Requested Ficlet: "Renewal"
Jan. 15th, 2013 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nevannaHey, remember when I used this journal for fanfic?
Fandoms: Firefly and The Sandman
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, and I do not profit from their use.
Summary: "There were no survivors." "And yet, if there had been one, who else would it have been but the town witch?"
Words: c. 350
Written for:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
timesrunning, who asked for Book and Thessaly.
Renewal
She stays behind after most of the small crowd gathered in the village square has dispersed. A short, thin woman with lank brown hair and drab brown clothing, she stares silently at Shepherd Book for a few moments before she comments, “That was quite a sermon.”
“I’m glad that you found what you needed,” Book replies, sliding his Bible into its satchel.
A ray of afternoon sunlight catches the round lenses of her eyeglasses. “Have you?”
Book has taken a step backward before he quite realized that his feet were moving. The last time that they faced one another, her glasses were aglow with firelight as the flames swept across her village. “There were no survivors,” he mutters now. He and the Alliance troops made certain of that.
“And yet, if there had been one, who else would it have been but the town witch?” He must have reached out, because she shakes her head. “I’m no ghost, Shepherd, but you might ask yourself if touching me is the best idea.”
“In those days, I was –“
“A different man?” She half smiles. Less than half. “I won’t deny that there’s a certain power in words. Still, even if I say that I am no longer Thessaly, the art history student keeping an apartment in Manhattan, words can only do so much to erase that life, or any of the others that I’ve lived since. So, by all means, preach about rebirth and renewal, and go on insisting that you are a different man.”
“How much longer until you completely absolve me?” Book murmurs, uncertain of whom he’s addressing.
The woman whose name is not Thessaly shakes her head. “Absolution isn’t mine to give.”
“I’m not always certain that it’s mine to accept,” Book admits. “I haven’t forgotten the things I’ve done, and I never will. Do you intend to punish me?”
“I don’t think that you ought to tempt me, either,” she says. “Unless punishment is what you want. Unless you don’t think that your memories are enough.” Her glasses gleam again. “In which case I’m sure that something could be arranged.”
Fandoms: Firefly and The Sandman
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, and I do not profit from their use.
Summary: "There were no survivors." "And yet, if there had been one, who else would it have been but the town witch?"
Words: c. 350
Written for:
timesrunning, who asked for Book and Thessaly.Renewal
She stays behind after most of the small crowd gathered in the village square has dispersed. A short, thin woman with lank brown hair and drab brown clothing, she stares silently at Shepherd Book for a few moments before she comments, “That was quite a sermon.”
“I’m glad that you found what you needed,” Book replies, sliding his Bible into its satchel.
A ray of afternoon sunlight catches the round lenses of her eyeglasses. “Have you?”
Book has taken a step backward before he quite realized that his feet were moving. The last time that they faced one another, her glasses were aglow with firelight as the flames swept across her village. “There were no survivors,” he mutters now. He and the Alliance troops made certain of that.
“And yet, if there had been one, who else would it have been but the town witch?” He must have reached out, because she shakes her head. “I’m no ghost, Shepherd, but you might ask yourself if touching me is the best idea.”
“In those days, I was –“
“A different man?” She half smiles. Less than half. “I won’t deny that there’s a certain power in words. Still, even if I say that I am no longer Thessaly, the art history student keeping an apartment in Manhattan, words can only do so much to erase that life, or any of the others that I’ve lived since. So, by all means, preach about rebirth and renewal, and go on insisting that you are a different man.”
“How much longer until you completely absolve me?” Book murmurs, uncertain of whom he’s addressing.
The woman whose name is not Thessaly shakes her head. “Absolution isn’t mine to give.”
“I’m not always certain that it’s mine to accept,” Book admits. “I haven’t forgotten the things I’ve done, and I never will. Do you intend to punish me?”
“I don’t think that you ought to tempt me, either,” she says. “Unless punishment is what you want. Unless you don’t think that your memories are enough.” Her glasses gleam again. “In which case I’m sure that something could be arranged.”
no subject
Date: 2013-01-19 12:51 am (UTC)