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therentyoupay · 1 year ago

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18. "You look lost." for jelsa ??? :3c

from this askbox meme!

"On the contrary," she says, slotting a hand over one cocked hip, sending shimmering fractals of reflected light across the inner walls of the glacier. "I live here."

Jack blinks. "Okay. So... Am I lost?"

The look of mild antagonism in her eyes disappears, and the judgmental slant of her brow softens into something more perplexed and curious than defensive. Jack twists his staff behind his back with a flick of his wrist—partly to seem unarmed but mostly to fill the silence.

"Are you?" the woman in white asks, her gaze narrowing at his bare feet on the ice. Concern curves into the lines of her mouth, her brows. "How did you get in here?"

Jack wasn't sure how well 'Oh! I was just flying around and passed through this funny-looking cloud and found this super cool glacier in the middle of the sea and decided to poke around!' would, no pun intended, fly.

"I don't know," he shrugs, sloooowly making his way closer to where she stands in the center of the cavern. He is careful not to watch her directly, and instead makes a show of looking up and around and admiring the giant slabs of ancient ice—he can feel the Old Power in them, kind of similar to how Manny feels—but out of the corner of his eye, he can see that she still stiffens up, wary of his not-so-subtle encroaching. Her shoulders, he notices, are bare. He tightens his grip on his staff, behind his back. "How do people usually get in here?"

"They don't."

Interesting. "How did you get in here?"

She doesn't answer him, which isn't a surprise at this point. "You aren't wearing any shoes," she observes, a question mark hanging in the freezing air of the chamber.

Jack knows he should try to be polite—has actually been working really hard on it, thank you very much—but he can't resist just a tiny bit of cheek. "I'm not," he agrees, and to emphasize his point, he takes another step closer to her with a cheerful glint in his eyes. He crosses both hands behind his back to clutch his staff behind him—relaxed, but ready.

You're like me, Jack knows, but not?

The woman in white's gaze travels over his hoodie, his old pants, his messy hair. It lingers on the drawstring cords at his collar: on the frost that lingers there. Her gaze snaps to his like an accusation. Like a wish.

"You're like me," she says, "but not."

Jack feels the magic in the walls, threaded into the frozen veins of this ancient labyrinth of secrets. Some instinct inside compels him to slowly reach out a hand and twist the molecules of air above his palm into sparkling diamonds of swirling snow, delicate and fragile: he watches her as she watches, transfixed, as his snowflakes dissolve into the air and become a part of the very fabric of the cavern that contains them, forever with the memory of this moment. Her eyes widen, and her fists clench.

Interesting.

"I don't think I'm lost," Jack says, slowly, like he might to a skittish deer; he knows, in this moment, that she has never met anyone like herself, either. I think we were supposed to find each other, he knows, but does not say.

The woman in white considers him. Raises her delicate palm aloft. Jack swallows. Now who's the deer?

Watches as, from the fabric of time and space above her palm, she pulls forth a wave of Old Magic so powerfully condensed that Jack nearly stumbles back—only catches himself at the last moment, as his staff drops to his side, at the ready—and the woman in white's Old Magic coalesces into a tiny flake of glimmering ice and snow. She briefly closes her eyes, and warmth suffuses the flake, dissolving it exquisitely into nothing but memory, and leaving the air of the cavern alive and singing.

The woman in white looks him in the eye; he'd gotten rather too close when he'd thought he was being sneaky, and now it's hard to meet the blue of her gaze. But he does.

"I don't think you're lost, either," she whispers. She glances at his hands.

Jack swallows. The air in the cavern surrounding them feels alive. He feels like he could do anything; when her gaze returns to his, he knows it. For whatever reason—we are supposed to find each other.

Slowly, through the heavy invisible energy sending sharp shocks of electricity over his skin, Jack Frost reaches out his hand to the woman in white, and waits for her to take it.

→ on ao3

#cnidariandreams #therentyoupay ask #therentyoupay fic #jelsa #therentyoupay drabbles #LIV SEE WE JUST YEET THE FICS OUT INTO THE UNIVERSE ---- YEET THEM DRABBLES #YEET AWAY ---

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therentyoupay · 6 months ago

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rules: list the first line of your last 10 (or however many you have) posted fics and see if there's a pattern! i chose most of the most recent ones, then a few of the ones with the most kudos, and then a few of the ones that i just really really really like the opening lines of!! thank you, @salamandersocks, for tagging me!!

—

On July 1st, the lonely house at the top of the mountain was finally sold.

“You see, Jack... There is more to being a Guardian than you may think..."

It was too late for winter.

“On the contrary,” she says, slotting a hand over one cocked hip, sending shimmering fractals of reflected light across the inner walls of the glacier.

"What are you doing here?" she blurts out inelegantly, a little too loudly, and she thinks that someone might have heard her, but she's too pissed off to care.

"You're," he rasps, throat run dry. "You're…"

There is a strange boy on the beach who won’t stop staring at her.

“Man,” Nino groans, accepting defeat at last, as he gives the golden elevator doors a vicious, vengeful kick.

Seven minutes late.

“...the fuck is this?”

my thoughts below!! 💕 @salamandersocks and i have similar tastes!! i seem to favor:

opening lines that immediately immerse me in a specific emotion or situation (curiosity, anticipation, mystery), and stuff that hints at deeper complexity and "clues ahoy!!"

i also like slightly unsettling lines ("there is a strange boy on the beach who won’t stop staring at her") for mystical stories like the mermaid!au

i also like when really specific or short lines can drop a reader IMMEDIATELY into a specific context; conversely, i like when the first line gives the reader a feeling and the second line gives a location!

i also realize i like throwing characters into emotional / interpersonal conflict immediately lmao ("... the fuck is this?" / "what are you doing here?" / "on the contrary" / "man")

i shall tag a whole bunch of people too, and anyone else who wants to do this!

#therentyoupay tag games #therentyoupay on fanfiction #salamandersocks

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