Comments | unbalancedcar: A NIGHT-TIME ADVENTURE

mydearbettina in unbalancedcar

A NIGHT-TIME ADVENTURE

Feb 11, 2011 06:40

Jack Your Firm's Name Here's car was not the sort of car that needed a lot of maintenance. Whether that was due to its nature or Jack's nature or something else entirely was up for debate, but either way, Jack and Prefect had not needed to stop for anything for a very long time. They'd rolled on, stopping because they felt like it and never ( Read more... )

Comments 27

buywithme February 10 2011, 19:55:40 UTC

It was a warm night, so Prefect's face was pressed comfortably against the window. Sometimes, on cold nights, he slept leaning towards Jack, but on warm nights doing that just made him sweaty, so he slept towards the window. Or, correction, he had been sleeping towards the window, but proximity to the glass meant that the clunks and the shudders and the whines vibrated through the window pain, into Prefect's scull, and made his teeth chatter inside his head. This woke him up fairly quickly.

So it was, that Prefect came to roll over a little, and peer across the car towards Jack. The car did not sound well. It did not sound well at all.

"Comrade, is the... is that sound something it's done before?"

He asked, a little drowsily.

mydearbettina February 10 2011, 20:05:40 UTC

"Mm," Jack said, unhelpfully and much more distractedly than he'd ever uttered the syllable to Prefect before. His driving was more and more erratic, and the car made a groaning, gear-crunching whine of protest as it skidded on the bend of a curve in the dusty road.

"Not this, not exactly. Perhaps I should have- Yes, of course, it was wrong not to. Very wrong of me. I should have checked before, at the house. I should have, but that place..." Jack shook his head mournfully, unaware that he was being particularly obtuse in his explanation. A tear rolled down his cheek and hissed as it slid down to his lips and onto his darting tongue. "Of all the small mistakes to make."

buywithme February 10 2011, 20:15:49 UTC

"Comrade?" Prefect sounded suddenly quite a bit more awake. It didn't bode well for anybody when Jack was crying, and trouble for the car not only meant that they'd have no mode of transportation, but also that... that... well, the car would be broken! Prefect couldn't have told you exactly when that became a bad thing purely on the value of him not wanting the car to be sad, but there you had it.

Prefect extended one hand, placing it on the dashboard a little soothingly, "Comrade, what mistake did you make? What did you overlook?"

mydearbettina February 10 2011, 20:31:42 UTC

"My dear Prefect, I did not do my job," Jack replied in an agonised tone, eyes flicking to Prefect's hand on the dashboard. Something about the gesture seemed to sooth him a little, and the white of his tightly-clenched knuckles relaxed slightly. He veered around a sharp turn, leaning closer to the dashboard, peering out into the dark. A whisper escaped him as he did. "Close now..."

For a moment, Jack said nothing more, then suddenly, he sat up straighter, shook his head hard and glanced over at Prefect.He wrung the steering wheel gently and absently with his looser hand as he continued, "No. A man is only as secure as the car that he drives. Mm? And I did not check, you see. I assumed -foolish, arrogant creature that I have become- I assumed, dear Prefect, that everything would be in order. Why, after a year of heaven knows what! I could break my own neck for the very cheek of it, truly I could."

Thread 26

MAKE ME A DEMON :C buywithme March 20 2011, 04:17:13 UTC

Sometimes, when they were apart, Jack could pretend that they were the same person. When he watched Prefect from a distance, there were certainly paralells. That too, too careful way he held himself. The way he picked disapprovingly at proper food, but when presented with anything that had been heavily processed, ate it as quickly as seemed possible without interest or enjoyment. Just with speed. Odd expressions of irritation, or indignation or distant, thinly veiled affection, seemed so familiar to Jack that it ached sometimes to watch him. Sometimes that was how Jack entertained himself, by watching Prefect. Seeing how much of watching Prefect he could take before he couldn’t stand it, before the tension ran down his spine and sang at his fingertips and he could not and would not stand by idly and watch Prefect squander his affection on abusive totalitarians and suicidal fantasy villains. No, not when Jack was right there, watching him ( ... )