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Title: Candles
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses, Krovir Aodh, the Kid, Kickback
Prompt: 073 "Light"
Word Count: 383 + 93 postscript
Rating: PG
There are a lot of candles. It takes a while to notice it, really feel it, because there are only one or two at each location, but as the afternoon passes, the number slowly grows and becomes a little staggering.
The first candle was lit in a frozen birdbath, in an icicle-hung orchard in the middle of winter. Aodh had used literal matches--hand-made sulfur and wood slivers--to light it, and mentioned when the kid had asked only that the cousin in question didn't have a proper grave, but that he'd loved painting this orchard, especially in winter.
The second and third candles were lit at the edge of a cliff, pressed close together into a crook in the rock that already had coloured wax melted into the bottom--the colour for missed children, Aodh said, when Kickback mentioned that his own candles were white, and very plain, while his were for remembrance only.
Seven candles, these a bright, fiery red, were lit at the base of trees at the edge of a forest, in memory of seven of Conall's half-siblings who'd held a line, far beyond the token ability the group had possessed.
Six more were lit at the edge of a great river, in memory of captains.
One, plain white, joins two others in a brassy sort of gold at the base of a young tree. The gold was for a missed father, Aodh mentioned, unasked, and the green--he pointed a little away--for a missed mother.
Two twisted together are left by the gate of the city as they pass through, half unseen, in memory of a pair of Hands who never bore the title.
A huge number, easily lost among a plethora of other lit white candles, are pressed into softened wax above stone, before they leave the city in a briefly nauseating twist of patterns. One was blown out, deliberately, nearly as soon as it was lit. Memory, yes, but no love.
The last two are lit seperately, one pressed into a shielded area in the face of a gravestone, the other at the base of the tree barely touching the stone.
The first one, Aodh says, is lit for the sake of the second, who cannot light their own.
And the last candle, a burnished burgundy, is for a missed sister.
Addendum, some time later
The kid, who'd ended up half-hauled into Aodh's lap, looked up at the last candles, then at what he could see of Aodh's face. " . . Will you light candles for me?"
Aodh pulled back a little to blink at him, then huffed a dry chuckle under his breath and leaned back again, tucking the kid's head between his chest and chin. "Oui, I'll light candles for you, if I should happen to outlive you."
" . . and for Kickback?"
"For him, if I outlive him, I'd probably light a bonfire."
’Verse/characters: Wild Roses, Krovir Aodh, the Kid, Kickback
Prompt: 073 "Light"
Word Count: 383 + 93 postscript
Rating: PG
There are a lot of candles. It takes a while to notice it, really feel it, because there are only one or two at each location, but as the afternoon passes, the number slowly grows and becomes a little staggering.
The first candle was lit in a frozen birdbath, in an icicle-hung orchard in the middle of winter. Aodh had used literal matches--hand-made sulfur and wood slivers--to light it, and mentioned when the kid had asked only that the cousin in question didn't have a proper grave, but that he'd loved painting this orchard, especially in winter.
The second and third candles were lit at the edge of a cliff, pressed close together into a crook in the rock that already had coloured wax melted into the bottom--the colour for missed children, Aodh said, when Kickback mentioned that his own candles were white, and very plain, while his were for remembrance only.
Seven candles, these a bright, fiery red, were lit at the base of trees at the edge of a forest, in memory of seven of Conall's half-siblings who'd held a line, far beyond the token ability the group had possessed.
Six more were lit at the edge of a great river, in memory of captains.
One, plain white, joins two others in a brassy sort of gold at the base of a young tree. The gold was for a missed father, Aodh mentioned, unasked, and the green--he pointed a little away--for a missed mother.
Two twisted together are left by the gate of the city as they pass through, half unseen, in memory of a pair of Hands who never bore the title.
A huge number, easily lost among a plethora of other lit white candles, are pressed into softened wax above stone, before they leave the city in a briefly nauseating twist of patterns. One was blown out, deliberately, nearly as soon as it was lit. Memory, yes, but no love.
The last two are lit seperately, one pressed into a shielded area in the face of a gravestone, the other at the base of the tree barely touching the stone.
The first one, Aodh says, is lit for the sake of the second, who cannot light their own.
And the last candle, a burnished burgundy, is for a missed sister.
Addendum, some time later
The kid, who'd ended up half-hauled into Aodh's lap, looked up at the last candles, then at what he could see of Aodh's face. " . . Will you light candles for me?"
Aodh pulled back a little to blink at him, then huffed a dry chuckle under his breath and leaned back again, tucking the kid's head between his chest and chin. "Oui, I'll light candles for you, if I should happen to outlive you."
" . . and for Kickback?"
"For him, if I outlive him, I'd probably light a bonfire."
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no subject
Date: 2005-11-01 03:47 am (UTC)From:Lovely.
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Date: 2005-11-01 05:24 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2005-11-01 12:37 pm (UTC)From:For some reason I found myself wondering what color the second and third candles were.
Is gently melancholic-ow so is good. And a bonfire is...kind of appropriate on too many levels for kickback to open his mouth about, so he's not.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-01 02:32 pm (UTC)From:Aodh's second and third were remembrance-white. The impression of the wax of the candles before his is this mix of sky blue and lapis blue, kind of mottled together. They would've been Geoffrey's candles, for the Vesna twins. The first candle was for Joshua--Fintain's son. The one next to the golds was for Donel, and the two at the gate for Joveta and Aleron. Ruadhan and four of the Six--and others that I haven't got names for--were in the big group. The one that got blown out was for Brant. The last two were for Jasmine (which he lit in Madeleine's place), and Madeleine.
*small smile* Thanks.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-01 02:35 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2005-11-01 05:12 pm (UTC)From:. . more later, work-break's up and I have to go find a geotech report to mail out.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-01 08:40 pm (UTC)From:Blowing out a remembrance candle deliberately, after it's been dedicated to someone, is effectively saying 'you are/will not be remembered' to the ghost/memory.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-01 08:44 pm (UTC)From:...and as you have to remember the person to buy the candle and blow it out, kind of an odd "not remembering" thing. Spiteful? Cos if you really didn't remember, you'd never light the candle at all. And if you didn't care, you wouldn't buy it.
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Date: 2005-11-01 08:47 pm (UTC)From:*nods* Spiteful, at least a bit. That was Brant's candle, that got blown out.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-01 03:49 pm (UTC)From:and the last line, that last is good, and so true, and resonates.
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Date: 2005-11-01 03:53 pm (UTC)From:Thank you.