#49: fic: (a town)
Title: (a town)
Fandom: Arashi
Word Count: 600~
Summary: Urban fantasy AU. A short interlude after Storm Children. This is the town Matsumoto inherits.
Notes: It would probably make the most sense if you've read Storm Children before this.
a town
This is the town Matsumoto inherits:
Some unknown hand, at some unstated time, must have hastily gathered up this haphazard clutter of buildings and deposited it here. Here, where shadows stain the walls and creep into corners to dwell there for days. Where wires and train tracks cut through and across the sky in an ever-extending web. This town is a dozen contradictions - a riot of colour; a faded relic; a dark and stubborn smudge amidst the clean steel and towering lines of its neighbours.
This is a town where people are forgotten. The street kids have left their names scrawled across walls and pavements down every street and alleyway - I am here, they seem to say; we were here, in this moment, immortal. Some people will die on these streets. Most will lose themselves.
Matsumoto doesn’t promise to find them.
a town
Satoshi arrived at this town meaning to move on from it - where to, he was never entirely sure.
Years have passed.
He hasn’t left.
Every morning, Satoshi is awoken by the unnatural silence that fills the hours before dawn. In those moments, his favourite thing to do is lean out of his bedroom window with a cigarette in hand, listening to the town breathe.
For years he has heard the same thing. The same fitful inhale-and-exhale; the same unsettled rhythm - the sound of a town choking on its magic.
Each morning Satoshi sits vigil, waiting for the death rattle that hasn’t yet come.
a town
Aiba sometimes dreams of falling.
Sometimes he is standing on a familiar ledge; other times, he has just landed on a telephone pole. Always, he is looking out over the town.
Always, his surroundings will dip and warp, the ground falling away into a distant abyss as the buildings shoot up impossibly high.
Always, Aiba will lose his footing; slip, stumble and fall.
It won’t happen, he knows it can’t. But this knowledge does nothing to stop the sensation of vertigo, the dizzying drop that makes him awaken with a start. Aiba falls, and falls, and cannot fly.
a town
Sakurai tries to find a map of the town, and fails.
There are maps, yes, but the ones he finds in the station are either tattered and dated, or colourful misrepresentations. In his first week, he tries to follow the one that looks the most promising and ends up going round in circles for half an hour.
“Do something about it,” he tells Satoshi.
Satoshi shrugs. “This isn’t a town you can put down on paper,” he says.
Over time, Sakurai realises that this is true. The streets remain the same, mostly, but there’s something strange about the landmarks. They seem to switch around and blur into each other at times, subject to odd tricks in perspective caused by some unknown magic. In the night-time some buildings recede a little as the shadows swell; others spill out onto the streets and alleyways, filling them suddenly with dozens of small stalls.
It is not an easy city to get a grasp of. It is sullen, contrary, and filled with far too many crows for Sakurai’s comfort.
“You’ll get used to it,” Satoshi says.
Sakurai thinks he might.
a town
This town is Nino’s. Nino does not share.
Both statements are lies.
The town belongs to itself. The King may have his network of power running through its streets, but he has never owned it. Nino leads a charmed existence on its roofs and high ledges, peddling his magic in all its dark corners, but he lays no claim on this fickle entity.
Nino knows the town, and the town sees him. It dredges up scraps of magic and sequesters them in places only Nino can find. Nino has grown up in this town; fought in this town; survived in this town.
This town has been good to him. Nino is merely repaying the favour.
end
-----
Note: The title is a reference to Aru Machi no Gunjō (A Town In Blue).
I actually wrote this bunch of drabbles quite a long time back, and decided to post them on a whim. I'm sure I've mentioned this a number of times but I really want to return to this AU; maybe expand on it and fix up a couple of things I've been wanting to change in the original fic. ...hopefully this will take place at some point, as opposed to in an alternate universe where I have lots of time at my disposal.
Fandom: Arashi
Word Count: 600~
Summary: Urban fantasy AU. A short interlude after Storm Children. This is the town Matsumoto inherits.
Notes: It would probably make the most sense if you've read Storm Children before this.
a town
This is the town Matsumoto inherits:
Some unknown hand, at some unstated time, must have hastily gathered up this haphazard clutter of buildings and deposited it here. Here, where shadows stain the walls and creep into corners to dwell there for days. Where wires and train tracks cut through and across the sky in an ever-extending web. This town is a dozen contradictions - a riot of colour; a faded relic; a dark and stubborn smudge amidst the clean steel and towering lines of its neighbours.
This is a town where people are forgotten. The street kids have left their names scrawled across walls and pavements down every street and alleyway - I am here, they seem to say; we were here, in this moment, immortal. Some people will die on these streets. Most will lose themselves.
Matsumoto doesn’t promise to find them.
a town
Satoshi arrived at this town meaning to move on from it - where to, he was never entirely sure.
Years have passed.
He hasn’t left.
Every morning, Satoshi is awoken by the unnatural silence that fills the hours before dawn. In those moments, his favourite thing to do is lean out of his bedroom window with a cigarette in hand, listening to the town breathe.
For years he has heard the same thing. The same fitful inhale-and-exhale; the same unsettled rhythm - the sound of a town choking on its magic.
Each morning Satoshi sits vigil, waiting for the death rattle that hasn’t yet come.
a town
Aiba sometimes dreams of falling.
Sometimes he is standing on a familiar ledge; other times, he has just landed on a telephone pole. Always, he is looking out over the town.
Always, his surroundings will dip and warp, the ground falling away into a distant abyss as the buildings shoot up impossibly high.
Always, Aiba will lose his footing; slip, stumble and fall.
It won’t happen, he knows it can’t. But this knowledge does nothing to stop the sensation of vertigo, the dizzying drop that makes him awaken with a start. Aiba falls, and falls, and cannot fly.
a town
Sakurai tries to find a map of the town, and fails.
There are maps, yes, but the ones he finds in the station are either tattered and dated, or colourful misrepresentations. In his first week, he tries to follow the one that looks the most promising and ends up going round in circles for half an hour.
“Do something about it,” he tells Satoshi.
Satoshi shrugs. “This isn’t a town you can put down on paper,” he says.
Over time, Sakurai realises that this is true. The streets remain the same, mostly, but there’s something strange about the landmarks. They seem to switch around and blur into each other at times, subject to odd tricks in perspective caused by some unknown magic. In the night-time some buildings recede a little as the shadows swell; others spill out onto the streets and alleyways, filling them suddenly with dozens of small stalls.
It is not an easy city to get a grasp of. It is sullen, contrary, and filled with far too many crows for Sakurai’s comfort.
“You’ll get used to it,” Satoshi says.
Sakurai thinks he might.
a town
This town is Nino’s. Nino does not share.
Both statements are lies.
The town belongs to itself. The King may have his network of power running through its streets, but he has never owned it. Nino leads a charmed existence on its roofs and high ledges, peddling his magic in all its dark corners, but he lays no claim on this fickle entity.
Nino knows the town, and the town sees him. It dredges up scraps of magic and sequesters them in places only Nino can find. Nino has grown up in this town; fought in this town; survived in this town.
This town has been good to him. Nino is merely repaying the favour.
end
-----
Note: The title is a reference to Aru Machi no Gunjō (A Town In Blue).
I actually wrote this bunch of drabbles quite a long time back, and decided to post them on a whim. I'm sure I've mentioned this a number of times but I really want to return to this AU; maybe expand on it and fix up a couple of things I've been wanting to change in the original fic. ...hopefully this will take place at some point, as opposed to in an alternate universe where I have lots of time at my disposal.