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Entry tags:
[untitled request fic]
Fandom: Ib
Characters: Ib, Garry, Mary
Word count: ~700
Warnings: My ridiculous Garry bias???
Notes: EXTREMELY-VAGUE-APOCALYPSE AU.
...Wow, I, er, haven't posted anything here in a while, have I. Anyway, Kelli asked for the Ib cast on a road trip, and who am I to not take that in a weird direction?
Garry is a nervous driver, and Ib can tell that having Mary in the backseat makes it even worse. Mary laughs every time he swerves around an obstacle, and grins when he glances into the rear-view mirror and asks if everyone is all right.
“We’re okay, Garry,” says Ib, because he won’t stop checking until someone says so.
“You’re such a scaredy-cat,” Mary says cheerfully, kicking her shoes against the front seat. This is why Ib sits behind Garry and Mary has to stay on the passenger side.
(The front seat isn’t safe for kids, he says, so they humor him. Ib gets the impression he doesn’t think the front seat is safe for Garrys, either, but he’s the only one who can drive. Ib tried once. Her feet didn’t reach the pedals. When Garry saw her, he got so scared he almost cried - something she’d never known adults could even do - and hauled her out of the car and made her promise never to do it again. She’d only been trying to help.)
“Who wants to play a game?” says Mary. No one answers. She peers out the window. “I’ll go first. I spy something… hmmm… red.” She leans over and pokes Ib. “What do you think it is?”
Before Ib can answer, Garry says, just above a whisper, “The sky.”
Mary laughs again. “Don’t be silly! I was talking about Ib’s scarf. I was only looking out the window to try to trick you.”
“And the sky isn’t red,” says Ib.
There’s a long silence. “No,” says Garry. “Of course not.”
Mary doesn’t sleep. Mary never sleeps. “Am I supposed to?” she asked, the first time they noticed. Garry looked startled, mumbled something, and walked away. Ib only shrugged.
Ib is supposed to sleep, though. She remembers she used to do it almost every day. And she’s pretty sure Garry is, too. But no one does.
There used to be stars in this sky, she thinks. Or maybe that was only a story her parents told her. It’s hard to tell now. She hasn’t seen her parents since the day things changed. But she did used to have parents. And sometimes she thinks Mary wasn’t always her sister, either.
“I’m so glad we’re all going on an adventure together,” says Mary, and starts singing a song.
Ib finds a newspaper, and she and Mary huddle over it in the back while Garry (nervously) drives through town looking for supplies. There are a lot of words neither of them understand, so at their next stop, Ib hands it to Garry.
She points at the headline. “What does that mean?”
His face turns gray. “Um… why don’t you just do the Sudoku or something? That’s nothing you need to worry about. It’ll all be all right once we make it to the coast.”
It doesn’t matter. She may not understand the first half of the headline, but she can read the part right under the fold, where it says “thousands dead.”
“This is a boring game,” Mary says a few miles down the road, and throws the paper out the window. “Ib, I made up a new one. Close your eyes and think of a number!”
Mary is going through an abandoned department store looking for matching dresses for her and her favorite sister. She doesn’t seem to need much input from Ib. So Ib says she’ll be right back and goes outside, where Garry is standing under the one working streetlight they’ve seen all day.
He barely, just barely, recognizes her in time to avoid screaming. “Oh, Ib,” he says. “You startled me. Is Mary…?”
“Inside.”
“Good.” He sighs. “Listen. I know it would be wrong to leave another person behind. We won’t do anything without proof. But I think she’s connected somehow to the…” He makes a wide helpless gesture. “To them.”
“The deer?” says Ib.
Garry’s face goes blank, and then he smiles, the crooked and terrible kind of smile that looks like it’s held on with staples. “Y-yeah. That’s right, Ib. The deer.”
“That explains it.”
“Explains what?”
Ib points. Pouring down the streets behind him in the last fading sunlight, their antlers like a forest in winter, is a stampede.
Characters: Ib, Garry, Mary
Word count: ~700
Warnings: My ridiculous Garry bias???
Notes: EXTREMELY-VAGUE-APOCALYPSE AU.
...Wow, I, er, haven't posted anything here in a while, have I. Anyway, Kelli asked for the Ib cast on a road trip, and who am I to not take that in a weird direction?
Garry is a nervous driver, and Ib can tell that having Mary in the backseat makes it even worse. Mary laughs every time he swerves around an obstacle, and grins when he glances into the rear-view mirror and asks if everyone is all right.
“We’re okay, Garry,” says Ib, because he won’t stop checking until someone says so.
“You’re such a scaredy-cat,” Mary says cheerfully, kicking her shoes against the front seat. This is why Ib sits behind Garry and Mary has to stay on the passenger side.
(The front seat isn’t safe for kids, he says, so they humor him. Ib gets the impression he doesn’t think the front seat is safe for Garrys, either, but he’s the only one who can drive. Ib tried once. Her feet didn’t reach the pedals. When Garry saw her, he got so scared he almost cried - something she’d never known adults could even do - and hauled her out of the car and made her promise never to do it again. She’d only been trying to help.)
“Who wants to play a game?” says Mary. No one answers. She peers out the window. “I’ll go first. I spy something… hmmm… red.” She leans over and pokes Ib. “What do you think it is?”
Before Ib can answer, Garry says, just above a whisper, “The sky.”
Mary laughs again. “Don’t be silly! I was talking about Ib’s scarf. I was only looking out the window to try to trick you.”
“And the sky isn’t red,” says Ib.
There’s a long silence. “No,” says Garry. “Of course not.”
Mary doesn’t sleep. Mary never sleeps. “Am I supposed to?” she asked, the first time they noticed. Garry looked startled, mumbled something, and walked away. Ib only shrugged.
Ib is supposed to sleep, though. She remembers she used to do it almost every day. And she’s pretty sure Garry is, too. But no one does.
There used to be stars in this sky, she thinks. Or maybe that was only a story her parents told her. It’s hard to tell now. She hasn’t seen her parents since the day things changed. But she did used to have parents. And sometimes she thinks Mary wasn’t always her sister, either.
“I’m so glad we’re all going on an adventure together,” says Mary, and starts singing a song.
Ib finds a newspaper, and she and Mary huddle over it in the back while Garry (nervously) drives through town looking for supplies. There are a lot of words neither of them understand, so at their next stop, Ib hands it to Garry.
She points at the headline. “What does that mean?”
His face turns gray. “Um… why don’t you just do the Sudoku or something? That’s nothing you need to worry about. It’ll all be all right once we make it to the coast.”
It doesn’t matter. She may not understand the first half of the headline, but she can read the part right under the fold, where it says “thousands dead.”
“This is a boring game,” Mary says a few miles down the road, and throws the paper out the window. “Ib, I made up a new one. Close your eyes and think of a number!”
Mary is going through an abandoned department store looking for matching dresses for her and her favorite sister. She doesn’t seem to need much input from Ib. So Ib says she’ll be right back and goes outside, where Garry is standing under the one working streetlight they’ve seen all day.
He barely, just barely, recognizes her in time to avoid screaming. “Oh, Ib,” he says. “You startled me. Is Mary…?”
“Inside.”
“Good.” He sighs. “Listen. I know it would be wrong to leave another person behind. We won’t do anything without proof. But I think she’s connected somehow to the…” He makes a wide helpless gesture. “To them.”
“The deer?” says Ib.
Garry’s face goes blank, and then he smiles, the crooked and terrible kind of smile that looks like it’s held on with staples. “Y-yeah. That’s right, Ib. The deer.”
“That explains it.”
“Explains what?”
Ib points. Pouring down the streets behind him in the last fading sunlight, their antlers like a forest in winter, is a stampede.