Fandom 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20!
Title Questioning
Fandom Doctor Who
Summary Sometimes Jamie wonders why he bothers.
“It’s not food,” Jamie growled.
“Of course it’s food!” the Doctor said brightly. “How can you say it’s not food, Jamie?”
“It’s moving.”
“Yes, I know it is. People eat live oysters you know.”
“Aye, I remember them slippery things you said were food. They weren’t food either.”
“Jamie. For goodness sake. Of course it’s food. Now do eat up, there’s a good fellow. You don’t understand the issues involved … ”
“What issues?”
The Doctor looked around nervously at the aliens that stood around them, smiling huge smiles that revealed pretty, glistening, pearl-coloured teeth.
“Well Jamie, when they smile, they’re happy,” he said. “When they smile even more … they are less happy. Now, do eat up … please?”
Jamie looked around at the pearly-toothed smilers. Smiling queasily at them, he jabbed his fork into the plate of blue squirming worms and took a large mouthful, chewing manfully and then swallowing. The Doctor tucked into his too and together, they choked their way through the rather unpleasant meal. Once they’d finished, the Doctor mumbled something about an emergency and did his best to hurry Jamie back to the TARDIS. The pearly-toothed smilers followed and pressed something into the Doctor’s hands before he got inside.
“What’s that?” Jamie asked as he sat down on a chair and gave Victoria what he hoped was a reassuring, friendly smile and not a queasy I’m-going-to-throw-up smile. She clearly suspected it was the latter and moved back a prudent distance.
The Doctor looked at the card and winced.
“It’s a free pass to come back whenever we like,” he said. “How … lovely?”
Not for the first time, Jamie asked himself exactly why he let the Doctor talk him into ever leaving Scotland.
Of course, when the Doctor landed them on the next planet with giant rainbow waterfalls and great, amazing black horse-cat creatures that let you play with them fearlessly, Jamie forgot that he’d ever questioned his new way of life. This was simply how it was.
Title Clarity
Fandom Torchwood
Summary Ianto worries about the way his world turns.
Ianto sometimes longed for clarity.
Once, his world had been simple and easy and made sense. Even when he’d been in Torchwood One, it had made sense. Difficult, strange, weird - but it had made sense. Everything catalogued and in its place, everything named and titled and organised. Lisa had teased him sometimes, said that he needed a little more chaos, a little less organisation. But she hadn’t minded his organisation and good sense and it wasn’t like he wasn’t spontaneous so it had never been a problem.
Then the Battle of Canary Wharf. Lisa’s conversation. Captain Jack Harkness. Torchwood Three. Lisa’s death.
Captain Jack Harkness.
Little parts of Ianto’s brain told him something was wrong sometimes. That he shouldn’t be with Jack. Jack had killed Lisa. Jack was sometimes cold and prickly and unpredictable. Jack flirted with everyone and anything and Ianto told himself that he didn’t mind and that they were only playing at affection and enjoying sex with each other.
Only Ianto didn’t work like that. He didn’t do casual sex. And he’d sort of hinted that to Jack and Jack had sorted of hinted back that it was okay. That he liked Ianto. And Ianto didn’t mind the flirting but sometimes … sometimes, he was very, very afraid.
He was perfectly capable of managing without love. He told himself that. He believed that.
Except sometimes, when he watched Jack flirting with Gwen and standing slightly too close to her, his heart started to beat too fast and his hand sometimes trembled on the coffee. Because maybe, maybe if he lost Jack, he’d lose his new life too. Because the others would stand by him, wouldn’t they? And really, Ianto should have known better and did know better and didn’t mind, not really, it didn’t really matter one way or another …
His world wasn’t categorised any more. And sometimes, Ianto was standing on the edge of a mass of confusion and he didn’t know where to turn.
Title Coward
Fandom Willard Price's Adventure Series
Summary Roger tries not to give in to irriational fear.
Going back to school wouldn’t have been quite as bad as all that, Roger thought, if he hadn’t started having nightmares. Night after night, he woke up panting and sweaty and trying not to make any noise in case any of the other boys in the dormitory woke up and wanted to know what was wrong. Because he couldn’t possibly tell them. He was meant to be brave. Everyone was impressed by him (annoyed and frustrated by him too but impressed just the same) No one else had ever been down in a volcano or shipwrecked on a desert island or lost in the Amazon. It made for impressive stories.
He didn’t feel brave and impressive though. Not when he woke up at night, swallowing and whimpering in the night, dripping sweat and telling himself not to be scared because there was nothing to be scared of. Everything was over. And he betted his father and Hal never had nightmares. Never woke up gasping and fretting that Hal might be lying dead somewhere and he wouldn’t know it because he wasn’t there.
It was stupid. It was ridiculous. Just because Hal wasn’t there didn’t mean that he was dead. Because Hal wasn’t dead. He’d survived the Amazon and the Pacific and a typhoon and all manner of animals and all manner of chaos. School wouldn’t kill him. It might be boring sometimes but it wouldn’t kill him.
So why did the idea spring to mind at odd moments? That Hal was outside of his line of sight and therefore in danger and dying? It was stupid, it was childish, it was cowardly - and Roger thought it at least once every day for weeks.
He didn’t mention it to anyone. Not to his friends, not to his parents, definitely not to Hal. He wrote weekly though. And he couldn’t help noticing that Hal wrote just as often.
Maybe Hal worried too.
Title Little Things
Fandom Thunderbirds
Summary Little things matter when you spend nine months of your life in a space ship ...
Little things mattered when you lived on a space craft. Very little things.
“WHAT?!” John screamed, his face turning a rather alarming shade of puce. “WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?!”
Alan thoughtfully edged back to partially conceal himself behind a panel of delicate looking instruments. John probably wasn’t so angry that he would start smashing important things after all. Probably.
“Look,” he said pacifyingly. “It’s not my fault, okay? I’m the messenger. It’s Scott’s fault! Don’t shoot the messenger! Shoot Scott!”
“WHERE IS HE?” John yelled. “WHY DIDN’T YOU BRING HIM UP HERE SO I COULD KILL HIM?!”
“Virgil said I couldn’t,” Alan muttered grouchily. His older brother was far too nice sometimes and had refused to let Alan drag Scott by the hair into Thunderbird 3 to face John’s terrible ire. Which seemed to be increasing; John was now pacing up and down and grinding his teeth with fury.
“I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU FAILED ME LIKE THIS!” he bellowed.
“Um … ” Alan ventured. “It was only a mix-up … okay, so you now own nine months worth of Big Rod magazine to read … and yes, okay, so Big Rod is in fact a gay porn magazine as opposed to one about fishing … but it’s not like you could actually go fishing up here now, is it? Won’t the gay porn be more useful to you in the long run?”
It turned out that John didn’t care very much about the delicate instruments after all. Alan was eventually forced to lock himself in the bedroom until irate screams finally turned into quiet, bitter mumbles, then tip-toed out and headed home, wondering if he could convince his father to let someone else run the routine supply mission next time.
He couldn’t. It didn’t really matter though. The next time John sent a list of supplies down, all the brothers noticed with various degrees of amusement, distress and annoyance that a renewed subscription to Big Rod was amongst the requests.
“Why does he need a fishing magazine up in space?” Jeff wondered.
None of his sons answered him.
Title Singing
Fandom Firefly
Summary River tells Kaylee how she hears the ship.
“Sometimes, I can hear the engine singing,” River said.
Kaylee looked up from her book, suddenly paying attention. River was sitting, knees drawn up, staring down at Serenity’s engine, eyes intense, her bare feet flexing against the metal ladder.
“I like to listen,” she said. “It sings the most lovely songs.”
“What do you hear her sing about?” Kaylee asked, putting down her book and looking at River properly.
“She sings about the sky,” River said. “Flying through space with all the itty-bitty specks of meaningless matter what make up the universe. About the stars that people find so important and the way she doesn’t get fed quite when she wants to. About being out in the black with no one else but us little people that don’t always treat her right.”
She had stood up now and was swaying slightly, moving one hand in what was probably in time to some unearthly beat of a song that thrummed from the innards of an engine. A song that almost no one could hear.
Kaylee had always thought that maybe, she was the only one.
“She sings about us,” River said softly. “Where we’ve been and where we’ll be. Little people in their little worlds and one day we’ll be gone but she will still be here, singing her songs. Not forgotten.”
“What’s she yattering about?” Jayne asked gruffly, sticking his head in. “Hey, Kaylee - Captain says he wants you, sharpish. Ain’t you meant to be with your brother, crazy girl?”
River blinked at him, then ducked under his arm and walked away. Jayne looked at Kaylee.
“She bein’ all crazy again?” he asked.
Kaylee shook her head. As far as she was concerned, River had never talked more sense.
Fandom Doctor Who
Summary Sometimes Jamie wonders why he bothers.
“It’s not food,” Jamie growled.
“Of course it’s food!” the Doctor said brightly. “How can you say it’s not food, Jamie?”
“It’s moving.”
“Yes, I know it is. People eat live oysters you know.”
“Aye, I remember them slippery things you said were food. They weren’t food either.”
“Jamie. For goodness sake. Of course it’s food. Now do eat up, there’s a good fellow. You don’t understand the issues involved … ”
“What issues?”
The Doctor looked around nervously at the aliens that stood around them, smiling huge smiles that revealed pretty, glistening, pearl-coloured teeth.
“Well Jamie, when they smile, they’re happy,” he said. “When they smile even more … they are less happy. Now, do eat up … please?”
Jamie looked around at the pearly-toothed smilers. Smiling queasily at them, he jabbed his fork into the plate of blue squirming worms and took a large mouthful, chewing manfully and then swallowing. The Doctor tucked into his too and together, they choked their way through the rather unpleasant meal. Once they’d finished, the Doctor mumbled something about an emergency and did his best to hurry Jamie back to the TARDIS. The pearly-toothed smilers followed and pressed something into the Doctor’s hands before he got inside.
“What’s that?” Jamie asked as he sat down on a chair and gave Victoria what he hoped was a reassuring, friendly smile and not a queasy I’m-going-to-throw-up smile. She clearly suspected it was the latter and moved back a prudent distance.
The Doctor looked at the card and winced.
“It’s a free pass to come back whenever we like,” he said. “How … lovely?”
Not for the first time, Jamie asked himself exactly why he let the Doctor talk him into ever leaving Scotland.
Of course, when the Doctor landed them on the next planet with giant rainbow waterfalls and great, amazing black horse-cat creatures that let you play with them fearlessly, Jamie forgot that he’d ever questioned his new way of life. This was simply how it was.
Title Clarity
Fandom Torchwood
Summary Ianto worries about the way his world turns.
Ianto sometimes longed for clarity.
Once, his world had been simple and easy and made sense. Even when he’d been in Torchwood One, it had made sense. Difficult, strange, weird - but it had made sense. Everything catalogued and in its place, everything named and titled and organised. Lisa had teased him sometimes, said that he needed a little more chaos, a little less organisation. But she hadn’t minded his organisation and good sense and it wasn’t like he wasn’t spontaneous so it had never been a problem.
Then the Battle of Canary Wharf. Lisa’s conversation. Captain Jack Harkness. Torchwood Three. Lisa’s death.
Captain Jack Harkness.
Little parts of Ianto’s brain told him something was wrong sometimes. That he shouldn’t be with Jack. Jack had killed Lisa. Jack was sometimes cold and prickly and unpredictable. Jack flirted with everyone and anything and Ianto told himself that he didn’t mind and that they were only playing at affection and enjoying sex with each other.
Only Ianto didn’t work like that. He didn’t do casual sex. And he’d sort of hinted that to Jack and Jack had sorted of hinted back that it was okay. That he liked Ianto. And Ianto didn’t mind the flirting but sometimes … sometimes, he was very, very afraid.
He was perfectly capable of managing without love. He told himself that. He believed that.
Except sometimes, when he watched Jack flirting with Gwen and standing slightly too close to her, his heart started to beat too fast and his hand sometimes trembled on the coffee. Because maybe, maybe if he lost Jack, he’d lose his new life too. Because the others would stand by him, wouldn’t they? And really, Ianto should have known better and did know better and didn’t mind, not really, it didn’t really matter one way or another …
His world wasn’t categorised any more. And sometimes, Ianto was standing on the edge of a mass of confusion and he didn’t know where to turn.
Title Coward
Fandom Willard Price's Adventure Series
Summary Roger tries not to give in to irriational fear.
Going back to school wouldn’t have been quite as bad as all that, Roger thought, if he hadn’t started having nightmares. Night after night, he woke up panting and sweaty and trying not to make any noise in case any of the other boys in the dormitory woke up and wanted to know what was wrong. Because he couldn’t possibly tell them. He was meant to be brave. Everyone was impressed by him (annoyed and frustrated by him too but impressed just the same) No one else had ever been down in a volcano or shipwrecked on a desert island or lost in the Amazon. It made for impressive stories.
He didn’t feel brave and impressive though. Not when he woke up at night, swallowing and whimpering in the night, dripping sweat and telling himself not to be scared because there was nothing to be scared of. Everything was over. And he betted his father and Hal never had nightmares. Never woke up gasping and fretting that Hal might be lying dead somewhere and he wouldn’t know it because he wasn’t there.
It was stupid. It was ridiculous. Just because Hal wasn’t there didn’t mean that he was dead. Because Hal wasn’t dead. He’d survived the Amazon and the Pacific and a typhoon and all manner of animals and all manner of chaos. School wouldn’t kill him. It might be boring sometimes but it wouldn’t kill him.
So why did the idea spring to mind at odd moments? That Hal was outside of his line of sight and therefore in danger and dying? It was stupid, it was childish, it was cowardly - and Roger thought it at least once every day for weeks.
He didn’t mention it to anyone. Not to his friends, not to his parents, definitely not to Hal. He wrote weekly though. And he couldn’t help noticing that Hal wrote just as often.
Maybe Hal worried too.
Title Little Things
Fandom Thunderbirds
Summary Little things matter when you spend nine months of your life in a space ship ...
Little things mattered when you lived on a space craft. Very little things.
“WHAT?!” John screamed, his face turning a rather alarming shade of puce. “WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?!”
Alan thoughtfully edged back to partially conceal himself behind a panel of delicate looking instruments. John probably wasn’t so angry that he would start smashing important things after all. Probably.
“Look,” he said pacifyingly. “It’s not my fault, okay? I’m the messenger. It’s Scott’s fault! Don’t shoot the messenger! Shoot Scott!”
“WHERE IS HE?” John yelled. “WHY DIDN’T YOU BRING HIM UP HERE SO I COULD KILL HIM?!”
“Virgil said I couldn’t,” Alan muttered grouchily. His older brother was far too nice sometimes and had refused to let Alan drag Scott by the hair into Thunderbird 3 to face John’s terrible ire. Which seemed to be increasing; John was now pacing up and down and grinding his teeth with fury.
“I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU FAILED ME LIKE THIS!” he bellowed.
“Um … ” Alan ventured. “It was only a mix-up … okay, so you now own nine months worth of Big Rod magazine to read … and yes, okay, so Big Rod is in fact a gay porn magazine as opposed to one about fishing … but it’s not like you could actually go fishing up here now, is it? Won’t the gay porn be more useful to you in the long run?”
It turned out that John didn’t care very much about the delicate instruments after all. Alan was eventually forced to lock himself in the bedroom until irate screams finally turned into quiet, bitter mumbles, then tip-toed out and headed home, wondering if he could convince his father to let someone else run the routine supply mission next time.
He couldn’t. It didn’t really matter though. The next time John sent a list of supplies down, all the brothers noticed with various degrees of amusement, distress and annoyance that a renewed subscription to Big Rod was amongst the requests.
“Why does he need a fishing magazine up in space?” Jeff wondered.
None of his sons answered him.
Title Singing
Fandom Firefly
Summary River tells Kaylee how she hears the ship.
“Sometimes, I can hear the engine singing,” River said.
Kaylee looked up from her book, suddenly paying attention. River was sitting, knees drawn up, staring down at Serenity’s engine, eyes intense, her bare feet flexing against the metal ladder.
“I like to listen,” she said. “It sings the most lovely songs.”
“What do you hear her sing about?” Kaylee asked, putting down her book and looking at River properly.
“She sings about the sky,” River said. “Flying through space with all the itty-bitty specks of meaningless matter what make up the universe. About the stars that people find so important and the way she doesn’t get fed quite when she wants to. About being out in the black with no one else but us little people that don’t always treat her right.”
She had stood up now and was swaying slightly, moving one hand in what was probably in time to some unearthly beat of a song that thrummed from the innards of an engine. A song that almost no one could hear.
Kaylee had always thought that maybe, she was the only one.
“She sings about us,” River said softly. “Where we’ve been and where we’ll be. Little people in their little worlds and one day we’ll be gone but she will still be here, singing her songs. Not forgotten.”
“What’s she yattering about?” Jayne asked gruffly, sticking his head in. “Hey, Kaylee - Captain says he wants you, sharpish. Ain’t you meant to be with your brother, crazy girl?”
River blinked at him, then ducked under his arm and walked away. Jayne looked at Kaylee.
“She bein’ all crazy again?” he asked.
Kaylee shook her head. As far as she was concerned, River had never talked more sense.