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tigriswolfTitle: The privilege to die
Fandom: Inception/Highlander
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Dickinson.
Warnings: AU; mentions of violence; OC character death
Pairings: Eames/Arthur
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 965
The first time they ever met, Eames was older than dirt and Arthur’s thirteenth summer had just passed. He was on the cusp of manhood, but the rainy season brought a plague that took the whole tribe save a handful of children. Those, the raiders took.
The boy-who-would-one-day-be-Arthur was a strong, capable slave. He tried protecting his fellow survivors, but by the time his fourteenth summer passed, he alone remained.
He did not know it was because of the fox whose life he spared. He would not know for a long time.
.
The second time they met, the man-who-would-soon (for a relative value of soon)-be-Arthur had just awoken from his first death. His masters had been massacred and the new raiders decided to keep only the female slaves. All the men and boys were killed.
Arthur-to-be had lost count of his age, but he knew he couldn’t be more than twenty. He died fighting, and he was glad of it.
But he woke up and there was a colorful bird watching him. He got over his shock quickly (maybe he didn’t die, after all?), burned his fellow slaves’ bodies, ignored the corpses of his masters, and tried to catch the bird for dinner.
The bird laughed at him, but he finally followed it to a caravan led by a man called Adamas, who smiled at him and made his insides tremble. Adamas nodded to the bird and brought not-yet-Arthur to a pallet, bidding him rest.
In the morning, Adamas showed him how to use a sword and named him Ater.
Ater spent many summers with Adamas, though he never grew older than he was when the raiders killed him. Every spring, the bird who led him to Adamas returned, and eventually, he left Adamas, following the bird again.
.
Ater changed with the times, the way his first and only teacher taught. He had lived, and he grew stronger, and he fought when necessary. As the years passed, he amassed a great many heads, though he rarely sought them out.
He wanted only to live. He didn’t care for some far-oft maybe prize.
.
His name changed frequently (for a relative value of frequently) and eventually, he chose Arthur, which would remain as part of his name for the rest of his lives. He liked the irony – an immortal named after the Once and Future King. He knew Adamas would get a kick out of it, too.
The first time he and Eames spoke was while he was a page in the Virgin Queen’s court. Eames was calling himself Robin and when he wasn’t charming the queen, he was making eyes at Arthur.
Arthur didn’t recognize him yet. But it came time for him to die and he left England for Italy, and then wandered as he saw fit.
.
The second time they spoke, Eames was furious and Arthur’s body still healing from the gas chamber. He looked at the angry man holding him up and saw wings at his back, a bushy tail.
“You,” he gasped, lungs finally starting to work again. His long-faded memories were sharp – a fox and a bird, and his life spared.
Eames carried him out, and neither of them glanced at the people who didn’t notice their passage. They never spoke of it, but Arthur knew that none of the doctors who studied him – his healing, his pain threshold – survived.
Eames took him to Adamas – Matthew Adams, this life – and the three of them went to Canada, where they lived out the rest of the war.
After they had settled, Arthurs sat Eames down and ordered him to explain. Eames shrugged, grinning, and said, “I’m a trickster, love. We’re free as the wind, and just as immortal.”
“I’m immortal,” Arthur countered. “And I can’t feel you like I do Matthew.”
Eames shook his head. “I’m not like you, Arthur.” He spread his hands, smirking as he said, “I can’t die a’tall.”
.
The war ended, as wars do, and the three separated again. Matthew returned to Europe, Eames to wherever he was when not watching Arthur, and Arthur traveled to South America.
Arthur went back to the States when he heard about a new technology that allowed people to dream-walk.
When he left the American military, he took the technology with him. And when one of the doctors from the program called him in a panic not long after, well. It’d been awhile since he was such a well-paid criminal.
.
Of course Eames was involved in dreamshare. And as a forger, no less. He smirked at Arthur the first time they worked together, when Cobb introduced them.
For the first time, Eames was called Eames. Neither of them let on that they’d met a long time before.
Cobb insisted they have a totem, a way to tell dreams from reality. Eames laughed to Arthur later how ridiculous it was – dreams or reality, there’s no difference to a trickster.
Arthur’s totem was the lightning that didn’t dance on his skin in dreams. He had a fake one to satisfy Cobb and explain to the newbies, and Eames laughed about that, too.
.
Soon enough, Arthur was known as the best of the best. When Cobb retired after the Fischer job, Arthur was the one sought after for the impossible jobs. By that time, it was known that Eames only worked with Arthur.
When Arthur died, nobody was surprised that Eames’ vengeance was both bloody and loud. That he vanished afterwards – no one was shocked then ,either.
In Italy, a young student named Arturo met a grinning trickster at the coast. They held hands as they walked along the shore, splashing their feet in the surf.
This would be a quiet life, Arthur decided. And this time, he’d be keeping Eames for good.
Title: it was his lode, his lord, his appointed star
Fandom: Avengers movieverse
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from C. Day-Lewis
Warnings: character death, violence, torture, past-mind control.
Pairings: Loki/Clint
Rating: PG13(?)
Wordcount: 845
Point of view: third
Note: same verse as this.
Prompt: So I know this is absolutely some sort of lousy clichés on an old-fashion hateship where always end up with heartbreak or death or anything else like that. But, you know... it just... there's NO possible that I can get my mind out of this.*SOBBING*
5+1. Five times Loki know well that Clint will obey his orders without any hesitation and one time he let him hand over his heart.
I'll be very very Very very appreciate if your fill could be with an happy ending, because I have given much weeping to this damn ship.
Loki watches his warrior send arrow after arrow into the target. Every ring is filled, no arrow touching another, and the one sent into the center explodes, leaving only a scorch mark on the floor after the smoke clears.
“Would you like a mission, Clint?” he calls, materializing behind him, leaning against the wall. He knows it gives his warrior a thrill to hear Loki speak his name.
“Yes, sir,” Clint says, turning on his heel and lowering his weapon.
Loki smiles.
.
Nick Fury takes a two day vacation once a year. No one knows where he goes or what he does, but he always comes back relaxed, with a smile that terrifies all of his subordinates. (Coulson hadn’t been frightened, but he’s been gone for a year and a half now. Even Hill still gets nervous. It’ll take time, but he’s sure she’ll one day be as good as Coulson.)
This year, six months after Loki snatched Barton away and vanished, Nick is in Seattle and watching bad television. His phone is off, he’s not checking email, and Hill has orders to only get him if the fate of the entire world hangs in the balance.
The glass has been reinforced to withstand anything humans can manufacture. That doesn’t stop a bullet made by Loki, aimed by Hawkeye, from going in his one good eye and out the back of his head.
When Hill finds him two days later, the only thing left in the building is his body.
.
Victor von Doom had thought to use his partnership with Loki to his advantage and then execute Loki the moment he became anything but completely helpful.
He used Loki’s intelligence, his abilities, and his resources, and then tried to double-cross Loki, hoping their mutual enemies would take care of the hindrance for him.
Loki modifies the arrow used on Thor, when he revealed his reclaiming of his favorite Midgardian, and laughs when Hawkeye lets it fly.
Dr. Doom is left in the den of the Fantastic Four’s living quarters. Surveillance reveals that Reed Richards’ sobs like a baby when he absentmindedly wanders towards the kitchen for breakfast.
For months, everyone is sure Dr. Doom is simply faking his death – but he never surfaces anywhere and his criminal empire is in shambles.
.
Thor invites his friends from Asgard to visit Earth. He takes them to all his favorite spots, shares with them all his favorite foods, and gives them a tour of SHIELD, to explain what he is doing on Midgard.
With his teammates’ help, he even demonstrates all their strengths.
Volstagg is the first to fall, mid-word. (Loki wonders if anyone understands that is a mercy – Volstagg had always been the kindest.) Fandrall is next, then Hogun. The Avengers institute a lockdown, but Thor is frozen, looking at his friends. He turns to Sif, horror in his eyes, and she dodges, trying to bat something out of the air.
Thor has not heard Sif scream since they were children together, but she screams in pain, in rage, until she can’t anymore.
No explanation is found, for how Hawkeye could have possibly gotten into the facility undetected. None of their scientists can determine the poison used; the pellets that delivered it dissolve before any testing can be conducted.
Loki, of course, Thor mutters wearily. Of course Loki. He takes their bodies home, for a warrior’s sendoff, and does not try to determine what his brot-Loki could have possibly gained from this.
.
There is one man on Earth who can comprehend the tesseract. SHIELD thought to hide him away, following the failed invasion. Hoard his knowledge. Learn everything he knows.
Erik Selvig never notices his shadow. Nor does Jane Foster realize until three days later, when Selvig’s body is found, how close she came to dying.
Clint had no orders regarding her, and so he left her alive.
.
Captain America is the heart of the Avengers. Loki doesn’t want him dead, but he gives Clint leave to do whatever he chooses.
So while Loki’s true plan goes off without a hitch, Clint provides a very distracting distraction by filling Steve Rogers full of arrows. He uses everything in his arsenal but the truly fatal, utilizing a mini-portal Loki created to building-hop so no one can find him.
He waits until the last possible moment, watching Black Widow and Iron Man remove the arrows while Hulk smashes buildings looking for him, and then he leaves.
.
“If I asked you to prove your loyalty,” Loki murmurs into Clint’s ear, arms curled loosely around Clint, his chest to Clint’s back, “if I told you to kill whoever you loved most in the world… what would you do?”
Clint thinks it over for a few minutes, head resting on Loki’s shoulder, neck bared. Then he says, “I’d kill my older brother, sir. And Natasha.”
Loki kisses behind his ear, trails his lips down his throat, and whispers, “See that it’s done, my warrior hawk.”
“Yes, Loki,” Clint gasps, and Loki stares into his blue eyes, clear as the sky, smiling.
Fandom: Inception/Highlander
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Dickinson.
Warnings: AU; mentions of violence; OC character death
Pairings: Eames/Arthur
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 965
The first time they ever met, Eames was older than dirt and Arthur’s thirteenth summer had just passed. He was on the cusp of manhood, but the rainy season brought a plague that took the whole tribe save a handful of children. Those, the raiders took.
The boy-who-would-one-day-be-Arthur was a strong, capable slave. He tried protecting his fellow survivors, but by the time his fourteenth summer passed, he alone remained.
He did not know it was because of the fox whose life he spared. He would not know for a long time.
.
The second time they met, the man-who-would-soon (for a relative value of soon)-be-Arthur had just awoken from his first death. His masters had been massacred and the new raiders decided to keep only the female slaves. All the men and boys were killed.
Arthur-to-be had lost count of his age, but he knew he couldn’t be more than twenty. He died fighting, and he was glad of it.
But he woke up and there was a colorful bird watching him. He got over his shock quickly (maybe he didn’t die, after all?), burned his fellow slaves’ bodies, ignored the corpses of his masters, and tried to catch the bird for dinner.
The bird laughed at him, but he finally followed it to a caravan led by a man called Adamas, who smiled at him and made his insides tremble. Adamas nodded to the bird and brought not-yet-Arthur to a pallet, bidding him rest.
In the morning, Adamas showed him how to use a sword and named him Ater.
Ater spent many summers with Adamas, though he never grew older than he was when the raiders killed him. Every spring, the bird who led him to Adamas returned, and eventually, he left Adamas, following the bird again.
.
Ater changed with the times, the way his first and only teacher taught. He had lived, and he grew stronger, and he fought when necessary. As the years passed, he amassed a great many heads, though he rarely sought them out.
He wanted only to live. He didn’t care for some far-oft maybe prize.
.
His name changed frequently (for a relative value of frequently) and eventually, he chose Arthur, which would remain as part of his name for the rest of his lives. He liked the irony – an immortal named after the Once and Future King. He knew Adamas would get a kick out of it, too.
The first time he and Eames spoke was while he was a page in the Virgin Queen’s court. Eames was calling himself Robin and when he wasn’t charming the queen, he was making eyes at Arthur.
Arthur didn’t recognize him yet. But it came time for him to die and he left England for Italy, and then wandered as he saw fit.
.
The second time they spoke, Eames was furious and Arthur’s body still healing from the gas chamber. He looked at the angry man holding him up and saw wings at his back, a bushy tail.
“You,” he gasped, lungs finally starting to work again. His long-faded memories were sharp – a fox and a bird, and his life spared.
Eames carried him out, and neither of them glanced at the people who didn’t notice their passage. They never spoke of it, but Arthur knew that none of the doctors who studied him – his healing, his pain threshold – survived.
Eames took him to Adamas – Matthew Adams, this life – and the three of them went to Canada, where they lived out the rest of the war.
After they had settled, Arthurs sat Eames down and ordered him to explain. Eames shrugged, grinning, and said, “I’m a trickster, love. We’re free as the wind, and just as immortal.”
“I’m immortal,” Arthur countered. “And I can’t feel you like I do Matthew.”
Eames shook his head. “I’m not like you, Arthur.” He spread his hands, smirking as he said, “I can’t die a’tall.”
.
The war ended, as wars do, and the three separated again. Matthew returned to Europe, Eames to wherever he was when not watching Arthur, and Arthur traveled to South America.
Arthur went back to the States when he heard about a new technology that allowed people to dream-walk.
When he left the American military, he took the technology with him. And when one of the doctors from the program called him in a panic not long after, well. It’d been awhile since he was such a well-paid criminal.
.
Of course Eames was involved in dreamshare. And as a forger, no less. He smirked at Arthur the first time they worked together, when Cobb introduced them.
For the first time, Eames was called Eames. Neither of them let on that they’d met a long time before.
Cobb insisted they have a totem, a way to tell dreams from reality. Eames laughed to Arthur later how ridiculous it was – dreams or reality, there’s no difference to a trickster.
Arthur’s totem was the lightning that didn’t dance on his skin in dreams. He had a fake one to satisfy Cobb and explain to the newbies, and Eames laughed about that, too.
.
Soon enough, Arthur was known as the best of the best. When Cobb retired after the Fischer job, Arthur was the one sought after for the impossible jobs. By that time, it was known that Eames only worked with Arthur.
When Arthur died, nobody was surprised that Eames’ vengeance was both bloody and loud. That he vanished afterwards – no one was shocked then ,either.
In Italy, a young student named Arturo met a grinning trickster at the coast. They held hands as they walked along the shore, splashing their feet in the surf.
This would be a quiet life, Arthur decided. And this time, he’d be keeping Eames for good.
Title: it was his lode, his lord, his appointed star
Fandom: Avengers movieverse
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from C. Day-Lewis
Warnings: character death, violence, torture, past-mind control.
Pairings: Loki/Clint
Rating: PG13(?)
Wordcount: 845
Point of view: third
Note: same verse as this.
Prompt: So I know this is absolutely some sort of lousy clichés on an old-fashion hateship where always end up with heartbreak or death or anything else like that. But, you know... it just... there's NO possible that I can get my mind out of this.*SOBBING*
5+1. Five times Loki know well that Clint will obey his orders without any hesitation and one time he let him hand over his heart.
I'll be very very Very very appreciate if your fill could be with an happy ending, because I have given much weeping to this damn ship.
Loki watches his warrior send arrow after arrow into the target. Every ring is filled, no arrow touching another, and the one sent into the center explodes, leaving only a scorch mark on the floor after the smoke clears.
“Would you like a mission, Clint?” he calls, materializing behind him, leaning against the wall. He knows it gives his warrior a thrill to hear Loki speak his name.
“Yes, sir,” Clint says, turning on his heel and lowering his weapon.
Loki smiles.
.
Nick Fury takes a two day vacation once a year. No one knows where he goes or what he does, but he always comes back relaxed, with a smile that terrifies all of his subordinates. (Coulson hadn’t been frightened, but he’s been gone for a year and a half now. Even Hill still gets nervous. It’ll take time, but he’s sure she’ll one day be as good as Coulson.)
This year, six months after Loki snatched Barton away and vanished, Nick is in Seattle and watching bad television. His phone is off, he’s not checking email, and Hill has orders to only get him if the fate of the entire world hangs in the balance.
The glass has been reinforced to withstand anything humans can manufacture. That doesn’t stop a bullet made by Loki, aimed by Hawkeye, from going in his one good eye and out the back of his head.
When Hill finds him two days later, the only thing left in the building is his body.
.
Victor von Doom had thought to use his partnership with Loki to his advantage and then execute Loki the moment he became anything but completely helpful.
He used Loki’s intelligence, his abilities, and his resources, and then tried to double-cross Loki, hoping their mutual enemies would take care of the hindrance for him.
Loki modifies the arrow used on Thor, when he revealed his reclaiming of his favorite Midgardian, and laughs when Hawkeye lets it fly.
Dr. Doom is left in the den of the Fantastic Four’s living quarters. Surveillance reveals that Reed Richards’ sobs like a baby when he absentmindedly wanders towards the kitchen for breakfast.
For months, everyone is sure Dr. Doom is simply faking his death – but he never surfaces anywhere and his criminal empire is in shambles.
.
Thor invites his friends from Asgard to visit Earth. He takes them to all his favorite spots, shares with them all his favorite foods, and gives them a tour of SHIELD, to explain what he is doing on Midgard.
With his teammates’ help, he even demonstrates all their strengths.
Volstagg is the first to fall, mid-word. (Loki wonders if anyone understands that is a mercy – Volstagg had always been the kindest.) Fandrall is next, then Hogun. The Avengers institute a lockdown, but Thor is frozen, looking at his friends. He turns to Sif, horror in his eyes, and she dodges, trying to bat something out of the air.
Thor has not heard Sif scream since they were children together, but she screams in pain, in rage, until she can’t anymore.
No explanation is found, for how Hawkeye could have possibly gotten into the facility undetected. None of their scientists can determine the poison used; the pellets that delivered it dissolve before any testing can be conducted.
Loki, of course, Thor mutters wearily. Of course Loki. He takes their bodies home, for a warrior’s sendoff, and does not try to determine what his brot-Loki could have possibly gained from this.
.
There is one man on Earth who can comprehend the tesseract. SHIELD thought to hide him away, following the failed invasion. Hoard his knowledge. Learn everything he knows.
Erik Selvig never notices his shadow. Nor does Jane Foster realize until three days later, when Selvig’s body is found, how close she came to dying.
Clint had no orders regarding her, and so he left her alive.
.
Captain America is the heart of the Avengers. Loki doesn’t want him dead, but he gives Clint leave to do whatever he chooses.
So while Loki’s true plan goes off without a hitch, Clint provides a very distracting distraction by filling Steve Rogers full of arrows. He uses everything in his arsenal but the truly fatal, utilizing a mini-portal Loki created to building-hop so no one can find him.
He waits until the last possible moment, watching Black Widow and Iron Man remove the arrows while Hulk smashes buildings looking for him, and then he leaves.
.
“If I asked you to prove your loyalty,” Loki murmurs into Clint’s ear, arms curled loosely around Clint, his chest to Clint’s back, “if I told you to kill whoever you loved most in the world… what would you do?”
Clint thinks it over for a few minutes, head resting on Loki’s shoulder, neck bared. Then he says, “I’d kill my older brother, sir. And Natasha.”
Loki kisses behind his ear, trails his lips down his throat, and whispers, “See that it’s done, my warrior hawk.”
“Yes, Loki,” Clint gasps, and Loki stares into his blue eyes, clear as the sky, smiling.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-28 09:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-28 03:06 pm (UTC)Thank you!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-28 02:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-28 03:10 pm (UTC)Thanks for reading!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-30 10:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-30 12:54 pm (UTC)Thank you so very much!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-06-02 02:00 am (UTC)One thing I'm not clear on, though: the part at the end where Clint's eyes are described as "clear as the sky", does that mean he's not being mind-controlled? Or does the blue mean that he is? (I don't remember what his natural eye color is.)
...And now I can't help having a mental image of Loki and Natasha getting in a catfight over Clint. LOL.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-06-02 04:35 am (UTC)Jeremy Renner's eyes are blue; he's not being mind-controlled anymore, so they're unclouded.
Thank you for reading!