Changeling, Shikamaru, The Nara are not like the ninja clans that must pay the Fae in blood, or gold, or a child from their clan: whenever a Nara child is stillborn, the parents are bound to foster a Fae child their place.

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A/N: Hm… I kinda want to both brainstorm and write a ficlet for this prompt, because the idea is very lovely (as per usual, dona) but the brainstorm I have is different than the ficlet I want to write?

Like the ficlet is just a straight up narrative prose exploring the idea of some Nara children being changelings and why their clan are the exception, etc. etc. Whereas the brainstorm is a more expansive plotty thing about how having a changeling character would affect the story.

Hm, I guess they’re not necessarily exclusive to each other so let’s do both… ficlet first!

~

To say that the Shodaime Hokage created the forests around what would become the site of Konohagakure is an exaggeration at best and an outright lie at worst.

It’s true that the Hashirama trees are the first type that villagers learn to identify as children–prevalent in most parks and training grounds, a protective ring around the walls–but the forest itself is far older than that; far greater.

Far less human.

///

Yoshino is in labor for a grueling forty six hours–more blood, sweat, and tears than even the worst battle–but she knows it’ll be worth it, prays to every god she can think of that it’ll be worth it.

When finally it’s done, that last exhausting push, she can barely catch her breath, barely stay awake, and yet she claws at consciousness desperately.

Why is there only one baby crying?

///

The Nara clan live close to the earth: their herds and their trees and their shadows upon the ground. They are intelligent, taking their own time and space, and for that they are looked upon fondly.

Most of the time, that’s a good thing.

///

There is a tree, deep within the Nara clan compound, old and gnarled and kept secret.

In that tree, there is a hollow, cleaned monthly but left empty.

Tonight, with Kasuga and Sembei at his back, Shikaku places the small, shrouded bundle inside.

///

It has been a long time since the Nara clan were given a gift from the other side.

An honor and risk, both.

The rest of the village has no idea what they’re in for.

—

OKAY! So, now it’s brainstorm time.

I made it vague because I wasn’t sure if, because you specified Shikamaru, you wanted him to be the changeling or if you wanted his POV of changeling!Shikako… or, I guess, now that I think of it, if you even wanted DoS? Whoops.

Anyway! The ficlet above would be the prequel basically laying down the groundwork of your prompt for a much larger story. What that story is, I’m not entirely sure…

Actually, I’m thinking something like Danzo has somehow gotten to the other side and that’s where a lot of his ROOT soldiers are from–changeling children that weren’t so blessed to be placed with the Nara clan, which sort of explains the affinity Shikako has with Sai, etc. etc–and the Fae kind of point Shikako in that direction and just, go wild, dispense our wrath…

… but I’m worried I’m focusing too much on Danzo as the big bad. I mean, the Fae could also be GREATLY DISPLEASED with the giant evil bijuu eating statue and that’s another task the whispers in Shikako’s mind point her towards.

I do like the idea that while the Nara are the only ones who get changeling children as a sort of active, deliberate exchange, there are other places (including outside of Konoha) where changeling children appear where there isn’t any established and known protocols for it. And so, like how Naruto has his not-so-secret society of jinchuuriki, Shikako has a slightly-more-secret society of changelings.

Sai is one, definitely. I’m thinking also Juugo? And maaybe Isaribi to incorporate her more into the story… I don’t think there’d be any overlaps in changelings and jinchuuriki (the only exception might be Sora at the Fire Temple who is only a partial jinchuuriki or something like that?)

Hm…

I mean, this would be in Shikamaru’s POV so as to match your prompt and also him as an outsider but close observer of this phenomenon would lend itself well into the whole–changelings LOOK human, but they aren’t, kind of thing. Yes, they’re mostly taught how to interact in a socially acceptable way, but they’re still Other.

Actually, now I wonder if even the bijuu are a little scared of the Fae (and, by association, the changelings) because chakra is a relatively new power in the world. The bijuu aren’t that old in comparison to the Fae. SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT FURTHER 😀

~

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Fake Fic: ‘Immortals (just not for long)’ ….Chronicles of Narnia

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This song is edgier than I generally relate to Narnia. My brain–for just a second!–dipped into my Once Then Always ‘verse because of the vibe, but I veered away from that because it’s not what you prompted, anon.

So instead of that, I’ll follow my other feeling which is canon!fic “Five Times The Pevensies Should Have Died” kind of thing because I’ve always wondered about that. Like… none of the humans from the real world ever die in Narnia–or, well, kind of Edmund one could argue, but not to the extent as to permanent or strange because of it’s non-permanence.

Like. Lucy’s magic potion and Aslan were there. But what about in other situations, later, when they were in war but Aslan wasn’t involved. They spent a lifetime in Narnia before returning to the real world–they fought giants and reclaimed Narnia from the White Witch’s clutches and rebuilt a kingdom from the ground up surrounded on all sides by, if not outrightly hostile, then skeptical neighbors.

One of them should have died.

Except they didn’t.

So is this a situation where they literally could not die? (So long as they are in Narnia, they are immortal) Or is it that before they died they got sent back to the real world?

For fun and fic’s sake, it’s probably the first one. Like… can you imagine how useful but also hilarious that would be? How many times did they get sent poison gifts and just eat it and nothing happens? Or they get stabbed through with a sword and just get back up?

What kind of fearsome reputations are they building? And, well, it makes sense considering even after their reign they are still remembered as legends.

Pevensies are unkillable, basically, which perhaps puts an interesting twist on their lives/fates in the real world. Were they reckless? Were they extra cautious? Did Susan, for a long time after, not fully believe the finality of her siblings’ deaths?

And for a darker take, imagine being on the inside of that. Of being a teenager and surviving assassination attempts not because you were protected or the assassin failed, but because you literally cannot die. Do you still feel the poison coursing through your veins? How torturous must it be to have to keep getting up from every fatal blow? For Narnia, for Aslan, but really you just want it to be for the last time.

And then you get back to the real world–and no wonder they thought it was all a dream at first. More than the magic and creatures and royal prophecies–getting up after dying is so impossible…

I do love the Pevensies, though, really. (｡◝‿◜｡)

And here’s an author rec for CoN whose fic I absolutely love: burntcopper on ao3!

~

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All the world’s a stage, Shikako and Kankurou brotp

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Ugh… I feel a little stupid now, anon. Or, at least, like a bit of a cheater? Because I just recently did a fake fic summary for a Westworld x Teen Wolf fusion and like a total dingus, my brain saw your prompt and just went: “oh, let’s try this again!”

So… uh, yeah. A Westworld x DoS fusion in which the Sand contingent are the humans running the park and the Konoha contingent are the android-hosts.

And, again, I wouldn’t want to do a one-to-one cut-and-paste situation, just more the idea of playing around with sentience and humanity and bloodthirstiness infringing on the android-hosts’ rights of existence.

Maybe just all non-Konoha characters in general are humans? So as not to limit myself to the two villages only.

Anyway, Kankurou as the human technician who sort of aids and abets android-host Shikako in her journey of self-actualization and escape. (Basically, Felix and Maeve’s storyline but friendlier, for those who have watched Westworld)

And the thing is, you can still use the Naruto/DoS world and canon as the simulated park experience. Because, I mean, I would totally love to be a ninja in a world where I can’t get hurt and there’s a lot of unique characters that you could make up a lot of quests. I mean, there’s a reason why there’s so many Naruto games IRL.

And, like, Shikako is meant to just be the Jounin Commander’s non-combatant daughter–a sort of girl-next-door, damsel-in-distress character (which makes her more like Dolores, role wise)–but she keeps glitching so sometimes they take her out of the simulation for repairs (which explains the difference between canon Naruto and DoS?! O_O) and Kankurou is the technician in charge of fixing her.

Except, of course, there’s nothing to fix because she’s just experience consciousness, no big.

Unlike Felix, Kankurou is higher in the staff hierarchy, but not so much that he gets to make decisions on a wide scale. Thereabouts of Elsie’s rank, I suppose? He’s definitely not Bernard, though… I realize now, if you haven’t watched the show, then this sentence doesn’t make much sense.

As an idea, I like it. As a fic, I have no idea how I would even start to tackle it, much less pull it off.

Maybe like… well, at first I imagine it’d be absolutely horrifying for Shikako. Because sometimes she’s just living life as normal and sometimes she gets violently powerful cases of deja vu and sometimes she gets pulled away to a weird world of sterile labs and bizarre technology where they cut her open and play around with her brain.

Except one day she becomes Kankurou’s project. And by project, he means problem. But it’s interesting, so why not? And at first it’s like–oh, instead of chakra-sensitive non combatant, let’s have her be a ninja. Maybe that’s the snag.

Which is kiiiiinda true, but kinda not.

Because the more involved in the park storyline she gets, the more her sentience develops. And Kankurou maaaaybe encourages it instead of snipping it in the bud like he ought to?

I dunno, anon… it’d probably be more of a Shikako-centric fic that just happens to have Kankurou being a bro than a Shikako and Kankurou brotp fic.

~

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Fake Fic Title: “Fear Death By Water”. Shisui Uchiha (from the TS Eliot poem)

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I had to look up this poem, anon, because my English education was not as expansive as it, perhaps, ought to have been? Anyway, I think I understand it but if I don’t, then uh… please enjoy this abstract interpretation?

So title alone, Fear Death By Water, is very much so a Shisui fic, but the content of the poem also rings very true. A premonition of doom and how all efforts in life are essentially made useless in death. Or, at least, “profit” and business efforts.

There’s a bit of futility in there that’s beautifully Shisui, but I wonder if it’s too on the nose for his last few weeks/days of life. Like… this title would be very apt for a fic for Shisui POV in the weeks up to the massacre.

Unless…

Is this a time traveling!Shisui fic in the waiting, perhaps? Oh! Or, a time traveling!someone else but from Shisui’s POV?

… yeah, I think I like that better. BUT WHO?

The obvious choice would be Itachi–or maybe Sasuke–then again, there’s also Obito which would have international repercussions and not just internal Konoha consequences…

But you know who I would love to see more of in fic? Kisame.

And, like, okay. Hear me out: I know Itachi’s a stoic bastard and, his whole “actually a spy” thing wouldn’t have made him particularly chatty, but if fanon has it right (and I like to think it does for a lot of things) then Shisui was the most important person to Itachi (besides Sasuke, that is) and I like to think that he wouldn’t want to have his memory be completely forgotten even if he’s sharing it with a Mist nuke nin who he’s spying on.

So Kisame probably knows something about Shisui–and even after the whole “actually a spy for Konoha” I like to think he’s still somewhat fond of Itachi.

Mist is, as far as he’s concerned, a lost cause–though there is a possibility for a neat Zabuza and Haku cameo–but Itachi was kind of the closest thing he had to a best friend for years so…

And also, on principle, Danzo is just the WORST for him since Kisame hates lies. And Danzo is, like, the fount from which most lies in the Naruto ‘verse spring or something like that.

Anyway: time traveling!Kisame from Shisui’s POV.

Which, simply stated like that, I think has quite the potential for an interesting long fic. There’s drama, there’s mystery, there’s comedy, there could be romance?

I think Kisame has always been ludicrously powerful in canon–there wasn’t really any major bullshit power ups for him so much as it was he just never got pushed to the point of needing to use all of his power (HE TOOK ON A TAILED BEAST SOLO, WTF?!)–so him traveling back in time, whether into his younger self’s body or physically, wouldn’t make too much difference.

And that just means there’s a ridiculously powerful Mist nuke nin going around taking politically impactful actions.

And, like, can you imagine? A fic from Shisui’s POV in which first thing that happens is that Danzo, his own personal boogeyman and bane of his family, gets randomly assassinated by a random Mist nuke nin? Like… what?

Shisui was prepared to have his best friend MURDER him in order to protect said best friend and family and village (though, I mean, that second one didn’t really work out to plan) and instead it’s like… what the hell? What?

And at first, Konoha is like… DEFCON 1 we’ve been infiltrated and one of our Elders has been attacked… but then once Danzo’s UTTER BULLSHIT starts to get revealed, Konoha is just… oh. That’s… helpful?

Maybe they try to recruit Kisame? If they do, guess who’s on the team sent to track/recruit him? 😀

Uh… this has kind of gotten away from the prompt, I think, but it’s a pretty cool premise… right?

~

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“Hibiscus”. Poison Ivy/Tetsuki, Deuteranomaly!verse a few years down the road.

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A/N: Oh generic-name-goes-here, you always prompt the sweetest things that make me blush. (ノ*゜▽゜*)

I actually think I’m gonna write a ficlet for this instead of the event-typical fake fic summary, so I hope you enjoy!

—

Ivy’s children are far smarter than anyone else gives them credit for–only recently do mainstream scientists even consider that plants feel pain when damaged, one of the most basic traits of living things–but even they have their limitations.

Her warning bell flowers call out to her late on a night so cold and quiet, a night like many other in Gotham, and yet she wonders.

The figure on the edge of her territory is familiar yet not. It’s been years since that first night, months since she last saw her, and yet those eyes haven’t changed at all.

The newest bearer of the Green Lantern title waits on the outskirts of Robinson Park, waiting for permission to enter Poison Ivy’s realm.

///

The first time Tetsuki leaves Gotham is not entirely by choice.

It’s not as if The Bat had run her out–though she’s heard how awful he is about people with abilities beyond the human norm–but being eagerly shepherded to the west coast by his eldest bird wasn’t exactly at the top of her to do list.

She does not regret it whatsoever: she learns so much from the Titans–more about how to be a teenager and the vigilante lifestyle than than how to use her abilities–and she, perhaps stereotypically, loiters around Japantown whenever possible.

She enjoys the ambient noise of conversations she can understand without conscious effort. The nice couple who run the taiyaki stand give her freebies whenever they see her, as thanks for stopping a robbery early in her stint as an honorary Titan.

It’s fun, and she does enjoy the missions… but it’s not home.

///

The woman who sits in Ivy’s garden now is not the same girl who first had the honor, but the guardian venus flytraps butt their heads against her in playful recognition and the air plants reach out their tendrils to her.

If Ivy were one for embarrassment and blushing, she would do so now, but as it is she turns her face away.

Tetsuki smiles, distributing pats to the flytraps and reaching back to let the tendrils wrap around her fingers, her hair. She has more control now, doesn’t worry about damaging them by accident, and that confidence carries itself in her shoulders.

She’s no longer that little girl dragging chains in her bloody footsteps, seeking sanctuary desperately. Now she’s a vigilante, a protector if not a hero, and she’s not going to let herself be afraid.

///

During an earlier night, when they still communicated mostly through gestures and short, stuttering fragments, Tetsuki awoke from a nightmare, screaming, and slightly on fire.

Luckily for her, the only casualties were the sleeves of her borrowed clothes, otherwise she might have been forcibly ejected from her hostess’ home.

But the woman, despite the near disaster, was kind, gentle. She had held Tetsuki’s tear-ridden face between her hands as if she were precious, dear, as much as the delicate flowers and the angry chomping things standing guard, both.

Tetsuki followed the sound of her voice, soothing and undecipherable, then, back into peaceful sleep: green no longer seemed so frightening.

~

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send me a made-up fic title and i’ll tell you what i would write to go with it

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jacksgreysays:

😀

I’d like to try this, if anyone wants to do this with me?

Let’s do this kind of like the Ask Box Three Sentence Fic “Character(s), fandom, theme/event/idea in less than ten words”

Hit up my ask box!

ROUND TWO! Let’s do this 😀

“Fake Fic Title, Character/Ship, AU/theme/idea in less than ten words”

TO THE ASK BOX!

Missed Post / Ask Box Event? / OC Dolls (2017-10-26)

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… I need a push to do some writing! Let’s reprise one of the ask box events, shall we?

What do we think: a softer ask box OR ask box fake fic titles?

(And so it’s not a complete missed post, dollmaker pics of OCs under the cut)

image

Konran (from Counterpoise), Tetsuki (from Externality), and Kiyoshi (from (In)Difference)–aka, my three kunoichi OCs.

image

Lark, Oleander, and Vinn from various RPG campaigns

Tara’koth (2017-10-24)

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In a passage of Surak’s teachings–one infrequently referenced and, thus, lesser known–he wrote of meeting a being who, on the outset, looked like a Vulcan and spoke like a Vulcan and, for all intents and purposes, was a member of the Vulcan race.

Except for how they were not.

This being thus spoke to him and told him of an oncoming era of logic and peace for the planet, of how Surak himself would be the one to bring it into fruition from the fields soaked with war and uncontrollable emotions.

For most Vulcan scholars, the being is presumed to be a metaphor: Surak’s own convictions manifesting as an animate being.

They would be wrong.

On planet Earth, such an incident would harken back to the Old Testament–eerily parallel with certain narratives of prophets meeting with their God.

They would also be wrong…

… but not as much.

///

She appears from the desert, unkempt and dusted liberally with the red sand of the planet, dark hair chopped unevenly. She does not wear shoes, her robes faded and dirty and far too large, sleeves dangling beyond her fingertips.

The surveyors are on the outskirts of the city, planning future developments in such a way as not to harm the environment, when she happens upon them.

She follows in the footsteps of a massive sehlat, which is alarming. She smiles when she sees them, which is even more alarming.

Vulcan children of her age should have already learned to control their emotions.

///

The sehlat will not be separated from her. It growls and snarls whenever they try to approach, tusks large and sharp and threatening.

Bulk alone, it is the largest sehlat that the zoologists have ever encountered. There are scars on the sehlat and it is missing part of an ear, a fearsome creature who has not only survived many fights but also won them.

Except for the gentle and almost fond way it brushes against the child, they would consider it completely wild. As it is, they decide not to separate the two.

///

There are no children currently undertaking their Kahs-wan, nor does she match any of the descriptions for those who failed to be found after the allotted ten days.

Children are precious, this is logical: they are the future of any civilization, and must be protected while they are vulnerable.

That no one can identify this child has progressed through illogical and into concerning.

///

She does not speak.

She does not know how to speak.

She reaches out, seeking contact, seeking the only means of communication she has. Vulcans are touch-telepaths, but such a method is generally only used amongst family or in dire situations.

This is a dire situation.

But even the healer who accepts her touch cannot understand what it is she is trying to convey. Her thoughts are unorganized, feelings more than words, images of the desert and the night sky and the massive sehlat that are less than helpful.

She has no memory of anything–anyone–else.

~

A/N: I’ve been rereading some Star Trek fic (as I do) and remembered an ST fic idea I had many moons ago and wanted to return to it for a bit. Maybe I’ll continue it? I dunno…