Prompt 121: Ficlet 'City of Mud' (Darla)

[brutti_ma_buoni]

Title City of Mud
Author Bruttimabuoni
Rating PG13
Word Count c650
Prompt 121 (Paris)
Characters/Pairing (if any) Darla
A/N: Full of allusions to Paris history, so I’ve added a couple of notes at the end in case you want to find out more

Comments

[rebcake]

(Heady days. Do forgive the pun.)

Nothing to forgive, my dear. Heh. This is very interesting and I love your world-weary Darla. Now you've got me wondering what happened in the catacombs...And hey! A writer who uses almost as many footnotes as me! Well met!

[brutti_ma_buoni]

:P I really do try to keep away from footnotes these days, but I wanted to write a not-the-Eiffel-Tower Paris holiday story, and unless I went waaaay back with Darla the place wasn't going to be new to her! The 1910 floods are fantastic material, certainly in the novel I mentioned, which also cheats and includes the theft of the Mona Lisa from 1911 (the Louvre basement was flooded too, so it would have been a good time to sneak something out!)

I wrote 'heady days' totally straightfaced and only spotted it on a third re-read. *blush*

[shapinglight]

Wonderful! I so hope that I do get around to doing that Darla ficathon you'll participate and give us more.

[brutti_ma_buoni]

Thanks! If you do, I will! I love Darla, and writing history - though I should try to restrain the footnotes a bit really...

[shapinglight]

Oh, I don't mind the footnotes. In fact, I like them. I'd never even heard of that flood in Paris before now.

[brutti_ma_buoni]

If you can get hold of the Sarah Smith book, do - it's the second of a historical mystery trilogy (the Vanished Child, a Citizen of the Country are the others). I think they're out of print, but this one in particular is one of the few books I have given repeatedly as a present; great prose, great imagery.

[brutti_ma_buoni]

Thank you! I love the city (though not all of its smells), glad it came across for you.

[ares132006]

I, too, love footnotes. ;0)

We scarcely left the city from ‘92 till the orgy of Thermidor as the humans devoured each other, turning against ally after ally in an ecstasy of slaughter. We laughed in the blood rain. We were at one with the mob; they shared our thirst. Oh, I remember... September ’92, as the gaols ran thigh-deep in blood. The Feast of Reason and the death of God. Madame Guillotine, scything through the noblest necks and showering the sans-culottes in gore as they begged for more.

Lovely, bloody imagery. *shivers*

Perfect, my dear.

[brutti_ma_buoni]

Oh, so do I love footnotes - I don't want to scare off the wary though! Thank you for commenting, very glad you enjoyed it.

[ubiquirk]

Bravo! I really like Darla reliving days of mayhem while her victim slowly realizes something's not quite right.

[brutti_ma_buoni]

Thank you! Trying to imagine four centuries of jaded life is pretty horrifying, but Darla could certainly pick her trouble-spots.