Post by PeroxidePirate on Aug 13, 2010 0:12:28 GMT 10
Title: The Broken Dam
Rating: PG
Prompt: 11. all cities were the same
Summary: You can't unlearn something, but there are times when Tris would like to.
“I didn't think it would work, at first,” Tris admitted. She and Sandry sat on the Astral Island beach – the side away from the mainland – watching the horizon. “Or maybe I thought it would only work a little. But once it started, it was like a dam breaking. I couldn't stop it. I was surrounded, all the time, by scraps of images of everyday things. They stack on top of each other, like – like piles of laundry! It's like being in a crowded room, where forty people are all talking at once...” Tris shook her head. “It was worse than useless, for a long time.”
Sandry patted her arm, an expression of sympathetic horror on her face. “Why didn't you say?”
“I know I should have trusted you.” Tris dug her toes into the sand. “But when I tried to talk about it, at first, no one would understand. They thought I was so lucky; and then, when I couldn't tell them anything useful, they thought I was keeping secrets. I wasn't! I just couldn't make sense out of what I saw.”
“Niko should have protected you from that,” Sandry said fiercely.
Tris waved her hand, dismissively. “There was a lot going on. He was saving lives, and I-” Her voice cracked. “I should have been helping him. But the headaches were so bad, I couldn't function. He turned me over to a colleague, someone he thought we could trust to help me deal with it.”
“And that person...?”
“Was so jealous she couldn't see anything else.”
“So you did know what Zhegorz was going through?”
“Oh, yes,” Tris said, seriously. “I knew exactly. I was still learning – am still learning – to filter what I see. That's how I knew we had to get him out of the city.”
“Now I see why you wanted to come here,” Sandry whispered. Her words were almost lost in a gust of wind, coming off the sea.
It brought Tris nothing more than waves and sky.
Rating: PG
Prompt: 11. all cities were the same
Summary: You can't unlearn something, but there are times when Tris would like to.
“I didn't think it would work, at first,” Tris admitted. She and Sandry sat on the Astral Island beach – the side away from the mainland – watching the horizon. “Or maybe I thought it would only work a little. But once it started, it was like a dam breaking. I couldn't stop it. I was surrounded, all the time, by scraps of images of everyday things. They stack on top of each other, like – like piles of laundry! It's like being in a crowded room, where forty people are all talking at once...” Tris shook her head. “It was worse than useless, for a long time.”
Sandry patted her arm, an expression of sympathetic horror on her face. “Why didn't you say?”
“I know I should have trusted you.” Tris dug her toes into the sand. “But when I tried to talk about it, at first, no one would understand. They thought I was so lucky; and then, when I couldn't tell them anything useful, they thought I was keeping secrets. I wasn't! I just couldn't make sense out of what I saw.”
“Niko should have protected you from that,” Sandry said fiercely.
Tris waved her hand, dismissively. “There was a lot going on. He was saving lives, and I-” Her voice cracked. “I should have been helping him. But the headaches were so bad, I couldn't function. He turned me over to a colleague, someone he thought we could trust to help me deal with it.”
“And that person...?”
“Was so jealous she couldn't see anything else.”
“So you did know what Zhegorz was going through?”
“Oh, yes,” Tris said, seriously. “I knew exactly. I was still learning – am still learning – to filter what I see. That's how I knew we had to get him out of the city.”
“Now I see why you wanted to come here,” Sandry whispered. Her words were almost lost in a gust of wind, coming off the sea.
It brought Tris nothing more than waves and sky.