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picfor10002007-02-28 08:25 pm
fox1013.livejournal.com) wrote in picfor10002007-02-28 08:25 pm
Entry tags:
The Complexities Of Photography Regarding Abandoned Cabins, And Not Necessarily Sex
Title: The Complexities Of Photography Regarding Abandoned Cabins, And Not Necessarily Sex
Author: Amy (alexia@innergeekdom.net)
Fandom: The Grounding of Group Six
Rating: PG-13
Summary: This is not a story about sex.
Notes: Written for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
picfor100. Story format taken from another Julian F. Thompson book, "Discontinued", which is not a story about fishing any more than this is a story about sex. Thanks to hyperfocused for being my partner in JFT-y crime.
1,000 words exactly.
This is not a story about sex. This isn't not a story about sex, and this is definitely more a story about sex than several other stories you will probably read tonight. This story has much more sex than you will find in The Cat in the Hat, for example, or in most readings of Where the Wild Things Are, but much less sex than Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet- but then, Shakespeare has always been perverted, and (Sully had pointed out once, while trying to set up the logs that would hold the porch up) if their parents had had any idea what the old English man was selling, they probably wouldn't have wanted them to read Shakespeare, either.
This is not a story about sex because this is a story about a photograph. This photograph, to be specific.
(This story is not like any previous stories you may have heard about Nat and Marigold and Coke and Sara and Sully and Ludi, because that was a book which came out over twenty years ago. This story does not take place long after that particular book, but many things have changed since then. For example, Coke's hair is even longer than it used to be, and he wears it in a ponytail now. He and Marigold ended up moving to a city, where he wears his hair long and she wears hers short and they both wear suits and ties and look in mirrors and remember Coldbrook and laugh at themselves. But that, as we say, is another story.)
The photograph in question is a picture of a cabin that's not particularly big at all, but is certainly big enough to hold six people, if they don't mind hearing each other move around while sleeping and the uncomfortable knowledge that some people, you know, in the bunk right next to you, although only if they really and truly do believe you're asleep. And luckily, none of the six of them really minded that at all- at least not much, or not enough to matter or get anyone to change, which, as Marigold pointed out, which is really what the question is asking to begin with.
("How could they get this picture?" Sara demanded, her voice verging on hysteria. "No one is supposed to know about this." "It's not like we're in the picture," Coke had said, "so shut up.")
The photograph of the cabin is fairly nondescript, unless you are Nat, in which case you made most of it yourself, or unless you are any of the members of Group Six, in which case you helped with the rest of it, and are probably more proud of that than Nat was of the parts he did by himself. If you are any of them, you can probably see the first place you figured out how to start a fire without matches ("Not that that's so much work," Sara pointed out, "or that it was really necessary, but it's an awful useful skill to have just in case.") or the first place where you had sex (or the first place where you had sex with the person you dated for six years, and then moved to the city and got an apartment with and you both take home different people because you're happily single but maybe someday, when you're ready to settle down, which they're still not, to use what Coke would insist is a purely hypothetical example, to which Marigold might snort and kind of smile but not say a word) or the place where you fell, wholly and completely, in love (which Nat is still ashamed of sometimes, because for god's sake she was sixteen, but he was only six years older and he wasn't a real teacher and anyway, now that they're both older, it seems hardly worth getting worked up over, although sometimes he does anyway).
This is a photograph of the cabin where all of Group Six (first) had to live, and (then) chose to live, and (finally) decided to leave, not because they didn't love it but because they all loved it, a little too much, and to share it forever would have torn it apart for all six of them.
("I know it's a perfectly wonderful cabin," Sara said, "but it's a cabin. There are six of us. I wouldn't want to raise children here, you know?" And Sully had turned a marvelous shade of pink and said "Children?" and Sara had blushed too and a few weeks later, they were the first ones to leave, which shocked no one more than Marigold, who was convinced she would be the first one to snap under the pressure of living in the wilderness for most of her valuable dating years.)
This is a story about a photograph which was found on the porch of the cabin ("Because what kind of people can live in a log cabin for four years," Marigold asked- at the time it had only been four years- "and not have a porch?"), a Polaroid snapshot from when no one was there at all, which could have been an art project about abandoned buildings, but everyone knew better than that. Nat took it and promised to burn it, but the damage had already been done. After they found it people got jittery, and started thinking of babies and cities and the world outside of just the Group.
This is a story about the reasons everyone left, and the reasons no one ever really left at all.
This is not a story about sex. This is not really a story about the photograph which Nat nailed to the wall of the cabin six days after Marigold and Coke left for good, either. Really, it's a story about things which no member of Group Six is ready to talk about.
At least, not now. Ask them in a few years.
It's not a good story yet, but give them time. It will be.
Author: Amy (alexia@innergeekdom.net)
Fandom: The Grounding of Group Six
Rating: PG-13
Summary: This is not a story about sex.
Notes: Written for
picfor100. Story format taken from another Julian F. Thompson book, "Discontinued", which is not a story about fishing any more than this is a story about sex. Thanks to hyperfocused for being my partner in JFT-y crime.1,000 words exactly.
This is not a story about sex. This isn't not a story about sex, and this is definitely more a story about sex than several other stories you will probably read tonight. This story has much more sex than you will find in The Cat in the Hat, for example, or in most readings of Where the Wild Things Are, but much less sex than Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet- but then, Shakespeare has always been perverted, and (Sully had pointed out once, while trying to set up the logs that would hold the porch up) if their parents had had any idea what the old English man was selling, they probably wouldn't have wanted them to read Shakespeare, either.
This is not a story about sex because this is a story about a photograph. This photograph, to be specific.
(This story is not like any previous stories you may have heard about Nat and Marigold and Coke and Sara and Sully and Ludi, because that was a book which came out over twenty years ago. This story does not take place long after that particular book, but many things have changed since then. For example, Coke's hair is even longer than it used to be, and he wears it in a ponytail now. He and Marigold ended up moving to a city, where he wears his hair long and she wears hers short and they both wear suits and ties and look in mirrors and remember Coldbrook and laugh at themselves. But that, as we say, is another story.)
The photograph in question is a picture of a cabin that's not particularly big at all, but is certainly big enough to hold six people, if they don't mind hearing each other move around while sleeping and the uncomfortable knowledge that some people, you know, in the bunk right next to you, although only if they really and truly do believe you're asleep. And luckily, none of the six of them really minded that at all- at least not much, or not enough to matter or get anyone to change, which, as Marigold pointed out, which is really what the question is asking to begin with.
("How could they get this picture?" Sara demanded, her voice verging on hysteria. "No one is supposed to know about this." "It's not like we're in the picture," Coke had said, "so shut up.")
The photograph of the cabin is fairly nondescript, unless you are Nat, in which case you made most of it yourself, or unless you are any of the members of Group Six, in which case you helped with the rest of it, and are probably more proud of that than Nat was of the parts he did by himself. If you are any of them, you can probably see the first place you figured out how to start a fire without matches ("Not that that's so much work," Sara pointed out, "or that it was really necessary, but it's an awful useful skill to have just in case.") or the first place where you had sex (or the first place where you had sex with the person you dated for six years, and then moved to the city and got an apartment with and you both take home different people because you're happily single but maybe someday, when you're ready to settle down, which they're still not, to use what Coke would insist is a purely hypothetical example, to which Marigold might snort and kind of smile but not say a word) or the place where you fell, wholly and completely, in love (which Nat is still ashamed of sometimes, because for god's sake she was sixteen, but he was only six years older and he wasn't a real teacher and anyway, now that they're both older, it seems hardly worth getting worked up over, although sometimes he does anyway).
This is a photograph of the cabin where all of Group Six (first) had to live, and (then) chose to live, and (finally) decided to leave, not because they didn't love it but because they all loved it, a little too much, and to share it forever would have torn it apart for all six of them.
("I know it's a perfectly wonderful cabin," Sara said, "but it's a cabin. There are six of us. I wouldn't want to raise children here, you know?" And Sully had turned a marvelous shade of pink and said "Children?" and Sara had blushed too and a few weeks later, they were the first ones to leave, which shocked no one more than Marigold, who was convinced she would be the first one to snap under the pressure of living in the wilderness for most of her valuable dating years.)
This is a story about a photograph which was found on the porch of the cabin ("Because what kind of people can live in a log cabin for four years," Marigold asked- at the time it had only been four years- "and not have a porch?"), a Polaroid snapshot from when no one was there at all, which could have been an art project about abandoned buildings, but everyone knew better than that. Nat took it and promised to burn it, but the damage had already been done. After they found it people got jittery, and started thinking of babies and cities and the world outside of just the Group.
This is a story about the reasons everyone left, and the reasons no one ever really left at all.
This is not a story about sex. This is not really a story about the photograph which Nat nailed to the wall of the cabin six days after Marigold and Coke left for good, either. Really, it's a story about things which no member of Group Six is ready to talk about.
At least, not now. Ask them in a few years.
It's not a good story yet, but give them time. It will be.
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Your damnation pleases me! Thank you!
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...But this does too, so. Yay, thanks!
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I MISS YOU!!!!!!!!!!!! Also, your garden party table now lives in my closet next to a giant paper mache turtle.
This was brilliant. That is all.
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*clingy hands*
And. Thanks!
sweet motherfuckin' daddy champagne!
You are invaluable and magic.
Re: sweet motherfuckin' daddy champagne!
Dude, I am so glad that someone besides me (and
I wish there were more Grounding fic. If only because it's so rare that I completely fall for three separate canon het couples.
Anyway. You are NICE and AWESOME. Also, I love your icon. For the record.
*hearts*
Re: sweet motherfuckin' daddy champagne!
I Melt With You (http://hyperfocused.livejournal.com/123859.html) PG13 Sara/Ludi
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anyway. this is all shades of fabulous and very possibly the last fandom i'd expect to see here, which actually makes it that much shinier.
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I'm always pleased to learn people in fandom read JFT. I always think it explains a lot.