plotbunny ambush: cats in the cradle
Apr. 15th, 2005 04:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mikkenekoTitle: Cats in the Cradle
Spoilers: EOS
Warnings: disturbing, some gore
Rating: R for that
Edward comes to visit him, one night in his sleep.
"So," Ed says casually, seated on the edge of the desk in the circle of candlelight. "Looks like you've been getting on well."
He grins. Little bits of brain slowly drip from the side of his head, where his skull is smashed in; plip, plip. Fragments of bone and golden hair are still stuck to the side, sliding off in slow motion.
Al's mouth is dry. "I've been okay," he whispers. "It's lonely without you."
Ed nods understandingly. There's a plop as something falls out. "Guess it must be," he says. "That's why you got a girlfriend, huh? To keep you company."
"She's not my girlfriend," Al says. He breathes through his mouth, looks away. "She's just -- a friend. We go out sometimes."
Ed's not wearing the red coat from the photographs; Al took that. He is, however, painted in blood all over, from his collar to his boots, and when he shifts around Al can see right through the hole in his chest to the other side. "You've been spending an awful lot of time with her." Ed's voice is oddly cheerful. "No wonder your studies have gone downhill."
Al shakes his head, and keeps on shaking it, more and more violently. "I -- I'm still -- searching," he wheezes through a tightly constricted chest. "I've -- I've just hit a blocking point. It -- it's hard."
"Yeah, you've never been as good with the theory as me." Ed grins again, showing skull-teeth. "Here, I'll help you, Alphonse. I'll show you where your notes are going wrong."
Ed leans over, and there's a heavy wet splatter over the surface of the desk, and he puts his hand down on Alphonse's notes, the array he was drawing when he feel asleep. "Here's your problem," Ed says. His hand leaves a red and gray stain on the paper. "Here in this array, y'see, Al. You've let things into it that aren't supposed to be there. You're letting other things get in the way."
Alphonse wakes, in his own bed, and barely manages to keep from screaming and sobbing aloud. He nearly falls from his bed, stumbles over to his desk -- the lamp is low, almost guttering out, and it takes his hands two shaking tries to turn it up, before he can frantically scan the pristine white paper of his notes.
Clean. Clean. Nothing there that shouldn't be there, no putrefying matter of flesh left two years neglected. Al drops the paper back onto the desk, buries his head in his hands, and cries.
It was just a dream, he knows it was just a dream. Knows that wherever his brother is, he wouldn't condemn him, wouldn't blame him. But with no mother to kiss him and comfort him, no brother to awkwardly reassure and promise to protect him, knowing doesn't make much difference.
Spoilers: EOS
Warnings: disturbing, some gore
Rating: R for that
Edward comes to visit him, one night in his sleep.
"So," Ed says casually, seated on the edge of the desk in the circle of candlelight. "Looks like you've been getting on well."
He grins. Little bits of brain slowly drip from the side of his head, where his skull is smashed in; plip, plip. Fragments of bone and golden hair are still stuck to the side, sliding off in slow motion.
Al's mouth is dry. "I've been okay," he whispers. "It's lonely without you."
Ed nods understandingly. There's a plop as something falls out. "Guess it must be," he says. "That's why you got a girlfriend, huh? To keep you company."
"She's not my girlfriend," Al says. He breathes through his mouth, looks away. "She's just -- a friend. We go out sometimes."
Ed's not wearing the red coat from the photographs; Al took that. He is, however, painted in blood all over, from his collar to his boots, and when he shifts around Al can see right through the hole in his chest to the other side. "You've been spending an awful lot of time with her." Ed's voice is oddly cheerful. "No wonder your studies have gone downhill."
Al shakes his head, and keeps on shaking it, more and more violently. "I -- I'm still -- searching," he wheezes through a tightly constricted chest. "I've -- I've just hit a blocking point. It -- it's hard."
"Yeah, you've never been as good with the theory as me." Ed grins again, showing skull-teeth. "Here, I'll help you, Alphonse. I'll show you where your notes are going wrong."
Ed leans over, and there's a heavy wet splatter over the surface of the desk, and he puts his hand down on Alphonse's notes, the array he was drawing when he feel asleep. "Here's your problem," Ed says. His hand leaves a red and gray stain on the paper. "Here in this array, y'see, Al. You've let things into it that aren't supposed to be there. You're letting other things get in the way."
Alphonse wakes, in his own bed, and barely manages to keep from screaming and sobbing aloud. He nearly falls from his bed, stumbles over to his desk -- the lamp is low, almost guttering out, and it takes his hands two shaking tries to turn it up, before he can frantically scan the pristine white paper of his notes.
Clean. Clean. Nothing there that shouldn't be there, no putrefying matter of flesh left two years neglected. Al drops the paper back onto the desk, buries his head in his hands, and cries.
It was just a dream, he knows it was just a dream. Knows that wherever his brother is, he wouldn't condemn him, wouldn't blame him. But with no mother to kiss him and comfort him, no brother to awkwardly reassure and promise to protect him, knowing doesn't make much difference.
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no subject
Date: 2005-04-15 04:51 pm (UTC)Aww, Gee thanks Mikke...!! Now I have to go clean that up! XD *grumble*
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Date: 2005-04-15 05:34 pm (UTC)You should write horror flicks; you have the terror part down.
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Date: 2005-04-16 01:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-15 08:21 pm (UTC)I may also not be awake enough to 'aw' as much as I should, because my main thoughts are more about 'neat concept'.
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Date: 2005-04-16 01:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-15 08:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-16 01:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-15 10:26 pm (UTC)Okay, I'm alright now. ::mentally damning her vivid imagination that shows mental images in excrutiating detail::
All I can say is DAMN. Al needs to get some help if he's having recurring nightmares like that.
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Date: 2005-04-16 02:17 am (UTC)Actually, I'm pretty sure this was written in reaction to one of the contest entries on S&S, where Ed gets back from ourworld to find that Al has gotten married and built a life without him. So Ed is... uh... sorta getting his revenge here. XD;
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Date: 2005-04-15 10:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-16 02:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2005-04-16 02:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-16 06:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-16 03:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2005-04-16 08:06 am (UTC)Second reaction: You write too well. I hate you. *sulks*
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Date: 2005-04-16 03:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-16 08:08 am (UTC)*must... read... fluff...*
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Date: 2005-04-16 03:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2005-04-16 05:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-16 05:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-16 05:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-16 06:02 pm (UTC)nonono!
From:Ooooh that was goooo~d!
Date: 2005-04-17 04:24 pm (UTC)Aaaaand the dialogue with Ed blaming Al covertly is fantastic, bloody fantastic! (I didn't feel sick though, which makes me feel O.o when I read everyone else's comments).
Re: Ooooh that was goooo~d!
Date: 2005-04-18 01:00 am (UTC)What I liked about that section is that Ed's *words* and *tone* were not particularly accusatory. If anything, he sounded like he was teasing or encouraging Al. The guilt and accusation was all in Al's perception, in the atmosphere of the dream. I thought that turned out well. heh.
Re: Ooooh that was goooo~d!
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Date: 2005-04-18 12:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-18 02:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-19 02:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-03 10:27 pm (UTC)Now -that- is one -horrific- dream. I think that if you'd tried this fic without the rising sense of something-is-really-really-wrong, it wouldn't have been as effective, you wouldn't really -feel- Al crying at the end. But you nailed it spot on, and the end really smacks you upside the head because of it.
Great stuff. Disturbing, but great. ^_^
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Date: 2005-05-04 12:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-18 09:53 pm (UTC)I actually was directed here because of some fanart made for this.
regardless - I am really impressed. I mean, I know you already know you're an excellent writer, but.. see I actually kinda felt my heart strings tugged at the end. more like yanked, but... It's so damn true.
have I mentioned I like squick o.O? I like this, too. (gets of of soap box)
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Date: 2005-06-21 12:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2005-06-19 10:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 12:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 08:13 am (UTC)I like it but... *shudders* poor Al... ;_;
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Date: 2005-06-21 12:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2005-06-21 08:46 pm (UTC)in a good way. but. !!
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Date: 2005-06-27 04:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-15 11:54 pm (UTC)I'm meming this, ok?
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Date: 2005-09-08 09:21 pm (UTC)