01. Write down the names of ten characters.
02. Write a drabble fic of three hundred words for each prompt, using the characters determined by the numbers. Do NOT read the prompts before you do Step 1.
Not entirely sure I've done this right… but for someone who hasn't written fiction in a while, I'm pretty proud of it :)
01) Dr Gregory House (House M.D.)
02) Lucius Malfoy (Harry Potter)
03) Virginia Baker (Entrapment)
04) Ariadne Mavitch (Inception)
05) Edward DIllinger Jr (Tron: Legacy)
06) Mort Rainey (Secret Window)
07) The Joker (Arkham Asylum/Arkham City version)
08) Dr. Ally Hextall (Contagion)
09) Angela Weber (Twilight)
10) Lisbeth Salander (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo)
01) First time, 4 and 6 - Ariadne and Mort
He was much less groomed than Arthur, but rather attractive in an unkempt sort of way. Two years after Arthur's death, her friends had set her up on a blind date with him.
"So, Mort… what do you do?"
"Oh! Err… I write… novels… thrillers actually." The man gave a nervous smile.
"Oh, wow… maybe I've read a few…" Ariadne said with a smile, picking up her wine glass. Mort managed a slight chuckle.
"What about you?"
"I'm an… architectural designer." Ariadne said.
The silence was, at best, uncomfortable. Mort cleared his throat once again. Ariadne smiled apologetically.
"I'm sorry… it's not really… working out, is it?" She asked.
"Err… no, actually… I was wondering… h-how to ask you if you wanted to come back to my place." A light blush coloured Mort's cheeks. Ariadne merely looked at him, eyebrows raised, surprised at his nervous, yet brash statement.
"Erm.." She fumbled in her pocket for the Bishop totem she'd made almost ten years ago. The significant weight of the chess piece had a way of calming her down. It was heavier than usual… this was a dream. Her mind clear, she looked at the shaggy-haired man across from her. "You could just ask me."
Mort squinted at her through his glasses. A nervous tic caused his hand to tap the table.
"So… would you?" He asked, finally.
"Let's have another drink and get to know each other better…" Ariadne winked, a teasing smirk on her face that seemed to put Mort slightly more at ease.
"Let's." He agreed, indicating to the waiter to bring them both another round. Leaning against the table, he rested his chin on his fist. "So, tell me more about yourself."
She clinked her glass to his. "Only if you tell me more of your story."
02) Angst, 7 - The Joker
"HARLEY!" The purple-clad figure hurled a set of chattering teeth at a mirror, shattering the glass. "GET YOURSELF IN HERE RIGHT NOOOOOW!"
"Mistah Jay?" The woman in question peeked into the Joker's 'office' and crept toward him. "What's tha' matter, Puddin'?"
"That blasted bat has been running around down there for hours! Go and see what's keeping him so long!"
"B-but Puddin'…"
"GO!"
Harley scurried out of the room, her lower lip trembling.
Joker growled to himself, looking at the countless security monitors that covered one wall of the office. "Where are you, Brucey…" He murmured, his voice cracking and becoming more and more rough as the night wore on. This game was getting tiresome, but the Clown Prince of Crime always found things to keep him entertained while the Bat was indisposed. "Where, oh where has the little Bat gone, oh where, oh where can he be?"
"Right behind you, Joker." The deep, unmistakable voice of the bloody Bat caused the Joker to shriek with insane laughter, turning around in time to feel a large gloved hand clamp around his neck. As the hand began to squeeze, Joker wheezed out a laugh.
"Ah, so the Bat finally makes an appearance." He whispered roughly. "Tell me, Bats… what'll you do once you kill me? I've told you before… you need me, I need you. We're a yin and a yang. We're one in the same."
"I'm nothing like you." The Bat said through clenched teeth.
"Sure, you say that now." Joker laughed once again, fighting back the wave of terror that threatened to engulf him as his consciousness slipped away. As the darkness overtook his mind, he thought he heard a clang and a dull thud, before dropping to the floor himself… but it might have just been his imagination.
03) AU, 1 and 8 - House and Hextall
House looked at the brunette doctor in front of him, holding files from the CDC. "So you're the one who started the ball rolling for the MEV-1 inoculation." He said, stating the obvious as always. "Why'd Cuddy send you to me?"
"Well," Ally paused. "You're a diagnostician. If, God forbid, MEV-1 broke out at Princeton Plainsboro, you could at least have the inoculation on standby."
"First off, I don't believe in God. Second off, everyone in the world has been inoculated against it-"
"Not everyone." The government doctor argued. "Babies born after the fact have not."
"Children born after the fact would have received the inoculation in utero ." House argued, feeling challenged by this hoity-toity government bitch.
"Look, Dr House, a lot of people were celebrating once the virus was wiped out, but the inoculation doesn't cover babies conceived 3-6 months after the scare happened. Don't argue with me on this. I am one of several representatives sent to hospitals around America to tell hospitals about it. Don't question me."
"It's my job to question." House's blue eyes met Ally's hazel ones, challenging her. She raised her eyebrows and smiled slightly.
"Well, you don't question me. I was the original test subject for the vaccine. What I say goes." She smiled coolly at the older man before placing the files on his desk, turning on her heel and marching out the door.
"How did he take it?" Lisa Cuddy asked as her friend and old college roommate walked through her door.
"Just like you said he would. But I made sure he was speechless by the end of the conversation." Ally winked.
"Really? How?" Cuddy was surprised at how easily Ally had managed to avoid House's usual sarcasm.
"I walked out before he could bite back an answer."
04) Threesome, 3, 6 and 9 - Virgina, Mort and Angela
The girl was nervous, she could tell. She patted her knee comfortingly. "It's always hard the first time." Virginia smiled. "You get used to it, I promise."
"I'm not supposed to be here." Angela swallowed. "I'm supposed to be at school."
"What did Mort tell you this was all about?" Virginia was interested as to how her friend had managed to get one this young.
"He said I could interview him for the school newspaper." Angela said softly. "What's going on here?"
"Hush, honey…You'll be alright." Virginia wasn't used to girls this young, but she felt a sort of… connection to this girl. "What's your name?"
"Angela… Angela Weber."
"I'm Virginia Baker." Virginia smiled.
"Is the guy I met really Mort Rainey? The Thriller author?" Angela asked, her anxiousness lessened slightly.
"Yep… consider this all a part of his plotting process... he likes really getting to know his projects…" Virginia smiled. "Don't take it personally… he's just very much in character when he does this sort of thing…"
Their conversation was cut short as Mort entered the hotel room, a ripped old bathrobe hanging open over his nakedness. Angela, a devout Lutheran, blushed and looked away. Virginia took a hold of her chin and forced her to look at Mort, and then herself. "Have you never seen a man before?"
"Not… like this." Angela murmured softly, closing her eyes. "My boyfriend and I liked the lights off."
"Well, you're in for a learning experience." Virginia smiled. "It's okay. He won't hurt you, I promise."
"Yess'm. Ah wouldn't hurt a perty li'l lady like you." Mort said, a heavy Southern accent making his words sound strange to Angela's ears. She looked from Mort to Virginia, trying to appease her slight fear for this man. "Yer too perty ta hurt… Ah promise."
05) Hurt/Comfort, 5 and 10 - Edward and Lisbeth
The trouble with finding someone as good at Computer Hacking as she was, was that it was frustrating her beyond belief. Why had she even accepted the job in America? Why hadn't she stayed with Mikael in Sweden? Besides… this American was rather impolite.
"Why does he want this man so badly? This is the real owner of Encom, so why does Dillinger want me to hack him?" Lisbeth asked aloud in her native tongue, curiously.
"How's it going?" Edward Dillinger Jr, son on Edward Dillinger Sr – and a bastard of a boss in his own right - asked. He was known to be mentally unstable… sometimes. Lisbeth had been on the receiving end of a slap across the back of her head once or twice in the three weeks she'd been here.
"This man… this Sam Flynn. He is almost impenetrable."
"But you can find a way in?"
"Of course. I am not the best hacker in the world because of a hunch." A sting across the back of her head made her cower and wince. Dillinger had hit her – yet again. But almost as soon as the sting had faded, he was hugging her so that her back was flush against his chest.
"I'm sorry… it has been a trying month for me…"
"So trying that you have turned to the bottle, yet again." Lisbeth couldn't help the stray thought. Pressure on her shoulder told her that she'd said the thought out loud, though in Swedish.
"What did you say?" Edward asked threateningly, his whiskey-breath stinging her nose.
"I said I am going as fast as I can…" Lisbeth said in English. Edward's grip on her shoulders faded.
"Good. Just see that it gets done." As fast as he'd appeared, he was gone, leaving Lisbeth to her work.
06) Crack, 1 - House
"Wilson, I swear, if you don't hand me that damn comic book, you're dead and buried."
"House, you wouldn't even be able to conceal my body, let alone bury me." James Wilson looked his best friend square in the eye. Greg House met his gaze, frowned a little and raised his cane in threat.
"You don't know the lengths I will go to, man."
"Actually, I do. If any of your team knew you read the old Astro Boy comic books…"
"They're not going to know, because if you tell them, the cleaning staff are going to find that James Wilson had a nasty 'accident' with an endoscope up his ass." House said threateningly, snatching the offending comic book away. "Consider this payment for the time I found out you were in a college porn film."
Wilson flushed bright red. "That was not me!"
"Funny… that wasn't what you said at the time." House allowed himself a smirk before tucking the Astro Boy comic into a folder of files and began to limp away, out the door of his best friend's office.
"I'll call this payback for the 5000 bucks your owe me." Wilson said, falling into step beside House. "Payback for that film would be telling the team and Cuddy, and anyone you dated within a fifty mile radius that you read Hello Kitty magazine religiously."
House could only stop onto his trek back to his office to look at his friend. "Dude," He said. "That was way, way, way below the belt. And you know it."
"So was most of the stuff you've done since you became head diagnostician. Don't mess with me, House. I know your secrets." And with that, Wilson walked away, smirking, leaving the head Diagnostician in the corridor, watching him leave, frowning in thought.
07) Horror, 10 - Lisbeth
She was running. From what, she couldn't tell, but she couldn't let it get her, no matter what. The sound of footsteps echoed her own as she rain through the darkness, her breath hitching as a stitch ripped through her side. Why had she left her motorcycle? Why hadn't she just ridden to the office? Someone wanted her dead now. She could feel it.
Trying hard to stop the fear from flooding through her system, the punk-haired, multi-pierced girl felt an extra explosion of speed as she raced around the corner of an empty street, only to come face to brick with a wall blocking off her escape route. A dead end.
Turning, pressing her back against the cold, crumbling brick, she looked at her pursuer with defiance. The man chuckled, moving forward with the fluid grace of a cat, pinning her to the wall, a forearm across her chest.
"Well, well, well…" The man leered. "Little bird has fallen from the nest…" With a grunt, she pushed against her assailant. The man laughed. "Little bird has spirit and fight… I don't like that." A glint of metal caught her attention as the man pressed the knife to her throat. "I will have fun with you when you're dead. It is always more fun when they're dead. They don't move."
The floodgates of her brain opened, letting fear sting through her body, filling each vein and artery with pure, unadulterated dread.
"Please…" She whispered. "Let me go." She trembled, hoping to catch the man off guard enough so that she could overpower him and let him know what she was really made of.
"Too late for bargaining, little bird… I know all about you… Lisbeth. You're going to pay for your crimes."
And she felt the knife pierce her neck.
08) Babyfic, 5 and 9 - Edward and Angela
The little brown-haired boy cooed and frowned a little as a dark haired girl toddled over to him, holding a toy phone.
"Ring-ring!" The little girl said. "Ring-ring!"
"No!" Edward pooched out his lower lip. "No ring-ring."
Angela sat down with a iplop/i, lower lip trembling slightly. "Eddiiiiiiieeeee! Please ring-ring? Someone of phone for you! Your daddy!"
"No!" Edward picked up the phone and threw it away, causing the little girl to burst into tears.
"Edward!" The teacher knelt down beside Edward and shook her head. "We don't make our friends cry! You say you're sorry to Angela!"
"No!" Edward's lip was trembling now. Tears were dripping from his chin. "I want my daddy!"
Angela stopped crying and looked at her friend. Getting up, she took three wobbly steps to him and put her chubby little arms around him, giving him a hug.
"It's okay, Eddie." She said. "Me like you."
The teacher looked from one to the other, a small smile tugging on the corners of her mouth, before getting up and heading over to break up a tug of war over a Raggedy-Anne doll.
Edward looked up at Angela and smiled shyly. "Play Paranoids?"
"Okay!" Angela laughed and the two children made their way to the tricycles, laughing and giggling as they rode around the playroom, racing against the clock in the game that they loved the most.
Suddenly, Edward's attention was diverted to a familiar face entering the classroom.
"MAMA!" He squealed, jumping off the trike and running to cling to the woman's leg. "Mama home?"
The woman laughed. "Yes, Eddie… Mama's home." Picking him up, she gave him an affectionate squeeze, kissing his brown curls. "Come on…"
Edward looked over his mother's shoulder and waved to Angela. "Bye-Bye, Angie! See you tomorrow!"
Angela waved. "Bye-Bye, Eddie!"
09) Dark, 2 and 8 - Lucius and Ally
Ally awoke in a dark room, her hand bound to the arms of the chair that she sat in. "H-hello?"
"Ah, good." A silky voice said, seemingly from the darkness that engulfed the room in which Ally sat. "You're awake."
"W-who are you?" Ally shivered as she felt something move by her.
"No need to tell you who I am, Muggle. Who you are is a different question all together."
"I'm…" Ally hesitated. "I'm Dr Ally Hextall from the CDC in America…"
The man sniffed in disdain. "Americans." He muttered. "What are you doing in Britain?"
"I've come to see a man… Mr Harry Potter… about a cure for his daughter…" She trailed off as her forearms registered a great pressure. The man was squeezing them tightly. Ally winced. "Let me go… please. I'm only trying to do my job!"
"Your job? You don't belong here, Muggle. Potter can suffer as he made me suffer."
"B-but…" She felt a narrow object pressed against her jugular.
"Do NOT question me." The pressure on her arms began to ache. "I can torture you to the point of breaking, kill you in the blink of an eye. You and your fancy cures and Muggle medicines are no help here."
Ally screamed as her left forearm gave way to the pressure, both the radius and the ulna shattering in both arms. Tears ran down her cheeks as she whimpered from the pain. "W-what do you want?"
"Me? Nothing." The silky voice said. "Stop your incessant sniveling, woman! You're here, merely to entertain my kin and I."
"I don't associate with terrorists." Tears ran down her cheeks. She felt her blood turn to ice as the man with the silky voice began to laugh.
"Terrorists? Us? Oh, no, Dr Ally Hextall… We're much, much worse."
10) Romance, 4 and 7 - Ariadne and Joker
"I've never had so much fun at a club before." Ariadne said, stopping in front of her apartment. "Thank you for the date, Jay."
The man smiled genuinely. It was strange, usually he smiled from insanity, but this girl, she made him feel… almost normal. Almost. "No problem… here, let me get the door for you…" He gently took her keys and fitted them into the lock easily. A quick flick of the wrist, he'd opened the door and had slipped the keys into his pocket and covered Ariadne's eyes with his purple-gloved hands.
"Jay… what are you doing?"
"Shh… trust me." A slight giggle escape his lips and he lead her into her apartment. Closing the door behind them with his foot, he uncovered her eyes, kissing her on the cheek as he did so. "Happy Birthday, Ari."
Allowing her eyes to become accustomed to the dim light, Ari glanced around the living room, her eyes wide in wonderment. Purple roses filled the room on ever flat surface available, the smell wafting from them, heavenly.
"Oh, Jay… this… this… oh, wow!" Turning, she flung her arms around his neck and kissed him full on the mouth. "This is the best birthday present anyone could have ever given me…"
Jay smirked and picked her up. "Just wait 'til you see what's in the bedroom." He winked, causing the girl to giggle. Carrying her down the hall, he let Ariadne switch on the light, before sitting her on a rose petal-covered bed and getting down on one knee. Presenting her with a box, he smiled as Ariadne's eyes went wide. "Ari… I've wanted to ask a long time, but forced myself to wait until now…" Opening the box, he presented her with a beautiful ring. "Ariadne Mavitch… will you marry me?"
11) Death fic, 2 and 3 - Lucius and Virginia
Spells were flying every which way. Virginia Baker watched in horror as her lover aimed and shot a defensive spell toward his attacker, dodging the returning strike. His spell hit its mark and the other wizard keeled over in a flash of green light. Virginia raced forward and caught a hold of Lucius as he stumbled, his free hand holding onto his midsection tightly.
"Lucius! Lucius, are you all right?" She asked, catching him as he fell, shocked to find blood pouring from a wound she had not seen be made. "Lucius!"
"I'm… I'm all right…" Lucius stammered, sitting down on the ground, panting heavily. "Nothing… nothing to be worried about… I promise." He smiled shakily.
"Lucius, you're losing a lot of blood." Virginia said, her voice shaking. "At least let my try to heal you…"
"No…" Despite his loss of blood, his grip on her wrist was still tight. "No, Virginia…"
Tears sprang into Virginia's eyes as she watched her lover's pale face lose even more colour. Helping him lay down, she sniffled. "Lucius… please don't leave me…"
Cupping her cheek in one hand, the older wizard gave a shaky smile. "You'll find someone better than me…" He whispered.
"But I don't want anyone better than you…" Virgina sobbed. "I love you."
"I…" The wizard closed his eyes and winced at the ripping, tearing pain that ran through his midsection. "I love you… too." Using the last of his strength to prop himself up on one elbow, he brought Virginia's lips to his and kissed her one final time, before falling back, closing his eyes and finally letting life slip from his grasp.
"No…" Virgina whispered. "NO!" Laying her head on his chest, she sobbed into the black night, wondering why anyone would want to kill a rehabilitated Wizard.