Fannish Advent #11: Society's On Holiday.
Title: Society's On Holiday.
Rating: PG.
Fandom: Dr. Horrible.
Synopsis: How does Dr. Horrible spend Christmas Eve?
***
Time was the lab would have been thoroughly decked and bedecked for the Christmas season, with beakers of strange chemicals in green and red bubbling merrily away on the Bunsen burners and the faintly acrid smell of artificial pine hanging heavy in the air. Time was the lab would have been, well...maybe not 'pleasant' by the normal definitions of the term, but definitely a cheery place to spend the holiday if one happened to be an evil henchman working for an evil mastermind.
That time was in the past; that ship had sailed.
"We're gonna be doing a Yule log at Knockout's place," Moist offered, from the top of the stairs. He was afraid to go any lower; had been afraid to go any lower ever since That Night. That Night was when everything changed, and not, strange as it might seem, for the best. That Night was when Billy died, and the real Dr. Horrible was finally born. They'd both claimed to be villains before That Night. They'd both been wrong.
Moist was becoming terribly afraid that Billy had actually been, in his own odd, self-destructive little way, a hero. And now Billy was gone, and Dr. Horrible was here, and for the first time in years, Moist locked his bedroom door at night.
"I'm not interested," said the voice from below.
No, you wouldn't be, Moist thought. "I-if you change your mind, you have my number," he said, and retreated quickly, before that voice could give him any orders; before that voice could ask him anything at all. Time was he'd have welcomed the chance to spend Christmas Eve in the lab. But that time was buried, in a public grave with a woman he'd never met, and in the cold heart of the man who'd taken his best friend's place.
In the basement laboratory of Dr. Horrible, the click of the front door closing seemed very loud indeed.
Dr. Horrible looked slowly around the lab, eyes taking in every detail and rejecting it just as quickly. Too much here was old. Too much here still needed breaking. He was barely aware that he'd started to sing.
"They make their lists; they check them twice;
Try to insist we all play nice.
Bald bribery -- their favorite way.
Society's on holiday...
It's red and green, it's tinsel stars --
It's too obscene, that's what they are,
All children who can't stand to see
Dreams don't come true and nothing's free!"
A casual sweep of his hand sent a beaker tumbling to the floor, where it shattered. The sound was pleasant. He sent three more to join it.
"So deck the halls and ring the bells
And burn inside your secret hells,
And when the voice inside you yells
Just tell it to be still.
There's no Santa, no exemption,
No eureka, no invention,
No sure pathway to redemption...
In the end, it's innocence that's easiest to kill."
A microscope. A rack of test-tubes. A...
He stopped in the middle of the gesture that would have sent Penny's photograph crashing to the floor. Gripping it in both hands, he stared into her smile.
"They make their lists; they judge us all.
We can't resist. We're made to fall.
I tried to show you I could be
The one who'd know your destiny...
It's silent nights, it's broken locks,
When nothing's right and money talks.
Now thanks to you I finally see
Dreams don't come true...and nothing's free."
Alone in his lab, Billy bowed his head, and cried.
***
Today's fandom was suggested by raelee. To suggest a fandom and/or situation for tomorrow, please comment on this post! Remember, just because it wasn't chosen today, that doesn't mean it won't be chosen tomorrow.
Rating: PG.
Fandom: Dr. Horrible.
Synopsis: How does Dr. Horrible spend Christmas Eve?
***
Time was the lab would have been thoroughly decked and bedecked for the Christmas season, with beakers of strange chemicals in green and red bubbling merrily away on the Bunsen burners and the faintly acrid smell of artificial pine hanging heavy in the air. Time was the lab would have been, well...maybe not 'pleasant' by the normal definitions of the term, but definitely a cheery place to spend the holiday if one happened to be an evil henchman working for an evil mastermind.
That time was in the past; that ship had sailed.
"We're gonna be doing a Yule log at Knockout's place," Moist offered, from the top of the stairs. He was afraid to go any lower; had been afraid to go any lower ever since That Night. That Night was when everything changed, and not, strange as it might seem, for the best. That Night was when Billy died, and the real Dr. Horrible was finally born. They'd both claimed to be villains before That Night. They'd both been wrong.
Moist was becoming terribly afraid that Billy had actually been, in his own odd, self-destructive little way, a hero. And now Billy was gone, and Dr. Horrible was here, and for the first time in years, Moist locked his bedroom door at night.
"I'm not interested," said the voice from below.
No, you wouldn't be, Moist thought. "I-if you change your mind, you have my number," he said, and retreated quickly, before that voice could give him any orders; before that voice could ask him anything at all. Time was he'd have welcomed the chance to spend Christmas Eve in the lab. But that time was buried, in a public grave with a woman he'd never met, and in the cold heart of the man who'd taken his best friend's place.
In the basement laboratory of Dr. Horrible, the click of the front door closing seemed very loud indeed.
Dr. Horrible looked slowly around the lab, eyes taking in every detail and rejecting it just as quickly. Too much here was old. Too much here still needed breaking. He was barely aware that he'd started to sing.
"They make their lists; they check them twice;
Try to insist we all play nice.
Bald bribery -- their favorite way.
Society's on holiday...
It's red and green, it's tinsel stars --
It's too obscene, that's what they are,
All children who can't stand to see
Dreams don't come true and nothing's free!"
A casual sweep of his hand sent a beaker tumbling to the floor, where it shattered. The sound was pleasant. He sent three more to join it.
"So deck the halls and ring the bells
And burn inside your secret hells,
And when the voice inside you yells
Just tell it to be still.
There's no Santa, no exemption,
No eureka, no invention,
No sure pathway to redemption...
In the end, it's innocence that's easiest to kill."
A microscope. A rack of test-tubes. A...
He stopped in the middle of the gesture that would have sent Penny's photograph crashing to the floor. Gripping it in both hands, he stared into her smile.
"They make their lists; they judge us all.
We can't resist. We're made to fall.
I tried to show you I could be
The one who'd know your destiny...
It's silent nights, it's broken locks,
When nothing's right and money talks.
Now thanks to you I finally see
Dreams don't come true...and nothing's free."
Alone in his lab, Billy bowed his head, and cried.
***
Today's fandom was suggested by raelee. To suggest a fandom and/or situation for tomorrow, please comment on this post! Remember, just because it wasn't chosen today, that doesn't mean it won't be chosen tomorrow.