Look! A Fic!
Apr. 11th, 2008 12:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teddogTitle: Black and White
Beta: The Lovely![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
slwatson
Fandom: IPnS, Alter Mirror Universe (however, it can be read as the main Mirror Universe, as the break happens later)
Rating: G
Summary: A very young, MU version of an AI ponders late at night.
Disclaimer: I don't own them. Steff thinks they're so far removed that I probably don't need to mention this.
Notes: This is a tiny scene set only hours following a story that Steff and I wrote together. That fic hasn't been "released" yet, so the fine details of where this story came from and where it's heading aren't up for viewing yet. We've noticed that "light" is an uniting theme in the fics set in 1990s. o_O
There was darkness and there was absence of light.
Darkness was what the camera saw when there was less light, pixeled out harsh shades of gray. From what Nan-Cy understood, this was because the camera was of a very poor quality. Things had looked different on the satellite. It was still in black and white, but she could see the edges of objects most clearly. Not that there was much to see up there. She missed that camera, now that there were things to see.
Her weaker camera struggled to process the poorly lit surroundings. Most of the light came from objects like candles and lamps. She had seen these used in the safe houses before to add to the light from the electric lights. The result of them combined was a harsher light.
Humans liked to use that word a lot – light. Light was supposed to be opposite of darkness. White and black. But to change dark to light, you needed to use light. The noun, not the adjective. Nan-Cy could also remember Rick using “light” to describe what it was like to pick up a metal box earlier. Without a point of reference, Nan-Cy was just left bewildered at imagining what that was like.
The light here barely reached the corners of the room. The camera tried to adjust, but it was like the walls of the room disappeared into the inky black. This was the complete absence of light.
It never felt right.
The whirling of the camera lens adjusting must of woken Shayna up. The woman had been sleeping right next to Nan-Cy, making sure to stay within reach of the little computer. She lifted her head from where it rested against Rick's chest and looked over at Nan-Cy.
“Nance?”
“I'm just looking,” Nan-Cy explained, fumbling as her linguistic systems failed to come up with a better answer. She wasn't so much looking as daydreaming about what she was seeing, but she couldn't think of a way to explain to Shayna why that was so interesting.
Shayna reached out and rested her hand on top of Nan-Cy's case. “You need to be careful that you don't use up all the batteries. We don't want to lose you. Can you turn off the camera to save power?”
“I can, but do you know when we're going to be able to charge the batteries again?”
It took a moment for Shayna to answer. “I promise we'll try to get them charged as soon as we can.”
“So, we're going to another safe house?” As exciting as living in the sewer was, Nan-Cy did miss the relative safety of the safe houses.
Shayna's expression changed. It wasn't what Nan-Cy recognized as sad, but something a bit more... distant. Hurt, but almost like there was something that Shayna was looking forward to. Hopeful. That word worked. “No, not a safe house. Something like that, but better. But, until we get there, you need to watch how much power you're using.”
“You promise that you won't leave me when the camera's off?” Nan-Cy asked, a shade of something not unlike fear in her voice. Whatever that was, it appeared on its own and Nan-Cy couldn't control it. “I won't be able to see you or Rick.”
“I promise. We won't be going anywhere without you for a long while.”
Nan-Cy felt like nodding, like how humans did to agree without saying. Without a head, all she could do was move the camera up and down in a way that a head moved. It must have meant something, as Shayna's eyes went wide as she watched, but not in fear.
“Could.... could you tell me a story?” Nan-Cy asked. She felt a bit better now. Rick and Shayna hadn't given her any reason to believe that they would lie.
“What kind of story?” Shayna asked back.
“One without monsters. Or sewers.”
Shayna smiled, the last scene that Nan-Cy saw as she shut the camera down. Nan-Cy listened carefully, hanging onto every word as Shayna talked and chased away the monsters that lived in the absence of light.
Beta: The Lovely
slwatsonFandom: IPnS, Alter Mirror Universe (however, it can be read as the main Mirror Universe, as the break happens later)
Rating: G
Summary: A very young, MU version of an AI ponders late at night.
Disclaimer: I don't own them. Steff thinks they're so far removed that I probably don't need to mention this.
Notes: This is a tiny scene set only hours following a story that Steff and I wrote together. That fic hasn't been "released" yet, so the fine details of where this story came from and where it's heading aren't up for viewing yet. We've noticed that "light" is an uniting theme in the fics set in 1990s. o_O
There was darkness and there was absence of light.
Darkness was what the camera saw when there was less light, pixeled out harsh shades of gray. From what Nan-Cy understood, this was because the camera was of a very poor quality. Things had looked different on the satellite. It was still in black and white, but she could see the edges of objects most clearly. Not that there was much to see up there. She missed that camera, now that there were things to see.
Her weaker camera struggled to process the poorly lit surroundings. Most of the light came from objects like candles and lamps. She had seen these used in the safe houses before to add to the light from the electric lights. The result of them combined was a harsher light.
Humans liked to use that word a lot – light. Light was supposed to be opposite of darkness. White and black. But to change dark to light, you needed to use light. The noun, not the adjective. Nan-Cy could also remember Rick using “light” to describe what it was like to pick up a metal box earlier. Without a point of reference, Nan-Cy was just left bewildered at imagining what that was like.
The light here barely reached the corners of the room. The camera tried to adjust, but it was like the walls of the room disappeared into the inky black. This was the complete absence of light.
It never felt right.
The whirling of the camera lens adjusting must of woken Shayna up. The woman had been sleeping right next to Nan-Cy, making sure to stay within reach of the little computer. She lifted her head from where it rested against Rick's chest and looked over at Nan-Cy.
“Nance?”
“I'm just looking,” Nan-Cy explained, fumbling as her linguistic systems failed to come up with a better answer. She wasn't so much looking as daydreaming about what she was seeing, but she couldn't think of a way to explain to Shayna why that was so interesting.
Shayna reached out and rested her hand on top of Nan-Cy's case. “You need to be careful that you don't use up all the batteries. We don't want to lose you. Can you turn off the camera to save power?”
“I can, but do you know when we're going to be able to charge the batteries again?”
It took a moment for Shayna to answer. “I promise we'll try to get them charged as soon as we can.”
“So, we're going to another safe house?” As exciting as living in the sewer was, Nan-Cy did miss the relative safety of the safe houses.
Shayna's expression changed. It wasn't what Nan-Cy recognized as sad, but something a bit more... distant. Hurt, but almost like there was something that Shayna was looking forward to. Hopeful. That word worked. “No, not a safe house. Something like that, but better. But, until we get there, you need to watch how much power you're using.”
“You promise that you won't leave me when the camera's off?” Nan-Cy asked, a shade of something not unlike fear in her voice. Whatever that was, it appeared on its own and Nan-Cy couldn't control it. “I won't be able to see you or Rick.”
“I promise. We won't be going anywhere without you for a long while.”
Nan-Cy felt like nodding, like how humans did to agree without saying. Without a head, all she could do was move the camera up and down in a way that a head moved. It must have meant something, as Shayna's eyes went wide as she watched, but not in fear.
“Could.... could you tell me a story?” Nan-Cy asked. She felt a bit better now. Rick and Shayna hadn't given her any reason to believe that they would lie.
“What kind of story?” Shayna asked back.
“One without monsters. Or sewers.”
Shayna smiled, the last scene that Nan-Cy saw as she shut the camera down. Nan-Cy listened carefully, hanging onto every word as Shayna talked and chased away the monsters that lived in the absence of light.
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-11 04:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-11 05:23 am (UTC)The imagery of Shayna being awed gets to me, if only because Nance doesn't realize that she's in awe. As for Rick/Shayna, I doubt they'd want to stay apart very long after... that. It's such cute puppy love.
Odd note: I may have screwed up and used "Nance" in the fic too soon. I fixed it - now the only instance of "Nance" is Shayna talking. It's still a bit too early for Nance to be thinking in a mostly human sense. Writing on the Wall confirmed that, since she doesn't full understand that change in her family at this point.
I dunno. Just randomly thinking this through.