my first curlficlet

[lobelia321]

I had ten minutes so I wrote this:



For <"lj user="thejennabides">.

-----

Orlando cannot be seen.

Orlando is standing in front of the sun. He is a black silhouette, black against the sun. The only thing that can be seen of Orlando is the halo around his head. The backlit, sunshone aura around his skull, where the sun gleams through the curls.

The curls are flying in the breeze. They are tugged hither, they are tugged thither. They look alive. They look like sprites dancing around the inert centre of Orlando's blackness.

"I'm not sure this'll turn out," you say. But you press the shutter, anyway.

When the picture is printed, weeks hence, you will look at the silhouette, you will look at the sun around Orlando's head, you will look at the spots of light blotched across the paper in an unintended photographic effect. The photo look blotched, as if it's been lying in the puddles next to a kitchen sink. As if someone's been dripping tears on it. As if the sun itself had turned to liquid salt.

You will go back to the darkroom and you will burn in the surroundings. You'll use matt, low-contrast paper and you'll expose the centre for half a second only. You'll whip the card out of the fixer and peer at it in the infrared light.

And there's the face. It will be seen. Orlando will be seen. He will be looking straight at you. He won't be smiling. His features will only just be visible in the murk of his low-contrast face. And the sun will have gone. All that will be left will be a drab grey-in-grey blotch, all around Orlando's murky face.

'Was I really there?' you'll think. 'Did this really happen?'

-----
1 July 2003
lobelia40@yahoo.com

Comments

[crazybutsound]

I liked that... I liked the imagery, even if I must admit I don't really understand all this hype around Orlando's curls. ;-) But everything about the light, the halo of sunlight... that was very poetic. I liked that. And I really like the last line.

[thejennabides.livejournal.com]

even if I must admit I don't really understand all this hype around Orlando's curls.

you. whuh. *blinks and sputters and flails helplessly*

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I know! The Jem remains one of Earth's last stalwart Curl resistrixes (or should that be resistrices?), along with the Badgermonkey!

But I cherish them for that. I need a bit of sanity in this world of Curl Whirl.

[crazybutsound]

*nods* Yes, we're resisting. I'm French, after all. Vive La Résistance! Ha!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

*snorts*

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you, you sweet person.

And it's no *hype* around the Curls! The Curls are not being exploited commercially a la Harry Potter! It's pure grassroots adulation!

And thank you for that line about the last line. *smooches*

[crazybutsound]

Mmmmm... if it's not a hype, it surely is a cult, then. Earlier today, I read some nice beandom porn which had curls on Bean's legs, for Pete's sake. Not sure there's a relation, but I've been so swamped with subliminal messages about curls from the friends list that I couldn't help thinking it was the invasion of the curly-snatchers. ;-)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

No, you are right. The curls are having a meme effect. (Memetic?)

I would love to do a stylistic analysis of the way tropes travel from fic to fic through the fandom.

[mcee.livejournal.com]

*holds breath*!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

You're very sweet but now I must revive you and send you about your usual business (which, no doubt, includes copious amounts of time spent sacrificing to the Holy Curl).

I think we're all going bonkers. I know I am.

[cupiscent.livejournal.com]

Mmm... gorgeousness. All hail the curls.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I'm starting to feel ridiculous hailing the curls in this exclusive and slavish manner. *sighs*

But what shield have we to defend against this type of battering?

Thanks, sweetie.

[thejennabides.livejournal.com]

oh, Lobelia! how utterly gorgeous. or perhaps I should say 'unutterably,' as I have not the words to tell you how or why I adore this so.

well. there are curls. and there is shimmer and glow (the 'halo'). and there is Orlando, and there is Dom.

and there is yes, and yeah.

yeah.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

You are too sweet! And I am starting to become worryingly muskritjennish in my writing preferences.

I probably need a holiday in John'n'Bern land before I go completely and totally top-to-bottom curly.

How I love the curl icon!

[viva-gloria.livejournal.com]

Oooh yes, this is lovely -- especially the image of developing the photograph and finding, finally, out of the light, that Orlando isn't smiling at all. That's a poignant idea.

'tugged thither' is tongue-tangling, though I imagine that's partly the point. (See, you have infected me with this alliteration virus. Off to slash Beowulf: hmm....)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

though I imagine that's partly the point.

You're sweet for thinking there might *be* a point in a ten-minute ficlet! I just like the word, I just like the rhyme. Mostly I like the curls.

*writhes helplessly*

[bunnysquee.livejournal.com]

wow! i can't believe you can wax lyrical about surreal beauty in 10 minutes. gorgeous descriptions. if you hadn't stated the pairing, i would have jumped to viggorli, since Viggo is the photographer and more apt to muck about in dark rooms playing with film.

fave line: "The photo look blotched... As if someone's been dripping tears on it." this line emphasizes the heart-tugging melancholy of the story.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

This shows my madness. Viggo did not even *occur* to me. And he *should* have, what with having been immersed in t'fandom for over 15 months, even if only to reject him. But it was Domorli, Domorli, Domorli all the way.

Thank you for your comment! And for even *having* a fave line!

*smooches*

P.S. This was written in a kind of curl-fever. I'm just afraid that I'm turning into thejennabides.

[bunnysquee.livejournal.com]

has thejennabides been infected by a severe case of curl-fever too? welcome to the club!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

thejennabides *invented* curl-fever. She and her curl-cronies freyafloyd and lazulus. They have been confusing me with their curly icons for months!