Prompt responses 1
I've got a couple more to do but I wanted to post these before they got lost to the obscurity of my drafts folder.
Empty Benches
It was an eerie silence, breathless after the rush of Anvil. All the patients now gone, their friends and families taking them home. Mobile surgeries, the only places of healing that ever really emptied and then only by necessity. Watching the walking wounded limp away, hoping they'd make it along the trods and safely home to rest and care. It made the medic wince to watch them go, but they couldn't stay here.
The debris of battle left behind so hastily, sodden bandages, broken needles, blood seeping into the ground. Empty benches tell the stories of the horrors they've seen - echos of their former occupants like ghosts in the doctors eye; wood split where an armoured Varushkan had to be held down, blood splatter from the drain put into a bravo's spine. This was where people had fought to live and mostly won but sometimes lost. Anis had died here over a year ago, Idoya had died here yesterday, and they were far from the only ones.
Gabrielle scrubbed down the benches as best she could and piled the bloodied rags that used to be bandages high for burning. The rain, falling now in big wet drops, would wash away the stains on the floor once the tent had been dismantled; already the blood was seeping into the ground and any sign they had been there at all would be gone soon enough, only crushed grass betraying their presence.
Levi had already packed the Urizen glow stones into the cart as she came over with the neatly folded sheets. Together they lowered the flag and with Tiberius' help packed away the pole. The finality of it closing the hospital for the season leaving only the ghosts behind.
Fighting for the Honour
Our eyes lock and for a moment the choice to fight lies before us. Both vying for the prize.
Who are you? To take such prominence and care so much? Who are you to offer yourself as you do? How have you found your way into our lives so thoroughly?
I look for your agenda, I know you must have one, for you are a consummate professional and I do not believe you 'just happened' to catch the attention of the General so completely. I was never good at the game though, always distrustful of it and aware of my own failings. Instead I try and see through it, to try and catch a glimpse of what lies beneath - maybe not the 'true' you but a truer you than the one you have let me see before.
The price you offer to pay is hefty, and whatever other reasons there are, I believe there must be some sincerity in there. I know what it will grant you, the debt you will be owed for it, but I know what it will take from you too. Perhaps you are still playing me, letting me see only what you want me to see. And yet... and yet I see so many paths you could have taken which would cause you far less pain and lose you no influence but still you take the hardest path.
Conspirators then, you and I, for you have his ear more than I ever will but I am his kin and whatever our reasons we will both see him fixed and whole. On this I will back you to the hilt. Perhaps I should have fought harder, but something has changed between us, (an understanding, borne of adversity perhaps? Certainly we seem to have enough to bind us to a common cause a dozen times over), and so I nod and yield as you offer up your flesh to cure the one we love.
Heart on Sleeve
"I was just taking the advice you gave me!"He throws it in my face, it makes me stop, and in a way, yes, you have and in other ways you have just made everything worse. I told you to be clear to her nothing would ever happen if that's what you meant, I told you not to lead her on. You told her you loved her and everything that came afterwards I doubt was even heard.
I look at you and see an un-marshalled heart, all encompassing. Like an avalanche catching up everyone in its path, leaving broken wreckage in its wake. My sweet cousin crying in my arms at the unfairness of it all, of what you represented and what your wild heart had wrought between her and her would-be-lover. Now she's gone and her last few hours are shadowed by your actions.
How does Drin feel now? What words are you whispering in Serena's ear? I do not wish to see a pattern but...
You say you know how lucky you are to have Igraine but I'm still not sure you really do.
Cats
"She's here" And all the terror that I have been feeling crystallises, a cold chill around my heart. There will be blood this night. I can't stay so unprotected in this place as panic wells up in my throat. I think of the power the beast held over me just last night and I think of what more will happen when the crescendo peaks and the beast is brought forth in my family. My hand itches under the scars; what will happen when Drigo dons a mask? When they all do?
I shrug into my chain, it's weight comforting on my shoulders, my coat fitting snugly over it, hiding it away. Helouise and Kit are patient with my panic - It feels almost like girding and for a moment makes my head spin.
I don my mask, stiling my unrest, and return to the rehearsal - the play is about to start and even off the stage, I have my part to play.
Visions
What do you see when you look into my eyes this night? What looks back out at you when your hackles rise and when you issue the challenge when your plans are denied? This is not me and yet I cannot fight the Beast when it hears your call. No, that is not right, I choose not to fight it but to embrace it for this night. It has the strength that I do not and I give myself over to it to protect those I love. I answer your challenge with my own and face unblinking into your eyes. A moment of silence stretches out and part of me, behind the beast that controls me and behind the fear that is me, idly wonders if you're going to go for the knife you undoubtedly have. Finally, you lower your eyes. I have won this round. I let go of your shirt collar and as I turn away from you, the Beast drops me from its vicious grasp and I realise how fragile I really am; my shoulders start to shake and I scrabble at the mask that still holds it too close to me.
Your hands on my shoulders then, wrapping around me strong and gentle, stilling my shaking body and quieting my tears. Pulling me close and keeping me safe. Always.
Empty Benches
It was an eerie silence, breathless after the rush of Anvil. All the patients now gone, their friends and families taking them home. Mobile surgeries, the only places of healing that ever really emptied and then only by necessity. Watching the walking wounded limp away, hoping they'd make it along the trods and safely home to rest and care. It made the medic wince to watch them go, but they couldn't stay here.
The debris of battle left behind so hastily, sodden bandages, broken needles, blood seeping into the ground. Empty benches tell the stories of the horrors they've seen - echos of their former occupants like ghosts in the doctors eye; wood split where an armoured Varushkan had to be held down, blood splatter from the drain put into a bravo's spine. This was where people had fought to live and mostly won but sometimes lost. Anis had died here over a year ago, Idoya had died here yesterday, and they were far from the only ones.
Gabrielle scrubbed down the benches as best she could and piled the bloodied rags that used to be bandages high for burning. The rain, falling now in big wet drops, would wash away the stains on the floor once the tent had been dismantled; already the blood was seeping into the ground and any sign they had been there at all would be gone soon enough, only crushed grass betraying their presence.
Levi had already packed the Urizen glow stones into the cart as she came over with the neatly folded sheets. Together they lowered the flag and with Tiberius' help packed away the pole. The finality of it closing the hospital for the season leaving only the ghosts behind.
Fighting for the Honour
Our eyes lock and for a moment the choice to fight lies before us. Both vying for the prize.
Who are you? To take such prominence and care so much? Who are you to offer yourself as you do? How have you found your way into our lives so thoroughly?
I look for your agenda, I know you must have one, for you are a consummate professional and I do not believe you 'just happened' to catch the attention of the General so completely. I was never good at the game though, always distrustful of it and aware of my own failings. Instead I try and see through it, to try and catch a glimpse of what lies beneath - maybe not the 'true' you but a truer you than the one you have let me see before.
The price you offer to pay is hefty, and whatever other reasons there are, I believe there must be some sincerity in there. I know what it will grant you, the debt you will be owed for it, but I know what it will take from you too. Perhaps you are still playing me, letting me see only what you want me to see. And yet... and yet I see so many paths you could have taken which would cause you far less pain and lose you no influence but still you take the hardest path.
Conspirators then, you and I, for you have his ear more than I ever will but I am his kin and whatever our reasons we will both see him fixed and whole. On this I will back you to the hilt. Perhaps I should have fought harder, but something has changed between us, (an understanding, borne of adversity perhaps? Certainly we seem to have enough to bind us to a common cause a dozen times over), and so I nod and yield as you offer up your flesh to cure the one we love.
Heart on Sleeve
"I was just taking the advice you gave me!"He throws it in my face, it makes me stop, and in a way, yes, you have and in other ways you have just made everything worse. I told you to be clear to her nothing would ever happen if that's what you meant, I told you not to lead her on. You told her you loved her and everything that came afterwards I doubt was even heard.
I look at you and see an un-marshalled heart, all encompassing. Like an avalanche catching up everyone in its path, leaving broken wreckage in its wake. My sweet cousin crying in my arms at the unfairness of it all, of what you represented and what your wild heart had wrought between her and her would-be-lover. Now she's gone and her last few hours are shadowed by your actions.
How does Drin feel now? What words are you whispering in Serena's ear? I do not wish to see a pattern but...
You say you know how lucky you are to have Igraine but I'm still not sure you really do.
Cats
"She's here" And all the terror that I have been feeling crystallises, a cold chill around my heart. There will be blood this night. I can't stay so unprotected in this place as panic wells up in my throat. I think of the power the beast held over me just last night and I think of what more will happen when the crescendo peaks and the beast is brought forth in my family. My hand itches under the scars; what will happen when Drigo dons a mask? When they all do?
I shrug into my chain, it's weight comforting on my shoulders, my coat fitting snugly over it, hiding it away. Helouise and Kit are patient with my panic - It feels almost like girding and for a moment makes my head spin.
I don my mask, stiling my unrest, and return to the rehearsal - the play is about to start and even off the stage, I have my part to play.
Visions
What do you see when you look into my eyes this night? What looks back out at you when your hackles rise and when you issue the challenge when your plans are denied? This is not me and yet I cannot fight the Beast when it hears your call. No, that is not right, I choose not to fight it but to embrace it for this night. It has the strength that I do not and I give myself over to it to protect those I love. I answer your challenge with my own and face unblinking into your eyes. A moment of silence stretches out and part of me, behind the beast that controls me and behind the fear that is me, idly wonders if you're going to go for the knife you undoubtedly have. Finally, you lower your eyes. I have won this round. I let go of your shirt collar and as I turn away from you, the Beast drops me from its vicious grasp and I realise how fragile I really am; my shoulders start to shake and I scrabble at the mask that still holds it too close to me.
Your hands on my shoulders then, wrapping around me strong and gentle, stilling my shaking body and quieting my tears. Pulling me close and keeping me safe. Always.