"Make you stutter when you speak"
Jul. 20th, 2011 05:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
croissantkatieThis is a collection of drabbles I have written recently, some for over at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
teaandsafehaven and others at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
finkpishnets real person ficathon (go read, post, prompt!).
Chess Pieces, Harry Potter, Harry and Ron, Theme: Second Chances, 270 words
Harry looked down at the chessboard in amazement. It wasn’t that he had lost, he always lost to Ron. It was a fact of life. Like Ginny being a redhead and his kids managing to get the stickiest substances ground into the carpet. The bit which stunned him was how some of the debris from his king being smashed into tiny pieces by a particular vicious bishop had ended up in his fire whiskey.
“Want to have another go at beating me?” Ron asked, grinning broadly.
“I don’t even know why I bother,” Harry groaned in response, taking a sip of his drink after checking it for any potential choking hazards. “I never win. This is why we started playing exploding snap instead.”
“Yeah. But we got all those weird looks at work after we burnt off our eyebrows that one time. And Mum too. Her disappointed look was more than I could take.”
“Suppose so,” he admitted in response. “I guess I’ll have to try again at the chess.” He stared glumly at the chessboard. At least it wasn’t gobstones. They had tried switching to that for an evening but had resigned never to try again afterwards. There was a difference between watching small stone statues beating each other up and losing sight in your left eye due to acid getting everywhere. And Harry had got off lighter than Ron.
“Yeah, for what, the fifth time this evening?”
“Oi! Second. I’m nowhere near drunk enough for this to be the fifth go.”
“Alright, have your second chance. It doesn’t really matter, I’ll still have a perfect record against you.”
Train Journeys, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Luke/Clyde, Theme: Summer, 204 words
Luke takes the train home for the summer, once he’s put all the bits and pieces away which he won’t need before next term starts. That and he can’t quite manage to haul everything on the train. If his Mum was picking him up, it would have been a different story. Luke had never thought that riding a train would be tinged with so much sadness. It was lucky that the trip from Oxford to London wasn’t too long.
As soon as he exited the station, having struggled to manoeuvre his rucksack through the turnstile for the third time on his journey, he was assaulted by two pairs of arms wrapping around him. He hugged Clyde and Rani back, beginning to feel slightly happier. It was easier to cope when he didn’t have to keep certain bits and pieces hidden.
Rani pulled back for a moment, smiling at the other two. “You can be mushy later, alright?” she told them, grinning. “Right now, we need to get inside before the heavens open.” She glanced up at the looming black clouds before grabbing hold of Luke’s arm and beginning to jog down the road as the first spots of rain began to hit the ground.
Drumming, Bandom (Panic), Brendon/Spencer, Prompt: there's a drumming noise inside my head that starts when you're around, 375 words
He doesn’t normally hear a beat. He focuses on the swooping lilt of the melody, the way the words and the music are linked together. The rhythm has always been slightly secondary to him. That’s not to say that it’s not there. Brendon knows that the beat is important. It underlies everything and pins things in place and ensures that the words and the tune don’t wander off, away from where they’re meant to be. It’s not exactly something he has at the forefront of his mind all the time, or even most of the time, though. It just is. He’s grateful for it, but he’s not always conscious of it.
When Spencer’s around though, it’s a different story. The beat is louder and stronger and it becomes insistent. He can’t ignore that beat. It’s not something he can push to the edge of his mind whilst he concentrates on other things, tries to organise arrangements and figure out where the other guys are in relation to him. Spencer’s beat never goes away. It’s always there, trying to pull him in. And despite its constancy, Brendon is always glancing over his shoulder to make sure that Spencer and his beat are still there. It’s like he’s scared Spencer will take the beat away from him, and it’s been with him for so long now that he’s not sure what he would do without it. He needs that beat and he needs Spencer.
The drumming is constant, even when Brendon’s heart flutters and falters for a moment, Spencer’s beat drives on. Through all the moments when Brendon feels like he can’t breath for the weight of feelings crashing around, Spencer carries on, steady. It is simultaneously reassuring and one of the most worrying things Brendon knows. Spencer makes him feel too much and yet, it seems as if Brendon has had no impact on him. The beat goes on, steady and sure.
Brendon smiles at Spencer, and the answering smile he receives is blinding. And more importantly, Brendon knows it’s just for him. Special and secret and theirs, not anyone else’s. And as Brendon leans in slightly, smiling even wider, Spencer’s beat changes a fraction - a small flourish over the top of the steady rhythm.
Together, Harry Potter (film), Tom Felton/Dan Radcliffe, Prompt: or those lives that tear at the seams we know we're not what we've seen, 458 words
Although they’ve known each other for a fair amount of time now, practically half their lives, they haven’t always been close. It takes time for that to happen. Time for when they can just be themselves, and more time than a few brief minutes in between takes. The moments when he drops the mask he sums up for the cameras and it takes effort to pull it back up again. It’s tiring, so he doesn’t bother all the time. Switching from one headspace to another isn’t the simplest thing for Tom to do and sometimes it makes him feel like there’s too much inside him. Different pieces of different people.
It’s areas of common ground which provided them with the first opportunity to actually get to know each other beyond that guy I spend hours with, working, every day but know next to nothing about. So that they knew which parts of each other belonged to their characters, which parts were theirs alone and which were the parts which got caught in between, tangled in the mess of characters and ideas.
Tom didn’t exactly expect cricket to be their common ground. After all, it’s not exactly football or anything (they do have at least some interest of football in common, but it’s not something that’s specific to them. Everyone and their Aunt Doris have a view about footie). It’s not exactly that they like the same things about cricket. Dan is into stats. Tom just flat out doesn’t understand that. He wants to watch and play, not remember figures and data. That’s a bit too close to work for him. The point is, they go to tests together, even if it is still linked to publicity, it’s still time for just them. And talking to TMS only took about half an hour and was quite possibly one of the best things either of them has got out of Harry Potter.
There was one little bit though which took the occasion from being one of the best moments connected to Potter, to one of the best moments of his life. Dan had said, jokingly in the interview, that his dyed hair was a marvellous beacon. That hadn’t been all that special. Tom was convinced that you could spot his hair in the dark when it had been bleached. What had made it special was when Dan had said, just to him and not for an interview, that Tom was a bit like a beacon anyway. He always wanted to know where he was and how he helped guide him home.
teaandsafehaven and others at finkpishnets real person ficathon (go read, post, prompt!).Chess Pieces, Harry Potter, Harry and Ron, Theme: Second Chances, 270 words
Harry looked down at the chessboard in amazement. It wasn’t that he had lost, he always lost to Ron. It was a fact of life. Like Ginny being a redhead and his kids managing to get the stickiest substances ground into the carpet. The bit which stunned him was how some of the debris from his king being smashed into tiny pieces by a particular vicious bishop had ended up in his fire whiskey.
“Want to have another go at beating me?” Ron asked, grinning broadly.
“I don’t even know why I bother,” Harry groaned in response, taking a sip of his drink after checking it for any potential choking hazards. “I never win. This is why we started playing exploding snap instead.”
“Yeah. But we got all those weird looks at work after we burnt off our eyebrows that one time. And Mum too. Her disappointed look was more than I could take.”
“Suppose so,” he admitted in response. “I guess I’ll have to try again at the chess.” He stared glumly at the chessboard. At least it wasn’t gobstones. They had tried switching to that for an evening but had resigned never to try again afterwards. There was a difference between watching small stone statues beating each other up and losing sight in your left eye due to acid getting everywhere. And Harry had got off lighter than Ron.
“Yeah, for what, the fifth time this evening?”
“Oi! Second. I’m nowhere near drunk enough for this to be the fifth go.”
“Alright, have your second chance. It doesn’t really matter, I’ll still have a perfect record against you.”
Train Journeys, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Luke/Clyde, Theme: Summer, 204 words
Luke takes the train home for the summer, once he’s put all the bits and pieces away which he won’t need before next term starts. That and he can’t quite manage to haul everything on the train. If his Mum was picking him up, it would have been a different story. Luke had never thought that riding a train would be tinged with so much sadness. It was lucky that the trip from Oxford to London wasn’t too long.
As soon as he exited the station, having struggled to manoeuvre his rucksack through the turnstile for the third time on his journey, he was assaulted by two pairs of arms wrapping around him. He hugged Clyde and Rani back, beginning to feel slightly happier. It was easier to cope when he didn’t have to keep certain bits and pieces hidden.
Rani pulled back for a moment, smiling at the other two. “You can be mushy later, alright?” she told them, grinning. “Right now, we need to get inside before the heavens open.” She glanced up at the looming black clouds before grabbing hold of Luke’s arm and beginning to jog down the road as the first spots of rain began to hit the ground.
Drumming, Bandom (Panic), Brendon/Spencer, Prompt: there's a drumming noise inside my head that starts when you're around, 375 words
He doesn’t normally hear a beat. He focuses on the swooping lilt of the melody, the way the words and the music are linked together. The rhythm has always been slightly secondary to him. That’s not to say that it’s not there. Brendon knows that the beat is important. It underlies everything and pins things in place and ensures that the words and the tune don’t wander off, away from where they’re meant to be. It’s not exactly something he has at the forefront of his mind all the time, or even most of the time, though. It just is. He’s grateful for it, but he’s not always conscious of it.
When Spencer’s around though, it’s a different story. The beat is louder and stronger and it becomes insistent. He can’t ignore that beat. It’s not something he can push to the edge of his mind whilst he concentrates on other things, tries to organise arrangements and figure out where the other guys are in relation to him. Spencer’s beat never goes away. It’s always there, trying to pull him in. And despite its constancy, Brendon is always glancing over his shoulder to make sure that Spencer and his beat are still there. It’s like he’s scared Spencer will take the beat away from him, and it’s been with him for so long now that he’s not sure what he would do without it. He needs that beat and he needs Spencer.
The drumming is constant, even when Brendon’s heart flutters and falters for a moment, Spencer’s beat drives on. Through all the moments when Brendon feels like he can’t breath for the weight of feelings crashing around, Spencer carries on, steady. It is simultaneously reassuring and one of the most worrying things Brendon knows. Spencer makes him feel too much and yet, it seems as if Brendon has had no impact on him. The beat goes on, steady and sure.
Brendon smiles at Spencer, and the answering smile he receives is blinding. And more importantly, Brendon knows it’s just for him. Special and secret and theirs, not anyone else’s. And as Brendon leans in slightly, smiling even wider, Spencer’s beat changes a fraction - a small flourish over the top of the steady rhythm.
Together, Harry Potter (film), Tom Felton/Dan Radcliffe, Prompt: or those lives that tear at the seams we know we're not what we've seen, 458 words
Although they’ve known each other for a fair amount of time now, practically half their lives, they haven’t always been close. It takes time for that to happen. Time for when they can just be themselves, and more time than a few brief minutes in between takes. The moments when he drops the mask he sums up for the cameras and it takes effort to pull it back up again. It’s tiring, so he doesn’t bother all the time. Switching from one headspace to another isn’t the simplest thing for Tom to do and sometimes it makes him feel like there’s too much inside him. Different pieces of different people.
It’s areas of common ground which provided them with the first opportunity to actually get to know each other beyond that guy I spend hours with, working, every day but know next to nothing about. So that they knew which parts of each other belonged to their characters, which parts were theirs alone and which were the parts which got caught in between, tangled in the mess of characters and ideas.
Tom didn’t exactly expect cricket to be their common ground. After all, it’s not exactly football or anything (they do have at least some interest of football in common, but it’s not something that’s specific to them. Everyone and their Aunt Doris have a view about footie). It’s not exactly that they like the same things about cricket. Dan is into stats. Tom just flat out doesn’t understand that. He wants to watch and play, not remember figures and data. That’s a bit too close to work for him. The point is, they go to tests together, even if it is still linked to publicity, it’s still time for just them. And talking to TMS only took about half an hour and was quite possibly one of the best things either of them has got out of Harry Potter.
There was one little bit though which took the occasion from being one of the best moments connected to Potter, to one of the best moments of his life. Dan had said, jokingly in the interview, that his dyed hair was a marvellous beacon. That hadn’t been all that special. Tom was convinced that you could spot his hair in the dark when it had been bleached. What had made it special was when Dan had said, just to him and not for an interview, that Tom was a bit like a beacon anyway. He always wanted to know where he was and how he helped guide him home.
