![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/1SVMUQZ:
englishable:
Words: 33,033Chapters: 2 of 3Notes: The ‘Keep Reading’ link below will take you to this chapter as it appears on AO3, because I invariably make changes to my works after I upload them and this is so long (that word count is indeed accurate) that I don’t want to cross-reference every comma and preposition that I tweak during re-readings. I also don’t think I can copy everything into the text box here.
But upfront, I wanted to thank my beta incognitajones for all of her help on this. This was a huge project, and she helped make it possible. She is also patient and amazing all around. BLESS.
…
One coal-hot evening in late July, Ben feels a familiar pain coiling like barbed wire through the scar on his face and looks out to see black thunderheads piled high above the bay. Lightning flashes inside a cloud while he watches, throwing white reflections on the water.
Ben taps out ten beats against his palm, as though counting syllable lengths in a line of verse, and then stops when he hears the thunder. About two miles away, then, give or take. Static crackles through the phone that he holds cradled between his neck and shoulder.
“I saw Luke yesterday,” Leia says, from the other end, because Ben has been quiet for several moments. “I told him how you were doing – he said one of his undergraduate students asked if they could review your old research.”
“Did Luke tell them not to bother?”
“No.” There’s a pneumatic creak, as though his mother has eased back in her desk chair. “He told them they could get the backup copies from Dr. Yoda.”
“You mean he hasn’t retired yet? That man must be pushing ninety by now.” Two more flashes of lightning appear, close together like nerve synapses firing. Rain begins to fall. “Maybe all those decades of acerbity have pickled his internal organs.”
Leia laughs quietly.
Ben turns from the window and walks to a narrow hallway closet, tugging twice on a pull-chain that dangles from the bare bulb inside. Its light illuminates a cardboard box that has been duct-taped shut, the scope to a Red Saber M4 tactical rifle, a military-issued black keffiyah scarf with half its hem scorched away, and a large aviation flashlight hanging off a coat hook by its handle strap.
He takes this down and joggles the switch a few times – and now Leia is the silent one, so Ben must give a slight push instead.
“How has Chewie been?”
“He’s been himself, mostly.” Leia shuffles papers, staples something together. “The groomers never take me seriously when I warn them that he bites. I’m always treated to the same patronizing explanation about how docile Wheaten Terrier crossbreeds are, but I try to tell them that they need to –”
“– Let the Wookie win,” Ben finishes.
Keep Reading
This is an amazing fic and I don’t even go here I’m just reading it like it’s an original work because it’s just that fucking good. A metaphorical examination of the Dark Side as a real thing. Addiction, physics, massage therapy, and Ben taking back his life, perhaps. It’s incredibly real and fantastic at the same time, and is a phenomenal example of tight POV and an unreliable narrator and fucking MAGIC.
englishable:
Words: 33,033Chapters: 2 of 3Notes: The ‘Keep Reading’ link below will take you to this chapter as it appears on AO3, because I invariably make changes to my works after I upload them and this is so long (that word count is indeed accurate) that I don’t want to cross-reference every comma and preposition that I tweak during re-readings. I also don’t think I can copy everything into the text box here.
But upfront, I wanted to thank my beta incognitajones for all of her help on this. This was a huge project, and she helped make it possible. She is also patient and amazing all around. BLESS.
…
One coal-hot evening in late July, Ben feels a familiar pain coiling like barbed wire through the scar on his face and looks out to see black thunderheads piled high above the bay. Lightning flashes inside a cloud while he watches, throwing white reflections on the water.
Ben taps out ten beats against his palm, as though counting syllable lengths in a line of verse, and then stops when he hears the thunder. About two miles away, then, give or take. Static crackles through the phone that he holds cradled between his neck and shoulder.
“I saw Luke yesterday,” Leia says, from the other end, because Ben has been quiet for several moments. “I told him how you were doing – he said one of his undergraduate students asked if they could review your old research.”
“Did Luke tell them not to bother?”
“No.” There’s a pneumatic creak, as though his mother has eased back in her desk chair. “He told them they could get the backup copies from Dr. Yoda.”
“You mean he hasn’t retired yet? That man must be pushing ninety by now.” Two more flashes of lightning appear, close together like nerve synapses firing. Rain begins to fall. “Maybe all those decades of acerbity have pickled his internal organs.”
Leia laughs quietly.
Ben turns from the window and walks to a narrow hallway closet, tugging twice on a pull-chain that dangles from the bare bulb inside. Its light illuminates a cardboard box that has been duct-taped shut, the scope to a Red Saber M4 tactical rifle, a military-issued black keffiyah scarf with half its hem scorched away, and a large aviation flashlight hanging off a coat hook by its handle strap.
He takes this down and joggles the switch a few times – and now Leia is the silent one, so Ben must give a slight push instead.
“How has Chewie been?”
“He’s been himself, mostly.” Leia shuffles papers, staples something together. “The groomers never take me seriously when I warn them that he bites. I’m always treated to the same patronizing explanation about how docile Wheaten Terrier crossbreeds are, but I try to tell them that they need to –”
“– Let the Wookie win,” Ben finishes.
Keep Reading
This is an amazing fic and I don’t even go here I’m just reading it like it’s an original work because it’s just that fucking good. A metaphorical examination of the Dark Side as a real thing. Addiction, physics, massage therapy, and Ben taking back his life, perhaps. It’s incredibly real and fantastic at the same time, and is a phenomenal example of tight POV and an unreliable narrator and fucking MAGIC.
