(#1) Mariposa [The Long Goodbye (1973)]
Jul. 11th, 2023 04:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gloss posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
tinyfandomflashTitle: Mariposa
Author:gloss
Fandom: The Long Goodbye (1973)
Rating: Teen
Category: Gen
Character(s): Philip Marlowe
Word Count: 200
Spoiler: vague
Summary: Marlowe slips the bonds of genre.
Notes/Warnings: none
A creature of deduction, he'd spent his life, his entire precious existence, trusting in the necessary triumph of logic. Asking questions, looking for answers, expecting solutions: do it long enough, do it right, and eventually there would be enough facts, arranged in the correct order, to close the case. All would be well then — distress resolved, justice served, chaos cleansed.
In Malibu, the mystery itself remained obscure. It wasn't clear who was the aggressor, who was the victim. The surf ate chunks out of the coast; the land invaded the water. Marlowe saw it one way, then the other. The answer never arrived; there was no conclusion beyond the fact of persisting conflict.
The spray broke cold on his face; he'd plunged after Wade, only to surface empty-handed. He was trapped in logic's constraints, immobilized, increasingly tormented.
Then, in Mexico, his sweat was bloodwarm, down his temples, across his back. There was no sense but what he made, with his hand, his mouth. He danced off the surface of the Earth, leaving questions of guilt and love below, unanswered now, and insignificant.
He rose, a butterfly, transformed.
Mariposas, they were called down here. Newly aloft, a new tune in a new tongue.
Author:
glossFandom: The Long Goodbye (1973)
Rating: Teen
Category: Gen
Character(s): Philip Marlowe
Word Count: 200
Spoiler: vague
Summary: Marlowe slips the bonds of genre.
Notes/Warnings: none
A creature of deduction, he'd spent his life, his entire precious existence, trusting in the necessary triumph of logic. Asking questions, looking for answers, expecting solutions: do it long enough, do it right, and eventually there would be enough facts, arranged in the correct order, to close the case. All would be well then — distress resolved, justice served, chaos cleansed.
In Malibu, the mystery itself remained obscure. It wasn't clear who was the aggressor, who was the victim. The surf ate chunks out of the coast; the land invaded the water. Marlowe saw it one way, then the other. The answer never arrived; there was no conclusion beyond the fact of persisting conflict.
The spray broke cold on his face; he'd plunged after Wade, only to surface empty-handed. He was trapped in logic's constraints, immobilized, increasingly tormented.
Then, in Mexico, his sweat was bloodwarm, down his temples, across his back. There was no sense but what he made, with his hand, his mouth. He danced off the surface of the Earth, leaving questions of guilt and love below, unanswered now, and insignificant.
He rose, a butterfly, transformed.
Mariposas, they were called down here. Newly aloft, a new tune in a new tongue.
no subject
Date: 2023-07-13 05:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-07-13 01:43 pm (UTC)