SMALL THINGS - TRIPTYCH
May. 26th, 2011 06:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nymeria_dwThese small pieces were written for TerraFirma's 53rd Starburst Challenge, on a series of prompts by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nebari_rebel
Thank you for the inspiration!!
Author: Nymeria
Disclaimer: the Farscape universe and its characters do not belong to me, I'm just having fun playing with them
Rating: PG
Settings and Spoilers: All over the Farscape arc.
**************************************************************
**MOTHERS**
Beauty
Cold, bare metal and hot, scorching air. This is my whole world now.
My body is not my own any more, belly growing more distended with each passing day as the creature inside it matures at alarming speed - my child.
A child born of rape and violence.
Deprived of any future, robbed of hope, death is the only goal I look forward to, in this place of bleakness and despair.
My eyes, hungry for beauty and color, can rest only on a bunch of orange flowers in the corner, wondering at their meaning.
Forgiveness
Clock beating the minutes in counterpoint with the slow drip from the I.V. feed.
Clouds shifting across the darkening sky in slow motion.
Life trickling away.
He's not coming.
The sorrow that washes over me is more for the grief he will have to endure than for my own pain.
I forgive you, my son. Will you forgive yourself?
Guilt
"You were conceived in love. Our love. I wanted you to know this. It makes you special. We wanted you, and we love you."
She nods, puzzled and uncomprehending but accepting the words for what they are: she has already learned unquestioning obedience.
What will this revelation do to her in the long run? Will it change her, make her different, stand out from the rest?
As I leave the darkened quarters, I feel the pull of her gaze on my back and I wonder if I should have allowed myself this small luxury. If I had the right to do this.
Gratitude
I am in debt.
Where there was sullen silence now thoughts and images flow with an ease I would never have dreamed possible. Not with the difference - the strangeness - that was inflicted on this offspring of mine.
With her primitive way of communication, those imperfect, often meaningless sounds, she has managed to heal the breach, build the trust.
How can I reach out and let her understand how much this means to me?
And suddenly I know.
#Please, tell her.#
"The ship has notified me that the offspring now needs a name, and she would be extremely honored if you, Aeryn Sun, were the one to choose his name."
Innocence
Brilliant blue eyes open in a round face framed by black hair. Soft mouth widens in a lazy yawn, while sturdy legs kick out in a slow stretch
As I murmur meaningless sounds of comfort that come from my lips almost on their own, those eyes focus on me and the yawn become a smile, happy and trusting.
The innocence of it washes over me like a warm caress.
** TEMPTATIONS **
Two-headed bird's plaintive wail
Echoing the soul's torment.
The price of need is steep.
*
Precious metal glinting in the gloom,
Ready for the taking.
The dead won't mind.
*
Malicious whispers flow in the stillness,
Asking for revenge.
Love gives strength to my denial.
*
Cold weapon promising deliverance.
Distant shrieks sound in the darkness
That claims my soul.
*
Hunger screams for fulfillment, long denied.
Last of my breed, lonely and forlorn,
I howl in despair.
** SENSES**
Sound
"Doesn't affect me!"
They were big, strong, powerful, and yet so pathetically weak in this red light! While she could do anything, go anywhere. Nothing and no one could stop her.
Strangely, this awareness took away the need to escape that had been her only thought until now.
A push, a shove, and she was driven upward: a strange sensation, like being sucked through a small hole, body elongating, stretching, flowing like water from one place to…
AGONY!
The noise cut across every fiber of her being, tearing, slicing, burning.
So fierce she couldn't even hear her own tortured screams.
Taste
Such an admirable tool! He examined the small object in the jar, admiring its intricate pattern of micro-circuitry and black tendrils, not for the first time wondering at its efficient beauty.
Knowledge was power, and this– this was the ultimate knowledge, the key to a whole new strategy. To success and retribution.
The organic matter still trapped inside the snarl of fibers beckoned to him in a strange, compelling way.
"Poor Crichton. He's going to be so lonely... Never mind."
The small gob of flesh disappeared quickly, but its taste… that lingered for a long time.
The taste of victory.
Sight
He had been poking for what seemed forever at the compartment's controls, refusing to be distracted by the two prisoners in the cell. So when it finally fell open he could not prevent a startled jump.
But it was a short-lived shock, soon to be replaced by triumph.
His eyes fell straight on the jewel, its sparkle calling to him from the jumble of objects piled in the cache: more than just a thing of value, it was a memento of times past. Of another, better life.
Funny how something so small could hold such power! For a few microts, the long cycles of suffering were washed away into nothingness.
"It's been so long…."
Smell
Cold, stale air. Burnt circuitry. Wielding torch plasma residue.
And something else.
Something that defied his receptors, by now so taxed from the stench on Staanz's poor excuse of a ship that they took some time to work properly. But it was there, elusive and yet familiar….
"D'Argo... um... What took you so long?"
Eyes adjusting to the pod's dimness, he noticed the awkward stance of its occupants, the disarray of their enviro-suits, the glances darting everywhere but toward him. And it all clicked into place.
"I had to... uh... find someone to help me." Feigning ignorance took a monumental effort. " I think it's time that we left." And he turned quickly, before his own face gave him away.
Touch
A small hand settled on his shoulder, the contact faint, almost delicate. Yet it made him twitch in remembered loathing and shame.
He wondered if he would ever feel whole again, reconnect brain and body in a single entity where one was not defiled by the other.
Barely lifting his head from crossed arms resting on bended knees, he focused on the open expanse of ocean, its blue waters so like his own planet's that for a moment a wave of homesickness swept away any other sensation. It was a good kind of pain, basic, clean.
When he felt the hand's weight increase on his corded flesh, he knew the respite would be short-lived.
nebari_rebel Thank you for the inspiration!!
Author: Nymeria
Disclaimer: the Farscape universe and its characters do not belong to me, I'm just having fun playing with them
Rating: PG
Settings and Spoilers: All over the Farscape arc.
**************************************************************
**MOTHERS**
Beauty
Cold, bare metal and hot, scorching air. This is my whole world now.
My body is not my own any more, belly growing more distended with each passing day as the creature inside it matures at alarming speed - my child.
A child born of rape and violence.
Deprived of any future, robbed of hope, death is the only goal I look forward to, in this place of bleakness and despair.
My eyes, hungry for beauty and color, can rest only on a bunch of orange flowers in the corner, wondering at their meaning.
Forgiveness
Clock beating the minutes in counterpoint with the slow drip from the I.V. feed.
Clouds shifting across the darkening sky in slow motion.
Life trickling away.
He's not coming.
The sorrow that washes over me is more for the grief he will have to endure than for my own pain.
I forgive you, my son. Will you forgive yourself?
Guilt
"You were conceived in love. Our love. I wanted you to know this. It makes you special. We wanted you, and we love you."
She nods, puzzled and uncomprehending but accepting the words for what they are: she has already learned unquestioning obedience.
What will this revelation do to her in the long run? Will it change her, make her different, stand out from the rest?
As I leave the darkened quarters, I feel the pull of her gaze on my back and I wonder if I should have allowed myself this small luxury. If I had the right to do this.
Gratitude
I am in debt.
Where there was sullen silence now thoughts and images flow with an ease I would never have dreamed possible. Not with the difference - the strangeness - that was inflicted on this offspring of mine.
With her primitive way of communication, those imperfect, often meaningless sounds, she has managed to heal the breach, build the trust.
How can I reach out and let her understand how much this means to me?
And suddenly I know.
#Please, tell her.#
"The ship has notified me that the offspring now needs a name, and she would be extremely honored if you, Aeryn Sun, were the one to choose his name."
Innocence
Brilliant blue eyes open in a round face framed by black hair. Soft mouth widens in a lazy yawn, while sturdy legs kick out in a slow stretch
As I murmur meaningless sounds of comfort that come from my lips almost on their own, those eyes focus on me and the yawn become a smile, happy and trusting.
The innocence of it washes over me like a warm caress.
** TEMPTATIONS **
Two-headed bird's plaintive wail
Echoing the soul's torment.
The price of need is steep.
*
Precious metal glinting in the gloom,
Ready for the taking.
The dead won't mind.
*
Malicious whispers flow in the stillness,
Asking for revenge.
Love gives strength to my denial.
*
Cold weapon promising deliverance.
Distant shrieks sound in the darkness
That claims my soul.
*
Hunger screams for fulfillment, long denied.
Last of my breed, lonely and forlorn,
I howl in despair.
** SENSES**
Sound
"Doesn't affect me!"
They were big, strong, powerful, and yet so pathetically weak in this red light! While she could do anything, go anywhere. Nothing and no one could stop her.
Strangely, this awareness took away the need to escape that had been her only thought until now.
A push, a shove, and she was driven upward: a strange sensation, like being sucked through a small hole, body elongating, stretching, flowing like water from one place to…
AGONY!
The noise cut across every fiber of her being, tearing, slicing, burning.
So fierce she couldn't even hear her own tortured screams.
Taste
Such an admirable tool! He examined the small object in the jar, admiring its intricate pattern of micro-circuitry and black tendrils, not for the first time wondering at its efficient beauty.
Knowledge was power, and this– this was the ultimate knowledge, the key to a whole new strategy. To success and retribution.
The organic matter still trapped inside the snarl of fibers beckoned to him in a strange, compelling way.
"Poor Crichton. He's going to be so lonely... Never mind."
The small gob of flesh disappeared quickly, but its taste… that lingered for a long time.
The taste of victory.
Sight
He had been poking for what seemed forever at the compartment's controls, refusing to be distracted by the two prisoners in the cell. So when it finally fell open he could not prevent a startled jump.
But it was a short-lived shock, soon to be replaced by triumph.
His eyes fell straight on the jewel, its sparkle calling to him from the jumble of objects piled in the cache: more than just a thing of value, it was a memento of times past. Of another, better life.
Funny how something so small could hold such power! For a few microts, the long cycles of suffering were washed away into nothingness.
"It's been so long…."
Smell
Cold, stale air. Burnt circuitry. Wielding torch plasma residue.
And something else.
Something that defied his receptors, by now so taxed from the stench on Staanz's poor excuse of a ship that they took some time to work properly. But it was there, elusive and yet familiar….
"D'Argo... um... What took you so long?"
Eyes adjusting to the pod's dimness, he noticed the awkward stance of its occupants, the disarray of their enviro-suits, the glances darting everywhere but toward him. And it all clicked into place.
"I had to... uh... find someone to help me." Feigning ignorance took a monumental effort. " I think it's time that we left." And he turned quickly, before his own face gave him away.
Touch
A small hand settled on his shoulder, the contact faint, almost delicate. Yet it made him twitch in remembered loathing and shame.
He wondered if he would ever feel whole again, reconnect brain and body in a single entity where one was not defiled by the other.
Barely lifting his head from crossed arms resting on bended knees, he focused on the open expanse of ocean, its blue waters so like his own planet's that for a moment a wave of homesickness swept away any other sensation. It was a good kind of pain, basic, clean.
When he felt the hand's weight increase on his corded flesh, he knew the respite would be short-lived.
