harborshore | Prompts Post: Female Characters

So it's been a while since I did one of these. I'm working on a number of original fic prompts that are making me very, very happy, but I also feel like writing short things. So. This month is female characters month, I've decided (partly because I signed up for ladiesbigbang, partly just because, you know).

Guidelines for prompt: Leave me a female character, note if you want gen or femmeslash, and a prompt, preferably a crossover or magical scenario but ordinary ones are fine too. So, for instance: Z had no idea what made her knock on the door of that blue telephone box. Or: Veronica Mars was tired of being woken up in the middle of the night to go deal with things the local Sheriff's office couldn't handle, but this time the case was a little more challenging (aliens are not Neptune standard, even if it might sometimes seem that way).

No genderswap this time, please, and no repeats of characters (unless it's one prompt that is Lyn-Z/Stephanie Brown and one that is Lyn-Z gen or something along those lines). Fandoms I'm okay to write: MSI, The Like, Greta Salpeter, other bandom ladies, Leverage, BTVS, DCU, Veronica Mars, the other usual suspects (you're welcome to try asking for someone else if you think I'm capable).

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When you say no repeats of characters, do you mean in this round or of characters we've already asked? Because if it's the former, then:

Veronica Mars/DCU. Enforced "voluntary" extracurricular activities.

And if it's the latter, then:

Buffy, on some level, never lets go of the idea that the Doctor is English like Giles, or that "English" doesn't always mean fussy, overly attached to tweed and old books, and with a possible wild, demons-and-orgies rebellious phase.

Veronica flipped through the list. The prospects were not promising. Read to the elderly, help out in kindergarten, ugh, all of these had set hours that seriously conflicted with her real job. She'd tried to argue that technically working as a PI could be considered a service to the community, but Clemmons had raised an eyebrow at her and handed her the form.

Fine. Habitat for Humanity it was; at least with them you could come in outrageously early and also do a bunch of hours at once, six hours on a building site or whatever. That was easier to schedule around, and she imagined it might be easier to sneak away from there.

--

Her first day on site was a Wednesday, and it was so early she wasn't even sure what time it was. She'd been over at the Camelot last night, getting pictures for what looked like an open-and-shut adultery case, and she'd gotten back late. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but when one had to lug around tools and planks and not hit oneself in the head before school had even started, then it could get tricky.

She shifted her grip on the hammer again and tried to focus. She should have had more coffee.

A tap on her shoulder made her yelp and she dropped the hammer, miraculously avoiding dropping it on her toes through a – must have been a random gust of wind – that made it fall just a little to the left of her feet.

"Hey, Mars," said Connor.

She glared at him. He looked obnoxiously awake; must be those farmer genes. "You know, in Neptune it's considered really rude to make sudden noises near people in the morning."

"Don't disturb the wild Mars out of her natural habitat, huh," he said, grinning.

"Yes." She thought about what he'd said for a second. "Wait, what is my natural habitat?"

"Not a construction site, anyway. You get volunteered, too?"

"We all did. That is, anyone with parents who don't own NGO's or can wrangle their lovely child a summer internship somewhere prestigious and charitable."

Connor snorted. "Neptune is—"

"Seriously predictable?"

"Uh-huh. Anyway, mostly I came over to see if you wanted help with that."

"With hammering?" She put as much sarcasm as she could into her voice, which was a lot of sarcasm indeed, but Connor didn't seem to notice.

"You were kinda squinting, there. I was worried you'd hit your own hand or something."

"Despite that vote of confidence I am in fact capable of finishing this on my own." Ooops, that was snappish rather than sarcastic.

"And also I was bored." He smiled at her, which was very disarming, dammit.

"Fine. You can stand over there and hand me nails."

The morning turned out tolerable, after all.

--

After that, they tried to schedule their shifts at the same time when they could, which definitely helped with the whole experience. And Connor was pretty good at the whole working-with-tools thing (not that she'd tell him that), so Veronica picked up a few useful tricks and cut down on the number of bruises and bandaids she needed by half.

During their twelfth shift together, everything changed. She heard Connor shout a warning and she turned too fast, saw the enormous pile of bricks topple off a ledge above her and then felt herself being lifted out of the way. Lifted, even though there was no one near her.

Everything got a little fuzzy for a second, and then she saw Connor, face white, cramped smile, and a lot closer than he'd been ten seconds ago.

"You okay?" he said.

"Sure," she said, after thinking about it for a bit. "How'd you do that?"

He got even more pale. "Do what?"

"You were way over there and then you moved me and now you're here." Shock, she thought indistinctly. That was definitely what was going on with her speech pattern. And the shaking.

Connor took hold of her hands carefully, stilling them. "I didn't—"

She gave him her best unimpressed face. It was very good, even when she was sitting on the ground and trying not to shiver every time she looked over at the bricks. She was also busy putting things together. Meta, obviously, like those kids you saw on the news sometimes. The times she'd thought he blurred a little, or the times he lifted too much, or, shit, even the hammer. But especially: "You saved Rosita from getting hit by that car, didn't you." It wasn't a question.

Connor looked sheepish. "Dammit, I suck at this." He murmured something about Tim making fun of him, which made no sense. Veronica was tired.

She told him that, and he pulled her a little closer, until she was sitting half on his lap, leaning against him. Ordinarily she would have objected, but Connor was just very good at this hugging thing and she was going to sit here for a second until standing seemed less difficult. Yes, that's what she was doing. She closed her eyes and carefully didn't think about falling bricks or death by—

Wait. She sat up. "Those bricks should not have fallen," she said, voice low.

Connor nodded against her hair. "I'm on it," he said.

"What do you mean I'm on it? I'm on it." She was the one who'd nearly gotten killed.

"There's something weird going on here," he said.

"And you're trying to solve it?" She wasn't going to laugh, but seriously. "You know what I do, right?"

"…oh. Yeah. Um. I'm not actually bad at this, actually."

Leaving aside the improbabilities of that, "We could work together?" she offered.

"Hell yeah," he said quietly. "We'll be an unstoppable duo of awesome, Mars."

"You're not making t-shirts," she said.

"Aww, come on," he said, but mostly he was fighting a grin, she could hear it in his voice.

"Help me up," she demanded. "Our shift must be over now and I'm feeling coffee instead of school."

"Right on," he said, and they walked out of there together.

Edited 2010-08-03 21:03 (UTC)

I'm so happy you wrote this!

And oh, Kon. Despite all appearances to the contrary, he really isn't that bad at this. He just sacks at full-time faking of his self, that's all.

Veronica could probably teach him that, and also to say "fuck you" to anyone that demanded it of him.

I was ALWAYS going to write this, it just took me a while to wrap my head around writing again. (I'm having one of those months where everything I write feels very meh, so it's always difficult to start writing a prompt I really like, you know?)

Yes, precisely! Obviously the full-length version of this would have Veronica figuring out just how much he doesn't suck at it and finally roll her eyes at him and go, "Hey, seriously? You're ridiculously easy to work with and you're smart, fuck anyone who doesn't think so. Stop it with the self-deprecation already." Because clearly the objective of a story about these two is about them fixing each other--he knows how to deal with obsessive tiny people who do not quit, even when they should.

Ah, also, you should feel free to give me another prompt for this universe. If you ever think of something. I seem to like writing it. *grins*

I have so many wants for this universe, starting with the classic, pretend-to-be-dating, undercover (not actually) lovers. Also, just sitting on the couch, watching movies and discussing past relationships and how they ended badly. And debating over who has the best/worst parental figures (test-tube versus alcoholic mother, Keith Mars, superdad, versus Kal-El, Superman).

Prompts Post: Female Characters

no subject

Veronica Mars/DC gen, 1/2

2/2

Re: 2/2

Re: 2/2

Re: 2/2

Re: 2/2