12 results of travel
On the twelfth day of Christmas...
...twelve results of travel, eleven inaccessible things, ten acts of drama, nine sleeping dragons, eight phone calls of note, seven people watching, six building blocks, five unusual accounts, four mysterious keys, three insect encounters, two people learning and one night in a tent...
(incidentally, has anyone been singing this each day trying to force it to the original tune?)
It's over! We did it (or at least we will have by the end of the day). I have no idea where I pulled half the stuff from the past twelve days in my determination to finish but it has been loads of awesomesauce fun. You guys have been brilliant and any reticence I had about participating was gone pretty early on. I have read everything (I think) that has been posted - even if I only tended to comment on the fandoms I vaguely knew...it has all been great.
You are fabulous people and I wish you much happiness :D
Ciao for now :)
Fandom: Elementary
Rating: PG
Summary: Sherlock always returns with the most unusual souveneirs.
"This, Watson, is for you", and with an air of flourish, Sherlock had deposited it very tidily on her bed, after yet another half-five in the morning visit. Watson wanted to groan and throw a pillow at him and roll over to go back to sleep; but this was Sherlock and that wouldn't work, and truth be told she was a little intrigued.
"Good trip?", she asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and squinting towards the window - still pitch black, of course it was.
"Quite enjoyable yes, I will of course indulge your many questions later on, but for now...", and he gestured towards the package. Watson narrowed her eyes, certain that she was seeing things, because there was no way the Sherlock she knew would genuinely be eager to see her response...
Then the box moved.
"Jesus! You brought an animal back from Japan?!"
"Of course not Watson, they would never have let me bring it through customs".
"Hmm..", Watson was sure that if he put his mind to it, Sherlock could probably bypass just about any security measure that he so desired.
"Open it". So Joan cautiously undid the package, lifted the lid and found herself staring down at a tortoise.
"I bought it after I got back", Sherlock said, as if that were some kind of explanation. Blinking and subtly pinching herself to make sure she wasn't still asleep, Watson looked up the man,
"You see Watson, I did quite a lot of thinking whilst I was in Japan and decided that you too should have a tortoise, and he will be a fantastic companion for Clyde, as you are to me", and with that Sherlock bobbed back out of the room. Watson stared after him for a second or two before looking down at the tortoise scrambling about in the box, and she smiled.
Fandom: Malory Towers
Rating: PG
Summary: The long way around to happiness.
The air was cold, biting against the skin, and no matter how tight she pulled the coat around her, Sally could not escape it. Everyone around her looked tired, withdrawn tightly into themselves as they waited. She must have been a strange sight with the smile that threatened to overwhelm her every few seconds, and the impatient bobbing on her heels. She had been waiting over a year for this moment, had been counting down the days since the letter arrived that said she was coming home.
It had been three hundred and seventy six days since Darrell had left, a tally that had been running through Sally's mind for just as long. They had not parted on good terms, as Sally's old and long-buried fears of abandonment had forced their way out. Perhaps that was why a two-month job assignment in France and Spain had ended up being a year long journey spreading across the north of Africa with other journalists, writers and researchers for company at different steps along the way.
Darrell had written to her, never mentioning their final words to each other, just telling Sally about the work she was doing, the people she had met and the things she had learnt. Sally could never reply, Darrell never gave a return address, and so all Sally could do was form replies in her head, for conversations that would go unspoken. She desperately wanted to ask Darrell what it was she was looking for out there, what was there that she couldn't find at home. She wanted to ask if Darrell missed her, the way that Sally so desperately missed Darrell...
As the train pulled in the crowd on the platform surged forward, desperate to get out of the cold, but she held back, pushing herself up onto her toes as she looked for familiar black curls.
Looking for them did her little good, and she only recognised her friend when she was stood a few feet away. It was the grin that finally caught her attention and she barely had a second to take in her friend's new appearance before strong arms were thrown around her.
It seemed an eternity before they pulled apart and Sally got a chance to look Darrell up and down. Her curls were a distant memory, it was still wayward and tousled but now Sally imagined Bill possibly had longer hair than Darrell. She was darker as well - something that Sally had not thought possible, and she was clad in white linen trousers and a tunic, both hanging loosely on her frame.
"I really missed you", Darrell broke the silence finally and all Sally could do was pull her into another hug, not sure she could trust her voice.
"Me too", she finally murmured, "I'm glad you're back". They pulled apart again and Sally realised that they were now just standing on an empty platform, the train had long pulled away. She looked back at Darrell, eyes distracted by all the changes in her friend, and felt an overwhelming sense of fear.
Darrell had done so much, gone to so many places; learnt so many new things... She had grown, she had changed, and Sally wasn't sure she could just step back in and be a part of this new life...
"Did you find what you were looking for?", she asked eventually and Darrell grinned.
"I think so, I mean...I have experiences and words to fill more books than I can write, I already have two books written".
"I didn't quite mean that..."
"I know", Darrell took a step forward, and took a few seconds to consider her words,
"I think I found that too. In a roundabout way. I went through seven countries, learned two new languages, tried my hand at..a hundred new skills to earn money, all so that I could keep moving, only to get to the end and find...that sometimes we're so desperate to move forwards to find new things, that we forget to look beside us and realise what we already have", and before Sally could really make sense of what she had just said, Darrell took a step forward. Her hand lifted to Sally's neck and then her lips were on Sally's.
Sally froze for just a second, before relaxing for the first time in three hundred and seventy six days. She kissed back, surprised at her own persistence, at her eagerness; surprised at the warmth and at how natural it all felt. Then it was over, as suddenly as it had begun, except Darrell was smiling back at her and Sally knew that it was going to happen again and again for as long as she wanted it to.
Fandom: Primeval
Rating: PG
Summary: Readjusting is a lot harder than they thought.
Abby finds it's silly things that are the hardest to get used to. Walking past a mirror or window and seeing a flash of reflection startles her, the sound of another human voice can make her jump, going to a supermarket seems so unnatural, it's all just so... Just so... She still only sleeps a few hours a night, still wakes up to keep watch whilst Connor sleeps. She finds herself listening for the clang of their trip-wires, for footfalls or rustling, before remembering that she's in a flat in London.
For Connor it's the fear of losing her. Through the anomaly they had each other, and no-one else, and they survived. But they were back now, and so much had changed. Connor lay awake at night, whilst Abby sat and stared out the window, and wondered if he there was any way he could still be enough for her now they were back and surrounded by people far more interesting than him. Or would she move on, find him too much of a painful reminder of their time lost through the anomaly?
So they both lie there at night, and let the worries go unspoken.
Fandom: Final Fantasy VIII
Rating: PG
Summary: Squall is pretty sure he died
There is a strange condition with death, one that Squall confesses to not fully understanding. A person can be called back from the absolute brink of death with a Pheonix Down, but past a certain point they are lost for good. Squall has been to the edge before and has seen the same happen to his team, he knows the feeling well enough.
But this time was different.
When the staff speared through him and he plummeted from the carnival float it wasn't that same floating feeling that came from balancing on the brink of oblivion. He felt numb all over, and aware of every breath and every heartbeat. He heard himself thud onto the concrete, but as if it were far away, and he felt nothing.
He couldn't move, but he was still inside his body, and memories slid to the forefront and his vision began to blur. He felt so tired all of a sudden and his limbs weighed him down, he felt the energy drift from his body as he closed his eyes.
Waking up had never seemed like an option, and as he sat up, his mind taunted him with the whispers of the journey he had undertaken between that moment and now. He knew that he had been somewhere, somewhere beyond this world, but he just couldn't quite remember. It seemed a shame to have lost what he knew was so important, and to wonder whether he would make that journey again.
Fandom: Binding of Isaac (VG)
Rating: 15
Summary: Isaac has been to places, even if no-one believes him.
"Come on now Isaac, won't you sit down?", Doctor Armstrom asked, as the dark-haired teen stood by the door, fingers clutching at the door frame.
"Open the windows".
"You know I can't do that, the door will stay open", and with a little more hesitation, Isaac crept forward, curling his tiny frame into the chair and lifting his hand to chew on his knuckle.
"Now Isaac...last session we spoke about your mother..."
"Bitch", Isaac spat, his body twisting on the chair, "Stupid, stupid bitch".
"This time I'd like to talk a little more about what you believe happened last year", Isaac shifted, now crouching on the chair, eyes darting back and forth before settling on the doctor. He had dark eyes, almost black, and in them was this haunted look that unnerved Doctor Armstrom every time.
"What I believe happened? It fucking happened! It did, she nearly killed me, why won't any of you fuckers believe me", and he was screaming again. It was blood-curdling. He did it every time the subject was brought up.
"There were monsters...the seven deadly sins...and the walls...oh god there was death and decay and evil everywhere... That's why I had to do it, to stop the monsters from getting me. They just kept coming, no matter what room I went into there were more. The four horsemen, these...these huge maggots that...they smiled...they smiled at me, until I got closer and then", Isaac screamed again, and this time Doctor Armstrom flinched unconsciously, "And other boys...I thought they were like me...but they just followed me around...smiling...the bastards just kept fucking smiling, until they opened their eyes and...", Isaacs own eyes widened and he whimpered, recoiling back into the chair and rocking.
"Now Isaac, we're going to help you okay".
"You can't...you didn't see that place...you don't believe me".
"I believe that something scared you enough to try and hurt your mother...". But he could tell, Isaac was already gone and their session was over. As the orderly took Isaac back to his room, the doctor wondered what could have happened to leave a psyche so damaged...
Fandom: Assassin's Creed
Rating: PG
Summary: The course of the Assassin bloodline
The bloodline does not run through a preferred sort of man, it just follows the path of biology, and passes through whichever man or woman come next in the journey.
Records do not say where the lineage came from before Altair - through his mother or his father, but from 1190 onwards its journey can be tracked.
The bloodline journeys through the best and worst of man. Through arrogance, pride, hatred, betrayal and grief; through justice, humility, love and understanding. It goes through religious men, noble men, the ordinary men; it will guide the lives of soldiers, pirates, storekeepers and bartenders.
And as each assassin leaves this world, the bloodline travels on.
Fandom: Bully
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Pete finds an unexpected influence on his decision making...
Pete could never have imagined that when his parents asked him, whilst sat on a beach in Spain, if he wanted to try going to a new school, that he would have have said no. He could see the confusion on their faces, and he knew why. After all, he had begged them not to send him to Bullworths, to let him go anywhere else; he had been sullen during half-terms and spoke bitterly of the school. So they would never be able to understand why he now wanted to stay.
It had been a chaotic year, and he had been caught up in a whirlwind of disaster from the moment a certain stocky red-head had arrived. It hadn't been an easy year and there were times that he had cursed his friend's arrival at the school and the problems it was causing him.
But now, sitting in the sun and staring out at the waves, none of that seemed so bad, and even with a break of a few weeks Pete missed him.
Six months ago, he never would have believe Jimmy bloody Hopkins was the reason he was going back.
Fandom: Video Games
Rating: PG
Summary: A chance to journey
I can be a hero. I can be a villian. I can be an every-man or every-woman and make judgement calls and decisions of morality along the way. I can be anyone I want to be, step into the shoes of a long established character or make my own to step out into this second world.
I can wield a sword, shoot a gun, race a car and pilot a plane. I can travel to the furthest corners of this earth, to the very depths of the galaxy and to worlds that don't even exist.
I can save the princess, save the world, find treasure or find myself; I can kill, I can hunt or I can deny the dreams pursued by others. I can do none of this if I so desire and just wander within a different place to my own.
I can forget pain, forget worries, forget grief; I can embroil myself into an adventure that will help me heal. I can share my experiences with others, or keep them to myself. It is all up to me.
Because I can choose to live many lives, and travel through them all.
Fandom: Cold Case
Rating: G
Summary: Scotty final understand why
Scotty had been reluctant when he found out that working cold cases was going to be his full-time gig, he had heard so many great things about Lilly Rush - the only female detective in Philly, that he couldn't imagine her skills being wasted on the cold ones.
She had nearly torn him a new one when he expressed that opinion - pointing out that everybody mattered, no matter who they were, or how long they had gone without justice being served. It didn't matter who they were, everyone deserved to have their story told. He had been angry and embarrassed at her berating him but now he thinks he finally gets it.
When they took on a cold case, they took on that person's life. They tried to travel through their memories, to construct their world as it used to be through the words of people left alive now. If he let the words wash over him then sometimes he could almost see the life that person lived and he understood what Lilly meant.
That person mattered, and that was what this job was about.
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Rating: G
Summary: Tifa still sees that boy from Nibelheim
She couldn't understand what had happened to him, what he had gone through that had changed him so much. She knew that SOLDIER traveled to the most dangerous places in the world and that stress could do strange things to people, but she had never thought that Cloud would change so much.
The arrogance, the sullenness, the cocky swagger - none of it was him. She tried to fix it with the image of the lonely little boy she knew growing up and it just didn't fit. The flash-point temper was gone too, replaced by this cool and detached lack of caring.
She thinks it's that...the lack of caring...that unnerves her so much.
The boy she knew had many faults, but he cared.
The man in front of didn't seem anything like that boy anymore, and she doesn't like it.
Fandom: Prince of Persia (VG)
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Was it worth it?
Am I a better man for my travels?
I wish I could say I am, but for all I have learnt, I still make the same mistakes time and time again, so I don't believe I am.
I would beg for forgiveness if I believed it could be granted to me, but I have brought about so much destruction with my actions that I can see no way back to redemption.
I have brought death to thousands with the arrogance of my youth, I have lost all those I ever cared about with the stupidity of my acts, and I will be hounded to the end of my days by the Dahaka as he seeks my life as payment for releasing the Sands of Time.
So no, I am not a better man.
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Rating: PG
Summary: The ninja returns home.
I was a child when I left, foolhardy and loud. I brought shame to my home-town, and it hurts so much to realise that now. I have been gone so long that it seems like a foreign world to be beyond those walls, and I am terrified to return.
I'm supposed to return home a conquering hero, after all we saved the world, but I don't feel brave and I don't feel like a hero at all. I'm not sure I even belong to this life now, how can I return to where I was before now that I know so much? How can I just leave that all behind and go back to normal.
A hand gently squeezes my shoulder and I look around, Tifa smiles at me, it's a sad smile and I'm sure my own is filled with the same emotion.
"It's over for now Yuffie, get some rest before the next chapter starts", and she gently pushed me towards the gates.
I guess it's time to go home.