Sophinisba Solis (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophinisba) wrote2007-02-03 07:44 pm
sophinisba) wrote2007-02-03 07:44 pm
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Pan's Labyrinth ficlet: Clean Up This Mess
I wrote a set of three drabbles for Pan's Labyrinth, which I saw this afternoon! Friends, please do not read these if you haven't seen the movie! They have big SPOILERS and won't make sense to you if you haven't seen it anyway. (They might also have errors, which you should tell me about. I have only seen the movie the one time.)
Go see the movie though and then come back! :D
[ETA: read the remix drabbles!
of part 2: The Mandrake's Tale by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lady_smith
of part 3: Invictus. bytinheart]
Clean Up This Mess
1.
Carmen told her to burn the dress. The stains on the slip are actually worse – not just mud but a sticky slime Mercedes doesn't even recognize – but it's salvageable. Ofelia will have a new dress, if not as fancy as the one she's ruined, and no one will be able to tell she's not quite clean underneath.
Mercedes scrubs at the rough cloth and thinks what her mother would have done if she'd ruined such a fine dress at that age. But then, Mercedes never had a dress like that one. She never had dreams of escaping like some fairy princess either.
2.
The Captain told her to clean up the mess, after he had his soldiers take away the body. Mercedes kneels to light a fire in the empty room, but something catches her eye among the dead grey cinders.
"That's mandragora," Jacinta says later when Mercedes carries it downstairs, wrapped in the bloody sheets. "Selfish, stubborn thing. It saves itself and lets everything else burn... and lets you and me clean up after. It has its uses though. Grind it up, and take the powder with you when you go. And go soon, child. It's not safe for you here anymore."
3.
Pedro told her to take the baby and follow Javier, and reach the border before sunrise. But Mercedes won't leave until they've buried the girl. He helps her dig to make it go faster.
He calls it a victory for the Republic.
"There is no Republic anymore," says Mercedes. "There's just bodies and blood."
"And you never liked blood..."
"I don't mind getting my hands dirty if I know there's a good reason for it."
The grave is deep enough now and the baby is crying, but once Mercedes picks Ofelia up again she can't stand to let her go.
Go see the movie though and then come back! :D
[ETA: read the remix drabbles!
of part 2: The Mandrake's Tale by
lady_smithof part 3: Invictus. by
tinheart]Clean Up This Mess
1.
Carmen told her to burn the dress. The stains on the slip are actually worse – not just mud but a sticky slime Mercedes doesn't even recognize – but it's salvageable. Ofelia will have a new dress, if not as fancy as the one she's ruined, and no one will be able to tell she's not quite clean underneath.
Mercedes scrubs at the rough cloth and thinks what her mother would have done if she'd ruined such a fine dress at that age. But then, Mercedes never had a dress like that one. She never had dreams of escaping like some fairy princess either.
2.
The Captain told her to clean up the mess, after he had his soldiers take away the body. Mercedes kneels to light a fire in the empty room, but something catches her eye among the dead grey cinders.
"That's mandragora," Jacinta says later when Mercedes carries it downstairs, wrapped in the bloody sheets. "Selfish, stubborn thing. It saves itself and lets everything else burn... and lets you and me clean up after. It has its uses though. Grind it up, and take the powder with you when you go. And go soon, child. It's not safe for you here anymore."
3.
Pedro told her to take the baby and follow Javier, and reach the border before sunrise. But Mercedes won't leave until they've buried the girl. He helps her dig to make it go faster.
He calls it a victory for the Republic.
"There is no Republic anymore," says Mercedes. "There's just bodies and blood."
"And you never liked blood..."
"I don't mind getting my hands dirty if I know there's a good reason for it."
The grave is deep enough now and the baby is crying, but once Mercedes picks Ofelia up again she can't stand to let her go.