Doctor Who & Torchwood ficlets: Keep Your Powder Dry Too | G - PG13
Title of series: Keep Your Memories, but Keep Your Powder Dry Too
Fandoms: Doctor Who and Torchwood (not crossovers)
Characters: Theta, Koschei, The Doctor (Ten), Donna Noble, Leela, Alice Guppy, Emily Holroyd
Ratings: ranging from G to PG13
Spoilers: Classic Who serial The Invasion of Time and Torchwood "Fragments"
Total word count: 1619
Betas: donutsweeper and mad_jaks, big thanks!
Notes: Written for _medley_ for the help_chile auction, on the prompt "'retrospective' or 'nostalgia'." The series title is from a lyric by Harry Nilsson in "Don't Forget Me."
Doctor Who
I. Graffiti
II. A Promise
III. The Soul of a Weapon is the Journey
Torchwood
IV. Prologue: Aggression
V. Three Scenes from a Business Partnership
Graffiti (Doctor Who, PG, 354 words)
Summary: The Master has always craved attention.
Trainers pounding against the pavement, breath rushing in his ears, the steam and smoke from the train making his eyes burn, the Doctor was struck by the feeling that he'd been here before. Not the sense of repetition that comes from a thousand years of living - this was serious dèjá vu. And suddenly he knew what he would find when he reached the train's engine.
*They'd been alone in a study room when Koschei made the proposal: help him take apart the temporal 'engine' of one of the pods used for transport from the Academy to the centre of the Citadel. He couldn't do it without Theta, he insisted. It would be brilliant to find out how it worked, and maybe they could build one of their own and go places secretly.
"But we're not meant to study temporal transport mechanics for two more years," Theta protested, "it's strictly forbidden. There have been accidents."
Koschei looked scornful. "Those were idiots who didn't understand the theory. You know we're brilliant."
But Theta refused.
"Fine," Koschei shrugged, "I'll do something on my own. But you won't like it."
Only later did Theta realize what Koschei's pronouncement and the dark look in his eyes had meant. And so he found himself racing to the pod platform before a group of children boarded, taking apart the floor to reveal the miniature temporal drive, and extracting the metallic ribbon he found inside.
The next day, he appeared before the Academy governors to take responsibility for failing to notify anyone of the near-disaster. Despite himself, despite the sinister nature of the prank, Theta kept thinking of the message etched into the ribbon, and he struggled to keep from breaking into a grin.
*
When the train was finally stopped less than a mile out of the station, the Doctor pried up the steam gauge - and there it was, a message etched into the back of the metal. It was the same rude phrase in juvenile Gallifreyan slang, but it had lost its humour over the intervening centuries. The real meaning, however, hadn't changed: "Do not ignore me."
##
A Promise (Doctor Who, G, 335 words)
Summary: Donna's outing with the Doctor doesn't go as planned.
It was supposed to have been a simple walk in the country. Her shoes were to remain dry, her hair unmussed; the Doctor would show her some cliff he thought was brilliant, and they would be back to the TARDIS in time for tea. He promised. Lovely.
Not so lovely when the ground gave way, sending Donna to the bottom of a pit where her shoes sank in mud and her hair was decidedly mussed. She narrowly avoided crushing some of the orange mushrooms glowing in the wall next to her; they looked dangerous, and she wasn't initially comforted by the Doctor's yell when she pointed them out.
She still didn't understand just what was so exciting about mushrooms until they carried a coatful into the nearby village. Suddenly, from nowhere, there were people dancing around Donna, women kissing her cheeks, and a child had climbed into her arms to place flowers in her hair. Phrases like "famine" and "renew the crops" were uttered, but she was preoccupied with the children who kept giggling and jostling for turns holding her hands.
She didn't remember her muddy feet until that night, when the feast had ended and the stories had all been told. By that time, she was flushed and so exhausted with happiness that she didn't care anymore. Tall grass rustled in the breeze at their backs, and a small girl's head drooped against her chest.
Donna glanced sideways at the Doctor, then leaned over to bump his shoulder with hers. "We didn't make it to your cliffs."
"Ah, it's okay." The Doctor tipped his head back. "Look at the stars."
Donna nodded. She couldn't imagine any cliff blazing more brilliantly than that sky, even one encrusted with diamonds. Though she wouldn't mind taking a few souvenirs.
"I won't forget this," she told him.
He lifted his eyebrows and there was a trace of a grin. "Is that a threat, Donna Noble?"
"It's a promise," she said warmly, and meant it from the bottom of her heart.
##
The Soul of a Weapon is the Journey (Doctor Who, G, 455 words)
Summary: Leela may live with the Time Lords, but she will always be a warrior.
Gallifrey has a type of blue stone that is perfect for sharpening a metal knife, but the Time Lords do not value this stone and keep none in their stores of minerals. And so, every few years, Leela must make a trek into the mountains outside the citadel to collect some for herself.
They think she is a fool to venture outside, particularly on such a trivial mission. Years ago, when they came to accept that she would not give up her knife, they offered her one of their weapons in trade - a sleek but complicated thing, more accurate and less deadly than anything she had ever used. She rejected it; like most Time Lord objects, it had no soul. Her knife is a tool she made with her own hands, polished, used to shed blood and feed herself. She learned to sleep with it ready on her breast.
She is growing old now, but Leela will not forget her heritage. A warrior must never put away her weapon. And so on one of the long days of the year, she climbs a path to a peak where the stone can be gathered from the ground. This year is no different; among the scrubby mountain plants, she easily finds seven choice blue pieces and puts them in her pouch, where they clack against one another pleasantly. Then it is time to wait.
She can go back now and reach the citadel by dark. But she prefers to sit on a ledge with the sun dipping low behind her. She drinks from her bottle and watches the shadow of the mountains slip over the valley and up the gleaming sides of the towers, til all is in twilight.
After a few minutes, tiny lights begin to appear on the ground, as she knew they would. They are glowing worms, wriggling out of the rough gravel onto the smooth surface of the path to make love and glow brighter still. They light the way down the mountain and through the valley, and all Leela must do is follow them, avoiding the venomous, midnight-green lizards that come to eat the worms. These are quick, but she knows their ways, and a little danger makes the experience that much sharper and brighter.
Time Lords miss so many beautiful things in the universe, even on their own planet.
But it will be cold by the time she reaches the entrance to the citadel, and she is glad for a home to come to, a place with cushions and heat for her aging bones, with no wood to gather. She will make tea, and perhaps Rodan will be waiting for her in their bed, and they will be warm together.
It is good to know both worlds.
A/N: This probably does not fit in with the Big Finish Gallifrey continuity.
##
Aggression + Three Scenes from a Business Partnership (Torchwood, PG13, 100+375 words)
Summary: Alice takes what she wants, but Emily can only be taken so far.
Prologue: Aggression
The first time she had Emily, Alice was fresh from an extermination.
The creature had vigorously protested its impending demise, forcing Alice to respond with equal vigour. ("No, no, no" was always the wrong thing to say to Alice.) When she reported back, she was breathless and there was, Emily pointed out, blood in her mouth.
"Not my blood," Alice said, grinning wickedly, reckless with the lingering excitement of the kill, as she went over to give Emily a good, long taste.
Alice was in luck. As it turned out, Emily Holroyd valued a bit of aggression in her employees.
##
Three Scenes from a Business Partnership
1899
Alice was insatiable, and Emily seemed to appreciate her like a gentleman might admire a finely bred racehorse. Their physical satisfaction wanted nothing.
But Alice had always been at a disadvantage. Thanks to Torchwood's contacts in the constabulary, Emily knew quite a few details about Alice's past. About Emily, Alice knew... nothing. Nothing but the concrete, here, now. The gaps in her knowledge made her curious, and curiosity was another kind of lust.
However, as much as Emily had opened to Alice's physical directness, on this matter she stood firm - with a hint of a flame in her eye that Alice recognised and respected. They would not speak of personal things.
A few years later, trapped in the crumbling bowels of the Hub, accompanied by a bottle of expensive whisky and a cloud of dust, Emily offered an explanation: "I didn't want you civilised."
The raw passion in her voice made Alice shiver.
1904
Once, Alice fell asleep in Emily's bed. It was not their usual practice, and in the morning she started awake, disorientated, feeling guilty. Blinking, she noticed that the window curtains were slightly parted, admitting a shaft of sunlight, which fell on Emily's shoulder. It made her smooth skin glow a pale gold, all except a slight shadow below the shoulder blade. Holding her breath, Alice reached out to trace the spot with her finger - a small circular scar.
Emily's voice broke the spell. "You won't be showing up with flowers now, I hope."
The moment had been - almost been - dangerously intimate. Relieved, Alice snorted in reply. "Flowers are rubbish. Dead as soon as they're cut. I can think of a lot more interesting things to kill."
"Quite." There was the trace of a smile, perhaps approval, in Emily's voice. "Though daisies are rather sensible, as flowers go."
July 1906
Alice stood at the edge of a crater in the pavement, breathing in the dust the rain hadn't yet washed away.
You had your wish, she thought with fierce pride, I never was civilised.
She dropped a small flower into the crater, lifted her head high and walked away. She would be back next Sunday with another daisy, but if anyone saw and accused her of being sentimental, she would box him unconscious.
A/N: I wasn't able to find any conclusive information about Alice's or Emily's date of death, only that it had to have been before the 1918 team was formed, so I'm taking a bit of license here and working with some details of the Hub's history from the Torchwood Archives book, transcribed by dr_is_in here.
Fandoms: Doctor Who and Torchwood (not crossovers)
Characters: Theta, Koschei, The Doctor (Ten), Donna Noble, Leela, Alice Guppy, Emily Holroyd
Ratings: ranging from G to PG13
Spoilers: Classic Who serial The Invasion of Time and Torchwood "Fragments"
Total word count: 1619
Betas: donutsweeper and mad_jaks, big thanks!
Notes: Written for _medley_ for the help_chile auction, on the prompt "'retrospective' or 'nostalgia'." The series title is from a lyric by Harry Nilsson in "Don't Forget Me."
Doctor Who
I. Graffiti
II. A Promise
III. The Soul of a Weapon is the Journey
Torchwood
IV. Prologue: Aggression
V. Three Scenes from a Business Partnership
Graffiti (Doctor Who, PG, 354 words)
Summary: The Master has always craved attention.
Trainers pounding against the pavement, breath rushing in his ears, the steam and smoke from the train making his eyes burn, the Doctor was struck by the feeling that he'd been here before. Not the sense of repetition that comes from a thousand years of living - this was serious dèjá vu. And suddenly he knew what he would find when he reached the train's engine.
*They'd been alone in a study room when Koschei made the proposal: help him take apart the temporal 'engine' of one of the pods used for transport from the Academy to the centre of the Citadel. He couldn't do it without Theta, he insisted. It would be brilliant to find out how it worked, and maybe they could build one of their own and go places secretly.
"But we're not meant to study temporal transport mechanics for two more years," Theta protested, "it's strictly forbidden. There have been accidents."
Koschei looked scornful. "Those were idiots who didn't understand the theory. You know we're brilliant."
But Theta refused.
"Fine," Koschei shrugged, "I'll do something on my own. But you won't like it."
Only later did Theta realize what Koschei's pronouncement and the dark look in his eyes had meant. And so he found himself racing to the pod platform before a group of children boarded, taking apart the floor to reveal the miniature temporal drive, and extracting the metallic ribbon he found inside.
The next day, he appeared before the Academy governors to take responsibility for failing to notify anyone of the near-disaster. Despite himself, despite the sinister nature of the prank, Theta kept thinking of the message etched into the ribbon, and he struggled to keep from breaking into a grin.
*
When the train was finally stopped less than a mile out of the station, the Doctor pried up the steam gauge - and there it was, a message etched into the back of the metal. It was the same rude phrase in juvenile Gallifreyan slang, but it had lost its humour over the intervening centuries. The real meaning, however, hadn't changed: "Do not ignore me."
##
A Promise (Doctor Who, G, 335 words)
Summary: Donna's outing with the Doctor doesn't go as planned.
It was supposed to have been a simple walk in the country. Her shoes were to remain dry, her hair unmussed; the Doctor would show her some cliff he thought was brilliant, and they would be back to the TARDIS in time for tea. He promised. Lovely.
Not so lovely when the ground gave way, sending Donna to the bottom of a pit where her shoes sank in mud and her hair was decidedly mussed. She narrowly avoided crushing some of the orange mushrooms glowing in the wall next to her; they looked dangerous, and she wasn't initially comforted by the Doctor's yell when she pointed them out.
She still didn't understand just what was so exciting about mushrooms until they carried a coatful into the nearby village. Suddenly, from nowhere, there were people dancing around Donna, women kissing her cheeks, and a child had climbed into her arms to place flowers in her hair. Phrases like "famine" and "renew the crops" were uttered, but she was preoccupied with the children who kept giggling and jostling for turns holding her hands.
She didn't remember her muddy feet until that night, when the feast had ended and the stories had all been told. By that time, she was flushed and so exhausted with happiness that she didn't care anymore. Tall grass rustled in the breeze at their backs, and a small girl's head drooped against her chest.
Donna glanced sideways at the Doctor, then leaned over to bump his shoulder with hers. "We didn't make it to your cliffs."
"Ah, it's okay." The Doctor tipped his head back. "Look at the stars."
Donna nodded. She couldn't imagine any cliff blazing more brilliantly than that sky, even one encrusted with diamonds. Though she wouldn't mind taking a few souvenirs.
"I won't forget this," she told him.
He lifted his eyebrows and there was a trace of a grin. "Is that a threat, Donna Noble?"
"It's a promise," she said warmly, and meant it from the bottom of her heart.
##
The Soul of a Weapon is the Journey (Doctor Who, G, 455 words)
Summary: Leela may live with the Time Lords, but she will always be a warrior.
Gallifrey has a type of blue stone that is perfect for sharpening a metal knife, but the Time Lords do not value this stone and keep none in their stores of minerals. And so, every few years, Leela must make a trek into the mountains outside the citadel to collect some for herself.
They think she is a fool to venture outside, particularly on such a trivial mission. Years ago, when they came to accept that she would not give up her knife, they offered her one of their weapons in trade - a sleek but complicated thing, more accurate and less deadly than anything she had ever used. She rejected it; like most Time Lord objects, it had no soul. Her knife is a tool she made with her own hands, polished, used to shed blood and feed herself. She learned to sleep with it ready on her breast.
She is growing old now, but Leela will not forget her heritage. A warrior must never put away her weapon. And so on one of the long days of the year, she climbs a path to a peak where the stone can be gathered from the ground. This year is no different; among the scrubby mountain plants, she easily finds seven choice blue pieces and puts them in her pouch, where they clack against one another pleasantly. Then it is time to wait.
She can go back now and reach the citadel by dark. But she prefers to sit on a ledge with the sun dipping low behind her. She drinks from her bottle and watches the shadow of the mountains slip over the valley and up the gleaming sides of the towers, til all is in twilight.
After a few minutes, tiny lights begin to appear on the ground, as she knew they would. They are glowing worms, wriggling out of the rough gravel onto the smooth surface of the path to make love and glow brighter still. They light the way down the mountain and through the valley, and all Leela must do is follow them, avoiding the venomous, midnight-green lizards that come to eat the worms. These are quick, but she knows their ways, and a little danger makes the experience that much sharper and brighter.
Time Lords miss so many beautiful things in the universe, even on their own planet.
But it will be cold by the time she reaches the entrance to the citadel, and she is glad for a home to come to, a place with cushions and heat for her aging bones, with no wood to gather. She will make tea, and perhaps Rodan will be waiting for her in their bed, and they will be warm together.
It is good to know both worlds.
A/N: This probably does not fit in with the Big Finish Gallifrey continuity.
##
Aggression + Three Scenes from a Business Partnership (Torchwood, PG13, 100+375 words)
Summary: Alice takes what she wants, but Emily can only be taken so far.
Prologue: Aggression
The first time she had Emily, Alice was fresh from an extermination.
The creature had vigorously protested its impending demise, forcing Alice to respond with equal vigour. ("No, no, no" was always the wrong thing to say to Alice.) When she reported back, she was breathless and there was, Emily pointed out, blood in her mouth.
"Not my blood," Alice said, grinning wickedly, reckless with the lingering excitement of the kill, as she went over to give Emily a good, long taste.
Alice was in luck. As it turned out, Emily Holroyd valued a bit of aggression in her employees.
##
Three Scenes from a Business Partnership
1899
Alice was insatiable, and Emily seemed to appreciate her like a gentleman might admire a finely bred racehorse. Their physical satisfaction wanted nothing.
But Alice had always been at a disadvantage. Thanks to Torchwood's contacts in the constabulary, Emily knew quite a few details about Alice's past. About Emily, Alice knew... nothing. Nothing but the concrete, here, now. The gaps in her knowledge made her curious, and curiosity was another kind of lust.
However, as much as Emily had opened to Alice's physical directness, on this matter she stood firm - with a hint of a flame in her eye that Alice recognised and respected. They would not speak of personal things.
A few years later, trapped in the crumbling bowels of the Hub, accompanied by a bottle of expensive whisky and a cloud of dust, Emily offered an explanation: "I didn't want you civilised."
The raw passion in her voice made Alice shiver.
1904
Once, Alice fell asleep in Emily's bed. It was not their usual practice, and in the morning she started awake, disorientated, feeling guilty. Blinking, she noticed that the window curtains were slightly parted, admitting a shaft of sunlight, which fell on Emily's shoulder. It made her smooth skin glow a pale gold, all except a slight shadow below the shoulder blade. Holding her breath, Alice reached out to trace the spot with her finger - a small circular scar.
Emily's voice broke the spell. "You won't be showing up with flowers now, I hope."
The moment had been - almost been - dangerously intimate. Relieved, Alice snorted in reply. "Flowers are rubbish. Dead as soon as they're cut. I can think of a lot more interesting things to kill."
"Quite." There was the trace of a smile, perhaps approval, in Emily's voice. "Though daisies are rather sensible, as flowers go."
July 1906
Alice stood at the edge of a crater in the pavement, breathing in the dust the rain hadn't yet washed away.
You had your wish, she thought with fierce pride, I never was civilised.
She dropped a small flower into the crater, lifted her head high and walked away. She would be back next Sunday with another daisy, but if anyone saw and accused her of being sentimental, she would box him unconscious.
A/N: I wasn't able to find any conclusive information about Alice's or Emily's date of death, only that it had to have been before the 1918 team was formed, so I'm taking a bit of license here and working with some details of the Hub's history from the Torchwood Archives book, transcribed by dr_is_in here.