[Fic] more assorted "three sentence" ficlets -- various fandoms

[edenfalling]

I am up to 40 fills over at the Three Sentence Ficathon, god help me (though three of them are really for the same prompt). So it is time for another catch-all post!

I am still not very good at the three sentence limit, though I did manage to wrestle seven of the following fills back into the constraints of the form. \o/

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1. Why We Fight: Bourne trilogy (movies), Jason/Marie, somewhere in the sun, for be_themoon (100 words)

Marie can't forget that they're hiding, that they're running, that any false step could bring disaster and get her (get Jason) killed. Jason won't let her forget, even if she wanted to.

But sometimes they have space to slow down and learn the rhythm of their latest refuge, and do the little things that make them more than deer fleeing the hounds: sunbathing on stolen towels in somebody else's back yard, splashing Jason with a garden hose and letting him tackle her into a hammock, and drinking rum and Coke as the sun dives burning into the sea.

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2. Wrong Turn at Albuquerque: Chronicles of Narnia, Pevensies & Tirian, "I don't think this is where we're supposed to be," for snacky (275 words)

"Further up and further in!" cried Jewel, and they all raced along the green valley at the top of the waterfall, toward the great snow-capped mountains rising before them like a dream of the uttermost West, moving so fast they were more flying than running and even water and air felt like solid ground to their feet, till at last at the far end of a long, twisting lake that was blue as turquoise they saw a smooth green hill, its sides steep as a pyramid and smooth as glass, crowned by a green wall beyond which rose the dark green branches of a grove of evergreens: pine and spruce and fir, Tirian thought.

"Further up and further in!" Jewel called again, and they followed the Unicorn, charging straight at the foot of the hill and running up it like water from a broken wave runs up a rock at the base of an ocean headland, and despite the steepness and smoothness of the grass, no one slipped until they reached the top and a great iron gate that stood open to receive them; they raced through... and stopped, confused, as the glorious summer of Aslan's country gave way to the bitter chill of winter, and the sky grew dark with brooding snow clouds, and the only light was the dim, yellow glow of a glass-paned lamp set on an iron post high above them.

"Oh, bother," said King Edmund, after a long space of confused silence, during which Tirian began to feel that the trees were glaring down at them with sightless suspicion and malice, "we shall have to do it all over again."

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3. Geometry: Geometry, Point A/Point B, is this the end of the line? for lizzie_marie_23 (50 words)

"Of course not," B says in its fussy, punctilious way. "Lines don't have ends, so we'd be two among infinity; what's special about that?"

A somehow seems to acquire measurable dimension as it sidles closer to B and murmurs, "Okay, baby, then how about an arc?"

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4. Bad Influence: Chronicles of Narnia/Star Trek, Edmund & Jim, hotwiring a car, for lizzie_marie_23 (475 words)

The Pevensies are strange, and not in a good way. Anyone in Riverside will tell you that. The nicer ones will then hurry to qualify the disapproval with a spate of excuses -- "Not their fault, not really, not when the ship went down after the mutiny and they were raised by primitives centuries away from a First Contact and there was that whole mess with supposed prophecies and accidental new religions and all that" -- but still, the Pevensies are strange and nobody wants much to do with them.

Jim takes this as a dare.

Peter, the eldest, gives him one look and writes him off as a nuisance before diving back into his books; he's determined to remaster the culture of his birth and tolerates no interference. Susan just smiles and pats Jim on the head as if she's his mother's age... and something in the back of her eyes tells him not to push, that she has sharp edges he doesn't want to see uncovered. Little Lucy, dancing on the cusp of thirteen, grins and tells him, "Mr. Tumnus always said I'd figure out what boys were for sooner or later, and I think I'm starting to see what all the fuss is about. You're only sixteen; that doesn't count as statutory rape, right?" Jim manages a pale imitation of his usual smirk, says, "It's illegal in Iowa until you're fourteen, sorry. Maybe in a couple years?" and flees the house Starfleet bought for the siblings with their inheritances and a decade of back salary for their dead parents.

Edmund, the last of them, is waiting on the porch; he trips Jim with a casually outstretched foot and leans against the rail, digging dirt from under his fingernails with a wickedly sharp switchblade. "I don't care what you do or don't with Lucy," he says, forestalling Jim's protest of innocence. "That's her business and she can take care of herself. I've heard you're a man who knows things, though, and I could use a guide to this world. None of your rules make sense, and I don't feel right using tools I can't make or fix myself."

Jim nods. He can sympathize with that. He's spent most of his life fighting against the straightjacket of too-solicitous rules, and he's always thought the only good machines are ones he builds himself... or at least tweaks to his own satisfaction. And hey, finally one of the Pevensies is talking his language. He'd been afraid he'd have to admit defeat and never learn the real story about the Pevensies' decade on Narnia and what it's like to grow up as the quasi-divine savior figures of another species.

"Want to learn how to hotwire a car?" he asks, putting as much friendly challenge into his voice and eyes and posture as he can.

Edmund flips his knife shut and grins. "Lead the way."

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5. Of Mourning: Chronicles of Narnia, Lord Peridan and/or Tumnus, the decision to lock up the treasury once and for all, for snitchnipped (200 words)

The privy council stops using the throne room within a month, after; it feels wrong to see the four thrones empty and know their rightful owners would never return to fill them, and even sitting in a plain chair at the foot of the dais to show that he is only a steward until the country gathers to choose a proper king seems presumptuous to Peridan.

"They will elect you, of course," Tumnus says, and he turns out to be right, but this does nothing to make the room feel less empty; if anything, it increases Peridan's sense that Cair Paravel and the very earth and blood and breath of Narnia from which it was born are mourning the lost kings and queens.

He goes one step further and locks the room entire, and the treasury vault as well; they have other halls in which to place a lesser throne for him to use, other vaults to hold those treasures which do not carry the freight of grief and memory -- this one, Peridan thinks, this chamber in the buried heart of his sovereigns' chosen home, will be the grave and tombstone no one can build for bodies vanished into myth.

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6. Thelema: Biblical, girl!Serpent/Eve, it's Madam and Eve and they don't need Adam, for lizzie_marie_23 (250 words)

The garden is perfect: warm sun brilliant in the clearings and split into many colors when filtered through the screen of leaves and flowers; water sweet and fresh in the four streams that flow out the gates of the cardinal directions, pooling now and then into silent, secret holes where fish swim mysterious in the depths and Eve can sink down to watch them for as long as she can hold her breath; fruit and grain and roots and vegetables ripe and heavy, just waiting for someone to notice and touch them before they come loose in her hands; Adam over her and under her as they laugh and touch and tease, two souls seeking to become one body again for nothing but the pleasure of it.

The garden is perfect, and yet.

When the serpent coils along the branch of the Tree and whispers to Eve of the wider world, her voice sinuous and soft like a caress to the ear; when the serpent coils along Eve's arm and whispers of knowledge and freedom, her voice low and lush like the wet warmth between Eve's legs; when the serpent coils around Eve's neck and whispers of gods and angels, of Lilith and demons, of punishments foreordained, her voice sharp and strong like the kiss of her fangs in Eve's lip; when the serpent coils in her hair like a living crown and whispers of choices -- Eve listens, and Eve eats, and Eve makes her own way out.

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7. Happily Married: Chronicles of Narnia, Cor/Aravis, so kiss me first/ then do your worst to me, for vialethe (100 words)

Aravis threw open the door and Cor knew from the set of her shoulders and the sound of her breath -- just a shade too rapid and heavy to mean excitement rather than fury -- that he was in for a fight.

"Excuse me," he said to the Terebinthian ambassador, and whirled his wife into his arms as she strode into the audience chamber in a storm of silk and leather and midnight hair -- she melted into his kiss, her mouth soft against his even as her hands rose to dig bruising dents into his shoulders.

The moment they broke apart, Aravis began to curse, and Cor sat down to listen attentively.

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8. Target Practice: Captain America, Peggy/Steve/Bucky, target practice, for be_themoon (300 words)

Peggy would make a hell of a sniper if they could get her in the field, Bucky thinks as he watches her work out her frustration at the shooting range -- it'd take a bit of practice, since she's used to pistols instead of rifles, but she has the eye and the nerve and a steely calm that mirrors the cold stillness Bucky never realized was in his heart until he shot a man in the back from over a thousand yards away and realized he didn't feel a thing.

Steve can't shoot for beans, which is weird when you think about how he throws that damn shield of his, like he can think seven rebounds ahead and know exactly what angle and how much force to use so he and the shield arrive in the same place again with everyone else in the room laid low, but then again it's a shield, not a sword, and even improvised into a weapon Steve's so careful not to let it strike too hard and kill unless he absolutely has to -- no real surprise, then, that he doesn't work too hard improving his aim with a gun. The surprise is how much watching Peggy and Bucky shoot turns him on, even if he tries not to show it as he stands off to the side and pretends to reread their latest orders.

Bucky lifts his own regulation pistol and steps forward, eyes catching Steve's for a long, hot second before Steve flushes and looks back down; just before he shoots he whispers sidemouth to Peggy, "I give it ten more minutes until he jumps us, unless you'd rather we jump him first."

The crack of his gun drowns out her words, but the spark in her eyes is all the answer he needs.

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9. Open All the Doors: X-Men: First Class, Charles/Raven/Erik, everything good comes in three, for grim_lupine (250 words)

It's hard beyond hard to break the habits of decades, but Raven slips into Charles's study -- not the kitchen this time, he can't complain about her being naked in public, and anyway she's shaped a bit of herself into a little white sundress just to forestall the prudery he wears like a shield against the darker currents of the mind-sea he swims in -- and clears her throat to interrupt his game (chess or otherwise) with Erik.

"Charles," she says, "Charles, you have to stop making assumptions and listen to us, and make us listen to what you mean instead of just what you say -- you're not as good with words as you think you are, no matter how much you practice, and we can't keep going on half-truths and misunderstandings, not when we're fighting for our right to even exist, let alone stop hiding who we really are."

She takes his wrists and raises his hands, presses one to her face and the other to Erik's -- Erik stills for a moment, his eyes searching her face until something clicks into place, south pole locking onto north, and he gives her a tiny nod and wraps his hand around hers, pulling Charles's limp fingers to his temple -- and when Charles tries to pull back, when he says, "But I shouldn't, I promised you, Raven, it's not right," Raven weighs what she wants against what she fears, and drops all her shields to ask her brother in.

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10. Irrevocable: Game of Thrones/Merlin, Robb/Gwen, choices, for elenielofnarnia (350 words) NOTE: more ASoIaF than the TV show. Also, spoilers!

Jeyne's maid -- a quiet young woman with curly hair, dusky skin, and a softly foreign accent -- brings Robb the news from Winterfell, presenting him the raven-scratched letter with a respectful curtsey and gentle empathy in her eyes; she shuts the door and turns her back while he reads and feels the first shock of loss like steel through his guts.

"My lady wishes you to know that she shares your grief," the maid says, "and that whatever comfort she can offer is yours."

When Robb rises -- when did he fall? he has no memory of sinking to the hard stone floor -- and makes to open the door, the maid stops him, her work-roughened hand steady and oddly strong where she grips his wrist. Startled, he looks down and realizes that for all her courtesy, she meets his eyes as if facing an equal, not a commoner to a king.

"Some choices, once made, cannot be taken back," the maid says. "My lady has a great heart, as do you, but monarchs must think of their people before themselves. You have given your word of honor to the Freys--"

"A pox on the Freys," Robb snarls. "They have no honor, no more than Theon proved to have, nor the whole world. Grey Wind and Jeyne are the only ones who have been true to me, and that is worth a kingdom."

The maid steps back and lets him go, and he buries his grief in Jeyne's arms. But as dawn eases cold and grey over the horizon, Robb finds himself haunted by the regret and understanding in her eyes. He has reshaped his life with one night's action, and he cannot help but wonder what choice led Jeyne's maid to the Westerlands and the Crag, and whether she would change it if she had the chance. He wonders if he would change his own path.

But time turns back for no one, and Jeyne is warm in his arms. Robb sighs, and prepares to forge his path anew through the chaos of his ruined world.

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I will post the girl!Arthur/Eames fics tonight or tomorrow. Now I am off to fold laundry. Ah, laundry. So necessary, yet so evil.

Comments

[branchandroot]

I have so much love for the Narnia/Star Trek one, there are just no words. It's perfect, and it makes so very much sense.

Also, love the girl!Serpent one.

[edenfalling]

It's not really the tone that is my canon-of-the-heart for Narnia, but the Pevensies slipped into Star Trek much easier this way. And I may secretly have spent at least an hour hacking through some of the logistical snags in turning LWW-era Narnia into a science fiction planet instead of a fantasy country... which of course I will never do anything with, so really, what is the use? World-building is a dangerous addiction. *wry*

I am quite fond of the girl!Serpent one myself. :-)

[philippos42]

The one in Aslan's Country made me laugh.

[edenfalling]

Thank you! That was the intention. :-)

[hungrytiger11.livejournal.com]

I liked all of them but I must say, Tirian and the Pensvies ending back up at the beginning of their story was a brilliant stroke in such a short story.

I also loved the idea that Cor would kiss his wife before a fight/problem. Just to remind themselve they lvoe each other, I suppose <3 and Perdian's story breaks my heart a little. It also makes me curious though.. when did Narnia become invaded/whatever by telemaine and the animals have to go into hiding in your personal timeline for the history of Narnai and Calomene?

[edenfalling]

Isn't snacky's prompt wonderful? It set off dozens of ideas in my head -- crossovers galore, everyone winds up in England waiting for the train, the Wood Between the Worlds, etc. -- but this one was the funniest, I think. Except maybe the Winnie-the-Pooh crossover. That one is still nagging at me. (You can see its influence in Edmund's choice of exclamation, in fact. *grin*)

The Telmarines are very unlikely to have invaded immediately after the Pevensies' disappearance. My reasoning is as follows: first, when Aslan is explaining the situation, he says that the reason Narnia was in disarray at the time of the invasion was a long story, whereas if it had been immediately after the White Stag business, that would be a very short story, at least to the Pevensies. Second, there's an implication that most of the Telmarine kings were named Caspian, from Caspian the Conqueror down to our Caspian's father... and our Caspian is only the tenth of his name. Assuming an average reign of 40 years (which is madly generous, really, when you take war and disease into account), and furthermore assuming at least five kings who weren't named Caspian (just to be conservative), that gives us 14 kings before Caspian reigning for 560 years... which means at least 400 years between the Pevensies' era and the Telmarine conquest.

Briefly, I tend to assume that during the Pevensies' reign, a lot of the descendants of Narnian refugees -- humans, beasts, beings, and all -- come back to reclaim their old lands. Peridan is one of those, from a formerly noble house. So when the four legendary rulers vanish, the Narnians elect one of the "native" humans to be monarch, since that is how things have always been done there. And Peridan's line continues, with the usual dynastic zigzags and occasional interruptions to put contesting claimants to a general election/acclamation, until the Telmarines march in somewhere between 400 and 600 years after the Pevensies' day. (I suspect the disarray Aslan refers to is caused by a case of two or more potential heirs starting a small civil war to fight it out rather than waiting for and/or abiding by the results of an election. Possibly one faction even invites them in, thinking to gain new supporters, and discovers too late what a mistake that was.)

[hungrytiger11.livejournal.com]

Okay, timeline-wise that does make a lot of sense (I've seen it played both ways...). As a child, I'd always pictured it as combination of no-humans-as-kings problem and as a waning-of-faith (in Aslan) issue, rather like the Isrealites went through phases in the OT. But, for some reason, I'd read AHahB last, so... it wasn't till then, I'd realized that people still were around.


I like this, but then I always really like your Narnia history! :)

[edenfalling]

More random information! Lewis wrote up a Narnian timeline at some point, but it's not really official as it never made it into the books. (The map is the same way; it only counts if you want it to count.) Anyway, according to that, the Pevensies vanished in 1015 (Narnian years), the Telmarines invaded in 1998, Caspian was born in 2290, and the Pevensies returned to Narnia in 2303. Which means there were ten Telmarine kings (not counting Miraz) over roughly 300 years, for an average reign length of 30 years each... and Narnia remained free for nearly a thousand years after the Pevensies vanished.

I am not sure I believe that in the fine details -- Caspian's age is never specified in the books, and I think VDT works better if you assume he was closer to 15 in PC, so he's about 18 when he meets the Star's daughter -- but it does support my general theory that Narnia was a successful and independent country for centuries after the Pevensies' departure. :-)

[hungrytiger11.livejournal.com]

Cool! Thanks for the link.

Huh. You know, in the entire time I've known the books (and hence of the three year age gap)...well, I've always assumed Caspian was around 13 in PC (probably due largely to the pictures...). But I'm not sure I've noticed that Caspian, at three years older, would only be 16... eh, maybe I'll mentally think 14 and 17. After all, he doesn't seem that into girls at the beginning and its several months between the Pensvies boarding and Caspian meeting the Star.

Now, how old do you think Peter is in PC? (and Edmund, and Lucy in VotDT?)

[hungrytiger11.livejournal.com]

Actually, reading the time line it seems that Peter was 14 in PC and Lucy only 10 or 11 in VotDT. And Jill and Eustace 9-11 ish in Silver Chair... For some reason I always forget how young they are in the books. Well, 11 isn't so young, I suppose but that means Ed and Lu were like 7 and 8 or so in the first book!


Memories!

[edenfalling]

I always forget how young they are in the books.

Me too! I think it's because Lewis writes them being so competent and acts as if it's perfectly normal for small boys to be fighting in a battle -- like, if Edmund's in the battle he cannot (in my head) be younger than ten, or I would have to start worrying about child endangerment and stuff. So that automatically knocks everybody else a couple years older too.