Ficlet writing meme

[john_amend_all]

Memed from thisbluespirit:

Take a pairing (or two or more characters), and put them in this random generator, then post your favourite resulting prompts (as many as you wish) in a comment below and I will try to oblige you by writing at least one of them.

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

I put John, Mina & Lucy in it and all the results were pretty priceless, but here are just a few:

John Seward / Mina Harker - accidental marriage & poltergeist & taking care of somebody
Lucy Weston / Mina Harker - spies/secret agents
John Seward / Mina Harker / Lucy Weston - timeloops
Mina Harker / Lucy Weston / John Seward - falling

Here are a couple of DW ones, though, if you don't feel v inclined to Dracula any more:

Charley Pollard / Lucie Miller - cultural misunderstanding & bottle episode
Clara Oswald / Lucie Miller - boarding school au

John Seward / Mina Harker / Lucy Weston - timeloops (1/2)

[john_amend_all]

"Heavens, whatever is the matter with everybody today?" Lucy Weston asked, looking at the expression on her best friend's face. "Mina, are you quite well?"

"I am well," Mina said. But her expression gave the lie to her words; she looked haunted, almost grief-stricken. "Lucy, what is the date today?"

"The seventeenth, of course." Lucy took Mina's hand. "Doctor Seward asked me the same question. What have the two of you been doing?"

"Doctor Seward is here?"

"In the dining room." She looked Mina in the eye, and for the first time seemed to feel a crack in the perfect friendship that existed between them. "Shall I be forced to seek an explanation from him?"

Mina gripped her hand. "No, Lucy. When the three of us are together, I shall tell you everything."

"Then we shall speak to him within the minute."

Waving away servants, she nearly dragged Mina into the dining room. Doctor Seward was standing at the head of the table, the same haunted look on his face.

"I have promised to tell her the truth," Mina said, without preliminary.

"Mrs Harker, we agreed..." Doctor Seward began.

"We agreed to keep her in ignorance. And to what end? We failed to save her for the second time, and once more find ourselves living this nightmare."

"Save her?" Lucy repeated. She'd been vaguely expecting a confession of some clandestine love affair between her fiancé and her best friend, but it seemed some greater danger hung over her in person.

Mina took a deep breath. "Lucy, Doctor Seward and I appear to be living and reliving the same ten days: from the seventeenth to the twenty-sixth of this month. We have experienced them twice already, and today is the beginning of the third cycle."

"We do not know the cause," Doctor Seward added. "But we fear.. that is... Miss Weston, on the tenth day..."

"On the tenth day you die," Mina said.

Lucy gripped the back of a nearby chair. "Die? How?" She tried to force a laugh. "Really, if this is a joke—"

"It is no joke." Mina was beside her, her eyes fixed on Lucy. "We are reliving the last days of your life, with no way to save you."

"Then tell me all," Lucy said. "I am sure you wished only to spare my feelings, but I would sooner know the truth."

Between them, Mina and Doctor Seward related the tale: of Lucy's unexplained illness, of van Helsing's attempts to protect her from vampires by means of garlic and crucifixes, and how every attempt had been frustrated. They had attended her funeral, gone sadly to bed... and awoken to find themselves ten days earlier.

"And the second time?" Lucy asked.

"We told van Helsing of our experience," Doctor Seward said. "He was... cautious, but suggested some further precautions that might be taken."

"The first time, your poor mother broke the circle of garlic," Mina said. "The second time, we warned her that the slightest disturbance could be fatal, and she took our advice— only for your parlourmaid to break it instead."

"If van Helsing's view of the situation is correct, the Count was using them as his instruments. If one instrument did not fit his purpose, he chose another. But it seems just as likely to me that the Professor is a charlatan, and his suggestions the merest flim-flam!"

"Did you try everything he suggested?" Lucy asked. "Surely you were limited by the need to keep me in ignorance."

"That is so— but his other ideas were preposterous! Insupportable!"

"If they are all that stand between me and death at the Count's hands, I am willing to try them."

Mina took a deep breath. "van Helsing has said that the Count cannot enter a building uninvited. He has been made free of this house, and of Doctor Seward's. But there are other houses in Whitby."

"Moreover — if the fellow is to be believed — the Count's powers are at their greatest in the hours of darkness. If you were to sleep during the day, with one or other of us awake and on guard, van Helsing believes the risk would be considerably lessened."

John Seward / Mina Harker / Lucy Weston - timeloops (2/2)

[john_amend_all]

Lucy looked from Mina to Doctor Seward, and a smile spread across her face. "Either you are right, and I am in peril from the Count. Or this is pure invention, and you wish to trick me into an elopement. Then by all means, let us have the elopement. We shall leave at once."

"At once?" Doctor Seward repeated.

"Before the Count hears of this plan, of course." She hurried around the table and caught hold of his arm. "There is not a minute to lose."

"But your reputation—"

"By your own account, we must choose between our reputations or my life. If society considers what we are about to do beyond forgiveness, then so be it." More or less dragging Doctor Seward, she headed back to Mina's side. "Are you with us, Mina?"

"I—" Mina seemed carried away by the speed of events. "I am, Lucy."

"You still look worried, Mina. I wish I were in your position. Imagine! The ability to do whatever one liked for ten days, knowing that after that time, all worldly consequences of one's actions would be gone forever." She kissed Mina on the cheek, then Doctor Seward. "Are you sure that you can resist such a temptation?"

Privately, she realised, she was already hoping that the answer — at least as regarded her own situation — would be 'no'.

Re: John Seward / Mina Harker / Lucy Weston - timeloops (2/2)

[thisbluespirit]

Aww, this is great! I flailed quite a lot over it; it's lovely. :-)

(ETA: Also also tiniest of nitpicks, because I assume you are going to put it on AO3 where I can admire it some more, but Dr Seward calls Lucy Miss Weston, which he doesn't usually, even when someone else is there, only Lucy, because they are engaged and he's Allowed. I am currently world's best expert on this adaptation for Reasons. But I actually read this last thing before turning the computer off and it made me happy ever since, nitpicks regardless.)

Re: John Seward / Mina Harker / Lucy Weston - timeloops (2/2)

[john_amend_all]

This is what comes of not rewatching before writing :-)

If I've made any other blunders, please let me know.

Re: John Seward / Mina Harker / Lucy Weston - timeloops (2/2)

[thisbluespirit]

LET ME MENTION AGAIN HOW MUCH I LOVED IT. :-)

[romanajo123.livejournal.com]

Here's a few:

Lucie Miller - interrogation
Karen Coltraine &/ Lucie Miller - arrest

Victoria Waterfield / Jamie McCrimmon - ritual

Zoe Heriot &/ Victoria Waterfield - Babysitting


Tegan Jovanka - coffee shop au

Grace Holloway &/ Eighth Doctor - mirrors and doubles



Vicki - attacked by a creature

Have fun! :-)

Karen Coltraine &/ Lucie Miller - arrest (1/2)

[john_amend_all]

At the sensation of a hand falling on her shoulder, Lucie jumped, nearly losing her grip on the sonic screwdriver.

"You're nicked," a familiar, perky voice said.

Lucie swung round. "Karen?"

"You have the right to remain silent," Karen said. "And unless you've got anything nice to say, that's what you'd just better do."

"Give over! No way are you in the police."

"You'd better believe it. Look, got the hat and everything."

"Could be a costume."

"Could be, but it isn't," Karen said brightly. She pulled a copper-tipped rod from her belt. "First sign of trouble from you and you won't know what's hit you. Hold out your hands."

"No chuffing way..." Lucie began, but broke off as Karen aimed the rod at her, and the sensation of pins and needles washed over her.

"This is level one," Karen said. "It goes up to eight. Now hold out your hands, lardarse."

Reluctantly, Lucie did as she was told. Karen took possession of the sonic, then clamped a pair of official-looking handcuffs round Lucie's wrists.

"Still don't think this is a real uniform?" she said. "Right, you unsavoury character, you're coming down the station with me."

"I haven't done anything!" Lucie protested.

"Carrying burgling tools, loitering suspiciously, and wearing a tacky skirt in a built-up area." Karen waved the rod menacingly. "Get moving."

"Still don't see how you got to be in the police," Lucie said, as Karen frog-marched her out of the alleyway. "Should've thought someone'd've picked up on you."

"Picked up on what?"

"On you being an evil cow who gets off on torturing people — ow!" Lucie nearly lost her footing as electric discomfort shot through her. "See, that's exactly what I was talking about."

"That's reasonable force," Karen said. "'Cos I know there's no other way you'd do what you're told."

"Just you wait till I get me hands on you."

"It'll have to wait, sorry. Police business comes first." Karen brought Lucie to a halt. "Right, in here."

"This isn't a police station," Lucie said, looking at the decrepit terraced house, its windows boarded and graffitied.

"Temporary forward base. Get a move on, we haven't got all day."

The interior of the house was just as dilapidated as the outside. The front door led straight into a nearly empty room with stained plaster walls and bare floorboards. Dustsheets covered what might have been chairs and tables.

"Right," Karen said. "Here we are." She pulled the cover off what proved to be a sofa, upholstered in ratty black leather. "Sit down."

By way of emphasis, she shoved Lucie forward onto the sofa.

"Now what?" Lucie said, looking up at her.

Karen Coltraine &/ Lucie Miller - arrest (2/2)

[john_amend_all]

Karen hesitated. "Dunno. Look, I didn't think you'd actually be dim enough to fall for the whole police thing."

"Ha! I knew you weren't really in the police."

"So what if you did? You're still the one in handcuffs."

Lucie narrowed her eyes. "Yeah, about that. You stick me in handcuffs, you zap me with your pain stick, you throw me down on your love sofa... you're really getting off on this, aren't you?"

"I'm not!"

"You're blushing." Lucie smirked. "This whole thing's some sick fantasy for you. What happens next? I know. We're both on the love sofa and I'm begging you to spank me, is that it?"

Karen was definitely pink in the face, though whether this was down to a lover's blushes or simple fury was unclear. "That is not a chuffing love sofa!" she snapped.

"Oh, yeah?" Lucie's cuffed hands were exploring the gap behind the sofa cushions. "So these aren't your knickers down the back here?"

"My what?" Karen stepped forward as Lucie brought her hands out of the gap—

And swung them sharply, landing a two-fisted blow in Karen's solar plexus. As Karen doubled over, Lucie made a grab for the sonic, missed, and found herself gripping the pain rod. Karen, recovering, tried to snatch it back, and fell onto the sofa on top of Lucie. Face to face, they struggled, the rod digging into first one, then the other.

Then Lucie's hand slipped on the rod, coming into contact with the controls. Painful tingling shot through her body, but it was clear that Karen had received a far stronger jolt. Her mouth opened for a scream that never came; instead, she collapsed with a moan, her body suddenly limp.

"Serve you right," Lucie muttered, squirming out from under Karen. A few seconds were enough for her to retrieve the sonic from Karen's pocket and unlock the handcuffs. Karen made a feeble attempt to grab at her, but was in no condition to resist as Lucie made use of the handcuffs to restrain her erstwhile tormentor's hands behind her back.

"Bye for now," Lucie said. "Sorry I ruined your little fantasy. Or is this one of your fantasies too? Would it help if I sat on you or something?"

"Lucie," Karen mumbled. "Just wait 'til I get m'hands on you... shove that prod right up your jacksie..."

"Hold that thought, 'cos that's the closest you'll ever get to doing it." Lucie opened the front door, took a step backward, blew Karen a kiss, and closed the door between them. On a whim, she aimed the sonic at the keyhole, and was rewarded with a click as the lock went home.

Wonder if I was right about her fancying me? Lucie thought, as she hurried through the streets to get back to the alleyway where Karen had found her. She tried to force the thought back, but too late; the obvious followup question was already in her mind. And what if I actually fancy her?

Re: Karen Coltraine &/ Lucie Miller - arrest (2/2)

[romanajo123.livejournal.com]

This was great!

Love their banter.

Re: Karen Coltraine &/ Lucie Miller - arrest (2/2)

[john_amend_all]

Thanks — they're fun to write (provided I don't get carried away and have to call in the sex scene subcontractors).