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25 February 2009 @ 04:27 pm
Fic: Shot Through the Heart (1/2)  
Fandom: HIMYM - Barely Coping-verse (And I'll give you $10 if you know what this crosses over with.)
Word Count: This part: 1630
Rating: PG-15 for zombie carnage and language... and general weirdness.
Written for: The lovely [info]loquaciousambie, and anyone who's ever been traumatized by "Barely Coping".
Summary: Crack-like companion/epilogue to "Barely Coping". Barney Stinson is dead and buried. But then the zombie uprising cometh...
AN: This is... probably the second or third weirdest thing I've ever done. Is it possible to out-crack myself? Because this fic is like... crack on LSD. And it's bilingual! And, very very probably, makes little or no sense. I'm really not sure about this story at all... some kind of feedback would be fantastic.


Being dead was really the least awesome thing to have ever happened to him, Barney thought idly after lying there for he didn’t know how long. Time had ceased to have any meaning down wherever he was; it could have been an hour, or a day, or ten years since he’d died. He didn’t really have any way of keeping that straight any more.

He was trapped in a box, which was so small he couldn’t move an inch. He felt so stiff, not from rigor mortis, but from being squished in this casket for so long. His arms were pinned to his sides, his legs ached from not being able to move them, and it felt like he had a bruise on his forehead from all the times he’d accidentally hit it against the lid of the coffin trying to sit up. His bare skin (you mean they’d actually taken his comment about getting buried naked seriously?) was so cold it felt like it was made of ice, but somehow he wasn’t shivering.

And it was so dark that he could barely see the padded coffin lid that rested just a few inches from the end of his nose. He was six feet underground… there was no light source to be had at all. He was inwardly thankful that he’d gotten over his claustrophobia and fear of the dark years earlier; if he hadn’t, he would have been so terrified he would have wanted to die – again.

But as it was, lying motionless in the dark for hours/days/years on end was by far the most boring thing he’d ever done.

His only neighbor appeared to be a young Hispanic man buried some three feet to his right, and so far he hadn’t been very good company. Half the time he spoke in rapid, fluent Spanish, and the only Spanish Barney knew, besides the pidgin Spanish that any kid growing up in New York picked up, was “Estoy enamorado con tacos.” And when the man wasn’t speaking Spanish, he was moaning and groaning and bitching about being dead. After an hour (maybe? it had felt that long, anyway) of interrogating him over his manic-depressive wailing, Barney had learned the man’s name was Juan Preciado, and if Barney could reach him or even see him at all, he would have strangled him long ago. But unfortunately, his only contact with the man was by way of his whiny, miserable voice.

Juan Preciado was always complaining about how he’d died: arriving in some deserted Mexican town looking for his bastard of a father, and how Juan had ended up dead of fright, somehow. Which was potentially a pretty interesting story, if Juan hadn’t told it in a completely roundabout and confusing way, and if he hadn’t kept interrupting the story with a variety of Spanish phrases Barney didn’t have a prayer of understanding but which all seemed to have sentiments along the lines of “I want to cut myself”.

Barney wasn’t exactly thrilled about being dead either, but he wasn’t about to complain about it constantly. Juan had been dead for over fifty years; you’d think he would have gotten over it by now.

And there didn’t seem to be anyone else around to talk to. Juan had probably scared them all into silence, Barney thought dully. He was dying – heh – for some real conversation.

So, trapped in this dark box unable to move, Barney had started searching for some way to keep himself occupied.

He’d begun singing to himself, just so he’d have something to listen to besides Juan’s whining.

“Aruba, Jamaica, ooh, I wanna take ya!” he sang at the top of his lungs, his voice filling the oppressive silence of his coffin. “Bermuda, Bahama, come on, pretty mama…”

“Stop!”

He froze, because that wasn’t Juan at all. He knew that voice so well, because he used to hear it every day, and he’d been longing to hear it again ever since that night he died.

“Robin?” he called at the top of his lungs, because she sounded like she was in pain, and he couldn’t stay away when she needed him as badly as she did at that moment. He tried to get up to go to her, but only succeeded in knocking his head against his coffin lid, and he let out a yelp of pain.

“Robin!” he tried again, wondering where in the world she was. She sounded so far away…

“She cannot hear you,” he heard Juan whisper from beside him. “No one can hear the voices of the ones who live in the world of the spirits…”

“Dude,” Barney sighed, “don’t make me bust out ‘Tomorrow’ again. Seriously, all your doom-and-gloom is harshing my afterlife mellow.”

“There is no afterlife,” Juan moaned. “There is just this limbo.” Barney snickered, thinking of a horizontal pole on a cruise ship when he knew he shouldn’t have been. “We are all trapped here forever…”

“Who’s we? Sounds like you and I are the only ones down here,” Barney said, shuddering with dread at the thought of having to spend eternity with someone so boring and pessimistic and lame, straining his ears for the sounds of someone – ANYONE – else.

Seriously, he was in a cemetery full of other dead people. Why didn’t anyone else seem to be around?

---

“…leaving dozens dead and several hundred more injured,” the field reporter was saying. “Authorities are asking that people in the downtown area take special precautions to protect themselves from this latest zombie uprising –“

“BRAINS!!!!”

The reporter screamed in terror as three or four zombies launched themselves upon her, and the camera quickly cut back to the studio.

“Thanks, Janine,” the Metro News One anchor said with a pasted-on reporter smile. “Onto our top story: kittens on parade!”

The TV went dead as the lights in MacLaren’s went out. Lily, Marshall, and Ted were huddled under the table for protection as a zombie-human war raged outside.

“How many more of these zombie uprising things are we going to have to live through?” Lily asked loudly over the growling of the hungry zombies outside their bar.

“I know,” Marshall said. “I mean, there weren’t supposed to be any more zombie uprisings until 2046 at the very earliest!”

Ted winced as one of the zombies smashed its arm through the wood of the door; the bartender repelled it with a blast of his flamethrower. He sincerely hoped that, wherever she was, Robin was safe from this kind of zombie carnage.

---

Zombies were swarming all over the luggage carousels, attacking ticket takers, flight attendants, and passengers. Everyone was running away in terror, calling out for their loved ones, or else finding some kind of weapon to fight off the zombies with.

Robin was quite firmly in the third category.

And luckily, the Newark gift shop was selling machine guns for the travelers’ convenience. Normally, airports would have been much stricter about the sale of firearms, but zombies were everywhere, man. It was a national emergency.

“Take that, motherFUCKERS!!” she roared at the invading horde, blasting away at the zombies with the machine gun at her hip. She mowed several of them down, causing the rest of the zombies to shuffle away in self-preservation, still moaning inarticulately.

Robin looked at the re-deaded undead in distaste. Their flesh was hanging off their bones in graying folds, their hair was filthy and matted with dirt and their clothes were tattered, and some of them had eyeballs falling out of their sockets. It was a disgusting sight to behold.

She really hoped he wouldn’t look like that.

---

Somehow, the rest of the cemetery’s residents – was that even a good word to describe an evil army of the undead? – had escaped, but he was still trapped inside his coffin. The lid must have been stuck, he thought angrily.

Juan’s moans cut through the sound of his own singing. “Ay, ¡qué muerte más perra!”

Barney’s eyes widened in horror… Juan was at his emo-ness again. He pounded his fists against the inside of the coffin lid in yet another feeble attempt to escape, but of course nothing happened.

Kill me now, he thought desperately… but then he remembered he was already dead. Damn it!

He was completely and utterly trapped. There was no escape from his coffin OR from Juan, so he tried the next best thing…

“The city is at war!” Barney sang at the very top of his lungs. “Playtime for the young and rich… ignore me if you see me, ‘cause I just don’t give a shit!”

Juan interrupted his song with a moan muffled by the earth between their coffins. “No estamos en el cielo ni en el infierno… estamos entrapados en el purgatorio para eternidad…”

“Um, rockupied!” Barney yelled over to him in annoyance.

Juan wasn’t listening.

“Ay, dios mío… no sé a quién es Chona, y ella es una personaje secundaria en el narrativo así que no me importa, pero ¿por qué está presente en la novela? Es bastante confusa sin ella porque de los cambios en perspectivo y tiempo.”

Barney glared sideways at the wall of his coffin, imagining he was boring a hole right through it to where Juan was so he could give him a death glare and kill him for good. But that wasn’t an effective way of drowning out his moans, because obviously Juan couldn’t see him. So instead he began to bellow,

“Shot through the heart! And you’re to blame…”

His awesome voice drowned out Juan’s bilingual bitchery, though he knew Juan would keep going on and on regardless of whether or not anyone was listening.

Between Juan’s incessant whining and his increasing desperation to escape… Barney was definitely not resting in peace.



Adelante...
 
 
Mood: crazy
Current Music: Suavemente - Elvis Crespo
 
 
( 41 comments — Post a new comment )
Otemps: Barney sword[info]otempora42 on February 25th, 2009 09:52 pm (UTC)
This is possibly the weirdest thing I have ever read. But yet also I'm kind of in love. Blame my love of zombies (especially Shaun of the Dead). Although I don't think that my mind can compute Barely Coping and this both being part of the same story. Weird.

I love how Juan can break the fourth wall in Spanish, and how Robin gets all badass when zombies attack. :D Can't wait for the resolution.
Phoenix: horrible fingers[info]da_phoenix13 on February 25th, 2009 09:59 pm (UTC)
See, I'm shockingly underinformed about zombie culture, so I feel kind of stupid writing this. I've been meaning to see Shaun of the Dead for like a year now, and I still haven't gotten around to it.

>Although I don't think that my mind can compute Barely Coping and this both being part of the same story

Yeah, mine's having trouble with that too. Just see this as an AU version of that, which itself is an AU version of both the Samverse and "Valentine", which are both AUs themselves! God damn, no wonder this fic's so messed up.

But I'm glad you're liking it so far! The conclusion's almost done.

And out of curiosity, do you have any idea where Juan's from? Because he's where the crossover part comes in. (Hint: it's a book.)
Otemps: Telepathy[info]otempora42 on February 25th, 2009 10:07 pm (UTC)
You must see Shaun of the Dead straight away. I mean, like NOW. Seriously, one of my favorite films ever. But, then again, you're talking to someone who not only knows the difference between Romero vs. Russo zombies, but actually cares, so I might be a wee bit biased.

"Yeah, mine's having trouble with that too. Just see this as an AU version of that, which itself is an AU version of both the Samverse and "Valentine", which are both AUs themselves! God damn, no wonder this fic's so messed up."

Don't worry, I think idioticonion's still got you beat on AU convalutedness. ;)

But, yeah, your crack is the good kind of crack. Not the lame kind.

And, no, I don't know where he's from. Should I? (If it turns out to be super obvious, I'm going to be really embarassed.)
Phoenix[info]da_phoenix13 on February 25th, 2009 10:14 pm (UTC)
I have seen Hot Fuzz, which is one of my favorite movies. I'll probably track Shaun of the Dead down over the weekend or something, because I've been dying (heheh) to watch it.

And it's really not that obvious where he's from, come to think of it, because it's so obscure. There's this Mexican book called Pedro Paramo that I had to read in 11th grade, and it's basically about Juan and how he died of fright in a ghost town and spent the rest of the book bitching about being dead and having conversations with other dead people and stuff. It was super trippy and pretty much impossible to follow. And I only know about it because I read it in school and because, um, I'm a nerd.

I would have been pretty amused, and kind of appalled, if someone had gotten that on their own. =D
idioticonion[info]idioticonion on February 25th, 2009 10:19 pm (UTC)
Can we have all the Mexican / Spanish translations now please?

I am anal.
Phoenix[info]da_phoenix13 on February 25th, 2009 10:31 pm (UTC)
Hehe, sure:

All the Spanish Barney knows is "Estoy enamorado con tacos", which means "I'm in love with tacos." (Obviously.)

The rest are Juan:

“Ay, ¡qué muerte más perra!” = "Ugh, death's a bitch!"

“No estamos en el cielo ni en el infierno… estamos entrapados en el purgatorio para eternidad…” = "We aren't in heaven or in hell... we're trapped in purgatory for eternity."

“Ay, dios mío… no sé a quién es Chona, y ella es una personaje secundaria en el narrativo así que no me importa, pero ¿por qué está presente en la novela? Es bastante confusa sin ella porque de los cambios en perspectivo y tiempo.” = "Oh, my God. I don't know who Chona is, and she's a secondary character in the narrative so I don't care, but why is she even in the novel? It's confusing enough without her because of the changes in perspective and time." (This last one is my own personal complaint about the book Pedro Paramo, which is where Juan comes from.)

I didn't think it was necessary to translate any of them, especially not the last one since it has nothing to do with the epic of Zombie Barney. And he said something similar about purgatory in English earlier. But that's what he's saying. =)

Hooray, 12 years of Spanish classes! Ole!!!
idioticonion[info]idioticonion on February 25th, 2009 10:37 pm (UTC)
>All the Spanish Barney knows is "Estoy enamorado con tacos", which means "I'm in love with tacos." (Obviously.)

Obviously. ;-)

>The rest are Juan:

Much appreciated.

>I didn't think it was necessary to translate any of them

*shakes head sadly*

>Hooray, 12 years of Spanish classes! Ole!!!

Ole!!!
Phoenix[info]da_phoenix13 on February 25th, 2009 10:42 pm (UTC)
Sorry!! But on the bright side, that's going to be about all the Spanish I'm going to use, so you won't have to worry about foreign language issues on top of all the other confusing things in this story. ;)
idioticonion[info]idioticonion on February 25th, 2009 10:45 pm (UTC)
I actually found this surprisingly unconfusing.

And amazingly gripping.

It seriously is the most enjoyable piece of Himym fic I've read in AGES.

Just because I was fanwanking through it's entirity.

I love... tacos (it you!)
Phoenix[info]da_phoenix13 on February 25th, 2009 10:50 pm (UTC)
Really???? It's not confusing??????

But there was just so much going on, what with the obscure 1950s Hispanic literature references and the two different languages and the zombie war and the main character's in a box and and and and and and...

Honestly, I was half sure that I was going to be the only person who'd be able to get through this thing.

Thank you! I feel like infinity times better about it now. And there's still another part coming! =D
idioticonion[info]idioticonion on February 25th, 2009 11:05 pm (UTC)
>Honestly, I was half sure that I was going to be the only person who'd be able to get through this thing.

I followed you the entire way. Not at all confusing at all! although I was really unahappy about Barney being trapped in the box! Zombie-Barn-Barn! *hugs him*

>And there's still another part coming! =D

Are you deliberately TRYING to be evil?

No?

Well, WHERE IS IT THEN?!?!?!?!
Phoenix[info]da_phoenix13 on February 25th, 2009 11:14 pm (UTC)
Ummmmm it's almost done? I'd have it posted a lot faster if you hadn't just iguana'd me. ;P
idioticonion: NPH magic uniguana[info]idioticonion on February 25th, 2009 11:16 pm (UTC)
>I'd have it posted a lot faster if you hadn't just iguana'd me. ;P

Dude. Seriously.

*tries to un-iguana*

*tries again*

*fails*

Boy, he really wasn't kidding.
Phoenix[info]da_phoenix13 on February 25th, 2009 11:19 pm (UTC)
No, it's cool. It takes longer to type this way since I'm walking across the keyboard with my little iguana feet, but I'll get it done hopefully by some time tonight. =)
idioticonion: NPH magic uniguana[info]idioticonion on February 25th, 2009 11:26 pm (UTC)
*whispers: "Oi! Oi, Lance Burton! Come over here!"*

*gets Lance Burton to un-iguana da_phoenix for speed writing purposes*

*succeeds*

Yay!!!
Phoenix[info]da_phoenix13 on February 25th, 2009 11:30 pm (UTC)
Phew! Thanks, Lance. =D

*cracks knuckles and gets to writing*
Otemps: Lily[info]otempora42 on February 26th, 2009 07:53 am (UTC)
I love you guys.
idioticonion[info]idioticonion on February 25th, 2009 10:19 pm (UTC)
I got drunk with Simon Pegg.

A few times.

Kiss my feet.
Otemps: Lily[info]otempora42 on February 25th, 2009 10:25 pm (UTC)
Oh my God, really? That is like the most awesome thing I have heard in the history of awesome things!
idioticonion[info]idioticonion on February 25th, 2009 10:34 pm (UTC)
Possibly some explanation needs to be given. Years ago. Nick (Frost), Simon (Pegg), Edgar (Wright) and Jess (Stephenson) did a show called "Spaced" on Channel 4 in the UK. Me and hubby were massive obsessive fans from the first episode. I got heavily into the fandom (the fan site was called Spaced-Out). At that time I used to hang out at the BBC seeing radio shows being recorded - I was really into my comedy. Simon and the crew used to do a couple of radio shows (along with the League of Gentlemen and Little Britain guys). Knowing Simon a little, I managed to co-organise a "convention" of fans of Spaced, located in the pub where they filmed one of the episodes. We all went in fancy dress as a character and Simon, Jess, Edgar, Nick and Julia Deakin (Marsha) all turned up. We had quizzes and games and lots of alcohol and it was genius. Really, really amazing. We did the same thing the next year in a slightly bigger pub in Camden and again the cast turned up.

Time of my frakkin' life...

I should have been a zombie in Shaun of the Dead (did a screen test, got accepted) but it didn't bastard work out because they changed the filming dates 4 times!!! Will never forgive my work for that...

And grrr.

And yes, you can kiss my feet a second time.

See, you didn't know all this cool stuff about me did you?

;-)
Otemps: Barney bath[info]otempora42 on February 25th, 2009 10:38 pm (UTC)
I've seen the first few episodes of Spaced, and I loved them -- I really need to get around to finishing it off. But that sounds really awesome. :D

Aw, that sucks. :( Because, if you'd been in it, I could've watched it again and been like, "I know that person!" Work is dumb.

No, I did not. I have no cool stories like that. YET.
idioticonion[info]idioticonion on February 25th, 2009 10:43 pm (UTC)
Spaced is TOTALLY awesome. Seriously. Awesome.

>Aw, that sucks. :( Because, if you'd been in it, I could've watched it again and been like, "I know that person!" Work is dumb.

It's annoying that I know pretty much every extra. And auditioned with most of them. Bastards.

>No, I did not. I have no cool stories like that. YET.

Hehehe. obYoda/ You will do. You will do....
roland44: waitWhat?![info]roland44 on February 26th, 2009 10:48 am (UTC)
And you accuse ME of being "secretly cool"? *zombie five*
idioticonion[info]idioticonion on February 25th, 2009 10:23 pm (UTC)
*hands over award for the most awesome fic of 2009*

Seriously dude. You didn't just break the mold. You picked up the mold and ground the mold into the ground beneath the boots of your zombie army.
Phoenix[info]da_phoenix13 on February 25th, 2009 10:35 pm (UTC)
*accepts award* I'd like to thank all the little people my zombie army and I stepped on to get where I am today.

=D

And I hope you appreciated the semi-retconning of Kokomo... that one was just for you. =D
idioticonion[info]idioticonion on February 25th, 2009 10:39 pm (UTC)
>And I hope you appreciated the semi-retconning of Kokomo...

Shhhh. PLEASE don't tell anyone... but I actually teared up a little but during this bit:

>“Aruba, Jamaica, ooh, I wanna take ya!” he sang at the top of his lungs, his voice filling the oppressive silence of his coffin. “Bermuda, Bahama, come on, pretty mama…”
>“Stop!”

I *did*.

DO NOT LAUGH.

And stop playing with my emotions, woman! ;-)

(My husband is currently playing the Theme Tune from Indiana Jones on our piano. Apropos of nothing. It's just cool)
Phoenix[info]da_phoenix13 on February 25th, 2009 10:45 pm (UTC)
Damn, I really have screwed you up, haven't I? Maaaaan! And here I was trying to make it better. =(

*hugs*

And that is pretty awesome.
idioticonion[info]idioticonion on February 25th, 2009 10:49 pm (UTC)
>Damn, I really have screwed you up, haven't I? Maaaaan! And here I was trying to make it better. =(

You honestly kind of DID! I'm not promising that I'll ever be able to get past that bit in your story, but my heart did do a little twitch-melt-awwww moment when I read it. Then I teared up.

>*hugs*

*snuggles*

>And that is pretty awesome.

He spoiled the moment by playing some lame-ass romantic crap.
[a][m][b][e][r][info]loquaciousambie on February 25th, 2009 10:52 pm (UTC)
YES.

1. Cobra Starship? ilu!

2. “Um, rockupied!” Barney yelled over to him in annoyance. LOL

3. ...you're amazing.

Phoenix[info]da_phoenix13 on February 25th, 2009 11:24 pm (UTC)
Yay!! I'm so glad you liked it!

And I had to put the Cobra Starship somewhere in there. I mean, obviously. =D
promethia_tenk[info]promethia_tenk on February 26th, 2009 02:54 am (UTC)
Mmmmmmmm . . . you may be a crack dealer, but God you sell the good stuff.

I decree that every serious universe needs a crack-fic hanger-on like this.

Kokomo callback was genius--that's like show-worthy "here's what really happened."

I was kind of hoping Juan's last rant was a meta-commentary on *this* story--I can guess just well enough at Spanish to see that there was something about narrative and time and perspective and I got all super-excited :-(

Looking forward to part two.

(P.S.: in no way hard to follow or too cracked-out.)
Phoenix[info]da_phoenix13 on February 26th, 2009 03:23 am (UTC)
>"I was kind of hoping Juan's last rant was a meta-commentary on *this* story..."

Man, how did it not even *occur* to me to do that? I guess I'm still just a liiiiiiittle bitter about Pedro Paramo. ;P

I'm glad it's not too hard to follow, though it *is* very cracked out, I know. And I completely agree that every universe needs a crackfic, so that when people start to get bummed out they can come back to this. =)

Part 2's coming right up! It's seriously almost done.
oboeshoes: TWELVE MINUTES[info]oboeshoes on February 26th, 2009 03:21 am (UTC)
Zombies and HIMYM? LOVE. But poor Barney, to be trapped there listening to Bitch!Juan...

This just kind of escalates your awesome by a lot, btw. :3
Phoenix: chuck books[info]da_phoenix13 on February 26th, 2009 03:26 am (UTC)
Aww, thanks, hon! <3
roland44[info]roland44 on February 26th, 2009 10:50 am (UTC)
*Applauds*

I love this. Especially Barney complaining to himself about Juan and then singing "Shot through the heart" (ironic much?) Now we have you and oboeshoes as the resident zombiefic writers...
Butterfly[info]snogged on March 26th, 2009 03:34 pm (UTC)
I heart zombies.

No lie.

And this fic just rocks my socks with its ridiculous and awesome crackedness
Phoenix[info]da_phoenix13 on March 26th, 2009 07:41 pm (UTC)
Oh, thank you! This piece was probably my favorite zombie piece to write because of how insanulous it ended up. Plus, minimal angst! Some of the other stuff I wrote just started to depress me, so I came back here to stop being sad and be awesome instead. =)
Jamie: classic[info]jamie55 on March 29th, 2009 12:23 am (UTC)
HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHa!
This is amazingly hilarious and very strange, in a good way.

I wish I understood what the annying spanish guy - Juan -was saying but it doesn't take anything away!

How's Barney gonna get out?!
They buried him good - naked - hehe.

(Consider posting here?: http://community.livejournal.com/au_hbmr/
pretty please?)
Phoenix: horrible fingers[info]da_phoenix13 on March 29th, 2009 01:29 am (UTC)
I'm glad you like it! It's possibly almost definitely the most crack thing I've ever written. Hehehehehe.

I posted the translations in an earlier comment, but I'll paste them in here for you:


All the Spanish Barney knows is "Estoy enamorado con tacos", which means "I'm in love with tacos." (Obviously.)

The rest are Juan:

“Ay, ¡qué muerte más perra!” = "Ugh, death's a bitch!"

“No estamos en el cielo ni en el infierno… estamos entrapados en el purgatorio para eternidad…” = "We aren't in heaven or in hell... we're trapped in purgatory for eternity."

“Ay, dios mío… no sé a quién es Chona, y ella es una personaje secundaria en el narrativo así que no me importa, pero ¿por qué está presente en la novela? Es bastante confusa sin ella porque de los cambios en perspectivo y tiempo.” = "Oh, my God. I don't know who Chona is, and she's a secondary character in the narrative so I don't care, but why is she even in the novel? It's confusing enough without her because of the changes in perspective and time." (This last one is my own personal complaint about the book Pedro Paramo, which is where Juan comes from.)
Jamie: boyfriend brotp[info]jamie55 on March 29th, 2009 02:06 am (UTC)
hehe thanks.

Juan's annoyance has now been multiplied and Barney's sad cute awwness has as well.
:)
angeli_meyala[info]angeli_meyala on November 13th, 2009 11:13 pm (UTC)
Ok. Here's what I've learned today: Reading Barely coping followed by this leads to serious mood whiplash.