#agallimaufryofoddments

This passage from “With the Devil by Your Side;” I originally wrote it for another Ronny/Maiza fic but had to remove it and was beyond elated that it fit in here.

“Can’t you simply read my mind?”

“I could.” The demon shrugged, an air of casual superiority in his posture. “But I like hearing you humans put your experiences into words. The human ability to give form to what you think and believe should not be underestimated—I admire it, personally.”

He spoke frankly, with an approving tone to his voice, but Maiza found himself wincing in return. “Like one admires a dog that’s learned to shake for table scraps, I suppose,” he muttered.

“Like a river admires a dam,” was Ronny’s cryptic response.

I’m terribly pleased with the entire conversation between JPA and Fermet in “Epilogue D,” but more than that, I think I want the ending lines to stand out most of all:

I only hope that I have laid a hand on your heart and made you feel, if only for a moment, the fear and despair that I drown in every day.

If I have achieved that, then as a poet and as a playwright, I am satisfied.

Pretty much the entirety of “Northern Star,” which straddles the divide between “excessively eloquent meta” and “very short fic.”

In “Inches Apart and Far Away,” it’s my hope that this bit implies how deeply uncomfortable Huey is, without Huey allowing himself to be aware of how deeply uncomfortable he is:

...Fermet bares his teeth like an animal that’s cornered its prey, all pretense of gentleness gone. He doesn’t reach for Huey again, but he doesn’t need to. Even without seeing his eyes, Huey knows that they must be bright and possessive and as inescapable as time itself.

But he hasn’t made any effort to trap Huey against the wall again, so it is a simple matter to slip away from him and proceed down the hallway. Fermet’s gaze does not really touch his back like a physical thing, he knows; it only feels that way.

Ronny’s letter to Majeedah at the end of “The Dwarf in the Flask” is a bit more poetic than much of my writing is and I like that, as well as the warmth in it:

I found myself inclined to keep a shard of the homunculus’s flask and it occurred to me you might feel the same way. If I am wrong, no need to go through the hassle of summoning me to give it back; simply toss it into the ocean. In a century, even this will capitulate to the ever-changing nature of the universe, and the sea will shape it into something beautiful.

 Be well, Majeedah.

Now some Transistor fic--

Honestly most all of the banter in “Drinks with Friends” delights me, but I also like this passage of the intensity and specificity of Red knowing what she wants against a baffled sense of what’s appropriate in the moment:

It’s patently obvious that he’s talking himself down, his internal monologue made external by how much he’s had to drink. But what is she supposed to say? ‘Screw our friendship, I’d rather make out’? She wants to take the risk, because she trusts the bond between them to bear it; she wants to seize him by the collar and kiss him until they’re both seeing stars.But this isn’t a decision she can make against his will. Certainly not when he’s drunk.

This, from “Rhythm,” is similarly on the theme of Red navigating the intensity of her emotions vs what she feels is safe to act on:

When he finishes, she uncurls herself and hands over his water bottle. “Is it as cathartic as it looks?” she asks.

“It’s pretty great,” he admits. He takes a solid swig of water and then tosses a little over his head as well, using his wrapped fingers to comb the droplets through his sweat-damp hair. “Why? You want to give it a try?”

She turns her gaze away from him (with some effort) and towards the punching bag, still swinging slightly in place. She thinks about her pale hands, about the polish that’s still on her nails from the concert because of course he doesn’t have polish remover. Her heart stutters.

“Not right now,” she says.

If she started punching, she’s not sure she’d be able to stop.

And then from “Through Cracks,” one of my Hades fic--this bit is the point of the entire fic, sorry not sorry: