drabble meme

[beachland]

Via neveryourmask and ravenna

Pick one of my characters. Pick one of yours. I shall write a snippet of their relationship. It can be established or hypothetical, just as long as I have some familiarity with the character!

Here is a list of prompts, some of which I am probably lacking the pop-cultural reference knowledge for. Choose '33%' at your own risk.

Comments

harcho for andie (cw injury, vague gore)

[inculpate]

I.

"Everybody knows Azgeda kill a white bear when they're five," Harper says, loudly enough to interrupt the whisperers around the campfire. "Rite of passage." Echo overhears, of course. Echo has ears like a bat; no doubt, she had heard the gossip anyway, the people trying to divine the flesh of her back. It is netted with raised keloids, edges, notches, a pattern like dragonscales spanning the wings of her shoulderblades. Normally, the grounders seem to cover up, but lately, the alliance seems to have lulled everyone into more casual traditions. Clothing, apparently. Echo's dress knots a halter behind her neck-- which is not a choice that anybody from space would have made, had they the scars, but Harper understands that that's the point. The jagged rows of teeth strung around her neck might even be considered jewelry. The other skaikru go silent on either side of Harper, and start to look at the cooking pots. Echo looks over her shoulder and a smile alters the shape of her eyes.

II.

"Everybody knows Azgeda bleed silver," Harper says, loudly enough to be heard over the moans and cries of the other wounded. "That can't be blood." It's a reversal of roles, considering how they met. But Harper isn't here to feed anybody this time; she's here because they ran out of restraints, and that can be a problem when you need to reset a limb on a warrior. Dr. Griffin had tapped her for Echo partly because they're about the same size and partly, she supposed, because they're friends, or as much friends as grounders and skaikru can be at this point. She braces her elbows on Echo's chest, above her breasts, and smiles down at her thinly. Echo's face is sweaty, but her eyes skitter and focus. "Maybe the gods that built you wired your saliva glands to your bones," she suggests. "So when you hurt, you spit." Echo stares at her for an instant-- and then there's a flash of pale teeth, incredulous, not quite exasperated, and a sweet, slow, rasping laugh that only Harper is close enough to hear.

III.

"Everybody knows Azgeda kiss with their noses," Harper says across the forest glade, loudly enough that Echo can tell that she's nervous, probably. Louder than Harper had meant to. She isn't sure. Maybe Ice Nation women dress like that all the time. Maybe Echo laughs for lots of girls now. Maybe Echo just likes punching assholes in the face. That last thing, Harper is pretty sure, is completely true. But there are other truths-- that Harper has learned the geometry of Echo's scars and made a rough estimate of her kills, that she is recently single and kind of damaged and pretty patient. But it's also true that death has been in a hurry for most of her youth. Life, she thinks, had better fucking catch up. Echo cocks her head and steps toward her, soundless in a way that underscores the fact she doesn't say much most of the time.

Then she touches Harper's bandana gently, over her brow. "No." Then she gets even closer than that. Leans over and rests her forehead on Harper's forehead. "Azgeda kiss like this way," she says, laughter in her voice, smile in her eyes.

"But not really," Harper says.

"No," Echo says, and kisses her for real.