(no subject)

[calime]

Mininano-ing? Drabbling? Ficlet-ing? Hmm, that sounds like ... bloodletting. Might be also healthy if not taken to extremes.
Ok, to the point. I seem to recall I had one. Ah, yes.

Fandom: Highlander
Characters: Kronos
Disclaimer: Not mine, if recognizable.
100 words
Notes:Inspired by highlander100 challenge "Chaos and Order"

Tied down, immobile, the blindfold the final touch sending him tumbling out of himself, through the churning panic, twisting, into the chaos.

For an infinite moment there’s only the power-laden swirling nothingness. He’s devoured, unravelled, consumed in it. Lost, suffocated, trapped.

Then the pain comes, a glorious, brilliant thread, gathering him together. Raising him high on the waves, to ride the surging chaos. Up, to reach the apex, poised for one shimmering second before coming crashing down.

Down in jumbled pieces, an endless fall... Caught, steadied by familiar hands, restored to reality and order, shaking. Safe. Until the next ride.

Comments

[mmapmaker.livejournal.com]

Ordinarily I prefer sending feedback of this detail in email because I think such a thing is private. But I've got RL issues and the choice was leave fb here or send none at all, and this piece made me think too darn much to say nothing. So here it is. -g-

Thank you so very much for explaining your thoughts! I agreed with you about the subject so obviously being Kronos. Until I read one word. "Safe." Such a little word to make me think so hard, but there you are. -g- I don't think Kronos ever feels *safe*. Which isn't to say he doesn't feel fear -- he does, but not the level that feels safe when it's over and he's comforted. *Done* maybe, but not safe. Because your story reads that he does this ritual again and again and again, that he needs it. And my take on the psychopath that is Kronos, is yes, he would do this, yes, he would allow himself to feel fear, and yes, he would feel relief of some sort when it was over, but what would that relief be? To me it was "Done", to you to was "Safe." That's why I initially thought the subject of the piece was not Kronos but someone else.

Along those lines, since you've written that Kronos does this, needs this, more than once, I think he'd find someone to trust long enough to play torturer for him. Whether that's for a month, a year, 10 years.... But I also believe he'd kill that torturer, because he doesn't trust that person enough. And also, for not being Methos, once he knows Methos exists, and doing this for him. But for a long time Kronos thought Methos was dead. If he needed this therapy so much, would he have done without during those 1000's of years while he was without Methos' company?

And you're absolutely right, had you specified the second player in the character list, *everyone* would have put Kronos in the position of the torturer. But that wasn't your vision, and you had to write to your vision. I think you were very clever indeed to leave the character list as you did, and to not use any names in the story. It really worked for me, and I can't thank you enough for the experience.

Best regards,

Susan