DPP: Everyone loves a good cliche!
Sep. 10th, 2011 11:08 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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no_takebacks
Kara knew Lee would never recognize her with her new disguise in place!
Who doesn't love a good amnesia story? Or how about a "they're secretly married" reveal? This weekend it's time to embrace the tried-and-true tropes of the romance genre. Pick a cliche and make it your own. Here's a brief list to get you started, but feel free to leave prompts in the comments too!
locked in a closet
pretending to be couple
forced roommates
forced/accidental bed sharing
Quarantine
arranged or secret marriage
marriage of convenience
the bet
eavesdropping
bachelor auction/calendar
grand gestures/declarations of love
candlelight dinner
skinny dipping
oops I saw you naked
We’re going to die/we nearly died
against the rules
makeover
surprise I’m pregnant/secret baby
friends with benefits
we inherited a kid?
stranded/abandoned together
amnesia
in disguise
secret identity
love letters
sweep her off her feet/carry her to bed
kissing in the rain
on the run together
teaching how to dance
pretending to be couple
forced roommates
forced/accidental bed sharing
Quarantine
arranged or secret marriage
marriage of convenience
the bet
eavesdropping
bachelor auction/calendar
grand gestures/declarations of love
candlelight dinner
skinny dipping
oops I saw you naked
We’re going to die/we nearly died
against the rules
makeover
surprise I’m pregnant/secret baby
friends with benefits
we inherited a kid?
stranded/abandoned together
amnesia
in disguise
secret identity
love letters
sweep her off her feet/carry her to bed
kissing in the rain
on the run together
teaching how to dance
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no subject
Date: 2011-09-10 04:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-11 08:13 pm (UTC)Though damn, I wish I could imagine it another way just for fic's sake.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-10 04:36 pm (UTC)Ficlet: Sitting Tight. [Hope it's not too short]
Date: 2011-09-10 05:27 pm (UTC)“No dad, the airlocks sealed and won’t budge.”
“The override…”
“The overrides busted. I reported it a week ago and came down here to check that it was fixed… then got stuck!”
“And Starbuck? Why’s she there?”
“Because I wanted someone to counter sign the complaint form against the maintenance crew. Gods damn slackers.”
“All right, all right. We’ll get someone on it. You two just sit tight until then.”
“Yes sir. Out.”
Lee replaced the hand set and looked to Kara who’d got a hand clamped over her mouth to stifle her giggles. He shot her a smirk of his own. She dropped her hands from her lips and grabbed his tanks pulling him in closer and for a kiss.
Coming up for air sometime later, she licked her lips.
“You’re a bad, bad boy. You’re gonna get some poor maintenance crew member in serious crap for this.”
“Narr, not really. They fixed the problem.”
“Oh, then why is it still broken?”
He chuckled, warm and throatily.
“See Starbuck, that’s cos I broke it again.”
“And why’s that Apollo?”
“Because I’ll break or down anything to get some time alone with you.”
She made a yummy sound in the back of her throat as she tilted her head to the side examining him. Then her look turned wicked. She snaked a hand through his belt buckle and tugged. “What was that the Old Man said about sitting tight?’ He groaned as her hand skimmed his stomach. ‘Because I think we should follow his orders.”
Lee nods, not able to talk any more.
Re: Ficlet: Sitting Tight. [Hope it's not too short]
Date: 2011-09-10 06:10 pm (UTC)Re: Ficlet: Sitting Tight. [Hope it's not too short]
Date: 2011-09-11 07:02 am (UTC)Starbuck walks into the bunk room to find Lee has the schematic for the locking mechanism found on the doors to the water tank room spread across the mess table.
"Quick, shut the door," he hisses.
"Why?"
"Fancy going swimming this time?"
Re: Ficlet: Sitting Tight. [Hope it's not too short]
Date: 2011-09-11 09:21 am (UTC)Re: Ficlet: Sitting Tight. [Hope it's not too short]
Date: 2011-09-10 06:39 pm (UTC)Re: Ficlet: Sitting Tight. [Hope it's not too short]
Date: 2011-09-11 06:57 am (UTC)"Dad, we only took the Raptor out to test the FTL drive and now we're stuck... No Sir, it's not desperate. I'm sure within half a hour...'
Starbuck bites his shoulder at this prediction.
'I mean in a couple of hours, we'll be able fix the drive and backtrack the miss jump and.' Her mouth moves down the plane of his chest.
'Err, sorry, um, Sir,' Lee swallows, rapidly loosing the ability to talk, 'gotta go, situations getting urgent."
Lee doesn't quite meet the handset holder when replacing the com and it drops to dangle unattended loosely for some hours.
Re: Ficlet: Sitting Tight. [Hope it's not too short]
Date: 2011-09-11 12:51 pm (UTC)Re: Ficlet: Sitting Tight. [Hope it's not too short]
Date: 2011-09-11 01:16 pm (UTC)Oh, but as I say this, I feel another building...
"Dad, sorry, the CIC door's jammed."
"But Lee, it’s got no lock... and why the frak are the windows spray painted over?"
"Err, random vandalism? And the door..."
Lee stops bothering to give answers for he sees that Kara, who’s leaning over the FTL, has gestured for him to come forward. He also sees that her flight suit is pooled around her feet. Oddly, she hasn’t bothered to put on any under clothes.
It's not much of a dilemma: i.e. talk to Dad, or, make sure my fellow pilot *cough lover* is not in need of assistance .
"Lee? Lee... Apollo?" Bill calls quizzically into the phone.
However Lee’s already gone, having decided that Kara is very much in need and that pilot priorities come first.
Re: Ficlet: Sitting Tight. [Hope it's not too short]
Date: 2011-09-10 08:51 pm (UTC)Re: Ficlet: Sitting Tight. [Hope it's not too short]
Date: 2011-09-11 06:48 am (UTC)Re: Ficlet: Sitting Tight. [Hope it's not too short]
Date: 2011-09-10 11:08 pm (UTC)Re: Ficlet: Sitting Tight. [Hope it's not too short]
Date: 2011-09-11 06:47 am (UTC)*Starbuck and Lee naked smooches ensue*
A week later...
"Dunno why this keeps happening to us Dad, I mean, in the showers this time! Of all the bad luck." ;)
Re: Ficlet: Sitting Tight. [Hope it's not too short]
Date: 2011-09-11 01:35 am (UTC)Re: Ficlet: Sitting Tight. [Hope it's not too short]
Date: 2011-09-11 06:44 am (UTC)Next time, he finds an interesting way to bar the door to the ready room, but as his and Kara's getting locked in or stranded antics escalate, I think Adama starts to suspect something is going on ;)
Re: Ficlet: Sitting Tight. [Hope it's not too short]
Date: 2011-09-12 12:14 pm (UTC)Re: Ficlet: Sitting Tight. [Hope it's not too short]
Date: 2011-09-13 11:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-10 07:04 pm (UTC)I'll take getting swept off your feet. : )
no subject
Date: 2011-09-11 01:00 am (UTC)But my real reason for posting is to ask about 'teaching her how to dance.' Please share the existing (nonbad) fic of this nature with me :)
Actually, have any of you compiled a rec list type pile of cliche-fic? I'd loooove to explore these!
no subject
Date: 2011-09-11 01:59 am (UTC)When you're all alone, in a lonely room (BSG/Dirty Dancing) (http://pilots-presents.livejournal.com/23541.html)
As for other lists, I keep terrible bookmarks, but maybe someone will help you out. :)
no subject
Date: 2011-09-11 03:05 am (UTC)Oh, yes indeed, that is a thing of beauty! But....a single, wonderful story does not a trope make...I mean across all of fandom, maybe, but awwww....please tell me there's more! *begs*
no subject
Date: 2011-09-11 04:15 am (UTC)Save The Last Dance (http://pilots-presents.livejournal.com/13447.html) by
As Friends (http://hobviously.livejournal.com/135675.html) by
no subject
Date: 2011-09-11 06:22 am (UTC)That being said, one of the comms did a cliche-a-thon ages ago. Let me see if I can find it. Success! Here it is:
Cliche Ficathon masterlist: http://sasa-hq.livejournal.com/80709.html#cutid1
Also, to tell what each story is about, you need to look at the Prompts masterlist: http://sasa-hq.livejournal.com/49443.html
Enjoy!
no subject
Date: 2011-09-11 08:03 pm (UTC)I guess babyfic is as close as we get to AU, though it's not really my cup of tea (except for
no subject
Date: 2011-09-11 08:33 pm (UTC)love at first sight
candlelight dinner (though it was with Zak)
makeover
grand declaration of love
any others I missed? There's the drunken making out and buddycops-kissing during The Oath, but apart from that...
Faking It, Part 1
Date: 2011-09-12 01:08 am (UTC)Rating: PG-13
_
______________________
"Uh-huh. No way, Kara." He grinned. "You are not getting me to do any crazy-ass things in here. Not on Cloud Nine."
She giggled, knocking back the rest of her drink. "Come on, Lee. We're in civvie clothes, and I just want to see how long you can be left alone before someone slips you a number -"
"I don't want any numbers -"
"- or offers to buy you a drink, or..." she trailed off, fingertips resting on the rim of her glass, "...something."
He raised an eyebrow at her. "So you're going to leave me at the mercy of gods know who - Ellen Tigh, for all we know - just for kicks?"
Kara stepped off the barstool, grinning wickedly. "She's not here. I checked. Besides - " her expression softened, then shifted into something slightly more challenging. " - it'll be just like old times."
"Fine." Lee downed the rest of his drink, not wanting to think too much about just what (or who) he'd really wanted during those old times, times when Zak was still alive and Lee's constantly getting hit on in bars had been their running joke. "I'll do it."
She swayed slightly, then took a step closer, setting her hands on his shoulders. "And I promise I'll rescue you from the big bad girls if you really need it." She grinned again. "Or boys, for that matter."
"Shut up, Kara."
"Aye, aye, sir." she stuck her tongue out at him before disappearing into the crowd - probably headed to the dance floor, he thought absently.
"......hello?"
"Er....what?" Slightly dazed, it took Lee a few seconds to realize that the voice beside him was actually addressing him. "I'm sorry, ma'am, what were you saying?"
The owner of the voice turned out to be a girl in a red dress who looked so young that he wondered if she was even old enough to drink. Not that that would have ever stopped Kara....
"I was asking, is this seat taken?" she gestured to Kara's vacated seat, smiling at him.
"Oh, no." He looked from her to it. "Go ahead."
"Thanks." She settled herself in before turning to the bartender, who was wiping down their corner of the bar. " I'll have one of whatever he's having, please."
"I'm not having anything." Lee held up his empty glass.
"Oh, let me get you a drink."
"You don't have to do that - "
"I want to." She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, smiling again. "I haven't seen you around here before."
"I don't get out much." She'd better not be underage, he thought, or Kara would really give him hell -
Faking It, Part 2
Date: 2011-09-12 01:08 am (UTC)"Hey." Kara breathed against his ear, flushed and smelling slightly of sugar syrup and ambrosia. "Looks like you scored, Apollo."
"Took you long enough to come back." he grumbled, trying to ignore the way she was leaning into him.
"I timed you." she whispered, shifting so she was pressed up against his side. "Ninety-four seconds, Lee. Well done."
"You were watching?" he slid off the stool and turned to her, pulling her closer.
She nodded, eyes dancing. "That's a record."
"I think I'm done with breaking records for the day, Starbuck. And you," he tapped her forehead, "owe me a drink for this."
".....who's she ?" It took Lee a moment to realize that his (intended) new drinking buddy was addressing him, and another to realize she didn't look too happy. He turned to her, determined to put her out of her misery as gently as possible, but Kara got there before him.
"Nice one, Lee." She slung an arm around his shoulder, looking the other girl up and down. "Are you sure she's even old enough to be here?"
"Yes, I am!"
"And even if she is, she's too young for you." Lee's arm was around Kara's waist now, and he was struggling not to laugh.
"Am not!"
"Anyway, you're taken -" this was followed by a sharp gasp of outrage and then the click-clack of heels as the girl (he'd never even found out her name, Lee realized) stomped away and out of the bar.
He turned to Kara, who was now absently running her hands over the front of his shirt, apparently trying to smooth out the wrinkles. "Thanks, Starbuck."
She grinned at him. "Anytime."
"So now I'm taken, huh?" His thumbs were under the hem of her shirt now, rubbing slow circles into her hips.
"Yup." She slid her arms around his neck, her eyes greener than ever in the dim light.
"Care to tell me why?"
She took a step closer, pushing him up against the bar.
"Kara?" Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes glittering from ambrosia and adrenaline.
"Can't have you running around with the underage, Lee." She giggled.
Lee swallowed, wondering why the answer wasn't quite what he wanted. Though that wasn't surprising, coming from Kara.
"And -" her fingers were running through his hair now, and Lee was finding it hard to concentrate on the words - " I wanted to do this."
And before he could stop her or do any of the saner, more appropriate things he'd been used to doing in place of what he actually wanted, Kara was kissing him. Every other coherent thought fled his mind as he pulled her to him and kissed her back, nipping her bottom lip with his teeth, tasting the ambrosia on her tongue, feeling every nerve ending in his body shocked awake as her fingers tightened on his shoulders and his mind went blank from pure, dizzying pleasure.
They broke the kiss, and even though all Lee could think was we shouldn't, only a few breaths passed before they reached for each other again. The kisses this time were slower, softer, all searching hands and lips, and he could have kissed Kara forever, but after what felt like an eternity and still not long enough, he pulled back, resting his forehead against hers, breath slightly ragged.
It took a few moments before he could speak.
"We're drunk, Kara."
"Doesn't matter." She pulled him back to her, kissing his cheek, his jaw, his neck.
"We shouldn't." With a supreme effort of will, he stepped back. "Not like this."
"Lee - " But he was cupping her face now, looking into her eyes and trying not to feel a strange sense of pride at the way they widened, at the way her lips were swollen from their kisses.
"You wanted to do that?"
"I did."
It took Lee a minute before he could trust himself to speak.
"How do you feel about a repeat performance?"
She laughed and smacked him on the shoulder. "After that show you put on just now, Lee, there'd better be a lot more than just one."
Re: Faking It, Part 2
Date: 2011-09-12 01:58 am (UTC)Re: Faking It, Part 2
Date: 2011-09-12 11:21 am (UTC)Re: Faking It, Part 2
Date: 2011-09-12 12:16 pm (UTC)Very cute, them all giggly and drunk and slightly befuddled (in Lee's case).
Re: Faking It, Part 2
Date: 2011-09-12 12:24 pm (UTC)Re: Faking It, Part 2
Date: 2011-09-12 12:25 pm (UTC)Re: Faking It, Part 2
Date: 2011-09-12 12:48 pm (UTC)Re: Faking It, Part 2
Date: 2011-09-13 11:08 am (UTC)Re: Faking It, Part 2
Date: 2011-09-13 11:39 am (UTC)A Change in Plans [PG-13]
Date: 2011-09-12 02:46 am (UTC)It feels like only seconds, but his eyes snap open again. Raucous laughter comes from the common area. A woman's voice, throaty and loud rings overtop his roommate's. Lee flips back towards the window and pulls an extra pillow over his head. It does little to dampen the sound so he grits his teeth and tosses off the sheet.
He blinks and squints into the bright light of the hallway, the smacking of the soles of his feet sounding flatly against the walls. Tiredness rolls off him in waves as he stops at the end of the hall, his hands on his hips, showing what he knows is his pinched and pissed off expression. When his dark-haired roommate finally looks up, he pauses and grins. The blonde beside him, turns, too, a half-drunken smile on her face.
"What's up, man?" Jerry asks, lifting his beer and tilting it in Lee's direction.
"What's up is that I've got reveille at five frakking am tomorrow and a Policy exam after that. What time is it anyway?" His tone is sharp, voice roughened with sleep.
The blonde's staring at him, her smile dampening and one eyebrow raising as she looks him up and down. If he wasn’t so bleary-eyed with sleep, he might have appreciated the swell of her breast along the V of her black tank. Instead, he’s focused on his slacker roommate.
"Sorry, dude," Jerry says, elbowing his date, who leans towards him and whispers something between them. Lee watches Jerry chuckle and he stiffens, his tiredness quickly replaced by heightening anger.
The worst frakking roommate ever.
Lee grits his teeth and glares at them. "Man, if you're going to party, find a bar. I've got to sleep." With an irritated glower, he turns on his heel and walks back down the hall. The blonde's laughter follows him as he slams the bedroom door.
His body is vibrating as he drops back into the bed. Even when he hears the slamming of the front door, he still can't sleep.
Continued at my LJ... A Change in Plans (http://sci-fi-shipper.livejournal.com/85913.html)
Selective Memory, amnesia, PG-13
Date: 2011-09-12 05:38 am (UTC)She’s still unconscious.
Lee sits by her bed in the prison sickbay watching her sleep. When she’d walked into his arms six hours ago, Kara had been smiling, but Lee hadn’t missed the dark circles under her eyes or the slow, slightly lopsided gait as she’d walked towards him. He just hadn’t cared, because every brain cell had been screaming that Kara was alive, whole. Home. The rest, he thought, could wait.
Now, he knew that the slant to her walk was because she’d been in pain, hunching due to the stitches in her left side. Where those motherfrakking cylons had shot her. Helo had come down—after some commotion that he’d missed involving another copy of Boomer, and it was a good thing his arms had been full of Kara’s dead weight or he would gladly have put a bullet between this one’s eyes too—and told him about that and the farms and the rest of what they’d been through on Caprica. Kara’s fight for the arrow. The skinjob stealing the raider. Running into the Caprica Buccaneers putting up a resistance in the mountains.
And Sam Anders.
Sam frakking Anders.
Sam frakking Kara.
Lee took a deep breath and cleared his mind. It didn’t matter now. She was here; she was back. He grimaced. And she wouldn’t frakking wake up.
The prison medic had looked her over and said it was probably just the stress and the exhaustion. Her body had been through a lot in the past week, her mind even more. When Lee thought of her stuck in that frakking cylon baby farm… he clenched the edge of the rack, his knuckles turning white from the pressure, wanting to hit something.
Lee supposes he should be grateful, that Kara met someone who cared enough about her to risk his life to go with Helo to rescue her. But he can’t be grateful because he’s too busy feeling sick about what it means, that kind of sacrifice. He’s not a soldier. He’s a ball player, and if he was ready to waltz into a cylon hotbed to save her… it means he’s not just a hard bounce, this Anders. He can still see Helo shaking his head, his quiet calm voice saying, “She promised him to go back for him. I haven’t seen Kara that wrecked in a long time.”
Lee has, of course. He remembers how Kara was after Zak died, those dark fathomless days before the funeral. Bile rises in his throat for a thousand reasons and he forces himself to just stop. Stop thinking and just focus on Kara.
He lifts a hand to cover hers, which looks small and pale, curled against the dark, coarse blanket on the bed. A map of blue veins show under the thin skin of her forearm and he traces them over and over with one fingertip, absorbed by the sight, so delicate and incongruous with the Kara in his head.
Suddenly her arm jerks, twitching. Lee’s head snaps up and Kara’s eyelids are fluttering open. “Kara!”
“Are you frakking trying to tickle me?” Her voice sounds hoarse, even though she’s only been out for a few hours, and relief bubbles through him immediately, ending in a wellspout of nervous laughter.
“Gods, you’re awake! Thank- Thank gods.”
She blinks at him, looking groggy. “What the hell happened?”
“You fainted, Kara.”
“I’ve never frakking fainted in my life, Apollo.” Her eyes narrow, then she turns her head taking in the room. “And where the hell are we anyway? This isn’t Galactica!”
He blinks. “You did. And we’re on the Astral Queen. Don’t you--” His eyes widen. “Don’t you remember?
Read the rest at my LJ (http://taragel.livejournal.com/178982.html#cutid1)
Stay the night, I'll treat you right, forced bed sharing, R
Date: 2011-09-12 08:33 pm (UTC)Lee pushed the door open reluctantly and stopped in the doorway surveying the room, his face a picture of discomfort and disgust.
“Wow, this place is a real gem Lee, you sure know how to treat a girl right.”
Kara's voice in his ear made him jump a mile. She had moved close to him, looking over his shoulder into the last room left in the last motel on Gemenon. Just their luck that her old clap-trap junk-bucket of a car would choose Colonial Day weekend to conk out on them in the middle of nowhere.
“Well, it's either this or the back of your car, but the heat doesn't work and we're in the middle of the desert, so I kind of think this is the better choice, somehow.”
Inwardly, Lee cursed himself, he sounded pissy and accusatory, he knew, but he was tired, and hungry, and really didn't want to be trapped in a questionable motel room with Kara all night with only one bed.
Well, ok, he sort of did. But he shouldn't, which made the situation all the more torturous.
“All right, no need to get so touchy about it Lee, I'm just trying to lighten the mood a little.” Kara clapped him on the back and hoisted her bag higher up on her shoulder before pushing her way past him into the room.
Carelessly she flung the bag into the corner by the world's smallest television set and flopped backwards onto the bed, spreading her arms wide and swinging her feet.
Lee sighed and stepped further into the room, pushing the door closed behind him and stood awkwardly for a few moments trying to think of what to do next. Kara stretched her arms up over her head, her deep v-necked shirt pulling tightly across her breasts, revealing a small sliver of skin at the hem, the curve of her hip-bone. Lee averted his eyes, his stomach curling in that kind of warm, delicious way it did whenever she was around.
“Are you just gonna stand there all night?”
Glancing back towards the bed, Lee met Kara's eyes. She was leaning up on her elbows, pushing one shoe off with the toes of the other foot. When he didn't answer she raised her eyebrows at him, a bemused smile forming on her lips.
“I'm, uh,” Lee looked around the room and his eyes fell upon the door to the bathroom beyond the bed, “I'm gonna take a shower.”
For a moment his eyes focused on her lips, a slip of pink tongue flicking out onto her bottom lip. He really needed to get out of this room.
Stepping into the bathroom and closing the door firmly behind him, Lee leaned his head against the door and shut his eyes tight, pinched the bridge of his nose. He turned the shower on to the hottest it would go and stripped off his shirt and shorts, toed off his sandals and ducked under the spray.
Tipping his head upwards and letting the scalding water stream over him he tried to clear his mind of all things Kara Thrace. He had always been attracted to her, but these past few weeks since her and Zak had called off their relationship he had been finding it particularly hard to ignore just how much he was attracted to her.
He'd agreed to this road trip because she had told him she needed some fun, because Zak had asked him to make sure she stayed out of trouble now that she wouldn't let him do it, because Kara was his friend, too, and he'd missed spending time with her during the six months that she and Zak had basically holed themselves up in her apartment and frakked each other's brains out.
But they'd been out here on Gemenon for three weeks, in a car, random motel rooms, just the two of them, and Lee was finding it increasingly difficult to keep his desire for her in check. At least in all of the other places they'd had separate beds, but this was the only room left in this gods-forsaken dive of a motel, and there was only one bed.
Continued at my LJ (http://howlinchickhowl.livejournal.com/29877.html#cutid1)