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[bloodychangeling]

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GIFT; the morning after Toby's first night at the ranch

[theydrewfirstblood]

[Between her first trip to the bathroom for the day and returning to her room to dress, someone has left a CD box set on her bed with a short handwritten note.]

This shit's all digital now, but I like the ritual of putting music on. Thought you might, too.

Sound system's that stuff below the DVD player. I got a record player in my room if you ever want the good stuff.

-J

[bloodychangeling]

[Between the blood loss, the general chaos of the day before she showed up in fucking Wales, and the apparent 8 hour time difference between countries (she was used to going between day and night in the same day, but that was just because of the eternal twilight of the Summerlands), Toby has legitimately no clue how long she's been asleep and really doesn't care, because--

Well, it's not been enough but she feels a bit more alive. Brushing her teeth and rinsing her face off again helps a bit more. It still feels like she's running totally on autopilot, but that's pretty much how every day has been, since Connor…

Since Connor.

Who she is not going to think about, can't afford to think about. Luckily there's something else right there to focus on when she gets back to the room she's crashing in, and she only frowns for a moment before she actually smiles a little. Her mother's blood means she looks so much younger than anyone who would have grown up with this music, so she wonders if John realizes that some of these songs are stuff she heard playing on the jukebox at Home or if it's just his way of reaching out. Either way, it's…an oddly touching thing.

She's never been great at properly thanking people, both because of the whole 'implication of owing debts' thing among the Fae and her social awkwardness, but in this case she figures words maybe aren't so necessary as there's a much better way to do it.

Which is why about 20 minutes later, anyone within decent earshot of that part of the house will be able to hear You Better You Bet coming from behind her door while she gets dressed.]

[theydrewfirstblood]

[Because John has a room on that side of the house (fortunately one of the few with an en suite because he dates a guy who doesn’t like pajamas), he hears it when the music starts.

He can’t help but smile as the first strains touch his ears, and once he finishes changing to head out to the stables for a while (which includes trying to coax Dan into staying on his wrist rather than be his t-shirt), he stops by Toby’s room just as the song is ending, knocking just loud enough to be heard.]

Tobes? You decent?

text;

[adreamtorise]

[Image.jpg]

Drove into Cardiff for the day. Your jacket's too bloody to wear around and cleaning it could change the smell, so? Thought this could be a good replacement, just need a size. What's the tag on yours say?

[bloodychangeling]

Should I be insulted by the implication you thought I'd wear it around other people without cleaning it? I do wear it everywhere back home, you know.

[...and how many times has it had to go way too long before the dry blood got brushed off. Look, it's not on purpose, there's just so many people who want to stab her and don't feel the need to wait that long after the last guy tried it.

...

It's a medium

[adreamtorise]

Should be. Won’t be.

Medium it is. I’m buying it for you as a gift—no arguments, I have an expense account and I’m getting one for myself for a shoot I’m posing in and directing.

[Which is not a lie…as long as she gets approval for the shoot she’s going to pitch as soon as she gets back to the ranch to send the email.]

Do you need anything else while I’m shopping? I won’t trust my gut on personal things like underwear, but if you give me your sizes I can get you some jeans and whatnot that will fit you.

On me. Shut up. :)

GIFT; about three days after their porch heart to heart

[theydrewfirstblood]

[At some point after noon, if Toby enters her room she'll find a small, flat velvet jewelry box. Inside is a familiar Buddha pendant, in yellow jade this time, and a small square of paper with a very brief note.]

For Luck

[The note is not signed.]

text; set about three days after Javic’s visit

[theydrewfirstblood]

I don’t wanna make any weird assumptions, but do fairies have that whole plant and earth connection thing going on? I mean, is gardening something that would interest you?

[bloodychangeling]

Well I'm not a real great gardener, my magic is blood not flowers. But I spent a lot of time around gardens growing up thanks to an aunt, and one of my cats is also really more of a cat shaped rosebush so I don't have the 'connection' people with flower magic would but I know my way around plants pretty well.

So guess the shorter answer is yeah, I'd be interested.

[theydrewfirstblood]

Then come out to the stables, head towards the rise out behind it. Got a nice little vegetable garden about twenty yards northwest. I’ll add anything you’d like to have more of around the kitchen long as the gophers stay away from it.

[action; about five days after Javic meets The Coat & Friends]

[theydrewfirstblood]

[The day after he’s able to connect with Javic, John starts having the nightmares.

He’s not sure what the deal is at first—he wakes up in a cold sweat, but the details fade pretty fast. He just has the smell of blood and stone in his nose, and can assume it’s related to Vietnam. The problem with sleeping alone at the moment is that getting back to sleep is a bitch. He knows he could go find Ianto when he’s at the house, he’s made it clear his bed is open to him while Jack is…unavailable.

But there’s some things Ianto just wouldn’t understand. So, instead, he just goes looking for a snack one night and finds Toby up. He doesn’t tell her about the dream, but she’s willing to stay up and watch TV with him for a while.

Two nights, and he heads into Cardiff overnight to look into some information at the Hub. They’ve been studying the stuff that messed Jack up, and it turns out the midgets intermarried with some weird alien race that’s incredibly long lived and has a very short window to procreate. Mated pairs secrete the glop they found to initiate a sort of second adolescence—they’re looking for a way to reverse it, but Owen says it’s moot because the stuff is temporary. Long as he’s not sexually active, Javic should age back up to Jack within ten to sixteen more days.

That third night, when he wakes up beside Ianto in bed, staying at his flat until morning, John remembers the nightmare but still doesn’t talk about it with Ianto.

He’s pretty sure he knows what’s causing it, and he won’t put that in his boyfriend’s head.

Day five, back in the Beacons, it’s another case of mistaken identity that sets off the episode: a flash of distant blue while he’s out riding Barry. A very specific shade of TARDIS blue.

It’s not the Doctor—it’s a truck on the other side of the pasture fence carrying a lone Porta-John on the back. John manages to get the driver on his way, bed down Barry, and exit towards the house, but doesn’t make it any further than the outside of the stables before the flashback sets in.

His hands are shaking with rage.

The mud is thick between his fingers as he lays his hands on her makeshift grave, the rain bearing down on him.

His throat is dry.

The air is so damp. He hasn’t had water in hours, he’s drenched in sweat and blood.

He’s in pain.

Something in him, something good and bright and full of hope is being ripped out of him as he clutches her lifeless body close, presses his face against her shoulder still warm—still wet with blood. Her blood.

…his blood?

He punched the wall. His knuckles are bleeding, and something in his hand is broken.

Co deserves to be remembered. He can’t give her a marker, he can’t even give her words. He can only wear her pendant, tie his hair back with the same scrap of her ao dai she used to try and bind his wounds.

There’s only silence. No one’s listening. No one will ever listen.

No one but him will ever know.

John slips to the ground and huddles against the wall of the stable, bleeding hand cradled against his chest and eyes screwed shut, tongue heavy and useless in his mouth.

Jack. Help me. Please.

Jack isn’t here. No one who can help him is here. He’s alone.

He’s always alone.

And he can’t help himself. Not as one hour becomes two, not as the sun starts to set, not as the air turns cooler.

He can’t move. Can’t hardly breathe. Can’t call out.

No one is listening.

He’s always alone.]

[bloodychangeling]

[Though she isn't keeping to a strictly nocturnal sleep schedule, without the obligations of her life back in San Francisco and with all the general weirdness of this place Toby is finding herself sleeping into the afternoon more often than not these days. Which has actually had its advantages lately, since it's meant she's been up when John can't sleep but doesn't want to talk. Toby's good at Not Talking, so she hasn't felt as crappy about the fact she can't do much about this whole situation with Jack as she would otherwise.

She still feels pretty crappy, at least in part because it makes her even more annoyed by the fact that her cell phone still won't connect to the Luidaeg's line no matter how many random patterns of numbers she tries. And she's been trying every day.

After yet another series of failures, she's making her way slowly outside and nursing her third cup of coffee when a very familiar smell overpowers the caffeinated nectar.
Blood. Not fae, so there's no magic signature to help her identify who it belongs to but that's almost worse. She's pretty sure she heard Jack--Javic, right now--upstairs, but that's about the only person out here she can account for with any degree of certainty.

The only care she takes is in setting her cup down on the porch railing instead of letting it fall to the ground before she's running down the steps, following the scent.
It's not as easy as it would be with fae blood because her mother's power barely acknowledges humanity, but Toby's stubborn enough to make up for Amandine's failings. She only has to stop once to figure out which direction to head off in, and after that she barely has to think about the blood because of course it would be in the stables.
Sometimes, she has her doubts about those horses being entirely mortal with everything that seems to go down around them.

But as she gets closer and the smell of blood gets stronger, she stops thinking about the horses or anything but finding whoever's hurt---and, probably, whoever did the hurting.

Her hand's just reaching for her knife when she gets close enough to see the person----not a body, please Maeve not a body-- slumped against the stable wall and it takes all her strength not to freeze when she realizes who it is.]

John? Oh, oak and ash, John. [her hand drops from the knife as picks up speed, and it's only remembering how violent some of John's demons can be that makes her stop and fall to her knees a few feet short of actually dropping down at his side. At leas she's close enough to be able to tell he's still breathing.]

John? [her voice is soft but insistent] John, it's Toby. What happened?

[And who's ass do I need to kick?]

[theydrewfirstblood]

[John can’t hear beyond the sound of his own heart throbbing in his ears, the rush of blood echoing the torrential rain of the Vietnam jungle on Co’s grave. The noise buffets him back and forth, swinging between the debilitating, soul killing grief of isolation and the noxious white-hot fury borne of suffering.

When he shuts his eyes, he can only see Co’s dead face. When he opens them, he can only see Jack’s ice cold and absolutely beloved blue eyes reaching for him through the pain, shattering as he watches the TARDIS abandon him again…

Eventually, he blinks, slow and sluggish. There’s something wrong with the vision of Jack’s face hovering in front of him, there’s something beneath it…smaller and sharper and otherworldly.

Another face. A face he knows.

A face that understands. At least a little.

He’s alone. No one but him will ever know.

Toby.

He can’t make himself open his mouth. Not when the fury is so close, not when the pain is so intense. He’ll hurt someone he doesn’t mean to hurt…

He will hurt everyone. He will kill everyone. It’s what he’s made for. It’s all he’s made for.

It takes all of John’s strength to carefully reach up with his injured hand, visibly trembling, to carefully tap his temple, then his chest, before he shuts his eyes and starts to huddle in on himself again.

Co is dead. Jack is gone. He’s alone, he’s ready to kill.

It’s what he’s made for.

[text; the here and the now--UNKNOWN NUMBER]

[imadeyoucoffee]

I have been beset by that infernal blonde woman and afflicted with a new cellular phone that will function in this world. Along with yet another coat. She's under the impression I will need it.

[Seeing as how Tybalt once again surrendered his coat to her some weeks back during a chilly night spent introducing him to the resident pixies.]

[bloodychangeling]

[Toby snorts when she reads the message, since it's immediately obvious who it is before she even gets to the part about Anne. Good to know Tybalt even texts like that.]

I'd listen to her if she tells you to do or take something. When I first got dumped here she was there pretty quick with some clothes and water and stuff to bring up my blood sugar. She's not a seer but I think she's got something close. Gets a feeling something's going to go down and what she'll maybe need for it, but not exact details.

[imadeyoucoffee]

She’s a menace. Were she not so named I would have long since said as much to her face.

[The fact Tybalt could care she shares a name with his long dead wife and actually likes her odd, cheery pragmatism is nothing he will discuss. She’s part wolf and, apparently, a seer of some sort. He has an image to uphold.]

Nevertheless, now you have a means of reaching me should you have a need.

Fail to make use of it, and I shall make you sorry in unspeakable fashion.

[action; in the stables the day the Luidaeg shows up]

[imadeyoucoffee]

[Tybalt is initially wary of the Shadow Roads when he arrives in Wales. He’s got this sweet, fragile state of peace with October, he’s come to like and respect those who serve this Torchwood organization—and Anne Forsythe has proven to be quite a formidable ally.

She makes no bones about her interest in Toby, yet refuses to give any quarter in providing Tybalt with advice as to how to ingratiate himself with Toby and earn a place in her affections.

He fears, at first, that the Shadow Roads could take him away from this place. Eventually, however, he takes their measure…and finds they only lead him elsewhere in this strange new world. He even locates the Court of Cats, and speaks to their resident Queen—one difference in this world is the presence of but one monarch of the independent Court.

Thankfully, he is given access to their halls as a visiting monarch, with all the hospitality that comes with it. He has no interest in power, only access to the Roads—and sanctuary when October inevitably gets herself into trouble.

He’s lounging in Conrad’s stall, waiting for her to inevitably visit (as is her custom late in the day, according to the industrious Anne), when she arrives—and the look on her face makes him give up any desire to try and catch her by surprise.

He’s lounging in the corner one moment, and on his feet the next, crossing over to meet her as Conrad plods forward to follow suit with a press of his nose to her shoulder.]

October? What happened?

[bloodychangeling]

[It's funny that just two years ago, Toby would have cursed and snarled at Tybalt for being anywhere near her after a clusterfuck like today. But now, when she sees his familiar green eyes, she just sighs as she rubs Conrad's nose.]

It'd probably be easier to start with what didn't. I mean, only one person shed blood this time and it was only a couple drops and they weren't mine. [she gives him a weak smile] The fact that blood was needed to open a Road to get the Ludiaeg over here because my adopted brother's weird, immortal in spite of not having a drop of fae blood in him's boyfriend is apparently pregnant's probably a good place to start, though.

[imadeyoucoffee]

[Tybalt blinks, shakes his head, and runs that back over again in his head.

...nope. Still doesn't quite understand it. But, she's not been bleeding, which is a comfort after the surprise of her most recent blood letting.]

I'm sorry--the man is pregnant?

[He opens his mouth to comment further--then closes it and sighs after a moment's thought.]

With the way chaos clings to your every step, I'm not certain why it's so confounding that even a surrogate brother of yours would find himself in such a situation.

[He searches her face, brow furrowed with concern though his mouth softens with the promise of a smile.]

But surely these are good tidings, are they not? You're about to be an aunt--and more importantly, you've found the Luidaeg. Perhaps she can explain by what sort of magic we came to be here.

[text, sent a few days after the shared dream]

[theydrewfirstblood]

{link}

Am I a bad dad for wanting to get this for my kid?

[bloodychangeling]

No, you're engaging in the ancient tradition of corny bullshit that will make your kid groan whenever it gets brought up later.

Now, if it had Tinkbell on it, we'd be having a different discussion with very few words and a lot of me lighting things on fire.

[theydrewfirstblood]

Do I get points for originality?

[Link to a toddler’s shirt]

[text; sent two weeks after Annie’s geas is broken]

[sprog]

[Val doesn’t like getting into trouble. She truly doesn’t. Daddy says she’s like Poppa that way—a homebody at heart.

The only things that can really get her out and about are bookstores and dancing…and she meets the group of changelings at a local bookstore when they mention the party.

She texts her fathers to let them know she’s going to Cardiff for the evening so she’ll be home late, and it’s fine, but the party…

She’s Seen this, but she still doesn’t understand it.

When she gets to the oceanfront industrial area where the party is being held, it’s not suspicious. It’s set up for a concert, and the band is wonderful. So’s the dancing—the Merrow changeling girl she spends most of the evening dancing with is fun, she’s light on her feet and barely needs to soak her tail so she can use her legs again between songs.

But when the Tylwyth Teg changeling boy offers her a drink, she recognizes the vision, she knows it’s dangerous…but she can’t understand why.

The cup is filled with fruit juice. No booze, no poison she can detect, but the smell…

She feels foolish rejecting it, especially when she can’t explain why she won’t drink it. The boy is nice about it, but the Merrow gets pushy and Val doesn’t know why she feels so scared all of a sudden.

Which is why Toby ends up getting a string of texts at about one AM…]

Aunt Mom? Can you come to Cardiff and pick me up?

I’m at a party with some changelings and it’s getting weird.

[address]

Please don’t tell my dads.

They know I’m here but I don’t want them to worry.

[bloodychangeling]

[While it's still really jarring to be texting with the niece she was carrying around the kitchen earlier in the day, Toby has started to think of it like those first couple times she interacted with Cassie after leaving the pond. And that makes it a little easier to change gears, and like it usually does adrenaline makes it even easier for Toby to drop all other thoughts along with the book she'd been reading to just do what needs done.

Of course she knows there could be lots of reasons a teenage girl could feel uncomfortable at a party, not all of them actually terrifying. Maybe she just feels that things are close to a point where some human authorities might get called; Toby had certainly seen more than her fair share of those changeling gatherings given the kind of kids she hung out with. And she's definitely not going to question why Val doesn't want word to get to her dads.]

Course sweetie. I'll head out now, see you soon.

[Thankful that she hasn't gotten too comfortable here so her knife is near her door so she's able to grab it as she's putting on her coat she does just that, only just resisting the urge to throw a don't-look-here on the car to get there faster. She's gotten better at driving on the wrong side of the road, but not that good. Besides, she's putting enough magic into throwing on a human disguise just in case any cops or nosy pedestrians might be hanging out too close as she pulls up.]

[sprog]

[By the time Toby gets there, there’s already been a fight.

The Merrow and the Tylwyth Teg get into it when he calls her out on being pushy. Val would let it go (Poppa taught her not to get involved in a fight unless someone needs you), but there’s pixies in the area and the Merrow swats one that gets too close on their way back to their colony.

The Merrow is unconscious when Toby arrives—and Val’s topless save for her bra, her shirt in a bag in her hand as she jogs up to the SUV.

The smell of fruit is in the air as she circles around to the passenger side and climbs in, tossing the bag in the back.]

Spilled a drink on myself during a fight. It’s…there’s something in it that’s scaring me. Let’s go.