So Shiny, So Happy
Jun. 1st, 2009 07:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deird_ljHere's a Fred ficlet.
This was written for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
joss_las, round 10 - for the "darkness" prompt.
So Shiny, So Happy
There are several different kinds of dark; Fred has classified plenty of them over the years, and could tell you, in any situation, precisely what variety of darkness you’re dealing with.
Firstly there’s Vegas darkness.
That’s when you know, theoretically, that it’s night, and therefore dark – but the lights are still bright, so bright, sunglasses-bright, because the entire place turns on every light it has, and defiantly pushes the darkness back out to the desert where it belongs.
Then there’s L.A. darkness, when the city sees the dark as an excuse to put on its party clothes and go out to dance.
There’s street lights, and store window lights, and disco lights, and blacklights… each one blinking on as the sun goes down, and saying “Hooray! It’s night-time! Now, let’s stay up drinking and party until it’s not dark anymore!”
Next is Texas darkness. That’s when you go outside and you can pick out every individual house by looking for its porch light. They all sit there – tiny, friendly points of light – reassuring you that the town still exists, and everything is the same today as it was last week.
As each family goes to bed, lights go out, one by one, until finally you can look out your window and see nothing but stars.
Then there’s Pylea darkness – which probably isn’t actually as dark as it feels, but when your hands are pressed against your eyes, it’s hard to see the flaming torches that mark out the village, or the occasional campfire being used by a hunter, or any of the things that you’re trying to pretend don’t exist.
If you can keep your eyes closed, then you can tell yourself that the darkness you’re not seeing is just warm, safe, Texas darkness. And you never know… one day it might be.
There’s also hiding-somewhere-safe darkness, when you get into the darkest, quietest, smallest place you can find, curl yourself up tiny as ever, and maybe there are just one or two little specks of light you can see through a crack somewhere – and you stay quiet and still, and don’t take your eyes off those teeny specks of light, because if you see anything, anything at all, you’ve got to be ready to run.
Next there’s walking-through-sewer-tunnels darkness, which mostly means dim light, shadows, and flashlights. And also some growling, and occasional fights with scary monsters – but hopefully you’ll have some friends with you who can handle a bit of monster fighting from time to time, so you’ll probably be okay.
Sewer tunnel darkness isn’t nearly as dark as you’d think it is. Especially if you’ve got a flashlight on you.
And last, there’s fire-falling-from-the-sky darkness, which is when the entire sky is black as black gets, and the whole city seems to have gone dark with it, and the falling fire lights everything up just enough to show you how very little light there actually is.
It’s scary, but mesmerising.
…and then there’s this.
Fred’s got so many different forms of darkness figured out, but she’s still got nothing to describe this one.
This is… pretend darkness. Or darkness-in-disguise. Or darkness-hidden-underneath-the-not-darkness.
It’s when you can see lots of light, lots of brightness, lots of happiness – but it’s not real happiness, none of it’s real. The light lies, and the smiles are all fake.
But the smilers don’t know that.
There’s darkness everywhere, creeping in, submerging everything, all of it, so dark, so very dark, and you’re the only one who knows it’s there.
What do you call darkness that’s pretending to be light?
Fred closes her eyes, and wishes she was in Texas.
This was written for
joss_las, round 10 - for the "darkness" prompt.So Shiny, So Happy
There are several different kinds of dark; Fred has classified plenty of them over the years, and could tell you, in any situation, precisely what variety of darkness you’re dealing with.
Firstly there’s Vegas darkness.
That’s when you know, theoretically, that it’s night, and therefore dark – but the lights are still bright, so bright, sunglasses-bright, because the entire place turns on every light it has, and defiantly pushes the darkness back out to the desert where it belongs.
Then there’s L.A. darkness, when the city sees the dark as an excuse to put on its party clothes and go out to dance.
There’s street lights, and store window lights, and disco lights, and blacklights… each one blinking on as the sun goes down, and saying “Hooray! It’s night-time! Now, let’s stay up drinking and party until it’s not dark anymore!”
Next is Texas darkness. That’s when you go outside and you can pick out every individual house by looking for its porch light. They all sit there – tiny, friendly points of light – reassuring you that the town still exists, and everything is the same today as it was last week.
As each family goes to bed, lights go out, one by one, until finally you can look out your window and see nothing but stars.
Then there’s Pylea darkness – which probably isn’t actually as dark as it feels, but when your hands are pressed against your eyes, it’s hard to see the flaming torches that mark out the village, or the occasional campfire being used by a hunter, or any of the things that you’re trying to pretend don’t exist.
If you can keep your eyes closed, then you can tell yourself that the darkness you’re not seeing is just warm, safe, Texas darkness. And you never know… one day it might be.
There’s also hiding-somewhere-safe darkness, when you get into the darkest, quietest, smallest place you can find, curl yourself up tiny as ever, and maybe there are just one or two little specks of light you can see through a crack somewhere – and you stay quiet and still, and don’t take your eyes off those teeny specks of light, because if you see anything, anything at all, you’ve got to be ready to run.
Next there’s walking-through-sewer-tunnels darkness, which mostly means dim light, shadows, and flashlights. And also some growling, and occasional fights with scary monsters – but hopefully you’ll have some friends with you who can handle a bit of monster fighting from time to time, so you’ll probably be okay.
Sewer tunnel darkness isn’t nearly as dark as you’d think it is. Especially if you’ve got a flashlight on you.
And last, there’s fire-falling-from-the-sky darkness, which is when the entire sky is black as black gets, and the whole city seems to have gone dark with it, and the falling fire lights everything up just enough to show you how very little light there actually is.
It’s scary, but mesmerising.
…and then there’s this.
Fred’s got so many different forms of darkness figured out, but she’s still got nothing to describe this one.
This is… pretend darkness. Or darkness-in-disguise. Or darkness-hidden-underneath-the-not-darkness.
It’s when you can see lots of light, lots of brightness, lots of happiness – but it’s not real happiness, none of it’s real. The light lies, and the smiles are all fake.
But the smilers don’t know that.
There’s darkness everywhere, creeping in, submerging everything, all of it, so dark, so very dark, and you’re the only one who knows it’s there.
What do you call darkness that’s pretending to be light?
Fred closes her eyes, and wishes she was in Texas.
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no subject
Date: 2009-05-31 10:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-01 10:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-31 10:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-01 10:18 pm (UTC)Glad you liked it!
no subject
Date: 2009-06-01 12:55 am (UTC)Wonderful job, though - I loved this one tons. It classifies Fred in such a fun way.
...so now for Light are you going to do one mostly about darkness? :P
no subject
Date: 2009-06-01 10:18 pm (UTC)...so now for Light are you going to do one mostly about darkness? :P
Hmm... It's certainly an idea...
no subject
Date: 2009-06-01 10:49 pm (UTC)Heh. *bows*
Although, can I do a little bragging? Cause I have an idea, for the joss_las challenge, already! Doo doo doo doo doo doo! It makes more sense out loud, it's like all sing-song-y and gloat-y.
Like...
low HIGH lowww HIGH loowwwww loweerrrrr (for the doo doo doos)
...I just spent way too much time explaining that, didn't I? In case our viewers are just tuning in, I sometimes get way too excited about things! I have proportion problems. :(
OHOHOH! Random, but while I'm here...what do you do with the mulch you make, exactly? Plant things in it? Strew it randomly about your yard while singing a happy song? Place it in a vase to dump on the head of that annoying guy at work who imitates cell phone noises? Feed it to your nephews? Etch tiny fan fics on them?
*once again, clearly knows NOTHING about gardening*
no subject
Date: 2009-06-01 10:54 pm (UTC)(Oh, honey, you make me giggle...)
Mulch is apparently very good for putting around plants. They like it, and it's got nutrients, and stuff.
Which seems terribly boring, until you realise that mulch is actually crushed and pulverised plants. Being put around plants.
Sort of the equivalent of someone bathing in the blood of their enemies, and being showered in dismembered puppies, and cackling evilly: "Mwahaha! The power! From your deaths I will become INVINCIBLE!"
...what?
no subject
Date: 2009-06-02 12:55 am (UTC)And the reason I keep trying too hard, ladies and other ladies and
Which seems terribly boring, until you realise that mulch is actually crushed and pulverised plants. Being put around plants.
Sort of the equivalent of someone bathing in the blood of their enemies, and being showered in dismembered puppies, and cackling evilly: "Mwahaha! The power! From your deaths I will become INVINCIBLE!"
*whimpers*
I would have gone more with the "circle of life, what dies is reborn, the death of these plants brings about the life of others so they kind of live again" angle.
...which, come to think of it, is kind of like you have ZOMBIE plants.
Man, Australia's so fucking cool. *sigh*
no subject
Date: 2009-06-02 12:59 am (UTC)Man, this Evil Australia story really would work.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-02 01:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-01 06:54 am (UTC)This is creepy and...um...dark, and I like it.
Oh, and Fred should read the Revenge of the Sith novelization when she gets a chance. "The dark is generous. Its...gift is the light itself: as days are defined by the nights that divide them, as stars are defined by the infinite black through which they wheel, the dark embraces the light, and brings it forth from the center of its own self.
With each victory of the light, it is the dark that wins." ;-)
no subject
Date: 2009-06-01 10:19 pm (UTC)Glad you liked this!
no subject
Date: 2009-06-01 12:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-01 10:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-01 08:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-01 10:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-01 09:04 pm (UTC)the smiles are all fake.
But the smilers don’t know that.
These lines gave me creeps. I rewatched Jasmine episodes revently and I was struck, again, by the intensity and profoundness of her arc. You found a very unusual angle to explore her power.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-01 10:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-06 06:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-06 09:02 pm (UTC)