Meme, alphabet drabble
May. 10th, 2006 10:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tarigwaemirLowell House, on the Feast of Ste. Solange
O paper, why do you not write yourself? Is it time to lay offerings at the shrine of the minor demideity of academia again? I have been remiss in my devotions, etc., etc., etc.
Tagged by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
schwimmerin: List 6 weird habits of yours and then tag 6 more people to do the same.
1. All my HTML tags have to be in caps.
2. For the past few months, I've gone to sleep with a thick paperback novel by my pillow. Last night, it was The Red and the Black, which I still haven't finished. (At the moment, Julien is having an affair with Madame de Rênal.)
3. I hoard all my CVS receipts but never remember to use the coupons.
4. I edit all the ID3 tags of my mp3 files to leave the "Year" field empty. (Don't ask me why, it's compulsive.)
5. I have my FAS Webmail set to Korean and my Thunderbird set to UTF-8. Pine is just the normal Western ASCII character set though.
6. Sometimes I'll start reading a novel backwards as well as forwards, while trying to guess the in-between (which after all is the best part of the story).
I think I named all my interesting weird habits the last time I did this meme.
The Studio Ghibli drabbles are taking longer than expected. Meanwhile:
Hospitality
Written for AKung, on the word "Janus"
"The Lord of the Dreaming hath alwayth been a motht hothpitable hotht," lisped the serpent as it coiled languidly around the coat rack, its tongue flicking in and out rapidly.
"Oh no doubt," Lucien replied, as he carefully shelved another book. "But not all guests have appreciated his hospitality."
"Oh? I thenthe a thtory behind your wordth." The serpent curled itself tightly around the pole and tilted its head at an inquisitive angle.
"A long forgotten story. There was once a city full of inspired dreamers. Awake, their lives were only ordinary, but asleep, they dreamed new realms into existence nightly. Whole wings of the palace were built to attend to the king's nightmares alone. The map of the Dreaming changed every hour they wandered here.
"But they were callous guests. They left their dreamscapes littered with half-formed wishes and secret anxieties, all of which were seeds for new dreams. Such dreams grew unchecked, until it seemed that they would choke the Dreaming with their multitude, and soon the people of the city came to believe that the worlds they visited in their sleep belonged to them and them alone. The king declared that he would rule a greater city of dreams than Morpheus himself, that his kingdom would inhabit dreams rather than reality."
"What a fool," the serpent hissed, slitted eyes growing wide.
"Lord Morpheus locked the gates of the Dreaming to the entire city: they could sleep but they could no longer dream. At first, they didn't believe what had happened to them. Some refused to sleep, others turned to hallucinogens, but in the end, they had to admit defeat. No one in that city ever dreamed again."
The serpent asked, "Ith it tho horrible, not to dream? I've had many a night without a thingle dream."
Lucien frowned slightly as he stacked books in a tall wavering pile. "There is more to the Dreaming than a single night's dream. Imagine being unable to invent a story or tell a lie or wonder about the future. Imagine being unable to imagine. Unable to hope, unable to fear."
The serpent lowered its head. "Go on. What happened to the thity barred from dreamth?"
"They went on with the motions of their everyday waking lives, until the city dwindled, diminished and died."
The serpent unwound itself from the coat rack and slithered away, without a word. Lucien turned around and startled at the sight of Dream, who stood there with an unreadable look in his dark, dark eyes.
"Milord!"
"I closed the gates, but I left another door open. It was their pride that blinded them from seeing it," Dream said quietly. "They still remembered what it was to dream. That in itself was a hope they never lost."
Lucien bowed silently and opened the door as Dream left the library.
END
The analogy I had in mind was cancer, if that makes any sense. I think there's something missing to the story, but I don't know what it is. Hmm...
Yours &c.
O paper, why do you not write yourself? Is it time to lay offerings at the shrine of the minor demideity of academia again? I have been remiss in my devotions, etc., etc., etc.
Tagged by
schwimmerin: List 6 weird habits of yours and then tag 6 more people to do the same.1. All my HTML tags have to be in caps.
2. For the past few months, I've gone to sleep with a thick paperback novel by my pillow. Last night, it was The Red and the Black, which I still haven't finished. (At the moment, Julien is having an affair with Madame de Rênal.)
3. I hoard all my CVS receipts but never remember to use the coupons.
4. I edit all the ID3 tags of my mp3 files to leave the "Year" field empty. (Don't ask me why, it's compulsive.)
5. I have my FAS Webmail set to Korean and my Thunderbird set to UTF-8. Pine is just the normal Western ASCII character set though.
6. Sometimes I'll start reading a novel backwards as well as forwards, while trying to guess the in-between (which after all is the best part of the story).
I think I named all my interesting weird habits the last time I did this meme.
The Studio Ghibli drabbles are taking longer than expected. Meanwhile:
Hospitality
Written for AKung, on the word "Janus"
"The Lord of the Dreaming hath alwayth been a motht hothpitable hotht," lisped the serpent as it coiled languidly around the coat rack, its tongue flicking in and out rapidly.
"Oh no doubt," Lucien replied, as he carefully shelved another book. "But not all guests have appreciated his hospitality."
"Oh? I thenthe a thtory behind your wordth." The serpent curled itself tightly around the pole and tilted its head at an inquisitive angle.
"A long forgotten story. There was once a city full of inspired dreamers. Awake, their lives were only ordinary, but asleep, they dreamed new realms into existence nightly. Whole wings of the palace were built to attend to the king's nightmares alone. The map of the Dreaming changed every hour they wandered here.
"But they were callous guests. They left their dreamscapes littered with half-formed wishes and secret anxieties, all of which were seeds for new dreams. Such dreams grew unchecked, until it seemed that they would choke the Dreaming with their multitude, and soon the people of the city came to believe that the worlds they visited in their sleep belonged to them and them alone. The king declared that he would rule a greater city of dreams than Morpheus himself, that his kingdom would inhabit dreams rather than reality."
"What a fool," the serpent hissed, slitted eyes growing wide.
"Lord Morpheus locked the gates of the Dreaming to the entire city: they could sleep but they could no longer dream. At first, they didn't believe what had happened to them. Some refused to sleep, others turned to hallucinogens, but in the end, they had to admit defeat. No one in that city ever dreamed again."
The serpent asked, "Ith it tho horrible, not to dream? I've had many a night without a thingle dream."
Lucien frowned slightly as he stacked books in a tall wavering pile. "There is more to the Dreaming than a single night's dream. Imagine being unable to invent a story or tell a lie or wonder about the future. Imagine being unable to imagine. Unable to hope, unable to fear."
The serpent lowered its head. "Go on. What happened to the thity barred from dreamth?"
"They went on with the motions of their everyday waking lives, until the city dwindled, diminished and died."
The serpent unwound itself from the coat rack and slithered away, without a word. Lucien turned around and startled at the sight of Dream, who stood there with an unreadable look in his dark, dark eyes.
"Milord!"
"I closed the gates, but I left another door open. It was their pride that blinded them from seeing it," Dream said quietly. "They still remembered what it was to dream. That in itself was a hope they never lost."
Lucien bowed silently and opened the door as Dream left the library.
END
The analogy I had in mind was cancer, if that makes any sense. I think there's something missing to the story, but I don't know what it is. Hmm...
Yours &c.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-11 03:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-11 03:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-11 01:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-11 03:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-11 01:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-11 04:12 am (UTC)Plus: your fic is beautiful. I love your dialogue--I'm only vaguely acquainted with The Sandman, but I want to read it now. ♥
(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-11 01:55 pm (UTC)Thanks~! I do very much recommend The Sandman; the source is far more fascinating than anything I've written for the series. ^_^
(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-11 06:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-11 01:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-11 08:19 am (UTC)I see Janus in the doors, the hospitality, in hope. Actually, I would think that remembering how/what it was to dream would be torture rather than hope when you _can't_ dream. Hope yes, because it was something left, but torture too. I'm glad you made it a story :).
Thank you for the drabble.
-AKung
PS: Your 6 habits are pretty weird! But I think the reading of stories back and front for the middle is the weirdest :p.
PPS: Best wishes for your paper.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-11 02:04 pm (UTC)I think what I was trying to get at was that the memory of dreaming was indeed a torture that destroyed the city, but it was also a hope that they had not completely lost touch with dreams, like two sides of a coin. Although looking back, the ending was a bit too abrupt to convey that thought. Hmm...
Thanks for all your thoughtful comments! XD
(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-11 06:22 pm (UTC)I think it was fine. The people were too proud to realize that what was torture was hope. Rather than leaving them with utter despair.
:)
-AKung
(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-11 08:58 pm (UTC)Speaking of fic, I shall echo what everyone's already said about the Sandman drabble - beautiful. I blame you for addicting me to new fandoms over reading period, of all times.
Good luck on papering! 3 down, 1 more to go for me, and then come finals...
**scurries off**
(no subject)
Date: 2006-05-12 05:04 am (UTC)Re: new fandoms, who me? ::whistles innocently::
Good luck on your remaining paper! And ugh, finals. In a few weeks, it'll all be over, thank goodness.