On the eleventh day of Christmas
my true love sent to me
eleven shows of power
[Title] Frozen Heartlands
[Fandom] Battle Royale
[Rating] PG-13
[Word Count] 1419
[Notes/Summary] Shou/Shinji, AU where Class B didn't do the Program. At a high school graduation party, Shinji finds himself having an unexpected conversation.
I’m doing the rounds, saying goodbye to old faces
[Title] From Small Acorns
[Fandom] Akira (movie)
[Rating] R for violence
[Word Count] 1196
[Notes/Summary] AU. Kaori’s woken up with a headache, and strange things are happening around her.
At first it’s just the headache.
Only it wasn’t just. Kaori’s had headaches before when she was sick or thirsty but they were annoying. Uncomfortable. This is -
It feels like her whole skull is screaming, like the blood vessels behind her eyes are going to pop, like -
She tries to keep quiet. She’d try to keep quiet anyway, because she’s not meant to be in Tetsuo’s dorm (even though everyone she knows sneaks in their boyfriend or girlfriend on a regular basis, and even though Tetsuo always said he didn’t give a shit if he got caught with her in his room -)
But right now, when she’s meant to be in hospital -
(It wasn’t a hospital, or if it was, it wasn’t one she’d ever known about, and Tetsuo, face red, glancing around warily, said this place is like a prison or a secret base or something, there’s no way we’re letting you stay here, they’ll probably do experiments on you -)
Right now, lying in his bed with the covers over her head and trying not to scream into the pillow, right now when (soldiers? Tetsuo said it was soldiers who took her away, after she fainted, after that little kid started screaming and all the shop windows burst -)
We’ll run away, he said, I dunno where but I’m not letting them catch you -
He’s gone to get some food and some painkillers and she is trying to keep quiet til he comes back but it hurts until everything else, getting caught by soldiers and you shouldn’t be here and you’ll wake people up and Tetsuo’ll get in trouble stop meaning anything and all she can do is, all she can do is fight not to slam her head against the wall to, to somehow burst whatever it is that’s building up inside it -
That freaks Tetsuo out, when he gets back and sees how bad it is. He sits her up and makes her take some of the painkillers but she kind of knows it won’t help, it’s too big for that. He sits and cuddles her and that should help but it doesn’t much. He doesn’t even start getting mad with her for being pathetic, he just keeps saying, “Kaori, please, please be okay,” like he’s really worried about her.
They’ve been doing that for what feels like hours when the footsteps come. Several of them. Loud and heavy. Kaori already knows who it is. She feels Tetsuo clutch onto her more tightly but she pushes him away, stands up. (Standing doesn’t make a difference; her head hurts whatever the rest of her is doing.)
He yells at her that he’s not going to let them take her, he’s pushing her back behind him and turning to face the door, fists clenched, and she thinks, she knows that they’re going to kill him. He’s going to stand up to them (because how can he back down while she’s watching? How can he back down when everyone already says that he’s a wuss?) and they’re going to kill him -
She doesn’t -
She is thinking that she can’t let that happen and she’s cold all over with horror at how it’s going to, even through the pain, and she’s saying, No and trying to pull him back and he shakes her off and she -
Not she, because she’s too small to do something like that, but something -
Something grabs him up and sends him flying backwards, as if a giant cat hit him with its paw.
Kaori doesn’t have time to think about it before the door bursts open and the soldiers - real soldiers, with real guns levelled at her like she is - like she’s someone else entirely -
They’re saying something but she’s not listening because she’s realising something. Yelling no and, and meaning it, that made the pain a bit less. It’s still there but it’s like - as though when you’re underwater and your lungs are burning to breathe and you know as soon as you break the surface and gasp the pain will stop -
Like her body already knows what this is.
Tetsuo is struggling to get up, shouting something, and someone’s aiming and -
This time the No is much louder. She hears it and she feels it and she’s at the centre and as she watches, the soldiers just
they just
They just turn to blood and, and pulp as if she, as if she stamped on them.
She only sees it for a moment because then the lights in the bedroom and the corridor all fizz out. She can’t see it any more but she can hear the dripping. And smell -
But inside her head it’s all calm and clear and the pain has gone and she’s so grateful it overwhelms anything else, even as she can feel herself starting to shake, she can feel screams sticking in her throat, they just burst, but it stopped, the pain stopped and - and -
Tetsuo -
He’s next to her, arms round her, gasping for breath, whispering, “Holy shit. Holy shit -” but he’s alive and he’s warm and safe and she clutches at him, “I didn’t, I didn’t mean to, I didn’t -”
At the other end of the corridor, the fire alarm’s going off.
“But...” Tetsuo is whispering in her ear, “but, it was… it was… you.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry -”
“No, ssh, don’t be sorry, it’s okay. They were gunning for us, right? They got what was coming to them and holy shit, Kaori, that was - that -” He kind of sounds like he’s going to cry but then he takes a deep breath: “Okay, we… we need to get out of here. I’ve got supplies and stuff. We need to get on the bike and go...”
He’s letting go of her, she hears him shrugging the rucksack on, but then he takes her hand: “C’mon, just… I mean it’s just blood, it’s… no big deal -”
Tugging her forward.
She’s not going to walk through it. She’s not. She’s -
And suddenly they’re falling.
They’re flying past lit-up windows, the air rushing over their faces, and Tetsuo is screaming, Fuck, what the fuck and Kaori is screaming too but she, she knows already that this is something else to do with her. She clings onto him and prays that whatever’s doing this won’t smash him to pieces when they land and if she screams, this can’t be happening, this can’t be real, she thinks Tetsuo doesn’t hear her.
They land in the car park like they’ve been pushed out of a moving truck and she’s still in Tetsuo’s baggy T-shirt and her underwear and not much else and she can still just hear the fire alarm wailing above them but it doesn’t matter any more. He grabs her hand and they run towards his bike. He looks back at her and she sees him smile. A scared smile, but - but excited. It makes sense. She’s always the timid one, and - and after all, it’s all happened now. He yells back at her, “You are so cool,” and she tries not to think that this isn’t her, not really.
[Title] Performing Arts
[Fandom] Azumanga Daioh / Battle Royale
[Rating] PG
[Word Count] 608
[Notes/Summary] Continuation of my earlier fics for this crossover. Sakaki doesn't want to play, but she will if she has to.
I'll do it! Don't think I won't!
[Title] Dance Dance Revolution
[Fandom] Jet Set Radio
[Rating] G
[Word Count] 307
[Notes/Summary] Gum, Beat and Tab consider whether they need a dance routine as part of their gang identity.
“Maybe we should have a dance routine,” Tab said as he sprayed paint onto the Dolce and Gabbana billboard above Shibuya bus station.
Gum, who was a little way away watching for police intervention, turned to glare at him. “Maybe we shouldn’t.”
Beat picked up a can of green paint and started to add shading to the letters Tab was marking out. “I don’t know, should we? You two are the Tokyo-to natives here.”
“You’ve seen our rivals,” Tab said. “Synchronised movement isn’t just about digging the ill beats.” He ducked down to add a splash of blue to the bottom of the tag. “It’s a show of power. Stand on a tall building and bust some moves… makes you look like a well-oiled machine ready to smash all who dare challenge you.”
“Bullshit,” Gum said. “It makes you look like rejects from the Thriller vid, or a badly-programmed VR simulation, or really pissed-off backing dancers. I don’t judge my competitors on whether they can dance in step, I judge them on how many of my tags they can cover up.”
“You’re just saying that because you can’t bust a move like I can,” Tab said, doing a spin around and throwing a paint can from hand to hand.
“I’m saying that we don’t have a uniform and we don’t have a kooky gimmick and so we don’t need a dance routine,” Gum said. “Unless our esteemed leader wants to make one up, but I wouldn’t advise it.”
“Nah, it’s cool,” Beat said. “If it comes to it, if we need to dance, I reckon we can all do our own thing. You guys are pretty decent, and then I’ll dad-dance awkwardly in the centre. I think that’s on-brand, you know?”
Gum sniffs. “Fine. Guess that’s okay. But if I see Tab macarena-ing it up, I’m leaving.”
[Title] Power of Silence
[Fandom] Portal
[Rating] PG
[Word Count] 193
[Notes/Summary] Chell has very little power here except in what she chooses not to say.
She doesn’t have much power. She’s stuck deep below the surface (every sound echoes here and the weight of the ground above her presses down on her forehead) and she knows nothing, less than nothing, not even her own name, much less how she got here or how to get out. And everything here is metal and hard corners and when it dies, it dies bloodlessly, while she’s soft and breakable and she’s already got several cuts from the bullets grazing her, blotchy brown-red blood sticking the sleeve of the clothing which isn’t hers to her arm. And nothing here gets tired, or needs food. And it only listens to programs that she can’t write, input through routes she can’t access no matter how many portals she opens.
Sometimes your only power is not to speak. Not to scream, but not to speak, not to say a word. She can think all of the words she wants to, but they stay hers, inside her (so easily-broken) skull. They’re making her run and jump and hide and think to their orders. Her voice is the only thing she can keep from them. For now.
[Title] Power Trip
[Fandom] Akira (movie)
[Rating] R for violence
[Word Count] 682 in total
[Notes/Summary] Kaneda knows what an acceptable show of power is. Tetsuo’s learnt it.
Kaneda’s younger than some of the other guys on the road but he’s a quick learner, and what he knows is you’ve got to hit ‘em hard and make ‘em see you’re going to do it again if they don’t back the fuck off. It’s no different from school or the kids’ home. He’s always been like, if someone starts on you, you pretend you’re not scared and hit ‘em as hard as you can. Maybe they’ll cream you, but at least they know you won’t be a pushover, and maybe they’ll be so freaked out you actually did something you’ll get a chance to get the jump on them. Point is, you make a show. Point is, you don’t let ‘em see you’re scared. Tetsuo always fucked up the last one. Kaneda told him and told him and it never made a difference.
Now -
Point is, you do what’s necessary. You hit ‘em hard so hopefully they’ll stop hitting you and then you can both go get on with your lives. You don’t hit ‘em and keep doing it until they die. Waste of time and effort. People die, other people - their friends, the cops, other players in the game who think you went too far - get pissed off.
Kaneda always thought he’d never have to spell this out to Tetsuo because Tetsuo would be too scared to get more’n a couple of punches in.
Now every time he closes his eyes he sees Tetsuo tearing into that Clown, throwing him against the wall, kicking him and kicking him like he wants to burst his head open, a desperate, crazy frenzy, like Tetsuo doesn’t even know how to stop, let alone want to.
That’s not what it’s about.
Other people can be idiots like that, but he thought he knew Tetsuo better.
***
The point is, Kaneda’s told him over and over, the point is to put on a show.
Well, Tetsuo ought to demonstrate that he’s been listening, right?
He was kind of thinking, as soon as Yamagata and Kai walked in, he was kind of thinking he should make a point here. Yamagata’s always been unofficial second-in-command and acted like he didn’t know why Tetsuo was still hanging around, and Kai’s always thought he’s hot shit despite being half the size of everyone else. And both of them spend their lives kissing up to Kaneda. So if you’re looking for a show, these two are prime candidates, right?
Kaneda said, hit ‘em hard, but he never really believed Tetsuo could do it.
Well, time to give him a wake-up call.
He’s strong enough now he barely has to think for more’n a millisecond and Yamagata’s head jolts back and there’s blood everywhere.
Hard enough for you, Kaneda?
Certainly hard enough for Kai, who’s gone sick-white and is pressed back against the wall, staring at the rapidly widening pool of blood about to soak into his penny loafers. He stares at it and then he stares at Tetsuo and he’s got it, you can see.
Tetsuo nearly does the same to him, pastes him against the wall (hit ‘em so hard they don’t even look like they were ever a person, Kaneda, how about that?) but his thoughts catch up just in time. When it’s on the streets, when it’s a bike battle, then everyone’s in the thick of it and they see how it plays out. This - Kaneda’s got no reason to show up here. Kaneda may not even make it out of the secret lab. No, if Tetsuo wants to make it worth it, he needs a messenger.
“Go find Kaneda,” he whispers.
Kai stares at him for a few moments, and then back at the blood, and then he’s stumbling backwards, away from it all, and Tetsuo hears him scrambling up the steps, tripping a couple of times before he makes it to the surface. Guy’s practically pissing himself.
Kaneda always said don’t go overboard, do what’s necessary. Tetsuo grins at what’s left of Yamagata. He’ll be pleased to know his best buddy was listening all along.
[Title] Finale
[Fandom] Jet Set Radio
[Rating] PG
[Word Count] 554
[Notes/Summary] The GGs arrive at the Rokkaku Building for the final showdown.
There are a ton of stairs, they’re all leaping and dashing and grinding to get up them as fast as they can, and there are no windows so they can’t see the freaky yellow-green light, there are just stairs and white-painted walls and it starts to feel like a dream - or, not even a real dream, more like the kind of dream people have in movies. Stairs and stairs and stairs and then suddenly - no more, just a landing and a fire exit and Beat went on autopilot about twenty floors back and so he just dashes forward and hits it, slamming the bar down, and it flies open, and with a rush of chilly air he’s out there. On the roof of one of the tallest buildings in Tokyo-to. With the wind so strong he feels it gently sweeping him sideways. The sky boiling with clouds that look like ink going down a plughole, and the air tasting like blood and electricity.
Like, it couldn’t be more of an eldritch summon-dark-forces portal-to-hell setting, is his point.
All the way up, Jet Set Radio was dead, nothing but static in his ears, but now, rushing over him, there’s freaky music from the DJ booth (seriously? Seriously) in the centre of the - hang on, the floor ahead of him is black and shiny and it’s - it’s spinning -
“You have got,” Gum says from behind him, “to be kidding me.”
“Come on,” Tab says, “this entire thing has maxed out the weirdness scale, what did you expect?”
“Less of the my-grandad-providing-the-music-for-my-cousin’s-wedding vibe, is what.”
“This reminds you of a family party?” Garam says as he and the other GGS stumble through the door. “The hell kind of family you come from?”
“Just saying, he’s the CEO of a major corporation, this is dumb as -”
She’s cut off by a roar so loud it drowns out the music, and then, impossibly huge, the enormous Golden Rhino statue Beat saw when they came in, the one on the front of the building, just - it just flies up into view so it’s eye-level with them. Like it’s a blimp or something.
It stares at them and it rears backwards and -
Someone yells, “Run -” and Beat is already running, you don’t stay a rudie unless your instincts are spot-on, and he’s on the giant spinning record and it’s whirling him round but he sees the torrent of flame spilling from the rhino’s mouth as he goes, he feels it, and the air dries out in his lungs.
On the far side of the record he skids to a halt, lets it carry him while he scopes out the scene. Giant record. DJ booth with crazy man inside. Backing dancers (for god’s sake) in transparent glass tubes. Enormous rhino demon. But all of his friends, still standing, still not on fire, with identical what the fuck faces on but looking as determined to win this as they have every time they faced down Onishima’s latest excessive attempt at policing.
They’re the city’s last hope and they may well be the best-qualified, right? He can’t imagine too many other Tokyo-to citizens have spent the last week dodging people with flamethrowers.
“Okay,” he yells over the music as the wails and crackles and ominous chanting of it peaks. “Let’s do this!”
[Title] Put On A Show
[Fandom] Death Note
[Rating] PG
[Word Count] 223
[Notes/Summary] Mello knows how to win.
It’s all about a show of power, Mello knows. Like, go as apeshit as you want, but only go as apeshit as you need to. Keep something in reserve. So if they escalate, so can you. Also, never have a limit. You don’t want them to feel they can corner you. Like, obviously don’t actually set yourself on fire to prove a point, but… have it in mind as the back-up to the back-up. If you can even consider it, you’re doing better than most people.
No, Matt would say, you’re mental.
Yeah, well, Matt thinks life’s like a video game, that everyone’ll go down if you get enough hits in. Actually maybe that’s not fair. Or maybe it’s true, but the point is that you have to keep getting the hits in, plus make them realise that’s what you’re going to do. So dress the part (or dress a part, show them you wear what you want and maybe make them want you, just a little - another way of getting a hit in) and don’t hesitate and when you don’t know what to do, do something. Do something no one would predict. Do something that they all - especially Roger and Near, especially L - would hesitate over, or wouldn’t see coming. To get the power, act like you’ve got it from the start.
[Title] Power Chords
[Fandom] Battle Royale
[Rating] G
[Word Count] 360
[Notes/Summary] Shuuya doesn’t even mind the bad gigs.
There are a lot of bad gigs. Shuuya figures that’s par for the course.
A lot of gigs where it’s you and your bandmates in a smelly New York basement and like two other people, and one of those is the resident alcoholic guy snoring in the corner. Or a good few where there are people there, but they’re all too drunk to do anything but sing other songs loudly, or start fights, or chuck bottles at you. Some where the people there are fans of some other local talent, and so start booing you when you strike the first chord, or heckle throughout your set. And the ones where the people are okay but a guitar string busts halfway through the second song, or you forget the words to that one you only practised twice, or your fingers slip on your big solo.
Doesn’t matter, any of it. Shuuya’s bandmates tell him he’s way too chirpy after every terrible gig but he isn’t even trying to be. He doesn’t say, Come on, guys, every gig’s a good gig for me because no one’s gonna break the door down and haul me off to re-education camp for rocking out, because that’d be bringing the mood down, plus he doesn’t like reminding them about the totalitarian aspect of his past. It’s true, though. A lot of things have been rough, and a lot of people have died, but he can still play guitar and he still has people to do it with. That counts for a lot.
And every so often, you hit all the right notes. Can be just a small audience, even, but they love you, and they love their lives, and some of them maybe even know some of your songs and sing along, and even the ones who don’t jump up and down and dance and everything fits together right, no matter how bad the drain or the spilt beer smell or how many hours you had to work yesterday. The power to do that, Shuuya doesn’t think he’ll ever stop finding it mind-blowing. He can put up with a lot of bad shows in the meantime.
[Title] Celebrate the New World.
[Fandom] Death Note
[Rating] R for sex
[Word Count] 2963
[Notes/Summary] Raito/Ide/Matsuda. Three people drink a toast to Kira's new world.
You were so convinced you were doing the right thing
eleven shows of power
[Title] Frozen Heartlands
[Fandom] Battle Royale
[Rating] PG-13
[Word Count] 1419
[Notes/Summary] Shou/Shinji, AU where Class B didn't do the Program. At a high school graduation party, Shinji finds himself having an unexpected conversation.
I’m doing the rounds, saying goodbye to old faces
[Title] From Small Acorns
[Fandom] Akira (movie)
[Rating] R for violence
[Word Count] 1196
[Notes/Summary] AU. Kaori’s woken up with a headache, and strange things are happening around her.
At first it’s just the headache.
Only it wasn’t just. Kaori’s had headaches before when she was sick or thirsty but they were annoying. Uncomfortable. This is -
It feels like her whole skull is screaming, like the blood vessels behind her eyes are going to pop, like -
She tries to keep quiet. She’d try to keep quiet anyway, because she’s not meant to be in Tetsuo’s dorm (even though everyone she knows sneaks in their boyfriend or girlfriend on a regular basis, and even though Tetsuo always said he didn’t give a shit if he got caught with her in his room -)
But right now, when she’s meant to be in hospital -
(It wasn’t a hospital, or if it was, it wasn’t one she’d ever known about, and Tetsuo, face red, glancing around warily, said this place is like a prison or a secret base or something, there’s no way we’re letting you stay here, they’ll probably do experiments on you -)
Right now, lying in his bed with the covers over her head and trying not to scream into the pillow, right now when (soldiers? Tetsuo said it was soldiers who took her away, after she fainted, after that little kid started screaming and all the shop windows burst -)
We’ll run away, he said, I dunno where but I’m not letting them catch you -
He’s gone to get some food and some painkillers and she is trying to keep quiet til he comes back but it hurts until everything else, getting caught by soldiers and you shouldn’t be here and you’ll wake people up and Tetsuo’ll get in trouble stop meaning anything and all she can do is, all she can do is fight not to slam her head against the wall to, to somehow burst whatever it is that’s building up inside it -
That freaks Tetsuo out, when he gets back and sees how bad it is. He sits her up and makes her take some of the painkillers but she kind of knows it won’t help, it’s too big for that. He sits and cuddles her and that should help but it doesn’t much. He doesn’t even start getting mad with her for being pathetic, he just keeps saying, “Kaori, please, please be okay,” like he’s really worried about her.
They’ve been doing that for what feels like hours when the footsteps come. Several of them. Loud and heavy. Kaori already knows who it is. She feels Tetsuo clutch onto her more tightly but she pushes him away, stands up. (Standing doesn’t make a difference; her head hurts whatever the rest of her is doing.)
He yells at her that he’s not going to let them take her, he’s pushing her back behind him and turning to face the door, fists clenched, and she thinks, she knows that they’re going to kill him. He’s going to stand up to them (because how can he back down while she’s watching? How can he back down when everyone already says that he’s a wuss?) and they’re going to kill him -
She doesn’t -
She is thinking that she can’t let that happen and she’s cold all over with horror at how it’s going to, even through the pain, and she’s saying, No and trying to pull him back and he shakes her off and she -
Not she, because she’s too small to do something like that, but something -
Something grabs him up and sends him flying backwards, as if a giant cat hit him with its paw.
Kaori doesn’t have time to think about it before the door bursts open and the soldiers - real soldiers, with real guns levelled at her like she is - like she’s someone else entirely -
They’re saying something but she’s not listening because she’s realising something. Yelling no and, and meaning it, that made the pain a bit less. It’s still there but it’s like - as though when you’re underwater and your lungs are burning to breathe and you know as soon as you break the surface and gasp the pain will stop -
Like her body already knows what this is.
Tetsuo is struggling to get up, shouting something, and someone’s aiming and -
This time the No is much louder. She hears it and she feels it and she’s at the centre and as she watches, the soldiers just
they just
They just turn to blood and, and pulp as if she, as if she stamped on them.
She only sees it for a moment because then the lights in the bedroom and the corridor all fizz out. She can’t see it any more but she can hear the dripping. And smell -
But inside her head it’s all calm and clear and the pain has gone and she’s so grateful it overwhelms anything else, even as she can feel herself starting to shake, she can feel screams sticking in her throat, they just burst, but it stopped, the pain stopped and - and -
Tetsuo -
He’s next to her, arms round her, gasping for breath, whispering, “Holy shit. Holy shit -” but he’s alive and he’s warm and safe and she clutches at him, “I didn’t, I didn’t mean to, I didn’t -”
At the other end of the corridor, the fire alarm’s going off.
“But...” Tetsuo is whispering in her ear, “but, it was… it was… you.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry -”
“No, ssh, don’t be sorry, it’s okay. They were gunning for us, right? They got what was coming to them and holy shit, Kaori, that was - that -” He kind of sounds like he’s going to cry but then he takes a deep breath: “Okay, we… we need to get out of here. I’ve got supplies and stuff. We need to get on the bike and go...”
He’s letting go of her, she hears him shrugging the rucksack on, but then he takes her hand: “C’mon, just… I mean it’s just blood, it’s… no big deal -”
Tugging her forward.
She’s not going to walk through it. She’s not. She’s -
And suddenly they’re falling.
They’re flying past lit-up windows, the air rushing over their faces, and Tetsuo is screaming, Fuck, what the fuck and Kaori is screaming too but she, she knows already that this is something else to do with her. She clings onto him and prays that whatever’s doing this won’t smash him to pieces when they land and if she screams, this can’t be happening, this can’t be real, she thinks Tetsuo doesn’t hear her.
They land in the car park like they’ve been pushed out of a moving truck and she’s still in Tetsuo’s baggy T-shirt and her underwear and not much else and she can still just hear the fire alarm wailing above them but it doesn’t matter any more. He grabs her hand and they run towards his bike. He looks back at her and she sees him smile. A scared smile, but - but excited. It makes sense. She’s always the timid one, and - and after all, it’s all happened now. He yells back at her, “You are so cool,” and she tries not to think that this isn’t her, not really.
[Title] Performing Arts
[Fandom] Azumanga Daioh / Battle Royale
[Rating] PG
[Word Count] 608
[Notes/Summary] Continuation of my earlier fics for this crossover. Sakaki doesn't want to play, but she will if she has to.
I'll do it! Don't think I won't!
[Title] Dance Dance Revolution
[Fandom] Jet Set Radio
[Rating] G
[Word Count] 307
[Notes/Summary] Gum, Beat and Tab consider whether they need a dance routine as part of their gang identity.
“Maybe we should have a dance routine,” Tab said as he sprayed paint onto the Dolce and Gabbana billboard above Shibuya bus station.
Gum, who was a little way away watching for police intervention, turned to glare at him. “Maybe we shouldn’t.”
Beat picked up a can of green paint and started to add shading to the letters Tab was marking out. “I don’t know, should we? You two are the Tokyo-to natives here.”
“You’ve seen our rivals,” Tab said. “Synchronised movement isn’t just about digging the ill beats.” He ducked down to add a splash of blue to the bottom of the tag. “It’s a show of power. Stand on a tall building and bust some moves… makes you look like a well-oiled machine ready to smash all who dare challenge you.”
“Bullshit,” Gum said. “It makes you look like rejects from the Thriller vid, or a badly-programmed VR simulation, or really pissed-off backing dancers. I don’t judge my competitors on whether they can dance in step, I judge them on how many of my tags they can cover up.”
“You’re just saying that because you can’t bust a move like I can,” Tab said, doing a spin around and throwing a paint can from hand to hand.
“I’m saying that we don’t have a uniform and we don’t have a kooky gimmick and so we don’t need a dance routine,” Gum said. “Unless our esteemed leader wants to make one up, but I wouldn’t advise it.”
“Nah, it’s cool,” Beat said. “If it comes to it, if we need to dance, I reckon we can all do our own thing. You guys are pretty decent, and then I’ll dad-dance awkwardly in the centre. I think that’s on-brand, you know?”
Gum sniffs. “Fine. Guess that’s okay. But if I see Tab macarena-ing it up, I’m leaving.”
[Title] Power of Silence
[Fandom] Portal
[Rating] PG
[Word Count] 193
[Notes/Summary] Chell has very little power here except in what she chooses not to say.
She doesn’t have much power. She’s stuck deep below the surface (every sound echoes here and the weight of the ground above her presses down on her forehead) and she knows nothing, less than nothing, not even her own name, much less how she got here or how to get out. And everything here is metal and hard corners and when it dies, it dies bloodlessly, while she’s soft and breakable and she’s already got several cuts from the bullets grazing her, blotchy brown-red blood sticking the sleeve of the clothing which isn’t hers to her arm. And nothing here gets tired, or needs food. And it only listens to programs that she can’t write, input through routes she can’t access no matter how many portals she opens.
Sometimes your only power is not to speak. Not to scream, but not to speak, not to say a word. She can think all of the words she wants to, but they stay hers, inside her (so easily-broken) skull. They’re making her run and jump and hide and think to their orders. Her voice is the only thing she can keep from them. For now.
[Title] Power Trip
[Fandom] Akira (movie)
[Rating] R for violence
[Word Count] 682 in total
[Notes/Summary] Kaneda knows what an acceptable show of power is. Tetsuo’s learnt it.
Kaneda’s younger than some of the other guys on the road but he’s a quick learner, and what he knows is you’ve got to hit ‘em hard and make ‘em see you’re going to do it again if they don’t back the fuck off. It’s no different from school or the kids’ home. He’s always been like, if someone starts on you, you pretend you’re not scared and hit ‘em as hard as you can. Maybe they’ll cream you, but at least they know you won’t be a pushover, and maybe they’ll be so freaked out you actually did something you’ll get a chance to get the jump on them. Point is, you make a show. Point is, you don’t let ‘em see you’re scared. Tetsuo always fucked up the last one. Kaneda told him and told him and it never made a difference.
Now -
Point is, you do what’s necessary. You hit ‘em hard so hopefully they’ll stop hitting you and then you can both go get on with your lives. You don’t hit ‘em and keep doing it until they die. Waste of time and effort. People die, other people - their friends, the cops, other players in the game who think you went too far - get pissed off.
Kaneda always thought he’d never have to spell this out to Tetsuo because Tetsuo would be too scared to get more’n a couple of punches in.
Now every time he closes his eyes he sees Tetsuo tearing into that Clown, throwing him against the wall, kicking him and kicking him like he wants to burst his head open, a desperate, crazy frenzy, like Tetsuo doesn’t even know how to stop, let alone want to.
That’s not what it’s about.
Other people can be idiots like that, but he thought he knew Tetsuo better.
***
The point is, Kaneda’s told him over and over, the point is to put on a show.
Well, Tetsuo ought to demonstrate that he’s been listening, right?
He was kind of thinking, as soon as Yamagata and Kai walked in, he was kind of thinking he should make a point here. Yamagata’s always been unofficial second-in-command and acted like he didn’t know why Tetsuo was still hanging around, and Kai’s always thought he’s hot shit despite being half the size of everyone else. And both of them spend their lives kissing up to Kaneda. So if you’re looking for a show, these two are prime candidates, right?
Kaneda said, hit ‘em hard, but he never really believed Tetsuo could do it.
Well, time to give him a wake-up call.
He’s strong enough now he barely has to think for more’n a millisecond and Yamagata’s head jolts back and there’s blood everywhere.
Hard enough for you, Kaneda?
Certainly hard enough for Kai, who’s gone sick-white and is pressed back against the wall, staring at the rapidly widening pool of blood about to soak into his penny loafers. He stares at it and then he stares at Tetsuo and he’s got it, you can see.
Tetsuo nearly does the same to him, pastes him against the wall (hit ‘em so hard they don’t even look like they were ever a person, Kaneda, how about that?) but his thoughts catch up just in time. When it’s on the streets, when it’s a bike battle, then everyone’s in the thick of it and they see how it plays out. This - Kaneda’s got no reason to show up here. Kaneda may not even make it out of the secret lab. No, if Tetsuo wants to make it worth it, he needs a messenger.
“Go find Kaneda,” he whispers.
Kai stares at him for a few moments, and then back at the blood, and then he’s stumbling backwards, away from it all, and Tetsuo hears him scrambling up the steps, tripping a couple of times before he makes it to the surface. Guy’s practically pissing himself.
Kaneda always said don’t go overboard, do what’s necessary. Tetsuo grins at what’s left of Yamagata. He’ll be pleased to know his best buddy was listening all along.
[Title] Finale
[Fandom] Jet Set Radio
[Rating] PG
[Word Count] 554
[Notes/Summary] The GGs arrive at the Rokkaku Building for the final showdown.
There are a ton of stairs, they’re all leaping and dashing and grinding to get up them as fast as they can, and there are no windows so they can’t see the freaky yellow-green light, there are just stairs and white-painted walls and it starts to feel like a dream - or, not even a real dream, more like the kind of dream people have in movies. Stairs and stairs and stairs and then suddenly - no more, just a landing and a fire exit and Beat went on autopilot about twenty floors back and so he just dashes forward and hits it, slamming the bar down, and it flies open, and with a rush of chilly air he’s out there. On the roof of one of the tallest buildings in Tokyo-to. With the wind so strong he feels it gently sweeping him sideways. The sky boiling with clouds that look like ink going down a plughole, and the air tasting like blood and electricity.
Like, it couldn’t be more of an eldritch summon-dark-forces portal-to-hell setting, is his point.
All the way up, Jet Set Radio was dead, nothing but static in his ears, but now, rushing over him, there’s freaky music from the DJ booth (seriously? Seriously) in the centre of the - hang on, the floor ahead of him is black and shiny and it’s - it’s spinning -
“You have got,” Gum says from behind him, “to be kidding me.”
“Come on,” Tab says, “this entire thing has maxed out the weirdness scale, what did you expect?”
“Less of the my-grandad-providing-the-music-for-my-cousin’s-wedding vibe, is what.”
“This reminds you of a family party?” Garam says as he and the other GGS stumble through the door. “The hell kind of family you come from?”
“Just saying, he’s the CEO of a major corporation, this is dumb as -”
She’s cut off by a roar so loud it drowns out the music, and then, impossibly huge, the enormous Golden Rhino statue Beat saw when they came in, the one on the front of the building, just - it just flies up into view so it’s eye-level with them. Like it’s a blimp or something.
It stares at them and it rears backwards and -
Someone yells, “Run -” and Beat is already running, you don’t stay a rudie unless your instincts are spot-on, and he’s on the giant spinning record and it’s whirling him round but he sees the torrent of flame spilling from the rhino’s mouth as he goes, he feels it, and the air dries out in his lungs.
On the far side of the record he skids to a halt, lets it carry him while he scopes out the scene. Giant record. DJ booth with crazy man inside. Backing dancers (for god’s sake) in transparent glass tubes. Enormous rhino demon. But all of his friends, still standing, still not on fire, with identical what the fuck faces on but looking as determined to win this as they have every time they faced down Onishima’s latest excessive attempt at policing.
They’re the city’s last hope and they may well be the best-qualified, right? He can’t imagine too many other Tokyo-to citizens have spent the last week dodging people with flamethrowers.
“Okay,” he yells over the music as the wails and crackles and ominous chanting of it peaks. “Let’s do this!”
[Title] Put On A Show
[Fandom] Death Note
[Rating] PG
[Word Count] 223
[Notes/Summary] Mello knows how to win.
It’s all about a show of power, Mello knows. Like, go as apeshit as you want, but only go as apeshit as you need to. Keep something in reserve. So if they escalate, so can you. Also, never have a limit. You don’t want them to feel they can corner you. Like, obviously don’t actually set yourself on fire to prove a point, but… have it in mind as the back-up to the back-up. If you can even consider it, you’re doing better than most people.
No, Matt would say, you’re mental.
Yeah, well, Matt thinks life’s like a video game, that everyone’ll go down if you get enough hits in. Actually maybe that’s not fair. Or maybe it’s true, but the point is that you have to keep getting the hits in, plus make them realise that’s what you’re going to do. So dress the part (or dress a part, show them you wear what you want and maybe make them want you, just a little - another way of getting a hit in) and don’t hesitate and when you don’t know what to do, do something. Do something no one would predict. Do something that they all - especially Roger and Near, especially L - would hesitate over, or wouldn’t see coming. To get the power, act like you’ve got it from the start.
[Title] Power Chords
[Fandom] Battle Royale
[Rating] G
[Word Count] 360
[Notes/Summary] Shuuya doesn’t even mind the bad gigs.
There are a lot of bad gigs. Shuuya figures that’s par for the course.
A lot of gigs where it’s you and your bandmates in a smelly New York basement and like two other people, and one of those is the resident alcoholic guy snoring in the corner. Or a good few where there are people there, but they’re all too drunk to do anything but sing other songs loudly, or start fights, or chuck bottles at you. Some where the people there are fans of some other local talent, and so start booing you when you strike the first chord, or heckle throughout your set. And the ones where the people are okay but a guitar string busts halfway through the second song, or you forget the words to that one you only practised twice, or your fingers slip on your big solo.
Doesn’t matter, any of it. Shuuya’s bandmates tell him he’s way too chirpy after every terrible gig but he isn’t even trying to be. He doesn’t say, Come on, guys, every gig’s a good gig for me because no one’s gonna break the door down and haul me off to re-education camp for rocking out, because that’d be bringing the mood down, plus he doesn’t like reminding them about the totalitarian aspect of his past. It’s true, though. A lot of things have been rough, and a lot of people have died, but he can still play guitar and he still has people to do it with. That counts for a lot.
And every so often, you hit all the right notes. Can be just a small audience, even, but they love you, and they love their lives, and some of them maybe even know some of your songs and sing along, and even the ones who don’t jump up and down and dance and everything fits together right, no matter how bad the drain or the spilt beer smell or how many hours you had to work yesterday. The power to do that, Shuuya doesn’t think he’ll ever stop finding it mind-blowing. He can put up with a lot of bad shows in the meantime.
[Title] Celebrate the New World.
[Fandom] Death Note
[Rating] R for sex
[Word Count] 2963
[Notes/Summary] Raito/Ide/Matsuda. Three people drink a toast to Kira's new world.
You were so convinced you were doing the right thing