November Writing Challenge: Fanfiction

[Sean *]

It's writing challenge time! To enter, just post a ficlet (300-4000 words suggested) in this thread. When the voting for this month's OTM winners comes around, a voting poll will go up for this as well.

The Challenge: Take a look at some Fanfic Tropes. Make sure the one you pick still fits with the Hammel rules of acceptability (No porn), then have fun. Be sure to link to the trope you're going with.

Suggestions: Rule 63 (genderswap), crossovers, meta-humor, kidfics, crack!interpretations, bodyswap, purple prose, high school fics

The rules:

• Characters must be in Hammel canon, but the ficlets are not site canon unless expressly stated.
  
• Entries must be more than 300 words.
  
• You can enter no more than three ficlets. Any ficlets posted after the original 3 will not be considered for voting. If you want to post more, however, have fun.
  
• Ficlets must be titled.

[Charlotte Greene]

I feel a little weird posting a writing challenge.. especially one that's not happy or bubbly or funny.. but here goes.

**Warning: Violence**

AU Fic
Dark Fic
Continuation Fic


~Untitled~
One hazel eye cracked open and struggled to stay that way as the other remained swollen shut.. Aches and pains radiated from everywhere both inside and out of her body as the not-so-long-ago tortured girl tried to take in her surroundings. Dirty concrete below her, the sounds of sheet metal groaning in the wind all around.. the smell of dense woods nearby. It was a miracle she could breath through her nose at all, given the trails of dried blood running from it. "Welcome back, Miss Greene. Can I assume you are more ready to cooperate now?" Charlie let out a laugh that quickly turned into hacking coughs as she leaned forward against the restraints tying her wrists to the chair she was seated in. "While I do appreciate your.. hospitality.. I really don't know what you think I have to tell you people."

The character let out a slow sigh and continued pacing slowly around the circle of light that the solitary lamp in the dilapidated room cast over Charlie. "Why don't you start with the beginning? That would get us moving in the right direction so that noone needs to put any more marks on that beautiful body of yours.." Charlie leaned to the side and spat, coughing a few more times.. "Oh, you flatterer, you. Fine. But you know the beginning as well as I do. Two attacks. Chicago and Atlanta. One turned humans meta, the other turned metas human. But I don't think they were attacks.. and I don't think they were meant to happen at the same time." The figure slowly pacing around her nodded and motioned for her to continue. "Well.. There's no meta registry. So the only place people could go and know for sure that they would find metas was at Hammel. I don't know if it was a meta supremacy group that wanted a catalyst for their cause, or an anti-meta group that wanted the same, but somebody .. they did bad things to Hammel. Most of the teaching staff was executed."

Charlie's captor kept circling, letting out a small sigh at this note. "Yes.. It was a shame so many innocent lives were lost. We aren't sure exactly what happened there either. Please.. Go on." Charlie shook her head and grinned. "If you want to use manners, how about you offer a girl something to drink? You people have had me for more than a day now and I've lost more fluids than I've taken in. Not a good way to keep your captives alive. Lucky I'm tough, Da--" Like lightning the pacing figure reached into the light and slapped Charlie hard across the face. "Do not speak my name." After several moments of silence, Charlie chuckled weakly and coughed a few more times. "Ass. As you know the students that stayed out of the way were basically left alone.. Quite a few of them ran back home, some stayed, and others looked for protection anywhere they could. The attacks didn't stop, though. What might have started as an accident was suddenly intentional, happening every other month. People were scared. All kinds of side-effects and uncontrollable powers and depression and fighting and finger-pointing." She shifted to the side and worked her jaw with a wince. Slaps friggin hurt. "Eventually people separated into a few groups. Human sympathisers, meta sympathisers, and neutrals."

The shadowy man came to a stop directly in front of Charlie and stared down at her, only the whites of his teeth and eyes visible in the darkness of the room. "That's right, Charlie. And do you know why I sided with the metas?" The girl rolled her eye and let out a sigh. "The smartass answer would be that you like the thought that some of them are even more messed up than you are." The man smirked. "And the straightforward one?" Sigh. "Because you're a precog and you have 'seen how this whole thing ends', right?" The man nodded and grinned, resuming his pacing again. "That is exactly right, Charlie. And you are a neutral because you see peace and potential and good in abso-fuckin-lutely everyone.. and some people side with the humans because they are afraid of change and of evolution and they desperately cling to what they hope will be the winning side." Charlie simply shook her head and glared through her bangs at the shadow of a man. "Or because they hope there's safety in numbers and they still have morals. Don't want to be forced to kill anyone who won't obey them. Sure has come a long way in fifteen years, hasn't it? It used to be about staying protected, but you people have precogs and trackers and empaths. The humans can't surprise you. You can't lose.. It's not a war anymore, it's genocide against humans."

"This isn't genocide, Charlie. It is evolution. It is how things must go, because if it were any other way we as a species would die off." The man circled back in front of her again, reached down and lifted her gaze to him by her chin. "Now.. I already know how you are going to respond. Not a single possible future has you giving up your people, but I'm going to ask you anyway. Where are your people getting their supplies of mutigen and antigen? I was tasked with interrogating you because you know me.. You know what I am capable of. I would rather not have to prove any of it to you. Just answer me. Please." Charlie just snorted, falling back in her chair and smiling up at her captor.

"If you already know I'm not going to talk, why bother? Besides, you know as well as I do that I only run deliveries. I have no idea where the supplies come from and I have never been to where they are stored." She rotated her head left.. staring at a tattered and broken wing.. "Or I used to run deliveries.. If I make it out of this, I don't know how useful I'll be at that anymore." The male paused for a moment next to her wing.. reaching out surprisingly gently to run the backs of two fingers down the destroyed pixie wing. "I do regret that we were forced to ground you, Charlie. Truly, I do. I'll regret more, though, when we're forced to kill you. Please. Tell me enough that I can bargain for your life with my superiors."

Charlie leaned away from him, hopping slightly to move the chair away from him as well. "You know as well as I do that if you aren't letting me go, I'm never leaving this place." He stepped halfway into the light, his hands balled into fists. "I don't want that for you, Charlie. Please. Give me something that I can use to spare your life." A tear rolled down Charlie's cheek as she stared away from him. "You helped them find me knowing that they would kill me once they found me?" The male backed out of the light.. he didn't even breathe for several seconds. His voice was cold and hollow when he finally replied. "I had hoped you might see things from our point of view. I am sorry, Charlie."

Charlie looked down at the ground and took in a shaky breath.. letting it out slowly. "I'm sorry too, Dante. I never wanted it to come to this." Suddenly there would be a pressure on Dante's leg.. purring? He stared down in shock at the cat that was nuzzling against his leg.. "The hell??" Those were the last words he would ever speak. From the shadows, a taller man wearing all black and a combat vest launched forward and twisted Dante's head to the sound of a sickening crunch.. He wrapped his arms around Dante's chest and held the man close, very slowly lowering his body to the ground, his own eyes squeezed shut and his voice quivering. "I never wished this for you, my friend. I hope you find in death the peace that life never showed you.." The cat was nowhere to be seen, in it's place was a neko with similar colors. She reached down and rubbed the black-clad man's back. "It's .. It'll be alright, Koty. None of us like having to do this, especially when it's personal."

The neko reached forward, flipping out a knife to cut the restraints binding Charlie's wrists.. Charlie took the knife to cut the restraints on her ankles as Kitrana kneeled next to an obviously upset Koty. The pixie stood and wiped the tear from her eye, smudging her cheek with dirt and blood as she clenched her jaw. "I'm sorry, Koty. I didn't want it to be him.. but we have to stay on point. We know they're close. We.. we have to move."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

This is a Curtain Fic by plot, and an Alternative Universe and Recursive Fanfiction by universe setting.

America

“Let us be lovers, we’ll marry our fortunes together.
I’ve got some real estate here in my bag.”
So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner’s pies,
And walked off to look for America.

“This isn’t necessary.”

“Yes, it is.” Sean Neville kept one hand firm on the back of the younger boy’s wheelchair, while he pushed the shopping cart with the other. They proceeded slowly, as he didn’t want to veer either off into another direction, and, as a result, they blocked the entire aisle.

“I can wheel myself,” the younger man pointed out, although his tone was non-combative. Truly, he was grateful to have such a caring and protective boyfriend – one who was willing to push his wheelchair for him and one who had risked his life to save his. He never wanted to lose sight of that.

At the same time, this was more than a little absurd.

Not that Josh minded that the other shoppers gave them a wide berth; other people were unsafe. Still, there was a difference between them doing so from respect for boundaries and them doing so because they had no other options. Part of him was worried that a manager would come and ask Sean and him to leave the store for creating a scene. That would lead to the telepathactually creating a scene, and they didn’t need that.

Josh felt warm breath on the back of his neck, before he heard Sean’s well-loved baritone in his ear. “It gives me pleasure to push you.”

The sentiment melted his heart and his conviction, causing him to whisper, “If you want to...”

“I do.” Josh felt large fingers lightly brush the back of his neck, before moving down his back to rest atop the wheelchair handle again.

That was why it proved impossible to win an argument against the telepath.

In the dry goods aisle, Josh reached for a bag of egg noodles; he wanted to make kugel for Sean, since that had been a traditional dish during holidays in the Bernstein household. The younger boy still had a recipe in the book that his mother had given him.

Sean, meanwhile, searched the cans for what they needed. Corn, carrots, cranberry sauce, green beans, mushrooms. Thanksgiving would only be Josh and him; they had no other family, no friends, no potential guests, and thus they didn’t need large quantities of food, even if they would have variety.

“We’ll need potatoes,” Josh said, as he watched the older boy fetch cans from across the aisle.

“We’re not eating instant mashed potatoes. We’ll get real ones in the produce aisle.”

“I don’t want to make you go all the way over there.”

“I need to buy some fresh vegetables anyway, for salad.” Sean had that tone of his which meant that his mind was made up. Josh saw no reason to argue, particularly if the telepath intended to make them a salad. Plus, they needed garlic.

“Can we get some dried fruit?”

“Of course.” The taller boy looked around the aisle, grunting in displeasure when it became apparent that the dried fruit was deemed separate and apart from the other canned and dried goods. Sighing then, he returned to Josh’s wheelchair and resumed pushing both that and the shopping cart. “What do you need?”

“Raisins and cranberries. Maybe apples too for the season.”

The telepath used his height to peer down the next aisle, scouring for any sign of fruit. Instead, he found the bread, which they needed for stuffing as it was. That was a quick excursion, with bread and a box of cornbread mix tossed into the cart atop the cans.

They reached the meat aisle before they found fruit. The layout of the grocery store left something to be desired in terms of managing any semblance of a sensible shopping trip. Still, since they were there, they might as well claim a turkey now, rather than wait. Even if waiting would allow them to take advantage of the meat freezer for a few additional minutes. It was cold enough in the store, and it was freezing outside. It wouldn’t spoil separated from its brethren for the additional time.

“Which should we get?” Josh inquired, peering into the freezer. Fortunately, it was at eye level, and so he could actually participate in the selection process, rather than have the older boy lift each in turn for his closer inspection.

“A decent-sized one.” Nothing huge, since it was only the two of them, and they didn’t have unlimited space in their refrigerator for leftovers. Still, one of a decent enough size that they could enjoy the holiday meal, without worrying that they might run out of white meat or dark meat when one or the other had a particular craving.

Josh approached this with seriousness, adopting the expression he wore when working on a difficult homework assignment. Finally, he smiled, reaching for one; a nice side effect of wearing gloves whenever he left the house was that he couldn’t feel the cold temperature of the freezer. With a soft groan of effort, he lifted one up to show to the older boy. “What about this one?”

It was about eight pounds, which was more than enough for the two of them, even with leftovers.

“It looks good.” Sean quickly relieved the younger boy of his burden, so that he could pull his hands out of the freezer. Even if he couldn’t feel the cold as acutely as he otherwise would have, the telepath worried. He also didn’t like for Josh to strain himself.

Gingerly, the turkey was set in the cart, away from the other food so as not to risk contamination with raw poultry. As they passed the dairy freezer, Josh added a carton of eggs for the cornbread and a container of cottage cheese for his kugel.

Two aisles down brought them to the various forms of preserved fruits. Sean parked Josh’s wheelchair in front of the dried fruits to let his boyfriend grab what he needed. The raisins and cranberries were within arm’s reach, but the dried apples were too high up. Saying nothing that might serve to embarrass the younger boy, the telepath reached up to grab a container, setting it down in the cart; his expression was stone.

Even without telepathy, and despite the older boy’s impeccable mental shields, Josh knew what his boyfriend was thinking. He thought about Cobalt and Danny who were responsible for Josh’s injuries. He thought about their cruelty in harming an innocent person and upending his world forever.

Josh didn’t want to think about that right now, and he didn’t want to take away the happiness of the holiday from Sean. So, he reached out with one gloved hand; his boyfriend took it immediately, offering a comforting squeeze. “It’s going to be a good day, just the two of us.”

“I know.” Sean didn’t let slip the younger boy’s hand from his, although he didn’t seem as heartened by the promise as Josh intended.

Which meant that the younger boy would have to try harder. “I’ll spend the whole day cooking for you, just like I used to.” Back when they had been in school the first time, back before the War. Josh had learned to cook just for Sean, so that his hardworking boyfriend would have something to look forward to after class and on weekends. Josh had kept with it after the War, when they no longer had classes to attend, as a means of clinging to some sense of normality. He did it now to express gratitude to the telepath for taking such good care of him and because he couldn’t do his fair share otherwise.

To that end, “I should bake us a couple of pies.”

The telepath perked up a bit at the mention of pie. The way to his heart had always been through his sweet tooth. “I will never say ‘no’ to pie.”

Pie he could trust. Pie made with love by his boyfriend.

Josh felt accomplished for bringing the conversation back around to something more pleasant. It wasn’t quite the same as actually winning an argument with the telepath, but it was good enough. “Let’s get some apple sauce and a can of pumpkin filling. We’ll need fresh apples and...maybe I can do something special too, not just for Thanksgiving.”

Sean made quick work of finding the necessary filling ingredients, of what could be found outside of the fresh produce. “What about chocolate?” The telepath had always enjoyed chocolate, for as long as Josh had known him and long before.

The younger boy smiled, nodding enthusiastically. “I’ll make you the best chocolate pie I can. We’ll just need another couple of things...”

“We have time,” Sean assured him.

They did. Even if they blocked the aisles and disrupted the shopping for other people, they would get their Thanksgiving together. For now, that was enough.