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crack_van2006-11-12 01:33 pm
lydia-petze.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2006-11-12 01:33 pm
Like It Was The End Of The World by Bartleby (PG)
Fandom: U2
Pairing: Larry Mullen, Jr/The Mermaid, Larry Mullen, Jr/Adam Clayton
Author on LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bartle_by
Author Website: Love Is Blindness
Why this must be read:
U2 fandom kicks up a considerable number of AU fics, and this one is quietly remarkable among that genre. It's very well-known and is often just referred to as "the mermaid fic". Bartleby's story is rare in that it is based within the universe of a music video, this one for their slightly surreal, haunting song, Electrical Storm, which features Larry having a short yet intense romance with a mermaid. Bartleby's taken it a step further - something's happened, something which ended the world as we know it, and none of the few scattered survivors is sure exactly what it was, what their lives used to be like or even who they are. Larry and the mermaid get along quite well, in a lonely sort of a way, until one day a strange, lost-looking man shows up on the beach, and Larry starts to remember.
This is a short piece, but all the more remarkable for that. Bartleby, obviously inspired by the video, has managed to inject a great deal of mood into the story, and the overall impression is one of sadness and loss, although unfocused, because nobody is really sure what he is sad about, or what he has lost.
There was a stranger on his beach one morning, a man with tattered sandals and dressed in white linen who sat staring moodily out at the ocean. His thin face was weary and gaunt and his eyes lost as though he searched for something he never believed he'd find. He paused and took a glance backwards at the aqueducts, pushed his glasses up his nose and was moving to leave when Larry called out to him.
"Hey, to the beach!"
The man jerked as one out of sleep and glanced in the direction of Larry's voice. "Hello!" He called, waving at Larry's approaching figure. His voice was hoarse from not being used and as Larry got closer, the man's features resolved themselves into something Larry knew.
"You." He said softly, reaching up to pull away the pair of wire frame glasses obscuring blue eyes.
"Adam." The man corrected, gently pushing Larry's hands away from his face. "And you."
"Larry."
Adam pulled a worn and folded piece of paper out of a canvas bag he carried at his side and pressed it into Larry's fingers. Three pictures, silver on the back, full color on the front and Larry's own scowling face, vibrantly yellow in the center.
"Have you found the others?" Adam shook his head. "How long?"
"I don't know."
"I guess it doesn't matter."
"No."
They were weirdly silent for a moment, so much to catch up on and not enough words or ways to get it all out. Larry turned away first; trudging through the deep sand towards the aqueducts. He didn't glance back, he knew Adam would follow.
Like It Was the End of the World
Pairing: Larry Mullen, Jr/The Mermaid, Larry Mullen, Jr/Adam Clayton
Author on LJ:
bartle_byAuthor Website: Love Is Blindness
Why this must be read:
U2 fandom kicks up a considerable number of AU fics, and this one is quietly remarkable among that genre. It's very well-known and is often just referred to as "the mermaid fic". Bartleby's story is rare in that it is based within the universe of a music video, this one for their slightly surreal, haunting song, Electrical Storm, which features Larry having a short yet intense romance with a mermaid. Bartleby's taken it a step further - something's happened, something which ended the world as we know it, and none of the few scattered survivors is sure exactly what it was, what their lives used to be like or even who they are. Larry and the mermaid get along quite well, in a lonely sort of a way, until one day a strange, lost-looking man shows up on the beach, and Larry starts to remember.
This is a short piece, but all the more remarkable for that. Bartleby, obviously inspired by the video, has managed to inject a great deal of mood into the story, and the overall impression is one of sadness and loss, although unfocused, because nobody is really sure what he is sad about, or what he has lost.
There was a stranger on his beach one morning, a man with tattered sandals and dressed in white linen who sat staring moodily out at the ocean. His thin face was weary and gaunt and his eyes lost as though he searched for something he never believed he'd find. He paused and took a glance backwards at the aqueducts, pushed his glasses up his nose and was moving to leave when Larry called out to him.
"Hey, to the beach!"
The man jerked as one out of sleep and glanced in the direction of Larry's voice. "Hello!" He called, waving at Larry's approaching figure. His voice was hoarse from not being used and as Larry got closer, the man's features resolved themselves into something Larry knew.
"You." He said softly, reaching up to pull away the pair of wire frame glasses obscuring blue eyes.
"Adam." The man corrected, gently pushing Larry's hands away from his face. "And you."
"Larry."
Adam pulled a worn and folded piece of paper out of a canvas bag he carried at his side and pressed it into Larry's fingers. Three pictures, silver on the back, full color on the front and Larry's own scowling face, vibrantly yellow in the center.
"Have you found the others?" Adam shook his head. "How long?"
"I don't know."
"I guess it doesn't matter."
"No."
They were weirdly silent for a moment, so much to catch up on and not enough words or ways to get it all out. Larry turned away first; trudging through the deep sand towards the aqueducts. He didn't glance back, he knew Adam would follow.
Like It Was the End of the World
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