11th December - Unweaving the Warp by Heliophile

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Posting on behalf of heliophile_oxon...

Unweaving the Warp
by heliophile

All day it rained. Easily enough to float the ark, the QE2, the Cutty Sark ... Days and days of this unending gloom and grey and grit – no light, no heat, no Doyle. Spiders – even they had fled their tattered webs. Gently does it, the Cow had said – but Doyle was in there, damn it to hell! But his cover was solid … wasn't it?
There! There in the doorway! A reassuring hand on Khoury's elbow. Adjusting his scarf – all well, then! And the rain poured down, and the sun had never seemed brighter.

All the Cow's Capris and all the Cow's men could never put these broken people together again ... Bodie smiled grimly as he passed a handcuffed Khoury still furiously protesting his innocence, his diplomatic immunity, his impeccable connections. Easily the slickest, smoothest, most repulsively self-satisfied bastard they'd ever done for people-trafficking. Give him a few days without embassy staff, though, and we'll see how he likes the spiders in our basement for a change … and we'll still be handling him infinitely more gently than those poor kids he was selling. Rather shoot the bastard – him and his blue-blood customers.

There had been spider's-webs of pale scars across dark skin. There had been eyes that would not meet his own, no matter how gently he spoke; there had been the terrified, forced smiles of women and children hurt – casually, carelessly, routinely hurt – for not smiling. How many hundred days might it take before any of these people could breathe easily again? But just the chance some might was worth it all. Doyle felt steeped in filth after two weeks' feigned indifference to them as a customer's go-between – but he knew he'd do it again, if he had to.

There wasn't enough whisky in a bottle – hell, there probably wasn't enough whisky in all the world – to put those two weeks behind him. Doyle set his glass aside; no point courting fluorescent green spiders and the DTs to no good purpose. There'd be days – and especially nights – of this to come. Thank fuck for Bodie. For the way Bodie would let him break; for the way he'd know to fuck him hard tonight, when nothing could go easily; for the way he'd know when Doyle was fit to cope with loving gently again at last.

*************

All day it rained. Gently, easily, almost more of a mist than proper rain; the air warm with summer promise and full of the rich sweetness of moist earth and the scents of innumerable flowers whose names neither of them knew. Tiny spiders silver-carpeted the grass with a blanket of dew-laden silk each morning – Doyle even sketched it – and they could eat well, drink deep, forget London for now and love as loudly as they liked. They didn't mention Khoury (whose repatriation flight had inexplicably diverted to very much the wrong country …) and the sun tomorrow would be brighter.

Comments

[msmoat.livejournal.com]

Oh, oh, oh, oh this is so nice! You know, I often find drabble sequences a little unsatisfying, but this one...this one is perfect. Honestly. It tells us just enough of what was going on to understand it, yet each one focuses on just that precise moment in time and a particular feeling. The repetition of the challenge words works really well, actually, in tying it all together. I particularly liked the spider references, and the difference in the rain at the beginning vs. at the end. There's so much here to fall into with the words! Thank you.

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I'm so glad you like it, little unseasonal snippet that it is *g*

(I think the spiders are my favourite too. They kind of grew on me, and wanted to stick around *g*)

[moonlightmead.livejournal.com]

Ah, now, I was one of the lucky ones, and I am so glad to have read this. I love the atmosphere, and the suggestion - we don't know the full details, but we know entirely enough, and we certainly know the emotions.

And I love - lovelovelove - this: Thank fuck for Bodie. For the way Bodie would let him break; for the way he'd know to fuck him hard tonight, when nothing could go easily; for the way he'd know when Doyle was fit to cope with loving gently again at last.

And all of the final drabble, with the elegaic nature at the start, and their escape from the trials of their days, and then the cynical mention of the plane diversion, and how, really, that is what they need to hear.

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Thank you - and thank you for forgiving the not-altogether-newness *g*

Glad you like that bit; I hope/think it might be in character for them, being the people they are and dealing with the appalling things they have to deal with ...

Thank you so much! :-)

[dollidaydream.livejournal.com]

I love these. I love the lyrical quality and how you manage to say so much with so few words - that's very clever. I like the lines about there not being enough whiskey, and the one about Cowley's Capris and men. And the subject matter is very contemporary and relevant for now. That makes it quite poignant.

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm so glad you liked it!
I think they have to deal with some of the worst of humanity, and there's nothing worse than the rich and powerful abusing their power.

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

It's gorgeous, thank you - so full of gentle images and rain and glimpses of the whole... beautiful! Thank you again.

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm very glad you liked it! :-)))

[merentha13.livejournal.com]

This is wonderful - the imagery, the emotions, the way they read each other and all in so few words. Perfection!

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of their being so attuned to each other - maybe that's what lets them get through what they have to deal with ...

Thank you - I'm very glad you liked it!

[dollidaydream.livejournal.com]

Just read this again. It was even better the second time! :)

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Hey! What a wonderful compliment - thank you!!!!

[solosundance.livejournal.com]

Beautifully done - love the seamless way you've used the words, the imagery, the subtle cadence of the whole. Just lovely!

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much - unseasonal snippet that it is, I'm very glad you liked it!

[sw33n3y.livejournal.com]

Oh I like the way you've approached this and they're all wonderfully intense.

I especially like the second last one for Doyle's palpable sense of desperation and the last one for the beautiful picture of renewal.

Well done! ..and Happy Holidays.

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It's hard to imagine coping at all, let alone having to pretend to be complicit - I suppose I was thinking that Doyle really relies on Bodie to get what he needs.

I'm so glad you liked it - thank you for the comment, and happy holidays to you too!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I do like this - a whole story of them, from beginning to end, and you can feel every moment with them. And I do like the ending... *g* Thank you!

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Thank you - and thank you so much for posting it for me! I am always so convinced that somehow fate and gremlins will conspire to make me muck it up (I know, it's pretty daft of me - but I couldn't bear to mess up the dialj day!).

I'm so glad you like that ending *g* - and I hope you get those silver silk carpets springing up in the fields all around, once winter is over!

[ali15son.livejournal.com]

thankyou so much for this ...i loved it x

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed it! :-))))

[unbelievable2.livejournal.com]

Not only extremely skilful, but very beautifully written. :))

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you so much! I'm really happy you liked this mini-fic *g*

[cloudless-9193.livejournal.com]

So beautiful, and so very well written. Thanks! :-)

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm absolutely delighted that you liked it!

[inlovewithboth.livejournal.com]

Ah. Our poor lads don't have an easy life, do they? But at least they are together through it all. xxx

[boothros.livejournal.com]

Very clever and very beautiful thankyou.

[giseerouchon.livejournal.com]

Late to the game as usual, but just wanted to say that these are really lovely... some else said 'lyrical' which was just what I was thinking.. must save to re-read....xx

[londonronnie.livejournal.com]

Lovely sequence of drabbles - they all flowed together wonderfully!

You included the drabble words very skilfully, I didn't even realise I'd read them in most instances until I went back and looked for them!

Thank you!

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

This is lovely - so many images dancing through my head. The spiders and dew-silk, Bodie and Doyle loving each other, fragile hope for the victims... a wee sniff and a smile at the end.