Story 224: “We Could Have Made Music” by DiscordantWords
Thanks to wendelah1 for suggesting this wonderful fic!
We Could Have Made Music (the link goes to AO3), 3025 words, rated R/Mature for violence and horror, is a great look at Teena Simmons and Cindy Reardon seven years after the events of ‘Eve’, and there’s also a wonderful section featuring a major character. The story is unsettling in the best way, as all well-written stories about amoral characters are. I also have a weakness for seeing well-known characters through the eyes of others, and DiscordantWords’ fic does so very compellingly.
A short excerpt:
They are fifteen years old, hale and hearty and healthy, tall and pale and quiet as churchmice. They have grown up to the music of Six's madness, her sobs and sniffles and laughter, the scrape of teeth against metal, the rasp of teeth against skin, the sick sweet wet sounds of tearing flesh.
No one looks in at Six, not even Eight when she comes to collect them. She is repulsed by her own insane, jagged reflection. Maybe she even fears that there will not be much left of Six after all this time, that the sounds they hear are her gnawing little bits of herself away until nothing remains. These thoughts are ephemeral, tucked in a gray foggy place that is hard to access without feeling sick and woozy and sleepy.
The first paragraph quoted above is also the fic summary, and there are spoilers for season 8.
I especially appreciate this sort of writing in the horror genre, that suggests more than it explicitly shows. It’s also a joy to see words chosen with such care and precision. Probably my favourite part of the story is the way it takes up where canon left off. The sense of continuity is really satisfying, especially with the chilling way in which Teena and Cindy “just know” what the other is thinking, and work in tandem. I ended up truly admiring the way in which the author distances the reader from the characters at the start, and then builds the narrative in a way that makes their points of view more accessible. A really wonderful read!
Read We Could Have Made Music. Do leave the author some appreciation, even if it's just kudos, and do come back and let us know what you think! :-) Don't forget to add your suggestions to the nominations post as well.
We Could Have Made Music (the link goes to AO3), 3025 words, rated R/Mature for violence and horror, is a great look at Teena Simmons and Cindy Reardon seven years after the events of ‘Eve’, and there’s also a wonderful section featuring a major character. The story is unsettling in the best way, as all well-written stories about amoral characters are. I also have a weakness for seeing well-known characters through the eyes of others, and DiscordantWords’ fic does so very compellingly.
A short excerpt:
They are fifteen years old, hale and hearty and healthy, tall and pale and quiet as churchmice. They have grown up to the music of Six's madness, her sobs and sniffles and laughter, the scrape of teeth against metal, the rasp of teeth against skin, the sick sweet wet sounds of tearing flesh.
No one looks in at Six, not even Eight when she comes to collect them. She is repulsed by her own insane, jagged reflection. Maybe she even fears that there will not be much left of Six after all this time, that the sounds they hear are her gnawing little bits of herself away until nothing remains. These thoughts are ephemeral, tucked in a gray foggy place that is hard to access without feeling sick and woozy and sleepy.
The first paragraph quoted above is also the fic summary, and there are spoilers for season 8.
I especially appreciate this sort of writing in the horror genre, that suggests more than it explicitly shows. It’s also a joy to see words chosen with such care and precision. Probably my favourite part of the story is the way it takes up where canon left off. The sense of continuity is really satisfying, especially with the chilling way in which Teena and Cindy “just know” what the other is thinking, and work in tandem. I ended up truly admiring the way in which the author distances the reader from the characters at the start, and then builds the narrative in a way that makes their points of view more accessible. A really wonderful read!
Read We Could Have Made Music. Do leave the author some appreciation, even if it's just kudos, and do come back and let us know what you think! :-) Don't forget to add your suggestions to the nominations post as well.