strawberry, rocky road and cookies 'n' cream with fresh blueberries
Story: Timeless { backstory | index }
Title: Dream and Reality
Rating: G
Challenge: Strawberry #19: umbrella, Rocky Road #24: on the roof, Cookies ‘n’ Cream #10: dream
Toppings/Extras: fresh blueberries
Wordcount: 883
Summary: Robyn Walshe finds Victor Blackledge on the roof of Hamlet Tower.
Notes: Fluff alert! Also, finished Strawberry and the Neapolitan challenge! Blueberries: We are beginning to see the influence of dream upon reality and reality upon dream.
“I thought I’d find you here,” Robyn said, ducking through the rain and jogging across the flat rooftop. Hamlet Tower was one of the tallest buildings in Britannia and had large barriers around the top edges to prevent people from being swept straight off the top by the high winds. It was meant to be used as a helipad, not a place to stand, but Victor either didn’t know or didn’t care.
The genetic experiment turned and smiled absently at her before looking away again-as far as he was concerned, her statement was not something that required response. He was holding a large umbrella over his head and he hesitantly offered her a space under it. She stooped under it gratefully, hearing the rain pattering gently on the top.
There was a pause in which Robyn stopped to take in the view; the barriers were clear and offered a fantastic vantage point. The city gleamed below them, rain washing down the glassy surfaces of the skyscrapers, steam gently rising from the warm walkways that webbed between each ‘scraper. The stinging, moist atmosphere brought a rosy tint to her cheeks almost instantly: Victor remained colourlessly pale as always.
Victor didn’t ask her if there was something she needed to say or do; if there had been a reason for looking for him. He never did.
“Why’d you like it up here so much?” Robyn found herself asking, unwilling launch into talking about work. She had just been informed of a briefing that evening and she was meant to be telling him about it, but it could wait.
“It helps me sleep,” Victor said mildly. He noticed her looking expectant and this time managed to catch the cue, smiling embarrassedly. “When I look at big, complicated things… like the city… it stays in my head and I process it while I sleep.”
“And that helps you?” Robyn asked, tilting her head.
“I don’t dream. I can’t. I just Remember.” Victor’s gaze drifted back out to the cityscape through the pale grey swathes of flurrying rain, face close to the glass barrier. “If I look at enough things in a day, I’ll just dream of that. Instead of…”
“Things that happened a long time ago,” Robyn finished for him diplomatically when he abruptly stopped talking. “Well, I guess that makes sense.” She tucked a strand of hair, turned from gold to brown because of the dampness, behind one ear. “Does that mean you don’t have really whacked-out dreams about being chased by mammoths and stuff?”
“No,” Victor said with a small, wan smile. “Blackledges don’t have imaginations.”
“Really?”
“None that I know, anyway,” he said with a small shrug. “We’re not supposed to.”
“Oh,” Robyn said. She stuck her hands into her pockets and gazed out across the cityscape, trying to see what Victor saw. “And then you dream about the city?”
“Bits and pieces,” he said. “The number of people and things going on means that it usually takes a while to go through it all. It’s quite soothing, really.”
“And all of your dreams are just memories?” Robyn asked. Another question was itching at her throat but she was trying to resist it. When Victor’s response to her previous question was nothing but a shallow nod, however, it burst from her: “Do you ever dream of me?”
“They’re not really dreams,” Victor said, keeping his eyes fixed on the city below them. “Sometimes you’re there. It’s funny, the moments my brain picks.”
“Like what?”
“Just… bits of conversation,” he said, and then suddenly smiled that startling smile of his. He usually did it when he wanted to change the topic of conversation. “Um, do you have many strange dreams? Sometimes I feel like I’m missing out.”
Robyn tilted her head and rocked back and forth on her heels momentarily, heavy-duty military boots crunching against wet gravel.
“Yeah,” she said with a shrug. “Really bizarre stuff sometimes and then other times it’s so ordinary I wake up thinking it was real. I have dreams with memories in them sometimes but they get all twisted up. None of it makes sense… I don’t think you’re missing out on very much at all.” She brightened. “And it means you don’t have nightmares, right?”
“Nightmares are dreams that scare you,” he said carefully. His gaze dropped to the floor, which it hadn’t done yet for the whole time she had been up there. Robyn remembered back when she had first met him and his eyes had never, ever left the ground. Suddenly she regretted bringing up nightmares at all.
Robyn took a hold of him by the elbow, umbrella bouncing droplets out around them.
“Come on, dreamer,” she said determinedly. “We’ve got a briefing to get ready for.”
“OK,” Victor said, glancing back out over Britannia. “I just need to see a few more things. I don’t know if I’ve been up here long enough…”
“We can come back afterwards,” Robyn said, smiling brilliantly.
She saw the word ‘we’ hit him like a bullet and wondered if she’d been a bit forward-maybe it was something he preferred doing alone-but then he smiled back at her.
“OK,” he said again.
The thought of being in his dreams made her happy in a way she couldn’t describe.
Title: Dream and Reality
Rating: G
Challenge: Strawberry #19: umbrella, Rocky Road #24: on the roof, Cookies ‘n’ Cream #10: dream
Toppings/Extras: fresh blueberries
Wordcount: 883
Summary: Robyn Walshe finds Victor Blackledge on the roof of Hamlet Tower.
Notes: Fluff alert! Also, finished Strawberry and the Neapolitan challenge! Blueberries: We are beginning to see the influence of dream upon reality and reality upon dream.
“I thought I’d find you here,” Robyn said, ducking through the rain and jogging across the flat rooftop. Hamlet Tower was one of the tallest buildings in Britannia and had large barriers around the top edges to prevent people from being swept straight off the top by the high winds. It was meant to be used as a helipad, not a place to stand, but Victor either didn’t know or didn’t care.
The genetic experiment turned and smiled absently at her before looking away again-as far as he was concerned, her statement was not something that required response. He was holding a large umbrella over his head and he hesitantly offered her a space under it. She stooped under it gratefully, hearing the rain pattering gently on the top.
There was a pause in which Robyn stopped to take in the view; the barriers were clear and offered a fantastic vantage point. The city gleamed below them, rain washing down the glassy surfaces of the skyscrapers, steam gently rising from the warm walkways that webbed between each ‘scraper. The stinging, moist atmosphere brought a rosy tint to her cheeks almost instantly: Victor remained colourlessly pale as always.
Victor didn’t ask her if there was something she needed to say or do; if there had been a reason for looking for him. He never did.
“Why’d you like it up here so much?” Robyn found herself asking, unwilling launch into talking about work. She had just been informed of a briefing that evening and she was meant to be telling him about it, but it could wait.
“It helps me sleep,” Victor said mildly. He noticed her looking expectant and this time managed to catch the cue, smiling embarrassedly. “When I look at big, complicated things… like the city… it stays in my head and I process it while I sleep.”
“And that helps you?” Robyn asked, tilting her head.
“I don’t dream. I can’t. I just Remember.” Victor’s gaze drifted back out to the cityscape through the pale grey swathes of flurrying rain, face close to the glass barrier. “If I look at enough things in a day, I’ll just dream of that. Instead of…”
“Things that happened a long time ago,” Robyn finished for him diplomatically when he abruptly stopped talking. “Well, I guess that makes sense.” She tucked a strand of hair, turned from gold to brown because of the dampness, behind one ear. “Does that mean you don’t have really whacked-out dreams about being chased by mammoths and stuff?”
“No,” Victor said with a small, wan smile. “Blackledges don’t have imaginations.”
“Really?”
“None that I know, anyway,” he said with a small shrug. “We’re not supposed to.”
“Oh,” Robyn said. She stuck her hands into her pockets and gazed out across the cityscape, trying to see what Victor saw. “And then you dream about the city?”
“Bits and pieces,” he said. “The number of people and things going on means that it usually takes a while to go through it all. It’s quite soothing, really.”
“And all of your dreams are just memories?” Robyn asked. Another question was itching at her throat but she was trying to resist it. When Victor’s response to her previous question was nothing but a shallow nod, however, it burst from her: “Do you ever dream of me?”
“They’re not really dreams,” Victor said, keeping his eyes fixed on the city below them. “Sometimes you’re there. It’s funny, the moments my brain picks.”
“Like what?”
“Just… bits of conversation,” he said, and then suddenly smiled that startling smile of his. He usually did it when he wanted to change the topic of conversation. “Um, do you have many strange dreams? Sometimes I feel like I’m missing out.”
Robyn tilted her head and rocked back and forth on her heels momentarily, heavy-duty military boots crunching against wet gravel.
“Yeah,” she said with a shrug. “Really bizarre stuff sometimes and then other times it’s so ordinary I wake up thinking it was real. I have dreams with memories in them sometimes but they get all twisted up. None of it makes sense… I don’t think you’re missing out on very much at all.” She brightened. “And it means you don’t have nightmares, right?”
“Nightmares are dreams that scare you,” he said carefully. His gaze dropped to the floor, which it hadn’t done yet for the whole time she had been up there. Robyn remembered back when she had first met him and his eyes had never, ever left the ground. Suddenly she regretted bringing up nightmares at all.
Robyn took a hold of him by the elbow, umbrella bouncing droplets out around them.
“Come on, dreamer,” she said determinedly. “We’ve got a briefing to get ready for.”
“OK,” Victor said, glancing back out over Britannia. “I just need to see a few more things. I don’t know if I’ve been up here long enough…”
“We can come back afterwards,” Robyn said, smiling brilliantly.
She saw the word ‘we’ hit him like a bullet and wondered if she’d been a bit forward-maybe it was something he preferred doing alone-but then he smiled back at her.
“OK,” he said again.
The thought of being in his dreams made her happy in a way she couldn’t describe.