Fifty themes; One Character; One sentence each.

Child of Onyx, A Spartan to the End

shadow_sapphire — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 01:08:20 GMT

Title: Child of Onyx, A Spartan to the end

Fandom: Halo Reach

Character: Noble Six aka SPARTAN B-312

Theme Set: Alpha Set
Disclaimer: Don’t own Halo series.

http://shadow-sapphire.livejournal.com/4501.html#cutid1

Neal Caffrey - You Can Leave Your Hat On

emmademarais — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 21:10:39 GMT

Title: Neal Caffrey - You Can Leave Your Hat On
Fandom: White Collar
Character: Neal Caffrey
Theme set: Beta
Disclaimer: Read the disclaimer on my LJ
Rating: PG13

Neal Caffrey - You Can Leave Your Hat On

Eli Loker - Radical Honesty

emmademarais — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 07:57:00 GMT

Title: Eli Loker - Radical Honesty
Fandom: Lie to Me
Character: Eli Loker
Theme set: Epsilon
Disclaimer: Read the disclaimer on my LJ
Rating: PG13

Eli Loker - Radical Honesty

In riddles and in rhymes. [Due South, 1character, Ray Vecchio.

teslaesque — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 05:33:25 GMT

Title: in riddles and in rhymes
Fandom: Due South.
Character: Ray Vecchio.
Theme set: Delta.
Disclaimer: None of it belongs to me y'all. I get no profit from any of this, unless the thrill that someone might actually read it counts.
Rating: General Audience = okay.

in riddles and in rhymes

Heroes - Pick Up Your Burden And Stand Before God

alexfoster451 — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 13:37:12 GMT

Title: Pick Up Your Burden And Stand Before God
Fandom: Heroes
Character: Claire Bennet
Theme set: Alpha
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by NBC. No money is being made and no infringement is intended.
Rating: PG13

Cut to my Journal

Elizabeth Burke - Stand By Your Man

emmademarais — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 09:06:17 GMT

Title: Elizabeth Burke - Stand By Your Man
Fandom: White Collar
Character: Elizabeth Burke
Theme set: Alpha
Disclaimer: Read the disclaimer on my LJ
Rating: PG13

Elizabeth Burke - Stand By Your Man

Suikoden series - Sasarai

seta_suzume — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:38:59 GMT

Title: Bare-Handed Policy
Fandom: Suikoden II/III
Character: Sasarai
Theme set: Alpha
Disclaimer: Sasarai and Suikoden belong to Konami~
Rating: PG

#01 - Speak

His voice was lost in the chatter of the troops, scuffing of impatient horses, and snap of fire as someone accidentally set a bag of fire scrolls alight.

#02 - Touch

He could tell the high quality of the book just by running his fingers over the page and feeling how smooth the paper was.

#03 - Memory

It was embarrassing when a colleague corrected him publicly, showing his memory was not quite as sharp as he liked to claim.

#04 - Vanilla

When he was young, Sister Bati would hold him and he would lay his head on her shoulder, breathing in her homey scent of chocolate and vanilla.

#05 - Chocolate

Peaches and strawberries dipped in chocolate greeted him on a tray for a birthday breakfast in bed.

#06 - Ways and Means

For better or for worse, Sasarai had decided he was the only one who knew how to reach the goals he had set for the nation without sacrificing most of its people; he would have to act as he saw fit.

#07 - Belief

The bright sun shining down on his hair through the circular window above made him feel cradled by securely in the hands of heaven despite the turmoil swirling around him on earth.

#08 - Linger

Hikusaak waved him away, but he hung in the doorway a few minutes longer, waiting for a call to return that never came.

#09 - Illuminance

His tiny rune lamp shed a red glow across the pages of his late night reading, his eager fingers straining to turn the page, and his rapt, wide-eyed face.

#10 - Ornament

Sasarai pinned a golden flower in his hair and studied his enhanced reflection in the mirror, wishing it were more acceptable for men to deck themselves with elaborate hair ornaments.

#11 - Coup de foudre

"Oh," he reeled, struck by the sudden inner pain of the epiphany, "I love him and even if he lives to see one hundred someday I will be there at his funeral!"

#12 - Archway

He leaned back in the shadow of the archway, hidden from the view of the cheerful group of other young priests enjoying a picnic on the Temple grounds.

#13 - Fate

Certainly he believed in fate, but he couldn't see how it would do any good to dwell on it too much.

#14 - Pulse

In the winter he slept like the hibernating soil nurturing seeds for the spring- an assistant, in fear, reached out to feel his wrist for a pulse.

#15 - Envelope

The envelope delivered to him remained unopened because he feared the words of its writer: Sarah.

#16 - Cold

He was sensitive to the cold, like a greenhouse orchid, and trembled at the first wind of winter sweeping out of the mountains.

#17 - Need

His quarters were modest; his desires were emotional.

#18 - Drunk

Leaving the annual party on the eve of the New Year, he staggered toward his quarters in a haze of alcohol that did nothing to mask his fears and loneliness and regrets.

#19 - Mask

Luc had chosen a literal, physical mask, but Sasarai opted, like the other bishops, for the more treacherous, invisible mask of his own face.

#20 - Rose

They didn't have roses at the Temple, but Dios had plenty at his house and he brought a vase of them from time to time to share their brilliant color.

#21 - Two

He was used to being part of a pair as a twin, as a son, and as the bearer of a True Rune.

#22 - Fresh

He knelt in the damp soil right beside his plants, knowing the best tasting tomato came straight from the vine.

#23 - Bribe

"I can't accept that," he folded shut the outstretched hand and tried to pretend he had never seen its contents.

#24 - Error

"You always make the most intriguing mistakes, Sasarai," Bishop Kaeyani remarked in a voice both calm and slick, "I often pass over them at first, thinking you too sharp to err, but then I see how I was mistaken."

#25 - Appetite

The kitchen beckoned and Sasarai answered its call, coming to watch and wait while Sister Bati finished concocting his dinner.

#26 - Refrain

"Discretion," he told himself, "Self-discipline," biting his tongue at Ket's stinging assessment of the people he had come to know in the Grasslands.

#27 - Family

Treated as he was so often as an orphan, Sasarai had to wonder, what kind of father was Hikusaak?

#28 - Grieve

He was so hopelessly emotional that even Sasarai himself couldn't say why he never felt the urge to cry at funerals.

#29 - Vapor

Scents clung to the damp air of the swamp that he found both unfamiliar and disconcerting and he wondered yet again what would possess anyone to make them voluntarily come and live there.

#30 - Tea

"Jasmine, orange, peach, rose, bergamot, white, red, green, black, mixed, local, imported: what kind would you like?"

#31 - Medicine

He was tired of that bitter taste.

#32 - Moth

The shadow of the moth on the wall as it fluttered by his lamp was more frighteneing than the actual moth.

#33 - Perfect

Nika slung the dust cloth over her shoulder and stretched her aching body as she surveyed Sasarai's room- after a week of work she had finally gotten it perfectly clean...but he would be home tomorrow.

#34 - Rope

"This rope is almost worn through, Dios, it's unsafe," Sasarai observed, surveying the camp, "It should be replaced immediately."

#35 - Wind

The gust was strong enough to blow his hat off- this itself was a warning sign.

#36 - Crossroads

To Crystal Valley, to address the Counsel and sort things out, or to Budehuc Castle, to grasp the reins of fate in his own hands?

#37 - Summer

If he fell asleep outside like that again he might very well be burned by the same sun he was enjoying so much.

#38 - Candy

He was unashamed of being such a sweet tooth that he knew all of the best places in the capital to purchase candy.

#39 - Photograph

It was never turning down an opportunity or request that quickly made him the most photographed bishop in the country.

#40 - Spoon

He stirred a bit of Karayan pepper into the soup and all but licked the bowl cleaning, settling for sucking on the spoon.

#41 - Forest

The trees of Kuput welcome him like one of their own and Yumi and Yuiri were forced to reassess the small and powerful Harmonian.

#42 - Mirror

How could he reject the words of a face just like his own?

#43 - Smoke

The feeling of uneasiness turned to one of panic as he realized the plume of smoke was coming from the central building of the Temple.

#44 - Shine

Only a sincere smile gave off that special glint.

#45 - Balloon

Flimsy decorations drifted on a breeze above the capital on a festival day.

#46 - Vine

If the stones of the house of the country were about to fall, how could a mere vine hope to hold them in place?

#47 - Butterfly

He laughed to see a butterfly think the cloth flowers in Rosalyn Lovell'es hair were just as real as he had thought them minutes earlier.

#48 - Gloves

"Bare hands are honest hand," he said; his policy.

#49 - Venom

The worst poison of all was found in the words of people.

#50 - Remain

When his friends were gone, when their children were gone, when the nation prospered, when the nation fell to ruin, as long as fate and his rune wished it, Sasarai would remain.

Star Wars - Kreia

flaky_artist — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 01:42:04 GMT

Title: Fools Like Me
Fandom: Star Wars
Character: Kreia
Theme set: Delta
Disclaimer: KOTOR 2 belongs to LucasArts and Obsidian
Rating: PG-13 (just to be safe; a few Sith-ly themes throughout)

how we love blindly

Transformers - Reflector

beckyh2112 — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 22:10:53 GMT

Title: Reflector in Fifty Sentences
Fandom: Transformers G1
Character: Reflector
Theme set: Alpha
Disclaimer: Hasbro owns the Transformers. I merely borrow them for my own diabolical purposes.
---

1. Speak
Other Transformers are so accustomed to hearing his voice in triplicate that it is almost a disguise in and of itself to speak from only one mouth.

2. Touch
Reflector is small and lightly armored, so common theory said he was of a type that should be highly tactile; practice, however, proved a different matter.

3. Memory
A long time ago, he was three people, or so the rumors went, but Reflector always answered that he never remembered being anything other than one person with three bodies.

4. Vanilla
Skywarp is exuberant and thoughtless, enjoyably easy to manipulate, and he thinks it's funny to hurt people - Reflector finds this typical in a Seeker.

5. Chocolate
Thundercracker is serious and thoughtful, contemptuous of those who cannot fly, and he doubts the cause and the War - Reflector finds this intriguing in a Seeker.

6. Ways and Means
He has three times the duty-shifts of any other Decepticon, but the single photographs that find their way into Soundwave's quarters once a week mean his shifts never overlap.

7. Belief
Knowledge is power, and the all-seeing eyes are never fully closed.

8. Linger
Graffiti covers the doors to Reflector's quarters, layering on top of each other once there is no more blank space; everyone knows the camera only cleans it when ordered to by a vindictive Starscream.

9. Illuminance
"Where did you go, spy?" the Autobot demands as he enters the store-room; a small camera propped on a shelf catches his attention - and then there comes a blinding flash of light.

10. Ornament
"Black and purple are a pretty combination, and he's got a lovely set of wings."

11. Coup de Foudre
Love is blind, but Reflector is not; it still surprises him that his favorite lovers are as banally dull to the optics as Seekers.

12. Archway
Skywarp lounges against the Arc de Triomphe, and Reflector prowls around him, optics flashing as he snaps pictures.

13. Fate
He's a spy and a good spy, but he always knows that one day, he won't be good enough.

14. Pulse
The Autobots can listen to the radio-waves and hear any signal-traffic the Decepticons might make, and the Decepticons can't afford to lose the element of surprise; Reflector alerts the commander through coded light-flashes.

15. Envelope
Thundercracker and Skywarp talk back and forth, conversation shifting across an array of topics but never falling into silence while Reflector lay with them.

16. Cold
Reflector cocks his heads and points at the green Seeker he has been palling around with for several months now: "That one has been discussing deserting to the Autobots."

17. Need
He begged and pleaded, shaking with dry sobs, "Please, please, give me back my optics!"

18. Drunk
"Your name has such a pretty color," he babbled at Skywarp, and the jet just grinned and twisted his focus before offering him another cube.

19. Mask
Soundwave wears a mask to hide his emotions because he knows he cannot control his visual responses as completely as his auditory ones; Reflector wears no masks and rarely speaks for the reversed reason.

20. Rose
Thundercracker is a sharp white and black name, while Skywarp is the rose color between golden dawn and purple twilight.

21. Two
Losing a body is disorienting, and he constantly swirls around himself, trying to see in three directions at once with only two pairs of optics.

22. Fresh
Reflector is hardly gone five minutes to dispose of the cleaning supplies, yet when he returns to his quarters, the door is tagged with a new design: 'Frenzy beat you to it'.

23. Bribe
"Don't think of it as blackmail, think of it as giving me an incentive."

24. Error
"It smells orange," Reflector says and realizes he should have made something up in the same moment Mixmaster's optics brighten with curiosity.

25. Appetite
Once the walls of his quarters are covered three layers deep in pictures of the Decepticon ship and the view through the portholes, he seeks permission to scout ashore.

26. Refrain
Thundercracker had doubts, and he served on Earth, both together reason enough to report him; but Reflector remained silent.

27. Family
"They're not brothers - they're all three the same person."

28. Grieve
Starscream comes back from Autobot City alone, and while all of Polyhex rushes to prepare a coronation, the camera-spy walks onto a shuttle bound for Kaon and does not get off.

29. Vapor
The fog rises from the Rust Sea, blinding so many kinds of optical sensors, and he drifts behind the edge of it, right inside the Autobot camp.

30. Tea
The concept of color filters was so new and different that Reflector collected multiples of the same color solely for the slight variation between brands.

31. Medicine
"I'm not Thundercracker," the purple starfighter said, hand gentle on his shoulder; Reflector tilted his heads up to look at Cyclonus, finding words for the first time in years: "I know."

32. Moth
Sometimes he feared he is drawn to Skywarp and Thundercracker not as a lodestone to magnetic north, but as a moth to a flame.

33. Perfect
One monitors the viewscreens, one analyses scouting reports, and one converses with Soundwave; no action is miscued between his three bodies.

34. Rope
The cassette struggles in his grip as Reflector forces him into alternate-mode, but with six hands and a long length of steel cable, the cassette isn't getting away to warn his partner.

35. Win
Reflector snaps a picture of the two jets while Starscream yells at them to get a move on; "After you take Autobot City, you'll be heroes."

36. Crossroads
Rusted wings and corroded wheel-rims lie scattered around, pushed away from the edges of the road but slowly creeping back; Reflector looks at the intersection and tries to remember what long-ago battle was fought for it.

37. Summer
The sun turns the fields into tinderboxes, and Reflector barely needs to 'help' the wildfires to begin at all; if the mission didn't have such a tight time-table, he wouldn't have needed to strike the sparks himself.

38. Candy
Reflector steps into the Advanced Optical Research and Development Laboratory with small smiles on his faces as he takes in *everything*.

39. Photograph
After 2005, he never looks at the picture of he snapped of Thundercracker and Skywarp boarding Astrotrain.

40. Spoon
Each jet holds one of him to their chest, curled on their sides so the Seekers can comfortably hang their wings off the edge of the berth.

41. Forest
Thundercracker pins him against one of the massive redwoods, and Reflector almost regrets that neither of his other components are close enough to see what there is to see.

42. Mirror
The pictures he took said something about him, so Reflector strived never to let his photographs be seen unnecessarily.

43. Smoke
The wind changed, blowing in the smoke from Kalamata; it stung the exposed wiring in the side of one component, and he turned to take a picture as the jets dropped bombs on the city once more.

44. Shine
A glint of light catches his optics, and Reflector scatters before it registers in his conscious mind as sunlight on a rifle barrel.

45. Balloon
"How can we work so close to the Autobots' base?" Starscream demands; Reflector taps the area designated New Mexico on the map with one component and brings up the scouting report he filed on a datapad: "There is an Air Force test facility near here, and so the humans are all quite used to mysterious flying objects being mislabeled as weather balloons."

46. Vine
There is a shape under the kudzu that piques his curiosity because it doesn't look quite natural; when he investigates, he discovers a rusted-out car underneath the green weed.

47. Butterfly
He made an origami butterfly out of pictures of Thundercracker - "I wanted to give you back your soul."

48. Gloves
Reflector had toyed only lightly with the Stunticons before, but after they smashed his dark room in one of their races, he took the kid gloves off.

49. Venom
The sight of Starscream leaning in to speak to Thundercracker causes a burning sensation to spread out from Reflector's optics through the rest of his systems.

50. Remain
The Autobots will deactivate the bomb if he doesn't stay to keep them away from it; fortunately, it's not a job that needs three people.

Alva Keel - Revelations

emmademarais — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 04:51:24 GMT

Title: Alva Keel - Revelations
Fandom: Miracles
Character: Alva Keel
Theme set: Delta
Disclaimer: Read the disclaimer on my LJ
Rating: PG13

Alva Keel - Revelations

I'll build a stairway to paradise with a new step every day: James Wilson

bittereternity — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:31:04 GMT

Title: Beautiful Child
Characters: Wilson, [House/Wilson, Wilson/Amber amongst others]
Warnings: Post Wilson's Heart and major character deathDisclaimer: I married Wilson last night. Oh, but then I remembered it was a dream. So... not mine.
For: 1character table prompt for James Wilson.
Notes: I've tried to make this as chronological as possible, so do tell me if it doesn't work. Concrit and feedback are appreciated!

Summary: He likes to think that his life is arranged in irregular chunks of colors even though he knows that there's nothing symmetrical left anymore, what with all the boundaries meshing together and illusions mixing with reality to create a devastating kaleidoscope

Beautiful Child

Each Moment, Without End

illwynd — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 00:22:03 GMT

Title: Each Moment, Without End
Author: Illwynd
Fandom: Lord of the Rings
Character: Boromir
Theme set: Delta
Disclaimer: Not mine, all Tolkien's!
Rating: PG-ish

Each Moment, Without End

In Vain (Table 2, Watanuki from xxxHOLiC)

dropsofviolet — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:47:06 GMT

Title: In Vain
Fandom: xxxHOLiC
Character: Watanuki Kimihiro
Theme set: 2
Disclaimer: xxxHOLiC belongs to CLAMP. This fanfic is a derivative of canon material that is not my property. I do not profit from these writings. The opinions and actions expressed in these stories are not necessarily the views and beliefs of the original author or me.
Rating: G
Spoilers: should be none, though maybe referencing canon events through the American release of vol. 9.

Excerpt: Yuuko overcomplicated things; he set up his dominoes, black and white, and there she was knocking them down right after him.

01. Package

Watanuki liked to "package" things, his parents used to say, arranging all of his toys in the proper order; when they died it just got progressively worse, right up until the point when he began to see spirits-- because that didn't fit in with anything.

02. Obscure

He was an obscure face at school, not distinguishing himself much beyond his grades, and no one noticed his exaggerated facial expressions or the curve of his glasses in the light-- except for Doumeki, who noticed everyone, especially people with magical problems.

03. Skeleton

From the way his skin barely stretched across his skeleton, an occasional friend had surmised that he didn't eat well, living alone; it was really that Watanuki felt a little hollow, no matter what he ate, and the ghosts never left him alone.

04. Nurse

One day he realized that he spoke to the school nurse more often than he did anyone at school; the thought was depressing until he was chased down an alley and met the craziest woman he'd ever work for, and talked to her for a bit.

05. Domino

Yuuko overcomplicated things; he set up his dominoes, black and white, and there she was knocking them down right after him.

06. Thaw

The trick to thawing Watanuki: Himawari's smile, Yuuko's rescues, Doumeki's-- okay, Doumeki never could quite accomplish it, but he was a little frosty himself, so he didn't count it as a loss.

07. Waves

The creatures came in waves into his dreams, and Watanuki despaired ever sleeping well again, and he got thinner and quieter.

08. Burglar

The first time Doumeki slept over, Watanuki forgot about him and thought he was a burglar, and had to make up for the black eye with breakfast in the morning, even as he swore he wouldn't cater to the archer.

09. Frame

He had the frame of a runner, and he was certainly good at it, but Watanuki would never join the track team-- how could he ever learn to enjoy fleeing, when he'd had to do it all his life?

10. Carpet

Yuuko was constantly getting wine stains in her carpet, and he was constantly washing them out, knowing she didn't care, doing it anyway.

11. Insect

Himawari's first impression was insectoid-- tall, skinny, white, with the light glinting off his glasses-- but then he smiled at her and she recognized his desire and knew that she had more than a bug problem here.

12. Mentor

At one point, Yuuko introduced herself as Watanuki's mentor; he'd spazzed of course and she'd leaned forward and whispered, winking, "I'm trying to fix his twitching problem."

13. Spirit

Some people found spirits comforting-- visions of angels and ghosts who led the way in the darkness, but Watanuki knew better, he knew better than all of those fools.

14. Wax

His skin looked like wax, Doumeki thought, picking Watanuki up and throwing him over his shoulder, half-wondering how Watanuki filled that wax with so much life when conscious.

15. Trash

Doumeki wondered, once, what the pile of old papers was doing, tucked away in the box in Watanuki's closet; it looked like trash, and then he looked closer, and saw Watanuki's smile on an older man, and tucked the photos back away (one man's trash, another's treasure, for sure).

16. Womb

He kicked hard in the womb and he screamed so loud when he was born-- she named him April First in hopes that he'd be a quiet child and this was all a joke.

17. Burn

It was almost as if he were constantly on fire, Himawari finally decided, tossing away metaphors of cats and mad hatters; Watanuki was that excited all of the time.

18. Flash

Doumeki didn't always know what Watanuki was seeing, but he knew when-- the boy would lift his head in a certain way, the flash of his glasses sharp and sudden, and Doumeki would sigh and move closer so the thing would go away.

19. Anima

Yuuko knew it as soon as she saw him-- a boy with a soul that shiny and unprotected would have a spiritual "Kick Me" sign on his back all of his life (and she smiled; he had a wish).

20. Gamble

Watanuki wasn't a gambler, hated gambling, but the problem was, he had to take a chance, he was too nice not to, and that's what got him into trouble half the time.

21. Statue

He'd tried everything: playing a statue (if i don't move they can't see me), running (if i run they can't catch), screaming (if i yell loud enough they), but nothing, nothing worked until he met Doumeki, and he still wishes he could stand on his own.

22. Perfume

He hated Yuuko's perfumes, the cloying scent distracting him from the task at hand-- sometimes he thought she put some sort of mind-control-device in the smell; that would explain why he was running like hell right now, because he certainly didn't remember agreeing to this.

23. Wine

Sometimes Yuuko drank wine, sometimes sake, always something to make her tipsy; Watanuki wondered if those half-lidded eyes needed something to cloud them, to protect them, much in the way Doumeki protected him.

24. Reflection

The girl threw her arms around him and Watanuki sighed-- of course she didn't show up in the mirror, figured, the one date he'd gotten since Himawari died was also dead (he'd never let Yuuko set him up with someone ever again).

25. Take

Watanuki just doesn't know how to take things; he feels like he owes everybody, just for allowing him to remain alive, considering all the trouble he causes.

26. Magic

It was stupid, he knew, but he didn't believe in magic, even seeing what he saw all the time, not until he saw Yuuko standing there in those robes, resplendent, magical, and he knew that his boss could do a lot of things one couldn't explain except by magic.

27. Fragment

Yuuko only ever told Watanuki the bare fragments of things, keeping him irritated and guessing and uncertain all the time.

28. Cats and Dogs

They fought-- not like cats and dogs, because eventually those two would come to an accord-- but they fought like lovers, like spouses, and that knowledge was what irritated Watanuki the most about Doumeki.

29. Hum

Sometimes Watanuki hummed while he worked, and Mokona would make up a silly song, and those were the times he liked work the most.

30. Flinch

Watanuki flinched when Yuuko moved-- she'd been too quiet for too long: she was definitely up to something.

31. Rush

"Where are you going?" Himawari always wanted to ask as he rushed off to Yuuko's with that look on his face; she knew, but somehow, she didn't, because there was something strange in his panic.

32. Jester

Oh God, it's one of those days, Watanuki thought, looking at the costume "Queen" Yuuko handed him, and wondering when he'd be able to quit playing the jester and be a normal person (oh, and the hat jingled, dangit).

33. Haven

It would be stupid to think of Yuuko's shop as a haven: messy, smoke-filled, loud-- but perhaps it had been stupid to go in the first time and Watanuki wasn't letting that stop him now.

34. Dusk

Dusk was the worst time, the time that all the spooks came out to play, and not for the first time, Watanuki wondered what part of "white school uniform shirt and black pants" seemed so tasty in the dimness.

35. Chord

He pretended to hate what she made him do and who she made him hang out with because there was something in her eyes that struck a chord with him-- she knew him much more deeply than a stranger should, so he pushed her away.

36. Indulgence

"Why not?" Yuuko said, holding out her hand and clearly expecting Watanuki to do the same; Watanuki wasn't particularly indulgent of himself, ever, but she kept pushing so he let her give him the cherries (he'd pay for them later, he was sure, but not right now...).

37. Freezer

His home was like a freezer--he didn't pay much for heat living alone, and he didn't plan to--and in any case, Watanuki could always be found in the morning curled in a ball, buried under the covers, feeling oddly safe.

38. Passage

"There's only one path forward," Yuuko said to him, winking, and Watanuki knew it was true, but that didn't stop him from sulking and kicking and complaining.

39. Coast

He thought some days that it would be nice to escape the city, to move to a little hut on the coast where the ghosts were few and he could walk along the beach, but he had the sneaking suspicion that it would only be a couple of days before a certain black-haired woman took up residence in a hut beside, carrying booze, wearing a swimsuit, and sorting through her books to find something incredibly unappealing for him to do.

40. Keepsake

Nothing Doumeki ever gave him could be a keepsake, could be useful, worthwhile, but he tucked the old photograph away in his pocket anyway and began to complain about the meal he was supposed to make tomorrow (and when Doumeki visited, he would carefully put the photograph away again, out of spite and personality, but otherwise he greeted her every morning along with his parents-- Doumeki's mother, long dead as well).

41. Morbid

Some might call him morbid-- Watanuki knew he was just being practical, and that was the worst part.

42. Shipwreck

He should have known when Yuuko put on the pirate hat, but he still groaned when he heard the boat scrape the rocks, and he reluctantly slid the patch over his bad eye and went to greet the natives.

43. Socks

Watanuki had always thought socks were innocent, but these basic assumptions that helped get him through the day were too often shaken by Yuuko, and after that incident, he couldn't stand to wear them anymore.

44. Sand

There was sand in his hair and in his clothes but Himawari was here and she was laughing and that mattered, nothing else.

45. Coin

"Tell me you'll stay-- flip a coin, at least!" Yuuko pleaded when he tried to walk out (she keeps pulling him back in somehow), and he flipped the coin, knowing how it would come down, knowing she'd manipulate it, but he was surprised when it landed perfectly on the edge and she grinned, saying, "Choose, not chance."

46. Guile

He had no guile in him, which might have preserved him against the ghosts, but she wouldn't tell him; she'd be sneaky for him until he realized the necessity of such things (and then he could have her job, ohohoho).

47. Eyelash

Suddenly Yuuko was gone, leaving one eyelash and a broken promise, and she'd never granted his wish, he thought, until he surveyed the empty shop and sighed with resignation, half-wondering if he could get his payment back (not regretting it, anyway).

48. Drive

"You're driving me nuts!" Watanuki shouted, and usually Yuuko smiled when he ranted and raved, but today she leaned forward and put a finger to his lips, and when he stopped, surprised, she kissed him on the forehead and said, "Here's some advice for free (and really for free, except you have to get me some booze later): quit complaining and maybe the cursed girl will learn to like you."

49. Net

Watanuki stared at his computer screen in desperation, then let his head drop to the desk; how ghosts could invade one's hard drive was truly a mystery, but the fact that there didn't seem to be any computer technology exorcists on the Internet was honestly a surprise.

50. Destination

The thing about Watanuki was: the destination was foggy, the beginning of the journey was lost, the middle was complicated, to say the least, but he would always be along for the ride.

Blood on Snow

chaos_valkyrie — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 22:20:15 GMT

Title: Blood on Snow

Fandom: Rurouni Kenshin

Character: Enishi Yukishiro

Theme Set: Gamma

Rating: PG-13.

Disclaimer: I don’t own Rurouni Kenshin.

Author’s Note: As is typical of my way of writing these, this will be a huge mixture of one-sentence snapshots covering Enishi’s life – from childhood before Tomoe’s death all the way to the end of Jinchu arc. And no, it won’t be in chronological order. If you know the Jinchu arc well, you should be able to figure them out. And for those looking for Part Three of the “Cutting Edge” series… its coming. Go to my profile and vote in my “What should I update next” poll to make me do it faster!

*****

Snow.

Enishi’s tortured mind continuously replays three impressions from the worst day of his life: the scent of white plums, an arc of blood, and the freshly tainted snow.

Child.

He refuses to look down at the boy so like himself, too afraid, too jealous to see what his life might have been had his sister never died.

Brick.

Brow quirking in surprise, Enishi glances briefly at Gein before returning his gaze to their massive ‘secret’ hideout.

Judgment.

The government lauded him a hero, the heavens refused retribution, and hence Enishi decided to take Battosai’s punishment into his own hands.

Powder.

In dealing with guns and munitions – the great ‘advancement’ in war – he found distasteful the crude smear of oil on parts and the harsh scent of gunpowder igniting in the chamber.

Grim.

Snarling painfully, he grimaces as he sinks his teeth into the corpse’s flesh, reminding himself that he must do this to live, to have his Jinchu.

Trap.

He can hardly keep from smiling as he walks towards his sister’s new ‘home’, for soon Tomoe’s revenge will be complete and they can go back to the happiness they knew before Akira’s death.

Star.

She guides him, ever and always, shining brightly in his mind no matter how dark the road has become.

Possession.

Revenge fills him, thirsts within him, and the demon that it has become will not let him rest until this Jinchu is complete.

Bandage.

A grunt of pain escapes as he wraps his torso, but still he smiles, knowing that Battosai’s latest injuries cannot be healed with salve and linen alone.

Pearl.

He loved when she would tuck him in at night, his sleepy mind lingering over white plums and his sister’s pale, flawless face.

Glass.

Two fingers adjust the colored spectacles and the world about him regains its violet hue – perfect for his continued mourning.

Classified.

They questioned, they spied, but none of his false comrades were able to deduce what wildcard Enishi and Gein had hidden in the basement.

Buttons.

Finally standing before Battosai, Enishi’s fingers fumble across his cloak’s fastenings in his excitement.

Closet.

“What to wear, what to wear,” he ponders aloud, studying the choices before him, wanting to be perfect for his date with Jinchu.

Ash.

Buildings tumble, fire surrounds him, but all he sees is his most hated adversary standing before him in the midst of this bloodshed.

Definition.

Every action revolves around one smile, hidden deep in his mind.

Staircase.

A jaunty tune leaves his lips as he ascends the basement stairs – the preparations are almost complete, and the key figure in his revenge will soon be ready.

Nail.

Like the nail that gets hammered down, Battosai stood out too much to hide his presence from Enishi, even when traveling as a ‘harmless’ wanderer.

Prey.

Kaoru watches him, constantly, and knowing this Enishi can’t help prodding her fear to see what reaction it will produce.

Backwards.

As Kaoru throws herself in front of Heishin, his mind instantly regresses fourteen years, and in one instant, he understands why his sister died to save Battosai.

Trouble.

The bokken falls, her whole body going limp, knowing implicitly that any resistance against him and the chloroform in his hand is futile.

Little.

Tearing through the underbrush, tears of anger and sorrow flow as he vows to return one day to exact his revenge.

Collar.

For now, he’ll allow the mafia to control him; but when Jinchu dawns, the white tiger will break free.

Circle.

Enishi laughed hollowly at the irony of how everything began and ended with a woman loving Battosai.

Hands.

Back against the dirty wall, he clutches a tattered book with one hand, staring blankly at the other, he wonders how everything fell from his grasp so easily.

Freedom.

So fucking tired, but still he managed to keep his head and the diary above water as his body mechanically swam towards shore.

Last.

Standing in his balloon, high above his comrades, Enishi smirks as he patiently waits for Battosai to defeat them before he takes his turn.

Scab.

“Little jerk,” Enishi hears Akira-san mutter angrily, rubbing the newest tooth marks on his hand.

Crown.

The flowers stand, so delicately adorning the grave of his sister, that he almost hesitates before grinding them beneath his boot.

Time.

Years pass in a bloody haze, barely noticeable, for his life had stopped on that one, snow-covered day.

Rice.

The grains crunch between his teeth, and Enishi reminds himself (again) that Kaoru wasn’t intentionally trying to kill him.

Worn.

Enishi sighs as he lays there, a child alone and dying in Shanghai, wondering if this is where his revenge will fail.

Paint.

Not for the first time, he wonders: if he colored his hair, would everyone stop mistaking him for an old man?

Ache.

“Why… what can I do to make you smile once again?” he screams to the empty room.

Cherry.

The blossoms drift about him like crimson snow, and he shuts his eyes in horror against the memories that threaten to surface.

Library.

Enishi held two Bibles dear: a dog-eared treatise on watojutsu (his strength), and an equally worn diary (his truth).

Win.

He holds the limp form almost tenderly, smirking as he leaves the shelter of the dojo for the docks.

Loss.

“The one I wanted to protect was… the one I really wanted to protect was…”

Fold.

The body crumbles into itself, tumbling to the ground before him; he is one step closer to achieving Jinchu.

Music.

Heart beating a frantic staccato, he once again jerks awake, the image of blood on snow haunting his dreams.

Bell.

He sets down the food gently, rings the gong, and says a prayer to Tomoe (and Tomoe alone) for continued strength.

Sleep.

Tossing, turning, twitching, scheming, hating; he hasn’t had a peaceful night’s sleep in eleven years.

Contact.

As they gave him the details of his mission, he inwardly beamed; ‘Soon, sister, I will see you and your revenge will be complete.’

Electricity.

Enishi’s eyes bore into the Battosai’s, sparks flying as they momentarily measure the other’s worth.

Milk.

The liquid is drugged and vile tasting, but he forces it down anyway, earning a soft smile from his new protectors in Shanghai that he cannot return.

Wild.

Victory recedes as the pain in his ear magnifies, and he desperately, wildly screams as his final attack barely connects.

Expectation.

“Almost, sister, almost,” he mutters, hair flying in the breeze as he watches the ocean pass steadily below him, returning him to his homeland for the first time in ten years.

Mechanism.

In his torment, he barely hears the workings of the gun – all he sees is Battosai fall helpless before him.

Finale.

Funny how everything seemed to begin with her death; and now it ended with the book of her life.

</div>

Margaret Eppes – Subtraction

emmademarais — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:05:23 GMT

Title: Margaret Eppes – Subtraction
Fandom: Numb3rs
Character: Margaret
Theme set: Eta
Disclaimer: Read the disclaimer on my LJ
Rating: PG13

Margaret Eppes - Subtraction

Gravitation -- Eiri "Yuki" Uesugi, Set Delta

cuethe_pulse — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 17:39:58 GMT

Title: The Trials of a Romance Novelist
Fandom: Gravitation
Character: Eiri “Yuki” Uesugi
Theme set: Delta
Disclaimer: Gravitation and its characters do not belong to me.
Warning: Some sentences contain spoilers for Gravitation Ex.

#01 – Blend

Eiri’s eyes could never hold one, single emotion—be it anger and confusion, frustration and lust, love and regret, there was always a mixture of feelings to decipher.

#02 – Stain

For the first week he was home, Eiri refused to touch his sister or brother; he could still feel the cold metal of the gun on his hands, and he didn’t want it to taint anyone else.

#03 – Island

He once seriously considered looking into buying his own private island—someplace he could go to drown himself in beer and shag whoever he wanted to in peace.

#04 – Apple

When he was little, Eiri wondered why Snow White had taken the apple from a stranger when she had plenty of things to eat inside the dwarves’ familiar home; later, when he was offered his own taste of forbidden fruit, he understood.

#05 – Paper

“You’re killing trees, you know,” was all his father said when Eiri published his first novel.

#06 – Relax

Shuichi’s touch relaxed him like no one else’s had; the singer’s attempt at a massage went wonderfully until he opened his mouth to talk.

#07 – Leaves

Eiri hates change; the first time he noticed the leaves changed colors, he got mad at the trees and didn’t forgive them until their leaves were green again.

#08 – Proof

He was sick and tired of Shuichi doubting him and his feelings; the tattoo on his chest would be his permanent proof to the world that Shuichi Shindou had him officially whipped.

#09 – Ugly

Eiri always knew without being told that he was an attractive man, and he knew how to use that, too; it wasn’t until he was alone and he remembered the way Kitazawa looked at him when he pulled the trigger, that he felt truly ugly.

#10 – Book

“I read your last book,” Shuichi said, and Eiri hated the way his chest tightened in nervousness.

#11 – Brood

Since Shuichi moved in, it was impossible for Eiri to brood properly; as soon as he’d start feeling sorry for his self, the singer would stick a straw up his nose and make his eyes crinkle in amusement.

#12 – Mesh

As much as Tohma could grate on his nerves, Eiri knew that there was no one else he connected with so well, no one else who knew all his mannerisms and the things to say to put everything into perspective; as much as he hated the term “friend”, that’s exactly was Tohma was.

#13 – Soft

“You’re going soft, bro,” Tatsuha smirked when he noticed the singer’s mug sitting on Eiri’s kitchen counter.

#14 – Shelf

Eiri had a shelf in his office for each copy he received of his novels; he read their spines every now and then when he glanced up from work, but aside from that, they remained unread—until a certain singer took them down, determined to read every one.

#15 – Alone

On Eiri’s first night alone in his new apartment, he had to turn on the TV and his stereo before he felt comfortable enough to fall asleep, and even then his sleep was restless; he kept waking up and listening for his father’s snores.

#16 – Fall

Eiri wrote about the passion of young lovers for a living every day, so he figured he knew all the signs; he still isn’t sure how he managed to fall so hard so fast without realizing it.

#17 – Knot

He knew he didn’t stand a chance when he started becoming tongue-tied.

#18 – Crowd

When he takes a minute to just glance over the sea of fans at his book-signing, he can’t help but think they’ve got way too much time on their hands, and that they need to get a life.

#19 – Denial

He told himself that he didn’t care if his old man was ill; he was just going back to Kyoto because he’d left some things behind when he moved.

#20 – Train

Tatsuha was like a clone of him—Eiri had taught him well; but it annoyed him to no end when one glance from a certain Ryuichi Sakuma could unravel years of his hard work.

#21 – Fur

He greatly preferred Shuichi’s dog suit to the boy’s school girl uniform; although, he did harbor a secret affection for those of the more feline persuasion.

#22 – Chrome

He only swerved to avoid hitting the pink-haired boy, because he didn’t want the nuisance making a mess on his precious car.

#23 – Heart

“So you do have one,” Shuichi remarked when he felt the writer’s pulse under his fingertips, “I was beginning to wonder.”

#24 – Intention

Eiri frowned when Ayaka’s father playfully asked about his intentions; he didn’t intend to do anything with her until she grew a bigger bust.

#25 – Push

He’d been on the path to being a writer; all he needed was a bloody betrayal to get him started.

#26 – Look

All he needed to do was give one, pointed look, and the singer knew to shut up and leave him alone.

#27 – Weight

He tended to lose a lot of weight when Shuichi went on tour; without the constant reminder, he didn’t think about the fact that he was living for someone other than himself.

#28 – Spider

He used to be afraid of spiders, but after coming back from New York he killed them without a second thought.

#29 – Robe

Eiri had a habit of putting on his robe even when no one else was home; no one really knew how self-conscious he could be.

#30 – Umbrella

This was kind of cozy, he thought as Shuichi held an umbrella over them both, allowing Eiri to light a cigarette without it getting soggy.

#31 – Surface

Mika called his rough indifference a façade, because she could still remember the days when he smiled up at her with his arms around her legs, because she was his older sister and could consequently do no wrong.

#32 – Idea

Eiri had a pretty good idea what kind of pictures that Aizawa jerk took, but he would have no way of knowing for sure; he was burning them tonight.

#33 – Diamond

Shuichi didn’t ask for shiny, expensive things like his girlfriends always had, so Eiri never knew what sort of things to buy the boy.

#34 – Blind

When Eiri realized that his eyes were indeed open and he still couldn’t see anything, his first thought was that his worst nightmare had come true: he was completely helpless.

#35 – Flow

There were times when the words poured out of him so smoothly and—despite the trashy romances he was producing—he actually felt like a writer.

#36 – Movement

“Idiot,” Eiri said over the beat of the music, “just because I don’t do it often, that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to dance.”

#37 – More

One drink more, was running through his mind like a mantra as his throat succumbed to the raw burn of the alcohol, and his painful memories became hazy.

#38 – Honey

Eiri attracted his first few editors with heated looks and honeyed words; it wasn’t until he found one who could take his sharp banter as well as dish it back, that he was satisfied.

#39 – Weather

When Mika asked how the weather was in New York, he couldn’t answer; he’d been too busy getting lost in his tutor’s smile.

#40 – Blue

Mika’s eyes were blue—and that was not a normality in their family—but Eiri can’t remember their father hating her for it, like he did him for his blond hair.

#41 – Double

“Stand still,” Eiri slurred, “both of you.”—and Shuichi knew the writer was beyond drunk.

#42 – Braid

Eiri braided his mother’s hair when she was sick, and after she was gone, he cried when he could no longer feel the silky strands between his fingers.

#43 – Thread

He made Shuichi promises he wasn’t sure he could keep; he took his hand and laced their fingers together to alleviate some of the guilt he felt.

#44 – Angles

Eiri didn’t like math—and geometry especially frustrated him—but he understood very well the many planes and angles of the human body.

#45 – Daydream

He felt his mind wander at times while he worked; he was grateful when Mizuki pointed out parts that sounded a bit too much like his personal life.

#46 – Nightmare

He often tried to tell himself that New York was one big, long nightmare; he was just several years older when he woke up than when he fell asleep.

#47 – Honor

He’d never done anything in his life that he could call honorable, so he considered it a fair punishment when the shattered glass flew into his eyes as he shoved Riku out of harm’s way.

#48 – Palm

“Pain, pain, go away,” Riku chanted as his fingers ran over Eiri’s bruised palm; the writer sighed in resignation and did not pull away.

#49 – Screen

When he put up his invisible barriers—to keep from being betrayed once again—he never thought there would come a time when he’d want to put them back down.

#50 – Warmth

He once prided himself on being cold as ice; but with both an overly-loving singer and a quietly adoring child snuggled close against him every night, he knew that there was a very good chance that he would eventually melt.

</div>

Trip Tucker

crushedmidnight — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 01:55:55 GMT

Title: Pompeii
Fandom: Star Trek: Enterprise
Character: Charlie “Trip” Tucker
Theme set: Gamma
Disclaimer: I do not own Trip or any of the other recognizable characters here.
Rating: PG-13, T
Timeline: Pre-show to finale

Pompeii

Little
Mike was forever his buddy; Shannon was forever his mentor; but the day that Lizzie was
born and he looked down at her tiny fingers and toes, he knew she’d be his favorite sibling.

Backwards
Racecar spelled backwards is racecar; Mike called him an easily amused idiot, but really, he could never get over that!

Trouble
Mike lay screaming on the ground, clutching his arm to his chest, and Charlie got down on his knees and quietly prayed that he’d never dared him to climb that tree, before breaking down in tears.

Snow
He didn’t see snow until he was ten years old, but within the hour he’d thrown enough snow balls to more than make up for it.

Nail
Until twelve or so, all he cared about was practical jokes and machine parts; then- wham!- like a hammer hitting a nail, he realized why all the eighth-grade boys liked to hang around outside the wrong locker room.

Trap
Not much annoyed him more than when his teachers, apparently trying to seem cooler, addressed him as “Trap Tucker”.

Bandage
He knew that he’d stepped on Mike’s feet a lot as they awkwardly taught themselves ball room dancing, but honestly, how much of a drama queen was he to actually wrap his toes in bandages?

Music
He took up the harmonica as a practical joke; he kept up the harmonica because he didn’t get a date for junior prom.

Mechanism
Career day had left him so nervous that he couldn’t fall asleep, so he began to list the specs of a working warp core engine to help himself relax; that’s when it hit him.

Hands
He can still see Lizzie, fourteen years old, waving awkwardly as she walked slowly backwards out of his dorm room and reminding him one last time to call often.

Pearl
He’d actually thought it was quite clever- a woman named Ruby calling her daughter Pearl- but she just laughed and shook her head; he wasn’t the first man to be clever.

Library
He’d always assumed he was the best-looking person to spend most of their free time in the library, but one day a girl named Natalie asked to borrow his pencil for just a second, and everything changed.

Time
The first time he told Natalie that he loved her, they were swimming; she said “there’s a reason speedos are out of style,” then he said “there’s a reason the clerk told you to buy a one piece,” then she said “there’s a reason no one likes you, Charlie Tucker,” and then he said, “there’s a reason I love you.”

Collar
Natalie reached out and carefully smoothed his collar, and damnit… now they’d have to wait a few minutes before meeting her parents, unless there was something conveniently available for him to hold over his lap.

Rice
He had never gotten homesick once in space training until one day the alien rice in the cafeteria turned out to actually be tiny maggots; then he ended up sick for his home and sick to his stomach.

Wild
His hands were on his helmet, ready to lift it off when Jon shouted his plea one final time; the words still had no effect, but the wild anguish in his friend’s wet eyes finally convinced him not to.

Win
He burst into Jon’s apartment with a bottle of brandy in his hand, whooping and hollering that he’d made chief engineer; Jon came in from the kitchen, glasses in his hands and grinned: “I know.”

Paint
And somehow the stars around them made him want to paint, although he’d never touched a brush in his life; such great beauty should not belong to him alone, he wanted to share this galaxy with the world.

Buttons
The first time he’d told that pasty, accented armory officer to keep his shirt on, the bastard had actually reached up to check his buttons; oh yeah, he could have some fun with this one.

Crown
There was something in the way her bangs spilled perfectly down from the crown of her head, or the way she held her arms behind her back, or the way she glared without moving a muscle; he should have known from the beginning that if opposites did truly attract, then it was utterly inevitable.

Staircase
The sweet spot reminded him a little of his secret hideout in the abandoned staircase behind the Chapel in his elementary school; sitting there felt as natural as breathing, although, in the staircase, there had been gravity.

Prey
Looking back on it, as the psychosis started, he could almost feel himself giving into it, succumbing consciously but unwillingly, slowly but distinctly; it pulled at him, and he shrunk in on himself, a timid antelope in a world of animated stone lions.

Brick
The news hit him like a ton of bricks and he felt his face flush and contort in the same instant: “pregnant?,” he repeated, and his first thought was that Mike could never, ever know.

Last
The last time he told Natalie that he loved her, it was in a letter sent across lightyears of empty space; and as he sent it, something in him knew.

Star
Gazing out at the stars that would soon swallow all of them but their recordings, he told Malcolm about Ruby because he didn’t want to think about Natalie.

Sleep
Well, damn, he thought sleepily, staring over at Malcolm’s sickbay cot; they had survived, now he and that British bastard would have no choice but to be friends.

Bell
The thick, sticky muck surrounded him, enclosing him in a case of tendrils and images: hopscotch, water polo, lizards, pencils, church bells, and he wondered who this “Tucker” person was, exactly.

Powder
When they had first beamed down, the pale, powder-soft sand had reminded him a bit of the beaches back home; a day later, lying half-delirious in Jon’s lap, it reminded him more of freshly-turned dirt in a cemetery.

Definition
“Hey, Mal… lemme tell you what you are in a bathroom… you’re-a-peein’, get it?!”

Freedom
Charles’ face had an almost avian quality to it- a delicate structure which was the reason he’d decided to think of her as female; now he thought it seemed all the more appropriate, as though she hadn’t killed herself, simply flown away.

Grim
He could remember a time when Jon would laugh and play and cry like everyone else, but now his face was always set in the same rigidly grim expression; this was why he never wanted to make Captain himself- it killed you.

Expectation
He couldn’t really remember when Malcolm had usurped Jon to become his closest friend, which troubled him; as idealistic as it was, he always preferred things like that to happen in a moment, not over so, so much time.

Ash
He would often try to define the way he felt at the moment he heard the news, but it eluded delineation; the single word that came to mind was Pompeii, an idyllic life suddenly buried under ash.

Loss
Loss involved a great deal of wanting, he realized, staring out at the vast crater; he wanted it to be a dream; he wanted to be a kid again, home with his sister; he wanted to rest his head on Malcolm’s shoulder and bawl like a baby.

Child
Florida as it had been in his childhood seemed to still exist somewhere, separate from the Florida of the present; he just couldn’t get there, was all.

Glass
He took out the delicately woven bracelet from his desk drawer and lovingly fingered the glass beads; they were as blue and round as Lizzie’s eyes had been when she’d proudly presented it to him.

Contact
He used to be quite diligent about letters to all his family, but when he stopped writing to Lizzie, he stopped writing to the rest of his family; he wondered if they felt like they’d lost him, too.

Electricity
While his body shot backwards, and all around him was the smell of burning conduits, all he could really think of was his own stupidity- undertaking the most dangerous mission of his life, then dying in his own engine room.

Scab
So if they had the same memories, Sim would have remembered falling off his bike that first time on the mountain trail, would have remembered the sharp splitting pain and the funny, bird-shaped scab; but he wouldn’t have had the scar, would he?

Possession
The strangest aftereffect of the whole “incident” was a sneaking sense of possessiveness; he wanted to somehow leave his mark on all his friends, his things, his space, so that they could never be anyone else’s.

Judgment
T’Pol’s best (facial) feature was her eyes- dark, intelligent, shining; they were also her worst sometimes- cold, patronizing and judgmental.

Cherry
A fellow cadet had once told him that he’d know his true love when it felt like the first time again; standing in front of T’Pol, their naked selves merging, he smiled as this came to mind.

Classified
He fed the computer his command codes for the classified personnel files; with a soft whir, the codes were accepted, and he began the Sisyphean task of recording the Engineering deaths for that month.

Milk
As he heard the news, in his mind there existed three T’Pols: one, stern and slender, standing in her wedding robes on Vulcan next to a man that was not him, long ago; one, beautiful and round, her breasts swollen with milk, what she could have been at that moment if this baby was truly theirs; and one, small and sad, her lips pursed and her eyes red, the T’Pol of the future, because this could not end well.

Fold
All his life he’d imagined how beautiful his firstborn baby would be; now that he could see her, she was everything he’d pictured, but instead of dreaming up the rest of her future, all he could do was hold her as she slept amongst a fold of blankets, and cry.

Circle
When he first saw it, the IDIC pendant was just a funny little symbol- a circle, a triangle, a jewel- but the moment that they lost Elizabeth, it became so much more; it became a promise.

Closet
In his closet, behind the faded blue jumpsuits, the fraying sweaters, and the loud Hawaiian shirts that he used to love so much, was a box of photos, already in frames.

Ache
He knew just how far down he’d gone when it was Malcolm sitting across the table from him and telling him to open up- there was a turn-‘round for ya- but even then all he could do was stare straight ahead, trying to convey with the sadness in his eyes what he couldn’t say aloud.

Worn
He didn’t want to look in the mirror because he didn’t want to confirm what he already knew: he was tired, he was older, he was utterly worn out; the worst part was, he’d always been such a happy fella.

Finale
“There was a reason for everything he did, believe it,” Jon told himself firmly, “everything- there had to be… it’s Trip.”

Zack Addy

crushedmidnight — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 01:54:32 GMT

Title: Carry With Me All My Things
Fandom: Bones
Character: Zack Addy
Theme set: Epsilon
Disclaimer: I do not own Zack or any of the other recognizable characters here.
Rating: PG, K+
Timeline: Pre-show to post-show; spoilers seasons 1-2; canon until about ep 2.07

Carry With Me All My Things

Energy
He connected the wire, completed the circuit, and watched the lightbulb glow; he was six years old, and no one had told him how to do it.

Glow
When the snow would fall, he would hold out his small blue mittens and watch the halo of light dance around the dark color against the white, and imagine that somewhere in the cosmos, a little boy just like him but much, much bigger was staring down at Michigan and laughing too.

Journal
His experiment logs from elementary school science class were five times as long as anyone else’s; he recorded every last detail, as if the results of combining baking soda and vinegar in a test tube would actually change the world somehow.

Attic
He slept in the attic bedroom, his ceiling made of unfinished rafters; he hung paper models of molecules on string from every part of them, until the air was so dense that the dusty light could barely filter down from the high windows to the floor.

Wish
He heard his mother tiptoe softly towards the spot where he hunched, pretending to be asleep with his head right next to his microscope, and heard her whisper “Oh, Zack, I wish…” before her voice trailed off.

Zero
He crossed his zeros and sevens, memorized the scientific names of plants and dropped random Latin saying in everyday conversation- not because he particularly wanted to, but because it was just what smart people did.

Loud
He heard the buzz of his schoolmates whirling around him, loud even filtered through his headphones, as he sat on the steps among the underclassmen waiting for the bus, the lone senior still incapable of driving himself, and wished to hell that he’d skipped high school entirely.

Wait
His mother told him to read the 95 Theses, saying maybe he’d appreciate their faith more if he could appreciate the intellect and struggles of Martin Luther as a man; he read them six times through, then sat, waiting for an inspiration that never really came- so what the guy was smart and gloomy- so was he, and he didn’t bother anyone by starting a religion.

Question
Even when his sobs would grow so violent that his chest would hurt and his head would pound, a little part of his mind would be busy pondering the evolutionary function of the stimulation of the lachrymal ducts when a human was in a state of emotional upset.

Block
There was a red-haired girl who lived just a block away from him, two years younger, who used to catch frogs at the same pond he did; he went away to college without talking to her once.

Prison
So at least college was marginally better than that horrible prison of high school had been, but it wasn’t exactly the miracle utopia of intellect and nerd-loving girls that he had been dreaming of either.

Jungle
In fact, college was not like a jungle- a jungle was a self-sufficient ecosystem, carefully balanced; college was a free-for-all of too much drinking, too much studying, too little sleeping and too little sex (in his humble opinion).

Cotton
He’d been in love before, and if no one believed him, he could describe the sensations of it: the glittering sight of her corn-colored hair, the sleepy sound of her even breathing, the sweet smell of her cotton shirt that said “calculus” in block text across her breasts.

Garden
He’d had his heart broken before, and if no one believed him, he could describe the sensations of it: the blurry sight of her back as she walked away, the quiet sound of himself choking back tears, the now-nauseating smell of the wildflower park they’d been walking in together.

Wisdom
His mother smiled sadly, his father read the newspaper, and his sisters danced around singing that they had told him so; this, more than any other reason, had kept him from giving up sooner on his engineering PhD.

Buzz
The rush he felt when he fell into forensic anthropology made him almost certain it was the field for him; then again, he’d felt that buzz before, and it had yet to last.

Purge
He threw up the first time his advanced biology class witnessed an autopsy, and looking back he can remember how dangerously close he came to walking away from the scientific world altogether out of sheer humiliation.

Melt
They told him everything about how much of an honor it would be to work at the Jeffersonian, and how prestigious an opportunity it was; what they didn’t tell him about was the self-righteous smirks of the terminally degreed ruling class, and the way they would stare at the mere assistants until said peons wished only to melt away to the floor and never rise again.

Hood
He should never have opened up to a man like Jack Hodgins; he’d admitted that he was afraid of cars after about a week of driving together, and Hodgins had promptly pulled the hood of his jacket over his eyes and driven blindly for almost seven panicked seconds.

Insult
He ruffled like an offended bird before explaining to Hodgins, yet again, that Michigan was the state next to the state with all the cheese.

Spot
“Here,” he said to Angela when she asked where he was from, then took her right hand, flipped it over, and touched a spot at the base of her thumb; it wasn’t until they were both blushing that he remembered she wasn’t from Michigan, and he’d probably just taken her completely by surprise.

Unique
Someday he would have to run a scientific study of Angela’s skin to find just how it managed to glow when she smiled- an inimitable human occurrence of subtle bioluminescence, perhaps?

Friends
He was aware of his position in the hierarchy, of course, but being a sidekick wasn’t really so bad if it meant that people were willing to talk to him.

Address
If he looked at the Jeffersonian the way he looked at everything else- in terms of family- Dr. Brennan would be his favorite aunt; Angela would be his affectionate big sister; Hodgins would be the annoying brother with whom he shared a room; and Agent Booth would be his eldest cousin, the one that was almost too cool to approach, and when you finally got up the courage to ask him to toss around the football, he would look at you with nonchalance and say casually “Oh, you’re Aunty Lillian’s kid Zeke, right?”

Gold
Naomi dressed as Yeoman Rand for the staff Halloween party, her golden hair piled high atop her head above perfect almond eyes and a perfect replica of a TOS delta patch; his poor heart never stood a chance.

Order
He had laid all the instruments out in perfect order according to which would be required first; when Hodgins came dashing excitedly in and bumped into the table, he simply sighed and straightened them again.

Stranger
When he first started into anthropology, he’d taken comfort from the fact that the people who had once inhabited the skeletons he examined meant nothing to him, but when his job became identifying the people, actually acknowledging them as humans, it became slowly harder to disconnect.

Mouse
When he said he hadn’t talked to anyone in high school, and hadn’t killed himself over it, it hadn’t meant that he would have minded having friends, would have complained if for even a day he hadn’t been the strange, mousy-haired kid that always sat in the front row.

Bitter
He lowered the last of Charlie’s bones into place, a bitter taste in his throat and a sharp heat in his eyes, his hands clenched into fists, and went to get dressed for the gala.

Duel
Sometimes he felt like there were two Zack Addys: a mind and a heart, undiluted logic and insecure emotion, a seen half and an unseen- a Zack who didn’t care about their skeletons’ past lives, and a Zack who did.

Dash
The thrill of the realization as he dashed back through the parking lot, numbers whirling in his head, shot through him like an orgasm, then lingered like a halo he could see around himself while he made his way back to the car; he needed to get out of the lab more often.

Minute
It occurred to him a few minutes later that if he wanted to engage in the “banter” that his co-workers so valued, he should have shot back at Hodgins that when he spoke so slowly, geniuses couldn’t understand him.

Action
After a while, he knew weapons so well that it wasn’t hard to determine even the strangest of murder implements; it did make it more difficult emotionally, however, because he knew weapons so well that he could imagine in detail exactly how it felt to be killed by every one.

Guilt
He didn’t recognize that he was building a robot until he was about halfway done, and even then, it took a few more days for him to realize that he’d never truly given up on engineering.

Second-Rate
Speaking into a microphone wasn’t talking with family; two hands on separate sides of a glass pane was not an embrace; crying weakly, in the bathroom so no one would know, was not his idea of Christmas.

Threat
And for once, he seemed to understand the real world when no one else did; they could very possibly be dead before 2006.

Portrait
He took the portrait with slightly shaking hands; it was beautiful, indeed, but when he thanked Angela, he was thanking her more for her sweet, sad, sympathizing smile than for the picture itself.

Gravity
The ritual of finding the tree came a few days late that year because of the quarantine, but he didn’t mind; in fact, it was the first year in a long time that his mind was on family and not physics as the tree fell crisply to the ground.

Seasons
It never seemed that way when he lived there, but returning to Michigan from the east coast, the seasons seemed more uniform there: cool, cold, colder, coldest.

Text
Possibly his favorite part of the comic books was the text: the way the all-caps, bold fonts burst out of the perfectly curved speech bubbles and gave the characters the courage to say whatever they pleased.

Lock
Locking bones away in limbo was always a sort of guilty feeling, knowing it was likely the last time they’d see light for years to come.

Plastic
Why he had ever taken decision-making advice from Jack Hodgins was beyond him; when he pinned up two sheets of theme paper, one reading “forensic anthropology”, the other “engineering”, closed his eyes and lobbed a plastic dart at the wall, it hit his desk calendar.

Blood
The good thing about working with bones and long-dead, preserved bodies was the lack of blood; preservatives, he could handle.

Sight
He let out a tiny sigh of relief when Dr. Brennan confirmed that the sight of the liquefied man was indeed disgusting; he’d been worrying that he should be immune to the influence of things like this by now, but if she were put off, then it was all right that he’d been queasy the whole time.

Chain
He watched, nervously fidgeting at the front of the crowd, as she locked another chain around herself in what she had told him earlier was (somehow) a statement on global warming; he wondered what it would be like to be as outgoing or as daring as a performance artist, what it would be like to be publicly admired for what he could do.

Limit
Driving home late at night sometimes, he would still press his hand childishly against the window and watch the stars whiz by, pretending that the car was going quickly enough to reach the limits of the universe; then Hodgins would ask him what the hell he was doing and he would blush, out of excuses.

Escort
He couldn’t think of Angela and Hodgins as an item, even weeks after he’d first asked her out; a tiny part of his mind was clinging to a dying hope that he, Zack Addy, would get the girl for once.

Claw
She’d clawed out her murderer’s eyeballs before she died, he could tell from the unique cells under her fingernails; when he realized that it didn’t affect him, he knew it was time to leave the Jeffersonian; Dr. Brennan had taught him all she could.

Attitude
He worked with the police directly for a while as he finished his degrees, mostly to pay for school, then taught adjunct at a number of colleges; he had all the knowledge required of him, now what he needed to learn was how to care correctly, not too much, not too little.

Yesterday
He walked out of the Jeffersonian on a Friday afternoon as an ex-assistant and returned on a Monday morning as a newly hired professor of anthropology; of course, there were many, many weekends in between.

[Wild ARMs Alter Code: F] Claim: Rudy Roughnight

ex_kanon — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 04:30:59 GMT

Title: Fifty Memories Engraved into the Heart
Fandom: Wild ARMs Alter Code: F
Character: Rudy Roughnight
Theme set: Gamma
Disclaimer: I don't own WAACF or any of its characters.
Rating: G. Fun for the whole family!
Notes: I know that since I’m going by ACF canon, I should say “Wanderer” instead of “Dream Chaser,” but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Sorry. Also, there are spoilers and I put in some Rudy/Jane undertones. Finally, I apologize for #48, #49 and #50, I couldn’t help it~

#01 – Snow: Even though he wasn’t used to Arctica’s usual temperature, he liked the snow, and he would have loved to have some fun if they didn’t have such an important schedule.

#02 – Child: Rudy didn’t want his grandfather to do all the work by himself, so he adopted the title of Dream Chaser at an early age, even though that forced him to grow up even faster.

#03 – Brick: Although it wasn’t one of his more obvious traits, he would be stubborn about thinking that there was some good in most of the people he met.

#04 – Judgment: Rudy couldn’t judge people without being indecisive; being branded like that so quickly only lead to heartache.

#05 – Powder: If it could be avoided, Rudy would try to steer clear of deserts—no one likes getting sand thrown in their faces, after all—but once he met Jack and Cecilia, he had no qualms about making exceptions.

#06 – Grim: Before he passed out from his injury at the Gate Generator, the last things he saw were Jack and Cecilia’s worried faces, and he thought, ‘I’m sorry for doing this. But…I’m grateful to have such good friends.’

#07 – Trap: Rudy is best described as dangerously selfless; nearly getting oneself killed multiple times trying to protect others certainly contributes to that handle.

#08 – Star: His grandfather, Zepet Roughnight, taught him everything he knew, including the ability to navigate by using the stars, although truth be told, Rudy wasn’t that good at it.

#09 – Possession: Despite the stigma it held, there was no way that he would throw away his ARM; it was a keepsake from his grandfather.

#10 – Bandage: The bandage that was always present on his left cheek hid an old scar from when he was younger, and he found that getting jobs as a Dream Chaser was a little easier when he had it covered up.

#11 – Pearl: Before they all met, Rudy usually took jobs that were in town instead of risking it in ancient ruins looking for treasure, so when he curiously asked Jack about what he had found on his own travels, the treasure hunter promptly changed the subject.

#12 – Glass: As far as Rudy was concerned, hearts were like glass; beautiful, fragile, and nearly impossible to repair once shattered.

#13 – Classified: Aside from being a Holmcross, Rudy’s secret was that he needed a night-light of some kind in order to fall asleep; in the wilderness, even the moon would suffice.

#14 – Buttons: Rudy knew how to push all of Jane’s buttons, although he didn’t realize it himself, and he often did it without trying.

#15 – Closet: Rudy was a minimalist when it came to personal belongings; what he owned could barely fill a closet.

#16 – Ash: The idea of burning the house down to try and forget the past occurred to him immediately after Zepet’s death, but for every bad memory of that place, there were countless good ones, and at least he would still have a place to come home to this way, although he rarely used this convenience.

#17 – Definition: While he didn’t exactly see the world through rose-tinted glasses, he was far from being jaded.

#18 – Staircase: He knew that he shouldn’t eavesdrop, but the top of the staircase was a perfect place to listen from, and they were talking about his future in the village, after all.

#19 – Nail: He never wanted to hurt anyone, but if when the choices came to killing or being killed, he had to pick the former; he had too much to live for to just give up like that.

#20 – Prey: At first glance, he just looked like an innocent boy with nothing to hide, but any thugs that attacked him thinking he was easy prey were countered with a roundhouse kick to the stomach.

#21 – Backwards: It looked kind of silly, but when the wind was particularly bad, sometimes he would walk backwards to keep it out of his face.

#22 – Trouble: Judging from the somewhat harsh words exchanged between Jane and Cecilia (largely on Jane’s part), the real trouble wouldn’t start for Rudy until after he recovered.

#23 – Little: When he was little, he would have loved to have friends to play with, but he usually ended up keeping to himself out of shyness, and he knew that the life of a Dream Chaser meant that you never stayed in one place for too long.

#24 – Collar: It was sometimes required to don formalwear and remember a higher tier of manners at the castle; he didn’t mind the manners so much, but the clothes always seemed to be uncomfortable.

#25 – Circle: He was working on a trick with his ARM that lessened the force pushed on him after it was fired, but he dropped that idea once he gained two battle companions; he didn’t want his trigger finger to slip and make the ARM go off when other people were around.

#26 – Hands: He always wore gloves whether he was working or fighting, but the calluses were still noticeable at close inspection.

#27 – Freedom: The life of a Dream Chaser had its charms, but he’d still like to have a place to call home.

#28 – Last: When Zepet died, he didn’t know what to do at first; he wasn’t even sixteen, yet he had been left all alone with no one else to turn to.

#29 – Scab: Sometimes, instead of showing what he was really feeling, he would just bottle it up and smile as if nothing was wrong.

#30 – Crown: Saving the world and being good friends with a princess meant that it was almost inevitable that rumors would start up about their group, and there were even rumors about the supposed scandalous love triangle between Cecilia, himself and Jane (which he was completely oblivious to).

#31 – Time: Being able to keep track of time was one of his strong points, even though those kinds of skills only seemed to be noticeable when you didn’t have them.

#32 – Rice: He liked chow mein as much as the next person, but watching Cecilia scarf down all of those extra helpings made him appreciate it a little more.

#33 – Worn: His jeans and his shirt had all been torn at one point or another, but as long as there weren’t any gaping holes or other major imperfections, it didn’t really make much of a difference to him.

#34 – Paint: He preferred sunrises as opposed to sunsets; as beautiful as they were, the kaleidoscope of colours in the sky still represented endings instead of beginnings.

#35 – Ache: It wasn’t that he didn’t trust his friends; he just didn’t want to burden them with his problems.

#36 – Cherry: From the way he smiled with the cherry stem hanging out of his mouth, you’d think he was ten rather that fifteen.

#37 – Library: It was sometimes difficult for a book to hold his attention, and it wasn’t unusual for him to be half-asleep with a book sitting in his lap.

#38 – Win: He would never admit it, but when he played games with the kids at Court Seim, he would usually let them win.

#39 – Loss: It was unsetting at first when he looked at his arm and saw metal instead of skin.

#40 – Fold: While he had some skill with comforting others, crying people—especially crying girls—always gave him some difficulty.

#41 – Music: The sounds of the wilderness were always music to his ears.

#42 – Bell: It was hard for him to hide the sad look on his face as they walked up to his old house to get the Giant’s Ocarina; this place was still too familiar, and it kept reminding him of things that he’d rather not remember.

#43 – Sleep: He was a heavy sleeper—sleeping in the wilderness continuously will do that—and it was hard to find an alarm clock that would actually wake him up.

#44 – Contact: For a moment, he thought that his heart skipped a beat when Jane grabbed his hand and dragged him away with a grin, but maybe he was just imagining things.

#45 – Electricity: No matter what his logic tried to tell him, he couldn’t help but think that the dark, ominous clouds forming around Ka Dingel were trying to tell them something.

#46 – Milk: After being forced to use milk powder as a substitute for what seemed like an eternity (it wasn’t practical to bring real milk along), he was glad to stumble into the inn and get the real stuff for a change.

#47 – Wild: The word ‘wild’ didn’t fit his personality at all, so it was a shock to see him strike one of the mayor’s sons, even though they probably deserved it for the way they treated Mariel.

#48 – Expectation: Cecilia had friends at Curan Abbey, so once in a while they would visit, and since it was strictly girls-only, it was almost expected that Jack and Rudy would attract a lot of stares—but because of the age difference, Rudy seemed to get a little more of the attention.

#49 – Mechanism: It didn’t help that his defense mechanism was to smile, and apparently a few of the girls found it charming, since they would blush deeply when he smiled at them.

#50 – Finale: That led to Jane getting annoyed and dragging Rudy out of the room (much to the dismay of the other girls), although he didn’t understand why.

Nothin's Fair

primreceded — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 03:05:19 GMT

Title: Nothin‘s Fair
Fandom: The 10th Kingdom
Character: Wendell White
Theme set: Eta
Disclaimer: All characters, recognizable settings and themes belong to Simon Moore, Hallmark and others, I am in no way earning money or other profit from this fanfic.
Rating: pg13
Author’s Notes: The last couple of words ate my brain. Which I knew they would, s’why I put’em at the end to begin with, and Tie may be a bit OOC. Anyhow, there are some Wendell/Virginia undertones to this, and they are step-brother/step-sister so if that ain’t yer thang, I suppose you ought to skip on by. Words are in no particular order. Unbeta’d, all mistakes are my own.

IJ

Rogue (X-men), Alpha set

maharetr — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 09:36:53 GMT

Title: Under her skin
Fandom: X-men (movieverse)
Character: Marie "Rogue" D'Ancanto
Theme set: Alpha
Disclaimer: Not mine; no profit, not so much as breaking even.
Rating: PG-13
Notes: Spoilers for all 3 X-Men movies. Some of these sentences are based on two femslash drabbles found here: Push/Pull. Love and chocolate to vegetariansushi for betaing each of these as they emerged.
Summary: Asking her if she thinks about it is like asking an amputee if they think about their missing limb.

Touch…

Be Brave

gemjam — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 20:37:37 GMT

Title: Be Brave
Fandom: Lost
Character: Jack Shephard
Theme set: Epsilon
Disclaimer: Don't own it.
Rating: PG

On Jack...

iluvroadrunner6 — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 05:04:07 GMT

Title: Don
Fandom: CSI:NY
Character: Don Flack, Jr.
Theme set: Alpha
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of CSI:NY. They're owned by CBS.
Rating: PG-13

Don

Set Delta

otherdeb — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 09:39:28 GMT

Title: Again, into the Breach
Fandom: RPS
Character: Howard Dwaine Dorough
Theme set: Delta
Disclaimer:Not mine, weird and unreal, sue and you'll get half of my debts
Rating: G

1. Howie loved the way his voice and Nick's would BLEND in the monitors.
2. Howie examined the STAIN on his white carpet, then called his cleaning service.
3. Howie and Nick loved to eat small, intimate meals at the ISLAND in Nick's kitchen.
4. When Nick started complaining about being humgry, Howie offered him an APPLE to hold him until lunch.
5. At AJ's yell, Howie sighed, put down his PAPER, and headed toward the living room.
6. Howie loved to RELAX at home with Nick or one of the other guys to keep him company.
7. One fall, during a break, Nick drove Howie north, and the spent the weekend driving and watching the LEAVES turn colors.
8. The fans' response when Howie, Nick, AJ, Kevin, and Brian took the stage was PROOF that Backstreet was neither dead nor washed up.
9. Howie was tired of the press treating him as the UGLY Backstreet Boy.
10. Howie knew that many fans thought he was a closet intellectual, but the last BOOK he had actually read was a paperback murder mystery, whose name he couldn't tell you if his life had depended on it.
11. Howie didn't BROOD often, but occasionally he resented not being one of the "stars" of the group.
12. Howie could never understand how AJ could publicly wear things like MESH shirts.
13. Howie thought he had never felt lips as SOFT as AJ's.
14. At Howie's request, Nick placed their new acquisition on the one SHELF that Christopher couldn't reach by jumping.
15. One thing Howie missed about the individual busses was having some time ALONE to destress.
16. If there was one thing Howie knew, it was how little it would take for him to FALL in love with AJ.
17. Both of the rings that Howie and AJ exchanged were simple gold bands fahioned into a lover's KNOT.
18. Just once, Howie wished, he could go somewhere or do something without having to play to the CROWD that inveitably gathered.
19. It wasn't that Howie was in DENIAL; it was more that he was afraid admitting he was in love with AJ would screw up the group and everything they had worked for.
20. AJ looked at Howie calmly, and noted "D, that TRAIN left the station long ago."
21. Although Howie didn't much believe in wearing FUR, one of the first gifts he gave his mother was the mink stole she had always wanted.
22. Howie's kitchen was a sleek affair, with lots of CHROME and glass surfaces.
23. The guys often took advantage of the fact that Howie had a big HEART where they were concerned.
24. It was Howie's INTENTION to stay closeted for as long as Backstreet lasted.
25. Howie knew that Nick would PUSH himself to the limit when rehearsing, regardless of what his body was telling him.
26. Howie was afraid to LOOK directly into AJ's eyes; if the answer was rejection, he was afraid it would destroy him.
27. Unlike the others, Howie had watched his WEIGHT during the hiatus, so he had little problem getting back into shape for the "Never Gone" tour.
28. Howie and Kevin regarded the band as caught in the SPIDER-like web of improprieties Lou had woven.
29. Even though Howie was expecting AJ, he threw a ROBE on before answering the door.
30. Given the sudden downpour, Howie was glad he had stored a small UMBRELLA in his car.
31. Howie knew his brother was home by the papers strewn over every flat SURFACE in his living room.
32. Many of the fanfic writers felt that IDEA for putting the band together was originally Howie's.
33. The others knew that under the sweet demeanor, Howie was actually as hard as a DIAMOND.
34. Howie told himself that he must have been BLIND to not notice exactly how much of a man Nick had grown into.
35. Howie sat on the beach, and watched the tide FLOW out.
36. Howie thought he would scream if they rehearsed that particular MOVEMENT one more time.
37. After everything that went wrong at rehearsal, Howie and AJ wondered what MORE could happen that day.
38. Howie hoped the HONEY he was stirring into his tea would soothe his throat.
39. One thing Howie loved about both Florida and California was the consistent niceness of the WEATHER.
40. Howie wished that, just once, the costume designer would put him in BLUE instead of red, orange, or yellow.
41. Howie expected the profits from his newest resort hotel to DOUBLE during the holiday season.
42. Now that Howie's hair was short, he would never have to let the stylist BRAID it again.
43. One glance at Nick, and Howie knew he had lost the THREAD of the conversation.
44. Howie and Kevin spent hours considering which ANGLES they wanted their suit to come at Lou from.
45. Now that the tour was over, Howie and Nick could take a few weeks to DAYDREAM and make plans.
46. After the NIGHTMARE that working with Lou, then Jive, had been, Howie felt that the Never Gone tour was pretty much a piece of cake.
47. Howie had started the Dorough Lupus Foundation to HONOR his sister's memory.
48. Howie wanted a vacation somewhere with PALM trees, pink sand, and drinks with little paper umbrellas.
49. Howie knew that if he didn't SCREEN his calls, one day he would say the exact wrong thing to the exact wrong person...like his mother, or a fan.
50. Curled in the WARMTH of AJ's embrace, Howie knew what home meant to him.

Claim: Due South. Theme set: Eta. NC-17.

kerrbear61 — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 19:08:56 GMT

Title: A Mountie, Two Rays and A Wolf
Fandom: Due South
Character: Benton Fraser
Theme set: Eta
Disclaimer: Due South belongs to the alliance which includes all characters, so none belong to me. No copyright infringement is meant.
Rating: NC-17

Click for the fake cut