Not leaving Kudos

[bunn]

I wrote a series of tiny stories about readers Not Leaving Kudos on ArchiveofOurOwn, prompted by a thread over on the ushobwri community. Kept them in a file for a bit and added one when I thought of one, and eventually in a fit of randomness posted them on Ao3

Comments

This really needs to stop

[ladyofastolat]

His eyes were full of dust, and he had long since lost the strength to brush them clean. His legs were pinned beneath fallen pillars, beautifully carved and tangled with dying brambles. The goats were long gone. They had done their damage, felling the fragile aedifice, and scampered on their way.

They laughed at him, sometimes, in his dreams.

He might have given up days ago, he thought, had it not been for The Story. Ah, such a story! Only two fingers remained unbent, unbroken, but two fingers were enough. Enough to nudge the tablet from where it had tumbled from his pack. There was no signal out here, of course, but he had downloaded a long story before he had left for the wilds. Two fingers could open it. Two fingers could keep him reading; could make him weep cleansing tears for the pain of people that had never lived: pain that led to a happy ever after.

He would die here, he thought, but thanks to The Story, he would not die bereft.

He thought it was a fantasy, at first, the rescue. He thought it was the people from his story. He thought it was the goats. He laughed, at first, and then he wept.

"Lie still," they told him, as they loaded him into the helicopter. "You're very badly hurt. Don't move."

"Must…" he gasped. Machines beeped. People said things; sharp, urgent things. They didn't understand. They didn't...

"Lie still!" It was sharp now, almost brutal.

"No," he said. "No!" They were airborne now, taking him to safety. "Got to..." he rasped. "Got signal? Internet…? Need to..."

"No!" They were trying to hold him down, but he fought them. Two fingers were enough. Enough to find the tablet. Enough to see that he was there, he was connected. He could leave kudos! He had to... had to...

The machines were screaming now, but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered. He had left kudos. The author would know.

He let the blackness take him.

There were goats.

Re: This really needs to stop

[huinare]

*contemplative silence*

*applause*

Re: This really needs to stop

[bunn]

Oh god. I was only able to read the second one after going away for some time to laugh like a drain and get it out of my system.

And then....

THE GOATS! THE GOATSSSSSS!!!!!!