Fandom Soundtrack, for elynrae
Sep. 28th, 2004 04:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bantha_fodderThis is an attempt at a cool new fandom meme.
1. make a fandom soundtrack.
2. write a ficlet based on a line from each song, in fandoms that your recipient reads/read.
3. post.
this fandom soundtrack is for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
elynrae (previously known as holographis), and it was lots of fun. some of the ficlets are crap, and some of them are pearls, and i wrote a grease ficlet! grease! but anyway, after sitting on this for several days, she has finally received the cd, and i'm getting one in return sometime this week or something, so i finally get to post these.
they are unbetaed.
Meetings and Partings – a fandom soundtrack
1. Good Omens, Aziraphale, Crowley
Just The Thing - Paul Mac (now you’ve gone, and i shut my eyes)
It was raining when Hell came to take Crowley away. The rain sizzled as it hit Hastur (for effect, and it was certainly having an effect on Crowley), and made little hisses of steam. Crowley was hiding out in Aziraphale’s book shop, and winced as Hastur kicked the door in. “’Ere Crawly, whattr you doin’ ‘ere?” Hastur leered, and shook water over the nearest books.
“Now, you stop that,” Aziraphale snapped as he darted out to check over his books, leaving Crowley alone for a few vital seconds, during which Hastur, surprisingly light on his feet for a hideous demon beast from Hell, nipped forward and grabbed his arm. “You’ve been a naughty little snake, Crawly,” sneered Hastur. Crowley shook his head, but acquiesced to the demands of Hell. “Angel,” breathed Crowley by way of farewell, and Aziraphale had never heard Crowley say it quite like that before.
And then they were gone, and suddenly, the state of his books no longer seemed important.
2. HP, Trio
A Minor Incident - Badly Drawn Boy (and if the chance should happen that i never see you again)
The grass is soft and lush, and Harry is crushing daisies: some beneath his shoulder, others beneath his head. A few are making his arse smell sweet. His left hand is flung out, and clutches Hermione’s ankle. She smiles without looking, and continues idly identifying cloud formations. Her arms ache from leaning back - as does her neck – but she will not move from her position beside him.
His right hand is tightly grasped in both of Ron’s, and the two share a smile before Ron kisses Harry’s fingers.
Molly’s voice can be heard from the direction of Hogwarts. Soon she will whisk Ron back to the Burrow, yelling of grass stains on his elbows, and from there he will be off to begin training as an auror; Hermione’s parents will be following to take Hermione away, and Harry will remain lying on the grass, smelling the daisies dying around him.
Alone, Harry will think of his friends every day. And they will return to him; he knows it.
3. Discworld, Vimes
Heffalumps and Woozles (they’ll guzzle up the thing you prize)
Vimes opened the door to his office, and found Gavin the Wonder Dog twitching on the floor, twitching. The floor around him was soaking wet. Suspicious, Vimes knelt, getting his knees wet, and sniffed. Just as he’d thought – it was his bottle of Odgen’s Old. He was going to kill someone.
But first, he was going to lock Gavin in the cells, just for fun.
4. PotC, Captain Jack Sparrow
You Sound Like Louis Burdett - The Whitlams (all my friends are fuckups, but they’re such fun to have around)
Jack drinks his beer, and watches Gibbs flirt with both the serving wenches and the actual wenches, and Cotton dump a pint on Weatherby’s head. Anamaria yells at Jack for a bit about something or other completely irrelevant, causing a bigger scene than Moises taking a swing at Crimp, before leaving with an attractive girl. Jack coughs into his beer and spurts it out his nose when Moises and Crimp make up by drunkenly tripping each other over and cuddling in a manly fashion on the tavern floor. Jack kicks them as he makes his way back to the Pearl, and listens to them grumble as they follow him home.
5.Chronicles of Narnia, Susan
Ain’t No Doubt - Jimmy Nail (why does she pretend?)
Susan grows older.
She is older than Edmund and Lucy, who continue to play fanciful, idealistic games and a wishful make-believe, and waste their time on unimportant matters. Chronology aside, Susan surpassed Peter long ago, and he should know better than to encourage their younger siblings. Sometimes, as she readies herself to leave the house, she thinks she is older even than her parents, whose voices she can still hear hurrying her along as she tries to concentrate.
Her family is frozen in time, and Susan grows older alone.
6. Chronicles of Narnia, Lucy
Accidentally Kelly Street - Frente (you can feel the planet breathe)
In the tenth year of her reign of Narnia beside her siblings, Queen Lucy takes to riding out alone. For days, decisions are made without her as she trusts completely in Peter and Susan and Edmund. She sleeps beneath the trees on beds made of the leaves they provide her. She holds her own courts on thrones of rocks, and listens to the complaints of the flowers and those who dare not trouble her brother.
7. PopRPF, Britney
Everybody Wants to Take You Home - Leonardo's Bride (climb upon this pedestal)
Chris thinks it’s a noble olive branch, so Britney invites Justin and Cameron to her 21st. They don’t even bother to rsvp, so she thinks fuck you as she fucks JC in the downstairs second toilet, and fuck you as she pours champagne into the waterfall of glasses, and fuck you as Christina gives her a look that says i know, do you wanna kill him? and fuck you as she tells Kevin to go without her, and fuck you as she makes a little doll with blonde hair and another with no hair, and fuck you as she sticks them both with pins.
8. BtVS, Dawn
Mistress - Alan Rickman (nothing like the sun)
Dawn is kind of short, and not really very happy with her weight at all. And she has too many freckles. And she bites her nails. And gods, who said that mouse-brown was a good colour for hair? She wishes that it was red or something, like Willow’s. Maybe she’ll dye it, just to piss off Buffy. Not that Buffy can talk, what with her obviously bleached hair and her obviously just as bleached boyfriend. She hates Buffy sometimes, but that’s not the point. The point is, her Math teacher has given her too much homework again (which she doesn’t have time to do), and she had PE this morning (which sucks big time, running around in stupid socks playing stupid, pointless sports like soccer), and she just knows that Buffy’s going to ground her again when she gets around to it.
Dawn walks kind of funny, and to watch her, you’d never realise she could crush the world like she crushes the worms in her path, smearing them over her new shoes before running off in a sulk over slime.
9. HP, Sirius, Andromeda
Hello - The Cat Empire (can i share your pillow?)
When Sirius ran away from Grimmauld Place the first time, he ran to his favourite cousin. “Andromeda,” hissed the rocks he threw at her window, and “Andromeda,” hissed her favourite bathrobe, and “Andromeda,” hissed Sirius from his perch in the tree. In her nightshirt, because she wasn’t going to wear a robe saying her name, Andromeda opened the window. “Why are you out there?” she asked as he muscled in through the gap. “I ran away from home,” he said, toeing off his shoes. “That’s nice,” she replied, hoping the house elves wouldn’t notice his shoes making marks on the carpet and report it to her mother, “but have you forgotten how to use Alohamora?” Sirius didn’t even pause as he buried himself under her blankets; “of course not, but can’t have Bellatrix’s warning spells going off, can we?” He looked innocently at her. “Thanks for the bed, Andromeda. Have a nice nap on the floor.” Andromeda pushed him over in disbelief and clambered into the bed beside him. “Fucking Gryffindors.”
10. Discworld, Nobby Nobbs
Sweater - Eskimo Joe (everywhere i go people put a man down)
Nobby listens to the words no one thinks he hears, and he understands every meaning. He gets it that Nobby’s a bit dense, a bit simple, a bit of a thief but alright, under it all. He wouldn’t be surprised if the guys at the curry place spit in his curries before giving them to him, just on principle (Nobby being a copper and all). He knows not to enter pubs other than The Mended Drum (well, not if he wants to keep his nose), and he knows not to enter The Shades at night. Because being a copper’s hard work, and nobody likes you, but if you’re Nobby Nobbs, then it’s worse.
11. XMM, Bobby
Heavy Heart - You Am I (i miss you like sleep)
Instead of sleeping, Bobby rolls over and looks at the empty space on the other side of his room where another bed used to be. Bobby picks up his clothes as they creep across the floor into space that never used to belong to him, and that he believes never really will. Bobby tries to warm himself by the fireplace, tries to shake the chill from his fingertips and his ankles and his heart. He flinches when Logan lights his cigar with a lighter, and Logan starts using matches.
Marie does not comment about the rings under his eyes or the chill in his room. The professor looks at him like it’s something that is understood, but it’s not, it’s not at all. Bobby reaches for an elusive figure that is just out of reach; he grasps at thin air and draws flames in the condensation on his window. He burns his flesh; he visits therapists; he takes the medications prescribed. Nothing works.
12. LotRPF, Orlando
Pinky and the Brain (they’ll overthrow the earth)
Orlando has seen his own face staring back at him from billboards; from airplanes and movie theatres. He has watched his mouth move and heard the words he has to say from far away. Orlando has been flown to what feels like every country on the planet.
Orlando’s face watches little girls changing; people eating breakfast; people as they hurry to work. Orlando’s face is there as secrets are exchanged; affairs are conducted; intrigue is sown.
Orlando has met world leaders, and he pays attention, that one day he might lead too.
13. Smallville, Chloe
Addicted to Bass - Josh Abrahams (they too hunger for the beast below)
Chloe has never left Metropolis. Through years of small town America; weeks of nothing but fields and orchards; an eternity of home cooked meals; the never-ending procession of thoughtless busybodies; Chloe has breathed and lived and drunk Metropolis.
She has smelled Metropolis down dark and damp alleys, and behind cars as they cough at busy intersections. She has seen Metropolis in the terror of her classmates; in the cut of Lex’s suits. She has tasted Metropolis in the Talon, bitter and sweet and never perfect. She has touched Metropolis in waste paper baskets filled with shredded secrets.
Chloe creates Metropolis as she draws blood from Lex’s back; his skin collects under her nails as she breathes him in, watching the shadows behind his eyes. Lex molds Metropolis as he always has: in the bruising of her skin and the disguising of harm in soft words and delicate gifts; in the way Lex hides her even as he exposes her. And he will never let her leave.
14. LotRPF, Miranda
A Shandy Too Far (wish she didn’t have appalling luck)
Eowyn watches Aragorn cast out Grima Wormtongue, and thinks about the power of men, and why history and storytelling has never given that power to women. Four hours later, Miranda is hidden by the branches of a tree, watching as Liv and Viggo dance through an Edoras that is a shambles as everyone packs up for the night. All four hobbits are frolicking around somewhere too – she’s not sure what everyone is doing here, she’s sure Elijah and Sean were filming elsewhere today, but maybe she’s just out of the loop. She always is.
Reluctant to make herself known, and contemplating kicking the walls of Edoras just enough so one good yell during filming and the walls will come down around Aragorn’s ears, Miranda is startled by a looming figure with a tall, thin head, that resolves itself to become Karl still wearing Eomer’s helmet. He smiles grimly down at her.
“Lost?” he asks as he takes his helmet off and offers her a hand. She takes it easily and he helps her to her feet, before she realises what she’s done and drops it like it’s hot. She shakes her head and gestures at the dancers and frolickers below.
“Contemplating the ways of Elves and Hobbits and Men,” she says, and smiles wryly. “You too?” he laughs, and plays with the hair on his helmet. She watches his fingers rolling the strands, and forgets to answer.
Later, when she begins to see Karl in everything, and he overlaps Viggo’s face which covered that bastard Richard’s face in everything that she saw, she will watch the bruises forming on her wrists and feel a tightening in her chest and remember that Karl, too, will leave her. For she is but a transient in the lives of those around her, and she is involved with a man who has a pregnant partner back home.
15. Grease, Sandy
50 Ways to Leave Your Lover - The Drifters (the answer is easy if you take it logically)
Eight months after graduation and Danny still doesn’t have a job. Sandy has started receiving letters from friends back home in Australia again (they dropped off for a while there, but when she moved out with Danny her mother, in retaliation, sent her new address to every single person in her address book), and they’re all talking about how happy they are, how great university or work or being a housewife is, and how fabulous this summer is and how can she bear to be up there in that dreary country? And she looks out the window where the sky is bright but deceptive: she knows that if she walks out there the cold January wind will cut straight through her.
She remembers sandcastles and late night movies and people who don’t think her wierd, and thinks about Rizzo who actually is pregnant this time, and absolutely miserable about it but refusing to back down; she thinks about Frenchie repeating year twelve (the twelfth grade, she repeats to herself; she needs to stand out less). She thinks about Danny, who still hangs out with the same people he’s always hung out with, doing the same things he always did, having the same fights he always has.
Sandy thinks about going home, and her mother keeps putting money aside for a day when it stops raining.
16. Firefly, River
Wasted in the Sun - Hunters and Collectors (the weak must feed the strong)
River is alone.
Inara first, but she had stopped enjoying life and so was not of much use (beauty counts for little if you can’t appreciate it). Mal followed, but any nutrition he may have contained was drawn out by Inara’s absence (she should have taken mal first. you’d think after so long she’d have learnt her lesson, but no), and so he, too, was next to useless. Jayne (tasty, crisp) was bitter, but his flavour was strong and his strength became her strength and was worth it. His teeth were sharp.
A pause, then, before Wash and Zoe (love love very handy very tasty but can so easily sour the mix). She remembered, that time, and took them together.
It was hard, the next decision, although not as hard as she pretends. She loved (loves) Kaylee, but Kaylee took Simon away in all the ways that matter, so River savoured Kaylee, and gave no thought to her brother, not even when she breathed him in and took him whole, to keep them together. But soon he was gone too, and then Book was everything that she had anticipated, knowledge she’d not even known she was lacking and the beauty (the sheer, unadulterated beauty) of the link with a god, and the path she needed to his followers.
River is alone, but she will not be alone for long.
17. Sandman, Destiny
History Repeating - The Propellorheads (and i’ve seen it before)
Destiny watches.
Destiny’s eyes follow as Desire, mouth open and body inviting, twines itself around yet another heart with fingers of thorns, and then as Despair draws blood from those made vulnerable to her insidious attack.
Destiny silently mouths the words as Delirium strews butterflies at the feet of anyone who is not careful, and as Destruction stalks her, cautiously not stepping on her butterflies.
Destiny watches Dream watches Death watches life. Dream plants the knowledge of his favourite sister in the minds of all who live, and they think of her with love and fear and devotion.
Destiny watches.
18. XMM, Erik
The World is Not Enough - Garbage (together we can take the world apart)
Eric said, “what about China, then? The Chinese Government breaches the rights of humans every day, not to mention those of mutants. We’d be doing them a favour.” To which Charles replied, “I don’t want to rule the world, Eric,” with that stupid, knowing headshake he has, and that was that.
Eric was not going to share his vision with such an ungrateful and stagnant wretch as Charles.
Leaving Charles made his goals a little more difficult to attain, but the Brotherhood proved far more amenable to his aims, if a little less worthwhile as allies.
19. Smallville, Superman
Special Ones - george (i don’t appreciate you and i know that that surprises you)
Tomorrow, Superman will continue to save the world. He will wake to the screams of a woman in the Congo coming to in a burning plane, and will pull her out to the music of a school bus falling off a mountain road in Europe. As the twenty-two ten year olds, their teacher and their bus driver bounce their way down the mountain-side, he will pull a sixty year old man from his boat in Texas, which will be capsized by flying rubble. At lunchtime, he will be in Australia, defending the coast from a crazed and highly unusual shark attack, before dashing to North China for an avalanche, where he will save two people and confirm the existence of some sort of large snow monster. He will prevent a terrorist attack targeting Indonesia when it cuts into his afternoon tea break, and by dinner time will be back in Metropolis, fighting a green man with many arms, and taking out two office buildings and a skyscraper. When he cries himself to sleep, it will be to the dulcet tones of the newsreader on the late night news, announcing calls by Lex Luthor to remove Superman, the terror in our skies. But he will do it all again tomorrow, and continue to do it, until there is no further need for him.
this was not originally posted here. but it is here now.
1. make a fandom soundtrack.
2. write a ficlet based on a line from each song, in fandoms that your recipient reads/read.
3. post.
this fandom soundtrack is for
elynrae (previously known as holographis), and it was lots of fun. some of the ficlets are crap, and some of them are pearls, and i wrote a grease ficlet! grease! but anyway, after sitting on this for several days, she has finally received the cd, and i'm getting one in return sometime this week or something, so i finally get to post these.they are unbetaed.
Meetings and Partings – a fandom soundtrack
1. Good Omens, Aziraphale, Crowley
Just The Thing - Paul Mac (now you’ve gone, and i shut my eyes)
It was raining when Hell came to take Crowley away. The rain sizzled as it hit Hastur (for effect, and it was certainly having an effect on Crowley), and made little hisses of steam. Crowley was hiding out in Aziraphale’s book shop, and winced as Hastur kicked the door in. “’Ere Crawly, whattr you doin’ ‘ere?” Hastur leered, and shook water over the nearest books.
“Now, you stop that,” Aziraphale snapped as he darted out to check over his books, leaving Crowley alone for a few vital seconds, during which Hastur, surprisingly light on his feet for a hideous demon beast from Hell, nipped forward and grabbed his arm. “You’ve been a naughty little snake, Crawly,” sneered Hastur. Crowley shook his head, but acquiesced to the demands of Hell. “Angel,” breathed Crowley by way of farewell, and Aziraphale had never heard Crowley say it quite like that before.
And then they were gone, and suddenly, the state of his books no longer seemed important.
2. HP, Trio
A Minor Incident - Badly Drawn Boy (and if the chance should happen that i never see you again)
The grass is soft and lush, and Harry is crushing daisies: some beneath his shoulder, others beneath his head. A few are making his arse smell sweet. His left hand is flung out, and clutches Hermione’s ankle. She smiles without looking, and continues idly identifying cloud formations. Her arms ache from leaning back - as does her neck – but she will not move from her position beside him.
His right hand is tightly grasped in both of Ron’s, and the two share a smile before Ron kisses Harry’s fingers.
Molly’s voice can be heard from the direction of Hogwarts. Soon she will whisk Ron back to the Burrow, yelling of grass stains on his elbows, and from there he will be off to begin training as an auror; Hermione’s parents will be following to take Hermione away, and Harry will remain lying on the grass, smelling the daisies dying around him.
Alone, Harry will think of his friends every day. And they will return to him; he knows it.
3. Discworld, Vimes
Heffalumps and Woozles (they’ll guzzle up the thing you prize)
Vimes opened the door to his office, and found Gavin the Wonder Dog twitching on the floor, twitching. The floor around him was soaking wet. Suspicious, Vimes knelt, getting his knees wet, and sniffed. Just as he’d thought – it was his bottle of Odgen’s Old. He was going to kill someone.
But first, he was going to lock Gavin in the cells, just for fun.
4. PotC, Captain Jack Sparrow
You Sound Like Louis Burdett - The Whitlams (all my friends are fuckups, but they’re such fun to have around)
Jack drinks his beer, and watches Gibbs flirt with both the serving wenches and the actual wenches, and Cotton dump a pint on Weatherby’s head. Anamaria yells at Jack for a bit about something or other completely irrelevant, causing a bigger scene than Moises taking a swing at Crimp, before leaving with an attractive girl. Jack coughs into his beer and spurts it out his nose when Moises and Crimp make up by drunkenly tripping each other over and cuddling in a manly fashion on the tavern floor. Jack kicks them as he makes his way back to the Pearl, and listens to them grumble as they follow him home.
5.Chronicles of Narnia, Susan
Ain’t No Doubt - Jimmy Nail (why does she pretend?)
Susan grows older.
She is older than Edmund and Lucy, who continue to play fanciful, idealistic games and a wishful make-believe, and waste their time on unimportant matters. Chronology aside, Susan surpassed Peter long ago, and he should know better than to encourage their younger siblings. Sometimes, as she readies herself to leave the house, she thinks she is older even than her parents, whose voices she can still hear hurrying her along as she tries to concentrate.
Her family is frozen in time, and Susan grows older alone.
6. Chronicles of Narnia, Lucy
Accidentally Kelly Street - Frente (you can feel the planet breathe)
In the tenth year of her reign of Narnia beside her siblings, Queen Lucy takes to riding out alone. For days, decisions are made without her as she trusts completely in Peter and Susan and Edmund. She sleeps beneath the trees on beds made of the leaves they provide her. She holds her own courts on thrones of rocks, and listens to the complaints of the flowers and those who dare not trouble her brother.
7. PopRPF, Britney
Everybody Wants to Take You Home - Leonardo's Bride (climb upon this pedestal)
Chris thinks it’s a noble olive branch, so Britney invites Justin and Cameron to her 21st. They don’t even bother to rsvp, so she thinks fuck you as she fucks JC in the downstairs second toilet, and fuck you as she pours champagne into the waterfall of glasses, and fuck you as Christina gives her a look that says i know, do you wanna kill him? and fuck you as she tells Kevin to go without her, and fuck you as she makes a little doll with blonde hair and another with no hair, and fuck you as she sticks them both with pins.
8. BtVS, Dawn
Mistress - Alan Rickman (nothing like the sun)
Dawn is kind of short, and not really very happy with her weight at all. And she has too many freckles. And she bites her nails. And gods, who said that mouse-brown was a good colour for hair? She wishes that it was red or something, like Willow’s. Maybe she’ll dye it, just to piss off Buffy. Not that Buffy can talk, what with her obviously bleached hair and her obviously just as bleached boyfriend. She hates Buffy sometimes, but that’s not the point. The point is, her Math teacher has given her too much homework again (which she doesn’t have time to do), and she had PE this morning (which sucks big time, running around in stupid socks playing stupid, pointless sports like soccer), and she just knows that Buffy’s going to ground her again when she gets around to it.
Dawn walks kind of funny, and to watch her, you’d never realise she could crush the world like she crushes the worms in her path, smearing them over her new shoes before running off in a sulk over slime.
9. HP, Sirius, Andromeda
Hello - The Cat Empire (can i share your pillow?)
When Sirius ran away from Grimmauld Place the first time, he ran to his favourite cousin. “Andromeda,” hissed the rocks he threw at her window, and “Andromeda,” hissed her favourite bathrobe, and “Andromeda,” hissed Sirius from his perch in the tree. In her nightshirt, because she wasn’t going to wear a robe saying her name, Andromeda opened the window. “Why are you out there?” she asked as he muscled in through the gap. “I ran away from home,” he said, toeing off his shoes. “That’s nice,” she replied, hoping the house elves wouldn’t notice his shoes making marks on the carpet and report it to her mother, “but have you forgotten how to use Alohamora?” Sirius didn’t even pause as he buried himself under her blankets; “of course not, but can’t have Bellatrix’s warning spells going off, can we?” He looked innocently at her. “Thanks for the bed, Andromeda. Have a nice nap on the floor.” Andromeda pushed him over in disbelief and clambered into the bed beside him. “Fucking Gryffindors.”
10. Discworld, Nobby Nobbs
Sweater - Eskimo Joe (everywhere i go people put a man down)
Nobby listens to the words no one thinks he hears, and he understands every meaning. He gets it that Nobby’s a bit dense, a bit simple, a bit of a thief but alright, under it all. He wouldn’t be surprised if the guys at the curry place spit in his curries before giving them to him, just on principle (Nobby being a copper and all). He knows not to enter pubs other than The Mended Drum (well, not if he wants to keep his nose), and he knows not to enter The Shades at night. Because being a copper’s hard work, and nobody likes you, but if you’re Nobby Nobbs, then it’s worse.
11. XMM, Bobby
Heavy Heart - You Am I (i miss you like sleep)
Instead of sleeping, Bobby rolls over and looks at the empty space on the other side of his room where another bed used to be. Bobby picks up his clothes as they creep across the floor into space that never used to belong to him, and that he believes never really will. Bobby tries to warm himself by the fireplace, tries to shake the chill from his fingertips and his ankles and his heart. He flinches when Logan lights his cigar with a lighter, and Logan starts using matches.
Marie does not comment about the rings under his eyes or the chill in his room. The professor looks at him like it’s something that is understood, but it’s not, it’s not at all. Bobby reaches for an elusive figure that is just out of reach; he grasps at thin air and draws flames in the condensation on his window. He burns his flesh; he visits therapists; he takes the medications prescribed. Nothing works.
12. LotRPF, Orlando
Pinky and the Brain (they’ll overthrow the earth)
Orlando has seen his own face staring back at him from billboards; from airplanes and movie theatres. He has watched his mouth move and heard the words he has to say from far away. Orlando has been flown to what feels like every country on the planet.
Orlando’s face watches little girls changing; people eating breakfast; people as they hurry to work. Orlando’s face is there as secrets are exchanged; affairs are conducted; intrigue is sown.
Orlando has met world leaders, and he pays attention, that one day he might lead too.
13. Smallville, Chloe
Addicted to Bass - Josh Abrahams (they too hunger for the beast below)
Chloe has never left Metropolis. Through years of small town America; weeks of nothing but fields and orchards; an eternity of home cooked meals; the never-ending procession of thoughtless busybodies; Chloe has breathed and lived and drunk Metropolis.
She has smelled Metropolis down dark and damp alleys, and behind cars as they cough at busy intersections. She has seen Metropolis in the terror of her classmates; in the cut of Lex’s suits. She has tasted Metropolis in the Talon, bitter and sweet and never perfect. She has touched Metropolis in waste paper baskets filled with shredded secrets.
Chloe creates Metropolis as she draws blood from Lex’s back; his skin collects under her nails as she breathes him in, watching the shadows behind his eyes. Lex molds Metropolis as he always has: in the bruising of her skin and the disguising of harm in soft words and delicate gifts; in the way Lex hides her even as he exposes her. And he will never let her leave.
14. LotRPF, Miranda
A Shandy Too Far (wish she didn’t have appalling luck)
Eowyn watches Aragorn cast out Grima Wormtongue, and thinks about the power of men, and why history and storytelling has never given that power to women. Four hours later, Miranda is hidden by the branches of a tree, watching as Liv and Viggo dance through an Edoras that is a shambles as everyone packs up for the night. All four hobbits are frolicking around somewhere too – she’s not sure what everyone is doing here, she’s sure Elijah and Sean were filming elsewhere today, but maybe she’s just out of the loop. She always is.
Reluctant to make herself known, and contemplating kicking the walls of Edoras just enough so one good yell during filming and the walls will come down around Aragorn’s ears, Miranda is startled by a looming figure with a tall, thin head, that resolves itself to become Karl still wearing Eomer’s helmet. He smiles grimly down at her.
“Lost?” he asks as he takes his helmet off and offers her a hand. She takes it easily and he helps her to her feet, before she realises what she’s done and drops it like it’s hot. She shakes her head and gestures at the dancers and frolickers below.
“Contemplating the ways of Elves and Hobbits and Men,” she says, and smiles wryly. “You too?” he laughs, and plays with the hair on his helmet. She watches his fingers rolling the strands, and forgets to answer.
Later, when she begins to see Karl in everything, and he overlaps Viggo’s face which covered that bastard Richard’s face in everything that she saw, she will watch the bruises forming on her wrists and feel a tightening in her chest and remember that Karl, too, will leave her. For she is but a transient in the lives of those around her, and she is involved with a man who has a pregnant partner back home.
15. Grease, Sandy
50 Ways to Leave Your Lover - The Drifters (the answer is easy if you take it logically)
Eight months after graduation and Danny still doesn’t have a job. Sandy has started receiving letters from friends back home in Australia again (they dropped off for a while there, but when she moved out with Danny her mother, in retaliation, sent her new address to every single person in her address book), and they’re all talking about how happy they are, how great university or work or being a housewife is, and how fabulous this summer is and how can she bear to be up there in that dreary country? And she looks out the window where the sky is bright but deceptive: she knows that if she walks out there the cold January wind will cut straight through her.
She remembers sandcastles and late night movies and people who don’t think her wierd, and thinks about Rizzo who actually is pregnant this time, and absolutely miserable about it but refusing to back down; she thinks about Frenchie repeating year twelve (the twelfth grade, she repeats to herself; she needs to stand out less). She thinks about Danny, who still hangs out with the same people he’s always hung out with, doing the same things he always did, having the same fights he always has.
Sandy thinks about going home, and her mother keeps putting money aside for a day when it stops raining.
16. Firefly, River
Wasted in the Sun - Hunters and Collectors (the weak must feed the strong)
River is alone.
Inara first, but she had stopped enjoying life and so was not of much use (beauty counts for little if you can’t appreciate it). Mal followed, but any nutrition he may have contained was drawn out by Inara’s absence (she should have taken mal first. you’d think after so long she’d have learnt her lesson, but no), and so he, too, was next to useless. Jayne (tasty, crisp) was bitter, but his flavour was strong and his strength became her strength and was worth it. His teeth were sharp.
A pause, then, before Wash and Zoe (love love very handy very tasty but can so easily sour the mix). She remembered, that time, and took them together.
It was hard, the next decision, although not as hard as she pretends. She loved (loves) Kaylee, but Kaylee took Simon away in all the ways that matter, so River savoured Kaylee, and gave no thought to her brother, not even when she breathed him in and took him whole, to keep them together. But soon he was gone too, and then Book was everything that she had anticipated, knowledge she’d not even known she was lacking and the beauty (the sheer, unadulterated beauty) of the link with a god, and the path she needed to his followers.
River is alone, but she will not be alone for long.
17. Sandman, Destiny
History Repeating - The Propellorheads (and i’ve seen it before)
Destiny watches.
Destiny’s eyes follow as Desire, mouth open and body inviting, twines itself around yet another heart with fingers of thorns, and then as Despair draws blood from those made vulnerable to her insidious attack.
Destiny silently mouths the words as Delirium strews butterflies at the feet of anyone who is not careful, and as Destruction stalks her, cautiously not stepping on her butterflies.
Destiny watches Dream watches Death watches life. Dream plants the knowledge of his favourite sister in the minds of all who live, and they think of her with love and fear and devotion.
Destiny watches.
18. XMM, Erik
The World is Not Enough - Garbage (together we can take the world apart)
Eric said, “what about China, then? The Chinese Government breaches the rights of humans every day, not to mention those of mutants. We’d be doing them a favour.” To which Charles replied, “I don’t want to rule the world, Eric,” with that stupid, knowing headshake he has, and that was that.
Eric was not going to share his vision with such an ungrateful and stagnant wretch as Charles.
Leaving Charles made his goals a little more difficult to attain, but the Brotherhood proved far more amenable to his aims, if a little less worthwhile as allies.
19. Smallville, Superman
Special Ones - george (i don’t appreciate you and i know that that surprises you)
Tomorrow, Superman will continue to save the world. He will wake to the screams of a woman in the Congo coming to in a burning plane, and will pull her out to the music of a school bus falling off a mountain road in Europe. As the twenty-two ten year olds, their teacher and their bus driver bounce their way down the mountain-side, he will pull a sixty year old man from his boat in Texas, which will be capsized by flying rubble. At lunchtime, he will be in Australia, defending the coast from a crazed and highly unusual shark attack, before dashing to North China for an avalanche, where he will save two people and confirm the existence of some sort of large snow monster. He will prevent a terrorist attack targeting Indonesia when it cuts into his afternoon tea break, and by dinner time will be back in Metropolis, fighting a green man with many arms, and taking out two office buildings and a skyscraper. When he cries himself to sleep, it will be to the dulcet tones of the newsreader on the late night news, announcing calls by Lex Luthor to remove Superman, the terror in our skies. But he will do it all again tomorrow, and continue to do it, until there is no further need for him.
this was not originally posted here. but it is here now.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-10 04:14 pm (UTC)I feel like I ought to leave feedback for each individual drabble! But as I'm sure this comment would turn into nothing more than fangirly gushing if I did so, I'll sum up: you've got an awesome grip on characterization, and the way that you shifted the style of your writing to fit each different canon was stunning. I really enjoyed reading these ficlets. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-14 12:41 am (UTC)Thank you very much.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-11 12:46 am (UTC)xx
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-14 12:41 am (UTC)