Couvade
6/20 prompt
"We am never getting pregnant again," Lucien whines as he throws himself into the nearest armchair,
"You were never pregnant," Matt corrects, "All you've done is carry around Cam for a few hours today,"
"Well it felt like it was nine months,"
"It wasn't,"
"Nine weeks?"
"Maybe nine hours," Matt taps his watch,
I can't believe you were timing me, Lucien rolls his eyes,
"Daaaad!" Cam's cry echoes down the hallway to them.
"Your turn," the two men accuse at the same time,
"No. No, that was obviously a B flat,"
"Not on your life!"
Heliolatry
6/21 prompt
Space makes it hard to imagine that once, humans had thought that there was only one sun, their sun. And that they worshiped the ball of gas as a god. Ever since space travel had been popularized, there had been a wave of cults and sects racing to find their god somewhere in the infinite expanse of space.
Riley figures that one day, people will look on the lost searchers like he looks on the religions of the past. Pity and a bit of intrigue.
Proliferate
6/22 prompt
Unsurprisingly, getting the astral nanites to spread was the easiest part of the plan. Actually, taking over the universe hadn't been a part of the plan at all. But Arcane would be hard pressed to let that fact slip.
She sets up an airport-security-like entry into her universe, but for the exact opposite reason her father had done the same. The "scanning" machines were to inject the astral nanites into unsuspecting visitors (really, tourists deserve it, anyway.) Arcane has to go through one, herself, but there isn't any danger since she's the one controlling them. In fact, she needs a small amount in her body so they can relay information from the other nanites hopefully spreading around the multiverse at the moment. If only there was a way to get them to go faster.
Rococo
6/23 prompt
Writing was something that Jordan had never been good at. Most of her friends had assumed that because she was a good artist (or at least a persistent one), she was also a good writer. That she was an "artsy" type.
The truth is that Jordan is really more of a science person. It's easier to watch, experiment and interpret than to create stories. Or pictures, really. Even the task of writing a book report or a history essay is daunting to her. Something about sentence structure never really stuck, so she has to spend more time making sure sentences make sense than choosing the right words.
Jordan sighs. Waiting another day to finish her strategical analysis probably wouldn't hurt.
Haptic
6/24 prompt, brining the pr0ns
Her touch is everywhere on my body. Her nails trace the curve of my hip making me shiver when she finds a sensitive spot. Her mouth traverses a shaky path down my neck. When she stops to bite at my pulse, I moan and roll further into her. She shifts, flooding cold air over the length of my body. All at once, her teeth are teasing my nipple, one hand spread over my stomach and one expertly finding my clit, teasing and frustrating. I groan and push at her hand, silently begging for more. She smirks against my breast. When she thrusts into me with the hand previously on my stomach, my entire body buzzes, tingling with spots of fire.
Oh yes, the blindfold was a very good idea.
Cakewalk
6/25 prompt
"Well that was pretty sad," Hunter comments,
He's too busy licking the remaining cake from his hands to notice Revi's look of disgust.
"No, it was pretty gross. I'm pretty sure I have cake in places cake should never go," she gripes, "Why would someone even think that building a death theme park out of cake was a good idea?"
"Because they were hungry at the time?" Hunter smirks,
"And then he calls it Cakewalk? Really? I almost miss actual death threats,"
Enthrall
6/26 prompt, rather suggestive, slash again
His eyes are bewitching as they meet his from across the room. They say the unspeakable things between them.
His hands are mesmerizing as they peel away the leather and masks, boots and belts.
His lips are beguiling as they press against his neck, fingers, lips. They ply open his mouth and become mind-melting.
His voice, though, his voice is enthralling. As they arch into each other, clinging, clawing, he cries out. And he is lost for good.
Zephyr
6/27 prompt, sadly smut free
The breeze on the balcony of her temple ship is constant and chilling. It's not the sort of full-on wind that cuts to the bone. More of the kind of wind that constantly messes up your hair.
Arcane frowns as yet another lock of hair finds its way into her face. She glares half-heartedly at the sky as she tucks the offending hair back. With her hair temporarily not threatening to get in her mouth, she eats another mouthful of her ice cream, watching the land fly by below her.
On her head, Lebensraum shivers. Arcane tucks the armadillo into her arms, temporarily abandoning her ice cream for warmth.
Next to Arcane's half-full bowl, is Lebensraum's small, empty bowl.
Yen
6/28 prompt
The nature versus nurture argument is lost on Arcane. It's never been a contest, for her. Her blood has always told her what to do. Or at least given her a good hint.
Her blood thrills at seeing others of its kind. Blood and more blood is what it calls for.
Kill kill die death die kill death die kill is what it chants to her, telling ever cell in her body.
She's learned to ignore it. Instead, she keeps her friends with her. Her blood itches and keens at the idea, but it will alwaysl be here when she needs it.
Especially if her friends ever betray her.
Yaw
6/29 prompt
The ship tilts, sending them stumbling sideways before they grabbed onto something.
Pandora is off before Jacen can stop her. Riley signals both of their Mirrors, telling them something's in the engines. Captain pins Jacen with a look that says stay, or else. Jacen swallows nervously, but stays put.
Pandora has a crappy mental map of the ship and gets lost twice before she finds the engines.
"Fuck," she whispers,
"What?" Riley answers almost immediately,
Pandora realizes she's accidentally opened a link to Riley,
"Sorry...Uh, looks like there's a bunch of charges on the engines..both sides," Riley can hear her chewing her lip, "One went off early...I don't know how to diffuse them,"
"It's alright," Riley knows Pandora is panicking, "I'll tell Captain and..."
Riley doesn't know what Captain will do...
"Just...keep it together down there, alright?"
Pandora takes a shuddering breath, "Okay."
Macabre
6/30 prompt
Backstabbing isn't particularly her style. It's her father's. But he's the best at what he does (backstabbing and running away, preferably up a tree), so it's in her best interest to just stick to what he knows.
And stick in what she doesn't. Like Gold Zenith's back. Right now.
She separates the spinal cord through the gap in the vertebra at the back of the woman's neck. A skill she's learned from slaughtering cows for chili. Zenith gets out an "Oh!" which is still impressive, because her brain is no longer connected to her body.
"Hm. I wasn't expecting that," Dan says, watching Zenith's body slump,
Arcane sets about skinning the body before Dan gears up to vaporize it. She feeds the skin into one of her pocket dimensions as the body disappears.
"Ready to go?" Tristan asks,
He's impatient already, despite the lack of a real battle. Dan nods and they continue further into the temple.
Hunky Dory
7/1 prompt
Gadg stumbles (falls) into Revi's apartment after both of their work days finished and before Revi has to work again.
"How goes it?" Revi asks, shutting the window behind him,
"As well as can be expected, I suppose," Gadg sighs himself into the nearest chair,
"Doesn't sound too bad,"
Revi goes back to her pasta, sitting adjacent to Gadg. He rolls his head back over the arm to watch her,
"Come tell me that when you have a kid. And Lucien."
Evanescence
7/2 prompt
After leaving M.R.C., Jordan assumed the influences from the school would sort of melt away. Instead, she catches herself, years away from the school, layering her thoughts to keep telepaths away. She thinks she's forgetting something every morning when Amyntas isn't on her shoulder. She goes to several different martial arts classes because she doesn't know what else to do with her time.
Jordan realises that the only thing that's bled away is her friends.
Vespertine
7/3 prompt, my new favorite word
"What're you doing up so late?"
Jacen sidles up to Pandora, sitting cross-legged to look down at her. Pandora lays on her back, staring at the smooth ceiling.
"Is it late?," she rolls her head to blink at him,
"Not really. More like early. I think it's--"
"4:30. I just forgot to check the time," Pandora replies, looking sidelong at him, "Did I wake you up?"
"No," Jacen looks skittish for a moment, "Another nightmare,"
"Yours?"
Jacen feels masked concern,
"No...no. I mean, it didn't feel like mine..." Jacen rubs the back of his neck, "Does that make any sense?"
"I dunno. It's easy for me to tell, y'know?" she shrugs, "Machines don't really think like people,"
Pandora pauses for a moment, then sits up to face Jacen,
"I think...I think I could turn it off," she says, biting her lip,
Jacen narrows his eyes at her,
"I think I do it with my Implant sometimes,"
She reaches behind Jacen and places one finger on the base of his skull. Her eyes glaze over as she "talks" to his implant. Jacen feels a surge of electricity and before he knows it, Pandora is up and across the room.
"Oh." she looks like she's seeing the outside of the airlock,
"What happened?" Jacen rubs the back of his neck which now feels a bit sore,
"I, uh, I got it...off, I mean. Sorry...about the power surge, I mean," Pandora looks around for an excuse, "I have to go."
Jacen watches Pandora high tail it out of the crew quarters, probably around to engineering.
Power surge?
Rataplan
7/4 prompt
There's a sort of rhythm to how Pandora works.
Most others are annoyed by the clanking coming from the insides of the ship. Jacen's heard it all his life, though, and he enjoys the metallic percussion.
Riley likes to complain loudly against the crawl spaces while she's in them. Jacen snickers because Pandora only goes there to annoy Riley.
Jaques manages to know when something is seriously wrong by tempo and always sends Sofia to help. Sofia knows better than to get in Pandora's way and hands her tools as needed.
Pandora doesn't hear the rhythm. She works with her music blaring in the back of her head so she can't remember the last time she was in a dark, cramped space.
Squelch
7/5 prompt
She disregards the useless drone from Archer, instead focusing on the blank page in front of her. Jordan shakes the pencil a few times, as if to tease the lines out of it without having to do any work.
When she gives up on that, she tries chewing. Mostly around the eraser to avoid the sour rubber taste. The wood crunches satisfyingly, but gets her no closer to what she's trying to draw.
Yet another roadblock is that she isn't even sure what she's trying to draw. Just an itch behind the eyes that tells there's something that needs to be put on the page.
She touches the pencil to the paper and draws a quick line, then a curve. And doesn't remember what she was so afraid of.
Bijou
7/6 prompt
She marvels at the design of the new nanites, the first time she catches a batch. They're quite exquisite, if she does say so herself (and she should, after all, she made them), small and incredibly efficient. They're not quite self-replicating, but given a small amount of organic matter, blood, let's say, gives them enough energy and material to build another. Luckily, the attributes of the blood don't particularly matter. No Family traits will be passed on through nanites.
Though, that is an intriguing idea.
Arcane throws the petri dish filled with dangerous, invisible robots over her shoulder. She needs to find a library.
Gizmo
7/7 prompt
Matt's room is actually a frightening place to be. It's a cross between a junk yard and a clean room and Max has no idea how it's even possible to create such a combination.
The first time Max goes to visit Matt, he's assaulted by several piles of scrap metal. It was mostly his own fault, still rather traumatic when Matt informed him he might be attached to a landmine. Matt, of course, was unaware of Max's discomfort and instead was more excited about using Max to help him build faster. Something about pliers without pliers getting in the way.
Turns out, co-opting Max as a lab assistant was a very good move on Matt's part. Max is extremely fast on the pick-up, especially when Matt actually takes the time to explain the premise or draw up an actual blueprint. The human pliers idea didn't work out as much...Max's hand is shakier than a crack whore in a barn. Without crack.
Max comes in every once in a while with blueprints of his own. Usually small robots which can be fairly autonomous. Max says its a reference to his other name. Matt never really asks him to explain because Max's designs are structurally intriguing and barely functional. Matt likes a challenge and Max doesn't mind his designs being re-engineered so long as he learns something.
The night before Matt's test, he realizes the drawer filled with Max's robots is empty. He doesn't bother to check if any of his own inventions are gone. Nothing else had been touched and Max is the only one so familiar with his room's organization. Max is too honorable to borrow from anyone without asking. And Matt knows Max isn't planning on coming back, anyway.
Sibylline
7/8 prompt
Kyle and Alex became friends through their high school's stage crew. They were two years apart, Alex being older, but the boys automatically took to one another.
When Alex manifests, Kyle knows enough to hide him from the government. It isn't hard to convince his mother to agree. She's been against the government ever since her other son had been taken.
"We can't keep him too long," his mother says,
"I know."
Kyle goes upstairs to pack his things. He isn't the same size as Alex at all, but he figures a few clean pairs of underwear will be appreciated. Now Kyle just has to wait out the coma Alex has been in for the past few days.
"Am I awake yet?" Alex asks,
"I think so," Kyle answers,
He swivels around, away from his computer, watching Alex.
"Have fun?" Kyle asks sarcastically,
"At some point...I think," Alex sits up on the edge of the bed, "I know where we have to go,"
Kyle nods. He doesn't question the fact that Alex isn't going alone,
"Want some soup first?"
Alex grins like a teenage boy offered free food.
Somewhere near half-way to South America, Kyle collapses. Alex counts the hours until Kyle will come to and keeps watch.
"Have fun?" Alex asks once he knows Kyle is awake,
"I don't know what you're talking about," Kyle says, "Nothing happened,"
Alex nods and hands Kyle a Fig Newton. They rest when the sun comes up and wake up again near dusk.
They'd been living in The Body for almost two months and Kyle was feeling thoroughly miserable. Chris allowed Kyle to stay with The Body as long as he wanted. At first, it was unbelivably cool to be able to hang out with mutants all day and night. For the most part, they didn't even care that he wasn't a mutant. He had a bit of a disadvantage during gym, but he made up for it in his other classes. But too soon, the newness of being with mutants wore off. Instead, Kyle felt an intense sense of alienation. He doesn't belong with mutants. Even if he supports their cause, he shouldn't be in this school, this community.
He begins packing his bags when a sense of the walls closing in on him made it hard to breathe.
"Ow," Kyle says when he wakes up,
Alex is there again, back facing him, like the night in the desert so long ago.
"Feeling better?" Alex asks,
Kyle has a pounding headache, he's intensely hungry and it looks like an earthquake destroyed his and Alex's room.
"Much."
Ugh, finally caught up. I'm going to blame this on being sick...a week ago? Then needing to catch up. Yes.
Edit: I just realized there are a few missing prompts somewhere in the middle...I guess I fail at copy+pasting. Expect them to be rewritten by the end of the weekend.
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