Fic: Lyra

Nov. 7th, 2008 09:11 pm
aleathiel: (Clio Taming The Muse)
[personal profile] aleathiel
Ugh, it has not been a productive week. RL really got in the way of writing. I'm going to be away over the weekend too, so tonight I really need to post something to fulfill this week's Taming the Muse prompt.

I'm not very good at just using the word in the fic, I've started trying to make it a central idea, a main concept in the story itself. And so, when I saw the fic this week, there was really only one fandom I could write in. Despite adoring them to pieces, I've never written in this fandom before, and to be honest I don't think this begins to do it justice. So maybe, sometime in the future, I will re-immerse myself in the canon and write something that does begin to express how I feel about these books. For now, there's just this.


Title: Lyra
Fandom:His Dark Materials
Pairing: Will/Lyra
Rating: PG13
Words: 529
Summary: A tiny thought snippit

Written for the [livejournal.com profile] tamingthemuse prompt "Window".



All Will’s life Lyra has been there.

Except she hasn’t been, of course. They only knew each other for a few frantic, frightening, wonderful months and then she was gone.

And yet, she’s somehow inside his head. He remembers her clearly as anything, her wide eyes and her mischievous smile, the sombre way she tilted her head when she was listening, the way she could sit still as a bird with only her hands moving, stroking, touching Pan.

In Will’s head she’s always still a child: a bright, intelligent child and when he thinks of her that’s how he sees himself too. He can’t imagine Lyra as an adult, although rationally he knows that by now she must be, and sometimes when he looks in the mirror, he’s shocked to see that he has wrinkles around his eyes and a dusting of grey in his hair.

As a teenager he thought about her sometimes, compared her to the other girls, tried to remember the exact shape of her eyes, the exact shade of her hair. Sometimes he thought about her when he touched himself, remembered her fleeting touches and her kiss-swollen lips. He tries hard not to imagine what it might have been like if they could have stayed together.

He grows up, gets a job, marries a lovely woman called Maria. And he does love her, she isn’t just a substitute: she’s beautiful, far more beautiful than Lyra will ever be, and she’s kind and gentle and there’s none of that ferocious anger that made Lyra burn so brightly. And Will knows that this is better, that he and Lyra would have torn each other apart whereas Maria can love him and heal him and keep him whole.

Sometimes, when he’s with his wife, he goes for days at a time without thinking of Lyra.

And then he’ll see something that reminds him of her, or of the things they shared. And he’ll open his mouth to speak to her, only to remember that she isn’t there. That it’s been years since she has been and that he really ought to know that by now.

He broke up with a girlfriend once, years ago, when he said the wrong name in bed – once, just once in all these many long years – and she’d pointed out that he didn’t even know anyone called Lyra.

What could he say to that? It was true: he didn’t.

He thinks of the knife sometimes, with its shining bright edge that could cut through any substance in the world. And its other edge, so sharp that it was invisible, that could cut through the fabric of the universe itself.

Sometimes, when he’s least expecting it, something shimmers in the edge of his vision, something he can’t quite see like a change in the light of the slightest of movements.

And he stands still, tries to focus. There is nothing there. Just like he knew there wouldn’t be.

Because he does know, really, that they closed all the windows. But there’s some part of him, deep down inside, that believes that maybe there’s still a way between her world and his.

Date: 2008-11-07 09:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] drjenny88.livejournal.com
Oh, this was so beautiful and so sad, but with an underlying hope running through it in the happiness Will finds with his wife.

I really enjoyed this :)

Date: 2008-11-07 09:33 pm (UTC)
ext_29560: (Default)
From: [identity profile] aleathiel.livejournal.com
Thank you! It wasn't what I wanted to post, but I guess it turned out okay given the time constraint. With the prompt "window" I couldn't not write about Will and Lyra.

Date: 2008-11-07 09:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] drjenny88.livejournal.com
Oh, yeah, that's a hell of a prompt in relation to this fandom :)

Date: 2008-11-07 09:37 pm (UTC)
ext_29560: (Default)
From: [identity profile] aleathiel.livejournal.com
Exactly, I couldn't just use it as a word in another fandom when it means so much in this one. I'd love to really write something big and juicy in this fandom someday, but I need to do some re-reading first and I don't have my signed OMG copies with me. One day I will though.

Date: 2008-11-07 09:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] drjenny88.livejournal.com
Oh, definitely. There are so many connotations to the word 'window' in this fandom. You could easily use it in reference to another fandom but it would never attain the same effect.

OMG signed? WOW *is very impressed*
If you ever do write something more for this fandom, I'd definitely love to read it :)

Date: 2008-11-07 10:06 pm (UTC)
ext_29560: (Default)
From: [identity profile] aleathiel.livejournal.com
*matches icon*

He's an honourary professor at the university my dad is a professor at, so I've met him a couple of times and had dinner with him (which was amazing) and, randomly, danced with him. He's one of the nicest people I've ever met and if I didn't adore him for his writing skills already meeting him would have won me over.

:) Glad to hear I'd have at least one reader!

Date: 2008-11-07 10:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] drjenny88.livejournal.com
Hehe :) *high five*

Oh, wow, that's awesome (and I mean literally in the sense of inspiring awe)! I think I would have been completely bowled over, if not at the time (I'm usually good in the moment), then afterwards for sure.

Definitely count me in :D

Date: 2008-11-07 10:13 pm (UTC)
ext_29560: (Default)
From: [identity profile] aleathiel.livejournal.com
Hehe, I was overawed. I was actually not going to go talk to him, since he was surrounded by academics and talking to them, but he gave me this huge smile so I went and sat with him (it was a buffet) and then we ended up chatting about making the film (which they were doing at the time) and about children's literature (which is a thing I'm really interested. Despite my fondness for writing smut, if I ever write pro it will be children's/young adult books. I've had one story published already, although under my real name obviously). Anyway, Philip Pullman said I "rescued him" from spending all evening talking to the academics. Hehe. Then, another time, he was the guest of honour at an event that I was part of organising, and there was another dinner thing afterwards with dancing. :)

And I will!

Date: 2008-11-07 10:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] drjenny88.livejournal.com
Aw, you saved him, that's fantastic :) Any time I've seen him on TV or in clips online, he always seems so approachable and easy to talk to.

I know what you mean about the young adult lit, it's something I always enjoy reading and writing in my original fiction, depsite the fondness for smut in fanfic.

Oh, have you? *is intrigued* Was that a short story then or a longer work? I've had a short story published in an online magazine and a poem included in an anthology once, but I'd love to have something novel-like published someday.

Date: 2008-11-07 10:24 pm (UTC)
ext_29560: (Default)
From: [identity profile] aleathiel.livejournal.com
he always seems so approachable and easy to talk to
Very much so.

Yeah, it's what most of my original fiction is too.

It was a short story which was serialised in a magazine of fiction for young people. With a very nice paycheck! I haven't ever sent anything else off to be considered, but yes, I'd love to have something bigger (either a collection of my own short stories or a novel) published one day.

Date: 2008-11-07 10:48 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] drjenny88.livejournal.com
Oh brilliant :) a paycheck is always good lol!

Date: 2008-11-07 10:02 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] abbyleaf101.livejournal.com
Never finished the second book, but I love the story anyhow. You wrote it well and you made me feel for Will even though I don't really know his character, and I adore the way you described Lyra.

Date: 2008-11-07 10:07 pm (UTC)
ext_29560: (Default)
From: [identity profile] aleathiel.livejournal.com
Hits you: go back and read them! lol.


Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I think Lyra is a fascinating character because she is so charismatic and yet has all sorts of realistic flaws.

Date: 2008-11-07 10:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] abbyleaf101.livejournal.com
Yeah, she's brave and so scared at the same time. Such a temper she has, and she's distracted by people rather easily sometimes.
Actually, the Subtle Knife I leant off my old Dupty Head and I didn't finish when I left, so he gave it me. *sniffle*

Date: 2008-11-07 10:20 pm (UTC)
ext_29560: (Default)
From: [identity profile] aleathiel.livejournal.com
Exactly. She's very real. I think that's what makes her special.

That was very nice of him!

Date: 2008-11-07 10:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fortassetu.livejournal.com
Gah. I've never read His Dark Materials fanfic before (congrats, you broke that virginity!), and obviously this was a great place to start. The book always makes me cry, and this almost did as well. <3

Date: 2008-11-07 10:30 pm (UTC)
ext_29560: (Default)
From: [identity profile] aleathiel.livejournal.com
I've never read it either, or written it before. But with the prompt 'Window' it would have been wrong to write anything else.

I LOVE the books. They have been a staple favourite of mine since my first, now very beaten up copy of Northern Lights. They are possibly my favourite books ever. I now have an ambition to write a fic worthy of them, but I'm not ready to do it yet.

Date: 2008-11-08 12:14 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] angiepen.livejournal.com
I can see how well written this is, and pick up on Will's emotions perfectly well, but I've only seen the movie and read the first book, so a lot of the references have me going, "Huh?" Wrong fandom. :/ I do have the other two books, though, and some time soon, in all my free time.... [laugh/flail]

Angie

Date: 2008-11-08 09:21 am (UTC)
ext_29560: (Default)
From: [identity profile] aleathiel.livejournal.com
Thank you. When you do have the time, you really should read them. Books 2 and 3 are different to the first one, but no less beautifully written (and then you get to meet Will..)

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