Fic: Our Buildings Will Fall to Ruin (Topher/Ivy) PG-13
Title: Our Buildings Will Fall to Ruin
Author:duh_i_read
Word Count: 430
Spoilers: Epitaph One and gen ones for the whole series
Warning: Alternate universe, mildly dark themes around mental illness.
Summery: Our buildings and machines will fall to ruin, the systems and the names of the great will fall like leaves, but you, love, you flourish in the ruins... --Karel Capek. Season 2 AU.
AN: This is spun off that scene in Epitaph one, where Ambrose!Victor tells DeWitt and Topher that they have to make a choice. So this is AU for everything after Stop-Loss. Written for the Doomed Ships commentathon for softly_me using the prompt we tore the world apart. now we'll watch it burn. The title, summery and the name Alquist is taken from the play R.U.R, the text that the name Rossum is taken from.
--
Topher found Ivy at the far end of the deck; leaning her whole body against the railing, starring at a smudges of grays and blues in the distance, streaks of tar colored smoke drifting far across the sky, like they were on the little boat in the Monet painting Adelle had in her room, of a tall building at dawn.
"I woke up and you were gone." He tugged on the sleeve of her sweatshirt, noticed she stood on the lowest rung in only her socks. "Come back to bed."
"Do you know where we are?" she asked.
"Er..." He never paid attention during those meetings, the endless discussion over the color coded digital map and the blinking dot that represented the last unaltered bits of humanity were supremely boring. "Somewhere in the Atlantic, maybe?"
"We're in the north sea near the Netherlands. The ports are burning."
He didn't respond. The Alquist stayed in deep water, but close enough for him and everyone else to know every city they drifted past was burning or simply ash. Topher didn't need the reminder, felt the weight of his actions every morning when he woke up pressed to Ivy's side without worry their memories would be gone.
"Ivy," he tried again to coax her back, tried to pry her fingers from the cold metal. "Please, come back inside."
Ivy shook her head in refusal and he sighed.
Reducing psychosis to the saying about repetitive actions and different results was simplistic, but he found himself returning to the thought the more times he found himself in this spot, half awake and freezing, pleading with her.
Topher gave up on words and kissed the side of her face, cool under his lips but warmed the longer he continued. Eventually, Ivy turned her head so he could warm her lips too. He slipped his hands under the hood of her sweatshirt, threading his fingers through her hair. Ivy broke the kiss, ether she would step out of reach or allow him to pull her down from her perch.
Ivy step down from the railing and slipped closer to him, sliding her icy fingers under the hem of his shirt and along his bare skin. He folded his arms around her, feeling her whole body tremble while the familiar lie of everything is going to be ok rolled from his lips.
He led her away, tucked under one arm, ignoring the Adelle like voice in his head that demanded he tell someone about Ivy's little jaunts, least he wake too late to pull her from the edge.
Author:duh_i_read
Word Count: 430
Spoilers: Epitaph One and gen ones for the whole series
Warning: Alternate universe, mildly dark themes around mental illness.
Summery: Our buildings and machines will fall to ruin, the systems and the names of the great will fall like leaves, but you, love, you flourish in the ruins... --Karel Capek. Season 2 AU.
AN: This is spun off that scene in Epitaph one, where Ambrose!Victor tells DeWitt and Topher that they have to make a choice. So this is AU for everything after Stop-Loss. Written for the Doomed Ships commentathon for softly_me using the prompt we tore the world apart. now we'll watch it burn. The title, summery and the name Alquist is taken from the play R.U.R, the text that the name Rossum is taken from.
--
Topher found Ivy at the far end of the deck; leaning her whole body against the railing, starring at a smudges of grays and blues in the distance, streaks of tar colored smoke drifting far across the sky, like they were on the little boat in the Monet painting Adelle had in her room, of a tall building at dawn.
"I woke up and you were gone." He tugged on the sleeve of her sweatshirt, noticed she stood on the lowest rung in only her socks. "Come back to bed."
"Do you know where we are?" she asked.
"Er..." He never paid attention during those meetings, the endless discussion over the color coded digital map and the blinking dot that represented the last unaltered bits of humanity were supremely boring. "Somewhere in the Atlantic, maybe?"
"We're in the north sea near the Netherlands. The ports are burning."
He didn't respond. The Alquist stayed in deep water, but close enough for him and everyone else to know every city they drifted past was burning or simply ash. Topher didn't need the reminder, felt the weight of his actions every morning when he woke up pressed to Ivy's side without worry their memories would be gone.
"Ivy," he tried again to coax her back, tried to pry her fingers from the cold metal. "Please, come back inside."
Ivy shook her head in refusal and he sighed.
Reducing psychosis to the saying about repetitive actions and different results was simplistic, but he found himself returning to the thought the more times he found himself in this spot, half awake and freezing, pleading with her.
Topher gave up on words and kissed the side of her face, cool under his lips but warmed the longer he continued. Eventually, Ivy turned her head so he could warm her lips too. He slipped his hands under the hood of her sweatshirt, threading his fingers through her hair. Ivy broke the kiss, ether she would step out of reach or allow him to pull her down from her perch.
Ivy step down from the railing and slipped closer to him, sliding her icy fingers under the hem of his shirt and along his bare skin. He folded his arms around her, feeling her whole body tremble while the familiar lie of everything is going to be ok rolled from his lips.
He led her away, tucked under one arm, ignoring the Adelle like voice in his head that demanded he tell someone about Ivy's little jaunts, least he wake too late to pull her from the edge.