Challenge [095]

[lindskaba.livejournal.com]

Challenge: [095] Poison
Title: To Wake Her
Word Count: 546
Spoilers/Warnings: None.
Notes: Hi guys, I'm back ♥ Had a bunny that I just couldn't shake. Rather, crimsoncookie fed me one, and it just tasted so good (and I ate it up, fluffy tail and all).



“I’ve come to wake the Princess.”

“The Princess cannot be woken. She is dead.”

“She’s only sleeping. I’ve come to wake her.”

The sagacious dwarf fills the doorway well for someone of such small stature, his kindly face embittered with a furrowed brow and deep, dragging frown. “No one is allowed to see her. Now leave.”

As he moves to shut the door, The Prince thrusts his fist between it and the wooden frame, blocking its closure. “I know what I’m doing. Move.”

He pushes his way through the door and strides directly into the tiny house, leaving the flustered dwarf sputtering at the door.

Soon they’re all around him:

“What are you doing here?”

“He can’t be here!”

“Get out!”

“Leave us alone!”

“Go back where you came from!”

“Don’t let him near Snow White!”

The Prince ignores their pleas; he doesn’t hear them. He only hears the echo of his boots against the wood – until it falls away and he’s out in the glen, face to face with a glass coffin and his Princess asleep inside.

The dwarves fall suddenly quiet, huddled like frightened animals in the doorway behind him. The clearing is still. When the Prince steps forward, a dwarf breaks the group, flying at his calf with a strangled grunt and fists covered in fabric too long for his arms. The Prince hardly pauses, just long enough to shake the dwarf away into the grass with a quick jerk of his leg. His eyes, dark and stormy as an ocean, are fixed upon the coffin – so intensely that he does not notice the creatures that have gathered at the clearing’s outskirts, a collection of forest animals all staring at him with black eyes.

As soon as he reaches it, presses a gloved hand to its lid, he sees her, the porcelain doll inside. She can’t be more than fourteen, though she looks even younger. Pale face, pale hands, pale eyelids over eyes closed to the gathering dark above them: to the Prince, it’s like looking in a mirror – except for her striking red lips, red as an apple, as an apple dipped in blood.

He lifts the lid.

He knows what he must do; his orders were clear. The Princess must be woken. But now, staring down at a thing so young and pale and vulnerable, he suddenly doesn’t know what to do with his hands, or his legs, or the hair shifting stubborn into his eyes. The dwarves are watching; the woods are watching. In his chest, he can feel his heart pounding fast and dark and, staying his panicking breath, he lowers himself, slowly, to the porcelain princess –

and Riku gives her his first kiss.

Slowly, she opens her eyes.

They’re blue.

He blinks.

No – no. Brown. They’re brown.

Quickly, Snow White begins to breathe, little stunned gasps of air that whisper over Riku’s cheeks. Her chest, barely defined, rises up to his and back again, up and down with hesitant life. She’s staring at him with large bewildered eyes; behind them, he can see the birth of tears. “Are… are you my prince?”

He swallows, and for the first time tastes the poison in his mouth. “No.”

And with a burst of black, they’re gone.

Comments

[invisibledancer.livejournal.com]

I squeed when I read this, but you knew that already.
it's so bittersweet.
I love it! XD

[lindskaba.livejournal.com]

Your icon has even more implications when paired with this drabble than I realized before... XD I'M SO BAD.

:answers with icon of own:

[kangaroop.livejournal.com]

Wow! That was awesome! I can see this drabble as a missing scene from the first game.

Poor Snow White :(

And poor Riku too!

[lindskaba.livejournal.com]

XD Wheeee, that's totally what I was going for. And yeah, I like to torture poor Riku...and anyone near him. (Riku: ;_; wtf hor.) Thanks for the comment!

[euphonious-glow.livejournal.com]

I always wondered about how Riku "collected" all the princesses. Really well done. I like the bit about him thinking her eyes were blue for a moment, in reference to Kairi, the other Princess.

I like his short clipped reply to her asking if he was her prince. The poison was a nice touch. *applauds*

[lindskaba.livejournal.com]

Eee, thank you! ^^ I'm seriously thinking of exploring Riku the Princess Collector in a series of drabbles stemming off of this one, we'll see...

[fox_the_kitsune]

'Riku the Princess Collector'? XD

In a more serious light, that actually sounds like a good idea.

[thano.livejournal.com]

X33333 love. Ohhhhh love. A bit sacrilegious, a bit evil, all beautiful. =D Lovely, dear!

[lindskaba.livejournal.com]

XD The adjectives you used made me giggle.

[thano.livejournal.com]

=D I am an adverb whore, actually... Adjectives aren't my style. X3 Good stuff, this!

[lindskaba.livejournal.com]

♥ Thank youuu.

[i-got-spunk.livejournal.com]

Geeze Riku, you didn't have to use tongue.


Joke.



This is awesome!

[lindskaba.livejournal.com]

Riku just likes kissing dead girls too much.

♥

[tabitha-dornoc.livejournal.com]

(lj keeps eating my comments, waaah. If you get, like, fifty from me in your inbox I'm SORRY D:)

Oh oh oh. I'm just gonna type randomly on my keyboard for a moment. ALSjdtgakistdg!!!! Yes. If one could actually pronounce that, that's the sound I made.

What a come back. :) I mean, I thought it was awesome and wonderfully well-written at the beginning, when I assumed it was a retelling of Snow White and her prince. And then I got a little confused, because there's no way the prince would shove off Dopey like that. Then this line: He knows what he must do; his orders were clear. The Princess must be woken, had me in '... oh. Ohhhh. Oh no she didn't!' glee and SO MUCH LOVE!

I love that you don't use Riku's name till very close to the end, and when you do use it you tag it with 'Riku gives her his first kiss' which is somehow very heartbreaking and tragic in so few words. Which is, of course, the sign of lovely writing.

"Are you my prince?" "No." Gaaaaah.

I love fairy tales. I love fairy tales gone wrong. I love yooooou. *mems*

[lindskaba.livejournal.com]

(don't worry, I only got it once -- and I was so having that problem earlier, so flipping frustrating >_<)

:dances all around: I would like to have a recording of you making that sound XD And ah...thank you so much. Your comments are so...I dunno, the things you say here just make me feel really good at a time when I need to feel good about my writing ^^ So, thank you.

And yeah. I don't really know if I was especially into fairytales when I was younger, but something turned on in my mind when I grew up, and especially when I got into KH... And then miss crimsoncookie whispered into my ear and suddenly I was in the middle of a love affair XD

And I love you too ♥!!!

(and JUST when I diss lj for eating comments -- I mess up the html XD That's what I get. Sorry for posting this twice.)

[tabitha-dornoc.livejournal.com]

If you had a recording of that noise I'd have to slink off the internet in shameful embarassment. XP I heart comments I get from you, so it's nice to return the favour. It's amazing how someone's quick reply can make or break your day. *huggles*

Hah, I wasn't into fairy tales as a child either. Outside of Disney, I don't think we had any in the house. I was late teens before I became enchanted. Which might be a trend for upcoming generations, cause I don't think parents are really keeping fairytales on the shelves anymore. D:

[lindskaba.livejournal.com]

:snuggle back: It totally is ♥

And this is sadly true :( There is so much emphasis on children being integrated into the 'real world' as early as possible -- and so we get cartoons like Dora the freaking Explorer, which attempt to teach kids how to be adroit in the world... Which is of course, I think, important, but 1) cultivating a child's imagination is just as important as cultivating their skills, and 2) couldn't we do better than Dora the Explorer? I mean seriously... That show looks like it was written on crack >_

[lorei.livejournal.com]

You are...oh you're absolutely amazing.

Ummm- world choice! Snow White is excellent. I love how unsure Riku is, there, just before he kisses her. Because, he is just a kid and of course he doesn't know what to do, and that then seeing her being so..fragile..he feels guilty for it. The characterization there is perfect, perfect! And, I really like his observing her eye color, little details like that make me happy.

[lindskaba.livejournal.com]

Bwah! :giggle: Thank you so much for the lovely comment ♥

[fox_the_kitsune]

Poor Riku. You really feel for him here. I get the feeling that this whole situation feels both right and wrong for him. It feels right because he's doing it to help someone he cares for. It feels wrong to him when he notices Snow White's vulnerability and innocence. While I'm sure he'd prefer his first kiss to be with someone he truly loves, he's willing to sacrifice it to help someone he loves, if that makes any sense.

[lindskaba.livejournal.com]

Heh... Part of me adores your analysis because I adore Riku, but I feel like you may be giving him too much credit here. At this point in his maturity, my feelings are that...yes, while part of him is naturally inclined towards self-sacrifice for the sake of others, his main motive is not Kairi's wellbeing. It's his own...well, I guess I'll say pleasure? Pleasure by way of being better than Sora (or anyone else), and by being with Kairi -- and for that to happen, she has to be, you know, alive. :grin: That being said, I did aim for Riku to be tragic in this, and it makes me really happy you saw him that way :3 The tragic note for me is that he's doing something that is so incredibly misguided, and he's casting aside so much of himself -- in this case, something as innocent as his first kiss -- for a needless cause. :sigh: I love this boy so much.

And uh...now that I've completely rambled on about KH theory, thank you so much for the comment ♥

[syvia.livejournal.com]

XDD Bravo.

I love how the dwarves KNOW he's not supposed to be there. 'DANGER, DANGER Will Robinson!'

Poor Riku! *whibble~!*

XD I luff it~ I think someone's done each of them now. ^^ All the unexplained Princesses~ (I still maintain that Maleficent snatched Aurora herself.)

[lindskaba.livejournal.com]

:glee: Thank you :3

And yeeeeeah, when I first started writing it, I was gonna have the dwarves be all like You can wake up Snow White!?!?!? Srsly!?!?!? But I got two lines into it and said...um, no, definitely not. And then we got my usual angst-horiness.

And have they really? I've definitely seen a few drabbles about 'princess snatching' -- but I can't remember them off the top of my head... Got anything to rec to me? Cause I'm thinking of exploring the capture of the other princesses as well for myself, and it'd be nice to see what other people did, even if I've read it already.

(...and yeah, I'm thinking Maleficent might have killed anyone tried to steal Aurora in her place -- WHOOPS, you know, I was aiming for the princess, but it looks like I got your heart as well. Gotta watch out for those dark powers XD)

[syvia.livejournal.com]

http://community.livejournal.com/kh_drabble/459253.html Cinderella! XD

:3 They'd look at Riku- "Waaaaitaminute... you don't sound like the guy she used to sing about!"

I likes the angst~ XD

^^ Now that I think about it, I guess I haven't seen the specific details on the the others- we just know what probably happened~. But! Have a snippet from my own brain-

~~~

She screamed. "No! Unhand me- Aladdin- Sora!"

Jafar was gonna bite it and they'd be back upstairs any minute now. Maleficent had warned him not to be seen.

Jasmine had a very good set of lungs.

Riku panicked.

And punched her.

Maleficent gave him a raised eyebrow upon their arrival, but said nothing and applied a potion to the Princess' cheek.

~~~

(XD *lmao*)

[lindskaba.livejournal.com]

........BWAHAHAHAHAH AWESOME XD

This is awesome and morbid and hilarious and sad at the same time. It might become personal canon :giggle:

And that Cinderella story is lovely, I don't know why I didn't notice it before. I've been sort of awol from this community for awhile, so I guess that might be why... Thanks for rec'ing!

[emptybackpack.livejournal.com]

That. Was. Amazing. Staggeringly so! &hearts Fantastically cruel to all parties. Much (apparently slightly sadistic) love!

[lindskaba.livejournal.com]

♥ ♥ ♥ !!!

(and it's cool, i'm totally sadistic... we should start a club or something... (:<)

[technobubblegum.livejournal.com]

Nice twist.

[splatonthefloor.livejournal.com]

*applauds wildly*
AWESOME. You are officially an amazing person for writing this. Not only does it feature the oft neglected Snow White, but the narrative is perfect. I can't find a single thing wrong with this. Hands down, one of the best drabbles I've read in a long time.

And Dopey! I can't explain why, but imagining him running at Riku trying to protect her and being shaken off like he was nothing...He's so endearing, but seeing his valiant efforts being brushed off like that makes me really feel sorry for him. Poor little guy!

All in all, this is made of WIN. I love fics about the princesses, and especially about Riku collecting them. Are you going to make more? I sure hope so! Thanks so much!