The Faculty - written for 31_days

[prisca]

Title: Grab the chance
Characters: Casey Connor, Zeke Tyler
Prompt: isn't it better to try something even if it becomes a mess?
Words: 432
finished: 06.12.2019

:::

Curious Zeke glanced at the flyer at Casey's desk. The annual art exhibition in Columbus was still looking for young artists to show their work. Inwardly he smiled. It was about time that Casey did this step; his photos were much too good to hide them somewhere in his closet.

„I thought we could...“ Casey stepped into the room, pausing when he noticed the flyer in Zeke's hands. „Oh... that.“ He grabbed for it, tore it apart, and threw the crumbled pieces back on the desk. „Mr. Brown gave it to me.“

„Well, he thinks your work is excellent, and this exhibition could be a chance for you. Maybe you can find an interested sponsor who would pay for art school.“

Casey pulled his face. „More the opposite. A lot of world-famous photographers and critics will be there, who are working together with galleries in New York, Paris, or Madrid. I am taking photos for a school magazine, Zeke, and at my Grandma's birthday party. I am not making a fool out of myself.“

„I do like the photos you took of me.“

Casey blushed. „Wouldn't be a good idea to show them off, right?“

„Probably not.“ Zeke smiled. „But I don't think that you should throw this chance away. Even if it becomes a mess, that's much better than not to give it a try at least. A fail doesn't mean that you have to give up; it only means that you need to find out what went wrong.“

„ I don't know,“ Casey sighed, „if I would be able to move on after a devastating result.“

„Of course, you could. If not, you need to learn quickly. It will happen now and then, that someone doesn't like your photos and writes a harsh critic. So what. I am sure there are many others who love your work.

Every artist has to deal with this. Even someone like Dali.“

„Dali? His work is highly overrated.“

Zeke nodded in agreement. „Think about this for a minute. You don't like his pictures, but many other people pay a shitload of money for them. What would have been if Dali would have listened to a critic like yours, and he would have stopped painting?“

Casey laughed. "Really, Zeke, you can't compare this. My photos are not world-famous art."

"Not just yet. But I am sure even Dali had to start with the first unsure steps. He was not a famous artist from the beginning, and his way was stony sometimes. But he did not give up because he did believe in his dream. No matter what people told him.

You need to believe in your dreams too, and everything you want can happen."

Jeremiah (TV) - written for FFFC

[prisca]

Title: Family Photos
Characters: Kurdy Malloy, Mr. Smith
Prompt: nostalgic
Words: 552
finished: 15.12.2019

:::

Kurdy stopped at the doorway to Smith's room; he had never been here before. A place just for himself, this was something others at the Mountain could only dream about. But no one was willing to share the little privacy they all had with a weird guy like Smith.

Kurdy's eyes wandered to the small bed, accurately made; the old chair in front of the makeshift table and the box for clothes. It was not very different from the room he shared with Jeremiah. What aroused his curiosity was the shelf in the corner — full of photos and some other trivia stuff. Kurdy had never thought that Smith was so nostalgic. More the opposite; the little guy used to avoid every talk about the past, as if he was afraid of it.

Kurdy stepped closer. Obviously Smith had had a big family once. The photos showed older people, children of all ages, young couples. Birthday parties, weddings, Christmas, even a graduation ceremony. Between the pictures various little treasures, a wedding ring, some awards, an old, stuffed teddy bear.

„What are you doing here?“ Smith's voice was unusually harsh. „Who did let you in?“

Kurdy turned around, suddenly feeling a touch of guilt. Smith was right; he shouldn't be here, snooping around in such private stuff. „Sorry, the door to your room was open, so...“ He shrugged apologizing. „Markus did send me here to look after you. After all that happened yesterday, he is worried."

Smith stared at him with dark eyes. „I will get over it, as ever. It's not that I have much of a choice.“

"Yeah." Kurdy nodded, but then an idea crossed his mind. „These photos, your family... do you know what happened to them? You could ask Maskus; maybe he can find out.“

„You don't understand.“ Almost gently Smith's fingers caressed some of the photos; finally he grabbed for the stuffed teddy, pressing it at his chest. „All these people are so familiar to me, though I never met even one of them. I don't know their names and what kind of life they had had. But they are all that keeps me sane.“

Kurdy smirked slightly; okay, this was as mysterious as ever.

„No one can imagine how it feels, to live without any memories,“ Smith continued. „It almost killed me when I realized what God had done. He did erase every tiny bit of my past. 'The future is yours,' he told me, 'move on, and don't look back.' But I couldn't; I would never dare to rebel against him openly, but I decided to build up a new family. Pictures I discovered in abandoned houses, stuff I traded in for food or a blanket. Every night, when I am alone, I think of all the stories, connected with them. Who cares, if they are true, as long as they can give the feeling, to be not alone. At least in your dreams."

Kurdy's eyes wandered back to the photos on the shelf, and suddenly he felt deep pity for Smith. „Get it,“ he murmured.

The little guy put the teddy back onto its place and smiled sadly. „No, you don't. But that's okay. Being God's messenger is a very demanding job, and I am glad that you don't have to deal with all this mess.“

The Faculty (AU) - written for FFFC

[prisca]

Title: Loss
Characters: Casey Connor, Zeke Tyler
Prompts: stone - alone - laughing - house - candle (1 sentence per prompt)
Words: 174
finished: 15.12.2019

Author's note: This is an AU, where Zeke was living on the roads before Casey's grandfather offered him a place to stay on his farm

:::

Casey was sitting on the old stone bench in the backyard of his grandfather's farm. He needed to be alone for some time, to mourn about the only one who had always felt like his soulmate. So hard to believe that he was gone, and that life did go on as if nothing had happened; his parents and his uncle already made plans to sell the farm as soon as possible, and his stupid cousin was flirting and laughing with his girlfriend as if he was at a party.

Suddenly he felt a hand touching his shoulder gently:“ It's hard to endure in the house, huh, with all the people around who never were here when he could have needed their help.“

Casey turned around and met the hazelnut-brown eyes of Zeke, not sparkling as usual but sad, and he thought that maybe the young man was the only one who truly mourned about his grandfather; „I want to go back to the graveyard, lit a candle for him,“ Casey said,“ wanna join me?“