Truly random
Feb. 4th, 2010 07:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lenora_roseGoing through Bird of Dusk and cropping things means I'm collecting a 30-off page file of scraps I wanted to save. For no particular reason, here are some of the things I felt I couldn't keep; words for the sake of words, descriptions that went on too long, dialogue that entertained me but didn't move the story, etc.
When he'd asked her name, she debated throwing his wallet behind her and his jacket in his face, and running, just to delay his inevitable end for a while. Not because he deserved or wanted the mercy; if he'd begged, she'd have stripped him bare and left him.
____
It shone sapphire-dark everywhere, with none of the quiet variations in blue from a real sky.
____
An odd way to remember, by fear and hate."
Finno turned back towards the trees, away from the Fey. He breathed in, then let his head sink forward. The one denial he could find was, "Not hate."
"Not yet."
____
thick moss tickling his legs. The sky was crossed by the spider-strands of a tree whose leaves were still trapped in winter buds.
____
Without your spare skin you need not pretend to be more than a pet kept in the garden.
____
You already have him tamed to your hand, I see. A wild horse makes for finer riding.
____
When your kind speak of synapses firing, or thoughts coming in like light, you are more right than you dream.
____
Something seemed to be trying to drag him back by the shoulders, so plainly something could see him under this foul light.
____
Anna fingered a necklace with round amber beads. Finno touched them; but he'd always found amber tended to feel the same as its plastic imitations. The Lady at the stall insisted it was real, and worth the cost, and perfect for the pretty girl. "No," Anna said at last. "They're too light for my hair."
Finno ran it through his fingers again, made to put it back. The woman immediately cut the price by five dollars. Finno looked at her, at Anna, and set them back on the navy velveteen, and spread his fingers flat. The woman dropped the price another five dollars.
Finno took them up again, and paid. Anna made a half-hearted protest until he brushed her hair away from her neck. She shook her head, but minutely, as if she hoped he wouldn't notice.
____
Jen still remembered seeing a fiery bird melt out the window. While that hadn't had the same feel as most hallucinations, it was only for being even less plausible.
____
[Finno] untucked the back of his t-shirt, pulling it up just a few inches.
"Wow," Jen said, tipping her head over to better follow the line of linked spirals. "Right up the spine. You have guts." The golds and oranges looked like fire, far richer than most tattoos she'd seen. She leaned closer, and saw that lines spread out from some of the spirals, as if they meant to join a larger pattern - instead, they faded out, slow and subtle. "How much did that hurt?"
"Less than you think," Finno said, twitched back when his sister [Dare] looked like she would reach out to touch it. Dare dropped her hand without any other prompting, biting her lip in a way that made Jen forgive her for the careless gesture.
"Does it go all the way up?" Jen asked. He released the shirt and lifted his hair, so she could see it did, ending with a final curl just under his hairline. "Cool."
Harry had remained where he sat on the floor, craning his neck, so Jen stood aside to give him a better view. "Oh," he said, without much enthusiasm. "Nice."
Jen stared at him, and felt a wobble in her mood. He doesn't see it, she thought. Neither did his dad, who tried to look vaguely disapproving instead; she could mostly tell by how his crossed arms had tightened, and the creases under his eyes. She, not they, was the one inclined to see things that weren't there.
But Dare saw it too, clearly, and Finno seemed to believe it existed.
____
He ran again, through downtown, along the outside wall of Harbour Market until he found himself facing the Red River, wide and so thick with silt it smelled more like wet mud than like river. The Assiniboine, which crept past the men's park, looked just as muddy, but always smelled to him more like a river ought, of drenched plant matter. He stared across at the hospital, the blue-and-red sparkle of the rose window in the cathedral, until his vision began to swim. Then he ran again, ran full out, hoping he would just run right out of himself. He reached the Lesleys' house before he was that worn, and collapsed inside with disappointment sour on his tongue.
____
"Can I put this away before you swing?"
"You've got to be kidding."
"I've had two art projects sabotaged. I don't want to bleed on another."
"Two?" James D. didn't so much let him go as push him back into the corner. "What for?"
"They didn't have the nerve to hit me in the face."
____
But whatever the tone and the sneer, the man's words flattered him, encouraged him to admit his vices, and in short, addressed him as what he was; someone with money.
____
Dave said, "Jen, how do you feel about shopping?"
"Uh-oh," Jen said, with mock horror. "'Please don't throw me in the briar patch.'"
"How cheap do you think you can find a working coat?"
"Depends where I go," Jen said, though she'd already taken her own coat - rich red and a cut that looked almost naval - from the closet. "If you let me poke about at Ivana Vintage, say fifty. But it won't be in fashion."
Anna said, "This is for me?"
"You're not walking out in the snow," Jen said.
"Then screw fashion," she said. "I like yours."
"I won't find another," Jen said.
"But it means you have taste."
Jen looked at her oddly. "For that, I'm finding you a lime green parka."
"Um," Anna said. "I thought that was a compliment."
"Fine," said Jen. "I'll forgive you this time."
____
[Dave] went and filled the kettle, motions so easy she wasn't sure he knew he was doing them. "What were you planning to do when you got out of school?"
"Oh, I always figured Tommy and I would play in a band," she said. "But I never really thought about what I'd do for money."
"You might want to consider counseling," he said. "You seem to have the instincts for it."
She laughed, mostly for sheer confusion. "Me? I'm totally lost. I don't understand any of this. I don't know how. I don't know what the hell they were talking about-"
"And several times now," he said, "You've managed to find the right thing to say when I didn't, and I do have some training with troubled teens." And she saw his hands were shaking. "And I didn't even think about the tea. I put it right in his hands. You were right. I don't have to try to hurt him."
Anna curled fists around her hair, breathing in its scent as if it might ground her. The ends felt too crisp. She didn't feel sticky, but it had been – she wanted to laugh, hysterically. It had been over half a year since she'd showered. "Ask him," she said. "Later. It will hurt you less than not telling."
___
When he'd asked her name, she debated throwing his wallet behind her and his jacket in his face, and running, just to delay his inevitable end for a while. Not because he deserved or wanted the mercy; if he'd begged, she'd have stripped him bare and left him.
____
It shone sapphire-dark everywhere, with none of the quiet variations in blue from a real sky.
____
An odd way to remember, by fear and hate."
Finno turned back towards the trees, away from the Fey. He breathed in, then let his head sink forward. The one denial he could find was, "Not hate."
"Not yet."
____
thick moss tickling his legs. The sky was crossed by the spider-strands of a tree whose leaves were still trapped in winter buds.
____
Without your spare skin you need not pretend to be more than a pet kept in the garden.
____
You already have him tamed to your hand, I see. A wild horse makes for finer riding.
____
When your kind speak of synapses firing, or thoughts coming in like light, you are more right than you dream.
____
Something seemed to be trying to drag him back by the shoulders, so plainly something could see him under this foul light.
____
Anna fingered a necklace with round amber beads. Finno touched them; but he'd always found amber tended to feel the same as its plastic imitations. The Lady at the stall insisted it was real, and worth the cost, and perfect for the pretty girl. "No," Anna said at last. "They're too light for my hair."
Finno ran it through his fingers again, made to put it back. The woman immediately cut the price by five dollars. Finno looked at her, at Anna, and set them back on the navy velveteen, and spread his fingers flat. The woman dropped the price another five dollars.
Finno took them up again, and paid. Anna made a half-hearted protest until he brushed her hair away from her neck. She shook her head, but minutely, as if she hoped he wouldn't notice.
____
Jen still remembered seeing a fiery bird melt out the window. While that hadn't had the same feel as most hallucinations, it was only for being even less plausible.
____
[Finno] untucked the back of his t-shirt, pulling it up just a few inches.
"Wow," Jen said, tipping her head over to better follow the line of linked spirals. "Right up the spine. You have guts." The golds and oranges looked like fire, far richer than most tattoos she'd seen. She leaned closer, and saw that lines spread out from some of the spirals, as if they meant to join a larger pattern - instead, they faded out, slow and subtle. "How much did that hurt?"
"Less than you think," Finno said, twitched back when his sister [Dare] looked like she would reach out to touch it. Dare dropped her hand without any other prompting, biting her lip in a way that made Jen forgive her for the careless gesture.
"Does it go all the way up?" Jen asked. He released the shirt and lifted his hair, so she could see it did, ending with a final curl just under his hairline. "Cool."
Harry had remained where he sat on the floor, craning his neck, so Jen stood aside to give him a better view. "Oh," he said, without much enthusiasm. "Nice."
Jen stared at him, and felt a wobble in her mood. He doesn't see it, she thought. Neither did his dad, who tried to look vaguely disapproving instead; she could mostly tell by how his crossed arms had tightened, and the creases under his eyes. She, not they, was the one inclined to see things that weren't there.
But Dare saw it too, clearly, and Finno seemed to believe it existed.
____
He ran again, through downtown, along the outside wall of Harbour Market until he found himself facing the Red River, wide and so thick with silt it smelled more like wet mud than like river. The Assiniboine, which crept past the men's park, looked just as muddy, but always smelled to him more like a river ought, of drenched plant matter. He stared across at the hospital, the blue-and-red sparkle of the rose window in the cathedral, until his vision began to swim. Then he ran again, ran full out, hoping he would just run right out of himself. He reached the Lesleys' house before he was that worn, and collapsed inside with disappointment sour on his tongue.
____
"Can I put this away before you swing?"
"You've got to be kidding."
"I've had two art projects sabotaged. I don't want to bleed on another."
"Two?" James D. didn't so much let him go as push him back into the corner. "What for?"
"They didn't have the nerve to hit me in the face."
____
But whatever the tone and the sneer, the man's words flattered him, encouraged him to admit his vices, and in short, addressed him as what he was; someone with money.
____
Dave said, "Jen, how do you feel about shopping?"
"Uh-oh," Jen said, with mock horror. "'Please don't throw me in the briar patch.'"
"How cheap do you think you can find a working coat?"
"Depends where I go," Jen said, though she'd already taken her own coat - rich red and a cut that looked almost naval - from the closet. "If you let me poke about at Ivana Vintage, say fifty. But it won't be in fashion."
Anna said, "This is for me?"
"You're not walking out in the snow," Jen said.
"Then screw fashion," she said. "I like yours."
"I won't find another," Jen said.
"But it means you have taste."
Jen looked at her oddly. "For that, I'm finding you a lime green parka."
"Um," Anna said. "I thought that was a compliment."
"Fine," said Jen. "I'll forgive you this time."
____
[Dave] went and filled the kettle, motions so easy she wasn't sure he knew he was doing them. "What were you planning to do when you got out of school?"
"Oh, I always figured Tommy and I would play in a band," she said. "But I never really thought about what I'd do for money."
"You might want to consider counseling," he said. "You seem to have the instincts for it."
She laughed, mostly for sheer confusion. "Me? I'm totally lost. I don't understand any of this. I don't know how
"And several times now," he said, "You've managed to find the right thing to say when I didn't, and I do have some training with troubled teens." And she saw his hands were shaking. "And I didn't even think about the tea. I put it right in his hands. You were right. I don't have to try to hurt him."
Anna curled fists around her hair, breathing in its scent as if it might ground her. The ends felt too crisp. She didn't feel sticky, but it had been – she wanted to laugh, hysterically. It had been over half a year since she'd showered. "Ask him," she said. "Later. It will hurt you less than not telling."
___
