Ficlet: Being Coat
Title: Being Coat
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Coat, Jack.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Jack’s Coat thinks about its life.
Word Count: 500
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Prompt 171: Coat at anythingdrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
Being a coat isn’t as easy a life as most humans seem to believe. There’s a lot of responsibility in caring for a human and protecting them from the elements, and for most coats it’s a thankless task. They seldom get shown the appreciation they deserve. Of course, that isn’t so much the case for Coat who, being semi-sentient and moderately alive, is somewhat exceptional to begin with. When one has ways in which to express oneself it makes a big difference to the way one is treated.
Coat wasn’t always semi-sentient of course, it developed its own very individual form of life through decades of exposure to Rift energy and to the peculiarities of its owner, who had, and still has, the energy of the Time Vortex permeating every cell in his body.
The Captain’s propensity for getting seriously injured, or even killed, while wearing his Coat most likely had a lot to do with Coat’s rise to sentience, and over time it learned how to emulate its owner’s self-healing abilities. It was a matter of self-preservation, as well as of loyalty to the valiant Captain.
Coat, like its owner, is one of a kind. Both of them started out as perfectly ordinary specimens, a fifty-first century human and a World War II greatcoat. They met during that war, and have been together ever since, although Coat can’t really remember that far back. It didn’t possess the coat equivalent of a brain back then so it didn’t have any awareness at the time, not the way it does now.
Unlike the Captain’s abrupt change from ordinary man to immortal, for Coat the accumulation of knowledge and a sense of self was a gradual thing, happening over a period of several decades. Every time the Captain died and resurrected, Coat gained a little more of both, and it knows its evolution is far from complete. Perhaps one day far into the future it will learn how to communicate with its owner beyond just making him aware of its moods, from light-hearted playfulness, to deep displeasure, and even despondency.
It takes pride in what it is now. It loves its Captain, in its own way, and feels honoured to do the job it does. It can’t keep its Captain safe from danger, but it can do its best to keep him warm and dry in the wind and rain that are both so common in this part of Wales. That’s one of the most important parts of its job, the other being to make its Captain look suitably dashing and heroic at all times, flaring out behind him when he runs, swirling around him when he turns, giving the occasional flounce… okay, so that last might not be strictly necessary, but it looks good, and it’s fun. Surely Coat is entitled to some enjoyment, especially considering how often it gets soaked, or covered in mud, blood, and alien slime.
No, a coat’s life isn’t easy, but Coat has relatively few complaints
The End
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Coat, Jack.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Jack’s Coat thinks about its life.
Word Count: 500
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Prompt 171: Coat at anythingdrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
Being a coat isn’t as easy a life as most humans seem to believe. There’s a lot of responsibility in caring for a human and protecting them from the elements, and for most coats it’s a thankless task. They seldom get shown the appreciation they deserve. Of course, that isn’t so much the case for Coat who, being semi-sentient and moderately alive, is somewhat exceptional to begin with. When one has ways in which to express oneself it makes a big difference to the way one is treated.
Coat wasn’t always semi-sentient of course, it developed its own very individual form of life through decades of exposure to Rift energy and to the peculiarities of its owner, who had, and still has, the energy of the Time Vortex permeating every cell in his body.
The Captain’s propensity for getting seriously injured, or even killed, while wearing his Coat most likely had a lot to do with Coat’s rise to sentience, and over time it learned how to emulate its owner’s self-healing abilities. It was a matter of self-preservation, as well as of loyalty to the valiant Captain.
Coat, like its owner, is one of a kind. Both of them started out as perfectly ordinary specimens, a fifty-first century human and a World War II greatcoat. They met during that war, and have been together ever since, although Coat can’t really remember that far back. It didn’t possess the coat equivalent of a brain back then so it didn’t have any awareness at the time, not the way it does now.
Unlike the Captain’s abrupt change from ordinary man to immortal, for Coat the accumulation of knowledge and a sense of self was a gradual thing, happening over a period of several decades. Every time the Captain died and resurrected, Coat gained a little more of both, and it knows its evolution is far from complete. Perhaps one day far into the future it will learn how to communicate with its owner beyond just making him aware of its moods, from light-hearted playfulness, to deep displeasure, and even despondency.
It takes pride in what it is now. It loves its Captain, in its own way, and feels honoured to do the job it does. It can’t keep its Captain safe from danger, but it can do its best to keep him warm and dry in the wind and rain that are both so common in this part of Wales. That’s one of the most important parts of its job, the other being to make its Captain look suitably dashing and heroic at all times, flaring out behind him when he runs, swirling around him when he turns, giving the occasional flounce… okay, so that last might not be strictly necessary, but it looks good, and it’s fun. Surely Coat is entitled to some enjoyment, especially considering how often it gets soaked, or covered in mud, blood, and alien slime.
No, a coat’s life isn’t easy, but Coat has relatively few complaints
The End