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NaNo drabbles (Character insight)
Jan. 9th, 2007 06:56 pmSame idea as our original Angels Zodiac, some characters kept the same, some scrapped entirely, some shamelessly twisted to meet my own ends, and at least two made up out of whole cloth. Spot the old guys, Sarah-chan! 12 drabbles at 100 words each.
Aries
She’s a soldier. She knows war. She is war. She’s every war god ever invented, pale and black-winged, tall and imposing, armored and shining like the sun. She appears on battlefields to dying men; she isn’t supposed to, but it’s those moments that she finds most precious. She stands above them and doesn’t smile – that would be an insult – but takes grave joy in their lives and deaths.
Her sister can talk tactics and formations and atrocity all she wants, but she understands still less; war is beautiful, but the beauty lies not in the battlefield but in the soldier.
Capricorn
He’s a researcher, a scientist. His magic doesn’t have the wild, unstable elements the others’ has; he studies, and he experiments, and he is very, very subtle. He has limitations, yes, but when those are met he can do things they would never imagine.
The lioness values his memories. So does he. He puts them down on paper, so if the unthinkable happens and he loses them, his reincarnation will be able to find them again.
He knows the fighters find him frustrating, writing when he should be training; he doesn’t mind. This is his way of being a warrior.
Libra
She’s sociable. She keeps the others talking, and it’s hard, but she’s the only one who can. Some days she thinks it’s not worth it; some days she knows it’s the important thing; no matter what, she stays as calm, as friendly, as kind as she can.
She doesn’t let them see her doubt. She has gifts – she might be the most powerful of them all – but she’s not sure she knows what to do, so she doesn’t, and keeps her secrets to herself.
Close to her heart, where she keeps her love and her doubt, she keeps theirs too.
Cancer
She’s a healer. She was a warrior, but in one life or another she fell in love. She can’t remember him now. She can’t even remember her children. She does know, without remembering, that she swore then never to take another life.
She makes a study of white magic and trains up a younger healer, a mother who is allowed to know her children. She has been jealous of that, but it’s passed. The whole world, she thinks, is her child, and she loves it as such. Though it doesn’t often show its love for her, she knows it’s there.
Leo
She’s a leader, has been since she has memory, which is longer than most civilizations have histories. She remembers the rise of Rome and its fall too, but also the rise and fall of a million, a billion smaller empires, nations, cities. She can name them all, but rarely does.
They live in the back of her mind, tactics to use, situations to avoid, inspiration to fight. Her civilization – her world – her galaxy – her soldiers – will not fall, will not fail, so long as she rules. It’s not what is destined to happen, so it won’t. She won’t let it.
Taurus
She’s stubborn. She takes forever to make up her mind, but once she does there’s no changing it. She likes that in herself, so she sticks to her beliefs, and finds it strange that the others change so quickly.
She fights because she knows, a certainty hard as diamond, that they are in the right. They are justice, they are justified. She decided eons ago, she won’t change her mind now. Her magic responds to this, and she fights with her feet planted on stone that isn’t there.
The others look to her when they forget where the Earth is.
Aquarius
She is focused. It’s her nature to be solitary, and her duty to be perfect, so she is solitary and perfect. She does, rather than tries; she knows herself, and the universe, and how to change her place in it. The right butterfly, flapping its wings at the right time, causes catastrophe a million miles away. She doesn’t understand this however she tries but she feels it in her blood, in her fight, in her name.
She cannot change history herself, she knows that, but she can be the beginning of change, and so she makes sure that she is.
Scorpio
She’s a river, with rocks on the bottom. She’ll sink ships like the Sirens, and all the while look as peaceful as the sea. That’s her magic: looking at her, you would never guess how deep she runs. Her skill is in subtlety, her power is in misdirection.
She didn’t want to be here. She is passionate, independent, she takes direction badly if at all. This is not her fight.
She plots her revenge in rapids ten thousand feet down and keeps her surface calm, so calm, that they can’t even suspect that her spirit is as strong as theirs.
Sagittarius
He is torn. He wants to fight but, he hears, it’s not destined; he shouldn’t try to pick his battles. That was done before he was born.
He suspects that destiny isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and it seems he used to be right. He browses all of their libraries looking for histories. They used to be less strict about records, but then, they used to be less strict about a lot of things. Who could fight whom, to start.
His life can’t be written beforehand, anyhow. Not even the lioness can predict where fire will flicker next.
Virgo
She’s not tame. It’s even in the title they gave her, one she’s adopted as her name since she can’t pronounce her original one anymore. She growls when she speaks, she has golden eyes, and her hair stands out like a mane around her head. She couldn’t read until she recovered the memory of learning and she still hasn’t remembered how to write.
They tell her about her past incarnations, and how she’s always been beautiful. She wets her hair down and chooses soft words and glares at her reflection in the mirror.
Her eyes persistently refuse to turn brown.
Gemini
He’s mutable. It’s built right into his sign, his name, and he likes that, because he’s never been one for sameness. His powers are all about chaos. He likes computers because he appreciates the challenge of predicting where his own magic will take him. He’s not managed it yet; he wishes humans more luck.
He sometimes plays with rain and wind and thunder, floods deserts, erodes mountains, or he starts to anyway. Where the spell goes after he’s cast it isn’t under his control, and he stands in awe of what he’s built. Then he does it again, but differently.
Pisces
He’s too gentle. He’s been told this. He’s been told he’ll never make a fighter, and his skills as a healer don’t exist. He’s the youngest by two thousand years; maybe this has something to do with it.
He doesn’t let himself mind, and he turns to studying, so that if he can’t be helpful now he’ll be helpful later. It takes him a millennium to find the spell that lets him pull a scry out of the ether. He’s an excellent prophet, they always tell him. He doesn’t tell them he sees the future because he’s escaping the present.
Aries
She’s a soldier. She knows war. She is war. She’s every war god ever invented, pale and black-winged, tall and imposing, armored and shining like the sun. She appears on battlefields to dying men; she isn’t supposed to, but it’s those moments that she finds most precious. She stands above them and doesn’t smile – that would be an insult – but takes grave joy in their lives and deaths.
Her sister can talk tactics and formations and atrocity all she wants, but she understands still less; war is beautiful, but the beauty lies not in the battlefield but in the soldier.
Capricorn
He’s a researcher, a scientist. His magic doesn’t have the wild, unstable elements the others’ has; he studies, and he experiments, and he is very, very subtle. He has limitations, yes, but when those are met he can do things they would never imagine.
The lioness values his memories. So does he. He puts them down on paper, so if the unthinkable happens and he loses them, his reincarnation will be able to find them again.
He knows the fighters find him frustrating, writing when he should be training; he doesn’t mind. This is his way of being a warrior.
Libra
She’s sociable. She keeps the others talking, and it’s hard, but she’s the only one who can. Some days she thinks it’s not worth it; some days she knows it’s the important thing; no matter what, she stays as calm, as friendly, as kind as she can.
She doesn’t let them see her doubt. She has gifts – she might be the most powerful of them all – but she’s not sure she knows what to do, so she doesn’t, and keeps her secrets to herself.
Close to her heart, where she keeps her love and her doubt, she keeps theirs too.
Cancer
She’s a healer. She was a warrior, but in one life or another she fell in love. She can’t remember him now. She can’t even remember her children. She does know, without remembering, that she swore then never to take another life.
She makes a study of white magic and trains up a younger healer, a mother who is allowed to know her children. She has been jealous of that, but it’s passed. The whole world, she thinks, is her child, and she loves it as such. Though it doesn’t often show its love for her, she knows it’s there.
Leo
She’s a leader, has been since she has memory, which is longer than most civilizations have histories. She remembers the rise of Rome and its fall too, but also the rise and fall of a million, a billion smaller empires, nations, cities. She can name them all, but rarely does.
They live in the back of her mind, tactics to use, situations to avoid, inspiration to fight. Her civilization – her world – her galaxy – her soldiers – will not fall, will not fail, so long as she rules. It’s not what is destined to happen, so it won’t. She won’t let it.
Taurus
She’s stubborn. She takes forever to make up her mind, but once she does there’s no changing it. She likes that in herself, so she sticks to her beliefs, and finds it strange that the others change so quickly.
She fights because she knows, a certainty hard as diamond, that they are in the right. They are justice, they are justified. She decided eons ago, she won’t change her mind now. Her magic responds to this, and she fights with her feet planted on stone that isn’t there.
The others look to her when they forget where the Earth is.
Aquarius
She is focused. It’s her nature to be solitary, and her duty to be perfect, so she is solitary and perfect. She does, rather than tries; she knows herself, and the universe, and how to change her place in it. The right butterfly, flapping its wings at the right time, causes catastrophe a million miles away. She doesn’t understand this however she tries but she feels it in her blood, in her fight, in her name.
She cannot change history herself, she knows that, but she can be the beginning of change, and so she makes sure that she is.
Scorpio
She’s a river, with rocks on the bottom. She’ll sink ships like the Sirens, and all the while look as peaceful as the sea. That’s her magic: looking at her, you would never guess how deep she runs. Her skill is in subtlety, her power is in misdirection.
She didn’t want to be here. She is passionate, independent, she takes direction badly if at all. This is not her fight.
She plots her revenge in rapids ten thousand feet down and keeps her surface calm, so calm, that they can’t even suspect that her spirit is as strong as theirs.
Sagittarius
He is torn. He wants to fight but, he hears, it’s not destined; he shouldn’t try to pick his battles. That was done before he was born.
He suspects that destiny isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and it seems he used to be right. He browses all of their libraries looking for histories. They used to be less strict about records, but then, they used to be less strict about a lot of things. Who could fight whom, to start.
His life can’t be written beforehand, anyhow. Not even the lioness can predict where fire will flicker next.
Virgo
She’s not tame. It’s even in the title they gave her, one she’s adopted as her name since she can’t pronounce her original one anymore. She growls when she speaks, she has golden eyes, and her hair stands out like a mane around her head. She couldn’t read until she recovered the memory of learning and she still hasn’t remembered how to write.
They tell her about her past incarnations, and how she’s always been beautiful. She wets her hair down and chooses soft words and glares at her reflection in the mirror.
Her eyes persistently refuse to turn brown.
Gemini
He’s mutable. It’s built right into his sign, his name, and he likes that, because he’s never been one for sameness. His powers are all about chaos. He likes computers because he appreciates the challenge of predicting where his own magic will take him. He’s not managed it yet; he wishes humans more luck.
He sometimes plays with rain and wind and thunder, floods deserts, erodes mountains, or he starts to anyway. Where the spell goes after he’s cast it isn’t under his control, and he stands in awe of what he’s built. Then he does it again, but differently.
Pisces
He’s too gentle. He’s been told this. He’s been told he’ll never make a fighter, and his skills as a healer don’t exist. He’s the youngest by two thousand years; maybe this has something to do with it.
He doesn’t let himself mind, and he turns to studying, so that if he can’t be helpful now he’ll be helpful later. It takes him a millennium to find the spell that lets him pull a scry out of the ether. He’s an excellent prophet, they always tell him. He doesn’t tell them he sees the future because he’s escaping the present.