Lost Fic: "Desmond Everlasting" (Desmond, PG-13)
Title: Desmond Everlasting
Characters: Desmond, Penny; implied Des/Penny
Rating: PG-13 for mentions of war, famine, pollution, death
Length: 425 words
Notes: AUish. For elliotsmelliot who wanted "Desmond: The Missing Years". As usual, I took the prompt in a direction way out of left field. The title is play on the story "Tuck Everlasting".
Summary: Everything changed. Except him, and what he could never seem to find.
At the beginning, everything was cold. The fires man eventually learned to build made no real difference. Neither did the tribes they slowly formed. He huddled in caves in his pelts, spear clutched in one hand, while the dire wolves howled outside.
Tribes became kingdoms and spirits gods, so man could go to war. Ages passed but all seemed the same: buildings of stone grew taller and taller, armies larger in order to knock them down. He saw many battles; signed on for a fair share, not for any cause or kinship but to pass time.
He saw many deaths, much suffering. In the Plague years he saw what he thought to be the worst: entire countries ravaged by famine, agony, disease. When the Crusades came he joined, traveling afar in hope of something different. He found only a barren land, as empty for him as those he’d departed.
Times changed. So did societies. People thought themselves “enlightened”, now. They dressed different and talked different, but nowhere in the world held a thing of interest, regardless of its new and wondrous marvels. He took to sea for awhile; lost himself out there in that vast horizon of seemingly endless blue.
The turn of the latest century brought technology, science. They had a machine to do everything. The cities grew taller, and wider, buildings stretching up towards an increasingly smog-covered sky. Forests disappeared. Rivers dried up. No one noticed: they were too excited over the latest invention. He left the cities. He wandered, alone.
During the depression and war years he didn’t stay in one place, on the road constantly, searching without looking to find. It didn’t matter where he went. Everywhere the same thing: people were hungry, cold and dying. But even families with nothing had something he did not, clinging to each other.
The world rebuilt itself: became bright and loud, filled with color, sound, information. People embraced trends. They made love in public, stayed out dancing all night. Things were always changing, except the things that didn’t. He would go to crowded places, sit in the corner and watch while people laughed and sang.
He thought he found something for awhile, until he didn’t. He thought he’d given up hoping, until he did.
The first night he sat alone with Penny he kept looking at her, until she had to say something.
“Why do you keep smiling at me like that, Des?”
He laughed to himself at a private joke, his eyes shining.
“I been waiting for you,” he said; “A long time.”
Characters: Desmond, Penny; implied Des/Penny
Rating: PG-13 for mentions of war, famine, pollution, death
Length: 425 words
Notes: AUish. For elliotsmelliot who wanted "Desmond: The Missing Years". As usual, I took the prompt in a direction way out of left field. The title is play on the story "Tuck Everlasting".
Summary: Everything changed. Except him, and what he could never seem to find.
At the beginning, everything was cold. The fires man eventually learned to build made no real difference. Neither did the tribes they slowly formed. He huddled in caves in his pelts, spear clutched in one hand, while the dire wolves howled outside.
Tribes became kingdoms and spirits gods, so man could go to war. Ages passed but all seemed the same: buildings of stone grew taller and taller, armies larger in order to knock them down. He saw many battles; signed on for a fair share, not for any cause or kinship but to pass time.
He saw many deaths, much suffering. In the Plague years he saw what he thought to be the worst: entire countries ravaged by famine, agony, disease. When the Crusades came he joined, traveling afar in hope of something different. He found only a barren land, as empty for him as those he’d departed.
Times changed. So did societies. People thought themselves “enlightened”, now. They dressed different and talked different, but nowhere in the world held a thing of interest, regardless of its new and wondrous marvels. He took to sea for awhile; lost himself out there in that vast horizon of seemingly endless blue.
The turn of the latest century brought technology, science. They had a machine to do everything. The cities grew taller, and wider, buildings stretching up towards an increasingly smog-covered sky. Forests disappeared. Rivers dried up. No one noticed: they were too excited over the latest invention. He left the cities. He wandered, alone.
During the depression and war years he didn’t stay in one place, on the road constantly, searching without looking to find. It didn’t matter where he went. Everywhere the same thing: people were hungry, cold and dying. But even families with nothing had something he did not, clinging to each other.
The world rebuilt itself: became bright and loud, filled with color, sound, information. People embraced trends. They made love in public, stayed out dancing all night. Things were always changing, except the things that didn’t. He would go to crowded places, sit in the corner and watch while people laughed and sang.
He thought he found something for awhile, until he didn’t. He thought he’d given up hoping, until he did.
The first night he sat alone with Penny he kept looking at her, until she had to say something.
“Why do you keep smiling at me like that, Des?”
He laughed to himself at a private joke, his eyes shining.
“I been waiting for you,” he said; “A long time.”