InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Go crazy? Don't mind if I do!"

Andy Gallagher is not the droid you're looking for (brain_ninja) wrote in vas_captio_rpg,
@ 2009-08-23 16:03:00

Entry tags:

!complete, andy gallagher, day 20, location: gym, rose tyler

Day Twenty - Late morning
Who: Andy Gallagher & Rose Tyler
What: Meeting for the first time with both in adult form.
Where: In the gym
When: Day 20, late morning
Rating: PG-13ish?
Status: Complete

Andy looked back through the journal, studying the map for some time before he made his decision. He'd found the two-by-four hiding snugly wedged under the reception desk and decided that he hadn't been that bad at Little League back in the day; he wasn't going to sit around the museum chit-chatting with the others about their regression when he should be making sure Elliot was okay. Hopefully, the birds were being overestimated and he'd be able to knock on the door to make sure she was alright before having to duck into the gym.

The way he figured it, after running around like a spaz playing Ninja Turtles the day before - not to mention the fact that it had been ages since the last time he had bothered or had time to take one - Andy needed a shower. By going the direction of the gym, he could check on Elliot, meet Rose while he was an adult, and still get a shower in. Three birds, one stone. The metaphor made Andy roll his eyes as he slipped out of the museum and raised the piece of wood like a bat.

He hadn't really even had time to think about it before they started coming at him. On autopilot, Andy ran in the direction of the gym, swinging the two-by-four lamely around and cringing both at the sensation of beaks breaking his skin and the sound of bones cracking whenever he felt the makeshift bat come in contact with one of the birds' bodies. Keeping his head ducked low, Andy decided to skip the van - Elliot would be better off if he just waited on checking in with her - and burst into the gym, all but hitting a homerun with the body of a bird dumb enough to follow him inside before he could slam the doors shut again. It slammed into the bleachers across the room, richocheting off and landing on the floor a few feet away with a sickening thud.

At that point, Andy dropped the piece of wood and allowed himself to register the pain. The hoodie he was wearing was spattered in blood, both of the birds he'd managed to lambaste as well as his own where rips and tears in the fabric left tangible reminder that they'd gotten the best of him just as much as he'd gotten the best of some of them. He'd hit a few good ones off those fucking things, but there had only been one Andy...and a shitload of crows.

"Hello? Anybody home?" he called out, brow furrowed as he carefully slid off the hoodie and wiped the blood out of his eyes with it. "Rose? Lex? Could use a little help here," he added, hissing in pain when the dirty fabric came in contact with a cut left just over his eyebrow. Only one bird had managed to get his face, but because of it, he didn't even want to know how many had gotten the back of his head. It stung already when the sweat rolled into the open wounds. In retrospect, he should've stayed put, he supposed... Shit.

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jeopardysfriend
2009-08-26 02:24 pm UTC (link)

Ah. He was the 'hide from feelings' sort. She knew it well. Of course she did, look who she spent the majority of her time with? She'd had to practically pick her Time Lord apart to get anywhere with him. Andy would be no exception. And just like with the Doctor, she knew to give him time. She'd never force herself. She'd also never be the constantly reminding him he could go to her type, either. No, Rose was the woman who'd simply stay in your life until you realised you needed her and turned to her on your own.

She was good at that.

"I know," she confirmed, smiling up at him. This place would rip them all apart if they didn't get out soon. But then, that's what the management here wanted, wasn't it? To know them inside and out, to watch their mental healths crumble. Slipping into their private thoughts, watching their personal lives and how they reacted. They were the ultimate sociology experiment. A horrifying thought. Never mind that they could also rip apart space and time if they knew what she was afraid they did.

No. Better not to think about that. Better to worry about the Ninja Turtle in front of her. "You know, I don't remember April thinking they smelled funny..." she said, attempting to smile more fully. "That must have been an episode I missed. Or the third movie, by then I'd given up." She kicked out one foot, nudging him lightly in the shin. "Go on, then, if you feel you just have to smell pretty. And make sure Lexie or Elliot checks out those head injuries. If you get a concussion and it's my fault, I'll probably be slayed alive by them both."

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brain_ninja
2009-08-26 03:00 pm UTC (link)

Rose's comment about April afforded her a genuine, if surprised, laugh from Andy in response. "Yeah, well, April hung out in the sewers with them; she probably stopped noticing pretty quick," he pointed out. "I don't need to smell pretty, I just need not to be able to smell my own BO, is all," he added with a wry grin.

It would've been funny to Andy to know that Rose automatically considered him one of those men who didn't like to share his feelings, because he was quite the opposite. Elliot, Luna, and Lexie had all seen him in states of raw emotion and frailty. Most especially Lexie, given she'd been there by his side the whole time he'd been under the Ketamine so she could do his stitches. Whether or not by his choice, that had been him at his lowest on display for two beautiful women both of whom he felt interest toward. He had only spared a moment to feel ashamed and even then only because he'd thrown up all over the floor when his head had been in Lexie's lap. Elliot had seen him after the experiments when he'd been in the panic room and in the mirror room; she'd seen him after he'd thought he'd watched Lexie die and when he'd literally touched Luna's corpse, pushing her long blonde hair out of her face as though it still mattered.

While Andy wasn't a huge fan of showing other men his weaknesses, he was very much okay with letting women see them. Mainly because Andy knew that women actually liked to see weakness in men. In fact, the women in Andy's experience had been those who prefered to nurture under those circumstances and Rose was no exception, from what he could tell. He'd met her yesterday as a six-year-old version of himself and even then he'd known that she was the nuturing type. The problem with Rose was that she was new to this place and he knew that. He wasn't sure what kind of horrors she'd seen or experienced either here or in life in the real world, but he wasn't going to test the waters or scare her by sharing the things he'd seen.

A small smile crept over his face as he looked back at her. "Psh, nobody does anything I don't want them to do," he said with an air of cockiness that was, quite frankly, deserved in context. It was true. The only ones he knew of here on whom he could not use his mind control were Sam and Illyana. Everyone else was fair game. He often made jokes about using it when he really had no intention, but he'd already used them when he felt he had to to help someone survive.

He'd used it on Martha to make her run when she wanted to stay and would've gotten herself killed by the cougar in doing so. He'd used it on the wolves to help Sarah when she had needed to feed in secret. He'd considered using it on Elliot and Lexie both to calm them down and tell them that everything was going to be okay, but he couldn't quite bring himself to do it because calming them down falsely didn't seem justified by the reward of survival. Calm or freaked, they'd still live.

But, even if Rose was kidding, the context would give way to reward of survival; thus, he would have no problem - okay, he'd have a little problem - with using the mind control to help her out. The same was true for Illyana if she felt that strongly about him keeping her secret about the teleporting. He knew the importance of freaks uniting and staying under the radar. It was why he'd helped Sarah, after all. "I'm really good like that," he added with a wink before taking a few steps backward away from her and toward the locker room.

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jeopardysfriend
2009-08-27 05:43 pm UTC (link)

It was probably sad that the majority of the horrors inflicted in this place wouldn't have surprised Rose. Honestly, she'd lived through some terrible moments just in the last several months, before even seeing the sorts of things that took place in the glass box. Worse, she knew what could happen. Even she, so knew to the ways of the galaxy, knew what danger they were in if the people running the joint really did have the TARDIS under their control. And even if they didn't, if they were using some other method to make all of this happen, it was more than dangerous. They had to be outside of the realm of time itself in order to not have the universe go caving in on itself for all that had been done and revealed here.

Well. That was certainly a cheerful thought, wasn't it? But just because she hadn't held hands with any of the deceased in this place didn't mean she hadn't seen death. All of those on the observation deck, Gwyneth, the numbers totaling in the hundreds on Satellite 5...even her own father. This place would be no different. She'd love and she'd lose and that's just how her life went now. It was all part of travelling with the Doctor, being caught up in his life, and caring for him.

Even when he was being a complete git. Men.

"You know," she said, grinning at his retreating figure, "I always thought Michaelangelo would've been pretty good looking if he were human." Oh, Andy. You weren't the only one who could put on the happy smiley front and act as if nothing were wrong. Even when the world was falling apart, Rose would still try to smile. For as long as she could manage, she'd keep smiling. She might not have the humour he did, but she did have a good sense of herself. "Go get showered, Ninja. Frankly, no matter how cute you were as a kid, and how fit you are now? You kind of reek." She wrinkled her nose in exaggeration and made a shoo-ing motion with her hand.

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brain_ninja
2009-08-27 10:17 pm UTC (link)

Raising his eyebrows, Andy smirked back at Rose. What a little tease. Weren't they all at that age, though, he thought. "That's because Michelangelo was the coolest one, obviously," he replied in a nonchalant tone. "Again color me surprised that someone that cute could play someone as evil as Shredder," he added, quick to put the flirting on an even plane.

He backed away a few more steps and laughed when she called him Ninja, complimenting his looks not only as a child but, he thought, also in his adult form before telling him that he did, indeed, smell badly. "Don't be jealous that my manly scent beats the hell out of every other guy's. You should've been here the day before the Earthquake. Then I was really ripe; ask Doc Lex," he added with a laugh before turning and starting toward the locker room again. "No peeking. If you wanna look, you gotta join. That's my rule," he called over his shoulder jokingly and then turned to face her again, continuing to walk backward. "In all seriousness, though, thanks for helpin' me out. You're a cool chick, Rose," he said, giving her a smile and a halfhearted wave of his thumb and first two fingers before turning again and disappearing down the hallway to shower.

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jeopardysfriend
2009-09-03 11:09 pm UTC (link)

Rose only smirked at Andy's...well, not too terrible looking backside as he walked off. As deep as their conversation had mistakenly gotten? She couldn't deny she'd enjoyed it. In all honesty, she'd needed someone like Andy just then. The people who knew her--and the ones who knew her that she didn't know--were different. They had expectations, they thought she needed protection, and they wanted to talk. About what she was feeling and how she was holding up and so on. And Rose? Didn't want that at the moment.

What she wanted was to flirt and to be playful and to be herself again. She wanted to forget the revelations of the day before had never happened and she wanted to pretend she wasn't in this awful place. So she wiggled her fingers at Andy and called after him, "You'll regret that one day. I take up the entire shower, so you know." And before he could turn back and come up with some sassy remark that would give him the upper hand, she turned and flounced off, back to the corner of the gym she'd been hiding away in before he'd come charging in.

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