the wrong end of the telescope

Tonight is Midsummer Night's Eve. I realize I haven't yet finished the female characters prompts, but I promise I will (part of the problem is that I want to write epics for every one of those prompts, so I'm trying to slash them down to a manageable size--telling part of the story, if you will) and I couldn't let tonight go by without doing this. It's my favorite holiday, the shortest night of the year (technically that was on Monday, but hey), and it comes with dancing and the sea and food and magic.

So prompt me, dearlings. A pairing or gen (give me a character, then), a fandom (The Like, Bob and Brian, Veronica Mars, the Bats (DCU), BTVS, the Panic boys, Greta, Kitty and Lyn-Z...), and a quote from A Midsummer Night's Dream. They'll be my reward come Monday when I'm allowed to think about other things again.

And now I am off! An island awaits. ♥

You, oh Mik. Happy Birthday. I hope it was every bit as great as you deserve, darling girl, because you deserve all the good things ever. I'm stupidly sleepy after yesterday's ordeal, but I couldn't let today go by without saying anything.

See, you were one of the first people I found, on here. I wrote you a dumb little ficlet and you friended me and we kept talking and talking. You've sent me letters that never fail to arrive exactly at the opportune moment, as my favorite pirate captain would put it, and you've written me stories, and you--Anne of Green Gables would call it kindred spirits, you know? Which is remarkable and I feel so lucky that I found you. Your stories, the way you think, the way you are. So much love.

Due to Recent Events, the story I'm writing for you isn't quite finished, but it includes things I think you will like, and I wish it was done so I could give it to you properly. Instead, well.

( and in the end the love you make is equal to )

blindmouse made a meme! I am playing along.


Give me between three and five first lines from your own fics, and I'll write a comment-length drabble using the same first line. Please include a link to the fic along with the line!

I reserve the right to:

a) pick and choose between replies depending on what strikes an idea, without anybody thinking I'm rejecting their lines as not good enough! (because that will have nothing to do with it, seriously), and

b) give the drabble a different pairing to the original, or different characters/a completely different fandom if the first line doesn't actually mention names!

It only took me twelve days...and now I'm really tempted to come up with a wretched pun on partridges in pear trees. I fear I am far too sleepy, though.

Here, darlings, the ficlets--there are superheroes, stories about music, awkward high school AUs, rare pairings, gen, lots of alwaysagirl, gen, Gotham City, and random crossovers. In order, we have the following:


The Right Music, Z/Tennessee, for softlyforgotten. Z's pretty sure it's her turn to be brave.


One More Time With Feeling, girl!Bob/girl!Brian, also for softlyforgotten (the trick is to leave me a first prompt and then have the second one be my favorite pairing in all the land). Bob glows when she plays.


I Should Refuse You, Bob/Mikey/Alicia, for fleurdeliser. Bob isn't used to having epiphanies in the kitchen.


Ready To Go Anywhere, Mikey/Ray, for antihysteric. Ray has a crush. Frank knows about it.


Temptin' You To Defy It, Lyn-Z/Z Berg, for unlurkster. This is set in a verse where Z and Lyn-Z go to the same high school, and Z sings in Kitty and Lyn-Z's band. She also happens to be dating Lyn-Z, and prom is coming up.


Should I Wait?, Frank/Gerard, for ciel_vert. Frank is definitely thinking too much about that one time when Gerard kissed him and they weren't on stage.


In Time, Patrick and William gen, for airgiodslv. Patrick isn't sure how to do this coming out thing.


Not Afraid To Look At Her, possible future girl!Bob/Frank, for jrho. Bob is not down with this shit.


Cast Your Dancing Spell My Way, Z and girl!Ryan, for blindmouse. When Ryan woke up, she'd figured it out. Superpowers!au.


Take The Dark Out Of The Nighttime, Bob/Gerard/Lyn-Z, for crowgirl13. More of the Bob/Gerard/Lyn-Z in Gotham AU; more epiphanies for Bob.


Stay While The Night Is Still Ahead, girl!Brendon/girl!Spencer, for bayleaf. Set in the same verse as the Z-and-Ryan one above. Spencer wants Brendon to stay.


Not Alone In The Dark, Kon/Veronica Mars, DCU/Veronica Mars crossover for jamjar. Kon has been at Neptune High for a while now, but it's kind of lonely.


Stuck Inside A Mobile, Jon and Tom gen (and a random AU), for halflinen. And off they go, down the rabbit hole...

I'm done! At last, at last. I kind of had a little too much fun with these, let's just put it that way, and therefore they are All Over The Place. We have superheroes, a weird sort of fairy tale, a ball (complete with stupid shoes), steampunk, a crossover with ATS, Bunny!pov (yup, I wrote a story in the pov of Mikey's cat, feel free to laugh) and a lot of other strange little universes. No warnings, I don't think, apart from very vaguely implied off-screen violence in the girl!Gee/Amanda ficlet and past original character death in the Bob/Gerard/Lyn-Z one. Oh, and Alicia is dead in the one where she is a ghost. Obviously.

Also, in terms of pairings, we have, in no particular order: girl!Gerard/Amanda, Lyn-Z/Alicia, Lyn-Z/Alicia/Jamia, Alicia/Mikey/Pete, girl!Bob/Gerard, Cash/Ian, Kitty/Lyn-Z, Bob/Gerard/Lyn-Z, and Frank/Mikey/Pete.



Title: Kick Your Shoes Off
Pairing: Lyn-Z/Alicia
Word Count: 1242
Summary: Lyn-Z hates balls. And dresses. And the shoes she's wearing. Luckily, she meets someone who can distract her.

Notes: For airgiodslv. Prompt: costume party or masquerade ball and LESBIAN GHOST PORN.


(  Lyn-Z worries at her sleeve again. )


Title: Got To Get To Her Somehow
Pairing: Alicia/Lyn-Z/Jamia
Word Count: 381
Summary: AU. A member of their team is kidnapped, so Jamia and Alicia are putting together a rescue effort.

Notes: For fleurdeliser. The prompt was trick or treat, so of course I wrote about superheroes.


( Alicia hates Halloween. )


Title: Takes One To Know One
Pairing: Alicia/Mikey/Pete
Word Count: 376
Summary: Alicia dares Mikey to dress up for Halloween.

Notes: For iamsupernova. The prompt was Alicia dares Mikey to dress up with her and go to some club on Halloween and they see Pete there and HOT DANCEFLOOR SEDUCTION HAPPENS.


( Mikey isn't sure about this wearing a dress thing. )


Title: Ghosts In The Machinery
Pairing: Gerard/Lindsey, implied eventual Bob/Gerard/Lindsey
Word Count: 853
Summary: AU. Gerard and Lindsey bought a boat to live on and do their art, but they keep finding odd things.

Notes: For mahoni. The prompt was Bob/Gerard/Lindsey, in which there are GHOSTS of some sort.

Disclaimer: I know nothing about boats bigger than a three-person sailing boat.


( Gerard snaps awake and hits his head on the bunk. )


Title: Some Day I'll Make It Mine
Pairing: girl!Gerard/Amanda
Word Count: 681
Summary: Gee can't find her brother, and the forest is too fucking deep.

Notes: For softlyforgotten. The prompt was this video, which is Heads Will Roll by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.


( It's been three days since Gee last saw Mikey. )


Title: The Wind Began To Howl
Pairing: Cash/Ian
Word Count: 440
Summary: Cash has a new bass. It's haunted.

Notes: For colouredmango. The prompt was Shingai Shoniwa!!!! Haunts some one!! Anyone!!! Bonus points if it is Cash/Ian. Shingai Shoniwa is the super-talented and seriously hot lead singer/bassist in The Noisettes, which, if you haven't listened to them yet, what are you doing?


( Poke. Poke. Poke. )


Title: Take Me Disappearing
Pairing: Gerard/Oz
Word Count: 366
Summary: I'm just going to use the prompt: Gerard fills in as lead singer for "Dingoes Ate My Baby" (Devon injured himself in a bizarre apple-bobbing incident?) at a Halloween night gig at The Bronze.

Notes: For morebliss.


( Gerard's nervous. No, scratch that, Gerard is really fucking nervous. )


Title: The Loneseome Organ Grinder Cries
Pairing: Lyn-Z/Kitty
Word Count: 460
Summary: Lyn-Z isn't sure about this.

Notes: For yan_tan_tether. Prompt: Lyn-Z and Kitty on a ghost train! The other installment in this verse is over here


( Investigating a ghost train may not have been the brightest of ideas. )


Title: His Pointy Shoes And His Tail
Pairing: Implied Frank/Mikey/Pete
Word Count: 607
Summary: Bunny wants revenge.

Notes: For turps33. Prompt: buying costumes for all the pets, because they so would! Um, this turned out quite differently from what I intended.


( Bunny scratches irritably at her left ear. )


Title: Look Out Tonight
Pairing: girl!Bob/Gerard
Word Count: 592
Summary: Bob is really over this tall dark and brooding thing. If he wanted to be impressive, he shouldn't have named himself Angel. Also, Gerard is being a pain.

Notes: For turloughishere. Prompt: getting attacked by demons in LA somehow leads to getting involved with Angel and his gang.


(  Bob stares at Gerard mulishly, pointedly not taking the towel he's holding out. )

And I'm almost done with my technical translation, even though there were a lot of prompts and a lot of difficult technical terms. I also finished my website editing, realized I have half of the project plan due in two weeks written already and the rest outlined, wrote an abstract draft and did a teeny-tiny translation. Those were some productive four days.

I also managed to make time go to dinner with a friend yesterday, where I got embarrassingly tipsy on one glass of wine (these days, I am what they call a Cheap Date), but the funniest part came before the eating/drinking: we got carded. In Sweden. Where you can drink alcohol at 18. *dies laughing*

But the commentfics! There are a lot of stories about soup, a few about leaves, one about tea, one about a blanket fort, one about a lobster, and one about a tough day at work. I wrote, in order:

Gerard and Mikey gen for giddy_london. Mikey wakes Gerard up before noon. Gerard is not happy.

Bandom/BTVS, Bob/Willow for crowgirl13. The Hellmouth is a lousy place to live but sometimes it works out okay.

Bandom/Criminal Minds, Alicia/Mikey/Reid for iamsupernova and absenteye. Mikey meets someone at Starbucks and takes him home.

Bandom/Veronica Mars, Veronica and Gerard gen for strange_bt_true. Veronica receives some unexpected help.

Bandom/BTVS, Brian/Gerard for brilligspoons. Gerard thinks the Slayer is awesome and Brian is jealous.

Bob/Frank, Halloween for anoneknewmoose. Frank has decided that Bob and him are going as Dr Frankenstein and Frankenstein's monster for Halloween. Bob is not a fan of this plan.

Bandom/DCU, Bob/Bruce Wayne for mahoni. Bruce is roasting pumpkins and Bob is amused. This one has a whole backstory of Batman rescuing Bob from things and Bob figuring out his identity, etc etc.

Bandom/Veronica Mars, Lyn-Z/Mac for antihysteric. Mac is nervous and Lyn-Z builds a blanket fort. This one might be my new favorite pairing.

Bob/Patrick, raking leaves for morebliss. Bob and Patrick get conned into dealing with the leaves in Patrick's parents' yard and I almost write porn.

Amanda Palmer and Gerard gen for enhendi. Set in my big bang verse where they're all revolutionaries, and sometimes Gerard can't sleep.

Cash/Ian, vegetable lasagnas for colouredmango. Wherein Ian likes to watch Cash when he cooks.

Original fic, Kit/Aria/Rick for unlurkster and softlyforgotten. On why soup can be magical, even when life is awful. Or part of a modern fairytale, if you will.

Gerard and a lobster gen for blindmouse. Gerard talks to a lobster.

Tonight I went for a walk with dad, about an hour before the sunset. People were playing soccer and volleyball on the field near where we live, and the all-girl team was winning the volleyball game (much like it seems the only serious contenders in the Way-family croquet match was Alicia and Lyn-Z).

We crossed the road and sat down on the cliff, watching as the light settled over the grass and the skyline. Like being in a city and not, at once.

Then we saw hot-air balloons. Four of them, to be exact. They were coming closer, hovering over the trees, and it was beautiful, absolutely stunning. But what was initially looking like a gorgeous sunset, complete with balloons (like a movie), turned into a comedy of errors pretty soon, with some pretty scary moments.

( feels like flying )

Now, I'm waiting for the joint aches to subside (modern medicine is sometimes marvelous) and looking at the dark outside. We can't see the stars, yet, but the closer we get to winter, the clearer they'll become.

I'd steal the death match meme, except I'm feeling sweet and cozy tonight. I'd rather talk about cuddling.

If you feel like it, give me two characters, bandom (MCR or MSI), DCU (Birds of Prey, the Bats (especially the ladies)), and Buffy, and I'll tell you about them cuddling. Wacky crossovers are totally okay, though please don't give me Bob and Batman.

I'm re-posting them to keep track of them--half of these were written for or with the people who are reading this, so they're not new. The fun part is giving them away, really, but hey. It's kind of fun to put them all together, too, and seeing all the little random things I wrote in February.

Warnings for self-indulgence, an abundance of the same people reappearing in different contexts (there would be Bob, too, but the longest comment-fic I wrote turned into an actual fic), nothing explicit (I don't think), some cross-dressing and some super-mild D/s. Oh, and insert the standard disclaimer here about comment fic writing being what it is.


Lyn-Z/Gerard, on tour
Written for iamsupernova’s prompt in the Vagfest ‘09.

( He's on his knees for her in a backstage hallway. )


Gerard/Lyn-Z, after the Desolation Row video shoot, D/s, handcuffs
This is nokomis305’s fault. Or it’s me being self-indulgent.

( As they leave the video shoot, Lyn-Z wraps one hand around his wrist and doesn't let go when they get in the cab. )


Mikey/Frank, cross-dressing
Written for absenteye as a thank you for the best manip EVER.

( Mikey feels stupid. )


Frank/Gerard/Lyn-Z, first time, AU
This is always for enhendi.

This ficlet is part of a college AU where Gerard and Lyn-Z are adjuncts at a college and Frank ends up in Gerard's class when he needs to take a Humanities requirement. Nothing actually happens before the end of the semester, because Gerard has ethics and I have a student/teacher squick.

The 'verse is tentatively titled the AU of sunshine and adorableness, and it belongs to me and enhendi, who came up with it in the first place and has written many awesome things for it and is brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. The context for this part is that they've just figured out that they're all in love with each other (see warning for self-indulgence, yeah?) and are going back to Gerard’s place.

( In the car, Frank climbs into Lyn-Z's lap and buckles the seat belt around both of them while Gerard curses at them from the front seat. )


Frank/Gerard, Regency AU, kissing
I blame softlyforgotten and zarah5v2. They wrote the story.

This is an alternate Frank/Gerard epilogue for softlyforgotten’s and zarah5v2’s A Most Brilliant Dance, which is a Pride and Prejudice recasting where Spencer is Elizabeth and Ryan is Darcy, and if you read Panic fic at all, I’m going to assume you’ve read it, because it’s amazing. Amazing.

If you don’t read Panic fic, the context for this ficlet is that Frank is Mr Collins in this verse (a much, much nicer one) and Gerard is Anne de Bourgh, but artistic and eccentric instead of pale and sickly, and they’ve just come back from the joint wedding feast of Ryan/Spencer and Brendon/Jon (Jane/Bingley). (Frank did propose to Spencer at one point and Gerard was betrothed to Ryan for a while.) Consider this your warning for sappiness.

( The fields are lit with first light by the time Gerard and Frank get back to the inn. )


ETA: Sorry about the html fail! I'm not very good at this yet.