Fic: The Pea (Dollhouse)
Title: The Pea
Fandom: Dollhouse
Characters: Adelle, Priya
Word Count: 686
Rating: PG
Prompts: written as a gift to charma101 for winning a Let's Make a Deal game at whedonland - also, green thumb for the VRD Challenge at 5_prompts
Warning: It doesn't feel like it should be a spoiler but, JUST IN CASE, this is set after the Dollhouse Epilogues!
The first batch of peas had been withered by the sun and slightly bitter tasting. Adelle spent considerable time walking the grounds until she found a better shaded spot with soil that wasn’t useless and dry. After working on a system of keeping away pests, they’d replanted and the new crop was much better. In fact, there were so many peas in the second batch that people actually got tired of eating them.
“Why peas?” Priya had asked while stirring a very large pot of boiling water that was the start of a vegetable soup. It was the one recipe that combined all they’d been able to grow on the farm without too much complaint.
Adelle merely smiled, the self-assured look that gave her an air of calm that no one else seemed to have. “I remember growing up and eating peas out of a can. They were gray and tasted like… well, nothing that food should taste like. They were horrid mashed things that would have made better book paste than food. If anyone had asked me what my favorite food was when I was a child, it wouldn’t have been peas.”
“So why grow them at all? We could use the space for more potatoes. People don’t mind potatoes every day.”
The two vegetables were on the table, side by side. Adelle picked up a pea pod, smoothing a finger down the green husk. “It’s such an elegant vegetable. Don’t you think? It hides it’s true treasure in a package that is just as delicious as the inside. Looking at the outside, you never know what you’re going to see inside.”
Priya’s laughter echoed through the kitchen, a sound that was rarely heard. “You’re a pea, Adelle. Elegant on the outside, even with a dirty nose and clothes that don’t quite wash clean. Now that I’ve seen more of what goes on inside that brain of yours, I know that you have a infinite number of ideas in there.”
“Not personalities, I hope.”
“No.” Priya flinched at even considering the idea of more than one personality inside the head of the woman that ran the farm the way she’d run the Los Angeles branch of the Dollhouse all those years. “Not personalities. There’s only one of those in there. No, just ideas. It’s how you’ve made all this possible. You really are amazing. We couldn’t have survived without you.”
Adelle didn’t answer, only pocketed the pod she’d been fingering. As she walked down the path away from the house, she greeted the few people she saw but didn’t stop to chat or see what work they were doing. Instead, she continued in the direction of the large tree at the edge of the property. The hanging branches hid her from most of the farm, making it the perfect place to spend some alone time without drawing any undue attention.
At the base of the tree, she dug a small hole and placed the pod at the bottom before she filled I back up with dirt. She didn’t know if it would produce anything worthwhile but she liked to try. Her life had been like that vegetable, tossed to the bottom of a hole with no hope of getting out. She’d felt suffocated for awhile, the dark soil of trouble pushing down on her. The old Adelle had cracked open and this new Adelle had appeared, growing toward the light. She was the same person… yet she wasn’t the same at all. She was something new.
Here, in her little secret spot, she shed a few tears that she wasn’t able to cry in front of the others. It was her way of dealing with the pressures still pushing at her, trying to mold her. When she was done, she wiped away all traces of this weakness and squared her shoulders. There was still much to work on before sunset.
I am a pea, she thought, remembering the conversation with Priya. A smile broke through her usual constraints. A pea wasn’t a bad thing to be, after all. She was proud to be a pea.
Fandom: Dollhouse
Characters: Adelle, Priya
Word Count: 686
Rating: PG
Prompts: written as a gift to charma101 for winning a Let's Make a Deal game at whedonland - also, green thumb for the VRD Challenge at 5_prompts
Warning: It doesn't feel like it should be a spoiler but, JUST IN CASE, this is set after the Dollhouse Epilogues!
The first batch of peas had been withered by the sun and slightly bitter tasting. Adelle spent considerable time walking the grounds until she found a better shaded spot with soil that wasn’t useless and dry. After working on a system of keeping away pests, they’d replanted and the new crop was much better. In fact, there were so many peas in the second batch that people actually got tired of eating them.
“Why peas?” Priya had asked while stirring a very large pot of boiling water that was the start of a vegetable soup. It was the one recipe that combined all they’d been able to grow on the farm without too much complaint.
Adelle merely smiled, the self-assured look that gave her an air of calm that no one else seemed to have. “I remember growing up and eating peas out of a can. They were gray and tasted like… well, nothing that food should taste like. They were horrid mashed things that would have made better book paste than food. If anyone had asked me what my favorite food was when I was a child, it wouldn’t have been peas.”
“So why grow them at all? We could use the space for more potatoes. People don’t mind potatoes every day.”
The two vegetables were on the table, side by side. Adelle picked up a pea pod, smoothing a finger down the green husk. “It’s such an elegant vegetable. Don’t you think? It hides it’s true treasure in a package that is just as delicious as the inside. Looking at the outside, you never know what you’re going to see inside.”
Priya’s laughter echoed through the kitchen, a sound that was rarely heard. “You’re a pea, Adelle. Elegant on the outside, even with a dirty nose and clothes that don’t quite wash clean. Now that I’ve seen more of what goes on inside that brain of yours, I know that you have a infinite number of ideas in there.”
“Not personalities, I hope.”
“No.” Priya flinched at even considering the idea of more than one personality inside the head of the woman that ran the farm the way she’d run the Los Angeles branch of the Dollhouse all those years. “Not personalities. There’s only one of those in there. No, just ideas. It’s how you’ve made all this possible. You really are amazing. We couldn’t have survived without you.”
Adelle didn’t answer, only pocketed the pod she’d been fingering. As she walked down the path away from the house, she greeted the few people she saw but didn’t stop to chat or see what work they were doing. Instead, she continued in the direction of the large tree at the edge of the property. The hanging branches hid her from most of the farm, making it the perfect place to spend some alone time without drawing any undue attention.
At the base of the tree, she dug a small hole and placed the pod at the bottom before she filled I back up with dirt. She didn’t know if it would produce anything worthwhile but she liked to try. Her life had been like that vegetable, tossed to the bottom of a hole with no hope of getting out. She’d felt suffocated for awhile, the dark soil of trouble pushing down on her. The old Adelle had cracked open and this new Adelle had appeared, growing toward the light. She was the same person… yet she wasn’t the same at all. She was something new.
Here, in her little secret spot, she shed a few tears that she wasn’t able to cry in front of the others. It was her way of dealing with the pressures still pushing at her, trying to mold her. When she was done, she wiped away all traces of this weakness and squared her shoulders. There was still much to work on before sunset.
I am a pea, she thought, remembering the conversation with Priya. A smile broke through her usual constraints. A pea wasn’t a bad thing to be, after all. She was proud to be a pea.