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presumenothing) wrote2022-01-20 12:34 am
presumenothing) wrote2022-01-20 12:34 am
3SF ficlets, part 2!
Another eight prompt fills freshly archived from the 3 Sentence Ficathon, continued from the first set posted here!
(*slaps lid of three sentences* you could fit so many genres in here)
GUARDIAN
don't threaten me with a good time
"Did you," Shen Wei starts (then has to stop and start again because it feels like his brain has temporarily malfunctioned in response to the sound he usually associates with being directed at Da Qing), "did you just click your tongue at me."
"Only as much as you just tried to help despite me having specifically told you not to," Zhao Yunlan says, wielding the now-empty tray at him like a not-so-blunt weapon. "This really isn't that complicated, Shen Wei, you just have to just sit there and be waited on – do I actually have to threaten you into letting me do everything for once?"
-
necromancy
"Xiao Wei, hi – I need to ask something," continues Zhao Yunlan before he can return the greeting or otherwise reply, "you wouldn't happen to have learnt some kind of necromancy ability earlier today, yeah?"
"No?" Shen Wei says, and he hadn't actually meant that to sound like a question but for surprise at the words, so he repeats: "No, definitely not."
"Right, that's what I thought, though it does mean we have an entirely different problem here… care to help deal with a zombie infestation after your class?"
-
inadvisable substitutions while cooking
"Or maybe," drawls Zhao Yunlan in the tone of voice that suggests he's trying to be infuriating and well-aware of it, "tempting you into cooking for me was just my devious plan to check if you used some key ingredients – garlic, say?"
Horror at the idea of substituting anything for garlic wages war with utter exasperation (never mind how intentionally provoked) as Shen Wei says, "Did you seriously suspect I might be a vampire, Zhao Yunlan."
Though the only thing nearly-supernatural here is how brightly Zhao Yunlan's eyes dance as he throws his hands out in a familiarly eloquent gesture: it's not like you were telling me anything!
-
there are powerlines in our bloodlines
"Oh – oh, I get it now, this is gonna be good," Zhao Yunlan says, and he's not even playing up the confident laughter that escapes him (really his captors' own fault for not being in on the joke), "that's why you're so sure about keeping me here, isn't it, because you've gone and sucked away all the dark energy in the city between the portals closing and that energy siphon? Which Li Qian's not gonna be happy about at all, mind, stealing her lab equipment to misuse it against her mentor, but you've got even bigger problems than that – do you really think the Envoy survived all these years by leaving himself open like that, especially when it's already been used against him before? More importantly, do you think I'd let him?" he finishes in vindicated triumph, and is rewarded by a glimpse of real fear on the surrounding faces before every last light cuts out with an earth-shaking crack, electricity racing along invisible wires to form a portal that sheds crackling light over Shen Wei as he steps through, sparks flickering up the glaive and down his dark cloak.
-
true ocean
"I didn't know it looked like this," he says without realising it; something about the crash of waves seems to wash out the instincts that would've made him bite the words back or at least sand out their edges, so that he doesn't fully hear himself until Zhao Yunlan turns to him in shock.
"You– I thought you would've– you mean you've never been to the ocean before?"
"No, I…" Shen Wei starts to say except the words too crash to a stop, not out of any intention to obfuscate (no more dishonesty, that'd been part of the deal when they both finally got back – and not by omission either, Shen Wei, that definitely also counts –) but from the voice he can't find to explain how on no other occasion have the seas ever looked anything like they do now, seen with Zhao Yunlan by his side.
-
unexpected mercy
It's an undeserved kindness, the way he doesn't recall any but the briefest snatches of being buried all those years.
Not that Shen Wei has any trouble extrapolating from the recollections he does have, but the blankness also means there's nothing to immediately overwrite the memories of Kunlun into something faded.
(Another unexpected boon, but if nothing else Shen Wei has learned that what mercy the universe gives it can take away just as easily – not that he can bring himself to say as much aloud a small eternity of a lifetime later, when Zhao Yunlan finds the sketches upon sketches of Kunlun that Shen Wei had drawn trying to make something tangible of that remembered face, but the words hardly seem necessary anyway.)
-
a phone that keeps ringing
Maybe there's a world, Zhao Yunlan thinks, where he survives this and walks away even though Shen Wei doesn't, where the university calls the SID's chief in to sort through Shen Wei's personal effects because for all that Professor Shen had colleagues and admirers legion there'd never been friend.
A world where Zhao Yunlan starts paying for a no-longer-necessary phone bill, just so he can dial it sometimes and hear those familiarly measured tones: Hello, you've reached Shen Wei at Dragon City University…
(Or maybe it doesn't exist at all because that Zhao Yunlan gets his Shen Wei out alive somehow, because if time travel can be real then so must parallel universes with endings happier than these; but in this one all he asks is to hear Shen Wei's voice even just one more time, before the Lantern takes him.)
-
DISCWORLD / FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST
other fandom character meets the Death of Discworld
"But that can't be," repeated the white shadow, scrabbling backwards in the yawning un-expanse of the void, "mortality cannot possibly have any hold on me – I am the world, I am the universe, I am god, I am truth!"
AND I AM DEATH, THE REAPER MAN, THE GRAVE OF ALL HOPE, THE ULTIMATE REALITY, THE…
The robed figure trailed off into silence, before belatedly venturing: MY APOLOGIES, I THOUGHT WE WERE INTRODUCING OURSELVES.
(*slaps lid of three sentences* you could fit so many genres in here)
"Did you," Shen Wei starts (then has to stop and start again because it feels like his brain has temporarily malfunctioned in response to the sound he usually associates with being directed at Da Qing), "did you just click your tongue at me."
"Only as much as you just tried to help despite me having specifically told you not to," Zhao Yunlan says, wielding the now-empty tray at him like a not-so-blunt weapon. "This really isn't that complicated, Shen Wei, you just have to just sit there and be waited on – do I actually have to threaten you into letting me do everything for once?"
necromancy
"Xiao Wei, hi – I need to ask something," continues Zhao Yunlan before he can return the greeting or otherwise reply, "you wouldn't happen to have learnt some kind of necromancy ability earlier today, yeah?"
"No?" Shen Wei says, and he hadn't actually meant that to sound like a question but for surprise at the words, so he repeats: "No, definitely not."
"Right, that's what I thought, though it does mean we have an entirely different problem here… care to help deal with a zombie infestation after your class?"
inadvisable substitutions while cooking
"Or maybe," drawls Zhao Yunlan in the tone of voice that suggests he's trying to be infuriating and well-aware of it, "tempting you into cooking for me was just my devious plan to check if you used some key ingredients – garlic, say?"
Horror at the idea of substituting anything for garlic wages war with utter exasperation (never mind how intentionally provoked) as Shen Wei says, "Did you seriously suspect I might be a vampire, Zhao Yunlan."
Though the only thing nearly-supernatural here is how brightly Zhao Yunlan's eyes dance as he throws his hands out in a familiarly eloquent gesture: it's not like you were telling me anything!
there are powerlines in our bloodlines
"Oh – oh, I get it now, this is gonna be good," Zhao Yunlan says, and he's not even playing up the confident laughter that escapes him (really his captors' own fault for not being in on the joke), "that's why you're so sure about keeping me here, isn't it, because you've gone and sucked away all the dark energy in the city between the portals closing and that energy siphon? Which Li Qian's not gonna be happy about at all, mind, stealing her lab equipment to misuse it against her mentor, but you've got even bigger problems than that – do you really think the Envoy survived all these years by leaving himself open like that, especially when it's already been used against him before? More importantly, do you think I'd let him?" he finishes in vindicated triumph, and is rewarded by a glimpse of real fear on the surrounding faces before every last light cuts out with an earth-shaking crack, electricity racing along invisible wires to form a portal that sheds crackling light over Shen Wei as he steps through, sparks flickering up the glaive and down his dark cloak.
true ocean
"I didn't know it looked like this," he says without realising it; something about the crash of waves seems to wash out the instincts that would've made him bite the words back or at least sand out their edges, so that he doesn't fully hear himself until Zhao Yunlan turns to him in shock.
"You– I thought you would've– you mean you've never been to the ocean before?"
"No, I…" Shen Wei starts to say except the words too crash to a stop, not out of any intention to obfuscate (no more dishonesty, that'd been part of the deal when they both finally got back – and not by omission either, Shen Wei, that definitely also counts –) but from the voice he can't find to explain how on no other occasion have the seas ever looked anything like they do now, seen with Zhao Yunlan by his side.
unexpected mercy
It's an undeserved kindness, the way he doesn't recall any but the briefest snatches of being buried all those years.
Not that Shen Wei has any trouble extrapolating from the recollections he does have, but the blankness also means there's nothing to immediately overwrite the memories of Kunlun into something faded.
(Another unexpected boon, but if nothing else Shen Wei has learned that what mercy the universe gives it can take away just as easily – not that he can bring himself to say as much aloud a small eternity of a lifetime later, when Zhao Yunlan finds the sketches upon sketches of Kunlun that Shen Wei had drawn trying to make something tangible of that remembered face, but the words hardly seem necessary anyway.)
a phone that keeps ringing
Maybe there's a world, Zhao Yunlan thinks, where he survives this and walks away even though Shen Wei doesn't, where the university calls the SID's chief in to sort through Shen Wei's personal effects because for all that Professor Shen had colleagues and admirers legion there'd never been friend.
A world where Zhao Yunlan starts paying for a no-longer-necessary phone bill, just so he can dial it sometimes and hear those familiarly measured tones: Hello, you've reached Shen Wei at Dragon City University…
(Or maybe it doesn't exist at all because that Zhao Yunlan gets his Shen Wei out alive somehow, because if time travel can be real then so must parallel universes with endings happier than these; but in this one all he asks is to hear Shen Wei's voice even just one more time, before the Lantern takes him.)
DISCWORLD / FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST
"But that can't be," repeated the white shadow, scrabbling backwards in the yawning un-expanse of the void, "mortality cannot possibly have any hold on me – I am the world, I am the universe, I am god, I am truth!"
AND I AM DEATH, THE REAPER MAN, THE GRAVE OF ALL HOPE, THE ULTIMATE REALITY, THE…
The robed figure trailed off into silence, before belatedly venturing: MY APOLOGIES, I THOUGHT WE WERE INTRODUCING OURSELVES.
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THANK YOU I am experiencing new levels of unholy glee that there are enough people familiar with both fandoms to appreciate it.
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I love how you're organizing those in order of angst. :D
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The inventions of my not-fully-awake after-work brain, LOL. The Death novels are my favourite thing in all of Discworld (along with utter crack crossovers) so I knew I had to fill it!
And yes, I've got no problem whiplashing back and forth across the crack/fluff-angst spectrum while writing but I like the reading experience semi-smooth haha.
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(And even though I don't know anything about FMA, I feel like that last one is pretty great even just from a Discworld perspective. XD )
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Thank you! And yes SO VERY MANY PAGES. I'm literally only scrolling the top-level comments for the prompts and it's great to see so much activity but also sends me cross-eyed!
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Also, yes, Zhao Yunlan you do need to blackmail Shen Wei into letting you do everything, absolutely.
I really like all these drabbles, you've got a knack for making something short quite meaningful!
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Thief of Time was coincidentally the first Discworld book I read (it was what our library had) but even if it hadn't been, I suspect the Death books would've been my faves of the whole series anyway.
Completely necessary – nay, ethical blackmail! And I've not-quite-intentionally given myself a lot of practice at very-short-form writing over the years, haha, even if I have to do unspeakably rude things to grammar and/or punctuation for it.
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Hah, English punctuation absolutely deserves people being rude to it.
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Vimes!! The Watch books are a close second fave, though admittedly that statement is dubious since that and the Death books are the only groups I've read in full – I've been meaning to read more of the rest but the Witches and Wizards books don't personally appeal to me as much. Also it's one case where I actually would prefer to read the physical books because the footnotes work better in hardcopy but augh… going to the library… (tiny squeak is definitely right though).
(cornering English punctuation in a dark alley like hi, I'm your worst nightmare run-on sentence come to life)
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This is so good! They are all great, but this one especially ... :D
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Thanks! I was wondering whether that one was gonna be too run-on to make any sense, haha.
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Heh thanks! Not sure which brain wires crossed to make that happen but I'm glad it did.
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Horror at the idea of substituting anything for garlic
YES. <3
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Thank you! Their canon characterisation is definitely part of what drew me in so it's good to hear that.
And yes the only acceptable substitute for garlic is MORE GARLIC. EXTRA BONUS GARLIC.
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THANK YOU I'M GLAD PEOPLE ARE LIKING IT