external motivation accountability report, Sunday 3/6; mini-ficlet prompt meme

[edenfalling]

I have a scenario and backstory and some general world-building for my Palestuck fic. I have a kinda-sorta outline. I have a couple of key emotional beats, and an intertwined action and character arc/plot thingywhatsit.

And I have no fucking clue whose POV I should be in, let alone whether I should be trying to write in second or third person.

*headdesk*

You know what, screw this. I am going to do a mini-ficlet prompt meme after all, because desperate times call for desperate measures, and maybe if I kickstart myself into finishing something it will make my other projects flow better thereafter.

So.

Leave a comment with one to three characters plus a mood, a scenario, or a prompt word, and I will write you a ficlet that is at least three sentences and/or 100 words long.

(Obligatory small print: Crossover prompts are fine. On the vanishingly unlikely chance anyone wants to read a snippet from any of my original worlds and stories, that kind of prompt is also fine. I reserve the right to reject fandoms I am not familiar with and produce ambiguous gen when attempting to write shipfic.)

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Fill List:

1. Narutostuck: Tall Tales - 525 words, Naruto, John, Vriska, farce, written 3/6/16 for anonymous. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

2. But Not Quite THAT Bored - 150 words, Dirk, Dave, Second Triennial Human-Troll Flashstep Competition, written 3/7/16 for madamehardy. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

3. In what distant deeps or skies - 625 words, Or, if you prefer, Dave, Jade, long-distance relationship, written 3/7/16 for madamehardy. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

4. For what you have tamed - 200 words, Um, Narnia, Lucy and Mr Tumnus, sleep or sleepy. (Something happy would be good.), written 3/7/16 for cat_i_th_adage. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

5. Don't Get Caught - 275 words, Ginny and Professor McGonagall with prank advice, written 3/7/16 for wistfulmemory. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

6. Narutostuck: No Child Left Behind - 1,450 words, Narutostuck Jade, Aradia, Dave - apprehension?, written 3/8/16 for mid-childan-puella-magi. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

7. Narutostuck: Riptide - 500 words, If you are still doing the ficlet thing - Narutostuck Jade, Feferi, Aradia - salvage, written 3/9/16 for mid-childan-puella-magi. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

8. Noblesse Oblige - 500 words, For your Black Jewels/Homestuck verse: Dave, Jane, Responsibility?, written 3/9/16 for anonymous. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

9. Narutostuck: Family Planning - 775 words, Narutostuck -- Dave finding out he's breeding stock. I'm guessing it was hilariterrible, written 3/10/16 for madamehardy. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

10. Narutostuck: By Which a Shattered World - 1,650 words, While on the subject of narutostuck, Jane and Roxy (& maybe Callie?) - repairs for the ficlet meme?, written 3/18/16 for anonymous. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

11. Narutostuck: Triptych - 1,150 words, Narutostuck: Dave, Karkat, Terezi: first encounters, written 3/27/16 for anonymous. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

Comments

[Fic] "Narutostuck: Triptych" -- Homestuck/Naruto

[edenfalling]

Note: This ficlet was written for a Tumblr anon, in response to the prompt: Narutostuck: Dave, Karkat, Terezi: first encounters. You may notice that this ficlet ignores one line in the Tumblr version of "No Child Left Behind," wherein Terezi was implied to have grown up within Kouin proper. I fixed that in the AO3 version, but anyway, Terezi now grew up in the woods near Karkat's town, which was probably halfway across Space Country from Kouin. This is why she's in Rose's class rather than Dave's -- testing and recruitment is more sporadic in the outer communities. (1,150 words)

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1. There is a giant pearl-white egg in the middle of the forest, nestled on a bed of dried moss and propped upright by a ring of granite boulders still scored by the deep marks of massive claws. Karkat gapes at the incongruous sight, and wonders exactly how lost he is. All he wanted was to find some peace and quiet, and maybe a good spot for learning to use his new sickles without letting anyone else see him make a fool of himself. This is not peace and quiet. This is a baby dragon nowhere near any of the official hatching grounds, which means it's probably some kind of classified bullshit that crabdad will screech himself silly over when Karkat finally stumbles his way home.

Still... he wonders if he could feel a heartbeat through the shell. That would be really something, to say he touched a dragon egg. Or just to hold close as another, happier secret.

He takes a tentative step forward.

"If you hurt her, I'll kill you," a voice says from behind him as something cold and sharp presses against the side of his neck.

"Oh, fuck you," he snaps before his conscious mind can get control of his reflexes. "What would I even do with an egg that big? Make the world's biggest omelet? I hate to break it to you, but I don't think anyone has a big enough frying pan, let alone enough seasoning."

"That shows a sad lack of creativity on your part!" the person behind him says, but she pulls away the knife and when he turns, all her shark-like teeth are bared in a ridiculous grin.

"Hello, intruder!" she says, tilting her needle-sharp horns in a gesture that somehow manages to be simultaneously threatening and cute. "I'm Terezi."

"You're crazy and I'm leaving," Karkat says, and does his best to ignore her laughter for the next three hours as she follows him home, loudly correcting him whenever he makes wrong turns.

(She stays for dinner. He only pretends to mind.)

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2. Rose invites Terezi to her house for additional study and training five times before Terezi accepts. In the end, the chance to improve herself with the aid of their cohort's other top cadet outweighs the chance that this is somehow a setup.

"Wait here," Rose says as she drops her books on a table inexplicably situated in a food block. "My mother has some old mission reports that we can practice analyzing." She opens a door in the corner and climbs up a narrow staircase, as if she isn't worried at all about exposing her back or leaving Terezi unsupervised in the middle of all her secrets.

Terezi restrains her curiosity for all of two seconds. Then she's up and poking around various drawers and cupboards, trying to figure out what's just normal human stuff and what's specific to sub-adults or career military. She has just grasped the handle on the refrigerator door when someone taps her shoulder.

She spins, kunai in hand, but the person in question is already back on the other side of the block, well out of her reach.

Terezi blinks. The human boy blinks back, slow and deliberate. The left corner of his mouth twitches fractionally upward.

"Hey," he says. "I hear you're the girl making Rose quake in her boots at the academy. That true?" He leans back against the doorframe, crosses his arms, shakes his lusus-pale hair off his forehead. (It's the same shade as Rose's hair. Is this her brother, that she guards like a precious hoard?)

"I prefer to think of it as the two of us making all our fellow cadets quake in well-deserved despair at their collective inadequacy," Terezi says. She lowers her knife, but doesn't put it away. Not quite yet.

The boy's mouth twitches upward again, perhaps involuntarily. "Sounds about right. So yeah, welcome to our humble abode. Don't open the fridge; Dirk's got it stuffed full of poisons and shit 'cause the one in his lab broke yesterday, and it's fuckin' rude to let guests off themselves by accident."

"As opposed to on purpose."

"Well, obviously," the boy agrees. "Anyway, I'm Dave. Nice to meet you." He tips his head in the tiniest approximation of a nod.

Terezi sheaths her knife.

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3. The two Anbu goons toss Dave into an empty cell, slam the door, and lope off to other duties without even bothering to give him a parting kick. He has a sinking feeling that's not mercy; they just know anything they might do can't possibly match up to the pain Mindfang and her students will create just as a byproduct of their experiments.

It's a weirdly nice cell, though -- got a bed with a mattress and blanket, and even a window through which he can see the wall of the Uchuukage's compound. Maybe they think they can brainwash him into playing along, or that relatively pleasant surroundings will help him recover faster so they can space their tests closer together. Or maybe this is just temporary and he'll get moved to the dungeons tomorrow.

(He's pretty sure there are dungeons. It's contractually required or something.)

Someone moves in the hallway, comes to stand by Dave's door and peer in through the small, barred window. Troll kid, no mask or paint, irises still mostly gray but with a hint of rust creeping through in faint threads... and wow, those are the bittiest, most unthreatening horns Dave's seen since he and Rose spied on their mom's super-secret meeting of secrecy with the Sufferer. But if he's here and walking around free, he's gotta be one of Mindfang's, and that means he's bad news.

"See something you like?" Dave asks, not bothering to wipe up the blood still trickling from his broken nose.

"No, just another worthless, shit-for-brains traitor," the troll kid says, without much attempt at an indoor voice. His mouth twists up in a disgusted sneer. "I don't know why any of you rebels even bother -- it's not like you're going to win against the Lady."

And that right there, that's interesting. Because that's not how Mindfang's people and Anbu talk. That's how the Condesce's personal guards talk, loyal to the point of fanaticism, like she's their personal goddess stepped out of her shrine to guide them. But the Condesce only takes girls. So who's this asshole, and what's his story?

"Yeah, well, you'd think she'd have squished us by now if we're as useless as all that," Dave says. "But you do you, nub-horns, top-notch job with the party line."

The troll snarls, sclera shading toward orange as the colored threads in his irises flash weirdly bright for a second. "My name is Karkat Vantas, not nub-horns, and I hope you die screaming," he snaps, and stomps away.

Dave is pretty sure he's going to get his wish.