A Delicate Battle- More fic.
Author: Axolotl_lan *whose screen is falling off and it is concerning her*
Title: Le Papillon
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Magic runs in stages and may be mistaken for technology in the wrong hands
Prompter/Prompt: Seftimiu / Trickster has a magical heritage he's unaware of, which brings him back to the land of the living. (Death was a transformation, not an end. His shell (dead body) became a cocoon.)
La Chenille
Some men are strange, they can have a child that is the embodiment of a God and still never think of what that means about them and their own potential. Some men can wield magic. Most of the known magic users have a formula, speaking backwards, waving a pendant or staff or some other silly charm around. Whatever gets the job done, doesn't matter if it's "bibbity boppity boo" or "setunim evif tsal eht tegroF" it's magic simple as that.
Of course, magic isn't really always that simple- because of it's nature it is always changing and it's rules are mutable to a degree. What may be impossible for one is cake to another. One's stepping stones is another's cliff to climb.
The Trickster had been a very powerful magician and never known it. His devices never should have worked, his education really didn't back his devices... but his imagination was enough to make them function. It was force of will and Giovanni Giuseppe had that in spades.
"Light-refraction generator. Projects a small invisibility field. y'know like Harry potter's cloak."
"Not him not NOW!"
"C'mon wake up Trickster, Wake the HELL up--"
"I know what you'll say about me using the word romantic-- so you can just shut up Trickster."
The winds whistled and the wasted body sunk into the desert sands grin widening with each piercing grain prying the flesh back.
It seemed as if the body would be hidden forever lost to the harsh land.
It was then a cloud of monarchs swarmed with the rise of the sun. His body rose from the stinging sands and was lifted into the air once more before being dropped into a small clear pond. The butterflies hovered a moment longer the sound of their collective wings booming. The body began to shimmer beneath the rippling water before it stilled and all that was left was a chrysalis.
La Nymph
It wasn't so much a fear of heights as it was of falling. The higher you stood above the ground the more precarious your footing.
Giovanni Giuseppe hated it, the feeling of fear. He would conquer it, he just needed to find a way. Until then he'd just keep on walking forward one step at a time without looking back.
Below the high-wire he saw himself a grown man splayed and bleeding wearing a striped suit and blue cape.
He'd almost fallen that day.
After the show still shaking he took his book on mechanics and engineering he'd snagged off one of the roadies and began reading double time. He'd prove it to himself that he could do it, that he could stand on air, he could fly...
and then he'd never fall like that vision of himself.
Oh, he'd learned to fly alright, and soon he was so high on himself that it was enough to play on the tightrope, he needed something bigger and better.
Initially he got the thrills from making people succumb to his force of personality. A smile, a laugh well-meaning looks and underhanded actions.
A conman had been born from the abandonment of innocence and fear.
He'd never considered too deeply how a boy could make flying shoes out of circus scraps and a beaten on engineering text, and the man never came back to the question.
The Trickster came when he left his last fear behind, a defiance of fate. He instructed Gambi to make him a suit with those colours and godawful stripes to prove he wouldn't fall. Some may say he was setting himself up but James Jesse didn't live in the past or the worries therein.
The waters swirled lightly with the touch of the winds, droplets of sand hit the water leaving an echoing trail and the pupa continued to shine with an unearthly glow.
_~_~_~_~
"Whatever happens I'll leave it all to chance-" Piper lifted the flute to his lips and let them play the remaining bars until he felt the urge to sing a bit more, his voice a rich tenor sang the next lines in almost a whisper. He felt a power he couldn't seem to recognize as he did it.
"My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies
Fairytales of yesterday will grow but never die
I can fly - my friends
The show must go on" He choked a bit unable to continue. Tears were falling down his face, wet streaks shining clear, as the sun began to set there was a faint flutter from the window.Piper walked over to see a reddish orange and black butterfly caught in-between the screen and the glass. Carefully, he guided the butterfly until it flew out the window.
Closing it once more he considered getting a new screen, even if he hadn't seen how the butterfly had been trapped. It'd be a shame if it happened again.
Sitting on his piano bench he cupped his head in his hands and stilled.
The room was silent and so was he it felt like he'd run out of tears.
Maybe it'd taken a holiday with his hope?
A banging flutter made him lift his head to see his window plastered with the fluttery insects. There was barely enough space to open the window without harming one, as he did they flooded the room and circled him.
They danced through the air like they were telling a story, but he just couldn't follow it.
The dance stopped and they headed toward the screen full tilt, they were going to be hurt - they might...
They made it to the other side, without even tearing the screen. They all seemed to be headed the same way.... but it was too fast to follow.
They seemed to bleed into the horizon bright orange and reddish blotches in a streaky darkening sky.
He wasn't sure what to make of it.
Until he heard the fluttering and watched one last straggler dance around around his sheet music knocking them down.
At the top the butterfly lay still on the topmost page, he knelt down to see the title; "Vogliatemi Bene- heh, love me a little eh, little one?"
reaching out his hands the butterfly sprung to life and out the screen just as its' peers had.
The page was marked with the dust from its' wings, surrounding the bars containing the lyrics,
"Dicon ch'oltre mare
se cade in man dell'uom,
ogni farfarla
da uno spillo è trafitta
ed in tavola infitta!."
on down to the words " Si, per la vita."
He considered Pinkerton's words for a moment, he'd always enjoyed Madame Butterfly.
In the premiere cast the man who'd played Pinkerton was name Giovanni... and the other male lead had been named Giuseppe... it was actually kinda funny. This whole thing left him thinking of him.
Shaking his head he straightened out the music and returned it to its' shelf and headed for the computer to look up the butterfly.
The name had been on the tip of his tongue since he'd seen it.
- Monarchs, known for their colouring and for once every few generations making a big trek to the Oyamel forest in Mexico.
James' body was lying in the desert probably somewhere along their migration path, maybe they were sending him a message.
It'd still bothered him that he hadn't returned to bury James' body maybe, maybe that is what he needed to do to get closure.
If he didn't succeed at least he'd know he'd tried.
~_~_~_~
Le Papillon
"I'm not sure who I was, but I think I know who I am supposed to be."
The water drained away and the hardened shell of what once was a man lay upon the dry sands growing more brittle and crackling with each unforgiving ray of the sun.
Lines slipped up and down the figure almost navy and golden in colour under a mica-like film.
" We are Rogues."
"I tell ya what, it's a grave new day for the Rogues buddy..."
"And we've got to watch each other's backs.. we're all we have... the party's over."
"Think this'll buy you ::Gak:: time to leave the party?"
- "Not us."
Whose watching your back now, standing behind you.
' I just want to be beside you. '
Another fissure crackled along the top of the chrysalis.
He was coming back for him.
~_~_~_~
'you can't be dead you can't'
Piper drove along the roadside aimlessly heading toward Mexico hoping for a sign and just as he hit the border he saw it, sun high up in the sky a monarch circling it and then taking a downward dive toward him.
It stopped the kamikaze path at the last moment and headed toward the desert.
This may have been the stupidest idea ever but he followed it.
Right to-
~_~_~_~_~
Heart fluttering in his chest ,fingers curled like an infants trying to stretch them out and claw at the membrane.
It was like nothing he'd ever felt before.
He was so warm it was stifling he wanted out.
He wanted to show him what he'd learned.
Life.
~_~_~_~
As Piper touched the crystalline shell it shattered to pieces leaving a familiar man groaning on the ground.
The pieces had fallen on either side of him resembling a butterfly's wings.
His eyes fluttered open and his lips parted.
"You came back for me?"
Hartley placed a hand to James' cheek before choking out, "I never left."
A smile spread across James' face as he began to sit up with Hartley easing him.
" I can fly." he said happily.
"you always could." Piper said with a matching grin.
"No, I mean... check this out." James pulled Hartley flush to him and rose up into the air strands of sparkling yellow and blue trailing behind them.
In the distance they could see a forest coated in reddish orange.
"They led me to you." Hartley said leaning into James, solid and alive James.
"Really?" James said.
"Yup. You realize how this may be interpreted." Hartley said adjusting in James grip as his body became aware of their position.
"Hm, what do you? Oh the nude thing. Yeah- totally over that." James grinned as he purposefully shifted Piper back.
" Aerial sex? Kinky. Never would have thought you the type." Hartley laughed as James leaned back onto what felt like a solid cushion of sparkles.
" No one suspects the butterfly."
James and Hartley kissed and laughed and held each other, treating each moment like their last because you never know if you'll die tomorrow.
So from now on they would live for today.
I fall asleep and I dream of the sun
And my butterfly
Author Note: some lines from Countdown, Lyrics from Queen: the show must go on, Madam Butterfly, and Rajaton Butterfly.
Translation for the madame Butterfly song can be found here; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogliatemi_bene
Title: Le Papillon
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Magic runs in stages and may be mistaken for technology in the wrong hands
Prompter/Prompt: Seftimiu / Trickster has a magical heritage he's unaware of, which brings him back to the land of the living. (Death was a transformation, not an end. His shell (dead body) became a cocoon.)
La Chenille
Some men are strange, they can have a child that is the embodiment of a God and still never think of what that means about them and their own potential. Some men can wield magic. Most of the known magic users have a formula, speaking backwards, waving a pendant or staff or some other silly charm around. Whatever gets the job done, doesn't matter if it's "bibbity boppity boo" or "setunim evif tsal eht tegroF" it's magic simple as that.
Of course, magic isn't really always that simple- because of it's nature it is always changing and it's rules are mutable to a degree. What may be impossible for one is cake to another. One's stepping stones is another's cliff to climb.
The Trickster had been a very powerful magician and never known it. His devices never should have worked, his education really didn't back his devices... but his imagination was enough to make them function. It was force of will and Giovanni Giuseppe had that in spades.
"Light-refraction generator. Projects a small invisibility field. y'know like Harry potter's cloak."
"Not him not NOW!"
"C'mon wake up Trickster, Wake the HELL up--"
"I know what you'll say about me using the word romantic-- so you can just shut up Trickster."
The winds whistled and the wasted body sunk into the desert sands grin widening with each piercing grain prying the flesh back.
It seemed as if the body would be hidden forever lost to the harsh land.
It was then a cloud of monarchs swarmed with the rise of the sun. His body rose from the stinging sands and was lifted into the air once more before being dropped into a small clear pond. The butterflies hovered a moment longer the sound of their collective wings booming. The body began to shimmer beneath the rippling water before it stilled and all that was left was a chrysalis.
La Nymph
It wasn't so much a fear of heights as it was of falling. The higher you stood above the ground the more precarious your footing.
Giovanni Giuseppe hated it, the feeling of fear. He would conquer it, he just needed to find a way. Until then he'd just keep on walking forward one step at a time without looking back.
Below the high-wire he saw himself a grown man splayed and bleeding wearing a striped suit and blue cape.
He'd almost fallen that day.
After the show still shaking he took his book on mechanics and engineering he'd snagged off one of the roadies and began reading double time. He'd prove it to himself that he could do it, that he could stand on air, he could fly...
and then he'd never fall like that vision of himself.
Oh, he'd learned to fly alright, and soon he was so high on himself that it was enough to play on the tightrope, he needed something bigger and better.
Initially he got the thrills from making people succumb to his force of personality. A smile, a laugh well-meaning looks and underhanded actions.
A conman had been born from the abandonment of innocence and fear.
He'd never considered too deeply how a boy could make flying shoes out of circus scraps and a beaten on engineering text, and the man never came back to the question.
The Trickster came when he left his last fear behind, a defiance of fate. He instructed Gambi to make him a suit with those colours and godawful stripes to prove he wouldn't fall. Some may say he was setting himself up but James Jesse didn't live in the past or the worries therein.
The waters swirled lightly with the touch of the winds, droplets of sand hit the water leaving an echoing trail and the pupa continued to shine with an unearthly glow.
_~_~_~_~
"Whatever happens I'll leave it all to chance-" Piper lifted the flute to his lips and let them play the remaining bars until he felt the urge to sing a bit more, his voice a rich tenor sang the next lines in almost a whisper. He felt a power he couldn't seem to recognize as he did it.
"My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies
Fairytales of yesterday will grow but never die
I can fly - my friends
The show must go on" He choked a bit unable to continue. Tears were falling down his face, wet streaks shining clear, as the sun began to set there was a faint flutter from the window.Piper walked over to see a reddish orange and black butterfly caught in-between the screen and the glass. Carefully, he guided the butterfly until it flew out the window.
Closing it once more he considered getting a new screen, even if he hadn't seen how the butterfly had been trapped. It'd be a shame if it happened again.
Sitting on his piano bench he cupped his head in his hands and stilled.
The room was silent and so was he it felt like he'd run out of tears.
Maybe it'd taken a holiday with his hope?
A banging flutter made him lift his head to see his window plastered with the fluttery insects. There was barely enough space to open the window without harming one, as he did they flooded the room and circled him.
They danced through the air like they were telling a story, but he just couldn't follow it.
The dance stopped and they headed toward the screen full tilt, they were going to be hurt - they might...
They made it to the other side, without even tearing the screen. They all seemed to be headed the same way.... but it was too fast to follow.
They seemed to bleed into the horizon bright orange and reddish blotches in a streaky darkening sky.
He wasn't sure what to make of it.
Until he heard the fluttering and watched one last straggler dance around around his sheet music knocking them down.
At the top the butterfly lay still on the topmost page, he knelt down to see the title; "Vogliatemi Bene- heh, love me a little eh, little one?"
reaching out his hands the butterfly sprung to life and out the screen just as its' peers had.
The page was marked with the dust from its' wings, surrounding the bars containing the lyrics,
"Dicon ch'oltre mare
se cade in man dell'uom,
ogni farfarla
da uno spillo è trafitta
ed in tavola infitta!."
on down to the words " Si, per la vita."
He considered Pinkerton's words for a moment, he'd always enjoyed Madame Butterfly.
In the premiere cast the man who'd played Pinkerton was name Giovanni... and the other male lead had been named Giuseppe... it was actually kinda funny. This whole thing left him thinking of him.
Shaking his head he straightened out the music and returned it to its' shelf and headed for the computer to look up the butterfly.
The name had been on the tip of his tongue since he'd seen it.
- Monarchs, known for their colouring and for once every few generations making a big trek to the Oyamel forest in Mexico.
James' body was lying in the desert probably somewhere along their migration path, maybe they were sending him a message.
It'd still bothered him that he hadn't returned to bury James' body maybe, maybe that is what he needed to do to get closure.
If he didn't succeed at least he'd know he'd tried.
~_~_~_~
Le Papillon
"I'm not sure who I was, but I think I know who I am supposed to be."
The water drained away and the hardened shell of what once was a man lay upon the dry sands growing more brittle and crackling with each unforgiving ray of the sun.
Lines slipped up and down the figure almost navy and golden in colour under a mica-like film.
" We are Rogues."
"I tell ya what, it's a grave new day for the Rogues buddy..."
"And we've got to watch each other's backs.. we're all we have... the party's over."
"Think this'll buy you ::Gak:: time to leave the party?"
- "Not us."
Whose watching your back now, standing behind you.
' I just want to be beside you. '
Another fissure crackled along the top of the chrysalis.
He was coming back for him.
~_~_~_~
'you can't be dead you can't'
Piper drove along the roadside aimlessly heading toward Mexico hoping for a sign and just as he hit the border he saw it, sun high up in the sky a monarch circling it and then taking a downward dive toward him.
It stopped the kamikaze path at the last moment and headed toward the desert.
This may have been the stupidest idea ever but he followed it.
Right to-
~_~_~_~_~
Heart fluttering in his chest ,fingers curled like an infants trying to stretch them out and claw at the membrane.
It was like nothing he'd ever felt before.
He was so warm it was stifling he wanted out.
He wanted to show him what he'd learned.
Life.
~_~_~_~
As Piper touched the crystalline shell it shattered to pieces leaving a familiar man groaning on the ground.
The pieces had fallen on either side of him resembling a butterfly's wings.
His eyes fluttered open and his lips parted.
"You came back for me?"
Hartley placed a hand to James' cheek before choking out, "I never left."
A smile spread across James' face as he began to sit up with Hartley easing him.
" I can fly." he said happily.
"you always could." Piper said with a matching grin.
"No, I mean... check this out." James pulled Hartley flush to him and rose up into the air strands of sparkling yellow and blue trailing behind them.
In the distance they could see a forest coated in reddish orange.
"They led me to you." Hartley said leaning into James, solid and alive James.
"Really?" James said.
"Yup. You realize how this may be interpreted." Hartley said adjusting in James grip as his body became aware of their position.
"Hm, what do you? Oh the nude thing. Yeah- totally over that." James grinned as he purposefully shifted Piper back.
" Aerial sex? Kinky. Never would have thought you the type." Hartley laughed as James leaned back onto what felt like a solid cushion of sparkles.
" No one suspects the butterfly."
James and Hartley kissed and laughed and held each other, treating each moment like their last because you never know if you'll die tomorrow.
So from now on they would live for today.
I fall asleep and I dream of the sun
And my butterfly
Author Note: some lines from Countdown, Lyrics from Queen: the show must go on, Madam Butterfly, and Rajaton Butterfly.
Translation for the madame Butterfly song can be found here; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogliatemi_bene