From LA Knight to OceanFire9 regarding shots at Flash-fiction for the "Once Upon A Time" fic-verse of the Hellboy 2 fandom:
"How would you feel about attempting the word prompt thingies? You don't have to do all of them (actually, you don't *have* to do any of them, but you know what I mean). I think it would be interesting to see what you do with them. And you could make them all about Wink and Lorelei if you wanted. Or whatever. Just curious."
What OceanFire9 said to LA Knight about that:
"Sure, send me a list and I can do that to help slake your craving [for Wink/Lorelei] in the meantime. Lol! :D It might also allow me to get out a few of my ideas that just don't fit in the other shorts, somehow."
TIME/PLACE: Within the conceptual "Once Upon A Time" universe. Some of these flash-prompts may take place in Wink and Lorelei's respective and collective pasts, others in their possible future, others will even take place in their dreams. Still others may include the jealous fenris character (and yes, he IS the one that gave Lorelei the rose in "All's Fair In Love, War, and Drinking").
NOTE ON LINGUISTICS: Some of the stuff that happens in Germany will be written in English, just for simplicity's sake, but when multiple languages are present in the same time and place, then the German dialogue will be written in actual German. (Mein Gott, I feel so horrible now). :P
NOTE ON CANON/FANON: Not all of these flashes may end up being part of the continuity, so keep an open mind, they're just ideas answering prompts. LA Knight can pick and choose whatever elements she likes.
So begins the first part of the flash-fictions series featuring Wink and Lorelei
Update Mar 11: All flashes in this installment of the Coruscation series have been chosen as canon by LA Knight.
Update Apr 3: With the posting of Chapter 55 of "Once Upon A Time," Telephone is now semi-canon due to minor plot discrepancies, but the rest of the shots in its story-chain are still fully canon.
COMFORT
"Halt mich," the tall river maid breathed in a heavy sigh, and the silver troll pulled her close, wrapping his great arms about her slender form. Her day had been crap.
Some idiot centaur had started a bar fight, but instead of just "shoving off" after getting thrown out by two other patrons, he came right back in and then everything snowballed to "worse and worse" from there. The whole Cave was a mess! It would have to be closed for at least a couple of weeks to get it all back to right again! Lorelei always hated whenever stuff like this happened, but such was the life of a tavern owner, as her father well knew and her mother was quick to learn.
Lorelei didn't even want to think about any of it right now. It all just sucked.
She very lightly brushed her fair, snowy cheek against the muscled planes of Wink's huge chest, taking careful, calming breaths. He smelled like deep, earthen places, very old leather, city smog, and something else that was warm and animalistic and could only be distinctly defined as "troll." "Lass mich nicht los," she murmured.
"Never," rumbled Wink, in his low, deep voice, putting his flesh hand to her head and gently working at the muscles of her skull through her hair.
RAIN
Wink didn't really care for cold water all that much, but in truth, he never felt warmer. He was standing on the roof of the building that housed Fafner's Cave and Lorelei's home, in the company of said rhinemaiden, and she was looking quite happy in the April torrent that poured down from the silvery heavens, utterly drenching her from head to toe, making her long black hair even darker somehow from all the water slicking through her thick tresses, and making her cotton spring dress, embroidered with gold stitching that formed a paisley pattern, cling to her every slightest curve.
Lorelei blinked some of the raindrops from her long eyelashes, the fondness in her golden eyes like sunlight on Earth under the cloud-laden sky. "Schatzen," she said softly, gazing at the great troll, and brushing a few fingers over the shining droplets that clung to his hide. "Each little raindrop on you looks like a shimmering silvered jewel."
EARS
Wink had to know what he was doing. How could he not? The troll had spent so much of his life in the company of elves, he had to know just what kind of sensitivity the eartips of sentient pointy-eared races held!
Regardless, sometimes his lingering caresses over Lorelei's neck and up to her face and hair would ghost about the skin on her skull just behind the shell of her ear... and sometimes one of his great fingers would "accidentally" glide over the subtly pointed tip of her ear. Every single time, he would either smile too innocently or get a very wicked twinkle in his eye with each time that the rhinemaiden gasped, bit her lip, or softly groaned - her eyes dilated and burning with primal dragonfire.
DEATH
1930s
It was an easy thing, really, just let the need to survive take you over, move you, propel you into action.
Instinct, ancient and unrelenting.
But looking at him now... at the maimed soldier in her arms... there comes a hard new angle to her respect for life and the balancing act that it holds with death, and she knows what she must do. She will not condemn him, regardless of what he would have done to her and the two little ones with her, as she was bringing them to her mother's tavern to meet with their new mother - their adopter, now that their real family lies in the clutches of this man's masters.
Does he even know what he does? Or rather, did.
He lies dying in service to his fuhrer, because of her actions.
She and the little ones would have been in a far worse position... also for the fuhrer, because of his actions.
But she will not condemn him for what he would have done. Not. Like. This.
She holds him closer, her breath steady while his is ragged from bleeding out. She flinches from the throbbing pain that sets in from where the bullet that he fired nicked her side, just below the ribs. She brushes her fingertips across the ragged wound in his neck where her pointed teeth had found their mark and sunk in just long and hard enough for her to get his own gun turned on him, downwards to the slick, bloody holes in his chest and torso where she managed to fire the last two shots into him.
She bends her head, mouth towards his ear, and murmurs, "One day, Germany will curse you; you can die knowing this. All the same, I will not curse you, not like this. For Germany - the whole world - does not need more suffering."
With that, she puts a hand to the side of his face, the other one to his shoulder, and with a hard, quick *snap!* she ends his suffering. Kindness, especially in mercy to your enemies, is not always gentle.
TOUCH
The first time that Wink had been subject to Lorelei's magical voice getting away from her when they were alone together, it had been an accident, and oh, what a beautiful accident it was! But as the days and weeks went by, and more and more was allowed between them, well... He enjoyed pleasing Lorelei, but his reward was more than just the smoldering smiles, the reciprocated caresses, and the satisfaction of knowing the fact that he'd been able to make her feel wonderful.
There was fire under her voice, clear and smooth as water, and he felt the touch of both elements - in his skin, in his bones, in all the muscles in between - lighting up and licking at every last one of his nerves like some living thing, gliding over every inch of him... And he'd have been lying through his teeth - certainly lying to himself - if he were to say that he wasn't becoming more and more deliberate in his efforts to discover more of what would make the magic in her voice get away from her like that.
SEX
"So... Wink and you...?" asked Vica.
"Ja," replied Lorelei, bringing her cup of hot black coffee to her carmine lips.
"Istenem!" exclaimed Vica, giggling and about as excited as a happy-go-lucky teenager getting an earful of some juicy gossip (not that Vica would ever do such a thing). "So, how does that work?"
"Was?" Lorelei responded, a little puzzled.
"You know... don't you...?" Vica made an 'interlocking' gesture with her twelve fingers.
Lorelei's eyebrows shot up about a mile off her forehead. "Oh!" She said. "That... Well I... He... Hmm..." The rhinemaiden's brow furrowed for a minute, and then she half-in-jest glowered at the young táltos enjoying coffee with her. "You just had to ask that, didn't you?"
Vica's smile was shameless. "Yep!"
Lorelei rolled her auriferous eyes and groaned into her coffee cup, with a smile.
"Well, I mean seriously, I'm curious, because the troll is kind of huge, and you're kind of..." Vica indicated Lorelei in a once-over with her eyes "...not."
"Mmm-hmm," said Lorelei softly, sipping more coffee. "Huge. That he is."
"Is he?" Vica piped up.
"Was?" asked Lorelei.
"You know!" Vica gestured 'down south.' "Huge?"
Lorelei gaped at Vica for two seconds - coffee cup in her hand somehow safely finding its way back to the tabletop - and then began laughing. "You're horrible!"
Vica just grinned proudly, "I know." And the táltos joined the rhinemaiden in side-stitch-inducing laughter.
SENSUAL
The rhinemaiden was stretched out in the sun on one of the river rocks, moisture and golden flecks of river mica glistening on her skin. It was a forgotten time and place of untold beauty, of rampant magic. The great head of a silver dragon with one scarred eye bent down and gently nuzzled the river maiden's exposed belly, up and down her torso, up her neck, and pausing at her fair cheek. The maiden reached out a slender hand, and softly, tenderly, stroked along the side of the dragon's face. She lifted herself up to meet his gaze, smiling, and he nuzzled her chest as she sang to him, words in the Old High tongue that her grandmother knew, soulful and lovely.
Wink and Lorelei would wonder if the other had the same dream as they did in the morning.
WEAKNESS
Wink sat in a corner of the common room of the tavern and watched the happy antics of his Prince with the little Rhine child. She was "teaching" the prince how to waltz, and they were both smiling and having a very happy time of it, until the prince got a mischievous grin on his face, scooped up the little girl and twirled her round and round and round, her black hair and his white-gold hair flying all about them, laughing and giggling wildly. Wink just chuckled to himself and shook his head, smiling.
Nuada set the child down, instructed her to go be of some help to her mother - the tavern owner - strode over to where Wink sat, and took up a seat beside the great troll. "What do you think of little Lorelei?" the Prince asked his vassal.
Wink grunted and shrugged his great shoulders. "A sweet enough child, I suppose. Honestly, Highness, there's not much that I can think, at this point," the warrior rumbled. Then his face took on a sly smirk as he said, "Though she already seems to have made a right fool of you easily enough, to behave like that in public, when I know that you would not deign to allow yourself to be so otherwise."
The elf only laughed heartily with a broad and merry smile, and said, "One day, my friend, she just might make such a fool of you, too!"
TEARS
Rhine folk were magnificent, mystical creatures. Companions of dragons and other great and noble beasts, seducers and killers of the unsuspecting wayward wanderer or boat-traveler, lovers of gold and soulful musicians. Their nature was beautiful and terrible, mysterious and fierce. But behind all that innate, primal majesty, they - like many other sentient things - also felt the stings of love, joy, sorrow, and anger, felt them just as deeply as anyone else could, and generally they expressed them just as anyone else did. In anger, they snarled. In sadness, they wept. In mirth, they laughed. No shame in any of it.
Knowing this never changed Lorelei's individual nature. She hated even the very idea of being caught in a state of true vulnerability. The ancient predator deep within her loathed it with a passion beyond words.
Like any woman, there were days when she felt the weight of her world, and there were days when she felt a sadness in her soul that she couldn't even define, days when she thought of curling up in a pair of great, warm arms and just letting him hold her close and tight - of letting him stroke her hair (which she always liked) and growling soothing words next to her ear in his deep, rumbling voice. But she always knew without reservation that she would never let anyone but the stars in the night sky above her ever see her in tears, if she could help it.
NAME
(Sometime Before Chapter 1 of This Fic)
Lorelei made a point of running Fafner's Cave personally, just as if she were one of her own staff. But that didn't mean that she didn't give herself generous amounts of "time off," as well. Today had been one such day, and she had spent it largely enjoying herself in the rave room. She'd danced with a redheaded vampire, a shadow-shifter in his preferred human shape, a witch and a rogue she-elf had pulled her into a kind of "hot hips trio" that got nearby roars of approval (in some cases, literally), and then there was him.
She sensed him before she saw him. Focus, hard and clear, and it assaulted her empathic sense like a loud howl in her ears. She turned around to see gleaming copper-colored eyes in a handsome face framed by blond hair and a matching goatee fixed on her. A fenris. He was leaning against the wall, arms folded casually.
Lorelei tilted her head ever-so-slightly to the side, regarding him, waiting. He smiled. It was a dangerous, sly smile that she did not fear, the smile of a wolf. He stalked over from his spot against the wall to the the river-faery, who was smiling in an enigmatic way all her own.
"Enjoying yourself here at my establishment?" she asked, by way of breaking the ice.
Now it was he that tilted his head regarding her for a moment, that wolf's smile never once leaving his face or his gleaming eyes, before he spoke. "Y'know..." he said, the feral, lupine grrrowl in his voice curling and sharpening it into something that made Lorelei shiver imperceptibly, "I do believe... I am." There was a shared grin between them, and then they took to the floor.
It wasn't until the end of the night, as he was about to leave, that he took her by the arm and said, "Hey, I love your place, but I'd like even more to know your name."
Deciding to be coy, the rhinemaiden had smiled and said, "Ich bin Lorelei. Wer bist du?"
To her surprise, the wolf-shifter only smiled broadly and answered in her language, "Ich bin Geri... It was a pleasure to meet you."
SPEED
Some of the gambling rackets in the underbelly of New York City weren't kept "hush-hush" for the fact that they were illegal in nature. Quite a few of them were for the fact that they were what humans would call "poetry in motion, ala freak-show."
Speed was the name of the game in any tunnel race, but this one wasn't cars. It was horses. Mostly. Nightmares, faerie-nags, kelpies, a couple of centaurs, and a táltos' ló.
"That one is actually Vica's horse," Lorelei said to Wink of the ló, from where they stood with other spectators on the sidelines. "She's just letting her brother's friend, Julius, borrow it for the race." She turned to look Wink directly in the eye. "Did you know that he asked me to marry him one time?"
The troll scoffed, "I take it that you said 'no.'"
"No I said 'yes,'" she returned, sweetly.
Wink was nonplussed, and it showed on his trollish face. "But you and he aren't-?"
"Nein." The river faery was smiling her fox-like smile again, with that sly gleam in her eyes.
"So what happened?" the silver warrior inquired, very much full of anticipation to hear her answer.
The river maid gave a very light shrug of one of her slender shoulders and said, "Well, he sobered up in the morning, and then apologized profusely to both me and his boyfriend."
Wink laughed hard and roariously. He was only drowned out by the thundering hooves of the contenders in the race, dashing at full-speed to their prize.
WIND
Lorelei's hair was quite long, easily caught up by the wind, tossed and fluttered. Whenever the wind blew she seemed to go still, just to feel it breathing on her, over her, in the space all around her, kissing all the little nerves in her skin.
Wink hoped that he could manage to be as thorough in his attentions to Lorelei as the wind always was.
JEALOUSY
She was the best thing that had happened to him ever since he'd been turned. Geri craved everything about Lorelei, she was literally like something right out of a fairy-tale. Her shining hair as black as the deepest dark of night that he prowled through, her face as fair, bright, and beautiful as the moon that he howled to, her mouth as red as the warm blood that he savored on his tongue with every kill. Her whole manner was mysterious and enticing, nothing like the human meat that he always gorged himself on for whatever appetites needed slaking.
But she wasn't his. Not yet.
Still, it wasn't uncommon that Geri would feel his hackles rise when he'd come to her bar and see her engaged in some flirtatious banter with a faun, or whenever this one silver cave troll that frequented the place put a hand on her waist or her back and she'd smile at him, and certainly every time that she got a wolf-whistle from another lycanthrope and she'd wink right back at them.
But he supposed that in the end it didn't matter. He wasn't going to give up on her. She was worth it, and they both had the luxury of time.
These clowns already felt the pang of envy when they saw her dancing with him on her days off, and he'd enjoy flaunting it in their faces every day after she finally accepted him in every way. 'Til then, the city was full of blondes and redheads that would "cater to" any frustration he might have, no problem.
HANDS
There were very few times in Wink's life that he regretted - really, truly, actually regretted - the loss of his right hand.
He often enjoyed how he could use the powerful mechanical monster to bash his way to the upper-hand of a brawl (pun only partially intended), how the elbow-spike that was part of the socket could deliver a quick, deadly jab to any foolish bastard behind him, and how he could chain-launch his hand to grab a quick ride hitched on a cargo train, if he needed one, or use it like a grappling hook to scale up the side of some sheer height, be it a cliff or a building. His abilities as a warrior, and as a capable troll in general, were only enhanced all the more by it, he always felt.
But his metal hand could not feel. Not heat. Not texture. Not pain, nor pleasure. Nothing. It was only cold metal. There was no life in it beyond the life that his will gave it. There was nothing beyond pressure, density, and solidity that he could sense with it.
Instinct and old reflex sometimes got the better of him, though, when he was alone with Lorelei, the current light of his heart, and as he would caress and explore and greedily run his flesh-and-blood left hand all over her soft, warm body, sometimes he would also begin to do the same with his right, and then she'd shiver sharply from the sensation of cold metal on her flesh, and he'd realize what he'd been doing.
Those were the rare times that he cursed the day he'd ever lost his hand.
TELEPHONE
(The canon prequel to this is in Coruscation Part 2, at the end, under the prompt-title Midnight, which co-runs with chapter 53 of "Once Upon A Time.")
From: drachegold ***** . com
To: dmyers ***** . net
drachegold: Is his royal highness with you? I need you to relay something to him for me, right away.
dmyers: What are you talking about? Who are you?
drachegold: You and I met one cold winter's night in a dragon's cave.
dmyers: Lorelei?
drachegold: Brava! :)
drachegold: I need you to let his highness know that his best friend is safe and well.
dmyers: Where the heck has he BEEN? Have you been with him? Is he alright? You realize he's been missing for going on two and a half weeks now, right? Prince LIONRAGE over here has been near out of his mind for him!
drachegold: We... had a bit of misadventure when some trouble started at the Midnight Fest that we went to.
drachegold: Ja, I've been with him.
drachegold: Would you mind if I called your phone? I have something that will keep the line secure.
drachegold: Bitte?
dmyers: (***) *** - ****
A second later, Dylan's phone rang, and she was glad to hear a fey voice that she recognized on the other end of the line. "Piece of gnome-work," explained the rhinemaiden. "Goblins have the monopoly on clockworks and mechanics, but gnomes seem to have done more thriving in the technological boom. Na gut..." Dylan heard the Germanic siren take a deep breath, "Butchers showed up at the Midnight Fest."
Dylan sprang out of her chair. "WHAT?" She couldn't help yelling into the phone.
Lorelei continued, "We got out with our lives, barely, but Wink was in bad form for a few days. I had to put out the word to a few of my more subtle contacts to get proper help for him, but he's been as good as new for some time now." The river-faery got a highly amused-sounding rendition of a "suspicious" tone to her voice. "Though, for some reason he seems to want the two of us to stay isolated and lay low for a few days more. I wonder why?" Clearly she didn't wonder at all. Dylan didn't either, and couldn't help doing a facepalm and smiling.
"Do I even wanna know?" She half-chuckled into the phone.
"Do you?" Lorelei inquired with a sly tone.
"I think I'll pass for now."
"Fair enough," returned Lorelei.
Then Dylan did something that mildly surprised herself and Lorelei. "Are you alright?" She asked.
There was a second-and-a-half pause on the other end of the line. "Ja, I am, actually... My dress was destroyed and I got tossed around pretty hard, but I heal quite fast. No one will even be able to tell there was ever a mark on me to begin with. I decided to contact you instead of Nuada because I didn't trust the possibility of anyone keeping eyes and ears on him - but the elfin courts are generally out of their element with human electronic technology. Use care when you tell Silverlance what I've told you, he will not be pleased to hear that an attempt was made on Wink's life."
A/N - THE E-MAILS AND PHONE-#s OF DYLAN AND LORELEI ARE ENTIRELY FICTIONAL! DO NOT THINK THAT YOU WILL REACH THESE IMAGINARY CHARACTERS BY TRYING TO CONTACT THEM!
- The theme song for Name, when Lorelei meets Geri the fenris, is "Sex" by Oomph! Trust me, go to the YouTube channel of joshua895 for a translation of the lyrics (which aren't all that horrible as you might think from the title) if you don't believe me, but it fits. This would be from Geri's POV and the way that he sees it, of course.
CHARACTER NOTES:
- Vica is a Hungarian girl name, pronounced "VEE-tsaw" (if you speak English) And she's largely a minor, unimportant character, existing to serve the interests of the Wink/Lorelei arc of "Once Upon A Time," so don't think that you'll see her all that much. Sorry. :P And yeah, she's a táltos, but she's young, and the relationships of her buddies aren't exactly part of her divine business, per se.
- Geri is (as I'm sure you may have guessed) the fenris, a minor but very important character, serving the Wink/Lorelei arc. You'll see him lots. :)
NOTE ON THE TITLE:
cor·us·cate
[kawr-uh-skeyt, kor-] verb (used without object), -cat·ed, -cat·ing.
To emit vivid flashes of light; sparkle; scintillate; gleam.
[from Latin coruscāre to flash, to glitter, to vibrate]
cor·us·ca·tion
[kawr-uh-skey-shuhn, kor-] noun
1). The act of coruscating.
2). A sudden gleam or flash of light.
3). a striking display of brilliance or wit.
Medical Dictionary n. A sensation of a flash of light before the eyes.
Reflected flashes of sunlight rippling on the waves and swirls of a river shining right into your eyes could also accurately be called "coruscation" on the surface of the water.
As always, for ANY typing/transposing errors, be they English, Deutsch, or Magyar, PLEASE let me know so I can fix 'em!