things to do on your day off

[aria]

Behold, a meme!

1. Go to my master fic list and pick out a line or two from one of my stories. (A full line, if you will; a speech tag with content is fine, but sentence fragments will mostly just make me repent the day I decided I like the occasional sentence fragment.)
2. I will respond with which story of mine I think it's from.
3. A drabble to anyone who stumps me. If you do stump me, feel free to request a situation and characters.

If you end up with a potential drabble, any of my fandoms is a decent bet, but (unsurprisingly) I will respond with the most promptness and enthusiasm if it's for due South. (Or Doctor Who or Lord of the Rings, actually; I am particularly up for those also.)

Comments

[wintercreek]

Yep, "Magnetic."

"Okay, I'll be over in a minute."

[aria]

...I'm going to tentatively guess that one is 'Katabasis' but not for any particularly compelling reason. Heh, you may have stumped me already.

[wintercreek]

Ah, because I changed fandoms on you! It's "Terminus," which I adore beyond measure.

Would you like to write me some due South? For a prompt, have the lyrics to Rainer Maria's "Catastrophe," which I lately cannot stop listening to.

[aria]

[okay, this takes place in the universe of the Constable Thatcher AU, because I don't know when I will be able to write it properly but I can at least give you a ficlet. also I did not use the song quite as much as I wanted to but I adore it and feel like it might be a fair outline for a larger story in this world.]


Meg reminded herself that this is not the end of the world.

The objective facts: Cloutier wanted to promote her in return for affections Meg didn't have to give. That he would assume her willing to engage in that sort of office politics was bad enough; that he didn't really regard her as an autonomous being capable of that kind of decision was worse. She'd made her position clear: she didn't appreciate the sort of help he was offering, and if he persisted she would have no choice but to report him. Meg thought this would be sufficient to quell his advances, and wouldn't be any great hindrance to the trajectory of her career. Wrong.

So here Meg was, standing on the steps of the Canadian Consulate in Chicago, fighting to find some sort of equilibrium. At least it was a city, if one less well-appointed than Ottawa. At least Cloutier had arranged her transfer with a minimum of fuss, and bundled her off before she could make a -- No. Meg squared her shoulders and reminded herself that she was here because the Consulate was understaffed, that she was a perfectly capable constable and not in any sort of exile, and that as soon as it was tenable she'd be transferring back north -- to Toronto, perhaps, not ideal but far enough away from Cloutier that she could file a complaint with relative immunity. This situation was not a catastrophe; it was a minor roadblock.

The door opened in answer to Meg's knock.

Oh.

Meg recognized him. Of course she recognized him; she watched the news and kept up with the various ongoings inside the RCMP, but even if she hadn't she probably would have known him. Meg looked into the polite face of Benton Fraser and felt the full import of her situation come down on her: Chicago was that place the RCMP sent their misbehaving heroes. Constable Fraser had done indisputably the right thing in exposing the corruption around that dam project, and the top brass had swept him under the rug. Meg remembered with a flash of horror all Cloutier's various connections in high places. Through the weight of epiphany and some secondhand shock at seeing a face from the news in person, Meg felt a kind of kinship for this stranger.

All of this went through her head in an instant. "Constable Meg Thatcher," she said, holding out a hand. "I'm the new assistant liaison officer."

Fraser took it in something that was mostly a handshake but nearly the clasp of greeting a comrade-in-arms, too. "Benton Fraser," he said, and smiled, a lopsided little smile that saved his face from perfection. "Welcome back to Canada."