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fandomweekly2021-05-30 09:27 pm
m_findlow) wrote in fandomweekly2021-05-30 09:27 pm
Entry tags:
[#095] A DAY IN THE SUN (TORCHWOOD)
Theme Prompt: #95 - Unexpected weather
Title: A day in the sun
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG.
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 1,000 words
Summary: Javic introduces his academy bunk mate to the realities of life on earth.
Thank the goddesses, Javic thought, as the cool air from the pocket of space around the transmat beam dispersed into the atmosphere, replacing its stale chill with the warm embrace of desert air. After an eternity of being stuck out in space, he was finally back on solid ground, surrounded by nature in all its glory. Had it really been so long since he'd felt dirt beneath his boots? He raised his face to let the sun beat down on it, embracing it like an old lover.
‘It's hot,’ Afron complained.
‘Yeah.’
‘I can feel my skin burning. This can't be safe.’
‘It's fine,’ Javic called back, already breaking away to go and explore.
‘Why is my skin burning, then?’
‘It's just the sun.’
His fellow academy cadet wiped his hand across his brow and squinted up at the sky, where the bright white ball of light bore down on them. He raised his hand to protect his eyes from its blazing light. ‘Why is it so hot?’
‘The ozone here is thin. It doesn't block as much of the sun's rays.’
Afron paused and stared up at the sun again, beads of sweat breaking out over his skin. He skipped after his bunk mate, trying to close the gap between them. ‘How come you're not hot?’
Javic kept up his long strides. Just being outside was so refreshing after years of being stuck aboard ships and the large spaceport of Arcanus Five where the Time Agency housed its academy and main base of operations. He'd become so accustomed to the stale, tasteless air and the always slightly too cool temperature that this was like freedom.
‘I've been land-side before you know,’ Afron said. ‘Once. It wasn't like this. It was… not hot.’
‘I know. Isn't it great?’
‘Great? It's awful. How do people live like this?’
‘It's called weather, Afron. Better get used to it. It's gonna be on every planet you visit.’ Poor kid, Javic thought, even if Afron was two years older than him. Born on a spaceport and lived up there all his life, never knowing what it was to feel the sun's heat on your face or the patter of raindrops, or the fierce embrace of the sirocco. For once it was Javic who had the advantage.
'I don't like it'
‘Get moving,’ Javic demanded. His voice had only just begun to break when he'd joined the Time Agency at fifteen. Now he was seventeen it was fully formed, a low, threatening growl when he wanted it to be, which came out when he barked a command.
'Yeah, alright. Steady on. No need to be so serious. It's just a training exercise.'
Javic was all business though. Training or not he wanted to do a good job and impress, even if all he really wanted to do was just enjoy the soft dirt beneath his boots and lie out in the sun until he was brown all over. He'd gotten pale since leaving Boeshane, no longer exposed to the sun every day, locked away in deep space where even the stars looked too distant to shed any warmth.
Just being here charged his soul like a battery, the dewy scent of the tall grasses, the taste of the earth in the very air he breathed. It was like Boeshane but not. This was a desert far from the sea. If there'd been an ocean within fifty miles he'd have been able to detect its salty tang. All of it made him feel alive.
Their mission was simple - to locate a single flag hidden within a three mile radius. No clues, no landmarks, no beacon signals. It was a test, like so much of their cadet training. Three miles didn't seem like much until you saw nothing but a vast arid wasteland. It might as well have been three hundred miles.
‘Start looking,’ Javic said.
‘If we don't die out here first,’ came Afron’s reply.
Javic found the flag in no time at all, hidden under a scrubby bush, almost walking straight past it but driven by some instinct. It was the same instinct that made him one of the best cadets at the academy. Underneath the bush he also spotted the large husk of some long dead beetle. It was easily the size of his fist and reminded him of the dune bugs that he'd messed around with as a boy. He grabbed it and a broken stick, lobbing the first in the air and whacking it with the second.
The squeak of it hitting his bunk mate in the backside made him laugh. Afron twirled and picked it up, before screaming and dropping it. ‘What the frack is that?’
Javic found another and belted it with the stick in much the same way. Afron curled his body away, letting another whelped cry escape him. ‘Oi! That's not funny.’
‘You're supposed to catch it!’ Gone was the serious Javic and in its place the boy he'd once been, enjoying playing in the afternoon sun, when life had been simple and uncomplicated.
Afron eventually joined in the game but he didn't last long before he was lathered in sweat and panting hard. ‘Enough,’ he begged. ‘The heat!’
Javic clapped him on the shoulder. ‘We'll make a desert jerboa of you yet.'
‘I thought we wanted to be Time Agents?’
Javic laughed. ‘We can be both.’
Title: A day in the sun
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG.
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 1,000 words
Summary: Javic introduces his academy bunk mate to the realities of life on earth.
Thank the goddesses, Javic thought, as the cool air from the pocket of space around the transmat beam dispersed into the atmosphere, replacing its stale chill with the warm embrace of desert air. After an eternity of being stuck out in space, he was finally back on solid ground, surrounded by nature in all its glory. Had it really been so long since he'd felt dirt beneath his boots? He raised his face to let the sun beat down on it, embracing it like an old lover.
‘It's hot,’ Afron complained.
‘Yeah.’
‘I can feel my skin burning. This can't be safe.’
‘It's fine,’ Javic called back, already breaking away to go and explore.
‘Why is my skin burning, then?’
‘It's just the sun.’
His fellow academy cadet wiped his hand across his brow and squinted up at the sky, where the bright white ball of light bore down on them. He raised his hand to protect his eyes from its blazing light. ‘Why is it so hot?’
‘The ozone here is thin. It doesn't block as much of the sun's rays.’
Afron paused and stared up at the sun again, beads of sweat breaking out over his skin. He skipped after his bunk mate, trying to close the gap between them. ‘How come you're not hot?’
Javic kept up his long strides. Just being outside was so refreshing after years of being stuck aboard ships and the large spaceport of Arcanus Five where the Time Agency housed its academy and main base of operations. He'd become so accustomed to the stale, tasteless air and the always slightly too cool temperature that this was like freedom.
‘I've been land-side before you know,’ Afron said. ‘Once. It wasn't like this. It was… not hot.’
‘I know. Isn't it great?’
‘Great? It's awful. How do people live like this?’
‘It's called weather, Afron. Better get used to it. It's gonna be on every planet you visit.’ Poor kid, Javic thought, even if Afron was two years older than him. Born on a spaceport and lived up there all his life, never knowing what it was to feel the sun's heat on your face or the patter of raindrops, or the fierce embrace of the sirocco. For once it was Javic who had the advantage.
'I don't like it'
‘Get moving,’ Javic demanded. His voice had only just begun to break when he'd joined the Time Agency at fifteen. Now he was seventeen it was fully formed, a low, threatening growl when he wanted it to be, which came out when he barked a command.
'Yeah, alright. Steady on. No need to be so serious. It's just a training exercise.'
Javic was all business though. Training or not he wanted to do a good job and impress, even if all he really wanted to do was just enjoy the soft dirt beneath his boots and lie out in the sun until he was brown all over. He'd gotten pale since leaving Boeshane, no longer exposed to the sun every day, locked away in deep space where even the stars looked too distant to shed any warmth.
Just being here charged his soul like a battery, the dewy scent of the tall grasses, the taste of the earth in the very air he breathed. It was like Boeshane but not. This was a desert far from the sea. If there'd been an ocean within fifty miles he'd have been able to detect its salty tang. All of it made him feel alive.
Their mission was simple - to locate a single flag hidden within a three mile radius. No clues, no landmarks, no beacon signals. It was a test, like so much of their cadet training. Three miles didn't seem like much until you saw nothing but a vast arid wasteland. It might as well have been three hundred miles.
‘Start looking,’ Javic said.
‘If we don't die out here first,’ came Afron’s reply.
Javic found the flag in no time at all, hidden under a scrubby bush, almost walking straight past it but driven by some instinct. It was the same instinct that made him one of the best cadets at the academy. Underneath the bush he also spotted the large husk of some long dead beetle. It was easily the size of his fist and reminded him of the dune bugs that he'd messed around with as a boy. He grabbed it and a broken stick, lobbing the first in the air and whacking it with the second.
The squeak of it hitting his bunk mate in the backside made him laugh. Afron twirled and picked it up, before screaming and dropping it. ‘What the frack is that?’
Javic found another and belted it with the stick in much the same way. Afron curled his body away, letting another whelped cry escape him. ‘Oi! That's not funny.’
‘You're supposed to catch it!’ Gone was the serious Javic and in its place the boy he'd once been, enjoying playing in the afternoon sun, when life had been simple and uncomplicated.
Afron eventually joined in the game but he didn't last long before he was lathered in sweat and panting hard. ‘Enough,’ he begged. ‘The heat!’
Javic clapped him on the shoulder. ‘We'll make a desert jerboa of you yet.'
‘I thought we wanted to be Time Agents?’
Javic laughed. ‘We can be both.’
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