Elizabeth Culmer (
edenfalling) wrote2004-02-15 08:38 am
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[Fic] "Raven Carlson" part 1 -- X-Men
Haroun and the Sea of Stories is really damn cool. It's like an all-ages "children's" book that somehow escaped that classification because a Real Author of Literature wrote it. Weird. It would be perfect for reading aloud to a kid between about five and twelve, I think. Lots of opportunities for voices and sound effects.
Um. This is what I have so far of that evil drabble series that attacked me last week. It isn't really finished, but they sort of stand on their own so I thought I might as well post a few.
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Raven
Raven Carlson is twenty-eight years old. She works as the music director and organist for a Unitarian Universalist church. She owns a dog, a tank full of brightly-colored fish, and seven cacti.
She calls her parents once a week, and regularly speaks with her brother and sister, Kevin and Vivian. She gives annually to Amnesty International, the ACLU, the public library, and her church. She isn't Unitarian herself, but the congregation is friendly and she likes to make sure the children's programs are good.
Raven Carlson has four arms, a tail, and black fur over every inch of her body.
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Voices
NAMA is the National Association of Mutant Americans. Raven hates them. She hates their constant pleas for money, their civil rights marches, their death-before-compromise lobbying. She hates their photogenic spokespeople, the ones whose mutations give them special abilities. The ones who don't look like freaks.
What she hates most of all is that NAMA doesn't challenge the right of human-supremacist groups to use the name they've chosen. It's like tacitly admitting mutants aren't really people.
She gives them money, though, once a year, because somebody has to say something and the ACLU already has more than enough eggs to fry.
---------------------------------------------
Vivian
Vivian is three years younger than Raven, and infinitely luckier. She lives out west with her husband, Timothy, who can carve stone with his fingers. She has a lover, a job, a home, and a life.
And she can fly.
Vivian has wings, giant drapes of cream and gold feathers that trail her like a cloak of glory when she folds them. She's the bright angel to Raven's demon. Vivian says that lots of Hindu goddesses have four arms and Raven shouldn't care so much about symbolism anyway, but Raven just shakes her head and watches her sister fly away.
---------------------------------------------
Kinesthesia
Raven remembers, vividly, what wind on bare skin felt like. She remembers not having a tail. She remembers having only two arms, remembers so strongly that she still finds herself folding the lower set across her abdomen and doing everything with the upper, original pair.
Humans weren't meant to have four arms. The second pair just gets in the way, forces her to wear strange clothing, makes her think she's reaching for something only to find her hand six inches above or below her target when she uses the wrong one.
Raven remembers what it was like to be normal.
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Kevin
Kevin is five years younger than Raven. He can pass for normal; all his differences are inside.
Kevin can control minds. It only works on people he can see, but if he catches your eyes he can hypnotize you. It took three weeks for the rest of the family to catch on once his abilities developed.
Once a mutant terrorist group sent out feelers in Kevin's direction, but he doesn't feel angry or persecuted. He likes people, doesn't even use his "mind-mojo" much. Raven would be a better bet, but she doesn't have special powers. Nobody wants to recruit her.
---------------------------------------------
Denial
Dr. Henry McCoy, mutant genetics expert, is a frequent television guest. Raven likes to watch him, not because of his knowledge or his opinions, but because she knows his secret.
McCoy is covered in blue fur, walks as easily on four limbs as two, and has prehensile feet. The fur is what betrays him. Under hot studio lights he always has a pitcher of water, but sometimes he still has to cover his mouth with a hand or sheaf of papers.
You can't sweat through fur. He doesn't want anyone to see him pant like a dog. Like a beast.
---------------------------------------------
Dreams
When Raven was eleven, she decided to be famous and taught herself to play guitar. She lost those dreams when she gained extraneous limbs.
Those extras do come in handy playing the organ, though; she has to admit that. And at least she still gets to do something with music. She thanks God every day for weirdo denominations that take pride in showing their tolerance and support for diversity by hiring her.
Once or twice a year she even gets to sing her own songs at potluck dinners, her extra arms slapping out the beat on her thighs.
---------------------------------------------
You can find another set of Raven drabbles here.
Um. This is what I have so far of that evil drabble series that attacked me last week. It isn't really finished, but they sort of stand on their own so I thought I might as well post a few.
---------------------------------------------
Raven
Raven Carlson is twenty-eight years old. She works as the music director and organist for a Unitarian Universalist church. She owns a dog, a tank full of brightly-colored fish, and seven cacti.
She calls her parents once a week, and regularly speaks with her brother and sister, Kevin and Vivian. She gives annually to Amnesty International, the ACLU, the public library, and her church. She isn't Unitarian herself, but the congregation is friendly and she likes to make sure the children's programs are good.
Raven Carlson has four arms, a tail, and black fur over every inch of her body.
---------------------------------------------
Voices
NAMA is the National Association of Mutant Americans. Raven hates them. She hates their constant pleas for money, their civil rights marches, their death-before-compromise lobbying. She hates their photogenic spokespeople, the ones whose mutations give them special abilities. The ones who don't look like freaks.
What she hates most of all is that NAMA doesn't challenge the right of human-supremacist groups to use the name they've chosen. It's like tacitly admitting mutants aren't really people.
She gives them money, though, once a year, because somebody has to say something and the ACLU already has more than enough eggs to fry.
---------------------------------------------
Vivian
Vivian is three years younger than Raven, and infinitely luckier. She lives out west with her husband, Timothy, who can carve stone with his fingers. She has a lover, a job, a home, and a life.
And she can fly.
Vivian has wings, giant drapes of cream and gold feathers that trail her like a cloak of glory when she folds them. She's the bright angel to Raven's demon. Vivian says that lots of Hindu goddesses have four arms and Raven shouldn't care so much about symbolism anyway, but Raven just shakes her head and watches her sister fly away.
---------------------------------------------
Kinesthesia
Raven remembers, vividly, what wind on bare skin felt like. She remembers not having a tail. She remembers having only two arms, remembers so strongly that she still finds herself folding the lower set across her abdomen and doing everything with the upper, original pair.
Humans weren't meant to have four arms. The second pair just gets in the way, forces her to wear strange clothing, makes her think she's reaching for something only to find her hand six inches above or below her target when she uses the wrong one.
Raven remembers what it was like to be normal.
---------------------------------------------
Kevin
Kevin is five years younger than Raven. He can pass for normal; all his differences are inside.
Kevin can control minds. It only works on people he can see, but if he catches your eyes he can hypnotize you. It took three weeks for the rest of the family to catch on once his abilities developed.
Once a mutant terrorist group sent out feelers in Kevin's direction, but he doesn't feel angry or persecuted. He likes people, doesn't even use his "mind-mojo" much. Raven would be a better bet, but she doesn't have special powers. Nobody wants to recruit her.
---------------------------------------------
Denial
Dr. Henry McCoy, mutant genetics expert, is a frequent television guest. Raven likes to watch him, not because of his knowledge or his opinions, but because she knows his secret.
McCoy is covered in blue fur, walks as easily on four limbs as two, and has prehensile feet. The fur is what betrays him. Under hot studio lights he always has a pitcher of water, but sometimes he still has to cover his mouth with a hand or sheaf of papers.
You can't sweat through fur. He doesn't want anyone to see him pant like a dog. Like a beast.
---------------------------------------------
Dreams
When Raven was eleven, she decided to be famous and taught herself to play guitar. She lost those dreams when she gained extraneous limbs.
Those extras do come in handy playing the organ, though; she has to admit that. And at least she still gets to do something with music. She thanks God every day for weirdo denominations that take pride in showing their tolerance and support for diversity by hiring her.
Once or twice a year she even gets to sing her own songs at potluck dinners, her extra arms slapping out the beat on her thighs.
---------------------------------------------
You can find another set of Raven drabbles here.
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