Cranberry and Cola w/ Gummy Bunnies, Blueberries, Pineapple and Whipped Cream
Author: Nikki
Challenge: Cranberry #22 (Swords -strife, misfortune), Cola #19 (the fabric of our lives)
Extras/Toppings: Gummy Bunnies (origfic31 Sept. card 1 - B4: crying), Blueberries (Something there is more immortal even than the stars, Many the burials, many the days and nights, passing away), Pineapple (Between people searching each other and find nothing but intoxication.), Whipped Cream
Word Count: 1,767
Rating: PG-13
Notes: Takes place in April 2032. This piece uses a lyrics from 'Hate Me' by Blue October, which is Angie's official theme song when it comes to her relationship with Sarah.
Story: Second Genesis; the title of this is 'The Chills.'
Summary: Chloe and Faith listen to Angie sing.
The mood in Chloe's room was subdued, which Faith found unsettling. She didn't like when Chloe was anything but cheerful, and that must have showed in her expression when she walked into the room.
"I'm fine," Chloe said in greeting.
"Good to know," she answered after a moment, before she kicked off her shoes and moved to sit cross-legged on the bed. "I was wondering what was up, considering how excited you sounded when you called me earlier."
"Oh. Yeah. Aunt Rayne stopped by earlier with these." Chloe poked at a small box sitting on the blankets in front of her. Faith hadn't noticed it until then, and she reached out to flip the top off of it. There were about fifteen square plastic cases inside; after a moment, Faith saw that they had round discs inside them. A few had vague dates written on them, but most of them were unmarked.
"What the hell are those?"
The look Chloe gave her was close to disgusted. "Blank CDs. Audio CDs that don't have anything on them, but people used to put things on it. Like, playlists and self-recorded songs and stuff. We go to an arts school, how do you not know these things?"
"I'm not creepily obsessed with music like you are," Faith dryly responded. "Okay. Why did Rayne give them to you?"
Chloe suddenly looked nervous again. What could possibly make someone nervous about a few pieces of extremely outdated technology? "They have Angie singing on them. Aunt Rayne didn't say much when she gave them to me, but she told me she hasn't listened to a lot of them. They're too painful for her." She paused, frowning. "She thought I'd like to hear them, considering. But I don't know."
"What, do you think she won't be able to sing or something?"
"No, you don't-" Chloe cut herself off, shaking her head, and starting over. "It's hard to explain. It's her music. You have to put yourself in your music, you have to. It's the only way to make it good, and I'm just..." she trailed off, worrying at her bottom lip with her teeth. "I'm scared," she finally admitted.
"Scared of what?" Faith asked, baffled.
"What if I don't like her?" Chloe quietly responded, wringing her hands in her lap.
Faith answered with a huff of exasperation and an eye roll. "Cherry, I love you, but sometimes you're so dumb." Chloe had been begging for stories about an aunt she had never met ever since she had found out that Angie existed, and Rayne and Sarah gave her what she asked for when they could. It had been very hard for Chloe to connect the stories that Rayne had told them, of someone fearless and devoted, who desperately needed someone to take care of her for the first time in her life, and the stories that Sarah had very reluctantly told Chloe about. The angry, angry person who had taken all of her pain out on others and out on her sister, when she thought Sarah was starting to think she was someone worth having around. "Why wouldn't you like her?"
Chloe only shrugged, picking up one of the ancient looking CD cases to turn over and over in her hands, and Faith wondered in the things would even still play. CDs were so weird. What was the point of putting anything on them if one scratch would fuck up the entire thing? Faith shook her head and grabbed the case out of Chloe's hands. "You'll never know until you listen."
Before Chloe could really answer, Faith had scrambled from the bed and carefully pried the CD from its case. She put it in the radio-slash- CD player that had taken Chloe ages to find in some old electronics store some, doubtful that the CD would play. It took a moment before there was some vague static, and a voice came through the speakers. The unfamiliarity of it made Faith back up.
"No, shut up, it is recording," the voice said, and Faith heard someone answer it, the words indistinguishable. She recognized it after a moment as Chloe's uncle, Sarah's husband, Rich. "Anyway. This is Angie and Rich, on December sixteenth, two-thousand-and-fifteen. I am on acoustic guitar, and Rich, as always, is on drums. And he wanted - Yeah, I'm getting to it, shut up and look pretty," she dryly said as Rich spoke up again. Faith heard him say something about bass drum as she clambered back to the bed to climb up next to Chloe, before Angie started talking again. "Rich is using a portable acoustic drum set, so the bass drum isn't as dampened as he would like. And, you know, we're recording this in a garage with a couple of laptops, so if this sounds like hell, you all are just going to have to deal with it. Also it's just us, a guitar, and drums, so don't bitch at me if it doesn't sound just like you want it to. Whoever you are."
"Does she should like you would have thought?" Chloe asked her in an almost whisper, like they were in class, while Angie talked about a few more things. Faith shrugged. She had never imagined what Angie would have sounded like. She wasn't like Chloe. Still, Angie's voice was not what she had expected and yet, perfectly fitting. It was low-pitched and kind of hoarse, but pleasant sounding. It wasn't really like what Faith was used to with female voices - Chloe had never in her life been low-pitched anything - but it drew her attention.
"Anyhow, the song we're playing first is by a band called Theory of a Deadman..."
There were only a few songs on the CD. Faith hadn't heard any of them, but even she could tell the songs didn't sound exactly right - there was a definitely lack of a second guitar - but Angie was a shockingly good singer. Rayne had always said so, but Faith took most of what Rayne said about Angie with a tint of rose coloring. Chloe kept her eyes closed and gripped Faith's hand the entire time. She wasn't even sure if Chloe had moved. Neither of them said anything for a few minutes after the speakers fell silent. Faith was about to ask what Chloe had thought, but Chloe spoke before she had the chance.
"Why is the CD still playing?" she asked, her brow furrowing as she opened her eyes.
Faith glanced at the speakers, confused. Nothing was coming out of them. "What are you talking about?"
"The CD is still playing. There's no background noises like they're just pausing before another song, but that's not - it doesn't sound like it's stopped playing. It's too blank of a silence," Chloe tried to explain, but Faith's expression must have shown that she was still confused. Instead of trying to explain further, she just waved Faith's question away before climbing off of the bed and hurrying towards the CD player. "I knew it, it is still playing!"
"That thing is from before we were born, Cherry. It's probably just broken. Besides, how do you know it's not supposed to do that?"
"What good reason could there be possibly for putting a few minutes of silence at the end of a CD?" Chloe argued, planting her hands on her hips. Before Faith could snap a retort, a dull thud came from the speakers and Chloe jumped back in surprise. Faith heard what sounded like a muttered curse among sounds of shuffling around from the speakers, as Chloe said, "I told you so!"
"So," Angie said, from the speakers. Her upbeat, joking tone from the earlier songs was gone, replaced with some dark and heavy and slurred around the edges. "So. I've been drinking," and that was obvious now that she was speaking more. Wide eyed, Chloe backed away from the speakers until the back of her legs hit the bed. "And I've been thinking about things. Sarah. And I'm never gonna see her again."
Faith looked at Chloe with wide eyes, but she already looked how Faith felt. Shocked. Unsure if they should really be listening to this. And Faith didn't know about Chloe, but there was something else for her, a little hook of fear underneath all that. There was something in Angie's voice that she had heard in Chloe's before, when Chloe would always sink into herself and make Faith scared that she'd never have her best friend back.
"And thinking about that is making it hard to sleep. So I tried to drink myself to sleep, and that apparently isn't working out in my favor, and as far as I can figure the only thing there is to do without waking up my better half is to come in here and sing, because... what else am I going to do?" There's a fumbling that Faith just managed to place as someone picking up and adjusting a guitar, but clumsily so. There were a few false starts of music, with Angie muttering dark sounding things that Faith couldn't make out the entire time.
When she did start to sing, Faith felt like somebody poured ice water into her spine; she saw Chloe flinch back out of her peripheral vision and didn't blame her. Chloe didn't have to worry at all about Angie not putting herself into her music, because there was no disguising the amount of pain and sadness in her voice. The lyrics were unfamiliar, like all of them had been, but it was obviously something that Angie knew well and maybe connected with too much.
When the chorus started, Chloe flinched again and pressed her hands over her ears. "Turn it off," she said, her voice thin and barely audible. "Turn it off, Faith, I don't want to listen to it anymore!"
She scrambled off the bed and hit the power button on the stereo just as the last line of the chorus ended: "Hate me so you can finally see what's good for you." When she turned around, Chloe was sitting on the edge of the bed, a hand pressed against her mouth; her shoulders shook and tears silently rolled down her face.
Faith rushed over and pulled her into a hug, starting to run her fingers through Chloe's hair. "Come on, Cherry," she managed, hoping she didn't sound as unsettled as she felt. "It's just a song, there's no need to cry over it. It's okay."
"No, it's not," Chloe sobbed in response, and Faith didn't know how to argue.
Challenge: Cranberry #22 (Swords -strife, misfortune), Cola #19 (the fabric of our lives)
Extras/Toppings: Gummy Bunnies (origfic31 Sept. card 1 - B4: crying), Blueberries (Something there is more immortal even than the stars, Many the burials, many the days and nights, passing away), Pineapple (Between people searching each other and find nothing but intoxication.), Whipped Cream
Word Count: 1,767
Rating: PG-13
Notes: Takes place in April 2032. This piece uses a lyrics from 'Hate Me' by Blue October, which is Angie's official theme song when it comes to her relationship with Sarah.
Story: Second Genesis; the title of this is 'The Chills.'
Summary: Chloe and Faith listen to Angie sing.
The mood in Chloe's room was subdued, which Faith found unsettling. She didn't like when Chloe was anything but cheerful, and that must have showed in her expression when she walked into the room.
"I'm fine," Chloe said in greeting.
"Good to know," she answered after a moment, before she kicked off her shoes and moved to sit cross-legged on the bed. "I was wondering what was up, considering how excited you sounded when you called me earlier."
"Oh. Yeah. Aunt Rayne stopped by earlier with these." Chloe poked at a small box sitting on the blankets in front of her. Faith hadn't noticed it until then, and she reached out to flip the top off of it. There were about fifteen square plastic cases inside; after a moment, Faith saw that they had round discs inside them. A few had vague dates written on them, but most of them were unmarked.
"What the hell are those?"
The look Chloe gave her was close to disgusted. "Blank CDs. Audio CDs that don't have anything on them, but people used to put things on it. Like, playlists and self-recorded songs and stuff. We go to an arts school, how do you not know these things?"
"I'm not creepily obsessed with music like you are," Faith dryly responded. "Okay. Why did Rayne give them to you?"
Chloe suddenly looked nervous again. What could possibly make someone nervous about a few pieces of extremely outdated technology? "They have Angie singing on them. Aunt Rayne didn't say much when she gave them to me, but she told me she hasn't listened to a lot of them. They're too painful for her." She paused, frowning. "She thought I'd like to hear them, considering. But I don't know."
"What, do you think she won't be able to sing or something?"
"No, you don't-" Chloe cut herself off, shaking her head, and starting over. "It's hard to explain. It's her music. You have to put yourself in your music, you have to. It's the only way to make it good, and I'm just..." she trailed off, worrying at her bottom lip with her teeth. "I'm scared," she finally admitted.
"Scared of what?" Faith asked, baffled.
"What if I don't like her?" Chloe quietly responded, wringing her hands in her lap.
Faith answered with a huff of exasperation and an eye roll. "Cherry, I love you, but sometimes you're so dumb." Chloe had been begging for stories about an aunt she had never met ever since she had found out that Angie existed, and Rayne and Sarah gave her what she asked for when they could. It had been very hard for Chloe to connect the stories that Rayne had told them, of someone fearless and devoted, who desperately needed someone to take care of her for the first time in her life, and the stories that Sarah had very reluctantly told Chloe about. The angry, angry person who had taken all of her pain out on others and out on her sister, when she thought Sarah was starting to think she was someone worth having around. "Why wouldn't you like her?"
Chloe only shrugged, picking up one of the ancient looking CD cases to turn over and over in her hands, and Faith wondered in the things would even still play. CDs were so weird. What was the point of putting anything on them if one scratch would fuck up the entire thing? Faith shook her head and grabbed the case out of Chloe's hands. "You'll never know until you listen."
Before Chloe could really answer, Faith had scrambled from the bed and carefully pried the CD from its case. She put it in the radio-slash- CD player that had taken Chloe ages to find in some old electronics store some, doubtful that the CD would play. It took a moment before there was some vague static, and a voice came through the speakers. The unfamiliarity of it made Faith back up.
"No, shut up, it is recording," the voice said, and Faith heard someone answer it, the words indistinguishable. She recognized it after a moment as Chloe's uncle, Sarah's husband, Rich. "Anyway. This is Angie and Rich, on December sixteenth, two-thousand-and-fifteen. I am on acoustic guitar, and Rich, as always, is on drums. And he wanted - Yeah, I'm getting to it, shut up and look pretty," she dryly said as Rich spoke up again. Faith heard him say something about bass drum as she clambered back to the bed to climb up next to Chloe, before Angie started talking again. "Rich is using a portable acoustic drum set, so the bass drum isn't as dampened as he would like. And, you know, we're recording this in a garage with a couple of laptops, so if this sounds like hell, you all are just going to have to deal with it. Also it's just us, a guitar, and drums, so don't bitch at me if it doesn't sound just like you want it to. Whoever you are."
"Does she should like you would have thought?" Chloe asked her in an almost whisper, like they were in class, while Angie talked about a few more things. Faith shrugged. She had never imagined what Angie would have sounded like. She wasn't like Chloe. Still, Angie's voice was not what she had expected and yet, perfectly fitting. It was low-pitched and kind of hoarse, but pleasant sounding. It wasn't really like what Faith was used to with female voices - Chloe had never in her life been low-pitched anything - but it drew her attention.
"Anyhow, the song we're playing first is by a band called Theory of a Deadman..."
There were only a few songs on the CD. Faith hadn't heard any of them, but even she could tell the songs didn't sound exactly right - there was a definitely lack of a second guitar - but Angie was a shockingly good singer. Rayne had always said so, but Faith took most of what Rayne said about Angie with a tint of rose coloring. Chloe kept her eyes closed and gripped Faith's hand the entire time. She wasn't even sure if Chloe had moved. Neither of them said anything for a few minutes after the speakers fell silent. Faith was about to ask what Chloe had thought, but Chloe spoke before she had the chance.
"Why is the CD still playing?" she asked, her brow furrowing as she opened her eyes.
Faith glanced at the speakers, confused. Nothing was coming out of them. "What are you talking about?"
"The CD is still playing. There's no background noises like they're just pausing before another song, but that's not - it doesn't sound like it's stopped playing. It's too blank of a silence," Chloe tried to explain, but Faith's expression must have shown that she was still confused. Instead of trying to explain further, she just waved Faith's question away before climbing off of the bed and hurrying towards the CD player. "I knew it, it is still playing!"
"That thing is from before we were born, Cherry. It's probably just broken. Besides, how do you know it's not supposed to do that?"
"What good reason could there be possibly for putting a few minutes of silence at the end of a CD?" Chloe argued, planting her hands on her hips. Before Faith could snap a retort, a dull thud came from the speakers and Chloe jumped back in surprise. Faith heard what sounded like a muttered curse among sounds of shuffling around from the speakers, as Chloe said, "I told you so!"
"So," Angie said, from the speakers. Her upbeat, joking tone from the earlier songs was gone, replaced with some dark and heavy and slurred around the edges. "So. I've been drinking," and that was obvious now that she was speaking more. Wide eyed, Chloe backed away from the speakers until the back of her legs hit the bed. "And I've been thinking about things. Sarah. And I'm never gonna see her again."
Faith looked at Chloe with wide eyes, but she already looked how Faith felt. Shocked. Unsure if they should really be listening to this. And Faith didn't know about Chloe, but there was something else for her, a little hook of fear underneath all that. There was something in Angie's voice that she had heard in Chloe's before, when Chloe would always sink into herself and make Faith scared that she'd never have her best friend back.
"And thinking about that is making it hard to sleep. So I tried to drink myself to sleep, and that apparently isn't working out in my favor, and as far as I can figure the only thing there is to do without waking up my better half is to come in here and sing, because... what else am I going to do?" There's a fumbling that Faith just managed to place as someone picking up and adjusting a guitar, but clumsily so. There were a few false starts of music, with Angie muttering dark sounding things that Faith couldn't make out the entire time.
When she did start to sing, Faith felt like somebody poured ice water into her spine; she saw Chloe flinch back out of her peripheral vision and didn't blame her. Chloe didn't have to worry at all about Angie not putting herself into her music, because there was no disguising the amount of pain and sadness in her voice. The lyrics were unfamiliar, like all of them had been, but it was obviously something that Angie knew well and maybe connected with too much.
When the chorus started, Chloe flinched again and pressed her hands over her ears. "Turn it off," she said, her voice thin and barely audible. "Turn it off, Faith, I don't want to listen to it anymore!"
She scrambled off the bed and hit the power button on the stereo just as the last line of the chorus ended: "Hate me so you can finally see what's good for you." When she turned around, Chloe was sitting on the edge of the bed, a hand pressed against her mouth; her shoulders shook and tears silently rolled down her face.
Faith rushed over and pulled her into a hug, starting to run her fingers through Chloe's hair. "Come on, Cherry," she managed, hoping she didn't sound as unsettled as she felt. "It's just a song, there's no need to cry over it. It's okay."
"No, it's not," Chloe sobbed in response, and Faith didn't know how to argue.