Tsunade "That would be a good thing for them to carve on my tombstone: Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment" --Dorothy Parker
Thank you darling! I can't wait to see what becomes of it!
I'm afraid I can't take full credit for it, though. The prompt is one I borrowed off of the STXI Intergalactic Ladyfest, mostly cause I liked it a lot.
keep still, 1/4nthcoincidentFebruary 16 2011, 08:48:44 UTC
[here via f-list, this ficathon makes me so happy &hearts]
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One of the most difficult things about the summoning contract was the initial testing before the blood oath could be signed. Each of the animal realms had qualities it looked for in its human counterparts, and most genin, their chests and foreheads still blank slates, rarely embodied one or the other deeply enough to be chosen. The toads valued courage, the slugs altruism, the dogs loyalty, for the snakes it was stillness. At ten Mitarashi Anko had sat with her hands folded in her lap, blood from her pricked fingers sluicing her palms, and maintained absolute stillness for the seven hours before the serpent liaison had uncoiled itself from the tatami before her, wound itself about her wrist, and used her blood to ink the kanji of consent.
Years later, calling upon that stillness as her body was reforged over a laboratory table, she would remember it: the beating sunlight a red tattoo behind closed eyes, shouts and the thwack! of badminton racquets from the civilian
( ... )
keep still, 2/4nthcoincidentFebruary 16 2011, 08:51:07 UTC
They'd told her she was on fire after they'd recovered her from the wreckage of the laboratories; she guesses they'd meant feverish but for years afterward she'd never been able to see it as anything but that: herself and the hospital bed ablaze in a glorious, bone-popping conflagration.The cursed seal had grown tame since then. By the time she was sixteen it'd become an object of mystery. More than one man had run his tongue along the three inverted commas constantly punctuating her days, muttering something into the bracketed soft space formed there. When it rained the seal would throb like the thunderclouds were bubbling and bursting immediately under the surface of her skin and when she stayed still, reorienting to find her center again, it would blossom like a terrible flower, beading chakra like sweat all the way across her torso. For a long time her feelings would strike her like those sudden debilitating changes in the weather and leave her gritting her teeth in some arbitrary battle, hand clasped to her neck, tongue sidling
( ... )
keep still, 3/4nthcoincidentFebruary 16 2011, 08:54:22 UTC
Anko became a chuunin proctor because she'd known that before she killed Orochimaru she had to do one thing in her life that was for herself. She'd never imagined that psychological harassment and life coaching for genin would ever figure prominently in this classification scheme, but then, that was moot after the first few chuunin exams. After her first proctorship a girl she'd seen safely through the exam had left her a box of dango tied with a red ribbon. It was the first time she'd tasted the treat; Orochimaru had never allowed his genin sweets. There with one of her students-and every student who passed the exam was hers; she had hundreds, more than any other jonin-she'd pursed her lips around the skewer and simmered in a sort of pleased shock at the adrenaline, the sugar rush. The sensation of energy sparkling under her skin, flushing out the skeletal ribs and hollowed cheeks she'd become after her teacher's desertion. Smirking, she'd raised her sake cup to the newly-minted chuunin, and the girl had bought her another box
( ... )
Comments 60
one of the hardest parts about feminism is not judging
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"That would be a good thing for them to carve on my tombstone: Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment"
--Dorothy Parker
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"She was advised to abstain from too many jokes and conduct herself with propriety rather than wit"
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I'm afraid I can't take full credit for it, though. The prompt is one I borrowed off of the STXI Intergalactic Ladyfest, mostly cause I liked it a lot.
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'cause if you're dreaming about dying
then you're not really living, darling
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One of the most difficult things about the summoning contract was the initial testing before the blood oath could be signed. Each of the animal realms had qualities it looked for in its human counterparts, and most genin, their chests and foreheads still blank slates, rarely embodied one or the other deeply enough to be chosen. The toads valued courage, the slugs altruism, the dogs loyalty, for the snakes it was stillness. At ten Mitarashi Anko had sat with her hands folded in her lap, blood from her pricked fingers sluicing her palms, and maintained absolute stillness for the seven hours before the serpent liaison had uncoiled itself from the tatami before her, wound itself about her wrist, and used her blood to ink the kanji of consent.
Years later, calling upon that stillness as her body was reforged over a laboratory table, she would remember it: the beating sunlight a red tattoo behind closed eyes, shouts and the thwack! of badminton racquets from the civilian ( ... )
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"You can’t just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood."
"What mood is that?"
"Last-minute panic."
-Calvin & Hobbes
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