First-lines meme
Oct. 6th, 2004 04:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pauraque_bkThis looks like a good time. Gacked from everyone.
Write a drabble with the same first line as one of my stories, and leave it in my comments here.
Any word count or fandom you like. Though of course if it's a fandom I don't know about, I don't promise I'll understand it. :)
Cut With Diamonds: The little boat rocks sickeningly as it glides across the cold, murky water.
Trio: James strips off his Quidditch robes, bright red with dark wet streaks.
Commuted Sentence: The train can't run fast enough for Hermione.
Due to Illness: Peter sits on a low stool, rubbing his hands together between his knees, watching and waiting.
Screwball Comedy: He wakes up to a strange pounding noise, and the thick taste of stale wine coating his tongue.
Force of Habit: Ron is sitting on the front steps having a cigarette under the stars.
Change-over: Percy picked up the rat carefully, supporting him underneath.
But Youth of Course: Do you want to know what I imagined?
Void Sale: She isn't surprised when he doesn't come back.
Skyland: The mountain sat curled up on the horizon, smugly watching over the countryside.
What I've discovered in doing this is that my first sentences tend to be long and specific, thus not very good for this meme. But feel free to use anything on my site.
Write a drabble with the same first line as one of my stories, and leave it in my comments here.
Any word count or fandom you like. Though of course if it's a fandom I don't know about, I don't promise I'll understand it. :)
Cut With Diamonds: The little boat rocks sickeningly as it glides across the cold, murky water.
Trio: James strips off his Quidditch robes, bright red with dark wet streaks.
Commuted Sentence: The train can't run fast enough for Hermione.
Due to Illness: Peter sits on a low stool, rubbing his hands together between his knees, watching and waiting.
Screwball Comedy: He wakes up to a strange pounding noise, and the thick taste of stale wine coating his tongue.
Force of Habit: Ron is sitting on the front steps having a cigarette under the stars.
Change-over: Percy picked up the rat carefully, supporting him underneath.
But Youth of Course: Do you want to know what I imagined?
Void Sale: She isn't surprised when he doesn't come back.
Skyland: The mountain sat curled up on the horizon, smugly watching over the countryside.
What I've discovered in doing this is that my first sentences tend to be long and specific, thus not very good for this meme. But feel free to use anything on my site.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-10-06 04:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-06 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-06 07:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-06 10:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-06 11:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-06 11:06 pm (UTC)How very interesting.
*dashes off, leaving cartoon-like cloud of dust in his wake and a sign that reads "Gone Smut-readin'"*
no subject
Date: 2004-10-06 04:40 pm (UTC)I'll put it in a different fandom. Missing moment from Season 6, Buffy, after Xander leaves Anya at the altar and before she goes to D'Hoffryn to become a vengeance demon again.
She isn't surprised when he doesn't come back.
Not deep down.
She has, after all, spent a millennium as a vengeance demon, and she knows a thing or two about men, no matter what Xander Harris thought when he first met her.
She knows that they never stay.
But she let herself forget.
Well, that wasn't something she was going to do again any time soon.
She is still in her wedding dress, the dress she had been so happy to squeeze into this morning, Willow and Tara helping her as she practiced her vows. It is supposed to mean something, and she supposes that it does mean something now. It's big sarcastic joke from the gods is what it is--a great big pie in the face for Anyanka, vengeance on the vengeance demon.
She has been waiting for hours now, since Xander disappeared from the wedding, sitting primly, practicing all the things she means to say to him, but as it grows darker, as the hours pass, as the day that should have become her anniversary turns into nothing but last night's nightmare, she is coming to accept it, because she isn't surprised. Men always leave. Men can't commit. Even when they try to act nice and all soft in the right places and hard in the right places and say that they'll always be there, they won't.
A thousand years should have taught her that. How many times has she answered a woman's call for vengeance in a place like this? How many weeping brides has she...
Anya's eyes widen.
Of course.
Oh, she could just summon a vengeance demon. No reason not to.
But who else really cared about scorned women? Who was their patron demon?
Anyanka.
She is not smiling, not even bitterly, when she summons D'Hoffryn.
But hey, at least she's doing something about it.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-06 11:21 pm (UTC)Kindred Spirits II
Date: 2004-10-06 05:45 pm (UTC)Peter sits on a low stool, rubbing his hands together between his knees, watching and waiting. He licks a drop of cocoa off his lip, and holds very still as the hands settle firmly on his shoulders.
He thinks about James kissing Lily - how even Sirius hasn’t gone any further than touching Florence under her robes - and his heart begins to pound.
Something hard presses into his back. He squeaks.
"Shh..."
Peter immediately falls silent, squeezing his knees together, peering close at Mr. Filch’s rough old hands creeping down his chest.
Barely breathing, he watches, and he waits.
Re: Kindred Spirits II
Date: 2004-10-06 11:24 pm (UTC)It was supposed to be a surprise, but I am actually writing a sequel to that particular fic. A very... dirty sequel. If you don't mind, that is. :)
Re: Kindred Spirits II
Date: 2004-10-06 11:36 pm (UTC)Mind? Filch, Peter, sequel, dirty?
You, sir, have made my day :-)
Re: Kindred Spirits II
Date: 2004-10-07 04:14 pm (UTC)I'm working on the second draft... hopefully it won't be too much longer!
PotC Drabble
Date: 2004-10-06 07:55 pm (UTC)He wakes up to a strange pounding noise, and the thick taste of stale wine coating his tongue. It takes him a moment to realize the significance of this. Everything is so much more intense than he remembers; it's distracting.
Barbossa has found the coin. More importantly, Barbossa has found the boy.
Bill would like to think Barbossa left Will alive - after all, he only needed a few drops of Turner blood. Then he remembers exactly what sort of man Barbossa is, and hopes Will is safely dead. Either way, he swears Barbossa's not long for this world.
Re: PotC Drabble
Date: 2004-10-07 04:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-06 08:17 pm (UTC)Neville stands at the top of the steps. He’s startled into continued silence, having had no idea that Ron smoked.
“You... do you want to go in, then?”
“He awake?”
Neville shakes his head. He smacks himself on the forehead. Ron’s not looking at him, of course. Stupid, stupid. He answers as if Ron could see.
“I mean, no.”
“Not really worth going,” Ron said.
"But it could be the last – "
“Shut up, Longbottom,” Ron interrupts, tossing the cigarette into the grass.
“You don’t know death.”
“Yeah, well, neither do you.”
When Ron does look over his shoulder, Neville’s hurt is obvious. But Ron’s too hurt to care. He doesn’t even apologize as he walks past Neville and up the stairs to Harry’s room.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-07 04:16 pm (UTC)I choose one from your site. :)
Date: 2004-10-06 10:25 pm (UTC)It wasn't so much the staring that bothered him as his grandmother rarely took her eyes off of him when he was home. It was more that Harry's eyes seemed to be either accusing him of something or asking him questions that had no answer. Sometimes Harry looked angry but most of the time he had a sad, lost look about his gaze that Neville began to feel like he had somehow put there.
Picking Trevor up out of the mud, Neville began to walk towards Harry and for a moment their eyes locked. Neville felt a cold chill, followed by a fear so strong it made him feel sick. Harry stood there for a moment before mouthing, "I'm sorry" and walking away.
Re: I choose one from your site. :)
Date: 2004-10-07 04:19 pm (UTC)Re: I choose one from your site. :)
Date: 2004-10-09 06:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-06 10:36 pm (UTC)* * *
The train can't run fast enough for Hermione. She looks out the window and sees glimpses of lives passing her by. A young man waving to someone. An old woman hanging laundry out to dry. She wonders what they see when she zips past on the train. Do they think she is going somewhere or running away from something? If she's honest, she doesn't really know. Her knee brushes Ron's when he shifts in his seat. She looks up at him and smiles before turning her attention back to the window. In those few seconds, how many lives did she miss?
no subject
Date: 2004-10-07 04:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-06 10:46 pm (UTC)Reichenbach
Percy picked up the rat carefully, supporting him underneath. The rat didn't stir, but Percy could feel the tiny heartbeat racing against his hand, pit-pit-pit-pit-pit like the rapid pulse of an old watch.
His--its, Percy corrected himself--fur was even thinner and mangier than when he'd last seen it. (Peeking out of Ron's hands in the window of the Hogwarts Express, this close to falling on the tracks.) It was thin and weak, probably exhausted, or he wouldn't have been able to track it down unnoticed, much less get it in his hands. Tired of running, Scabbers?
He felt Scabbers's--no, NOT Scabbers, there never was any Scabbers, he felt the rat's fast and shallow breaths. Suddenly it kicked against his hand and it was all he could do not to drop it, scrap the whole idiot plan and run away.
He held very still until the rat had relaxed completely. His hand felt warmer now.
Because it had pissed on him, he realized.
After all that had happened because of this creature, this thing that he brought into the family and cared for, fed, cleaned, let curl up on his pillow as he slept--a little rat piss in his hand was hardly an issue.
There was really no need for phase two of the plan, he knew, He could just snap its little neck now. Smash its head in with a rock. If he wanted to Avada Kedavra it in "self-defense," no one would ask any questions.
He walked very, very slowly and carefully back to where he'd landed his broom, carrying his load like an egg, like a baby. There was a mist settling that made the ruins seem even older. Was it true that the first Roman Britons haunted this place?
He slipped the slumbering rat into his pocket and murmured, very softly, a couple of stabilizing charms. Then he mounted the broom and made the smoothest takeoff of his life.
It was left to chance now, or to something higher. If the rat stayed asleep for the whole trip, it would wake up surrounded by people who were prepared to do to it what Percy couldn't.
If the rat woke...
If the rat woke, then they would both fall, and there was a certain poetic justice to that.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-06 11:17 pm (UTC)Yes, I love the way Percy orders himself around, rationalizes... but we always see what's beneath. Perfect.
Of course in *my* dream it ends in hot hot Percy/Peter smut, but y'know, you can't have everything in a ficlet.
Thank you, thank you!
no subject
Date: 2004-10-06 11:39 pm (UTC)Of course in *my* dream it ends in hot hot Percy/Peter smut, but y'know, you can't have everything in a ficlet.
I consider that entirely your territory. Wouldn't dream of infringing on it.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-07 02:34 pm (UTC)She isn't surprised when he doesn't come back. Zoey is alive, his story is filed, and he's never been one to stick around for the fallout. So when she scans the room Monday morning and Jack is in his seat, she doesn't think twice.
If she knew the truth, of course, she'd be shocked. But he's gone and Toby's not talking so she'll never know about the fight-- a lover's quarrel, really. She'll never know about Toby shoving Danny's boxers into his hands and ordering him to get out. But she doesn’t know-- she'll never know-- so she's not surprised.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-07 03:43 pm (UTC)A Peter Pettigrew Drabble by me?
Date: 2004-10-07 09:46 pm (UTC)~~*~~
Peter sits on a low stool, rubbing his hands together between his knees, watching and waiting.
His Lord leans over his prisoner, whispers Crucio next to his ear and watches as the limbs, already pulled taut by chains, spasm violently under the curse.
Peter gazes at the leavings of the knifeblade: raised droplets of blood on the abdomen, along the ribs, around the nipples.
Peter knows this prisoner will not break. He will say nothing about the Order or where Harry Potter may be found. He's very strong. He'd've made a good secret-keeper, Peter thinks.
Once his Master is through, Remus consigned to death, Peter will have his wish. He'll have Remus Lupin for his very own – for a little while anyway.
Peter's eyes move slowly to the limp cock hanging between Remus's spread legs. He feels the rub of silver against flesh as he patiently awaits his turn.
~~*~~
Re: A Peter Pettigrew Drabble by me?
Date: 2004-10-08 03:58 pm (UTC)I'm honored to have inspired this. Thank you.
Re: A Peter Pettigrew Drabble by me?
Date: 2004-10-08 07:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-10 02:35 am (UTC)---
Ron is sitting on the front steps having a cigarette under the stars. The blue smoke curls around him and up to the full moon, which hangs ominously over Grimmauld Place.
“A disgusting habit,” Hermione’s voice echoes in his mind.
“A Muggle habit,” he remembers Severus saying, but it means the same thing, now, doesn’t it?
“Just this once,” he placates his ghosts, flicking a spark of ash into the cool night air. “For old time’s sake.”
The so-called good old days. Best years of his life, supposedly, though he knew Severus would’ve snorted in disbelief upon hearing that. Yet somehow the nerve-wracking adventures he’d had with Harry and Hermione during those six years took on a golden, nostalgic haze.
“Fucking hell, Weasley, you’re getting sentimental,” he tells himself, stabbing out the cigarette on the pitted concrete. “Next you’ll be crying like a girl who lost her lover.”
“And what would be so wrong with that?”
Ron spins around. “Lupin? Holy hell, it worked.”
“I suppose you’re used to having the full moon to yourself,” says Remus, staring up at its cold surface and shivering.
“Yeah,” says Ron. “But don’t get upset over it.” Remus didn’t look like he’d really get upset over anything, right now. “I can’t believe-!”
“His lasting legacy to us, I suppose,” says Remus, dropping onto the step next to him and fishing for his own smokes. “Like a message of goodwill.”
Ron holds out the matches. “I don’t reckon Severus has ever felt a moment of goodwill in his life,” he scoffs, relaxing into the other man’s arms. “But it’s good you’re here.”
Remus shrugs. “Where else do I have to go?” When Ron doesn’t answer, he breathes out a cloud of smoke. “Do you miss him as much as I do?”
“I miss them all,” says Ron, his eyes following the lines of Remus’s fingerprints. “And I can’t help but think I’ve done something wrong, ‘cause I’m still here, and they…”
“People die in war, Ron,” says Remus. “We got the bastards whose fault it was. Don’t start developing a guilt complex on me now, when you’re the last thing I have to remember.”
Ron turns to kiss him, and he tastes like Wolfsbane, which in turn reminds him of Severus which causes him to choke up a little. “I don’t know if I want to remember,” he says. “So I don’t see why you should.”
“Even the painful memories can hold some value,” says Remus, lighting Ron another cigarette. Ron hears Severus’s exasperated sigh, and almost inaudible comment that ‘the werewolf was bad for him’. He smiles.
“Yeah,” he replies, taking a draw. “I s’pose they can.”
no subject
Date: 2004-10-13 04:08 pm (UTC)Silly AU ficlet.
Date: 2004-10-27 10:00 pm (UTC)The door bangs open. Bright light sharp as a knife over Ron's back, and he turns - sees Dursley's looming silhouette for a moment - but then Harry's out, a leaping shadow - and Ron gets up to run after him, clenching the cigarette tight in his teeth. ("And stay out!" shouts Dursley.)
They stop running when they reach the corner.
"Thanks for that," pants Harry as they lean against a fence. "He was going to lock me up again... Couldn't stand the thought of me going on a school trip."
Ron huffs through his nose. He can feel the hot shadow of Harry's shoulder near his - looks down at Harry's torn sneakers, a dull grey in the moonlight.
"Give us a smoke?"
Ron hands over his cigarette, watching Harry put it to his lips; the pale smoke curls away from Harry's mouth, warm and ash-bitter, and Ron breathes it in. "Had dinner yet?"
Harry shakes his head. "Nah. Aunt Petunia said I wouldn't get any, not after the trouble I put her through today..."
"We'd best get you some, then." Ron pushes away from the fence, feeling its bristles catch at his shirt.
"Fish and chips?"
"Don't think so. Mum'll go spare."
Harry chuckles. "At least she feeds you, mate."
"Yeah." Ron finds himself looking suddenly, inexplicably, at Harry's mouth - looks up to see Harry looking right back at him.
"I can stay with you, right?"
"'Course you can." Ron shrugs uncomfortably. "'S not like Bill needs his bedroom now that he's gone."
"Oh."
"Oh, what?"
"Nothing. I just thought..."
"The twins share my bedroom," Ron says quietly.
"Right. Yeah. Of course."
"You'll go back after the school trip. Not like the Dursleys won't take you back..."
"Yeah." Harry's the one who looks uncomfortable now, and he hands back Ron's cigarette. "Let's get going, eh?"
"All right."
Harry starts off again; Ron follows him slowly, taking drags from his cigarette, wondering if it tastes different now that it's been in Harry's mouth.
Re: Silly AU ficlet.
Date: 2004-10-28 02:15 pm (UTC)