Monday, January 25, 2010

Age

There was no part of being an Immortal that was purely good. Every silver lining had its cloud. Their quick healing led to them often being rejected from wherever they made their homes, or killed- sometimes even tortured. Their long lifelines just led to grief, loss, and survivor's guilt. Their memories, sharper, clearer, and without loss, meant they remembered everything. It was a blessing for the good memories. Their oldest memory was as fresh as the day it was made. If they wanted to, they could relive their happiest memories on a daily basis, but it was impossible to live as long as Immortals did and only have good memories. They couldn't forget even their most tedious memories, or their most traumatic, and the worst of them had a habit of resurfacing when they were least wanted.

Xander remembered, as if they had happened only yesterday, every moment of his life. He remembered the yellow crayon incident and Buffy coming to town. He remembered the dinosaurs and the first mammals and Amy the rat. He remembered hunting for food, for survival, to save the lives of innocents. He remembered Jesse. He remembered the True Demons.

What he didn't remember was being young. He didn't remember what it had felt like to live in a world where he wasn't the oldest person alive. He didn't remember what it was like to be inexperienced, or naïve, or bad at fighting. He had the memories, but somewhere along the way, those feelings had vanished, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't remember what they had felt like. He'd forgotten what it felt like to be young.

[Edited 1/25/2010]

Saturday, January 23, 2010

A world where everybody is a werewolf.

All ideas are free for the taking.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Some group- SG-1 or AR-1 or the Scoobies or whoever have to save the world (or something). They have to take everything they need and go to a place to put their plan into motion. They can't get in touch with each other until they get to the place, and they can take a limited amount of stuff each. Possibly they won't have time to discuss their plan even once they get there. So they each pack a bunch of stuff that sounds random, like you look at what one of them has and you wonder why they would take that, since they don't know the plan. When they get there, they pull their stuff out and it all fits together in their (whacky?) plan. They know each other that well.

4 (or however many) companion ficlets, one from each POV? End part a separate ficlet or in each of them?

All ideas are free for the taking.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Queen Susan's title of "the Gentle" is less of a statement of fact than a hope by her enemies.

All ideas are free for the taking.
The guy from Accepted was actually Matt Farrell. Maybe something happens at/with S.H.I.T. and he asks for John's help? Or they run into somebody who recognizes Matt from S.H.I.T.

All ideas are free for the taking.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Replacing SG-1

SG-1 has been on a mission for five years.

The string of Generals (and a few Doctors) that have been put in command of the SGC have tried to have them declared MIA, their team designation recycled. One had even tried to have them declared AWOL when that had failed. No SGC veteran would take a place on SG-1. SG-1 is a legend, the only team left from the beginning of the program- and the only one that hasn't permanently lost a member, despite all of them dying more than once. They've all heard the stories about SG-1, from their first day in SGC orientation. In many ways, the story of the SGC is the story of SG-1. Refusing to take a spot on SG-1 has gotten more than one person dismissed from the SGC, but they agree it was worth it, despite never being able to go through the Gate again.

Having been refused by the veterans, a wise person would have given up, but most of the commanders were not wise people. They wanted to make their marks on the SGC, and for many of them that meant being the one to put a new SG-1 in place. Unable to use SGC veterans, they turned to new recruits.

There is a reason new recruits have a long period of training before being placed with an established team, rather than the shorter training period there was elsewhere or forming new teams out of the new recruits. The casualty rate is highest in the first six months, regardless of prior experience elsewhere, and goes up exponentially for each member of a team that is new. The casualty rate at the SGC isn't exactly low in the first place, even without adding risk factors that are carefully minimized most of the time. Pulling a stunt like that is a death knell for the commander who does it. The veterans might follow the regulations to the letter (or at least as close to the letter as things ever got in the SGC), but they'll never respect them again. Even trying to replace SG-1 is a sign that they aren't a true part of the SGC.

The "new SG-1"s are often the best and the brightest, trained to be diplomatic and friendly- after all, SG-1 is the flagship team. They have to put their best foot forward. Under other circumstances, they would have been accepted with open arms. The SGC can always use the best of the best, and everybody knows it. But the veterans don't accept them. Oh, nobody does anything overt. There's never any harassment or bullying, or anything that could be complained about without looking like an idiot. But there's more than one way to make things uncomfortable. Everybody's polite enough, but that's as far as it goes. The veterans save their lives, but there's no camaraderie. There are no invitations to join any of the activities. They make no friends. Conversations have a tendency to stop when they enter a room. There never seems to be any blue Jell-O left. And nobody refers to them as SG-1 except the commander. They're smart people; it doesn't take them long to figure it out. The commanders are a different case, but they never seemed to last long anyway. The veterans like to think that it's because none of the commanders has truly been part of the SGC since General Hammond. They've all started out as the commander, rather than as a member of a team going through the Gate.

SG-1 was a part of the SGC from the beginning, surviving for eleven years with unchanged membership (except for the year when Dr. Jackson was Ascended) before they went on their latest mission. Somewhere in a computer, they're probably listed as missing in action, but no SGC veteran believes they're dead. Sure, they're five years late for their check-in, but they're still alive somewhere; they're SG-1, after all.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Experimental Magic

Someday, books will be written about magic. Spells will be passed on in Latin, and most of the accurate books will be in dead languages.

Latin doesn't exist yet. Writing doesn't exist yet. Magic has yet to be formalized to any degree- it's all just amateurs stumbling around in the dark, experimenting to find out what works and what doesn't.

Xander had never considered learning magic. He'd never been much of a book learner, and as it was he'd spent too much time reading old books in languages he halfway understood with the help of dictionaries and illustrations. He hadn't been about to volunteer to do it more, and the more he encountered magic the warier he'd become of it- especially once Willow had started to slide down the slippery slope. But he isn't the same person he'd been back then, and this experimental magic appeals to him. It isn't set in stone like magic had always seemed in his first life, merely endless possibilities to do what he wills, like a piece of wood for carving or an ingot of metal for forging.

It'll be dangerous, but there isn't much in life that isn't dangerous. When carving wood, his knife could slip. When forging metal, he could burn himself. His creations, no matter the medium, could be turned against him deliberately or accidentally. But he'd learned how to be careful while taking risks a long time ago. Mostly it meant taking things slowly, and he has all the time he wants to take things slowly.

[edited 01/26/2010]

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Book of Souls

The Wizarding World- in particular its schools- judges the power of wizarding children by incidences of accidental magic. The Book of Souls records these incidences and the power of each, completely automated. The system works well; it records all instances of accidental magic, including those by muggleborns, and since no magical child can keep from performing accidental magic it finds all magical children. And if they choose to, those professors who have access to the Book of Souls can learn which children are more powerful, and which are all but squibs.

Of course, the Book of Souls is not completely accurate, although it's accurate enough for the purpose of discovering magical children, and of course the children cannot perform magic which takes more power than what they have. But there are some few who are content enough with their lives, or self-controlled enough, that they never manifest accidental magic which requires all of their power. These are often also among the most powerful, filled with power enough that any who have learned to feel magic can feel the air around them sing with it. Feeling magic is a skill which is rare to the point of obscurity, despite its utility and simplicity.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Bruce Wayne, Criminal

AU - When Bruce Wayne's parents die (or maybe later on Alfred gets killed too), he decides that only the criminals ever win. So, with a maximum of other attributes intact (unwillingness to kill, paranoia, intelligence), he becomes a master criminal, eventually meeting most of the people he knows in canon.

He'd really need a purpose, though, since obviously it's not for money. The challenge? Giving money to charity?

All ideas are free for the taking.