Abstract Introspection (or 'guess who I am?') (477 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 0.71 on 9 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by <uberweiss.at.hotmail.com> (View user info) at 2005-06-27 12:35:41 EDT
Had this image in my head - you should get something similar if my writing isn't too shite, specifically the image of the guy standing there - well you'll see shortly, anyway - and you know how you follow a story in your head and it just...goes? Day-dreaming I think it's called :)
I followed it through and this was the result...The subject rather obliquely refers to the way I thought it through - more or less..I just followed the story and there he was - Perhaps Freud digging into my childish past, but there you go.
Anyway...
____________________________________
The doors slid slowly closed, making a resonant tinny chime like the bell on the front desk to a sleazy motel, as the floor lurched and the readout blinked off. He felt his weight push down in his brown leather shoes and somewhere up above he heard the chime echoed, deeper but with a similar tone. He squinted slightly to see the readout as the glare from the overhead lights flickered on and off - flourescent white behind their yellowed and cracked plastic covers the lights gave off a sickly glow with a barely perceptible humming flicker - just random enough to avoid a rhythym and just perceptible enough to keep his subconscious edgy, looking for it.
The readout was blank, but a subtle red background glow suggested it wasn't broken, just between readouts.
Pulling at his brown-stripe tie, he jerked it back and forth to loosen it before working at the top neck button with his thumb and forefinger. He pulled the collar open and stretched his neck to ease some air down his shirt - the air itself held it's own peculiar feel though, certainly different from outside - a warm, oddly dry humidity with an aftertaste of electric heat, as if it had escaped from a hairdryer only to find itself locked in here with him.
He moved to take off his jacket and then froze as the floor lurched again and his weight slowly decreased. The readout glowed, glaring back at him with defiance.
His suit rustled softly as he straightened and slowly assumed a blank, zombie-like expression, staring through the doors into the middle distance.
It was a well practiced pose, one he'd seen a million times by a million faces, walking through the streets, lost in their own worlds and not wanting the intrusion of eye contact with anyone outside their personal, private space.
The doors slid open, grating slightly on some unseen metal snag and grinding through. A scraggly, grey-bearded man with ripped jeans, a denim waist-jacket and faded tattoos over his arms sauntered into the lift and seemingly without noticing him, turned his back and stabbed a button on the console.
It was ridiculous, he mused as they both waited for the doors to grind close. He spent his life doing good things for people, saving them from tragedy, helping them continue their lives with their loved ones, but he couldn't even greet a stranger. Take this guy right here - he could have saved this guy from a burning building for all he knew, and yet here they stood, barely acknowledging each others existence, both staring into the middle distance pondering some obscure aspect of their lives.
Well, the strangers life possibly.
Out of habit he scanned the guy. Nothing too dangerous, a small flick-knife, but it was a tough neighbourhood - unfair to assume the guy was bad news just by the way he dressed and a pig-sticker which could just as well be for protection as not. Besides, the guy smelt like beer and cigarrettes, not blood and fear. Funny that, even the bad ones - especially the bad ones, always smelt like fear, no matter the bravado they paraded in front of everyone else.
The lift stopped two floors up and the guy walked out, moving with a habitual certainty that made the remaining occupant realise the guy probably lived on this floor. The doors slid slowly closed again, chiming their satisfaction at a job well done.
He relaxed a little, his shoulders dropping slightly and his eyes coming to focus on the dull grey metal of the doors. Scratched with what was, to him, incomprehensible graffiti - he sometimes felt at a complete loss when it came to mankind. He never could feel too comfortable with people, sometimes their basic differences were just too great a chasm. Of course, there was one chasm he was willing to cross, (or at least investigate further he smirked to himself), which was, more or less, what he was planning on doing shortly. Just a quick stop by that apartment where he'd heard the muffled scream. The alley he'd been walking in had echoed it slightly but he'd managed to pinpoint the location without too much hassle. Not this building, but the one opposite, and higher, but this building's basement door had been open and convenient.
This lift sure wasn't though...sheesh. May as well undo a few more buttons - got plenty of time by the look of it.
He checked the readout as the top floor went past and looked through to the rooftop. He had a straight line from the lift to the edge of the roof - there was even a spot to stash his suit - there, in that vent. He shook his head slightly as he wondered at the number of suits he had lost. Last time he'd stashed it he'd come back to find a homeless guy standing there wearing it, his hands not even coming out the sleeves, and only the tips of the leather shoes sticking out the bottom of the pants, grinning like an idiot. Well, not like he wanted it after that anyway.
The chime sounded and was still resonating as he blurred through the half-open doors, the force of his passage dragging a current of wind and loose rubbish behind him. His coat and shirt seemingly dissolved in a picoseond, his pants and shoes morphing into something else as his hands blurred. The flickering nightscape roared into his horizon, close and bright as he reached the end of the roof, and as he launched himself off the edge into the flourescent-starred night of the city, he thought to himself, "I wonder what colour underwear Louis is wearing tonight?"
____________________________________
UW
Scuse the gap for the pic....
.
User Reviews
Submitted by UberWeiss (user info) at 2005-06-28 06:58:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
wait-wait, I've got a save - it's a parallel universe where Superman actually IS gay!
well, that was the point wasn't it? Incongruity.
UW
Submitted by UberWeiss (user info) at 2005-06-28 06:31:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
You see, that's what not doing research does for you....I frikkin' KNEW Louis was a guys name but for the life of me couldn't figure out I just had to drop the U...I was even thinking Louise which is further off although at least it's female. Short type on google would have sorted it...
Ah well, live an learn on uber :P
UW
Submitted by c1ndy (user info) at 2005-06-27 16:38:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
cool!
Submitted by DonkeyOnTheEdge (user info) at 2005-06-27 16:25:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I thought it was Martin Short.
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2005-06-27 14:43:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Kre8rix (user info) at 2005-06-27 12:47:19 (#)
Ranking: 1
Not bad dude, though this : "I wonder what colour underwear Louis is wearing tonight?"
_____
OMG SUPERMAN IS TEH GHEY
Submitted by Deidra (user info) at 2005-06-27 14:04:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Does Louis know you're thinking about his undies?
Submitted by simple_catalyst (user info) at 2005-06-27 13:02:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
No Comment
Submitted by Kre8rix (user info) at 2005-06-27 12:47:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Not bad dude, though this : "I wonder what colour underwear Louis is wearing tonight?"
Made me laugh.
A lot.
It's Lois...
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2005-06-27 12:36:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Is it Shlongy?
If not, I have no interest whatsoever.