the deep moans round with many voices

I've gotten in the habit of posting my fills in sets of six, and there's no reason to fix what isn't broken. :)

All prompts drawn from the current iteration of the Three Sentence Ficathon, hosted by the wonderful rthstewart. Come join the fun!

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( 1. ) For rthstewart: Any, any, reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated, written 2/1/20

We Make Our Own Second Chances (150 words)

Fandom = The Magnus Archives.

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Her replacement yanked open the door to the Archives before Gertrude could knock with the more functional of her rebuilt hands, and exclaimed, in a shocked and slightly offended tone, "I saw your corpse; I was a suspect for your murder; how on earth--!"

"One fascinating thing about having one's face and voice used by the Stranger in the heart of the Unknowing is that when reality becomes utterly malleable, a determined person can wrangle that sliver of near-existence into something more solid once things settle back into place," Gertrude said as she pushed past him and cataloged the changes to her old haunts, and then added, "Admittedly it took longer than I expected, and I'm not entirely certain I got all the pieces in the right order, but the important parts are clear enough. Now, will you help me kill Jonah Magnus or must I continue doing everything myself?"

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( 2. ) For wingedflight: Queen's Thief, Eugenides, what do you mean "kings can't steal"??, written 2/1/20

How You Frame the Question (70 words)

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"Kings do nothing but steal; theft is the very essence of government. Taxes steal money, wars steal land and lives, laws steal freedom, to name simply the most obvious examples -- shall I go on?"

Helen sighed, and kicked her cousin's ankle, and said in the driest tone she could muster, "It was practical advice, not an invitation to philosophy; please stop being so very much yourself before I've eaten breakfast."

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( 3. ) For kalira: Naruto, any ninja, chakra tricks, written 2/1/20

Unorthodox Uses (85 words)

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1. Why clutter your tea ceremony by fussing with a kettle when you can pour a stream of perfectly heated water from thin air into your cup?

2. It's not technically illegal to have a side-job using earth jutsu in the civilian construction industry, and it's not like you undercharge the village by that much, right, so really you're just doing your part to keep the economy turning.

3. Interior design is overrated; just buy cheap secondhand furniture and cast an exciting new genjutsu whenever you have visitors!

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( 4. ) For syrena_of_the_lake: Harry Potter; Professor Kettleburn; occupational hazards, written 2/1/20

Duty of Care (75 words)

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The animals aren't the problem. Oh, certainly they're dangerous if you don't respect them and take sensible precautions, but Kettleburn is an old hand at that game; he knows perfectly well how to keep himself safe in any reasonably foreseeable circumstance (and several unreasonable ones too).

The problem is the students, and their improbable ability to manufacture new deadly accidents waiting to happen, and the damnable need to keep them safe from their own stupidity.

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( 5. ) For shinon: Any, any, back to the drawing board, written 2/2/20

A Change of Perspective (225 words)

Fandom = The Magnus Archives. Text slightly edited from the version on the Ficathon page.

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There is an art book in Artefact Storage, titled Scraps from the Drawing Board and marked with Jurgen Leitner's bookplate, which is not only locked in a safe (as per standard containment protocol) but also wrapped in several layers of very thick and opaque paper, so as to prevent even the most casual glimpse of its cover: nobody is entirely certain who managed to wrap and glue the paper so neatly, or what became of them afterwards, but the rumors surrounding the book's acquisition suggest nothing good.

The story goes that it belonged to an artist obsessed with fractals, Escher, and trompe l'oeil , who became convinced that if she drew the exact right combination of impossible patterns and perspectives that she could walk straight out of the universe; every painting in the book is one of her failed attempts, bound together by her students after she vanished (successful at last? eaten horribly by the Spiral? is there even any difference between those possibilities?), and at best those who flip through all the pages become mangled, screaming impossibilities whose warped bodies cannot long survive once the book is closed and the rational laws of physics reassert themselves.

The worst are those who remain outwardly human, but who nod calmly, close the book, and then head to the nearest art store to buy supplies of their own.

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( 6. ) For ernest: Narnia, girl!Edmund, smoke and blades, written 2/2/20

Pay It Forward (200 words)

For anyone wondering, yes, this is part of As the Morning and the Night continuity.

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The end of a siege is bitter, filthy work, no matter how hard one tries to hold to honor and treat one's enemies with respect -- and Edith tries, both to stop Mary and Stephen from watching her with the shadow of old alienation behind their eyes, and to keep the soldiers under her command from needing to look back on their actions either with horror, or, worse, with rationalizations that will twist their hearts to stone as sure as Jadis once petrified their bodies.

She leads her company through the wreckage of the crude wooden fort, a torn strip of gold and scarlet surcoat wrapped around her face to filter out smoke and sparks from the fires, until she spots a spruce dryad in the colors of the White Army lying crumpled in the ashes; while her squire stands guard, Edith kneels to run her sword through the still-breathing ruin of the dryad's chest, then lifts the new-sprouted seedling from between her wooden ribs to carry away and plant in more auspicious soil.

Edith can't conjure miraculous redemption from before the dawn of time, but mercy, at least, is within her power; and so she grants it where she can.

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More to come, hopefully tomorrow! :)

runespoor7 said: warning signs, NejiHina (or Hinata+Neji), something about them partnering up for political upheaval of the hopeful kind?

Note: This is set in the Summer Camp & Politics AU, directly following After Frost. (Look, if you say "politics" to me in context of Naruto, you have a 98% chance of getting something in this AU. It's reflexive at this point. *wry*) [550 words]

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Which Constrains Them To Alter
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One of the ground rules Tenten had laid down when she agreed to establish a law firm with Neji was a two-hour lunch break from one to three o'clock. The years had given them no reason to alter that policy, though the rule about no politics or business discussion did slip after a while, which was why Neji had his laptop open to watch his cousin make her ghostwritten speech against Uzumaki's bilateral free trade agreement live on K-PAN. He always hated hearing her parrot Uncle Hiashi's words, but this silent witness felt like the least he could do.

Except Hinata set down the papers and spoke in favor instead.

He could almost see the future flicker and lurch like pixelated static resolving into a new image. "Fuck."

"Seconded," Tenten agreed as she muted the broadcast. "I knew Sakura wanted to talk to her about the vote, but..."

"No warning signs?"

"Just general stress, and with Hinata, that's hardly unusual."

"Fuck," Neji said again. He ground the heels of his hands against his eyes, counted to ten, and picked up his cell phone. "Call Assemblywoman Hyuuga's office," he said, and pressed the phone to his ear.

The call went straight to voicemail, where Hinata's recorded voice informed him that the box was full, apologized for the inconvenience, offered her official email as an alternative way to reach her, and terminated the connection.

Neji sighed.

"I don't know what else you expected," Tenten said from across the conference room table, where she was interspersing bites of white rice with a horribly bland mix of skinless chicken, carrot, and wilted spinach. "If you want, I can get her personal number from Sakura -- assuming she hasn't turned that phone off too. There's no way she'll see any emails until next week at best."

Neji considered that for a minute. On the one hand, even a small gesture of support from a family member might go some way toward countering Uncle Hiashi's disapproval. But on the other, if Hinata wanted him to have her private number, she would have found a way to get it to him before now.

He shook his head. "Thanks for the offer, but I like to think I've learned a little bit about boundaries since our teenage years. I won't push her. Just let Sakura know to pass on my support if she has the chance."

"You got it," Tenten said, and set down her chopsticks in order to send a quick text. "Anyway, assuming the treaty passes--"

"After that? It will."

"--assuming it passes, how thoroughly will we need to adjust our arguments in the Makishima case? Considering the international trade terms were a big part of the contract disagreements, I think we might need to--"

Neji's phone rang.

"Hold that thought," he said, and accepted the call. "Hyuuga Neji speaking."

There was a pause on the other end before Hinata's soft voice said, barely audible over the background noise of the Assembly chamber, "Cousin Neji. I'm sorry to bother you, but I think... I think I might need to hire a lawyer. In case Father... after the vote... since I'm only here because of his... um..."

Neji took a deep breath and kept his voice level and calm. "Yes. Of course. When do you want to meet?"

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End of Ficlet

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And now I'm going to take a walk, grab some lunch, and then probably do some more gardening despite the heat. Ugh, summer.

"The Guardian in Spite of Herself" is the sequel to The Way of the Apartment Manager, a canon-divergence AU that starts six years pre-manga. It also has fanart.

Fic Summary: The reward for a job well done is a bigger job. In this case, Ayakawa Yukiko's new job is a lot more complicated than anyone expected. The Uchiha massacre and its aftermath, in the world of "The Way of the Apartment Manager."

Chapter Summary: Chapter the Seventeenth, in which an unexpected development short-circuits yet another interminable Amane family argument, Sasuke and Yukiko have a very bad afternoon, and Eiji opens negotiations. (4,150 words)

Note: Hey, look who's back in business! \o/ :DDD

Also, it's been forever and a day, so a quick recap: Yukiko is en route to Tengai, undercover in a trade caravan, as part of a mission to assassinate Amane Eiji. Sasuke and Naruto are tagging along with Yukiko because of reasons. Eiji is busy trying to overthrow the hidden village system on ethical grounds but A) his plans are rapidly spinning out of control and B) hiring Akatsuki is never a good idea. And Naga, Kakashi, and the three Grass-nin are pursuing Itachi through various neighboring countries.

[ETA: the slightly revised final version is now up on AO3!]

( The Guardian in Spite of Herself, chapter 17 )

It's been a while since I wrote a serious action scene, so if you have any constructive commentary on that front, I am all ears! (Also I'm sure I've screwed up stuff about wagon and harness terminology, so if you know the correct words, by all means please let me know.)

Coming up next: the trade caravan deals with a lot of unpleasant aftermath, Eiji leads an awkwardly tense tour of Tengai (heh, alliteration), and Naga receives an important letter. Or at least that's the outline. We'll see how it plays out in practice...

I arrived at Not the IRS shortly before 9am, and I'm stuck here until 9pm. With no scheduled appointments. *sigh* I made a few appointment-scheduling calls, and have answered the phone a few times, but beyond that I have nothing to do.

So I've been doing some reading, and also some writing.

I am working on an action scene in ch. 17 of "Guardian," which is going... well, it's going. It's going to need a lot of editing to properly fill in the background chaos, but so far I think the bones of the thing are all right. (And kind of gruesome, but that was intentional. This is meant to be traumatizing to several people for several reasons. *evil smile*)

I'm up to ~2,750 words for the chapter, and I think another 500 words or so should finish this scene off.

And then it's back to Eiji & Co, where I get to figure out if I want to do a certain meeting in real time or whether I want to do it as an after-action report. The first option is probably best from a narrative tension standpoint, even if it's pretty stupid from an operational security standpoint. I can even argue that that's in character, since if operational security were Eiji's main concern, he wouldn't be in his current pickle in the first place. *wry*

Also, I would like to report that I spent about half an hour researching mules and wagons and stuff like that, and will have to go back and do some more research to get some additional terminology straightened out. Is this remotely relevant to the overall plot? No. But I needed to know how many panicky animals I'm dealing with, and also exactly how I have them hitched up to the trade wagons. This is relevant for fight choreography!

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ETA 3:45pm

~3,000 words and now I got Yukiko stuck into a single combat I'm not sure how she's supposed to win, given that her skillset lends itself much more to sneaking than open battle.

Well, I mean, there's no reason NOT to make characters be awesome, right? And her taijutsu ought to have improved since "The Way of the Apartment Manager." So I just need to make it cool without being effortless. :)

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ETA 4:00pm

Okay, fight scene is DONE in (very) rough draft.

Now I'm going to take a reading break before I rough out the Eiji & Co scene in a little more detail than its current one-sentence summary. *wry*

I have a new genprompt_bingo card, for Round 15!

This is a wonderfully low-pressure challenge, since fills only need to be 100 words long. I am going to black this card out eventually, but I make no guarantees how long it will take me to get there. :)



( my card )

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Prompts in BOLD have been filled. Also, a list of story links will go here as I write. :)

1. A Matter of Record - 275 words, July 2019, Chronicles of Narnia, biography / autobiography
2. Which Constrains Them To Alter - 550 words, July 2019, Naruto, warning signs
3. Many Happy Returns of the Day - 450 words, July 2019, Defenders (MCU), another year older: birthdays
4. Interrogating the Text from the Wrong Perspective - 125 words, July 2019, Enchanted Forest Chronicles, plays and scripts
5. Aim High - 250 words, July 2019, Vorkosigan Saga, mentors

6. At the Appropriate Time - 250 words, Aug. 2019, Chronicles of Narnia/Harry Potter, heat
7. Wild Honey - 100 words, Jan. 2020, Chronicles of Narnia/Harry Potter, honey
8. I Believe the Children Are Our Future - 1,425 words, Jun. 2020, Chronicles of Narnia, kids / babies
9. Between the Saltwater and the Sea-Strand - 3,515 words, Oct. 2020, Naruto, monsoon