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five Gundam Wing / Temeraire fusion ficlets
So I was reading Temeraire fics (for those of you who don't know, it's a series of books about, basically, the Napoleon wars. With dragons.) And then the crossover bug bit me again.
Gundam Wing. With dragons.
I'm going to write some more in this 'verse, I think. These are just quick introductions.
1.
She'd been bred for reentry, harnessed specifically for that single instant when, kicking free of the shuttle, she would drop like a stone into Earth's gravity well, straight past all those sensors barring the way to metal and ceramics.
None of her trainers had told her it would feel as if up until that day she had never truly flown.
None of her trainers had told her it would be beautiful.
She plummeted through space, wings closed tight and neck and tail angled just right. She'd practiced and practiced for days and months and forever for this, when she slept in zero-gravity it was the stance she took, perfectly aerodynamic, but for the first time she felt the strain of it, the insistent tugging of contrary forces, turbulences she sliced through even as they pulled at her, and the rush and the speed left her blind with exultation.
In the back of her mind she calculated trajectories and timing and reentry speeds and terminal velocity, and she waited and waited for the order to open her wings and slow, and the longer it didn't come and the stronger she loved her rider for loving the terrifying exhilaration of free fall as insanely as she did.
2.
"See," he said, thrown negligently over his shoulder, "If you'd crushed my egg we could never have done this."
His partner laughed, head thrown back, teeth bared. He growled out a laugh to match, and dove until the tips of his wings skimmed the water, and he roared his challenge to the sea.
Here. This is mine, this wave and the next and the next, it's all mine and I'll fight you for it.
When his partner yelled his own war cry -- puny, puny -- and freed a hand from the reins to pump it at the sky, he flipped around and dumped him off the saddle into the sea.
3.
She didn't mind plodding along on the ground, going up and down and up mounds and slopes it might have taken her three seconds to fly past. She walked alongside her handler, wings furled, taking one step for the five he jogged.
They watched the scenery, green trees and tiny, tiny birds and a tiny strip of water flowing freely right there on the ground for anyone to take or bathe in. (Not that she could have put more than a foot in it, but it was the principle of the thing.) It was a lot like what he'd told her about, it wasn't new to him, but he seemed content nonetheless. He hadn't touched his gun for at least two minutes.
"That lake didn't seem so far away, from the sky," she mused, tail swishing.
She didn't mind the trip.
4.
"Oh god, it's hot, why is it so hot. You brought me here on false pretenses."
His friend laughed, hair matted and dark with sweat so that it hardly gleamed like gold anymore. He harrumphed, groomed one of his wings pointedly and then gave in and draped it over his head to make a little shade. In a matter of minutes the heat under his wing was suffocating and he had to emerge again.
"I was bred for space!" he muttered. "Thicker skin to retain heat for days on end in hard vacuum! Not that my lungs would hold out that long, mind, serious design flaw there. And where do you bring me? A desert. A desert! I admit, it's very interesting how much the décor matches, though having your tail clambered on because it resembles a small dune is a bit disconcerting; but the heat!"
He took a big, dramatic pause, flicked the end of his tail in an elaborate pattern the likes he had seen people do with their hands. His friend laughed again, patted his muzzle.
"I'm sure we could build you a tent. A couple of poles, a light cloth, open sides to let the breeze in..."
He oozed all over his warm, warm rock and dug his claws in delicious warm sand, defensive and wary, though it had been months since he was small enough to be moved bodily. "No, thank you."
5.
She had been named Long Shen Kai, even though she did not belong to the Shen breed in any strict sense. She was told her dam had been. The rest of her... Experiments. The other dragons had whispered it wherever she went. She was a thief of bloodlines, the noblest Celestial blood stolen and marred with wild, uncouth Kazilik and that plodding mutt in white scales.
Now she was named nothing and answered to nothing, not even to his voice when he attempted to call her the name her true rider had used, and she wished more of her robe had inherited her false-sire's mourning colors, but the rest of her would be jade until she died.
She would never answer to Nataku again, and she wasn't going to live until her robe faded.
Gundam Wing. With dragons.
I'm going to write some more in this 'verse, I think. These are just quick introductions.
1.
She'd been bred for reentry, harnessed specifically for that single instant when, kicking free of the shuttle, she would drop like a stone into Earth's gravity well, straight past all those sensors barring the way to metal and ceramics.
None of her trainers had told her it would feel as if up until that day she had never truly flown.
None of her trainers had told her it would be beautiful.
She plummeted through space, wings closed tight and neck and tail angled just right. She'd practiced and practiced for days and months and forever for this, when she slept in zero-gravity it was the stance she took, perfectly aerodynamic, but for the first time she felt the strain of it, the insistent tugging of contrary forces, turbulences she sliced through even as they pulled at her, and the rush and the speed left her blind with exultation.
In the back of her mind she calculated trajectories and timing and reentry speeds and terminal velocity, and she waited and waited for the order to open her wings and slow, and the longer it didn't come and the stronger she loved her rider for loving the terrifying exhilaration of free fall as insanely as she did.
2.
"See," he said, thrown negligently over his shoulder, "If you'd crushed my egg we could never have done this."
His partner laughed, head thrown back, teeth bared. He growled out a laugh to match, and dove until the tips of his wings skimmed the water, and he roared his challenge to the sea.
Here. This is mine, this wave and the next and the next, it's all mine and I'll fight you for it.
When his partner yelled his own war cry -- puny, puny -- and freed a hand from the reins to pump it at the sky, he flipped around and dumped him off the saddle into the sea.
3.
She didn't mind plodding along on the ground, going up and down and up mounds and slopes it might have taken her three seconds to fly past. She walked alongside her handler, wings furled, taking one step for the five he jogged.
They watched the scenery, green trees and tiny, tiny birds and a tiny strip of water flowing freely right there on the ground for anyone to take or bathe in. (Not that she could have put more than a foot in it, but it was the principle of the thing.) It was a lot like what he'd told her about, it wasn't new to him, but he seemed content nonetheless. He hadn't touched his gun for at least two minutes.
"That lake didn't seem so far away, from the sky," she mused, tail swishing.
She didn't mind the trip.
4.
"Oh god, it's hot, why is it so hot. You brought me here on false pretenses."
His friend laughed, hair matted and dark with sweat so that it hardly gleamed like gold anymore. He harrumphed, groomed one of his wings pointedly and then gave in and draped it over his head to make a little shade. In a matter of minutes the heat under his wing was suffocating and he had to emerge again.
"I was bred for space!" he muttered. "Thicker skin to retain heat for days on end in hard vacuum! Not that my lungs would hold out that long, mind, serious design flaw there. And where do you bring me? A desert. A desert! I admit, it's very interesting how much the décor matches, though having your tail clambered on because it resembles a small dune is a bit disconcerting; but the heat!"
He took a big, dramatic pause, flicked the end of his tail in an elaborate pattern the likes he had seen people do with their hands. His friend laughed again, patted his muzzle.
"I'm sure we could build you a tent. A couple of poles, a light cloth, open sides to let the breeze in..."
He oozed all over his warm, warm rock and dug his claws in delicious warm sand, defensive and wary, though it had been months since he was small enough to be moved bodily. "No, thank you."
5.
She had been named Long Shen Kai, even though she did not belong to the Shen breed in any strict sense. She was told her dam had been. The rest of her... Experiments. The other dragons had whispered it wherever she went. She was a thief of bloodlines, the noblest Celestial blood stolen and marred with wild, uncouth Kazilik and that plodding mutt in white scales.
Now she was named nothing and answered to nothing, not even to his voice when he attempted to call her the name her true rider had used, and she wished more of her robe had inherited her false-sire's mourning colors, but the rest of her would be jade until she died.
She would never answer to Nataku again, and she wasn't going to live until her robe faded.
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I love you. Just want you to know that.
I adore the Temeraire books, and this is a fantastic blend of them. Not only Gundam Wing with dragons, but Gundam Wing with space dragons!!!
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And dragons would be rather useless in GWverse if they couldn't go into space. u.u~
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Nnng pleasedo. *¬*
I'm kind of a rabid Naomi Novik fan--I was raised on Anne McCaffrey, and really, Novik is doing for the genre now what McCaffrey did back in the day, taking dragons and doing something cool and different and splashy and doing it so well that you can't help but stare--and I'm really not familiar with GW at all, pretty much all I know of it comes from your offhand mentions in posts and that one Stargate crossover, but but but aaah spacedragons. Just. Just. Novik's deliciously rich style of setting and detail and space dragons. It's what Anne McCaffrey hinted at doing but never took to its full potential and and and. You're awesome enough of a fanfic writer to carry this cross-concept out so beautifully.
(...and and and the suggestions of backstory! The wistfulness, and the sense of wonder, and the cutting hints of tragedy, and the camaraderie, and Nataku/Long Shen Kai's icy dignity in mourning that's such a Celestial thing to do à la Lien, and. Um. In Tarzan terms: you good write, me want read. XD;; )
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♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
nghyesdragons.
perfect matches for the pilots
Please please continue? I just read His Majesty's Dragon a couple weeks back (really need to find the others...) and still haven't read much Temeraire fic.
Re: perfect matches for the pilots
I'm not sure how much Wing is aware of Heero's suicidal tendencies. XD; Likely she knows but tries not to know... >__>
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I didn't even know I needed this until now.
Oh my God, this is why I love your brain.
*awesomeness overload*
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♥
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Should I take my clothes off for this? I could, if you want.
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Oh, these are wonderful! Dragons IN SPACE!!! I love the personalities you've given the dragons, the hints of backstory, and the teases of the way they interact with their riders. Please, please write more.
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oh god ten pages of fic today. my arms hurt. I am not even joking. DX
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I haven't actually read the Temeraire books yet, but I have read crossover fics that I enjoyed, and I like the idea, and this promises to be verry interesting.
Also, space dragons = Win!, and the characterisation here is awesome, the dragons just *fit* with their pilots/riders, and eee, I wanna see more =)))
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♥ ~
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I've only read to book three of Temeraire. Ah, time. However- that detracts nothing from this it all made perfect sense. Perfect, sparkly, dragon-y sense.
*stares* Dragons. You're writing dragons.Dragons and princesses are what made me fall in love with reading.
And they're so possesive. You try and tell a dragon to stop collecting 'special' people...*incoherent mad love*
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You don't need to have read any farther, I think, apart maybe for some species I might mention but seriously it'll be explained in-text anyway. And the Temeraire wiki is pretty awesome.
Dragons are so so so awesome. Love dragons. Draaaaagons. T^T
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I'll get to the wiki as soon as I finish reading the series. I might have put the rest of the series on hold at the library. Maybe.
Another dragon lover! Yeeesss.
Saves me the time corrupting you to them.*huggles*no subject
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Vathara also wrote a one-shot with Himura Kenshin getting adopted by a dragon some time ago, but it felt more teaser-like than like a whole story to me.
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also, you MUST WRITE THIS so I can lust all over it after I read fiction.
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and yes! At least the first book. ^^ the worldbuilding is amazing.
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