You know I considered to stop writing for this fandom, but lo and behold I find this sitting around collecting dust on my server. So I've split what I've got into parts and putthe first bit up. Can't be bothered to do the rest today, I have English Language, Drama and Chemistry exams tomorow and I need to get my skiving butt down to some revision. Oh yeah, the voices at the begining... they're Noodles predicessors, all them little, Japenese children, knocked off by the government, she's the last one to go and she feels what they felt.
This was based of I play I saw once called Can I Be Frank.
Gorillaz (c) Gorillaz.
Can I Be Frank (c) My drama teacher and his mate (good actors, I won't ever be).
"Where am I?"
"Hello."
"Who's that."
"I want to go home."
"I'm scared."
"Is this limbo? Or hell?"
"I don't want to go to hell, I've been good."
"Hell's not real, adults just want to scare you."
"Am I dead!"
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"Am I dead!"
The last voice ran shrill and clear in Noodle's head as she opened her eyes. Everything spun dizzily around her head for a few moments, then settled back into place. She looked down first, to find herself on what looked like a hospital bed with white sheets and blankets, she was still wearing the same clothes, but her boots were propped against the metal bed-leg. Then Noodle's eyes went to the floor, it was made of wood but painted white. Noodle looked to the walls, but she couldn't quite make out if there were any or not, the white just seemed to fade off into the distance. A little way off she could see the back of a dressing table.
Noodle pulled off the warm sheets, which felt as though they were made of air, and slid out the bed. She padded across the floor, and she had the strange sensation of walking along clouds. When she reached the dresser she peeped around it, Noodle jumped back, unable to believe her eyes. She had another look to make sure, because even though this man's skin was coal black, much darker than Russel's, she was sure he was...
"Del?"
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"Del?"
The man turned around and got the shock of his life, or after-life, when he saw who was standing there.
"Noodle? What the hell are you doing here? You weren't due for another 70 years at least!"
Noodle sat down on a chair, and looked Del up and down before answering.
"Where am I?"
"Your speaking English! How'd you learn so quick?"
Noodle sighed.
"I could tell you how to reprogram a Game Boy in Zulu, while speaking Cornish if you wanted me to."
Del gaped.
"I'd rather not, girl, if it's all the same to you."
"You look so funny, it's been too long Del, I've missed you."
"You too, girl."
"So where am I?"
"You're dead, in the after-life."
"Then to be honest, I don't really know what I'm doing here."
Each found that they had nothing to say and so they sat in happy silence for awhile.
"You wanna see the newspaper, it's got a bit on ya."
Del reached over to the dressing table and grabbed a tabloid, and tossed it to Noodle. She read through it with slight disgust, she concluded that the writer was an idiot, as such phrases as "Too young" and "Didn't understand herself" and "Will be missed terribly", "Over what," she thought, "oh yeah, I was famous, but they'd be more upset if all four Backstreet Boys popped their clogs. Erhhh!". Not one word of the message she had tried to get out to the public.
"They can all suffer in misery then." She slumped in her chair, her folded arms brought up to her chin, the newspaper hanging loosely from one hand.
"Who can, Noods?"
Noodle looked at Del in surprise.
"I forgot you were there." She said bluntly.
"Much appreciated. Drink?"
Noodle looked at him in disgust.
"Don't touch the stuff." She muttered.
"Shame."
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KRASSHH!
Del woke up with a sudden start. Groggily getting off his arse he went to look for what was causing the commotion, mentally noting that Noodle wasn't anywhere in sight.
"Noodle, what you doing?" He called.
He had to go quite a way before he found her, kicking and screaming, trying to break down the invisible walls that held her back. Until she fell back beaten, sobbing and cursing. Del went down and hugged her. Noodle clawed at his shirt, her head on his neck. After a bit she calmed down.
"I wanted to go h-home."
Del hugged her harder.
"I'm sorry, but there's no way home, that's why I think you should have a drink, death's always better when you're drunk."
"No."
"Oh well."
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"Del?" Noodle asked a few hours (days?) later. She was sitting cross legged on her chair playing with a bit of string she had found in her pocket. She wound it around her finger, until her finger turned purple, then she would unwind it, smiling as she felt the rush of blood flowing back. Del it seemed had produced some chips from somewhere, along with some ketchup, and was now shoving the soggy fast food into the sauce like there was no tomorrow, not that it would have mattered, him being dead and all.
"Yeah, girl?"
"Is there a way to watch over people, you know, like dead people do?"
"Yeah, what do ya think I've been doing all this time."
"So how do you do it?"
"You need a surface..."
"Like this mirror?" Noodle pointed to the dressing table.
"Yeah, like that mirror, then focus your brainpower onto a certain area and a certain person, like Kong and Russel, maybe." Del gave a hopeful smile.
"Right, let's try it, then." Noodle said, choosing to ignore him.
She stared at the mirror, then closed her eyes, she filled her head with an image of Kong Studios. 2D, 2D, I want to see 2D, please. Noodle focused this request at the mirror. The Del's voice drifted across her mind.
"That's it, you can open your eyes now."
Noodle looked to see that instead of seeing her reflection, she was looking into the studio kitchen where 2D and Murdoc were sitting stiffly on the sofa, they were staring at the telly but not really looking at it. They looked as if they were making a desperate attempt to get something off their minds and failing miserably. Russel came in, his lips moved, but no sound came out, it looked as if Noodle could look into her companions lives, but not hear in. Fortunately her training had covered lip reading.
"Tree's ready, guys." Russel said.
"'Ere, mate, get up." And, to Noodle's surprise, Murdoc offered his hand to the limp 2D, pulling him up, turning of the telly with the remote at the same time.
The three men trooped into the corridor and through Kong. Noodle could see that each was dressed in their best clothes, Murdoc looked vaguely clean, something she had constantly pestered him about. By now they had reached a patch of land Noodle remembered taming into something resembling a garden, but now there was a wall around the area of green grass and colourful, eastern flowers. There was also a young oak, looking newly planted, in the middle, this was where Russel, 2D and Murdoc now gathered.
Russel was carrying a deep red, terracotta urn. He held it in front of him and muttered something, Noodle had to strain her eyes to make it out.
"Well Noodle, I guess this is goodbye. Now it comes down to it I haven't got anything to say, my mind is blank. I'm glad you were alive Noodle, even for the short time it was. For a good time in Brooklyn I missed out on a childhood, you know why, and somehow you seemed to give me it back. When I came here, I haven't told anyone, but I was badly homesick for America, but having you to look after made me push the homesickness away, eventually to be forgotten. So Goodbye, baby girl."
Russel passed the urn onto Murdoc, then turned his head away, but not before Noodle caught sight of some tears. Murdoc patted the urn, absentmindedly, on the lid, like he used to do with Noodle, except Noodle didn't have a lid, but it was as close to a head as he was going to get. He looked a bit out of it.
"Well, Noods, looks like this is goodbye. Oh yeah, I got ya something. Seemed fitting." And Murdoc reached into his pocket and produced a piece of wood about the size of his palm, Noodle focused in and she saw that the wood said 'FROM JAPAN' printed on it in blue. "You came to us in the FedEx crate, so it seemed right to send you off with a bit of it." He explained, Noodle found she was crying. Murdoc put the wood at the foot of the tree and handed the urn over to 2D.
"Is this really Noodle?" 2D asked, looking confused.
"Yes, 2D, that really is Noodle." Ruusel said, he had an expression of immense pain as he said it.
"She hasn't really gone, has she?" 2D frantically tried to reassure himself, looking about as if Noodle might pop out at any moment, smiling and giggling like she always was.
"Yes she has, dullard, she's gone, she's dead, she's popped her clogs, kicked the bloody bucket! Stop all these stupid, stupid questions and just say goodbye, already!" Murdoc ran out of the garden, his breathing heavy.
Russel looked towards 2D, who was hugging the urn and starting to cry.
"'D...?" Russel walked towards the singer.
"Noodle..., she's..."
"Muds was just upset,... I'll -um- leave you to say goodbye."
2D watched as Russel went slowly back into the building, not looking back. 2D looked down at the urn, running his hands down the smooth, dark red glaze.
"You're not Noodle, you dumb pot." he muttered.
2D took off the lid. Noodle saw that she was now just a pile of ashes, she felt sick. She'd had enough.
"STOP!" She screamed.
"Girl, are you O.K.?" Del wrapped an arm around her as Noodle turned away from the now, thankfully, empty mirror, gasping for breath.
I couldn't be bothered to do the accents, it's not worth my time of day.
This whole thing is starting to sound like that Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch... I quite like that sketch, go watch it.