FIC: As the World Shuffles Along (Multi-Fandom) July Set
Yay! July Set!
Exploring a couple of new fandoms (for me at least), a dabble back into Avengers again, and good old HP.
Title: Worthwhile
Fandom: Brave
Characters: King Fergus
Timeframe: Intro scene
Theme: Pale - Within Temptation
~*~
Have to fight
'Cause I know in the end it's worthwhile
That the pain that I feel slowly fades
It will be all right
~*~
Merida’s scream is the only warning he gets.
There’s a note of true terror in her scream that he has never heard before from his plucky lass, and when he turned back around, the shadow of the demon bear is looming over his wife and daughter.
He’s throwing himself into the fight on pure instinct and adrenaline. He sees Elenore take off on one of the horses out of the corner of his eye, before being drawn back into the reality of the fight as his sword is shattered by Mor’du.
Truthfully, all he remembers after that is an all-consuming pain. He doesn’t remember getting back to the castle, Elenore watching over him as he slept fitfully through the following days.
It’s a week before he woke up without the healer giving him another vile concoction. His Queen was asleep, slumped in the chair, and little Merida was on her lap, blue eyes open, staring solemnly back at him.
Seeing her little face light up, seeing both of them safe and well, that made it all okay again.
~*~
Title: Liberation
Fandom: Avengers Movie-verse
Characters: Natasha Romanoff, side serve of Clint Barton
Timeframe: Pre Avengers
Theme: She Walked Away - Barlow Girl
~*~
Now she's driving too fast
She didn't care to glance behind
And through her tears she laughed
It's time to kiss the past goodbye
~*~
Natasha is used to being defined by her work, her reputation.
She’s got many SHIELD agents convinced that she doesn’t exist outside of missions and SHEILD headquarters. Clint may have helped her on occasion to perpetuate that, because, really, she does enjoy freaking out the junior agents. She also considers this her proof that Clint is somewhat of a bad influence on her.
But the rare occasions she gets an actual vacation, she makes sure to distance herself from everything entirely.
She leaves behind her name, her weaponry, and everything connected to SHIELD and her old life in Russia.
Under pain of torture, except maybe to Clint, she’ll never admit that there are time when she grows weary of the look in people’s eyes when they see her, the knowledge, the fear, and the judgement.
When Hawkeye first suggested distancing herself for a break, she’d scoffed, and haunted the training rooms while off-duty.
It was another two years before she actually ran with the idea.
It was surprisingly liberating. To be a person who wasn’t given a second glance (with the exception of a few lustful eyes from passing men) without inhabiting a persona SHEILD had created. She’d watched cliché movies and threw popcorn at the screen, and read a surprising amount of comic books, a newly discovered weakness.
Clint had just smirked when she returned to SHEILD with a tan, and a collection of Catwoman comics now taking up residence in her quarters.
~*~
Title: Chasing Shadows
Fandom: Tron
Characters: Kevin Flynn
Timeframe: Circa 2002?
Theme: I See The Light - Tangled soundtrack
~*~
All those days chasing down a daydream
All those years living in a blur
All that time never truly seeing
Things, the way they were
~*~
He dreams of Sam again.
That day he took the boy to the beach last. Sand underfoot squishing between his toes, and the bright-eyed boy with curly hair chasing seagulls up and down the beach. But he can’t see his son’s face clearly anymore.
His cheeks are damp when he wakes.
Quorra isn’t up yet by the sounds of it, and Kevin finds himself alone with his melancholy.
Sam must be nearly twenty by now. He’s done his best to keep track of the time in the real world, but it still gets muddled at times.
Still, by his reckoning, he’s been within the grid some twelve years, real world time. His parents, he knew, would take care of Sam, but it wasn’t the same.
How reckless it seemed in hindsight. He was too busy playing God in his digital world to appreciate what he had. Sam and him had had a good relationship, but Kevin couldn’t help but feel that he’d taken his family for granted.
He wondered what Sam thought of him now.
No doubt various and sundry theories about his disappearance had been put forward.
A clutter from the living room alerts him to Quorra’s wakefulness, snapping him from his thought process.
Kevin just hoped that one day, somehow, he’d be able to explain this to Sam, and to apologize. To warn him against chasing shadows when everything he needed was already in front of him.
~*~
Title: Escape (Back to the Start)
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters: Sirius Black
Timeframe: November 1981
Theme: Fingernails - Skillet
~*~
Never reaching what I want to reach
Never being who I want to be
Blaming me when I fall and fail
All my dreams splintering
Under my fingernails
~*~
The dark cell is almost a relief.
Deep down, Sirius want to howl with despair, but it can’t get passed to layer of numb shock that has settled over him.
James and Lily are dead. Peter is a traitor. He has lost everything. And it’s all his fault.
He should have realised that Pete-Pettigrew, was the traitor. With hindsight, a string of clues clicked into place. He’d escaped when the Prewett twins were attacked, almost miraculously, managed to duck out at seemingly random times which more than once meant he had missed battles by mere moments. But Sirius, James, Lily and Remus had never questioned his loyalty. He was a Marauder.
When he’d arrived at Godric’s Hollow, rational thought fled his mind upon seeing the destroyed house. He was barely able to talk to Hagrid, but focussed on little Harry. In that moment, there was a thought forming at the back of Sirius’ mind, which would likely prevent him seeing James’ and Lily’s little boy again.
Tracking Pet-Pettigrew, dammit-had been easier than he’d thought-too easy now that he thinks about it.
In the aftermath of that encounter, Sirius found himself in hysterics. How much had they underestimated Peter? That detached part of his brain had to admit that the rat had outmaunevered him. He’d know how it would look to the Ministry, the rest of the Order, even to Remus (Sirius’ stomach lurched unpleasantly at the thought of Remus receiving the news of the last days while on his Order mission).
He would be judged on misconstrued evidence, and lumped back in with the family he’d tried so hard to separate himself from.
Sirius curled up into a tight ball against the cell wall, willing himself to cry for his friends.
He found he couldn’t.
~*~
Title: The Dream is Over
Fandom: Inception
Characters: Miles, side of Ariadne
Timeframe: Post-Movie
Theme: Jillian - Within Temptation
~*~
Jillian,
Our dream ended long ago.
All our stories
And all our glory
I held so dear
~*~
It’s another month before Miles returns to Paris, his heart lighter than it has been for two years. The look on Dom’s face as he held Phillipa and James was one he will long remember.
There was a finality, almost palpable, in the air.
The nightmare had come to a close.
The scars will remain. He doesn’t know if Dom will ever stop blaming himself. Phillipa and James are going to grow up without their mother. Miles and his wife have had to bury their only child.
(He tries not to dwell on Phillipa, who has made comments that indicate she remembers Mal’s breakdown, or the ache that had gone through his heart when Dom first admitted that Mal was haunting his dreams. Or the gnawing fear at Mal’s worsening psychosis, the horror and pain that followed. The frustration of explaining again and again to the authorities that Dom did not kill his daughter, that Mal’s mental state had not been stable no matter what those shrinks had said, of watching his grandchildren waiting for their father to come home).
For now, it was enough that their family has a way forward again.
When he sees Ariadne in his classroom again, he invents an excuse for her to stay behind.
He owes this young woman so much. She accepts the thanks with a small smile. “I’m just relieved it worked out in the end,” she tells him. Miles eyes her and asks her if she thinks she’ll return to dreamscapes.
He’s relieved when Ariadne says shakes her head. “I don’t think so,” she murmurs. “I feel like creating there... spoiled me, in some ways. I want to have something tangible I can put my name to before I go back there.”
Miles is almost unreasonably proud of his student for this, and he hugs her once again before she leaves.
He’s left alone in his classroom, surrounded once again by papers, and he looks at the photo on his desk.
Mal, back in her college days. This one was taken just after her and Dom started dating. Her face was pink from the winter wind, her hair peeking out from under her beanie. Happy and full of life.
“My girl, I wish you were still here,” his voice is thick. “I wish you could share your stories with your children yourself.” He kisses the forehead of his daughter’s image. “I love you, my girl.”
~*~
I can’t believe I waited this long to actually watch Inception. I am clearly stupid.
Exploring a couple of new fandoms (for me at least), a dabble back into Avengers again, and good old HP.
Title: Worthwhile
Fandom: Brave
Characters: King Fergus
Timeframe: Intro scene
Theme: Pale - Within Temptation
~*~
Have to fight
'Cause I know in the end it's worthwhile
That the pain that I feel slowly fades
It will be all right
~*~
Merida’s scream is the only warning he gets.
There’s a note of true terror in her scream that he has never heard before from his plucky lass, and when he turned back around, the shadow of the demon bear is looming over his wife and daughter.
He’s throwing himself into the fight on pure instinct and adrenaline. He sees Elenore take off on one of the horses out of the corner of his eye, before being drawn back into the reality of the fight as his sword is shattered by Mor’du.
Truthfully, all he remembers after that is an all-consuming pain. He doesn’t remember getting back to the castle, Elenore watching over him as he slept fitfully through the following days.
It’s a week before he woke up without the healer giving him another vile concoction. His Queen was asleep, slumped in the chair, and little Merida was on her lap, blue eyes open, staring solemnly back at him.
Seeing her little face light up, seeing both of them safe and well, that made it all okay again.
~*~
Title: Liberation
Fandom: Avengers Movie-verse
Characters: Natasha Romanoff, side serve of Clint Barton
Timeframe: Pre Avengers
Theme: She Walked Away - Barlow Girl
~*~
Now she's driving too fast
She didn't care to glance behind
And through her tears she laughed
It's time to kiss the past goodbye
~*~
Natasha is used to being defined by her work, her reputation.
She’s got many SHIELD agents convinced that she doesn’t exist outside of missions and SHEILD headquarters. Clint may have helped her on occasion to perpetuate that, because, really, she does enjoy freaking out the junior agents. She also considers this her proof that Clint is somewhat of a bad influence on her.
But the rare occasions she gets an actual vacation, she makes sure to distance herself from everything entirely.
She leaves behind her name, her weaponry, and everything connected to SHIELD and her old life in Russia.
Under pain of torture, except maybe to Clint, she’ll never admit that there are time when she grows weary of the look in people’s eyes when they see her, the knowledge, the fear, and the judgement.
When Hawkeye first suggested distancing herself for a break, she’d scoffed, and haunted the training rooms while off-duty.
It was another two years before she actually ran with the idea.
It was surprisingly liberating. To be a person who wasn’t given a second glance (with the exception of a few lustful eyes from passing men) without inhabiting a persona SHEILD had created. She’d watched cliché movies and threw popcorn at the screen, and read a surprising amount of comic books, a newly discovered weakness.
Clint had just smirked when she returned to SHEILD with a tan, and a collection of Catwoman comics now taking up residence in her quarters.
~*~
Title: Chasing Shadows
Fandom: Tron
Characters: Kevin Flynn
Timeframe: Circa 2002?
Theme: I See The Light - Tangled soundtrack
~*~
All those days chasing down a daydream
All those years living in a blur
All that time never truly seeing
Things, the way they were
~*~
He dreams of Sam again.
That day he took the boy to the beach last. Sand underfoot squishing between his toes, and the bright-eyed boy with curly hair chasing seagulls up and down the beach. But he can’t see his son’s face clearly anymore.
His cheeks are damp when he wakes.
Quorra isn’t up yet by the sounds of it, and Kevin finds himself alone with his melancholy.
Sam must be nearly twenty by now. He’s done his best to keep track of the time in the real world, but it still gets muddled at times.
Still, by his reckoning, he’s been within the grid some twelve years, real world time. His parents, he knew, would take care of Sam, but it wasn’t the same.
How reckless it seemed in hindsight. He was too busy playing God in his digital world to appreciate what he had. Sam and him had had a good relationship, but Kevin couldn’t help but feel that he’d taken his family for granted.
He wondered what Sam thought of him now.
No doubt various and sundry theories about his disappearance had been put forward.
A clutter from the living room alerts him to Quorra’s wakefulness, snapping him from his thought process.
Kevin just hoped that one day, somehow, he’d be able to explain this to Sam, and to apologize. To warn him against chasing shadows when everything he needed was already in front of him.
~*~
Title: Escape (Back to the Start)
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters: Sirius Black
Timeframe: November 1981
Theme: Fingernails - Skillet
~*~
Never reaching what I want to reach
Never being who I want to be
Blaming me when I fall and fail
All my dreams splintering
Under my fingernails
~*~
The dark cell is almost a relief.
Deep down, Sirius want to howl with despair, but it can’t get passed to layer of numb shock that has settled over him.
James and Lily are dead. Peter is a traitor. He has lost everything. And it’s all his fault.
He should have realised that Pete-Pettigrew, was the traitor. With hindsight, a string of clues clicked into place. He’d escaped when the Prewett twins were attacked, almost miraculously, managed to duck out at seemingly random times which more than once meant he had missed battles by mere moments. But Sirius, James, Lily and Remus had never questioned his loyalty. He was a Marauder.
When he’d arrived at Godric’s Hollow, rational thought fled his mind upon seeing the destroyed house. He was barely able to talk to Hagrid, but focussed on little Harry. In that moment, there was a thought forming at the back of Sirius’ mind, which would likely prevent him seeing James’ and Lily’s little boy again.
Tracking Pet-Pettigrew, dammit-had been easier than he’d thought-too easy now that he thinks about it.
In the aftermath of that encounter, Sirius found himself in hysterics. How much had they underestimated Peter? That detached part of his brain had to admit that the rat had outmaunevered him. He’d know how it would look to the Ministry, the rest of the Order, even to Remus (Sirius’ stomach lurched unpleasantly at the thought of Remus receiving the news of the last days while on his Order mission).
He would be judged on misconstrued evidence, and lumped back in with the family he’d tried so hard to separate himself from.
Sirius curled up into a tight ball against the cell wall, willing himself to cry for his friends.
He found he couldn’t.
~*~
Title: The Dream is Over
Fandom: Inception
Characters: Miles, side of Ariadne
Timeframe: Post-Movie
Theme: Jillian - Within Temptation
~*~
Jillian,
Our dream ended long ago.
All our stories
And all our glory
I held so dear
~*~
It’s another month before Miles returns to Paris, his heart lighter than it has been for two years. The look on Dom’s face as he held Phillipa and James was one he will long remember.
There was a finality, almost palpable, in the air.
The nightmare had come to a close.
The scars will remain. He doesn’t know if Dom will ever stop blaming himself. Phillipa and James are going to grow up without their mother. Miles and his wife have had to bury their only child.
(He tries not to dwell on Phillipa, who has made comments that indicate she remembers Mal’s breakdown, or the ache that had gone through his heart when Dom first admitted that Mal was haunting his dreams. Or the gnawing fear at Mal’s worsening psychosis, the horror and pain that followed. The frustration of explaining again and again to the authorities that Dom did not kill his daughter, that Mal’s mental state had not been stable no matter what those shrinks had said, of watching his grandchildren waiting for their father to come home).
For now, it was enough that their family has a way forward again.
When he sees Ariadne in his classroom again, he invents an excuse for her to stay behind.
He owes this young woman so much. She accepts the thanks with a small smile. “I’m just relieved it worked out in the end,” she tells him. Miles eyes her and asks her if she thinks she’ll return to dreamscapes.
He’s relieved when Ariadne says shakes her head. “I don’t think so,” she murmurs. “I feel like creating there... spoiled me, in some ways. I want to have something tangible I can put my name to before I go back there.”
Miles is almost unreasonably proud of his student for this, and he hugs her once again before she leaves.
He’s left alone in his classroom, surrounded once again by papers, and he looks at the photo on his desk.
Mal, back in her college days. This one was taken just after her and Dom started dating. Her face was pink from the winter wind, her hair peeking out from under her beanie. Happy and full of life.
“My girl, I wish you were still here,” his voice is thick. “I wish you could share your stories with your children yourself.” He kisses the forehead of his daughter’s image. “I love you, my girl.”
~*~
I can’t believe I waited this long to actually watch Inception. I am clearly stupid.