Nexus 100 Purple
Mar. 29th, 2012 06:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
evillurksTitle: The Vial
Fandom: The Shadow
Characters: The Shadow, hint of agents.
Prompt: 16 Purple
Word Count: 264
Rating: PG
Summary: Brief ramble on drinking… various things.
Author's Notes: In the pulps, in a handful of them, The Shadow has a small vial of purple mystery liquid which he uses only in the extremity of weakness. He drinks it perhaps two or three times in all the stories, and I believe has someone else drink it once. It seems to grant one strength to overcome injury of all kinds and combat the effects of poison or drugs. Walter Gibson never explained what’s in it, but it seems almost certainly very illegal. No wonder it’s so rarely used.
He drank many things in his time. The Shadow never avoided alcohol, blessed with a naturally high tolerance. The social act of drinking was so often a necessary part of his roles, but so too was keeping his wits while playing the part with varying degrees of slurred speech and faltering coordination. Lamont Cranston was fond of cognac and bourbon, while less savoury roles demanded less palatable substances.
Then, too, were the moments when poison of one kind or another passed those thin lips. Half the trick in resisting was the ugly practice of ensuring a certain degree of resistance. Exposure to minimal doses under the control of his own hand could help, although it was a dangerous and unpleasant method. It did give him the skill of recognizing the subtle scents and flavours, thus anticipating what he was being drugged with when those moments came. Sheer willpower could do wonders, but he could not always trust even his own impressive strength of mind to combat every substance he might be slipped.
In those moments when all else failed, he kept at hand one last recourse. When drugs or poison or injury conspired to rob him of the stamina he needed to do his work, one option remained. No agent ever knew the contents of that little vial he reached for in moments of desperation. It was not seen often, and The Shadow himself seemed reluctant to take that strange small dose of drink. The legend lived in the quiet talk of his agents, however, of that tiny glass vial of mysterious purple liquid.
Fandom: The Shadow
Characters: The Shadow, hint of agents.
Prompt: 16 Purple
Word Count: 264
Rating: PG
Summary: Brief ramble on drinking… various things.
Author's Notes: In the pulps, in a handful of them, The Shadow has a small vial of purple mystery liquid which he uses only in the extremity of weakness. He drinks it perhaps two or three times in all the stories, and I believe has someone else drink it once. It seems to grant one strength to overcome injury of all kinds and combat the effects of poison or drugs. Walter Gibson never explained what’s in it, but it seems almost certainly very illegal. No wonder it’s so rarely used.
He drank many things in his time. The Shadow never avoided alcohol, blessed with a naturally high tolerance. The social act of drinking was so often a necessary part of his roles, but so too was keeping his wits while playing the part with varying degrees of slurred speech and faltering coordination. Lamont Cranston was fond of cognac and bourbon, while less savoury roles demanded less palatable substances.
Then, too, were the moments when poison of one kind or another passed those thin lips. Half the trick in resisting was the ugly practice of ensuring a certain degree of resistance. Exposure to minimal doses under the control of his own hand could help, although it was a dangerous and unpleasant method. It did give him the skill of recognizing the subtle scents and flavours, thus anticipating what he was being drugged with when those moments came. Sheer willpower could do wonders, but he could not always trust even his own impressive strength of mind to combat every substance he might be slipped.
In those moments when all else failed, he kept at hand one last recourse. When drugs or poison or injury conspired to rob him of the stamina he needed to do his work, one option remained. No agent ever knew the contents of that little vial he reached for in moments of desperation. It was not seen often, and The Shadow himself seemed reluctant to take that strange small dose of drink. The legend lived in the quiet talk of his agents, however, of that tiny glass vial of mysterious purple liquid.