Not that anybody should believe me even a little...

[leigh57]

Shamelessly adapted from sardonicynic's recent post:

Pick a character or pairing from 24 (sorry to be so specific, but it's where my brain is right now), give me some a song lyric, and I will attempt at least 100 words of fic for you.

I know. I didn't write any of them last time. So I understand if you're all just like, PFT. However, my brain is in this mood where it just can't settle down, and I'd really like to find out if I'm capable of writing anything that doesn't turn into a thousand words minimum. I'm teaching all week, so I can mess with these at work, too:)

I think I'll cap it at 12 though, because even that's probably ambitious, given my recent success with prompts.

Crystal, I'm so excited to prompt you I'm squeaking;)

Comments

[adrenalin211.livejournal.com]

I want you to write the OTHER prompts. But I'll come back to this later on tonight, bb.

[leigh57.livejournal.com]

I'm testing my ability to be semi non-epic! Maybe? Oh don't ask me. I'm just all over the place and I thought writing might focus me. Tiny writing. You're asking me to make sense? You know me too well for that!

[century-fox.livejournal.com]

24, Jack/Renee, there's no place like London! (from http://www.allmusicals.com/lyrics/sweeneytodd/noplacelikelondon.htm) XD

[leigh57.livejournal.com]

Cinnaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. That's so cheating! LOLOLOLOL.

Okay but I can try for a challenge;)

Sweeney Todd really? :-P

[roseandheather.livejournal.com]

You. Me. AIM. 10 pm Monday night, got it?

BECAUSE IT IS THE MOFO-ING CASTLE PREMIERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jack/Renee [London Calling]

[leigh57.livejournal.com]

It’s after midnight when he escapes the debrief from hell (a collection of pasty, wrinkle-free-shirted assholes who have never spent ten minutes in the field, bitching about the op’s price tag and the fact that Jack totaled one of their shiny SUVs).

Renee’s asleep on the couch in pajama pants and one of his t-shirts, her hand still wrapped around the remote. Jack glances at the TV. A National Geographic special about anacondas. He tries to decide if she was actually watching this or fell asleep mid-click.

There’s an open magazine on her chest, lifting and falling as she breathes. He steps closer to decode the intricate cursive font on the cover. Great Britain and Ireland: Tours 2010. Moving the magazine to the coffee table, he sits on the edge of the sofa, rubbing Renee’s arm.

She opens her eyes and smiles. “Hey. How’d the debrief go?”

“Like I expected.” He shakes his head, grinning. “They were pissed about the car.”

“Screw them.” She sits up, shoving aside the blanket over her feet. “You got Callahan. What the hell do they want?”

“Forget it.” He stands up and reaches for her hands. “Come on. Get up and go to bed before you’re asleep again and I have to carry you.”

“Shut up,” she mutters through a yawn. “That was only because you bought my favorite Merlot.” She lets him pull her up and stops, kissing him just long enough to cascade heat down the back of his neck. “Did you eat?”

“No. I didn’t have time.”

“There’s leftover chili in the fridge.”

“Thanks. I’m not hungry. I’m tired.” He takes her shoulders and navigates her toward the hall. “Where’d the magazine come from?”

“What magazine?” She reaches out to flip the light switch and the living room goes dark behind them.

“The one about tours in Britain.”

“Oh! I picked it up at Barnes and Noble the other day.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. I was getting coffee and it looked interesting. I’ve never been to London.” She yanks off her pajama pants and climbs into bed, shivering. “Get in here and warm me up. Did you turn the heat down again?”

“Maybe.” He tosses his jeans and t-shirt on the chair and lifts the covers, sliding across the bed to wrap his arm around her stomach.

“I’ll yell at you in the morning,” she mumbles, scooting closer.

She’s asleep before he can even get comfortable. Closing his eyes, he presses his face into her hair (soft and raspberry-scented) and sees the photograph of Big Ben, backlit by clouds and night sky.

As he drifts in the grey haze that precedes absolute dark, he wonders if she was really serious when she said she hates surprises.

[dealan311.livejournal.com]

Okay gonna change it up a bit and recycle a prompt I gave you ages ago, but give it to someone else:

Larry/Renee, I never wanted to fit in any place except your heart (archie star, apologies on napkins).

[leigh57.livejournal.com]

Something is wrong with me. I choked up just reading that. No joke.

Renee/Larry [Any place except your heart]

[leigh57.livejournal.com]

She never believed in this place. Now she’s here.

Her brother would have laughed, said I told you so. In flashes, she appreciates the irony, but she guesses she’s supposed to feel lucky and she feels . . . alone.

The knock makes her jump. Fuck. She was never this jittery when she was . . . alive?

“I’m coming!” she yells, half-regretting the bitter veneer that shrink-wraps her words. She cinches the soft tie on her fluffy pale-blue bathrobe and tries not to think how badly she wants the . . . other one. The one with see-through elbows and coffee stains on the front.

She swings the door open. Larry’s standing there, hair damp but combed, holding two steaming cups of coffee.

“Shit!” She remembers. Lunch and racquetball. She told him noon. It must be at least two by now. It’s funny – there are clocks everywhere, but she doesn’t like to look at them. “I’m sorry. The game-”

He shrugs and holds out the coffee. “Racquetball’s boring.”

She wants to say What isn’t?, but she takes the scalding coffee (which should burn her hand but of course doesn’t) and steps back. “You want to come in?”

“Only for a minute.” He walks past her. His cologne smells the same. The way it did when she sat in front of him for her first interview, reminding herself over and over not to fidget, to keep her hands still. The way it did the time they worked all night on the McCaffrey case, even though she had a stomach virus, and she had to sit four desks away from him to make sure she didn’t catch a whiff.

The way it did when he walked into holding to tell her that Jack had been infected with the biotoxin.

She wants to hit things, split her knuckles, see blood and ripped skin.

Skin doesn't rip here.

“You okay?” he asks.

“No. I want to go home.”

He sips his coffee. It’s so quiet she can hear him swallow. Time stretches, whatever time is, here.

“Why do they deliver goddamn Newsweek?” she asks, as if this is at present the most important question in the world.

Larry sets his coffee cup on the counter and takes a few steps toward her. “The night I got here, the only thing I cared about was finding out what happened to you and Jack. I didn’t mind being dead except-” He rubs the bridge of his nose. “It makes me a terrible person to be glad you’re here, right? It does. I know. But I am.” He pauses, and Renee watches his face, changing expressions like a kaleidoscope. “I missed you.” His voice is quiet and haunted.

She takes a sip of the coffee. It’s the best coffee she’s ever tasted, and she doesn’t care. “I miss him,” she says. “I want to know if-”

“I know. But it doesn’t work like that. So play racquetball with me.”

He’s hazy and swirled through the liquid that distorts her vision. She smiles, muscles without meaning. “Okay. Let me change.”

[roseandheather.livejournal.com]

Lynley/Havers

After all the stops and starts, we keep coming back to these two hearts, two angels who've been rescued from the fall; and after all that we've been through, it all comes down to me and you, I guess it's meant to be, forever you and me, after all. (Peter Cetera and Cher, After All)

YOU KNEW YOU WOULD SEE THIS HERE, DON'T EVEN PRETEND OTHERWISE.

Bonus song line, should the muse strike you:

Who'd ya think you're kidding? He's the earth and heaven to ya! Try to keep it hidden - honey, we can see right through ya! (Susan Egan, (I Won't Say) I'm In Love from Hercules)

[leigh57.livejournal.com]

Silly girl! You gotta read the directions;)

It's not my fault my brain only works one way right now!

[marinw.livejournal.com]

I'm NEVER gonna see my Logan/Taylor ficlet, am I?

Anyway, this is for Jack and Renee:

"Wake up! Say good morning to that sleepy person lying next to you
If there's no one there, then there's no one there, but at least the war is over
It's us - yes, we're back again, here to see you through, 'til the days end
And if the night comes, and the night will come, well at least the war is over

Lift your head and look out the window
Stay that way for the rest of the day and watch the time go
Listen! The birds sing! Listen! The bells ring!
All the living are dead, and the dead are all living
The war is over and we are beginning..."

"Up in our bedroom after the war" by The Stars


If you want to *cough* challenge yourself with some Jack/Audrey: *coughs more*

ETA: If you can make this work for Jack/Renee, then you can go for that instead.

"She's mostly gone
Some other place
I'm getting by
In other ways
Everything they whispered in our ear
Is coming true
Try to justify the things
I used to do
Believe in you
Watching you drown
I'll follow you down
And I am here right beside you
The lights in the sky
Have finally arrived
I am staying right beside you

I tried to stay away
You know
Just in case
I've come to realize
We all have our place
Time has a way you know
To make it clear
I have my role in this
I can't disappear
Or leave you here"

"Lights In The Sky" by Nine Inch Nails

[leigh57.livejournal.com]

Wait you mean I can write BOTH of these as Jack/Renee if I want?

*squeaks*

*giggles at thought of me writing Jack/Audrey*

Although honestly, I could write something where they're all angsty and emo and broken up, if that's your cuppa tea.

Hmmm. I used to have a Jack/Audrey icon.

[sardonicynic]

Jack/Renee : I would've carried your heart, but it's covered in holes

(And ahaha, I am super-excited to tackle your request!)

[leigh57.livejournal.com]

AUGH. I love it. *snuggles prompt*

Dude I cannot wait to read your response to my prompt. I'm thinking of another one right now:-D

[cybertoothtiger.livejournal.com]

Snerk.

Jack/Renee, Adam Lambert: "What do you want from me?"

*skips away laughing*

[leigh57.livejournal.com]

I still don't know who the fuck Adam Lambert is. But uh, I can write something with those lyrics in mind, so word;)

[adrenalin211.livejournal.com]

Jack/Renee
Challengers, by The New Pornographers

On the walls of the day
In the shade of the sun, we wrote down
Another vision of us
We were the challengers of the unknown

Sending you the song now.

[leigh57.livejournal.com]

OMG I LOVE YOU.

Ideas woah now. Stop the madness. Oh, shippy ME!

[paladin24.livejournal.com]

Jack

From "Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who

"But my dreams,
They aren't as empty
As my conscience seems to be."

[leigh57.livejournal.com]

Oh MAN. Those lyrics are amazing, but it's going to be tough to come up with something that doesn't rip off the entire opening of Jack's half of my AU. But I'm up to the challenge! I think?

[marinw.livejournal.com]

“Like I expected.” He shakes his head, grinning. “They were pissed about the car.”

Heehee. I've always wondered about CTU car insurance.

This was great. London is safe. Nothing EVER terror-like happens there.Bwahahah

Sequel?

[leigh57.livejournal.com]

Thanks! This was too much fun -- so fluffy it's like marshmallows.

Sequel?

Well that's kind of the running joke there, given that Cinna was pretty much only teasing me with this prompt. The whole London mess relates to the AU I really want to write if I can ever get my shit together and just DO it. Long stories are such a challenge. Yeesh. Easier to write fluffy ficlets, right? Thanks for reading!

[tara-smith.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you are still playing this game, but how about a little Warren Zevon - "Werewolves of London,"

I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada.

Just cause I wanna know what J/R have planned for halloween, and found it kind of funny that the only song that I could think of that could have anything to do with halloween had London in the title. :)

Or if you prefer, seeing as everyone else is keeping it classy and PG, how about a little of The Pipettes - "Dirty Mind"

There she goes with a twinkle in her eye
Don't take a genius to understand the reason why

I...uh..wouldn't want you to get rusty. LOL

On a side note: I feel kinda like a creeper reading someone's journal.

[leigh57.livejournal.com]

So your reply made me giggle like a mofo and I will respond properly tomorrow when I am not all ten thousand shades of exhausted, but dude. Why do you feel like a creeper reading someone's unlocked journal? That's just not right! Okay? Okay. Good talk:)