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tigriswolfTitle: the magic of a wish
Original, PG, 445 words
Warnings: references to rape culture
Prompt: author's choice, any, Some stories tell of how to slay or even tame dragons, while others tell of how to become dragons.
She listens to the stories told by the fire on the coldest nights, curled next to her brother—legends of great beasts who must be destroyed as they ravage villages and fields, or of great beasts tamed by innocence and then harnessed for the good of the people. There is always a lesson at the end, but she does not listen to that.
She asks, but once, if people can become the great beasts, and laughter surrounds her, the wise men and storytellers incapable of imagining such things.
Such is the way of women, she hears them mutter. Weak-willed and confused. After all, who would want to be a beast?
Even her brother chuckles, gently patting her back.
They are men, of course. They are already beasts and don't understand the fear that fills her when she walks alone at dusk.
.
She grows. Taller and fairer, angrier and ever more fearful. She does not like feeling afraid. The stories change into legends of gods and heroes, with no more focus on the great beasts.
And then come the rumors of a winged monster merely a few days' ride away, and the village panics at the thought of it coming closer.
She takes a neighbor's horse (for her family has none of their own) and rides.
.
There is a magic in wishing; she has learned that from stories.
Women are weak-willed and confused, but confusion is the last thing she feels as she slips off the horse's back and sends him away.
A creature of wind and fire is billowing its rage at the sky, and she understands what it roars at the heavens. Such has she felt, before, when the miller's boy—
She had told no one, for none would care, not even her brother. What use is a woman?
There is a magic in wishing.
.
Some stories are of slaying the beast; some are of taming it for the good of the people. And there are others, far rarer, never shared, of how truly wishing with all of your heart can turn you into the beast.
A woman goes missing in a small village, the very same day two dragons attack another village nearby—the dragons must have made off with her. Such a shame, the neighbors say, shaking their heads. Such a shame.
.
I have been lonely, the great golden dragon says, ancient beyond measure.
I have been afraid, the pale dragon says, still learning how to fly.
Keep me company, the elder murmurs, and I shall guard you.
The pale dragon trills her gratitude and follows her sister up and up and up, where none can reach her.
Untitled
Fandom: Marvel movies
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: AU
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 200
Point of view: third
Prompt: Mcu, Bruce/Tony, fairy tale fusion
There is a prince trapped in a tower and a monster that guards the steps. The prince reads and rereads the few books left discarded on the dusty shelves and the monster cries in its sleep. It takes months before the prince's temper lessens enough that he offers comfort to the beast.
When the prince's captor returns, months and months later, the prince has long been offering lessons on arithmancy and runes to the monster and even given it a name.
(Here is a secret the prince never says: he'd discovered a way to freedom in the first week.)
The prince's captor backhands him into a wall; he does not mean to cry out, but it escapes and the beast bursts in, loyalty to the prince's captor long eroded by years of pain.
The spell does not end, of course. No story is that easy. It'll take years of research before the prince can offer the monster a way to resume its first form of a man, and whether the beast takes it is another story entirely.
(Here is a secret: the prince is actually a thief, and the beast is actually a prince, but that's another tale.)
Title: you die awake
Fandom: Charmed
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Anne Sexton
Warnings: changed future; references to the unchanged one
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 200
Point of view: third
Prompt: Any. any. s(he) remembers the other timeline.
He doesn't just suddenly remember one day, and he hasn't always remembered. But slowly, he realizes that his thought processes are different, and he has memories of things that never happened.
Except they did, didn't they?
On his fourteenth birthday, he knows that Mom died. But she doesn't. He has a very nice party with all the cousins and kids from school, and Wyatt is there smiling and laughing instead of orbing in too late because he got held up with friends.
Everything is different, except nothing is.
He judges everyone with knowledge he shouldn't have, tempered by experiences he never experienced. He'll realize later just how subtle it was—no one noticed, not even Wyatt.
It's why he'll succeed where his brother failed before; he has seen what went wrong, and knows how to fix it.
He doesn't just suddenly remember, and doesn't just suddenly change. That was Wyatt's greatest mistake, he thinks, listening to his brother complain about one of his classes. It's why the first Chris rejected him so completely.
When Chris offers Wyatt the chance, though, he knows his brother will take it, and they'll be able to save the world from its own implacable stupidity.
Title: Brother, leave no man behind
Fandom: Marvel movie
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: post-Winter Soldier; ignores AoU
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 185
Point of view: third
Prompts: any Whedonverse. any. lies can be better than the truth ; any Whedonverse. any. wrath
Sometimes, telling the truth is pointless. It can't help, won't change a thing, and will only cause whatever grief already exists to multiply.
In the aftermath, they all offer him so many platitudes it feels like he's drowning in useless words, and he just wants to scream until there is no more sound.
But he doesn't scream, and he doesn't listen.
They tell him you did all you could and he knows it's a lie.
They tell him you can't change what's done and he knows that's a lie, too, because there's a trickster god loose somewhere, and if he asks just right—
"You seem quite angry, Captain," the God of Lies drawls with a smile so sharp it could slice realities to pieces. It probably has.
"I need your help," Steve says as calmly as he can. He doesn't feel calm at all.
"Your companions would not approve of this," Loki notes, "or your superiors, I think."
"If you can help me," Steve says, clinging tight to the reason for all of this, "then I don't give a fuck about anything else."
Title: soulmate
Original, PG,
Prompt: any. any. I don't care if the world burns as long as...
Here is what they never tell you: when you meet your other half, everything else falls by the wayside.
Here is the rest: the search will consume you, if you let it.
.
It's everyone's dream to find their soulmate, isn't it? Your perfect complement, the pieces that fit with yours, what mends all your broken places. From the moment you realize something is missing, it's all you want.
That's the problem, innit.
.
i'll travel the world 'til i find you
won't rest 'til i hold you
i'll search and i'll search 'til my feet break
and then i'll search some more
i'm yours
.
Everyone knows you're not complete until you find your other half. All the songs say so. The books. The films. Adverts.
Everyone knows you're half a person till you find your other half. Who wants a half-life?
Everyone has a friend of a friend who heard about that girl that boy that whoever, you know the one, oh, it's just so sad what happened. And what about the soulmate? That poor girl boy whoever, oh, they'll just be wonderin' for years where their other half went, won't they? Such a tragedy.
.
Everyone dreams about finding their soulmate.
Here is what they never tell you: not everyone has a soulmate.
Original, PG, 445 words
Warnings: references to rape culture
Prompt: author's choice, any, Some stories tell of how to slay or even tame dragons, while others tell of how to become dragons.
She listens to the stories told by the fire on the coldest nights, curled next to her brother—legends of great beasts who must be destroyed as they ravage villages and fields, or of great beasts tamed by innocence and then harnessed for the good of the people. There is always a lesson at the end, but she does not listen to that.
She asks, but once, if people can become the great beasts, and laughter surrounds her, the wise men and storytellers incapable of imagining such things.
Such is the way of women, she hears them mutter. Weak-willed and confused. After all, who would want to be a beast?
Even her brother chuckles, gently patting her back.
They are men, of course. They are already beasts and don't understand the fear that fills her when she walks alone at dusk.
.
She grows. Taller and fairer, angrier and ever more fearful. She does not like feeling afraid. The stories change into legends of gods and heroes, with no more focus on the great beasts.
And then come the rumors of a winged monster merely a few days' ride away, and the village panics at the thought of it coming closer.
She takes a neighbor's horse (for her family has none of their own) and rides.
.
There is a magic in wishing; she has learned that from stories.
Women are weak-willed and confused, but confusion is the last thing she feels as she slips off the horse's back and sends him away.
A creature of wind and fire is billowing its rage at the sky, and she understands what it roars at the heavens. Such has she felt, before, when the miller's boy—
She had told no one, for none would care, not even her brother. What use is a woman?
There is a magic in wishing.
.
Some stories are of slaying the beast; some are of taming it for the good of the people. And there are others, far rarer, never shared, of how truly wishing with all of your heart can turn you into the beast.
A woman goes missing in a small village, the very same day two dragons attack another village nearby—the dragons must have made off with her. Such a shame, the neighbors say, shaking their heads. Such a shame.
.
I have been lonely, the great golden dragon says, ancient beyond measure.
I have been afraid, the pale dragon says, still learning how to fly.
Keep me company, the elder murmurs, and I shall guard you.
The pale dragon trills her gratitude and follows her sister up and up and up, where none can reach her.
Untitled
Fandom: Marvel movies
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: AU
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 200
Point of view: third
Prompt: Mcu, Bruce/Tony, fairy tale fusion
There is a prince trapped in a tower and a monster that guards the steps. The prince reads and rereads the few books left discarded on the dusty shelves and the monster cries in its sleep. It takes months before the prince's temper lessens enough that he offers comfort to the beast.
When the prince's captor returns, months and months later, the prince has long been offering lessons on arithmancy and runes to the monster and even given it a name.
(Here is a secret the prince never says: he'd discovered a way to freedom in the first week.)
The prince's captor backhands him into a wall; he does not mean to cry out, but it escapes and the beast bursts in, loyalty to the prince's captor long eroded by years of pain.
The spell does not end, of course. No story is that easy. It'll take years of research before the prince can offer the monster a way to resume its first form of a man, and whether the beast takes it is another story entirely.
(Here is a secret: the prince is actually a thief, and the beast is actually a prince, but that's another tale.)
Title: you die awake
Fandom: Charmed
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Anne Sexton
Warnings: changed future; references to the unchanged one
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 200
Point of view: third
Prompt: Any. any. s(he) remembers the other timeline.
He doesn't just suddenly remember one day, and he hasn't always remembered. But slowly, he realizes that his thought processes are different, and he has memories of things that never happened.
Except they did, didn't they?
On his fourteenth birthday, he knows that Mom died. But she doesn't. He has a very nice party with all the cousins and kids from school, and Wyatt is there smiling and laughing instead of orbing in too late because he got held up with friends.
Everything is different, except nothing is.
He judges everyone with knowledge he shouldn't have, tempered by experiences he never experienced. He'll realize later just how subtle it was—no one noticed, not even Wyatt.
It's why he'll succeed where his brother failed before; he has seen what went wrong, and knows how to fix it.
He doesn't just suddenly remember, and doesn't just suddenly change. That was Wyatt's greatest mistake, he thinks, listening to his brother complain about one of his classes. It's why the first Chris rejected him so completely.
When Chris offers Wyatt the chance, though, he knows his brother will take it, and they'll be able to save the world from its own implacable stupidity.
Title: Brother, leave no man behind
Fandom: Marvel movie
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: post-Winter Soldier; ignores AoU
Pairings: none
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 185
Point of view: third
Prompts: any Whedonverse. any. lies can be better than the truth ; any Whedonverse. any. wrath
Sometimes, telling the truth is pointless. It can't help, won't change a thing, and will only cause whatever grief already exists to multiply.
In the aftermath, they all offer him so many platitudes it feels like he's drowning in useless words, and he just wants to scream until there is no more sound.
But he doesn't scream, and he doesn't listen.
They tell him you did all you could and he knows it's a lie.
They tell him you can't change what's done and he knows that's a lie, too, because there's a trickster god loose somewhere, and if he asks just right—
"You seem quite angry, Captain," the God of Lies drawls with a smile so sharp it could slice realities to pieces. It probably has.
"I need your help," Steve says as calmly as he can. He doesn't feel calm at all.
"Your companions would not approve of this," Loki notes, "or your superiors, I think."
"If you can help me," Steve says, clinging tight to the reason for all of this, "then I don't give a fuck about anything else."
Title: soulmate
Original, PG,
Prompt: any. any. I don't care if the world burns as long as...
Here is what they never tell you: when you meet your other half, everything else falls by the wayside.
Here is the rest: the search will consume you, if you let it.
.
It's everyone's dream to find their soulmate, isn't it? Your perfect complement, the pieces that fit with yours, what mends all your broken places. From the moment you realize something is missing, it's all you want.
That's the problem, innit.
.
i'll travel the world 'til i find you
won't rest 'til i hold you
i'll search and i'll search 'til my feet break
and then i'll search some more
i'm yours
.
Everyone knows you're not complete until you find your other half. All the songs say so. The books. The films. Adverts.
Everyone knows you're half a person till you find your other half. Who wants a half-life?
Everyone has a friend of a friend who heard about that girl that boy that whoever, you know the one, oh, it's just so sad what happened. And what about the soulmate? That poor girl boy whoever, oh, they'll just be wonderin' for years where their other half went, won't they? Such a tragedy.
.
Everyone dreams about finding their soulmate.
Here is what they never tell you: not everyone has a soulmate.