Hallowe'en challenge
Sep. 8th, 2005 07:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sparkindarknessI recall, back in the days of yore, that Interlock did call on all worthy people to answer a fic-challenge in honour of All Hallows Eve.
And it did come to pass that writers from across the land did busily scribble in response to this challenge, and their work was presented and found worthy.
Except one writer wasdrunk lazy muse whipped sadly waylaid in his task, and his submission did fall into the mists of time.
Until at last the fic has been dug up, nearly a year late (oops, and I thought my university essay submissions were slightly less than punctual) and lo it was finished.
Actually, my official excuse for it being this late is because the thing GREW into a huge great monstrous thing.
So here it is, in several parts.
They slumbered.
Inert, unmoving, unaware and undreaming, they slumbered.
They slumbered as they had for years upon years. They slumbered through years that piled to decades that rumbled on to become old centuries.
For an age they had slumbered, forgotten in all but the oldest and most fanciful of stories. Forgotten even by those who had sworn to remember. Forgotten even by those who had sworn to act, to worship and to observe. Forgotten by all and lamented by none; they slumbered. So it was, and so it would always be...
...but even the deepest sleeper must awaken sometime. Especially if someone is foolish enough to wake them.
A month to Halloween, and there was so much to do! No-one else understood, everyone thought that a month was such a long time to prepare everything. None of them could plan properly! There was the school party to plan, and of course she had too much to do to handle that as well, but she had been asked and she simply couldn’t let everyone down! Everyone relied on her so... besides, she just knew no-one else would do it properly. Then there was the town fete - it was going to be massive this year and she had written to the council to ask if she could help get out the true message of Halloween - the history and the tradition, rather than the it just being trick or treat and fancy costumes. She’d had to go to no end of meetings to get it through, but after explaining everything to all the councillors - several times! They really were inefficient! They had agreed to include the tradition in the fair, but she would have to organise it because they wouldn't be able to. (She could quite understand that, they really were terribly inefficient. it had taken her seven separate trips to requisition any funding at all. The poor people who handled the budget were clearly not up to it; they looked so harassed!)
And then of course, most important of all, there was her coven’s Samhain ritual. It fell on a full moon this year which meant it was both a Sabbat and an Esbat! And with the entire town celebrating Halloween so much, they simply had to make it special.
She thumbed through her books as she ran, her long unruly hair coming out of its extremely tight pony tail as she jounced along at her normal half-trot. She was so absorbed in drawing up a list (it briefly occurred to her that she had a lot of lists and really needed to make a list of lists and properly reference them with a decent filing system) that she nearly missed the young man who tried to run back inside the campus library before she noticed him.
"Matthew!" She cried, ignoring his flinch. "Since you’re going back in the library, I could use your help finding some books. They simply won’t let me check out enough books on my own." He sighed, his face set in an expression of pained martyrdom. As usual, she ignored his dramatics. Matthew had a brilliant mind, on those rare occasions when he chose to use it - which since he was a Theatre Studies student meant very little, as far as Sara was concerned. And he was a very good friend, she supposed. But she did wish that her coven mate would be more serious sometimes.
"Is this really necessary?" He sighed resignedly. "We do have a month." She quelled him with a look, ushering him back into the library while sternly lecturing him on all the very many tasks that simply had to be completed before Samhain and enquiring as to when he thought she would have time to do them and wondering whether he had even stopped for once and thought about how much work went on around him, and wasn’t he tired of being so reckless and...
Matthew let the tirade flow over him and practiced his ‘deep suffering angst’ look. Maybe if he spent enough time around Sara he'd get it perfect in time for the auditions, maybe he’d get to play Romeo. Horribly clichéd and over done, but Juliet was played by the extremely drool worthy Andrea which made up for everyone having done the play to death so many times before. That was a thought to cling to and get him through Sara’s self-imposed martyrdom. Everyone knew she needed to calm down and lighten up a bit. Hah, he thought all she needed was to get drunk or get laid. Preferably both. Still, his coven mate was a good person to have around, and when she wasn’t single handedly trying to hold up the world she was a good friend.
He sighed in desperate longing, slightly maddened eyes staring with an edge of horror at the reams of books Sara was choosing. He was so going to get this part.
*****
Fiona saw poor Matthew being dragged into the library by Sara. She loved both her coven mates dearly, and had been looking forward to a brief liaison with Matthew between lectures (he was always good for a bit of no strings attached fun - so long as you could put up with his role based mood swings) but joining Sara’s endless work load was not even close to her idea of a good time. An hour of trawling through the books and she’d be looking to break something. Or someone. No, not a good idea. It wasn’t like she even read enough books for her biology course, without adding to it!
"Foiled in your attempt to snare Mathew?" A gravely voice lumbered behind her. She didn’t jump, just. Anyone else and she’d turn round and flay them for sneaking up on her, but there was never any really point with Graham. She turned to the near giant and gave him a fiery stare for the look of the thing.
"Looks like Sara got her claws into him first." She sighed. Then put a sultry curve into her blood red lips as she added, "I bet he’d have enjoyed spending his break with me more."
"No doubt, Fiona. But he’s practicing for a Romeo and Juliet audition at present. You don’t have the patience for that much angst." He rumbled contentedly. "Or much of anything else for that matter."
She grinned and let that one pass. It was true anyway, and she was never offended by her coven mates telling the truth. Well, she wasn’t usually offended, depended on the kind of day she’d had. Either way, getting angry with Graham really was a waste of time. The huge man had infinite patience; Mathew always said Graham had stolen her’s in one of their earlier rituals (he’d run too quickly for Fiona to catch him after he said it).
They drifted to the campus coffee shop, only sparsely populated at this early hour and most of the people were very intent on their extra strong espressos, hoping the miracle drink would make up for having had only four hours sleep the night before. There was no limit to human optimism really. Fiona resisted the urge to torment a few acquaintances who groaned and avoided her eyes - she always seemed to have infinite energy, even though she had little more sleep than they had. Graham was even worse, with no sleep at all he still kept running, slow and steady and unstoppable.
With even the most pleasant company - and Fiona always enjoyed spending time with her coven - Fiona was inclined to get board unless something was happening (or her emotions had exploded all over everyone). By her second cup she was already idly scanning the room and the building’s foyer looking for something to amuse her. Graham smiled pleasantly, unconcerned by her lack of attention and wisely cautious of her amusements. Her eyes idly tracked a young man who was peering in a harried fashion at the notice boards. He couldn’t really blame him - the notice boards were very well used. Every society, club, class and study group was quick to litter the thing with announcements; each competing against the others to produce a more garish and eye catching sign. In between these riots of colour official announcements from the student’s union, the university staff or the college porters fought for space with individual pleas from students trying to buy, sell or hire second hand books, computers or even household appliances and accommodation. The last few remaining inches of space (not to mention considerable overlapping) were filled with tiny miscellaneous notices for lost property or other odd problems - all nearly overwhelmed whole clip boards worth of notes pinned to the board from Sara providing the whole university with a report of her latest crusades in their name.
The harried young man was flicking desperately through a huge sheath of notes, trying to skim read them and flick through the many layers of posters at the same time. Whatever he was looking for he didn’t seem to see it.
"We really should go and help him, he looks like he’s new here." Fiona said sympathetically.
Graham passed another cynical eye over the young man. Richly black pony tail, vivid blue eyes, a trim swimmer’s body and full lip that curved at the corners. Inwardly he sighed, Fiona’s charitable impulses were only ever outweighed by her appetites. He was quick to follow in her wake - it really was unfair to inflict Fiona on a new student.
"Are you looking for something?" The new guy started at Fiona’s voice. He jumped again when he realised how she’d pressed up to him. Graham managed to discreetly pull her back a little. Just enough so she didn’t look like she was just waiting for a moment of weakness in which to pounce.
"Um… nothing really important. The porter told me I might find something on here about the Halloween party? He said it was going to be huge this year."
"Oh, Sara’s not finished organising it all yet, it’s going to be on the night before Halloween, actually, because the town’s having a huge Samhain fair." Fiona said, idly. "Looking for a date for the dance?"
"I just wanted to know more about, that’s all… You said this Sara’s organising it? Wait… Samhain?"
"Sara is organising most of the fair as well." Graham rumbled pleasantly. "She is eager that the true meaning of Samhain be truly represented at the celebrations."
"You’re pagan?" His eyes darted to the simple pentacles they both wore. "I thought I’d have to wait until Samhain before I’d find any others." He fished in the top of his shirt to pull out a pentacle on a fine gold chain. Fiona grinned happily, sliding one arm in his, she lead him back to their table. Another round of coffee was ordered before they fell in deep discussion about the university, religion, the town and how close Fiona could move his chair before she climbed into his lap.
Michael was relieved, looked like people here were friendly (maybe a little over friendly in some cases, but even that was a good thing). Fitting in at the university wasn’t going to be nearly as difficult as he’d thought.
*****
And it did come to pass that writers from across the land did busily scribble in response to this challenge, and their work was presented and found worthy.
Except one writer was
Until at last the fic has been dug up, nearly a year late (oops, and I thought my university essay submissions were slightly less than punctual) and lo it was finished.
Actually, my official excuse for it being this late is because the thing GREW into a huge great monstrous thing.
So here it is, in several parts.
They slumbered.
Inert, unmoving, unaware and undreaming, they slumbered.
They slumbered as they had for years upon years. They slumbered through years that piled to decades that rumbled on to become old centuries.
For an age they had slumbered, forgotten in all but the oldest and most fanciful of stories. Forgotten even by those who had sworn to remember. Forgotten even by those who had sworn to act, to worship and to observe. Forgotten by all and lamented by none; they slumbered. So it was, and so it would always be...
...but even the deepest sleeper must awaken sometime. Especially if someone is foolish enough to wake them.
A month to Halloween, and there was so much to do! No-one else understood, everyone thought that a month was such a long time to prepare everything. None of them could plan properly! There was the school party to plan, and of course she had too much to do to handle that as well, but she had been asked and she simply couldn’t let everyone down! Everyone relied on her so... besides, she just knew no-one else would do it properly. Then there was the town fete - it was going to be massive this year and she had written to the council to ask if she could help get out the true message of Halloween - the history and the tradition, rather than the it just being trick or treat and fancy costumes. She’d had to go to no end of meetings to get it through, but after explaining everything to all the councillors - several times! They really were inefficient! They had agreed to include the tradition in the fair, but she would have to organise it because they wouldn't be able to. (She could quite understand that, they really were terribly inefficient. it had taken her seven separate trips to requisition any funding at all. The poor people who handled the budget were clearly not up to it; they looked so harassed!)
And then of course, most important of all, there was her coven’s Samhain ritual. It fell on a full moon this year which meant it was both a Sabbat and an Esbat! And with the entire town celebrating Halloween so much, they simply had to make it special.
She thumbed through her books as she ran, her long unruly hair coming out of its extremely tight pony tail as she jounced along at her normal half-trot. She was so absorbed in drawing up a list (it briefly occurred to her that she had a lot of lists and really needed to make a list of lists and properly reference them with a decent filing system) that she nearly missed the young man who tried to run back inside the campus library before she noticed him.
"Matthew!" She cried, ignoring his flinch. "Since you’re going back in the library, I could use your help finding some books. They simply won’t let me check out enough books on my own." He sighed, his face set in an expression of pained martyrdom. As usual, she ignored his dramatics. Matthew had a brilliant mind, on those rare occasions when he chose to use it - which since he was a Theatre Studies student meant very little, as far as Sara was concerned. And he was a very good friend, she supposed. But she did wish that her coven mate would be more serious sometimes.
"Is this really necessary?" He sighed resignedly. "We do have a month." She quelled him with a look, ushering him back into the library while sternly lecturing him on all the very many tasks that simply had to be completed before Samhain and enquiring as to when he thought she would have time to do them and wondering whether he had even stopped for once and thought about how much work went on around him, and wasn’t he tired of being so reckless and...
Matthew let the tirade flow over him and practiced his ‘deep suffering angst’ look. Maybe if he spent enough time around Sara he'd get it perfect in time for the auditions, maybe he’d get to play Romeo. Horribly clichéd and over done, but Juliet was played by the extremely drool worthy Andrea which made up for everyone having done the play to death so many times before. That was a thought to cling to and get him through Sara’s self-imposed martyrdom. Everyone knew she needed to calm down and lighten up a bit. Hah, he thought all she needed was to get drunk or get laid. Preferably both. Still, his coven mate was a good person to have around, and when she wasn’t single handedly trying to hold up the world she was a good friend.
He sighed in desperate longing, slightly maddened eyes staring with an edge of horror at the reams of books Sara was choosing. He was so going to get this part.
*****
Fiona saw poor Matthew being dragged into the library by Sara. She loved both her coven mates dearly, and had been looking forward to a brief liaison with Matthew between lectures (he was always good for a bit of no strings attached fun - so long as you could put up with his role based mood swings) but joining Sara’s endless work load was not even close to her idea of a good time. An hour of trawling through the books and she’d be looking to break something. Or someone. No, not a good idea. It wasn’t like she even read enough books for her biology course, without adding to it!
"Foiled in your attempt to snare Mathew?" A gravely voice lumbered behind her. She didn’t jump, just. Anyone else and she’d turn round and flay them for sneaking up on her, but there was never any really point with Graham. She turned to the near giant and gave him a fiery stare for the look of the thing.
"Looks like Sara got her claws into him first." She sighed. Then put a sultry curve into her blood red lips as she added, "I bet he’d have enjoyed spending his break with me more."
"No doubt, Fiona. But he’s practicing for a Romeo and Juliet audition at present. You don’t have the patience for that much angst." He rumbled contentedly. "Or much of anything else for that matter."
She grinned and let that one pass. It was true anyway, and she was never offended by her coven mates telling the truth. Well, she wasn’t usually offended, depended on the kind of day she’d had. Either way, getting angry with Graham really was a waste of time. The huge man had infinite patience; Mathew always said Graham had stolen her’s in one of their earlier rituals (he’d run too quickly for Fiona to catch him after he said it).
They drifted to the campus coffee shop, only sparsely populated at this early hour and most of the people were very intent on their extra strong espressos, hoping the miracle drink would make up for having had only four hours sleep the night before. There was no limit to human optimism really. Fiona resisted the urge to torment a few acquaintances who groaned and avoided her eyes - she always seemed to have infinite energy, even though she had little more sleep than they had. Graham was even worse, with no sleep at all he still kept running, slow and steady and unstoppable.
With even the most pleasant company - and Fiona always enjoyed spending time with her coven - Fiona was inclined to get board unless something was happening (or her emotions had exploded all over everyone). By her second cup she was already idly scanning the room and the building’s foyer looking for something to amuse her. Graham smiled pleasantly, unconcerned by her lack of attention and wisely cautious of her amusements. Her eyes idly tracked a young man who was peering in a harried fashion at the notice boards. He couldn’t really blame him - the notice boards were very well used. Every society, club, class and study group was quick to litter the thing with announcements; each competing against the others to produce a more garish and eye catching sign. In between these riots of colour official announcements from the student’s union, the university staff or the college porters fought for space with individual pleas from students trying to buy, sell or hire second hand books, computers or even household appliances and accommodation. The last few remaining inches of space (not to mention considerable overlapping) were filled with tiny miscellaneous notices for lost property or other odd problems - all nearly overwhelmed whole clip boards worth of notes pinned to the board from Sara providing the whole university with a report of her latest crusades in their name.
The harried young man was flicking desperately through a huge sheath of notes, trying to skim read them and flick through the many layers of posters at the same time. Whatever he was looking for he didn’t seem to see it.
"We really should go and help him, he looks like he’s new here." Fiona said sympathetically.
Graham passed another cynical eye over the young man. Richly black pony tail, vivid blue eyes, a trim swimmer’s body and full lip that curved at the corners. Inwardly he sighed, Fiona’s charitable impulses were only ever outweighed by her appetites. He was quick to follow in her wake - it really was unfair to inflict Fiona on a new student.
"Are you looking for something?" The new guy started at Fiona’s voice. He jumped again when he realised how she’d pressed up to him. Graham managed to discreetly pull her back a little. Just enough so she didn’t look like she was just waiting for a moment of weakness in which to pounce.
"Um… nothing really important. The porter told me I might find something on here about the Halloween party? He said it was going to be huge this year."
"Oh, Sara’s not finished organising it all yet, it’s going to be on the night before Halloween, actually, because the town’s having a huge Samhain fair." Fiona said, idly. "Looking for a date for the dance?"
"I just wanted to know more about, that’s all… You said this Sara’s organising it? Wait… Samhain?"
"Sara is organising most of the fair as well." Graham rumbled pleasantly. "She is eager that the true meaning of Samhain be truly represented at the celebrations."
"You’re pagan?" His eyes darted to the simple pentacles they both wore. "I thought I’d have to wait until Samhain before I’d find any others." He fished in the top of his shirt to pull out a pentacle on a fine gold chain. Fiona grinned happily, sliding one arm in his, she lead him back to their table. Another round of coffee was ordered before they fell in deep discussion about the university, religion, the town and how close Fiona could move his chair before she climbed into his lap.
Michael was relieved, looked like people here were friendly (maybe a little over friendly in some cases, but even that was a good thing). Fitting in at the university wasn’t going to be nearly as difficult as he’d thought.
*****
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Date: 2005-09-09 11:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-05 05:38 pm (UTC)