Entries tagged with pairing: gen

Current Mood: calm

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DRABBLE: Endless (Twelvetide Drabble #12)

Fandom: Inception
Pairing: gen (Eames-centric)
Word count: 100
Carol prompt: The Holly and the Ivy
Summary: Holiday dinners with the Eames family.

The dining room is swathed in holly and ivy tonight, vibrant and alive.

They look more alive than you feel.

You sit on your father's right, like every good heir should. He's turned away from you, busy expounding on... something. Your mother sits at the far end, holding court with her group of admirers. They take turns speaking at you, or about you, but never to you.

You gaze at the holly, at its mesmerising red, until something flickers within you, and you knock a candle just so.

The ivy centrepiece catches fire, and suddenly all eyes are on you.

Current Mood: satisfied

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DRABBLE: Journeyman (Twelvetide Drabble #10)

Fandom: Inception
Pairing: gen (Arthur-centric)
Word count: 100
Carol prompt: I Wondered as I Wandered
Summary: Arthur contemplates his future in the wake of the Fischer job.

Arthur sets out on the mountain trail at dawn.

It's overcast, damp, the ground slippery and shrouded by fog. He chooses his steps carefully while considering his options.

He could find another partner. But at thirty-two, the thought of working in someone else's shadow again is unappealing.

He could lead his own jobs. Maybe go legit. But taking point isn't the same as leading. He's never been the ideas man, only refined the ideas of others, and—

His foot slips on an outcrop, and Arthur staggers. Catches himself.

He takes a steadying breath, finds his footing again, and pushes on.

Current Mood: frustrated

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DRABBLE: in living memory (Twelvetide Drabble #9)

Fandom: The Dark Knight Rises
Pairing: gen (John Blake-focused)
Word count: 100
Carol prompt: Auld Lang Syne
Summary: Gotham's earth is consecrated with the blood of its dead.

John hears them in the twilight hours, on the banks of Gotham river; in the blind alleys, in the cavernous emptiness of city hall.

We're still here, they say, voices paper-thin, only inches away from his ear, unseen. Don't forget us. You were one of us once.

Listen.

His back prickles at their presence, and the urge to bolt steals over him, but he's a Gotham native. He knows better than to ignore them.

And when he finally dons the cowl, their message changes.

Bane is alive, they say. Find him. Don't forget, you have a duty to us, too.

Current Mood: sleepy

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DRABBLE: A Multifaceted Thing (Twelvetide Drabble #5)

Fandom: The Dark Knight Rises
Pairing: gen (pre-slash Bane/Blake if you squint)
Word count: 100
Carol Prompt: The Wexford Carol
Summary: Spiritual conviction, absolute trust, fidelity - faith comes in many forms.

Once, not long after arriving at St Swithin's, John announced he didn't believe in God, Jesus, or anything in the Bible; what he believed in was Batman. It earned him weeks of counselling with Father Reilly, but, even then, John wouldn't recant.

Bane chuckles, mocking, after hearing that story.

"And in return for your faith," he says, "you've been given the central role in Gotham's own resurrection myth. Will you also die for this city's sins one day?"

"If it comes to that." John raises his chin. "It'll be worth it."

Bane gives a non-committal hum, but says nothing more.

Current Mood: relaxed

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DRABBLE: Hush (Twelvetide 2016 Drabble #3)

Fandom: The Dark Knight Rises
Pairing: gen (John Blake-centric)
Word count: 100
Carol prompt: Silent Night
Summary: John, on one winter night during the occupation.

John has never heard Gotham so quiet.

Before the occupation, no matter the hour, there'd always been noise. Machines humming, emergency vehicles wailing; people walking the streets, going about their lives.

Now there's nothing, not even screaming. Maybe Bane has given them a holiday grace period; it'll make it all the more devastating when the executions resume.

In the silence, John's imagination runs wild. Sometimes he thinks he hears the beep-beep-beep of the bomb counting down. Or that everyone has already died, leaving him alone.

When a scream cuts through the silence, John breathes easier, and hates himself for it.

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FICLET: a pause between events

Fandom: SPECTRE
Pairing: gen (Franz Oberhauser-centric)
Word count: 200
Prompt: justice
Summary: Franz goes to prison.

Prison is boring.

The food is boring, the view (such as it is) is boring, and most of the guards are both boring and bored, banned from speaking to Franz as they are.

Being interrogated is... marginally less boring. But only marginally.

Franz is sure the case would be different, were MI6's inquisitors permitted to extract information - or anything - from him using whatever methods they saw fit. But, as it stands, it seems those higher up the totem pole hope he'll face justice in a court of law some day, and courts tend to frown upon evidence obtained through torture.

Still, Franz sees a flash, every now and then, in some of his captors' eyes: a glimmer of if I had even one minute alone with you or just give me an excuse, any excuse. Franz always makes sure to give those guards an extra bright, thoroughly pleasant smile when they come on duty.

Their reactions are entertaining enough, but it's never long before boredom sets in again. It really is a pity that James is retired (for the time being). If he were here, he'd be able to tell them: keeping Franz bored has never boded well for anyone.

Current Mood: calm

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FICLET: Reasoning

Fandom: SPECTRE

Pairing: gen (Franz Oberhauser-centric)

Word count: 200

Prompt: least

Summary: Franz has questions that he'd like answered.

"Be kind to him, Franz," his father says, as they watch the train approach the station. "He's been through a lot."

Franz sighs, but otherwise doesn't dignify that instruction with a response. Of course he'll be kind. It takes him no more effort to be kind than to be cruel, and Franz isn't in the habit of being needlessly cruel to strangers besides (never mind strangers younger than him); there's rarely any benefit to be gained by it.

But, moreover, Franz is curious.

Has been curious ever since he overheard his father and his acquaintances, when they thought Franz was out; they'd spoken in low tones, vacillating between pity and admiration as they went over how a boy - James - had sequestered himself away in a— what was the term again? — a priest hole, for days on end after learning of his parents' deaths.

Franz has a plethora of questions about that (not least of them being, 'weren't you starving?' and 'what did you do when you needed to piss?'), and they'll hardly be answered if the other boy dislikes or mistrusts him.

So when James steps off the train, Franz is the first to move forward and welcome him.

Current Mood: awake

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FICLET: Deliberation

Fandom: SPECTRE
Pairing: gen (Franz Oberhauser-centric)
Word count: 300
Prompt: killing
Summary: How to get away with murder (and other sundry matters).

Franz's first impulse is to kill them both.

There'd be a certain poetry to it, really: Franz's father and James, as close to one another in death as they are now in life.

...then again, perpetuating that closeness is also something of an argument against killing them both.

That, and logistics.

Until he began thinking it through - truly thinking it through - Franz never thought plotting murder could be so tedious. He spends days - then weeks, then months - contemplating the details: how to get his father alone; how to deliver the killing blow (or will it be blows?) without arousing suspicion, should the body happen to be recovered (or should Franz destroy it somehow? Franz sighs, reminds himself to research corpse disposal methods); how to escape, shed all the trappings of his life, and begin anew. All of that is precarious enough without throwing a second murder into it.

And if Franz is honest with himself (he is capable of it, at times), he has to admit most of this isn't James' fault. At least, not initially. It isn't as if the little usurper wanted to become an orphan. It wasn't James' hand that signed the order of temporary guardianship. And it certainly wasn't James who suggested to Charmian Bond that said temporary guardianship become a little more permanent. Punishing him with the same severity seems... unfair. Unreasonable, even.

That being said—

James is still a usurper; a cuckoo, disrupting the natural order of things via the mere act of existing. Killing him might not be an option, but neither is leaving him be. It's a bit of a quandary, although the solution, when it comes to Franz, is wonderfully pleasing in its simplicity.

Franz's father needs to die, of that there is no doubt. But James—

James needs to suffer.