and she couldn't make her bed fast enough; a time when the sea spoke to her and she breathed when it breathed, and the foam raced to greet her toes and she was happy; hard to believe it, but there was.
20. sanguine
cheerfully optimistic, hopeful, or confident: a sanguine disposition; sanguine expectations.
reddish; ruddy: a sanguine complexion.
(in old physiology) having blood as the predominating humor and consequently being ruddy-faced, cheerful, etc.
bloody; sanguinary.
blood-red; red.
She laughs, and the gulls laugh with her, wheeling around her head; James Gant's face twists, and then the blade is sliding between her ribs with a sick, squelching noise and she sees her father for one brilliant, explosive moment like a storm erupting -- like the sea in all its moods, angry and frustrated and arguing, warm and welcome to jovial, happy, and he stretches out his arms to her and calls her Verity -- and then her blood falls into the ocean and she sees nothing at all.
29. pellucid
allowing the maximum passage of light, as glass; translucent.
clear or limpid.
clear in meaning, expression, or style
She has known since she was twelve that her mouth was her greatest weapon; her tongue as sharp as any sword, her teeth two dozen individual shields, her lips the barracks they called home, and she wields them in the name of truth, and with every word she says James Gant loses a chunk of his soul and recoils into the dark and the desolation of his slave ship, hissing and licking his wounds, and when she kisses him he falls into a thousand, glittering pieces.
38. exhume
to dig (something buried, esp. a dead body) out of the earth; disinter.
to revive or restore after neglect or a period of forgetting; bring to light
She is the Lady Luck now, but she feels small and human again when the boy with the king's eyes and the unforgettable Toran slope to his face and Deltora's Belt breathes, "She was going to marry him and he murdered her," and all of nature respond to his anger; thunder clapped in tune to his heartbeat, lightning struck the spot where Laughing Jack once stood, and revenge tasted like sea salt.
Azula - Avatar: The Last Airbender
4. gustatory
of or pertaining to taste or tasting.
The blow is hard and fast, and she loses balance and her arms and legs catch her on automatic, and she breathes, face so very close to the ground, and when she swipes her tongue over her lip the split stings, but her blood slides down her throat, sticky and warm, and she can feel the fire at the ends of her fingertips like ten separate suns, and she strikes back.
9. sartorial
of or pertaining to tailors or their trade: sartorial workmanship.
of or pertaining to clothing or style or manner of dress: sartorial splendor.
Anatomy. pertaining to the sartorius.
The wedding dress she wears most definitely did not belong to her mother; it had been made for her by some nothing of a girl named Jin who looked a little wistful when she held it up to Azula's naked frame, and the only importance she thinks to give it is how soon can her brother remove it?
21. paragon
a model or pattern of excellence or of a particular excellence.
an unusually large, round pearl.
to compare; parallel.
to be a match for; rival.
He keeps asking, again and again and again, until finally she snaps and says, "The only thing I want to be important; I want my name in every influencial book of this era, I want every courtisan to name their brat after me in some hope it'll inherit part of me, I want my brother's grandchildren to talk about me in hushed whispers," and the Avatar smiles like he's uncovered some deep, hidden part of her; she lifts two fingers and proves him otherwise.
26. mawkish
characterized by sickly sentimentality; weakly emotional; maudlin.
having a mildly sickening flavor; slightly nauseating.
She dug her nails into her thighs and said that yes, Zuko, of course Uncle had been a kind man with such a wonderful sense of humor and wasn't it a pity he tripped down those stairs like that?
48. aspersion
a damaging or derogatory remark or criticism; slander: casting aspersions on a campaign rival.
the act of slandering; vilification; defamation; calumniation; derogation: Such vehement aspersions cannot be ignored.
the act of sprinkling, as in baptism.
Azula had forgotten how cowardly people could be in mobs, only able to speak aloud when they had a dozen other people with them, none of them able to stick to their opinion on their own for longer than a heartbeat, but she had also forgotten how powerful they were, and she only had one mouth to tear them down with, while they had thousands (she could not keep Ba Seng Se for long).
Jasmine - Deltora Quest
31. appurtenance
something subordinate to another, more important thing; adjunct; accessory.
Law. a right, privilege, or improvement belonging to and passing with a principal property.
She stole the seashell from her mother's treasure box, and she had it in her pocket while she watched the Grey Guards crush her mother's chest between their palms and drag her father away, and she kept it and when she was eighteen she put her heart into it and then threw it into the waves, because it never occured to her that Lief might need it more than she did.
34. prolix
extended to great, unnecessary, or tedious length; long and wordy.
(of a person) given to speaking or writing at great or tedious length.
The thing she hated most about Capricons -- besides just about everything about them -- was their tendency to monologue about this, that, and the other thing (death, genocide, slander -- she'd heard enough of it from all of Deltora, thank you); she planted her foot into the center of Mix's chest so that he broke off with a wheeze and she breathed, "What have you done with my daughter?"
36. talisman
a stone, ring, or other object, engraved with figures or characters supposed to possess occult powers and worn as an amulet or charm.
any amulet or charm.
anything whose presence exercises a remarkable or powerful influence on human feelings or actions.
She perches on the windowsill, legs stretched long and nimble across the stone, and she watches her husband thread amongst the people on the palace steps, and she remembers the whisp of a boy, curled helpless in the dirt and she hadn't thought much of him at all until he opened his mouth and started talking about her mother, and then she saved his life and never stopped; here he is, still in the dirt, but he reaches out for the people reaching back for him, because he's gold now too, and his shoulders carry the breadth of a man.
41. apiary
a place in which a colony or colonies of bees are kept, as a stand or shed for beehives or a bee house containing a number of beehives.
She moves her hands and they move with her, sleepy and drowsy like they trust her not to hurt them (she thinks of how raw Lief looked; his skin cracked from friction and his eyes empty and endless and she hates herself for being so very glad it had not been her that had heard the Hive's voice out there in endless death and desert) and when the Queen Bee asks, "Why did you not go with him?" she answers, "He is going to get himself killed" (just like Mother.)
45. encomium
a formal expression of high praise; eulogy
That's why she likes the company of Filli and Kree and the trees and the sky the best -- they were with her when she saved the world, and they don't expect her to be anything but what she is.
Veritas, Hopian, Forta, Fortuna, Fidelis, Honora, Joyeu - Deltora Quest
17. cadaver
a dead body, esp. a human body to be dissected; corpse.
He doesn't think many people know that the sand of Sleeping Dunes were once the bones of a hundred million Torans slaughtered on the spot at the beginning of time, but Doran did, and he took that knowledge with him to the death -- and Veritas plans on telling Forta, one day, but for now he's content to watch her romp and roll over the grassy knoll of Doran's grave.
24. convoke
to call together; summon to meet or assemble.
They never thought their names could do that before; rattle so deep inside their chests and pulse through their blood like fire and scream across their brains until they couldn't hear anything but the words that followed -- help us, we need you, for Doran, for the land! -- and not a one of them will be ashamed to admit that they were aloft in a heartbeat.
27. schism
division or disunion, esp. into mutually opposed parties.
the parties so formed.
There might as well be canyons between their territories; lines drawn in blood and birth and the fact was so far in the past there was no use thinking about it; up until that tiny slip of a boy took Deltora's need and Doran's name and destroyed all barriers, and then they didn't know what to think.
35. lateral
a lateral part or extension, as a branch or shoot.
Mining. a small drift off to the side of a principal one.
Phonetics. a lateral speech sound.
Doran gives a great yell, hands clutching on the spine in front of him as they made a sheer drop off the cliff; Veritas's belly scrapes the surf and then he's shooting straight up, amethyst wings opening and closing in great, enormous thunderclaps, and the dragon laughs at him and his silly ideas of dimensions, and does a barrel roll midair.
44. infinitesimal
indefinitely or exceedingly small; minute: infinitesimal vessels in the circulatory system.
immeasurably small; less than an assignable quantity: to an infinitesimal degree.
of, pertaining to, or involving infinitesimals.
The thing was only a child, looking up at her with giant, frightened eyes, and she almost paused, but then the image of her children, strung up from the lamps like pebbles on a beach, flashed through her mind, and Joyeu belched fire; the child's agonized screams were only noises, after all, nothing important.
Fandom: Avatar, Firefly, Deltora Quest, Harry Potter, Battlestar Gallactica, Leven Thumps
Word Count: ~4000
Mal/River - Firefly
6. bourgeois
a member of the middle class.
a person whose political, economic, and social opinions are believed to be determined mainly by concern for property values and conventional respectability.
a shopkeeper or merchant.
They get hailed over the cortex and River stops talking to the dinosaurs and blinks like she's affronted at the interuption, and she lets Mal take the call and then the job, and he gives her one of those dare-me grins and tells her that damned if they aren't going to spend their lives finagling under the feds' brown little noses and he'll need her help on this one, and she smirks because she's River; she smites destiny and destroys the barrier between classes.
7. cynosure
something that strongly attracts attention by its brilliance, interest, etc.
something serving for guidance or direction.
"Are you even with us today, girl?" Mal demanded roughly, and she smiles at him vaguely, eyes fixed on something he couldn't see (but what else in the gorram verse was new?), and just when he's about to give up and find the local sheirff and kindly borrow his tracking dogs, she lifts a finger and points, "Zoe went that way."
11. milieu
surroundings, esp. of a social or cultural nature
While he sleeps, one hairy arm draped across her (she doesn't have the heart to remove it), she listens to Serenity; everyone listens to Serenity, whether they intend to or not, and Serenity talks back and that's the way it should be.
15. bedizen
to dress or adorn in a showy, gaudy, or tasteless manner.
Mal had to kill the artisan on Athena for big, tough, manly reasons, and while he was off doing that River made dozens of macaroni necklaces with the artisan's kid, and later they sat together with their feet propped up on the controls and crunched their way through them, laughing at the image they made; strings of macaroni dangling from their mouths.
33. coalesce
to grow together or into one body
to unite so as to form one mass, community, etc.
to blend or come together
The first thing she does is go straight to the infirmary without passing Go or stopping to collection $200 (or her underwear) and she throws the bottle against the wall so that the pills rain down like confetti, and she moves to destroy the rest of it when the brand new thing inside her stomach reaches sixteen cells big, and she stops, and she tilts her head, and she listens.
Gauis/Six - Battlestar Gallactica
5. archetype
the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype.
(in Jungian psychology) a collectively inherited unconscious idea, pattern of thought, image, etc., universally present in individual psyches.
He lets his fingers glide over every bare curve, every patch of skin exposed to the sunlight, then he presses a kiss to the center of her stomach and calls her Eve, she lifts an apple to his lips and calls him Adam.
8. obloquy
censure, blame, or abusive language aimed at a person or thing, esp. by numerous persons or by the general public.
discredit, disgrace, or bad repute resulting from public blame, abuse, or denunciation.
They would discover his secret immediately if they really wanted to try; all they had to do was tilt their heads against his chest and his heart would tell them everything, beating out, if-only-you-knew.
22. insipid
without distinctive, interesting, or stimulating qualities; vapid
without sufficient taste to be pleasing, as food or drink; bland
The rations turn to ashes in his mouth and after awhile he stops eating, and the younger cadets elbow each other and whisper knowingly; his head rings with the sound of her laughing, and his throat becomes too dry to swallow.
40. fealty
fidelity to a lord.
the obligation or the engagement to be faithful to a lord, usually sworn to by a vassal.
"If you know something, Gauis, then it's your duty to tell me," says Laura without looking up from her paperwork, and Gauis opens his mouth ("if you had any faith at all, Gauis, you would lie here in the den of serpents and keep your silence," she murmurs against his mouth) and then closes it again and says, "Yes, Lady President."
43. vitiate
to impair the quality of; make faulty; spoil.
to impair or weaken the effectiveness of.
to debase; corrupt; pervert.
to make legally defective or invalid; invalidate
"You're going to ruin me," he says, and can't look her in the eyes as he leaves a trail of kisses over her hip bone, and she laughs at him and then gasps when he puts his mouth between her legs and the blush starts at the hollow of her throat and spreads from there, and her breath is jilted when she replies, "You did that well enough on your own a long time ago."
Yue - Avatar: The Last Airbender
13. dichotomy
division into two parts, kinds, etc.; subdivision into halves or pairs.
division into two mutually exclusive, opposed, or contradictory groups: a dichotomy between thought and action.
Botany. a mode of branching by constant forking, as in some stems, in veins of leaves, etc.
Astronomy. the phase of the moon or of an inferior planet when half of its disk is visible.
She feels the pull of the worlds, of balance, of clarity and ideal beauty; she feels the pull of night and the pull of day, the pull of the tide and the land and the fire pulsing beneath the crust, and worst of all, she feels the pull of life and death and the latter is winning, and when she reels back, Sokka catches her, Iroh's talking, and her eyes are still spinning.
16. didactic
intended for instruction; instructive: didactic poetry.
inclined to teach or lecture others too much: a boring, didactic speaker.
teaching or intending to teach a moral lesson.
She could make a list of all the arguments for the naught in her sleep, could write them upside down in the ice or mirror them on a mirror; she knew them inside out and backwards and she could even image how they would sound buzzing around in her father's mouth, and she goes and has a good time with Sokka anyway, because what's meant to be is boring.
37. jocose
given to or characterized by joking; jesting; humorous; playful
There are a thousand places she could have been, a thousand things a princess should do, and here she is, sitting with Sokka in a cave while Appa slobbers on both of them, making crude shadow figures on the wall.
42. limn
to represent in drawing or painting.
to portray in words; describe.
The gift comes from a village several boatrides to the east, and her father has it placed in the front lobby of the palace, and the first time Yue sees it she stops dead in her tracks, tiny gloved hand reaching for her nanny's, and she looks at the Moon Goddess's sculpted face and says, "I know her."
46. dolorous
full of, expressing, or causing pain or sorrow; grievous; mournful
Her mother cried, her father's shoulders trembled, and Sokka yelled and threw things, but really, Yue didn't mind; she had been dying from the moment she was born.
Lilly - Leven Thumps
1. patrician
a person of noble or high rank; aristocrat.
a person of very good background, education, and refinement.
a member of the original senatorial aristocracy in ancient Rome.
(under the later Roman and Byzantine empires) a title or dignity conferred by the emperor.
a member of a hereditary ruling class in certain medieval German, Swiss, and Italian free cities.
She thinks sycophants are more like lithens than they realize; they let some other grand force guide them, and even now, watching Geth die with Antsel standing over him, they just let things act upon them, and how can they expect him, Geth, the lithen-who-is-now-a-seed, to save the world when he can't do anything by his own power?
2. sycophant
a self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite.
At first she thinks they're rats, swarming up her legs and shrieking in shrill little voices, and she screams because she's just a little girl so very lost and she tries to run, but they're holding her down and she squeezes her eyes shut and starts to cry, and when she feels the soft press of a handerchief against her cheek she opens them again, and through the blur she can make out a face, soft and delicate and white, so very very soft and white and the eyes blink, large and watery and she says, "Lilly," and the cat-like thing says, "That's a pretty name."
12. germane
closely or significantly related; relevant; pertinent
The instant she recognizes him she grabs him and shakes him and then she dares to ask about Winter, and Clover doesn't look away fast enough to hide the apology in his eyes.
18. nugatory
of no real value; trifling; worthless.
of no force or effect; ineffective; futile; vain.
not valid.
Lilly had grown so used to being the most important thing in Winter's life that the sight of them, that golden-eyed Leven Thumps lifting her up and spinning her around so that her hair flashed alabaster and her face shone with delight and pride, dug so deep into Lilly's heart that she almost felt herself fall apart at the seams, and she threw a pout at them for spite's sake.
25. fetid
having an offensive odor; stinking.
Winter claps her hands to her nose ("that is absolutely awful!") and Lilly looks at her, at the delicate arcs of her wrist bones and the way her dark cinnamon hair curled around her ten-year-old face and most at the sheer wonder in her evergreen eyes, and offers her a piece ("welcome to Foo, Winter; the food doesn't taste bad unless you want it to!")
Harry/Luna - Harry Potter
19. fulminate
to explode with a loud noise; detonate.
to issue denunciations or the like (usually fol. by against): The minister fulminated against legalized vice.
to cause to explode.
to issue or pronounce with vehement denunciation, condemnation, or the like.
The memory wakes her, and the smell of gunpowder and magic is stark at the back of her throat and the image of her mother, spread-eagled on the kitchen floor, is burned on the back of her eyelids, and she reaches out, but no, Harry's safe beside her, still alive.
23. onus
a difficult or disagreeable obligation, task, burden, etc.
burden of proof
blame or responsibility
He doesn't tell her that he really might not be coming home this time, and when he leaves he takes the garbage out and puts it on the curb because it's Tuesday; she doesn't tell him that he has to come home this time, and when he leaves she goes to the bathroom and throws up.
39. decree
a formal and authoritative order, esp. one having the force of law: a presidential decree.
Law. a judicial decision or order.
Theology. one of the eternal purposes of God, by which events are foreordained.
The first time Luna Lovegood actually noticed Harry Potter was during the first DA meeting; when he clenched his fists she could see the faint white lines of a scar trailing across the back of his hand, and they looked eerily like words -- Luna took them as a silent order never to ask, so she didn't (but the thought of leaving his side after that seemed like a sin.)
47. bivouac
a military encampment made with tents or improvised shelters, usually without shelter or protection from enemy fire.
the place used for such an encampment.
to rest or assemble in such an area; encamp.
Before he left, Luna had given him her bottlecap necklace, and since she seemed to think it was important he said thanks and kept it; they were three days into the war before he lost it in Godric's Hollow, and now here he sits, his neck bare, and from the crest of the hill they can see the Death Eaters bent over a map of some tiny wizarding village; Harry finishes his butterbeer and pockets the cap.
49. salutary
favorable to or promoting health; healthful.
promoting or conducive to some beneficial purpose; wholesome.
Everyone agrees that it will be good for him (secretly, they all think he can do a lot better) and when Harry kisses Luna it really does feel like flying.
Aang/Katara - Avatar: The Last Airbender
3. propinquity
nearness in place; proximity.
nearness of relation; kinship.
affinity of nature; similarity.
nearness in time.
"Do you think there are any other airbenders out there?" he asks, and she knows he's thinking of how everybody meets him and calls him the last of his kind, of the branch of waterbenders they found in the swamp, and how Air Nomads are, well, nomads and surely not all of them had been at their respective temples when the Fire Nation invaded -- children went to different nations to visit their friends, old grandpas fell asleep at the hot springs, lovers met midair and watched the destruction and looked for a new cloud to live on -- some of them must have escaped and their children had to be out there, and Katara reaches over and laces her fingers with his and lies through her teeth.
28. concatenation
the act of concatenating.
the state of being concatenated; connection, as in a chain.
a series of interconnected or interdependent things or events.
Fire turns water to steam, steam floats to the air until it freezes and falls as rain into the earth before starting the whole thing over again; she thinks about explaining this to Aang, but from the way he gets desperate and sad whenever somebody starts talking about how much they hate firebenders, she thinks he gets it all too well.
30. abnegate
to refuse or deny oneself (some rights, conveniences, etc.); reject; renounce.
to relinquish; give up.
She yells something, she doesn't know what -- probably the usual selfless stuff, "Don't worry about me, go save yourself, I was always meant to die in battle no matter what that fortuneteller said, oh, and tell Sokka that he owes me a half-dozen jerky strips" -- but his eyes -- the last of their kind, the last grey eyes on the planet (Toph's don't count) -- flicker and he says, "I've done it once, I can't do it again; let her go," and surrenders.
32. morbid (Aang/Katara)
suggesting an unhealthy mental state or attitude; unwholesomely gloomy, sensitive, extreme, etc.: a morbid interest in death.
affected by, caused by, causing, or characteristic of disease.
pertaining to diseased parts: morbid anatomy.
gruesome; grisly.
The third day after Ba Seng Se falls, he shakes her awake and moans, "Katara, something's wrong, something's missing, like somebody died," and she replies, "Well, Aang, you kind of died while you were in the Avatar State," and his eyes go wide and then they go empty -- and then he changes, and becomes an Aang who can't fall back on his past lives, an Aang who has to save the world on his own, by his own power (but not really, because she and Sokka and Toph will never leave his side, and maybe she's still naive enough to believe that has its own power.)
50. itinerary
a detailed plan for a journey, esp. a list of places to visit; plan of travel.
a line of travel; route.
an account of a journey; record of travel.
a book describing a route or routes of travel with information helpful to travelers; guidebook for travelers.
They have so much to do before summer's end -- save the world, win back the Earth Kingdom, figure out if Toph's going to stay with them now that Aang's mastered earthbending or if she's going to be advisor to the king, get Sokka some new shoes and some grief counseling, teach Aang firebending, find that recipe she lost -- and when Aang pulls her to him and kisses her like he's lost, she thinks they definitely don't have time for this, and when he does it again like he's in love, he pulls her onto the hospital cot with him and she thinks there will never be enough time for this.
Verity - Deltora Quest
10. laudable
deserving praise; praiseworthy; commendable
She was sure they had written the song with good intention, and she knew her father had sung it with tears in his eyes at her funeral, but towards the latter half of the third century it had become a tavern drinking song; Verity rolled her eyes and went back to haunting Laughing Jack; he, at least, didn't talk about her bosom.
14. antediluvian
of or belonging to the period before the Flood. Gen. 7, 8.
very old, old-fashioned, or out of date; antiquated; primitive: antediluvian ideas.
a person who lived before the Flood.
a very old or old-fashioned person or thing.
There was a time before the Shadow Lord, before Laughing Jack and Bone Point Light going out and before truth bound her; a time when she tried to stay up past curfew and didn't want to comb her hair, a time when eating her vegetables was a chore and she couldn't make her bed fast enough; a time when the sea spoke to her and she breathed when it breathed, and the foam raced to greet her toes and she was happy; hard to believe it, but there was.
20. sanguine
cheerfully optimistic, hopeful, or confident: a sanguine disposition; sanguine expectations.
reddish; ruddy: a sanguine complexion.
(in old physiology) having blood as the predominating humor and consequently being ruddy-faced, cheerful, etc.
bloody; sanguinary.
blood-red; red.
She laughs, and the gulls laugh with her, wheeling around her head; James Gant's face twists, and then the blade is sliding between her ribs with a sick, squelching noise and she sees her father for one brilliant, explosive moment like a storm erupting -- like the sea in all its moods, angry and frustrated and arguing, warm and welcome to jovial, happy, and he stretches out his arms to her and calls her Verity -- and then her blood falls into the ocean and she sees nothing at all.
29. pellucid
allowing the maximum passage of light, as glass; translucent.
clear or limpid.
clear in meaning, expression, or style
She has known since she was twelve that her mouth was her greatest weapon; her tongue as sharp as any sword, her teeth two dozen individual shields, her lips the barracks they called home, and she wields them in the name of truth, and with every word she says James Gant loses a chunk of his soul and recoils into the dark and the desolation of his slave ship, hissing and licking his wounds, and when she kisses him he falls into a thousand, glittering pieces.
38. exhume
to dig (something buried, esp. a dead body) out of the earth; disinter.
to revive or restore after neglect or a period of forgetting; bring to light
She is the Lady Luck now, but she feels small and human again when the boy with the king's eyes and the unforgettable Toran slope to his face and Deltora's Belt breathes, "She was going to marry him and he murdered her," and all of nature respond to his anger; thunder clapped in tune to his heartbeat, lightning struck the spot where Laughing Jack once stood, and revenge tasted like sea salt.
Azula - Avatar: The Last Airbender
4. gustatory
of or pertaining to taste or tasting.
The blow is hard and fast, and she loses balance and her arms and legs catch her on automatic, and she breathes, face so very close to the ground, and when she swipes her tongue over her lip the split stings, but her blood slides down her throat, sticky and warm, and she can feel the fire at the ends of her fingertips like ten separate suns, and she strikes back.
9. sartorial
of or pertaining to tailors or their trade: sartorial workmanship.
of or pertaining to clothing or style or manner of dress: sartorial splendor.
Anatomy. pertaining to the sartorius.
The wedding dress she wears most definitely did not belong to her mother; it had been made for her by some nothing of a girl named Jin who looked a little wistful when she held it up to Azula's naked frame, and the only importance she thinks to give it is how soon can her brother remove it?
21. paragon
a model or pattern of excellence or of a particular excellence.
an unusually large, round pearl.
to compare; parallel.
to be a match for; rival.
He keeps asking, again and again and again, until finally she snaps and says, "The only thing I want to be important; I want my name in every influencial book of this era, I want every courtisan to name their brat after me in some hope it'll inherit part of me, I want my brother's grandchildren to talk about me in hushed whispers," and the Avatar smiles like he's uncovered some deep, hidden part of her; she lifts two fingers and proves him otherwise.
26. mawkish
characterized by sickly sentimentality; weakly emotional; maudlin.
having a mildly sickening flavor; slightly nauseating.
She dug her nails into her thighs and said that yes, Zuko, of course Uncle had been a kind man with such a wonderful sense of humor and wasn't it a pity he tripped down those stairs like that?
48. aspersion
a damaging or derogatory remark or criticism; slander: casting aspersions on a campaign rival.
the act of slandering; vilification; defamation; calumniation; derogation: Such vehement aspersions cannot be ignored.
the act of sprinkling, as in baptism.
Azula had forgotten how cowardly people could be in mobs, only able to speak aloud when they had a dozen other people with them, none of them able to stick to their opinion on their own for longer than a heartbeat, but she had also forgotten how powerful they were, and she only had one mouth to tear them down with, while they had thousands (she could not keep Ba Seng Se for long).
Jasmine - Deltora Quest
31. appurtenance
something subordinate to another, more important thing; adjunct; accessory.
Law. a right, privilege, or improvement belonging to and passing with a principal property.
She stole the seashell from her mother's treasure box, and she had it in her pocket while she watched the Grey Guards crush her mother's chest between their palms and drag her father away, and she kept it and when she was eighteen she put her heart into it and then threw it into the waves, because it never occured to her that Lief might need it more than she did.
34. prolix
extended to great, unnecessary, or tedious length; long and wordy.
(of a person) given to speaking or writing at great or tedious length.
The thing she hated most about Capricons -- besides just about everything about them -- was their tendency to monologue about this, that, and the other thing (death, genocide, slander -- she'd heard enough of it from all of Deltora, thank you); she planted her foot into the center of Mix's chest so that he broke off with a wheeze and she breathed, "What have you done with my daughter?"
36. talisman
a stone, ring, or other object, engraved with figures or characters supposed to possess occult powers and worn as an amulet or charm.
any amulet or charm.
anything whose presence exercises a remarkable or powerful influence on human feelings or actions.
She perches on the windowsill, legs stretched long and nimble across the stone, and she watches her husband thread amongst the people on the palace steps, and she remembers the whisp of a boy, curled helpless in the dirt and she hadn't thought much of him at all until he opened his mouth and started talking about her mother, and then she saved his life and never stopped; here he is, still in the dirt, but he reaches out for the people reaching back for him, because he's gold now too, and his shoulders carry the breadth of a man.
41. apiary
a place in which a colony or colonies of bees are kept, as a stand or shed for beehives or a bee house containing a number of beehives.
She moves her hands and they move with her, sleepy and drowsy like they trust her not to hurt them (she thinks of how raw Lief looked; his skin cracked from friction and his eyes empty and endless and she hates herself for being so very glad it had not been her that had heard the Hive's voice out there in endless death and desert) and when the Queen Bee asks, "Why did you not go with him?" she answers, "He is going to get himself killed" (just like Mother.)
45. encomium
a formal expression of high praise; eulogy
That's why she likes the company of Filli and Kree and the trees and the sky the best -- they were with her when she saved the world, and they don't expect her to be anything but what she is.
Veritas, Hopian, Forta, Fortuna, Fidelis, Honora, Joyeu - Deltora Quest
17. cadaver
a dead body, esp. a human body to be dissected; corpse.
He doesn't think many people know that the sand of Sleeping Dunes were once the bones of a hundred million Torans slaughtered on the spot at the beginning of time, but Doran did, and he took that knowledge with him to the death -- and Veritas plans on telling Forta, one day, but for now he's content to watch her romp and roll over the grassy knoll of Doran's grave.
24. convoke
to call together; summon to meet or assemble.
They never thought their names could do that before; rattle so deep inside their chests and pulse through their blood like fire and scream across their brains until they couldn't hear anything but the words that followed -- help us, we need you, for Doran, for the land! -- and not a one of them will be ashamed to admit that they were aloft in a heartbeat.
27. schism
division or disunion, esp. into mutually opposed parties.
the parties so formed.
There might as well be canyons between their territories; lines drawn in blood and birth and the fact was so far in the past there was no use thinking about it; up until that tiny slip of a boy took Deltora's need and Doran's name and destroyed all barriers, and then they didn't know what to think.
35. lateral
a lateral part or extension, as a branch or shoot.
Mining. a small drift off to the side of a principal one.
Phonetics. a lateral speech sound.
Doran gives a great yell, hands clutching on the spine in front of him as they made a sheer drop off the cliff; Veritas's belly scrapes the surf and then he's shooting straight up, amethyst wings opening and closing in great, enormous thunderclaps, and the dragon laughs at him and his silly ideas of dimensions, and does a barrel roll midair.
44. infinitesimal
indefinitely or exceedingly small; minute: infinitesimal vessels in the circulatory system.
immeasurably small; less than an assignable quantity: to an infinitesimal degree.
of, pertaining to, or involving infinitesimals.
The thing was only a child, looking up at her with giant, frightened eyes, and she almost paused, but then the image of her children, strung up from the lamps like pebbles on a beach, flashed through her mind, and Joyeu belched fire; the child's agonized screams were only noises, after all, nothing important.