Fandoms 24 and 25
[Title] Indelible
[Fandom] Last Friends
[Rating] PG-13 for references to domestic violence
[Notes/Summary] Michiru thinks about tattoos.
Michiru stands in the bathroom, and puts the taps on so that if, if there are any tears, she will be safe. Sousuke's not home, but she runs the taps anyway.
There are bruises on her face - she knew this - and she wanted to look at them and turn them into something else. The ones on her right cheek are like tears, grey pebble-tears. Yakuza, criminals, get tears tattooed on their faces, right? Some people are so strong that they can afford to have tearfulness permanently inked into their skin. Michiru tries to tell herself that she is that strong, too, but she knows that it's a lie. It just is. She can't believe it, not even for a moment.
One summer, in high school, Ruka talked about how she would love to get a tattoo. A cicada, maybe. Michiru talked her out of it, of course, reminded her how it would make her look like a low-life, and that it would hurt. She wonders now if her friend ever did do it, if she carries a permanent good-luck charm under her clothes. Ruka is brave enough to do something like that, to stand the pain, and not to care about what people will think. Michiru puts her hand over the bruises. They'll fade.
[Title] Things You See in an Alley
[Fandom] Doctor Who (classic series)/Repo! the Genetic Opera
[Rating] PG
[Notes/Summary] While wandering through an unfamiliar city, Jamie finds someone in need of help. (Set after the end of Repo!, so spoilers)
It's one of those places the Doctor takes them to where Jamie can't believe how much light there is. He can see the night sky, far above him, but then there's all the floating pictures and the lamps hung above the street and all of it comes together into a cloud of light, so you actually feel it's not night time at all.
Doesn't change the fact that he's lost, though. Or that he last saw the Doctor and Zoe several sidestreets ago. Above him, the pictures talk - people coming and going across them all the time - and they speak in English, but so many of the words are unfamiliar that they might as well be talking in some foreign tongue. So it probably wouldn't be any use asking a passer-by if they'd seen his friends. They wouldn't understand.
He comes across the girl just after that. Notices her because she's huddled in a corner, not walking to be somewhere, and because she's staring up at the pictures and signs and lights as if she's as taken aback by them as Jamie is. He stops, and she sees him and she wriggles back like she's hoping to crawl through the wall. The light falls across her face and he sees her eyes. He saw girls with eyes like that before. Girls who'd encountered raiders, or soldiers, who'd lost husbands or children, who'd seen everything dear to them go up in flames. Sometimes, travelling with the Doctor, you forget that some things are the same all over.
"Are you all right?" he says.
She keeps staring at him, despairing like she thinks he's going to hurt her, and yet fiery like she's going to try and hurt him back. He wishes Zoe were here. Zoe would know what to say. Actually, the Doctor would know what to say. He can say things that don't work for anyone else.
But they're not here, and the lass is terrified, and he can hardly walk on and leave her, can he? Not when they're the only two people here who seem scared by it.
"I won't hurt you," he says, and he doesn't step any closer, he thinks that might help. "I'm a stranger here too. Places like this, they make me feel like I've not slept in days."
She smiles - a poor, cracked smile - and says, "I've lived here all my life. I just..." She swallows. "I just never went outside."
"Not even in a garden? Out in a carriage?" No wonder she's so pale and small, like a little ghost.
Her mouth trembles. She walks forward, like she's thinking to stride on down the street, but she gets to where he's standing and the tears start sliding down her face. Jamie notices then that she's covered in blood - all down her back, like she was lying in it. "Are you hurt?" he says, and wishes again that he hadn't got separated from the other two. Even if he found the TARDIS again, it isn't like he'd know if there's anything it can do to help -
But the girl shakes her head. "It," she says, and she swallows, and then, "it, it's not mine." The words splashing into the silence like stones into a pond. "It's my father's. And... and my godmother's, I guess. It..." She twists to try and look at her back. "Is there a lot? I didn't realise. I fainted, and..." Her breath is catching in her throat, and he realises she's actually struggling to breathe. He clutches at her arm, and she gasps out, "Need... need..."
"Come with me," Jamie says, and prays he'll be able to find the Doctor or at least the TARDIS before the child falls unconscious. "The Doctor'll help you."
She says, through tears and gasps, something like, he was my Doctor. Jamie doesn't know what she means, and he doesn't know what to do, but he takes his cloak off and wraps it round her - she's wearing a black dress like a shift and her arms and legs are bare - and he says to her, "He helps everyone." And, as they stumble down the too-bright street, he tells her how he'd never been more than ten miles from where he was born, and certainly never been outside Scotland, and then the Doctor appeared and everything changed. "If you've never been outside," he says, "you'll have a lot of catching up to do."
[Fandom] Last Friends
[Rating] PG-13 for references to domestic violence
[Notes/Summary] Michiru thinks about tattoos.
Michiru stands in the bathroom, and puts the taps on so that if, if there are any tears, she will be safe. Sousuke's not home, but she runs the taps anyway.
There are bruises on her face - she knew this - and she wanted to look at them and turn them into something else. The ones on her right cheek are like tears, grey pebble-tears. Yakuza, criminals, get tears tattooed on their faces, right? Some people are so strong that they can afford to have tearfulness permanently inked into their skin. Michiru tries to tell herself that she is that strong, too, but she knows that it's a lie. It just is. She can't believe it, not even for a moment.
One summer, in high school, Ruka talked about how she would love to get a tattoo. A cicada, maybe. Michiru talked her out of it, of course, reminded her how it would make her look like a low-life, and that it would hurt. She wonders now if her friend ever did do it, if she carries a permanent good-luck charm under her clothes. Ruka is brave enough to do something like that, to stand the pain, and not to care about what people will think. Michiru puts her hand over the bruises. They'll fade.
[Title] Things You See in an Alley
[Fandom] Doctor Who (classic series)/Repo! the Genetic Opera
[Rating] PG
[Notes/Summary] While wandering through an unfamiliar city, Jamie finds someone in need of help. (Set after the end of Repo!, so spoilers)
It's one of those places the Doctor takes them to where Jamie can't believe how much light there is. He can see the night sky, far above him, but then there's all the floating pictures and the lamps hung above the street and all of it comes together into a cloud of light, so you actually feel it's not night time at all.
Doesn't change the fact that he's lost, though. Or that he last saw the Doctor and Zoe several sidestreets ago. Above him, the pictures talk - people coming and going across them all the time - and they speak in English, but so many of the words are unfamiliar that they might as well be talking in some foreign tongue. So it probably wouldn't be any use asking a passer-by if they'd seen his friends. They wouldn't understand.
He comes across the girl just after that. Notices her because she's huddled in a corner, not walking to be somewhere, and because she's staring up at the pictures and signs and lights as if she's as taken aback by them as Jamie is. He stops, and she sees him and she wriggles back like she's hoping to crawl through the wall. The light falls across her face and he sees her eyes. He saw girls with eyes like that before. Girls who'd encountered raiders, or soldiers, who'd lost husbands or children, who'd seen everything dear to them go up in flames. Sometimes, travelling with the Doctor, you forget that some things are the same all over.
"Are you all right?" he says.
She keeps staring at him, despairing like she thinks he's going to hurt her, and yet fiery like she's going to try and hurt him back. He wishes Zoe were here. Zoe would know what to say. Actually, the Doctor would know what to say. He can say things that don't work for anyone else.
But they're not here, and the lass is terrified, and he can hardly walk on and leave her, can he? Not when they're the only two people here who seem scared by it.
"I won't hurt you," he says, and he doesn't step any closer, he thinks that might help. "I'm a stranger here too. Places like this, they make me feel like I've not slept in days."
She smiles - a poor, cracked smile - and says, "I've lived here all my life. I just..." She swallows. "I just never went outside."
"Not even in a garden? Out in a carriage?" No wonder she's so pale and small, like a little ghost.
Her mouth trembles. She walks forward, like she's thinking to stride on down the street, but she gets to where he's standing and the tears start sliding down her face. Jamie notices then that she's covered in blood - all down her back, like she was lying in it. "Are you hurt?" he says, and wishes again that he hadn't got separated from the other two. Even if he found the TARDIS again, it isn't like he'd know if there's anything it can do to help -
But the girl shakes her head. "It," she says, and she swallows, and then, "it, it's not mine." The words splashing into the silence like stones into a pond. "It's my father's. And... and my godmother's, I guess. It..." She twists to try and look at her back. "Is there a lot? I didn't realise. I fainted, and..." Her breath is catching in her throat, and he realises she's actually struggling to breathe. He clutches at her arm, and she gasps out, "Need... need..."
"Come with me," Jamie says, and prays he'll be able to find the Doctor or at least the TARDIS before the child falls unconscious. "The Doctor'll help you."
She says, through tears and gasps, something like, he was my Doctor. Jamie doesn't know what she means, and he doesn't know what to do, but he takes his cloak off and wraps it round her - she's wearing a black dress like a shift and her arms and legs are bare - and he says to her, "He helps everyone." And, as they stumble down the too-bright street, he tells her how he'd never been more than ten miles from where he was born, and certainly never been outside Scotland, and then the Doctor appeared and everything changed. "If you've never been outside," he says, "you'll have a lot of catching up to do."