the deep moans round with many voices

akatsuki210 said: For the "science and magic" prompt: Star Trek: The Next Generation/Sandman. When Data begins to use his dream program, he encounters Morpheus, who welcomes him as the first non-biological life-form to enter the Dreaming.

Note: I seem to have wound up with Daniel rather than Morpheus, whoops. Also, TNG is not really my Trek, so I cribbed everything about Data's dreams from Memory Alpha. *wry* Also also, I'm pretty sure there have been other non-biological species in the Dreaming before -- it's huge, it's old, it touches multiple universes -- but Data can still be the first of his species to get there. (400 words exactly)

[ETA: The AO3 crosspost is now up!]

( Transition State )

Two down, more to go... :)

Two of these are actually from the previous iteration of the ficathon, which I apparently neglected to ever post to my journal. Oops?

Anyway, here is the link to the current ficathon if you want to play too. :D

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( 25. ) For syrena_of_the_lake: Any, any, everything outside us is mad as the mist and snow, written 1/18/16

battle magic (250 words)

"The trouble with magic," Edith said, studying the penciled reports of King Feyraud's current position with an absent frown, "and by 'trouble' I mean the reason it's so inefficient, is that it has no system. Every magician has a different center, which means there isn't any way to generalize from one to another. And that means people who try to turn magic into a rational field of study or practice end up writing treatises of rather dodgy philosophy and dictionaries of ingredients and spells that won't work for anyone but their creators, instead of something useful like a maths textbook or an engineering manual. So yes, I know some battle magic, but that doesn't mean anything in practical terms since none of what I've read will work for me. Especially not Jadis's spells."

"That is very interesting and I'd love to hear more once we're back at Cair Paravel," Mary said, "but at the moment I only need to know if you can do something both large and subtle enough with your shadows to keep the Sarovencian sentries from noticing the raiding party I plan to lead across the river this evening."

Edith lifted her eyes from her contemplation of the map. "Oh, is that all? I can't do it from here, but if I'm with the party, that shouldn't be a problem. It might even be fun." Her hand dropped to the stone knife at her belt, and Mary felt a moment of sympathy for the unsuspecting Sarovencians as her sister smiled.

-----

Note: This wound up as a tiny installment in As the Morning and the Night, my genderswapped Pevensies AU. King Feyraud of Sarovence is an OC ruler of a mountain country near Archenland who has a tenuous blood relation to the old Narnian royal family; he attempts to claim Narnia by conquest both in this AU and in my normal timeline.

I consider this ficlet non-canonical (for the AU) in its fine details, but I intend to rework it into a proper story someday.

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( 26. ) For killing_kurare: Any, Any, You must have made some kind of mistake // I asked for death, but instead I'm awake, written 2/29/16 [AO3 version]

the seer and the light (150 words)

She rises out of the Green Sun, shedding plasma in her wake, and for a moment everything is gloriously, impossibly clear: all the paths of fortune laid out in terrible, shining simplicity to the end of all possible universes. Then it occurs to Rose that sight implies someone to do the seeing, just as paths imply someone to travel them, which implies that she exists, which implies that she isn't done, and her enlightenment begins to fade.

She buries that thought with practiced skill, but buried isn't quite the same as gone and she retains just enough memory of future choices to know that she'll chase that taste of oblivion in other ways -- the same way she's spent her whole life chasing the void where her mother's love should be -- and despite the ruin down that road, she already knows she won't manage to (won't want to) make herself stop.

-----

Note: Homestuck, obviously. :)

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( 1. ) For notoriousreign: MCU, Laura Barton/Clint Barton, vacation, written 11/29/16 [AO3 version]

to get away from it all (175 words)

Once Laura got Clint past the urge to rehang the door of their very swanky hotel suite, and made him call in a tip to SHIELD about the suspicious behavior of the front desk clerk and two of the cleaning staff instead of pursuing the people himself, he settled fairly well into relaxation: his only stipulation that she try either scuba diving or surfing before they headed back north.

"I never really appreciated how fun doing nothing could be, before," he said, breath tickling along the curve of her ear as she lounged on a beach towel and basked in the sun and the pressure of his strong, callused fingers rubbing sunblock into her shoulders and down the hollow of her spine; "Maybe I just needed the right beautiful woman as my partner and mission coordinator."

"I'm telling Nat you said that, and getting Maria to record the resulting carnage," Laura murmured sleepily into the cradle of her folded arms, and smiled to herself at a job well done when Clint stopped his massage to laugh.

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( 2. ) For hanorganaas: Star Wars, Han/Leia, Passionate, written 11/29/16 [AO3 version]

the ruling passion conquers reason still (175 words)

They never stop loving each other; that's not the problem.

It is, however, a symptom of the problem, because the same passion that fuels their connection -- that makes them fight the whole galaxy when it would keep them apart -- drives them in all things, and what they want (besides each other's embrace, and Luke safe, and Vader and the Emperor dead) is fundamentally incompatible; Han will chew off his own legs to win freedom for himself while Leia will bind her entire self into service to win freedom for everyone else, and neither is willing to give in any more than they could possibly let go.

They love each other from a distance, then -- a comet swinging around a sun to spell glory or disaster, a meteor shower burning up in the atmosphere of the planet it can't escape, a pair of unstable stars perturbing each other into massive solar flares -- and each takes comfort knowing the other is out somewhere in the void, burning with a flame as unquenchable as their own.

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( 3. ) For adamas: Daredevil; Ensemble or Matt Murdock/Any; teaching how to see without sight, written 11/30/16 [AO3 version]

absence makes (275 words)

After Karen banged and tripped her way across what felt like miles of treacherous floor and furniture, Matt guided her (both of them still laughing) to his couch and said, "Maybe we should start with something simpler, or at least something that keeps you in one place and doesn't split your focus so much."

"Oh?" Karen said, and immediately wanted to kick herself for the breathless inanity of the word and her tone of voice, and then wanted to kick herself again for the way the jump in her heartbeat and the flush of heat across her cheeks (just kissing the edge of Matt's old mask, pulled low over her eyes) might have given Matt the idea that she was upset at him instead of mildly annoyed at herself and how much this was turning her on.

"Yeah, just, I'm going to hold my hand near some part of your body so you can feel the heat and air displacement -- because nobody's ever completely still -- and see if you can reach out and touch my hand with your own: no guessing," Matt said, sliding one hand through the loose tendrils of her hair as he spoke, in a slow, tender gesture of farewell before he shifted his weight off the couch and left Karen's skin tingling at the suddenly untenable lack of his touch... and she wondered, not for the first time but with more force than ever before, how he could possibly stand to live this way -- all his nerves raw, exposed, and hungry -- because despite the blackness that (temporarily, voluntarily) shrouded her world, she had never been more conscious of his body in her life.

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( 4. ) For silvr_dagger: Star Trek TOS or AOS, T'Pring/Uhura, a logical arrangement, written 11/30/16 [AO3 version]

no diplomacy like candor (250 words)

"He must contribute his genes toward the continuation of our species; he requires an advocate to navigate our people's internal politics in his name and that of his family; and he needs my control to lean on when his own fails, as I am sure you can attest it has done at inopportune moments," T'Pring said, somehow managing to make Spock and Nyota's shared bed and cabin look like a throne in an audience chamber, a domain entirely within her own control rather than someone else's home she had entered without invitation.

"All logical arguments," Nyota said, and left the implicit 'so far as they go, which isn't very' hanging in the tone of her voice, the position of her eyebrows, and the faint roughness at the end of the final word as if she'd been about to lead into another phrase.

T'Pring smiled, as shocking and unexpected as rain in the desert, and said, "A most elegant turn of phrase and a true display of cross-species linguistic mastery, though if you had spoken so to me in another world, I might have challenged you to kal-if-fee for your presumption at standing between me and my betrothed; in this one, however, necessity and loss have taught me the art of compromise, and I think that any person Spock would choose to bind himself to is one I might equally choose for myself, for mind, for soul, and for body -- and most particularly, in matters of the body, for your talented tongue."

-----

Note: I went with AOS. :)

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Part two coming tomorrow, maybe...

Okay so.

I am stuck like a stuck thing on "Guardian" ch. 17 scene 3 (not because I don't know what comes next; I just... can't make the words happen). I can't manage to focus on "The Courting Dance" instead (because guilt? tone mismatch? who even knows; brains are weird), and when I try to avoid the issue and write something completely unrelated, I just kind of blank out, like those two fics are gnawing away all the processing power that would normally go to the part of my brain that comes up with new ideas and/or picks an old idea and says 'your time in the sun has come, small plotbunny!'

I think you see where I am going with this, yes? Yes. It is once again mini-ficlet prompt meme time, because when I can't jumpstart my own creativity, I beg other people to do it for me. (Because it works. Why? Who knows. See above in re: brains being weird.)

The caveat this time is that I want to write fluff!

Here is a link to my open Cotton Candy Bingo card, which still has sixteen unfilled squares. For those who prefer lists to graphics, the open prompts are: picnic, soft, sleepwalking/sleeptalking, tradition, the little things, names/naming, WILD CARD, eyes, favorite, adventure/quest, color, open, cute, cuddle, free, sunrise/sunset.

Leave a comment with one to four characters, a prompt word from the list, and a scenario, and I will write you a ficlet of at least 500 words. Scenarios must be fluffy!

(...Look, I know my definition of fluff can get pretty idiosyncratic. But work with me here, okay? If the characters end the ficlet on a happy note, we're good.)

Anyway, if you have ever wanted a sequel to one of my oneshots, or another installment in any of my series/AUs, this is your chance to make me write it for you. :)

[Obligatory small print: Crossover prompts are fine! I reserve the right to reject fandoms I am not familiar with and produce ambiguous gen when attempting to write shipfic. Also, if someone else has previously claimed your requested prompt word, I will tell you so and offer you a chance to make a new prompt.]

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Fill List:

( 1 ) A Problem That You'll Understand - 1,025 words, jane and dirk, the little things, one of them helps the other recover from a bad mood?, written 4/30/16 for longroadstonowhere. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

( 2 ) Have Dominion - 1,075 words, I'd like to claim Names/Naming for a Narnia ficlet (Magician's Nephew): when Helen was just a girl, it had been so easy to dream up endless names for some future child; now, she had no idea where to start with a veritable zoo of creatures all awaiting names of their own, written 5/1/16 for syrena_of_the_lake. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

( 3 ) But Every Hour Is Saved from That Eternal Silence - 1,450 words, susan pevensie, sleepwalking/sleeptalking, at home in a thunderstorm, written 5/3/16 for rollinginbooks. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

( 4 ) Rekindling - 2,775 words, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke: tradition; Naruto and Sakura accompany Sasuke in some small family or festival tradition., written 5/8/16 for branchandroot. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

( 5 ) Almost at Odds with Morning - 2,100 words, Untimely ripped, Damara (+ another dancestor?), sunrise/sunset. :3, written 5/14/16 for asukaskerian. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

( 6 ) Cardcaptor Uhura - 900 words, Can I use the wild card on: Uhura, Spock and Gaila chase friendly but flighty magical cards (a la Card Captor Sakura)?, written 5/17/16 for sablin27. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

( 7 ) Who Contract the Habit of Eating - 2,450 words, Characters: Rose, Jade, Word: Favourite, Scenario: 'Rose & Jade have very different ideas on favourite food. They try to find something of mutual delight.' Could be in the same universe as Leaf & Letter, but it's so general it doesn't matter x), written 5/29/16 for gracefularchitect. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

( 8 ) Truth or Dare - 875 words, Prompt: Rose + Dirk, Open, making Dave very nervous and Roxy very why-is-everything-always-so-wonderful, written 6/2/16 for runespoor7. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

( 9 ) A Splash of Color - 1,600 words, I would love to claim "color" with Morwen and Telemain and the results that come about when Telemain gets distracted from a tricky experiment, written 6/9/16 for wistfulmemory. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

( 10 ) Responsibility - 2,550 words, Can I claim "adventure/quest" and ask for more of Susan and Lucy's Interesting Times? Please? 'Susan only went to fetch a few jars of jam. Meanwhile, the daring Captain Lucy, aged nine, accompanied by her loyal crew of Otter cubs, set sail to the Port of Pantry', written 6/25/16 for marmota_b. [Tumblr crosspost; AO3 version]

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And that, as of 6/25/16, is a wrap! Thank you for all the prompts. :D

The ficathon itself seems to have petered out, as these things do, but I bookmarked a bouquet of prompts while I was busy with other things and have been filling some now that I have a little breathing space. Only one of these six breaks the three-sentence limit -- yay progress? -- and another is also a double drabble because why not.

As ever, here is the link to the ficathon if you want to play too. :D

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( 19. ) For anonymous: Sailor Moon, Rei Hino, A favorite gemstone of hers had been ruby, written 12/31/15 [AO3 version]

more precious than rubies (125 words)

Rei wondered sometimes, in the quiet watches of the night when she tended the fire and tried to empty her mind of both fear and fury, if any of her childhood likes and dislikes had truly been her own. Rubies, for instance -- her mother had owned a set of ruby teardrop earrings, blood-red stones that flashed with splintered light as if fire burned in their hearts, which Rei had loved to hold up to her own ears and pretend she was a princess; had her love for their color been spontaneous or simply a shadow of lives long lost and yet to come?

She wore her own rubies now, but the gem to which she gave her heart was silver; and that choice, she knew, was real.

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( 20. ) For anonymous: BtVS, Buffy Summers, coloring with a box of crayons and coloring books, written 1/13/16 [AO3 version]

no friend like a sister (300 words)

Buffy buys a coloring book one month after they move to Cleveland, one month after it becomes obvious that she hasn't escaped her unwanted and ill-fitting role as general and president of this slapdash whatever that swallowed her friendships and turned them into a bureaucracy, and starts hiding it inside the notebook she uses to look like she's being productive during meetings; instead, she brings smiling Disney princesses to life with highlighters, watching bright colors bloom into emptiness while she pays just enough attention to ask a question now and then, smile at Xander's jokes, and remind Willow to breathe.

Dawn's the one who catches her -- sneaks behind Buffy's chair on her way back from the kitchen and raises her eyebrows when Buffy doesn't shuffle pages fast enough -- and Buffy winds herself tighter and tighter through the rest of the day until her whole body feels like an electric guitar string, ready to scream at the slightest touch; but nobody comes to confront her and ask if she's feeling all right, if she's lost it, if she truly understands her responsibility she has to help make a better world for all the Slayers called at her orders.

The next day, Dawn breaks into a discussion of real estate and says, "Listen, we've been arguing about all this for weeks and it's stupid; I say if we want to start a school, we should hire people who know how the charter school business works and let the rest of us split up and do what we're actually good at, whether that's magic or translation or, you know, killing vampires and assorted other menaces; and on that note, Buffy and I are moving to Rome as of next Tuesday," and Buffy doesn't think she's ever loved her sister more.

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( 21. ) For samueljames: Star Trek AOS, Gaila/Jim Kirk, she likes making him blush, written 1/14/16 [AO3 version]

but compliments leave us baffled (250 words)

Gaila doesn't make Jim blush for the same reason she embarrasses most other Terrans -- that's a pointed quid pro quo for their blatant species chauvinism, and while Jim's far from perfect, he at least understands that humans are more than the crude stereotypes that other species have enlisted them to play in their own deep-brain livewire taboos -- but she still adores the ipoltu-petal flush that seeps over his cheeks and ears and the way he tries so hard to pretend he's not affected by her words, that other people's opinions can't touch him for ill or for good.

And all she has to do is point out when he's been kind.

Gaila tucks her chin over Jim's shoulder while he and his doctor roommate sit bickering amiably at a dive bar just outside Academy grounds and drawls, in one of the intonations Terrans use to imply sexual gossip, "I heard the most interesting rumor this morning..." -- a calibrated pause, just long enough for his mind to race through all the things she might bring up, both welcome and otherwise -- "that you stayed late to help Ahch Ngirzha clean up his lab space and redo his whole experiment after that sulfuric acid spill yesterday; that was very considerate of you!" she finishes in a completely different tone of voice, and drops a kiss on the tip of Jim's nose to keep herself from laughing as an echo of her favorite flower blooms across his face.

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( 22. ) For betonyb: Hamilton, Eliza/Alexander, Genderswap AU, written 1/15/16 [AO3 version]

thank you for all your service (175 words)

"Elijah Schuyler; it's a pleasure to meet you at last," he says, and, spurred to uncharacteristic daring by the sparkling challenge in the most enchanting eyes he's ever see, drops a kiss to the hand of his elder sister's newest and dearest friend, who has become such a comfort and fixture in Angelica's letters since the evacuation of New York.

"I am sorry it has taken a most grievous and costly war to bring us into the same circles, Lieutenant Schuyler," Alexandra Hamilton says, the gleam in her eyes belying the sober cadence of her voice, "but I confess that in person you live up to all your sister's praise and I must therefore count our meeting nearly as great a blessing for myself as the liberty you are helping to win for our country will be for us all."

Elijah fights down a blush at such an extravagant compliment, and thinks he could happily spend the rest of his life helping this woman receive the respect and admiration that she (like Angelica) self-evidently deserves.

-----

Note: I have no idea how a female Hamilton ends up in America, let alone in a position to mix socially with the Schuyler family and get invited to one of Washington's winter balls. Let's just call it fate. *handwaves briskly*

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( 23. ) For anonymous: Any, any, There are no cities, no cities to love; It's not the city, it's the weather we love!, written 1/16/16 [AO3 version]

walk off the edge of my own life (275 words)

"Okay, okay, truth," Karen said, shoving herself upright on Foggy's couch and slashing her hand through the air in a barely controlled gesture he had to remind himself not to flinch at; "So, imagine a city -- any city, really, but let's go with Manhattan -- and then, you take all the people and move them to, I don't know, California, and you build them a new city; and at the same time you move a million and a half different people into Manhattan so it's not empty anymore, right, and here's the question: which one do you think is the original city?"

"Oh, boo hiss, don't answer her -- we're too drunk for philosophy, and how is that even meant to be embarrassing?" Foggy complained from the depths of his armchair.

"It's a fair question," Matt said slowly, imagining all the people he tried so hard to protect uprooted and adrift in a strange land, trying to recreate New York, and then imagining a sea of strangers equally adrift in the maze of concrete and steel he'd engraved into his bones, learning to love their new home, "and I think... I think a city isn't only the people or only the buildings and streets, so the answer is neither; but both new cities will carry the ideals and mistakes of the old city into the future, just like we carry our pasts with us no matter how hard we try to escape."

He knocked back his shot of whiskey even though the rules didn't require him to, and pretended he couldn't hear the sudden hitch in Karen's breath or Foggy's aborted attempt to stand and give him a hug.

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( 24. ) For anonymous: Sailor Moon, Makoto Kino, A favorite couple of animals of hers had been horses and tropical fish, written 1/17/16 [AO3 version]

habitat (200 words exactly)

"Thanks for coming with me this afternoon, Mako-chan, even though weird ice cream isn't your thing," Usagi said in a slightly guilty tone as she and Makoto exited Namjatown (Usagi with several takeout orders of gyoza stuffed into her shopping bag) -- and then, brightening, added, "Oh wait, I remember you said once that you used to keep tropical fish; we should visit the aquarium and see what kinds they have, since we're already here and it's only fair to do something you like as well as something I like!"

Makoto glanced reflexively upward toward the roof of the mall, thought about the difference between the untamed ocean and tiny glass tanks made to isolate and display their inhabitants, thought about her frantic efforts to create a balanced ecology in the artificial coral reef she'd had to sell when her parents died (and how many fish had perished from her ignorance), and shook her head.

"Let's go to my place instead, so I can show you one of my nature documentary collection and make you something to go with your gyoza," she said, and thanked fate once again for sending Usagi to rescue her from the tank of her own isolation.

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More to follow, possibly...

Summary: This was Gamora's universe, but she acted more out of place and isolated than Gaila. She held herself clenched tight like she was in enemy hands and opening would be to invite poison into her veins. Fortunately Gaila had years of practice forming out-nets and in-nets with aliens. (1,600 words)

Note: This ficlet was written on 3/5/15 for samparker, in response to the Three Sentence Ficathon prompt: Guardians Of The Galaxy/Star Trek AOS, Gamora/Gaila, tenderness. It is a sequel to both Rattle the Cage (wherein Natasha Romanova discovers Gaila imprisoned in a HYDRA lab) and Following the Girl (wherein the Enterprise's cross-universe rescue attempt mixes oddly with the Guardians' attempt to retrieve the Tesseract). There may be one or two more ficlets in this sequence.

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

( The Company of Trees )

That was one of the more frustrating things I've ever written! Not because the characters or scenario were particularly difficult in any objective sense. The words just did not want to come.

I think I may have had a mild blue funk over the past week or two, actually. I have been doing the obsessive reading and sleep-schedule-what-sleep-schedule things, which are fairly reliable symptoms of a depressive episode, and a funk would explain my sudden creativity lapse. I just haven't felt particularly gray, or at least not as compared to how I've been feeling normally over the past few months. Mneh.

Anyway, I got enough sleep last night and I seem to be somewhat more together today, so hopefully if I can get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight and tomorrow that will give me the boost I need to finish hauling myself back up to somewhat more stable mental ground. *crosses fingers*

Oh. Right. And I should remember to eat regular meals. That helps too. *wanders off in search of extremely belated dinner*