[PSOH] Music Meme #1
1. Pick a character, pairing, or fandom you like.
2. Turn on your music player and put it on random/shuffle.
3. Write a drabble related to each song that plays. You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble; you start when the song starts, and stop when it's over. No lingering afterwards!
4. Do ten of these, then post them.
01. Garbage; #1 Crush
It happened all the time. Before he thought about it, his hand was moving, and a confused Chinese woman would be staring back with liquid eyes and raised brows.
“Sorry,” he said. “My mistake.” And it is, it was - it had always been a mistake. But this was one mistake he would fix. He had the resources, now; he wasn’t just some kid, fresh out of college and drunk on violet eyes.
If it took a hand on every shoulder from here to Hong Kong, Vesca would find him.
02. Placebo; Allergic (To Thoughts of Mother Earth)
“You’ve gotta stop,” the human said, from the door. “You’re exhausting yourself, Dee. You can’t make this kind of breakthrough in a year, you gotta pace--”
“Just bring me the tea, Mr University Student,” he snapped, perhaps too harshly, “and let me handle the rest.”
“You’re crazy,” Vesca said, and set down the pot, and the biscuits.
“Such has often been said of the greatest men in history,” D replied, obliquely, and did his best to avoid the possible truth of the statement.
03. Alanis Morisette; Still
It takes Leon a while to understand, and to realise he has understood all along, and it is on that day that he dreams of the ship, and steps onto it.
“Everything I don’t understand,” he said to the man at the helm. “Everything I believed, anyway. You’re just-”
“Just waiting,” agreed the man, the more-than-man, and smiled. “For you to realise it, Mr Detective.” The eyes become more temperate. “Welcome aboard, Leon.”
“D,” he says, reaching, and, “D.”
“Welcome aboard,” the kami repeats, stroking his hair, and for the first time in many mnonths Leon awakens with hope in his heart and the sweet scent of incense in his nostrils.
He follows it home.
04. Mika; Ring, Ring
The first time he asked to speak to his father, his grandfather looked briefly discomposed. “Of course,” he said, naturally, and gave D the number.
It was not long after that he left on his lie of a business trip, and D called the number, just to check.
“Father,” said the voice on the other end, cold and unwilling, and when D countered it:
“No.”
Puzzled.
“Father?”
There was silence broken by breathing and, so softly,
“Say that again.”
05. VAST; Pretty When You Cry
He’s drunk. They both are. He is mad with grief, with anger, and Vesca, he supposes, is the same - some girl from the microbiology department - and it is a biting comment on that very girl that led to this, to the sweet, heavy press of flesh that will hurt him in the morning, hurt his muscles, hurt his heart. He wants this, and he doesn’t, and when it’s over, he pulls Vesca’s face close and he whispers, Forget.
He will never forget the tired reluctance in the instant before Vesca sleeps, and he will always wonder if it would have hurt more to cling than to let go.
He doesn’t think so.
06. Goo Goo Dolls; Sympathy
He knows something is wrong when D’s tone is kind and conciliatory rather than smug and biting, when the sympathy does nothing to move him and everything to leave him where he is: drowning, struggling. D does not distract him, pull him up, and as he watches, that last week, he realises that it’s something he has needed, something he has wanted: someone to make those snide suggestions and pull him up off his ass.
When D leaves, that’s what he looks for first.
07. Tori Amos; ’97 Bonnie and Clyde
“I found it. Father, I found it, I understand, I have a cure-”
“You have the human sickness of believing you can change things for the better.” Sourly. “Why are you here?”
Faltering. “I wanted... I wanted to see him. You must... Father, please, you cannot be serious. He is suffering; he is not whole-surely you cannot mean to-”
“He will prevail, or he will not. This is the way of things.”
“The way of things. Th-the way of things? I have slaved, I have struggled, spent years with these-these-the way of things?”
“My son, you must becalm yourself-”
“He is my son. My son. Nothing in this world or another can take that from me. Not even you, Father, especially not you, I cannot-I won’t let you.”
The kingdom spills outward, even as blood does, and somewhere a child’s cry turns to a baby’s shrill siren wail.
Shaking, stumbling, large hands find the child, wrap him close, wrap him tightly, and if there are tears he does not notice for the pain.
“I’ll save you,” he whispers. “I’ll save you, little one, and we’ll be fine. Won’t we?” Choked. “Just the two of us.”
08. Caleb Kane; Longer
It has been a long day. Long for both of them, and complicated, and it brings the worst in them both bubbling to the surface.
When the last cup has been thrown, Leon puts his head in his hands and says, softly, as though he has just realised it:
“I cannot deal with this shit any more.”
There is such finality in the tone that D cannot reply, cannot formulate a response, and it is not until Leon stands and gathers his jacket that he even realises what he wants his reply to be, what his reply must be.
The difference between them sticks in his throat, and he says nothing at all as Leon walks away.
09. Placebo; Drag
At first, it just drove him crazy - he was jealous, all right, that some Chinese bastard could come to this school he’d worked so hard to get into and be amazingly intelligent and gracious and an excellent tutor and-he was jealous, okay, for a long time, and when he stopped hating D for his talents all of a sudden he admired him for them instead, and those secret smiles and half-lidded glances were something warm and dangerous that he couldn’t afford to touch.
10. Tori Amos; Father Lucifer
After the fact, Count D sits alone, untouched by pets or plantlife, untouched by anything other than despair, and he remembers his son and his grandchild and he remembers a rounded, rolling accent and painfully bright blue eyes and instead of pitfalls avoided, he can only see chances lost.
2. Turn on your music player and put it on random/shuffle.
3. Write a drabble related to each song that plays. You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble; you start when the song starts, and stop when it's over. No lingering afterwards!
4. Do ten of these, then post them.
01. Garbage; #1 Crush
It happened all the time. Before he thought about it, his hand was moving, and a confused Chinese woman would be staring back with liquid eyes and raised brows.
“Sorry,” he said. “My mistake.” And it is, it was - it had always been a mistake. But this was one mistake he would fix. He had the resources, now; he wasn’t just some kid, fresh out of college and drunk on violet eyes.
If it took a hand on every shoulder from here to Hong Kong, Vesca would find him.
02. Placebo; Allergic (To Thoughts of Mother Earth)
“You’ve gotta stop,” the human said, from the door. “You’re exhausting yourself, Dee. You can’t make this kind of breakthrough in a year, you gotta pace--”
“Just bring me the tea, Mr University Student,” he snapped, perhaps too harshly, “and let me handle the rest.”
“You’re crazy,” Vesca said, and set down the pot, and the biscuits.
“Such has often been said of the greatest men in history,” D replied, obliquely, and did his best to avoid the possible truth of the statement.
03. Alanis Morisette; Still
It takes Leon a while to understand, and to realise he has understood all along, and it is on that day that he dreams of the ship, and steps onto it.
“Everything I don’t understand,” he said to the man at the helm. “Everything I believed, anyway. You’re just-”
“Just waiting,” agreed the man, the more-than-man, and smiled. “For you to realise it, Mr Detective.” The eyes become more temperate. “Welcome aboard, Leon.”
“D,” he says, reaching, and, “D.”
“Welcome aboard,” the kami repeats, stroking his hair, and for the first time in many mnonths Leon awakens with hope in his heart and the sweet scent of incense in his nostrils.
He follows it home.
04. Mika; Ring, Ring
The first time he asked to speak to his father, his grandfather looked briefly discomposed. “Of course,” he said, naturally, and gave D the number.
It was not long after that he left on his lie of a business trip, and D called the number, just to check.
“Father,” said the voice on the other end, cold and unwilling, and when D countered it:
“No.”
Puzzled.
“Father?”
There was silence broken by breathing and, so softly,
“Say that again.”
05. VAST; Pretty When You Cry
He’s drunk. They both are. He is mad with grief, with anger, and Vesca, he supposes, is the same - some girl from the microbiology department - and it is a biting comment on that very girl that led to this, to the sweet, heavy press of flesh that will hurt him in the morning, hurt his muscles, hurt his heart. He wants this, and he doesn’t, and when it’s over, he pulls Vesca’s face close and he whispers, Forget.
He will never forget the tired reluctance in the instant before Vesca sleeps, and he will always wonder if it would have hurt more to cling than to let go.
He doesn’t think so.
06. Goo Goo Dolls; Sympathy
He knows something is wrong when D’s tone is kind and conciliatory rather than smug and biting, when the sympathy does nothing to move him and everything to leave him where he is: drowning, struggling. D does not distract him, pull him up, and as he watches, that last week, he realises that it’s something he has needed, something he has wanted: someone to make those snide suggestions and pull him up off his ass.
When D leaves, that’s what he looks for first.
07. Tori Amos; ’97 Bonnie and Clyde
“I found it. Father, I found it, I understand, I have a cure-”
“You have the human sickness of believing you can change things for the better.” Sourly. “Why are you here?”
Faltering. “I wanted... I wanted to see him. You must... Father, please, you cannot be serious. He is suffering; he is not whole-surely you cannot mean to-”
“He will prevail, or he will not. This is the way of things.”
“The way of things. Th-the way of things? I have slaved, I have struggled, spent years with these-these-the way of things?”
“My son, you must becalm yourself-”
“He is my son. My son. Nothing in this world or another can take that from me. Not even you, Father, especially not you, I cannot-I won’t let you.”
The kingdom spills outward, even as blood does, and somewhere a child’s cry turns to a baby’s shrill siren wail.
Shaking, stumbling, large hands find the child, wrap him close, wrap him tightly, and if there are tears he does not notice for the pain.
“I’ll save you,” he whispers. “I’ll save you, little one, and we’ll be fine. Won’t we?” Choked. “Just the two of us.”
08. Caleb Kane; Longer
It has been a long day. Long for both of them, and complicated, and it brings the worst in them both bubbling to the surface.
When the last cup has been thrown, Leon puts his head in his hands and says, softly, as though he has just realised it:
“I cannot deal with this shit any more.”
There is such finality in the tone that D cannot reply, cannot formulate a response, and it is not until Leon stands and gathers his jacket that he even realises what he wants his reply to be, what his reply must be.
The difference between them sticks in his throat, and he says nothing at all as Leon walks away.
09. Placebo; Drag
At first, it just drove him crazy - he was jealous, all right, that some Chinese bastard could come to this school he’d worked so hard to get into and be amazingly intelligent and gracious and an excellent tutor and-he was jealous, okay, for a long time, and when he stopped hating D for his talents all of a sudden he admired him for them instead, and those secret smiles and half-lidded glances were something warm and dangerous that he couldn’t afford to touch.
10. Tori Amos; Father Lucifer
After the fact, Count D sits alone, untouched by pets or plantlife, untouched by anything other than despair, and he remembers his son and his grandchild and he remembers a rounded, rolling accent and painfully bright blue eyes and instead of pitfalls avoided, he can only see chances lost.