Mini-ficlet prompt meme: help Liz reach tax day without snapping

[edenfalling]

Okay, I am trying to sit down and restart work on my FTH fic, but I seem to have temporarily misplaced my knack for stringing words together in a coherent narrative.

So here I am, breaking my resolution about not doing mini-ficlet prompt memes. *headdesk*

This one really is for mini-ficlets, though! I may run long, of course, but I want these to be finger exercises rather than major projects.

You know the basic drill by now, yes? Pick a square from my Genprompt Bingo card, add one to three characters plus a scenario, and I will write you a ficlet of at least 3 sentences and/or 100 words.

Here is my Genprompt Bingo card. For those who prefer lists to graphics, the open squares are: Light-Hearted, Holiday Cottages, WILD CARD, Suicide, Another Year Older: Birthdays, The Age of Reason, Steadfast, and Takeout.

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Obligatory small print:

1. I reserve the right to veto any fandoms I don't know well enough to write, and ask you to please try again.

2. 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.

3. In the Genprompt Bingo challenge, WILD CARD means to grab any prompt from the complete Round 12 prompt list. I reserve the right to veto any such wild card substitutions and ask you to please try again.

4. Genprompt Bingo fills do not have to be gen! (The 'gen' refers to the squares, which do not automatically presuppose shipping.) Just be aware that I'm not great at romance, so if you request shipfic, it will come out fairly low-key and may end up as ambiguous gen anyway.

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Fill List:

1. Kitchen Science: lighthearted, jane and dirk making the most mathematically perfect cake. Written 4/13/18 for longroadstonowhere (175 words) [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 crosspost]

2. Than It Is To Receive: BIRFDAY, Naruto …actually that’s probably a scenario in itself XD. Written 4/13/18 for alexseanchai (425 words) [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 crosspost]

3. All Work and No Play: Holiday Cottages, Naruto (i was thinking of the summer camp au but another setting would be fine also). Written 4/13/18 for silverblade219 (425 words) [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

4. Grandmother Dragon: I would like the prompt "The Age of Reason" with Telemain having to explain something complicated to Kazul. (I reversed this, because reasons. *evil grin*) Written 4/22/18 for wistfulmemory (575 words) [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 crosspost]

5. Equivalent Exchange: Can I have a snippet of "Utiliarian Virtue," please? Pick a prompt and wing it! Written 5/1/18 for cherokee1 (650 words) [Contains discussion of atrocities and war crimes]

Comments

Equivalent Exchange

[edenfalling]

I went with "power corrupts" as the prompt!

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"The first thing you need to know is that the Keeper's not completely wrong," Yurikaw said as she tapped at the glass screen of her interdimensional iPad equivalent, gun and helmet set aside on Laura's kitchen counter. "Travel between worlds, dimensions, timelines, whatever you want to call them, is dangerous. Does your language have a word for colonization?"

"Yes. You just used it," Laura said.

"Actually, I didn't. I used the equivalent in my language. I just have very good translation technology -- external, not internal, but it does the job." Yurikaw tapped her earpiece and grinned. "But anyway, you have that concept. Apply it to entire worlds. Or imagine the worst... pandemics? Did that also translate?"

Laura nodded. Beside her, Aujae nearly managed to conceal a flinch. Laura squeezed her hand and wrote a mental reminder to ask about that later.

Yurikaw turned her tablet to face Laura, displaying an image of emaciated corpses covered in weeping, pus-filled sores. "Imagine over ninety percent of a whole world's population wiped out by another world's equivalent of a childhood irritant." She tapped the screen, changed the image to leprous-looking trees swathed in choking, rust-colored smog. "Imagine worlds strip-mined for resources until they were so polluted they couldn't support life anymore." Another tap, another image. "Imagine slavery" -- tap -- "genocide" -- tap -- "wars that span a dozen dimensions, half of whose inhabitants might not even understand why they're suddenly the site of another world's battles."

Yurikaw set the tablet down and stared across the kitchen table, like she was trying to make eye contact for emphasis. Laura met her gaze for a second, then let her attention drift to the other woman's chin and hands.

"Except you don't have to imagine any of that," Yurikaw said, gesturing toward her tablet, "because everything I've just mentioned has happened. The Keeper was built as a safeguard by some survivors of those wars. Its central directive is to keep humans, or our dimensional equivalents, from committing similar atrocities again."

"That sounds reasonable," Laura said. Aujae stifled another flinch, skin chilled and sweaty against Laura's palm and fingers, but she made no move to pull away. Laura pulled their joined hands over to rest on her thigh and asked, "Where did it go wrong?"

"When the Keeper concluded, perfectly logically, that the only foolproof way to prevent people from abusing interdimensional travel technology was to make sure nobody had that technology in the first place. And after a few failed attempts to convince people to ignore new discoveries, it concluded -- again, perfectly logically -- that the only foolproof way to make sure nobody had interdimensional travel technology was to kill anyone who came close to inventing it and destroy all their work. If that fails, it escalates until it deems the problem solved. Of course, the Keeper can't do any of this directly -- its programmers did build some failsafes into their creation -- but it can send agents as its hands. Hence your friend the assassin."

"Aujae has a name," Laura said sharply. "You should use it."

"You're right. She does. My apologies, Agent Guilaeo," Yurikaw said in a level, stripped-bare tone.

"Accepted, Agent Madranashkiyug," Aujae said, equally flat.

"Thank you," Laura said. She waited, but Yurikaw seemed occupied with staring at Aujae instead of continuing her explanation. "Um. So. That's the first thing -- that the Keeper isn't entirely wrong? What's the second?"

Yurikaw broke off her staring contest and picked up her tablet. "The second thing is that the Keeper has become as bad as what it's working to prevent. I said it escalates, if a surgical strike doesn't work. It doesn't have limits on that escalation. Ask Agent Guilaeo about some of her assignments. Ask her about the metropolis of Sivan -- or what used to be Sivan, before she glassed it and touched off a worldwide war."

Under the table, Aujae let go of Laura's hand.

Re: Equivalent Exchange

[(Anonymous)]

This is Cherokee1. I really, really want to read this book.
The idea came from a series of drawings I did, and concluded I was not at the time technically adept enough to spin it into a comic.
I kept the drawings though, and pull them out occasionally.
Tons of research on the sigils alone. Mostly I used alchemical symbols.
I love reading your take on it.
C

Re: Equivalent Exchange

[edenfalling]

Thank you! The original prompt was such an intriguing idea, and I've enjoyed playing with it over the years.

I did finally make a high-level outline of the story -- nothing hugely detailed, but sort of a "this is the background worldbuilding, these are the major characters, here is the emotional plot and the action/adventure plot, here's how they resolve" rough sketch. So it's looking more like something I could write someday, instead of just disconnected snippets. I guess we'll see!

Re: Equivalent Exchange

[(Anonymous)]

Hi! This is cherokee1, rereading "Utilitarian Virtues" again. I am pleasantly surprised that you are still active on LJ. This is my 21st year of having a LiveJournal, defunct as mine is.
I hope you are well and happy.

Re: Equivalent Exchange

[edenfalling]

Hi! I'm really only on LJ by way of automatic crossposting from Dreamwidth, but it's important to me to keep that line open. :)

I am doing fairly well these days, and am as happy as can reasonably be expected given the ongoing pandemic and everything. I hope you are also doing well!