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As always, here is the link to the current ficathon, if you want to come play too. :)
(Yes, I know that two of these are actually four-sentence fics. Shush. My struggle with structural limitations is an open secret.)
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( 7. ) For anonymous: Inception, Ariadne/Arthur, Two drifters, off to see the world, written 12/8/17 [AO3 version]
each day a new and different sun (175 words)
"Columbia or Madagascar?" Arthur asks as he leans over Ariadne's drafting table and obscures her Escher-inspired garden maze (nothing serious, just keeping her hand in between jobs) with his forearms, sleeves shoved carelessly upward to reveal tantalizing swathes of skin.
Ariadne taps her pencil against his knuckles as she considers -- they have been spending a lot of time in Paris this year, and while it's nice to have somewhere to come home to, she's been getting restless and ready for a change -- but she doesn't particularly care what horizon they travel toward so long as they pick up and go; and so she shrugs and says, "Which job has more interesting details, more functional teammates, and less chance of us getting shot?"
Arthur blinks, and then smiles: "I won't presume to judge what you'd find most interesting, but I think our chances of getting shot or stuck with incompetent coworkers are fairly low in both cases, because I was actually proposing a vacation; we can certainly afford it, and after all, we never did finish our honeymoon."
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( 8. ) For ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
iawenbemerry: MCU, Hawkeye +/ Black Widow, amends, written 12/9/17 [AO3 version]
the journey of a thousand miles (250 words)
There's nothing Natasha can do directly for Clint, not while the fallout of Vienna, Berlin, and Leipzig is still fresh and every eye trained to see through shadows is watching for her movements, wondering which way she'll jump now she's cut free from any organization.
Instead, she leaves ciphered border-crossing instructions in one of the electronic dead drops Laura has access to; anonymously mails a set of false passports (Laura Ingalls and her children Carter, Layla, and Peter) to a suspiciously innocuous heritage seed company's post office box; rents a modest corporate jet through three shell companies and a half dozen aliases that ultimately trace back to Stark Industries; and files a flight plan from Council Bluffs to Regina.
When Tony tracks her to a Tim Horton's in Saskatoon three days later, still fuming over her refusal to block Steve and Barnes from taking off for Siberia, Natasha pushes a coffee and doughnut across the table and says, before he can get a word out, "I don't know where any of them are; yes, that was the point; no, I won't help you find them," because while she won't regret the side she chose -- the Accords are a hideous botch and won't stand up to the first round of legal challenges, but some regulation is both practically and ethically necessary and Steve's headfirst stubbornness wasn't going to win any leverage over the people drafting the treaties and laws -- she does regret leaving Clint without a partner, and running decoy for his family's escape is how she begins to make amends.
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( 9. ) For runespoor7: Naruto, Naruto/Sasuke/Sakura, someday, together, we'll shine, written 12/10/17 [AO3 version]
makes the dream work (175 words)
Sakura reaches the valley's rim just in time to shout and send both boys' final strikes awry in startlement; when the dust and shock of the explosions clear, she trips her way down the cliff to where they lie prone and bleeding, and does her best, with stolen supplies and only basic academy training, to bind the wide, abraded stretch of Sasuke's shoulder and the matching deep and half-burned wound in Naruto's side.
"I won't come back," Sasuke says as he pushes himself to his feet, swaying with pain and fatigue; "I can find training from somebody else instead of Orochimaru, I can ignore the curse seal and find a different kind of power, but I can't stay in Konoha and I have to leave before the next retrieval team catches up."
"I know," Sakura agrees, as she washes the evidence of Sasuke's determination from her hands in the river, and then, before she can continue, Naruto opens his eyes and finishes for her: "But we're a team, you asshole, and we won't let you leave alone."
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( 10. ) For anonymous: Any, any, there is nothing better than sitting in the branches of a giant pine tree and watching the sunrise, written 12/12/17 [AO3 version]
the good of your stars and trees (250 words)
"Explain to me again why it was so vitally important to climb a tree in the dead of night instead of doing something sensible like sleeping off Ino and Kaiba's ridiculous overkill idea of a party, or even running last-minute security scenarios for your investiture," Sasuke grumbled as he picked a bit of sap off the cuff of his shirt.
Naruto tossed a pine cone at Sasuke's forehead and said, "It's nostalgic, obviously; tree-climbing was like the first time we all got along and had fun as a team, and this is my last night of freedom from bureaucracy, so if I want to go stargazing and watch the sunrise with my teammates from the best vantage point in Konoha, I'm going to go stargazing and watch the sunrise with you guys -- so there, Hokage's orders!"
"You're not Hokage for another eight hours, and if you don't both shut up and let me undo my hangover in peace, I swear I will strip you naked halfway through the investiture and neither of you will ever live it down," Sakura said flatly from where she lay prone one branch up, but she reached down to thread her fingers gently through both Naruto and Sasuke's hair instead of any gesture to back up her threat; Naruto hummed wordlessly in his throat and pushed up into the contact, and even Sasuke deigned to close his eyes and smile like the flicker of a falling star.
They watched night fade into morning together.
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( 11. ) For ama_ranth_827: Any, Any, I platonically want to have sex with you. No big deal., written 12/12/17 [AO3 version]
like a thunderbolt (175 words)
As she withdrew her sparking hand from the guts of the last member of the unexpected perimeter patrol, ripping out a segment of the sucker's spine for good measure, Nebula turned and said, "Once we finish retrieving the rest of the Guardians from this pathetic excuse for a prison, I wish to platonically engage in sexual intercourse with you; I'm told that Ravagers are frequently experienced in such matters and I've had no luck finding other partners to practice on."
Kraglin's mouth dropped open; Yondu's arrow, thus bereft of guidance, continued its last trajectory and plowed straight through a stone guard tower in a moderately impressive explosion -- which of course defeated the whole damn purpose of sneaking in and silencing the patrol squad before they could raise alarms, fuck his life.
"Afterwards, you can attempt another explanation of why some people find hats aesthetically pleasing," Nebula added, and, hefting her newly acquired lightning canon onto one implausibly slender shoulder, strode toward the still-smoking gap in the ancient Kree fortress as if a full-on frontal assault had always been the plan.
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( 12. ) For anonymous: Any, any, ochre's dust, vermillion too, cobalt crushed, the purest blue, a gram of gold leaf for the border, written 12/16/17 [AO3 version]
a language all nations understand (375 words)
Note: This is Narnia fanfic, but pretty tenuously -- it features two OCs in a region we never actually see in canon. Still fanfic, though! The universe is neat that way. :)
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Sechembaris squinted through her close-work glasses at the finished page: green penstemon vines spiraled up the left margin, extending delicate tendrils between paragraphs and words to bloom in pink and scarlet flowers, graced here and there by the blue orchard bees of southwestern Calormen (much missed, here in the Seven Isles, though honeybees and bumblebees had their consolations) and one rufous hummingbird in bold crimson orange, and the whole framed by an intricate latticework gold border, made deliberately imperfect by one omitted line in the upper right corner, as a courtesy to the gods: truly an effort worthy of her father's best training and sure to nourish the eyes and souls of all who gazed upon its beauty.
She set aside her gold leaf stamp, pushed the glasses up her forehead, and leaned back in her cushioned chair to stretch the kinks out of her shoulders and wrists; "Ten pages left on my end and I think my hand may twist into permanent cramps if I work any more today; renew my spirit with a reminder of how much the Archen king is paying for this anniversary gift?" she called toward her sister's end of their workroom.
"Half a normal year's profit," Nazileen called back without turning, a fine-point brush held delicately between her fingers, "more than enough to buy this shop and the upstairs rooms entire and thus save both on rent and on worry over our landlady's whims; did I not say in Ifayyapura, O my sister and my other self, that while the North is a land benighted in the eyes of both gods and poets, their gold is as good as any other and rarity makes all talents shine bright as diamonds scattered in dust?"
"I remember that distinctly, just as I remember our father's debts and your unwanted suitors, which I am sure had nothing to do with our abrupt departure from the empire," Sechembaris said wryly, "but in any case, the light is fading and I prefer not to spoil my eyes when we are so close to completion; put away your paints and help me drink to the honor of the slave king and his traitorous queen, since it's their money paying for our wine."
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More to come at some point...
(Yes, I know that two of these are actually four-sentence fics. Shush. My struggle with structural limitations is an open secret.)
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( 7. ) For anonymous: Inception, Ariadne/Arthur, Two drifters, off to see the world, written 12/8/17 [AO3 version]each day a new and different sun (175 words)
"Columbia or Madagascar?" Arthur asks as he leans over Ariadne's drafting table and obscures her Escher-inspired garden maze (nothing serious, just keeping her hand in between jobs) with his forearms, sleeves shoved carelessly upward to reveal tantalizing swathes of skin.
Ariadne taps her pencil against his knuckles as she considers -- they have been spending a lot of time in Paris this year, and while it's nice to have somewhere to come home to, she's been getting restless and ready for a change -- but she doesn't particularly care what horizon they travel toward so long as they pick up and go; and so she shrugs and says, "Which job has more interesting details, more functional teammates, and less chance of us getting shot?"
Arthur blinks, and then smiles: "I won't presume to judge what you'd find most interesting, but I think our chances of getting shot or stuck with incompetent coworkers are fairly low in both cases, because I was actually proposing a vacation; we can certainly afford it, and after all, we never did finish our honeymoon."
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( 8. ) For iawenbemerry: MCU, Hawkeye +/ Black Widow, amends, written 12/9/17 [AO3 version]the journey of a thousand miles (250 words)
There's nothing Natasha can do directly for Clint, not while the fallout of Vienna, Berlin, and Leipzig is still fresh and every eye trained to see through shadows is watching for her movements, wondering which way she'll jump now she's cut free from any organization.
Instead, she leaves ciphered border-crossing instructions in one of the electronic dead drops Laura has access to; anonymously mails a set of false passports (Laura Ingalls and her children Carter, Layla, and Peter) to a suspiciously innocuous heritage seed company's post office box; rents a modest corporate jet through three shell companies and a half dozen aliases that ultimately trace back to Stark Industries; and files a flight plan from Council Bluffs to Regina.
When Tony tracks her to a Tim Horton's in Saskatoon three days later, still fuming over her refusal to block Steve and Barnes from taking off for Siberia, Natasha pushes a coffee and doughnut across the table and says, before he can get a word out, "I don't know where any of them are; yes, that was the point; no, I won't help you find them," because while she won't regret the side she chose -- the Accords are a hideous botch and won't stand up to the first round of legal challenges, but some regulation is both practically and ethically necessary and Steve's headfirst stubbornness wasn't going to win any leverage over the people drafting the treaties and laws -- she does regret leaving Clint without a partner, and running decoy for his family's escape is how she begins to make amends.
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( 9. ) For runespoor7: Naruto, Naruto/Sasuke/Sakura, someday, together, we'll shine, written 12/10/17 [AO3 version]makes the dream work (175 words)
Sakura reaches the valley's rim just in time to shout and send both boys' final strikes awry in startlement; when the dust and shock of the explosions clear, she trips her way down the cliff to where they lie prone and bleeding, and does her best, with stolen supplies and only basic academy training, to bind the wide, abraded stretch of Sasuke's shoulder and the matching deep and half-burned wound in Naruto's side.
"I won't come back," Sasuke says as he pushes himself to his feet, swaying with pain and fatigue; "I can find training from somebody else instead of Orochimaru, I can ignore the curse seal and find a different kind of power, but I can't stay in Konoha and I have to leave before the next retrieval team catches up."
"I know," Sakura agrees, as she washes the evidence of Sasuke's determination from her hands in the river, and then, before she can continue, Naruto opens his eyes and finishes for her: "But we're a team, you asshole, and we won't let you leave alone."
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( 10. ) For anonymous: Any, any, there is nothing better than sitting in the branches of a giant pine tree and watching the sunrise, written 12/12/17 [AO3 version]the good of your stars and trees (250 words)
"Explain to me again why it was so vitally important to climb a tree in the dead of night instead of doing something sensible like sleeping off Ino and Kaiba's ridiculous overkill idea of a party, or even running last-minute security scenarios for your investiture," Sasuke grumbled as he picked a bit of sap off the cuff of his shirt.
Naruto tossed a pine cone at Sasuke's forehead and said, "It's nostalgic, obviously; tree-climbing was like the first time we all got along and had fun as a team, and this is my last night of freedom from bureaucracy, so if I want to go stargazing and watch the sunrise with my teammates from the best vantage point in Konoha, I'm going to go stargazing and watch the sunrise with you guys -- so there, Hokage's orders!"
"You're not Hokage for another eight hours, and if you don't both shut up and let me undo my hangover in peace, I swear I will strip you naked halfway through the investiture and neither of you will ever live it down," Sakura said flatly from where she lay prone one branch up, but she reached down to thread her fingers gently through both Naruto and Sasuke's hair instead of any gesture to back up her threat; Naruto hummed wordlessly in his throat and pushed up into the contact, and even Sasuke deigned to close his eyes and smile like the flicker of a falling star.
They watched night fade into morning together.
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( 11. ) For ama_ranth_827: Any, Any, I platonically want to have sex with you. No big deal., written 12/12/17 [AO3 version]like a thunderbolt (175 words)
As she withdrew her sparking hand from the guts of the last member of the unexpected perimeter patrol, ripping out a segment of the sucker's spine for good measure, Nebula turned and said, "Once we finish retrieving the rest of the Guardians from this pathetic excuse for a prison, I wish to platonically engage in sexual intercourse with you; I'm told that Ravagers are frequently experienced in such matters and I've had no luck finding other partners to practice on."
Kraglin's mouth dropped open; Yondu's arrow, thus bereft of guidance, continued its last trajectory and plowed straight through a stone guard tower in a moderately impressive explosion -- which of course defeated the whole damn purpose of sneaking in and silencing the patrol squad before they could raise alarms, fuck his life.
"Afterwards, you can attempt another explanation of why some people find hats aesthetically pleasing," Nebula added, and, hefting her newly acquired lightning canon onto one implausibly slender shoulder, strode toward the still-smoking gap in the ancient Kree fortress as if a full-on frontal assault had always been the plan.
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---------------
( 12. ) For anonymous: Any, any, ochre's dust, vermillion too, cobalt crushed, the purest blue, a gram of gold leaf for the border, written 12/16/17 [AO3 version]a language all nations understand (375 words)
Note: This is Narnia fanfic, but pretty tenuously -- it features two OCs in a region we never actually see in canon. Still fanfic, though! The universe is neat that way. :)
-----
Sechembaris squinted through her close-work glasses at the finished page: green penstemon vines spiraled up the left margin, extending delicate tendrils between paragraphs and words to bloom in pink and scarlet flowers, graced here and there by the blue orchard bees of southwestern Calormen (much missed, here in the Seven Isles, though honeybees and bumblebees had their consolations) and one rufous hummingbird in bold crimson orange, and the whole framed by an intricate latticework gold border, made deliberately imperfect by one omitted line in the upper right corner, as a courtesy to the gods: truly an effort worthy of her father's best training and sure to nourish the eyes and souls of all who gazed upon its beauty.
She set aside her gold leaf stamp, pushed the glasses up her forehead, and leaned back in her cushioned chair to stretch the kinks out of her shoulders and wrists; "Ten pages left on my end and I think my hand may twist into permanent cramps if I work any more today; renew my spirit with a reminder of how much the Archen king is paying for this anniversary gift?" she called toward her sister's end of their workroom.
"Half a normal year's profit," Nazileen called back without turning, a fine-point brush held delicately between her fingers, "more than enough to buy this shop and the upstairs rooms entire and thus save both on rent and on worry over our landlady's whims; did I not say in Ifayyapura, O my sister and my other self, that while the North is a land benighted in the eyes of both gods and poets, their gold is as good as any other and rarity makes all talents shine bright as diamonds scattered in dust?"
"I remember that distinctly, just as I remember our father's debts and your unwanted suitors, which I am sure had nothing to do with our abrupt departure from the empire," Sechembaris said wryly, "but in any case, the light is fading and I prefer not to spoil my eyes when we are so close to completion; put away your paints and help me drink to the honor of the slave king and his traitorous queen, since it's their money paying for our wine."
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More to come at some point...
