Fanfiction
Dec. 28th, 2007 12:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tallulahgsOn the third day of Christmas, my (rather depressing) true love sent to me...
Three dreadful nightmares
These ended up with the linking themes of 'confident charming young men going slightly insane' and 'imprisonment'. This wasn't entirely intentional ^^
Crossposted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
12dayschristmas.
[Title] That Way Madness Lies
[Fandom] Battle Royale (manga); written as a companion to another fanfic of mine
[Rating] PG for general gloom
[Word Count] 356
[Notes/Summary] AU: Class B didn't end up in the Program. Shinji may have escaped the Republic of Greater East Asia's re-education program, but only when he's awake.
Before it all happened - when he was still a regular kid with a future that, if not dazzling, was still plenty bright enough - Shinji's nightmares used to be occasional and, more importantly, obvious. Reruns of the odd horror movie that had actually unnerved him. Flashbacks to particularly visceral segments of the Program finale where the participants reminded him of people he knew. A few really shit ones after Uncle died, when the guy was suddenly back in the bar like normal and in the dream Shinji had known he'd had to say you're dead, you shouldn't be here but hadn't been able to do it. But you know. Your typical junior-high-school kid's night life, right?
Well, now he's another kind of typical, and hell, maybe these kinda dreams are normal once you've pissed off the government. Always the same; back in a cell - a bad start right there - and listening. Sometimes he gets there and the screaming's already started, sometimes he thinks maybe he'll make it to morning without hearing a sound. Doesn't really matter when. The screaming starts, as it always did, somebody had always decided tonight was the night to wave goodbye to sanity, and the footsteps march down the corridor because supervising a bunch of dissidents and delinquents is bad enough without having to put up with them going schizo on you. It was never spelt out where these people went once they'd cracked. Uninformed guesses make everyone a lot more uneasy. Anyway. Listening. Listening to the footsteps. And then every damn time, without fail, he realises - and why does it always take so long to work this out? You'd think you'd remember - he realises they're coming towards him, and why? Because he's the one screaming without even knowing it and he doesn't know how to stop -
So far he's always managed to wake up in time. He doesn't wanna know what'll happen if they ever do manage to get that door open.
[Title] Dead Man Walking
[Fandom] Death Note
[Rating] G
[Word Count] 474
[Notes/Summary] Set after Chapter 58 of the manga (with spoilers for that). Raito thinks he's on the winning side, but his subconscious has other ideas.
They don't start off as nightmares, the dreams about L. At first they're just memories, hardly dreams at all. The two of them studying a computer screen together. Or fighting. Or L just sitting, knees to his chest, a forkful of cake held halfway to his mouth, head on one side, considering, of course, Raito-kun, I am perfectly well aware that you're Kira.
That's when it becomes a nightmare. Which is stupid, because it isn't as if L didn't say things like that - or at least imply them - all the time when he was still alive. How is it different in dreams?
Well, at first it isn't different. At first the dreams twitch and change when L says that, as if Raito's mind is choosing to ignore it. That's all right. But as time passes, that stops happening and Raito has to think of something to say. In dreams it's far harder to marshal a coherent argument - he's always hated that about them - and his words are too slow or trip over each other or just don't make any sense. And L smiles, takes another bite of cake, and replies, I know your plan. Sometimes he spells it out, you intend for the shinigami Rem to kill me, other times he just falls silent and listens as Raito tries to lie. Tries. These dreams are humiliating, because doesn't he have concrete proof that in reality he can lie as well as he needs to?
And after Raito has finished speaking, L just smiles and says you're still Kira, you know.
The conversation never needs to continue past this point. L never needs to say do you remember what it was like, sitting in that cell in the dark, no one to speak to, unable even to walk, hearing nothing except your own thoughts? Do you remember screaming for me to let you go? Do you remembering wondering if this is what it's really like to be dead? Because Raito's mind does that remembering all on its own and then he always wakes up, staring round the room, his eyes devouring the shadowy bedroom or the light rushing across the walls.
Being imprisoned like that had been the hell of real boredom -
Misa is never woken by him when he has these dreams. He is angry to realise that part of him wishes that she was. And Ryuk is always awake, often chuckling, so Raito knows he's been thrashing about or maybe even calling out in his sleep. That somehow makes it all worse. That somehow makes it all almost real.
[Title] Lesser of Two Evils
[Fandom] Harry Potter
[Rating] G
[Word Count] 180
[Notes/Summary] Set soon after Lily and James's deaths. Sirius considers nightmares and realities.
Analysing the way dreams feel is something Sirius has never had the time to do, but right now he's discovering that maybe no analysis was needed; maybe he always knew. Of course, now when he dreams it's a nightmare within a nightmare, and he can only tell the difference because his senses are a little sharper when he's awake. In reality he puts his hand on the cell wall and it's cold and clammy as if even the stone is sobbing. In dreams he feels nothing, or snatches his palm away and sees it smeared with other people's blood, or - worst of all - falls straight through the wall and finds himself waking up in Lily and James's spare bedroom and hearing them laughing and talking downstairs.
But he likes those nightmares, because he knows he can wake up from them, and sometimes he even feels that he's gone far enough into his own head that the Dementors can't reach him. He'd take the sleeping dreams over the waking dream any day.
Three dreadful nightmares
These ended up with the linking themes of 'confident charming young men going slightly insane' and 'imprisonment'. This wasn't entirely intentional ^^
Crossposted to
12dayschristmas.[Title] That Way Madness Lies
[Fandom] Battle Royale (manga); written as a companion to another fanfic of mine
[Rating] PG for general gloom
[Word Count] 356
[Notes/Summary] AU: Class B didn't end up in the Program. Shinji may have escaped the Republic of Greater East Asia's re-education program, but only when he's awake.
Before it all happened - when he was still a regular kid with a future that, if not dazzling, was still plenty bright enough - Shinji's nightmares used to be occasional and, more importantly, obvious. Reruns of the odd horror movie that had actually unnerved him. Flashbacks to particularly visceral segments of the Program finale where the participants reminded him of people he knew. A few really shit ones after Uncle died, when the guy was suddenly back in the bar like normal and in the dream Shinji had known he'd had to say you're dead, you shouldn't be here but hadn't been able to do it. But you know. Your typical junior-high-school kid's night life, right?
Well, now he's another kind of typical, and hell, maybe these kinda dreams are normal once you've pissed off the government. Always the same; back in a cell - a bad start right there - and listening. Sometimes he gets there and the screaming's already started, sometimes he thinks maybe he'll make it to morning without hearing a sound. Doesn't really matter when. The screaming starts, as it always did, somebody had always decided tonight was the night to wave goodbye to sanity, and the footsteps march down the corridor because supervising a bunch of dissidents and delinquents is bad enough without having to put up with them going schizo on you. It was never spelt out where these people went once they'd cracked. Uninformed guesses make everyone a lot more uneasy. Anyway. Listening. Listening to the footsteps. And then every damn time, without fail, he realises - and why does it always take so long to work this out? You'd think you'd remember - he realises they're coming towards him, and why? Because he's the one screaming without even knowing it and he doesn't know how to stop -
So far he's always managed to wake up in time. He doesn't wanna know what'll happen if they ever do manage to get that door open.
[Title] Dead Man Walking
[Fandom] Death Note
[Rating] G
[Word Count] 474
[Notes/Summary] Set after Chapter 58 of the manga (with spoilers for that). Raito thinks he's on the winning side, but his subconscious has other ideas.
They don't start off as nightmares, the dreams about L. At first they're just memories, hardly dreams at all. The two of them studying a computer screen together. Or fighting. Or L just sitting, knees to his chest, a forkful of cake held halfway to his mouth, head on one side, considering, of course, Raito-kun, I am perfectly well aware that you're Kira.
That's when it becomes a nightmare. Which is stupid, because it isn't as if L didn't say things like that - or at least imply them - all the time when he was still alive. How is it different in dreams?
Well, at first it isn't different. At first the dreams twitch and change when L says that, as if Raito's mind is choosing to ignore it. That's all right. But as time passes, that stops happening and Raito has to think of something to say. In dreams it's far harder to marshal a coherent argument - he's always hated that about them - and his words are too slow or trip over each other or just don't make any sense. And L smiles, takes another bite of cake, and replies, I know your plan. Sometimes he spells it out, you intend for the shinigami Rem to kill me, other times he just falls silent and listens as Raito tries to lie. Tries. These dreams are humiliating, because doesn't he have concrete proof that in reality he can lie as well as he needs to?
And after Raito has finished speaking, L just smiles and says you're still Kira, you know.
The conversation never needs to continue past this point. L never needs to say do you remember what it was like, sitting in that cell in the dark, no one to speak to, unable even to walk, hearing nothing except your own thoughts? Do you remember screaming for me to let you go? Do you remembering wondering if this is what it's really like to be dead? Because Raito's mind does that remembering all on its own and then he always wakes up, staring round the room, his eyes devouring the shadowy bedroom or the light rushing across the walls.
Being imprisoned like that had been the hell of real boredom -
Misa is never woken by him when he has these dreams. He is angry to realise that part of him wishes that she was. And Ryuk is always awake, often chuckling, so Raito knows he's been thrashing about or maybe even calling out in his sleep. That somehow makes it all worse. That somehow makes it all almost real.
[Title] Lesser of Two Evils
[Fandom] Harry Potter
[Rating] G
[Word Count] 180
[Notes/Summary] Set soon after Lily and James's deaths. Sirius considers nightmares and realities.
Analysing the way dreams feel is something Sirius has never had the time to do, but right now he's discovering that maybe no analysis was needed; maybe he always knew. Of course, now when he dreams it's a nightmare within a nightmare, and he can only tell the difference because his senses are a little sharper when he's awake. In reality he puts his hand on the cell wall and it's cold and clammy as if even the stone is sobbing. In dreams he feels nothing, or snatches his palm away and sees it smeared with other people's blood, or - worst of all - falls straight through the wall and finds himself waking up in Lily and James's spare bedroom and hearing them laughing and talking downstairs.
But he likes those nightmares, because he knows he can wake up from them, and sometimes he even feels that he's gone far enough into his own head that the Dementors can't reach him. He'd take the sleeping dreams over the waking dream any day.
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no subject
Date: 2007-12-28 04:30 pm (UTC)I really like how you went about the second one, twisting the fic in a couple of directions. I like Shinji's the most, although that could just be a fandom preference.
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Date: 2007-12-28 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-29 02:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-29 02:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-28 07:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-29 02:56 pm (UTC)