![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdAll dialogue is in translation from the French.
«Good evening, Gérard. I've missed you.»
The woman all in black laid her lilies against the gravestone, as she did one day a year, every year. But this was not the customary day, or month, or for that matter, even the daytime at all.
«I know; I'm early. But I do not know what to do.»
She took out a small bottle of wine - a fillette of Chinon red, so dark, almost purple - and two particularly delicate glasses. One, she set on the gravestone. The other, she kept.
«I've got into bad situations before, Gérard. But this one... I'm in real trouble now.»
She poured wine for the two of them, swirling the glasses gently. A little for herself, more for Gérard, and then, on second thought, more for herself after all.
«I love her, Gérard. I thought I had turned everything down so low and far from myself that I would not see it again after you, my dearest. But...»
The woman closed her eyes, sipped her wine, and bit her lower lip, before continuing.
«I love her. As I loved you.»
She opened her eyes.
«To be honest with myself, I was almost ready for that. But then, when I put her in your place, in my memory...»
She drank the rest of her glass of wine, all of it, at once, like someone already a little too drunk, red invisible on her blue lips. To anyone looking on, she would seem a exquisitely graceful lout; to herself, she felt she could barely hold onto the glass's stem at all.
«...I do not think I could pull the trigger this time, Gérard.»
She threw her glass away, violently, the fragile crystal smashing into a thousand pieces against nearby stones. Then, she reached out, poured the contents of Gérard's glass onto his grave, and carefully put his glass back down.
«I'm so, so sorry. I did not think it was possible... but...»
A heavy breath.
«I think I love her more than I loved you.»
Water, from her eyes, for the first time in many years.
«I did not imagine that was possible. And yet I think... I think, with her... I could not do it, no matter the cost.»
She drained the dregs of the wine directly from the bottle, and, rather than destroying it, knelt down and placed it gently on her husband's grave, the water in her eyes pooling, falling, tears.
«Help me figure this out, Gérard. I don't know what to do, and I'm so afraid, afraid that this time...»
«...I would let the world burn.»
«Good evening, Gérard. I've missed you.»
The woman all in black laid her lilies against the gravestone, as she did one day a year, every year. But this was not the customary day, or month, or for that matter, even the daytime at all.
«I know; I'm early. But I do not know what to do.»
She took out a small bottle of wine - a fillette of Chinon red, so dark, almost purple - and two particularly delicate glasses. One, she set on the gravestone. The other, she kept.
«I've got into bad situations before, Gérard. But this one... I'm in real trouble now.»
She poured wine for the two of them, swirling the glasses gently. A little for herself, more for Gérard, and then, on second thought, more for herself after all.
«I love her, Gérard. I thought I had turned everything down so low and far from myself that I would not see it again after you, my dearest. But...»
The woman closed her eyes, sipped her wine, and bit her lower lip, before continuing.
«I love her. As I loved you.»
She opened her eyes.
«To be honest with myself, I was almost ready for that. But then, when I put her in your place, in my memory...»
She drank the rest of her glass of wine, all of it, at once, like someone already a little too drunk, red invisible on her blue lips. To anyone looking on, she would seem a exquisitely graceful lout; to herself, she felt she could barely hold onto the glass's stem at all.
«...I do not think I could pull the trigger this time, Gérard.»
She threw her glass away, violently, the fragile crystal smashing into a thousand pieces against nearby stones. Then, she reached out, poured the contents of Gérard's glass onto his grave, and carefully put his glass back down.
«I'm so, so sorry. I did not think it was possible... but...»
A heavy breath.
«I think I love her more than I loved you.»
Water, from her eyes, for the first time in many years.
«I did not imagine that was possible. And yet I think... I think, with her... I could not do it, no matter the cost.»
She drained the dregs of the wine directly from the bottle, and, rather than destroying it, knelt down and placed it gently on her husband's grave, the water in her eyes pooling, falling, tears.
«Help me figure this out, Gérard. I don't know what to do, and I'm so afraid, afraid that this time...»
«...I would let the world burn.»
no subject
Date: 2017-05-10 02:15 am (UTC)So, while i have sympathies to the source material, I don't really know it, per se. But your writing is engaging and interesting regardless.
I edit for a couple of published authors, and I encourage you to pursue your writing.
there are a lot of chracters.
Date: 2017-05-10 03:03 am (UTC)Winston! Who has appeared in a previous instalment. There's a whole colony of hyperintelligent gorillas on the moon. It was a project, they rebelled.
one person with autism
Satya Vaswani (codename Symmetra).
at least one LGBTQ person
Lena Oxton (codename Tracer), one of my main characters here, canonically WLW, we have met her partner (whose name is Emily, btw), and she is literally the face of the game. The degree of AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA from me when that happened cannot be overestimated. We got Korra and we got Tracer.
This is her:
Amélie Lacroix (codename Widowmaker) is also a canonical character, and Gérard was her canonical husband. He's dead, and she killed him, and there is an explanation for how that went down that not only do I not buy, I don't think we're supposed to buy it. I could be wrong, but... I hope we're not. I'd love it - love it - if they were going to pull something like what I've got going here. :D
The characters are what make Overwatch. The game's great fun, but the worldbuilding and characters are addictive.
Re: there are a lot of chracters.
Date: 2017-05-10 04:48 am (UTC)Also re: this piece (and the whole idea, continually), /steeples fingers, leans in creepily
Re: there are a lot of chracters.
Date: 2017-05-10 04:57 am (UTC)(While being highly neuroatypical, I actually test nowhere on the spectrum; as always, when you look at the ends of the bell curve, you'll find me out past the edge exploring new territory. :/ )
Re: there are a lot of chracters.
Date: 2017-05-10 05:22 am (UTC)also
Date: 2017-05-10 03:12 am (UTC)I am not actually a good fiction writer, though. I'm a good (and when I work in the field, well-paid) technical writer, and in fiction I can engineer a situation, I can figure out how to make something work and make sense, I can make life much more difficult for characters, but... there's a whole-package thing I just don't have.
But, once in a while, I like to think I can fake it well enough to throw some pretty good parts out there. This is one of those times. I'm glad it worked for someone other than me, too.
Re: also
Date: 2017-05-10 03:47 am (UTC)To clarify my yawn at Winston, he seems an interesting character,and probably well-written, given the apparent quality of the other characters. But making a verb, verb, noun non-human character in an SF setting isn't much of a challenge, imho. Creating a character who could be yourself, your friend, relative, associate, or lover right now, and then putting them believably into a fantastical scenario is more challenging. It seems like a weird cognitive reversal of the uncanny valley, in that we can sympathize with a genius gorilla who acts the least bit human, but will scrutinize and shred a character with autism for being unreal. I'm still not sure whether that's from a desire to see them portrayed authentically (I hope), or a discomfort at having someone who is 'other' in the mix. (I fear)
Tracer being the literal face of the game is awesome, I just spent a minute looking into the game and canon, and I have to say I'm pretty hopeful here. These wins accumulate until for some future generation it's just part of the background fabric of life.
no subject
Date: 2017-05-10 09:01 pm (UTC)But I'm the one who's a writer first and a musician second, while Dara is a musician first and a writer second. But still it pleases me she's writing Overwatch fic. <3
no subject
Date: 2017-05-11 02:40 am (UTC)I am an engineer by trade but I tend to gravitate toward artists - my s.o. is a clothing designer - as you folks tend to have the perspective I lack, and which I find most interesting.
Is there somewhere I could find your writings?
no subject
Date: 2017-05-11 02:42 am (UTC)Dara and I both have a history of computer engineering; I'm still in software as my day job. So we've got at least that form of engineering. But we do rather prefer the arts, even if software testing helps me actually afford to write stuff.
I have five released novels available in print and ebook and you can find out about 'em on angelahighland.com.
no subject
Date: 2017-05-11 03:15 am (UTC)In my experience, the better engineers / designers came to it later, through art, or sculpture, or machinging, or being insatiably curious about how things work.
Something that drew me to Dara's blog is her (please correct me if tht's the wrong pronoun) approach to problem solving. Way more omnivorous thinker than classicaly trained problem solver.
Thank you for the link, I'm off to read, I always love finding a new author!
no subject
Date: 2017-05-11 04:27 am (UTC)Thanks much!
no subject
Date: 2017-05-11 07:39 am (UTC)i'm a musician. XD
(but my degrees are in computer science/math/studio art. i am classically trained - but only as an artist. XD )