Graceful, She Falls (Twilight, crossovers with Highlander, Doctor Who, Torchwood)
Hey, since when do you write Twilight?
So. Yeah. Am back to my favorite writing exercise, ascending drabbles (100 words, 200 words, etc.) on a new character, in this case Alice Cullen. The idea came from wanting to understand more about Alice Cullen's backstory, and because everything I do is better as a crossover, I've done so in some cases. Information from the books and a Twiki.
Graceful, She Falls
The five senses of Alice, upon awakening
Twilight stories
~~~
one. Sight
one hundred
1920
She is Alice.
That is all she knows.
She reaches out of the darkness, towards the bright light. She has never seen these hands, but they belong to her. They are her.
And she is Alice.
Another step. Her hands slide into the light coming down from the sky. Her skin sparkles, every movement catching a rainbow of colours.
This is the first thing she sees when she walks into the light.
She is Alice, and the world is beautiful.
She breathes in, the sun-warmed air filled with delicious scents, and she smiles.
She is Alice, and she is hungry.
two. Sound
The Doctor (Doctor Who)
two hundred
1926
It happens in New York. She walks alone in a world of people not like her, and she does not understand.
All she has is her name.
She is Alice, and she is alone.
The future dances before her, changing midstream, and she moves with the waves. New York is desperate and loud, people everywhere, and she learns to stay far away from the temptation of blood.
When she hears a strange sound over the din, the future spins and whirls and Alice is on her feet in an instant, racing over rooftops.
With every step she takes, everything changes.
She finds him before the blue box shimmers into reality. Looking at the box makes her head spin and whirl with the possibilities.
Out of the box walks a man, but he is not a man, not human, and he is just as alone in the crowded world as she is.
He looks at her.
She looks at him.
It's all too soon and Alice runs away.
She will see him (a man who changes the future with every thought) again in a hundred years, in a wet city on the other side of the country.
The thought terrifies her.
three. Scent
Duncan MacLeod (Highlander)
three hundred
1929
She doesn't want to kill him, but she's been in the city so long, around all these people with blood rushing under their skin and she's so very hungry.
The snow falls around her as she hides in the shadows, waiting until the right one approaches. He is in the prime of his life and he smells so good. Alice sees no family grieving for him. She edges toward the light, sniffling loudly.
He stops and looks into the shadows of the alley, oblivious to the danger. "Miss, are you hurt?" he asks in a Scottish burr when he sees her in the darkness. His sincerity is painful, considering what she is about to do.
Regardless, she nods and sniffles again. She aches for the chase, but holds herself coiled and still as her prey approaches.
"Do you need help?" he asks, and he's leaning over her and he's so close and she leaps up and grabs him. Her teeth sink into his neck before they hit the ground, his hot blood filling her mouth and his body solid under hers and he's fighting back but it's too late.
It is over very quickly.
But he doesn't end.
With his blood streaming down her throat, Alice can see his future stretching out for far too long for someone with a heartbeat. She makes herself pull away as his body spasms for the last time and goes still, not understanding how she can see the future of a dead man.
She sits beside him, his blood drying on her lips, as his body slowly heals itself. She hears his heartbeat begin again, and leans down to kiss his lips before he draws his first breath.
By the time he gasps and opens his eyes in that snowy alley, Alice is gone.
four. Taste
Jack Harkness (Torchwood)
four hundred
1939
He is the man without a future. So she kills him.
The snap of his neck under her hands is devastatingly loud to her ears, but at least then everything makes sense. He has no future, but he has no heartbeat, his blue eyes open and surprised and dead. Dead. The man with no future is dead.
Alice refuses to let the vertigo overwhelm her. She forces herself to touch the body, seeking identification, not that it matters because he is dead.
His pockets hold strange things. A wallet, a gun, a small drawing of a strange creature, cigarettes and a lighter. She puts the gun on her lap as she methodically rips up everything in the wallet and sets the small pile on fire.
The dead man without a future suddenly gasps and chokes. Alice shoots him in the forehead. The smell of the burning paper isn't thick enough to block out the smell of blood and brains, but for the first time she can remember, the idea of blood is nauseating.
She could rather burn herself alive than open her mouth to this man without a future.
The fire is cold ash when she runs out of bullets to keep the man dead. There is nothing in this cold alley to kill him again, unless she is willing to batter in his head with a brick, but she will not risk getting his blood on her skin. Somehow, she knows she would never get rid of the taint.
So when he opens his eyes again, she just sits and watches him skitter away from her. His hands are up and he's speaking, telling her wait, just wait before you do that again but she doesn't want to listen to his dead words.
There has to be something here she can use to kill him. She idly flicks on the lighter, watching the flame reach high. Then she looks at him.
He's more annoyed than scared.
But there is resignation in his eyes and she does not understand. He has no future. There is nothing reaching out before him except more of the endless same, no changes, not anything at all, but here he is, a solid living unchanging fact.
She could kill him again and it won't make a difference to his future, or hers.
So she stands up and drops the lighter on concrete and walks away.
five. Touch
Jasper Whitlock
five hundred
1948
She first sees him three years and two days before they meet.
At first, all she sees is his face, a slight frown on his features. Then he lifts his gaze to her and he smiles and it's the most beautiful thing she will ever see.
She does not know where he is, or even his name, but she knows that he is her future.
Now all she has to do is find him.
The more she looks for him, the more she sees. She sees as he watches his friends hunting, how he sinks deeper into himself as he searches for something else, something... better.
She knows when he makes the decision to leave his Peter and Charlotte, because her world explodes in a rush of colours and possibilities. Things are certain now, so certain Alice can reach out and touch that future together.
Something whispers around her now, just out of reach. She thinks she hears the word Cullen but that doesn't mean anything to her. Not yet.
Sometimes, she sees the day they meet. It will be in Philadelphia, and it will be raining. She sees the diner's shiny counter, the red vinyl on the high stools, even the bright lights of the jukebox. He will wear jeans and a leather jacket, and his blond hair will be slick with the rain.
She goes to Philadelphia and hunts for their diner. It takes her almost two weeks to find the place, but that is all right because the rains haven't begun.
And she waits.
Every time it rains, Alice sits at the same stool at the counter, pretending to nurse a cup of coffee and talking with the cook and the waitress, all the time listening for the door to open and for him to walk in.
It rains many times in the two years she waits for him.
Then, one day, while a Frank Sinatra song plays on the jukebox, the cook goes out for a smoke and the waitress takes a phone call and the door opens and he walks in.
She turns around and sees him for the first and the millionth time, and he is even more than she could ever have thought to see.
She jumps off her stool and walks towards him, knowing he's on the defensive and she doesn't care because he won't ever hurt her.
And she smiles.
"You've kept me waiting a long time," she says, happiness bubbling up inside her. He goes from wariness to chagrin in an instant.
His head dips, but he's still looking at her because he is tall and she is small and they will fit together as if they were made for the other. "I'm sorry, ma'am," he says, just as she knew he would.
Hope and joy hug Alice tight, their brilliant light chasing away the gloom of the storm. She holds out her hand and Jasper takes it, and they are together.
She is Alice, and she is not alone.
~~~
Rating: PG-13 overall for some violence
Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer. Highlander belongs to Davis/Panzer et al. Torchwood and Doctor Who are in the good hands of the BBC.
So. Yeah. Am back to my favorite writing exercise, ascending drabbles (100 words, 200 words, etc.) on a new character, in this case Alice Cullen. The idea came from wanting to understand more about Alice Cullen's backstory, and because everything I do is better as a crossover, I've done so in some cases. Information from the books and a Twiki.
Graceful, She Falls
The five senses of Alice, upon awakening
Twilight stories
~~~
one. Sight
one hundred
1920
She is Alice.
That is all she knows.
She reaches out of the darkness, towards the bright light. She has never seen these hands, but they belong to her. They are her.
And she is Alice.
Another step. Her hands slide into the light coming down from the sky. Her skin sparkles, every movement catching a rainbow of colours.
This is the first thing she sees when she walks into the light.
She is Alice, and the world is beautiful.
She breathes in, the sun-warmed air filled with delicious scents, and she smiles.
She is Alice, and she is hungry.
two. Sound
The Doctor (Doctor Who)
two hundred
1926
It happens in New York. She walks alone in a world of people not like her, and she does not understand.
All she has is her name.
She is Alice, and she is alone.
The future dances before her, changing midstream, and she moves with the waves. New York is desperate and loud, people everywhere, and she learns to stay far away from the temptation of blood.
When she hears a strange sound over the din, the future spins and whirls and Alice is on her feet in an instant, racing over rooftops.
With every step she takes, everything changes.
She finds him before the blue box shimmers into reality. Looking at the box makes her head spin and whirl with the possibilities.
Out of the box walks a man, but he is not a man, not human, and he is just as alone in the crowded world as she is.
He looks at her.
She looks at him.
It's all too soon and Alice runs away.
She will see him (a man who changes the future with every thought) again in a hundred years, in a wet city on the other side of the country.
The thought terrifies her.
three. Scent
Duncan MacLeod (Highlander)
three hundred
1929
She doesn't want to kill him, but she's been in the city so long, around all these people with blood rushing under their skin and she's so very hungry.
The snow falls around her as she hides in the shadows, waiting until the right one approaches. He is in the prime of his life and he smells so good. Alice sees no family grieving for him. She edges toward the light, sniffling loudly.
He stops and looks into the shadows of the alley, oblivious to the danger. "Miss, are you hurt?" he asks in a Scottish burr when he sees her in the darkness. His sincerity is painful, considering what she is about to do.
Regardless, she nods and sniffles again. She aches for the chase, but holds herself coiled and still as her prey approaches.
"Do you need help?" he asks, and he's leaning over her and he's so close and she leaps up and grabs him. Her teeth sink into his neck before they hit the ground, his hot blood filling her mouth and his body solid under hers and he's fighting back but it's too late.
It is over very quickly.
But he doesn't end.
With his blood streaming down her throat, Alice can see his future stretching out for far too long for someone with a heartbeat. She makes herself pull away as his body spasms for the last time and goes still, not understanding how she can see the future of a dead man.
She sits beside him, his blood drying on her lips, as his body slowly heals itself. She hears his heartbeat begin again, and leans down to kiss his lips before he draws his first breath.
By the time he gasps and opens his eyes in that snowy alley, Alice is gone.
four. Taste
Jack Harkness (Torchwood)
four hundred
1939
He is the man without a future. So she kills him.
The snap of his neck under her hands is devastatingly loud to her ears, but at least then everything makes sense. He has no future, but he has no heartbeat, his blue eyes open and surprised and dead. Dead. The man with no future is dead.
Alice refuses to let the vertigo overwhelm her. She forces herself to touch the body, seeking identification, not that it matters because he is dead.
His pockets hold strange things. A wallet, a gun, a small drawing of a strange creature, cigarettes and a lighter. She puts the gun on her lap as she methodically rips up everything in the wallet and sets the small pile on fire.
The dead man without a future suddenly gasps and chokes. Alice shoots him in the forehead. The smell of the burning paper isn't thick enough to block out the smell of blood and brains, but for the first time she can remember, the idea of blood is nauseating.
She could rather burn herself alive than open her mouth to this man without a future.
The fire is cold ash when she runs out of bullets to keep the man dead. There is nothing in this cold alley to kill him again, unless she is willing to batter in his head with a brick, but she will not risk getting his blood on her skin. Somehow, she knows she would never get rid of the taint.
So when he opens his eyes again, she just sits and watches him skitter away from her. His hands are up and he's speaking, telling her wait, just wait before you do that again but she doesn't want to listen to his dead words.
There has to be something here she can use to kill him. She idly flicks on the lighter, watching the flame reach high. Then she looks at him.
He's more annoyed than scared.
But there is resignation in his eyes and she does not understand. He has no future. There is nothing reaching out before him except more of the endless same, no changes, not anything at all, but here he is, a solid living unchanging fact.
She could kill him again and it won't make a difference to his future, or hers.
So she stands up and drops the lighter on concrete and walks away.
five. Touch
Jasper Whitlock
five hundred
1948
She first sees him three years and two days before they meet.
At first, all she sees is his face, a slight frown on his features. Then he lifts his gaze to her and he smiles and it's the most beautiful thing she will ever see.
She does not know where he is, or even his name, but she knows that he is her future.
Now all she has to do is find him.
The more she looks for him, the more she sees. She sees as he watches his friends hunting, how he sinks deeper into himself as he searches for something else, something... better.
She knows when he makes the decision to leave his Peter and Charlotte, because her world explodes in a rush of colours and possibilities. Things are certain now, so certain Alice can reach out and touch that future together.
Something whispers around her now, just out of reach. She thinks she hears the word Cullen but that doesn't mean anything to her. Not yet.
Sometimes, she sees the day they meet. It will be in Philadelphia, and it will be raining. She sees the diner's shiny counter, the red vinyl on the high stools, even the bright lights of the jukebox. He will wear jeans and a leather jacket, and his blond hair will be slick with the rain.
She goes to Philadelphia and hunts for their diner. It takes her almost two weeks to find the place, but that is all right because the rains haven't begun.
And she waits.
Every time it rains, Alice sits at the same stool at the counter, pretending to nurse a cup of coffee and talking with the cook and the waitress, all the time listening for the door to open and for him to walk in.
It rains many times in the two years she waits for him.
Then, one day, while a Frank Sinatra song plays on the jukebox, the cook goes out for a smoke and the waitress takes a phone call and the door opens and he walks in.
She turns around and sees him for the first and the millionth time, and he is even more than she could ever have thought to see.
She jumps off her stool and walks towards him, knowing he's on the defensive and she doesn't care because he won't ever hurt her.
And she smiles.
"You've kept me waiting a long time," she says, happiness bubbling up inside her. He goes from wariness to chagrin in an instant.
His head dips, but he's still looking at her because he is tall and she is small and they will fit together as if they were made for the other. "I'm sorry, ma'am," he says, just as she knew he would.
Hope and joy hug Alice tight, their brilliant light chasing away the gloom of the storm. She holds out her hand and Jasper takes it, and they are together.
She is Alice, and she is not alone.
~~~
Rating: PG-13 overall for some violence
Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer. Highlander belongs to Davis/Panzer et al. Torchwood and Doctor Who are in the good hands of the BBC.