16 days of literature: Awkward Tension
{Barnicht! Ha harkem, ba ballinga! Kurdo daduvich! Kalim, na narcturn!... Or said the Imperial on the high seat, dissing on the fleeing diplomat. The translation was lost in history, no one was ever sure why. One thing is for sure, the diplomat would forever be haunted by those words to the rest of time... Today's post, as part of the 16 days of literature, contains entries to @bananafish's Mizu No Oto and Finish the Story Contests. As part of the 16 days, I shall continue to flip-flop between contest and indie posts; for sake of independent literature expansion and getting something to increase the size of the account... Today's music-aides: [1.] and [2.] (A Hat in time and Half Life 2 OST).}
Banners by @f3nix
- Awkward Tension -
[Image taken by @marcoriccardi]
"A far climb, ski time!"
Bellowing, mellowing noise
Trees and snow stood firm
---------------------------------------------
- Prompt by @f3nix -
As the seasons went on, she had not yet accustomed to that sight.
The expanse of clouds unfurled just beyond the edge of the plateau like a harmonious and yet restless carpet, woven from ranks of industrious angels. Only the blue condor, curious to taste the rarefied ozone flavor, occasionally tried to pierce the milky diaphragm.
An unnamed and timeless plateau. It had always belonged to that celestial ocean, cradled by its waves like the head of a gigantic primeval tortoise, asleep for thousands of years.
The woman sat absorbed on the black basalt edge. Lying on her knees stood a tablet with elusive colors. Her tapered fingers danced over it decidedly, following the counterpoint of secret music. A warm upward current ruffled her thick brown hair until she was forced to give in and stop the dance, hastily moving the curls from her forehead.
She procrastinated, holding back her knowledge on the tips of those solitary fingers that, slowing down, now left room for memories. Now the memories were transmuting, stretching in long meditating axons, which she watched parading before her eyes at the capricious rhythm of the clouds.
The plateau had no name and, at the same time, kept all the names, including those that she wanted to forget.
The fingertips resumed drumming on the iridescent surface of the tablet to stop almost immediately. As always, before even hearing him approach, she had felt his eyes on the back of her head.
"I'm almost done, Heitor." It was not true, but she tried to comfort her husband as her fingers flew frantically, receiving small luminous epiphanies from the device.
“Debes beber, mi amor. Al menos esto.” He sat close and gently pushed forward the cup of muña until the mint's scent convinced her to stop and take a couple of quick sips. Hidden among the gestures of daily care, she could not ignore a note of concern in her husband's voice.
"We were fine here until it lasted, weren't we?" The words came out crumpled, making their way slowly through the wood of thoughts. He raised an asymmetric smile and winked at her the way she used to like.
Her distinctive wrinkle of concentration formed between her eyes, two delicious hazelnut drops, while she sighed.
"You know it does not help us, mi vida. I'll join you as soon as I can." At that moment, the importance of what she had to do was the perfect alibi not to raise her gaze on him. She silently kept repeating to herself that this wasn't a goodbye.
The vibrating bark of the imperial ship came suddenly. As it emerged, the clouds frayed around the cobalt metal frigate like impotent fingers, in the last desperate attempt to hold back a blind, deep-water fish.
She watched her husband run back to the house, as planned.
"Let the show begin, bastards." She thought while the ship's jaws already spewed out a black phalanx, heading at a steady pace in the direction of the woman.
"Kalliska Pan, Imperial Master Grower, you're under arrest on evidence of desertion and high treason. Do not resist and follow us spontaneously or I will not hesitate to order coercive measures against you. "
"The Empire has no sovereignty over this soil. Be careful what you do, Colonel. "
"Master Grower, you have lost all diplomatic immunity. I repeat: do not resist. "
"I know the reason for your visit, Colonel. And I regret having to point out that you are not in the position to order anything. We could save time if you left your pathetic bluff right away. "
In an abrupt gesture toward the guards, the black leather of the colonel's glove stood out against the diaphanous sky. "You all. Back to the ship now."
The warm upward current strenghtened, making the imperial frigade's hull resound like a grim stork. They were alone. She held the Colonel's stare.
"There's still time to fix this, Kal .."
"Since long already you have lost any right to call me like that, Musashi"
While even the clouds seemed to stop, the fingers of the Master Grower continued to dance.
- Ending by @theironfelix -
Kal's eyes then saw it, the Colonel's hands yanked out a knife and snapped off the gas-mask and the hair bun. Blushing, she saw the Colonel's hands drop the knife and her hands moving to toss the hair to the air.
"So, Kal, wanna play this game?~"
"Colonel!~"
"So thou art innocent?"
"... Yes."
"So, let's start from that faithless day between us. Back at the skiing resort, just me and you. Remember that scene, my Kal?~"
"I have no clue what you're inferring, Colonel."
"I'm afraid you'd say that... Well, to cut to the chase, you willingly, and under no influence, killed the emperor's child."
"I DID-"
"Hush! Not even the high Witch-doctor could prove you controlled. Yet I forged documents to prove you innocent; that was, admittingly, my first mistake."
"You can't bring that up in the Imperial Diet, you'd ended the case on my side."
"True, but these other crimes will. Let's start with one the day after: CCTV cameras identified and found you stalking Scientist Barnicht in Ha-harkem for about... 10-kilometers."
"So? We thought him traitor."
"We all did, but what you did next made him a saint... No reply, but I see you shaking... ONLY THE GUILTY TREMBLE!~"
"I admit to stabbing him, same style that I did to the emperor's child!"
"Not only that, but slicing-n-dicing that scumbag. Be glad that I bribed the CCTV guards the next day, my Kal~"
"You keep saying Kal, Musashi we're not going-"
"Yes, we are! The rest are minuscule to this grave crime, not only attempted murder on an officer but of our husband..."
A lump holds stiff the Colonel's voice-box, yet tears start pouring out of her eyes. Kal's mind couldn't but feel the urge to equip the knife and end Musashi there, but the Colonel's voice broke the spell.
"Yes! A week later, we three were committed and married. You know how many people were going to have my head if I hadn’t kept your records clean! NO MATTER! We finally settled down and went to the sleep that night: me, you and Heitor all climbed in and kissed each other goodnight."
The Colonel's hands untucking and pulling up her shirt, a giant scar forms dead center on the right hip. But Kal's mind gravitated back to the knife, but the spell broken once again by Musashi’s voice as she tucks her shirt back into her skirt.
"You killed our graciously loving husband and then tried to end my life. If I hadn't chucked you outta the window, I... But, gone you were like a shadow for two decades... I'm sorry, but to spare you from a bigger pain..."
The Colonel's hands quickly unholstered her pistol, landing a clean shot on Kal's head. Staring down, the Colonel's entire body collapsed near her ex-wife's bleeding body seeing what she’d done. Yet both of their eyes looking saw Heitor floating there. But only the Colonel lip's smirked as the vestige dissipated to the air smiling.
"Goodnight Kal~"
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Two things: tomorrow is that day when I co-post with mój Ukochany~ and prepare for a @tygertyger #electricdreams entry the day after tomorrow. c:
So what dares plague my mind in this fine hour of ours? Nothing but that I have tons of reading (steemit fiction, book book fiction, Nonfiction and Theory) to read and to sort through. And that's about it, I will seriously need to catch up by tomorrow as well in conjunction to writing that carrion story. I know how to phrase it now and for my goodness sake.
I love that the love between Musashi and Kal was so great, that even after everything Kal had done, Musashi gave her the little mercy she still could. Having Heitor as a a spectral figure, and being like that with her after what she did to him, gives a lot of depth to Kals state of mind. He seeing him as a loving figure who wanted to look after her after she had killed him plays into the comments about possibly (or not) being under the influence of a witch doctor. Musashi could have just killed her as soon as the guards left, but instead she goes through this emotionally charged exchange with Kal. The mixture of love, anger and pain, its more like she is reminding herself of all the things Kal did, telling herself she can't save Kal again as she builds herself up to be able to spare her a worse fate. So beautifully sad <3 <3
UwU ~ Thanks for reading and thanks for the compliments, mój Ukochany!~ Indeed, this was the first story I picked up upon when I noticed the dialogue. Something with the word phrasing of Musashi tipped me off (and the fact it contrasted with Kal’s mannerisms, tied into the fact that Colonel had no explicit gender stated). So I wanted to imply a story that preludes even the beginning of this story and why Musashi said what she said here. Of which hopefully my ending provided as that absent prelude by being flashback memory. By which, everything else gets repainted by that mark of the tragedy. The spectral, Hate, mercy kill and the final reach all can sneak in without much structural change. And yet, while the mark is gone, the sting of the mark of tragedy shall remain as a constant reminder. Because it shall always root itself deep and remain as a phantom pain even when removed/superseded.
Great work spinning the story on it's ear, Felix! Instead of Kal being a 'fairly' innocent Master Grower as one would presume, she is instead found to be a harsh killer. Though she sometimes used scum as her targets, to take the life of a child and of one of her spouses puts her into the 'need to go' category.
Nice to see you work in your beloved masks and what a great reveal of Musashi to be a woman! (Yours is the first that I've read where the Colonel is female. 😉) As Kal's misdeeds are laid bare, my heart went out more and more to Musashi. To have her wife take the life of her husband as well as almost hers left deep scars upon her (both physically and emotionally). Yet, though there was regret, the Colonel's gunshot was made more from love (the want to spare her Kal from suffering due to her crimes).
I totally agree! A tragic and damned love triangle, very original and emotionally well built! Bravo!
(Marco)
:D :D!!!!
UwU ~ Thanks for reading and thanks for the compliments! Indeed, I wanted to poise a scenario that indeed Master Grower (Kal) was a killer (which I hint at some impulse-reaction behaviour with Kal looking at the knife). But I had to tie it in with Musashi’s concerns, and with the fact we have SciFi topic of two people that (used to) care for each other in a SciFi. So making the Colonel a women fit rather neatly here (and the fact that no gender was specified in relation to the Colonel, so took it for a wild trip) which allowed me to tie in relationship strife with Kal’s muderous feelings. Of which, I finally tied it back with that loose Heitor thread and showcased the final obscenity that made the Colonel snap but never enough to fully let her suffer a fate worse than being shot at. Withal, the realm of Love still managed to get Musashi to collapse, but finally redeemed in the eyes of a ghost husband in their polyamorphic relationship. And so, she finally could put Kal to sleep and say goodnight.
I think the solitary, distant, cow lowing in the silent landscape is what gives your haiku depth, atmosphere, and a bit of amusement (that is good in a haijin perspective).