rec: starstruck (wip)

For the record, if the Taming of the Shrewesque fic isn't updated soon, something tragic is going to happen. I have no idea how the people who have been reading this since like, May aren't burning cities or threatening hunger strikes or something. Has no one attempted blackmail or bribery? What are you waiting for?

Wait, there may be people who aren't reading this yet. Oh, you.

Direct links to all four threads in the aianonlovefest:

Starstruck - thread one, thread two, thread three and thread four, AIRPS, Adam/Kris. Yes, you have to follow it through comments. Yes, that would in a sane world be annoying. This is not a sane world. This is an awesome world that trust me, you really won't care until you realize there is no more. Then you know, tragedy.

In which aivilo_18 hates me and sent me a link so I, too, could connect with feeling like a heroin addict in withdrawal in a really big way (I sent it to svmadelyn, so this is actually turning into a The Ring-like situation, except a.) giving it to other people doesn't help and b.) no one crawls out of any electronic devices, which is good, because now I'm creeping myself out, let's ignore this segue now, please). I love this story stupidly and I think have memorized key passages and have a Pavlovian response to the parts that involve food (ie I snack) and possibly an interest in wine? I don't--like wine. And yet.

Oh, and I posted In the Land of the Delta, AIRPS, Adam/Kris yesterday to LJ. Forgot about that.

Comments

Amnesia 6

[seperis.livejournal.com]

"You told people I was prostrate with grief and lost my voice in response to my pain," Kris says wonderingly. "Which by the way, thanks for that, I sound like a fourteen year old girl. Hysterical *muteness**?"

"Danny Boy," Adam says, and not for the first time, just like that, the song pops into Kris' head, slotting into some blank spot like it's been waiting. "It could happen."

"Seriously," Kris says, trying to sit up and failing, since Adam slings an arm around his shoulders and pulls him right back down. "I play *guitar**. I can't fake knowing how to play!"

"I don't think you'll have to," Adam says thoughtfully, then gets up, crossing the room to pick up the guitar that Kris has made an effort not to think about since he realized it had a reason to exist. Coming back, he holds it out. "I have a theory. Play for me."

Kris stares at him. "Um, no."

"Um, *yes**." Ruthless in his total conviction in his own rightness, Adam pulls him up and shoves the guitar into his arms. It almost pisses Kris off that his hands seem to know exactly what to do, settling into position like they know this the way Kris doesn't. "Okay, go."

"Wow," Kris says flatly, "inspire me more."

Kneeling on the floor, Adam grins, one elbow braced on Kris' knees. "Okay," and starts to sing.

For a second, Kris thinks he remembers this--not *this**, not exactly, not like this--but Adam, singing, his voice soaring over the babble of thousands of screaming people, lit up like a bonfire beneath the hot lights. He's always loved listening to him, he knows it, even if he can't remember it, he has to have, had to have; he can't imagine a life where this didn't shake him to his bones, where Adam couldn't make the world tremble with just the sound of his voice.

When Adam stops, it almost hurts. Licking his lips, Kris blinks down at Adam's curious look and manages, "That's--that's really good."

"You think so?" Adam tilts his head, pleased. "I was wondering." Poking Kris' knee, he adds, "But you didn't play."

Kris blinks, looking at his hands still on the guitar strings, then at Adam; he needs a distraction like, *now**. "You said--um, a studio?"

Adam grins, bouncing to his feet. "Don't worry," he says, which was when Kris started to worry. "I have it all worked out."

Re: Amnesia 6

[akavertigo.livejournal.com]

Oh. Oh God. You're one of those terrible, terrible people who always licks the post or jumps or hugs the hobo or whatever the dare is.

Aren't you?

Re: Amnesia 6

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*wide eyes* I love truth or dare!

At some point in this I shall resort to hookers.

[akavertigo.livejournal.com]

I hate you.

...ok, no, I don't. Because I love magical dogs and Jared's bruises too much.

This takes place right after Kris' "heart attack".

+++

Kris dreams of oceans.

They stretch out in a long, slow ripple of color and salt. A hundred bodies of water, a thousand, an army and a choir and a field of waves forever singing in a single harmony. Some are moon-cold, some are blood-warm, some are black as silt. Some croon and lure gently, some roar with delight, some whisper.

The sand patting his toes is made of tiny white bones crushed and smoothed into a long lip against the water. It is not frightening, merely old. Asleep, Kris has the wisdom to know this beach is the dreaming skin of every and any beach he'll ever touch. He kneels and digs his finger into the wet sand to carve a short line, then another. Then another. It doesn't take long to work the strokes into a word; the waves hang back politely, letting him finish his authorship.

Finished, Kris sits back on damp heels and tries to read.

A name, he realizes. He wrote his name. Only not his, not Kris', but his, the other's—only it's the wrong name, the name Kris doesn't know. Can't know. It's the wrong name because it's the right name, and Kris isn't supposed to have it, except he does, so why--

Impatient and immense, the waves return to fall on Kris completely.

+++

Three days later Kris wakes up to the sound of his own breathing and the smell of honeysuckle.

The recovery ward is a wide, quiet room with a high ceilings and Italian art on the walls. The mild frescoes are nice, but Kris always can't help wondering how many generations of Paladins have come out of training with a Pavlovian placebo reaction to two-dimensional lilies and pomegranates.

“Back with the living?” Kara teases, drifting by to proofread Kris' vitals. She doses him with orange juice that tastes too sweet and rests a tingling fingertips on Kris' pulse. Nothing in her actions is different from any other time he's been, bruised and/or conscious, in her care.

Kris wonder who's fooling whom here.

+++

Re: At some point in this I shall resort to hookers.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*purrs* A beach of bone. That's kind of inspired.

Poor Kris.

Re: At some point in this I shall resort to hookers.

[akavertigo.livejournal.com]

Nah, sadly the bone beach thing is an old trick. I think there's actually a mythology reference to it somewhere.

Kris' life at 15 rather sucks, yes.

Re: At some point in this I shall resort to hookers.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I've read it, I think; it appears in multiple mythologies (er, and possibly certain really questionable fantasy novels read before age thirteen if I remember correctly).

Do the paladins read sci-fi?

Re: At some point in this I shall resort to hookers.

[akavertigo.livejournal.com]

Dude, they call themselves Paladins and sleep with swords under their beds.

(Kris' fencing instructor dressed up as the fourth doctor every Halloween. Every. Halloween.)

Re: At some point in this I shall resort to hookers.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*GLEE*

Re: At some point in this I shall resort to hookers.

[akavertigo.livejournal.com]

Adam had to do a lot of interference to save the kid from growing up into Trekkie.

(He failed, actually, but they've resorted to one of those "don't ask, don't tell, don't burn my con costume" relationships.)

Re: At some point in this I shall resort to hookers.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Kris was Spock or James Kirk?

*thinks*

Or both?

Re: At some point in this I shall resort to hookers.

[akavertigo.livejournal.com]

...

.......

...............Adam doesn't like to talk about it.

Re: At some point in this I shall resort to hookers.

[perriotoi.livejournal.com]

Amnesia!fic and (Not-)Cthulu!Adam!fic (which I wasn't expecting anything on until Starstruck had finished)!? \o/ ::flails::

Not to be a stalker, but this may be the only bright thing in a very ugly day at work today so... ::STALKS THIS THREAD:: ::REFRESH::

Re: Amnesia 6

[cookie57.livejournal.com]

It's taken me half the morning to get this figured out (what with the taunting from akavertigo and all) and you stop NOW? And you claim that this isn't a WIP? If there isn't any more, I might have to start nagging you too. Or throw myself off the roof.

Re: Amnesia 6

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*smug* When she posts the rest of Starstruck, I'll post my idfic of idficness.

Re: Amnesia 6

[cookie57.livejournal.com]

You DO understand? Right? Drawing a line in the sand with me won't make HER do anything. She's relentless. And crazy. She has Kris off somewhere making applesauce, for god's sake.
Maybe I should just go to bed and see if one of you backs down by morning.

Re: Amnesia 6

[wikken.livejournal.com]

Ahh.....but to be the bigger person and post your completed fic...wouldn't that make you feel good? And then she would feel bad about making you wait after you graciously posted the completed fic so thennnnnnnnnn akavertigo would post hers comleted too (both starstruck and the stripper!Kris fic). And everybody is happy!