Six Sentence Sunday: Holes in the Brick Route: Victory Ball

Holes in the Brick Route: Victory Ball

BookWorm's Library | Ao3

Someone needed to bleed and right now. DG’s hands both fisted on the nearest ruffle, but she didn’t rip the pink monstrosity off. Her butterflies over her official introduction to the realm in celebration of their victory at the Eclipse collided together to form a Japanese robot of dread now marching in her stomach. No, she couldn’t face her adoring public in pink making her skin crawl.

---

Summary: None of this was worth a lousy medal.

In Chapter Eighteen of Tin Man: Dragons and Ninjas, I got the idea to do something cute. The miniseries flashbacks all had young DG dressed in reds and pinks while adult DG wore blue in homage to the original Dorothy Gale. When I realized she wore a pink velvet dress when she was killed by Azkadellia and brought back to life by the Queen and she also had reoccurring nightmares of what had happened in the O.Z., I thought giving her a loathing of the color pink made perfect sense. This story was written for tm_challenge Round 12A: Honored, but with only two submissions no prizes were awarded. I hope you enjoy it.

Six Sentence Sunday: Holes in the Brick Route: Don't Know What the Other Hands Are Doing

Holes in the Brick Route: Don't Know What the Other Hands Are Doing

BookWorm's Library | Ao3

The dark-haired woman glanced scornfully at her younger companion in the shadows of the alley. The younger eyes were focused on the drama surrounding the log of prisoners and missed it.

"What you did was stick your six, greedy, little hands into something far bigger than a bounty. Get rid of her."

"What? No! Zero, don't do this! Give me my money. Zero!"

Tempestofnight crossed her arms as she focused on the instructions between the General and another Longcoat. "Never trust a Longcoat. Airofday should have known better,” she told her younger sister.

---

Summary: What happened to Airofday when the Longcoats dragged her away?

This story was written for tm_challenge Round 7: One-Hit Wonder back on February 8, 2010. It is a deleted scene in Part Three of the Tin Man miniseries, inspired by the image of the two other women in the window with Airofday. It won third place in the challenge. I hope you enjoy this story.

Six Sentence Sunday: Holes in the Brick Route: Where Did That Come From

Holes in the Brick Route: Where Did That Come From

BookWorm's Library | Ao3

Glitch fed the branch into the tiny stove before surveying the back compartment of the wagon again. Cain was sleeping under all the blankets. The wind wasn't beating as hard against the sides of the wagon now.

DG was gone, taken. Azkadellia said the Slipper had something the Sorceress needed. His finger brushed against the chilly metal of his zipper. They had time before headcasing, hopefully.

---

Summary: How did Glitch and Cain get to the Sorceress' Tower so quickly?

This missing scene from Part Two of the Tin Man miniseries was written for tm_challenge Round 11A: Things Unseen. I wanted to answer the question of how Glitch and Cain got to the Sorceress' Tower so quickly. It won third place. I hope you enjoy this story.

Six Sentence Sunday: Nonestic Tales: Making Whole

Nonestic Tales: Making Whole

BookWorm's Library | Ao3

The flight of the Scarab over Shifting Sands and the Nonestic Ocean past the Isle of Yew to the kingdom of Wonderland gave Azkadellia plenty of time to think. So she sat beside the pilot, stared out the glass of the flying vehicle, and found she couldn't stop thinking about her traveling companion. Yes, that man watching the mechanics of this vehicle partly because it fascinated him but mostly because it put him on the opposite side of the compartment from her.

He would have much rather buried himself in his laboratory after their confessions to each other, but her mother had insisted he be part of this official envoy to Wonderland. A new monarchy had asked for help, and the kingdom was outside the Sorceress' sphere of influence. Azkadellia and Ambrose would make the perfect ambassadorial team. "And please, my dear Azkadellia, keep a more open mind than your sister. The Ten of Clubs said his King is unmarried."

---

Summary: Lovers at odds seem to end up in Wonderland, but does this realm have a way to give Azkadellia what she wants no matter how hard Ambrose objects?

Pirates of the Nonestic (BookWorm's Library | Ao3) was supposed to be a one-shot novel. Then Tin Man Crossover Fanfiction issued its first Crossover Challenge. Catyuy had asked me nicely for an Ambrose/Azkadellia-centric story eventually, when I got less busy, so there was the Tin Man half. How do they meet Wonderland and Alice and Hatter back on Earth? It didn't take me long to figure that out once I realized I could use all the worldbuilding I had done in Pirates of the Nonestic to put Wonderland on a different continent of the same planet. I hope you enjoy this story and the Nonestic Tales series.

Six Sentence Sunday: Nonestic Tales: Pirates of the Nonestic

Nonestic Tales: Pirates of the Nonestic

BookWorm's Library | Ao3

Wyatt Cain cantered through the gates into the Royal Palace's compound. The Royal Army hadn't finished renovating the former Longcoat headquarters, but the Palace next to the barracks gleamed in the suns. He wondered which tower housed DG before shaking his head. A lowly Tin Man--even if he was a hero of the realm--shouldn't be concerned about such matters. He cast one more glare at the Palace before stopping his horse in front of the guard on duty. He tilted his fedora as he looked down at the uniformed young man. "Commander Wyatt Cain to see Captain Cain."

---

Summary: Away from the familiar O.Z., the runaway Princess and the Tin Man join Captain "Blood-rage" Betsy Bobbins' quest and cross swords with sullen pirates, the navy out to stop Bobbins, and a legendary evil lurking in the Nonestic Ocean.

The second story in the Nonestic Tales series takes place an annual (year) after the Tin Man miniseries. DG runs away from the princess gig and Cain is sent after her, and they end up outside the borders of the Outer Zone with pirates. Because nearly everything is better with pirates!

On a more serious note, this is the story where all my headcanons began to bounce around and really expand the worldbuilding. I pulled from L. Frank Baum's original Oz series, Gregory Maguire's Wicked series, and a fascinating movie adaptation of Return to Oz from 1985 that also traumatized many of its viewers. I ended up making a more detailed history timeline than I normally do, making maps to illustrate the changes to the landscape between what we know of Oz and what the miniseries portrayed as the Outer Zone, and finally detailing out the solar system the best I could so I could figure out the calendar. I hope you enjoy this novel and the series it is a part of.

Six Sentence Sunday: Nonestic Tales: What Memories Can Bring

Nonestic Tales: What Memories Can Bring

BookWorm's Library | Ao3

She propped her head on her elbow and considered the nude man standing at the large window. The glow beyond the glass tinted his scarred muscles and fair hair green. Heat pooled in her belly as she remembered how those strong limbs had tangled with hers on this bed. But he seemed content to expose his glory to Central City below. "I married as exhibitionist."

His lips stretched into a grin. "Only for you."

---

Summary: Now I see you standing with brown leaves falling around and snow in your hair. Now you're smiling out the window of that crummy hotel over Washington Square. Our breath comes out white clouds, mingles and hangs in the air. Speaking strictly for me, we both could have died then and there.

This short prequel story to the Tin Man miniseries had two germinating ideas. The first developed from my analysis of a scene we get in the miniseries:

So later after Jeb has said Zero killed Adora, after seeing Jeb has his own suit with his camp (and that must have made packing in a hurry a bitch. I hope it came in handy with interrogation sessions.), Cain has a nightmare of finding a time loop projection of Adora's death. Not even her real death, a projection of it! *Pause to snuggle issues!Cain*

Okay, so now that we've established that we interpret these two scenes through Cain's macho POV, here comes the question that popped into my head. What if Adora was the one in the suit?

The second germinating idea was hear "Diamonds and Rust" by Blackmore's Night. The lyrics were haunting and for me fitted perfectly for a woman who lost her husband and the pain involved in the memories. And the story grew from there. I have linked it directly to the Nonestic Tales series, but it also works as a prequel for Dragons and Ninjas, Not His Kink, and Alchemy. Content warning for a suicide. I hope you enjoy this story.

Six Sentence Sunday: Wars Are Won By Those Who Dare: Turbo

Wars Are Won By Those Who Dare: Turbo

BookWorm's Library | Ao3

"You sure are going to a lot of trouble." Vinnie leaned against the bathroom's doorjamb, and watched Throttle buttoning the black, long-sleeved shirt. "You two should be way past the bribing into her pants stage."

Throttle rolled his cybernetic eyes. Who in the universe picked me to teach Vinnie about relationships? "Trust me, it's easier if you keep the lady happy. Charley wants to go to this concert, and I want Charley happy."

---

Summary: Turbo arrives in Chicago, and secrets Throttle has kept buried for most of his life now threaten Charley.

Let Us Give Thanks (BookWorm's Library | Ao3) ended up being my headcanons about Charley's past, but Turbo was all about my Throttle headcanons from the start. His past, other than dating Carbine, hadn't been established by the show, so we know even less than what we know about Modo and Vinnie. And I had a blast filling in some blanks and writing the bros before the Plutarkian-Martian War. I hope you enjoy the story, and the rest of the series.

Six Sentence Sunday: Evil Jack: For Worse

Evil Jack: For Worse

BookWorm's Library | Ao3

Hannah Davidson leaned her back against the wall of her mother's garage. The sun shone down on her knees. Her uncles told her to guard the bag of kitty litter that towered over her head. But they just wanted her to watch while they played.

Uncle Modo revved his purple bike near the end of the block. The tires hit the puddle of oil in front of the Last Chance, but he controlled the skid heading for the bottle.

---

Summary: Jack returns to Chicago determined to use Charley and Throttle's drunken mistake to destroy the Biker Mice.

This story finally deals with the Vinnie-Charley-Throttle triangle that has been hovering in the background of the Evil Jack series (until the characters decided to change things up in the future on me--authors, always the last to know). And Jack makes his reappearance to cause deadly trouble. I hope you enjoy the story and the series.