Gothique's Story - Prologue

Here's my offering on the altar of the ATS story. I've read all the other stories and hope not to make too many gaffes. If I do, you can put it down to artistic licence
I hope you like it but if not you can blame DE, it was his idea that I write it in the first place


Gothique's Story - Prologue

My name is Allison, also known at various times as Allie (by 'cutesy' old friends), Dracula's Daughter (by newer friends - don't ask) and 'that bitch' (by the popular set from school who I still bump into occasionally). People from ATS know me as Gothique, which I think is a nice Byronic name. Talking of Byron, I don't much care for his work but his lifestyle was just awesome. Yes, I know its a buffyesque word to use, particularly since I'm in my early twenties going on three hundred (Its a goth thing), but thats just what I'm like. Anachronistic and serious one minute, girly and definitely twenty-first century the next. But maybe that's Rose's fault.

Rose is my best friend. Yes, I know its strange to have a best friend who lives thousands of miles from you, but thats just my contrary nature. Everyone else I know has at least one friend no less than five miles away who they can call at any time of the day to talk to, complain to and cry on the shoulder of. Not me. Yes, I've got friends, but none like Rose.
I've known her since I was at school. She came over on one of those cultural exchange things they liked to talk about at the time. She was from Los Angeles and staying with another girl in the class, Emma Pettifogger who was one of the popular set I mentioned earlier.
Rose was tall and willowy with soft curls in her light brown hair. I was average height, average weight and had long dark brown hair bordering on black. Rose was giggly, I was serious. We didn't look to have much in common but she seemed nice enough, which was more than could be said about Emma.

Emma's father was a local politician with big ambitions. He was arrogant, selfish and ignorant of anything outside his own sphere of influence. He took his family (wife, two daughters and baby son) to church every sunday evening (to be seen) and to church outings (for the same reason). Emma took after her father. She was just as arrogant and selfish and like the rest of the family, spoke perfect queen's English. She looked down upon anyone with a 'lesser' accent and I was targeted right at the beginning because of my soft South Welsh dialect. One day I had been treated particularly badly by Emma who was showing off in front of Rose. I hated the both of them then and stormed off to sit alone against a tree, all the time trying to control my fiery Welsh temper. A few minutes later Rose came walking over, for once without Emma hanging around. She sat down beside me, earning herself a particularly withering glance, then burst into tears.

It turned out that she hated being here so far from her home and that she thought everyone saw her as some kind of freak. That was Emma's fault of course because she dragged Rose around everywhere like some kind of exhibit. "This is Rose, she's an American". A bit like saying "She's a martian" or something like that.
It turned out that we had more in common than I thought. From that time on until Rose went back to the States a month later we were inseperable, and that is how things are now. We wrote to each other every week, phoned once a month and every now and then would holiday together, usually in England or L.A. (although we did go to New York once, which was a trip). When the internet took off we were able to email each other and later discovered Instant Messenger, although the time difference did cause a few problems. We shared the ups (Rose's new job, my almost-new car) the downs (Rose breaking her leg, my divorce) and everything in between. I mellowed out a bit under Rose's tutelage and started letting out my inner child, while Rose realised that there were people out there who liked her for reasons other than her looks.

We did have a lot of things in common but one thing we didn't see eye-to-eye with each other was concerning what the media like to call 'Current affairs'. Rose couldn't even tell me the name of the Vice-President of America, let alone who ran England. I, on the other hand, was fascinated to watch the Machevellian machinations and power struggles of various Governments and political parties. And of course with politics comes cover-ups and conspiracies, which eventually led me to find ATS. Rose found the whole thing tedious, and the only current affairs she was interested in were who J-Lo was dating and who would be Tom Cruise's new belle. Thats not to say she was the brunette version of a dumb-blonde, she certainly wasn't that. Its just that she thought that no matter who we voted for, we would always get some self-obsessed jerk on the take. She was right of course as recent events have proved, but even I didn't expect what happened just a few short months ago.


OK, what do you think ? Should I carry on or consign it to the dustbin of history ?
Please be honest. You won't hurt my feelings (although if you do, I'll enter your dreams and give you nightmares

)

G

[Edited on 28-3-2004 by Gothique]

carry on...carry on... you left me hanging for more

I know its not as action packed as the others, but It will get better - I promise

Sets the mood rather well. Good stuff. keep writing...you've got a lot fo catching up to do! Iw ant to see how rose fits in too...

DE

This is a pretty good start.
Dracula's Daughter ? ... nice friends you have

Don't forget to update the story thread here

[Edited on 28-3-2004 by Pisky]

Very nice start. As you can see from the posts, we all knew you could do it.

A great start, Gothique! Looks like the beginnings of a worthy addition to the ATS story threads we have going.

You're giving us what we need to better understand the character (based on you, of course), just like I started out with my own ramblings.

Welcome to the club!