#poly!thomas

[bitletsanddrabbles]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Since the piece this scene went with refused to work (the other two Barrow children aren't speaking to me, for some reason. Can't imagine why), I stuck it in Solve for X. I figure Sam was so nice and obliging, he deserved something for his willingness.

[bitletsanddrabbles]

Completely Superfluous Polyverse Poll!

My brain has been tossing around ideas for a couple of days. Of course, it has also been rolling around earworms for a couple of days and I can't write and listen to music with lyrics, so I've not gotten anywhere with it. (The earworms are, as you might have guessed, winning)

So just for giggles, I thought I might get a feel for how people would react if any of the things my brain is tossing about actually happen. The poll will, of course, not affect whether it happens or not. My brain will write or it won't and no one gets to tell it what to do on that point, including me. But for posterity - or SCIENCE - or whatever motivates you most - tell me:

How would you feel about Phillip and/or Peter Pelham showing up in the Polyverse?

HECK YEAH! Let the good times - and drama - roll!

Peter? SURE! Phillip? Only if he's hit by a car!

Phillip? HECK YEAH DRAMA! Peter? You don't need to put him in everything...*

And distract from OUR BOYS? Absolutely not.

Only if they're actively dating each other.

Only if you promise they won't break up our quartet.

Voting ended onJan 24, 2024

* HA! That's what you think!

[bitletsanddrabbles]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Is it terribly self indulgent of me to be writing 'missing scenes' for my own work? It feels terribly self indulgent. I'm doing it anyway, obviously, but...

[bitletsanddrabbles]

WIP What The Hell...

I've several pieces for the Poly!Verse that are basically just me exploring various background things and are probably going to wind up on the scrap heap as a result. No plot. No climax. No resolution. No interest, really. But there's a scene or two I actually like, so I might stick them here for posterity.

This is one of them. If I ever do decide to do something with it, it's going to need a lot more research, but for now...eh, why not? Have a thing.

BTW, if anyone looks over my collected works and reaches the conclusion I've no real use for tabloids...that is accurate. If it didn't run in the World Weekly News, I was not interested. Give me Bat Boy!

-

“But it turns out he doesn’t have three boyfriends, he only has one. It’s his boyfriend who has three boyfriends,” Michelle was griping to David when Sam walked into the break room.

“That is the wrong conversation to walk into the middle of,” Sam noted, crossing the room to the coffee machine. There were days he regretted taking a job in A&E rather than getting himself a nice private practice in a surgery someplace. Even if you weren’t directly dealing with the screaming child who’d broken their foot, the sound carried. Hopefully a cup of coffee and a bit of food would be enough to cure the headache.

David laughed. “Michelle was just complaining that her tabloid had a misleading headline, if you can imagine such a thing.”

“You mean tabloids aren’t the pinnacle of honest journalism?” Sam asked, reaching into the cupboard for a clean mug. He shoved it in place, popped one of the capsules into the machine, and hit the button. “You’ve destroyed my faith in the system right there.”

“Hah hah you two,” the radiologist rolled her eyes. “I’m just saying they could have come up with a better headline, that’s all. ‘Guy Dexter Announces Poly Relationship’ has just as much shock value as ‘Guy Dexter Reveals He Has Three Boyfriends’.”

Sam had to admit, she had a point, not that he particularly cared. He didn’t have much use for the tabloids, or for Guy Dexter, although he’d heard the man was going to be in the latest Agatha Christie adaption. He liked mysteries. “How many bets the next headline is ‘Guy Dexter Contracts Nasty, Possibly Terminal S.T.I.’?”

David gave him an unimpressed look. “Way to be progressive, Dr. Barrow.”

“You were the one just criticizing the tabloid’s accuracy, Dr. Fletcher,” Sam countered.

“Eh, okay, you got me there.”

“I admit, I never understood why they’re so fond of announcing people are dying and only have two months to live. Do they think readers won’t notice when, two months later, the person is still alive and kicking?” Michelle flipped through her magazine, frowning a little. “I mean, the Queen and Camilla both started dying of cancer in what? 2002?”

“Pretty sure that started in the ‘90s,” David snorted. He then leaned in and looked over Michelle’s shoulder at the page in front of her. He frowned. “Hey, Sam? What was your little brother’s name again?”

“Michael, why?”

“Just curious,” the nurse asked. “Mr. Dexter’s fellow has the same last name as you. You know, the one with three boyfriends.”

Sam rolled his eyes and, waiting just long enough for be sure there were no drips left, lifted the coffee cup to his lips. “Not bloody likely. Mike would probably jump off a bridge if he thought three guys were even interested in him.” He couldn’t imagine Mike even knowing about poly relationships, honestly. The younger man was a chip off of their father’s close minded block. “And Barrow is a common enough last name.”

“This guy sort of looks like you, though,” Michelle admitted, frowning at the page. “Maybe a cousin or something? I don’t know, do you have any relations at all named Thomas?”

Sam about spit his coffee across the room, to the surprise and alarm of the other two. “Thomas?” he sputtered. He then slammed the cup down on the counter and crossed the room in three long strides, hand held out for the magazine. “Let me see that.”

Michelle mutely handed over the tabloid, her expression shell shocked.

Without quite meaning to, Sam snatched it out of her hand and stared at the picture they’d been looking at. It was like looking into a mirror, only his reflection styled his hair differently and had his mother’s pale, blue grey eyes instead of the brown the rest of the family had inherited. It felt like he’d stepped into an episode of Dr. Who or something…not that he actually watched that, but it seemed like half the rest of the staff did.

The other two exchanged looked, then David cleared his throat. “I, ah, take it he is a cousin?”

Sam shook his head. “He’s my brother. The older one.” He gave a shaky little laugh. “I haven’t seen or heard from him since he left home. It was on his sixteenth birthday. We didn’t even bother getting presents or having cake, he just… I woke up and he was walking down the road to the bus.” He closed the tabloid and looked at the cover. The picture there just had Guy Dexter’s face, with three silhouettes in boxes around it, each with a question mark over it’s face. Michelle was right, it was a horrible presentation for that story. “Now this…”

“Damn,” David eyed him, clearly uncertain how to react. “That’s…well, that’s one way to find out he’s alright, I suppose?”

“Yeah.” Sam opened to the photo with Thomas again. Did Margaret and Mike know? Did his parents? If not, they were bound to find out eventually, with news this big. “Well, that’ll finish Dad off.”

[bitletsanddrabbles]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Happy Boxing Day, Everyone!

I meant to get this one up yesterday, but it didn't happen, obviously. So! Second day of Christmas present to go with your Boxing Day leftovers! *victory sign*

And thanks again to @angryessay-s-blog for schooling me on talk shows. I seriously could not have done this without you!

And look! I'm now kinda rolling these things out sort of in order! ^^;;