Backstory DN fic
Jan. 5th, 2008 09:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darklunaHuh. This decided it was going to come out. I haven't read the BB novel, only a summary, so I don't know if A's alias is right, or if we even know it.
Title: Dulce et Decorum Est
Characters: A, L
Rating: Totally G!
Word count: 1022
Summary: Alter is a verb as well.
Chapter 1: Skyward
They called me Alter. Short for alternate; the spare; constituting an alternative. From the Latin alternatus. From the start, they sought to make me into someone else, someone who could match him. Alter is a verb as well.
He called me Al, and would not call that other one anything but B. I liked the way our names went together. El Al: in Hebrew, it means skyward.
When I came to the orphanage for the first time, Mr. Wammy asked me if I wanted to be a detective. He said the tests I had taken at my special class showed I had an aptitude for it. I didn't want to go back home to my mum, because she hadn't even told me why she'd brought me to this place. And anyway, I thought it might be a good job. I could take facts and people's words and make everything fit together. I told Mr. Wammy I would like it. I told him I liked words, and that I could always tell when people were lying.
When I said that, Mr. Wammy made the sort of face teachers make when you get the right answer. He said I would be training to help someone called L, who was the greatest detective Mr. Wammy had ever known.
So it was decided that I would live in the orphanage and learn all kinds of things to help L, and I got a new name.
*
My room was on the top floor. I liked it, because I could see the trees, and my windows would open so I could hear them too. They whispered when the wind blew, and it was a friendly sort of sound. It sounded green and alive.
I didn't know what to expect when Mr. Wammy came to take me to meet L, although, subconsciously, I guess I thought he would be another grownup.
Mr. Wammy took me to a room on the first floor, where there were computers, toys, and a table with food on it, where another boy sat, eating a piece of yellow cake with brown frosting.
"Alter," Mr. Wammy said, "this is L."
"It's nice to meet you," I said, remembering my manners.
"Would you like some cake?" said the boy called L.
L was a funny name, but I had already decided not to say anything about it. Maybe my name was funny too, and that was why I'd got a new one.
He was sitting with his feet on the chair, and Mr. Wammy had not scolded him. I started to think that this was a place where they at least tried to understand the kids other people thought were weird. "Yes, thank you," I said, and took a plate with a slice of cake on it.
"I'll let you two get acquainted," Mr. Wammy said, and he left.
I looked at L while I ate my cake. He had white skin, but there were black rings around his eyes. His hair was black, too, and messy, and it made me think of crow's wings. I wanted to touch it, to see if it felt as spiky as it looked, but I didn't like being touched, and I thought maybe L wouldn't like it either.
He set his empty plate to one side and looked at me in a way that was mostly blank. A waiting sort of look.
"Did your parents send you here?" I said.
"No. I don't remember my parents. I lived in another institution before, but it wasn't as nice as this one. They made me eat vegetables."
"My mother wanted to get rid of me. I'm too weird."
"Don't say that," L said. "She probably just didn't understand you."
I wasn't so sure about that. I thought maybe she hadn't liked me. But I was thinking, too, about how L had ended up here. "You were the first one they found," I said.
He nodded. His face looked like people's do when they're sad, even though I didn't think he was.
"How did they find you?" I asked.
L stuck one of his thumbs in his mouth. "I solved the Hayes case," he said around it. "No one believed I had done it alone, until I explained it to the police. One of them knew Mr. Wammy, and told him about me."
"How did you do it?"
He took his thumb out of his mouth, looked at it, and put that hand on his knee. "It's what I do. I read about the case in the newspaper, in lots of newspapers, actually, because it was interesting. And it was obvious."
"I have to learn that."
"You can do it. You're very smart. But you don't need me to tell you that."
I knew all about languages, but I was bad at maths. Words had colours and feelings, but numbers were flat and cold, and resisted my trying to make them do anything. "I'm very smart in some ways, but I'm quite stupid in others," I said.
L laughed. I knew he was laughing because he thought what I'd said was funny, not because he thought I was. "How did they find you?" he said.
"I used to go to a special class. My teacher from there came over one night and talked to my mum for a long time." I hadn't been supposed to listen, but I had hidden at the top of the stairs, and heard them say a lot about how I needed a better environment. "The next day, she brought me here and left me."
L sighed. "That wasn't very nice of her. But I'm glad you're here. It’s good for us to know people our own age."
He smiled at me, and I felt brave enough to ask the question I had been wondering about. "How old are you?"
"Eight."
"So am I," I said. "L," I said then, trying it out. It didn't seem like a funny name any more. It was nice, and seemed blue, like the L in calm. "I don't like very many people, but I think I'm going to like you."
Title: Dulce et Decorum Est
Characters: A, L
Rating: Totally G!
Word count: 1022
Summary: Alter is a verb as well.
Chapter 1: Skyward
They called me Alter. Short for alternate; the spare; constituting an alternative. From the Latin alternatus. From the start, they sought to make me into someone else, someone who could match him. Alter is a verb as well.
He called me Al, and would not call that other one anything but B. I liked the way our names went together. El Al: in Hebrew, it means skyward.
When I came to the orphanage for the first time, Mr. Wammy asked me if I wanted to be a detective. He said the tests I had taken at my special class showed I had an aptitude for it. I didn't want to go back home to my mum, because she hadn't even told me why she'd brought me to this place. And anyway, I thought it might be a good job. I could take facts and people's words and make everything fit together. I told Mr. Wammy I would like it. I told him I liked words, and that I could always tell when people were lying.
When I said that, Mr. Wammy made the sort of face teachers make when you get the right answer. He said I would be training to help someone called L, who was the greatest detective Mr. Wammy had ever known.
So it was decided that I would live in the orphanage and learn all kinds of things to help L, and I got a new name.
*
My room was on the top floor. I liked it, because I could see the trees, and my windows would open so I could hear them too. They whispered when the wind blew, and it was a friendly sort of sound. It sounded green and alive.
I didn't know what to expect when Mr. Wammy came to take me to meet L, although, subconsciously, I guess I thought he would be another grownup.
Mr. Wammy took me to a room on the first floor, where there were computers, toys, and a table with food on it, where another boy sat, eating a piece of yellow cake with brown frosting.
"Alter," Mr. Wammy said, "this is L."
"It's nice to meet you," I said, remembering my manners.
"Would you like some cake?" said the boy called L.
L was a funny name, but I had already decided not to say anything about it. Maybe my name was funny too, and that was why I'd got a new one.
He was sitting with his feet on the chair, and Mr. Wammy had not scolded him. I started to think that this was a place where they at least tried to understand the kids other people thought were weird. "Yes, thank you," I said, and took a plate with a slice of cake on it.
"I'll let you two get acquainted," Mr. Wammy said, and he left.
I looked at L while I ate my cake. He had white skin, but there were black rings around his eyes. His hair was black, too, and messy, and it made me think of crow's wings. I wanted to touch it, to see if it felt as spiky as it looked, but I didn't like being touched, and I thought maybe L wouldn't like it either.
He set his empty plate to one side and looked at me in a way that was mostly blank. A waiting sort of look.
"Did your parents send you here?" I said.
"No. I don't remember my parents. I lived in another institution before, but it wasn't as nice as this one. They made me eat vegetables."
"My mother wanted to get rid of me. I'm too weird."
"Don't say that," L said. "She probably just didn't understand you."
I wasn't so sure about that. I thought maybe she hadn't liked me. But I was thinking, too, about how L had ended up here. "You were the first one they found," I said.
He nodded. His face looked like people's do when they're sad, even though I didn't think he was.
"How did they find you?" I asked.
L stuck one of his thumbs in his mouth. "I solved the Hayes case," he said around it. "No one believed I had done it alone, until I explained it to the police. One of them knew Mr. Wammy, and told him about me."
"How did you do it?"
He took his thumb out of his mouth, looked at it, and put that hand on his knee. "It's what I do. I read about the case in the newspaper, in lots of newspapers, actually, because it was interesting. And it was obvious."
"I have to learn that."
"You can do it. You're very smart. But you don't need me to tell you that."
I knew all about languages, but I was bad at maths. Words had colours and feelings, but numbers were flat and cold, and resisted my trying to make them do anything. "I'm very smart in some ways, but I'm quite stupid in others," I said.
L laughed. I knew he was laughing because he thought what I'd said was funny, not because he thought I was. "How did they find you?" he said.
"I used to go to a special class. My teacher from there came over one night and talked to my mum for a long time." I hadn't been supposed to listen, but I had hidden at the top of the stairs, and heard them say a lot about how I needed a better environment. "The next day, she brought me here and left me."
L sighed. "That wasn't very nice of her. But I'm glad you're here. It’s good for us to know people our own age."
He smiled at me, and I felt brave enough to ask the question I had been wondering about. "How old are you?"
"Eight."
"So am I," I said. "L," I said then, trying it out. It didn't seem like a funny name any more. It was nice, and seemed blue, like the L in calm. "I don't like very many people, but I think I'm going to like you."
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no subject
Date: 2008-01-06 04:16 am (UTC)...'Cause I do.
This is wonderful so far. It really, really is.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-06 04:23 am (UTC)I wish I could hug A. This one really felt like he decided to sit in my head and dictate to me.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-06 05:00 am (UTC)Aaaaaw, A. He sounds so... waaaa, I don't even know. But I do agree that he needs hugs. I wanna hug him too. D': ♥
no subject
Date: 2008-01-06 05:15 am (UTC)This was really excellent L back story, but I'm not a canon expert... yet. ;) I'll get there. This is the kind of story like FMA that I just want to dissect and write time lines for.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-06 05:30 am (UTC)L's backstory is canonically pretty nonexistent, I think, even considering the novel (which isn't available in English yet). So I hope I haven't trampled on it.
Oh, I hope you get volume 8 soon. Now, I'm biased, because I love the Ms, and I really love Near, but I do think the second half of the series is quite excellent and underrated.