Concarnadine -- #026 "Teammates"
Title: Teammates
'Fandom': The Concarnadine Chronicles
Claim: General; Characters
Prompt: #026 :: "Teammates"
Word Count: c. 610
Rating: PG -13 (for alcohol)
Summary: After the show, two people talk
Author's Notes: This is the non-NC-17 version.
“Teammates”
“Fascinating,” Robin Flavour said, as the closing titles ran. “Probably ninety per cent stage trickery - and I’d need to be convinced that the TV people weren’t in on that plinth stunt, but to be fair it was fascinating entertainment.”
“All trickery, then ?” Barratt enquired: “Despite what you’ve seen; despite meeting Concarnadine and …”
“Come on, Thane - you know as well as I that most stage magic is simply quickness of the hand stuff. And in this case most of the audience only saw what the cameras allowed them to.”
Barratt shrugged: if anything, he was normally even more cynical than she; it was somewhat of a stumper to be the “believer” for once.
“Do you want another drink ?” he asked, reaching into the box beside his chair.
“Not yet,” Robin replied, and crossed to the window. “It must be nice, not being overlooked - no-one to be peering in, just when you don’t want them to.”
“So - the magic show’s over,” Barratt said: “And the evening - ”
“Has hardly begun,” Robin replied, as she turned back into the room. “So there’s no need to hurry with the drinks - we have all night.”
“All night ?”
She nodded: “Unless I’m wrong, both you and I aren’t on duty again until Tuesday. My superintendent thinks I’m on a religious retreat in Herefordshire - I ‘accidentally’ left the brochure on my desk, under some papers I know he’ll move - and Gabriel Ruthven has firm instructions not to call you - firstly because I’ll break his neck, and secondly, because he thinks this weekend is you giving him the opportunity to handle things by himself.”
She smiled and dropped back into her seat: “So what interesting news have you heard ?”
Barratt considered the point: “Have you heard the rumours about Bill Golightly in ‘E’ Division ?” he asked.
Flavour hit him with a cushion: “I said news - not last month’s leavings. Anyway, she isn’t married any longer, and I happen to know that her ex is emigrating to New Zealand.”
“Is he ? I’d heard Tasmania, but … is the difference significant ?”
“It is if you live there,” she replied. “Anyway, the missus isn’t going, they got a divorce, and Bill G is either quids in or in deep do-do.”
“You make it all sound so romantic.”
Flavour looked at him squarely: “There are times, Thane, when I wonder whether you and I actually belong to the same species.” She got up and went over to the window. “Come here,” she said, beckoning imperiously.
London stretched around them, full of people and bustle, and sparrows and dust.
“All those people out there,” Flavour told him, “are busy living their lives, trying to squeeze what pleasure they can out of them. You may think you can be an island of introspection and objectivity, but you’re one of them: you have to interact with them, and that’s easier if you can condescend to sympathise with them.”
Barratt grunted: the whole thing of being like the people around him was something which left him cold. He’d left Scotland to get away from having to “fit in” - in any case: most of the people he interacted with were criminals (even, frankly, one or two of his colleagues), and he had no desire to sympathise with criminals.
“Tell you what,” he said, watching some particularly dark clouds scudding in from over Heathrow way, “let’s have a drink and discuss things.” He put his arm round her, and steered her back, away from the dark gloom of London-on-a-day-when-he-didn’t-have-to-think-about-it, towards the warmth and comfort of his flat, and a bottle of particularly fine Scotch whiskey that he’d been saving for a special occasion.
The NC-17 version is at
http://concarnadine.livejournal.com/21988.html
'Fandom': The Concarnadine Chronicles
Claim: General; Characters
Prompt: #026 :: "Teammates"
Word Count: c. 610
Rating: PG -13 (for alcohol)
Summary: After the show, two people talk
Author's Notes: This is the non-NC-17 version.
“Teammates”
“Fascinating,” Robin Flavour said, as the closing titles ran. “Probably ninety per cent stage trickery - and I’d need to be convinced that the TV people weren’t in on that plinth stunt, but to be fair it was fascinating entertainment.”
“All trickery, then ?” Barratt enquired: “Despite what you’ve seen; despite meeting Concarnadine and …”
“Come on, Thane - you know as well as I that most stage magic is simply quickness of the hand stuff. And in this case most of the audience only saw what the cameras allowed them to.”
Barratt shrugged: if anything, he was normally even more cynical than she; it was somewhat of a stumper to be the “believer” for once.
“Do you want another drink ?” he asked, reaching into the box beside his chair.
“Not yet,” Robin replied, and crossed to the window. “It must be nice, not being overlooked - no-one to be peering in, just when you don’t want them to.”
“So - the magic show’s over,” Barratt said: “And the evening - ”
“Has hardly begun,” Robin replied, as she turned back into the room. “So there’s no need to hurry with the drinks - we have all night.”
“All night ?”
She nodded: “Unless I’m wrong, both you and I aren’t on duty again until Tuesday. My superintendent thinks I’m on a religious retreat in Herefordshire - I ‘accidentally’ left the brochure on my desk, under some papers I know he’ll move - and Gabriel Ruthven has firm instructions not to call you - firstly because I’ll break his neck, and secondly, because he thinks this weekend is you giving him the opportunity to handle things by himself.”
She smiled and dropped back into her seat: “So what interesting news have you heard ?”
Barratt considered the point: “Have you heard the rumours about Bill Golightly in ‘E’ Division ?” he asked.
Flavour hit him with a cushion: “I said news - not last month’s leavings. Anyway, she isn’t married any longer, and I happen to know that her ex is emigrating to New Zealand.”
“Is he ? I’d heard Tasmania, but … is the difference significant ?”
“It is if you live there,” she replied. “Anyway, the missus isn’t going, they got a divorce, and Bill G is either quids in or in deep do-do.”
“You make it all sound so romantic.”
Flavour looked at him squarely: “There are times, Thane, when I wonder whether you and I actually belong to the same species.” She got up and went over to the window. “Come here,” she said, beckoning imperiously.
London stretched around them, full of people and bustle, and sparrows and dust.
“All those people out there,” Flavour told him, “are busy living their lives, trying to squeeze what pleasure they can out of them. You may think you can be an island of introspection and objectivity, but you’re one of them: you have to interact with them, and that’s easier if you can condescend to sympathise with them.”
Barratt grunted: the whole thing of being like the people around him was something which left him cold. He’d left Scotland to get away from having to “fit in” - in any case: most of the people he interacted with were criminals (even, frankly, one or two of his colleagues), and he had no desire to sympathise with criminals.
“Tell you what,” he said, watching some particularly dark clouds scudding in from over Heathrow way, “let’s have a drink and discuss things.” He put his arm round her, and steered her back, away from the dark gloom of London-on-a-day-when-he-didn’t-have-to-think-about-it, towards the warmth and comfort of his flat, and a bottle of particularly fine Scotch whiskey that he’d been saving for a special occasion.
The NC-17 version is at
http://concarnadine.livejournal.com/21988.html