Fandoms 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14
Title The Way Things Were
Fandom Digimon
Summary Mimi doesn't want a fresh start
When her parents said they were moving to America, Mimi cried.
They talked specifically about a new start. A fresh start away from all the bad things.
Mimi knew exactly what they meant. And who they meant.
Her parents had always wanted her to have “nice” friends. Friends that might be useful, that could help her “along” in life. They hadn’t exactly minded - but Mimi had always known who “the right sort” were. And she knew that they didn’t very much like her new Digidestined friends. Sora who played football and wore jeans wasn’t quite the girl the had in mind for their delicate daughter who liked pink. Kari was better but she was only little and still kind of tomboyish and the sister of Taichi, who was all rough and nasty. And then there was Matt, the cold one, a potential bad influence and Izzy the peculiar geek and Joe, the paranoid boy. And TK the baby. It didn’t matter what Mimi said. Her parents wouldn’t admit that they wanted her not to be near her friends in any case. This was just the way things were.
“It’s not fair!” she sobbed to Sora. “I don’t want to go!”
“You’ll love it,” Sora said soothingly. “America, Mimi! It’ll be so much fun!”
Mimi knew that. Sort of. But it wasn’t fair. It really wasn’t fair.
“What if the gate opens again?” she whispered. “What if you guys get to go through and I don’t?”
“Oh, Mimi,” Sora said softly and Mimi cried harder. She didn’t quite dare mention what she was really frightened of. Didn’t quite dare say that maybe what her parents wanted would happen. That maybe, she would forgot. Just maybe, Palmon would become that imaginary friend she’d had as a child, the Digiworld would be “that silly game” she played with a bunch of people whose names she barely remembered any more. Just dreams.
But she couldn’t tell the others that. Because it sounded so stupid and she didn’t really understand it herself. So she simply cried and Sora hugged her and tried to understand her friend’s pain.
It didn’t happen that way, of course. Not really. But for a little while - just for a little while - it almost did. And although Mimi would never admit that it had happened, she knew it had. And it frightened her.
Title The Idea
Fandom Animorphs
Summary Marco tries to convince Jake, Ax and Tobias to go along with his idea. Sadly they aren't buying it.
“Come on,” I said, coaxingly. “I can’t be the first to have thought about it!”
“I can’t hear you,” Jake said, staring straight ahead. “I can’t hear you … ”
“But Jake … ” I whined because this always worked when Jake was doing his “I can’t hear you” impression. He couldn’t stand my whiny voice.
“I do not understand this conversation,” Ax commented unhelpfully, interrupting my whining.
That’s probably for the best Tobias said, floating up above us somewhere.
“Marco,” Jake said, in his humouring-the-crazies voice. “Look at it this way. Should you be so stupid as to bring up your “losing-our-animal-virginity” idea in front of Rachel and Cassie - ”
“Cassie’ll probably be all for it!” I interrupted enthusiastically and had to dodge Jake’s feeble attempt to give me a broken jaw. “She will” She was the one who linked me to that thing on dolphin penises in the first place!”
“Marco. No. Okay?”
Try looking at it this way Tobias said helpfully. Rachel will say “Sure thing Marco.” Then she’ll morph into a grizzly bear. You’ll try to escape, she’ll chase you down and then the music starts to cover your screams.
“She wouldn’t do that,” I said doubtfully.
“She would,” Jake said.
She would Tobias agreed.
“I am confused,” Ax said. “Con. Con. Con., Fused. Fu-u-used.”
“Also, you’d be stuck with Ax,” Jake added brightly, finally using his secret weapon.
I sighed and eyed As, who was investigating a bubblegum machine with slightly inappropriate enthusiasm.
“Good point,” I conceded and went to prise Ax’s hand out of the slot.
Title: Inappropriate
Fandom Detective Academy Q
Summary Ryu and Kyuu discuss Hongou and Nanami's relationship.
“Hey, Ryu?”
“Yes?” Ryu said. Kyuu was looking vaguely shifty, which was never promising. (Or perhaps, from another point of view, always promising …)
“Um … have you … um … ”
Ryu waited patiently. Kyuu was fidgeting gently and looking shifty. Clearly, he was about to ask something totally inappropriate.
“Do you … um … Hongou-sensei … ”
“I remember Hongou-sensei,” Ryu said with a slight grin.
“Do you think he and Nanami-sensei are … um … um … ”
“Fucking?” Ryu said, with a slight grin, unable to resist.
Kyuu squawked and turned very red. Ryu tired not to laugh. Typical Kyuu.
“Why are you thinking about it?” he asked.
“Well … well, me and Kinta were walking past his office … Hongou-sensei’s office I mean … and Hongou-sensei was in it … and he and Nanami-sensei … looked friendly.”
“Define and describe friendly,” Ryu ordered, still trying not to laugh.
“Well … they were sitting together … I mean … Hongou-sensei was on the chair and Nanami-sensei was sitting on the desk and he had his legs on Hongou-sensei’s knees and … Hongou-sensei was just there and smiling … he was smiling Ryu … ”
“A smile of impending doom?” Ryu suggested. “A smile of final descent into insanity?”
“No. It … it was like that kind of smile you longer when you think we’re not looking at you … ”
Ryu tried not to blush and tried to think. Kyuu had his slight nervous look on his face, like he thought Ryu might punch him on the head like Kinta might if Kyuu had posed this question to him.
“Does it bother you?” Ryu asked.
“No,” Kyuu said. “It … I just … wasn’t sure. You know. If they were.”
He paused again and Ryu realised they were about to get to the heart of the matter. Kyuu teetered on the brink for a moment, then blurted.
“Because, if they weren’t, you know, and if Nanami-sensei was available, he could have married my Mum and then he’d have given me extra disguise training and then - ”
He was forced to break off when Ryu hit him over the head with a text book.
Title Other Worlds
Fandom Getbackers
Summary Ban and Ginji discuss life in other worlds
“Ban-chan,” Ginji said, head pillowed on Ban’s arm. “Do you think there’s life on other planets?”
It was one of those good days when they’d actually got paid and were fed and the car hadn’t broken down and Paul had actually served them coffee so Ban was in a relatively good mood (for Ban, anyway). He blinked lazily, shrugged his shoulders and looked at the sky where the first starts were beginning to come out.
“Doesn’t matter very much, does it?” he said. “Not to us.”
“They might come and visit,” Ginji said.
“Then the question would be immaterial cause we’d know there was life out there,” Ban said. “What’s the point of hypothetical questions like that? There might be life out there. Might not be. Who cares unless it shows up with a pistol?”
“But don’t you think it’s interesting?” Ginji asked earnestly, looking up at the stars again. “There might be whole other worlds out there, Ban-chan! Whole other worlds and other people and other ways of living! Don’t you think that’s so cool? Wouldn’t you just love to go and see them?”
Ban felt a shiver run down his spine. He wasn’t totally sure why. Something about the image of Ginji in another world and him lagging far behind, unable to reach the sun …
“No,” he said shortly. “I don’t.”
Ginji obviously sensed his mood changing. He went quiet and snuggled up closer, his hair tickling Ban’s chin. Ban paused for a moment and then tucked his arm around Ginji’s shoulder, pulling him closer.
Who cared about life on other worlds? Life was here after all.
Title When Puppets Die
Fandom Ayatsuri Sakon
Summary Sakon wonders where puppets go when they die
They had to write an essay on what they feared most when Sakon was eleven years old.
Other people wrote about spiders and the dark and blood. Sakon thought spiders interesting and the dark comforting and blood a fact of life. Some people wrote about death. Sakon wondered if he was afraid of that. But his mother promised that his father would be waiting for him and so really, death probably wouldn’t be so bad.
Except he wasn’t sure that puppets went wherever human beings went.
“Do puppets go anywhere when they die?” he whispered in Ukon’s ear but that was before he and Ukon were properly synchronised and Ukon didn’t answer him. Sakon eventually allowed himself to forget the question for a long while.
Until he found out the truth about his father.
“Ukon,” he said quietly, as he combed the puppets hair. “Do puppets go anywhere when they die?”
“Puppets don’t die, stupid,” Ukon said.
“You could,” Sakon said doubtfully.
He didn’t say how. He knew how. From eleven he’d known how.
I am most afraid of fire.
“And if you did, what would happen?” he said worriedly. “Where would you go?”
“To earth and wind,” Ukon said, unusually quietly. “Just where human bodies go.”
“But what about the other part? The part that makes you … well, you? What if that goes somewhere else? What if you can’t find humans afterwards?”
“I’m not gonna die!” Ukon snapped. “I haven’t yet, have I? I’m 400 years old! Shut up, Sakon! You’re pulling on my hair.”
Sakon shut up and continued to comb. But still he wondered. Were they all just containers for souls and puppets and humans simply had slightly differently made ones? Or were puppets and humans intrinsically different, doomed to separation when the human finally died? (or the puppet burned in fire)
“Ya know Sakon,” Ukon said lightly that night as Sakon prepared to place him in the box. “We’re partners you and I.”
“I know that,” Sakon said.
“So partners go everywhere together, don’t they?”
He didn’t bother to say anything else. His eyelids slid closed and he went still, waiting until Sakon’s willing hands would come to find him again. Maybe Sakon imagined it, but he thought he saw something of a smile on the puppet’s face.
Sakon went to sleep with a smile too.
Fandom Digimon
Summary Mimi doesn't want a fresh start
When her parents said they were moving to America, Mimi cried.
They talked specifically about a new start. A fresh start away from all the bad things.
Mimi knew exactly what they meant. And who they meant.
Her parents had always wanted her to have “nice” friends. Friends that might be useful, that could help her “along” in life. They hadn’t exactly minded - but Mimi had always known who “the right sort” were. And she knew that they didn’t very much like her new Digidestined friends. Sora who played football and wore jeans wasn’t quite the girl the had in mind for their delicate daughter who liked pink. Kari was better but she was only little and still kind of tomboyish and the sister of Taichi, who was all rough and nasty. And then there was Matt, the cold one, a potential bad influence and Izzy the peculiar geek and Joe, the paranoid boy. And TK the baby. It didn’t matter what Mimi said. Her parents wouldn’t admit that they wanted her not to be near her friends in any case. This was just the way things were.
“It’s not fair!” she sobbed to Sora. “I don’t want to go!”
“You’ll love it,” Sora said soothingly. “America, Mimi! It’ll be so much fun!”
Mimi knew that. Sort of. But it wasn’t fair. It really wasn’t fair.
“What if the gate opens again?” she whispered. “What if you guys get to go through and I don’t?”
“Oh, Mimi,” Sora said softly and Mimi cried harder. She didn’t quite dare mention what she was really frightened of. Didn’t quite dare say that maybe what her parents wanted would happen. That maybe, she would forgot. Just maybe, Palmon would become that imaginary friend she’d had as a child, the Digiworld would be “that silly game” she played with a bunch of people whose names she barely remembered any more. Just dreams.
But she couldn’t tell the others that. Because it sounded so stupid and she didn’t really understand it herself. So she simply cried and Sora hugged her and tried to understand her friend’s pain.
It didn’t happen that way, of course. Not really. But for a little while - just for a little while - it almost did. And although Mimi would never admit that it had happened, she knew it had. And it frightened her.
Title The Idea
Fandom Animorphs
Summary Marco tries to convince Jake, Ax and Tobias to go along with his idea. Sadly they aren't buying it.
“Come on,” I said, coaxingly. “I can’t be the first to have thought about it!”
“I can’t hear you,” Jake said, staring straight ahead. “I can’t hear you … ”
“But Jake … ” I whined because this always worked when Jake was doing his “I can’t hear you” impression. He couldn’t stand my whiny voice.
“I do not understand this conversation,” Ax commented unhelpfully, interrupting my whining.
That’s probably for the best Tobias said, floating up above us somewhere.
“Marco,” Jake said, in his humouring-the-crazies voice. “Look at it this way. Should you be so stupid as to bring up your “losing-our-animal-virginity” idea in front of Rachel and Cassie - ”
“Cassie’ll probably be all for it!” I interrupted enthusiastically and had to dodge Jake’s feeble attempt to give me a broken jaw. “She will” She was the one who linked me to that thing on dolphin penises in the first place!”
“Marco. No. Okay?”
Try looking at it this way Tobias said helpfully. Rachel will say “Sure thing Marco.” Then she’ll morph into a grizzly bear. You’ll try to escape, she’ll chase you down and then the music starts to cover your screams.
“She wouldn’t do that,” I said doubtfully.
“She would,” Jake said.
She would Tobias agreed.
“I am confused,” Ax said. “Con. Con. Con., Fused. Fu-u-used.”
“Also, you’d be stuck with Ax,” Jake added brightly, finally using his secret weapon.
I sighed and eyed As, who was investigating a bubblegum machine with slightly inappropriate enthusiasm.
“Good point,” I conceded and went to prise Ax’s hand out of the slot.
Title: Inappropriate
Fandom Detective Academy Q
Summary Ryu and Kyuu discuss Hongou and Nanami's relationship.
“Hey, Ryu?”
“Yes?” Ryu said. Kyuu was looking vaguely shifty, which was never promising. (Or perhaps, from another point of view, always promising …)
“Um … have you … um … ”
Ryu waited patiently. Kyuu was fidgeting gently and looking shifty. Clearly, he was about to ask something totally inappropriate.
“Do you … um … Hongou-sensei … ”
“I remember Hongou-sensei,” Ryu said with a slight grin.
“Do you think he and Nanami-sensei are … um … um … ”
“Fucking?” Ryu said, with a slight grin, unable to resist.
Kyuu squawked and turned very red. Ryu tired not to laugh. Typical Kyuu.
“Why are you thinking about it?” he asked.
“Well … well, me and Kinta were walking past his office … Hongou-sensei’s office I mean … and Hongou-sensei was in it … and he and Nanami-sensei … looked friendly.”
“Define and describe friendly,” Ryu ordered, still trying not to laugh.
“Well … they were sitting together … I mean … Hongou-sensei was on the chair and Nanami-sensei was sitting on the desk and he had his legs on Hongou-sensei’s knees and … Hongou-sensei was just there and smiling … he was smiling Ryu … ”
“A smile of impending doom?” Ryu suggested. “A smile of final descent into insanity?”
“No. It … it was like that kind of smile you longer when you think we’re not looking at you … ”
Ryu tried not to blush and tried to think. Kyuu had his slight nervous look on his face, like he thought Ryu might punch him on the head like Kinta might if Kyuu had posed this question to him.
“Does it bother you?” Ryu asked.
“No,” Kyuu said. “It … I just … wasn’t sure. You know. If they were.”
He paused again and Ryu realised they were about to get to the heart of the matter. Kyuu teetered on the brink for a moment, then blurted.
“Because, if they weren’t, you know, and if Nanami-sensei was available, he could have married my Mum and then he’d have given me extra disguise training and then - ”
He was forced to break off when Ryu hit him over the head with a text book.
Title Other Worlds
Fandom Getbackers
Summary Ban and Ginji discuss life in other worlds
“Ban-chan,” Ginji said, head pillowed on Ban’s arm. “Do you think there’s life on other planets?”
It was one of those good days when they’d actually got paid and were fed and the car hadn’t broken down and Paul had actually served them coffee so Ban was in a relatively good mood (for Ban, anyway). He blinked lazily, shrugged his shoulders and looked at the sky where the first starts were beginning to come out.
“Doesn’t matter very much, does it?” he said. “Not to us.”
“They might come and visit,” Ginji said.
“Then the question would be immaterial cause we’d know there was life out there,” Ban said. “What’s the point of hypothetical questions like that? There might be life out there. Might not be. Who cares unless it shows up with a pistol?”
“But don’t you think it’s interesting?” Ginji asked earnestly, looking up at the stars again. “There might be whole other worlds out there, Ban-chan! Whole other worlds and other people and other ways of living! Don’t you think that’s so cool? Wouldn’t you just love to go and see them?”
Ban felt a shiver run down his spine. He wasn’t totally sure why. Something about the image of Ginji in another world and him lagging far behind, unable to reach the sun …
“No,” he said shortly. “I don’t.”
Ginji obviously sensed his mood changing. He went quiet and snuggled up closer, his hair tickling Ban’s chin. Ban paused for a moment and then tucked his arm around Ginji’s shoulder, pulling him closer.
Who cared about life on other worlds? Life was here after all.
Title When Puppets Die
Fandom Ayatsuri Sakon
Summary Sakon wonders where puppets go when they die
They had to write an essay on what they feared most when Sakon was eleven years old.
Other people wrote about spiders and the dark and blood. Sakon thought spiders interesting and the dark comforting and blood a fact of life. Some people wrote about death. Sakon wondered if he was afraid of that. But his mother promised that his father would be waiting for him and so really, death probably wouldn’t be so bad.
Except he wasn’t sure that puppets went wherever human beings went.
“Do puppets go anywhere when they die?” he whispered in Ukon’s ear but that was before he and Ukon were properly synchronised and Ukon didn’t answer him. Sakon eventually allowed himself to forget the question for a long while.
Until he found out the truth about his father.
“Ukon,” he said quietly, as he combed the puppets hair. “Do puppets go anywhere when they die?”
“Puppets don’t die, stupid,” Ukon said.
“You could,” Sakon said doubtfully.
He didn’t say how. He knew how. From eleven he’d known how.
I am most afraid of fire.
“And if you did, what would happen?” he said worriedly. “Where would you go?”
“To earth and wind,” Ukon said, unusually quietly. “Just where human bodies go.”
“But what about the other part? The part that makes you … well, you? What if that goes somewhere else? What if you can’t find humans afterwards?”
“I’m not gonna die!” Ukon snapped. “I haven’t yet, have I? I’m 400 years old! Shut up, Sakon! You’re pulling on my hair.”
Sakon shut up and continued to comb. But still he wondered. Were they all just containers for souls and puppets and humans simply had slightly differently made ones? Or were puppets and humans intrinsically different, doomed to separation when the human finally died? (or the puppet burned in fire)
“Ya know Sakon,” Ukon said lightly that night as Sakon prepared to place him in the box. “We’re partners you and I.”
“I know that,” Sakon said.
“So partners go everywhere together, don’t they?”
He didn’t bother to say anything else. His eyelids slid closed and he went still, waiting until Sakon’s willing hands would come to find him again. Maybe Sakon imagined it, but he thought he saw something of a smile on the puppet’s face.
Sakon went to sleep with a smile too.