Meme The First!
Aug. 9th, 2011 06:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
samanthahirrI've never done a meme before. Let's see how it goes! Via ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
arsenicjade's journal:
Pick one of my fics, and I'll give you three details that didn't make it into the fic. Background canon, deleted scenes, or a look into the future. My choice, but if you have a specific question you can ask it in your request.
arsenicjade's journal: Pick one of my fics, and I'll give you three details that didn't make it into the fic. Background canon, deleted scenes, or a look into the future. My choice, but if you have a specific question you can ask it in your request.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-10 01:48 am (UTC)Community Rules for Hauntings - a fic that you should never ever ever read while you're alone at night in a two-story house watching Paranormal Activity (I never claimed to be the brightest crayon in the box, okay? LOL.) because then you have to walk upstairs in the freaking dark and it's creepy.
And then, if we can have a second pick (or if you'd rather do this one), The Sky's The Limit.
Community Rules for Hauntings – Deleted Scene, 1/3
Date: 2011-08-10 04:13 pm (UTC)I remember getting so caught up writing this story that I got carried away and wrote the scene of Adam's solo break-in to Kris's haunted condo. It was a suspenseful little scene that I ended up having to cut because it was the ONLY scene in the whole fic that wasn't from Kris's POV. (Doh!) And now I get to share it!
Okay, to set the scene in context: Kris met Adam four days ago, and has been crashing at Adam's apartment so he can avoid going home—he's that terrified of the spirit that's haunting his place. The guys have spent all day Tuesday and Wednesday together and are really clicking…but Kris stopped by his condo on Wednesday evening to grab a change of clothes, and he saw some fresh destruction courtesy of that thing, and ran out of the condo like the Devil was on his heels. After street busking and sex that night, protective!Adam decides to personally investigate why Kris is so scared of going home….
————
Adam lies awake afterward, Kris breathing deep and even on the bed next to him, in for another marathon 12 hours of sleep. He's never known anyone to sleep as much as Kris has the past few nights, but he's never seen anyone have daily panic attacks, either. Adam clenches his fist and sits up, slides out of the bed to go pace in the kitchen.
Issues are normal in their community. Bad stuff, like families kicking you out, addictions, discrimination, harassment, assault…. And Kris certainly has his share of issues: failed marriage, bad credit, frustrated ambitions. But he also has that sweetness, that voice, and so much talent Adam wants to put him on a pedestal so the whole world can see and appreciate him. And best of all, he has hope and joy. Despite all the crap he's been going through, Kris actually seems like a guy who could rise above his issues, who wouldn't drag Adam down with the inevitable contest over who's had a harder life.
But Kris, for all the venting Adam's encouraged, still won't talk about the other thing, the one that's really messing him the hell up. Which is seriously unfair, because Adam can tell when he's getting too attached to someone, and he's dangerously close to Kris right now. He needs Kris to be able to get past whatever that mysterious, unspoken issue is. If it's something Kris can't get over, or Adam can't fix for him, then this relationship is gonna turn out like the others; a competition that Adam won't compete in. And if it's gonna end like that, he'd be better off walking away right now.
Adam remembers what Kris looked like, running out of his totally normal, cookie-cutter condo, pale and shaking, too afraid to even change his shirt in his own home. The memory pisses him off, makes him want to protect, to fix, or at the very least understand. He has to know why Kris is so afraid of going home…before he falls in love with someone too broken to keep.
Adam looks at the wallet and keys Kris left on the counter. Fuck it. If Kris won't talk to him, he'll go see for himself.
Re: Community Rules for Hauntings – Deleted Scene, 2/3
Date: 2011-08-10 04:14 pm (UTC)The air is thick and heavy, and smells like stagnant water when he parks Kris's stolen car in its reserved spot. Adam pulls his leather jacket closed and shoves his fingers through his hair, going for a little more height. He's dressed in shit-kicker boots and his loosest black jeans, no chains or jewelry or makeup—his tough guy costume, the one he only dons when he has to walk home from the club on Thursday nights when the buses aren't running.
The steps up to the second floor are glowing, harsh yellow of the corridor lamps softened by the mist. He climbs silently, pulling out Kris's license to get his unit number. The whole development looks just as he'd thought yesterday; safe and normal. So much for his "roving gangs terrorizing the neighborhood" theory. Adam looks at the door and pauses, keys in hand. He's not sure what—or who—is in there, and walking in unannounced could be advantageous or really dangerous.
He presses the doorbell.
The buzzer sounds inside, and he hears something moving, a heavy thump just the other side of the door. Adam squares his shoulders and stands up taller, projecting don't-fuck-with-me vibes.
The door behind him opens with a snap and click, and Adam jumps and turns to see a 40-something woman in a green velour track suit and full face and hair glaring at him. She sizes him up suspiciously, and Adam feels the need to explain himself before she slams the door and calls the cops.
He racks his brain and smiles, says, "Hi. I'm, uh, Kris's coworker. From the studio." Shit, was that the right lie? Kris probably wouldn't want his neighbors thinking he was inviting over gay hookups in the middle of the night or anything, so work seemed like the obvious choice, but the way her eyes narrow in disapproval makes Adam wonder if Kris has been getting shit for practicing music here…oh hell.
She's sending some seriously ugly vibes his way, and Adam feels his skin crawl a little as he stares at the frown lines between her eyes, the brown makeup smudges on her zipup, the overly-plucked brows. She's clearly wide awake, even at this hour, so what the fuck is her problem with him? It's like she knows he isn't supposed to be there. Her glare intensifies, and then she huffs and steps back, locking her door with two sharps snaps.
Adam shakes off her bad energy and turns back to Kris's door. Despite the noise he'd heard inside, there's nothing happening now. He could try the doorbell again…which would summon the desperately suspicious housewife lurking next door. Keys it is. The deadbolt fights him, and Adam has to jimmy it a bit, watching over his shoulder in case Kris's neighbor is keeping an eye on him. She's probably standing at that peephole, staring at his ass, reporting him to the police…. The lock pops, and Adam rushes inside and closes the door behind him at light speed.
He has a self-aware moment to appreciate the irony of how much he's acting like Kris, all worked up and nervous about this place. Of course, Adam is legitimately committing a crime, breaking in here. So what's Kris's excuse?
Re: Community Rules for Hauntings – Deleted Scene, 3/3
Date: 2011-08-10 04:14 pm (UTC)Something scrapes, metal against metal, from the back room, and Adam freezes and scans the dark, open doorway for movement. "Hello?" he calls softly, cautious steps leading him down the hallway, past the empty bathroom and toward the bedroom.
The room is trashed worse than the living room, but Adam hasn't thought of Kris as a particularly clean person up to this point, so that's not surprising. What is surprising is that there's no one there. The sound comes again, low and muffled, and Adam realizes that the creepy neighbor's condo butts up against Kris's bedroom wall. It's probably wire hangers sliding across a clothes bar in the closet.
The coast officially clear, Adam settles in to do some real digging.
His inventory reveals two nice couches, a bulky TV of impressive size, food and beer in the fridge (mostly takeout containers), one bedroom, one bed, and only one shoe size. There's no sign of a roommate or significant other in the whole place, no bug infestations, no evidence of a break-in besides his own. Just a lot of ruined things; smashed photos of family and friends, broken glasses in the sink, bookshelves half torn out of the wall.
Adam is running out of patience with the unsolved mystery, and he mutters as he flips through Kris's stack of mail on the kitchen counter, "I don't get why he's so fucking scared of you."
Suddenly, glass shatters just over his shoulder, and Adam whips around to face whoever snuck in behind him. He's blinded by the beam of sunlight shining through the transom. He blinks and ducks behind the counter until he can clear his vision enough to defend himself. The crash comes again, this time muffled by the windows, and echoing around the red-brick façades of the development, followed by the cranking gearshift of a recycling truck pulling down the block.
————
I was going for a horror movie vibe with this scene, and that last paragraph was my literary attempt at a jump-scare. The shattering glass is just a recycling crew dumping bins of glass into the back of their truck, but the reader and Adam don't know that when the sound first happens. I don't think it worked as a successful jump-scare (are those even possible in literary form?), but this scene contains some creepy hints at what's been going on in the condo:
On Wednesday evening, the condo looked fine…until Kris found the shattered photo frames in his bedroom. That's what freaked Kris out and made him run—that evidence that "it" had been active in his absence. When Adam breaks in just a few hours later, the cereal has exploded all over the kitchen—that's proof of brand new activity. Adam heard something moving in the condo before he opened the door; he almost walked in on the haunting in full swing. Yikes!
Re: Community Rules for Hauntings – Deleted Scene, 3/3
Date: 2011-08-11 06:22 am (UTC)Re: Community Rules for Hauntings – Deleted Scene, 3/3
Date: 2011-09-08 04:23 am (UTC)I actually thought the scene was really effective - it wouldn't have worked because it was from Adam's POV and everything else is from Kris's but I love that we got this glimpse so that we can see what exactly happened when Adam went over there and why he's so mad when he goes back to his place.
And now I keep thinking of that scene where it's like in the doorway when they're trying to contact it or figure out how to get rid of it and holy cow, I shouldn't be thinking of that while staring at the empty, dark doorway of my office. Creepy. Damn.
But I loved getting to see this, thanks for sharing it! :D
Re: Community Rules for Hauntings – Deleted Scene, 3/3
Date: 2011-09-08 04:31 am (UTC)[excerpt from the voodoo seance scene]
The lights flicker.
"What the-" Adam says, suddenly alert.
Theresa's and Michael's eyes are closed, but Joseph looks around and then at the two of them with surprise.
Kris reaches out and grabs Adam's hand, holds his breath and prays it was just an electrical surge.
The lights flicker again, and this time Kris feels it, the brushing of something against the back of his neck, all the hair on his body suddenly standing straight up. "It's," he warns Adam, squeezing his hand as tight as he can. It's whispering. No, laughing. It's in the bedroom watching them, and Kris stares at the dark doorway, the bedroom door they hadn't bothered to shut hanging open. Was it just his eyes playing tricks, or did the door just swing an inch wider?
"What is it, Kris?" Joseph asks, studying him carefully. "Do you feel something?"
"It's here," Kris says. All eyes open and turn on him, looking for more information. "It's in the bedroom."
"What does it feel like? Can you describe it?"
"Keep your breathing calm," Theresa says in therapist-mode.
"It's." And how can Kris possibly describe it when he can't hear it, can't see it, can't touch it? He just knows.
The bedroom door slams shut and everyone gasps.
Re: Community Rules for Hauntings – Deleted Scene, 3/3
Date: 2011-09-08 04:48 am (UTC)Thank goodness I sleep with the door closed and locked anyway. LOL.
Re: Community Rules for Hauntings – Deleted Scene, 3/3
Date: 2011-09-08 04:57 am (UTC)Sleep well...
...yes, that is a creepy ellipses. Deal with it. ;D
Re: Community Rules for Hauntings – Deleted Scene, 3/3
Date: 2011-09-08 05:10 am (UTC)LMAO, oh fine. Go ahead and be creepy. Complete with creepy punctuation! (I imagine that 'sleep well' said in a Vincent Price voice, for the record. Thanks, Thriller, thanks.)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-10 04:19 pm (UTC)