Fic: Imaginary (S&S)
12 Feb 2013 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisbluespiritI'm sorry about spamming you all in the last couple of days, but I seem to have things ready to post.
Title: Imaginary
Author:thisbluespirit
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 2138
Characters/Pairings: Copper, OC
Warnings None.
Summary: Copper’s only here to fix a fault in the wiring, but the fault seems to have other ideas – and there’s an unwanted young human in the way…
Prompt 9: copper - Vampires & Soulmates.
***
Copper walked into the bedroom, trailing a length of wire after him. He ignored the girl inside, though she looked up in indignant surprise at his entry. Instead, he felt his way along the wall, running his hand over the patterned green wallpaper until he found what he was looking for, and paused at the photograph hanging in the centre there. He gave a short smile of satisfaction.
“What are you doing?” asked the girl, standing up behind him and putting her hands on her hips with a scowl. “That’s mine. You can’t do that –”
Copper reached out for the photograph even as the dark-haired young man pictured in it appeared in front of him, at first transparent and then gradually solidifying.
“Didn’t you hear her?” the figure said, and leant back against the wall with an irritating smile. “It’s not your property. Hands off.”
The girl folded her arms now. “You should go. I heard my Dad saying he was going to phone the police about you. I expect he has by now.”
“You don’t have a phone,” said Copper, momentarily amused. He kept his attention on the other, however; the man who should not be there.
“He’ll have gone next door,” she said, only wavering for a moment. “They’ve got one. So there.”
“And let’s hope so,” said the young man, straightening himself up and facing Copper with no fear in his face, only a sneer. “I know what you are. You’re a murderer.”
Copper tutted. “Hardly. Only a technician.”
“You’ve come to take my life,” the other said. “But you can’t. Nobody can.”
Copper sighed. He would much prefer to do his work without interference. He should call for the other two, he thought, but the bedroom door slammed shut and when he tried to contact his colleagues, there was no reply.
“Yes, very melodramatic,” said Copper. “Not to mention tiresome - and incorrect on several points. I’m merely here to fix a fault in the wiring. Now, excuse me –”
He leant over and attached the end of the long wire to the photograph’s frame and concentrated on the connection. Now, he said, under his breath, and the picture fell to the floor, the image on it having vanished. It was only a framed white piece of photographic paper.
The young man, however, was still there, which was worrying. Copper turned around and looked at the girl properly for the first time. She looked fairly ordinary, as far as he could tell. She was somewhere around fifteen, resolutely sturdy, with her mousy hair in plaits and wearing a navy school uniform.
“I belong here,” said the young man, with another disdainful look at Copper. If anything, he was solidifying further. “You don’t.”
This was a nuisance, thought Copper. He’d done his part and removed the source of the irregularity. If this creature or human was using the girl – stealing a life that had decades left to it, yes, Time would like that – it was up to the other two to finish things, not him.
“Why did you spoil my photo?” asked the girl. “You can’t just walk in and do that!”
“Something was making use of it,” Copper said, with a look at the young man. “It was dangerous. It needed to be dealt with. A lot of things do.”
“How true.” The man – no, the creature that was currently shaped like a man – moved forward. Copper edged back but somehow the other was faster than he was. The man gave a sudden smile and plunged his hand right through Copper to grip at the wiring that still hung down the wall.
Copper gasped out and arched back against the wall, sparks going off in his mind and his breath ragged in an uncomfortably human way. He stared upwards, blankly and failed to call for the other two again.
“No,” said the girl. Copper could hear her dimly, but the panic in her voice was clear: there was a high-pitched note in it and a tremor that had not been there before. “No! What are you doing?”
Copper forced himself to concentrate and looked at her, ignoring the other who was holding him there and laughing silently – stealing mass and energy from him, too, no doubt. He held out his hand. You want me to help you, don’t you? I think you know what’s happening…
He didn’t know if he could reach her, limited as he was in non-technical matters, but she leapt forward and grabbed at his arm, and then swung around to face the man from the photograph. “Stop it!”
“It’s him or me,” the creature said, without looking at her. “And you want me, here; you certainly don’t want him…”
Copper gripped the girl’s hand. Close your eyes, he ordered. Hold onto me and think about anything but that creature – that man. Otherwise, he’ll destroy us both. Do you understand?
She nodded, and did as he asked, taking a deep breath and turning her face in against him. Copper focused on the wire – the wire he had brought in here – and used the power in it to administer a shock to the man, who fell back and, then, realising he had lost his connection to the girl, evaporated into smoke.
“B-but that wasn’t supposed to happen,” the girl said, moving away again, and kneeling on the carpet where the man had been. “I – I – we were supposed to be together.”
“No. You’d have been dead,” said Copper, distracted by looking about him. The creature could not be gone. He still couldn’t sense anything outside of the room and when he tried the door, it wouldn’t open. He turned back to the girl.
She was back on her feet now. “You killed him,” she said, sounding sulky. “You killed him.”
“He was stealing your life. He couldn’t stay,” he returned, dispassionately. “Now, tell me –”
She stepped backwards, away from him. “I don’t know. I don’t know, but he was supposed to be with me – and you come along and ruin everything and – and he’s not some kind of vampire!”
“He hasn’t gone,” said Copper, catching hold of her shoulder. A vampire, he noted with interest. A monster out of a human tale – he vaguely knew that they were the ones who were supposed to drink blood. He had, as ever, more cause to know about human nightmares than much of the rest of their lives. “Now, stop and tell me how it happened. You knew what he was already, I think. Why else did you do as I asked – and why did that come so quickly into your mind?”
The girl swallowed. “I – I – it was only a story I made up. It couldn’t be real.”
“No,” said Copper. “But it tried to be. It’s still here, though – either in something, or in someone.”
“Good,” she said, though she was shaking. “He was supposed to stay and –”
“It was all going to be very romantic, yes,” said Copper, with an air of waving unimportant matters aside. Then he stopped and looked at her more carefully. “He was supposed to stay and -?”
“We were going to stay together. We were meant to be together for always –”
It wasn’t entirely her speaking, he realised and tightened his hold on her. “Yes, I see,” he said, more softly. “I think I understand. But it was only a story, you said? A story. Did you write it down?”
She stared back at him and he sensed a battle within; things she wanted to say and couldn’t. Yes, it was still inside her, or closely linked to her. He needed the others. He didn’t have the skills to take such information from a human, not like this.
“What’s your name?” he asked, since he must try nevertheless.
She stared downwards and muttered something that sounded like Diana or Dinah. He decided on the latter.
“Dinah,” he said, and remembered to try a smile. “Now, you want to help me, don’t you? And it won’t hurt to tell me how it began. You can do that.”
She shrugged. “It was an old photo. I liked it, that’s all. And I was –” She hunched herself in further. “It doesn’t matter.”
“You wrote it down,” he said. “Where did you write it?”
Dinah shuffled slightly and then gave a nod under her bed. “In my diary,” she said. “But –”
Copper crossed the small room in one long stride, and knelt down by the side of the bed to get at the book.
“I only made up a story because there wasn’t anything else to do – and they make me go to that stupid school. They make us do typing there. I hate typing. And there’s no one to do anything with. There’s only Susan from over the road, and she’s useless.” She sounded breathless, as if she was talking to distract it now.
Copper took little notice, pulling out the battered diary. He looked across at the fire. It was unlit, but he could soon fix that, he thought, and the flames shot up in the grate.
“No!” she said, when she saw what he was doing. She rushed at him, trying to pull him arm back, but too late. “Oh, you beast! You rotten pig! How could you?”
Copper turned around and glared at her. “That should have saved your life.”
She shook her head, and tried to choke back and emotion – tears or anger or both, he wasn’t sure. “My present from my Nan was in it – a whole pound note!”
Copper looked down at the book and the flames now eating it, and then back at the girl. “Ah. I see.”
“I’d been saving it up,” she said, and sat down on the bed with a despondent thump and a sigh.
“However, you are still alive,” said Copper, “and I could probably –” He put his hand near to the grate and the note reappeared between his fingers. “Ah. Yes, I can reduplicate that safely at least. Here.”
She breathed out. “Oh,” she said. “Thank goodness! Mum would have been so cross if I’d lost it. I couldn’t have explained, could I?”
“Now,” said Copper, “more importantly, is the creature gone?”
Dinah looked up, and coloured. “Oh. I – I’m sorry. I – I think so. It made things go very odd but they seem normal now. I don’t have to say – silly things.”
“Good,” said Copper, stopping to pick up what was left with the photograph.
She sniffed and rubbed her face. “You’re a very odd person. I don’t know what you’re doing here, either.”
“I,” said Copper, “am only a technician here to fix a fault. It’s done, and I shall go.”
She bit her lip. “Oh. I don’t think I understand.”
“Probably not.”
“And I’m sorry for saying you were a beast – and – and all those things. I didn’t mean them. But it was my present and you could have listened.”
“Yes.”
She shuffled about on the bed, untidying the eiderdown. “Thank you,” she muttered, looking down.
Copper removed the length of wiring, rolling it up. “And if anything in a photograph talks to you again, I suggest you don’t talk back.”
“Electricians don’t do things like you did. I know that.”
Copper gave a sudden smile. “I said a technician, not an electrician. There’s a difference.”
“Was it a ghost, that – that person?”
“It’s best not to think about it now it’s over. It’s safer that way. If you’ve anything else you want to ask, I expect my colleagues will be here shortly.” Copper double checked the wire, before putting it into his jacket pocket.
“An evil spirit or something?”
“I said,” Copper returned. “Don’t think about it and don’t ask questions. It’s over. Best to forget all about it.”
“If it was an evil spirit,” she said, frowning and kicking her feet, “would that make you an angel?”
Copper raised an eyebrow. He couldn’t help but be amused. “You think I look like one?”
She coloured. “Well, no, but then if they’re real, they’re either invisible or else they’d have to look ordinary so we wouldn’t notice. So it’s not all that silly.”
“Yes,” said Copper with a brief smile. “However, I’m a technician – and now I’ve fixed the fault in the wiring, I shall be going. Good luck with your – ah – your typing, was it?”
She sniffed. “Yes, but I hate it. And the shorthand. And the whole silly, rotten school!”
“How odd,” said Copper, as he headed out of the door, “if you like writing things down, I’d have thought you might find it useful.”
He went in search of the other two and hoped that next time they would be on hand to deal with any awkward humans. It wasn’t his field at all.
***
Title: Imaginary
Author:
thisbluespiritRating: All ages
Word Count: 2138
Characters/Pairings: Copper, OC
Warnings None.
Summary: Copper’s only here to fix a fault in the wiring, but the fault seems to have other ideas – and there’s an unwanted young human in the way…
Prompt 9: copper - Vampires & Soulmates.
***
Copper walked into the bedroom, trailing a length of wire after him. He ignored the girl inside, though she looked up in indignant surprise at his entry. Instead, he felt his way along the wall, running his hand over the patterned green wallpaper until he found what he was looking for, and paused at the photograph hanging in the centre there. He gave a short smile of satisfaction.
“What are you doing?” asked the girl, standing up behind him and putting her hands on her hips with a scowl. “That’s mine. You can’t do that –”
Copper reached out for the photograph even as the dark-haired young man pictured in it appeared in front of him, at first transparent and then gradually solidifying.
“Didn’t you hear her?” the figure said, and leant back against the wall with an irritating smile. “It’s not your property. Hands off.”
The girl folded her arms now. “You should go. I heard my Dad saying he was going to phone the police about you. I expect he has by now.”
“You don’t have a phone,” said Copper, momentarily amused. He kept his attention on the other, however; the man who should not be there.
“He’ll have gone next door,” she said, only wavering for a moment. “They’ve got one. So there.”
“And let’s hope so,” said the young man, straightening himself up and facing Copper with no fear in his face, only a sneer. “I know what you are. You’re a murderer.”
Copper tutted. “Hardly. Only a technician.”
“You’ve come to take my life,” the other said. “But you can’t. Nobody can.”
Copper sighed. He would much prefer to do his work without interference. He should call for the other two, he thought, but the bedroom door slammed shut and when he tried to contact his colleagues, there was no reply.
“Yes, very melodramatic,” said Copper. “Not to mention tiresome - and incorrect on several points. I’m merely here to fix a fault in the wiring. Now, excuse me –”
He leant over and attached the end of the long wire to the photograph’s frame and concentrated on the connection. Now, he said, under his breath, and the picture fell to the floor, the image on it having vanished. It was only a framed white piece of photographic paper.
The young man, however, was still there, which was worrying. Copper turned around and looked at the girl properly for the first time. She looked fairly ordinary, as far as he could tell. She was somewhere around fifteen, resolutely sturdy, with her mousy hair in plaits and wearing a navy school uniform.
“I belong here,” said the young man, with another disdainful look at Copper. If anything, he was solidifying further. “You don’t.”
This was a nuisance, thought Copper. He’d done his part and removed the source of the irregularity. If this creature or human was using the girl – stealing a life that had decades left to it, yes, Time would like that – it was up to the other two to finish things, not him.
“Why did you spoil my photo?” asked the girl. “You can’t just walk in and do that!”
“Something was making use of it,” Copper said, with a look at the young man. “It was dangerous. It needed to be dealt with. A lot of things do.”
“How true.” The man – no, the creature that was currently shaped like a man – moved forward. Copper edged back but somehow the other was faster than he was. The man gave a sudden smile and plunged his hand right through Copper to grip at the wiring that still hung down the wall.
Copper gasped out and arched back against the wall, sparks going off in his mind and his breath ragged in an uncomfortably human way. He stared upwards, blankly and failed to call for the other two again.
“No,” said the girl. Copper could hear her dimly, but the panic in her voice was clear: there was a high-pitched note in it and a tremor that had not been there before. “No! What are you doing?”
Copper forced himself to concentrate and looked at her, ignoring the other who was holding him there and laughing silently – stealing mass and energy from him, too, no doubt. He held out his hand. You want me to help you, don’t you? I think you know what’s happening…
He didn’t know if he could reach her, limited as he was in non-technical matters, but she leapt forward and grabbed at his arm, and then swung around to face the man from the photograph. “Stop it!”
“It’s him or me,” the creature said, without looking at her. “And you want me, here; you certainly don’t want him…”
Copper gripped the girl’s hand. Close your eyes, he ordered. Hold onto me and think about anything but that creature – that man. Otherwise, he’ll destroy us both. Do you understand?
She nodded, and did as he asked, taking a deep breath and turning her face in against him. Copper focused on the wire – the wire he had brought in here – and used the power in it to administer a shock to the man, who fell back and, then, realising he had lost his connection to the girl, evaporated into smoke.
“B-but that wasn’t supposed to happen,” the girl said, moving away again, and kneeling on the carpet where the man had been. “I – I – we were supposed to be together.”
“No. You’d have been dead,” said Copper, distracted by looking about him. The creature could not be gone. He still couldn’t sense anything outside of the room and when he tried the door, it wouldn’t open. He turned back to the girl.
She was back on her feet now. “You killed him,” she said, sounding sulky. “You killed him.”
“He was stealing your life. He couldn’t stay,” he returned, dispassionately. “Now, tell me –”
She stepped backwards, away from him. “I don’t know. I don’t know, but he was supposed to be with me – and you come along and ruin everything and – and he’s not some kind of vampire!”
“He hasn’t gone,” said Copper, catching hold of her shoulder. A vampire, he noted with interest. A monster out of a human tale – he vaguely knew that they were the ones who were supposed to drink blood. He had, as ever, more cause to know about human nightmares than much of the rest of their lives. “Now, stop and tell me how it happened. You knew what he was already, I think. Why else did you do as I asked – and why did that come so quickly into your mind?”
The girl swallowed. “I – I – it was only a story I made up. It couldn’t be real.”
“No,” said Copper. “But it tried to be. It’s still here, though – either in something, or in someone.”
“Good,” she said, though she was shaking. “He was supposed to stay and –”
“It was all going to be very romantic, yes,” said Copper, with an air of waving unimportant matters aside. Then he stopped and looked at her more carefully. “He was supposed to stay and -?”
“We were going to stay together. We were meant to be together for always –”
It wasn’t entirely her speaking, he realised and tightened his hold on her. “Yes, I see,” he said, more softly. “I think I understand. But it was only a story, you said? A story. Did you write it down?”
She stared back at him and he sensed a battle within; things she wanted to say and couldn’t. Yes, it was still inside her, or closely linked to her. He needed the others. He didn’t have the skills to take such information from a human, not like this.
“What’s your name?” he asked, since he must try nevertheless.
She stared downwards and muttered something that sounded like Diana or Dinah. He decided on the latter.
“Dinah,” he said, and remembered to try a smile. “Now, you want to help me, don’t you? And it won’t hurt to tell me how it began. You can do that.”
She shrugged. “It was an old photo. I liked it, that’s all. And I was –” She hunched herself in further. “It doesn’t matter.”
“You wrote it down,” he said. “Where did you write it?”
Dinah shuffled slightly and then gave a nod under her bed. “In my diary,” she said. “But –”
Copper crossed the small room in one long stride, and knelt down by the side of the bed to get at the book.
“I only made up a story because there wasn’t anything else to do – and they make me go to that stupid school. They make us do typing there. I hate typing. And there’s no one to do anything with. There’s only Susan from over the road, and she’s useless.” She sounded breathless, as if she was talking to distract it now.
Copper took little notice, pulling out the battered diary. He looked across at the fire. It was unlit, but he could soon fix that, he thought, and the flames shot up in the grate.
“No!” she said, when she saw what he was doing. She rushed at him, trying to pull him arm back, but too late. “Oh, you beast! You rotten pig! How could you?”
Copper turned around and glared at her. “That should have saved your life.”
She shook her head, and tried to choke back and emotion – tears or anger or both, he wasn’t sure. “My present from my Nan was in it – a whole pound note!”
Copper looked down at the book and the flames now eating it, and then back at the girl. “Ah. I see.”
“I’d been saving it up,” she said, and sat down on the bed with a despondent thump and a sigh.
“However, you are still alive,” said Copper, “and I could probably –” He put his hand near to the grate and the note reappeared between his fingers. “Ah. Yes, I can reduplicate that safely at least. Here.”
She breathed out. “Oh,” she said. “Thank goodness! Mum would have been so cross if I’d lost it. I couldn’t have explained, could I?”
“Now,” said Copper, “more importantly, is the creature gone?”
Dinah looked up, and coloured. “Oh. I – I’m sorry. I – I think so. It made things go very odd but they seem normal now. I don’t have to say – silly things.”
“Good,” said Copper, stopping to pick up what was left with the photograph.
She sniffed and rubbed her face. “You’re a very odd person. I don’t know what you’re doing here, either.”
“I,” said Copper, “am only a technician here to fix a fault. It’s done, and I shall go.”
She bit her lip. “Oh. I don’t think I understand.”
“Probably not.”
“And I’m sorry for saying you were a beast – and – and all those things. I didn’t mean them. But it was my present and you could have listened.”
“Yes.”
She shuffled about on the bed, untidying the eiderdown. “Thank you,” she muttered, looking down.
Copper removed the length of wiring, rolling it up. “And if anything in a photograph talks to you again, I suggest you don’t talk back.”
“Electricians don’t do things like you did. I know that.”
Copper gave a sudden smile. “I said a technician, not an electrician. There’s a difference.”
“Was it a ghost, that – that person?”
“It’s best not to think about it now it’s over. It’s safer that way. If you’ve anything else you want to ask, I expect my colleagues will be here shortly.” Copper double checked the wire, before putting it into his jacket pocket.
“An evil spirit or something?”
“I said,” Copper returned. “Don’t think about it and don’t ask questions. It’s over. Best to forget all about it.”
“If it was an evil spirit,” she said, frowning and kicking her feet, “would that make you an angel?”
Copper raised an eyebrow. He couldn’t help but be amused. “You think I look like one?”
She coloured. “Well, no, but then if they’re real, they’re either invisible or else they’d have to look ordinary so we wouldn’t notice. So it’s not all that silly.”
“Yes,” said Copper with a brief smile. “However, I’m a technician – and now I’ve fixed the fault in the wiring, I shall be going. Good luck with your – ah – your typing, was it?”
She sniffed. “Yes, but I hate it. And the shorthand. And the whole silly, rotten school!”
“How odd,” said Copper, as he headed out of the door, “if you like writing things down, I’d have thought you might find it useful.”
He went in search of the other two and hoped that next time they would be on hand to deal with any awkward humans. It wasn’t his field at all.
***
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 13 Feb 2013 03:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 13 Feb 2013 08:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 24 Feb 2013 05:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 24 Feb 2013 06:19 pm (UTC)And, yes. The only two Elements you haven't seen that are even semi-canonical are Gold and Ruby from the audios, and I've only heard Gold (i like the audios, but have only listened to the 3 with Silver in & the first), so any of my extra Elements are OCs. The whole idea is just too tempting! I can't possibly resist. :lol:
Copper's mentioned briefly in Assignment 1 (where Lead says he's having trouble with Silver - again, ha) and then there's a bit in the BF audio Zero where both Gold and Silver talk about dull, methodical Copper, which got me thinking (I don't believe in boring Elements; also it was in context of him being missing.) So obviously, then fic happened. (In context of what I've been writing since, this whole entry is now v funny, really.)
Because the show is so visual, though, for the most part where I've invented Elements, I've used various actors as a starting point for them (as well as Wikipedia). Mental casting can be distracting, but it can also be very useful sometimes. Me being me, I may have picked mostly actors who were (more or less) around at the time of S&S! Copper's actor is James Maxwell, but that is a whole weird story that I have talked about too much on this journal. :-)
(Sorry. That was an excessively long answer... I get excited about Elements. :lol:)
no subject
Date: 24 Feb 2013 06:45 pm (UTC)Steel is, of course, an alloy of carbon and iron and numerous other elements. Sapphire (I just found this out and it's fascinating), is a crystal form of corundrum, which is an aluminum*-oxide chemical compound plus traces of iron, titanium and chromium.
So Steel and Sapphire are closer than they might know, since both have iron in their nature. They are more flexible than other elements, because they are more complicated and more faceted. They are, in fact, more powerful than creatures who are personifications of only one simple element.
And don't you think that might absolutely frighten those with great power in the universe? "Whoops! How did these two come to be? They could threaten our dominion! Let's lock them up forever in a roadside cafe in the middle of Nothing At All! Because ... uhm ... we can't kill them. And that's scarier than anything. AAAAAAaaaaa!"
So, I, too, can give excessively long answers ... Ahem ....
* or aluminium, depending on where one is.
no subject
Date: 24 Feb 2013 07:18 pm (UTC)And I did know that - someone wrote me tiny but perfect fic about it.
I love the theories we all come up with! It's such a wide canvas of possibilities! And that's interesting - and would that mean Jet and Diamond are next, what with them not being Elements either? (And Diamond and Sapphire are v similar in make-up). And they were pretty cavalier about the Elements. I understand that Lead was very nearly Granite and presumably there is/was a Bronze (they don't want that guy in A5 being Bronze, so I assume...). There's also Ruby from the audios. And then some Elements have gone to the other side, I assume some others must have been lost/destroyed in the course of their work and the number of Elements available certainly doesn't match the number of Elements in the periodic table.
But it certainly is canonical that they've been scaring the other side in some way...
:-)
no subject
Date: 12 Mar 2013 08:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 13 Mar 2013 10:00 am (UTC)It's a lovely and strange obsession, isn't it? :-)
no subject
Date: 12 Feb 2013 08:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 13 Feb 2013 08:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 13 Feb 2013 05:59 pm (UTC)That was fun, and interesting, and just a little bit unnerving. So that's what happens when you let your imagination run away with you. ::nervously looks over shoulder::
Thanks for sharing.
no subject
Date: 13 Feb 2013 08:32 pm (UTC)Thank you. It's only what happens in the S&S universe, otherwise I'd be in big trouble by now.