So, I Wrote A Thing
Feb. 21st, 2005 02:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sadlikeknivesMy creative writing teacher assigned us to write a story with 5 things in it. They were:
1. Presidents' Day
2. a hammer
3. chewing gum
4. The American History of Photography
5. 'Sometimes, love hurts.'
So. This is the end result. It's the first thing I've written in a 'verse I'm developing, that I hope/plan to write more of in the future (including the tale of how Swift stole the hammer). I've been hammering out mythology with B and Telly all night. It's kind of exciting. Or cracked out. One of those.
“But it’s Presidents’ Day! We shouldn’t have to train.”
Mab McNamara straightened from her stretch and glared at the tall blond whining at her. After a carefully calculated nineteen seconds he started to look nervous. She flicked a lock of bright blue hair out of her eyes and sighed. “Auri. I’m from Toronto. Which is in Canada. I don’t actually give a fuck about your presidents, except to the point they don’t revoke my visa. And we’re a UN-sponsored team, not US. Never mind where we’re based. So, whatever.”
“What about the other Americans?”
“What other Americans?”
“I’m from Hong Kong,” Anh Li pointed out. Mab really should yell at her for chewing gum during training, but she had to prioritize. Yell at Auri first. Then Ben, if he ever showed up. Anh and her Double Bubble were pretty far down the list.
“Kingston,” Swift Marley said. It was, of course, an assumed name, but given her rather questionable past, that was probably for the best. The minute a UN Operation Steel agent was identified as the thief who’d stolen the British crown jewels and then given them back, they were all in a world of trouble. “Jamaica,” she added, sliding down into a split that made the boys in the room wince.
Scotland, Zen ‘said’ telepathically. The tall, mute weather manipulator was fastidiously smoothing his aqua-blue hair down with a liberal amount of gel. It had a tendency to go insane, and even the gel wouldn’t keep it down long, but he at least had to make the effort.
“What about Ben?”
“First off, Ben’s late, so he’s in even more trouble than your whiny-ass self. Secondly, Ben was born in Algeria.”
“But he was raised in New York.”
“Whatever.”
“What about the other team? They probably have Americans.”
“Their commander has obviously ordered them to participate, and I pray to the gods they’re not getting this kind of flack from their people.”
“Who are we going up against in this little exercise?” Swift asked.
“We’re supposed to go in blind.”
“Yeah, but you have coffee with Director Macadam every morning, so I know you know. And it’s looking like Benny’s not gonna show, so we need to know how screwed we are. Who’re we going up against?”
She sighed. “Two. Vargas’s team.”
“And they’ve got Lawton,” Anh said. “The older one,” she corrected herself. “Pollux.”
“Yes.”
“The invulnerable one,” Auri realized.
“Yes. You may have noticed we’re short the one person who could keep him occupied.”
“I swear to Oyá, I’m going to hit him with a hammer.”
“It won’t do any good, Swift. That whole ‘invulnerability’ deal, or haven’t you been paying attention?”
“You haven’t seen the hammer, yet.”
Every head in the room jerked up at that. Some of the things Swift had pulled out of her pocket dimensions before had been...alarming, to say the least. They stared for several seconds, and Swift took a book out of thin air and started flipping through it. It was Auri who finally asked, “Swift? What did you steal?”
And more importantly, Zen said, from who?
“Whom,” Anh corrected dazedly.
Whatever.
Something clicked together for Mab, and she immediately went into full panic mode in the way only one capable of operating at hyperspeed could do. Do not stop, do not pass go. “Oh, my gods, is Thor real? He’s still around? Is he going to show up on our doorstep demanding his hammer back? ‘Cause I don’t wanna fight a god; I mean I’m just a little half-nymph, and Khadija and Ben are scary enough and their mother was human and their father was just a djinn and that’s like-a-lot-less-powerful-than-an-actualmajorpantheondeity–”
Auri grabbed Mab’s shoulders and shook her. “You’re talking too fast. We can’t understand you. Breathe.”
“–Nevermindonethat’sstillbeingworshipped...” Mab blinked up at Auri, slowly coming back to herself. “Right. Sorry. I um, had coffee.”
“We understand. Can you behave like a rational team leader now?”
“Yes. Swift.” Swift jerked her head up and closed the book. Mab squinted at the title. The American History of Photography. Oh, well, of course. “Did. You. Steal. Mjolnir?”
“Your pronunciation’s terrible.” Mab made a strangled screaming sound, and Swift decided not to push her luck. “Yes.”
Anh sat down on the locker room’s bench, put her head between her knees, and started swearing in Mandarin. Zen distractedly patted her head. She reached up and gave him a tiny lightning bolt to the wrist. He countered with one of his own, frizzing her hair. Anh decided to conserve energy for the real adversary–Swift or Team Two, she wasn’t sure which yet–and didn’t press the argument.
“Why did you think Macadam hired me? I’m one of maybe five people on this project who’s pure human. I’m just a sorceress and a thief with a few neat tricks, right?”
“I figured it was because you stole the freakin’ crown jewels of godsdamned England.”
The tall woman scoffed. “Those were easy. I did that on a dare. No, he hired me because of my more... professional reputation.
Zen managed to read between those lines quite neatly. Mab would’ve thought he’d read her mind, except Swift had shields like stone walls. Wait, somebody hired you to steal Thor’s hammer?
She shrugged. “Well, yeah.”
“I thought you just stole stuff for the hell of it,” Anh said, head still between her knees, long black hair sweeping down to brush the floor.
“No, o’course not. A girl’s gotta pay the rent. Of course, Higher Beings don’t usually pay in cash, but whatever they’re willing to part with is worth doing the job.”
“Someone hired you to steal Thor’s hammer.”
“I thought we’d established that, Mab.”
“All right. Who?”
“I’m bound by contract not to tell you that.” They all knew that breaking a contract with a Higher Being–especially a god, which it probably was in this case, was a Very Bad Idea with Very Nasty Consequences.
“Why?”
Swift’s lips twisted into a pretty, wry smile. “Sometimes love hurts, I guess.”
“Huh. Can we expect Thor battering down our door any time soon?”
“No. Last time I checked, he thought Loki had it. I’ve got it tucked into one of my more secure pockets, so he can’t track it or call it. That...has him pretty annoyed.”
“Loki’s real, too?” Mab was embarrassed by the way her voice squeaked.
“Yes. That whole Ragnarok deal? Happened in like, 1066 or something. No big. He’s very nice. We had coffee once.”
“Oh, my gods,” Mab moaned, and sank down on the bench next to Anh. “You had coffee with a major pantheon deity.”
“Once or twice.”
“Once or twice. I feel dizzy,” Auri muttered.
Ben breezed into the room, acting cheerful and perky. As always, he was strikingly handsome, without a hair out of place, and the faint, oddly appealing red glow that came and went was back in his eyes. He looked, overall like he wasn’t over a half hour late, and it wasn’t six in the morning on what was theoretically a national holiday. It was disgusting, really. “What did I miss?”
Mab just squeaked at him.
“That bad, huh? I’m sorry I’m late, I just–”
Anh squeaked this time.
“...Mabby? Anh? Zen, they’re starting to scare me.”
It’s not you, it’s Swift. We’ve had something of a shock.
“Huh?”
“I stole Thor’s hammer. This seems to have blown our team leader’s tiny little mind.”
Mab jerked up, battle light flaring in her pale blue eyes. “I swear to Goddess, Swift–why are you smirking?”
“Team Six, report to the training field,” boomed the speaker.
“‘Cause now you’re ready to go out there and pound things.”
“I hate it when you people manipulate me.”
“But it’s so much fun.”
She sighed. “I swear, you’re going to give me white hair before I’m thirty. All right, Six. Let’s rock.” She threw open the door and started down the corridor toward the training ground, the rest of them right at her heels.
At the back of the group, Ben asked Swift, “Did you really steal Thor’s hammer?”
“Yeah.”
“Cool.”
Swift grinned. “You won’t think so when I get through with you.”
“...what’s that supposed to mean?”
THE END
Feedback would be muchly appreciated.
1. Presidents' Day
2. a hammer
3. chewing gum
4. The American History of Photography
5. 'Sometimes, love hurts.'
So. This is the end result. It's the first thing I've written in a 'verse I'm developing, that I hope/plan to write more of in the future (including the tale of how Swift stole the hammer). I've been hammering out mythology with B and Telly all night. It's kind of exciting. Or cracked out. One of those.
“But it’s Presidents’ Day! We shouldn’t have to train.”
Mab McNamara straightened from her stretch and glared at the tall blond whining at her. After a carefully calculated nineteen seconds he started to look nervous. She flicked a lock of bright blue hair out of her eyes and sighed. “Auri. I’m from Toronto. Which is in Canada. I don’t actually give a fuck about your presidents, except to the point they don’t revoke my visa. And we’re a UN-sponsored team, not US. Never mind where we’re based. So, whatever.”
“What about the other Americans?”
“What other Americans?”
“I’m from Hong Kong,” Anh Li pointed out. Mab really should yell at her for chewing gum during training, but she had to prioritize. Yell at Auri first. Then Ben, if he ever showed up. Anh and her Double Bubble were pretty far down the list.
“Kingston,” Swift Marley said. It was, of course, an assumed name, but given her rather questionable past, that was probably for the best. The minute a UN Operation Steel agent was identified as the thief who’d stolen the British crown jewels and then given them back, they were all in a world of trouble. “Jamaica,” she added, sliding down into a split that made the boys in the room wince.
Scotland, Zen ‘said’ telepathically. The tall, mute weather manipulator was fastidiously smoothing his aqua-blue hair down with a liberal amount of gel. It had a tendency to go insane, and even the gel wouldn’t keep it down long, but he at least had to make the effort.
“What about Ben?”
“First off, Ben’s late, so he’s in even more trouble than your whiny-ass self. Secondly, Ben was born in Algeria.”
“But he was raised in New York.”
“Whatever.”
“What about the other team? They probably have Americans.”
“Their commander has obviously ordered them to participate, and I pray to the gods they’re not getting this kind of flack from their people.”
“Who are we going up against in this little exercise?” Swift asked.
“We’re supposed to go in blind.”
“Yeah, but you have coffee with Director Macadam every morning, so I know you know. And it’s looking like Benny’s not gonna show, so we need to know how screwed we are. Who’re we going up against?”
She sighed. “Two. Vargas’s team.”
“And they’ve got Lawton,” Anh said. “The older one,” she corrected herself. “Pollux.”
“Yes.”
“The invulnerable one,” Auri realized.
“Yes. You may have noticed we’re short the one person who could keep him occupied.”
“I swear to Oyá, I’m going to hit him with a hammer.”
“It won’t do any good, Swift. That whole ‘invulnerability’ deal, or haven’t you been paying attention?”
“You haven’t seen the hammer, yet.”
Every head in the room jerked up at that. Some of the things Swift had pulled out of her pocket dimensions before had been...alarming, to say the least. They stared for several seconds, and Swift took a book out of thin air and started flipping through it. It was Auri who finally asked, “Swift? What did you steal?”
And more importantly, Zen said, from who?
“Whom,” Anh corrected dazedly.
Whatever.
Something clicked together for Mab, and she immediately went into full panic mode in the way only one capable of operating at hyperspeed could do. Do not stop, do not pass go. “Oh, my gods, is Thor real? He’s still around? Is he going to show up on our doorstep demanding his hammer back? ‘Cause I don’t wanna fight a god; I mean I’m just a little half-nymph, and Khadija and Ben are scary enough and their mother was human and their father was just a djinn and that’s like-a-lot-less-powerful-than-an-actualmajorpantheondeity–”
Auri grabbed Mab’s shoulders and shook her. “You’re talking too fast. We can’t understand you. Breathe.”
“–Nevermindonethat’sstillbeingworshipped...” Mab blinked up at Auri, slowly coming back to herself. “Right. Sorry. I um, had coffee.”
“We understand. Can you behave like a rational team leader now?”
“Yes. Swift.” Swift jerked her head up and closed the book. Mab squinted at the title. The American History of Photography. Oh, well, of course. “Did. You. Steal. Mjolnir?”
“Your pronunciation’s terrible.” Mab made a strangled screaming sound, and Swift decided not to push her luck. “Yes.”
Anh sat down on the locker room’s bench, put her head between her knees, and started swearing in Mandarin. Zen distractedly patted her head. She reached up and gave him a tiny lightning bolt to the wrist. He countered with one of his own, frizzing her hair. Anh decided to conserve energy for the real adversary–Swift or Team Two, she wasn’t sure which yet–and didn’t press the argument.
“Why did you think Macadam hired me? I’m one of maybe five people on this project who’s pure human. I’m just a sorceress and a thief with a few neat tricks, right?”
“I figured it was because you stole the freakin’ crown jewels of godsdamned England.”
The tall woman scoffed. “Those were easy. I did that on a dare. No, he hired me because of my more... professional reputation.
Zen managed to read between those lines quite neatly. Mab would’ve thought he’d read her mind, except Swift had shields like stone walls. Wait, somebody hired you to steal Thor’s hammer?
She shrugged. “Well, yeah.”
“I thought you just stole stuff for the hell of it,” Anh said, head still between her knees, long black hair sweeping down to brush the floor.
“No, o’course not. A girl’s gotta pay the rent. Of course, Higher Beings don’t usually pay in cash, but whatever they’re willing to part with is worth doing the job.”
“Someone hired you to steal Thor’s hammer.”
“I thought we’d established that, Mab.”
“All right. Who?”
“I’m bound by contract not to tell you that.” They all knew that breaking a contract with a Higher Being–especially a god, which it probably was in this case, was a Very Bad Idea with Very Nasty Consequences.
“Why?”
Swift’s lips twisted into a pretty, wry smile. “Sometimes love hurts, I guess.”
“Huh. Can we expect Thor battering down our door any time soon?”
“No. Last time I checked, he thought Loki had it. I’ve got it tucked into one of my more secure pockets, so he can’t track it or call it. That...has him pretty annoyed.”
“Loki’s real, too?” Mab was embarrassed by the way her voice squeaked.
“Yes. That whole Ragnarok deal? Happened in like, 1066 or something. No big. He’s very nice. We had coffee once.”
“Oh, my gods,” Mab moaned, and sank down on the bench next to Anh. “You had coffee with a major pantheon deity.”
“Once or twice.”
“Once or twice. I feel dizzy,” Auri muttered.
Ben breezed into the room, acting cheerful and perky. As always, he was strikingly handsome, without a hair out of place, and the faint, oddly appealing red glow that came and went was back in his eyes. He looked, overall like he wasn’t over a half hour late, and it wasn’t six in the morning on what was theoretically a national holiday. It was disgusting, really. “What did I miss?”
Mab just squeaked at him.
“That bad, huh? I’m sorry I’m late, I just–”
Anh squeaked this time.
“...Mabby? Anh? Zen, they’re starting to scare me.”
It’s not you, it’s Swift. We’ve had something of a shock.
“Huh?”
“I stole Thor’s hammer. This seems to have blown our team leader’s tiny little mind.”
Mab jerked up, battle light flaring in her pale blue eyes. “I swear to Goddess, Swift–why are you smirking?”
“Team Six, report to the training field,” boomed the speaker.
“‘Cause now you’re ready to go out there and pound things.”
“I hate it when you people manipulate me.”
“But it’s so much fun.”
She sighed. “I swear, you’re going to give me white hair before I’m thirty. All right, Six. Let’s rock.” She threw open the door and started down the corridor toward the training ground, the rest of them right at her heels.
At the back of the group, Ben asked Swift, “Did you really steal Thor’s hammer?”
“Yeah.”
“Cool.”
Swift grinned. “You won’t think so when I get through with you.”
“...what’s that supposed to mean?”
THE END
Feedback would be muchly appreciated.
