Thursday: Mystery

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Hello, everyone. I’m brumeier and this week we’ll be taking a leisurely stroll through the book stacks of whichever bookstore or library you’d prefer. All our themes will be book categories, and prompts can be anything related to that category – book titles, lyrics, one-word prompts…you get the idea! Today’s theme is Mystery!

Just a few rules:
No more than five prompts in a row.
No more than three prompts in the same fandom.
Use the character's full names and fandom's full name for ease adding to the Lonely Prompts spreadsheet.
No spoilers in prompts for a month after airing, or use the spoiler cut option found here.
If your fill contains spoilers, warn and leave plenty of space, or use the above-mentioned spoiler cut.

Prompts should be formatted as follows: [Use the character's full names and fandom's full name]
Fandom, Character +/ Character, Prompt

Some examples to get the ball rolling...

+ Marvel Cinematic Universe, Any, Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy, by Nicholas Reynolds

+ Spooks|MI5, Any, Murder 101 (The Sentinel)

+ Astro, any +/any, something’s gone missing in the dormitory

We are now using AO3 to bookmark filled prompts. If you fill a prompt and post it to AO3 please add it to the Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2022 collection. See further notes on this new option here.

Not feeling any of today’s prompts? Check out the just created Lonely Prompts Spreadsheet. For more recent prompts to write, you can also use LJ’s advanced search options to limit keyword results to only comments in this community.

While the Lonely Prompts Spreadsheet and LJ's advanced search options are available, bookmarking the links of prompts you like might work better for searching for in the future.

tag=mystery

Comments

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Marvel Cinematic Universe, Any, Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy, by Nicholas Reynolds

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Spooks|MI5, Any, Murder 101 (The Sentinel)

Fill:

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

The team from Section D watched as the two security officers broke down the door. It finally opened sufficiently to reveal their contact lying dead on the floor.

Ros stepped into the room. “I’m not going to accept this is a locked room mystery. There has to be a logical explanation.”

“Who first alerted us to the door being locked?” Lucas asked.

“Gossling, the CIA agent,” Jo replied. “He said he’d tried the door and he heard the key fall out of the lock when he banged on it.”

“Very convenient for the CIA that Walters is dead,” Adam remarked drily.

“Entirely,” Lucas agreed. “And look where the key is lying. There’s no way it would have landed there if Gossling had knocked it out while banging on the door. Nor could it have been pushed that far when the door was opened, because it was prevented from doing so by the coat which had fallen behind it.”

“I’ll let Harry know.” She called Harry, who was predictably unimpressed. “Harry says he’ll contact the CIA and tell them to come and clear up their own mess. And in the meantime we’re to see if there’s anything useful they’ve left behind.”

They all started looking and a few minutes later Lucas gave an exclamation. “Got it!” he said. “Slipped under the mattress.”

“Right let’s get out before company arrives,” Ros said. “We’ll leave the security officer on the door to liaise with the CIA. That should cheer Harry up.”

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Astro, any +/any, something’s gone missing in the dormitory

Fill 1/2: ensemble, gen

[nagi-schwarz.livejournal.com]

“Hey, where’s my food?” Sanha asked.

“Did it get pushed behind someone else’s?” Minhyuk whizzed past in a whirlwind of coming his hair and fixing his uniform tie.

Jinwoo and Myungjun were still asleep, on account of them not having to go to school.

Bin could have also been asleep, but he had some vocal training to get to. He shuffled toward the bathroom door and saw that it was shut. He needed to get his contacts in.

“No,” Sanha said, a whine in his voice. “None of the food is here.”

That woke Bin up. “What?”

Minhyuk was beside Sanha a moment later. “Heol! All the food we bought last night on the way back home from practice is gone!”

Bin shouldered his way between them and stared at the empty fridge. “What the hell?”

“Yah!” Myungjun staggered out of the four-man bedroom. “Why are you being so noisy?”

“Hyung! All our food is gone.” Minhyuk turned to him, wide-eyed.

Myungjun, as the maknae in his family, often played the cute little maknae alongside Sanha, but something about Minhyuk made his hyung tendencies come to life. “What? Did someone throw it all away?” He crowded close to Minhyuk, arm around his shoulders comfortingly.

Sanha poked in the garbage can. “No. Someone ate it. Here’s the containers.” He spun around and glared at Bin. “You - you sleep in the den when it’s hot sometimes.”

“It wasn’t me,” Bin said. “I slept in the bedroom last night. I heard Dongmin come in, and he woke me up when he left too.”

Dongmin was three times as busy as the rest of them these days, came home later and left earlier. He was more like a ghost than a roommate or teammate.

“Do you think Dongmin-hyung ate our food?” Sanha asked, but he sounded doubtful.

He was too polite for that.

“I’ll ask him.” Bin fired off a text.

Hey, we bought food last night from the convenience store and were saving it for breakfast. It’s all gone. Did you eat it?

No, was the immediate reply. Sorry.

“He said he didn’t do it,” Bin told the others.

Minhyuk pushed Sanha in the direction of the bedroom. “Go get your uniform on. Hyung’ll buy you triangle kimbap on the way to school. But we gotta go - we’re gonna be late.”

Sanha nodded and hurried to get dressed.

Bin went to clean up for the day, and he scooted out the door as Myungjun went back to bed.

Several hours later, Jinwoo exploded into the group chat.

Yah! Where’s all the food?

Myungjun filled him in on the mystery.

There was some more angry chatter, but then all was forgotten as people went about their schedules.

Only it happened again.

They went to the convenience store as a team - the five of them, at any rate, poor Dongmin still on a solo schedule - and bought food for breakfast the next morning, they went back to the dorm, they put it in the fridge, and they went to bed.

And in the morning, it was gone.

Everyone was in a mood after that, because no one had time for breakfast on account of an early-morning practice and then Minhyuk and Sanha having to get to school and Jinwoo and Myungjun and Bin heading for solo schedules as well.

It was with much suspicion that they bought breakfast again that night and put it in the fridge, and then they went to bed.

In the middle of the night, Bin woke, because the bedroom was too hot.

He rolled out of the top bunk and padded into the den and sprawled on the couch, blissful in the coolness, and he slept.

He woke when someone put in the door code. Dongmin shuffled into the dorm, exhaustion writ into every line of his body. He toed off his shoes, slouched into the kitchen, and opened the fridge.

He grabbed a container of food, plopped down on one of the stools at the kitchen counter, and ate.

And ate.

And ate.

He ate all five boxes of food.

And the entire time, he cried. Softly, soundlessly, tears slipping down his face.

Bin watched and felt helpless, but he didn’t move, didn’t make a sound.

Once Dongmin was finished eating, he cleared away the rubbish, still sniffling, and shuffled into the bedroom he shared with Bin. He didn’t even bother to close the door, just collapsed onto his bed fully dressed, and was out like a light a moment later.

Damn. Dongmin was working himself into the ground.

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Any Book Fandom, Any, The House on the Cliff, by Franklin W. Dixon

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Stargate Atlantis, Evan Lorne/David Parrish, David acts as a sleuth when mysterious things are happening in the greenhouse

[ami-ven.livejournal.com]

Any procedural fandom, ensemble, kid detective AU

Fill 1/3: The Sentinel, Jim Ellison + Steven Ellison + Simon Banks + Blair Sandburg

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Jimmy was sitting in the tree in the backyard, reading Call of the Wild with his back up against the trunk and one leg dangling off the thick branch he liked to use as a chair.

He liked it up there, where it was quiet and shady. It was never quiet for long, though.

“Jimmy!” Steven came tearing around the side of the house. “I saw it again!”

With a sigh, Jimmy slid his bookmark between the pages and closed his book. He loved his little brother, he really did, but Steven didn’t know how to appreciate the quiet. He always had to be doing something and, since there were no other kids in the neighborhood his age, it usually fell to Jimmy to entertain him.

He swung out of the tree, landing easily on the balls of his feet.

“I already told you, squirt. There’s no such things as ghosts.”

“But I really saw it! Can we investigate? Please, please, please?”

A couple years ago, Jimmy had been in all the local papers. First, because he’d found a dead body. Second, because he’d been the one to solve the murder. That was back when he had his secret superpowers, before his dad had gotten so mad about Jimmy using them that they’d all gone away somehow.

The superpowers might be gone, but his reputation as a junior sleuth had been set. Jimmy was always getting asked to find missing pets and missing toys. Pretty easy stuff, really. He’d never been asked to investigate a ghost, though. But if he didn’t help his brother, Steven would run and whine to Dad, and they’d both get in trouble.

“Go get a flashlight,” Jimmy said.

Steven let out a whoop and ran for the backdoor. Jimmy tossed his book on the back porch swing and hoped that once he’d proven to his brother there was no ghost, he could get back to Buck’s story of survival in the Yukon.

The Ellison’s house, which almost everyone else called the Manor, was just up the hill from the site of Steven’s supposed haunting – the long-neglected Applegate Farm. In contrast to the Manor’s manicured lawns and gardens, the farm was an overgrown jungle populated by gnarly crabapple trees, honeysuckle, milkweed, and a thousand other types of growing things Jimmy couldn’t name. Probably lots of snakes, too. He wasn’t a big fan of snakes.

Jimmy and Steven got as far as the bottom of the driveway before they were interrupted by Jimmy’s friend Simon, who was driving by in his rusty old jalopy and stopped as soon as he saw them.

“Hey, guys. Where ya goin’?”

Simon was a couple years older than Jimmy – old enough to drive – but they’d become friends after being on the same basketball team. Simon taught him how to play poker, and they’d both tried cigarettes together (vowing never to that again after Jim turned green and Simon tossed his cookies).

The Bankses were the only Black family in the neighborhood, and Jimmy’s dad wasn’t their biggest fan. He tolerated Simon hanging around the Manor, but never went out of his way to be pleasant while he was there.

“Stevie thought he saw a ghost at the farm. We’re going to check it out.” Jimmy shrugged so Simon would know he didn’t really put much stock in the ghost theory.

“Cool. Hop in. I’ll drive us.”

Jimmy and Steven crowded into the front seat with Simon, who turned around in the Manor’s driveway and drove them down the hill to Applegate. There was no proper driveway there, just a couple of ruts in the dirt.

“This place looks like it could be haunted for real,” Simon said, pushing his glasses up his nose.

“It is,” Steven replied with absolute sincerity.

The house had a sagging wrap-around porch that seemed only slightly less dangerous than trying to wade through the thick greenery growing around the sides, which was probably infested with chiggers and ticks.

“No-one’s going in this way,” Simon said.

The front door and all the front windows were covered over in plywood. Jimmy led the way around the side, pointing out holes in the porch so no-one would turn an ankle, or worse. They got lucky, finding a window that had half the plywood ripped off.

“I hope no-one’s squatting in there,” Jimmy said, using the flashlight to see into the room from the porch. There was no furniture, and the floor was covered in dirt and dead leaves.

[ami-ven.livejournal.com]

MCU, ensemble, cozy mystery AU

[nagi-schwarz.livejournal.com]

BBC Sherlock, any, Who are you looking for? (Moonbin & Sanha - Who)

[nagi-schwarz.livejournal.com]

Hawaii Five-0, any, Who got the joker? (Oneus)

[nagi-schwarz.livejournal.com]

BBC Robin Hood, any, Sherlock AU

Fill:

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

“Why am I surrounded by idiots?” Marion demanded. “I’d say it was as obvious as the nose on your face, but I’m not convinced some of your lot could even find that.”

Inspector Gisborne said, “Could you explain to me again exactly what we’re looking for?”

“Footsteps, and before you say anything, not the ones that have clearly been left to confuse you, but the ones underneath. Somewhere there will be something that will give your perpetrator away. I’m going to the morgue to see what Djaq has to tell me. Come along, Robin.”

Robin shrugged and followed after Marion.

Sergeant Much joined Gisborne. “Don’t you wish you could do without her?” he asked.

“Frequently,” Gisborne agreed. “But she is good, and there are many who ignore her to their peril. I don’t intend to be one of those.”

[nagi-schwarz.livejournal.com]

Any, any, I'm so curious (SHINee - Sherlock)

Fill 1/2: Trixie Belden Mysteries/Three Investigators, Trixie Belden/Jupiter Jones

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

It wasn’t that Trixie went searching for mysteries, not really. She just couldn’t help being curious. Moms said she’d been that way from the time she was a baby. One of her favorite stories to tell was Trixie’s second Christmas and finding her under the tree methodically opening every present because she wanted to know what each box held.

So it was only natural that when she saw a wallet on the sidewalk, she’d stop and pick it up.

The first thing she checked for was a driver’s license, which would have the owner’s name and address on it and facilitate an easy return. No license.

Trixie slipped the wallet in the bag with her groceries and continued on her way to her apartment. It was a downtown studio, barely two hundred square feet, and it cost a fortune. But she was saving up for something a little bigger in a better neighborhood.

“Hi, guys,” Trixie said when she came through the door.

She had a small fish tank on a side table, inhabited by two goldfish named Tip and Tag. They were the only pets she could commit to given her work schedule and the size of her apartment. One day she hoped to get a dog.

Trixie put the groceries away, then sat down on her loveseat and gave the wallet a more thorough look through.

It was well-worn, having taken on that molded look that most men’s wallets did after months or years traveling in a back pocket. There was a thousand dollars in it, all in hundreds, and Trixie just stared at it for a long while. A whole month’s rent. But she wasn’t a thief, so she moved on.

There was a punch card for a local taco stand, with four out of the ten spots punched. Not unusual. Lots of people liked tacos, Trixie included. A receipt from a thrift shop for thirteen dollars, paid in cash. A torn piece of paper with a phone number written on it in blue pen. A wrapped condom that had expired over a year ago, which indicated the wallet’s owner wasn’t exactly a ladies’ man.

The only other thing in the wallet was a well-worn, folded photograph of three young boys. Two of them were mugging for the camera, but the dark-haired third looked oddly solemn.

“Which one are you?” Trixie murmured, studying the photo.

Would someone with a taco stand punch card and a thrift store receipt keep such a large amount of cash on hand? There was no debit card, no credit card. No bus pass.

Trixie called the number on the slip of paper, but it went to a generic voicemail.

That left her with the receipt. She looked up the name online to get the address, then took the bus to the other side of town. She got there right before it closed.

“I’m hoping you can help me,” Trixie said to the man behind the counter. He was older, maybe in his sixties, and he had a pair of reading glasses on a chain around his neck.

“I’ll surely try,” the man replied.

“I need to find the man who belongs to this wallet. He shops here, and I’m pretty sure he’s local.” Trixie slid the photograph across the counter. “Do you recognize any of these boys?”

The man slid his reading glasses on and studied the photo. “This one in the middle. He might be the Jones boy. His aunt and uncle own a salvage yard in Rocky Beach. We do a bit of trade from time to time.”

Jones! Not a unique last name, but that didn’t matter. She had a business and a location.

“Thank you so much!”

The following day, when Trixie got off work, she retrieved her car from the parking garage and drove herself out to Rocky Beach. She’d Googled the name Jones and the town, and Jones Salvage Yard had been the first entry to come up. Proprietors Titus and Mathilda Jones.

Rocky Beach was a quaint little seaside town, just far enough outside the city to seem like a vacation spot. Trixie had no trouble finding the salvage yard, which had a massive, gothic-inspired front gate and a wooden fence painted with a bright, cheerful mural.

The gate was getting locked up for the night just as she got there.

“Wait!” Trixie hopped out of her car. “I need to speak to Mr. or Mrs. Jones. It’s really important.”

The man at the gate was tall and sturdily built, with dark hair falling over one eye. He was wearing blue coveralls with the name of the salvage yard on them.

“I’m sorry. We’re closed.”

[nagi-schwarz.livejournal.com]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ensemble, NCIS AU

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Prodigal Son, Edrisa Tanaka, going above and beyond to help with a case

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Sherlock Holmes (any), Sherlock Holmes +/ John Watson, Watson solves the case before Sherlock

[brumeier.livejournal.com]

Any, Any, The Reluctant Detective, by Finley Martin

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

The X-Files Dana Scully /+ Fox Mulder A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (by Holly Jackson)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Lucifer, Lucifer Morningstar, Chloe Decker + any The Death Collector (by Justin Richards)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Lucifer, Lucifer Morningstar, Ella Lopez + any, Wake the Bones (by Elizabeth Kilcoyne)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Prodigal Son, Malcolm Bright + any, Absence of Mercy (by S.M. Goodwin)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Prodigal Son, Malcolm Bright + Gil Arroyo + any You'll Be the Death of Me (by Karen M. McManus)

[templefugate.livejournal.com]

Any, any, Risky Venture (Ruth Glick & Eileen Buckholtz)

[templefugate.livejournal.com]

MCU, ensemble, playing Clue together on a stormy night

[templefugate.livejournal.com]

Any, any, hiring a PI to investigate a partner that they suspect is cheating

Fill 1/3: Astro, background Dongmin/Minhyuk, Navillera AU

[nagi-schwarz.livejournal.com]

Taeil sat opposite Madam Choi Haenam, notebook in hand, wearing his most patient, understanding expression.

She looked to be in her seventies. Her home was modest, and her clothes were simple but well-cared for. She also looked nervous, hands twisting in her lap.

“I want to know if my husband is cheating on me,” she said.

It was a request he had heard a thousand times before, so he nodded calmly. “Tell me about your husband.”

Shim Deokchul, retired from a lifelong career as a postal carrier. In his seventies. He’d started becoming odd and secretive, hiding things from her, leaving the house more often. Madam Choi didn’t want to divorce him or rock the boat, but she just wanted to know what was happening, so she could protect her children from the shame of it all. Her son was having a hard time at work, and her son-in-law was running for local office, and her grandson was getting ready to graduate from university and get his first real job, and she wanted to shield them from any additional stress.

Taeil nodded and told her his basic fees, which she agreed to with a heavy sigh - so this wouldn’t be easy on her, financially. He’d do his best to be efficient.

He promised to report back in a week.

Then he slipped out of the house right before Deokchul was supposed to arrive home, and he sat in his car, looking over his notes and observing the house.

He’d start the next day.

*

Taeil tailed Shim Deokchul as he left the house very early the next morning, walking with a purpose. The old man knew his destination by heart, and drove there in his old beat-up car, one that he’d owned for a long time and kept up carefully.

The place he drove to was a small commercial building, which included a chiropractor’s office, a traditional medicine clinic, a florist shop, and a private dance studio. Perhaps Shim Deokchul was having health issues he didn’t want his wife to know and worry about. Taeil had been a private detective for eight years, and he was fairly jaded to the ways of marriage and human relationships, but he also had some hope for humanity. If Deokchul and Haenam were trying to protect each other, that would be sweet, if misguided.

Taeil waited a few beats, then followed Deokchul into the building.

Since Deokchul was old and slow, it was easy for Taeil to catch up to him without seeming too suspicious. Deokchul bypassed the florist shop, the clinic, and the chiropractor’s office - and headed for the dance studio.

Was the old man having an affair with a young, lithe, ballerina? Taeil couldn’t fathom what a girl like that would see in a man like him, but to each their own.

Only when Taeil slid forward and peered through the glass, there was no ballerina there.

Instead, there was a young man.

Damn. Was Deokchul secretly gay and finally admitting it now that his children were all grown and he no longer had to support them? Taeil lifted his camera and snapped a few pictures.

“Good morning, Minhyuk-ah,” Deokchul said, with easy familiarity.

Minhyuk. Taeil tucked that away in his mind and snapped a few more pictures. Minhyuk looked to be in his early twenties, and he was lean and lithe. He had very high cheekbones and bright eyes. He was handsome where Taeil was pretty. Taeil knew how to assess male beauty objectively.

Minhyuk inclined his head politely. “Good morning, Harabeoji.” So he was close enough to call Deokchul grandfather. “Go get changed, and we’ll do warm-ups.”

Taeil blinked, but Deokchul nodded and smiled and shuffled into a side room, which was probably some kind of changing room. Minhyuk peeled off his t-shirt, revealing a tight-fitting tank top underneath, and he kicked out of his sweatpants, revealing black dance tights. He sat and pulled on a pair of black ballet slippers.

Was Deokchul dating a male ballet dancer, then? Ballerinos, they were called, weren’t they?

[templefugate.livejournal.com]

MCU, Natasha Romanoff, Win, Lose or Die (John Gardner)

[cozy-coffee.livejournal.com]

Any non fantasy Fandom/any fantasy fandom, The characters from the non fantasy fandom cross into the world of the fantasy fandom and their daemons manifest.