#thatlastdanceofchances

[ultimate-torchwood-monthly]

Okay because I have absolutely no chill, welcome to Ultimate Torchwood Monthly. I will be running Round Robin polls to pit monthly audios up against each other and determine which is the best/favorite.

Because a full Round Robin of all 73 monthlies that currently exist would be… an insane number of polls and I refuse to do math, I will instead run smaller round robins of each “series” and then run a round robin of each of the winners

If that doesn’t make sense, that’s okay, just follow the blog and vote for the best/your favorite audio in each poll you see

@thatlastdanceofchances your polls today gave me the idea!

@torchwood-rarepair-royale @torchaments the other Torchwood poll blogs I know around (one of them is me but that’s not the point)

[shejustcalledmeafish]

@thatlastdanceofchances happy to oblige :3

My opinions on Tosh audios based on this ask I answered about Owen audios!

Zone 10: a very solid first entry! weird Russian Torchwood equivalent and a lovely lady cosmonaut, i don’t remember the plot very well cause it’s been a while since I’ve heard it, but all the vibes were good

torchwood_cascade_ CDRip.tor: BANGER, gives an explanation for Tosh’s birthday confusion, has very interesting sound design choices and time jumps in the plotline which are well done, but you should be prepared for, not quite worthy of an unreality tag, but on the periphery, worth it

Instant Karma: boring. Genuinely I cannot remember like any of the plot besides that Tosh gets mistreated some, not worth it

The Vigil: okay so this one I do think is worth listening to because it’s better written, but if you don’t want to deal with Tosh getting micro-aggressed by a spoiled white military brat and his mother while she’s being too good for then the whole time, yeah. Like I enjoy the concept, it’s just a lot, give Tosh a break bf challenge

Dinner and a Show: YES GLORIOUS Tosh getting drunk and fighting aliens with her shoe and Ianto and her smarts at the opera, good thoughts on her Owen feelings too, highly recommend

Drive: yes! the closest thing Tosh gets to a solo romp, racing all around cardiff with a well-developed lady cab driver, the macguffin is very interesting, and it’s just good fun

War Chest: okay so I forgot most of the details of this one too, but the remembered vibes are solid, it’s not unnecessarily mean to her, just a more high risk adventure

Suckers and SUV: okay so suckers is where I stopped listening, mostly because I changed jobs and lost all my perfect time for audio listening, but I’ll just say that if you listened to one, pick SUV over suckers

The Torchwood Archive: yes! the entire audio is very good, but Tosh’s section is simply a delight

Believe: no! Tosh and Owen’s plot is really just so out of character, and so fucking rude to her, dub-con at best, why

TLDR: more of a mixed bag than Owen, but still plenty of gems! Dinner and a Show, Cascade, and Drive are your good starters, fuck Instant Karma and FUCK Believe

[javic-piotr-thane]

@thatlastdanceofchances thank you! i think i have a grasp on it by now [people who have been springing up to explain to me - thank you all 💙], but this still made me giggle XD because that i get, beyond basic comprehension i mean. i get why it's a joke, because in german we literally use the same one - when it doubt, [x] is "because DSGVO". so thanks for spelling it out for me that way, love it, 100% get the humour now XD

yeh gdpr is one of those things uk folk know at least abstractly about but doesn’t translate lmao

theres a line in the last beacon where ianto describes owen as ‘foreign’ and i always wonder how well that translates to non-brits (or at least not welsh/english brits tho id imagine the other uk countries get it lol)

lol yeah it's only to be expected from a british show XD

i appreciate all the explanations!

[dinodina]

For the Touching prompts, would you feel like writing either 21 or 45 for Jack and Ianto?

From this.

21 - kissing the other's brow, 45 - feeling their temperature I wanted to do both, but Jack decided to be stubborn and change the mood, so have 45! Thank you so much! <3

Summer came over Cardiff slowly, unsure at first if it wanted to stay; after several weeks, it had made up its mind, and the Hub was the only place in the city that was not whirring with fans and air conditioners. It was a relief until the team's summer wear was exchanged for blankets and jumpers, until the underground base felt like one of Owen's autopsy lockers and the intense heat outside became a temptation.

Not that it lasted long.

"Cardiff can handle itself," Owen grumbled, plopping down at his desk and leaning back in his chair to fully appreciate the cool air.

Tosh nodded, doing the same at her own desk. Then frowned. "Can it?"

"We should give it a fighting chance," Gwen suggested. She was regretting that her shirt covered her shoulders and that the Weevil they'd been chasing hadn't been sympathetic to their heat-induced apathy—the sheer fact that they'd had to chase it was testament to that.

Jack and Ianto—forgoing a greatcoat and suit, respectively, in deference to the weather—were still at the door. It wasn't often that the whole team was called out to catch a Weevil, but it was a special case when it was rampaging through the city and no one knew exactly where it was. Now, it was unconscious in the SUV.

“Get something to drink, I’ll get it out,” Jack said, a hand on Ianto’s arm to push him towards the kitchenette.

“I can help.”

“Can you?” Jack didn’t wait for an answer and reached out to feel Ianto’s forehead. “You should see Owen.”

“I’m fine.” Yet Ianto didn’t bat his hand away; it was cool against his own overheated skin.

“You should see Owen. Sit down. Drink something.” Jack gestured to the others with his free hand. “Get them something to drink, too, if that convinces you.”

Ianto fixed him with a look that wasn’t as impressive as it was supposed to be, his eyes tired and his hair beginning to curl with sweat. No one looked much better. He sighed and relaxed his shoulders—it was easier to feel the relief of the cold—and turned on his heel.

Jack counted it as a win, gave a sigh of his own, and retreated to the garage to deal with the Weevil. Unlike the others, heat stroke would only have a mild effect on him.

When Jack came back, SUV cleaned and the Weevil in the cells, he wanted nothing other than a cold shower and an even colder drink. He also wanted to check on Ianto, who had seemed to have the same idea, which killed two birds with one stone.

Jack stripped quickly, too hot to check for Ianto’s reaction, and stepped under the cool spray, heaving a sigh of relief. “How’s everyone?”

“Enjoying some iced coffee.” Ianto was stripping, too, and stepping under another showerhead. Bless the Hub designers.

Jack chuckled. “Lowering your standards?”

“Nothing about my iced coffee is low-standard.”

“Of course not.”

[toshsatos]

Torchwood audios ask game (which you inspired by the way): 4, 6 and 14!

😌 ty!! love this ask game. it’s late and my thoughts are messy but here goes

4. It’s your time to gush! Recommend a Torchwood audio drama and tell us why we should all listen to it! If you get this question several times, recommend several audios…share the love!

THE DYING ROOM. holy shit. i wasn’t optimistic about this one, mainly because i didn’t enjoy the dollhouse. but my god was i wrong

so for anyone who hasn’t listened to it (which i think is most people), the dying room has completely new characters in an era of torchwood we haven’t seen before. the pacing is excellent, the character development in such a short space of time is incredible, and the twists throughout left me shook. it’s so vivid and beautifully written. even though it doesn’t have any of the team, i highly recommend! especially if you’re interested in torchwood throughout history. 

6. Who is your favourite audio-only Torchwood character?

not to be predictable but it’s norton!! i already loved dirk gently so it was wonderful to find out he was in this. he’s a perfect mix of bastard and loveable and for him to be so compelling after so little content is a brilliant move on big finish’s part. he really feels like torchwood 

14. What’s the saddest line or moment from the audio dramas that made you regret listening to it on the bus? (people will look at you strangely if you start tearing up for apparently no reason on the bus)

jdfvjd my many issues mean i can’t listen to them in public, but if i were to hypothetically cry on a bus - there’s a line about tosh and owen in expectant that got to me. i don’t like expectant for unrelated reasons so it’s a bit of a weird one? i just kind of suffered through it, but that one line took me out. we’re starved of discussion in canon about tosh and owen after their deaths and whilst i can’t remember the line (and i’m definitely not going to listen to it again to find it) it really hit hard. 

[horselover107]

1. Gwen Cooper

2. Kotetsu Kaburagi

3. Crowley

4. Luz

5. Mary Jane Watson

6. Lydia

7. Korra

8. Rebecca Bunch

9. Cass

10. Crow (bonus GPC, Tom, and Joel in the gif)

This was hard. Tried to limit myself to only one marvel character (even though the one I picked is in her own universe) and even though it’s a spin off, only one whoinverse character. And again even though it’s a spin off only one avatar universe character

@the-technicolor-whiscash @botanist-cool @the-mimse @tortillas @thatlastdanceofchances @flamingbluepanda @dinodina @searching-for-arcadia @zebracakesarecopingmechanisms @virtualsilver

qusna10 characters, 10 media, 10 tags

thank you for the tag @chaoticdweeb ❤ this was surprising hard. I somehow forgot all the shows I liked 🤣

1. Merlin

2. Arthur

3. Athelstan

4. Louise

5. Gert

6. Carmy

7. Clare

8. Karev

9. New Girl

10. Death

@witchmd13 @highlynerdy @fuckthisshitimoutyall @camelotsheart @snapshotmaestro @hellneedsaruler @nextstopparis @pandalikeelf @queerofthedagger​ @gyrhs​

[princess-of-the-worlds]

“And just like everything else we do around here, it’s about to get weirder.” - doesn't it sound like a Torchwood line?

A Torchwood Welcome

Upon receiving his reassignment to Cardiff to aid in the resurrection of Torchwood Three, St. John Colchester is not pleased.

Nothing against Cardiff. Cardiff is a lovely city, albeit a bit cold and damp for Colchester’s aging body, but he’s been filled in on the so-called legacy of Torchwood, especially its Cardiff branch, over the years and wouldn’t exactly call himself a fan. Plus, he and Colin have been settled in their lovely cottage in Hove for several years now.

So, after much good-natured squabbling as with all couples, Colchester and Colin finally move down to Cardiff, and soon, Colchester reports in for his first day of work at Torchwood Three, which is currently still in the process of being dug back out underneath the Roald Dahl Plass. And he meets Ms. Gwen Cooper-Williams or better-known in the debriefing files that he was given, as Gwen Cooper.

She greets him with a warm smile and a firm shake of his hand and a cheerful “How do you do, Mr. Colchester?” which has him immediately knowing that this is a woman with a large heart but a backbone of steel and he’s going to respect her immensely.

“Lovely to meet you, Ms. Cooper,” he tells her politely, and allows her to lead him to the battered-looking shack of a tourist office, which she tells him was the first part of the former base to be reconstructed. He pretends not to notice how her green eyes are the slightest bit shiny with tears.

Gwen gives Colchester the tour and an encapsulated history of Torchwood Three, leaving out many details that Colchester already knows. She guides him over the small Torchwood set-up in a backroom of the tourist office - nothing too fancy, just a Rift monitor and some basic weaponry. She tells Colchester that his new job is to supervise the reconstruction of the Hub while she and their currently-absent leader, Captain Jack Harkness, chase Rift flares over Cardiff.

“And where is our esteemed leader currently?” Colchester asks. He’s heard quite much about Jack Harkness and is determined to form his own opinion.

Her expression becomes sheepish. “In Bristol,” she says with a slight shrug. “Tracking down an alien artifact.” She glances away, hiding a fond smile. “Jack has rather...unique tactics when it comes to leadership, but they are quite effective at times.” 

Considering the affection in Gwen’s tone, Colchester can tell that she immensely respects and adores Captain Harkness even if she doesn’t agree with him frequently. 

“Either way, you’ll have to forgive him a bit. After...everything that happened, Jack has changed. He’s become a tad more flighty and unpredictable.”

Ah, yes, “everything that happened,” which, to Colchester’s knowledge, encapsulates the loss of Torchwood Three’s technique Toshiko Sato and their doctor Owen Harper, both personally recruited by Harkness. And a year later, the death of Torchwood Three’s general support, Ianto Jones, against the 456.

Colchester’s heard rumors about just how close Harkness and Jones were.

Still, he doesn’t get to meet Harkness until several days later when he walks into the tourist office one morning and finds a tall, broad-shouldered man in a greatcoat hunched over his computer. He has a sudden sneaking suspicion who this man is but still clears his throat with a raspy cough.

“Pardon me, but who are you and what are you doing at my computer?”

The man glances up, and Colchester is immediately struck by how handsome he is - twinkling blue eyes, a smirk a tad artificial, and sharp cheekbones. The feeling of awe fades a moment later, because Colchester is happily married, and Harkness has nothing on his Colin in terms of attractiveness.

“C’ptn Jack Harkness,” Harkness says enthusiatically, sticking his hand out for Colchester to shake, which Colchester does, albeit a bit stiffly. “You must be Mr. Colchester. I do love myself a silver fox.” His smirk grows. “Say, have you seen Gwen?”

“Ms. Cooper is across the city checking out a Rift alert,” Colchester tells Harkness. “She texted me an hour ago.” A beat. “She must have texted you as well.”

“Oh.” Harkness grimaces, pulling a mangled device with wires poking out from his pocket. That must be the remains of his smartphone, a device advertised to be undamageable. “I sorta...got it crushed.” He looks sheepish.

Colchester sighs, watching Harkness bounce slightly on his heels. Privately, Colchester thinks that no grown man should act this way. He keeps this opinion to himself. “I’ll work on getting you a new one, sir,” he tells Harkness with every inch of civility he possesses. 

“Sir?” A strange sadness flares in Harkness’s brilliant eyes but is immediately hidden. Harkness’s smirk stretches wider, and it becomes apparent to Colchester just how strained the expression is. “No need for ‘sir.’ Just call me Jack.”

“I think I’ll just call you by your title, Captain,” Colchester says instead, and ignores Harkness’s attempted protests.

He turns an assessing eye to Harkness, and it doesn’t take a trained soldier to notice that Harkness is fraying at the edges. He’s a man of stitched together pieces and at his own threads. Colchester doesn’t want to be there when Harkness snaps, but he has a feeling that he won’t have a choice not to be.

“What would you like me to get started on?” he asks Harkness, cutting the other man’s rambling off.

Harkness shrugs. “Perhaps getting us some decent wifi? We’ve been borrowing,” - and he winks at Colchester, who can barely suppress his scowl - “from the fusion restaurant across the Plass, but it’s high-time we get our own router set up.”

“I’ll see what I can do, Captain,” Colchester promises. He sighs before asking a question he knows he will regret: “And what exactly do we do around here anyways?”

“We deal with the unusual, the weird.” Harkness’s grin turns a bit more genuine.  “And just like everything else we do around here, it’s about to get weirder, especially with you here.”

Yes, St. John Colchester is not pleased at all to be here in Cardiff, especially with Jack Harkness, but as he always does, he’ll do his job and do it well.

[portraitoftheoddity]

Charity Art Blitz portrait of Ianto Jones from Torchwood for @thatlastdanceofchances (to go with her previous charity blitz portrait of Jack Harkness!)

[toshsato]

Torchwood audios ask game: 6; 8 and 12!

6. Who is your favourite audio-only Torchwood character?

Anna from Zone 10! I loved all the characters in that but I found her really interesting!

8. Pick a TV series character and tell us what they gained the most in terms of character development from the audio dramas? You can make this a general answer or talk about a specific character moment.

Ianto! Both the BBC radio and Big Finish audio dramas really fleshed out his back story! The Torchwood One audios and Broken showcase what he was like before the Fall of Canary Wharf and how that event affected him and the fact he didn't just lose Lisa, he lost almost everyone he knew.

12. Do you have a favourite quote from the audio dramas?

Serenity: "You would find a crocodile charming!" - Ianto (I might be paraphrasing, it's been a while since I've listened to it.)

Thank you so much!!!

Torchwood audios ask game!

[greendreamer]

Torchwood audios ask game: 2, 3 and 15!

2. What is the first audio drama you listened to and what did you think of it?

Weirdly, it was Torchwood: Expectant, which happened to be the first piece of Torchwood media I watched/listened to. Since I first listened to it, I have learned a lot more about the Torchwood universe. So when I went back listened to it not too long ago, I was just like “Wait, no! Jack wouldn’t be this reckless. He should know what is at risk if he dies. This is so out of character!”. The worst bit is that we can’t blame him being out of character on the pregnancy hormones, well, not all of it. Not only that but the running “Joke” (I presume) being Jack ‘not built for this [pregnancy]’ I don’t like either. It makes him sound too 21st century.

3. How do you listen to the audio dramas? Headphones or speakers? All in one go or piece by piece? While commuting, exercising or doing nothing? Set the mood! ;-)

Speakers, preferably via my laptop. I have listened to audios on the go, but never Torchwood. I only did that once, and I somehow spooked myself just by the sound of footsteps from the audio (thankfully there was no one around to see).                                                When it comes to listening to audios, I have to be doing thing while I listen. The main tasks I do are book blinding, card making and art. Otherwise, I’ll just get bored and zone out. Right now I have 3/4 of a boxset, plus a monthly one, I need to listen to (Aliens Amougs Us P3). I just don’t feel motivated to listen to them.

15. Which audio drama would like to buy? If you have them all, which one were you the most excited to get?

I’m looking for to Rhys & Ianto’s Excellent Barbecue, I’m planning to buy it alongside a Torchwood One boxset. Mainly as a treat (since it’s my birthday this month) but also to try and overcome this problem I’ve been having, of Torchwood 2020 releases not fricking arriving.

[iant0jones]

Make Your Choice: Fanfic Edition

I was tagged by @dinodina, @sassyweethang, and @thatlastdanceofchances. Thank you all so much! 💗💗💗 I’m sorry I couldn’t decide on so many of these lol. I’m bi, you can’t ask me to make decisions like this

slowburn or love at first sight

fake dating or secret dating

enemies to lovers or best friends to lovers

oh no there’s only one bed or long-distance correspondence

hurt/comfort or amnesia

fantasy au or modern au (I’m the ultimate sucker for a Hogwarts AU)

mutual pining or domestic bliss

smut or fluff (why not both? 😉)

canon-compliant or fix-it (again, can’t decide)

reincarnation or character death (if I absolutely had to choose)

one-shot or multi chapter (I usually only read fanfics when I’m going to bed or waking up so something short it’s often ideal)

kid fic or road trip fic

arranged marriage or accidental marriage

high school romance or middle aged romance

time travel or isolated together

neighbors or roommates

sci-fi au or magic au (a lot of what I read is already sci-fi lol)

body swap or genderbend

angst or crack

apocalyptic or mundane

Thank you again! I think I’ve seen a lot of people already tagged in this, so I tag @mallorymaedke @flamingbluepanda @bee-haw-yee-haw @jacksgreatcoat and @young-bek

[avaantares]

For the fanfic ask meme: 5, 10, 11, 26, 31 and 32. Feel free to only do one of these, I just couldn't make up my mind (so many interesting questions!). :-)

Yay, more questions! I answered number 5 in the previous post, but I’ll do the others, because I can’t make up my mind, either.

10.Have you ever written for a fandom without reading other fanfic for it?

Oh, absolutely. The earliest fandom for which I still have the fanfic I wrote was back when fan works were distributed via paper zines that you had to order with a money order sent through postal mail! (Yes, I’m old, LOL.)

Sometimes I’ve also written stories based on more obscure sources for which fic just doesn’t exist. The first fanfic series I ever wrote was a massive meta-humor crossover featuring characters from classic literature, mythology, television shows, movies, video games, etc., many of which didn’t even have fandoms as such.

I’ve also started several stories based on sources with fandoms I wasn’t heavily involved in and hadn’t read fic for, but then did some more digging into the fandom itself and decided not to post them for whatever reason (fandom drama, lack of readership, dear-goodness-why-is-this-entire-fandom-shipping-my-NoTP, etc.).

11.Have you ever written a fic for a concept you know someone else has done before? How did it impact your writing process or feelings after posting?

*laugh* Yup. I joked so often about ticking boxes on my Fanfiction Bingo card that @gmariam321 actually MADE one and sent it to me. (I don’t yet have a Bingo, though. Still need to write that wingfic…) ;-)

Matchless is a soulmate AU, which is quite possibly the single most overused fanfiction formula since the creation of Mary Sue in 1973. Not that formulas are inherently bad, but there are just so many of them that I didn’t expect to have anything unique to add to that fic category. Then, while chatting with @gmariam321 about her (also quite unique) soulmate AU Animoré, I hit upon the idea of subverting soulmates-as-convenient-plot device and addressing the soulmate concept as the plot. Obviously it was never intended to be Ye Standard Olde Soulmate Trope, which made it unpredictable and therefore more fun (for me) to write. It ended up expanding into a 74,000-word sci-fi mystery, which was three times the length I’d originally expected it to be. I think some of my readers weren’t expecting such a complex plot from something tagged as a soulmate AU, but overall I got excellent feedback!

26. What aspect of your writing do you most enjoy to see praised?

I love it when readers really engage with the plot (in longer stories) and comment that they’re trying to work out what the next twist is. I really like spooling out a mystery and getting people hooked. To me, it’s a challenging balance between revealing too much and giving away the ending, or not giving enough clues so that readers are blindsided with a plot twist, so it’s gratifying if people are actively thinking about where the story might be going.

31. Who’s the one character you’ve just never managed to get perfectly right?

Norton Folgate. I absolutely ADORE him and would love to write more stories with him, but I really struggled with his voice in the one story I attempted (Purge) and I’m not confident I can do him justice. (Also, I’d need a Polari phrasebook to get his dialogue period-accurate.)

32. Who’s the one character who shines without you even trying?

Ianto Jones. His dry sarcasm-concealing-sincere concern is so close to some of the characters populating my original fiction that I always found it very easy to write him. Now that I’ve written well over a quarter of a million words about him, I feel like I have a pretty solid grip on his character. :)

[veliseraptor]

For the fanfic ask game, W?

Do you like more general prompts, or more specific ones?

It depends. As a general rule I probably prefer a more general “concept” (i.e. something that starts with ‘what if’ or has a general trope) than I prefer really specific ones, but then again I’ve had @portraitoftheoddity especially give me very specific detailed prompts and generously let me run with them, many of which have been a lot of fun to write, so...

No definitive answer? I’m very moody about prompts, too - sometimes I want them, sometimes I don’t, sometimes they don’t catch me when I get them but then later I look back and am like “oooh I wanna do something with this” - it really is something very situational and of the moment.

ask me fanfiction questions

[kathrynmjaneway]

thatlastdanceofchances replied to your post “will tomorrow be the most depressing birthday i ever had or the most...”

Happy Birthday! Many happy returns! :-)

Thank youuuu :) ♥

[dinodina]

18 - squishing the other’s cheek for Jack and older Estelle? That would be cute. :-D

From this. Also on ao3.

Thank you so much, I absolutely loved this prompt!!

Estelle Cole was blonde and smiling, shuffling between the wall and the dancefloor. Her friends had deserted her, but no one had caught her eye enough for her to join them—except. Yes, there he was.

She squared her shoulders and approached the soldier. Tall, blue-eyed, quite good-looking. Estelle had seen him around, sometimes dancing, sometimes talking, never staying in the same place long enough for her to strike a conversation.

This time, though, he waited for her approach.

“Hello.”

“Hello.”

American. Estelle let him lead her into a dance, the band playing and the other couples talking around them blending into a veil of sound. He was leaving, just like the rest of them were. What was an American doing in the British army? Estelle didn’t ask.

She didn’t ask much. His favorite color so she could bring him something tomorrow when he left. His favorite song so the small talk could begin. Where he was from—he didn’t quite answer that one.

“I’ll write,” Estelle said in the morning, holding his name close. Jack Harkness. A nice name. He didn’t tell her where he was going, only that her letters would reach him; something secret, then. That was alright.

Estelle’s brother had died doing something secret, too, right at the start of the war. Months later, when she promised Jack she’d be with him forever, she pretended not to see the pain in his eyes and resolutely didn’t think about her brother.

A promise was a promise. There was no end in sight, not yet, and all Estelle could do was be there for Jack, the few moments they got together whenever he returned to Cardiff, when he had to go back to whatever he did for the country and the world.

Estelle wrote and occasionally got replies.

Her friends laughed sometimes. She would laugh, too, she thought, if someone else had been in her shoes. Jack came back less than the others. He shared less. And yet he loved her.

She knew it in the care he took with his handwriting in the letters as opposed to the chicken scratch of the envelopes. She knew it in the flowers he brought her, even if he came before any stores were open, wildflowers, flowers stolen from unsuspecting gardens, paper flowers one time around Christmas when he couldn’t find any others. She knew it in his gentle touch, in the way he let himself be held and held her in return.

Estelle Cole loved Jack Harkness, and so when one day he told her that he had a secret, she didn’t hold against him that he was unable to tell her.

How bad a secret could one man have?

Estelle never found out.

Forever, she’d told him. He’d echoed her words, voice hoarse, and she’d known there would be a catch. She just didn’t expect death. For some reason, she’d thought he’d survive.

“I’ll come back.”

He touched her cheek before he left, caressed it with a wide, solid hand, let Estelle rest against him one last time.

The next news she got of Jack was that he’d died.

Estelle Cole had grey hair and an unwavering belief in the supernatural. There was magic in the air, she knew, and as her friends died off from old age and disease, she found herself clinging more and more to the idea of something else being out there.

She’d never married.

Jack hadn’t been it for her, but in her grief she’d found friends and knowledge. She’d gone to university, worked at a library, volunteered in animal shelters. It was where she’d gotten Moses.

The black and white cat didn’t like strangers but tolerated those who offered him treats. He’d endeared himself easily to the neighbors, so when there was a knock at the door and Moses didn’t run away from the sound, Estelle figured it was someone familiar.

And it was.

It was Jack—

It was Jack’s son. Tall, blue-eyed, quite good looking. American. The same flow to his words and defiance in his eyes, slight hesitation when he reached for something, expecting a reprimand but knowing it wouldn’t come.

So this had been Jack’s secret.

Moses didn’t run from Jack’s son. He stayed at his feet and accepted pets, bribed him for treats whenever Estelle turned away.

“My father loved you,” Jack’s son said.

Estelle smiled up at him. He was the same height as Jack had been; she barely reached his shoulder. “I loved him.”

“Do you live in Cardiff?” she asked after a long moment. He even dressed the same. Had the greatcoat been sent back to him? “Or just visiting?”

Jack lived here, he said. He hoped he wasn’t intruding.

There wasn’t much to intrude on. Estelle showed him her photographs when the subject came up—funny. Jack had always gotten the same look in his eyes when she’d brought up the fairies. It was the only time they argued.

“Can I visit again?” he asked the same way Jack had always asked. He’d never been shy; maybe Estelle had just been too perceptive. Someone had hurt Jack, someone he didn’t talk about, someone he pretended didn’t exist.

“Of course,” Estelle said, “I’d love to have you.”

Jack walked with a spring in his step, his hair perfectly balanced, simultaneously blowing in the breeze and keeping its perfectly-styled shape. He turned back at the last moment to throw Estelle a smile, a promise to return.

Jack hadn’t been old enough to learn these mannerisms when his father had died.

He stood close to her in front of the door and lifted a hand to her cheek, held it for a second. Not knowing why, Estelle mirrored the gesture. He held her and let go; almost a moment too late, Estelle realized it was time to let go, too.

Jack’s son was so much like him.

Estelle swallowed and forced a smile. She was an old woman, now. She was allowed. She pinched his cheek—there was his smile, at last. It shouldn’t have been so brittle before, it was real again now.

“I’ll come back,” Jack said.

This time, she believed him.

[thelightofthingshopedfor]

thatlastdanceofchances replied to your post “portraitoftheoddity replied to your post: “oh fuuuuuck I just thought...”

I was already devastated but the addition of that last gif just killed me. waaaaaaaaaaaaaant!

portraitoftheoddity replied to your post “portraitoftheoddity replied to your post: “oh fuuuuuck I just thought...”

aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

}:] 

no guarantees that I’ll actually ever write this, but who knows, it could happen, and I wanted to share the pain.