Fandoms 21 - 25
Fandom: Primeval/Jurassic Park
Rating: 12
Word Count: 486
[Spoiler (click to open)]“I can make all your problems go away”, Henry Wu stopped at the sound of a woman’s voice and turned around. He squinted into the evening’s dusk and made out the form of whoever was talking to him, she stepped forward and he frowned,
“You were at the coffee shop earlier. And the…”
“Yes, we can safely establish that I have been following you. You have a dinosaur problem”, the woman came up alongside him and carried on walking, leaving Henry to walk after her, “Or rather…a lack of dinosaur problem”.
“I don’t know what…”, and the woman brushed off what he was going to say,
“Yes you do. You work for John Hammond, you told him you could bring dinosaurs back to life and now it’s all going to shit because you can’t”, and she smirked at him, “It was a good bluff. Anyway, I can get you some dinosaurs”.
Henry kept his voice low as they neared more people, “I know he looks like an old fool but he won’t be tricked by lizards or anything stupid like that”.
“Please, when I say I can get you dinosaurs, I mean dinosaurs”, and she sounded so utterly serious that Henry had to wonder if this was some sort of ploy on behalf of Hammond to get him to break down and admit that he couldn’t do what the old man had paid him thousands so far to do. The woman rolled her eyes and dug a phone out of one of the many pockets in her trousers, fiddled with some buttons and handed it to Henry - never breaking her stride as she did.
Henry peered at the tiny screen and tried to keep pace with the woman, his eyes grew wide as he watched the video playing on the phone.
“This is..”
“Yes. Now you let me know what eggs you want and I’ll get them to you”, the woman stopped abruptly and placed one hand on a car parked at the side of the road.
“I can’t afford whatever you are taking”, Henry handed the phone back.
“Oh I’m not after money, I much prefer trading favours”, the woman smiled, and Henry felt the airs on his arm stand on end, his chest tighten, he felt like he had stepped into a predator’s lair unexpectedly. But what choice did he have.
“Where will I send the list?”
“Text me”, and she handed him a business card with a name and number printed on it, “We’ll talk more after”. Henry glanced at the card,
“Helen…why are you helping me?”. Helen paused, mid-way into getting into the car and smirked, more to herself than to Henry it seemed,
“You might be unable to make dinosaurs, but you have other uses”, and before Henry could think of anything to say to that, she had pulled the door shut and pulled away from the curb.
Fandom: Bully
Rating: 12
Word Count: 305
[Spoiler (click to open)]Pete knew that when he got older he would probably meet men like Gary. Men who would try and take advantage of him, tell him anything they thought he might want to hear at first to reel him in and then tear apart his self-confidence strip by strip. After all, teenagers like Gary grew up to be men, just like teenagers like Pete did.
He hoped that maybe, when he was older, if he did come across someone else like Gary he might stand up for himself. That maybe he wouldn’t let himself be abused…no…he mentally corrected himself because he could practically hear Jimmy telling him that it wasn’t his fault, that none of it was his fault. Pete glanced at his mobile phone and wondered for a moment about texting Jimmy, telling him that he couldn’t sleep again because he was having nightmares about what Gary had done to him.
He turned to face the wall, Jimmy had enough problems with his step-dad, and Pete wasn’t sure if this was the same step-dad that had insisted on Jimmy being send to Bullworth or if it was another new one. He wasn’t sure if it mattered since they all seemed to be the same brand of asshole. Of course Jimmy would have made time for Pete, perhaps even welcomed the distraction, but if Pete were honest with himself he didn’t want his best friend to know how weak he was.
There was that voice again, Jimmy’s voice, telling him he wasn’t weak. That this was Gary’s fault, and not Pete’s. Never Pete’s. Pete wondered what sort of man Jimmy would grow up into - a walking stereotype probably, the mouthy thug with the golden heart. Pete turned back over and reached for his phone.
Jimmy picked up on the fourth ring.
Fandom: Bomb Girls
Rating: PG
Word Count: 415
[Spoiler (click to open)]“You know Kate’s not like you”, Gladys hadn’t meant for it to spill out quite so abruptly, but then again she had tried to be subtle in her approach to Betty’s feelings for the other woman and that had failed so maybe the alcohol that had loosened her tongue wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
There was a long silence as Betty nursed the drink in her hand. Seconds ticked past and then Betty set the drink back on the table and took out a cigarette. The silence was broken with the strike of a match, and then after another moment of silence, Betty replied,
“Yeah, I know”.
“So why do you keep doing this to yourself?”, Gladys accepted a cigarette from the offered packet and let Betty light it for her, “Why not go and find someone who does like women the way you do instead of pining”.
“You offering princess?”, and it was nonchalant, and probably a joke or dig that Gladys didn’t quite get, but it made her stomach flip a little and a flutter make itself known in her chest, only for it to be silenced a moment later, “Didn’t think so”.
“There must be other women”
“Sure there are, an’ like me they’re pretending to be something they ain’t so that no-one makes their lives miserable”, Betty finished her drink and pushed the glass away from herself, “It’s easier to just…well, like you said, it ain’t like Kate’s ever goin’ to return the feelings so it’s just easier”.
Gladys returned her attention to her own drink and cigarette and wondered how many more glasses it would take before she mustered up the nerve to tell Betty that perhaps there was an alternative much closer than she thought.
Fandom: Malory Towers/Left 4 Dead
Rating: 12-15
Word Count: 318
[Spoiler (click to open)]She didn’t feel so tough anymore. Alicia laughed at that thought. It kept coming back to her when she least expected it. It was ridiculous really, because if anything she’d proven herself to be much more resilient than she had ever imagined. The trick was to not think too much about it, or about anything really.
She heard the groan from around the corner long before the zombie coaxed itself into movement and with one solid swing of her cricket bat, Alicia smashed its head against the wall. The sound, once so terrifying and nauseating, didn’t bother her now. How could it when she had gone through so much worse?
There were meant to be survivors in this part of the city, that’s what she’d heard. She’d followed the scribblings on the walls of the safe houses, tracked the groups that seemed to be doing the best. Two groups of survivors in particular had gained notoriety for the fact they seemed immune to this disease. Just like she was. Her arm burned in time with that thought and she touched the scar that remained there without thinking. As quickly as the pain had arrived, a memory that she had tried so hard to avoid thinking about overwhelmed her.
Alicia strode forward, forced herself to think about the path she needed to take and not on the last time she had seen her friend. The last time she would ever see her friend... She found herself angry at Betty; in Betty’s position Alicia would have taken her own life rather than risk hurting someone else or forcing someone else to…to…
She buried the memory again, along with the thoughts that occasionally bothered her about her other classmates. Were they alive or had they met the same fate as Betty? Alicia didn’t hold out much hope for many of them, they just weren’t cut out for this new world.
Fandom: X + Y
Rating: 12
Word Count: 240
[Spoiler (click to open)]Luke didn’t care that the people across the other side of the aisle were staring at him, that they were whispering about him. Of course they were, because he was crying and there were blood stains on his sleeve. His parents would tell him it didn’t matter, that they still loved him, and he didn’t care about that either.
His arm itched but he tapped his fingers against his temple instead of scratching; tapped out cycles of patterns to try and think of anything except what had happened in Taiwan. But that didn’t work because he was already thinking about it. Thinking about how he wasn’t even good enough to go on and do the one thing he was meant to be really good at.
He told himself he didn’t care about that either. He didn’t even like maths. That’s what he’d told Nathan. Nathan who was just like him but somehow he didn’t get mocked and teased and ostracised. Nathan who was just like him but somehow didn’t spend nights when he couldn’t cope staring at the same clip of movie over and over, and who didn’t hurt himself when he was filled with rage and self-loathing.
He’d told Nathan something else as well, about how his parents had told him about his diagnosis. ‘They told me I was unique. Who doesn’t want to be unique’.
Well he didn’t. Not anymore. His parents would be disappointed at that.
Rating: 12
Word Count: 486
[Spoiler (click to open)]“I can make all your problems go away”, Henry Wu stopped at the sound of a woman’s voice and turned around. He squinted into the evening’s dusk and made out the form of whoever was talking to him, she stepped forward and he frowned,
“You were at the coffee shop earlier. And the…”
“Yes, we can safely establish that I have been following you. You have a dinosaur problem”, the woman came up alongside him and carried on walking, leaving Henry to walk after her, “Or rather…a lack of dinosaur problem”.
“I don’t know what…”, and the woman brushed off what he was going to say,
“Yes you do. You work for John Hammond, you told him you could bring dinosaurs back to life and now it’s all going to shit because you can’t”, and she smirked at him, “It was a good bluff. Anyway, I can get you some dinosaurs”.
Henry kept his voice low as they neared more people, “I know he looks like an old fool but he won’t be tricked by lizards or anything stupid like that”.
“Please, when I say I can get you dinosaurs, I mean dinosaurs”, and she sounded so utterly serious that Henry had to wonder if this was some sort of ploy on behalf of Hammond to get him to break down and admit that he couldn’t do what the old man had paid him thousands so far to do. The woman rolled her eyes and dug a phone out of one of the many pockets in her trousers, fiddled with some buttons and handed it to Henry - never breaking her stride as she did.
Henry peered at the tiny screen and tried to keep pace with the woman, his eyes grew wide as he watched the video playing on the phone.
“This is..”
“Yes. Now you let me know what eggs you want and I’ll get them to you”, the woman stopped abruptly and placed one hand on a car parked at the side of the road.
“I can’t afford whatever you are taking”, Henry handed the phone back.
“Oh I’m not after money, I much prefer trading favours”, the woman smiled, and Henry felt the airs on his arm stand on end, his chest tighten, he felt like he had stepped into a predator’s lair unexpectedly. But what choice did he have.
“Where will I send the list?”
“Text me”, and she handed him a business card with a name and number printed on it, “We’ll talk more after”. Henry glanced at the card,
“Helen…why are you helping me?”. Helen paused, mid-way into getting into the car and smirked, more to herself than to Henry it seemed,
“You might be unable to make dinosaurs, but you have other uses”, and before Henry could think of anything to say to that, she had pulled the door shut and pulled away from the curb.
Fandom: Bully
Rating: 12
Word Count: 305
[Spoiler (click to open)]Pete knew that when he got older he would probably meet men like Gary. Men who would try and take advantage of him, tell him anything they thought he might want to hear at first to reel him in and then tear apart his self-confidence strip by strip. After all, teenagers like Gary grew up to be men, just like teenagers like Pete did.
He hoped that maybe, when he was older, if he did come across someone else like Gary he might stand up for himself. That maybe he wouldn’t let himself be abused…no…he mentally corrected himself because he could practically hear Jimmy telling him that it wasn’t his fault, that none of it was his fault. Pete glanced at his mobile phone and wondered for a moment about texting Jimmy, telling him that he couldn’t sleep again because he was having nightmares about what Gary had done to him.
He turned to face the wall, Jimmy had enough problems with his step-dad, and Pete wasn’t sure if this was the same step-dad that had insisted on Jimmy being send to Bullworth or if it was another new one. He wasn’t sure if it mattered since they all seemed to be the same brand of asshole. Of course Jimmy would have made time for Pete, perhaps even welcomed the distraction, but if Pete were honest with himself he didn’t want his best friend to know how weak he was.
There was that voice again, Jimmy’s voice, telling him he wasn’t weak. That this was Gary’s fault, and not Pete’s. Never Pete’s. Pete wondered what sort of man Jimmy would grow up into - a walking stereotype probably, the mouthy thug with the golden heart. Pete turned back over and reached for his phone.
Jimmy picked up on the fourth ring.
Fandom: Bomb Girls
Rating: PG
Word Count: 415
[Spoiler (click to open)]“You know Kate’s not like you”, Gladys hadn’t meant for it to spill out quite so abruptly, but then again she had tried to be subtle in her approach to Betty’s feelings for the other woman and that had failed so maybe the alcohol that had loosened her tongue wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
There was a long silence as Betty nursed the drink in her hand. Seconds ticked past and then Betty set the drink back on the table and took out a cigarette. The silence was broken with the strike of a match, and then after another moment of silence, Betty replied,
“Yeah, I know”.
“So why do you keep doing this to yourself?”, Gladys accepted a cigarette from the offered packet and let Betty light it for her, “Why not go and find someone who does like women the way you do instead of pining”.
“You offering princess?”, and it was nonchalant, and probably a joke or dig that Gladys didn’t quite get, but it made her stomach flip a little and a flutter make itself known in her chest, only for it to be silenced a moment later, “Didn’t think so”.
“There must be other women”
“Sure there are, an’ like me they’re pretending to be something they ain’t so that no-one makes their lives miserable”, Betty finished her drink and pushed the glass away from herself, “It’s easier to just…well, like you said, it ain’t like Kate’s ever goin’ to return the feelings so it’s just easier”.
Gladys returned her attention to her own drink and cigarette and wondered how many more glasses it would take before she mustered up the nerve to tell Betty that perhaps there was an alternative much closer than she thought.
Fandom: Malory Towers/Left 4 Dead
Rating: 12-15
Word Count: 318
[Spoiler (click to open)]She didn’t feel so tough anymore. Alicia laughed at that thought. It kept coming back to her when she least expected it. It was ridiculous really, because if anything she’d proven herself to be much more resilient than she had ever imagined. The trick was to not think too much about it, or about anything really.
She heard the groan from around the corner long before the zombie coaxed itself into movement and with one solid swing of her cricket bat, Alicia smashed its head against the wall. The sound, once so terrifying and nauseating, didn’t bother her now. How could it when she had gone through so much worse?
There were meant to be survivors in this part of the city, that’s what she’d heard. She’d followed the scribblings on the walls of the safe houses, tracked the groups that seemed to be doing the best. Two groups of survivors in particular had gained notoriety for the fact they seemed immune to this disease. Just like she was. Her arm burned in time with that thought and she touched the scar that remained there without thinking. As quickly as the pain had arrived, a memory that she had tried so hard to avoid thinking about overwhelmed her.
Alicia strode forward, forced herself to think about the path she needed to take and not on the last time she had seen her friend. The last time she would ever see her friend... She found herself angry at Betty; in Betty’s position Alicia would have taken her own life rather than risk hurting someone else or forcing someone else to…to…
She buried the memory again, along with the thoughts that occasionally bothered her about her other classmates. Were they alive or had they met the same fate as Betty? Alicia didn’t hold out much hope for many of them, they just weren’t cut out for this new world.
Fandom: X + Y
Rating: 12
Word Count: 240
[Spoiler (click to open)]Luke didn’t care that the people across the other side of the aisle were staring at him, that they were whispering about him. Of course they were, because he was crying and there were blood stains on his sleeve. His parents would tell him it didn’t matter, that they still loved him, and he didn’t care about that either.
His arm itched but he tapped his fingers against his temple instead of scratching; tapped out cycles of patterns to try and think of anything except what had happened in Taiwan. But that didn’t work because he was already thinking about it. Thinking about how he wasn’t even good enough to go on and do the one thing he was meant to be really good at.
He told himself he didn’t care about that either. He didn’t even like maths. That’s what he’d told Nathan. Nathan who was just like him but somehow he didn’t get mocked and teased and ostracised. Nathan who was just like him but somehow didn’t spend nights when he couldn’t cope staring at the same clip of movie over and over, and who didn’t hurt himself when he was filled with rage and self-loathing.
He’d told Nathan something else as well, about how his parents had told him about his diagnosis. ‘They told me I was unique. Who doesn’t want to be unique’.
Well he didn’t. Not anymore. His parents would be disappointed at that.