I'm...I'm all teary? At work? Like, wow. Seriously, I know you mentioned in an earlier post that you were afraid of it veering into original fic mode, but god, this reminds me of the stories I used to read in Asimov's, the good kind that deal with science fiction on a human level rather than a "gee whiz things FLY" one, and this is it. This is painfully, undeniably human. Tony, who can learn and become an expert on pretty much anything he puts his mind to, utterly fails at grief, and watching him struggle through the eyes of said failure really fricking kicks you in the gut.
Speaking of "you," god does the second-person narrative work so well here.
You stop frowning long enough to give him the wide, content smile that satisfies Tony, but it doesn't satisfy this man.
There's something so heartbreaking about that, about how she catalogues the world and the people in it only in terms of what pleases/doesn't please Tony.
--shit, staff meeting. I'll be back with epic "HEY WOW, YOU'RE KIND OF GOOD AT THIS WRITING THING" squee later, because oh, my gut is just in knots over this.
no subject
Jesus.
I'm...I'm all teary? At work? Like, wow. Seriously, I know you mentioned in an earlier post that you were afraid of it veering into original fic mode, but god, this reminds me of the stories I used to read in Asimov's, the good kind that deal with science fiction on a human level rather than a "gee whiz things FLY" one, and this is it. This is painfully, undeniably human. Tony, who can learn and become an expert on pretty much anything he puts his mind to, utterly fails at grief, and watching him struggle through the eyes of said failure really fricking kicks you in the gut.
Speaking of "you," god does the second-person narrative work so well here.
You stop frowning long enough to give him the wide, content smile that satisfies Tony, but it doesn't satisfy this man.
There's something so heartbreaking about that, about how she catalogues the world and the people in it only in terms of what pleases/doesn't please Tony.
--shit, staff meeting. I'll be back with epic "HEY WOW, YOU'RE KIND OF GOOD AT THIS WRITING THING" squee later, because oh, my gut is just in knots over this.