trace_of_scarlet

Fic: Cardio-Pulmonary Respiration
Fandoms: Marvel Movieverse
Rating: PG-13
Words: 5789
Warnings: Possible triggers for semi-graphic violence.
Pairing: Bruce/Tony
Notes: Set some time post-Avengers! With techspeak from JJ and a crapload of beta-ing from the best Eric.
Summary: Bruce and Tony go undercover on a mission from SHIELD. It all works out very nearly as badly as Bruce tells them all it will... But, to be fair, there are certain compensations to getting the chance to play James Bond.

( 'So, let me get this straight.' Bruce pushes up his glasses and pinches the bridge of his nose, eyes closed, the way he gets at the end of a long day when the math stops working and Tony won't stop making smartass remarks. 'You want *me and Tony* to go undercover and find these terrorists? *Me?* Really?' )

One
"Bruce." Molly is looking at him, eyes already glowing. "Does it hurt?"

"Uh." He struggles with words; with the Other Guy bubbling under his skin, his thoughts stutter and stop. "Every - every time."

"I'm sorry." The last thing he feels, before the Other Guy takes over, is her taking his hand.

Two
“Molly, I can’t -”

He looks up at her desperately, like he’s begging her to escape the bomb-blast (run, run away as fast as you can, you can’t catch me), and suddenly realisation hits her: she’s seen this before, at Xavier’s. Some emotions can’t be helped until they run their course; sometimes there’s nothing to do but absorb the pressure and fix things later.

“Bruce, if you can’t stop it, then let it happ-”

“NO!”

He’s only getting angrier, panicking, but she keeps talking. “I’m here, I’m here, nobody’s gonna get hurt, Bruce. It’s okay, I promise, but if you can’t fight it then don’t and we’ll deal with it, okay? It’s going to be okay.”

He still doesn’t believe her, or maybe can’t bear to believe her, but all he says is ‘please’, low and guttural and probably heart-breaking if she weren’t too busy trying not to freak out to pay attention to that kind of thing.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she says, and holds his flashing-green gaze. “It’s okay, Bruce.”

And it totally isn’t okay, not in any alternate universe, but either he can’t fight it any longer or he does let it happen, because suddenly bones crack and sinews and clothing tear like a long, painful lightning sizzle, and then it’s– him.

The Other Guy.

Molly stares up, and up, and does some hasty reconsideration of her previous ideas concerning what she’s going to continue thinking of as the Hulk, even though she knows Bruce hates that name. She’d said, once, that he and Bruce were not the same person, but the more she looks at the Hulk the more she can see Bruce. It’s like looking at a Bruce made out of plasticine: even his hair is different, but Bruce is still there, in the eyes and mouth and shape of the jaw. She’s not afraid, suddenly – she was never afraid of the Hulk himself (because Bruce isn’t scary, could never be scary) but although she’s worried about how upset Bruce will be when he comes back, she isn’t scared. They can fix it, she thinks, because he hasn’t tried to hit her yet, and somehow she doesn’t think he will.

“Hey, Big Guy,” she says, and smiles. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Three
She knows as soon as she hears him shout her name that their chances of getting through this without the Hulk as a guest star are basically shot, but she wouldn't let that stop her even if she knew that for certain.

On the plus side, at least it gives her an idea of his location; maybe she'll have to break the whole place apart to get to him, but she'll do it.

Which means that she can either try to keep him calm and make herself the target, or keep quiet and let him take his chances... And, well. Who is she trying to kid?

She was born to be the target, after all.

"I'm coming!" she yells, a promise to him and a threat to anyone in her way, and begins to run.

Fic: Columns and Rows
Fandoms: The Bletchley Circle/Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: PG
Words: 591
Warnings: None.
Notes: Beta-ed by my Eric.
Summary: Amber: it means get ready. Susan wonders what Natasha has been sent to make her get ready for.

( 'She's a Commie, of course,' says Millie, with her own brand of lightning-quick assurance which Susan instantly shushes. )

Fic: Rows And Columns
Fandoms: Marvel Movieverse/The Bletchley Circle
Rating: PG
Words: 536
Warnings: None.
Notes: AU for Avengersverse, unless Natasha’s been taking the same Infinity Formula as Nick Fury. Beta-ed by my beloved ashen_key.
Summary: It isn’t every evening that one finds an agent of SHIELD standing on the doorstep.

( The stranger is waiting for Susan at her front door when she struggles home from the shops, shrouded like a widow in the musty drizzle of London’s early autumn evening. )

Fic: ‘So, How Was Your Day?’
Fandoms: Marvel Movieverse
Rating: PG
Words: 1168
Warnings: None. No Avengers spoilers!
Pairing: Coulson/Cellist (OMC)
Notes: Set post-Thor and pre-Avengers; no Avengers spoilers! Beta-ed by my beloved ashen_key. <3
Summary: Agent Coulson snatches a few moments’ leave with his cellist after assisting in New Mexico.

( It’s getting on for twilight when he lets himself into the house; he can hear the strains of cello music floating on the air from the attic study, and winces as he recognises the composer. )

The state of the Bethan: permanently psychologically and physically tired. Very tired. Trying desperately to work up the mental energy to have a go in the milliways_bar Allpocalypse before it's too late, and still failing.

THEREFORE:

What are you guys working on at the minute? Fannish or original, art or words or fanmix -- anything you're working on right now that you're enjoying. Titles, first few sentences, drafts, sketches ... anything.

I'LL START.

Firstly, I'm approximately five thousand words into what should have been my 2011 NaNoWriMo project, an update of the Enid Blyton Five Find Outers series with the cast grown up in the 1950s. Essentially, Enid Blyton with a twist of Agatha Christie meets Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and all the other classic fifties noir. (Oh God, Blyton and her ISSUES. So much fixing, so little time.)

It's tentatively called The Mystery of the Burning Bridges, and here's the first paragraph:
Elizabeth Hilton had never, ever liked Tuesdays. They were sluggishly grey days, miserably far from the weekend, with a high chance of heavy drizzle and still four days left to slog through in the company of the sulky grey- or red-faced boors who filled the newspaper offices where she worked as junior photographer #3 with an alcoholic, middle-aged haze of beer, cigarette fumes and sweat. Her grandfather had died on a Tuesday, her last angry dispute with her older brother Pip had been on a Tuesday, and she was very nearly positive she had signed the paperwork for her grub of a flat on a Tuesday, too. And all of this culminated on this particular Tuesday morning in the rattling, too-cramped lift to the fifth floor of the offices of the London Standard, and the unmistakable feeling of her chief editor’s fat, sly fingers groping without shame at her posterior as they both exited it. Betsy reacted as her mother had always taught her to: by taking deep breaths and counting in a ladylike, restrained way to twenty.

And then, since she was still furious, she threw her camera at him anyway.

Secondly, I think I have finally managed to suppress having All The Feelings at Sherlock long enough to get writing for it, and I am therefore working on something called The Emperor's Wrath (Jim Moriarty and Seb Moran leading up to and during The Reichenbach Fall), and another, which has been rather more fleshed-out, which is called Upstairs, In Baker Street and features ex-MI:6 Mrs Hudson calling on some old friends (Victoria from RED, M from James Bond, probably also Harriet Jones of Flydale North Doctor Who) to protect Dr Watson and keep an eye on Sherlock, who she knows damn well is not dead). I think I am going to deliberately turn it into a reference hunt and see if people can spot all the references to various kickass women.

Vaguely also tempted to do something with the title All Our Smiles Are Fixed, And All Our Hearts Are Broken, possibly with John/Mycroft/Lestrade/Molly reacting to the Reichenbach Fall, or maybe with Dumbledore's Army immediately after the Battle of Hogwarts.

I also really need to get around to finishing Mornington Criminals, a fic about certain of the Criminal Minds team ... well, playing Mornington Crescent, basically. It's been stuck without an ending for over a year, so I really should be able to finish the damn thing.

Lastly, I do believe I may finally get to put some work in on a long-wanted one-shot about River Song and Indiana Jones: I don't have a plot as such, but as of today it has a title (Cups and Saucers), which is generally a good sign - as a rule, if it has a definite title, I will generally finish it. Also mulling around in my brain since aaaaaages ago is a character study-type fic called To Save The World Entire about Dr Erskine and Yentzen, and about what it means to give your life and create a superhero (movieverse!Captain America and Iron Man, respectively).

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR STUFF, MEIN FREUNDES-KREIS.

This entry was cross-posted to http://splash-of-blue.dreamwidth.org/166926.html. I'd prefer it if you commented here rather than there, though.

Hmm.

You know what I want? I want a meme. A crossover meme, specifically. I'm nearly certain that this sort of thing requires you to be a lot more Fandom Famous than I am for it to work, but any replies at all will make me smile, which would be REALLY appreciated right now. So, please pimp this out to your flist!

Ever wanted to see Spencer Reid match wits with Sherlock Holmes? Read Hermione Granger fighting crime with Barbara Gordon? Wondered what would happen if Sam Vimes went for a drink with Gene Hunt?
Then allow me to introduce
The Multi-Media Multi-Fandom Mash-Up Meme!

How this is going to work:

+ COMMENT with: two or more fandoms/two or more characters from different fandoms, and some kind of prompt. Please put the fandoms in the title of the comment for ease of navigation.

+ REPLY to comments with fanfiction, fanart, song lyrics, videos or anything else that fits the prompt and takes your fancy. If linking to large (over 500x500) images, please either provide a thumbnail and a link or just a link.
++++++ Creations of ANY rating are fine, but please include a rating for anything R or higher in the title of the comment and, if the adult-rated prompt-fill is artwork, link to it.

+ ENJOY YOURSELVES.

One last note: you don't have to leave a prompt in order to reply to comments (and vice versa).

PIMP:
<center><a href="http://bethan-b-bad.livejournal.com/165723.html"><strong><font face="verdana"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: xx-large;">The</span></span><span style="font-size: xx-large;"> <span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Multi-</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">Media</span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 51);">Multi-Fandom</span> <span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Mash-Up</span> </span><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 128);"><span style="font-size: xx-large;">Meme!</span></span></font></strong></center></a>

ETA: MEME NOW HAS GRAPHICS!