Lights Out and Shoot Up The Station 7 of ?
Title: Lights Out and Shoot Up The Station7 of ?
Pairing or Characters: Jack, Tai-san, Trudy, May, Lottie and Darryl
Word Count: 1836
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer:Warning I have inserted an Alan Partridge reference. And I've cast the Techno Tom Raferty as Rafe Spall in my head...fit...and geeky ; D
Set 17 years later, on the Mallrats' Island.
Dear KC,
Today is another beautiful, rainy day on the mainland.
The other day I traded for a telescope, I'm using it to mainly spy on my neighbours...
The sound of Tai-san's sharp intake of breath rouses Jack from his daydreaming.
“I'm sorry, Tai-san.” He apologises, slipping the chewed, plastic edge of his screwdriver back between his teeth.
“It's alright, Jack.” Tai-san replies, however from the tone of her voice he can tell that it really isn't.
The pair are seated in Jack's work room, formed from rusty sheets of cast iron, and driftwood, the space, which is big enough to only house two people comfortably at a time, is cluttered and chaotic.
Tai-san is perched on an uneven stool in front of him, her short, bobbed hair swept forward exposing a small circuit board at the back of her head. A permanent reminder of the Technos, and their experiments.
Even Ram couldn't say what it was for, just that he'd let Ved and Mega run wild in his labs.
The night, which to Jack still only feels like yesterday, that they found Tai-san, her chip was malfunctioning, a blow to the head had caused her to end up in a loop, the same words being repeated on her lips in an unending circle.
She still looped from time to time, getting snagged on the odd word, but a shake always broke her out of it.
Ram fixed Tai-san as best he could, but the chip can never be removed, she requires monthly maintenance, with Lex had wanted the former leader of the Technos to do, but Tai-san had overruled him requesting Jack instead.
Jack can't blame her, giving the option he's not sure he'd want Ram poking around inside his brain either.
He always asks Tai-san the same three questions at the end of their maintenance sessions...
“Any sickness, headaches or double vision?”
“Not this week.”
Jack's not at all sure what he'll do if she ever replies in the affirmative to any of his questions, panic probably.
“That's good, then.” He snorts weakly, a heavy crease knitting across his bow as he hangs the screwdriver back up onto the wall with the rest of the scavenged tools.
“Is something wrong, Jack? You don't really seem like yourself?” Tai-san asks, spinning her stool to face him.
His brain, and mouth suddenly disconnect, before he has a chance to register his sentence Jack already feels it leaving his body.
“You don't believe in monogamy, do you?”
Tai-san doesn't appear to react at first, her expression as unreadable as ever.
“No.” She answer after a beat, seeming not to notice her blunt honesty.
Jack swallows loudly, having always been more than a little unnerved by Tai-san's attitude to life.
“How,” He clears his throat. “How does that work? I mean you've been married to Lex, for what, twenty years.”
“I think sometimes the most natural thing in the world is to love more than one person. I just haven't met that other person, yet.” She finishes with a wide smile, and it slowly dawns on Jack that, that was her attempt at humour.
“So, let me just,” He nods back nervously, shifting awkwardly in his own seat.
“What you're saying is, that you think ,that it's possible to fall in love with someone, when you're sort of with another wo...” Jack corrects himself quickly. “person. And, that you can love them both, equally?”
“Yes, but only if everyone understands the situation.” He watches as a thought flutters briefly over Tai-san's features, he wonders if she's thinking about Zandra. It passes quickly, and Tai-san resumes her composed posture.
Maybe it wasn't Zandra at all, maybe he's just been thinking about her, Jack's started to worry that unlike the rest of his Tribe, he lives a little too much in the past.
He feels the sudden warmth of Tai-san's hand against his own.
“If you're unhappy Jack...” He doesn't hear the rest of her sentence, he's too busy dwelling on the idea that everyone seems to think he's unhappy. He's bored, and unfulfilled, but he's not unhappy.
And then Jack wonders where his original question sprung from, and why on earth he's even think of taking advice from Tai-san of all people.
“Look at us,” He grins changing the subject. “You with part of a computer stuck in your head, and me still exactly the same.”
Maybe, he's having a mid-life crisis, he's rapidly approaching that dangerous mid-point of his thirties. It was around that sort of age that one of his uncles had a unicorn tattooed on his foot, he still remembers the Christmas dinner, where the said Uncle was forced to expose his shame at the dinner table.
From the contorted expression of disgust written over Tai-san's face, it's evident she hasn't taken his joke well. He often finds himself impaled on the sword of insensitivity.
“I didn't mean, that.” He finds himself apologising, once again.
Tai-san takes it seemingly well, with a half shrug of her shoulders.
She makes a move to leave, and Jack quickly catches her.
“You won't, tell anyone about the monogamy thing, will you?”
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
“Hey Tai-san, why don't you get over here, Trudy's put on a spread!” May calls out, from her vantage point, sprawled out on the sand, an old pockmarked umbrella shielding her from the mid afternoon sun.
She's not alone, next to May sit Darrly and Lottie, a large mat weaved from palm leaves in front of them.
Tai-san makes her way towards them, feeling the hot, white sand beneath her bare feet.
Trudy appears a moment later, carrying a large bamboo tray out in front of her heavily pregnant stomach. She's reached that stage of late pregnancy where the glow has warn off, replaced with a constantly tired, and pained expression.
Behind Trudy, a harassed looking Tom nervously jogs, a little curly haired blonde girl resting against his hip.
“Shame on you Thomas,” May grins, relieving the tray from Trudy's grasp. “You're a terrible human-being, and what's with letting your pregnant wife do manual labour?” Her tongue rests firmly in her cheek, as she flashes him a mischievous wink.
May had been one of the first Mallrats to fully embrace the potential that had gone along with finding their new home. Being confronted by the idea of The Virus Mark II, had somehow helped to put her life back into perspective, she stopped drifting, and started pursuing Salene with an almost fanatical intensity, eventually wearing the other woman down after a campaign that lasted for well over a year and a half.
“Trudy, won't let me do anything.” He attempts to defend himself weakly.
Tom has changed a lot since his first meeting with the Mallrats that long night so many years ago, where on the very same beach, he'd fallen to his knees begging Ram for forgiveness for his perceived dereliction of duty.
He's not a Techno any more, the T has been wiped clean from his forehead, replaced with a thin dusting of lines, and an ever present 5 o'clock shadow.
“That's not true.” Trudy argues, with a wide, now constantly present smile on her face.
Tai-san helps Trudy down onto her knees, while May and Lottie lay out the various wooden bowls before them, a bright green seaweed curry, and a large coconut and lime cake.
“Cake!” Darryl exclaims ravenously.
“Oh Trudy, this is just...” May's words melt on her lips, giving way to an almost orgasmic moan a white plastic spoon hanging out of her mouth.
“You've gone to a lot of trouble, for a little beach picnic.” Lottie says, a concerned frown catching across her brow.
Trudy shrugs, explaining quickly. “This is a little beach picnic, and it's no trouble, I enjoyed having something other to do than just being pregnant all the time.”
May makes a vague noise of agreement, but it's clear she's stopped listening.
Tai-san runs her hands over Trudy's extended middle.
“It feels like the baby has dropped, I don't think you'll have much longer to wait.” Tai-san observes, in her usual matter-of-fact way.
From the moment Ram fixed the chip in her head, Tai-san reverted to her familiar, usually spaced self. She filled the void her own absence created by becoming the groups healer once again, joined now by Lottie, who after a bit of healthy persuasion from Ruby eventually decided to become the Mallrats' first doctor.
They divide their roles relatively equally, with Lottie specialising in dentistry and minor operations, while Tai-san mixes the medicines, sets the bones, and delivers the babies.
“I'm trying to eat!” May rolls her eyes in disgust.
“I never felt like this with Brady, I had lots of energy, now I just feel tired all the time.” Trudy complains, blowing her blunt cut fringe out of her eyes with a heavy sigh.
“Yeah, but weren't you like fourteen, then?” May scoffs.
Trudy declines to respond.
“Do you know what I miss?” Darryl pipes up suddenly from completely out of the blue, forcing the subject to change.
“I miss roller discos.” He continues.
“Roller discos?” Lottie repeats, with a look of clear apprehension, never entirely sure what nugget of stupidity will emerge from her boyfriend's mouth at any given time.
Unlike the rest of the tribe Darryl's skills are limited to say the least, which caused Amber to nominate him along with Gel, as the official party planners for the group, upon reaching dry land. The pair quickly expanded their job titles to interior designers and stylists, hosting a number of popular shows on IslandNet. Since Gel's death, however Darryl's services have mainly been employed at the Saloon as a bar tender/entertainments manager.
“We were talking about the things we missed, about not being in a City. I miss concrete, you can't have roller discos on sand.” Darryl expands on his original statement.
“Babe, we had that conversation two days ago.” Lottie struggles to keep the note of alarm from her voice.
“I know, but I just remembered.”
May drapes a friendly arm loosely around Darryl's shoulders, giving him an amused squeeze.
“Well on that bombshell, I think I'm going to take Mia down the beach, see if we can't find Mummy Brady anywhere.” Tom announces after a beat, leaning forward planting a quick kiss on Trudy's lips before she has a chance to object.
“How was the old appointment with Jack, does your home planet want you back yet?” May asks Tai-san with a playful smile, as the other woman settles down on her knees next to her.
Pairing or Characters: Jack, Tai-san, Trudy, May, Lottie and Darryl
Word Count: 1836
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer:Warning I have inserted an Alan Partridge reference. And I've cast the Techno Tom Raferty as Rafe Spall in my head...fit...and geeky ; D
Set 17 years later, on the Mallrats' Island.
Dear KC,
Today is another beautiful, rainy day on the mainland.
The other day I traded for a telescope, I'm using it to mainly spy on my neighbours...
The sound of Tai-san's sharp intake of breath rouses Jack from his daydreaming.
“I'm sorry, Tai-san.” He apologises, slipping the chewed, plastic edge of his screwdriver back between his teeth.
“It's alright, Jack.” Tai-san replies, however from the tone of her voice he can tell that it really isn't.
The pair are seated in Jack's work room, formed from rusty sheets of cast iron, and driftwood, the space, which is big enough to only house two people comfortably at a time, is cluttered and chaotic.
Tai-san is perched on an uneven stool in front of him, her short, bobbed hair swept forward exposing a small circuit board at the back of her head. A permanent reminder of the Technos, and their experiments.
Even Ram couldn't say what it was for, just that he'd let Ved and Mega run wild in his labs.
The night, which to Jack still only feels like yesterday, that they found Tai-san, her chip was malfunctioning, a blow to the head had caused her to end up in a loop, the same words being repeated on her lips in an unending circle.
She still looped from time to time, getting snagged on the odd word, but a shake always broke her out of it.
Ram fixed Tai-san as best he could, but the chip can never be removed, she requires monthly maintenance, with Lex had wanted the former leader of the Technos to do, but Tai-san had overruled him requesting Jack instead.
Jack can't blame her, giving the option he's not sure he'd want Ram poking around inside his brain either.
He always asks Tai-san the same three questions at the end of their maintenance sessions...
“Any sickness, headaches or double vision?”
“Not this week.”
Jack's not at all sure what he'll do if she ever replies in the affirmative to any of his questions, panic probably.
“That's good, then.” He snorts weakly, a heavy crease knitting across his bow as he hangs the screwdriver back up onto the wall with the rest of the scavenged tools.
“Is something wrong, Jack? You don't really seem like yourself?” Tai-san asks, spinning her stool to face him.
His brain, and mouth suddenly disconnect, before he has a chance to register his sentence Jack already feels it leaving his body.
“You don't believe in monogamy, do you?”
Tai-san doesn't appear to react at first, her expression as unreadable as ever.
“No.” She answer after a beat, seeming not to notice her blunt honesty.
Jack swallows loudly, having always been more than a little unnerved by Tai-san's attitude to life.
“How,” He clears his throat. “How does that work? I mean you've been married to Lex, for what, twenty years.”
“I think sometimes the most natural thing in the world is to love more than one person. I just haven't met that other person, yet.” She finishes with a wide smile, and it slowly dawns on Jack that, that was her attempt at humour.
“So, let me just,” He nods back nervously, shifting awkwardly in his own seat.
“What you're saying is, that you think ,that it's possible to fall in love with someone, when you're sort of with another wo...” Jack corrects himself quickly. “person. And, that you can love them both, equally?”
“Yes, but only if everyone understands the situation.” He watches as a thought flutters briefly over Tai-san's features, he wonders if she's thinking about Zandra. It passes quickly, and Tai-san resumes her composed posture.
Maybe it wasn't Zandra at all, maybe he's just been thinking about her, Jack's started to worry that unlike the rest of his Tribe, he lives a little too much in the past.
He feels the sudden warmth of Tai-san's hand against his own.
“If you're unhappy Jack...” He doesn't hear the rest of her sentence, he's too busy dwelling on the idea that everyone seems to think he's unhappy. He's bored, and unfulfilled, but he's not unhappy.
And then Jack wonders where his original question sprung from, and why on earth he's even think of taking advice from Tai-san of all people.
“Look at us,” He grins changing the subject. “You with part of a computer stuck in your head, and me still exactly the same.”
Maybe, he's having a mid-life crisis, he's rapidly approaching that dangerous mid-point of his thirties. It was around that sort of age that one of his uncles had a unicorn tattooed on his foot, he still remembers the Christmas dinner, where the said Uncle was forced to expose his shame at the dinner table.
From the contorted expression of disgust written over Tai-san's face, it's evident she hasn't taken his joke well. He often finds himself impaled on the sword of insensitivity.
“I didn't mean, that.” He finds himself apologising, once again.
Tai-san takes it seemingly well, with a half shrug of her shoulders.
She makes a move to leave, and Jack quickly catches her.
“You won't, tell anyone about the monogamy thing, will you?”
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
“Hey Tai-san, why don't you get over here, Trudy's put on a spread!” May calls out, from her vantage point, sprawled out on the sand, an old pockmarked umbrella shielding her from the mid afternoon sun.
She's not alone, next to May sit Darrly and Lottie, a large mat weaved from palm leaves in front of them.
Tai-san makes her way towards them, feeling the hot, white sand beneath her bare feet.
Trudy appears a moment later, carrying a large bamboo tray out in front of her heavily pregnant stomach. She's reached that stage of late pregnancy where the glow has warn off, replaced with a constantly tired, and pained expression.
Behind Trudy, a harassed looking Tom nervously jogs, a little curly haired blonde girl resting against his hip.
“Shame on you Thomas,” May grins, relieving the tray from Trudy's grasp. “You're a terrible human-being, and what's with letting your pregnant wife do manual labour?” Her tongue rests firmly in her cheek, as she flashes him a mischievous wink.
May had been one of the first Mallrats to fully embrace the potential that had gone along with finding their new home. Being confronted by the idea of The Virus Mark II, had somehow helped to put her life back into perspective, she stopped drifting, and started pursuing Salene with an almost fanatical intensity, eventually wearing the other woman down after a campaign that lasted for well over a year and a half.
“Trudy, won't let me do anything.” He attempts to defend himself weakly.
Tom has changed a lot since his first meeting with the Mallrats that long night so many years ago, where on the very same beach, he'd fallen to his knees begging Ram for forgiveness for his perceived dereliction of duty.
He's not a Techno any more, the T has been wiped clean from his forehead, replaced with a thin dusting of lines, and an ever present 5 o'clock shadow.
“That's not true.” Trudy argues, with a wide, now constantly present smile on her face.
Tai-san helps Trudy down onto her knees, while May and Lottie lay out the various wooden bowls before them, a bright green seaweed curry, and a large coconut and lime cake.
“Cake!” Darryl exclaims ravenously.
“Oh Trudy, this is just...” May's words melt on her lips, giving way to an almost orgasmic moan a white plastic spoon hanging out of her mouth.
“You've gone to a lot of trouble, for a little beach picnic.” Lottie says, a concerned frown catching across her brow.
Trudy shrugs, explaining quickly. “This is a little beach picnic, and it's no trouble, I enjoyed having something other to do than just being pregnant all the time.”
May makes a vague noise of agreement, but it's clear she's stopped listening.
Tai-san runs her hands over Trudy's extended middle.
“It feels like the baby has dropped, I don't think you'll have much longer to wait.” Tai-san observes, in her usual matter-of-fact way.
From the moment Ram fixed the chip in her head, Tai-san reverted to her familiar, usually spaced self. She filled the void her own absence created by becoming the groups healer once again, joined now by Lottie, who after a bit of healthy persuasion from Ruby eventually decided to become the Mallrats' first doctor.
They divide their roles relatively equally, with Lottie specialising in dentistry and minor operations, while Tai-san mixes the medicines, sets the bones, and delivers the babies.
“I'm trying to eat!” May rolls her eyes in disgust.
“I never felt like this with Brady, I had lots of energy, now I just feel tired all the time.” Trudy complains, blowing her blunt cut fringe out of her eyes with a heavy sigh.
“Yeah, but weren't you like fourteen, then?” May scoffs.
Trudy declines to respond.
“Do you know what I miss?” Darryl pipes up suddenly from completely out of the blue, forcing the subject to change.
“I miss roller discos.” He continues.
“Roller discos?” Lottie repeats, with a look of clear apprehension, never entirely sure what nugget of stupidity will emerge from her boyfriend's mouth at any given time.
Unlike the rest of the tribe Darryl's skills are limited to say the least, which caused Amber to nominate him along with Gel, as the official party planners for the group, upon reaching dry land. The pair quickly expanded their job titles to interior designers and stylists, hosting a number of popular shows on IslandNet. Since Gel's death, however Darryl's services have mainly been employed at the Saloon as a bar tender/entertainments manager.
“We were talking about the things we missed, about not being in a City. I miss concrete, you can't have roller discos on sand.” Darryl expands on his original statement.
“Babe, we had that conversation two days ago.” Lottie struggles to keep the note of alarm from her voice.
“I know, but I just remembered.”
May drapes a friendly arm loosely around Darryl's shoulders, giving him an amused squeeze.
“Well on that bombshell, I think I'm going to take Mia down the beach, see if we can't find Mummy Brady anywhere.” Tom announces after a beat, leaning forward planting a quick kiss on Trudy's lips before she has a chance to object.
“How was the old appointment with Jack, does your home planet want you back yet?” May asks Tai-san with a playful smile, as the other woman settles down on her knees next to her.